Past ten o’clock at night.

The public lounge on the first floor of the freshmen dormitory building was filled.

Everyone was in groups and watching holograms, and everyone was tuned in on the same program.

“Wow, there’s also a scene of Miro studying!”

“…From what she’s writing, I think she’s kept up with all the lectures.”

“She’s studying hard even though she’s already very busy. She’s amazing.”

The program we were watching was none other than Playlist.

The survival audition program where my student Yeom Junyeol is an assistant MC, and our classmate Dokgo Miro is a contestant.

Tonight’s episode only had four remaining contestants.

Based on the results of the votes today, the final three contestants will be announced in a live broadcast.

Since the midterm exams are over, we dormitory students decided to gather together and watch live.

Although, Kwon Lena couldn’t be with us since she’s still at the Lake of Eternity Team Building.

‘It’s a shame Kwon Lena isn’t here. She’s taking a break from school, but I’m sure she’s fine since she has Kwon Jein with her.’

The program was now showing the preparation process for the contest ahead of the live broadcast.

There was a scene where Dokgo Miro was preparing for the midterm exams while listening to songs that she sang before.

Dokgo Miro studying in the backstage waiting room was suddenly interrupted when Yeom Junyeol entered to interview her.

Dokgo Miro asked some studies-related questions, and Yeom Junyeol answered with no hesitation.

“Heol that sunbae remembers every lesson in his freshman year.”

“I heard that Yeom Junyeol sunbaenim ranked high again among the sophomores!”

After the short behind the stage clips of the contestants, the live broadcast soon began.

However, even after Yeom Junyeol’s introductory remarks, the stage wasn’t illuminated yet.

“What the? What’s going on?”

“It’s a live broadcast so… I think it’s just some technical difficulties.”

Over the screen, we could see Dokgo Miro standing on the dark stage.

In the dark, I could see that Dokgo Miro was looking at the camera’s exact location.

Even though a broadcast accident broke out on such an important stage, I could still feel that Dokgo Miro’s eyes were full of spirit as she waited for the song’s intro to play.

About ten seconds later.

Finally, the stage was illuminated and the song began to play.

Dokgo Miro smiled as if nothing had happened and began to perform the piece that she prepared.

The song she sang was a cover version of an old dance song released before she was even born.

The explosive and movement-heavy dance let her utilize the stage fully, and even though the song had a lot of high-pitched parts, Dokgo Miro did a good job of singing and dancing.

‘She’s not yet at her full potential but she’s already this good. It’s amazing…!’

The longer she stands in front of a camera, the bigger the toll on her would be, and it was noticeable that she lost some strength during the chorus and the second verse.

Still, she has made no mistakes.

The stage ended with Dokgo Miro posing with finger guns and pointing at the original singer who happened to be a guest judge for tonight’s episode.

“Miro has improved so much!”

“…That was a great stage.”

Not only Saeum of April, but also Mok Wooram, who sat weakly in the absence of Kwon Lena, were impressed enough by the great performance.

The original singer also praised Dokgo Miro, even saying that she did a better job than him.

Of course she was still a little awkward with the camera, and that her energy slightly dipped on the latter half of the song, but she received a lot of praise, including the fact that she dealt with the technical difficulty professionally.

“Quick! Let’s vote!”

“Ah, right. Where should we send the message?”

“Just write Dokgo Miro’s name and send it to the code written in the caption.”

Everyone took out their devices and cast a vote for Dokgo Miro.

Aside from our class, the others in the lobby seem to be voting for Dokgo Miro too as they briefly took their eyes from the hologram broadcast and took out their devices.

When the individual stages were over, the contestants had a group performance after a short talk.

It was the official title song of the program, and the arrangement was impressive.

The Saint of Naejang Mountain, who had been exclusively performing rap, sang a vocal part for the first time.

He sang the highlighted part with Dokgo Miro, who he became close to thanks to the duo mission.

Cheers erupted from the audience when a close-up shot of the two was shown.

— At exactly midnight, we will close the voting and determine which last three players will remain on Playlist.

It was already so close to midnight when the performances ended.

After Yeom Junyeol’s remarks, a clock appeared in the corner of the screen to announce the remaining time until midnight.

“Everyone voted right?”

“Ah, I think I accidentally sent it twice. Is that okay?”

“Even if you send it several times, it will be counted as one vote.”

Not only the contestants, but my classmates also looked nervous.

— All the messages sent after the countdown will be invalidated.

— Alright. Let the countdown begin! 10.

— 9

— 8

Main Mc Choi Jina and Yeom Junyeol alternately shouted the numbers.

The faces of the four contestants were zoomed in one after another as the two MCs slowly counted.

As soon as the countdown reached zero, the clock in the corner of the screen disappeared and the surroundings became extremely quiet.

Choi Jina, who had been stalling for a few seconds, finally began to speak.

“I will announce the highest number of votes first. The player I will call will advance to the final round.”

Three of them will advance.

Since the winner will surely be among those three, every one of them is confirmed to perform at the last stage.

The MC, who confirmed the results with a tablet-type device that became famous by being a resident product placement on the show, made a comment.

— It’s a very close match with the second place.

— Yes, indeed both the first and second-place players were great.

— Playlist’s Semi-Final, among the last three players to advance, the first place is…

The nerve-wracking BGM stopped and the chaotic spotlight focused on one person.

— Dokgo Miro! Congratulations!

— Congratulations!

The sound of the audience shouting Dokgo Miro’s name resounded from the screen.

At the same time, cheers and applause were heard from all over the dorm lounge.

“Miro’s going to the final round!”

“I trusted she would be chosen. She gave a wonderful performance.”

The Saint of Naejang Mountain congratulated Dokgo Miro with a smile, and Dokgo Miro was holding back her tears as she nodded her head.

The other contestants whose survival hasn’t been decided yet embraced Dokgo Miro once.

She then climbed up on a higher platform to sit on one of the three chairs set up.

“What a relief…!”

Hani looked at the screen with a happy face.

However, her face seemed to contain other emotions besides joy.

Perplexity, suspicion, wonder.

As an old friend, she seemed to have felt a sense of incompatibility from seeing Dokgo Miro in front of a camera.

‘She must’ve noticed that Dokgo Miro doesn’t have stage fright. She’s afraid of the camera.’

Dokgo Miro gradually distanced herself from Hani around the time she developed her camera-phobia.

Hani somehow misunderstood that her friend had stage fright, not a camera-phobia.

‘…Dokgo Miro must’ve done it to protect Hani.’

I could roughly guess what Dokgo Miro, who had been greatly maligned by teachers and students alike, did to protect the only friend she had.

‘But Hani started to feel uncomfortable.’

Perhaps soon, Hani will know exactly what caused the two of them to be estranged in addition to the fear that Dokgo Miro developed.

* * *

The next day, after school.

Everyone at school today talked about Dokgo Miro.

Not just our class, but also the whole school, especially the ten long seconds of technical difficulty.

The incident was made into gifs and memes and posted on Eungwang High’s online bulletin board.

On a dark stage, the sight of Dokgo Miro staring straight at the camera was considered the best scene in last night’s episode.

“Miro contacted me! She’s inviting us to the final stage.”

As Kim Yuri and I walked toward the place where the third quarter student representatives meeting would be held, Dokgo Miro sent her a message.

She must’ve informed Kim Yuri, our class president, so she could announce it to the others.

“It’s two weeks from now, right?”

“Yep! She said she would meet with the composer next week to receive a new song and practice that.”

Kim Yuri stopped walking as she tried to message the other kids through their devices.

“Lena might feel pressured, so let’s settle the detailed schedule after the re-tests. She has a re-test next Monday, so we should make a schedule after that.”

Before I stopped her, Kim Yuri already showed great consideration on her own.

As expected, our class president is a great leader who thought well of our class.

When we arrived at Conference Room A, I saw Yoo Sanghoon.

“Oh, you’re here.”

“Why are you still out here?”

The class representatives were crowded at the front of the entrance.

Yoo Sanghoon spoke with a sour face.

“Class Zero caused an accident.”

“…Year Two? Year Three?”

Moon Saeron answered instead by showing a picture she took with her device.

“Year Two! The Year Two seniors infiltrated at dawn, made a double wall, hid there, and got caught by Student Representative-ssi.”

“The picture looks well-taken. How did he find out?”

“As soon as the student representative came in, he noticed that the area of the conference room had decreased and he immediately broke the wall. Oh, I bet the Year Three class representative won’t be able to come today. I think they broke a finger.”

It seems that it was the sophomores who caused the accident in the conference room.

Wouldn’t it be better to just arrive normally instead of waking up at dawn and building a wall or whatnot?

But the mention of a Year Three student’s finger being broken made me think there’s a different incident.

“Hmm… Did the Year Three seniors break their fingers in a practice or something? Are they okay?”

“Oh, I heard it was a forehead flick bet or something with the strong homeroom teacher. I guess they’re fine because they used a recovery item, but they can’t come here ‘cos they’re furious about it.”

Kim Yuri tried to give our seniors a benefit of the doubt, but the truth was miserable to hear.

Woo Kihwan and the Year Three Class Zero did a minor trick to be able to flick Im Yeonhwa’s forehead, and it’s said that all their tricks were crushed in front of the strong homeroom teacher’s power.

“Hmm? But why did they break their fingers? Isn’t Professor Im Yeonhwa the one who’s supposed to flick their foreheads after winning the bet?”

“Professor Im Yeonhwa said she couldn’t bear to hit her students.”

Im Yeonhwa said “I know you guys practiced flicking hard” and mercifully let the students flick her forehead.

At that suggestion, the class president and the vice president didn’t waste the opportunity and flicked their homeroom teacher’s forehead.

As a result, Woo Kihwan and the others’ fingers were broken by the law of action and reaction.

Though of course, Im Yeonhwa’s forehead was unscathed.

The class president and vice president of Year Three Class Zero were said to have been humiliated enough to skip the student representatives meeting.

“The strong homeroom teacher did say ‘ouch’ though. The seniors must’ve gotten a lot stronger.”

“…I see.”

As we listened to the heartwarming stories of the Class Zero seniors, the interior of the conference room was cleaned up and organized.

Student Representative Do Wonwoo was seen pressing on his forehead from a distance.

‘He’s going to pass the torch to my student soon…!’

Looking at the expressions of Yeom Junyeol and the others, they seemed to think the same.

I should do my best to help them.

Despite the mishaps earlier, Do Wonwoo safely made an opening speech and led everyone to sit down for the meeting.

“Alright. The third quarter meeting will begin now.