Debut or Die - Chapter 124

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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 124
“Oh~ What kind of person is the new Director?”
“I heard he’s decent?”
I caught fragments of conversation between the Manager and Big Sae-jin.
‘I shouldn’t get my hopes up.’
The new executive was likely to be cut from the same cloth as the previous Director—someone with equally questionable judgment.
After all, Testa’s performance under the old Director had been solid, so the company probably just sent another similar type.
But this assumption was pleasantly shattered.
“…An approval bot?”
“That’s what they say! Apparently he’s coasting since retirement isn’t far off.”
Word filtering through the company was that this Director didn’t meddle much or push his own projects—he simply let the working staff do their jobs as they always had.
‘…Now that I think about it, he hasn’t even called us in.’
Normally, someone would want to see the face of the company’s only artist at least once, but there hadn’t been a word.
He didn’t seem like the type to stick around long, but for now, it wasn’t bad. Better to have a superior who just rubber-stamps approvals than one who’s eager but clueless.
However, this situation did cost us one major project.
“A concert…”
“We’re finally preparing for our own solo concert.”
As the backlog of major approvals started going through one by one, the concert date was finally locked in.
But then another problem emerged.
“…Isn’t March a bit of an awkward time?”
It was.
It fell right during the new semester season—a time when nobody had the mental space to catch a concert.
…Originally, they’d aimed for the early-year rush, but the company had been in such chaos that they couldn’t secure the venue properly.
Whether to call it fortunate or not, because the schedule had been pushed back, the rental preparations for concert equipment and such were already complete.
Fortunately, the members quickly shook off their anxiety about the date.
“Still, it’s a weekend, so quite a few people might come, right?”
“There should be fans with flexible schedules…!”
“We’d love to have a big turnout!”
“We want to prepare well and put on a great show.”
The energy was burning bright.
‘…And we have three months left.’
Sure, I’d seen artists prepare for concerts over six months, but three months wasn’t bad either.
‘Realistically, six months ago was when our debut track had just dropped—preparation would’ve been impossible anyway.’
It’d be intense work, but since we weren’t in an active promotion period, we should be able to manage it reasonably well.
…Or so I thought, when a new proposal dropped from the working staff.
“What if we debut the new song on stage at our first concert?”
“…We’re also making a comeback in March?”
“Would that be too much?”
It would be.
Did they forget how much we suffered when we put together the debut album in just one month? Where are they pulling this insane idea from?
…But unexpectedly, a sensible answer followed.
“Besides, we’d need to pull several new song stages anyway to fill out the concert setlist. Wouldn’t it be better to use Testa’s own songs rather than covers from other artists?”
“…Yes, that’s true.”
“And most of the tracks for this album are already done. We just need to finish the title track.”
It was a fair point.
In fact, this comeback was… our first full-length album.
Because I wanted to put in the effort, I’d already pre-selected about half the tracks for the next album while working on the previous one, which had a more relaxed schedule.
After that, I continued working on it whenever I had gaps in our activities.
“The music video shoot and things like that—we’d have to film concert VCRs anyway, so we could just coordinate the schedules. And the concept photos could cover both the album and concert needs.”
“….”
Cost and time savings.
And it would be good for establishing the concert concept too. If we structured it with thematic connections to the first album’s concept, we’d get mutual promotional benefits and the fans would enjoy it.
As a result, everyone would be happy—except the staff and the artists themselves.
‘This is insane.’
Sure enough, Kim Rae-bin, who’d been quietly listening beside me, was already slowly raising his hand in agreement.
There was no rabbit meat more willing to jump into a fire pit.
Ryu Chung-woo took a moment to summarize the situation.
“Would it be alright if we discussed this among ourselves and got back to you?”
“Of course. But please let me know by tomorrow.”
And there was no need to wait until tomorrow. The decision was made right there in the Company’s Training Room.
Remarkably, it was unanimous.
“We’d like to give it a try.”
“Ah, that’s a great decision!”
The Company was delighted.
And the members… clearly had the look of people thinking, ‘If we do it, we can pull it off.’
It was the consequence of getting good results from that insane schedule before.
‘Even Bae Sae-jin’s been influenced.’
After rearranging the year-end stage in just a week, it seemed he was starting to develop some experience in this area too.

* * *
Not long after, the Company sent over a draft setlist for the concert.
Ryu Chung-woo briefed us quickly.
“Our title track and B-side are both included… and even with the fan song and album tracks, we’ve only got ten songs total.”
“Hmm~ but don’t we need at least twenty songs for a concert?”
“Actually, twenty songs might not even be enough. Don’t you think we need more?”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
The setlist, with its scattered gaps, still felt sparse.
“Even if we pull two songs from the new album, we still need to fill eight more slots with new material.”
We considered adding new album tracks without choreography, but that idea was rejected in favor of wanting more performance-oriented songs.
Watching these guys ruthlessly cut away every breathing room they could find left me speechless.
‘At this rate, I’m going to collapse.’
Fortunately, I remembered the Company’s recommendation.
“They asked us to include some unit songs—let’s fill those slots first.”
That way, I’d get forced breaks while the other members performed.
Besides, the Company seemed to have a bigger picture in mind.
“Oh, they said they’re going to film their own content with that, right?”
Right. They planned to edit the unit stage performances and preparation process like a variety show and upload it to YouTube.
And after the concert, they’d upload the unit stages like they do with the choreography videos.
“Okay, so let’s set aside those three unit songs and think about the remaining five. Does anyone have songs they want to do?”
“Me!”
“I… I do too…!”
And after fierce competition, five songs were selected.
Thanks to Bae Sae-jin’s silence and Ryu Chung-woo’s willingness to yield, the process went very smoothly.
“Alright, I’ll submit it like this then.”
“Got it!”
And only after the Company asked about ten times whether this was really okay, they confirmed the setlist after adjusting a few song orders.
But still uncertain, I heard through the grapevine that they’d allocated a long VCR segment.
‘…I need to do more cardio.’
Watching the staff’s reactions, I got a strong sense that this concert was going to be brutally exhausting.
And after spending several days deciding on the new album’s title and concept.
The camera came to the Dormitory for the first time in a while.
They were definitely here to film the unit divisions for the concert Stage.
But the method was unique.
“What kind of day is today?”
“Roommate swap day~”
We’d decided to swap roommates and have the newly matched pairs perform together on Stage.
‘…This feels exactly like Ajusa’s team format.’
They say if you stare into the abyss long enough, the abyss stares back into you—looks like everyone’s picked up that style.
Well, it was definitely surprising and fun. I could feel their confidence that they could perform well with anyone.
“Let’s say goodbye to the roommates we’ve grown close to! Oh my, hyung and dongsaeng~”
Big Sae-jin, holding cue cards, proceeded with the show while shamelessly pretending to sob, embracing Cha Yu-jin and Ryu Chung-woo.
It was unmistakably a comedic skit.
Kim Rae-bin, swept up in the moment, bowed respectfully to Sun Ah-hyun.
“Thank you so much for always responding to my noise and work with such generous and gentle understanding. I hope we can share a room together again next time.”
“No, I should be thanking you! And, and, it was nice hearing you work. Your songs were really good…!”
It was harmonious yet excessively formal.
They seemed to get along well and had good feelings toward each other, but they’d apparently failed to open up and become truly close.
I also greeted Bae Sae-jin.
“Since our lifestyles were so similar, I think we made good roommates. It’s a shame.”
“…Yeah. It would’ve been nice to stay as is.”
As Bae Sae-jin spoke, his gaze subtly drifted toward Cha Yu-jin. He seemed anxious at the thought of possibly ending up in the same room with that guy.
‘…Surely not.’
It shouldn’t be.
I finished the conversation with a handshake, sharing in Bae Sae-jin’s sentiment.
“Now then, let’s meet our new roommates!”
“Woooo!”
After the obligatory applause passed, Big Sae-jin smiled and pulled out a prepared prop from behind his back.
“This time, the roommate assignment method is… card flipping!”
“Ooh!”
“See the numbers on the back of these cards? Those are room numbers! People with matching numbers share a room~”
Big Sae-jin shuffled the cards with practiced ease. He’d clearly done this kind of thing before—his movements were very familiar.
Then he laid seven cards face-down on the floor.
“Now, each of you picks whichever card you want~”
“OK!”
“Understood!”
We decided the order of card selection with a light Noraebang scoring game.
“Yep!!”
In truth, the order of picking cards didn’t really matter, so everyone focused more on getting good footage for content than on the actual game.
And the scores were completely meaningless anyway.
“First place is… Cha Yu-jin with 100 points!”
“Ooh!!”
That’s because the guy had accidentally chosen a song he didn’t know and just made up the lyrics, yet still got first place.
“Go ahead and pick a card!”
“Yes!”
“Let’s see… Oh! It’s number 1~”
Anyway, starting with Cha Yu-jin, we each went up and picked a card one by one.
And I, surprisingly, ended up in the same room with Bae Sae-jin again.
“Oh, Bae Sae-jin’s room number is… 3! You’re with Moon-dae again~”
“…!!”
Bae Sae-jin clenched both fists tightly, then let out an awkward cough, embarrassed.
“Well, going forward… I look forward to working with you.”
“Of course.”
Truth be told, I felt the same way about avoiding Cha Yu-jin, so I had nothing to say against it.
But the problem was room number 3. Just like when we first assigned roommates in the reality show before, room 3 was shared by three people.
And the remaining lineup now was… Big Sae-jin and Sun Ah-hyun.
“Ah~ It’s just us left!”
“Y-yes, it is.”
“Well then, I’ll choose first~”
Big Sae-jin, who was first in order, placed his hand on one of the remaining cards as if deliberating.
Then he subtly slid it away and placed his hand on a different card instead.
“…!”
Wait, is this bastard right now….
“I’ll go with this one! Sun Ah-hyun, shall we flip it together?”
“Y-yes, let’s!”
“Then… one, two, three!”
Whoosh. Big Sae-jin and Sun Ah-hyun flipped their cards.
The result was….
“Ohhhhh!!”
“Yes! Yu-jin! Looking forward to working with you again!”
Big Sae-jin had drawn room 1, Cha Yu-jin’s room.
And naturally, the remaining room 3 went to… Sun Ah-hyun.
Sun Ah-hyun beamed and showed his card.
“…! Well, I look forward to it! I really do!”
“Yeah. Let’s get along well.”
Bae Sae-jin’s face relaxed instantly. He seemed satisfied with this room assignment.
I chimed in as well.
“It’s been a while since we’ve shared a room.”
“Y-yeah!”
Sun Ah-hyun clutched his card tightly and quickly joined the room 3 group.
“Now then, we have a surprise announcement for our viewers! What could it be?”
The members laughed and added drum rolls.
“Boom boom boom!”
Big Sae-jin held up a cue card with a flourish.
“We’re doing a unit stage with our roommates!”
“Please look forward to it!”
As planned, the members enthusiastically waved at the camera.
With that, the living room filming wrapped up.
“Phew!”
“Then let’s start moving our luggage~”
The members immediately began moving their belongings to their new rooms.
But the one who seemed most eager to rush off did something different.
He collected the cards scattered across the living room floor.
“Ah, here you go.”
“Yes. Thank you~”
Big Sae-jin carefully organized the cards back into their original box and handed them to a staff member.
Then, noticing me still lingering in the living room, he smiled and called out.
“Moon-dae, aren’t you moving your things?”
“…Yeah, I should.”
I followed Big Sae-jin into the corridor.
And I realized something.
‘So that’s what he was doing.’
He deliberately avoided the number three.

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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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