I Unknowingly Rejected My Favorite

༺ All I Have To Do Is Quit! ༻

Like the other contestants, the spotlights on stage shone brightly on Luka.

「Hello! My name is Luka!」

A cheerful voice came out of her mouth, making me wonder if I was worrying for nothing.

As soon as Luka made her entrance, I could feel a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.

Today, Luka’s avatar wore a white dress that exuded neatness.

When she streamed, she usually wore hip outfits, but this time, it seemed like she wanted to match the theme of the song she had prepared for today.

It was the kind of outfit that would look good in an air conditioner commercial.

Especially the silver headband, which seemed to be the highlight, matched the outfit very well.

「Yes~ Luka-ssi, nice to meet you. I have a question for you. The third round of auditions is getting really heated right now, how are you feeling?」

「Ah~ Actually. Up until a while ago, I was staring at the number of viewers in real time.」

「But it turns out there are more people watching than I ever imagined.」

「If I have to explain it, it feels nice, even though I’m a little nervous.」

Her words made me wonder how many people exactly were watching to make her say that, so I checked it out. Woah, this was quite something…

[98,623 watching]

There were almost a hundred thousand people watching? Jeez.

It reminded me of how much of a hot topic Closer Project was.

Back during the first audition, they didn’t have this many people on stream.

Well, I guess more viewers joined in since then, and the fanbase for the candidates grew because of the clips that were spreading around and going viral.

「Have you felt how popular you’ve become recently?」

「Oh… umm… Honestly, I don’t think my brain’s registered the surge in popularity yet, but I think it’s true that the number of people visiting my stream has increased since I started auditioning. Hehe.」

「I see! Then can you briefly introduce what kind of performance you have prepared for today?」

「The song I prepared for today is…!」

Then, Luka started to explain her concept and song very neatly as if she had prepared her lines well.

「Then let’s go straight to Luka’s performance!」

A calm accompaniment flowed.

I could already tell it from her outfit, but I guess it was a great decision that I whaled on donos back when she held the vote for the song.

If this went well, I could say that I saved your life, Kim Doah.

The monthly salary for my part-time job was 500,000 won.

And I dropped a whopping 200,000 won on donos that day.

That was because I thought the song Luka was about to sing was perfect for her.

It would have been a global loss if the judges and everyone in the world were unable to hear it.

In contrast to her high energy just before, a calm first verse was laid over the accompaniment.

「Missing spring must mean I haven’t forgotten you yet.」

「In a season full of regrets, I find myself unchanged, still in the same place.」

Good…! Good…!

Feeling that Luka was popping off with the song, just like what she had shown during her stream the other day, I clenched my fists so tightly to the point that they started to sweat and immersed myself into the screen.

The camera showed the judges’ faces in between her performance, but since it was only their avatars that were shown, it was hard to tell if they were really smiling or not.

From what I had seen, it didn’t seem like she was falling behind Leah by that much, but…

When I scanned the chat while wondering if the viewers had a similar reaction to mine…

[oh. isn’t luka a pretty good singer? not bad]

[A mellow song like this can show her vocals better than a popular idol song, yeah.

[She’s still no way near Leah’s level lol. Needs more practice.]

Look at this bastard.

Just what does my Luka lack, huh?

I considered marking down that bastard’s username, but my eyes weren’t good enough to keep up with the ever-moving chat.

Though, those were mostly reactions from people who were seeing her for the first time, or the people who weren’t even her fans. As for the Pink Army, they were literally going crazy in the chat.

[THE BEST! LUKA-TAN! THE BEST! LUKA-TAN! THE BEST! LUKA-TAN! THE BEST! LUKA-TAN! THE BEST! LUKA-TAN! THE BEST! LUKA-TAN! THE BEST! LUKA-TAN! THE BEST! LUKA-TAN! THE BEST! LUKA-TAN!]

[FINALIST LUKA-TAN! WE LOVE YOU LUKA-TAN! FINALIST LUKA-TAN! WE LOVE YOU LUKA-TAN! FINALIST LUKA-TAN! WE LOVE YOU LUKA-TAN! FINALIST LUKA-TAN! WE LOVE YOU LUKA-TAN!]

Hiyaa… This place didn’t have a ban rule, so they were free to pop off like this.

If this was Luka’s stream, they’d be banned immediately for spamming.

Then again, the chat was moving so quickly that even the spam moved up in the blink of an eye.

Before I knew it, the song was reaching its climax.

「Will the spring we spent together return again?」

A high-pitched part signaling the beginning of the chorus.

「The warm sunlight and that blinding smile.」

That melody, the highlight that Luka had practiced countless times, and that made me realize who she was, echoed in my small room.

「Even now, you’re the reason I breathe.」

Keuuh…!

This…! This is it…!

Her voice didn’t crack, and the calm atmosphere she exuded was really good!

If this didn’t get her a pass, then no one should.

Besides, it wasn’t like they were going to choose based purely on the contestant’s singing ability!

She could sing this well, and she had that much charm. No way it wasn’t enough!

As the piano accompaniment died down, the camera showed the judges’ avatars again.

「Judges! What did you think of Luka-nim’s performance?」

「I will go first.」

Surprisingly, it was Blackstone who offered to comment first.

「I really enjoyed the performance. Luka-ssi.」

「Oh. Yes! Thank you!」

Luka’s avatar bowed its body.

「Since Shisho-nim will be taking care of everything related to singing, I’ll talk a little more about your streams.」

「Yesss.」

That middle-aged man’s gravelly voice also made me nervous.

「I knew Luka-nim even before the audition. I’ve personally watched your streams during my breaks, and viewers of my stream have also sent me your clips from time to time.」

Ooh… THAT Blackstone knew her?

Well. Luka wasn’t exactly a small streamer to begin with, so there were popular clips of her going around on the internet.

「Ahaha… Yes…」

Perhaps not expecting such words to come out of his mouth, Luka let out an awkward laugh.

「First of all. In the case of Luka-nim, I would like to make some strong recommendations to the other judges.」

「Oh. What is the reason?」

The president with the Taoist avatar propped his chin up and asked curiously.

「What I appreciate most about her is that she has a very good understanding of subcultures.」

「Of course, there will be existing idol fans and those who are suddenly attracted to this new project, but the people who are most invested and watching this project at the moment would be those who have been watching the contestants’ streams.」

「In a group that is pushing the keyword ‘Closer’ for closer communication, my opinion is that it would be good to have at least one member who understands the audience’s culture the best.」

「I felt sorry because there were some participants I gave a pretty harsh evaluation to. But seriously, if you watch Luka-nim’s stream, you’ll definitely understand what I’m talking about.」

「This person is very good at streaming.」

Wow… Blackstone, what are you…!

I thought he was going to throw shades at Luka, which made me fear for her life for a second there, but he did the exact opposite. Now, I felt nothing but gratitude toward him.

Was this how a dad felt when he heard his daughter getting a compliment at school?

「Hoho… Is it to that extent?」

「Ah. CEO Yoo, you should have a look at it when you have time.」

While that exchange was happening, a battle ensued in the chat, with other fanbases questioning whether her performance was really that good, and the Pink Army shouting that this was a matter of course.

「Shisho-nim! What do you think about the vocals?」

The host asked for the vocal teacher’s reaction.

「Uhmm… This is hard to say. Still. Based on the results alone, I think I’m on the positive side.」

「Actually, it’s hard to say that her vocals are complete or she’s really good at singing, but I can tell that she knows her voice very well.」

「It feels like she prepared the performance this way because she knows what others think of her voice and how it sounds when they hear it. Am I correct?」

The camera showed Luka’s avatar.

「Well, I gave it a lot of thought, but the bigger reason why I prepared this song is because I asked my viewers for their opinions. Hahaha…」

「Ah. So you took advantage of the hive mind.」

Shisho’s avatar burst out laughing.

Lastly, project leader Ha Saem began her evaluation.

「As Blackstone-nim said, Luka-nim is a very suitable talent for our project.」

Oh shit… She did it!

One person gave a rave evaluation. One person gave a “Not Bad” evaluation. Even Ha Saem gave her a good evaluation, so I was sure that Luka could at least pass this third round.

「However.」

Ah. Why. Again.

You said she’s a good fit. Let’s just move on.

「As far as I know, Luka-nim hasn’t been streaming for very long, and your streams tend to be on the shorter side… Hm… I’m a little doubtful about whether you can keep up with the project’s schedule or not.」

…This would be tricky.

My jaw dropped when Luka was asked about how she would realistically be able to keep up when she was also a student. It was definitely a challenge that Luka needed to overcome.

「Wellll… If you’re talking about my real life schedule…」

Luca grinned.

「All I have to do is quit!」

…Did that mean she’d quit our group project too?

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to laugh about this.

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