I Was Trying To Debut My Baby, But I Ended Up Debuting Instead

Chapter 5

“Wow!”

Hyesung jumped up like a spring, startled by the loud noise that sounded like the door was breaking.

“I’m sorry!”

An immediate apology was heard. Someone had slammed the door in the adjacent stall so hard that the impact resonated through the stall where Hyesung was.

‘I thought my eardrum was going to burst.’

Hyesung almost scrunched her forehead in frustration but held back and composed herself.

‘I can’t let my face wrinkle up every time I get annoyed. It would be a disaster if the camera caught it.’

She had deliberately come to a distant restroom, so if she was here, it meant the other floors were probably full. She calmed herself, thinking the person must have been in such a hurry that they almost broke the door.

‘I should just leave now.’

Hyesung tidied up her clothes and got up.

Although she hadn’t used the restroom, Hyesung, who was washing her hands vigorously, saw something strange in the mirror.

‘Come to think of it, I look 19 now, but did I participate in the preliminaries looking like I was 27?’

She felt a chill run down her spine.

The average age of the participants in Season 5 of Supernova Project was 19.7, with most being in their late teens. The trainees in the waiting room earlier also looked to be in their teens.

‘Am I going to get eliminated in the preliminaries?’

Moreover, she recalled how the youngest participant had spoken to her overly politely when she was leaving the waiting room, as if addressing an elder.

‘Considering there’s more than a ten-year age difference between us… well, that makes sense.’

Hyesung thought of her real age of 27 as being very young in societal terms.

‘People live to 100, so up to 50 is childhood. Even office workers are babies. Companies that make babies work overtime should be shut down.’

However, in the midst of teenage girls who felt a significant age difference of just one or two years, especially among idol trainees, a 27-year-old worker used to overtime was indeed out of place.

‘…I’m not old, but I’m worn out.’

Hyesung stared into space with empty eyes. She looked exhausted despite having done nothing.

‘No, my age has been officially changed to 19… And since Season 5 has fewer applicants, they’ll probably let me pass.’

She was already nervous, having finished the preliminaries at the start of her dream, and she couldn’t even remember how she had auditioned.

‘I won’t let it go if I get eliminated, seriously.’

Hyesung raised a fist to the empty air in a pointless show of defiance.

Click.

The restroom door opened behind her, and the person who had entered the adjacent stall earlier appeared.

Swish.

The sound of strong water flow filled the quiet restroom.

Hyesung glanced at the woman bending over the next sink, washing her hands. The side profile she saw briefly looked very familiar.

‘Isn’t that Hyun Nana?’

She wasn’t sure if this building belonged to MvN, but since it was the preliminary audition venue and the woman next to her had blonde hair like Hyun Nana, it seemed to be her.

Hyun Nana was the trainee who debuted as the top winner in Season 5 of Supernova Project. Watching Hyun Nana’s performance during her review last night made Hyesung feel oddly displeased.

She thought Hyun Nana had taken the center position that Na Yeonwoo should have had during the first contest. Although, of course, Hyun Nana had never taken Yeonwoo’s position.

“Uh… I’m sorry about earlier. Did I scare you?”

Hyun Nana, shaking water off her hands, bowed her head and apologized to Hyesung, who was glaring at her.

“Yes. I thought a bull had charged in.”

Hyesung’s dry response, whether it was a joke or serious, made Hyun Nana’s face look like a scolded puppy.

She hesitated for a moment before apologizing again.

“I was trying to hold it in because I didn’t want to leave the waiting room during the audition… but when I decided to go after it ended, there were too many people on the lower floors, so I ran up here. In my rush, I couldn’t control my strength and slammed the door too hard… I’m really sorry.”

Up close, Hyun Nana seemed slightly taller than Hyesung. Her bright blonde hair and lively face made her look slightly more mature than her peers, so she might appear older than Hyesung.

“Yes, well. That can happen when you’re in a hurry.”

Seeing Hyun Nana repeatedly apologize with a triangular-eyed expression, Hyesung softened a bit.

“Thank you for understanding. By the way, did you come for the Supernova Project audition?”

“Yes.”

“Me too! Let’s say hello if we meet later. I’m Hyun Nana, 19 years old, and my agency is Shark Music.”

Hyun Nana, who had been downcast until a moment ago, now sparkled with excitement and extended her hand.

‘Ugh, according to the setting, we’re the same age right now.’

“Haha… I don’t know if I’ll make it to the main broadcast.”

Hyesung, embarrassed by the current situation, wanted to shake hands quickly and leave.

“What? Why? Did you not do well in the audition?”

Hyun Nana asked with a worried look.

“It’s just that… there are so many talented people like you, Miss Nana. I’m not sure if there’s a place for me.”

‘…That’s just an excuse. Because of some system morpheus or whatever, I ended up auditioning in my true form without any buffs. So, there’s a chance this older sister might not pass the preliminaries, kiddo.’

Outwardly, Hyesung praised her opponent while inwardly cursing the system.

“Me? Am I talented?”

Hyun Nana, unexpectedly praised, looked at Hyesung with a moved expression.

‘She’s cute.’

Feeling her heart soften slightly at the adorable sight, Hyesung remembered how Hyun Nana had risen above and overshadowed her precious daughter Yeonwoo, and she calmed herself.

“You’re quite famous.”

“Am I famous? Really?”

“I heard from other trainee friends. They said there’s a friend named Hyun Nana who’s really good.”

Since Hyesung had never been a trainee, she naturally hadn’t heard such things. She was merely recounting what she’d heard from other trainees on Supernova Project as if she had heard it herself.

“This is really touching, hearing such things directly for the first time… Actually, I don’t have many trainee friends, so I don’t know much about my reputation. I’m the only female trainee in my company, so that’s even more the case.”

Shark Music was currently an agency with only male musicians, making it unimaginable that they would train female idols. Hyun Nana was about to break that macho company image as the first female trainee.

“Anyway, I’m sure you’ll make it to the main broadcast! I can sense some kind of aura!”

‘This isn’t Star Wars. What aura.’

Hyesung forced a fake smile. It looked very awkward.

“There’s something about you, definitely an extraordinary vibe!”

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by Hyun Nana’s enthusiastic words, Hyesung wondered how she could be so friendly with someone she just met.

‘She’s so young that she naturally gives compliments like that. I can’t do that anymore. I wonder if I can get along well with my daughter’s friends…’

In the end, Hyesung got swept up in Hyun Nana’s pace, continued the conversation for a bit, and ended up telling her name and age.

“Let’s greet each other when we meet later!”

“Sure…”

With a satisfying answer, Hyun Nana left the restroom with a bright smile.

“Phew, she’s finally gone.”

To Hyesung, Hyun Nana seemed mature for her age, but in reality, she was still a kid. After a few words, Hyesung felt that Hyun Nana was much more innocent than she appeared on TV.

‘I wasn’t sure before, but it seems like her comment about being selected for the center position wasn’t meant to put Yeonwoo down.’

* * *

“She’s not here either.”

‘Did she already go home? That must be it. She probably finished earlier than I did. I’m too late.’

Hyesung stood in the middle of the empty waiting room, deep in thought with her arms crossed.

Before entering this room, she had checked several waiting rooms, all of which were quiet with no one inside. She felt embarrassed as she opened the doors, pretending to look for something she had left behind.

It seemed the preliminary auditions were already over. Hyesung’s number was in the 50s, and Na Yeonwoo’s was probably around the same.

Before leaving the waiting room, numbers in the 70s had been called, so considering the preliminaries that selected 100 people for the main broadcast took place over 2-3 days, it was the end of the day.

‘I wondered if I could see Yeonwoo’s face…’

Things never worked out so conveniently.

‘Ugh, it’s frustrating. It’s a shame I couldn’t see Yeonwoo during the preliminary auditions, which aren’t broadcasted.’

“Oh well. I should go home too.”

Just as Hyesung was about to turn and leave, grabbing the doorknob, someone suddenly pushed the door open from outside.

“Wow!”

Today had been a day full of surprises for Hyesung.

“Oh no, I’m sorry!”

The person who opened the door grabbed Hyesung, who was staggering back. The person also seemed startled, having just opened the door and finding Hyesung behind it.

‘Why are these kids trying to break down the doors?’

“Sorry, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but you’re quite strong. I’m not exactly weak either.”

Embarrassed by her flimsy paper-like stance against the door, Hyesung flexed her biceps a bit.

“Haha…”

The girl laughed awkwardly.

‘She must be a participant too, but I don’t remember her. Did she not make it to the main broadcast?’

“Is today’s audition already over?”

Hyesung asked casually.

“Yes, I was the last one. I left something behind and came back to get it…”

The girl looked at Hyesung with eyes that seemed to ask why she was there.

“Me, too. I was one of the earlier numbers… I guess I came too late. I’ve been looking for it, but I can’t find it. Where did my bracelet go?”

Hyesung, who could have simply said she came to find a friend, lied instead and avoided the girl’s gaze while pretending to look around the room.

The girl, with her long legs, walked over and packed her charger and smartphone plugged into the outlet into her bag.

While Hyesung pretended to search for her non-existent bracelet, the girl looked at her briefly and then picked something up from under a chair.

“Is this it? I found it under the chair.”

The girl held up a bracelet. It was a bracelet, but not an ordinary one.

“What is this…?”

“It’s the Pretty Cure Berserker Transformation Bracelet. Isn’t this the item you were looking for?”

Hyesung stared blankly at the girl.

‘Would I have brought something like that at my age?’

“Uh… no.”

“Then it must belong to someone else?”

The girl tilted her head and placed the bracelet on the table.

“I don’t see anything else… Should we move the chairs and look?”

“No! Someone might have left it somewhere else. Anyway, thank you.”

Hyesung, feeling embarrassed, stopped the girl who looked ready to move the chairs and bowed her head in thanks.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’ll be going now.”

“Yep. Take care.”

The girl, with a friendly smile, stopped for a moment at the door and turned her head.

“Hey, since we met like this, can we exchange names? I might not know anyone at the venue…”

‘Again? She doesn’t have trainee friends either. Same as me.’