From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

As the sun rose from the skies, Jay entered the messy dorm with boxes of donuts in his arms. It was a new year, and the air seemed fresher than usual. He had a cheery smile on his face despite his early awakening.

He was already clad in an alligator-colored suit, light brown trousers, and his shades were in the shape of cat eyes. In short, he looked like a tacky yakuza member. However, his confidence impeccably covered the grotesqueness of his outfit.

He brought out his phone and connected it to the dorm's speakers.

A karaoke version of a nursery rhyme played loudly in the dorm, and he sang the lyrics passionately to wake up the members of EVE.

"Rise and shine, little bugs."

Rise and shine, I have hugs!

Rise and shine, there's so much love.

Rise and shine, or you'll ascend to the heavens above!"

June, being the lightest sleeper out of all of them, quickly woke up to the sound of C-Jay's voice. It seemed like he focused solely on being a manager since his voice has degraded since his participation in Rising Stars.

June woke up with a gasp, feeling like the devil had entered his room. However, when he opened his eyes, he was even more surprised.

"What the fuck?" he exclaimed loudly, causing the other members to wake up alarmingly.

Casper, hearing June's endangered voice, entered his room like a superhero tumbling into a scene. He assumed a fighting stance, his eyes zeroing in on the foreign body in the room—Jay.

"Wait, wait!" Jay exclaimed. "It's just me," he said, removing his kitty sunglasses.

June massaged his forehead before removing the covers from his body.

"What are you even doing here?" he snapped.

"To wake you up, of course! We have a meeting with Mr. Ong and some directors!" Jay cheerily exclaimed.

June glanced at the clock and saw it was merely 6 AM.

"This early?" he asked.

Jay shrugged. "It's what Mr. Ong requested. I think he's going golfing afterward, so he scheduled it early."

Just then, Akira and Jaeyong entered the room, and the two of them simultaneously exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh gosh. What is that creature doing here?" Akira asked in disgust.

"Creature?" Jay exclaimed, appearing offended.

"What are you wearing?" Jaeyong frowned. "You look like a tree with that color combination."

Jay looked at them with furrowed eyebrows before looking down at his outfit.

"These are the lucky colors of the year—alligator green and nipple brown!"

Jisung entered right then and there, but he quickly halted when he heard Jay's last statement.

"Alright, I'm going now," he said, leaving the room even though he just arrived.

Jay ignored the members' rude stares and explained they had a meeting for their projects for the year.

"Tell your members to get ready," Jay instructed Jaeyong. "We're leaving in 45 minutes."

Jaeyong sighed but nodded nonetheless.

***

The members of EVE were currently in their van, driving to Azure Entertainment. Most of them were still tired, so they decided to sleep during the short trip.

Meanwhile, June popped his earphones in and listened to the cover he had filmed before the year-end show started.

It was 'A Love Twice Lost' by Ryan Huang—the song he hated for a well-kept reason.

What Magic Mama said was right. As he kept singing the song, it started to grow on him, and by his tenth time singing it, he found himself filming it and wanting to post it on his account.

June quickly posted the short video and smiled when he saw positive comments right off the bat.

- He's fluent in Chinese?

- Why the hell is he hiding behind June's persona when he is a catch himself?

- If I can't have June, then I'll have June's impostor.

- It feels like he's singing this for his first love. Poor guy.

- Okay, he's growing on me.

- This just confirms that the dude behind this account isn't June. For all I know, June doesn't know how to speak Chinese this fluently.

It seemed like they still didn't believe he was June, though, which was honestly alright. He currently had around 75,000 followers, so June was sure he was going to accomplish his mission soon.

They finally arrived at the building, which looked a bit empty since it was only 7 AM.

They went to Mr. Ong's room and found a couple of important-looking people inside. The members entered while bowing respectfully.

Mr. Ong, in his signature swivel chair, enthusiastically greeted the boys.

"There you are! Thank you for coming this early," he smiled.

He was already in his golf attire, so June quietly sighed in disbelief.

"I watched your performance during the year-end show. I enjoyed it very much! I particularly liked June's performance in 'Father.' It brought me back to the times when my father was still around…"

Mr. Ong's voice got quieter as the sentence progressed, his gaze becoming absent. It seemed like he was remembering a very dark time, similar to the scene of the critique guy in that rat movie when he first tasted the dish the rat had made.

"Mr. Ong?" Jay asked, causing him to snap out of his thoughts.

Like a light switch, the CEO smiled once again.

"Sorry," he said, looking at Jay. "Hey, wait. Is that an alligator green coat?"

Jay proudly smiled. "It is," he smiled.

"It's pretty. I might buy one for myself."

As expected, weird people had similar tastes.

"Well," Mr. Ong said, changing the topic. "Sit down, boys. This meeting won't be long. We're just going to discuss your major projects for the first half of the year."

The boys excitedly sat down despite their tiredness.

This meeting had been delayed for quite some time, so they were looking forward to the projects they were going to be doing this year.

"First things first," Mr. Ong said. "I'll just get it out right away."

The members listened intently.

"I know you debuted not that long ago, but we're now thinking of preparing for a new album."

"You're going to have a comeback during the first quarter of the year!"

The members looked at each other with wide eyes, not expecting their comeback to arrive so fast. However, from a marketing perspective, it was pretty intelligent.

The group only had three years as a group, so they had to maximize their time together.

"Don't worry," Mr. Ong said. "It would be at the end of the first quarter—so around March to April."

The members sighed in relief, Akira looking the most visibly relaxed.

Preparing for their debut album has been tiring, so he couldn't imagine preparing for it right away.

"However, we're going to start with the preparations earlier this time," Mr. Ong continued. "We're already looking for producers to collaborate with."

June suddenly raised his hand, causing the others to turn to him.

"The title track," he started off. "Is it possible for it to be self-produced?"