OPEN YOUR EYES (BLIND I) - MUSIQ SERIES PART 2

79. IDOL VS. ARTIST

Heejin's encounter with Dasom had been very awkward and confusing for her, but at least the older woman did not send her glances from then on and just talked to her as she did to the rest.

For the rest of the morning, they all relaxed and had some resting time both inside and outside the guest house but, in the afternoon, the Cosmos trainees arrived and their resting time was over.

"Just six people?" Nari asked to no one in particular as they went to their rooms to leave their bags. "Weren't they like forty when they started?"

"They said it was just going to be the winners of their previous round, so I'm guessing they are either twelve or eighteen right now," Heejin told her. "They are doing it proper survival style."

It surprised them how different their programs were despite being in the same building but also, what at that moment they did not know, was that not only the format was different, but also their numbers. XWE was a big company and Dara moved a lot of people whenever she was in a program or a TV show, but not even with that she was able to move as many people as Breakthrough. They had an average of almost two million live viewers per program between the ones watching it online and on TV, while Cosmos barely managed to get forty thousand. It was partially because XWE had set it to be a paid program while MusiQ just made people pay for the extra content and it was by paying subscriptions to their app, so it was more accessible and people didn't need to search for it on other websites and they could keep track of everything more easily. Also, the fact that they had been putting subtitles in English, Japanese, Mandarin and Thai on the day of the release and in other languages just a couple of days later made more people want to check them out.

"Heejin!" Yulhee, one of the trainees that had been in the greenhouse with her one day exclaimed and approached her, wrapping her in a tight hug. "I'm almost in the final!"

"I haven't been able to watch your program, but I'm sure you were incredible," Heejin told her with a smile, unable to hide how cute she found her. "What song did you compete with?"

"ResQ's «LOCO»! I had Mika's part," Yulhee answered. "I really had a lot of fun!"

Heejin had done «LOCO» with Juna, Xia, Eunae and Lihua for an evaluation, and she knew how challenging the song was as it had a lot of high notes with an intense choreography. She had done Alix's part that time, so she was very aware of how difficult those high notes were. It was definitely a song only a few could pull off live.

"I'll try to watch it later," Heejin told her. "I promise."

Their chat was cut short when they were all told to go outside to film as inside there was barely any space. It was around thirteen degrees Celsius, so it was not that cold taking into account the sun was up and they were near a beach, so it was not a bad weather to be outside doing things.

"Before we begin, welcome to all the Cosmos trainees," Soojin said, taking over as an MC. "Their dearest MC Dara isn't here yet because of overlapping schedules, so let's make sure to welcome them warmly. 

"You all should already know that this MT is co-produced, but what you should know is that, since the way the programs are built is different and the way of viewing it is also different, we have agreed on keeping it a middle ground so that both shows use the same footage and you all get the same exposure. The only thing is, however, that the two programs will be doing a different task while you are here, so we cannot control that. Both things will be in the same episode, so let's hope the viewers enjoy everything, which I'm sure they will. No one should, worry, though, this task doesn't affect the normal flow of the program and, Breakthrough, don't worry, you won't need to work on any new songs."