"Hyung! How do you do this part?"
"…Like this…"
I lifted my arms and demonstrated the point move again, trying to grit through the stabbing pain that flared with every motion.
"Rebound? Is the rebound what matters?"
"Yeah—don't shrug your shoulders; think of it like a light spring, a little bounce…"
I half-avoided Zixuan's bright, eager eyes while pointing out the key details. Each time I did, he wrote the points down one by one on a notepad.
"Thanks, hyung!"
Then he'd glare at the crash-course memo sheet like it was his mortal enemy, go back to the corner, practice the moves again one by one, and sprint back whenever something didn't click.
"Hey, Zixuan! Don't hog Yu-ha all to yourself—let us get a turn!"
"You guys are good already! I'm in a rush!"
Zixuan, fifteen this year, was the youngest in D-class. He'd come to Korea from China a year ago to be a trainee.
He said he'd once auditioned at KRM's international tryouts back in China, and he looked up to me—another D-class trainee—with admiring eyes. So he always hovered near me in the practice room—and with equal diligence, he was wringing me dry.
"Yu-ha, what about this? How do I do this part?"
"For you, the transition there is too slow, so think of moving a bit quicker. And don't lose strength at the finish—hold it to the end. That's how it stays clean."
"I'll practice it! Thanks!"
It wasn't just Zixuan; the D-class trainees all tried to make use of me in their own ways. They clustered up in little groups, or practiced on their own and came to ask questions whenever they hit a blank spot.
Of course, some of them looked like they'd already given up.
A few would practice "Look" a handful of times, then scratch their heads, lean against the wall in a corner, and just watch the others like spectators.
…I don't have a reason to take care of the ones with no will.
I didn't go out of my way to help them. If someone wouldn't even bother to ask questions, I had no reason to help.
I'm dying here.
I raised my arms to demonstrate again—and stalled. Now it really felt like my body wouldn't move.
Just walking, just lifting my arm to grab my water bottle—every movement sent such vicious pain through my whole body that keeping my face composed was a struggle.
…Well, of course. I've been dancing this insane choreography since yesterday and all day today.
Even locked at 0.5× speed, the "Look" choreo was brutal to run multiple times; it ate stamina. But as dance leader, when trainees asked, I had to repeat the same moves over and over, so from yesterday into today I'd been grinding my body down.
"Yu-ha. You okay?"
In the end, as I sagged into a corner to take a breather, Joo Dan-woo came over and asked. From the look of his damp hair, he'd been practicing hard on his own.
"…Just a little worn out. I've never had great stamina."
"Want a pain patch?"
"I'm fine."
A pain patch wasn't going to touch this.
I swallowed the rest and stepped away from the mirror. I said I was going to hit the restroom and slipped out of the practice room.
This dorm had cameras everywhere. Basically no blind spots. There was exactly one place you could do anything freely: the bathroom.
"..."
As soon as I walked in, I checked if anyone else was there. Luckily, at this hour most trainees were still practicing, so it was empty.
I went into a stall, locked the door, and whispered:
"…Status window."
[Luck: 40 points]
[Random Luck Roulette Ticket — 10 points]
A translucent window popped up before my eyes. I tapped the button under the Luck stat.
The familiar machine appeared again.
"…Ha."
Guess I have to use it.
I let out a small sigh. I wanted to stockpile Luck in case I got hit with some penalty at any time, but without spinning the luck roulette I didn't see how I'd survive dorm life at all.
What I need is… stamina.
Specifically, the physical stamina stat. Two steps up would put me at C—life would get a lot easier. Even if I get cut at the first mission, I need stamina to last until then.
I set my jaw, paid the 10 points, and bought the random ticket. When I hit "Use," the colored balls inside the machine spun in a blur.
When it finally stopped and something clacked into the chute and popped up before my eyes—
I felt something off.
…No effect?
Last time, didn't it go all gold and flashy?
With a bad feeling, I read the system window that floated up.
[Specialty (Vocal) Stat Growth Ticket (one-time)]
Specialty (Vocal): B– → B (UP!)
A singer lives by singing!
From "decent trainee" to "main vocal material"!
A one-time stat growth ticket that successfully increases your ability.
The growth ticket is applied automatically.
"…?"
What even is this?
On shaky legs, I marked the steps and swallowed the breath clawing up my throat.
"Are you really okay?"
"…I'm… fine."
Not at all. But how am I supposed to say that with a camera on me?
I held down the urge to collapse and demonstrated the point move from "Look" again. The D-class trainees watching me in the mirror hurried to copy the motion.
…Damn it. If only the stamina stat had gone up.
Cursing a blue streak in my head, I went straight into the next move.
Come to think of it, it was a "random" ticket.
Meaning I don't get to choose what I need.
Even if I spin the roulette wanting stamina, there's no guarantee I'll pull a stamina growth ticket—it could spit out something totally different, like a specialty or charm growth.
I pay precious Luck—basically my life—to spin the roulette, and then I have to leave the result to Luck again?
Whoever designed this is a real piece of—
So the plan is: hoard Luck and keep spinning until you get what you want. And to do that, they want me to actively engage in the main quest and all the other activities they laid out.
It felt like I was trapped, grinding inside a rigged game set by some unknown entity. I'm getting played, and I can't even see who's playing me—there's no way to counter it.
"One more time."
"Okay!"
"Please!"
At some point the D-class trainees had dropped honorifics; wiping sweat with their towels, they all nodded eagerly. I steadied my stance again with trembling arms.
From behind me, as they copied the pose, their whispers pricked my ears.
"Doesn't it look like Yu-ha's dancing got better?"
"Must be the repetition. He's got angles now."
"As expected of the dance leader. Guess Jane didn't pick him for nothing. But do people usually level up that fast?"
Well, that's because the Jump Growth Pass is speeding up my sync…
I flicked my eyes to the system window hovering in front of me. On day four of dorm life, thanks to the activated Jump Pass accelerating sync for dance only, my Dance specialty had already gone from C to C+. The more I drilled, the faster it climbed.
And as if to pay me back for the hell I was putting myself through, it wasn't just dance that rose.
[Flair (Focus): C]
My Focus stat had quietly ticked up a notch.
Probably because I'd been repeating the choreo and coaching the others; while practice continued, the sync must've sped up temporarily. In that sense, Zixuan with his constant crash-course requests—and the rest of D-class—had actually helped. I earned the muscle pain too, of course.
…Right. If I didn't even get this much, how am I supposed to keep going?
I drew a deep breath at the mirror and moved through the steps.
Maybe it was the stat effect, but like the others said, my dancing did look more convincing than before.
How to put it—things that used to go mushy because I didn't have the strength to lock angles were starting to take shape. Muscles that refused to listen were finally, a little, following the sensations my past self had ingrained.
And singing was no different.
"Yu-ha, that was the best I've heard from you so far."
Cha Mina clapped, smiling. I lowered the lyric sheet and bowed deeply.
"Thank you."
"How did you practice? You've got dynamics now in the way you spit the lines. Did you stay up all night?"
"Re… peated practice."
"Good. I can hear you minding your breath—nice. If your live holds up like this, moving up a class won't be a problem."
Just as she said, my vocals had caught a tailwind. The jump from B– to B had made a clear difference.
My body felt out of joint with my mind. I knew how to dance and sing, how to express on stage from when I was active as an idol—but this body couldn't execute it.
Dance and singing are muscle work in the end. Only relentless practice burns them into your body and gives you control over your cords.
Sure, I could project a veteran's ease from time on stage, but fully imbuing this body with what I knew was hard.
It felt like I'd turned into a child. I knew what to do, the song and steps in my head, but my body lagged—frustrating as hell.
Whether I debut again or not aside, having my body refuse to move as I wanted was unpleasant enough that I couldn't complain about getting stronger.
I was only disappointed because vocals weren't the stat I needed most right now.
"..."
I drew a quiet breath. After dance and then vocals, the fatigue had peaked.
I was trying to keep a neutral face, but I honestly doubted I could keep practicing in this state.
"Good job, Yu-ha. Go back to your line and sit. Next trainees, come up and try singing."
I bowed and went to sit at the edge of the room. Joo Dan-woo, next to me, handed me a water bottle.
"…Thank you."
I took it and drank hard. When I leaned my back against the mirror, the strength drained from me and my body sagged.
Watching me, Dan-woo whispered carefully.
"Is it really rough?"
"..."
I looked at him, then finally gave the tiniest nod. He'd been watching me since the room, so he must've noticed I was faking being fine.
"Just a bit worn out. It'll pass."
"Are you sure you don't need the infirmary?"
"It's just muscle pain… Don't think meds or patches will do much. I'm okay."
I turned down his gentle push; I had a strong feeling that going to the infirmary would spin a storyline like "the dance leader, exhausted by repeated practice, goes to the infirmary." And frankly, this kind of muscle pain didn't feel like something meds or patches would fix.
Best to think of myself as dead and gut through the dorm period—then go home and sleep till the next mission.
"..."
At my words drawing a clear line, Dan-woo hesitated, then turned his head.
I didn't want to hand the cameras any idle chit-chat either, so I kept quiet and waited for vocal class to end.
"Yu-ha, I heard you've got muscle pain?"
"Hyung, over here!"
"…?"
Back in the room after all the day's practice, sprawled like a corpse, I was greeted by Cheon Se-rim and Aiden—holding what looked like bread from the cafeteria and… some kind of massager.
"…What is this?"
"A low-frequency massager and a cream bun."
Okay, but why… out of nowhere?
Maybe my face showed it, because Cheon tilted his head.
"Dan-woo hyung said to give them to you. He was asking around if there's anything that could help with muscle pain—he even went up to A-class."
"…Dan-woo hyung did?"
"A trainee in B from his agency said his parents had one, and I heard that on day one. So I borrowed it—you can use it all you want till tomorrow."
"The bun's from him too."
I took the bun and the massager Cheon handed me. I was still blinking at the unexpected device when Dan-woo stepped into the room.
"Yu-ha, take this too."
He handed me a fatigue-recovery drink and pain patches. Looked like they were from the infirmary.
"Better than nothing. Put the patch on tomorrow."
"…Th… thank you."
I accepted them, a little dazed. Watching me, he hesitated, then spoke carefully.
"…No, I should be the one thanking you. The muscle pain's all because of us."
"Huh?"
Quietly, he went on.
"The choreo… you already had it down, but you kept running it again to teach us. I know you overworked and got sore because of that."
"That's…"
Honestly, I was just trying to milk the Jump Pass while I had it. I profited too.
But I couldn't say that, so I shut my mouth. Dan-woo said:
"I'll help tomorrow. I'm still not good enough to be as detailed as you, but I can at least drill people on memorizing the choreo. So don't push yourself too hard."
"..."
I hesitated, then nodded. He'd only relax if I did.
Sure enough, his face eased. He said he'd practice a bit more, grabbed his towel and bottle, and stepped back out.
...
And yeah, it left me a little uneasy.
Because it brought back the moment two days ago when I'd watched him practice and just walked away.