From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

"Hey, ladies."

The group of four turned around, looking at the self-proclaimed 'popular' boy who legally changed his name into one of the most cliche Western Korean names out there.

Na-ri turned around with a sigh. "What are you doing here, Byungho?"

The guy wearing a large hoodie paired with a red snapback and blocky, dark sunglasses and jeans that showed a part of his ass crack shook his head in disappointment. He removed his sunglasses and revealed his unusually kind-looking eyes.

"Babies, I told you—I'm no longer Byungho. It's Daniel. Daniel Kim," he said, biting his lip.

Jia sighed and turned to face him. "Alright, Daniel. Do you need something? We're kind of in a hurry."

They were rushing to go home since they still had to set up their gadgets to stream EVE's music video. There were still more than six hours left until their music video was released, but Jia wanted to prepare herself for as long as possible.

"Glad you asked, Jia," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. However, Jia was a tad bit taller than him, so it felt a bit awkward.

"Are you guys going to the Abracadabra Festival? he asked. "It's the last one before we graduate."

Soo-min nodded. "I'm going!" she exclaimed. "In fact, the three of us already thought of going. Only Jia right here hasn't confirmed her attendance."

"Why aren't you going?" Daniel asked, feeling particularly sad that Jia wasn't going.

Jia shrugged and took a step back, causing Daniel's arm to fall from her shoulders.

"I don't know," she said. "I'm not big on festivals and stuff like that."

Wei chuckled and shook her head. "And yet you watched every live performance of Rising Stars there is."

"It's…different," Jia smiled, remembering June's face.

June was a different case. She'd swim through a sewer if it meant getting to watch June perform.

"But you should go," Daniel insisted, taking another step toward her. "The line-up this time is crazy! Well, it's crazy every year, but you really shouldn't miss this one."

"The line-up has already been announced?" Wei asked with wide eyes. "I thought it was going to be announced later in the afternoon?"

Daniel smirked and leaned against the wall. However, he missed and stumbled like a fool instead. He quickly caught himself and acted like nothing happened.

"Well, you see…I'm part of the technical committee, so I got to watch their rehearsals yesterday morning."

"Well, who is joining?" Soo-min excitedly asked, bouncing on her feet.

"Hmm," Daniel hummed. "There's Poison, that new group OCTA, LUNIX, BOYMYSTIC…"

"Oh, there's EVE, too."

Jia, who had tuned out their conversation mere seconds ago, now fully paid attention.

"What did you just say?" Jia asked, holding onto Daniel's shoulder.

The 'hip' guy blushed, surprised by Jia's bold action. "Umm, the performers for tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Jia exclaimed. "The artist you mentioned last…"

"EVE?"

Jia let go of Daniel and faced her friends. "I'm going," she said.

Daniel perked up and went to her side once more. "You're going?"

"We're definitely going," Jia nodded, already excited for the festival she didn't care about during her former years of college.

"Then," Daniel said, biting his lip and placing his sunglasses on. "Do you want to go with me as my date—"

"Let's go!" Jia excitedly exclaimed, not even looking at Daniel. "Let's go back to our dorms. I need to pick an outfit for June!"

Daniel paused. "Jia, I just asked you out on a—"

"What were you saying?" Jia asked, cutting him off. "Wait, never mind. We really need to go back. Thanks for telling us about the line-up, Daniel!"

With that, she held onto Wei's arm and dragged her back to the dorms.

Meanwhile, Daniel, whose pants were now on the verge of falling from his ass, clenched his jaw as he watched their retreating figures.

He could hear how Jia talked about this 'June' guy like a god…

And he didn't like it at all.

***

"Let's watch the music video," Akira said, turning on the TV after he gathered all his members in the living room.

"It's noon," Jaeyong deadpanned, taking a bite of the chicken they had just ordered.

Ren looked at the fried thing in disgust but, nonetheless, ate the oily goodness. Akira's chicken addiction has become more intense since they've been eating fried chicken almost every day.

"So?" Akira asked, popping the chicken's butt inside his mouth. It was his favorite part!

"You are aware that our music video comes out at 6 PM, right?" Ren asked.

"Of course," Akira smiled.

"Then, why'd you gather us so early?" Sehun asked. "Are we going to wait six hours or something?"

"We're not going to watch our music video, dummy! We're going to watch OCTA's."

"What? OCTA?" Zeth asked. "Why are we watching the music video of our competitor?"

"Exactly," Akira smiled, patting Zeth's back.

The group turned silent as they looked at Akira like he had gone crazy. Each and every day, he really became more like C-Jay and Jangmoon. Ren was afraid Jisung was going to be influenced by him, too.

"Your response doesn't make any sense whatsoever," Ren deadpanned.

"Exactly, Zeth!" he repeated himself. "They're our competitors—so it's wise to watch their stuff. If you guys want, we could watch a pirated version of their music video so we won't contribute to the views."

Jisung chuckled and shook his head. "That's so uncool, bro."

Akira clicked his tongue. "Who are you calling uncool?"

"Shut up and play the video," June said, his eyes already focused on the television.

He was a bit annoyed when Akira interrupted his alone time, but now, he wanted to watch OCTA's music video too.

Although he had heard the live version of their song during the rehearsals yesterday, he was still curious about the look and sound they were going for.

"I'll do the honors then," Akira said, navigating the page to YouWatch and going to OCTA's page. Akira clicked his tongue in annoyance when he saw they had a 2,000 subscriber count difference.

Then, he scrolled down to click on their latest video.

'HEATWAVE by OCTA'