Dahee momentarily went backstage during Speedo Sensei’s performance.
The staff was in chaos as the final stage was inevitably getting near.
“What are we going to do?” one asked.
Dahee bit her lip and sighed. She closed her eyes and began massaging the bridge of her nose.
“I don’t think we should go through with the surprise,” another muttered.
“If the last stage was with a talented singer, we wouldn’t have any problem.”
Dahee finally opened her eyes, and the staff turned to her with inquiry.
This was the worst part of the job—bearing the biggest decision.
In the end, Dahee sighed.
“Let’s proceed,” she said. “We aren’t going to change anything.”
Meanwhile, Philip and Zeno were already getting ready on stage.
Zeno stood a few meters away from Philip, his expression not giving anything away.
Philip chuckled. “You’re a good singer, aren’t you?” he asked.
Zeno turned to him before focusing his gaze back on the front. He was advised not to talk to the star until the stage was finished, so he just followed expressions.
Philip found it amusing, though, throwing his head back. With that, he patted Zeno’s shoulder.
“I remember when I was a contestant that I was really nervous and couldn’t even talk. You don’t have to be nervous, alright?” he winked.
Zeno pursed his lips and nodded.
Nervous, my ass!
He wasn’t nervous at all. He had already secured the 10,000,000 won.
If there was someone nervous between the two of them, then it was definitely Philip! Zeno could see how his hands trembled just a bit.
“You worked together, didn’t you?” Hyunwoo suddenly asked, turning to Risa and Ian. “You really have no clue about his singing talent?”
“No,” Risa said, shaking her head. She was very excited to find out, though.
Hyunwoo shrugged, focusing his gaze back on the two of them. Standing next to each other, Philip appeared quite ordinary.
Instead of him being the star, it seemed that it was Zeno instead.
Hyunwoo cleared his throat and placed the microphone before his lips.
“Everyone, we have come down to the last stage of the night,” he started off. “This time, instead of the ‘Truth Stage,’ we are going to reveal the last contestant’s voice through the ‘Collaboration Stage,’ the only place where they could sing with the most esteemed musicians of the century!”
The intense music was back, increasing the tension within the studio. Most of the audience discussed their guesses, but there was not a standard answer.
“I think he’s a good singer,” one of the girls next to Minji said.
“He’s too handsome to be a good singer,” another chimed.
Meanwhile, Minji pursed her lips. She hasn’t said anything after Doha’s stage. That was how nervous she was for her friend.
Finally, the music started, and Zeno’s face remained the same.
Hyunwoo stared at him and clicked his tongue. “You’re not a good singer, I bet,” he whispered.
He felt that the amount of good singers and bad singers was equal this time.
Philip Hwang’s biggest song, ‘From Afar,’ was played through the speakers, and it created an emotional atmosphere for everyone.
It was the first song he released independently after appearing on the show, and it spoke of his story as a security guard at an entertainment company.
Just then, the screen lit up behind them, showing a compilation of photos and videos along with emotional text embedded within them.
Zeno, Philip, and everybody else turned to the screen.
Philip gasped, turning to the cameras. “What is this?” he muttered.
Zeno glanced at him.
It seemed he didn’t know of such events.
“A guard whose dream he couldn’t protect…”
The screen faded in from black, revealing a grainy CCTV clip. A man in a security uniform stood by a backstage door, his eyes following the idols as they passed.
The clip then cut to a series of photos taken by Philip when he was on duty.
“For years, he stood at the edge of the lights… never stepping in.”
“He was always there. But no one saw him.”
A shot of him in the rain, holding an umbrella over a trainee rushing to a van.
“But dreams, even from afar, never die.”
The screen faded to black, and at that moment, the studio was already a mess.
“Crap,” Zeno muttered.
They were going the emotional route.
He glanced at the panelists and saw that most of them had glassy eyes. However, as he glanced at the staff and saw the blonde-haired head producer, he saw the panic in her eyes.
It seemed they expected Philip Hwang to pick a talented singer. Why else would they come up with such a nice surprise?
A star, back in the show that made him who he was, showing a stage that everyone could enjoy… it was perfect.
Unfortunately for them, the world wasn’t perfect.
He shrugged, preparing himself. He had only learned the song yesterday night, and it was pretty good.
The lyrics were written well, and it wasn’t too hard to sing. He couldn’t practice well, though. His walls were paper thin, and his neighbors would undoubtedly hear him.
It didn’t matter.
He had to break the emotional moment.
Finally, it was time for Philip to sing. However, before he could get a word out, a pair stood from the audience and began singing the first lines.
“I used to stand behind the velvet rope,
watching the lights and hearing their voices soar”
Philip’s eyes widened as he gazed at the sudden intruder. Then, another pair stood among the crowd.
“Sweeping the floors of dreams I could never hold,
guarding the gates but never the door”
Zeno pursed his lips. They were making this worse than it already was.
These people were Philip Hwang’s fellow contestants back in the fourth season.
A middle-aged man spoke to the microphone as the song continued in the background. “From the moment we practiced with you, we knew you had great potential.”
“Philip Hwang, we’re happy to see your success. This is why you should never give up.”
With that, the song led up to the pre-chorus, with Philip already having tears in his eyes.
Minji was sweating buckets. She could already see the disaster to be created once Zeno started singing.
“This is bad,” she muttered.
“They sang of love, of pain, of flying—
I hummed along, and my chest kept sighing
No one saw, no one knew,
but I wanted my voice to be heard, too”
Then, a small pause before the cameras focused on Zeno.
It was time to reveal the truth, and everyone, including their mothers and their dead grandparents, was hoping for Zeno to become a talented singer.
The crowd held its breath.
‘Sorry,’ Zeno merely thought, but he didn’t quite mean it.
With that, Zeno placed the microphone over his lips and prepared to sing the chorus.