Debut or Die - Chapter 120

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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 120
Before long, the problematic section began to appear on the monitoring screen.
The cut where my teammates and I pulled the backing track in-ear monitors passed, and then.
‘…I hope the slip doesn’t stand out too much.’
Sun Ah-hyun had pulled off something remarkable enough to call it damage control, but how the before-and-after framing would be captured was another matter entirely.
But it was needless worry.
“…!”
“Wow.”
Sun Ah-hyun executing a back handspring and the two members on either side catching his back… it looked completely like an intentional performance.
‘Is it a matter of skill?’
The execution was at a level I couldn’t believe was done without practice.
The aerial flip’s impression was so powerful that the earlier slip appeared to be part of the choreography itself.
The fact that the floor was dark, making the in-ear monitor caught on his foot barely visible, also helped.
Moreover, thanks to the full-body choreography shot from the front coming in at just the right moment, the shocked, frozen expressions weren’t clearly visible.
…The fact that the original choreography was supposed to pause briefly at that section for a close-up… let’s move past that.
‘Either way, it came out well.’
It was the best possible outcome. Big Sae-jin whistled.
“Oh~ Ah-hyun’s quick thinking~”
“That was amazing!”
Sun Ah-hyun’s face turned bright red.
“That was truly remarkable! Do you prepare backup moves in advance for situations like this?”
“N-no, it’s not like that. I, I just… thought I couldn’t let you fall, so I… tried it…!”
“That’s incredible!”
Sun Ah-hyun couldn’t hide his joy at the continued praise, his face flushed with excitement.
Well, I should praise him first too.
“It came out like it was intentional. I think it looks cooler than our original choreography.”
“…! N-not to that extent, but…. Th-thank you, I’ll work even harder…!”
“Applause~”
The members sent a round of applause.
When even a few staff members around us laughed and made clapping gestures, Sun Ah-hyun’s face became one of embarrassment and pride mixed together.
‘Let him enjoy it a bit more.’
I deliberately spent a little more time in the Waiting Room.
And when things calmed down, I spoke to Sun Ah-hyun again.
“Sun Ah-hyun.”
“Huh? Yeah?”
“I’m really grateful you handled that, but I don’t think you need to go that far in the future.”
Sun Ah-hyun’s face immediately turned pale.
“Why, why…?”
His reaction was more sensitive than I expected.
I thought it would be fine since he’d just received such lavish praise.
I need to choose my words carefully.
“You could get seriously hurt. It’s too risky to improvise like that.”
Ryu Chung-woo, whose expression had been complicated, finally added his voice.
“Yeah, Ah-hyun, you really did great and I’m grateful, but… let’s be careful about injuries. If you hit your head first, it could be really serious.”
Given that he’d retired due to injury complications, it made sense he’d be concerned about this.
“I-I’m sorry.”
Sun Ah-hyun answered in a trembling voice. The excitement had completely vanished from his face, and self-reproach had taken over. Ryu Chung-woo was flustered.
“Don’t apologize! Ah-hyun, I’m just worried about you.”
Big Sae-jin, who’d been watching the situation, interjected.
“Well~ why would there be anything to worry about? Ah-hyun was a dance major anyway~ He probably just checked his own body and did it. Right?”
“…Y-yeah.”
That didn’t seem right.
Sun Ah-hyun had a tendency to push himself in a somewhat self-destructive way when he felt pressure.
This time, he probably thought he needed to salvage the situation immediately and went for the most impressive move without considering the risks.
But this was the right moment to comfort him. I deliberated for a moment before speaking.
“…Of course you did better than I could have imagined today. I’m just saying this because I’m worried. …It’s better to stay healthy and keep going long-term.”
“…! Y-yes! I’ll b-be careful!”
“Good.”
Fortunately, Sun Ah-hyun shifted his focus to the “concern” and his emotions overflowed with gratitude. It was fortunate he was the type to be moved by such small gestures of care.
But this time, Bae Sae-jin apologized to the team with a dark expression.
What is it with him now.
“…I’m sorry. I dropped the in-ear monitor.”
I had a feeling this was coming.
“That was an accident! You must have been startled, but you finished well anyway, Sae-jin.”
“That’s right. The mounting was faulty, so I think it was entirely a matter of chance.”
“The in-ear monitor’s cord was weird. Not you—the in-ear should apologize!”
“W-well, that’s true! The in-ear should apologize…?”
Sun Ah-hyun, flustered, tried to agree but got caught up in Cha Yu-jin’s grammatical error.
And apparently finding this flow annoying, Big Sae-jin cut off the conversation.
“Haha, how about we just congratulate ourselves on handling it well and move on? We ended well, so why is the mood like this~”
He had a point.
Ryu Chung-woo laughed and picked up the thread.
“Yeah, everyone did so well today! Let’s take care of ourselves and keep doing great. We’ve got five years ahead.”
“Ehehe~ Hyung, weren’t we supposed to go together until renewal? Let’s do ten years, ten years~”
“Haha! You’re right. Let’s do great for ten years!”
“Yes!”
“Sounds good!”
Bae Sae-jin let out an exclamation without hesitation, and the team ended the conversation with self-congratulation.
And I was satisfied too.
Either way, the stage was good.
I thought the Internet response would die down with this.
Perhaps the conclusion would have been something like ‘Testa really does perform well on stage.’
With that expectation, I prepared to head out for the closing stage. It was a group performance with veteran singers.
“It’s a song my grandmother loves!”
I’ll just mention that Kim Rae-bin was particularly excited about it.
And after the broadcast ended, as it approached midnight.
Checking the Internet while in the car, the public opinion was flowing in quite an entertaining direction.

* * *
Right after Testa’s KBC stage ended, the reaction was all praise, just as Park Moon-dae had predicted.
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[Testa’s KBC Music Festival Performance Just Ended – Magic Boy + Airplane]
(Video)
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-Wow, live vocals
-They pull off this concept too?
-I gasped when I saw the aerial flip in the middle
-Seriously, it’s amazing they can pull off pure live like that;
-Is this lip-sync?
└No way with a live orchestra
└You can layer AR even with live accompaniment
└Oh really? Then it could be lip-sync~ thanks for the info
Cha Yu-jin intentionally comes in a beat late during the rap part, what the hell is this—these guys didn’t even watch the video and they’re just blocking comments lolol
└At this point, it seems like Testa exists only in the delusions of these obsessed fans
-They’re really good
-What’s with Sun Ah-hyun’s aerial cartwheel
-This seems like the best arrangement of the year-end performances, I wish they’d release the audio
-We already knew our Ah-hyun is an angel, but I didn’t expect him to prove it on broadcast like this. Flying through the sky… it’s official now
Haha, seriously though, look at this.
-Bae Sae-jin is always disappointing, don’t give him the ending
└Wait, didn’t he do well this time?
└I was actually surprised he handled the pure live better than expected;
└It’s because Sejin has few parts, but he’s never been unable to perform his partㅠㅠ
The scattered attempts to nitpick were cleanly shut down. It was a complete lockdown.
However, what Park Moon-dae hadn’t anticipated was that the reaction to removing the in-ear monitors was positive.
Very much so.
Picking out the new members is seriously exciting. They don’t feel like rookies at all—they have such a professional vibe lol
If we went into Sense8 now, I bet the corrections would’ve come out as crazy as human imagination can get lol
lol that’s so true hahahahaha
Looks like I’ll be checking it out by member lol
└Not even a fan, but Park Moon-dae’s already showing up on my timeline… He’s handsome, I’m keeping him in my collection
Hahaha, seriously
Each person’s vibe is slightly different, so you keep coming back to watch it lol
“That’s right! Haha”
My pick is the tall member who smiles with a slight grimace and has charming eye smiles lol. Does anyone know their name?
└Big Sae-jin
└??? There’s a Big Sae…?
Hahaha it’s Lee Sae-jin! Our kid is big and cute, so the nickname Big Sae-jin stuck—thanks for liking it! (Big Sae-jin photo)
The scene of Testa members pulling out their earpieces was captured clearly on camera for most angles, making it great content.
It was the chorus choreography section of “Airplane,” so all the members were evenly captured.
And the fans got to enjoy a pleasant and comfortable time for the first time in a while.
– KEBC, please put out fancams for each member. Let’s see a different angle of the in-ears being taken out.
-Want to see a genius idol live performance that overpowers the backing track? You’ve come to the right place (video)
-Really love the KBC stage concept, it has that grand fairy tale feeling so when you put it next to SBC’s glamorous stage, it’s like a narrative generator (comparison image)
-There’s choreography where Park Moon-dae and Bae Sae-jin face each other and shake their heads when transitioning from “Magic Boy” to “Airplane.” Could this be a spoiler for the next album? (image)
-Park Moon-dae’s outfit on the way to KBC is birthday support verified from head to toe… seriously (compilation photo)
In this atmosphere where no one was picking fights or making sarcastic remarks, the fans were more than delighted.
It was right around that time when people rewatching the stage footage discovered something strange.
It started with a casual post from a fan account that edited video materials.
-Found it while making close-up gifs, but Sun Ah-hyun seemed to slip before doing the backflip… wait.
└??
└Teacher?
└What
-Went back and checked… looks right. Sun Ah-hyun slipped and almost tripped on something under his feet, and Ryu Chung-woo and Park Moon-dae caught him. (capture)
-Sun Ah-hyun did the backflip to recover from the slip. If you look, both Ryu Chung-woo and Park Moon-dae’s expressions froze. (capture)
└Insane
└That was accident recovery…?
In an instant, fans began rewatching and analyzing the minutest details of the footage.
And not long after, they discovered the cause of the problem.
-Bae Sae-jin’s earpiece fell off… looks like the manager secured it wrong (floor capture)
└Seriously
└Oh my god
└I’m both thrilled and furious what if the kids got hurt…
└If you look carefully, you can see that Sejin’s hands are shaking at the ending ㅠㅠㅠ
└Insane so Sun Ah-hyun’s backflip was ad-lib?;; Is that even possible for a person?
The news of the uproar quickly spread to general entertainment communities.
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[Testa KBC stage accident apparently happened]
: (summary post link)
One-line summary: From the earpiece to the ending, Testa handled the entire stage accident
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-What the hell
-Is this real?
-Looks like they choreographed it to match…
-The fact that fans are only noticing now because they handled it so calmly is actually insane
-Where’s the male idol doing backflips to recover from a Stage mistake? They probably just did it as part of the choreography lol
└It’s not a mistake, it’s an accident. And looking at Testa’s track record since Ajusa, they seem like the type to pull something like this…
└If they dropped their in-ear while taking it out, that’s a mistake. Please wake up from your fan fantasies lol
└Passing by as a fan of another group, but normally in-ears don’t fall to the Stage floor when removed. This was definitely a prop accident
-Are you sure that’s an in-ear on the Stage? Looks like an optical illusion to me…
└It’s definitely an in-ear. Here’s a screenshot with adjusted brightness
└Oh wow, it’s real
└Damn, they tripped
-Looking at the members’ expressions, it seems right??
-Sun Ah-hyun’s backflip looks like it was part of the original choreography. He handled it calmly, that’s true, but
└I agree with this
└But the members are already moving to catch him in case he falls. It’s hard to say it was just a coincidental match of movements…
SNS and related Online Communities descended into chaos, flooded with “it was” and “it wasn’t” arguments.
-Ugh I’m losing my mind, someone ask Testa’s account quick lol
-No conclusion yet lol
And interestingly enough, right after that, a real-time communication channel with Testa appeared.
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[Oh Testa just went live]
: (link)
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It was Testa’s W Live broadcast.
Their first real-time interaction in a long time since the rookie award controversy began with an ambitious title.
[Testa’s Year-End Celebration Dinner Cooking! Today’s Menu: Chicken Soup for the Soul (cat emoji)]

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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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