From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

"Cause I'm tongue-tied, and I'm hypnotized."

"Need you with me for life."

"One, you're the one for me."

"Every single time you look into my eyes."

"You're the coffee to my mornings..."

Jia sighed in disappointment as they left the studio.

"I can't believe they still didn't win in a music show yet," she said, feeling sad that the boys hadn't gotten an award for this comeback.

"I know," Bora sighed. "But last week, MATCHSTIX's digitals were definitely better. I won't worry too much, though."

"Why?" Jia asked.

"Just close your eyes for a second and listen intently," Bora instructed.

Jia clicked her tongue and closed her eyes just as Bora had said. Then her eyebrows raised in surprise when she heard the familiar tune being sung by a number of people.

Jia opened her eyes and found Bora smirking with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"They're all singing the song," Jia muttered.

"They are," Bora said. "Which means only one thing—it's going to be a hit."

***

"Our song is 15th on the charts right now!" Jisung exclaimed with wide eyes, startling everyone who was in the car.

"What?" Zeth asked in confusion. "I thought 'Skyrocket' dropped already. Did it rise to the 15th spot again?"

"Not 'Skyrocket!' I'm talking about 'Luster.' Look," he said, showing his phone to his members.

They turned to Jisung and looked at his phone with narrowed eyes. Indeed, Luster was on the 15th spot in the music chart, just right below MATCHSTIX's title track.

"Not only that, but we're trending on Navel, too!" Ren exclaimed. "They must be searching for our song."

Smiles adorned their faces as they scrolled through their respective phones, reading comments that people had left under 'Luster.'

- I came here because my daughter was humming the song. I really like it.

- This feels like something I would listen to while in high school!

- I came to watch a music show a while ago and heard this song for the first time. I couldn't get it out of my head, so here I am.

- Honestly, this song's really good. Probably even better than Skyrocket.

- More songs like this, please!

"I knew they were going to like this song better," Akira said. "We should have pushed for it to become the title track."

Jay smirked. "I think this is better, though. Now, we can prove to that shitty tiddy bear that he made the wrong choice."

Meanwhile, Ted, who was brushing his teeth, sneezed loudly, causing the foam inside his mouth to splatter across his mirror.

"Aish," he cursed. "Is somebody talking about me?"

Just then, his work phone rang, and he was ready to yell at whoever was nterrupting his beauty regimen since he was already in a bad mood.

"Yah! I'm off work right now..."

"Oh, sorry," Mari apologetically said.

There was a moment of silence as Ted let the situation sink in. Was that...Mari just now?

"I guess I'll just tell you at work tomorrow—"

"No! No," Ted quickly said, his tone suddenly shifting to a sweet one.

"What do you need?" he asked, nervously chuckling.

"Are you sure? We can end this call—"

"No need," Ted quickly intercepted. "I'm all ears."

He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath, wanting to punish himself for making Mari uncomfortable.

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that EVE's song is rising on the charts. They're currently in the 8th spot right now."

"What?" Ted asked with wide eyes. "In the top 10? But I thought they were out of the top 50 now."

"Yeah, it didn't chart well in the beginning, but it's getting some traction after their live performance on a music show was uploaded."

"So, at this point, the song might even beat Oasis in terms of numbers?" he excitedly asked.

"If it goes like this, then yes," Mari said. "Aren't you happy for the boys?"

A small smirk emerged from Ted's lips.

"Of course, I'm happy for the boys," he said.

But most importantly, he was happy for himself. His song was finally back on the charts, and he was ready to see it rise even higher and higher!

"We should congratulate ourselves, too," Ted continued.

"For what?" Mari asked in confusion.

"We also did a great job with the song."

"Well, I guess we cleaned up some parts. Still, it was the boys who worked the hardest," she said.

"What do you mean?" Ted asked. "This song wouldn't have been created without the two of us."

"It was, though," Mari said.

Ted was getting more confused by the minute. So, he grabbed his other phone and went straight to the charts. Once he saw the song sitting on the 8th spot, he felt his eye twitch.

"Mari, the song that you were talking about..."

"...is 'Luster,' of course!"

Ted's jaw clenched as he gripped his phone tightly. He held himself back so he wouldn't throw it to the mirror.

"Then...why did you call me about it?" he asked, trying to calm himself down.

"Why not?" Mari chuckled. "These boys worked hard for the comeback, and we also are the main producers of the album. I just thought you deserved to know."

Ted's breathing became ragged as he scrolled down the chart to see where 'Skyrocket' was. Currently, it is in the 75th spot. It wasn't too bad since it was still in the top 100 songs. However, the fact that his song was beaten by a B-side track created by the members made him feel like trash.

"Oh! It just went up to 7th," Mari giddily said. "Goodness, these boys are going to break their records. Maybe we should have really listened to them and made this the title track. Nonetheless, I think this is also good—"

"Mari," Ted said, not able to take it anymore.

"Yeah?" Mari asked.

"Don't talk about this anymore," he said before turning off the call.

Then, he slammed his work phone on the table before resting his palms on the sink. He tried calming his breathing, but it was still pretty labored.

Then, as he glanced at his phone, he saw that 'Luster' was, indeed, already at the 7th spot in the music chart.

"Fuck," he exclaimed, grabbing his phone and throwing it to the bathroom wall.

The gadget exploded into pieces while Ted merely looked at it.

"I was beaten," he muttered.