Episode 2
It’s already been a week since this strange thing happened.
After making a deal with that cotton puff, I opened my eyes and found myself in a shabby goshiwon.
Dding!
A strange alarm went off.
Congratulations! You have become “Yoon Cheong.”
From now on, you must save the doomed girl group, **“Steel Blue”!
This place is a little different from your world.
To put it simply, you could call it a parallel universe.
Everything is the same as your world—except for one thing.
The person named Baek Nokha has never existed in this world. And never will.
A game-like pop-up window appeared before my eyes.
You have entered the body of a person named “Yoon Cheong” from 10 years ago, based on your world’s timeline.
And now, you must fulfill two of Yoon Cheong’s wishes.
Yoon Cheong’s first wish is—
[Debut as 1st place in the agency survival show, Make a New Color.]
…?
What?
Baffled, I tried to recall who “Yoon Cheong” was.
“Yoon Cheong… Yoon Cheong…”
Ah, I remembered.
When I debuted, there was a survival program airing on cable called Make a New Color.
It was a debut survival show hosted by Colors, one of the five major agencies in the country, to launch a new girl group.
All the female trainees at Colors competed for a chance to debut.
Yoon Cheong was one of the trainees on that show.
I didn’t get to watch it properly because I was so busy back then… but it was popular enough that I knew the gist.
“But I thought she did debut?”
So… what’s this wish?
[Debut as 1st place in the agency survival show, Make a New Color.]
She wants to debut in first place?
I frowned.
She did debut… but what rank was it?
The trainees who got confirmed through the show debuted a year later as the girl group Steel Blue.
There were five of them, I think?
I’d crossed paths with them once because our promotions overlapped.
One of them was good at singing—I remember guessing she was the main vocal.
“Did she debut in 5th place or something? I mean, debuting at all is a blessing. Does it have to be 1st place?”
I stayed lying in bed, too puzzled to move.
Then—
Bzzzzzzzzz.
My phone buzzed beside me.
But something felt off.
“This phone… this is my phone.”
What the heck? Didn’t I enter someone else’s body?
Why do I have my phone?
And it’s the phone I had 10 years ago?
Too confused and scared to touch it, I just stared at it as it buzzed louder.
BZZZZZZZ—
I had no choice but to pick it up. A notification appeared on the screen.
…A news alert?
[Yoon Cheong selected as final member of Make a New Color.]
Wait, this article—it’s from my world.
I clicked it without thinking.
The fifth and final member of Make a New Color has been confirmed.
She is trainee Yoon Cheong, who was surrounded by controversy over her lack of confidence and poor social skills.
Despite placing last (12th) in viewer popularity votes, Yoon Cheong was chosen as the final member through the judges’ pick, “Color Choice.”
Senior and judge Do Heeyoung, a 12-year veteran from the girl group Greyish, cited “the need for a main vocal” as her reason for choosing Yoon Cheong.
Dding!
While I was still reading, another alert popped up, right on cue.
[Yoon Cheong’s selection stirs controversy?]
“They call everything a ‘controversy’ these days.”
I clicked it, even though I was already tired of this nonsense.
I needed to understand what was going on.
Kim Mo-kyung, a director at Colors, said she chose Yoon Cheong because “her voice can ground the group. She’s the final puzzle piece to complete Steel Blue’s lacking skills.”
But netizens criticized the judges’ decision, saying it ignored the viewers’ opinions.
So that’s why she wanted to debut in 1st place.
…She must’ve been really hurt. Being at the center of controversy like that.
Every trainee dreams of debuting. Just debuting is enough to be thankful for.
But still, being hurt is natural.
She’s only human.
If you’re getting hate comments before even debuting, of course it’s going to hurt.
It must’ve felt like the whole world hated her.
“But seriously, what’s with this phone?”
I unlocked the screen and poked around. But nothing else worked.
The only two things that worked were opening the news notifications and…
…the Contacts app.
“Why is the Contacts app the only other thing that works?”
Nothing made sense.
At least I could keep opening the news alerts even after viewing them once.
I wanted to check more articles, but the phone had no internet.
A truly uncooperative phone.
“Still… maybe I should be grateful even for this much.”
…Looks like I’ve made a deal with the devil, huh?
That cotton puff… must’ve been a demon.
That would explain everything.
“Yeah. I hope it was a demon. At least demons can grant wishes.”
I looked in the mirror on the desk at Yoon Cheong’s face—now my face.
I hadn’t looked closely before, but Yoon Cheong was actually quite pretty.
Pretty enough to stand out even in the looks-saturated idol industry.
“I think she’s way prettier than I was when I debuted.”
Well, I didn’t become famous because I was super pretty anyway.
In fact, I was just average for an idol.
Of course, my fans said I was the prettiest in the world…
But that’s something I wanted them to hear from me.
When I debuted, I didn’t stand out much because of mismatched styling, makeup, and hair.
I looked better later thanks to improved styling and camera angles.
“With a face like this, she should’ve been way more popular.”
She had talent, too.
And she was at a major agency, so she would’ve had solid promotions.
So why… wasn’t she popular?
As my curiosity built up—
Dding!
Another notification came in.
[Make a New Color Episode 1 now available!]
[Would you like to watch it now?]
…Can this thing read my mind?
“She wasn’t popular for a reason.”
I felt bad for Yoon Cheong, but this was just the honest truth.
I came to this conclusion the moment I started watching Episode 1.
Out of the 55-minute episode, she appeared for maybe 3 minutes.
And not even 3 minutes alone—those were group shots.
And in those brief moments, all I felt was despair.
The real owner of this body, Yoon Cheong…
Honestly…
Had zero stage presence.
And that was being generous. No charisma. No social skills. Not even basic entertainment instincts.
Both on stage and off… she was like a rock.
These survival shows thrive on interpersonal chemistry, but she had none of that either.
She barely spoke.
Even when someone talked to her, all she could manage was a meek, “Uh… yeah…”
“No wonder she got no screen time and wasn’t entertaining.”
The dance studio scenes were just as bad.
She could sing, sure—but her dancing and facial expressions were a disaster.
She couldn’t even stay in formation and bumped into other trainees.
But I didn’t think she was pathetic.
Because I think… I get it.
Just a hunch, but the “original” Yoon Cheong…
Has camera phobia.
Stage fright, too.
Ten years.
That’s how long I’ve been in the entertainment industry.
Twenty, if you count trainee years. I might not be the most famous, but I’ve earned my stripes.
In this industry, you meet all kinds of people.
The ones who survive usually fall into a few categories.
People with crazy talent, people who work their butts off, people with unshakeable mental strength, etc.
The ones who don’t survive?
People who get into scandals. People who lose their focus. And… people who are too soft-hearted.
This place is brutal.
Soft-hearted people can’t last long. It’s not their fault they break.
It’s the system’s fault for chewing them up.
Anyway, Yoon Cheong fits the last type.
A deeply gentle soul.
I can tell—she’s got a really weak aura.
“…At least she’s not unpopular because she has a bad personality.”
Those kinds are the hardest to help.
If you’ve had a trash personality pre-debut, chances are you’ve always been that way.
Debuting is one thing—I can help with that.
But after that?
Even with strict management, your past still exists.
When scandals or past controversies blow up, there’s no fixing it.
But being timid or uncharismatic? That’s not a crime.
At this age, it’s rare not to be fragile.
She’s only 20. Practically a baby.
Well, being soft is something I can fix.
“If there’s one thing I do know—”
It’s mental strength and stage presence. I’ve mastered those.
Dding!
[Tutorial Complete!]
[Tutorial reward being prepared…]
[Yoon Cheong’s memories until age 19have been delivered!]
[Would you like to view them? (Yes/No)]
“…That was all just a tutorial?”
There’s even a reward.
Her memories, huh?
No reason to say no. I’m going to be living as her now.
I clicked “Yes.”
And then—
I couldn’t speak for a long time.
