The Goal is the Ending Fairy - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Translator: Iris
Proofreader: Floor

‘Her voice is incredibly good.’

It seemed slightly dark yet perfect for an R&B feel; her voice alone was a cheat code.

But does it feel too heavy to blend with bright songs?

Not at all. Surprisingly, it has the elements to seamlessly melt into any song.

Wait… no.

To be precise, rather than melting, it felt like her tone would make any song sound good.

This is an unexpected gain.

When she spoke normally, all I had assumed was, ‘She’d probably have a good singing voice.’

However, this vocal tone shattered my expectations in a much better way.

At this level, I probably wouldn’t receive much criticism on the vocals except for emotion delivery.

And that’s assuming I hit the pitch and rhythm correctly.

But those two are areas I can cover with experience if I practice hard, so I think it’s possible.

The main challenge is that damn mini-game.

Naturally, I am currently performing a mini-game while singing.

The difference from dancing is that I have to move a paper airplane shape up and down to match the melody.

Separately, I also have to voice the lyrics.

Dance is like an arcade stepping game, and Vocal is a voice-controlled spaceship game.

It’s absolutely maddening.

Then what happens when I do both dancing and singing?

Do I just press five or six buttons to the song like I used to in the rhythm game?

That’s frustrating in its own right.

That game would flash messages like, ‘That’s a shame!’ when I made mistakes or scored poorly… they can shove it.

Still, there was an ‘Auto-Play’ feature in the later stages.

A function that allowed me to watch my group’s performance without lifting a finger… provided the stage had achieved high scores several times.

Would acquiring that mean I wouldn’t have to play these in-brain games anymore?

I’m not sure, but it will clearly apply to this real-life version somehow.

I’ll find out when the time comes.

Anyway, just as I was practicing the difficult parts while playing the game with my other self,

The doorknob of the vocal room suddenly turned.

Click

And simultaneously, the yellow door swung open.

“……”

“……”

I reflexively turned off the music and looked over, and the person in my sight was Kim Se-Yi.

The tall trainee from the same dorm.

I knew her last name now because I’d heard the manager call her that before.

The moment of mutual shock and silence was brief.

“Sorry. I didn’t know anyone was here…”

Kim Se-Yi quickly offered an apology. I could tell it wasn’t intentional just by her expression.

I smiled at her and shook my head.

“No, it’s fine. There are a lot of trainees now, so there are no open rooms, right? Want to share with me?”

In truth, I didn’t want to say that, even as a formality, but I had no choice. There was an installed camera in this small vocal room.

Two of them, one on the desk and one near the ceiling.

The trainees are obviously crowded, and I send someone away from here?

That would look like coldly chasing her out.

If that scene were to be caught on broadcast, I would be heavily criticized by the public.

I have no choice but to pretend to be nice here.

“…Thank you.”

She closed the door and came in, expressing her gratitude in a serious tone.

I quickly moved to the inner chair, offering the chair I had been sitting on to her.

She sat down, not forgetting to thank me again.

But…

‘This is so awkward…’

I pursed my lips in the stifling atmosphere and put in my earphones.

However, I couldn’t stop practicing just because it was awkward.

If I can’t sing in front of this one person, how am I going to do it in front of an audience later?

‘Don’t you want to clear the game, Seo Dana?’

With that thought, I put some distance between Kim Se-Yi and me, pushing my chair back.

It was my own consideration, assuming practicing right next to each other would be too noisy.

Afterward, I turned the music back on and slowly started enunciating the confusing pitches first.

Next, I began to seriously vocalize the song with the lyrics.

Suddenly, I felt an inexplicable presence behind me.

“……”

No, not a presence—a gaze.

Human instinct is truly strange; you can feel it all without a single touch.

Since my back was turned, I ignored it and focused on practicing.

But that didn’t last long.

The gaze, which felt like it was poking the back of my head, eventually made me declare K.O.

I turned off the music and took off my earphones.

“Um… Unnie?”

“?”

However, the source of my distraction, Kim Se-Yi, simply looked at me with a question mark.

“Um… do you have anything you want to say?”

“…Ah.”

At my question, she let out a small gasp as if she’d been caught. Then she shook her head slightly from side to side.

“Nothing. I just thought your singing improved a lot.”

Ah, that was it.

Of course. My Vocal stat EXP is much higher now than before.

It’s true that my skill is still lacking, but since I’ve accumulated 15 EXP, the difference is noticeable.

It was the same context as when I practiced dancing with Yoon Heejo.

“Thank you.”

Instead of adding anything unnecessary to her comment, I simply conveyed a clean thank you. Of course, this included my brightest possible smile.

Kim Se-Yi nodded quietly at my response and turned her chair around. I also turned my back and put in my earphones.

More accurately, I was about to put them in.

“By the way.”

Just before I could put in my earphones, Kim Se-Yi spoke to me again. Because of this, I had to turn my gaze back to her.

“You usually are…”

Kim Se-Yi, who started to speak, met my eyes and didn’t finish her sentence.

Instead, she drew out the end of her sentence, stared at me intently, and then looked away.

“…Never mind.”

“Pardon?”

On top of that, she stopped talking before finishing, and tightly pursed her lips.

When I asked again, she just repeated ‘never mind’ a few times and went back to her own practice.

‘There are two ways to piss off a person: one is to start talking and stop halfway, and the other is…’

That thought immediately came to mind.

Why stop talking halfway? She should have never started if she was going to do that.

It was unnecessarily uncomfortable and frustrating, and I suppressed countless sighs internally.

By the way.

‘Hmm……’

Is something going on?

That thought came to me because Kim Se-Yi’s expression looked a little dark for a moment.

But she wouldn’t have carried my luggage or asked if I had eaten dinner if she disliked me.

So, even if I assume she doesn’t dislike me… it’s still ambiguous.

If I’m not mistaken, it feels like she’s deliberately avoiding getting close to me.

What should I do? I need to look friendly with the other trainees on the broadcast.

That part started to worry me.

Usually, these kinds of uncomfortable feelings lead to something bad if ignored.

Therefore, it’s best to fix this as soon as it starts bothering me.

To do that, first… I need to find out what my reputation is among the trainees.

* * *

[Da-na nim! You asked me to investigate the character’s trainee life before, right?]

“Yeah.”

A secluded alley connected to the back door of the company.

Here, there were no cameras, so I wouldn’t be filmed, and my voice wouldn’t be picked up.

Just in case, I even made the Helper thoroughly search the surroundings, so it was certain.

[It wasn’t in the profile, so I looked it up separately…]

“And?”

The Helper fidgeted with its hands at my question.

[Hmm… I only found brief, small pieces of information…]

“Even that’s fine, just tell me.”

The Helper briefly scratched its monitor face, then approached me and whispered.

[This character had quite a few problems as a trainee.]

“Why?”

[Because of relationship issues and insincere practice attendance…]

“…W-What?”

What did I just hear?

If that’s true, it’s a complete disaster.

A trainee dating…? While I wouldn’t strictly say it’s impossible, it’s a definite minus factor.

And ‘insincere practice attendance’? Did she skip practice to go on dates?

“Is all of that true?”

[No. It seems a lot of misunderstandings have accumulated.]

Good. It has to be.

‘You scared me.’

At least this is a silver lining in the misfortune. It means it’s all based on rumors.

But that’s only the silver lining. A huge misunderstanding has been built up… how am I supposed to clear this up?

Not only does she not have great skill, but she’s dating and skipping practice…?

That’s a surefire recipe for being branded as a trainee with a bad image.

Except for the fact that it’s not true.

“Were there a lot of situations that led to such misunderstandings?”

[Hmm… I think the relationship issue is definitely because of this character’s older brother.]

The Helper displayed a screen showing the person presumed to be this character’s older brother.

[He often came to the company without permission because he needed money, and the two of them were even caught arguing nearby by other trainees.]

“Other people could have easily mistaken that for an argument with a boyfriend.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have lied about being an only child in the last interview.

“What about the insincerity?”

[Because that brother would sometimes call her out…]

“…Which meant she had no choice but to leave.”

I interrupted the Helper and finished the sentence. The Helper continuously nodded its head.

I felt this when I asked the Helper about her family history before, but this family is a complete mess.

‘But seriously, what kind of money does a minor have that he needs to come here and cause trouble?’

In the middle of my frustration, I almost ran my hands through my hair but stopped myself since the staff had styled it.

The Helper watched me and continued cautiously.

[The company knows the situation, but the trainees wouldn’t. So that might be why.]

“Huh…”

Listening to the story, a sense of crisis welled up.

This is a very busy time when I should be focusing on raising my stats.

I really had no idea that such rumors would also be attached to me.

And the game didn’t even tell me until I specifically asked…

‘If I ever get out of here, I swear…’

My head pounded even as I cursed the system internally.