The car that had been slowly following Eun Seo and Seung Joo stopped.

“Ha!”

Seeing Eun Seo running away in the distance with Seung Joo following behind, Seung Hyun sitting in the driver’s seat let out a dry laugh.

Seung Hyun was suddenly glad he had tailed them personally instead of sending someone else. If he had heard this from someone else’s mouth, he wouldn’t have believed it. Even seeing it with his own eyes, it was hard to believe.

To think that Kwon Seung Joo could look at someone with eyes like that!

He couldn’t hear clearly what they were saying, but there was no need to. Just looking at his eyes as he gazed at Yoon Eun Seo told him everything. They were the eyes of someone completely in love, seeing nothing in the world but one woman.

[I’ve caused you trouble.]

Remembering how he had spoken expressionlessly to Yoon Eun Seo a few days ago, Seung Hyun felt dumbfounded.

‘Are you saying that was all an act?’

Not realizing that and being completely fooled, he had even thought Yoon Eun Seo was being used as a disposable by his elder brother. The thought made him angry all over again.

‘In any case, it’s certain they’re in love with each other…’

That ‘older woman’ the columbarium employee had reportedly seen was likely Yoon Eun Seo as well.

[Given that the guy called her ‘elder sister’ and used formal speech, she’s probably more than just a year or two older, but she looked to be in her twenties. Isn’t that strange?]

Now he finally understood what his mother, Lady Ji Yeon Hwa, had meant. Of course she looked to be in her twenties, because she was in her twenties!

What he couldn’t understand was why his elder brother was calling that woman ‘elder sister’.

Earlier, Kwon Seung Joo had clearly called Yoon Eun Seo that at the bus stop.

[Elder sister!]

If nothing else, he had heard that with his own two ears.

Just in case, he had looked up her employee information, and Yoon Eun Seo was definitely twenty-seven this year. She was six years younger than his elder brother, so why they were calling each other ‘elder sister’ and ‘Seung Joo’ was a mystery.

He wondered if it was some kind of role-play between lovers, but they both seemed far too natural for that.

Seung Hyun turned his car around after confirming with his own eyes that the two of them had gone into the house together. It appeared to be the same house where Kwon Seung Joo had once lived with his birth mother.

‘Should I expose them?’

In truth, exposing them now would deal a tremendous blow to Kwon Seung Joo. Using illness as an excuse to neglect the company, while secretly living with a female employee. What a huge scandal that would be.

But his instincts were telling him something. That there might be something even bigger than what was visible now.

‘I should look into this a bit more.’

Seung Hyun decided.

*

On a particularly cold evening the following week, Sun Ah came to Eun Seo’s house carrying chicken and beer in both hands.

She wanted them all to watch the live broadcast of ‘Idol Project 10’ together.

“Today’s the day they cut down from 60 to 30 contestants. Our Yoon Ho’s goal is to make the top 20.”

“Really? I thought you said before that even passing the second round would be difficult.”

Eun Seo recalled what Sun Ah had said before. That Chris had barely scraped by in 54th place or so in the first round where 60 were chosen, so she was worried about the second round.

“His popularity has risen a lot since then. As expected, with his good looks and skills, he ended up standing out even without much screen time. I’m not sure about debut, but passing today’s second round shouldn’t be a problem.”

Sun Ah declared confidently.

Soon after the program started, Eun Seo finally got to see Chris’s face for the first time.

“…!”

The moment she saw Chris’s face, what Eun Seo felt was bewilderment.

First of all, when watching this kind of program, viewers naturally judge the contestants based on whether they’re their type or not. By that standard, Chris didn’t match Eun Seo’s taste at all.

While both had handsome faces, Seung Joo was the epitome of a cold or mature type of handsome man, whereas Chris had charming eye-smiles and soft features – the very image of an idol.

Eun Seo’s current taste was completely the former. And yet, strangely, she couldn’t take her eyes off Chris. Though clearly far from her preference, he captivated her entire attention at first sight. She could feel her own heart beating faster.

But it wasn’t quite like falling for someone romantically either. If she had to describe it, it was more like déjà vu.

Though she was clearly seeing him for the first time, somehow it didn’t feel like the first time. As if she had known him for a very long time…

“What’s with that intense gaze? Don’t tell me you fell for him at first sight?”

Sun Ah asked suspiciously, seeing Eun Seo staring at the screen without even blinking, but even that didn’t reach her ears.

“I won’t let him be stolen twice. Just vote while I’m asking nicely.”

Apparently, live voting for the second round would take place during today’s broadcast. The trainees were divided into teams to cover songs by different senior idol groups in a team battle.

The song assigned to Chris’s team was by an old famous idol group called ‘Eastern Country of Etiquette’. Eun Seo had never even heard the title before, but Sun Ah clapped her hands in delight.

“It’s a song where the vocals are very important compared to the relatively simple choreography. That’s advantageous for our Yoon Ho. Yoon Ho’s weak point is dance since he’s in the main vocal position.”

“What’s a main vocal?”

“Main vocalist!”

So that means he’s really good at singing, Eun Seo thought.

Soon, scenes of Chris singing appeared on screen. Even from the first phrase, it was clear he was much better than the other trainees. His voice was clear and his range was wide.

But today of all days, Chris kept making mistakes. To be precise, the same scene of him making a single mistake was being shown over and over again relentlessly.

“Are the producers crazy with this evil editing?”

When the same scene repeated for the fourth time, Sun Ah finally burst out in frustration. By this point, even Eun Seo understood perfectly. Evil editing must mean malicious editing.

“People who watched it live clearly said Yoon Ho did amazingly well. But they keep showing this one time he slightly went off-key on a high note – it’s like they’re openly trying to eliminate him!”

It was the same afterwards too. They kept fixating on the one time he slightly missed the timing in the choreography.

It wasn’t even an important point dance move, and he was in the back corner while dancing so people watching the actual performance probably didn’t even notice. But they kept replaying that tiny mistake over and over, even zooming in on it.

− A fatal mistake during an important group dance part
− A disaster brought on by lack of practice

They even added captions like that, making it seem as if Chris had been negligent in his efforts. It was as if they were saying, “Here, we’ve set the stage, so come and criticize him.” Even to Eun Seo’s untrained eyes, it seemed too harsh.

“Did our Yoon Ho do something wrong to the producers? Why is he suddenly being targeted?”

Eun Seo was getting anxious too.

Maybe because Sun Ah was cheering so hard, but Chris, whom Eun Seo had just seen for the first time today, didn’t feel like a stranger. Even through the screen, she could see how sincerely he was singing. She really hoped he would debut…

Before she knew it, Eun Seo was earnestly cheering for Chris too.

Nearly half of Chris’s team’s broadcast time was filled with scenes pointing out Chris’s mistakes. They even cleverly inserted scenes of his teammates sighing after his mistakes, making it look as if one main vocal’s blunders had ruined the entire team.

“They actually placed 3rd out of 10 teams in the live voting, what’s with this editing, seriously!”

Sun Ah wailed.

Watching the broadcast content of another team that followed right after, Eun Seo realized that Sun Ah’s words about Chris suffering from evil editing were no exaggeration.

This trainee was in the same main vocal position as Chris, but his looks weren’t particularly striking, his dancing looked stiff, and crucially, even his singing skills weren’t that great.

“How did this person even become a main vocal?”

That’s how bad it was, for even Eun Seo to ask.

Yet the reactions were all praise. Even to Eun Seo’s untrained ear, it made her think ‘Is this really considered good?’, but even the panel of expert trainers widened their eyes in admiration and showered him with compliments.

− Wow, Choi Won Ha has improved so much!
− I just got goosebumps.

His teammates all gave thumbs up reactions or interviews saying how hard he had really worked.

− Trainee Choi Won Ha’s dazzling improvement
− The results of painstaking effort

They were going all out to praise him, even using captions. It was the complete opposite of Chris’s editing.

Sun Ah said:

“They gave him a growth narrative. The concept of starting out really bad, then gradually improving his skills throughout the survival show. They don’t give that to just anyone – is he the broadcasting station president’s son or something?”

This was Eun Seo’s first time watching this kind of program, but she felt it was going too far. Anyone could see that they were nitpicking even the tiniest mistakes of someone clearly skilled, while heaping praise on someone who was originally bad and still wasn’t good, just for improving slightly.

“Are all idol survival programs like this?”

“Well, there’s always some degree of evil editing, big or small, but it’s way too blatant with Chris. Part of it might be because he doesn’t have an agency to protect him, but it feels like there’s some crucial reason the producers are targeting him.”

As the pre-recorded segments for all the teams were broadcast one by one, viewer voting continued throughout. Of course Sun Ah and Eun Seo, and even Seung Joo, cast their votes for Chris by text message.

Finally, the pre-recorded broadcast segments ended and it switched to a live broadcast for the ranking announcement.

The host appeared on stage.

− Idol Project 10 is heating up even more! We’re finally down to just 30 trainees out of 60, and the results are…

At that moment when Eun Seo, Sun Ah and Seung Joo gulped, the host shouted:

− Going to be revealed in 60 seconds!