The Road to Glory

“The weather is so nice today.”“PD, can’t we just hang out like this?”“Teams that have finished can just relax, right?”“Ah, if only we had some alcohol, it would be perfect.”“Hey now, we’re still filming, you know.”Warm weather.A cloudless sky and green grass.As barbecue equipment began to be set up in front of the campsite following the new pension, the faces of those gathered here gradually brightened.They had reunited under the pretext of filming a practice stage, but it felt more like a picnic than a shoot. In fact, PD Jang hadn’t specifically asked anything of them, and the audio recording was already finished.It’s now impossible to overturn the songs.They’ve become children who have left their hands, and consequently, the competitive atmosphere has dulled.“But there must be a reason we’ve gathered like this, right? You wouldn’t have planned an MT just for us to do practice stages.” (TLN: This is new to me. So “MT” (Membership Training) in Korea, which involves a group of people, such as members of an organization or team, go away together for a period of time to engage in activities that promote bonding, relaxation, and development.“I just want you all to enjoy the day.”“Hmm.”Having experienced this before, everyone looked at PD Jang with suspicious eyes. PDs are known as don’t have the habit of leaving cast members at ease.“Well, let’s go with that for now. But can our team present first during the rehearsal?”When Lee Seongrim, who had a lot of MC experience, naturally proceeded and brought up the main point, he was booed.“I’m really upset. For three days after that day, I kicked my blankets, really. Our team’s track wasn’t even fully made. Persistently comparing a finished song with an unfinished one.”Of course, kicking the blankets for three days is an exaggeration.But the last mid-point check occasionally came back like a nightmare.The first team’s song should have a higher completion level.They got scolded for showing an unfinished song right after.Wanting to fix it right away, but having to show the song.How should he put it?It felt like discovering an absurd typo right before a presentation.“Why, Lee Seongrim-ssi? Your song was really good, wasn’t it?”“Of course it is now.”Lee Seongrim smiled as if still holding a grudge and retorted to PD Jang’s words.Unlike then, it’s finished now.It was the result of a week of overnight work since the mid-point check. (TLN: So, last time I translated this as a “midterm”, and now, I feel like mid-point is the more appropriate word.)As a result, it’s quite satisfying.Lee Seongrim believed he wouldn’t be told it’s worse than Team 1’s song, at least.Yes, in a way, that nightmarish mid-point check gave wings to his song. If he hadn’t seen that first, a worse song would have come out than now.“Perhaps the team that goes after us will feel a bit pressured.”When Lee Seongrim jokingly said this, he was booed again. Someone, seeing an opportunity, said they wanted their team to do the rehearsal first, and naturally clashed with Lee Seongrim.PD Jang, who hadn’t particularly demanded any entertainment elements, chuckled and agreed as the filming went well.“You’re free to decide the order of practice stages.”PD Jang said generously.Because the important thing is separate.The stage order for the music festival in May, that is.And if there’s one more thing prepared, it’s a special performance.After all, it’s a ‘music festival’, so they can’t end with just six songs.“Let’s decide the stage order and special performance after finishing the practice stages.”“Special performance?”“Honestly, aren’t six songs too short?”“!”PD Jang said to rest comfortably at the campsite, but by suggesting the performance order and special performance, he started another subtle game of reading the room.“When would you prefer?”And Halo was sitting quietly without any back-and-forth.When Sin Joohyeok came and sat beside him asking, he shrugged.“Anytime. It doesn’t really matter.”“You’re confident, huh?”Of course.Whether at the beginning or end of the stage, he’ll pour everything out, and the audience will be the same.As Halo nodded confidently, Sin Joohyeok thought he was really consistent.“But this is your first concert, right?”“No…”“What do you mean no? You’re such a pubescent kid, denying things from the start.”“…”He has a lot to say but can’t.“A concert is your real skill. You have to do well. If you don’t have the skills, then just like this.”Sin Joohyeok drew his thumb across his neck.He thought it was stating the obvious.For a singer, the stage is their skill. Recording is just a record.Sin Joohyeok continued speaking with a broad smile.“Well, I’m sure you’ll do well anyway, but if I could give you one tip-““!”This guy, giving advice to whom.‘How many concerts have I done?’Halo watched the practice stage with a blank face, letting it slide.Soon realizing he wasn’t listening at all, Sin Joohyeok hit him on the head, and Liv and Hwang Ryongpil smiled gently.Although they didn’t look alike at all externally, they were just like brothers.“Sin Joohyeok-ssi, Liv-ssi, please prepare for your stage.”Sin Joohyeok, who was becoming increasingly talkative since they first met, continued to offer ‘concert advice’ to him until the practice stage.Seeing how reluctantly he got up when the FD called, who knows how long he would have gone on.Halo folded his arms.Let’s see how well you do then.The practice stage filming was conducted in a generally free atmosphere. After all, they had met under the pretext of camping or an MT, and since they roughly knew each other’s songs, they could enjoy it as performers and audience without special feedback.Someone plopped down in the seat Sin Joohyeok had left.“Hello?”It was Lee Seongrim, who had shown the first practice stage.After chatting with other artists, he came to the boy’s side seat when Sin Joohyeok left. They were already acquainted from the gatherings, and Lee Seongrim, like other artists, was very interested in the boy.Well, who wouldn’t be? When other artists were being cautious, he directly made a move.“Did you watch my stage earlier?”“Yes, I did.”“You were talking with Joohyeok the whole time.”It wasn’t a conversation, more like a one-sided lecture.Halo turned to Lee Seongrim, who raised his hand.“I’m not trying to argue. I’d like to hear what you thought of my stage. I’ve already heard from the others over there.”Lee Seongrim pointed to the other artists.Halo nodded.“Like the others, each one has changed a bit.”“Huh? Ah, right.”Lee Seongrim’s eyes narrowed as he immediately recognized Halo’s words.Lee Seongrim, who had shown the first practice stage, tapped his feet while singing a retro dance song,In the second stage, the senior female singer and Wonder occasionally clapped hands in a heavy tango performance.In the third, they put their hands on their waists and kicked the stage firmly with their feet.Halo, who had watched all the stages while listening to Sin Joohyeok’s advice, heard Lee Seongrim’s response while watching the fifth stage.“It’s because it has such an impact.”The teams creating their own songs somehow ended up creating stages with a common theme.Although they didn’t unify the genre, perhaps the audience coming to see the stage will exude energy from the beginning to the end of the performance.They’ll probably go home more tired than usual.That’s what he hopes for.Everyone enjoying the day as if there’s no tomorrow.“It was good.”“Right?”Lee Seongrim nodded satisfactorily, having received the answer he wanted.“Oh, Chaewon is rapping?”Then he marveled at Sin Joohyeok and Liv’s stage.Lee Seongrim wasn’t the only one surprised.Liv, nicknamed the Music Queen and the Queen of Ballads, rapping? It could only be seen that they had prepared a duet song with gritted teeth.Meanwhile, Sin Joohyeok’s band bassist made a slight mistake, but Sin Joohyeok belted out solid high notes regardless, digesting the song even more brilliantly, and sang a duet with Liv.It was a stage that wouldn’t have been out of place even if it had been a concert venue, not a practice stage.“Not bad.”Halo offered his critique of the senior’s performance, which anyone who heard might have thought arrogant. Right after, hearing the FD’s voice calling him, he stood up.“Hwang Ryongpil-ssi, Roh Haeil-ssi, please prepare for your stage.”Halo walked, looking only at the stage.Now it was his stage.Well, let’s go.#“Wow, I… failed the ticket booking… What’s with this competition rate?”“Well, you don’t necessarily need to book tickets, right? Can’t you just go then?”The girl nodded at her friend’s words.Rendezvous has paid reserved seats, and besides these, there are first-come-first-served seats. As the name suggests, they released free standing seats so everyone could enjoy the music festival.Also, the paid reserved seats weren’t that expensive.Rather than concert ticket prices, it was closer to a donation of a few thousand won. – All performance proceeds were to be donated –In other words, as her friend said, ticket booking wasn’t essential. However, the disappointment was unavoidable.First-come-first-served is uncertain, and the paid seats are the closest to the singers.The girl, a member of Sin Joohyeok’s fan club ‘Olympus’, blankly stared at the reserved seats that had turned red from what was clearly white before.Didn’t someone say red means warning?Looking at the red ticket booking seats gave her an ominous feeling.A gathering of Korea’s top singers.Their duet stages.Not only was the lineup fierce, but the influence of a terrestrial program that had reached 15% viewership couldn’t be ignored.Still, she thought there were quite a few overlaps with other singers’ concerts, rock festivals at Nanji Hangang Park, etc.As expected, it was dead as soon as the time came.What she encountered after calmly checking the seats was not the payment page, but “This seat has already been selected by another customer.”[Anyone succeeded in Rendezvous ticket booking?]└This is strange;;; Feels like all seats sold out in 0.1 seconds└ I’m still refreshing but it’s probably already sold out, right?└I’m just waiting for canceled tickets ㅜㅜ Please…└222 If not canceled tickets, I feel like I’ll have to sleep rough in Gangwon-do from todayThere was no one saying they succeeded on the fan cafe. It was strange to the point of being weird.It’s not even other fandoms, but in Sin Joohyeok’s fan cafe, known for tight ticket bookings, no golden hands appeared,Only posts about failing are seen in a row.Of course, the situation in other fan cafes was similar.[Reasons why this Rendezvous ticket booking was intense]:Of course it’s intense when the whole nation rushed in;;[Wow, some crazy bastard opened a ticket auction on the second-hand market]└Are they insane? How much are they selling tickets that only cost a few thousand won?The girl, after examining the fan cafe, sensed a fierce atmosphere.She felt that if she went on the day at the scheduled time, she absolutely wouldn’t be able to see it.“Should I go to Gangwon-do a week early and pitch a tent?”“To that extent? Let’s just go slowly on the day or the day before.”The muggle friend’s face showed complete lack of understanding.It’s not that she doesn’t understand her friend’s position.Unlike other concerts, Rendezvous was also being broadcast live.“The venue is in Gangwon-do, right? Everyone will be too lazy to go, won’t they? They’ll just watch it on their phones at home since it’s being broadcast. It’s not like there’s going to be a fan signing event.”“I don’t think it’ll be like that, but still…”“If you’re really worried, let’s try our best with the canceled ticket booking.”The muggle friend knew nothing.How sensitive and sharp the hyper-intuition accumulated over long years of fandom can be.And the girl’s intuition was realized not long after the ‘Rendezvous’ ticket booking ended.Belle Morrison, an American pop singer well-known for liking K-pop and a Hollywood top star, posted on her SNS.[BELLE]Have you guys seen this?In my opinion, he is the son of The SunClearly#HALO #PLM COVER #so cute guy #k-pop star#rendezvous└ what???└ This is the best cover I’ve ever heard└ Someone show this video to The Sun too!Although it’s unclear how she came to see a clip from a Korean variety show, she even tagged the broadcast stage clip.The post was exposed directly to 73M followers.And the excessive praise that anyone could see attracted tremendous interest.NuTube’s trending video ranking was the first to reflect this interest,Following that, articles started appearing.[Korean rookie singer highly praised by Hollywood pop singer Belle Morrison][17-year-old Korean genius boy loved by Belle Morrison][HALO’s son, Roh Haeil. Who is he?]└Is Roh Haeil going to debut??└Roh Haeil hasn’t even debuted for long;; Is he rising this much?? Is this a sign he’ll make it?└ Shit, my canceled ticket booking is screwed└Looks like no one’s going to cancel lol ㅠㅠㅠㅠMay. A large banner reading <2030 Song Festival – Rendezvous> fluttered at the large concert venue set up in Gangwon-do.And as the girl’s intuition predicted, a tremendous crowd flocked to Gangwon-do.Hi everyone, I've fully translated this series. If you love the series and wanted to binge read until the end, you can go to my Patreon "Shop" page. Instead of buying the advanced chapters one by one, you can buy them in one bulk (with discounted price too)!