The Goal is the Ending Fairy

Winsome – That’s it!
A.Crown – What’s Up
Teenheim – UmmUmm

These were the three songs Won Chaeseo suggested as candidates. And I knew all of them too.

They were either famous songs that had appeared often in the game, or real idol songs from outside the game.

So there was no need to hurriedly search and listen to them.

Besides, lately I’d been thoroughly combing through streaming sites at every chance.

Someone aiming to be a K-pop singer can’t be ignorant about K-pop, so I’ve been working hard on that lately.

Anyway, thanks to that, I could quickly reach a conclusion.

“These songs all have similar styles.”

“That’s right.”

Won Chaeseo nodded at my analysis.

All these songs had similar vibes, lyrical themes, and flow.

The so-called ‘Teen Crush.’

This genre, mixing high-teen elements with girl crush elements, is the current trend in girl group songs.

After showing quite a bright and fresh stage in the first mission, it seems Won Chaeseo wants to leave a strong impression this time.

Looking at how all the candidates were powerful, intense songs, I couldn’t help but reach that conclusion.

Genre selection is definitely important for making an impression.

Honestly, in these competition programs, slower songs tend to make less impact.

“Should we decide while listening to the songs?”

“Sure~”

The trainees agreed with my suggestion and turned their attention to the first lyric sheet.

Won Chaeseo played a song on her phone and placed it in the center of where the team members were sitting.

The first song was Winsome’s.

A bright, cheerful, and confident song.

The lyrics were about living life your own way, shouting “Life’s no big deal, just live it! Yeah, that’s it!”

Plus, it contained aspirations about definitely achieving what you want to do.

That part seemed to fit our current situation well.

The second song was A.Crown’s “What’s Up.”

While it had a similar theme to Winsome’s song, it felt like their “my way” had a big “F-you” attached to it.

More powerful and self-centered lyrics.

Literally a song that took “So what are you gonna do about it, b*tch” and cleaned it up with roundabout expressions.

Personally, I liked these lyrics the best.

The last one was Teenheim’s “UmmUmm.”

The song’s mood was between Winsome and A.Crown. Energetic and powerful, but not purely bright.

If Winsome leaned more toward high-teen and A.Crown more toward girl crush, this felt exactly in the middle.

The lyrics were about “So what? Even if you say that, I’m still awesome, what can you do?” – content that totally dunked on their haters.

We watched the choreography videos together too, and Teenheim’s was the most difficult. Winsome’s song was relatively the easiest.

But “relatively” easier doesn’t mean easy – all three songs had challenging choreography.

“Hmm… what should we do?”

“Has everyone made up their mind?”

“I’m still…”

After watching the dance videos, the team members seemed even more uncertain, holding their heads in thought.

I too crossed my arms in contemplation, looking back at the lyrics, then the dance videos, repeatedly.

After careful consideration, I reached a conclusion.

‘Teenheim’s is definitely the best.’

Just as I made my decision internally, the team member beside me spoke up first.

“I think…”

The trainee who ranked 18th in the first mission hesitated before flipping through the lyric sheets.

“I think A.Crown sunbaenim’s ‘What’s Up’ would be good.”

“Oh~ Why?”

“The song’s mood is strong and the rap is powerful. I think it would make a strong impression on the judges.”

“Ah~”

Well… she had a point.

The problem was our team didn’t have anyone who could handle that level of rap.

She seemed to have overlooked that and just picked the song she liked.

“I umm…! I prefer Winsome sunbaenim’s! The hopeful mood feels good.”

This was the 11th place trainee’s opinion.

As she was also the oldest in our team, other members seemed to somewhat agree with her.

But after those two opinions, silence fell over the team again.

…It seemed like the right timing for me to speak up.

I’d waited because the previous two people had different opinions from mine, but we couldn’t keep dragging out this song selection issue.

Besides, how long had it been since the second mission started? We’d have to do an interim evaluation soon too.

That meant we’d be incredibly busy, probably without sleep, from here on out.

We needed to decide on a song quickly and jump right into practice.

“Hm?”

At that moment, I felt someone poking my knee.

Looking up to follow the owner of that hand, I found Won Chaeseo had been watching me for who knows how long.

“What about unnie?”

Despite her expressionless face, there was something lively in her eyes.

What’s this? Was she deliberately giving me consideration to share my opinion?

I was just watching for the right timing, not that I couldn’t speak up.

I guess my solo contemplation must have looked like I was struggling to speak up.

Anyway, thanks to her opening, I could more easily express my opinion.

“I think the third song. Teenheim sunbaenim’s ‘UmmUmm’ would be good.”

“Oh my, everyone has different picks?”

“What’s your reasoning?”

There were many reasons.

I started explaining as systematically as possible, using the materials at hand.

Including being careful not to offend the original artists of the other songs.

It was necessary since we could get attacked by their fans if we weren’t careful.

“First… while the other two songs are great too, I think A.Crown sunbaenim’s song might be too challenging for our first team mission.”

I replayed just the rap part of that song.

“There are parts that are too difficult for our team since we don’t have a rap position, and those parts take up a significant portion.”

It was a powerful rap part performed by A.Crown’s main rapper, coming right before the second chorus.

Since we’d only listened to the first verse of each song just to get the mood, we hadn’t heard this part yet.

Now the trainees were tilting their heads or dropping their jaws in realization. It meant they knew they couldn’t handle it.

Even Won Chaeseo, who could rap a little, shook her head.

“And as for Winsome sunbaenim’s…”

This time, I pulled up the dance video on my phone and slid the playback to the latter part.

The team members’ attention naturally turned to the video I held out.

In the video, right after the chorus ended, an intense dance break was playing.

“First off, they have more members. So they can show maximum power with a large group dance.”

I paused the video as I said this.

“But with just our five members, wouldn’t we lack that power? The stage might look empty too.”

Without a doubt, it would definitely look empty.

This choreography only has impact when performed by a large number of people in sync.

Because it was a dance where many members did slightly different movements to become ‘one’.

But the difference between Winsome’s members and our team was double.

It’s already a famous song, and having five people perform a dance meant for ten…

Unfortunately, viewers would inevitably think it looks empty.

Literally half the ‘parts’ needed to create that ‘one’ whole would be missing.

So no matter how hard we dance, the choreography would look incomplete.

Sure, we could rearrange the dance break, but we didn’t have enough time for that.

“That’s why I think Teenheim sunbaenim’s ‘UmmUmm’ is the most suitable song choice for us.”

The conclusion was that giving people points of comparison with the original artists wasn’t suitable for a survival show.

“They have the same number of members as us… and above all, since the song’s mood shifts naturally but dramatically, we can show more diverse sides of ourselves.”

Actually, it was hard to say I chose Teenheim’s song because of its merits.

I picked it simply because it would cause us the least disadvantage.

Plus, except for Won Chaeseo, our team didn’t have any standout performers.

So rather than a stage that makes people go “Wow!”, it would be more beneficial to create one that makes them think “Good!”

In other words, we need to create a stage that both judges and viewers can enjoy.

“Oh, now that you mention it…”

“Hmm~”

The team members who had been quietly nodding at my words flipped through the lyric sheets. They were reading the lyrics to the Teenheim song I’d advocated for.

Persuasion successful.

“I like it.”

The person with the most important vote in the team willingly agreed.

Since Won Chaeseo had the final say in song selection, the game was over once she agreed.

Besides, I knew Won Chaeseo had been thinking the same as me all along.

I’d noticed she’d been fidgeting with only the Teenheim song lyrics sheet from the start.

She probably wanted to do the Teenheim song most but included the other two songs to at least ask our opinions.

That’s why she hadn’t reacted at all to opinions about the first two songs, only showing a positive reaction now.

“I think it’s good too.”

“Dan-ah’s reasoning makes sense~”

Following the leader’s agreement, positive responses came one after another.

Even the team members who had initially chosen the other two songs readily followed my suggestion.

Rather than being persuaded, they just didn’t seem interested in pushing their initial opinions.

“Okay. Then our team’s mission song will be Teenheim sunbaenim’s ‘UmmUmm.'”

“Yay~”

“Applause!”

The team members cheered along with Won Chaeseo’s most confident voice yet. I also clapped while smiling appropriately.

Won Chaeseo then went to the production team to report our song choice.

This was per staff instructions to check for any song overlaps between teams.

Seeing her light steps as she returned, fortunately, it seemed our song choice hadn’t overlapped with other teams.

After quickly finishing part distribution, practice began immediately.

By the way, the part distribution was decided peacefully.

This was thanks to the fact that the number of members in our team matched the original song, and the parts were almost equally distributed.

So without any major friction, our team could focus straight on practice.

Since we all already knew the song, there was no need to separately learn the melody or lyrics.

We just practiced individually focusing on our own parts, or sought advice from each other.

Then we’d all sing together from start to finish following the music, that was all.

The dance wasn’t much of a struggle either. Since it was such a famous song, the team members already knew most of the choreography.

And that went for me too.

This song belonged to a real idol group… and a very famous one both domestically and internationally.

So I too roughly knew the point choreography for the chorus by sight. It was famous enough to have sparked a challenge trend.

Maybe because of that, even the mini-game felt easier… the dance practice didn’t seem like it would be a big problem either.

Though we had slightly different understandings of the details or got confused about parts outside of the killing part.

Still, that much could be quickly synchronized through practicing together.

The issue wasn’t that. Well, rather than an issue, it was something unexpected…

“Since everyone knows this part, should we try matching it once with Dan-ah unnie as the center?”

That’s right – I was given the ‘center’ part.