Debut or Die - Chapter 199

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

A Fatal Illness if I Don’t Debut – Episode 199
The planted “bomb” detonated not long after, during an encore concert rehearsal with behind-the-scenes cameras rolling.
“Alright, to the right~ kick your leg, now to the side… be careful!”
“…Ugh.”
Bae Sae-jin, whose ears had flushed crimson as he nearly tripped, reorganized his choreography once more.
Despite his dance stat climbing to C, he was struggling against choreography that had become proportionally more vicious.
‘I’m hardly one to talk, though.’
The moment I thought I’d need to reorganize my stats for the unit stage with Cha Yu-jin.
A small commotion erupted from beyond the Choreography Practice Room door.
It sounded like voices were being raised.
‘They’re here.’
I had a feeling. But there was no need to acknowledge it.
“What’s that?”
“Huh?”
The camera immediately ceased filming at our cue. The noise was too loud to ignore.
The choreography had just passed the chorus and concluded, and the members finished their movements, watching the practice room door with equal parts confusion and concern.
“W-who could be talking out there…?”
“…There shouldn’t be anyone else here right now.”
“Hold on.”
The moment Ryu Chung-woo stood up with a glance, intending to assess the situation, the door swung open first, and an unfamiliar man burst into the practice room.
“…!”
He appeared to be in his early-to-mid thirties. Behind him, the First Manager followed in a panic, his complexion a ghastly mix of red and purple.
The man ignored the First Manager, bowed slightly to us, and began rotating the takeout cup in his hand.
“Ah~ hello there, our Testa artists. Whew, nice to meet you! I brought these drinks to help you power through your practice!”
“Who are you??”
The man answered cleanly to Cha Yu-jin’s question as he readily accepted the beverage.
“Ah, I’m the newly assigned manager.”
“Pardon?”
Naturally, he overlapped with the cousin of the Manager who’d brought donuts a few days ago.
“Hmm, you’re different from the person we met a few days ago~?”
“That guy will now work as a road manager following you around, and I’m in charge overall!”
Overall.
In other words, Chief Manager.
It also meant the First Manager, who had been our dedicated manager until now, had suddenly found himself serving a newcomer as his superior.
“With such a packed schedule, you’d really need three dedicated managers to run things properly… goodness, don’t worry going forward. I’ll handle everything, so just contact me right away if anything’s uncomfortable!”
“No….”
The First Manager still looked flustered. It seemed he hadn’t received any advance notice.
The newly appointed Chief Manager then addressed the First Manager with an air of regret.
“Manager Kim, you must have had a tough time doing this alone all this while. Going forward, let’s manage the artists’ needs more systematically. Let’s also conduct injury and condition checks daily, broken down by time slots.”
He was essentially advertising that the First Manager had failed to properly care for the group and had been passed over for promotion.
That’s right, that’s the justification the Management Director will push forward with.
‘Artist-centered care!’
If my influence on him had ended there, the dynamic between the Director and the Department Head might have split along senior group versus junior group lines.
Since the Department Head simply disliked the junior side, there was a high probability he’d just pick the remaining option—the senior group and Testa.
Then both groups could have ended up being wastefully exploited in corporate politics, creating an unnecessarily exhausting situation.
But if I introduce one more variable into the equation, the story changes.
‘The junior side also gets a little wind at the Management Director’s back.’
Exactly.
The moment I arrived back, I’d already reached out through my Second Manager to the number two person in the junior group.
—I’m sorry, senior. You gave me advice, but I wasn’t able to execute it properly….
—No, you achieved results. You persuaded them, didn’t you? Of course, I’m sorry that the company didn’t make concessions in certain areas, which must be emotionally difficult.
—Yes…. Oh, no, it was unavoidable, and we actually caused trouble for you and your fans instead!
—You both suffered losses. Hmm… but if it’s really weighing on you, there is one approach—you could try bringing it up with the Management Office.
—The Management Office??
—Group care falls under the Management Office’s purview. If you explain things step by step, they might advocate for you.
And I’d say something like this:
‘The plans are already set, so there’s nothing we can do, but it’s been so difficult that going forward, we’d prefer not to be entangled with the senior group if possible.’
Then the junior member who’d already tested my advice would try it.
—…Thank you so much! I’ll look for an opportunity and give it a shot.
They seemed like the diligent type, so they’d definitely follow through.
Now the Management Director suddenly has a brilliant shared vision:
‘The Department Head is silencing the artists’ will!’
‘An incompetent Department Head is trying to muscle in on artists capable of self-production!’
It was exactly the kind of slogan he’d love.
Refined into more official language, it becomes what we saw earlier.
‘Let’s go artist-centered (not Department Head-centered)!’
Of course, the Director probably doesn’t have any genuine interest in artist care. What mattered was that he’d seized this justification to outmaneuver the Department Head.
The AR Team, which was friendly toward Testa, and the Production Marketing division, which was being ruthlessly ground down repackaging already-finished concepts, would probably quietly jump on this bandwagon.
‘Then it really does become a faction.’
And it seemed to be working.
Just looking at how the manager personnel—the very symbol of ‘artist care’—had been restructured this way, it was clear.
Right on cue, the Chief Manager, that symbol himself, nudged the First Manager and continued speaking.
“How about the three of us managers celebrate becoming a dedicated team with a quick drink today? We can talk things over.”
“…Uh, yes, yes. Of course.”
The First Manager ultimately surrendered with a bitter expression.
Apparently, he’d only just realized that once his head cooled down, there was nothing good about acting out.
‘You reap what you sow.’
I watched the scene with quiet satisfaction.
Because after that, the current company situation seemed to come into focus.
‘I hope they keep checking each other and tearing into one another.’
Are you worried that the parachute manager will push out the Director, take control of the company, and do whatever he wants?
No, I’m not.
‘That bastard can’t do his job.’
All I need to do is let the executives above me exhaust themselves fighting each other over achievements and credit in this entertainment business.
Meanwhile, the group can take the initiative to push forward with the work, allowing the staff to focus on their jobs properly.
“Then let’s work hard at practice! We’ll see you all again soon~”
“Yes!”
“Have a good one!”
The Chief Manager handed out his number and left after saying to contact him anytime.
Only then did the First Manager start scheming.
“…Guys, doesn’t that guy seem a bit off to you? Coming out of nowhere like that.”
He was asking for support.
Big Sae-jin spoke up with a bright smile.
“Oh, it’s our first time meeting him, so it’s natural to feel a bit awkward! Still, it seems like he’s taking good care of us, so I’m actually looking forward to it! And grateful too.”
“The shake is delicious!”
Cha Yu-jin shook his drink beside him.
In the end, the First Manager left the training room with an expression like he was swallowing curses.
‘Stupid bastard.’
I clicked my tongue.
The kids aren’t idiots—they’ve already figured out that Ryu Chung-woo does more work than him.
Though there might be someone who hasn’t thought about whether that’s actually fair.
“Ah!”
A guy like Kim Rae-bin, who just let out that exclamation, probably didn’t know…
“Now I understand!”
“…?!”
At his perfectly timed remark, my thoughts came to a halt.
Kim Rae-bin continued with an admiring expression.
“It’s because of what Moon-dae said in the recording studio…”
“Wait.”
With seven staff members around, he’s bringing this up so openly.
No, more than that…
‘Did this guy actually understand the situation?’
That’s highly suspicious. But Kim Rae-bin pressed on.
“So what did Moon-dae say?”
“Yes! Moon-dae shared the hardships and emotional pain the group has experienced publicly, and it seems the company gave us good feedback because of that!”
“…”
“Oh, really? Moon-dae said it was that hard?”
“Yes! He even asked me about it. Through this opportunity, I realized that expressing difficult situations clearly is what actually changes the other person’s response.”
“Wow~”
“…Hmm.”
Good grief.
In other words, this guy had grasped a fundamentally basic structure.
‘Testa showed signs of struggling. → The company paid more attention to group care!’
This algorithm, you see.
It was barely theory-level nonsense, but guys with similar interpersonal thinking patterns started reacting first.
In the direction that I’d suffered greatly.
“M-Moon-dae….”
“…So that’s how it was.”
That wasn’t it.
“Thank you always for your guidance.”
You shouldn’t feel proud about this either.
In the midst of this, Big Sae-jin let out a chuckling laugh and applauded.
“Right, wow, things really worked out thanks to Moon-dae~ That’s amazing~”
This bastard’s doing this on purpose. It’s getting under my skin.
…But then some pretty pointed words followed.
“Still, don’t push yourself too hard. Moon-dae, Moon-dae, we have mouths too, right? Share with us, not just Rae-bin~”
“…!”
“Yeah, Moon-dae.”
Ryu Chung-woo met my eyes and nodded.
“We’re a group, aren’t we? With seven heads, if we consult together, we might come up with a better solution.”
“….”
Given my track record, it seemed the perceptive ones had all caught on that I’d deliberately let that slip.
And I won’t deny it.
It was a fairly reasonable statement.
‘Maybe I was too hasty.’
Handling things alone is so convenient and fast for me that I keep overlooking how this affects the entire group.
These guys were all affected too, so they definitely had the right to discuss it.
‘Going forward, I should probably… discuss things before proceeding.’
We see each other’s faces every day anyway, so it’s not like it would cause much delay.
I nodded.
“Yes, you’re right.”
“That’s it!”
Ryu Chung-woo added a comment in a joking tone.
“Since we have parts that complement each other, wouldn’t the fans—I mean, the ‘shareholders’—have picked us this way?”
“I’m smart!”
“Cha Yu-jin has no official intelligence measurement results. That’s a subjective opinion….”
“Better than Kim Rae-bin.”
“Really? Then maybe later we could do a psychological test as content? What was it called—let’s do an official MBTI too.”
“I’d like that!”
“That sounds like it would be very entertaining content!”
The argument ended before it could even properly start.
‘He’s the leader for a reason, I suppose.’
I took a fresh look at Ryu Chung-woo.
The more my sense of identity solidified as a member of this group, the more my experiential resistance to him had genuinely diminished.
‘Yeah, he’s not bad.’
It seemed I’d gradually returned to my previous level of acceptance. I admitted it to myself.
Beside me, Sun Ah-hyun’s eyes gleamed as he nodded vigorously.
“S-so from now on… if things get tough, let’s definitely consult with each other more…!”
“Yeah.”
The atmosphere in the training room had become warm and friendly.
And precisely because the staff hadn’t captured this on camera, they lamented in hushed tones as practice resumed shortly after.
A few days later.
“Oh.”
In the finally released music video for Miry-nay’s title track, all traces of “Magical Boy” had been completely removed.
-There were short video clips inserted as cuts up until the rough edit!! I was really worried, but thanks so much to you, senior! Thank you!
Through the Manager, the junior member’s one-sided gratitude arrived with what seemed like triple the enthusiasm.
‘Clean work.’
The articles that the Agency had subtly been pushing, deliberately linking Miry-nay with Testa, had also disappeared from the main headlines.
Testa’s fans, finding no more unpleasant bait, simply let it slide with “T1 being T1” and moved on.
Interest had shifted entirely in that direction once news of the encore concert unit stage broke.
-Insane Cha Goyang and Moon-dae unit? Coming to set K-pop standards straight, death if you can’t watch
Seeing this kind of reaction, I felt the need to prepare even more thoroughly.
“Wahaha!”
I watched Cha Yu-jin rolling around on the bed next to mine and called out silently for the first time in a while.
‘Status window.’
But first, what I check isn’t my own.
It’s Cha Yu-jin’s status window.
‘Before the unit stage is finalized, I’ll check one more time and complete my countermeasures.’
Let’s see how that monster’s stats have changed.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————