NOVEL NEXT chapter 43 - Position Evaluation
Jang Junseok suddenly coughed up blood and collapsed.
I am not a doctor, so I had no idea what exactly was going on, but
-For an unconscious patient, from that moment on, time is money! It’s the golden time.
What the military doctor who lectured about first aid back in the army had explained floated up in my mind.
So I did not hesitate and jumped up onto the stage.
“You there, the staff member holding the camera! Please call 119 right now!”
“Yes? Ah··· me?”
“Yes!”
First, the report.
If I had had a cell phone, I would have done it myself, but unfortunately it had been confiscated when we entered the dorm, so for now I just picked one person I could see and asked for the call.
‘Seeing him up close, his condition is serious?’
I had no idea what had happened, but Jang Junseok, whose mouth was smeared with blood, was lying there unconscious like a dead body.
-If there is no consciousness, first check the breathing, and if the patient is not breathing, you must immediately begin CPR!
Captain Hwang Deoksu, who had been the military doctor in our unit.
Unlike the other unmotivated military doctors, he had been overflowing with a sense of duty as a doctor, and he had always been passionate even during training time.
‘Thank you, Deoksu.’
Thanks to that experience back then, it was not an exaggeration to say that I was an expert when it came to CPR.
Slyly.
I moved my index finger under Jang Junseok’s nose.
I did not feel any breath.
In that case, it was time to start chest compressions right away.
I overlapped my left hand over my right and placed them just below his sternum.
‘Make my body and arms perpendicular, and put in everything I’ve got!’
The most important point of CPR was that it only worked if you pressed with all your strength.
So, just like I had learned, I focused my full strength into my palm and pressed down as it was.
“Gahk!!! Time! Time!! PD-nim, this wasn’t in the script!”
Jang Junseok sprang back to life in one shot.
***
“During practice, unavoidable injuries can occur. So before you practice, always stretch, and in case of any possible accidents···.”
Kim Miyoung was watching the 119 crew member standing on the podium giving a safety training lecture.
‘She’s my niece, but that kid was definitely born under the star of variety.’
She was barely calming down the heart that had been startled because of her niece, Lee Sion.
-PD-nim, we got a PPL request from Dongyu Pharmaceutical this time, what should we do?
Idol Ground 100 was a program that cost a lot of money.
Which made sense, because just the participants alone were 100 people, and the staff and filming equipment needed to shoot them were far more than what a regular program needed.
On top of that, they had to show a stage every time, so no matter how much production budget they had, it was never enough.
So to make up for the always-lacking production cost, they had to take ads or PPL.
The problem was when PPL came in that did not fit the program.
Dongyu Pharmaceutical.
A PPL request had come in from a famous Korean pharmaceutical company.
Normally, it would have been PPL they politely turned down for not matching the program’s image, but for Idol Ground 100, which was desperate for even a single penny, they had no choice but to accept it.
Because of this, the production team had been worrying about how to expose Dongyu Pharmaceutical’s products naturally.
-How about a hidden camera prank? We gather the participants, stage a fake emergency situation as a hidden camera, and then have a 119 paramedic we booked in advance come in and conduct safety training.
A really good idea came out.
The trainees participating in Idol Ground 100 were often getting hurt because the practice was so grueling.
If they used that as the reason to conduct safety training, they could naturally show them using Dongyu Pharmaceutical’s products.
‘Kim PD-nim, aren’t you overworking me just because I’m the main MC?’
‘Please, Junseok-ssi. There’s no one who can show your level of acting in this kind of hidden camera but you.’
And the main MC, Jang Junseok, had to act as well to set up the situation.
“What is that kid? How is she that strong?”
“I’m sorry···.”
Right now, Jang Junseok was glaring at Kim Miyoung, saying he had really almost died.
He had been told that he just had to lie there pretending to have fainted, and then the 119 member who was on standby would appear and conduct the training, so he should just go along with the situation naturally.
But suddenly, Lee Sion had jumped in and carried out CPR not in the prepped WWE way but in the UFC way, making him scream.
That was how her niece, Lee Sion, had spectacularly ruined the PPL hidden camera prank Miyoung had planned.
At the time, it had been ridiculous, but thinking about it calmly now, she felt very satisfied, since it seemed like a pretty entertaining scene had come out in terms of broadcast.
But thanks to Lee Sion’s intrusion, they now had a usable scene, so it seemed fine.
***
“This is what you’d call the difference between Sluggish Ryujin and me? I don’t just talk, I act right away.”
“Wow, aren’t you something.”
“Look carefully, in first aid, time is the most important thing. If you’re as slow as Seo Ryujin, you’ll kill people. Therefore, Seo Ryujin can be called a would-be murderer.”
“What? Are you making someone a murderer now?!”
All I did was explain how accurate and swift my first aid had been, and Seo Ryujin came at me with her eyes blazing.
But,
“Can’t you see this?”
“Stop bragging! Anyone who sees you would think you already won the whole program.”
“Cluck, cluck, if you’re jealous just say you’re jealous.”
-To participant Lee Sion, who showed amazingly fast and accurate first aid, Dongyu Pharmaceutical will present a comprehensive nutritional supplement set as a gift!
No matter how much Seo Ryujin belittled my achievement, the shining nutritional supplement set in my arms did not disappear.
‘Should I give this to our Madam Sukja?’
Honestly, I had never bothered to take nutritional supplements in my past life or in this one.
If you eat three meals a day properly, that was your supplement.
Slyly.
“What··· why are you looking at me again?”
While I was agonizing over whether to bring the supplement set to Mom, my eyes landed on Lee Gahyeon.
For some reason, the even deeper dark circles under Lee Gahyeon’s eyes than before kept catching my eye.
“Unni··· you eat this.”
“You thought something weird again, didn’t you!”
“No. I just heard vitamins are good for dark circles.”
“Could you not pity me?”
Contrary to her words, Lee Gahyeon quickly snatched the supplement set I held out.
Even if she said she didn’t care, the dark circles must have been on her mind after all.
‘I’ll just buy something better separately for Madam Sukja.’
Anyway, I had some of the money left that I had squeezed—no, received as fair compensation for my labor—from my aunt, so I could buy something for her with that.
“What is the first principle of first aid for bleeding?”
“You remove the clothing around the wound and then apply pressure.”
“Correct! Participant Ryu Ayeon, please come up onto the stage. As a prize, we have a comprehensive yeast product··· sponsored by Dongyu Pharmaceutical.”
While I was chatting with my teammates for a bit, I turned my head at the sound from the stage and saw Ryu Ayeon accepting a prize with a blank face.
‘That kid didn’t even go to the army like me, so how does she know first aid that well?’
After the simple safety training by the 119 member who had come as the instructor, a quiz show was unfolding in the auditorium.
For some reason, people who got the answers right were being given products from Dongyu Pharmaceutical as gifts.
“Is Ryu Ayeon from some doctor family? She’s getting every question right.”
“I know, right. But seeing how she doesn’t care about the prizes and just gives them out to people around her, maybe she’s just answering for fun?”
“Well, I’m sure there’s some reason she has.”
The quiz show was practically a solo stage for Ryu Ayeon.
It was as if she had read an answer sheet in advance; she got every question right as soon as it was asked.
At first, I thought maybe she was greedy for the prizes, but seeing how she immediately handed them over to other participants as soon as she received them, that didn’t seem to be it either.
‘Come to think of it, when I dashed out earlier, didn’t Ryu Ayeon also try to come out?’
I hadn’t noticed at the time because I’d moved so quickly, but I remembered seeing that Ryu Ayeon had tried to come out as well.
***
“Did you all receive the safety training well?”
“Yes!”
Hearing the main MC Jang Junseok’s lively line made it finally feel like we had really returned to the dorm.
After the safety training, the production team had once again called the participants, who had been taking a brief rest at the dorm, back to the auditorium.
‘It feels more empty than I thought.’
I hadn’t noticed when we’d gathered earlier because it had been chaotic with the hidden camera prank, but seeing the auditorium that looked far more empty than I’d expected, even though only a quarter had disappeared, felt strange.
It felt weird, like the eliminated participants, starting with Park Hyerim, were still here somehow.
‘It wasn’t like this when the guys discharged from the military.’
Given my job, farewells had been part of daily life, so I had never thought I would feel this kind of emotion.
-Thank you for everything up to now, Company Commander! I’ll definitely contact you later once I’m out!
For some reason, the lines on the day of discharge had all been the same, and only about one out of ten of the ones who said they would contact me once they were out actually did.
Anyway, when I saw the guys discharging back then, it was bittersweet··· no, the refreshing feeling was stronger.
In fact, I had volunteered to come to that place, but they had not, so I had thought they would be happier once they went out.
But Idol Ground 100 this time was different.
Here, surviving was actually the participants’ happiness, and leaving was the participants’ misfortune.
‘I have to drag these kids along.’
I looked around at the kids gathered near me.
We hadn’t known each other for very long yet, but honestly, I didn’t want to see these brats get eliminated.
-If not me, then who?
The motto that had been posted on campus back in my Korea Military Academy cadet days came to mind.
Truly, if not me, who would lead these immature kids?
“What are you looking at?”
The brazen line popped out of Seo Ryujin’s mouth as soon as our eyes met.
It was time to show the genuine leadership of an Army officer, not Seo Ryujin’s fake leadership.
“The first mission, the Group Battle Mission. In the same way, now the second mission is waiting for you 75 participants.”
While I was having a round of silent dissing with Seo Ryujin out of the camera’s view, we heard Jang Junseok’s voice, and we turned our gaze back # Nоvеlight # to the stage.
The second mission.
Just like the first mission, the Group Battle Mission, it seemed there would be a mission during this dorm stay as well.
“If the first mission was a time to introduce you participants to the viewers, then from now on, you must prove your skills in earnest.”
Tak!
At Jang Junseok’s gesture, the curtain hanging on the stage opened, and at the same time,
“They’re songs!”
“Wait, the songs are divided?”
“On what basis did they divide the songs?”
Voices that went past murmuring popped out among the participants as they saw the scene.
“As you can see, there are a total of 14 songs behind me right now. Of course, all 14 of them are masterpieces by senior idols, but right now these songs are not simply divided at random!”
And as if he had been waiting for the participants’ reactions, Jang Junseok continued his explanation.
“The second mission of Idol Ground 100 is! Position Evaluation!”
***
Members of an idol group basically had to be able to dance and sing to a certain level, but even so, it was normal for each person to have a field they were especially good at.
“That’s usually vocals and dance.”
Among us, Seo Ryujin knew the most about idols, so everyone listened closely to what Seo Ryujin said.
“The songs in the vocal·rap position are all tracks that put a heavy emphasis on vocal ability. On the other hand, the songs in the dance position are all famous for their group choreography.”
“If you half-ass those songs, there’s a high chance the stage will turn into a disaster!”
On top of Seo Ryujin’s words, Shinyu added an explanation.
“I’ve heard a few of those songs too, but were they really that hard?”
“People go to karaoke and try singing idol songs and get shocked. They’re like, ‘Was this song this hard?’”
To my question, Seo Ryujin answered in a very cheerful tone.
She said a lot of idol songs were actually difficult despite how they looked, and that it was hard to gauge the difficulty unless you actually tried singing them.
“Do you have any idea how hard Pink Spell, the song you sang, is?”
Ah.
Seo Ryujin suddenly made me recall my painful memories.
But I agreed with what Seo Ryujin said.
‘I really picked that song without knowing anything.’
I had realized anew that the lyrics and choreography had just been funny; in reality, it had been a very high-difficulty song to sing.
At the same time, I came to understand just how outstanding the original singer of Pink Spell, Jihyun, was.
With that level of skill, of course the song would look plausible even if you sang something like that.
“Suyeon-ah, what should I pick this time?”
Hearing what Seo Ryujin said, it seemed like song choice was going to be extremely important again.
With my current lacking skills, any song would be hard, but there would still be songs that were a bit better than others, so, as usual, I asked SuyeonGPT for her opinion.
“Give me a sec. First, which position do you want to go for, unni?”
“Me? Hmm···.”
At Suyeon’s question, I hesitated.
Given that I had taken on something like the main vocal part on the previous stage, it felt like vocals might be better for me, but if I wanted to develop my weak points, I thought I should go for dance.
While I was hesitating like that,
“Just like before, in this Position Evaluation mission, the order in which you can choose songs is going to be very important, right?”
At the main MC Jang Junseok’s words that started up again, I had to stop thinking and focus on the explanation.
“For this mission, like last time, the songs will be decided through a game···.”
A game?
At Jang Junseok’s words, my hands started itching, feeling like my time had finally come.
But,
“We will not draw lots! The method of choosing songs for this mission is···.”
Dragging it out and tormenting the participants’ nerves, Jang Junseok.
“It is pushing people out!”
At last, the final words flowed out of his mouth.