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

Chapter 6

“I’m home.”

Hyesung returned home, dragging her tired body.

It seemed like too many things had happened in a short period. Just from thinking before bed, she ended up reversing dream and reality, suddenly becoming a 19-year-old idol trainee who had to appear on a survival show soon.

“How should I define this situation?”

This wasn’t regression, possession, or reincarnation.

“The world has changed because of me.”

She was probably the only one who knew this fact. With the thought that she had suddenly become the main character, she realized she had caused something tremendous.

“…I turned the world upside down.”

It wasn’t just a figurative expression, it was literal. The world had changed with Hyesung’s choice.

“This should be called a ‘great upheaval.'”

Not ‘Heaven and Earth Upheaval’ but ‘Hyesung Upheaval.’ She decided to call the previous world the pre-upheaval world. The choice of words sounded a bit like a cult, but she named it that for now.

“But I’m already tired, what should I do going forward?”

Ding.

[Today’s Random~ Quest has arrived!]

[Close your door and practice hard! Practice the song (vocal) you will perform for the class evaluation. 0/10]

“What’s with the ‘today’s’ quest when the day is almost over? I’ll start practicing tomorrow, so can you disappear?”

[Quest reward upon completion: Increase vocal star rating by half a star (☆) ]

“So if I sing it ten times, my rating goes up by 0.5 stars? Then I should do it. Accept.”

Hyesung reluctantly got up, lifting her heavy body.

“First, I need to choose a song and practice.”

To avoid a complete failure, it couldn’t be a song from current idols… It shouldn’t be too difficult, and it should leave a favorable impression on the trainer.

“How about trying that song? It’s an unusual choice.”

After about ten minutes of contemplation, Hyesung made a decision. She was already bracing herself for an F, so she seemed calm.

She found and played the chosen song on her phone. As a fresh yet sentimental melody flowed, Hyesung hummed along as if she didn’t know the lyrics.

“Hmmm~ Mmmm~”

After listening to the song a few times, Hyesung took out a Bluetooth microphone buried in a corner of her bookshelf.

“Mic test- Okay-dokey. Music start~”

After singing the song once while holding the microphone, the quest window changed to [1/10].

“Oh. Just nine more times.”

Hyesung started singing enthusiastically.

“Ah~ The fragrance of lilacs~ Your sweet breath~ Petals….”

“Hey! Yoon Hyesung!”

With an angry voice, the door suddenly burst open.

“Whoa!”

“Keep it down, you’re not even singing well! It’s almost 10 o’clock. You’re being a nuisance.”

Yoon Eunho pointed at Hyesung with a stern face.

“What? Hey? Are you crazy, Yoon Eunho? How dare you speak to your sister like that… Oh!”

Hyesung covered her mouth with her hand.

‘Could it be that since my age has changed, Eunho is now my older brother instead of my younger brother?’

“Did you eat something wrong? You’re the one speaking disrespectfully to your older brother.”

“Seems like it’s true…….”

“True? What’s true? Get a grip and go to sleep. Or practice in a studio. Why did you leave the company you were lucky to get into…….”

“Company? What company?”

“Seriously, what’s wrong with you today? Did you hit your head at the audition? I’m talking about your former agency, D&F. You quit after a month.”

“D&F?”

Hyesung’s eyes widened. Her eyes looked all white like a crazed person.

“Hey! Don’t stare at me like that. It’s scary.”

“Just answer me, was I a trainee at D&F?”

Hyesung grabbed Eunho by the collar and shook him.

“Yes! It was probably the best company you’ll ever work for, and you quit to loaf around at home.”

“Damn… This system is crazy.”

“You’re the crazy one. Anyway, be quiet. I’m going to bed early.”

“No, I can’t. Just nine more times.”

“Seriously. The only sibling I have is so disobedient.”

Eunho brushed off Hyesung’s hand from his collar and closed the door as he left.

* * *

The recording day for Supernova Project Season 5 finally arrived.

Hyesung, who had been trembling because she hadn’t received a confirmation call, got the call just yesterday, right before the recording.

During the eight days of waiting for the confirmation, Hyesung diligently completed the ‘Close your door and practice hard’ quest, raising her vocal stats from 0.5 stars to 1.5 stars.

It might not seem like much, but random quests didn’t appear daily.

While the first quest was easy with just ten practices, the second required fifty, and the third required one hundred practices, making it impossible to complete in a day, leading to failure.

‘I thought my vocal cords were going to tear after singing a hundred times.’

Hyesung rubbed her throat, which almost got ruined right before the national audition.

Moreover, with her increased stats, it seemed the system judged both the number of attempts and the quality of the singing.

‘Although I improved a bit, I’m still a beginner. I thought I could become a powerful vocalist just by completing the number of attempts.’

Although she practiced autonomously without quests, it seemed she needed lessons from an expert to truly improve.

Rolling.

Hyesung, carrying a heavy suitcase, arrived in front of DMC station. Since the training camp would last about a week, she had quite a lot of luggage.

“Ugh, it’s heavy. I should have taken a taxi. If my age hadn’t changed, I could have driven here myself.”

‘…But if my age hadn’t changed, I would have been eliminated in the preliminaries.’

With a trembling heart, Hyesung headed towards the MvN media center, looking around the familiar streets.

“All familiar faces.”

It was a remark about the restaurants in Sangam-dong, where broadcasting stations were clustered.

Before she nurtured Na Yeonwoo, when she used to follow Goo Bon-jin’s music shows, she often frequented those places, and they still remained the same despite the passing years.

“Sweet memories of dawn recordings……”

She recalled the times she waited in line wearing rags on the street. Though it was tough back then, it had become a sentimental memory now.

Lost in these thoughts, she soon arrived in front of MvN.

Almost simultaneously with Hyesung’s arrival, several cars with celebration stickers slid smoothly into the parking lot in front of the broadcasting station.

Clatter, car doors opened, and trainees carrying suitcases appeared one by one.

There was already a cameraman filming them, probably taking insert shots.

‘This is why it’s good to have an agency. I should have asked Mom and Dad to drive me.’

Hyesung looked at them with a bit of envy. What she envied was not being filmed but being driven there.

‘Being driven by someone else is the best.’

Currently, Hyesung’s status was that of an individual trainee. She was shocked to find out that she had been a D&F trainee in her past setting.

With dreams and reality swapped, it seemed that Hyesung’s usual fantasies had mixed in.

Being an extreme N type in MBTI, Hyesung often imagined ‘If I were an idol…’ and always set herself in a large agency.

Even though in her fantasies all she did was fuss over idols (like Na Yeonwoo), it was quite shameless.

‘And now I’m in a real fix.’

D&F Entertainment. Set as Hyesung’s former agency, this company was one of the big four major agencies, especially famous for its girl groups.

Since the late 2000s, the girl groups they debuted every three years had all been hits, including the currently active five-year-old top girl group ViViD and the highly noted rookie, Strawberry Killa.

‘Considering the timeline, I must have left before Strawberry Killa debuted. Not because I was in their debut lineup and got cut, just lucky to get in and got kicked out after a monthly evaluation.’

Having a background in a major company seemed to draw unwanted attention.

‘I just want to keep quiet, but my application says I’m from D&F, so the broadcasting folks will probably use it to their advantage.’

In the pre-upheaval Supernova Project Season 5, there were no D&F trainees, but there were two from other major agencies. Like Hyesung now, they were also ‘former’ trainees.

‘They made such a fuss about K-pop agency dual titans in the previews.’

The skill level of those trainees was average, so they didn’t produce many notable scenes, but now Hyesung, with lower skills and the major company label, would face an obvious outcome.

‘I’m so scared I want to run away.’

“Aren’t you going in, trainee?”

A staff member asked Hyesung, who was standing absentmindedly at the entrance.

“The other trainees are all going in now.”

“Oh, yes! I’m going in too….”

Hyesung joined the other trainees, pulling her suitcase along.

* * *

‘Damn. I knew this would happen.’

Hyesung was trembling in the waiting area behind the set.

A couple of hours ago, after receiving a brief explanation about the filming order from the staff, she exchanged greetings with the other trainees in the waiting room. Neither Na Yeonwoo nor any trainees she met during the preliminaries were there.

Not particularly interested in chatting with the other trainees, she sat awkwardly. After being called out a few times for preliminary interview footage, it was already time for her entrance.

‘I said I left because there were no plans for a girl group launch for a while, but I hope that’s okay.’

She didn’t mention Strawberry Killa, but the PD would probably edit it as he pleased, making her spine shiver in anticipation.

As expected, the large screen in front of the trainees displayed ‘D&F Ent.’ in bold letters.

She heard the surprised murmurs of the seated trainees.

Hyesung peeked out from the side to glance at the set.

More than half of the seats in the pyramid-shaped seating area were already occupied by trainees.

‘When I step out, they’ll probably add a ‘former’ in front of it.’

She felt guilty seeing the trainees standing up in surprise.

Hyesung rolled her eyes quickly, searching for Na Yeonwoo.

‘She should be sitting around there, but is she sitting somewhere else this time….’

Na Yeonwoo, who should have been at the end of the second row, was nowhere to be seen.

‘Yeonwoo, where are you? I’m desperately looking for you, huh? Oh, there you are.’

With eyes like a seer, Hyesung found Na Yeonwoo sitting at the end of the third row near the stairs. Fortunately, the seat next to her was empty.

‘Yeonwoo, wait there. I’m coming.’

“Okay, Yoon Hyesung trainee! Let’s go in.”

Following the staff’s guidance, Hyesung took heavy steps forward.

“Oh! Here she comes.”

As she appeared in front of the trainees, a hundred pairs of eyes stared at her.

Everyone in front of her was watching her. She felt cold sweat forming.

“Hello……. I’m Yoon Hyesung.”

Hyesung bowed, her nervousness evident.

“Hello!”

Dozens of trainees responded loudly. Though she was startled by the overwhelming response, the welcoming atmosphere put her at ease.

Whoosh.

At that moment, the screen behind Hyesung switched. As expected, the word ‘former’ appeared next to the agency name.

Only then did the trainees murmur an “Ah….”

‘…I want to run away from embarrassment.’

Hyesung quickly made her way to the seat next to Na Yeonwoo, keeping her head down.

“Hello.”

Hyesung greeted as she sat down.