Debut or Die - Chapter 138

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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 138
The moment I clicked on the music video, the title appeared before the five-second advertisement could even finish.
[TeSTAR ‘Midnight, and After (00:01)’ Official MV]
[View Count: 22,147,586]
‘Wow, it hit twenty-two million.’
The last time I’d checked, it was at twenty million, and even though only a week had passed since release, the view count was climbing at an impressive pace.
The time it took to reach ten million was itself a new record for the group.
‘Here I am watching it again anyway.’
The graduate student shrugged, as if to say it was only natural.
TeSTAR’s music video this time had a distinctly different texture from their previous ones.
“Ah, it’s starting.”
At that moment, the advertisement ended and the music video began.
[….]
A dusty, cobweb-covered vintage phonograph came into frame.
A pale hand suddenly emerged from the corner and pressed the needle onto the phonograph.
Click-click.
The cobwebs snapped, and a slow, crackling melody began to flow.
It was lo-fi jazz, deliberately degraded in quality.
A romantic yet melancholic piano rang out.
Before long, the frame shifted to the entrance of a grand mansion.
Though aged, the structure still bore traces of extravagance, and within the captured frame, it displayed breathtaking visual beauty.
And there, in the center.
Beneath a dusty yet gleaming chandelier, seven figures sat in perfect formation, drawing the focus.
The song began.
-Slowly sinking
Into the night
I don’t want to escape
-Now it’s quiet
Songs and dreams
All forgotten here at midnight,
Your Midnight
The choreography unfolded.
Contemporary dance and waltz elements stood out distinctly. It was elegant and intricate, filled with movements where they supported each other using their entire bodies.
Long sleeves swayed.
There were no simple, repetitive movements easy to follow or memorize. Every motion existed solely to captivate the viewer’s gaze.
Those structural lines were captured in sharp relief beneath the chandelier’s glow.
-Even when the clock’s hand calls to me
I cannot be lifted away, today too
I remain here, your midnight
Your Midnight
The video shifted its backdrop from a weathered, opulent entrance to an elegant study room where rain fell, then to a massive dining table lined with nothing but rusted birdcages, and finally to a bathroom overflowing with crimson scented candles.
With each transition, the hair and costume transformed in shape and color, seamlessly adapting to the new setting in an instant.
The visual composition was absolutely stunning.
And before long, the backdrop had arrived at a bedroom where golden-blue butterflies fluttered about.
The seemingly endless evolution of costumes, built upon an elaborate formal wear foundation, had finally reached its conclusion.
It was a classically styled, lightweight shirt.
Between those shoulders, along the spine, a rotating crimson spring mechanism gleamed.
—Fading Midnight
The blurred focus
Wavering, aching through time
The final chorus’s blooming choreography.
The butterflies gathered whenever the formation changed, perching on the spring like birds on a roost.
The shadows on the floor stretched, draping the butterfly wings in elongated silhouettes.
—Overflowing Midnight
Crumbling Shape
Torn, a new day arrives
There were no meaningful cuts, no acting, no protruding narrative.
The music video, composed solely of choreography and perfectly placed close-up shots, devoured time and swept past in an instant.
It was a music video where a beautiful, mesmerizing visual aesthetic flowed in perfect harmony with the song.
—The midnight
When I met you
And then
The lyrics ended there. All sound paused momentarily.
The final accompaniment began again, delicately.
With piano and contrabass flowing softly, a white hand appeared just as in the opening scene. But this time, the camera rose along the arm.
The owner of that white hand was Sun Ah-hyun.
Sun Ah-hyun, stepping out of the choreography formation, moved toward a grandfather clock in the corner of the bedroom.
He tore off the lower right wing of the blue butterfly specimen hanging above the clock.
Beneath the wing, a diagonal crack in the glass was revealed.
[00:01]
A flowing cursive caption appeared above the grandfather clock, captured head-on, and the video ended.
‘Whew!’
No matter how many times I watched it, it was absolutely incredible!
The graduate student couldn’t contain her smile as she rewound to the final verse where Park Moon-dae’s close-up was captured.
The blue butterfly fluttered near his temples, and Park Moon-dae’s complexion, his gaze slightly upward, was truly perfection.
And there was the perfect finishing touch.
‘A choker around the neck!!’
Though the material and atmosphere were completely different, it reminded her of the Ajusa secondary team match where she’d first seen Park Moon-dae, making it all the better.
The graduate student captured that scene once more, even though she’d already done so.
‘Ah, I really love this music video so much! The song itself is just so pleasant to listen to!’
She appreciated how Home Ma’s taste was to simply enjoy four minutes of enchanting visuals and pleasant melodies without any unnecessary questions cluttering her mind.
And that preference was evident from the thumbnail itself.
Testa had been using narrative and meaningful thumbnails since “Magical Boy”—hands, landscapes, props—that sort of thing.
But this time, they’d brazenly used a close-up of a member’s upper body for the thumbnail.
It was Kim Rae-bin.
“Hmm.”
It wasn’t Park Moon-dae, which was disappointing, and since it was Kim Rae-bin—the one who’d made such a poor first impression on her—the graduate student felt oddly conflicted.
But the cut itself was art.
‘…Rae-bin is handsome, isn’t he.’
With a corset choker around his neck and a blue butterfly visible beneath his jaw, Kim Rae-bin’s wet cut was stunning.
And he was the perfect person for this song.
The concept was very languid and luxurious, so Kim Rae-bin’s slightly decadent impression suited it well.
The music video wasn’t concerned with worldbuilding or anything like that—it was designed to bombard the senses with visuals and sound.
‘Oh, I got carried away.’
While she was lost in thought, the video finished playing and autoplay queued up a related video.
It was the first stage performance of “Midnight, and After” from the Concert.
[Ahhhhhhh!!!]
[Kyaaaa!!]
The screams were so loud the song was barely audible.
‘Oh right! Everyone was like that!’
She laughed softly, recalling the scene from back then.
She’d forgotten because her friend Home Ma had sent her a link to her own fancam with clean audio editing applied.
According to her friend, the concept photos released beforehand hadn’t given anything away, which was why everyone had gone so wild.
‘Right, so it was more like, wow, the photos are pretty! I’m excited! That kind of feeling.’
Exactly.
To maximize the dramatic impact of the first stage, Testa and the Company had accepted Park Moon-dae’s opinion and shot the concept photos and teasers plainly.
They’d simply used modest formal wear and a mansion to create decent-looking cuts.
-Heard TeSTAR finally ditched the concept obsession
└Now it’s boring
└Still, the kids are pretty so that’s enough
-Something feels lacking though
-Are they taking a break this round? With the full album there’s a lot of work and the Concert overlaps, so they’re probably playing it safe
└Their happiness circuit is strong, recycling must be hard
-They’ve abandoned their original spirit, they’ll probably gain weight soon
The graduate student didn’t know it, but the raw reactions beneath the surface were at this level.
But the moment the Concert footage appeared, everything flipped.
Testa had even thought the Concert outfits could be a bit over-the-top, so they’d actually come out with butterfly models dangling from their tails like clockwork.
With capital invested, the outfit didn’t look strange even at that level of excess.
-TeSTAR takes their concepts seriously
-Who came up with the corset choker and that shirt? Seriously, give them a bonus
-♡Butterfly Boy so cute♡
The school worldview that’s already sucked dry is outdated now, let’s push this
-Park Moon-dae back to basics fully charged
-Male idols are sexy after all
After that, she added special photos that borrowed the music video concept wholesale, exclusively for the album, and even posted some to Testa’s SNS—it was perfect.
But without needing to know about such meticulous calculations, the graduate student was simply happy.
‘Yeah, let me watch Park Moon-dae’s fancam too!’
The graduate student eagerly typed into the YouTube search bar and found Park Moon-dae’s latest music show fancam.
The hairstyle that revealed only half his forehead and the loose stage suit looked absolutely perfect on him.
‘Blonde is the best…!’
She happily watched the video, then suddenly opened the comment section.
Of course, she knew from experience that the best comments would be plastered with English, but finding even one or two Korean comments felt refreshing.
Watching those fan comments made her want to add a reply of her own.
“Hmm~”
The graduate student scrolled down happily through the comments and finally found a Korean one.
But… it wasn’t the kind of comment she’d expected.
-Park Moon-dae fighting~ I love how brave and cool you are
-Good luck to your university! I hope it wasn’t hard ㅠㅠ
“…?”
…She felt a sense of dissonance.
This concept was based on sophistication and elegance, even a bit sexy… and she could feel that artistry had been carefully considered in every element.
And Park Moon-dae was a genius idol who embodied that concept perfectly—neither overdoing it nor falling short!
‘But why are comments like this ranked so high instead of ones about the Stage…?’
Of course, since they were kind words, she didn’t feel bad about them.
It’s just… her excitement dampened a bit.
“Hmm.”
The graduate student just scrolled past and kept going. Fortunately, she soon found a fan comment that matched her sentiments perfectly and liked it.
-Every time Moon-dae blinks, the world blinks too, this is a total solar eclipse
‘This is it!’
The graduate student giggled happily.
She forgot about the dissonance quickly, but now she was starting to understand what her friend had been worried about.
‘They’re more interested in how good Moon-dae is than in Moon-dae himself….’
Of course, not everyone was like that, but the fact that this trend was emerging wasn’t pleasant anymore.
‘I want to watch Moon-dae’s variety show soon.’
The graduate student waited for the variety show, rewatching the past concert unit stage preparation video and unit stage fancam during her breaks.
And then came the broadcast day for 【Saturday Party】.
From Park Moon-dae and Big Sae-jin’s first appearance, she choked.
“Cough!!”
Because Park Moon-dae and Big Sae-jin were wearing infant pink fairy wings snugly.
“…?!”
The two of us began dancing in perfect sync to the music on a Stage styled like an 80s music café.
[Dancing magic! Soaring stocks! Testa’s two shining stars have descended to earth!]
The sight of us in suspender pants was certainly cute and handsome.
But the pink fairy wings stole the viewers’ attention entirely.
Captions appeared on screen.
[As if about to soar into the heavens at any moment…]
[A dance like a dream!]
[Fairy or human?]
It was the DJ’s new commentary.
‘Why… why did they put that on?’
The graduate student watched the screen in confusion before suddenly understanding.
“Oh, butterfly!”
It seemed they’d been conscious of how fans had been secretly calling this new song “Butterfly Boy”!
‘That’s so cute!’
It was a grand scheme for comedy and promotion, but either way, the fans watching were delighted.
“Ahahaha!!”
The graduate student burst into laughter and turned up the volume.
And at that same moment, Testa was doing exactly the same thing.

* * *
“Ahahaha!!”
“Heh, hehehem!”
The guys who’d gathered in the Living Room insisting they’d monitor Saturday Party burst into laughter.
‘I knew this would happen.’
It was a bit embarrassing, but… hadn’t I experienced all sorts of bizarre and outlandish things by now to let my composure crumble over something like this?
“Is it really that funny?”
“Yes!!”
When Cha Yu-jin answered, Big Sae-jin collapsed beside him. Apparently even that response was hilarious.
‘…Just endure it.’
I turned my gaze away from the remote control.
…But when the scene of me and Big Sae-jin dancing around the DJ booth appeared, I couldn’t hold back anymore.
The me on screen exclaimed.
[Wow, the nation’s greatest MC!]
Click.
I pressed the mute button.
“Huh??”
“Hey, why~”
“Park Moon-dae, it’s fun! It’s fine!”
It’s not fine.
I gazed at the screen with a bitter expression.
The latter half of filming is… quite anticipated.

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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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