We weren’t close to them, so an awkward silence filled the studio. For now, we moved towards Only One. With Park Young-Ho missing, Only One now only had four people while we had five people. We would win if there was a hand-to-hand combat…12

‘What the hell am I thinking?’ I heard that when a person was in an awkward situation where they had to meet people they didn’t want to, their minds practiced avoidance tactics. True to that testament, I began to have all sorts of random thoughts cluttering my mind. We pulled chairs out and sat together in the center of the studio. An order board made of cardboard paper was placed in the middle. We just had to place a nameplate with each team’s name on the board to decide the order of the groups’ performances.1

‘It’s quiet.’ No one talked hastily. The Only One members seemed to be subtly glancing at one person, and that ‘somebody’ was sitting with a monotonous expression and was staying silent.0

Then Kang Hyun-Sung suddenly said, “Aren’t you all tired?”0

The first thing he said to break the silence was asking us if we were tired or not.0

“Ah…”0

“Sorry?”0

“Tired?”0

His words could be interpreted in many ways. He could be asking if we were tired of this war of nerves, or if we were tired of this kind of broadcast setup.0

But he said, “Ah, you must have stopped by a salon early in the morning to come to the shooting today, but it’s already way past dinner time. I was asking if you guys were hanging on all right.” Kang Hyun-Sung gave an additional explanation without any ill intent in his voice.1

I wondered...0