Debut or Die - Chapter 295

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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 295
An Agency-wide Concert.
Typically, this is the kind of event that a company would host if it possessed at least one established male and female idol group each, along with promising rookies.
In that sense, one might think this Agency—which boasts three groups from Ajusa—met the bare minimum requirements… but that would be a mistake.
On my way home, I furrowed my brow while reviewing the planning document I’d brought with me.
‘I don’t think anyone’s going to like this.’
This hastily assembled Agency lacks any distinctive identity whatsoever.
That signature “feel” companies are known for—it’s nowhere to be found here.
‘For audience satisfaction, there needs to be at least some common ground between the teams.’
I have no idea what gave this Agency the audacity to plan its own concert when it’s just collecting winners from Audition Programs and indiscriminately signing whoever comes along.
Though I can roughly guess the purpose.
“Hmm~ It looks like they’re trying to push the newly debuting groups, doesn’t it?”
Big Sae-jin shrugged as he spoke.
“Look, they even gave those guys arrangements to cover a few of our songs~ There’s one of our Ajusa season tracks in the proposal too.”
“Mm.”
Then Bae Sae-jin, who’d been drinking water in the Kitchen, chimed in with a slightly tense expression.
“…Isn’t this a generational shift attempt?”
“A generational shift?”
“Well, our contract period doesn’t have much time left anyway… they’re trying to get fans to like the rookie groups, you know!”
“That would mean… they’ve already misjudged that this group has exhausted its potential?”
It sounded plausible enough that Kim Rae-bin looked startled. Bae Sae-jin nodded seriously.
“…It’s possible.”
Seriously.
‘Did he see this somewhere on YouTube?’
He watches so many K-pop industry channels that he’s picked up some half-baked knowledge.
I let out a small laugh and shook my head.
“That’s not it. They’re just trying to generate some buzz around that group.”
“R-really?”
“Yes. The previous season didn’t perform as well as ours, so they’re trying to benefit from it. Don’t worry too much.”
We’ve only just built up a good relationship—it would be too wasteful for the Company to abandon Testa now.
‘They’re probably already thinking we’ll renew our contracts.’
They’ll just gradually nibble away at the benefits that come with Testa’s weight class.
‘There’s no great merit in cutting open the goose that lays golden eggs.’
Big Sae-jin readily agreed.
“I agree too! Still, it’s good to stay vigilant~ Hmm, your reasoning sounds solid too.”
“…Right.”
“Excellent point, sir.”
Bae Sae-jin and Kim Rae-bin quickly abandoned their conspiracy theory. Then Cha Yu-jin suddenly butted in.
“So when are we doing that? Let’s do it soon?”
“Let’s see… it’s in 25 days?”
Ryu Chung-woo pointed his finger at the “August Venue Secured” section of the proposal.
I focused on a different part instead.
‘The scale is smaller than I expected.’
Jamsil Indoor Gymnasium. Ten thousand capacity.
At least they hadn’t gauged demand through the idiotic fan math of “Testa + Miry-nay + Rookies? Let’s go stadium!”
This was an industry insight I couldn’t expect from this Agency’s leadership.
‘Headquarters is involved.’
It looked like T1 had their fingerprints on this.
Given that the concert itself was airing on Tnet, it seemed T1 was pushing hard and the Agency was scrambling to pull it off.
‘They probably want to ride the TaKon wave and squeeze out another hit.’
The fans might complain a bit, but honestly, Testa had almost nothing to lose.
‘If parts of the concert stage air on broadcast, there’s promotional value too.’
We were in the latter half of our contract, so this was the timing to move smoothly with T1 without friction to avoid future issues—I could accept this much without any boycott.
“So we just need to prepare five songs total.”
I chuckled and tapped the proposal.
‘Might as well generate some buzz.’
Though they’d have to own whatever kind of buzz that turned out to be.
Two male idol groups from the same audition series, similar age range… performing the same song, no less?
The comparisons would be relentless.
But we didn’t have much to worry about.
“Right, three and a half weeks. That’s tight.”
“Since we’re going with a similar theme to the last concert, it shouldn’t be too difficult~”
“We’ll need to inquire about the specific details regarding any additional arrangement work.”
I pulled up the status window of one of the guys currently talking his head off.
[Name: Kim Rae-bin]
Rap: A+ (S+)
(Vocals: C+)
Dance: B+ (A+)
Visuals: A- (A+)
Charisma: A (S)
Trait: Maestro (S)
Grab anyone from this group and you’d get roughly those stats.
Compared to the Ajusa days, most of them had gained at least three points or more across the board.
‘And Kim Rae-bin even raised his trait rank.’
It was probably natural, given he volunteered for short-term projects with each album, grinding himself down.
Bae Sae-jin was the weakest link, but even he seemed to have picked up some odd tricks lately.
-If I just memorize all the movements that match the lyrics, it works…!
-…??
Once the basic dance routine became familiar, he’d focused on movement reproduction rather than rhythm-based dancing through this shortcut, making his group formations look far more convincing.
‘Isn’t that actually harder?’
Well, if he’s more comfortable that way, so be it.
In any case, what matters is that criticism of Testa’s stage performance has become nearly impossible to find on the Internet anymore.
‘Cover difficulty: extreme.’
Perhaps because ONYX’s precedent of changing songs during their debut performance had already left an impression, the Internet had already reached a conclusion through imagery alone.
Besides, this time they’re unilaterally covering us.
The moment there’s a gap in base stats and practice volume, the outcome is essentially already decided.
So worrying about fandom leakage over something like this is frankly absurd.
‘I just need to focus on how we treat the juniors.’
What actually concerns me is this stage that was added just to fill the quota.
Right on cue, Ryu Chung-woo pointed it out with his finger.
– Joint Stage (TBD) / 2 members per team
“And there’s one joint stage among the five.”
“Yes.”
It’s a joint stage where some of our members perform alongside the juniors.
Excluding the tacky arrangement where everyone sings a folk song together at the end, it’s the first and last stage where Testa and the juniors perform together.
‘Whoever takes the front will probably cause some noise.’
That’s when Cha Yu-jin raises his hand enthusiastically again.
“I’ll do it! Let me do the joint stage!”
“Haha.”
I knew he would.
Despite Cha Yu-jin’s eager volunteering, none of the members gave a definitive answer. If we went along with the mood and said yes here, Cha Yu-jin would actually end up doing it.
‘Putting Cha Yu-jin out there seems a bit harsh.’
Not for us, but from a public opinion standpoint.
It’s like sending a strategic weapon to a friendly match.
Since this deserved more thought, I decided to shelve it for now.
And shortly after, during the first group meeting and practice schedule, this concern proved to be justified.
“Here’s the new setlist.”
On the paper I received after arriving early, the joint stage section had changed.
– Joint Stage (TBD) / Testa 2 members, Miry-nay 2 members
‘These bastards got cut.’
Ajusa’s debut group was removed from the joint stage lineup.
The reason was their pleading that they had to prepare for their debut and couldn’t handle preparing another new stage on top of everything.
“If you’re all okay with it, we’re planning to naturally transition into the next stage at the end of this one, creating a story progression format to make room for these guys.”
The Director’s explanation sounded plausible, but it was a considerably strategic decision for a rookie group to make separately.
The excuse was convincing, but the timing was awfully convenient.
“Hmm.”
…Quite an interesting situation.
For now I’ll move past it, but I need to handle what’s immediately in front of me.
While the Director stepped away to take another call, I began revising my plans for this joint stage.
Miry-nay arrived shortly after, looking like they’d sprinted at full speed.
Bang!
“Hello!”
Not late, but it seems they’re busy with comeback preparations too.
After some greetings, preparations, and staff moving about, Ryu Chung-woo explained kindly.
“Apparently there were some changes to the pre-planning document. It looks like we’ll be doing a joint stage together.”
“Ah, yes.”
Second place—in other words, Park Min-ha spoke with a hollow expression.
“The planning document… we didn’t receive anything like that, senior…”
“….”
As the fate of a less-seasoned group, Miry-nay seemed to have simply received a one-sided notification and was participating.
‘No, it’s not a matter of seniority—is Testa just a special case?’
Events had overlapped and I’d seized control, but normally even a fourth-year group would still be at a stage where they listen well to the company.
‘Hmm.’
Big Sae-jin quickly jumped in to lift the mood.
“Hey, does that initial planning document really matter~ What’s important is that we create an amazing stage right now! We’re counting on you~”
“…! Yes. You’re absolutely right. We’ll do our absolute best. Thank you so much!”
Cha Yu-jin extends his hand cheerfully for a handshake.
“Yeees! I’m also looking forward to doing the stage together….”
“Wait.”
I pulled Cha Yu-jin’s shoulder without changing my expression, calmly.
“Eugene, it’s not ‘together.'”
“…??”
“Oh, right… I’m not doing that stage together.”
Cha Yu-jin became somewhat dejected and withdrew his hand.
That’s right. In the emergency meeting just now, I’d removed Cha Yu-jin from the joint stage.
-What? I’m good at it!
-Yeah, I know you’re good. That’s why let’s do a bigger stage at our concert.
-What’s bigger than this?
-Well….
…I’ll just say I used numerous incentives. And the reason I went this far was different from what I’d initially considered.
‘This guy’s too clingy—it won’t work.’
At the same time, he has no reservations. He’ll perform without hesitation in a way that suits the stage, so if we’re not careful, fans might easily accept crossing the line.
‘A one-on-one male-female idol group performance requires careful consideration—that would be problematic.’
In situations like this, it’s safest to only have people who know how to think through even these details.
So there’s only one answer.
“I… see!”
“Yep~”
Big Sae-jin laughed and put his arm around my shoulder.
“It looks like the joint stage will be just me and Moon-dae~ We’re counting on you!”
And that’s how it happened.
If I do this, even in the worst case, I’ll just hear that it doesn’t fit and it’s funny.
“Oh, I see! Would it be okay if I actively shared that opinion?? I’d love it if we did something cool!”
“Yul-gi, nooo.”
“Huh, why? Am I being weird??”
At Mirinai Member (Rank 1)’s words, the surrounding members made strange sounds, bowing their heads and hanging onto her.
Rank 2 nodded quietly with a face that had given up on everything.
“Yes. It’s me and Yul-gi.”
So Rank 1 and Rank 2 were competing together.
That meant they weren’t backing down in momentum… and Rank 2 probably put together this lineup.
‘I figured Testa would try to win regardless of whether it was mixed gender or whatever.’
Maybe it was because we all came from audition programs. This was another unique situation.
If things went this way, we could end up checking each other like it was a team competition from an audition program, which would definitely cause noise during the process.
“Wow, that’s reassuring~ Let’s work hard!”
Plus, someone who would normally have said things like ‘let’s make a slogan, let’s create a group chat’ was now just taking an attitude of ‘let’s just work,’ so I could roughly see how this would play out.
‘If I’m going to pick someone with decent quality here….’
So was that all?
I naturally kept only one of the stage concepts I’d planned and excluded the rest.
And I ran through the simulation in my head several times so the meeting flow could proceed as naturally as possible.

* * *
After the Director returned and all the important announcements and discussions were exchanged.
The members preparing for the joint stage had an additional meeting separately.
First, if we’re talking about things that can’t be easily changed later… it’s the stage equipment.
‘As expected.’
Plus, since we were adding this joint stage to each group’s existing stages, the equipment used in the stages before and after were already claimed.
“Director, you said it’s better not to have this kind of overlap, right~?”
“Yes, yes.”
Hmm.
So first, wires are out. And pollen, lifts are used in the back stage, so those are excluded too.
“Water would be difficult too. Since our title track is the stage right after this, it might be awkward if it’s compared too directly, right?”
“Yes, yes.”
Big Sae-jin naturally crossed off the things Testa was planning to use on their main stage. He’s doing well.
But Mirinai Member (Rank 1) seemed a bit frustrated.
“How about we pick a song first, like we usually do? Right now we’re only talking about what doesn’t work, so let’s get more energized!”
“Oh, unni!”
“That’s true.”
She’d brought it up at just the right time.
“What do you want to do?”
“Ah! I think hip-hop would be good too….”
I waited for Miry-nay to rattle off as many songs as they wanted.
I’d keep talking until my excitement brought up all sorts of candidates in my mind.
‘Looking at his personality, he’s the type who wants to do a lot of things.’
And as I spoke, the songs I’d been considering would naturally surface too.
“Come to think of it, ‘Attack’ could also….”
There it was.
This way, it would feel like you all chose the song.
I waited a moment longer, then signaled Big Sae-jin before jumping in.
“Now that I think about it, you mentioned wanting to do something cool earlier, didn’t you?”
“Yes, yes!”
“Then for that song you just mentioned… what about a concept like this?”
I quickly began sketching lines and writing on the paper.
Concept, expected impact, arrangement direction….
I made it look like spontaneous brainstorming, as if I’d thought of it on the spot.
“Something like this feel.”
As I wrote, I found myself genuinely interested, and my delivery became more naturally spontaneous.
I tapped the paper once and looked up.
Mirinai Member (Rank 1) had her eyes gleaming.
Hooked.
“I love it!”
“I also… no, yes. Senior, you’ve really given us an excellent idea!”
Good. There was some social politeness mixed in, but it seemed genuine.
This was the right moment for the next buildup.
“Ah~ so you all lean toward this direction. Then the stage elements should be simple too? I think this would be perfect!”
Big Sae-jin picked up on their words and naturally pointed with his finger to one of the remaining stage props.
-Laser
Without any time wasted on resistance, the design came together smoothly.

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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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