The setup was already intimidating when he saw it on the screen with everyone else as they waited for their turn. It felt even worse as he walked to stand at the side and waited for his cue. The stage was huge — he was pretty sure it was the same set they used for music shows he had attended once before, but it looks so much bigger than what he remembered.

Still, Kim Ryeowook was drawn to it. He always was.

Unfortunately, fate had different plans for him. It gave him a taste of what it was like to perform in front of a crowd that sang along to every word, then it suddenly set him on a path different than what he expected.

"Singer 12!" His number was called and he followed the instructions given to him earlier, putting himself in the center stage. Somehow, every bit of fear left him as he found his spot. This is where he was meant to be.

Lee Seunggi, the emcee, sent him an encouraging smile. "Let's see what kind of singer he is."

Ryeowook knew the words that would appear on the screen behind him — The Fairytale Singer — because one of the show directors came up with it and he agreed to it because it fits well (though it was a bit too cringy for his taste).

He looked out at the empty space in front of the stage where audiences would typically be. For a moment, he was blinded by the lights and it felt like he was sent 15 years back in time. But his eyes quickly adjusted and he found the eight judges sitting on their seats at a higher platform, the A’s above their heads gray and unlit.

One judge, in particular, stood out to Ryeowook. His eyes were comically wide that it almost made Ryeowook laugh. While he was watching with everyone else, he could see this judge has been giving some of the best reactions, especially playing it up whenever something shocking happened on stage. When the category he was a part of got introduced earlier and they all had to walk on stage, he saw that this judge had already looked shocked upon seeing him but got distracted by other judges pointing out faces they recognized.

This time, there was no one but Ryeowook on stage. 

And Cho Kyuhyun didn’t hold back.

“What is going on?” Kyuhyun picked up his mic immediately when Seunggi made a comment about his shocked reaction, both slightly confused and happy at the same time. “What are you doing here?!”

“You know him?” Yoo Heeyeol asked from Kyuhyun’s right side. The other judges either turned to see Kyuhyun’s reaction or looked more carefully at Ryeowook to see if they could also recognize him. “How do you know him?”

Kyuhyun was still too shocked to answer for a moment, instead, he was just staring at Ryeowook. Ryeowook let out a short laugh, which seemed to startle the judge out of it and answer the question directed at him. “We worked together. In the same group.”

“Oh!” Sunmi exclaimed, turning to Kyuhyun. “From your Super Junior 06 days?”

Ryeowook knew that it would be mentioned, but hearing their group name again stirred some emotions in him. His memories of those days were mixed with good and bad days. But for the most part, he just feels nostalgic about it.

He wondered what it must be like for Kyuhyun to hear it again. As the key member of SJ 06, the one who became most popular, he knew that their group gets mentioned once in a while when he appears in shows, but Ryeowook doesn’t think he’s seen him talk about it in much detail since he went graduated from the group.

“Yes,” Kyuhyun answered simply. In that one word, Ryeowook smiled softly because he could hear the unsaid emotions behind it. It was too complicated to explain and there never has been a rotational project group like Super Junior especially since the project ended with SJ 10, so no one really understood how it felt. But they understood each other.

Ryeowook gathered the courage to lift the mic up to his lips. “Hi, Kyuhyun-ah. It’s been a while.”

Kyuhyun opened his mouth to reply but immediately shook his head. “Ah, I almost said your name. I would have been in trouble.” He chuckled and then looked back at Ryeowook. “Hi, Singer 12.”

“You must have been close then,” Song Mino noted before turning his attention to Ryeowook. “But if you were also in Super Junior before, shouldn’t you be in the Standing Solo category?”

It was a fair question. That category was made especially for singers who had performed as a group before but didn’t become well-known. Since Super Junior had a lot of members coming and going, Ryeowook had a hard time standing out, so he could have fit in that category pretty well.

During the preliminaries, the director also asked him which category he would prefer to stand under. It was a tough choice, but he knew he made the right one. “I was actually thinking of choosing that, but after my time with Super Junior 05 and 06, I did continue working on music.”

“Oh, 05 and 06? So you’re one of the original members.” Kim Eana commented. “But you ‘graduated’ from the project around the same time as Kyuhyun.”

“Yes, I was and I did. After that, I also had a song that I worked on and received a pretty good response for, which actually inspired my title as the ‘Fairytale Singer’,” Ryeowook gestured to the words still displayed behind him, “so I could also have chosen the Sugarman category. But in the end, I worked on other songs that became popular too, and I had been working more as a composer than as a singer in the past years.”

“Did you miss being a singer?” Seunggi asked beside him. 

Ryeowook took a deep breath at the question. “I did. I really did. I don’t think I realized how much I missed it until I stood on this stage, so whether I get through this audition or not, I’m already thankful for the experience again.”

“Will you be singing the song you mentioned earlier?” Yoo Heeyeol asked.

 “I will.” Ryeowook nodded and held back his smile when he saw Kyuhyun excitedly sit up and visibly look forward to the performance.

A cue from the director prompted Seunggi to turn to Ryeowook again. “Then let’s see the performance of Singer 12!” The emcee walked away and the lights dimmed down.

As the stage lights and the screen behind him changed for his performance, he could see the judges turning to each other and making some comments. Kyuhyun took his attention again when Ryeowook realized he was probably talking about how he personally loved the song that was about to be sung.

Other people might feel the pressure a bit more when the signal to start is given, but Ryeowook just felt at peace. It’s both the solace he finds on stage again and the comfort he gets from having an old friend in the audience.

너의 말투 또 너의 표정 알 수 없잖아
세상에서 가장 어려운 일 네 맘을 얻는 일

He started singing in the silence of the set. He could hear his own voice clearly echoing around the place. The music of The Little Prince joins in after a while, starting with the piano. And from then on, it was just smooth sailing.

He sang as if he was back in those days he was promoting on his own. He gave all that he can give into this performance because he always did. He walked around the stage to make the most of it. Ryeowook turned to the staff that was stationed around the stage, almost forgetting that there was a panel of judges watching him above, and made eye contact with them because he loved singing to the audience back then and he still did.

Before he knew it, the song has ended.

His eyes were closed from singing the last notes and from all the emotions that were building up in him. When he opened them, he couldn’t stop the gasp that he let out.

The A symbol above each judge's head was shining bright red. All of them.

He almost didn’t hear Seunggi’s announcement of the result because it was too hard to believe he had achieved this result. “Singer 12 from the Unveiled Masters category! Our first All Again in the comp