𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 ―𝐝.𝐨.𝐝

Chapter 36

a/n: Hi all! I've decided on updating every 4 days and every 3 days! So the next update will be in 3 days :)

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[ Park Moondae's POV ]

It was time for the dreaded midterm evaluation. After working our blood, sweat, and tears off to create our stage, we performed in front of the panel of judges anxiously.

Even if I thought about our stage as objectively as possible, the current direction of the team was going well; however, I still wasn't expecting much because I'd never received a good review in the team evaluations so far.

But this time?

"I loved it!"

"I don't have much feedback because you guys did so well."

One by one, the words of the judges started out like this.

As usual, the choreographer was the first to speak critically.

"Who made the choreography?" he asked.

"Seungmin, Ahyun, and I worked on it together," Sejin answered.

The choreographer nodded his head.

"Wow, so you all collaborated on this? Anyways, I have nothing to say because you did so well."

Then the vocal trainer, Muddy.

"It's so attractive how you changed the way the original song is sung. It gives a whole new feeling!"

And even Youngrin, who rarely compliments groups, smiled at us.

"I can tell that this stage was made with lots of thought and practice. Even if this is a midterm evaluation, I feel like your performance is already complete. I can't wait to see you on the real stage."

Everyone around me had turned into "thank you" bots. And that's because even the director and the costume team gave us praise.

The team didn't even realize that they were nodding their heads with stupid, grinning expressions.

I thought back to the days when we only slept for 4 hours and felt an uplifting sense of accomplishment.

When we were back in our dorm room at midnight, everyone was still in a good mood.

"I think we can do really well," Raebin muttered excitedly.

"T-that's right!" Ahyeon replied.

I was going to close my eyes and sleep early for the first time in forever, but someone brought up another topic.

"Oh, we haven't decided on the color of the sleeves."

"Right."

"I have a few things to look at too, wait a minute," Keun Sejin said, tapping on his phone. "I saw it here on..."

But his next words didn't come. He stood there in the middle of the room, staring at his screen with a pale face.

"What i-is it?" Ahyun asked curiously.

I peered over the bed to get a closer look. Sejin was looking at a gossip board. It was a bulletin board for the most famous controversial articles and rumors.

I quickly went on my own phone.

There were two articles that entered the rankings of the board.

[ 9th place Idol Inc. Keun Sejin is accused of bullying ]

[ 5th place Idol Inc. Cho Seungmin's victim steps forward ]

I could feel the success of our stage crumbling at that moment.