“Ugh, those devils….”
Jing Xiao grumbled while stirring the spicy stir-fried pork with his chopsticks for breakfast.
Even though he couldn’t understand the language, Nagase Ritsu seemed to grasp the meaning by the tone and nodded in agreement with a perplexed face.
Junwu and I succeeded in giving the kids a good scare from early in the morning under the pretext of waking them up.
The two foreign trainees flailed their arms and kicked, trying to fend us off while panicking.
On the other hand, Yohan looked at us with a drowsy gaze, then asked as if nothing had happened.
“Was it fun?”
At Ban Yohan’s reaction, which made the people who started the joke even feel embarrassed, Junwu awkwardly got off the bed. However, I was sure that he was quite startled because of the system.
[Yohan is highly annoyed by the prank.
Favorability -5
Current Favorability +13]
Most importantly, in one fell swoop, Favorability dropped by 5.
It was a significant change in value compared to Jing Xiao and Nagase Ritsu, who showed no change in their Favorability.
Anyway, his calm demeanor made me wonder if I should apologize, and I hesitated for a moment.
Should I do it? For something like this? To a game NPC? Would I be embarrassed? Was it okay, or would it just make things worse? It seemed like it was already bad.
Then, like what happened in the morning, Junwu and I made eye contact. It seemed that we had the same thought.
“I’m sorry if we scared you a lot.”
“We’re sorry.”
The apologies came out immediately. We knew that relationships could become messy for trivial and subtle reasons.
The guys who were pranked exchanged glances at our sudden apologies as they ate their tasteless and small portion of rice.
Jing Xiao chuckled, followed by everyone else.
“Don’t worry about apologizing for that.”
“It’s okay. Just be careful tomorrow morning.”
“Okay. Look forward to tomorrow morning.”
When even Ban Yohan said that, we began to plead more earnestly and scooped some of our stir-fried pork onto their plates.
Favorability increased.
When we gave them more kimchi, it increased again.
Indeed, when it came to increasing Favorability, food was the best.
We shouldn’t be doing desperate tear-inducing relationship-ruining programs for just a day or two; we should get along smoothly.
A scoundrel-like program, a game like a beggar.
In the meantime, I, who still wanted to be stuck in my corner room and playing games with my eyes closed, was the champion.
After the trivial incident that had caused unnecessary tension, we made our way to the practice room.
Although the practice room was quite spacious, it looked crowded, with over 30 trainees gathered in it.
“Please pay attention for a moment!”
I didn’t know how he got assigned the role, but Junwu stepped forward, wearing the group leader sticker.
“Everyone! We need to decide on a group leader before we start practicing. Although the term is less than three days, we would like someone who can perform well as a representative of our class.”
It was quiet. It wasn’t easy for a group of 32 spirited young men to be this quiet.
“…”
Usually, such roles were assigned to those who took on annoying tasks.
It was one thing to be a small group leader where getting screen time was possible with a reasonable amount of effort, but it was entirely another to be the leader of a class with over 30 people.
Well, there are so many people, so there must be at least one person who is desperate for screen time.
It was then that Ban Yohan suddenly raised his hand.
I felt anxious. I had a sudden urge to forcibly pull down his confident hand and shut his mouth.
For now, his expression didn’t seem like he was volunteering himself for the role.
And I had made him angry last night and this morning.
As no one volunteered, Junwu was sweating profusely. But when he noticed Yohan’s hand, he called out with a relieved expression.
“Yes, Trainee Yohan?”
“I would like to recommend Trainee On Raon.”
Look at that.
“Please tell us the reason for the recommendation, too.”
“Even though Trainee On Raon is young, as you all know, he is very considerate in sincerely helping others. I think he is an extremely suitable candidate for the group leader position.”
The trainees’ gazes turned to me.
During my school days, I seemed to have held the number one spot for being especially looked after by the homeroom teacher for 12 years.
From their faces, half seemed to have fallen for Ban Yohan’s reasonings, while the other half of them probably thought, “As long as it’s not me.”
I vehemently shook my head with a similar thought.
“Absolutely not. I’m not outstanding enough to represent the class!”
“He’s even humble. I highly recommend him.”
This bastard. I thought he had brushed off any minor grudges after yesterday’s interview, but I was sure he was acting like this because he was still upset about what happened this morning.
You said you wouldn’t entrust your future to me.
[With 27 votes in favor, 0 votes against, and 5 abstentions, Player is elected as the group leader.]
Even with my continued protestation, with this system’s notification, a red group leader sticker was attached to my chest.
The trainees applauded, saying it was good.
Since the camera light was on, I managed my facial expressions by smiling awkwardly.
Wow, this is so greatㅋㅋ.
“Then let’s start with the warm-up!”
The staff told us to do the warm-up together, so we did. I unconsciously did the national gymnastics I had last done in high school, and the trainees followed along well.
And then, the practice began.
It’s a mess.
The trainees who had practiced for an hour or two in the practice room yesterday were somewhat better.
First, excluding Jing Xiao, a miraculously quick learner among the members from Room 312, the rest of us did pretty well until the end.
Even Nagase Ritsu seemed to be doing well. Yesterday, he was criticized by the mentors during the mentor evaluation, but it seemed that he had been motivated by Ban Yohan and my practice last night, as he was able to follow at a slow tempo.
However, more than half of the remaining trainees were honestly challenging to watch.
What was the point of all that hard training I showed you guys yesterday? Only I understood, and you guys didn’t? I’m not even expecting you to do the second verse, just do half of the first verse. Did you guys get a reset?
As I was standing idly, a quest arrived without warning.
[Sudden Quest Occurrence! “Listen to the Group leader, and Your Rank Will Go Up Even While Sleeping”
► Quest description:
You have become the group leader of the inferior class with high approval ratings. As the group leader, you witness a shocking sight. If this continues, Hyeseong’s group won’t be able to escape the inferior class status. As the group leader, ensure there is no single F-ranked trainee among Hyeseong’s group.
► Confirmed reward:
Trust of Hyeseong’s group trainees and mentors
A certain amount of experience points
Wisdom +10
► In case of failure:
Wisdom -10
???
Do you accept?
Y/N]
I filtered out the nonsense in the quest description and checked the penalty first.
Although the question marks were a bit concerning, there didn’t seem to be a problem.
Losing some points for Wisdom was not ideal, but it was currently my highest stat.
Since this was a minor sudden quest and not a main one, the possibility of the hidden penalty being as extreme as the previous quest’s “death” seemed low.
However, the reward was also modest, given the weak failure penalty.
How was I going to help these kids avoid an F? I knew how serious the song was.
All the same, the nature of Korean gamers who could gobble up all the new and updated content in just three days and then complain about the lack of content didn’t go away.
I decided to take on this quest with no significant rewards or penalties.
And 15 minutes later, I was crushing myself under the calamity I had brought upon myself.
The more I see, the more serious and unfamiliar it is…
[Passed Trainees 10/32]
Looking at the quest window’s display, it meant that there were only 10 trainees here who, at the moment, could at least get a D.
That was obvious. They didn’t practice enough.
Of course, they didn’t do well. If they were good enough to memorize the choreography in just one day, why would they be in the inferior class?
The evaluation is in two days, so if I push them hard during this time, they’ll get Ds, right? Right?
We decided that trying to keep up with the original speed was too much, so the practice room played the music at about 0.75 times the speed.
I left the trainees who were practicing according to that and abruptly pulled the ones who were just standing in the corner watching the choreography video into practice.
Fortunately, I was able to give more detailed and clear advice than yesterday, as I had already understood the choreography beyond just memorizing it.
Of course, some felt even more discouraged than yesterday, thinking that the skill gap had widened overnight.
I comforted and encouraged those kids as well.
“Teachers prefer those who try hard even if they can’t do it well, rather than those who stand still because they can’t. Didn’t you see it yesterday? We were totally terrible, but we didn’t hear anything too bad. Let’s try to do as much as we can slowly.”
“…Okay.”
Time flew by until Mook Hyeseong was almost ready to come for the lesson.
I went outside to soothe my dry throat from talking so much before the lesson.
When I went to the water purifier to get a drink, Ban Yohan, who had followed me, spoke while shaping a paper cup.
“Aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”
“What do you mean?”
“This is an individual competition, you know.”
He spoke briefly, perhaps because of the camera that might be filming us even now, but there must have been more to the story behind it.
For example, even if you help others so diligently, was there any benefit for you?
He probably didn’t know this, but this was a quest.
“It’s nice if we all do well together.”
“Really?”
[Ban Yohan thinks you are a naïve guy who doesn’t know the ways of the world.
Ban Yohan’s Favorability +2
Current Favorability +15]
I laughed as if I didn’t see his true feelings.
“Let’s go in.”
“Yeah.”
Mook Hyeseong was coming from the end of the hallway.
Ban Yohan and I quickly returned to the practice room, letting the practicing or sitting trainees know he was coming.
Thanks to that, all the trainees were able to line up properly before Mook Hyeseong arrived.
The practice room had a glass wall facing the hallway, so the inside was visible from the outside.
Mook Hyeseong and two male dancers who looked like assistants opened the door and entered after glancing at us.
He had celebrity vibes about him, even without any special makeup.
“Hello!”
“Did you practice a lot?”
“Yes!”
“Then, let’s start from the first verse.”
“Yes!”
He only asked if we had practiced a lot instead of exchanging small greetings. With that, Mook Hyeseong gestured to the staff to play the music.
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