Chapter 50

“Alright, then! The Design Your Idol Trainee Battle — the relay race — begins now!”

“Woooaaah!!”

Following the MC’s energetic declaration, I clapped along with my teammates.

We were all gathered in the gym, dressed in our practice clothes. It was yet another short segment meant to squeeze out more broadcast material.

“The rules for the relay race are simple. The relay consists of four sections. All six teams will send out one member at a time to tackle each of the four sections and show us as much ‘performance’ as they can.”

The MC explained the rules clearly, wearing a meaningful smile.

There were four sections in total. The first was shuttlecock kicking; the second was chugging the prepared drinks — both required you to rack up the highest possible number.

The third section required you to search through 60 childhood photos of <DEAR DOLLl> trainees and find the ones belonging to your team members. And the final, fourth section had you run a lap on a set track in a three-legged race with the runner before you.

After the lap, the two-person team split: one tied sandbags to their feet, spun around ten times with their hand on their forehead like an elephant trunk, then blew up a balloon and had to pop it.

After that, the other person would piggyback the teammate who had just done the three-legged race, carry them back down the track, and cross the finish line.

‘The more the earlier runners clear, the less the burden on the later ones.’

In other words, this relay race was literally a test of teamwork as well as each individual’s conscience and selfishness. In a way, it was a game perfectly designed to blame others.

It was a game meant for laughs, but one that could easily turn into a battlefield.

‘Damn broadcasting people…’

A mini-segment like this in a survival show… It really wasn’t much different from telling us to fight and tear each other apart. And if there happened to be trainees within the same team who didn’t get along, this was the perfect game for finger-pointing.

“The team that finishes in the shortest time will earn the right to decide the order for the upcoming mission!”

“Oooooh!!”

The trainees’ eyes sparkled at the chance to decide not only their own performance order but the order of all the teams.

Because by considering each team’s rank, skills, song vibe, and the audience’s stamina for voting, the order could be manipulated to gain an advantage.

“Let’s get first place~!”

“Fighting!”

Of course, this reward only went to one team, and it wasn’t something worth literally risking your life for.

Even so, these little segments were chances to show aspects of our personalities and relationships that wouldn’t come out during practice, so no one really tried to avoid them.

“Okay, everyone draw one~.”

“Ugh, I’m terrible with random draws…”

“I’ll pick first!”

The relay order was chosen randomly once again, and cheers and screams were already erupting from the teams. We also picked up our slips of paper one by one.

I grabbed the last remaining slip. We opened them at the same time.

“Oh, I’m first?”

The honor of being the first runner went to Do Ji-Hyuk. He had the best stamina and was the fastest among us, so having him start wasn’t a bad choice.

“Ah, I’m next…!”

“Oh, I’m right in the middle~.”

“Hm, I guess I’m after that…”

Next was Yoo Min-seong, followed by Cheon Se-rim, then Hwang Yeong-oh.

And the last two left were—

“……”

“……”

…me and Yoo Chan-hee.

After Hwang Yeong-oh came Yoo Chan-hee, and I was assigned as the very last runner — right after him.

‘Of all people…’

I looked at Yoo Chan-hee with a displeased expression. He glanced at me, and when our eyes met, he quickly turned his head away.

‘…What’s that about?’

Normally, he’d frown first, like he hated me even more. Feeling confused, I decided not to pay attention. Trying to guess what went through that inscrutable guy’s head was the most pointless thing in the world.

“Alright, everyone to your positions… One, two, three… start!”

“Waaaaaah!!”

Whatever our awkward reactions, the relay started.

“Hyung, fighting!”

“We believe in you!!”

Do Ji-Hyuk dashed forward to our cheers. The first corner was shuttlecock kicking. He angled his foot skillfully and began kicking.

“One, two, three… sixteen, seventeen…”

“Aah!”

“Ahh, so close!”

While trainees from another team dropped the shuttlecock before they even reached ten, Do Ji-Hyuk displayed impressive focus and reached nearly thirty.

The next corner was drinks. Rows of unlabeled beverage bottles lined the table.

‘Hm, so that’s the point of this segment…’

I instantly knew the relay had been designed for drink product placement. That probably covered at least a day’s worth of rental fees for the training center.

“Trainee Do Ji-Hyuk, four bottles!”

“Wow!!”

Do Ji-Hyuk quickly emptied four 500ml bottles and sprinted to the next corner.

And then—

“Trainee Do Ji-Hyuk, all incorrect!”

“Ah… it is pretty hard…”

Scratching his head awkwardly, Do Ji-Hyuk put the six childhood photos he had brought back onto the table.

“No way, hyung…”

“…I get the others, but Min-seong looks exactly the same as when he was a kid, doesn’t he?”

“He’s weirdly weak at the strangest things…”

We muttered in disbelief as we watched him sprint down the track. He had great stamina and concentration, but his intuitive observational skills were practically zero.

In any case, the game continued smoothly afterward.

“Ugh, I’m sorry!”

“No, you did well!”

At the first corner, Yoo Min-seong managed to add only one more kick after a few missteps, and in the drink-chugging segment he finished just a single bottle.

But his true value showed in the next corner: he successfully found the childhood photos of half our team members. After completing the dizzy elephant spins, he popped the balloon and returned to the starting point on Do Ji-Hyuk’s back.

“High-five~!”

“Good work, hyung!”

Cheon Se-rim kicked the shuttlecock fifteen times and drank two bottles. In the third corner, he found one more photo.

Then Yoo Min-seong once again put on the sandbags and did the elephant spins, after which Cheon Se-rim carried him back.

“Umm… I’m not great with stamina…”

“Hyung, honestly, your observation skills are also…”

“…Everyone changed so much growing up…”

Hwang Yeong-oh barely managed to drink half a bottle, didn’t land a single shuttlecock kick, and after wandering around the photo table for a long time, didn’t find even one correct picture.

He did put on the sandbags and do the elephant spins, but because he couldn’t steady his vision afterward, he lost a lot of time before popping the balloon.

“…I’ll go.”

Yoo Chan-hee took over from Hwang Yeong-oh and subtly glanced up at the screen. It displayed the current scores of the teams.

‘We’re 9th.’

Do Ji-Hyuk had done quite well at the start, but overall, our team didn’t have members with great stamina. So our early lead kept slipping until we were near last place.

Being first would be nice but wasn’t necessary. But last place was a problem — the last-place team would get a penalty.

‘No PR segment.’

While other teams would get one to three minutes each to upload their personal PR videos according to their ranking, the last-place team wouldn’t get that opportunity at all. So everyone desperately wanted to avoid coming in last.

Yoo Chan-hee stood at the starting line and sprinted off. He quickly reached the first corner and began kicking.

‘…He’s good.’

He hit exactly fifteen kicks before he missed.

Next, without wasting any time, he ran to the drink table and downed three bottles.

At the photo section, he narrowed his eyes and studied the pictures carefully. Then, filtering through them one by one—

“Trainee Yoo Chan-hee, one correct!”

“Wooooah!!”

…he found my photo.

‘…How did he know?’

The childhood photo I submitted to AINET was extremely old.

I only had many photos taken after I was adopted; when they asked for a photo from before kindergarten, I barely found one — a picture from when I was practically a baby.

It shouldn’t have been easy to recognize me. So how did he?

Yoo Chan-hee must have unexpectedly good observational skills.

Either way, he split roles smoothly with Hwang Yeong-oh and completed the run, returning to the start.

“Hyung, fighting!”

“Yuha, you got this!!”

“I’ll be back.”

I stood up and ran to the first starting point. I placed the shuttlecock on my foot and began kicking slowly.

‘…Just one more than the last-place team.’

The gap between us and the current last-place team was exactly seven kicks. So I only needed eight.

I kicked slowly, intending to stay focused.

Thud.

“…….”

But I missed the shuttlecock pathetically, managing only seven kicks.

I had forgotten that my body was only barely functioning thanks to the calming medicine I’d taken earlier.

‘…Am I insane?’

I had no choice but to freeze for a moment. Because of accumulated fatigue, my muscles trembled when I moved my foot in a direction I wasn’t used to, and I twisted my ankle slightly despite the medicine dulling the symptoms.

I looked up at the screen. I didn’t care about overtaking the other teams. All I needed was to beat the last-place team.

‘Tie.’

So this wasn’t terrible. Instead of panicking, it was time to move.

I quickly ran to the second corner and began drinking. Since the last-place team was one bottle behind us, I didn’t push myself — I drank exactly one bottle.

“Oooh, trainee Won Yu-ha! Among all final runners, he reached the table first! So who will the last team member be?!”

“…….”

I focused on the photos spread across the table. Finding teammates among all those different faces, ages, outfits, and backgrounds was harder than expected.

I ignored the area that Yoo Chan-hee had already dismissed and instead looked through the photos he didn’t seem to have checked yet. And then—

“……?”

I found something familiar.

‘This is…’

I picked up the photo to inspect it. A chubby child with bulging cheeks and a round belly, wearing a bucket hat, glaring fiercely at the camera.

‘…I think I know who this is.’

Holding the photo, I walked to the wall displaying our team’s photos. I slid it into an empty space. The staff nodded.

“Trainee Won Yu-ha, correct!”

“……!”

“Wooooaaah!!”

“Wow!”

I stared blankly at the photo on the wall. I had picked it half-sure, half-unsure.

‘…It really was Yoo Chan-hee?’

I looked toward the relay track, where Yoo Chan-hee stood with a sour expression. His childhood appearance was completely different — chubby features, round face — but I recognized him for one simple reason:

‘That’s the exact expression Yoo Chan-hee makes whenever he looks at me.’

That irritated, fed-up face was identical to the one he always showed me.