Debut or Die - Chapter 125

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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 125
‘So that bastard pulled off a stunt like this?’
It was something odd.
I knew Big Sae-jin was quick to assess situations and skilled at steering public opinion in his favor.
But would he really resort to tampering with the cards just to pick a unit?
It seemed more like him to simply maximize his advantage within the given circumstances, rather than risk exposure like that.
‘Just to avoid Bae Sae-jin? That doesn’t seem like him either.’
Hmm, something didn’t sit right.
But confronting him about it wasn’t feasible in this situation.
There was no evidence, and bringing this up in the Dormitory with cameras rolling would only damage myself.
And even if it were true, what could I say? It’s not like anything major happened just because he subtly manipulated a one-off concert unit to his liking.
The odds were high I’d only sour the mood for nothing.
‘…I’ll let it slide for now.’
I headed to the Bed in Room 1, which was now my old room. Big Sae-jin casually followed me in as if inspecting what would become his new space.
“Oh, I’ll take the Bed by the door. Moon-dae, I hereby transfer my Bed to you.”
“…Which one?”
“What, you forgot? The one on the far left~”
“Yeah. I’ll pass on that one.”
“Whoa, too honored to use it? It’s fine, Moon-dae. Don’t be shy, use it comfortably~”
“….”
Typical him as always.
I shook my head, gathered my things, and left Room 1.
‘If any other problems come up, I can bring it up then.’
And that timing came sooner than expected.
It was the awards ceremony just a few days later.

* * *
Except for the Han Dae-eum Awards, it was practically the last major awards ceremony of the year.
However, several major artists didn’t attend. It seemed their tour schedules overlapped with the event.
In other words, VTIC didn’t come either.
‘…I don’t need to worry about that mental jinx then.’
The moment I thought that, a text arrived.
[VTIC Chung-ryeo: This feels like almost the last one. Congratulations on the rookie award^^]
“….”
It felt like getting hit by a mental jinx.
I sent a brief reply and turned off my smartphone. That’s when Big Sae-jin pretended to know something.
“You’re still in contact with Chung-ryeo?”
“…Yeah.”
“Hmm~ I see, I see.”
Big Sae-jin seemed like he wanted to add something more, but we arrived at the Waiting Room for the awards ceremony before he could.
A piece of paper was posted on the Waiting Room door.
[Zairop / Testa]
This time it wasn’t a private Waiting Room.
‘To be honest, thanks to my recent performance, I’ve been getting pretty good Waiting Rooms for a rookie.’
I’d heard that even fairly famous groups often just wait behind dividers in venues with limited space.
‘Both groups are actually in decent situations.’
Well, so the male idol we’re sharing the Waiting Room with this time is from a famous Agency.
‘Maybe a senior by about three years.’
It was a predictable lineup.
Ryu Chung-woo gave the members a light reminder.
“Alright, let’s greet them properly when we go in.”
“Yes!”
But unlike the ordinary reactions of the other members, Big Sae-jin right next to me grew flustered.
“…! …Um.”
…Wait a second.
‘Now that I think about it, if I calculate their Agency and debut dates….’
But before I could think further, the Manager opened the door.
“Hello, seniors!”
“Ah~ Hello~”
Unremarkable greetings were exchanged, and then the Zairop guys approached with exaggerated laughter.
“Ah~ Sae-jin!”
“How have you been?”
So it was as I thought.
This must be ‘that’ group—the cause of Big Sae-jin’s brief detour before his time at Ajusa.
The first Debut Group from his first Agency, the one he was cut from right before debuting.
“Wow~ Hello, seniors~ I’m really happy to see you!”
“Hey, senior! Just call me hyung instead~”
“Aw, come on~”
Big Sae-jin laughed and shook hands with several of them, bumping fists. He seemed quite friendly with them.
The other members had the look of ‘Big Sae-jin’s being his usual self.’ He was naturally that sociable.
But from that point on, the atmosphere shifted slightly.
“Sae-jin, hey, you barely respond to messages. You’re hurting your hyung’s feelings.”
“Ah, you know how it is~ I’ve been so busy since debuting!”
“Yeah. I’m glad you’re busy now, Sae-jin~ You took longer than expected! You got lucky.”
‘What?’
These guys were subtly mocking Big Sae-jin for failing to debut all this time.
Big Sae-jin answered with a bright smile.
“That’s great~ You seniors message me often, but I’m sorry for the late replies! I’ve just been too swamped with work to keep up.”
Translation: You guys must be incredibly free since you have no schedules.
“…No, well, it wasn’t that often, was it? I was just curious about what you were up to.”
“Oh? I’ve been appearing in lots of places lately, so isn’t it easy to keep up with my news? You seniors should tell me about your recent activities too~ I’m curious about everything.”
“….”
Wow, they really could twist the knife about their recent poor performance and lack of results like that.
No matter how you looked at it, Big Sae-jin had won on points.
And by this point, most of the members except Kim Rae-bin seemed to understand the situation, their eyes darting around.
The Zairop members’ expressions were on the verge of souring.
“…Yeah. Whether we like it or not, you’ll definitely hear about us this year~”
“Really? Wow, I’m looking forward to it! Please look forward to Testa too.”
“….”
That was purely crushing them with a weight class difference.
In the end, the Zairop members forced smiles and finished their greetings.
“Yeah. Let’s both work hard.”
“Yes!”
The conversation seemed to be ending.
But unable to hold back any longer, one Zairop member who had been standing awkwardly in the back interjected.
“But we only heard about Testa’s news? We don’t really know about your news?”
“…!”
What was unexpected was that Big Sae-jin seemed to take damage from this trivial remark.
Big Sae-jin still wore a smiling face, but instead of offering any rebuttal, he closed his mouth.
‘Huh?’
And here, Kim Rae-bin couldn’t hold back and raised his hand to speak.
For the record, what he couldn’t hold back was not anger but a pure logical error.
He didn’t even understand the situation enough to be upset.
“…? But Sae-jin hyung is in Testa, so isn’t Testa’s news hyung’s news?”
“That’s right!”
Cha Yu-jin quickly agreed.
But Zairop didn’t give up.
“No, I only hear about the group, not much about Lee Sae-jin~”
“…? Ah, we haven’t done any individual activities outside of group promotions. You can think of Testa’s news as Lee Sae-jin’s news.”
“….”
It wasn’t Kim Rae-bin’s intention, but thanks to him, Zairop’s words fell flat.
It’s over.
‘Might as well wrap this up.’
I smiled and interjected.
“Yes. From now on, whenever you hear Testa news, just think of Lee Sae-jin. Right?”
“Exactly!”
While Kim Rae-bin’s face beamed with satisfaction, Zairop’s expression completely soured.
“…Yeah, I see.”
No matter how senior they were, these bastards didn’t have the guts to cause trouble with a much bigger group at an awards ceremony, so the conversation ended right there.
But Big Sae-jin’s condition still hadn’t returned to normal.
‘This guy’s really acting strange.’
Big Sae-jin, who had been staring silently at his smartphone for an hour, was creating an unsettling atmosphere.
…And connecting this situation with the unit card incident from a few days ago, I started to suspect something.
‘…I can’t just leave it like this.’
Big Sae-jin often took the microphone.
If things continued like this, there could be a problem when it came time to give an acceptance speech, so it was better to address it now.
“…I’m going to the car for a moment.”
“Huh?”
“I left something behind.”
I stood up and got the keys from the Manager.
“Want me to find it for you?”
“It’s fine. I’ll be right back.”
And I tapped Big Sae-jin, who was sitting near the door.
“Hey, let’s go.”
“…Huh? What?”
“I think I need one more person to move something. And we need to take photos.”
“….”
Big Sae-jin looked me up and down without a word, then stood up with only his mouth smiling.
“…Sure~”
He clearly seemed offended, but let’s move first.
And I walked silently through the Corridor with him until we reached the Car.
“….”
After confirming no one was around, I got in the Car and opened my mouth.
“Is something bothering you lately?”
“…Sigh.”
Big Sae-jin looked up at the Car ceiling once and sighed. He seemed to realize why I had called him out.
“No.”
“…Alright then. Go clear your head and come back up. You seemed uncomfortable in the Waiting Room.”
“…!”
I shrugged my shoulders and rummaged through the car to find a neck pillow.
I could just say I came down to grab this.
“I’ll make up an excuse for you, so just come back before it’s time. See you.”
“…”
I grabbed the car door. Then Big Sae-jin let out a long sigh from behind.
“…Sorry. This is just… difficult.”
“That sounds like there’s a problem.”
“Problem… I guess you could call it that.”
Big Sae-jin struggled to find the words, and silence stretched on.
‘Maybe it’s better if I just say it.’
I hesitated for a moment, then opened my mouth.
“Actually, I saw you picking unit cards. …You knew about card number 3 and avoided it.”
“…!”
“…Was it because three people would mean less screen time than two?”
Earlier, when he seemed hurt by remarks like “It’s the group doing well, not you~,” I thought he was sensitive about having fewer moments to showcase himself.
But Big Sae-jin shook his head.
“…No.”
Then he fidgeted with his smartphone before slowly continuing.
“It’s because you and Bae Sae-jin would be missing. With that lineup, it would be hard to showcase the choreography.”
“…!”
“It’s obvious. They probably structured it as a vocal-focused performance with you as the center… and I’d just get the dance break center or something like that. And since I’d have to match that hyung anyway, the difficulty would’ve been flat.”
“…They could’ve tried a dance-focused challenge centered on you.”
“Ha. Come on, Moon-dae. You really think I’d take that kind of risk when fans are paying for a concert?”
“…”
“And even if they’d structured it dance-focused to match me, the fans probably wouldn’t have liked it anyway.”
“Why do you think that?”
“…This is driving me crazy.”
Big Sae-jin sighed several times, then hesitantly held out his smartphone.
SNS search results… searched under his privacy-protected name.
-Honestly, calling it a dance line is embarrassing, right? Ah-hyun’s the top tier anyway. Yu-jin’s the center role lol. It’s disgusting watching Big Bird fans desperately push the dance line
-If Ah-hyun just fixes his stuttering, finally we don’t have to see Big Bird’s reactions? Phew, thank goodness
-Honestly, even Guk-dae dances well. The dance line is pointless. Big Bird, if you have a conscience, step back. Why are you rubbing up against Ah-hyun? lol
-Big Bird… what’s your position even? Is pretending to be cool your position? hh
“…”
“Let’s not say that searching like this only brings up insults. When it comes up this uniformly, it means the fans’ opinion to some degree.”
Big Sae-jin remained composed.
I scrolled down further through the SNS, checking the overall flow again.
‘…Sun Ah-hyun really made an impression.’
The way he’d salvaged the situation with a backflip and was actively overcoming his stutter—it was striking enough to dramatically elevate perceptions of his abilities.
And among the other dancers, Cha Yu-jin was so popular and brimming with such natural charisma that his center position was all but guaranteed.
Which left Big Sae-jin hanging in the air.
Fans who’d always been lukewarm about Big Sae-jin seemed to be weighing that gap quite heavily.
“Of course, that’s mostly the thinking of people who dislike me… but the truth is, I’m falling behind in the positioning hierarchy.”
“….”
“Sun Ah-hyun doing well? Fine. It’s good for the group. But I can’t accept being in this position.”
I opened my mouth slowly.
“…So you’re targeting Cha Yu-jin?”
“Yeah.”
Big Sae-jin took his smartphone back.
“I need to outperform Cha Yu-jin in the unit stage this time.”
“….”
“A direct comparison will be possible. …That’s the only escape route I can see, isn’t it?”

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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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