Heat flared instantly across her cheeks. She turned away from him at once. "Let’s... let’s go! Let’s not keep Esko and Dani waiting!" she exclaid, her footsteps already turning toward the waiting room.
The corner of his mouth lifted into an amused smirk at her flustered reaction before he fell into step behind her.
Outside, the MC once again took the stage, and the night went on. Still, everyone in the audience remained stirred. Kaija’s performance was still lingering vividly in their minds.
Discussions began in small groups sitting close to each other, fast fingers swiping across their phones as they shared the videos they’d captured of Kaija’s performance across all social dia platforms.
Unlike the vocal classes, the KE Annual Festival was a publicly known event. All attendees were allowed, if not encouraged, to share performances outside private company channels to help promote KE’s reputation as a recording label and elevate their artists.
During the break, so videos of Liisi’s Hollow performance had circulated, but now, every major social dia platform in S Country was flooded with hundreds of clips of Kaija’s performance of The Artist Behind The Star. Within minutes, the view counters jumped from a few thousand to millions.
At the long table, the judges remained oblivious to how their employees were breaking the internet with the footage of what’d just happened on the stage tonight. They now sat composed in their seats, ready for the next contestants.
But as the night went on, the quality of the performances steadily declined.
The further down the list the event went, the less experienced the artists were. So judges struggled to stifle yawns, while others fought to keep their spines straight. The audience shared the sa dull tiredness as one lackluster song followed another.
Naturally, Karl was the most visibly displeased, but he forced himself to stay composed solely by thinking of how his birdie would certainly win the whole thing if the remaining contestants continued performing this poorly.
Once the last contestant left the stage, all thirteen judges were escorted into a private room outside the concert hall for the final voting, leaving thousands in the audience erupting into debates and argunts over who would win the night.
Inside the room, the judges quickly took their familiar seats around the large oval table. On the table were pens and sheets of paper neatly arranged in front of each seat and a small silver box with a narrow slot at the top right in the middle of it.
Max Kosonen, being the only new face on the judging panel this year, settled at the furthest seat, while his younger brother stood at the head of the table.
"Ladies, gentlen," Charles began, his voice asured as he wearily scanned the familiar faces before him, "since we have an honored guest among us this year, I’ll go through the voting guidelines one more ti before we begin."
Everyone nodded quietly, offering a polite smile toward Max Kosonen at the other end of the table, before turning their attention back to their big boss.
"Alright," Charles continued, "I believe everyone has given each performance a score through the internal voting app throughout the show tonight. Now, on the screen, you’ll see the top two contestants with the best scores, in no particular order."
As he finished speaking, Charles pointed the remote in his hand at the only screen in the room, and all attention shifted toward it. The departnt heads exchanged glances of approval at the final two, no surprise showing on their faces.
As for Karl, though he was thrilled to see his birdie’s lovely profile on the screen, his brow twitched instantly at the sight of Liisi’s pink hair and smiley face right beside her photo.
"Now, each of us shall write down the na of which of these two deserves to take ho the S$100,000 cash prize tonight and place it into the box," Charles instructed, lifting the pen and paper for everyone to see. "Then we will return to the concert hall to find out who has received the most votes. Everyone got that?"
The judges nodded quickly in unison. The process was simple enough.
"Now, go ahead and cast your vote," Charles declared curtly, ending his indifferent instructions as he took his seat at the table.
Karl didn’t even need to think before writing Kaija’s na on the tiny slip of paper, but Charles was the one who rose from his seat first. He reached for the box, slid his folded paper inside, and left the room without a word, all in full view of Karl’s narrowing eyes.
Goddammit! He’d wanted to be the first to cast his vote, and yet that cunning fox had sohow finished writing even faster, like he’d just scribbled a signature instead of writing the na properly. Karl shoved his vote into the box with a scowl and stord out as well.
Outside, Charles Kosonen was nowhere to be seen, vanished as if into thin air, even though only seconds had passed between his departure and Karl stepping out. Baffled, Karl returned to the concert hall without giving it more thought.
Little did he know, Charles was standing in the smoking area just one wall away from the voting room, his back leaning against the concrete, a lit cigarette in one hand, his phone in the other.
He had refrained from checking his ssages throughout the rest of the show after noticing how often his considerate brother’s gaze drifted toward his screen. Only now had he managed so actual alone ti for it.
He took a quick drag from his cigarette and exhaled carelessly instead of savoring the taste as he usually did, his face tightening while he stared at the unread ssages on the screen.
Unknown Sender: "Juho Maley is spotted leaving the concert hall."
Unknown Sender: "Juho Maley has entered the Production building."
Unknown Sender: "Our n have refrained from entering the building to avoid unwanted attention. All producers and staff still working inside."
Unknown Sender: "Juho Maley still hasn’t left the Production building."
The first ssage had co around the ti Kaija’s performance ended.
The second ssage, fifteen minutes later, was no surprise given the walking distance.
The third ssage was exactly the protocol he had ordered, so he had no complaints about that.
But the fourth one... that one had been sent just five minutes ago.
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