Rayen and the others stared at the two hosts as the countdown started. The audience onstage also counted along.

"The winner of this week's Top Song is..."

As these words left the mouth of one of the hosts, the whole venue was filled with drumbeats.

After one last beat, they finally uttered the name of the winner.

"Congratulations... DARIA!"

As soon as the name was announced, the confetti rained down on everyone. DARIA's fans also burst out in deafening cheers. Shouts of congratulations echoed throughout the whole venue coming from both below the stage, as well as from the other eight performers.

Among them, the most enthusiastic about their win was actually Rayen and the whole SEEDZ.

'Hell, yeah!'

ATOMIC lost.

After the other performers shook hands with DARIA, they also trotted toward them. Wide smiles were plastered on the faces of each of the members of SEEDZ as they shook the hands of the winner.

When it was Xi Huan's turn, a party popper suddenly appeared in her hands. With one twist, it popped, covering them with another set of confetti, especially Yona.

Yona and the others blinked in stunned silence.

Where did the party popper pop out from?

"Hehe, congratulations!" Xi Huan said.

"T-Thanks..." Yona muttered.

Finally, when Xi Huan walked away from them, Xu Jiji approached. The members of DARIA were still confused about what had just happened when a fairly cute guy approached them with slightly flushed cheeks.

Xu Jiji slowly reached out for Yona's hand.

"Congratulations..." Xu Jiji muttered while holding her hand.

Yona stared at Xu Jiji's hand, clasping hers. Xu Jiji continued holding it without shaking it. His eyes were glazed, as though he was resisting the urge to cry.

For some reason, Yona felt uncomfortable. She tried to pull her hand back.

Finally, Xu Jiji realized what he was doing, but he didn't let go of her hand immediately. Instead, he shook it vigorously, almost shaking Yona's entire body.

"C-Congrats again!" Xu Jiji said amidst the dizziness that Yona felt.

Then, he ran away, letting go of her at last.

"... Ah, thank you," Yona could only mutter after the dizziness subsided, but Xu Jiji couldn't hear her anymore.

When Xu Jiji joined his team, Yeo Haru playfully jabbed at him.

"What was that? Do you have a crush on them?" Yeo Haru asked.

His words earned Xu Jiji's glare. "I'm just happy for them."

Yeo Haru only chuckled. However, Xi Huan suddenly clicked her tongue. Upon hearing this, Yeo Haru turned toward her.

"What?"

Xi Huan disappointedly shook her head. "Did you already forget that Jiji was once a girl?"

Suddenly, Yeo Haru was stunned. "Ah?"

The other members: "....."

It seemed like he totally forgot.

Meanwhile, Edens and Darings also watched as the members of SEEDZ enthusiastically celebrated DARIA's win. This warmed the hearts of the fans.

"Aww. Aren't they so friendly?"

"They're truly happy about DARIA winning. So polite!"

"No hate. I'll try to support them casually from now on too!"

"Hehe, the cute guy seemed to be mesmerized by our princess. He couldn't even stop looking back at her."

"Who's that cute guy? I want to bring him home!"

"Congratulations, DARIA!"

"How did Xi Huan sneak that party popper inside?"

After congratulating DARIA, all performers retreated backstage. From the door, they could still hear the rumbling sounds coming from beyond it.

"Encore! Encore! Encore!"

The hallway vibrated with shouts from the audience. Before the members entered their waiting room, DARIA's song played again, muffled by the walls separating the backstage.

...

Even though the live broadcast was already over, the group was still quite busy. After a short rest, Adrian had dragged everyone out of the waiting room to film short content with the other groups.

In his words, this was the perfect chance to establish connections. Plotter also wasn't against it. Besides, other groups were also doing it. Even the week's winner did.

When DARIA and SEEDZ met again, they all exchanged polite smiles. The earlier enthusiasm from SEEDZ had vanished, replaced with awkwardness.

No one requested to film a challenge with each other first. After all, the two were both rookies without any prior connections with each other. They were also of opposite genders.

To be friendly right off the bat... If they weren't careful, there might be unpleasant articles that would show up on the trending chart the next day.

Unable to bear the awkward atmosphere, Xi Huan snatched the phone from Adrian and casually approached them.

"Let's film a challenge!"

Yona smiled. "Oh, okay."

With that, the two groups awkwardly filmed both their challenges. Right after, they expressed their gratitude to each other and finally went their separate ways.

The only one that SEEDZ didn't interact with was ATOMIC. Aside from the reason these two groups did not get along right after their first meeting, ATOMIC had also left early from the venue.

That was quite fortunate. In a sense, they were spared from filming content with that arrogant group against their wishes just to keep up appearances.

After that, the group left the venue as well.

Inside the van, Yeo Haru had crashed out in his seat, snoring from time to time. Annoyed, Ren seemed to want to cover Yeo Haru's mouth, but restrained himself. However, it was Drake who couldn't resist, snuffing out Yeo Haru's snores by stuffing his mouth. Yeo Haru strangely did not wake up from this.

Finally, the van became peaceful.

Just as Rayen was about to fall asleep too, he suddenly remembered something.

'Right. I should probably claim my rewards for the ranking mission.'

Rayen took out his phone, immediately tapping on Idol:Revive's icon. However, just as the app launched, Rayen's forehead creased.

'This is odd...'

Wouldn't a pop-up window immediately appear whenever he finished his mission? However, he had already checked his phone earlier when he received his merits, yet he had not received any notice of a successful mission.

'It can't be... right?'

Rayen opened his status window to check, tapping on his Team Skill stat. Another window appeared right away, just like what he expected.

But it would have been better if what he expected hadn't happened.

"....."

[Ranking Mission in progress...]

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