Debut or Die - Chapter 104

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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A Fatal Illness if I Don’t Debut – Episode 104
“Hyung, are you okay?”
“Sae-jin, let me take a look at your ankle.”
“….”
Lee Sae-jin gazed at her own ankle with a pallid expression, then gritted her teeth and rolled up her pants to assess the damage.
Her ankle was swelling.
‘…This isn’t good.’
An injury was now confirmed.
“…!”
“I-I’m fine! It’s j-just a little swollen… If we g-go to the Hospital right away….”
Sun Ah-hyun examined the ankle and cried out urgently. Being a dance major, he seemed to have some expertise with ankle injuries.
“Alright Sae-jin, sit down for now. Let me contact the Manager and we’ll head straight to the emergency room.”
“…Okay.”
Lee Sae-jin settled into a chair in the corner of the Dance Practice Room, supported by Ryu Chung-woo’s steady grip.
Not long after, the Manager arrived with word and they departed for the Hospital.
“C-come with….”
“No!! If practice gets delayed because of me, that’s not good. I’ll be back soon.”
Lee Sae-jin firmly refused their company and left the Dance Practice Room supported by two Managers.
“I hope it’s nothing serious.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“I-it wasn’t swelling that much… I th-think it’ll be okay.”
Since it was just a fall, they all assumed it wasn’t a major injury and resumed practice.
But Lee Sae-jin returned after the Dance Practice Room session had already ended.
And she wasn’t alone.
“Ah~ so this is where our Sae-jin lives? Nice place!”
“….”
“Huh? I’ll come by often, you know.”
“…I’m barely here because of my schedule.”
“Is that so~? Then this dad will come in and take care of things. Don’t be shy about it.”
“…That’s okay.”
Lee Sae-jin was being supported by a middle-aged man, and from his facial features alone, they appeared to be father and daughter.
But from the way he spoke, there was a whiff of convenience store part-timer and drunk troublemaker about him.
‘…?’
“Ah, so these are our Sae-jin’s friends~ I’m Sae-jin’s dad!”
“Ah, hello sir.”
“Hello!”
“Sir, what are you saying~ when I go out with Sae-jin, people think I’m the older brother.”
“Haha, you look so young~”
Big Sae-jin cut in with a response. Then Ryu Chung-woo continued with a smile.
“Thank you for bringing Sae-jin. We need to film the Dormitory now, so….”
“Oh, I’ll just sit quietly over there! Go ahead and film~”
“….”
Ryu Chung-woo’s expression grew slightly awkward.
I checked Lee Sae-jin’s face.
Rather than embarrassment or shyness at introducing such an unruly parent, I caught a glimpse of fatigue and humiliation layered across her features before it vanished.
‘…She really does seem like a troublemaker, doesn’t she?’
Big Sae-jin waved his hand at Lee Sae-jin’s Father.
“Come on, sir, we should invite you properly next time. How could we neglect a member’s parent like this? We’ll prepare something and contact you again!”
“There’s no need for that~ I told you I’d leave in a bit. I’m just tired from supporting her.”
When someone insists that much, there’s only one way to handle it.
I quickly went into my room and returned with something in hand.
“Sir, you must have had a difficult time. Please go inside and rest comfortably.”
It was a red ginseng set we’d received from the company as a holiday gift.
“…! Oh my~ I’m not the kind of person who receives things like this. Hmm? I never asked for anything like this.”
The middle-aged man spouted the typical protest while promptly accepting the red ginseng. I nodded obediently.
“Of course. You wanted to see where your son is staying, after all. We simply don’t have the schedule for it, so we’re giving this as a token of our appreciation and apology.”
“Right~ Hmm? This is the first-place friend? The one Sae-jin chose. Ah, very dependable. Sae-jin, hurry and say thank you.”
“….”
“Ah, our filming schedule means the Manager will be arriving soon. Please take care on your way back.”
“…Yes, I’ll be going then~ I’ll be back soon.”
Lee Sae-jin’s Father kept glancing back at Lee Sae-jin, then slowly opened the door and left.
“….”
Lee Sae-jin kept her head down.
“Um, ah, I should sit down….”
As Sun Ah-hyun approached, Lee Sae-jin reflexively swung her hand and swatted him away.
“…!”
Fortunately, Sun Ah-hyun dodged. And Lee Sae-jin was startled.
“I… I’m sorry!!”
“It’s, it’s fine!”
What a mess.
In any case, Lee Sae-jin looked at her room as if she wanted to flee, but recalling past experiences, instead of running away, she went to the living room sofa and sat down.
‘…It could just be that her leg is uncomfortable and it’s hard to walk to her room.’
After all, she was wearing a half-cast.
In any case, thanks to that, a conversational atmosphere was established.
“…Your father?”
“…Yeah.”
In the heavy atmosphere, Kim Rae-bin carefully raised his hand.
“Um, but where did the Manager go, and how did your parents end up coming?”
“…It seems there was some problem, and he contacted them while leaving in a hurry.”
Normally, he would have contacted someone from another company instead, but the second manager who came in later was new and unfamiliar, so it seems he ended up contacting my parents.
And in the slightly heavy atmosphere, Cha Yu-jin asked the most important question.
“Is your ankle okay?”
“…! Right, yeah, my ankle!”
“How long did they say recovery would take?”
“…They said it’s nothing serious. Just need to be careful for a week.”
“Hmm, but they wrapped it up pretty thoroughly for something minor.”
“They did it a bit extra on purpose. …Because I told them I wanted to heal quickly.”
Several members gave thumbs up. Mostly the younger ones.
“Hyung….”
“That’s awesome!”
Lee Sae-jin’s expression finally softened. And with a faint smile, as if slightly embarrassed, she spoke.
“…I won’t be a burden to the group.”
“Come on~”
Lee Sae-jin’s smile darkened a bit.
“…And, I won’t let my father come either. Don’t worry.”
“….”
It was truly awkward.
‘That’s just how family matters are.’
It wasn’t the kind of thing you could ask someone to open up about in a group setting like this.
“…? Wouldn’t it be fine if he came?”
…But I’d forgotten that Kim Rae-bin was here. He seemed not to have picked up on the strange atmosphere from earlier.
At Kim Rae-bin’s question, Lee Sae-jin’s face became flustered, and like a sea cucumber expelling its organs, she began stammering out the story.
“Well… since this Dormitory is spacious, he might insist on living here too.”
“Then if we tell the Company and get permission….”
“…That won’t work! He has bad habits and… anyway, he’s someone I can’t stand to be around.”
Lee Sae-jin didn’t even understand why she was telling this story.
And she quickly finished speaking.
“…Anyway, I’ll make sure he doesn’t come, so you don’t need to worry. That’s… that’s all.”
And she quickly got up from the sofa and waddled into her Room.
The members remaining in the Living Room stared blankly at each other.
“….”
“Well… his ankle seems fine, so should we all head to bed?”
“Let’s do that.”
At Big Sae-jin’s suggestion, everyone reluctantly got up from their seats.
“Yu-jin~ don’t watch Netflix and go to sleep.”
“I don’t want to….”
Cha Yu-jin, who had been watching Netflix in the Living Room, turned off the TV at Ryu Chung-woo’s words with a gloomy expression, then trudged into his Room.
“…Hmm.”
Netflix. I recalled Lee Sae-jin burying her head in her Bed and crying not long ago.
‘That wasn’t Netflix… could it have been because of her father?’
…I really hope this isn’t the issue.
Not only would it be difficult to resolve, but I had no idea what might happen to Lee Sae-jin’s fragile mental state.
I headed to the room with an uneasy feeling.
And then my eyes met Lee Sae-jin’s, who was struggling to rest her half-cast leg on a hamster body pillow.
“….”
“….”
Lee Sae-jin seemed embarrassed and quickly averted her gaze.
‘I’ll pretend I didn’t see that.’
I went to sit on the bed, pretending to look at my smartphone.
Then Lee Sae-jin spoke to me instead.
“…I’m sorry. Take my red ginseng.”
Ah, so that was it. I nodded.
“Yes. I’ll enjoy it.”
“Okay.”
Just as the room was about to sink into peaceful silence, Lee Sae-jin, who had been rustling through something to check, hurriedly continued.
“…Well, but I opened it and ate a couple already. I’ll buy a new one and leave it for you, so take that.”
“…? That’s fine. I’ll just eat it casually. Whatever.”
“…Sigh.”
I heard Lee Sae-jin let out a long sigh. It sounded more like embarrassment or futility than relief.
Lee Sae-jin muttered while looking at her cast pressing down on the hamster.
“Why do I keep… becoming a burden.”
“There wasn’t anything particularly like that.”
“…Anyway, I’ll get my act together this time, so don’t worry about it.”
“…Yes.”
When I glanced over, Lee Sae-jin was looking at her smartphone. Her eyes seemed to be burning with fierce determination.
Was she watching a dance video?
‘…Well, enthusiasm is good.’
It’s good that she has motivation. As long as she doesn’t demand it from me, that is.
I turned off my smartphone and put on earplugs.
The last thing I confirmed was Lee Sae-jin staring at her smartphone with a serious expression.
For some reason, the image of her clutching her smartphone and crying overlapped with this moment.
‘…Could she be trying to resolve her father’s issue?’
You see that kind of thing often on internet forums looking for satisfying solutions, but in reality, family-related problems didn’t seem like they’d be resolved so easily.
‘Well… she said she’d handle it herself, so it’d be even more ridiculous for me to add my two cents.’
Isn’t it strange for someone without family to give advice anyway? I decided to just get some sleep.
But Lee Sae-jin seemed to be staring at her smartphone for quite a while this time too.

* * *
A few days later, I was heading back after finishing the final meeting with the collaboration game 【127 Section】.
From what I heard, the game development team got so incredibly excited after seeing the trailer that they created additional work on their own.
As a result… I received this outcome.
“Wow, you modified it to look a bit like us.”
“That’s completely me!”
“I got a mole on my cheek….”
They had lightly reflected a few of Testa’s visual characteristics into the initial character designs.
-No, we didn’t overhaul everything. We just made some adjustments within the materials we had~
-What do you think? It really reminds you of the trailer, right!! Especially Lee Sae-jin’s no-makeup glasses! We unanimously decided to revise that right away!
…That was mostly how it went.
By the way, my character’s eyelids apparently changed from double to single, but honestly… I can’t tell the difference.
“Phew~ it’s fun but exhausting.”
“Let’s hang in there!”
“Let’s do our best!”
The music video release was just days away. The schedule got busier, but that “feeling of success” pouring in was definitely addictive.
Thanks to that, everyone in Testa wore happy faces. And Lee Sae-jin was included in that.
Lee Sae-jin, who looked somehow relieved, exchanged conversation with Ryu Chung-woo with a fairly comfortable expression.
His injured leg seemed to be healing well, and I thought it would be nice if we could sail smoothly toward the comeback like this….
But the incident erupted on the way out of the Company.
“Lee Sae-jin!! Come here, huh?!”
“…!”
A middle-aged man I recognized was sitting near the lobby by the Company’s back entrance, and he suddenly jumped up when he saw Lee Sae-jin.
It was naturally Lee Sae-jin’s Father.
Lee Sae-jin’s face went pale.
‘Damn it.’
Fortunately, the two Managers immediately blocked him.
“Sir, you can’t do this!”
“Come on, please calm down!”
“Let go! These kids nowadays have no damn manners! Huh? They oppress people!!”
Lee Sae-jin’s Father hesitated as he was blocked by the larger Manager, but he was dragged away while pointing his finger to the end.
“I won’t let you off easy, huh? You ungrateful bastard deserving of divine punishment!”
“….”
The noisy lobby soon quieted down as Lee Sae-jin’s Father was dragged away.
But shortly after, an even more chaotic situation erupted.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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