Star Maker Chapter 75

As soon as the unit mission format was revealed, many people started suggesting ideas for a “winner’s group.”

The winner’s group referred to a lineup that could secure a sure win—a unit where the team would concentrate its full capabilities.

However, the winner’s group system came with an obvious flaw.

If the winner’s unit lost, the risk was simply too great.

That’s why most teams chose not to use the winner’s group strategy.

Except for Dream Girls.

Dream Girls was the only group among the five to adopt the winner’s group system.

Which was why Unit B had just delivered such an amazing performance.

Because…

Dream Girls’ winner’s group was Unit A.

A fierce yearning for the stage.

Seon-ho felt that energy as he looked at the members of Unit B, who had said little even in the waiting room at Music Box and left a faint impression.

Lucid, the leader.

Two Chinese members in charge of visuals.

A main vocalist with outstanding skills.

When Unit A had been formed with that lineup, the members of Unit B must have realized it immediately.

That Unit A was the winner’s group, and they themselves were the loser’s group.

The company may have denied it, but unless you were a fool, it was impossible not to know.

So they gritted their teeth and steeled themselves with determination.

And the result was the flood of awe from the Hainmel staff filling the entire the barbecue restaurant.

“What were their names again?”

“Not sure. They didn’t really stand out, so…”

“The tall one is Hayoon, and the other one was Hye… something.”

“Anyway, I think they’ll get some spotlight once this episode airs.”

“‘Not a Joke’ will dominate the music charts, but Unit B might gain some core fans.”

People nodded as they watched Dream Girls Unit B’s performance.

The song was good, the performers were good.

But most of all, it was their raw intensity on stage that hit the hardest.

“In the end, it’s like Personal Color and Dream Girls ended up with winner and loser groups facing off…”

“Deputy Kim.”

“Huh? Ah.”

The person addressed as Deputy Kim glanced at Jia and fell silent.

He had let slip his subconscious assumption that An Jia was in the loser’s group.

Meanwhile, the performance that had stunned everyone—Dream Girls’ Unit B—came to an end.

The studio audience on the TV screen erupted in cheers, shaken by this unexpected uprising from the underdogs.

The Dream Girls members, looking dazed, bowed to the audience. Then the scene transitioned into an interview with them.

Only one performance remained now.

Personal Color Unit B.

An Jia.

Even though everyone already knew it wouldn’t go well…

On screen, Jia calmly checked her in-ear monitors, then slowly stepped onto the stage.

The screen faded out of focus.

After the transition, the next scene was an interview with the audience panel regarding Jia’s performance.

—Isn’t it the loser’s group?

—Why do you think that? An Jia has done really well in previous performances.

A woman with long straight hair, who looked to be in her mid-twenties, hesitated before replying.

—I really like Jia too, and she did great in songs like “Vivid,” but… I just feel like she still lacks the strength to stand alone as a solo artist.

—Maybe it’s the loser group cleanup crew?

This time it was a high school boy in a school uniform with purple horn-rimmed glasses.

—Seeing the earlier performances, Jia noona actually sings better than I expected. She’s great at acting too, and really popular.

—Go on.

—With that level of singing and her popularity, I think she could easily beat another team’s loser group.

—So you’re saying Personal Color Unit B is the loser group?

—To be precise, they’re strong enough to beat a loser group, but not a winner group. But structuring the units like this puts more power behind Unit A.

The other interviews were similar.

Some people believed Jia would sing incredibly well, but more of them saw this as a strategy: combining decent singing ability with popularity to beat weaker opponents.

“They’re steering it.”

“They really are.”

“Could this mean…?”

The Hainmel staff were particularly sensitive to how broadcasts were edited.

Which was why, seeing how PD Nam Yunsoo was highlighting the lukewarm evaluations of Jia, one idea came to mind:

Could it be that An Jia is about to blow everyone away?

Or maybe she’s expected to perform halfway, and they’re hyping it up to support her?

At that moment, the title “Even Though I Know It Won’t Work” appeared on screen, and the intro began.

Led by piano, the intro of “Even Though I Know It Won’t Work” had a lyrical, sorrowful tone.

But that didn’t mean it lacked power.

At the core of the softness, there was a thick steel spine. Something that could only be described as resolve.

The intro wasn’t short.

Considering the current trend of jumping right into the vocals, this would be considered long.

And yet, it didn’t feel boring at all.

Because…

Jia’s immersed expression and gaze didn’t give anyone time to feel bored.

She wasn’t dancing.

She wasn’t even moving to the rhythm.

She simply stood still.

But it wasn’t a motionless stillness.

It was a forceful stillness that halted the audience’s thoughts—a pause to pull them in deeper.

The viewers might have simply watched in awe, but the actors, who lived and breathed performance, saw more.

“Wow, look at that expression.”

“Not too much, not too little… You can’t learn that kind of thing.”

“She looks too young for lead roles now, but give her five years. She could take over all the lead parts.”

“It’s kind of bittersweet, but sometimes it’s a relief to be in a supporting role.”

As the veteran actors exchanged thoughts, a younger actress with a youthful face chimed in.

Glancing toward Jia, she murmured,

“Honestly, I hope she’s not that good at singing too. Because… then I’d just be too jealous.”

The senior actors, guessing what the junior meant, fell silent.

And then Jia’s small lips parted.

Sometimes,

I feel this creeping sense of unease.

Like there’s this huge iron door in front of me,

A door with no key,

Completely blocking my way.

The moment her voice rang out, people saw Jia standing before a rusted iron gate.

And at the same time, they knew exactly what she was feeling.

She was anxious.

Standing helpless before a massive door that was never made to open.

It wasn’t just that her diction and delivery made the lyrics clear.

She wasn’t conveying lyrics.

She was conveying emotion.

She had taken out her heart and was handing it over, whole.

Sometimes,

I feel this weight of sorrow.

The air around me,

Pressing me down,

Like I’m submerged in deep water.

Seon-ho had goosebumps the moment he heard Even Though I Know It Won’t Work performed live.

It wasn’t because the song was good.

Though the song was undeniably good, that wasn’t what startled Seon-ho.

It was because, without even realizing it, he had suddenly recalled the princess from the novel while looking at Jia’s face, her expressions, her gestures.

The princess from that oddly titled novel, The Integral Calculus Mage, which served as the background for “Even Though I Know It Won’t Work.”

In that moment, Seon-ho was confused.

Was Jia immersed in the persona of ‘An Jia,’ the girl who clung desperately to personal color and wanted to sing?

Was she ‘Song Woohee,’ the character from High School in Melody who had fallen head over heels for musical theater?

Or was she the ‘princess’ from the novel?

Sometimes,

When strangeness and unfamiliarity

Fill my lungs completely,

And the sigh I exhale

Smells faintly of giving up—

As the song progressed, Seon-ho found the answer to his own question.

The Jia singing “Even Though I Know It Won’t Work” was none of the three.

And at the same time, she could be all of them.

In other words, if the audience listening to the song had ever experienced something like what Jia was going through, they could identify with her completely.

Seon-ho had written “Even Though I Know It Won’t Work” because he was curious about the limits of Jia’s immersion.

But limits only exist when they can be measured.

Jia had shown incredible immersion even with short lyrics.

Now, placed in a situation where she knew the full story, Seon-ho could be sure of it.

Jia was a genius.

A genius who, more than anyone else, possessed the talent to perform as the protagonist of a song and deliver it to an audience.

So.

Now was the time to show effort.

Time to show the weight of the sweat she had shed in order to perform “Even Though I Know It Won’t Work” flawlessly.

Seon-ho could feel the strength in Jia’s grip on the microphone.

But that strength wasn’t a technical one to support her voice.

It was the strength summoned to cry out, earnestly, for something she wanted to do—even though she knew it wouldn’t work.

Jia’s immersion didn’t break.

And in that state, the high notes began.

But—

Even so—!

I just can’t,

I just can’t—!

As the three perfectly controlled high notes poured out, the staff let out unconscious gusts of breath.

It wasn’t a deliberate reaction—it was the kind of surprise that didn’t even allow for a conscious response, only half-formed sounds escaping in awe.

Seon-ho knew how much sweat Jia had poured into preparing for this moment.

Until now, MOK had been quietly drawing lines around Jia’s abilities.

“She’s good at acting, so she should focus on that.”

“She barely has enough time to practice her acting—what’s the point of vocal training?”

That’s why she was usually given easier parts that still let her show her charm—like freeze-time moments at the center of choreography for facial acting, or key point choreography.

Even Jia herself had, perhaps without realizing it, accepted the limits others set for her.

But Seon-ho had believed in her.

So he had demanded a higher standard.

During Vivid, the preparation time had been short, so she couldn’t completely pull it off.

Instead, she played to her strengths—

Showing such powerful immersion that the voices of the other members seemed like mere background.

People who saw that Jia said she deserved a perfect score.

But Seon-ho believed she could score even higher.

And now, the Jia who had earned his trust had shattered those imposed boundaries.

Behind today’s performance was Seonho’s unwavering faith in her.

The smallest things,

things so small they seem trivial,

are sometimes the hardest to let go of.

After the resolute murmur that followed the high notes, the chorus returned.

Even though I know it won’t work

Even though I know it won’t work

I can’t endure it without dreaming

Even though I know it won’t work

Even though I know it won’t work

I can’t endure it without dreaming

Even though I know it won’t work

Even though I know it won’t work

It’s the hope that lets me hold on

Even PD Nam Yunsoo, who rarely showed reaction, couldn’t help it for Even Though I Know It Won’t Work.

The camera moved slowly, capturing audience members in tears.

Only they knew what they had given up.

Maybe there was more than one thing they had abandoned because they knew it wouldn’t work.

They might have given up on their dreams due to money, or sacrificed their pride for their family.

Because they knew it wouldn’t work.

But in that moment, they were receiving comfort. Or perhaps carving a new resolve into themselves.

Through Jia’s song.

Jia, too, was being comforted by the audience’s response.

That dream she’d almost given up on because she thought it would never work—being a singer—wasn’t something to give up on after all.

Despite no exchange of words between singer and audience, the stage had become a space of perfect communication.

And when the entire song ended…

Clap clap clap clap.
Clap clap clap clap.

All five hundred audience stood for a standing ovation.

And it wasn’t just those on TV.

The High School in Melody staff also gave a round of applause to Jia, who looked embarrassed.

Then, a single line from the High School in Melody music director shocked everyone.

“What?!”

“Really?”

“No way…!”

And the subdued applause exploded again, even louder than before.

The music director had revealed that Even Though I Know It Won’t Work was an official OST for High School in Melody.

The fact that a competition song from Idol War was actually an OST for High School in Melody had been a closely guarded secret.

If it leaked early, it could have led to accusations of overpromotion or fairness issues.

So only a few high-level execs had known, and they’d kept it under wraps. The rest of the staff only knew that Jia was singing an OST for High School in Melody.

“The lyrics for ‘Even Though I Know It Won’t Work’ were written by Writer Min. They’re lines straight from the script.”

To this, Writer Min Heeyoung pointed at Seon-ho and added,

“To be exact, Seon-ho completed the song after reading my script.”

All eyes turned to Seon-ho, who gave a awkward smile.

Then someone asked,

“So when will the OST actually air? It wasn’t in today’s episode.”

“Tomorrow. It’ll be in Episode 2.”

It was PD Wi Taewon’s answer.

Then the CP clapped once, pulling everyone’s attention.

“I’ve got a homework assignment for everyone. Leave a comment and vote for Jia’s song today. It’ll help High School in Melody, too.”

The cheeky assistant director who had suggested a toast earlier raised his hand high.

“I already finished my homework.”

“Me too!”

“I already voted… Should I add a few more comments?”

Laughter rang out, and the “Drop the Survey!” toast echoed energetically through the BBQ joint.

In the meantime, Jia and Seon-ho shared a smile full of mutual trust.

The next day.

Episode 2 of High School in Melody aired.

And Even Though I Know It Won’t Work was inserted as the OST within the episode.

But there was no sudden surge in the music charts or the portal sites going wild.

Because even before the broadcast of High School in Melody,

Even Though I Know It Won’t Work was already sitting at the top of the charts.

The portal sites had already been set ablaze.

TL : I think I can imagine the music somewhat if I ask my brain to play the lyrics in different singers voices like hearing these lyrics in Taylor Swift’s voice in my mind.

But—
Even so—!
I just can’t,
I just can’t—!

Or with Shawn Mendes in this part.

Even though I know it won’t work
Even though I know it won’t work
I can’t endure it without dreaming
Even though I know it won’t work
Even though I know it won’t work
It’s the hope that lets me hold on

Might just be my dumb ass tho. I don’t know, lol.