Debut or Die - Chapter 135

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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 135
For now, I kept listening to the recording.
The more I heard it, the clearer the conversation with Choi Won-gil became—the one we’d had on that remote staircase at the MBS Broadcasting Station.
‘Damn it.’
[Everyone lives like that anyway! It’s not just me, but… everyone fights over parts, curses, all that stuff too.]
Choi Won-gil’s self-justifications came pouring out in poor audio quality, each one referencing other people to deflect blame.
Honestly, even just hearing up to this point was enough to build a case against him. He’d started the confrontation unprovoked, then blamed others while whining about his circumstances.
But the editing magic didn’t stop there.
They’d rearranged a single phrase.
[You’ve had everything work out for you anyway.]
[…That’s not true. Would you trade places with me?]
[…I can’t trade places!]
[So you do want to. Hmm…. But honestly, you wouldn’t want to trade your family, would you?]
[Right.]
[….]
What was originally Choi Won-gil’s response to a question about his family’s wellbeing—something that came much later—had been spliced in as the final line of this conversation.
The nuance became far more sinister because of it.
‘Choi Won-gil came across as far more despicable than he actually was.’
The moment I brought up his family circumstances, it made it sound like he’d immediately answered, “Yeah, living as an orphan like you is rough, and I’m just jealous of your career”—which he never said.
Naturally, the apology Choi Won-gil had made afterward was nowhere to be found. The video ended after a few more seconds of static noise.
It created a silence that made it seem as though I’d been left speechless by his blunt response.
This felt intentional too.
“…Hmm.”
I scrolled through the comments again.
There was one top comment that interpreted Choi Won-gil’s words in an even more aggressive tone than he’d actually used.
It was the same one I’d read earlier.
And the next batch of highly upvoted comments were… well, exactly as I’d expected.
My story was being cut in half.
-Starting a fight like that, is he insane
-Park Moon-dae’s parents are both dead, what is this reaction even…
Look at how you talk, acting like you’ve got such a great personality lol
From the moment I first saw Choi Won-gil’s face, he gave off such a strong vibe—all that greed plastered all over him drove him crazy with jealousy. Meanwhile, Moon-dae, who has a good personality, keeps updating his visuals too lol.
-Park Moon-dae seems to be trying to keep up the good work, but when I hear things like that… I feel bad…ㅠㅠ
-Saying something like “I’m glad your life is going well” to someone whose parents passed away, is that real
-Do you really believe this without evidence? Are all the commenters Testa fans..
“Look at these obsessed fans rushing in at even a whiff of rumors lol. You should be doing something filial instead of wasting time like this~”
└There’s a recording 1 with video too, so it’s definitely real
└Isn’t it embarrassing to bring up fanatic talk in a situation like this?
-★☆Recording 1 exists everyone listen to it (link)☆★
‘…Number 1.’
The video title had a ‘2’ attached to it, which meant there was a first one as well.
I clicked on the link in the comment.
A shaky, low-quality camera captured Choi Won-gil sitting alone on a secluded staircase at the Broadcasting Station, muttering to himself.
‘He really went all out.’
It was clearly filmed and zoomed in with a smartphone.
Choi Won-gil was muttering something to himself, apparently pushed to his mental limit—so much so that he didn’t even realize he was speaking aloud.
The problem was… the content was a direct attack on netizens.
[People who write comments are all thoughtless anyway… they don’t even know what they’re writing, and they forget about it right away…]
In Choi Won-gil’s position, it wasn’t something he couldn’t say.
Given how much he’d been ridiculed on the Internet, he could certainly say things like that when seeking counsel or steeling himself alone.
It was actually a sympathetic sight.
But for those who had cursed Choi Won-gil during the Ajusa days, this was exactly the kind of thing that would irritate them.
Haha, that’s some impressive mental gymnastics, so touching.
-your own character fell apart and you got cursed for it, but you’re blaming others, ugh…
-yeah there are cases like that, but you’re not one of them
Here too, the comments were merciless in their criticism and mockery.
It was thanks to the justification provided by that recording—our conversation, carefully edited and uploaded.
“….”
My head was throbbing.
At least I understood one thing: they weren’t trying to target me.
‘They’re going after Choi Won-gil.’
It was clear from the fact that they’d meticulously edited and uploaded the recording.
It was probably the guy I’d seen at the bottom of those Broadcasting Station stairs back then.
The fact that he didn’t upload it then but waited until Choi Won-gil’s group debut article dropped showed he’d planned this carefully.
‘And he used me as a tool for it.’
The fact that this bastard had used Park Moon-dae as kindling to fan the flames was maddening.
Did you see how the sympathetic and supportive comments kept pouring in?
It was easy to mistake it for something good since public opinion was favorable, but it absolutely wasn’t.
It meant that the unfortunate family circumstances image—which I’d managed to bury in the background narrative—had surfaced again, this time openly.
The posts appearing on SNS right now were like this.
-Using the phrasing ‘I’m glad you’re doing well’ to someone who lost their parents in an accident and even dropped out due to school violence is a problem of empathy intelligence.
-thinking about what Park Moon-dae must have felt like then makes me want to cry, Choi Won-gil really seems out of his mind
It wasn’t even a Testa fan account.
‘…I’m way past the stage of benefiting from something like this.’
Now that the group had successfully established itself, rather than being in an audition where every single vote mattered, this kind of controversy was actually a hindrance.
Because it distorted the image.
Imagine people seeing Park Moon-dae and recalling his shocking, unfortunate past before anything about the stage or group image.
And during Testa’s new album promotion period, no less.
It was perfect for making even the content that should be joyful and fun feel exhausting.
‘…I’d rather be a crybaby who makes people laugh.’
In short, this was bad news for me too.
‘What is this, right on my first comeback broadcast….’
I was already exhausted.
“…Sigh.”
First, I needed to control what I could reach.
I immediately informed my Manager about the situation.
After confirming that my Manager rushed out with his smartphone, I quickly found Gold 1 in my contacts.
Ryu Chung-woo, who noticed my actions, immediately spoke up.
“What’s going on.”
“…YouTube trending videos, rank 5… no, rank 3. Please check.”
The real-time rankings were already climbing rapidly. This was maddening.
Big Sae-jin came running, apparently having already checked.
“Is this really Choi Won-gil?”
“It’s been edited—the nuance is different. Wait.”
Gold 1 finally answered the call.
“Hyung.”
-Moon-dae, did you see that….
“I saw it.”
-Right. Sorry to ask, but what exactly did Won-gil say….
“It’s been edited. It wasn’t crude language at that level, and Choi Won-gil apologized afterward.”
I heard the sound of him breathing in with relief.
-Phew… Thank goodness it’s not real, at least. Ah, this is driving me crazy.
“Does the company over there know everything?”
-Yeah. They’re already in a meeting. But….
Gold 1 let out a heavy sigh.
-…Truth is, Won-gil’s condition right now is… pretty bad. Even the company doesn’t know what to do. I hope it gets resolved well, but….
“….”
-I’ll tell the company the situation again. Does your agency know too?
“Yes. I already told them.”
The agencies probably already made contact with each other.
-Then it should get resolved somehow. But, sigh… What about Won-gil.
“….”
Gold 1 offered me a few words of comfort before hastily ending the call.
And I grasped the situation roughly.
‘Choi Won-gil might actually get cut from the Debut Group like this.’
The other company was already eyeing damage control since public opinion was catastrophic. It seemed like they’d remove him if the response stayed negative even after the clarification.
And hearing that Choi Won-gil’s condition was bad… wait, this doesn’t feel right.
This bastard isn’t thinking something strange, is he.
“….”
Cold sweat broke out on my skin.
This… speed of damage control might be a matter of life and death.
‘If I’m late, the backlash could be catastrophic.’
If this controversy keeps reproducing and spiraling out of control, and Choi Won-gil—already in bad shape with the Agency ready to cut ties—finally gets cleared, the aftermath will still crash down on me.
Even if the situation gets resolved by then, the public fury will be directed at me.
Why?
Because right now, a one-on-one good-versus-evil narrative has been established between me and Choi Won-gil.
Looking at it objectively, the things I said in this recording aren’t particularly virtuous statements either.
They’re just the kind of things an idol would say while carefully hedging their bets in a conflict.
But right now, they’re being pushed as if I’m some paragon of virtue.
Because making me look like a pitiful, innocent victim makes it easier to tear into Choi Won-gil.
But once Choi Won-gil gets beaten down enough and is finally cleared later, sympathy will swing his way, and the situation will flip completely.
-Honestly, Park Moon-dae was the one who brought up family stuff out of nowhere, but he got away with it because he has so many fans
-Choi Won-gil got hit with the “no fans, guilty” verdict
Likely, people would attack me saying Park Moon-dae’s fans had already image-managed him as a victim and manipulated public opinion.
Of course, in that process, my past controversies would resurface too.
And they’d get another satisfying round of righteous justice in.
‘Absolutely not.’
I had to contain this at the incident level before it escalated that far.
Choi Won-gil was too young to suffer more from this misunderstanding—he’d already tasted enough bitterness.
‘I need to handle this fast.’
The only way was to tie this up before the story hit the main news, so Choi Won-gil wouldn’t be destroyed.
I quickly contacted the Company through my Manager for a phone consultation and got immediate approval.
“What are you going to do?”
Bae Sae-jin quietly came over and asked. From the atmosphere, it seemed the situation had already spread to all the members.
“I need to issue a clarification.”
“On the Testa account?”
“No.”
Bae Sae-jin seemed to be thinking of when he’d posted his own statement, but this wasn’t that kind of situation.
‘If I post it myself, the controversy will only get bigger.’
Then the scandal could consume all the attention Testa’s comeback was getting.
But if I just let the Company put out an official statement, people would definitely say ‘they already coordinated their story, only Park Moon-dae got screwed’ or something like that.
So there was only one way.
Use a third party.
I called Gold 1 again.
-Yeah, what’s up?
“Do you have time, hyung?”
-I do, did something urgent come up?
“Sort of. I was thinking of creating some message records.”
-…??
The live broadcast stage was right around the corner. I had to create the evidence within thirty minutes.

* * *
Choi Won-gil began getting hammered from all directions—by excited trolls, by the masses absorbed in the spectacle, and by Park Moon-dae’s furious fans.
Since almost no one stepped forward to defend him, the recording spread without reinterpretation, gaining momentum with each share.
In the midst of it all, Park Moon-dae’s reputation temporarily soared to its zenith.
[Park Moon-dae crying to his fans’ chants at the concert]
[Compilation of testimonies about Park Moon-dae looking after other participants throughout Ajusa]
[Park Moon-dae’s circumstances at the time of his withdrawal.jpg]
All manner of heartwarming stories—from recent events back to the early broadcasts of Ajusa—were being unearthed and uploaded.
Yet Park Moon-dae’s fans found themselves in a complex emotional state.
Opinions swirled everywhere, ranging from those purely enraged at Choi Won-gil to those worried about the fallout, but everyone was equally caught off guard by this sudden turn of events.
-Isn’t it normal to feel uncomfortable when our boy’s past gets plastered around like public property?
-Listening to that recording made me so angry I thought I’d lose it
Man, I’m seriously pissed off. I have to do a comeback Stage in 30 minutes and those kids just walked past without even noticing… I wish they hadn’t seen it.
-Still, it’s a relief that everyone recognizes Moon-dae is a good person
It was at precisely that moment that Gold 1 posted on SNS.
========================
(Photo)
Won-gil heard what happened and thought hard about it before asking me directly. He’s a friend who really tries his best, so I hope you won’t judge him too harshly.
Since Won-gil doesn’t have an SNS account, I’m posting this on my account instead.
========================
What was posted in the photo was… a screenshot of Gold 1’s own chat room.
And the room name displayed at the top was none other than “Park Moon-dae’s Sibling.”
The screenshot began with Gold 1’s opening message.
[Me: Moon-dae, sorry, but can you take a look at this? Is this real? (video link)]
[Park Moon-dae’s Sibling: ?]
[Park Moon-dae’s Sibling: One moment]
The link was naturally “Choi Won-gil Recording 2.”
And after a pause equal to the video’s runtime, a reply came through.
[Park Moon-dae’s Sibling: What is this]
[Park Moon-dae’s Sibling: This wasn’t the vibe at all…]
Me: TT TT TT TT TT TT
[Me: Right? This isn’t it…?]
[Park Moon-dae’s Sibling: Yeah, looks like a splice job]
[Park Moon-dae’s Sibling: I think Won-gil and I just exchanged well-wishes and that was it]
[Park Moon-dae’s Sibling: Tell Won-gil to sue whoever posted this for defamation. They rearranged the order of the words without permission]
Me: Hahaha okay! Thanks! (heart emoticon)
[Park Moon-dae’s Sibling: No problem (yellow dog greeting emoji)]
The screenshot concluded about fourteen minutes later when Gold 1 asked if it was okay to capture and post this, receiving Park Moon-dae’s enthusiastic approval.
-Whoa…
-So they’re manipulating things like this these days too.
-Isn’t this Ha Il-jun’s official statement?
-This is insane, I’m getting chills.
And unlike certain other agencies, the competent Gold 1 agency swiftly released articles timed with the shifting public sentiment and seized control of YouTube’s top comments.
-Apparently this is fabricated (link)
Park Moon-dae’s testimony came out, and he’s telling Choi Won-gil to sue him for editing it together lol.
An article came out and the agency said they’re actually filing a lawsuit. That crazy bastard.
And so the criticism directed at Choi Won-gil began to subside before it reached an irreversible point, before it could hit the portal’s main page.
The people who had been cursing him felt somewhat embarrassed and lost interest, allowing the arrows of blame to redirect toward the person who had actually manipulated the recording.
The moment the music broadcast ended, Park Moon-dae grabbed his smartphone and immediately grasped the situation.

* * *
‘At least I’ve put out the immediate fire.’
I turned off my smartphone screen and exhaled heavily.
However, this current response was nothing more than a temporary patch.
If whoever uploaded this recording has something else up their sleeve, Choi Won-gil could take another nosedive just as steep.
And I still have a long way to go.
The family matters that had surfaced once haven’t been properly sealed yet.
Moreover, the comment reactions to the clarification article I just saw left me feeling uneasy.
-You must have been hurt by things like this many times growing up, but what a pure-hearted young man you are. I hope Choi Won-gil learns from this major experience and uses it as an opportunity for self-improvement~
Good people like Park Moon-dae deserve to succeed, and I hope things go even better for you in the future!
-Wow, Choi Won-gil basically survived thanks to Moon-dae…
In summary, it was ‘kind Moon-dae is letting this slide gracefully.’
No matter how spliced the recording was, the quarrel Choi Won-gil had started didn’t disappear, so my correction message sent to Gold 1 had been twisted into a display of thoughtful, kindhearted consideration.
If it had ended there, it would have faded away, but the problem was that work had been put in.
Choi Won-gil’s agency seemed worried that the clarification article itself might stir up trouble.
So perhaps wanting to shift the narrative entirely, they released articles focusing on Park Moon-dae’s ‘kind response’ rather than Choi Won-gil and pushed public opinion in that direction.
The result was the comments I’d just seen.
‘This feels off.’
The feeling wasn’t good.
Adjectives like ‘saint’ and ‘angel’ can be slapped on hastily and torn off just as quickly.
My image could be destroyed by a single slip-up, but the real problem was that there were more than a few people waiting in the wings to find that slip-up.
‘The ones who made card news to keep me from winning Rookie of the Year wouldn’t have just disappeared.’
In this situation, it would have been enough to appear subtly kind without standing out, but this blatant good-guy image was a burden.
‘There’s a reason I avoid character-based marketing.’
So all things considered, I’d reached a conclusion.
‘I need to change my image.’
I needed a strong, powerful impact—strong enough to bury this chaos early in this promotional cycle.
‘The answer is… variety shows.’

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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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