Debut or Die - Chapter 157

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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 157
Kim Rae-bin’s injury occurred during the second recording session after the Stage rehearsal.
While performing a high-difficulty group choreography from Sun Ah-hyun’s part, he was lying at the very edge and stretched his foot to get up when it struck the structure.
The Stage being narrower than expected was the root cause of the incident.
‘…It was even smaller than what they’d told us.’
No matter how cramped the Stage set prepared for this English-language talk show was for multiple people to perform group choreography, we’d adjusted our movement patterns accordingly.
‘Kim Rae-bin’s movements didn’t deviate from the plan.’
In other words, these bastards gave us wrong information, which is why the kid’s foot got destroyed.
‘Damn it.’
No, wait—let me not jump to conclusions about it being destroyed. There’s bleeding from the contusion, but it might not be as serious a wound as I’m thinking.
“Rae-bin, can you move your foot? Don’t move it—just tell me how it feels!”
“…I can, but it hurts, it really hurts….”
“Let me stop the bleeding first!”
After emergency treatment, Kim Rae-bin was loaded into an ambulance and taken to the Hospital. The rest of us quickly wrapped up the situation and were able to head to the Hospital as well.
Since we couldn’t proceed with another Stage recording anyway, the first recording’s broadcast footage was essentially locked in.
And the diagnosis came through immediately.
“Two weeks?”
“That’s the minimum. Dancing is obviously out of the question—only if he wears a brace and stays still.”
“….”
The Company employee who came out of Kim Rae-bin’s Hospital Room explained hurriedly with an interpreter present.
The diagnosis was ligament damage, along with a fractured bone and torn skin.
‘…We avoided the worst-case scenario.’
If it had been a complete fracture or rupture, he’d be sidelined from performances for months.
Of course, the situation was still far from ideal.
“For intense choreography like the current procession dance, we’ll need to wait at least a month before reassessing….”
Right when our activities were in full swing, it was essentially confirmed that Kim Rae-bin wouldn’t be able to dance for the entire promotion.
It was the worst possible timing for a song that emphasized performance above all else.
‘What curse did America place on us.’
Taking turns visiting the Hospital since last time wasn’t even funny anymore.
I closed my mouth, and Ryu Chung-woo carefully asked the Company employee.
“There were no mentions of aftereffects, right?”
“No. It doesn’t seem to be that serious.”
“…Phew.”
I could see Ryu Chung-woo exhale in relief. The others barely managed relieved expressions too. Cha Yu-jin was practically on the verge of tears.
“Can we, can we go see Rae-bin now…?”
“Yes, yes. The doctor just left.”
It would’ve been absurd to come all the way to the Hospital and leave without seeing his face. We opened the Hospital Room door and entered.
“…Rae-bin?”
Kim Rae-bin was sitting on the Hospital Bed with a somewhat vacant expression. His injured foot was elevated and immobilized.
The moment Kim Rae-bin turned to look at us, Big Sae-jin quickly opened his mouth.
“Rae-bin, how’s your foot pain?”
“It’s fine. But that Stage….”
“You don’t need to worry about it, right? I just spoke with them, and they said you can perform if you just endure for two weeks. It’s not a big deal~”
Yet despite Big Sae-jin’s reassurance, Kim Rae-bin seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation.
He lacked interpersonal awareness, not understanding of how things operated—that much was clear.
But I hadn’t expected it to be this serious.
Kim Rae-bin’s eyes glistened, and tears began streaming down his face like drops of chicken droppings.
“I’m sorry…. If I’m out for even this week….”
“Hey, don’t say that~ Two weeks will fly by! We’ve already done our comeback Stage, so what’s there to worry about?”
“Sae-jin’s right, Rae-bin. It’s not your fault anyway. Just focus on recovering. Got it?”
“…Yes.”
Sniff. Kim Rae-bin sniffled, trying to hold back his tears. I suppressed a sigh and pulled tissues from the table to hand to him.
My mood wasn’t great.
“Stop overthinking and just rest!”
“Rest, idiot!”
Kim Rae-bin decided to stay at the Hospital for a couple of days for proper care rather than being alone in a Hotel during the America schedule.
The members left the Hospital Room loudly, shutting the door behind them.
And only then did the conversation return to reality.
“We need to redistribute Rae-bin’s parts, right?”
“We have to.”
Ryu Chung-woo crossed his arms and smiled bitterly.
“We’ll need to relearn the formations from scratch.”
“We can’t sleep because of the jet lag anyway, so let’s just give it a shot~”
“….”
Bae Sae-jin’s face seemed to turn pale, but no words came out.
He felt bad complaining about increased choreography practice when one of us was injured. Compared to our time at Ajusa, this was remarkable progress.
‘We’ve all become exhausted.’
Kim Rae-bin was mentally drained, while the rest of us appeared physically worn out.
Honestly, I wanted to leak to some media outlet—whether local or back in South Korea—that the accident happened because of this talk show’s careless communication.
It infuriated me.
‘But I can’t just do that.’
This was our first appearance on an English-language talk show without any game collaboration nonsense. It was best to avoid any noise.
Still, I couldn’t help being frustrated. What kind of trouble was this?
‘Should I make it bigger?’
The problem was I had no sense of how much bigger this would need to become for a boycott of overseas talk shows to actually hurt them.
I sighed and cleared my mind of useless thoughts.
‘Let’s just practice.’
I’d come all the way to a foreign country only to fall back into the practice hell.

* * *
While Testa was reorganizing their performance due to the injury issue.
In South Korea, Golden Age’s new song—the group that Park Moon-dae called Gold 1, led by Ha Il-jun—was quietly gaining buzz among idol circles.
-My heart was pounding the moment I heard the chorus
– Let’s not treat something like this as a hidden masterpiece later.
-Can’t get it out of my head, already counting down to it being banned from college entrance exams (location: my brain)
What was interesting was that these so-called K-pop listener netizens actually wanted to push Golden Age’s new song.
Golden Age was still an underdog without a firm foothold, and they had gained an image of suffering greatly because of Choi Won-gil and Gold 1.
Moreover, since the song was so good, giving them decent results felt like a kind of justice, which made it fun.
Of course, most of it was just talk driven by curiosity, but Golden Age’s agency didn’t miss this timing and coordinated YouTube promotions and various SNS viral campaigns.
And this work of increasing public exposure proceeded sensibly without feeling forced, ultimately succeeding.
[Golden Age Hi Goody Challenge]
A simple choreography using the song went viral on a certain short-form video platform.
Thanks to this, Golden Age’s music climbed the charts at a rapid pace.
-Insane, it’s at 26th place right now
-Huge hit
Prosper even more lol~
-They were doing viral marketing everywhere and the reverse climb strategy succeeded, congrats~
└The heat is on
└Sounds like their fan
Moreover, Testa’s fanbase, which would normally have countered this sentiment, was in quite a state of chaos.
-What do we do about Kim Rae-bin’s foot X the company pushed it without fixing the choreography, please die
With the overseas stage coming up, of all times… I’m so disappointed and worried, and I’ve been out of it all morning.
-I’m worried that Ravin is still blaming himself for our baby rabbit. If only he didn’t worry about us and only cared about his foot healingㅠㅠ
#RaebinGetWell
-That person didn’t get hurt but he alone hurt his eye, isn’t that a bit funny? Reasonable suspicion that maybe he was distracted by dating
-Kim Rae-bin’s part, wouldn’t Cha Yu-jin be enough alone? Don’t understand why they even split it with Lee Sae-jin who isn’t even a rapper…
It was because of Kim Rae-bin’s injury.
Testa’s fans were busy dealing with worry about the injury, disappointment at not being able to see the complete group for a while, and the swirl of some provocative comments.
In fact, from their perspective, countering Golden Age wasn’t even a necessary matter.
After all, Golden Age’s late music chart reversal failed to enter the top ranks due to the inherent limitations of being a rookie male idol group.
Moreover, Testa’s album, which showcased Korean characteristics, was receiving tremendous praise.
Testa’s fans were simply annoyed that occasionally some people would show up trying to subtly scratch with comments like “isn’t Golden Age’s song better?”
No matter how you looked at it, the difference in caliber was clear to anyone.
However, for someone who had spent two weeks with activities suspended, staring only at a smartphone in a hospital room and a hotel, this situation held considerable meaning.

* * *
“Congratulations on breaking free from the cast~”
“Rae-bin, you’ve been through a lot.”
“Not at all. I’m only sorry for the trouble I’ve caused.”
Kim Rae-bin, now wearing a lighter foot brace, spoke briskly while bowing his head. He had only just received the doctor’s permission to return to the Stage without choreography.
“Ah, it’s no trouble at all~ I feel so much more reassured knowing you’re coming back!”
“Y-yeah, that’s right!”
“Thank you.”
The members gave Kim Rae-bin some reassuring pats before dispersing to their Hotel rooms. They needed to sleep quickly and wake up early to revise the Stage formations to include Kim Rae-bin again.
I nodded.
“You’re in this Room.”
“Yes!”
I’d assigned the rooms arbitrarily while Kim Rae-bin was out for his medical checkup.
‘It’s not like we’ll be staying long anyway.’
The Japan schedule wasn’t extensive. I held the door open for Kim Rae-bin as he entered, then headed in to shower.
“Let me grab a quick shower first.”
“Yes!”
After just a few days of rest, his discipline had sharpened considerably. I shook my head and finished a quick shower before coming out.
That’s when my eyes met Kim Rae-bin’s, and he was visibly tense.
“…?”
He looked ready to drop some kind of bombshell.
‘Don’t tell me his injury got worse.’
I stayed silent, dreading the unwelcome news that the choreography gap would extend further. Finally, Kim Rae-bin managed to open his mouth with difficulty.
“Um… hyung.”
“What is it.”
“Is it possible that… in your opinion, Golden Age’s new song appeals to a broader audience and is a better track than the songs I’ve worked on?”
“…??”
Where was this sudden topic coming from?
I stared at him in disbelief, and Kim Rae-bin squeezed his eyes shut before rattling off his words.
“Since my contribution to the current performance is severely lacking, I’m worried that my involvement might also be a negative factor in terms of the music itself, so going forward, I should refrain from composition and arrangement activities….”
“Wait, wait. What are you talking about.”
I cut him off since the conversation was heading in an absurd direction.
‘We just released a solid album, what nonsense is this.’
Of course, a member who produces their own work was a double-edged sword. When done well, it created synergy, but when done poorly, it became a source of internal conflict.
‘It’s easy to create a narrative like “poor chart performance is due to the producing member’s stubbornness and incompetence.”‘
‘But Kim Rae-bin has never failed so far.’
Golden Age hadn’t even come out as a top contender, and Kim Rae-bin’s form hadn’t declined—so why this sudden concern?
I asked as calmly as I could.
“Why did you suddenly start thinking like this.”
“Well… while monitoring reactions to the music, I happened to see Golden Age’s new song video through the algorithm, and the comments that received a lot of upvotes there were….”
“Let me see it.”
“Huh?”
I took the video link from Kim Rae-bin and checked it.
[Golden Age_Hi Goody_Comment Compilation]
‘…So it was a comment reaction video.’
It was content that compiled related top comments alongside the Stage performance footage.
With videos like this, if public opinion on a song is favorable from the start, they naturally cherry-pick only positive and entertaining comments to showcase.
Of course, it was filled entirely with praise for Golden Age’s song.
And in that process, comparisons with whoever was strongest right now were inevitable.
-Turned on music shows to watch Testa but came to my senses and was listening to Hi Goody
-Don’t listen to loud, pretentious boy group songs but I listen to Hi Goody, best song of the year
Looking at the comments actually posted on this video rather than the ones featured in it, even more crude comparisons emerged.
The sentiment of “honestly, Golden Age’s song was more pleasant to listen to” appeared as if it were mainstream opinion just from watching this video alone.
“Hmm.”
I pulled my eyes away from the smartphone screen. Kim Rae-bin murmured.
“…For that reason, I’m requesting an objective and impartial evaluation.”
Good grief.
‘Is it guilt?’
Kim Rae-bin wasn’t typically the type whose confidence in his own abilities wavered easily.
Probably because he couldn’t stand on Stage due to his injured foot, the pressure to excel in other areas had intensified.
So he kept searching for comparisons between the songs of those who debuted simultaneously and the title track he’d created, and eventually arrived at this line of thinking.
“….”
I settled onto the Bed across from Kim Rae-bin.
And I chose my words carefully.

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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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