After the morning practice started, we decided to hold the center vote just as we'd talked about the day before.
"Shall we have everyone who wants to apply for center each try doing the point choreography once?"
At my words, four people stepped forward.
"Um, if there's a chance, I wanted to give it a try too… haha."
First was Park Wonhyo.
"Oh, there's no restriction, right? Then I'll do it too."
Next was Aiden Lee.
"…I'll go last."
And last was Kang Hyunjin.
"If recommendations count, I want to recommend Yu-ha hyung."
…Plus me, who ended up participating because of Gyeong Jiwon's recommendation—four people total.
Since four out of our current six team members suddenly became center candidates, the voting method inevitably had to be altered a bit.
"Everyone will try the point choreography, but since more than half the class is now running as candidates, let's allow everyone to cast votes including for themselves, okay?"
After the members agreed, Park Wonhyo was the first to step forward to try the point choreography.
As expected of a trainee aiming for main dancer, Park Wonhyo executed the moves neatly and powerfully.
Aiden Lee's dance line that followed was also flawless. Rather than expressing details, he hit the point accents well and sharpened every angle, making for a dance with real "visual flavor."
Once my own turn as the third dancer ended, Kang Hyunjin took his place at the center of the practice room.
"…I'll start. Play it."
Before the MR began, Kang Hyunjin stared for a moment at his reflection in the mirror. Then he lowered his gaze to the teammates watching him, and the moment the MR began to flow—
"…!"
"…Wow."
"What the…?"
He showed a completely different dance line from anything he'd shown during this entire training camp.
'…untouchable.'
Even though I had watched—literally in real time—the process of his broken dance rebuilding itself while helping him practice yesterday, I still couldn't help being newly shocked at a "fully restored" Kang Hyunjin.
There was nothing to call it but talent.
'Could I really tell him to quit after watching that dance?'
At this point, even if he said he hated it, we'd have to beg him to please just live his life as a dancer.
I let out a hollow laugh. The remaining percent of his Sub Mission completion that wasn't filled during yesterday's practice was now filling rapidly in real time.
And, not long after—
『SUB MISSION: The Path of Overcoming』
Achievement – 100% (Completed!)
※ All stats revert to their original values, and "Buff" is unlocked.
The moment the completion meter above his head reached 100%, Kang Hyunjin's original stats unfolded before my eyes.
『Kang Hyunjin』
Detailed Traits
Specialty (Vocal): C+
Specialty (Dance): S-
Charm (Appearance): S-
Charm (Atmosphere): A
Talent (Expressiveness): S
Talent (Focus): B-
Stamina (Physical): A+
Stamina (Mental): C → C+ (1 stat increase!)
Buff: "Even If This Breath Ends Today"
"If I could stand on stage for just one day."
Dance specialty varies depending on Mental stat.
B+ or higher → Specialty +200
C- or lower → Specialty -200
'…There's no trainee in
It was a level you could only call genius.
And the teammates watching him must have been thinking exactly the same thing I was.
"We'll begin the voting. One, two… three."
In the vote that followed immediately after, Kang Hyunjin received every single vote.
Including his own.
***
"Won Yu-ha."
That day's group practice progressed in a completely different way from before.
Kang Hyunjin no longer wavered. Instead, he became the core pillar, holding up the weaker members just as we'd originally expected of him.
So as the other members headed to dinner with extremely satisfied expressions, Kang Hyunjin called out to me again.
"…Why?"
I turned my head, wondering what it was this time, and after hesitating, he spoke.
"…Thank you."
The honest gratitude thrown out so unexpectedly left me momentarily stunned. It wasn't a reaction I had anticipated at all.
Seeing my reaction, Hyunjin continued cautiously.
"I should've… said it yesterday. It feels way too late now. Sorry."
The uncharacteristic carefulness left me unsure what to say. It felt odd to just accept the thanks outright, but it also felt weird to ignore it, so I answered vaguely.
"…No, it's not like I helped just for your sake."
I only said it because I had no idea what else to say, but I meant it.
『SUB MISSION: The Path of Overcoming – Mission Success!』
Appropriate assistance has restored Kang Hyunjin's stats and unlocked his buff.
Reward: Dance Specialty +1 (B → B+)
After all, it's not like I didn't gain anything.
Unexpected as it was, once his Sub Mission was fully completed, the system granted an unforeseen reward. Since it was a bonus I could use very effectively in the upcoming evaluation, it wasn't a bad deal at all.
Yet Kang Hyunjin seemed to interpret my words as modesty.
"I know it isn't easy to give up your own time to help someone. …Especially when my attitude wasn't great."
…That's true.
I didn't deny that part. Throughout all three evaluations, my mental stamina had taken quite a beating from the constant tension between us.
But I didn't want to pick a pointless fight about it. Hyunjin wasn't showing unnecessary hostility toward me anymore; causing trouble now would just be a waste of time.
"Regardless of attitude, there's no one in our team better than you."
"You really think that after the condition I showed the past few days?"
He asked self-deprecatingly, and without much thought, I answered—
"You've beaten it once before, haven't you?"
At those words, Kang Hyunjin walked in silence for a while. Then, when the cafeteria was not far off, he finally spoke again.
"…You've had a similar experience, haven't you."
For a moment I didn't know what he meant, so I simply stared at him. After a bit of thought, I realized what he was talking about.
'He means the slump.'
Come to think of it, Kang Hyunjin had said something similar when we first met.
—You said you've been a trainee for five years, right…? At first your form looked a little broken, but you seemed to have overcome it. That too, in just five days.
Just as I had felt a strange familiarity watching him, Hyunjin must have realized during the level evaluation that I had gone through a slump myself.
'…So that's why his attitude changed? He was friendly at first, then suddenly distant later.'
He had concluded during the level evaluation that I had fallen into, then overcome, a slump like him. But afterward, when Yoo Chanhee lashed out and told him it had all been an act, it must have caused a misunderstanding. And because Chanhee's words struck directly at his trauma, it hit him all the harder.
"…Yes."
He wouldn't have listened even if I had said it back then, but now things were different. I quietly acknowledged Hyunjin's question.
"…Yeah."
Unlike before, Hyunjin didn't tack on any more words and simply nodded. Then—
"Then that… is it okay?"
"What is?"
"…During the life graph."
He brought up something I had completely forgotten. Or more precisely, something I had been putting off talking about.
The unexpected question made me fall silent for a moment, but I knew this was not something I could just brush aside.
'…He saw up close that I wasn't doing well.'
Aiden Lee also sensed my condition, but at that time he and I had been locked in a completely dark room. He might have felt it, but he couldn't have seen it clearly.
But Hyunjin had watched the entire process—how I burst out the door and gasped desperately trying to regain my pace. Compared to Aiden Lee, he had seen me far more accurately.
And he also had trauma from his leg injury.
He would have recognized immediately that I wasn't okay, no matter what I said.
"It's not like I'll have to go into any tight spaces in daily life."
So unlike with Aiden Lee, I didn't try to skirt around it. I answered directly. Hiding it from Hyunjin wouldn't work anyway.
"Do you need to go to the hospital or anything?"
"There's no need for that. Besides, you don't go either."
"I…"
Hyunjin trailed off awkwardly, and I let out a small laugh and continued.
"We're not going to suddenly get trapped somewhere during the evaluation. I'm not going to lose my pace like that again."
I wasn't about to lock myself in a tiny room, and nobody was going to suddenly shove me into one either. There was nothing that would interfere with my daily life.
Even so, Hyunjin looked unsatisfied. So I spoke as if scolding him lightly.
"You're not planning on locking me up somewhere during practice, right?"
"...! Why would I ever do that?! Of course not!"
His startled, dead-serious denial made me turn away, push open the cafeteria door, and answer.
"Then it's fine. Nobody's going to trap me, and you're not going to suddenly get injured. What else is there to worry about?"
"But things like that—"
"…?"
Just before stepping inside the cafeteria, Hyunjin stopped and fell silent again. As if unsure whether he should say what he wanted to say.
Then, as if he'd made up his mind, he spoke.
"…It bursts out of nowhere. Like what happened to me."
Seeing him unable to let go of his worries, I sighed and finally said something to reassure him.
"I was six years old."
"What?"
"It happened when I was six. So it's far too long ago. It's not going to just suddenly erupt."
That was a past so distant that only vague sensations remained. And I was no longer anything like I had been back then.
—Yu-ha, listen to me. Don't leave here. If you stay, everything will turn out fine.
I didn't intend to obey words like that ever again.
I'd grown far too much, and lost far too many things since then.
***
At last, the day of the 3rd evaluation arrived, and from morning on, dance mentor Jane couldn't help but sigh.
'…I wonder if they'll pull it off.'
She knew that as a judge she shouldn't have biased emotions, but mentors were human too. There was no way you wouldn't have a trainee you naturally favored.
'Their center completely tanked. A kid who was doing so well suddenly collapsing like that…'
Kang Hyunjin, who had soared through the 1st evaluation with near-genius talent, had fallen apart abruptly once the 3rd evaluation began. And in that same team was Jane's secret, unspoken personal pick—Won Yu-ha.
'It looked like a textbook slump… but you can't save that in time. For the team to survive, they have no choice but to switch centers.'
Just as Rio had said, there were definitely members in the team who danced better than Yu-ha, even after his sudden rise. But Jane believed Yu-ha was the true "center material" of that team. Dancing well was important, but that wasn't the only thing that mattered.
That was why Hyunjin's talent—his dance plus his expressiveness—had been all the more remarkable…
'But he's done for. He won't recover.'
The more brilliant the genius, the harder it was to stand back up after collapsing. Jane had seen several dancers around her lose their way like that.
Unfortunately, she had missed yesterday's rehearsal due to another schedule and hadn't been able to watch Team 3's final performance. So her anxiety had only grown.
"Ah, Jane, you really should've been there yesterday."
Seeing Do-min's triumphant face, Jane could only blink in confusion.
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