Because of Xi Huan’s teasing and Adrian snatching Rayen’s phone, he wasn’t able to find out anything about the anomaly.
"Don’t use your phone. Eat," Adrian said before handing back his phone.
Rayen resisted the urge to smack this guy. In the end, he stood up to just get his meal.
After the silent lunch time, Rayen and his own group parted with Xi Huan and her gang to head to their own practice rooms.
The days passed by. Rayen also completely forgot about the anomaly he noticed earlier. For days, due to the hard practice sessions, he barely even had the chance to browse through the internet.
He was like a zombie by the time practice ended, jumping on his bed the moment he entered his dorm room.
"Okay, guys. Let’s take a break first," Adrian said.
Utterly exhausted, Rayen slumped onto the ground. His throat was parched from the never-ending practice. The last time he was this tired was during the first round — no, he was more tired than those times.
Adrian was even more of a devil than Yeo Haru when it came to urging them to practice. Back then, Yeo Haru was just too nitpicky, and it was Rayen’s own initiative that he practiced hard those days. But Adrian...
If Rayen just slacked off for a second, all he would hear during practice were his complaints.
’Honestly, it was getting annoying. He’s even more of a nagger than my mom.’
After reminiscing for a moment, Rayen stood up as he regained a little bit of his strength back. To quench his thirst, he headed toward the lockers at the corner. He then noticed another figure already standing there, staring intently on one of the lockers.
Walking forward, Rayen reached for his own locker and opened it. Oh Heejun flinched, then stepped aside. From where Rayen was standing, he could finally read the name of the owner of the locker that Oh Heejun was staring at earlier.
Rayen observed Oh Heejun for a minute. The latter’s expression was unreadable as he reluctantly pried his gaze away from Ren’s locker.
He then took out his phone that was tightly wrapped before slouching in the corner. He had gotten another batch of notifications about his Life Book points increasing.
Last night, the ninth episode had already aired, showing the interim evaluations for the 3rd round. It must have been the reason why the influx of new impressions about him had increased drastically.
Even the viewers’ comments about him had drastically transformed positively.
No one was calling him a bully anymore, and was instead praising his closeness with Yeo Haru.
Back then, no matter how many explanations they released, few would even believe it.
Is this the power of fan fiction?
If not for the strange ship that’s being linked with him, he would have been glad.
’It’s that AeMist’s fault.’
Rayen scratched his head, but then, he suddenly felt a chill coming from beside him. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed Oh Heejun’s expression.
Just like Rayen, he was also monitoring the feedback for the ninth episode. However, unlike Rayen’s complicated emotion, Oh Heejun’s face was eerily dark.
"Hey, don’t mind it," Rayen said, unable to ignore the guy.
Oh Heejun flinched, his scary aura dispersing. "H-Huh?"
Rayen didn’t respond right away. He closed the browser entirely and went to his inventory, selecting one of his stockpile Revitalizing Drinks. As it appeared before him, he opened it and gulped it down.
’Ah... So refreshing.’
After wiping the corner of his lips, he offered the bottle to Oh Heejun. "Want some?"
’This dude just needs to cooldown.’
Oh Heejun reluctantly shook his head.
Since he was rejected, Rayen gladly gulped down the rest of his drink. "Are you reading hate comments about you? Don’t mind it."
Oh Heejun chuckled in response.
Rayen nodded with a wistful smile on his face. "Yeah, that’s right. Don’t mind it."
"If only there’s even any hate comments about me, I’ll be glad," Oh Heejun said, locking his screen, but he refused to glance at Rayen. "Unfortunately, there’s nothing."
"....." Rayen stiffened in place.
He was just trying to help based on his experience, but turned out it was a different case.
"Well... hahaha... Sorry ’bout that."
With that, Rayen walked away to avoid the awkwardness.
He went beside Liam, soaking in with the silence as he sipped his remaining Revitalizing Drink. Liam watched him silently, then Oh Heejun, but he remained silent.
’I shouldn’t have said anything...’
The practice continued smoothly. Unlike before, the two problematic members coexisted silently for two more weeks.
Without realizing it, the 10th public episode had also aired. Once again, Rayen received another influx of new impressions from his phone.
Seeing the improvement to his impressions from his monitoring, a newfound hope arose deep within his chest.
[Life Book Points: 887,546]
They were given five weeks to prepare for the finals before D-Day. And now, he only needed more than a hundred thousand to reach one million points. Since the points from the fan votes would always be added on the broadcast days, he couldn’t be so sure, but with that much time on hand and the improvement in his image, should he assume that he had long reached the one million quota?
"What are you smiling about?" Liam suddenly asked, noticing the weird smile on Rayen’s face.
"Ah, no. I just think I might really debut."
Rayen proceeded on explaining his logic. The others who were also taking a break near them silently stared at him. Their gazes were weird.
Finally, Rayen noticed it. "What?"
"Don’t you know?" Adrian asked, nudging his eyeglasses on his nose bridge.
"The voting was paused. It will resume on the day of the finals."
Rayen’s face stiffened. "What? Since when?"
Adrian shrugged. "Who knows. I just saw some fans posting to encourage others not to forget the day."
Just like that, Rayen’s renewed hope was crushed. How could he possibly gather more than a hundred thousand votes in one day?!
Each of them nodded in agreement then sighed.
[My real life incarnation will be saddened when he hears it.]
Mini Plotter’s remark hovered inside a text bubble from Rayen’s phone.
’Who cares? I’ll be damned because of him.’
Just as Rayen was thinking of this, the door toward their practice room suddenly flung open. Everyone turned their heads toward it in surprise.
A short figure together with the stoic Director marched in front of Team 1, followed by an entourage of staff members and camera operators.
However, there was an even more surprising thing that happened. Aside from the two Overseers, there was also the beautiful figure of Yeon Miwol following behind them.
Rayen’s brain was filled with confusion, but as he noticed the wide grin plastered on Plotter’s lips, a bad premonition crept up from his chest. Only when the Director stepped up instead of Plotter did he somehow feel at ease.
Still, this situation was quite unexpected. Why did these people barge in here?
"I know that this is quite unexpected, but we are here today for an evaluation."
’Interim evaluation?’
From the past few performances, there were indeed evaluations at the middle of their practice sessions, however, those past few instances were announced ahead of time.
So, what’s with today?
Though, that’s not the problem here. If they were to have an interim evaluation right now, what could they show but a messy performance?
’Useless Mini Plotter. At least inform me!’
However, contrary to their expectations, the words that the Director next uttered were different.
"This evaluation is for your individual performance."
The members of Team 1’s eyes lit up. Rayen sighed in relief.
If that was the case, then it was fine.