Debut or Die - Chapter 30

—————

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 30
The woman who came to watch as a favor to a friend managed to secure a middle seat with a decent view.
‘This feels a bit awkward.’
As the woman, attending alone for the first time, felt self-conscious, the person next to her struck up a conversation.
“Who are you here to see?”
“Huh? Um… Park Moon-dae?”
“Ah…. Yes.”
The person next to her, holding a 【Kim Rae-bin Debut】 slogan in one hand, gave her a quick once-over from head to toe, then immediately turned away to look at their smartphone.
“….”
The mood felt oddly unpleasant.
Feeling as though she’d wasted both her mood and time coming here, the woman began watching the first stage with a sullen expression.
“The first stage is…. Rolling Couple’s 【Fingerprint】!”
With the MC’s booming introduction, the stage of Rolling Couple—a co-ed idol group that had flopped after just two comebacks—played briefly on the screen.
It was structured under the pretext of ‘considering audiences unfamiliar with hidden gems’ and ‘showing respect to the original artists’.
But in reality, it was designed to contrast the dated, awkward stage of the failed idol group with the performances of the current contestants.
“And the contestants reinterpreting this stage are… Ha Il-jun, Ji Tae-woo, Lee Sae-jin, Sun Ah-hyun, Choi Na-hoon, Seok Hee-gang, and Choi Won-gil! The Gigantic team! Please take the stage!”
The original song’s stage video cut out, and the contestants’ profile photos filled the screen one by one as the MC called their names.
Then the screen gradually dimmed, and the stage lights came up.
-When palms touch, you feel the Feel~
Big Sae-jin’s smiling face filled the screen.
Dum-dum-dum-
And with the fast-paced electro house backing track, a dazzling synchronized dance unfolded on stage.
‘Wow….’
Unlike watching on screen, the spatial depth of the choreography came alive in person, making it feel far more impactful.
For a woman watching an idol stage in person for the first time, it was almost shocking.
‘Maybe I should have gone to a few dance artist concerts instead of just ballad singers?’
She found herself casually regretting this as she immersed herself in enjoying the stage before her eyes.
“Thank you!”
By the time she was applauding the contestants as they exited after the stage ended, she was completely exhilarated.
‘This is actually pretty fun?’
Waiting through the setup times between stages was tedious, but watching celebrities perform while the broadcast equipment was rolling had a unique appeal.
The downside was that the teams’ skill levels varied depending on the participants.
‘This team is a bit… lacking.’
The second team was disappointing, but the third and fourth teams were quite entertaining.
Since she’d never really engaged in what people called ‘fandom activities’, she only retained vague impressions of each stage rather than detailed critiques, quickly forgetting them.
For now, the impression that stuck in her mind was simply that the first team had performed the best.
‘They said to vote for the two teams I liked best on the way out, right?’
With the first team already locked in for one vote, she continued watching the remaining stages.
The subsequent teams had their own concepts and were entertaining, but none captured her quite like the first team had.
‘Hmm, I’m getting a bit tired.’
In truth, the later teams’ skill level wasn’t inferior to the earlier ones.
It was simply that after watching unfamiliar song after unfamiliar song, the initial freshness had worn off and boredom was beginning to set in.
Moreover, the participant her friend had asked her to watch still hadn’t appeared.
‘Isn’t this the last team?’
She suppressed the urge to check her smartphone and barely managed to focus on listening to the next team’s introduction.
“This performance is… ‘Burning Like the Sun’ by the band Taeyang Island!”
Then a video that appeared to be from a music broadcast from about ten years ago played on the screen.
‘Ah, this song.’
It was a cheer I’d heard at the baseball stadium when I went with my friend who loves baseball.
‘So this is how it was originally sung….’
Somehow, it wasn’t as exciting as it had been at the baseball stadium. It just seemed like a song with a lot of high notes and quite demanding.
I watched the vocalist belting out the song on screen without much emotion, then jumped at the MC’s booming voice.
“And here are the participants who have reinterpreted this performance! Ryu Chung-woo, Lee Sae-jin, Kim Yu-jun, Park Moon-dae, Min Jung-hoon, Kim Rae-bin, and Cha Yu-jin!”
‘Did they just say Park Moon-dae?’
I hurriedly fixed my gaze back on the screen. The participants’ profile photos were now appearing on it.
‘Ah, they’re all people I know.’
There were so many famous participants that this must have been the last team.
I straightened up in my seat as anticipation surged back. The cheers from around me were several times louder than before, piercing my ears.
‘Wow, they’re really popular.’
“Now, the ‘Hero’ team! Coming on stage right now~”
Before I could even think the name was tacky, the stage went dark.
It was a black stage with the screen lights gone as well.
The moment a single beam of blue spotlight struck down onto it.
A participant appeared with their index finger raised to the sky like a gun barrel.
A sleek black jumpsuit with a racing suit-like pattern absorbed the intense blue lighting.
Red finger gloves on those hands glimmered under the lights.
And then a deep voice was heard.
-Yah, yah… Hero Time
[HERO TIME!]
In an instant, the same text filled the screen.
Screeeech!
An intense bass began tearing through the speakers along with an obvious glitch sound.
All the stage lights burst back on. And seven figures began moving in perfect unison.
“…!”
Long, extended limbs struck the ground and bodies bent as razor-sharp, intricate group choreography unfolded.
They were all wearing black jumpsuits with different patterns.
Cha Yu-jin, positioned in the center, began singing.
-My heart is burning
Brilliantly like the sun
A participant behind took over and continued singing.
Reaching high into the distant sky
Flying further so I can grasp it
Where a typical band sound should have filled the backing track, only a locking sensation remained as heavy, intense dubstep bass dropped in its place.
WOB- WOB- WOB- WEEEB–!
BRMMMM–!
And then the group choreography resumed.
The participants extending one arm moved as if performing martial arts.
She stared at the stage with her mouth agape. The more violent movements in his section captured her gaze.
The choreography consisted only of large, decisive movements without any fussy details.
A composition that could have seemed monotonous and excessive instead became simply powerful thanks to the rapidly shifting formations.
Saving the world comes down to one thing
A burning, ecstatic passion
Ryu Chung-woo, wearing a navy hairband, sang the pre-chorus.
Just as I thought I detected subtle, impressive choreography that seemed to shoot something, the chorus exploded.
-Fly away! I’ll go all the way~
Until that day I shine like the sun!
The participant kicked forward with his leg and stretched out a refreshing high note, his hair color a gleaming blonde.
The bright yellow choker fit as naturally as if it were made from his own hair.
While hitting that high note, the participant was grinning widely.
‘Insane.’
Is that Moon-dae? The woman reflexively covered her mouth.
‘The photos… they turned out so badly…!’
The photos her friend had shown her, claiming she’d taken them, weren’t like this at all!
Someone this talented and cute deserved better photography!!
Shattering already-low expectations carried tremendous destructive power.
Besides, there was no accounting for taste.
‘So my tastes are similar to his…!’
As she gained this new realization, the stage entered a new phase.
Kim Rae-bin took the spot Park Moon-dae had vacated as he sat down.
Purple-tinted goggles swayed near his cheekbones.
-Rising like a star
Shining like the sun
‘Huh?’
Where the original song should have continued with the high note of the chorus, a rap had been inserted instead.
However, the remaining chorus melody hadn’t disappeared.
Instead, it was processed like a sampler through synthesizer, adding a crisp sound over the hip dubstep backing.
With the rap layered on top, the momentum of the previous high note didn’t fade. If anything, it felt easier to listen to.
Moreover, since the lyrics in that section were dated, the rap lyrics translated into English actually made the song feel more contemporary.
-Flying now! This moment~
Here is time burning like the sun!
-Take your wings
and fly up
Let’s catch up
to the moon!
A wave of awe washed over her.
The woman unfamiliar with the original song simply felt that this version was better, but she could clearly hear that the arrangement was far superior to the other teams’ renditions.
And above all, the Stage itself was magnificent.
By the time the final chorus arrived, she found herself leaning forward from her seat, utterly mesmerized.
-Fly away! To the very end~
This time, Park Moon-dae and Kim Rae-bin sang the chorus from opposite ends of the Stage as if exchanging lines.
The choreography moved like a unified wave, seamless and flowing.
Beneath the cyan-violet laser lights, the black jumpsuits amplified the science fiction comic book aesthetic.
And then came the climactic high note of the final chorus.
-I will save your world!
“Hah—hhhhh.”
She swallowed the gasp threatening to escape her lips.
Beneath the white pinpoint spotlight, Park Moon-dae lifted his head—he looked ready to save the world right then and there.
No, he was already saving her, that much was certain…!
On Stage, Cha Yu-jin burst forth with a back tumbling sequence as the final dance break erupted.
His body carved through the air like a sequence from an action film, landing on the Stage floor with perfect precision.
Thud.
A distinctly superheroic landing.
Over the remaining top-line accompaniment, a glitched announcement-style narration echoed through the venue.
-Thank you for flying Hero Air today….
The boys on Stage turned slowly backward.
And simultaneously, thumbs raised high, the song ended.
In that moment, she suddenly became aware of the deafening roar surrounding her.
“Ahhhhhhh!!”
“Kyaaahhhhh!!!”
All the cheers and screams she’d unconsciously tuned out while focused on the Stage now assaulted her ears.
What surprised her most was that she was screaming too.
“Insane!! That was insane!!”
The person next to her who’d spoken earlier was practically leaping from their seat, shrieking with abandon.
The slogan in their hand was already crumpled beyond recognition, flailing about uselessly.
Her mind endlessly replayed Park Moon-dae smirking, Park Moon-dae pushing those impossibly high notes, Park Moon-dae turning away.
Determined not to miss a single frame of Park Moon-dae’s exit, she kept her eyes wide open and thought urgently.
‘Voting!! I have to vote!’
And above all, one thing was certain.
‘First place!! Definitely first place!’
This team was the victor!

* * *
After the Stage performance concluded, the rankings were announced immediately in front of the empty audience seating as the spectators filed out.
With each team standing in a line before the MC, he proceeded to announce the next placement.
“Third place goes to the Hero team, who reinterpreted ‘Burning Like the Sun’!”
“What?”
“No way, that doesn’t make sense.”
The moment the MC finished his announcement, murmurs of disbelief erupted from all directions.
I stared at the screen with cold, hardened eyes.
‘I knew this would happen.’

—————

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

—————