Debut or Die - Chapter 198

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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 198
A few days after Testa returned to Korea to begin serious preparations for their encore concert.
“It’s been forever since I’ve been in Seoul!”
Testa’s first manager—or rather, now their only manager—headed toward the Company with a cheerful smile plastered across his face.
While it wasn’t without its inconveniences to handle alone the work that two had previously managed, it remained manageable enough.
After all, Testa wasn’t the sort of group that demanded excessive attention.
‘They’ve been acting a bit bolder lately, but I suppose it’s because they’ve taken so much criticism—their spirits aren’t really that strong.’
Besides, most of the work had been distributed to the newly contracted tour staff, so the manager actually found himself with more leisure time than when they were in Korea.
Originally, monitoring and managing each member’s physical condition fell under his purview, but he’d gradually let it slip through negligence.
Even that much was being voluntarily handled by the leader, a former athlete accustomed to such responsibilities.
—Chung-woo, no one’s complaining of any injuries or anything, right?
—No, sir. It looks like we’ll just need to schedule separate time for Park Moon-dae’s upper body massage.
In short, it was a degree of dereliction of duty.
By industry standards, it was an absurdly cushy arrangement, but people naturally grow comfortable in their positions.
‘I’ll just hold steady while the kids are at their peak, then leverage the experience to jump ship elsewhere.’
The Company had been focusing its attention on a newly launched female idol group anyway, so Testa received less of their concern.
There were rumors that the Director preferred female idols, who typically enjoyed greater public appeal than male idols.
‘Seems like they really pulled something off this time.’
The manager recalled Testa’s reaction from a few days prior.
—Hyung, the fans really hate it… Did the Company say anything else about it?
—It’s just so blatantly magical girl that even we think it’s a bit much~
—Huh? Come on, don’t groups from the same Agency usually reference each other like this to some degree? The fans will forget about it soon! This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
He’d already received a hint from the Company to “smooth things over if they push back too hard.”
It was naturally easier to placate Testa than to argue with the Company.
And the manager was already certain it wouldn’t be particularly difficult.
‘Just as expected, it all fizzled out~’
Well, it’s not like Testa’s going to collapse over this, and they’re clearly the type who’ll keep thriving anyway. There’s no problem with his own career.
So the best approach was to keep them placated without creating unnecessary headaches.
“Ah, here we are~”
Having arrived at the Company while lost in such thoughts, the manager encountered an unexpected face in the parking lot.
“Hello, sir!”
“Oh, yeah~”
It was the Second Manager. Though he’d been reassigned to manage the junior group Miry-nay now.
While thinking the guy was a bit of a scatterbrain, the manager continued the conversation.
“Who are you waiting for?”
“Oh, Miry-nay is meeting with the Management Director right now. I’m just waiting!”
“Oh? Yeah? Which director? What’s the meeting about?”
“Um, they said I shouldn’t tell other teams… is that okay?”
This wishy-washy aspect of his was incredibly irritating.
Wasn’t social awareness everything in professional life?
‘He won’t last long, will he?’
It had been frustrating, but sending him away felt refreshing. Still, I found myself missing having someone to order around.
‘I hope the next one is more obedient and quick on his feet.’
The Manager passed the time with coffee while thinking about the personnel who would soon be hired.
After a formal report at the Company and hearing the details, he slowly made his way back to the Testa Dormitory.
‘Brief the schedule appropriately, do some enthusiastic cheerleading~’
This was what the Manager had anticipated for today.
However, the moment he entered the Dormitory, he sensed something was amiss.
“Oh, you’re here, hyung~”
“Welcome!”
A table laden with donuts and beverages was set up in the Dormitory.
And an unfamiliar man was sitting at the table, fiddling with his smartphone.
‘What the…??’
“Hey, who is this person…?”
“Oh, hello. I’m the new Manager. Nice to meet you.”
“…??”
The man who had been sitting slowly stood up and gave a perfunctory greeting to the first Manager.
‘What is this guy’s problem?’
A second Manager he’d never heard of? And what was with this half-hearted attitude?
The first Manager didn’t hide his suspicion and irritation as he asked.
Wasn’t this a situation where he needed to give this guy a piece of his mind?
“I’ve never heard anything about a new Manager. Who are you? Are you really a Manager? Who exactly are you?”
“My official duties start next week, but my brother told me to at least introduce myself today. You didn’t hear about it?”
“Brother??”
Park Moon-dae interjected with a faint smile.
“He said the Management Director’s cousin, I believe.”
“…!!”
“Ah, you don’t believe me, is that it?”
The man claiming to be the second Manager held out his smartphone with a defiant attitude.
“Want to make a call or something?”
On the smartphone screen, a familiar name appeared with the label “cousin brother.”
It was indeed the Management Director.
‘What kind of situation is this…?!’
The first Manager felt the ground spinning beneath him.

* * *
“Have a good one~”
“Yeah, see you next week.”
The Second Manager gave a perfunctory goodbye and left shortly after.
I’d heard they’d picked some guy living off unemployment, and he didn’t seem particularly passionate about the work, but it didn’t matter. I hadn’t expected anything anyway.
Even the first Manager just does the bare minimum.
‘What matters is what the Management Director thinks.’
The gesture of that figurehead starting to build “his own faction” within the Company was what counted.
‘It worked perfectly.’
I shrugged and turned away from the entrance.
“Hyung, would you like another donut?”
Kim Rae-bin happened to pick up the donut box from the dining table.
“Nah, I’m full. You eat plenty.”
“Understood!”
Yeah. Eat up.
Those donuts were basically brought in thanks to you anyway.
I recalled the schedule from my first day back in the country.
It was a Recording Studio session for a new song to be used in the encore concert.
Given the team’s preference for matching the audio source before practice, it had progressed the fastest.
Naturally, it was a session working directly with the AR Team.
-Hello~
-Looking forward to working with you.
After greeting the AR Team staff, now quite familiar to me, we proceeded with recording by unit.
I struck up a conversation with Kim Rae-bin, who was waiting for his turn to record.
At a distance where the staff scattered around the recording booth could easily hear.
-Bothering you much?
-Huh?
-About “Magic Boy” appearing in another group’s teaser.
-Ah….
Kim Rae-bin’s face darkened instantly.
-If it was a decision made by the Company, then there’s nothing we can do, but I wish they’d asked for our understanding first.
-It’s a bit unfair.
-…Yes.
He nodded and slumped his shoulders dejectedly, understanding where I was going with this. Kim Rae-bin was playing right into it.
‘Excellent.’
I borrowed the exact nuance from what Kim Rae-bin had said on the way back from meeting the Junior Member last time and broached the subject once more.
-Actually, your input went into the arrangement and concept so much back then. I think… even if we didn’t know, they should have asked for your opinion too.
-Oh, no! The overall concept was already set by Park Moon-dae hyung with the imagery and symbolism, so they should have consulted with you first…!
-Really? Thanks. Still, your effort was greater.
Now to add more emotion to this.
I muttered with a slightly deflated tone.
-…Back then, we really did work hard, you know. We barely slept.
-Yeah…. We worked hard, but….
Kim Rae-bin was now on the verge of tears. Recalling those days seemed to have drawn him deeper into the memory.
Good.
I deliberately struck up a conversation with the nearby AR Team.
-Um, sorry, but do you have any tissues here?
-Oh, here…!
As expected, they’d been listening, and the staff member’s expression turned pitiful as they quickly produced a box of tissues.
To amplify their sympathy further, I pulled out a tissue and offered it to Kim Rae-bin’s face.
Of course, Kim Rae-bin wasn’t actually crying, so he tried to answer honestly.
-…? I’m fine….
-Just use it.
I pressed the tissue against his dry face repeatedly. Kim Rae-bin seemed to be filled with question marks, but the effect was undeniable.
I could see the staff members exchanging glances as if to say “what should we do?”
‘The AR Team secretly likes Kim Rae-bin the most.’
He communicates well with them, and since he’s a composer, they interact the most with him. Plus, given his gentle nature, they practically treat him like the youngest guest member of the team.
And many of those staff members had suffered alongside Testa when they debuted.
It meant that many people were probably baffled by the decision of the higher-ups to freely copy that debut song concept.
‘But there’s no one to speak up.’
Since we’d gathered genuine career professionals, ironically there was no one with personal connections or networks with the higher-ups.
‘So next, I need to incite someone with connections.’
That’s why I contacted the Management Department.
First, I sent a message along with a light gift.
-Hello, Manager. The thing is, during the recent tour, Testa received a lot of help from the Management Department, so as a token of our gratitude….
During the tour, we mainly interact with the Management Department staff anyway, so the pretext was solid enough.
If I sent some vitamin supplements matching their staff count, naturally I’d get a gesture of thanks back from the Manager.
Usually by phone.
-Ah, thanks for the vitamins~ I appreciate it. Moon-dae.
-All the members discussed it together before sending it, so it’s nothing. The Management Department took such good care of us that thanks to you, we’ve been able to handle our schedule smoothly throughout this tour.
This is when I drop the bait.
And this bait is based on a fairly accurate understanding of the situation.
‘The Management Department has long since fallen out of favor with the current Director.’
The current Director isn’t stupid, and there’s no way he doesn’t know the decisive reason he came here.
It’s because a major incident—industrial espionage—occurred in the Management Department.
Since the headquarters has connections, the Management Director’s position is secure, but influence is another matter entirely.
‘He’s probably been sidelined from frontline decision-making.’
Still, since the industrial espionage incident, he seems to work with considerable tension, but if I scratch at it gently, he’s bound to be frustrated and irritated, whether he admits it or not.
For someone who came in through a parachute appointment, experiencing disrespect would be rare in their lifetime, so the current situation must be harder to bear.
I’m gently scratching at that wound.
—And regarding that strange incident with the deputy director, thank you for taking what we said seriously. There were people from other companies who pretended not to know, so I kept wondering if I was being oversensitive.
Give the Management Director a chance to distort and embellish the industrial espionage incident as ‘I caught it well because I’m the director, so I handled it quickly, yet I’m being treated unfairly.’
—Thanks to you, Director, we’ve been able to continue our activities with peace of mind.
—Haha! You’re too kind!
Look at that. He swallowed the compliment without a shred of modesty.
If the AR Team spreads opinions among the staff like ‘the Director overreached this time’ and ‘he went too far with the Testa kids,’ the Management Director gains even more solid justification.
That grand delusion: ‘an incompetent Director is trying to check me.’
Once that mindset ferments for a few days, I knew it would give him the momentum to ram into the Director.
‘Since he’s a parachute hire with no fear of getting fired if things go wrong, he’ll act on confidence and impulse.’
And sure enough, fortunately for my plan, the Management Director got so pumped up that he installed his own cousin as Testa’s new manager this very morning.
‘This is going to be a mess.’
I lay on the sofa, watching Cha Yu-jin finish off the remaining donuts.
“Stop eating! Are you a pig?”
“I’m a tiger!”
“Tigers are carnivores that don’t consume flour, yet you’re currently ingesting sugar and flour….”
Hmm, peaceful.
‘The next one should’ve blown up by now.’
Of course, it could fizzle out, but you need to lay multiple mines, don’t you?
‘That junior member seemed to speak well.’
I decided to wait comfortably for the next bomb to drop.

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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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