Debut or Die - Chapter 168

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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 168
The meeting with the Manager of the Management Office was finalized shortly after some commotion.
There were several attempts to pry into why I wanted to meet with the Manager specifically, but I was surprised that I could defend myself with vague words like “I have something urgent to discuss.”
‘Testa must be making good money.’
Since I was an emotional asset, it was clear they were trying their best to keep me satisfied.
I’d even prepared a specific excuse just in case.
And I suspected the Management Office was subtly nervous too.
A group that had shown little self-assertion beyond album and activity plans until now—and not even the leader—had suddenly requested a meeting.
They were probably racking their brains trying to figure out what this sudden activity was about.
But they wouldn’t be able to do that for long.
“Then I’ll come by tomorrow.”
—Ah… Yes!
I’d scheduled the meeting for the very next day.
It was unavoidable since that was the only time during the week without daytime schedules.
I shrugged as I hung up the phone.
‘Hmm… what are they guessing right now?’
It wasn’t particularly important, but I was curious given the circumstances.
And I found out what judgment the company had made about my actions just five minutes after entering the meeting room with the Manager at 10 AM the next day.
“Um… Moon-dae, is there any part of the group activities that you’re dissatisfied with?”
“….”
“Since you’re so talented, you might feel frustrated. But it would be more stable to continue with this direction for about another year.”
After greeting me and making some small talk about personal matters, that was the main point he brought up.
‘Ah.’
And I understood from that nuance.
‘They think I want to pursue solo activities.’
It was an easy and quick conclusion to reach.
Survival show first place, recent positive response to individual variety shows, received counseling for psychological instability during group activities.
‘It’s not strange at all that they’d think I came to talk about solo activities.’
And I realized something else.
‘This guy hasn’t had many conversations like this.’
If I’d actually come here interested in solo work and complaining about the group-focused activities, this wouldn’t have happened.
I’d been hit with “we’re going to continue like this for another year” before I could even bring up what I wanted to say.
An entertainer with an inflated ego during this period would never have accepted that.
‘He should have let the entertainer speak first and then pretended to agonize over it.’
Usually, someone who reaches the position of Manager at an entertainment company would be seasoned in these matters, but this guy wasn’t.
‘He’s definitely a parachute hire.’
Other departments—like the AR Team, producing, or production marketing—naturally required specialists, so they had hired experienced personnel from outside.
But for the Management side, they seemed to think it was manageable enough, so there were a few parachute hires placed there by stakeholders.
Though this department actually required expertise too.
‘Thanks to that, the conversation became much easier.’
I stared at the young Manager for a moment, then deliberately nodded with gravity.
“Stability is good, isn’t it?”
“Right~?”
“But I’m worried something serious might happen because of this.”
“Pardon?”
I shrugged my shoulders and dropped the bomb.
“Someone working at another Entertainment Agency seems to be doing double employment. Is that okay?”
“…!!”
The Manager seemed at a loss for words and couldn’t respond for a moment.
Then he barely managed a hollow laugh before opening his mouth.
“Ah, Moon-dae, our company doesn’t do that~ Probably, well, since they transferred not long ago, their profile probably hasn’t been taken down from the other place yet.”
He seemed to think I was just a young guy who’d misunderstood.
The better he thought that, the better for me.
I nodded obediently.
“Is that so? I must have gotten it wrong then. It just seemed like you were scheduling things together with Golden Age a lot.”
“What??”
“I heard you on a call talking about Golden Age when you mentioned filming ‘The Past Calls’ this time.”
“…! W-who?”
“Um… who was it again? Just a moment.”
I picked up my smartphone and pretended to search through my contacts, then answered as if I’d just remembered.
“Ah, that’s right. Oh Seo-hyung from the Operations Team.”
“…!”
Do you remember?
When Lee Sae-jin and Bae Sae-jin fought, he assigned them to the same team, and when I called to protest, he said “it was a mistake, but don’t be so sensitive.” That’s the guy.
Wait, did I actually overhear that call?
‘Of course I didn’t.’
No one would make such a call in a place where the talent could easily overhear it unless they had a bullet in their brain.
But the suspect was certain.
‘It had to be him.’
First of all, the other departments had no reason to do this.
As I mentioned before, they’re composed of expert personnel recruited from outside. This means they don’t have problems with job transfers even without resorting to industrial espionage.
There was no incentive since they had no reason to dream of such things.
But the Operations Team was different.
T1, which underestimated the expertise of the Entertainment Management Office, filled it with parachute appointments instead of recruiting experienced professionals, and cheap, ambiguous talent already on the market.
On top of that, clueless new hires thrown in just to fill the headcount.
In short, the most incompetent group in this company. They were likely to have many grievances and no particular attachment to this work.
‘Then they’d be more likely to be tempted by scraps.’
Then the next part is simple.
‘I just need to see if there’s an overlap.’
Golden Age’s agency wouldn’t have recruited someone they didn’t know out of the blue, so they definitely must have seduced someone with some prior connection and work experience together.
So I decided to check the background of Traveler, Golden Age’s agency.
Usually, when people are this competent, there’s a high probability they came from another major company.
And as expected, the testimony I was looking for was already flooding SNS.
I heard the representative left Wonderhole and started independently with Ilzun and a few others, which explains why the members have that Wonderhole vibe about them.
Wonderhole. A famous entertainment agency known for producing successful male idols.
‘How predictable.’
Now it was just a matter of finishing this.
All I had to do was find someone in our company whose employment period and background overlapped with that CEO and his staff at Wonderhole.
‘The company’s internal network structure was modeled after T1.’
I could only be grateful for the carelessness of granting document access privileges too freely to affiliated entertainers.
In any case, after verification, there was only one person in the Management Office whose background overlapped.
[2019. 06. 01. – 2021. 01. 04. | Wonderhole ENT | Field Work Assistant and Document Processing]
Operations Team Deputy Manager Oh Seo-hyung.
Then everything fit perfectly.
‘No wonder he’s been slacking off over there.’
His heart had already left, so he was just going through the motions. That’s why everything he handled had problems.
“Deputy Manager, I thought you might find it efficient to share good variety shows, but I think it would be better to focus on one place at a time.”
The crucial thing here was to never let this become a situation where the entertainer looked like the one causing trouble.
I wasn’t going to give him the chance to rationalize this as ‘the entertainer must have been overthinking it.’
He had to suspect and realize the gravity himself. I was just speaking innocently.
“Now that I think about it, there’s been a lot of overlap with Golden Age, and I was wondering if you were working on a cost-benefit basis.”
“Are the schedules overlapping?”
“Yes, they were. And there are often cases where articles or posts online mention them together… I wondered if you were working together because it was convenient, so I was a bit concerned.”
“….”
If he couldn’t grasp the seriousness behind these words, then he wasn’t a parachute hire—he was a complete blockhead.
Fortunately, the Manager’s face flushed red, then turned pale, then returned to normal.
Something between realization and anger was passing through his mind.
“I see… Well, yes. I’ll have a good talk with that deputy about it. I understand what you’re saying, Moon-dae.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Of course, I didn’t expect him to actually get his act together and handle it cleanly.
Just watch.
“Moon-dae. Still, this could become a problem later, so I think it would be best not to mention this to anyone else until it’s properly resolved.”
I knew he’d say that. This bastard was scared his reputation would take a hit.
And rightfully so. The moment this leaked externally, it was the kind of thing that would get protest trucks from Testa fans.
I nodded obediently.
“Of course.”
Needless to say, that was a lie too.
“Good thinking.”
The Manager didn’t even bother asking why I’d requested this meeting or thinking about it further—he simply saw me out.
‘His mind’s already gone.’
I clicked my tongue inwardly and headed to the Recording Studio, using the excuse that since I was stopping by the Company anyway, I might as well handle the recording.
The AR Team employee who had been asked to handle sound adjustments had just finished chatting briefly with the Second Manager who had arrived earlier.
The Manager spoke to me first.
“Moon-dae’s here~ Did the conversation go well?”
“Yes, it went fine.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Well… they asked me to keep it confidential.”
“Huh?”
I wouldn’t have been surprised if the AR Team employee’s ears touching the equipment beside me had doubled in size.
‘They must be curious.’
The Second Manager seemed equally curious, lowering his voice as he asked me.
“Why, why. They’re going to give you a solo, Moon-dae?”
“Oh, it wasn’t that conversation…”
“Then what is it??”
“Well… since you’re from the Management Office, I think it would be okay for you to hear it.”
“What, what??”
Well, I’d dropped the hint about Management Office business nicely. The AR Team employee had definitely picked up on it too.
I deliberately drew it out for a moment, then simply shook my head.
“I’m not sure. They just asked me to stay quiet until it gets resolved somehow.”
“Ah~ I’m really curious!”
“Sorry. I don’t think I’m supposed to say anything.”
“Alright, alright!”
Well, I’d also hinted that quite a serious problem had emerged.
Once this schedule ended, what the AR Team employee would go back and say was predictable.
‘Looks like something big happened in the Management Office!’
Wasn’t it entertaining gossip for the tedious company life?
The moment anyone from the Management Office showed signs of being on probation, people would appear wanting to dig into what was going on.
It wouldn’t take long for rumors to spread internally.
‘I’ll bet a thousand won the Director hears about it within this week.’
And that’s exactly what happened.
Four days later, word came that the Director was fuming and conducting additional investigations to uncover related parties and evidence.

* * *
“Moon-dae, Moon-dae, you know about that?”
“What?”
“Someone in the Operations Team was selling our information to other Entertainment Agencies! Can you believe it~ Seriously scary.”
Big Sae-jin, lounging on the Living Room sofa, made a dramatic fuss. He was probably thinking how satisfying it felt to catch that bastard, despite his theatrical tone.
I let out a quiet laugh.
“Right. They caught them?”
“Yeah. But… apparently one of our members found out and reported it themselves.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Just how it is.”
Big Sae-jin smirked.
“And just so you know, you’re working hard, Moon-dae~”
Big Sae-jin tapped my back and headed into his Room.
‘He figured it out.’
He was the type who didn’t pry unnecessarily—convenient that way.
But on the flip side, there were people who came and spilled every detail.
“Wow~ the Company atmosphere is insane!”
The Second Manager, that is.
During my personal schedule, he excitedly rattled off every detail of the Company situation, saying “Isn’t this what you were about to tell me?”
“What’s going on?”
“The Director is personally contacting that Company! Oh, and Oh Seo-hyung was already called in!”
It made sense.
The approval bot had just been trying to quietly serve out his time, but with such a massive problem erupting beneath the surface, he had no choice but to be furious.
Besides, once something like this became public knowledge, there was only one way to restore order. The approval bot, who’d worked at T1, would know that well.
Public execution.
‘Of course, limited to within the Company.’
So for now, they had the industrial spy marked, and were pressuring Golden Age’s Agency over whether to prosecute the spy and make it public or not.
Of course, the outcome would almost certainly be surrender.
‘The moment they got caught, it was over.’
It would’ve been different if Golden Age had been built up to first-string status, but this wasn’t even a weight class fight or a public opinion battle.
It was a direct confrontation between a large conglomerate subsidiary backed by a Broadcasting Station and a small Entertainment Agency—and the small Agency was at fault, giving the conglomerate justification on top of everything else.
‘With evidence already secured, there’s no way out.’
No matter how shrewd Golden Age’s Agency was or how well they operated, if they wanted to keep doing business, they’d have to lie low and be careful.
‘They’ll be gagged for a while.’
Their media plays and viral marketing involving Testa would have to be quietly shelved.
And what this meant was that Golden Age would also have to keep their mouths shut about the public response to 【The Past Calls】 when it aired.
‘Much easier this way.’
I leaned back against the sofa and lay down.
All the preliminary preparations were done. The weekend when the program would air was just around the corner.

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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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