Episode 115: Audition (3)
“Here we are.”
Kim Yu-ri, team leader from the rookie development department, guided me to a conference room.
“Are all three here?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a relief at least. Hand me the files.”
Kim Yu-ri, wearing a slightly heavy expression, clutched the files tightly to her chest even after I asked for them.
“Just… let us handle…”
“The rookie development team is already swamped, right? I’ll take care of it. Please give them here.”
“But still…”
Well, if everything had gone smoothly according to plan, I wouldn’t have stuck my foot in this door either.
‘The rookie team being busy is whose fault again? Tch.’
One week had passed since the Magician’s blade-riding show.
MyWay’s capable working-level staff proved in just three days that the show had been based on cold, hard facts.
Naturally, the rookie development team’s feet were now on fire.
They had launched a full-scale investigation of every trainee to make sure they hadn’t missed that deadly virus.
In that sense, wasn’t it closer to resolving the cause by having me handle something like this?
“It’s fine. Producing sometimes means playing the villain too. Just hand them over quickly and get back to work.”
I brushed aside Kim Yu-ri’s hesitation, practically snatched the files from her arms, and stepped into the conference room.
Waiting for me inside the small meeting room were faces I’d seen just a few days ago.
The three remaining trainees from Jooyul.
I couldn’t bring myself to say something ordinary like “Good morning.”
The heavy atmosphere alone made it painfully clear that the kids already knew exactly why they were here.
“Was it hot on the way here?”
That was the greeting I chose instead.
Even that seemed far too weak to lighten the mood.
‘No helping it. Straight to the point.’
Facing the three of them across the table, I finally forced out the worst words they had probably been expecting.
“Unfortunately, it looks like the three of you won’t be able to join MyWay.”
Regardless of what happened with Catherine and So-young, the decision to fail the other three trainees had been unanimous between me—who had been given full authority by Seo Yoonje—and Jeon Seon-woo.
Seo Yoonje might have seen some potential in them that we missed, but even he had nodded in agreement with this call.
And yet, strangely…
The moment I said it out loud, the suffocatingly heavy atmosphere in the room actually seemed to lighten a little.
Their tense shoulders relaxed slightly, as if the string of anxiety had finally snapped.
“As expected.”
The girl in the middle muttered that under her breath.
From that, I could guess…
‘They already knew.’
That they had been nothing more than Catherine’s background dancers.
No one knew that fact better than the kids themselves.
They had clung to this opportunity because they didn’t want to let go of their idol dream, even knowing the truth.
But perhaps they had already realized deep down that holding on like this was meaningless.
‘This is just my speculation, though.’
The fact that they weren’t throwing a tantrum, demanding another chance, or refusing to accept it gave me that impression.
‘Saying this to kids like them feels a little cruel, but…’
In the end, what I was about to tell them was essentially: “You’re not skilled enough yet, so go train harder.”
This was exactly the kind of thing I avoided like the plague in the previous timeline—being an audition judge.
Still, I had to do it.
“I don’t want to deny the effort you’ve all put in. So here’s what I’m thinking.”
I opened the file Kim Yu-ri had given me and slid it across the table toward them.
“What… is this?”
“It’s the schedule for MyWay’s public audition in August. Less than two months left now. If the three of you haven’t given up on your dream yet, and if MyWay isn’t something you’re opposed to, please take a look. If you decide to show up, I promise I’ll personally watch and confirm every bit of effort you put in during that time.”
“Uh…”
Maybe I phrased it too indirectly.
All three of them tilted their heads in confusion.
“In short—if the three of you participate in the upcoming public audition, you’ll be exempted from the document screening round.”
“Ahhh.”
Only then did they hurriedly scan the paper.
Then the girl on the right suddenly raised her head.
“Um… what about So-young? Doesn’t she get anything like this?”
“Ah, So-young has been training incredibly hard too.”
For a second I didn’t understand the question.
By now, rumors had spread that So-young’s MyWay contract had been shredded and thrown away—everyone knew she was coming to MyWay.
But,
‘Oh… right. They wouldn’t know.’
With all of Jooyul’s staff now transferred to MyWay, these kids had become completely cut off—no one left to pass along the gossip.
“Baek So-young is currently scheduled to sign a trainee contract with MyWay.”
There was no need to hide it.
If even one of the three passed the public audition and became a MyWay trainee, the fact would come out immediately anyway.
“So-young?”
“Not Catherine?”
They seemed to have assumed that if anyone passed, it would obviously be Catherine—the questions came flying right away.
“Catherine will never be joining MyWay. This involves personal information, so I can’t say more than that, but I can tell you this much for certain: among the trainees from Jooyul Entertainment in this audition, the only one who passed is Baek So-young.”
At my follow-up answer, the three of them fell completely silent.
‘Well… that’s only natural.’
Even in my eyes, the current So-young was noticeably less skilled than these three.
Hearing that they failed while So-young passed—it would be strange if they weren’t angry.
More than that, the fact that they had even briefly worried about So-young showed that their hearts were on the kinder side.
“You must feel wronged. That’s completely understandable. In times like this, it helps to have someone to resent. Since this might be the last time we meet, let me tell you who to blame… you can resent me. I’m the one who saw potential in Baek So-young and passed her.”
“Huh…?”
“And if you want revenge, come at me. There are plenty of ways… but the surest one is probably debuting. ‘You missed the potential that was clearly right here.’ You get to hurt me without getting hurt yourselves. What better revenge could there be?”
With that, I stood up.
“My personal wish would be for that revenge to happen at MyWay too… but expecting that much might be too greedy. That’s all from me. You’ve worked hard at Jooyul. Take care on your way back.”
I left the three of them—speechless—behind me, escaping the conference room as if fleeing, though I tried hard not to show it.
“Huu…”
But I couldn’t stop the sigh that leaked out before I’d even taken a few steps.
I paused unconsciously and lifted my head slightly—
Thud, thud.
—one set of footsteps approached me.
The owner of those steps was,
“CEO Jo… no, Director Jo now.”
Jo Dae-hwan, who had now become one of MyWay’s directors.
He walked up beside me without a word and stood shoulder to shoulder.
“Thank you, Yujin-ssi.”
He expressed his gratitude out of the blue.
It was the first time Jo Dae-hwan had spoken about this matter.
In truth, he didn’t even have the right to speak on it.
Even if unintentional, he had nearly planted a massive Trojan horse inside MyWay. Even if all the trainees he’d painstakingly gathered were eliminated, he would have had no room to complain.
‘I figured Director Jo would find out soon anyway.’
In the previous timeline, Catherine’s school violence history came to light after she debuted in another agency’s girl group.
While Jooyul had been steadily building its position through E-GIS’s activities, that other agency had been a complete nobody—so there was no way they would’ve let Catherine go.
‘It was probably closer to expulsion.’
They must have cut Catherine—their main pillar—and released the rest, including So-young, which ultimately led to the collapse of Jooyul’s girl group project. That was my guess.
I knew Jo Dae-hwan hadn’t done it on purpose, but given the situation, I couldn’t exactly defend him.
He probably understood that too, which was why he had stayed silent until now.
“Thank you for what? I’m the one who wrecked the girl group you built.”
I said it half-jokingly because the gratitude felt embarrassing, but,
“Han Pro-nim just did what he had to do—what’s there to thank? If anything, I should be grateful that you at least took So-young. And besides…”
“…?”
“You gave the others some encouragement too—in your own way. It was the first time I’ve seen that kind of encouragement.”
“You heard all of it?”
Jo Dae-hwan didn’t stop there—he piled on one more comment that made my face heat up.
I had no idea where he’d been listening from, but no matter how much I pressed him, he just shrugged. My flushed face showed no sign of cooling, so I hurriedly started walking again.
Of course, Jo Dae-hwan didn’t let me off that easily.
“By the way, what if they actually come back for revenge?”
He caught up immediately and asked, successfully stopping my steps once more.
“Who knows.”
He clearly hadn’t expected me to stop walking at that question—he took one step ahead before halting and turning back to me.
“So… you’re saying you deliberately decided to make that call right here?”
The question came from Seo Yoonje, seated at a desk far busier than usual.
“Yes. There’s one trainee where Team Leader Jeon and I have completely opposing opinions.”
The answer came from me.
Since I was the one who dragged the already-busy Seo Yoonje into this, it was only right that I take responsibility.
“You said five, right? It shouldn’t take too long. Alright. Let’s hear it.”
“Ah, I don’t think we need to go through all five. Numbers 2, 3, and 4 are fails. I think Team Leader Jeon and I are aligned on those.”
Even though my head was tangled up thinking about So-young, I hadn’t kept my eyes and ears closed.
‘There’s no way another Laira member pops up out of nowhere… but you never know who else might appear.’
From now until two years later, Laira isn’t the only girl group that debuts.
Until the generation shift begins with Laira at the forefront, the current top-tier girl groups will continue dominating the scene—but even in that landscape, a few members from a few groups still shine brightly. I was half-worried one of them might show up.
‘Well… there wasn’t.’
No such coincidence occurred again. The remaining three were average at best.
If it had been a public audition, maybe things would’ve been different—but since this was a re-evaluation framed as fairness to existing trainees, those three unfortunately had to say goodbye.
Jeon Seon-woo seemed to share the same view; his checklist marked 2, 3, and 4 firmly in the “fail” column.
“Yes. Honestly, it seems difficult for them to join us right away. How about we close it cleanly by giving them priority document screening exemption for the August public audition?”
Still, a faint sense of resignation lingered in Jeon Seon-woo’s eyes as he spoke.
He already seemed to anticipate why this meeting had been called.
‘Makes sense.’
The trainee who should’ve been the first to be disqualified—number 1, So-young—hadn’t come up yet. If he couldn’t predict that much, he wouldn’t even deserve to be sitting here.
“It seems like the one we’re going to disagree on is number 1. Let’s talk about her…”
As expected.
Jeon Seon-woo immediately brought up So-young,
“No.”
I cut him off right away.
“Let’s start with number 5. That’s where we’ll diverge.”
“Huh? Number 5?”
Even though I interrupted him, there wasn’t a trace of displeasure on Jeon Seon-woo’s face.
And understandably so.
“Catherine is already at the level right behind Nari and Sang-ah. She could join MyWay immediately.”
Number 5 trainee, Catherine.
She was undoubtedly the biggest reason Jo Dae-hwan accepted girl group trainees into Jooyul in the first place.
The shock of potentially not accepting someone like her would outweigh any annoyance at being interrupted.
But,
“Yes. I figured Team Leader would say that. But she’s a no.”
Just as Jeon Seon-woo couldn’t understand me,
Seo Yoonje’s eyes sharpened.
My firm tone had clearly piqued his interest.
“May we hear the reason?”
At Seo Yoonje’s question, Jeon Seon-woo stepped back slightly and waited for my answer.
Unfortunately, what I was about to say probably wouldn’t fully resolve his confusion.
“Just… she gives me a bad vibe.”
“Huh?”
“Something feels off about Catherine. Run a background check on her. I have a feeling something will come up. Rather than bringing her in, I’d prefer to take number 1—Baek So-young—and develop her myself.”
Even among parachute hires, the atmosphere changes completely depending on what kind of parachute they arrive on.
If it’s someone who dropped in after dodging school violence allegations through name changes, overseas study, and every kind of whitewashing imaginable…
‘Wouldn’t people start getting scared and quietly back off?’
They call him the Magician for a reason. Since it’s come to this, might as well ride the magic blade once and see.
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