- I bring the pain like venom
I bring out fear from all
Say what you want, I've got none
This time I bring the venom -
I'm honestly curious as to what free will has brought these people to.
- Rah ta-ta-ta!
Rah ta-ta-ta!
Say what you want, 'cause I've got none
Rah ta-ta-ta
This time I bring the venom! -
This is... Dojun's performance?
"...thank you for listening."
It was so ass that the audience almost went speechless. I tried to read the mood of the judges and decided it was best to clap first. They seemed upset, but not enough to yell at me for clapping at this trash performance.
If I had to rate everything out of 10, the only thing above an 8 is the beat. The choreography was salvageable, and I could tolerate it because everyone looks great with their outfits, but those lyrics are actually mushier than stale bread.
If even a music amateur like me knew that, imagine how harshly the four judges would react!
I felt like a worried mother at this moment.
The first to open her mouth was Bailey Huang, "Why have you let our expectations down like that?"
"No, Mrs. Bailey," WIN added, "Our expectations shouldn't even be compared to this...this!"
The four participants visibly shrunk on the stage. Dojun looked too embarrassed to catch his breath. I saw his expression turn from excitement to worry for a moment before he went out earlier, and now I know why.
They didn't get a single compliment from anyone.
"This is clearly a self-produced song. Did you sample the beat online and screw up on everything else!?"
I saw Dojun look down at first, before lifting his head slightly. Though, he didn't speak again and let the other participants talk.
"Kim Dojun-"
"No, I don't wanna hear it. This is a group performance, thus making it a group decision. If the lot of you all agreed to who, Dojun's idea? Then you're even worse than him!"
Well, those are some mean words. I don't think Dojun is the type to... No, he just isn't someone who creates trash like this. I've heard him freestyle on video call before, and this is clearly not his level of creative writing.
"This is the first time I've seen producer Jacob Brown so mad..." the guy named David whispered to me. I reflectivity nodded at his remark—though I've only skimmed through his profile on sites.
Jacob Brown has actually done a lot of judging and instructing in idol survival shows. I didn't really know what he was like, but according to David, it's not this mean.
I lowkey thought the group deserved it. Objectively speaking, that is.
The judges didn't seem to want to brawl on it too far and decided to discuss the ranks quickly. It wasn't a short process, which made everyone more ashamed. Dojun looked up at me with teary eyes, but I only saw a glimpse of it since I was trying to guess their ranks with David. That made me feel really bad.
"Compared to everyone else, their vocals are stable, though, right?"
I nodded almost a bit too awkwardly at David's comment. "A-and they weren't in sync, but their dancing isn't stiff either."
David agreed with me. "So I'm thinking they might be in third grade at worst."
"I think so too. With the exception of..."
"Participant Dojun, second grade, the rest are in third grade. That is all."
As expected.
I didn't think so at first, but once David pointed out that the lyrics probably tried to copy one of those though, violence-themed K-pop songs, it became clear to me that Dojun's style of singing and dancing was the best fitting out of the four participants.
Aside from that, the guy's facial expressions were powerful and didn't show exhaustion unlike the other boys, so I knew he would be graded differently.
Or, well, the judges may have been informed about the debut line-up thing.
In any case, Dojun got placed in second grade, which made it obvious that we couldn't room with each other.
And that I'd have to comfort him tonight in the latest.
.
Now you're not curious anymore, right? So back to the current problem: sharing a bed.
Well, it's not a problem anymore since we all decided where to sleep on pretty tamely.
In short, it was like this:
"Niko's a pretty big guy, don't you think? He should have the single-bed."
"Ah, if you two are fine with sharing the bigger bed together, sure..."
"I'm okay with it. I suggested it, after all."
"Same here, I prefer sleeping on the floor, anyway."
And that's it.
That first round alone took the whole day and finished at about 6 PM, so by the time we were released into the dorms, everyone was hungry and sweaty.
Perhaps PD Bang Inho was feeling lazy or maybe just nice, but dinner time went without any games. Each room was called from the smallest number, 1, to 20 to get packed meals. I guess the perks here is that the earlier birds could get more food than others.
Nikolai offered to get the food and Kato offered to help. I didn't refuse the chance to shower first and prepared snacks to thank them later.
By the way, they even gave us free shampoo and soap to use, even a toothbrush for everyone! I picked the pink one because why not and enjoyed the fragrance of the free soap.
It was a really nice shower.
By the time Kato and Nikolai returned—yes, we were told to eat in our dorms—I had already finished putting on clothes and was taking out some kimchi.
"Holy, you brought that? Can I try, please??"
It was Kato who almost dropped the boxes of food while rushing into the room. I laughed lightly while pulling out a folded desk that was hidden underneath the bed.
"It's kimchi, I made it to share. It might be spicy, though."
"Don't worry about that!"
Kato placed the food neatly on the table, stacking two boxes on three sides. I guess the two were hungry enough to eat two portions. The guy next to me must be, since he was already happily spooning some of my kimchi onto his meal.
"You two can eat first, then. I'll go shower."
"Go ahead. Ah, the pink toothbrush is mine."
Nikolai was surprised at that, but his reaction was comparable to mine when he just entered the shower.
It was a big fat "WOAH!"