The Goal is the Ending Fairy

‘This voice is incredible.’

Slightly dark yet perfect for R&B—her voice was like a cheat code from the start.

But would such a heavy tone not blend well with bright songs?

Not at all. It seemed capable of melding with any type of song better than expected.

Hmm… no.

Strictly speaking, rather than melding, it felt like any song would sound good with this voice color.

This was an unexpected harvest.

When speaking normally, I’d only thought ‘she probably has a nice singing voice.’

But this voice color exceeded my expectations in the best way possible.

At this level, there shouldn’t be any vocal criticism except for emotional delivery.

That’s assuming I hit the right notes and timing, of course.

But since those can be covered with experience points through diligent practice, I think it’s possible.

The real challenge is this cursed mini-game.

Naturally, I’m playing a mini-game while singing right now.

Unlike dancing, here I have to move a paper airplane up and down to match the melody.

Plus, I need to vocalize the lyrics.

While dance is like an arcade stepping game, vocals are like a voice-recognition spaceship game.

Just kill me now.

So what happens when you do both dancing and singing?

Do you press five or six buttons in rhythm with the song like in normal rhythm games?

That’s irritating in its own way.

That damn game that throws comments like ‘What a shame!’ when you mess up or score low… go eat dirt.

At least there was an ‘auto-play’ feature in the later stages.

A feature where you could watch your group’s performance without lifting a finger…

Though only for stages where you’d achieved a high score multiple times.

Would that mean I wouldn’t have to play these brain games anymore once I unlock it?

I’m not sure, but whatever happens, it would clearly apply to the real version somehow.

I guess I’ll find out when the time comes.

Anyway, while one part of my consciousness was practicing difficult sections while playing the game—

The vocal room’s doorknob suddenly turned.

-Click

The yellow door swung wide open.

“……”

“……”

I reflexively turned off the music and looked over to see Kim Se-i.

The tall trainee from my dorm.

I’d learned her surname after hearing the supervisor call her that before.

After a moment of staring at each other in surprise.

“Sorry. I didn’t know someone was here…”

Kim Sei quickly apologized. I could tell from her expression it wasn’t intentional.

I smiled and shook my head at her.

“It’s fine. There are lots of trainees now, so no rooms available, right? Want to share with me?”

I actually didn’t want to say that, even as empty words, but I had no choice. There were surveillance cameras in this small vocal room too.

Two of them, in fact—one on the desk and one on the ceiling.

With trainees obviously crowding everywhere, kicking her out here…

That would only look like heartlessly chasing her away.

If such a scene got caught on broadcast, I’d be torn apart by public opinion.

No choice then—pretending to be nice was the answer here.

“… Thanks.”

After expressing her gratitude in her deep voice, she came in and closed the door.

I quickly moved to the inner chair and offered her the one I’d been sitting in.

She sat down with another word of thanks.

But…

‘This is so awkward…’

In the suffocating atmosphere, I pressed my lips tight and put in my earphones.

However, awkward or not, I couldn’t just not practice.

If I can’t sing in front of one person, how would I manage in front of an audience?

‘Do you want to fail game clear, Seo Dan-ah?’

With that thought, I pushed my chair back slightly to create some distance from Kim Sei.

It was my way of being considerate, since practicing right next to each other would be too noisy for both of us.

After turning the music back on, I first carefully worked on the pitch sections I was unsure about.

Then I started singing the lyrics in earnest.

Suddenly, I felt an inexplicable presence behind me.

“……”

No, not a presence—a gaze.

Human intuition is amazing, how you can feel it without any physical touch.

Since I had my back turned anyway and couldn’t see, I tried to ignore it and focus on practice.

But that didn’t last long.

I finally had to throw in the towel due to that gaze that felt like it was stabbing the back of my head.

I turned off the music and dropped my earphones.

“Um… unnie?”

“?”

But the cause of my turning around only threw a question mark my way.

“Did… did you have something to say?”

“… Ah.”

At my words, as if caught, she finally let out a small exclamation. Then she shook her head slightly.

“Just thinking. You’ve improved a lot.”

Ah, so that’s what it was.

Of course. My vocal stat experience points were much higher than before.

Though my skills are still lacking, there’s bound to be a difference after gaining 15 experience points.

It was the same logic as when I practiced dancing with Yoon Hee-jo.

“Thank you.”

I responded to her words with a clean thanks, no extras. Of course, with my brightest possible smile included.

Kim Sei nodded slightly at my response and turned back in her chair. I also turned back around and went to put my earphones in.

Or rather, I was about to.

“But.”

Just before I could insert my earphones, Kim Sei spoke to me again. So I had to turn back to her once more.

“Were you always this…”

Kim Sei started speaking but stopped as soon as our eyes met.

Instead, she just stared at me while trailing off, then withdrew her gaze.

“… Never mind.”

“Pardon?”

On top of that, she clamped her mouth shut without finishing her sentence.

When I asked again, she just repeated that it was nothing several times and focused back on her practice.

‘There are two ways to irritate someone: one is stopping mid-sentence, and the other is…’

That saying came to mind right then.

Why stop mid-sentence? Either say it or don’t start at all.

It left me feeling so unsettled and frustrated that I had to hold back several sighs.

By the way.

‘Hmm…’

Something’s up.

That thought came from the momentarily dark expression I saw on Kim Sei’s face.

But she wouldn’t have helped carry my luggage yesterday or asked about dinner if she disliked me, right?

Looking at it that way, while she might not hate me… something feels off.

If I’m not mistaken, it feels like she’s deliberately trying not to get close to me.

What to do. Still, I need to look like I get along with other trainees on broadcast.

That point started to worry me.

Usually when something feels off like this and you ignore it, things tend to blow up.

So it’s better to fix these things early when they first start bothering you.

For that, first… I need to find out what other trainees think of me.

* * *

[Ms. Dan-ah! You asked me to look into this character’s trainee life before, right?]

“Yeah.”

A deserted alley connected to the company’s back door.

Here, there were no cameras to film me or pick up my voice.

I’d even had the helper thoroughly search the area just in case, so it was safe.

[Since it wasn’t in the profile, I looked separately…]

“And?”

Even when I prompted, the helper just fidgeted with their hands.

[Um… there’s only brief mentions…]

“That’s fine, just tell me.”

After scratching their monitor for a moment, the helper came closer and whispered.

[She was quite a problematic trainee.]

“Why?”

[Because of dating issues and not taking practice seriously…]

“… W-what?”

What did I just hear?

If this is true, I’m totally screwed.

A trainee dating… Well, strictly speaking there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s definitely a minus point.

And what’s this about not taking practice seriously? Did she skip practice to go on dates?

“Is it all true?”

[No. It seems there were lots of misunderstandings.]

Right. That’s how it should be.

‘That scared me.’

Well, that’s fortunate at least. It means it’s all just rumors.

But that’s the ‘only’ fortunate part. They’ve really piled up some misunderstandings… how am I supposed to clear this up?

Not particularly skilled, yet dating and skipping practice…

It’s a perfect recipe for being branded as a problematic trainee.

Except for the fact that it’s not true.

“Must have been a lot of circumstances that led to these misunderstandings?”

[Mmm… First, the dating issue seems to be because of this character’s brother.]

The helper displayed a screen showing someone who appeared to be this character’s brother.

[He often came to the company uninvited asking for money, and other trainees overheard them arguing nearby.]

“I can see how that could be misunderstood as fighting with a boyfriend.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have lied about being an only child in that interview.

“What about being negligent?”

[Sometimes that brother would call her out…]

“… So she had no choice but to go.”

I finished the helper’s sentence. The helper nodded repeatedly.

Like when I called the helper earlier to hear about family matters, this family is completely dysfunctional.

‘Still though, what kind of bastard keeps asking a minor for money?’

I almost ruffled my bangs in frustration midway, but held back since I’d just been styled by the staff.

The helper watched my reaction carefully before continuing cautiously.

[The company knows the situation, but other trainees wouldn’t know. That’s probably why.]

“Hah…”

Hearing all this gives me a sense of crisis.

This is a crucial time when I should be focusing all my energy on raising stats.

I really didn’t expect to have rumors like this attached to me.

And the game didn’t even tell me until I asked about it directly…

‘Once I get out of here, I swear…’

Even as I mentally cursed at the system, my head throbbed.