Ch.9898. Preliminaries

Spirit’s turn was number 28.

Considering there were a total of 54 teams, they were positioned exactly in the middle.

“Number 21! Blue Synthesizer Team! Please come forward.”

The Spirit members, who had been exchanging opinions while watching the preliminaries, were becoming increasingly quiet.

When the first few teams showed incredible performances, the prevailing opinion was that they still had a chance.

Those must be the final bosses, and the ones coming after would surely be less impressive.

But this was merely their wishful thinking.

Even after the 10th team.

Even after the 20th team.

Just when they thought things had calmed down, monster-like teams would appear, heat up the atmosphere, and leave.

“Ah~ We’re better than them.”

Seo-eun forced herself to raise her energy and smiled brightly.

But despite her efforts, Suhyeok’s face showed no signs of relaxing.

“Suhyeok.”

Juyeon poked his thigh repeatedly.

“…Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“Ah. Yeah.”

He said he was fine, but cold sweat was running down his spine.

We’re going to fail.

I think we’re going to fail.

What should I do…?

He had thought the original song category would be a niche market, but that wasn’t just their idea.

Three teams had already performed original songs that seemed better than Suhyeok’s team.

As he realized he had created a song that fell short of everyone’s expectations, he became afraid…

Suhyeok’s gaze turned toward Hana.

Hana was watching the performers on stage as if entranced.

True to their name, Blue Synthesizer, their song consisted of a lively tempo and intense electronic sounds.

It wasn’t traditional rock sound but closer to trendy pop music.

Although they couldn’t directly hear the judges’ evaluations during the preliminaries, it felt like they could score points in sufficiently challenging areas.

“Hmm?”

Suddenly noticing Suhyeok staring at her, Hana turned her head sideways.

“Hey. What’s wrong with you?”

“No. It’s just…”

“…Don’t tell me you’re freaking out?”

Hana raised one eyebrow.

Suhyeok found it difficult to understand her playful tone.

“Hana. Aren’t you… scared?”

Honestly, this seemed like a situation where it wouldn’t be strange to be a little scared.

“If we’re scared, what can we do about it?”

Hana shrugged her shoulders upward.

“What, are we going to leave without even playing once?”

“Should we just go home like this?”

“Should we just go home saying, ‘Wow, they’re so good~’?”

It might seem a bit aggressive, but Hana didn’t hesitate.

“Lee Suhyeok.”

“…Yeah.”

“Let’s do everything we prepared as best as we can. We talked about this yesterday too.”

Even if their journey ended with an unfortunate elimination in the preliminaries, it wouldn’t change the fact that they had done their best.

“…Yeah.”

“And we have Juyeon, don’t we?”

Hana stood up from her chair and stretched Juyeon’s cheeks.

“Carry us, Park Juyeon.”

“Ehhh?”

The atmosphere had been quite serious, but Juyeon’s cute sound alone was enough to refresh the mood.

After that, the preliminaries continued, and finally.

“Number 28. Spirit Team! Please standby!”

“Yes!”

The members rushed to the stage with their equipment and waited below.

Suhyeok could no longer hear the performances of the remaining teams.

Holding the guitar his senior had given him, Suhyeok moved toward the upper part of the stage following the staff’s guidance.

As instructed, he connected the cables and turned on the amplifier.

Without touching the master and volume knobs, Suhyeok adjusted the other knobs to match the practice room settings.

Juyeon, who had nothing to set up, signaled to everyone asking if they were ready.

“Ah. Ah. Hello.”

Juyeon’s voice filled the venue.

Below the stage were not spectators but competitors and judges.

Having received Hana’s request to carry them, Juyeon had to bear the overwhelming burden as if a piece of metal had been placed on her shoulders.

But she didn’t back down.

Juyeon stared straight ahead with her eyes wide open.

“Spirit Team will now begin.”

“The title is ‘Maze.'”

With her concise introduction, the stick sound rang out.

Tap tap tap tap

A slow introduction proceeded.

The guitar still unfamiliar in his hands.

If the song had been even slightly more difficult, he might have made mistakes.

“Your fresh smile”

“At an ordinary joke”

Juyeon closed her eyes.

As if trying to hypnotize herself, she denied the reality in front of her.

As her mind gradually blurred, Suhyeok’s face appeared.

The tender feelings she couldn’t convey despite being right next to him were turning into vocal power, making the air vibrate.

“My heart already leaning”

“Words I couldn’t say”

“Whenever I see you, my mind goes blank again”

Unlike Juyeon, who was immersed in her own world, struggling to deliver the best performance, the rest of the session members were looking at each other as if they were a single organism.

Choi-gang looked toward the drums, sending a signal with his eyes that they were doing well.

Seo-eun smiled brightly as if there was no pressure at all.

Hana didn’t smile, but she gave the impression of trying to play as delicately as possible to capture the feeling.

Suhyeok looked at the audience again.

In the pressure of no cheers or jeers.

Juyeon’s back, singing steadfastly like a knight, was shining so brightly it was almost blinding.

The song rushed toward its climax.

A slow build-up to the final high note.

“Your steps growing distant”

“Your back becoming blurry”

“And I’m left behind again”

As the session sounds stopped at once, Juyeon also took a deep breath.

This was the highlight of “Maze.”

Vocalist Juyeon’s highest point.

“In the maze that is you.”

With the explosive high note bursting on “you” and the music resuming simultaneously.

It was a traditional technique with nothing surprising, but the effect was tremendous.

Even people from other teams who hadn’t been watching the stage all turned to look at Juyeon at that moment.

It was when they were playing most intensely.

To capture that rough emotion, Hana strummed strongly without hesitation.

The finale of the song was decorated with Suhyeok’s guitar solo.

There was no technique to speak of, but it was a solo with a deeply appealing melody line.

Only after the high note ended did Juyeon turn around.

Hana smiled brightly while doing the backing vocals, as if to say they did well.

Seeing her expression, Juyeon’s first thought was relief.

-Piiiiiii

With the fading sound of Suhyeok’s guitar, the stage came to an end.

Beads of sweat had formed on Suhyeok’s forehead.

The same was true for the other members.

-Clap clap clap clap

The judges and some audience members applauded.

The Spirit members quickly cleaned up for the next team.

After piling their equipment in one corner, they went outside to catch their breath.

“Park Juyeon!”

Hana and Seo-eun hugged Juyeon tightly.

“Ehhh?”

“You did great! Really great!”

“You should become a singer! I’ll keep playing guitar for you!”

Juyeon had shown a performance that truly embodied the term “battle-tested.”

“Ah. No. Everyone did well, I just…”

“You weren’t just a spoon, you were the whole bowl!”

Honestly, Suhyeok also wanted to hug Juyeon and jump around excitedly.

“Alright! I think we did better than in practice, so now let’s go for an honorable death!”

Hana burst into laughter.

“I admit it! We were pretty awesome!”

Choi-gang also let out a hearty laugh.

“Hey, should we make this into a digital single and upload it to a site anyway?”

“Wow, is Park Juyeon really becoming a singer?”

“Ah, we haven’t been eliminated yet…”

That was true too.

After chatting outside for a while, the Spirit members went back inside to watch the performances of the remaining participants until the end.

According to Seo-eun’s count, about 14 teams had brought original songs.

Many teams covered other artists’ songs, but it was natural for those with professional training to be interested in creation, just like the Spirit members.

On the way home.

They decided to eat something delicious and secured a table at a samgyeopsal restaurant.

“I think this team will get first place!”

As with all competition programs, guessing the rankings was always fun.

“Huh? Really? I thought the team with two keyboards would get first place.”

“Unnie, that’s too basic.”

“No, Hana, aren’t you being too biased just because we don’t have a keyboard?”

While listening to their banter-like conversation, Suhyeok diligently grilled the meat.

He picked up the first cooked piece with tongs and placed it in Juyeon’s dish.

“You worked hard.”

Suhyeok smiled brightly.

Juyeon felt both happy and sad.

Ah… I hope we can make it to the finals somehow.

Seeing him so happy made her wish they would pass.

“Hey, Lee Suhyeok. What about me?”

Displeased with the order of meat distribution, Hana immediately challenged him.

“Hana, you too.”

He tossed some onto Hana’s plate.

“Wow, no respect for elders here. Sigh… Suhyeok, even though your noona has a boyfriend, you shouldn’t neglect me like this.”

Next was Seo-eun.

He tried to give some to Kang-i too, but he was already picking up pieces with his tongs and eating heartily.

Finally, after taking his share, Suhyeok reached for a perilla leaf with his chopsticks to wrap the meat, and at that moment.

“Hmm…”

Why isn’t this leaf coming off?

The perilla leaf wouldn’t budge no matter how he wiggled his chopsticks.

Juyeon, watching from the side, gently extended her chopsticks.

“Here.”

“Thanks.”

At that moment.

“Ah!”

Hana let out a short exclamation.