Chapter 47 - Start The Countdown

Ping held his hand and he shook himself out of the past. Squeezing the hand, he shared a smile with his friend before the wall they were in front of moved. Shun still felt like the witch's magic was involved.

'Yes, technology was advance here but… yup. That witch is involved. This was their fault anyways!'

They stepped forward and greeted the mentors, the recruiters, and the host.

"Welcome contestants. We are getting close to the end to find the next idol group. Kaiden, please tell us how it is so far for you living here with all the challenges," The host stated.

"It had been hard, but we all manage well and have gotten close to one another," the popular trainee stated and glanced at his fellow trainees, "I think we have grown as a team and we are ready to show you what we have."

"We are all excited to see," the host nodded, "Xiong Shun. You are the leader. Tell us your experience."

"Well, I had never been a leader, but I had a lot of help from our strong dancers and singers: Kaiden, Taemeng, and Ping. They helped us a lot and I agree with Kaiden. We are ready to show everyone what we could do."

The mentors and recruiters nodded.

"I thought you were injured?" Ms. Fire brought up looking at his knee, "We were told you had to sit out."

"I am healed and doing better. I promise," Shun smiled as charming as he could and saw Ms. Fire's lips twitched.

"Please get yourself ready. Remember their place depends on you," the host stated looking at the camera, "Who will continue toward becoming part of an idol group and who will return home? Start the countdown."

Suu Jin was watching the show as his makeup artist did his face. Sitting in his trailer, he was excited to see how far his cousin and Xiong Shun were doing. He had not gotten the chance to watch the past episodes, but from the way Ping and Shun was interacting, he assumed they had made up.

The lights and beats began, and he found his lips curled as he watched Xiong Shun, silver hair and blue eyes singing and dancing as the lead. His eyes trailed over the satin collared shirt, where the navy shirt was unbuttoned a few to show the collarbone. The man was wearing black tight slacks like the rest of the group, but each had a symbol on them. For Xiong Shun, the silver haired trainee had a lotus flower and Suu Jin laughed softly.

"Sorry," he straightened his face again and tried not to grin when he saw his little cousin preforming. He still remembered Ping barely 4 watching him, learning from him, and even trying to dance and sing when he did.

Now, watching his dear cousin, he felt a sense of pride seeing how far the young boy had come. Once the performance was over, he watched the trainees bowed and the host spoke. The voting was opened and Suu Jin opened the app, prepared to vote.

"Let's start," his manager called out, "Suu Jin, everyone is here. You don't need to doll up anymore. Let's go."

The idol prince nodded and quickly put in his vote, before heading out to the stage for his own performance.

Back at the competition, Shun was exhausted. He just wanted to lay in a deep soaker bath filled with bubbles and cry. His muscles had been screaming at him ever since he began this road to idolship. He had thought it was just because he had not used his muscles in such ways for so long, but…

'I feel like I am beaten up every day… Isn't this supposed to get better?' He inwardly whined, but tried to keep it off his face.

"Great performance!" Producer Ryoshi called out clapping, "I felt the fire and you all did very well!"

"I agree," Manager Bon nodded, "You only had 2 days to learn the song and dance, right? I am sure 1Luv would be proud."

"1Luv members Pengu and Yanny had many interviews to do, but they found time to watch your performance," The host stated and moved his hand to the screen, "What do you think of the contestants?"

The screen to their left flickered on and the face of the two idols smiled.

"Wow! What a performance!" Pengu grinned, "That was better than us, huh Yanny?"

Pengu threw and arm over Yanny's shoulder, having the carrot top laughing.

"I agree. I feel like it isn't our song anymore."

"No! We could never beat you two, Senior Yanny and Senior Pengu. You two are the best!" Heeang, the ass kisser called out quickly with stars in his eyes, "No one compares."

Shun rolled his eyes with a grin and nodded in agreement, along with the other trainees. Taemeng who was beside him, looked over at him with a bland stare and Shun laughed. Ping, who maneuvered his way to stand beside Shun's other side, wrapped around his arm and leaned against him with a pleased sigh.

"Hm? We are still on stage, Ping Ping," Shun patted the boy's head.

"Gege," Ping looked up to him and Shun felt he saw the twinkling of stars on those eyes, "I know mama and baba will be super proud of us. Ah Jin too."

"Ah Jin…" Shun whispered and he could feel his cheeks warming.

"Mm," Ping grinned, "Wen Dong too."

"For Wen Dong," Shun pumped his fist and Ping did the same.

"We have to go, but good luck everyone! Always do your best!" Pengu and Yanny waved and the screen cleared.

"Thank you Pengu and Yanny for giving our contestants some hope. Now," the host looked over at the judges, "Before I announced the results, do you have any thoughts on who will be leaving, Choreographer Minji?"

"It is hard. Everyone had danced and sung well. I have some ideas of who may return home, but I don't want to say."

"You don't want to look stupid if you're wrong," Producer Ryoshi laughed and patted his friend's shoulder, "I agree. There are maybe two I can think of because their singing was not as stable, but I am curious to how the global fans are going to vote. I already put in my vote."

"Who did you vote for?" Producer Jie questioned and Producer Ryoshi shook a finger before him.

"Neh, Producer Jie, I will not say."

"I will," the female producer stated, "My vote is for Taemeng."