"Who was that?" Xi Huan asked as she walked beside Xu Jiji.

Meanwhile, Xu Jiji had a confused expression on his face. It took him a while to respond to Xi Huan's question.

"My brother..."

"Eh???"

Earlier, before Bai Huanji could even react to their unexpected meeting, Xu Jiji immediately ran away.

With the pressure from the upcoming performances, he had the urge to go to the restroom to calm down. But because of his gender transformation, he felt quite awkward sharing the same restroom with the other male participants.

That's why, he grabbed Xi Huan, who somewhat shared the same circumstances as him for being a fake man, to find a fairly secluded restroom.

However, since this area was just created inside the Scenario Studio and wasn't somewhere they frequented, he wasn't familiar with its layout. He didn't know that that restroom was for the public audience to use, leading to that situation.

But why's Bai Huanji here?

'He's so tall now...'

After seeing his brother had already grown up to be a handsome man, Xu Jiji couldn't help his eyes turning red.

However, he couldn't just run up and hug him even if he wanted to. That's why he could only choose to run away. Still, her restlessness and panic had somewhat disappeared.

Knowing that Bai Huanji was watching, she felt at ease.

Xi Huan probably felt her complicated emotions and went silent.

...

Bai Huanji had the exact same emotions brewing in his heart as he walked back to the audience area.

Just as he arrived in his seat, he noticed a new person beside him. It was another tall man. Despite the dark environment, this man insisted on wearing his sunglasses.

Can he even see something with that?

When Bai Huanji stood in his place, the staff members hushed the audience. The show will probably start soon.

Minji and Seoyun excitedly waited for their idols onstage, gripped with nervousness. Bai Huanji also felt nervous for some reason.

Finally, the darkness receded when the lights on the stage flickered open. Two figures slowly ascended the stage.

The grand opening for the finals began.

Yeon Miwol, with her graceful white long gown, stood in the middle of the stage. The audience had long grown used to Yeon Miwol's presence as the emcee, however, the person beside her was a different topic.

The audience below the stage let out a large cheer.

"Han Jeongwoon!!!"

"Han Jeongwoon is a guest emcee for today's round?"

Not only the audience onsite felt surprised. Even the fans watching the show thru livestream screamed and barraged the comment section.

– Daddy Jeongwoon is here! He's come to see their baby Haru!

– One Yeon Miwol and Han Jeongwoon together is enough to fulfill my day (blessed emoji)

– My Goddess and God together blessing Flower Garden with their popularity crumbs. I approve!

"Good evening, our dear audience! We've made you wait for so long," Han Jeongwoon said.

Yeon Miwol took up her microphone with a bright smile. "The final round is here! Are you ready, audience?!"

The audience cheered in response.

"Well, then. Let's not make you wait anymore!"

"Let the finals begin!"

...

Backstage, the participants nervously waited for the show. Rayen watched the audience cheering through the monitor, feeling even more overwhelmed by their gesture.

Fans held banners with their names.

After a few sweeps of the camera of the entire audience area, Rayen felt something amiss.

With only 14 participants left, he could easily spot it.

He could see his name, Adrian's name, everyone from their team's names, as well as from the other team, but he hadn't spotted any banner with Ara and Oh Heejun's name.

Rayen could still think of a possibility that Oh Heejun had no fans that came to watch the finals, but Ara... She's supposed to be one of the participants who had a high chance to debut.

Yet no one came for her?

Rayen sat at the corner and pulled out his phone. He went to the system support chat. This was a feature added recently after the big incident.

It was supposed to be used by the participants to immediately report any problems they encounter. But one of these days, Rayen would only use it as an excuse to communicate with Mini Plotter without raising suspicion from his teammates.

[Hey.]

A reply immediately appeared on his screen.

[Yes?~]

[How will you explain to the fans Ara and Oh Heejun's... withdrawal from the show.]

Rayen avoided saying the word disappearance. Just thinking of that word gives him a traumatic flashback of that incident.

Soon, Mini Plotter's response arrived.

[No need.]

[No need?]

[Ara and Oh Heejun's disappearance is a special case.]

Rayen's lips twitched. Even if he wanted to avoid mentioning that word, Mini Plotter had no problems with it.

So, he could only ignore it and type another question.

[Special case? What do you mean?]

[Normally, when a participant is eliminated, you might think they disappeared. However, it's not really the case. When a participant gets eliminated, they just revert back to being in their seed forms.

As you already know, Ara and Oh Heejun didn't get eliminated. Their souls got destroyed, so normal people's memories of them got destroyed along with their souls.]

Unable to think of a reply, Rayen's fingers hovered on his screen.

'So that's why the Overseers were silent.'

[But why do we still remember them?]

[Do you still consider yourself a normal person?]

Once again, Rayen's lips twitched.

[Even if you're not considered the same as Entities, you're also not normal.]

[Then what am I?]

Mini Plotter didn't respond. Instead, a system message appeared at the bottom of the chat.

[If you need immediate assistance, please don't hesitate to message. We will get back to you as soon as possible!]

'Seriously? You're just gonna leave me hanging like that?'

Rayen sighed in frustration and pocketed his phone. Continuing to watch the audience, the nervousness had come knocking again.

Yeon Miwol's face appeared on the monitor screen.

"I know that all of you have been waiting for this moment. Before that though, we first have to introduce the first team that will perform tonight. Jeongwoon-ssi, who do you think it will be?"

Han Jeongwoon gently laughed. His current expression was vastly different from the time that Rayen met him as their mentor.

"Let's see," Han Jeongwoon said. "For tonight's first performance..."

Yeon Miwol continued his words. "We'll begin by randomization!"

A roulette appeared on the screen bearing the two team's numbers.

"Spin the roulette!" Yeon Miwol announced.

In her words, the roulette started spinning. Drums rolled, making both the hearts of the audience and the participants backstage gripped with nervousness.

Gradually, the roulette stopped spinning.

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