~

The second she saw Minjeong's message after their performance, Jimin smiled internally, pulled out her phone, and covered to prevent herself from giggling. Aeri was no stranger to this and approached Jimin when she saw the chat box interface floating before the latter's eyes.

"You know, you've been looking at that stupid chatbox for about a minute now," Aeri said, poking the latter on the arm. "Aren't you going to reply or what?"

At this, Jimin could only laugh in response, "Sorry, but I haven't been able to stop myself. She's so adorable."

Aeri grinned, "I don't see anything but a simple message, Jiminie. But, okay— I don't really understand anything love-related anyway. Who am I to judge?" she said teasingly, winking at Jimin.

The latter laughed, shaking her head.

After a few minutes, one of the competition's staff showed up and beckoned Jimin's team to follow. They were soon led outside the stage where all the contestants were seated on a dark gray couch in front of the stage next to the supposed judges' table. However, those judges were nowhere to be seen aside from Lee Sooman.

Everyone wondered and whispered among themselves where the three judges could be until the stage unexpectedly went pitch-black. The lights were turned off, leaving the contestants feeling lost as they weren't warned about this.

In a split second, two bright beams shone onto the contestants from above and the cameras were pointed at them to see their reactions. Their hands instinctively rose to cover their faces, shielding them from the light source. After realizing that nothing happened to them, they lowered their hands slowly, only to gasp as they stared at the bright light that moved to point onstage.

"Wait, aren't they-"

"Oh my god!"

"It's all of them! They're back!"

The first thing Jimin heard when her senses returned was the crowd screaming, and the rest of the contestants were also shouting excitedly as she tried to look around to see where the beam had been coming from when the lights were turned off. She blinked her eyes multiple times to adjust them to the brightness.

On the stage, seemingly as if all of this was planned, all of the eliminated contestants stood onstage acting like villagers while in various fantasy-like costumes. They were medieval-themed but magical. A huge portion of them were wearing lower and middle-class clothing. What stood out the most were the higher-ranked contestants who wore Nutcracker guard outfits.

Jimin wondered— in such a short time, how come the stage was turned into a fantastical village?

The industry truly has lots of wonders.

Stunned in awe by the sight, Jimin opened up her chatbox with Minjeong and immediately asked her lover if she was seeing this as the whole thing was being broadcast live. Minjeong replied within seconds to confirm that she was currently watching.

However, in reality, Minjeong was getting ready under the stage and lying down on a gold-edged concrete block with a soft thin mattress that looked like it came out of a Disney princess movie.

Minjeong closed the interface with an unfazed expression, internally smiling at the thought of Jimin's shocked face when she would slowly be revealed to everyone.

Shortly, when music began to play, the crowd went quiet and deeply focused on the surprise performance. It seemed like only a few fans in the crowd recognized the song, and it was Magical Symphony by ADORA. As for Jimin, since she was a hardworking trainee, she already stumbled upon the song in the past.

Dancing like the waltz on this music
The place arrived with an exhaustion
A small and dazzling Floor (Oh)

The music began with everyone acting on their own as Jieun sang and appeared onstage from the right side of the stage. She ran around the village with her hands behind her back, greeting everyone in her path.

That went on until the pre-chorus slowly approached. That's when a high-class-dressed Soyeon elegantly walked onstage from the left side and seemingly befriended the lower-class Jieun. They sang the chorus together and danced in harmony with the eliminated contestants.

As the performance went on, the crowd already expected Jihye to appear. But no, that didn't happen. Instead, a hole opened onstage which slowly lifted a beautiful sleeping figure on a lavish golden concrete bed as thick fogs covered the now garden-looking stage.

This sleeping figure was none other than Kim Minjeong. At first, everyone didn't recognize her due to how differently she was dressed compared to her usual looks in past performances. But when she began singing the second pre-chorus, everyone was shocked and started to cheer much louder than before.

Minjeong slowly opened her eyes, sat up, and elegantly stretched her arms with a graceful yawn covering . With her blonde hair tied into a messy ponytail, a crown on top of her head, that blue dress, and make-up that screamed royalty and innocence— everyone was beyond stunned.

Feels like I've been reborn

She was beautiful. A beautiful princess. That, Jimin thought as she was trying her best to not let her jaw fall onto the ground. She was doing an excellent job at keeping an appropriate reaction for the cameras and simply crazed over her girlfriend inside of her thoughts.

Minjeong followed the original choreography, sang the chorus, and approached the two idol judges. Unlike the other eliminated contestants, everyone wondered why she was the only one singing a part of the song. But those thoughts were quickly dismissed as the dance break neared.

Jihye was hiding in the group of Nutcracker guards and smoothly positioned herself in front of the stage with the three idols. They were in a slanted line formation. When the dance break was about to begin, several villagers crowded around them and Minjeong and Soyeon's dress magically became shorter the instant those villagers positioned themselves at the back.

It was only reasonable as they were about to do a dance break. When they did, those who were familiar with the song quickly noticed the choreography changes. Compared to the original version, this one was more powerful, graceful, and longer as everyone onstage danced in sync.

While the performance was gradually reaching its end, only Minjeong sang the rest of the song and executed the high notes flawlessly. Although everyone knew how perfect her voice already was, tonight, it just sounded heavenly.

Minjeong thanked her maxed-out stats.

The moment the song reached its end, everyone onstage posed for the cameras out of breath with smiles on their faces for a few seconds. As those seconds passed, nothing mattered anymore and this one had no script. Hence, everyone gathered in fr