The results screen behind him was loading.
Both groups were on stage. Both standing exactly where they were supposed to stand. Five on the left. Six on the right. Twenty-two cameras covering every angle.
Jisoo stood in his position with the performance smile still on and the ice pack memory still in his palm and the ringing still sitting in his left ear.
He looked at the screen loading behind the host.
He looked at Beomjae.
Beomjae was looking at the screen.
His expression was composed. Waiting. Certain.
The numbers appeared.
LUMEN: 67%
NYXALIS: 33%
The studio did not just get loud. It went from loud to something else entirely, the kind of noise that came from twelve hundred people responding to a number that was not close, that was not tight, that was a statement.
Jisoo blinked.
He looked at the screen.
He looked at it again.
'Oh,' he thought. 'Oh we actually did it.'
