“You haven’t mastered the basics of this song?”
At Cha Woon’s harsh question, the Raize member lowered his head deeply.
He was being humiliated in front of his juniors, who were still far behind in terms of experience, but he seemed to have no time to worry about it. He was simply staring at Cha Woon’s shoes with a pale, terrified expression.
Cha Woon spoke in a calm tone without raising his voice, but it seemed that, if anything, this made it even more intimidating for the juniors. Eventually, when they saw the other person sweating cold sweat and his fingertips shaking, the Pantheion members must have caught his tension, as they tightly shut their eyes.
Cha Woon quietly watched him, then leaned back and looked down at the sheet music again. Then, his eyelids fluttered open again and he stared intensely at the Raize member.
“Why? What’s so difficult about it?”
It wasn’t a question asked with the expectation of a real answer.
In this situation, excuses like “I didn’t have time to practice due to my busy schedule” or “The song was too difficult” would only make things worse. The other members, even Gong Seonghwa, who had a tighter schedule than him, had performed their parts perfectly. From that moment on, excuses would only be poison.
Objectively speaking, the issues of not hitting the right pitches or keeping the tempo were things that could be corrected through practice, especially considering he must have the basic skills to pursue a career as a singer.
“…….”
While the others, unable to endure the suffocating atmosphere, frantically repeated their silent pleas in their minds—’Please don’t talk back,’ ‘Don’t make excuses‘—the Raize member bowed deeply and opened his mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
Fortunately, he seemed to have some common sense. I suppose that’s to be expected, given he must have gone through trainee life to be able to debut.
“You don’t need to apologize to me. You should apologize to your members. You took away the time the other members could have used to get feedback, just to have your pitch and tempo corrected. How can you get an evaluation when you haven’t even mastered the basics?”
When Cha Woon mentioned the other members, the member who was being criticized unconsciously glanced at Gong Seonghwa. Gong Seonghwa, without so much as a glance in his direction, was staring straight ahead with cold, still eyes.
“…….”
Seeing the muscles in his jaw clearly outlined, it seemed like he was clenching his teeth hard. It was quite surprising to see Gong Seonghwa unable to hide his anger like this, as he normally had perfect control of his emotions in front of the camera.
‘He’s going to get a proper reprimand when they get back.’
Could it be because he got such harsh criticism in front of Prism, of all people, who he admired?
I didn’t have much experience being criticized for my performances, so I wasn’t sure what kind of feeling it was.
As I was thinking those thoughts, Cha Woon checked the time on the watch on his wrist. It seemed like he had a schedule after this as well. After confirming that half of his free time had not yet passed, he spoke again.
“I know that Seo Yuseong’s parts are challenging because of the high vocal range.”
“…….”
“But there are no easy parts in Prism’s songs. So, instead of simply dividing parts based on whether they have high notes or not, think carefully and distribute them in a way that helps each member work around their shortcomings as much as possible.”
“Yes!”
And the moment the second hand of the clock pointed to 12, he turned his sharp gaze to the Pantheion members and spoke.
“Next, shall we see Pantheion’s performance?”
.
.
.
Despite the worst possible atmosphere and their extreme nervousness, the Pantheion members still managed to show about 80% of the performance we had prepared. This meant that none of the members had been neglecting their practice.
In fact, the process of preparing for performances had already become ingrained as a habit for the members, as they had been doing it consistently under my direction.
‘If they had neglected their practice, they wouldn’t even have made it this far. I would have had them drop out of the program right away.’
Even though I decided to let my children do whatever they want, they still have to follow the minimum rules I set. After all, there was no way any of the ones I had chosen would be insincere. That’s why I had already expected that, unlike Raize, we wouldn’t be criticized for a lack of practice.
As a result, unlike Raize, Pantheion was able to complete their performance without having it interrupted by Cha Woon.
“This performance feels quite different from what you’ve shown so far. It definitely doesn’t seem like Seungbeom-ssi’s work … Is it Nicholas?”
As soon as the performance ended, the first thing Cha Woon said, while looking at me, was that.
At that, Lee Hwayoung’s wide blue eyes rounded like a cat fallen into water, and he swallowed nervously.
Judging by his reaction, it didn’t seem like the production team had given Cha Woon a recording of our practice in advance. Lee Hwayoung must have been shocked that Cha Woon figured out not only that the stage director had changed, but also exactly who had taken over, just from a single performance.
“Using a large number of dancers to showcase Pantheion’s unique identity, as you’ve done in previous performances, isn’t a bad approach. It’s also a clever and effective method to use dancers to execute performances that are currently beyond your own capabilities.”
Cha Woon, with an unimpressed expression, casually strung together a few nice words.
It meant that from this point on, he was only going to beat them without mercy.
“But the more dancers you add, the more elements you have to manage. If the director doesn’t have the necessary skills in that kind of situation, the overall composition looks messy and the stage feels chaotic, just like it does now. I don’t think you fully realize that the performances Pantheion has done so far were anything but easy. It’s simply a matter of inexperience.”
‘Lee Hwayoung isn’t used to communicating with the dancers. He must have felt the language barrier much more strongly than in daily life, and most importantly, his lack of experience in stage planning likely made him not confident about his own direction. Naturally, that would have led to confusion among his collaborators.’
“Then at the very least, the center needs to establish a strong presence, but Nicholas-ssi’s current dance skills are nowhere near enough to take on Yutae-hyung’s part. You also have to keep in mind that the audience is already familiar with Prism’s performances and has a certain image in mind when they hear someone is covering one of Prism’s songs.”
‘Since I couldn’t be the center, it would’ve been better to choose songs from after I left. But Lee Hwayoung admires the Prism from when I was still in it, so he probably didn’t want to compromise on that.’
“If you don’t have the skills to perfectly recreate an already complete performance and instead try to fill in the gaps with other elements, it only makes the overall quality worse. That seems to be what’s happening right now.”
Throughout my more-than-10-years with Prism, I had never once used dancers on stage. That was because each member’s individual skills were exceptional, and I was confident that the seven of us alone could deliver a performance so complete the stage would feel full.
[Ah, other groups are all having a blast with their dancers, but our kids are always so damn stiff, just standing there by themselves. When will this stop being so damn funny?]
└ ?? Prism doesn’t have backup dancers?
└ Prism has never used backup dancers.
└ For real? I just found out about this……..
On the contrary, the reason I had used large groups of dancers for Pantheion until now was that I felt the group’s performance abilities were lacking.
‘It’s hard to find a group with a vocal average as high as Pantheion’s, but when it comes to performance, there really isn’t anyone outstanding once I’m out of the equation.’
“The center of Prism is the main dancer. Unless you completely change the song’s vibe through rearrangement, the performance has to reflect that to some extent. But right now, it feels like it’s neither here nor there.”
As if continuing a single train of thought, Cha Woon’s evaluation seamlessly followed the unspoken impressions I had while watching the performance the members had prepared. His assessment pinpointed Pantheion’s shortcomings with precision, making the members take a sharp breath before slowly nodding their heads.
And Lee Hwayoung had taken out his notebook, diligently writing down all of Cha Woon’s critiques.
Seeing that, Cha Woon smiled faintly and continued his feedback in a gentler tone.
“Yuda-ssi, your new singing style hasn’t quite established yet, has it? But this is something that can be resolved by recording yourself often, listening back, and continuously thinking about how you can improve. So, don’t be too anxious. Just take good care of your voice.”
“Thank you!”
“Zen, you still have a bit of a persistent pronunciation issue. I understand that final consonants are especially difficult for Japanese speakers, but when it comes to singing, you need to make an effort to perfectly copy Korean pronunciation. Don’t just settle for ‘You’re pretty good for a foreigner’. Zen, you’re a singer actively promoting in Korea now.”
“Final. Consonants. I understand. I will make an effort.”
The Raize members, with the exception of the one who had been criticized, looked a little surprised by the endless stream of feedback, but then they exchanged glances and stifled smiles, relieved that they weren’t the ones being criticized. Meanwhile, Gong Seonghwa remained frozen like a stone, staring silently at the floor.
He knew.
What this situation right now meant.
‘…You’re smiling?’
The reason Raize members hadn’t received this level of criticism was that, after seeing their unprepared performance, Cha Woon had decided it wasn’t even worth it. In other words, they had blown their opportunity to be evaluated altogether.
No matter how much effort their juniors put into delivering the best performance, it was inevitable that Prism would still see areas for improvement. They still didn’t seem to fully grasp just how disastrous it would be if those issues went unnoticed until the main broadcast.
‘Raize always felt like a group that Gong Seonghwa had to drag forward by the collar, but … this is worse than I expected.’
They had just squandered one of the biggest opportunities given to them, yet they seemed more relieved about avoiding immediate humiliation and getting through the situation unscathed. It was strange to see. Cha Woon didn’t seem to care what their reaction was and just moved on to giving individual feedback to Pantheion’s members.
And last in line was Lee Danbi.
“Danbi-ssi, what’s your position in Pantheion?”
“It’s rap and dance.”
“…….”
At Lee Danbi’s response, Cha Woon rested his chin on his hand, falling silent for a moment as if deep in thought.
As the quiet ticking of the clock’s second hand echoed through the practice room for a little longer than it had for the other members, Lee Danbi clenched his fist tightly behind his back. On the outside, he appeared calm, standing with his usual composed expression, but it was clear that he was feeling nervous inside.
Watching Lee Danbi, Cha Woon opened his mouth several times as if struggling to find the right words, only to close it again. In the end, he simply shook his head.
“No, you’re doing fine.”
“…Thank you.”
Then, after silently watching Lee Danbi’s deep bow, Cha Woon shifted his gaze to me.
After staring at me for a moment in silence, he quickly stood up upon realizing that he had gone over time while giving feedback to Pantheion.
“Do your best in preparing for the competition.”
“Thank you for your hard work!”
The members tilted their heads, wondering why Cha Woon hadn’t given Lee Danbi any criticism. I understood very well why he hadn’t pointed anything out to Lee Danbi and why he had looked at me that way, but I chose to stay silent.
“…….”
Cha Woon was reprimanding me.
He was asking, “Why in the world did you put that kid in that group?”
That kid was already doing his best.
But even so, it wasn’t enough.
In the end, it was a matter of talent; something beyond Lee Danbi’s control. Because his talent was lacking, there was no further advice he could offer.
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Translator’s Corner:
ARGH I CAN’T WITH CHA WOON SMILING WHEN HE SAW NICHOLAS TAKING NOTES … like he definitely very proud that Prism’s nephew have grown up … Yutae-hyung are you watching ….
also notice how when he met Nicholas in SI, he vaguely talked about Yutae without mentioning his name, but now he’s openly talking about “Yutae-hyung” …. #PRISM_IS_SEVEN_FOREVER
And while we’re talking about this, Cha Woon mentioned Zen as just “Zen” lol he didn’t add any “-ssi” like the others.
Anyway, I really wanted to speedrun this arc since it’s really important arc to read if you’re an idol fan (this is my favorite arc on idol aspect of this novel). But between babysitting and correcting the misinformations on kpoptwt, I have no time … I really shouldn’t bother with correcting every dumb people on internet … but my conscience said otherwise … I just find it really scary when people spread misinformation on internet and many people believes it and hates an actual human for it. Maybe since I already lost an idol to similiar case of baseless hatred due to years of false malicious information, now that I’m an adult and now how to properly educate people (I have a degree for this), I guess I’ll just help a little … people believe what they want to believe, but at least someone needs to show up with actual information so maybe if those idols look up their names on internet, they will also see that not everyone blindly hate them …. (also it became a hit tweet and now a lot of people asking me clarifications for some things like this is a class ?????? I should really add this to my CV.)
Anyway … I’m going back to my class in twitter, sighs … I’m already retired from kpop except for Red Velvet, why am I doing this to myself …
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