A slump makes more things impossible than one might expect.
It makes you forget how to sing, keeps your body from moving, and eventually makes you afraid of standing in front of the public.
When something that used to be as ordinary as breathing suddenly becomes unreachable overnight, there's no turning back. You sink completely into the mire.
'A year and a half… was it?'
That's how long it took me to somewhat overcome my slump.
The slump that continued past my debut only began to fade after I'd experienced several rounds of promotions. Of course, by then Lightning had already sunk beneath the surface of the industry.
Even if I hadn't had that slump, Lightning still wouldn't have risen, but during our 2–3 years of promotions with nothing to show for it, the slump made the self-loathing even worse.
'And then another slump hit again.'
And that slump dragged on sluggishly for the rest of our promotion period.
It only fully ended around our fourth year, when all activities had already stopped. By then everything was already ruined, which was perhaps why I finally became free from the slump.
'But Kang Hyun-jin seems like someone who had already overcome his once.'
From the first grade evaluation until now, Hyun-jin had never once shown skills below expectations.
He had even shown more improved dancing and vocals than during Catch Talent, earning the eye of the idol-makers early on as the center for "See."
But his skills suddenly began to deteriorate ever since this round of evaluations started.
Which meant something must have happened to him during the month between the second round and now—when no filming took place.
"…Sorry for breaking the flow. Let's practice again."
"Hyung, are you sure you don't need more rest?"
"The mid-evaluation is tomorrow… We have to."
His face was dripping with water—probably from washing up in the bathroom—but despite Ji-won's worried gaze, Hyun-jin stood in front of the practice room mirror and adjusted his posture again.
The other trainees, still worried, reformed the formation; I also took my place.
"We'll start."
As I moved my body in sync with Hyun-jin's lead, I used my Insight to check his status window.
"…!"
And I couldn't help but be shocked.
『Kang Hyun-jin』
Detailed Traits
Specialty (Vocal): C+ (Debuff: C–)
Specialty (Dance): S– (Debuff: B)
Charm (Appearance): S–
Charm (Aura): A
Talent (Expression): S (Debuff: C+)
Talent (Focus): B– (Debuff: C–)
Stamina (Physical): A+
Stamina (Mental): C (Debuff: D–)
Buff: (Locked)
Status: Pressure (Check available)
→ Trigger (CHECK)
His current state was worse than I expected.
'…It's shocking enough that most of his base stats are top-tier.'
But the fact that almost all of them were debuffed—this was far more serious than I thought.
And as if to prove that status window correct, Hyun-jin tripped again and stopped, panting heavily.
At that moment—
『Specialty (Dance): S– (Debuff: B–) ↓』
"Let's stop for a bit."
Seeing one of his stats drop in real time, I had no choice but to halt practice altogether.
Hyun-jin looked at me with an exhausted face. I avoided his gaze and nodded toward the clock.
"Everyone seems tired, and it's dinner time. How about we go eat and resume afterward?"
The others, who had been watching Hyun-jin with concern, immediately agreed.
"Oh, I'm in! Hyun-jin hyung, let's go eat!"
"If we go late, the others will take all the food again. Hyung, let's eat and then practice again."
Trying deliberately not to mention his mistakes, Won-hyo and Aiden approached him cheerfully—
"…Sorry. I want to practice a bit more. You guys go ahead."
"Hyung…"
"…It might be better to rest a bit…"
"…I'm supposed to teach you the choreography, but I can't even do it myself right now. I'll get it down while you're gone, so go on."
He avoided them and resumed his stance alone.
His demeanor was so firm—rejecting any approach—that Aiden and Won-hyo had no choice but to give up.
Everyone left the room while glancing back uneasily, but Hyun-jin didn't look at any of them. His eyes were glued only to the mirror.
Even after we returned from dinner, Hyun-jin was still practicing. He managed to memorize the choreography, but he couldn't complete the performance without mistakes.
His mind was working, but his body wouldn't follow—classic slump symptoms.
***
"Whoa, even the team rankings this time look intense. Definitely different now that it's the third round."
"I personally was looking forward to DAZZLE the most. The Yuha–Hyun-jin combination was so fresh. Yuha, how is it? You said you wanted to make the best stage possible with Hyun-jin—think it's going well?"
The next day, we finally stood before the mentors for the mid-evaluation. The room was filled with cameras, and as the mentors began their lively commentary, I nodded and gave my formal answer.
"I'm doing my best."
"You know doing your best isn't enough, right? Like you said, Yuha — it has to go well."
At Dance Mentor Rio's sharp retort, the atmosphere among my teammates instantly froze. The blunt pressure made everyone's eyes waver, drifting in the air before brushing past Kang Hyun-jin for a fraction of a second and then returning to their places.
The cameras, which had been sensing the tension from the very beginning, zoomed in relentlessly on our expressions.
And the production staff weren't the only ones who picked up on the mood.
"But Hyun-jin, are you really okay? You don't look so good. You're not sick, right? You've been managing your condition properly?"
"…I'm fine. I just didn't get much sleep while practicing…"
"Looks like you pushed yourself too hard because you want to do well. Hyun-jin, you'll ruin your condition like that. Get good sleep tonight, okay? And let's do our best for the evaluation."
"…Thank you."
As if she'd seized on a weak point, Dance Mentor Jane pressed the issue. When Hyun-jin mumbled a reply, Vocal Mentor Do-min stepped in immediately to cover for him with a concerned tone. Jane clicked her tongue as though annoyed by the interruption.
"Ugh, I had more to say. Why'd you cut me off?"
"You can't crush their confidence like that when they haven't even performed yet."
"You talk like Hyun-jin's still seven years old filming variety shows with you. He's twenty-two now, Do-min. You can't keep babying him."
"When have I ever babied him? And it's not just Hyun-jin — to me, all the
"Well, I'm still young, so I can't relate. And for someone who thinks they're kids, you sure throw a lot of sharp comments at them. Isn't that right, Yuha?"
"Wow, so I'm the villain now?"
Their playful bickering — part entertainment, part an attempt to loosen the stiff mood — made the team let out strained, awkward laughs.
"In any case, do well. I'm keeping an eye on a few of you personally, so I hope you do great."
"You all better live up to your ranks, alright?"
The lighthearted chatter eventually wrapped up with words expressing their expectations for our evaluation.
"…Team 3, we'll begin the mid-evaluation."
With that, we performed with Hyun-jin at the center as originally planned. And the mentors' reactions were—
"He definitely seems like he's hurt."
"…Yeah."
"What happened to this team?"
"If someone didn't know better, they'd wonder how this team even made it this far."
It was close to disastrous.
"Hyun-jin."
Jane spoke first.
She pressed her fingers to her brow as though nursing a headache and sighed before continuing.
"What happened? Why were you off-beat the whole time?"
"..."
"That's not even all. Your form's completely collapsed. You're not holding your strength, your angles are off, your positions are wrong. You're the center — the one leading the dance — you're supposed to be the anchoring core. But you're collapsing, so the whole team is collapsing."
"…I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize to me. You owe your team that apology. I honestly don't even know what your choreography is supposed to be — everyone's dancing separately."
At Jane's harsh words, Hyun-jin's face tightened. Then Rio followed.
"There are so many problems right now that I don't even know where to start. You think you can film the short-form content in this state?"
"..."
"And there's something I want to test. Yuha, come out."
At Rio's sudden words, I stepped forward from the back row. He stood and approached us, rearranging the positions of the trainees.
Originally, the formation had been built around Hyun-jin, with the most stable dancers — Aiden Lee and Park Won-hyo — forming the core. But Rio switched Hyun-jin's position with mine.
A flicker of panic crossed Hyun-jin's face, but Rio remained calm and instructed the staff:
"Let's try again. Play the music."
Thrown unexpectedly into the center position, I performed according to Rio's instructions and the new formation. After several shifts and transitions with me, Aiden, and Won-hyo as the axis—
"Stop."
Rio gave the cut sign, and we halted, panting.
He looked at us in deep consideration before dropping what was essentially a bomb for the team.
"Do you guys have any intention of changing your center?"
"…What?"
We all snapped our heads up in disbelief. Rio hummed briefly and continued explaining.
"Overall, the best dancers right now are Aiden and Won-hyo. But in terms of leading the flow? I don't see anyone who does it like Yuha."
"Ah…"
"Your expressiveness is strong. You Do-minate with your eyes once during the intro and again at the end of the first verse. It's important to set the tone from the beginning and hand it off to the next performer. But—"
Rio's gaze finally turned toward Hyun-jin, who stood there blankly.
He finished without sparing the truth.
"Right now, Hyun-jin is breaking all of that. I honestly don't even recognize him as the kid I saw in the very first level evaluation."
And if someone like that becomes the center, your whole team's going to sink. Is that really okay with you?
With those words, our team could only fall silent.
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