The Goal is the Ending Fairy - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Translator: Iris
Proofreader: Floor

“How was my performance earlier?”

That was what Cha Si-hyun asked me behind the stage, right after all the Group 3 performances ended.

She smiled brightly, pointing a single index finger at her own face.

It was a look that, to anyone watching, clearly expected an answer.

I stared at her for a moment and glanced around.

‘The cameras are still on.’

I quickly retracted my gaze and gave Cha Si-hyun a radiant smile.

“You were incredibly cool. I was literally watching with my mouth open in awe during your high notes.”

“Really?”

“Yes, yes.”

‘Really’ my foot, those were all just broadcast-ready reactions.

However, it was true that she was good at singing. She sang a poignant ballad, and the emotions were delivered very well.

Her dancing was also… well, it suited her physique, with long, smooth lines that fit perfectly. To sum it up: she was good.

In short, while our genres were different, her stage was built on the same strategy as mine.

A stage that played to her strengths, her image and atmosphere, while carefully omitting any weaknesses.

I hadn’t expected much since she was an actor trainee, but it seemed she hadn’t been dropped in as a “parachute” without actual skill.

On my end, having someone who isn’t even a pre-determined debut member do this well only meant more competition for me…

it wasn’t something to celebrate.

Still, she’ll probably drop out on her own at the right time.

She came on to boost her recognition before a project, so debut likely isn’t her goal.

“I really enjoyed your stage too. Your voice is exactly my style, Da-na.”

“Haha…”

Cha Si-hyun, whose face brightened at my compliment, sent back a formal review of her own.

A cringe-inducing relay of compliments.

I smiled awkwardly because it was so stiff, but the look she gave me was somehow serious.

But that aside.

Why does she keep calling me “Da-na nim”? It’s uncomfortable.

If this keeps being broadcast, it won’t be good.

I could be misunderstood as acting like a “senior” just because of my months of training.

Since Cha Si-hyun is technically my junior in the company, she probably can’t suggest dropping formalities first.

This meant I had to be the one to give permission…

I wasn’t thrilled that it was Cha Si-hyun, but it would be safer to appear friendly across the board.

‘No choice, then.’

I sighed internally and slowly spoke to Cha Si-hyun, who was smiling at me.

“…Shall we just drop the formalities? We’re the same age and both trainees; using formal speech is a bit much, don’t you think?”

“Oh, is that okay?”

At my words, Cha Si-hyun showed the brightest expression I’d seen yet.

On top of that, she clasped her hands together and spoke cautiously.

“Then… I’ll speak comfortably from now on. You call me comfortably too, Da-na.”

“…Sure, okay.”

While the cameras were rolling, we smiled at each other affectionately. To an outsider, it was a perfectly harmonious scene, but I just wanted to leave as quickly as possible due to an inexplicable feeling of discomfort.

As I watched her crescent-shaped eye-smile,

it suddenly hit me.

‘This girl… she did this on purpose, didn’t she?’

No wonder she snapped up my suggestion immediately.

There were plenty of corners without cameras, but she chose to speak to me here for that reason.

Her face looks innocent, like she’d go around spreading sunshine smiles… but she’s surprisingly calculating.

Yes, I should have known from the moment her smiling face felt suspicious.

Her lack of nervousness compared to the other trainees, despite the rankings being announced soon, was also suspicious.

Perhaps it’s because she’s someone I never liked, but once my suspicions were piqued, her true intentions seemed to become visible.

“The ranking announcement will begin soon, so all trainees please head to the stage!”

Fortunately, before the time with her could stretch any longer, the staff’s announcement gave me an excuse to get out of there.

“We should head up soon too.”

“Right.”

I nodded at Cha Si-hyun’s words and quickly turned my back to her.

For some reason, having her follow closely behind me made me uneasy, but I shook my head, thinking it might just be paranoia.

“Hey.”

“-!”

Suddenly, Cha Si-hyun placed a hand on one of my shoulders.

My startled shoulders shot up and then slumped. Swearing internally was a given.

I turned my gaze toward Cha Si-hyun without showing my shock.

“Huh?”

“If the two of us performed together… don’t you think our voices would sound good together?”

“……”

I wondered what kind of nonsense that was, but… well, that’s certainly…

Looking at our song choices, our tastes seemed to differ, but looking at just our voices, they did seem like they’d match.

We both have distinct tones, but the “color” felt similar.

I don’t know much about art terms, but to use a metaphor, my voice is like a deep purple, and hers feels like a soft light purple.

Anyway, it was true that Cha Si-hyun’s tone also stood out, so we did have a common ground vocally. “Mm-hmm… I think they’d match well.”

“Right?”

Cha Si-hyun patted my shoulder with the hand she had resting there, then smiled, her eyes crinkling.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

To what, exactly?

But before I could ask what she meant, she stepped onto the stairs and headed out to the stage first.

She then walked leisurely to her spot as directed by the staff.

‘What…? Why is she acting like that to me, seriously…’

The frequency of her speaking to me has been increasing lately, and she keeps dropping cryptic remarks like that.

It hasn’t just been once or twice, including now.

I suppressed a sigh that was about to burst out, bit my lip, and headed to my spot.

It was a relief that my spot was away from Cha Si-hyun.

I pressed my temples a few more times instead of sighing and stood facing forward.

* * *

“Next are the trainees from 24th to 20th place in the ‘Individual Capability Mission’.”

The trainees from 30th to 25th passed by quickly, followed by the reveal of the ranks above them.

“Ah…”

“……”

Disappointed sighs, or simply silent nods for those who couldn’t even mutter that much.

Such were the reactions of the trainees in those ranks.

Fortunately, my profile picture wasn’t among the lower ranks yet. It meant that in the ‘Individual Capability Mission’ alone, I had reached the middle.

But I couldn’t show any reaction or feel relieved.

Since the trainees around me were disappointed with their low ranks, showing a good mood here was the shortcut to ruining my image.

So, all I did was fold my hands neatly and stare calmly at the large electronic display on the stage.

However, something I didn’t expect happened: my name wasn’t being called for quite a while.

‘It’s not there…’

My profile picture wasn’t displayed in the 19th to 17th, or the 16th to 14th ranks that came up next.

And it was the same for the ranks above those.

Right up until the moment the 11th rank was announced, I couldn’t find my name.

The display, which had been showing five ranks at a time for the lower tier and three at a time for the middle, began to display the top ten trainees one by one in large format.

“Now, the ten trainees whose names have not appeared on the display have automatically landed in the top 10 of the ‘Individual Capability Mission’.”

From here on, I was at least 10th. Getting this far was already beyond expectations.

Was it because my character’s usual style wasn’t this good that expectations were low?

Still, a rank too high compared to actual skill could be frowned upon.

So…

“Then, for the first mission, Individual Capability category. The 10th place is…”

Not more, not less—right here. Please…

I barely swallowed the saliva gathered from tension and fixed my eyes on the MC’s mouth. “…Yes, Trainee Seo Da-na!”

I did it!

My profile picture appeared on the display along with a shot of me with widened eyes.

After brief applause from the trainees and the judges, the CEO picked up the microphone while looking at me.

It seemed the CEO was personally providing comments starting from the top-tier trainees.

The gist was that I had shown potential by completing a stage with significantly boosted ability compared to before.

His critique was that while there were points to improve, it was comfortable to watch.

Other judges also followed with positive evaluations, explaining the reason for my ranking.

’84 points’.

That was my score displayed next to my profile picture.

Out of a hundred, and considering it came from a cold-hearted panel, it was a decent score.

I bowed to the judges to show my gratitude.

A score based solely on skill without any other elements, for me, who had only recently transmigrated, it was quite a generous result.

‘I should definitely mention Yoon Heejo and Kim Se-yi if I do an interview later.’

More than anything, the scenes where I received help from those two flashed through my mind, and I felt I should express my gratitude later.

Their help had definitely allowed me to pull my stats up.

Anyway, after that, I waited for the reveal of the next rankings.

9th Cha Si-hyun, 8th Kim Se-yi, 6th Chae Sunha.

Then 4th and 3rd were Lee Jinyoo and Yoon Heejo, side by side.

Since the other ranks were trainees I didn’t know, I just pretended to congratulate them appropriately.

And finally, the grand 1st place.

“Trainee Won Chaeseo is 1st in this ‘Individual Capability Mission’!”

That was the name from the MC’s mouth.

‘The one who deserved it got it.’

Though there was a comment that she couldn’t show her full capability due to nerves, she was definitely the most balanced among the trainees.

Thus, it was an expected result.

“Thank you!”

Won Chaeseo, hearing the comments from the judges, bowed repeatedly and let out a sigh of relief.

It seemed that even for a veteran of audition shows, the tension of the scene was something she couldn’t get used to.

However, the top-tier trainees couldn’t rest easy yet. Similarly, it was too early for the lower-tier trainees to despair.

“However, top-tier trainees should not be complacent. Lower-tier trainees also do not need to be disappointed by their current ranks.”

The MC, delivering a line exactly in sync with my thoughts, grinned at the camera.

“How much will the ranks change with the addition of the Self PR video scores…? Reveal them! Right now!”

As the MC finished speaking, he pointed his cue card toward the display.

The rankings of all 30 trainees were then densely packed onto the screen.

All at once.

“……”

Silence fell over the stage again.

About half looked relieved or brightened at their ranks, while the other half looked disappointed and re-checked the display.

And I…

———-

<9th: Seo Da-na>

———-

“…?”

…My name was still at the top.

‘It went up?’

No… it was a relief, but I didn’t understand. I was sure it would drop…?

My Charm and Affection stats were significantly low when the self-introduction video was released.

They’re still low now, but they were at rock bottom back then. Therefore, I thought it wouldn’t be easy to attract fans.

But it went up. By one rank, thanks to the Self PR video.

Since I hadn’t been able to check public opinion recently, I was even more confused about how this happened.

I really wanted to know the truth behind this…

“Whew…”

I first calmed my floating heart and looked closely at the display.

The score added next to ’84 points’ was ‘8 points’ obtained from the recommendation rank of the PR video.

That meant my recommendation count was within the ‘3rd to 5th’ range among the trainees.

This is because the score calculation for recommendations is 10 points for 1st, 9 points for 2nd, and 8 points for 3rd to 5th… and so on.

I didn’t know the exact rank since the details weren’t listed, but my PR video recommendations were at least 5th overall.

‘Does this even make sense…’

A total of 92 points out of 110. And 9th out of 30 in the first mission.

With my skills, it was a very… smooth start. It was even more so because I had expected a rank in the late teens.

[Da-na niiim…]

Suddenly, I heard the Helper’s voice from a distance in the air.

I knew the reason why it was sobbing, regardless of my rank.

First, failure for one Main Quest is confirmed. That damn quest to get within the Top 7 of the total rankings.

But looking at the rank of the Self PR video, I suspected the other Main Quest was a success.

If I had failed both Main Quests, there’s no way the game would be leaving me alone like this.

This meant there was still hope.

So from now on, I had to snap out of it and focus even more.

How this ranking would act in the next mission would soon be revealed.

Sure enough, the MC, who had been calling out the top-tier trainees for a while, soon looked toward the CEO.

The CEO then stood up from his seat, stalled for a moment, and spoke.

“First, trainees from 1st to 5th place, please come out to the front of the stage.”