Debut or Die - Chapter 45

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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 45
“….”
I carefully withdrew my hand from the doorknob of my one-room apartment’s entrance, making sure not to make a sound.
I’d definitely locked it twice before heading out to film, but when I returned, both locks were undone?
‘Here it comes.’
The inevitable problem that follows fame—privacy invasion.
It was something I’d already worried about. I’d simply left it unaddressed because there was no financial solution available.
‘…At least there’s nothing valuable inside.’
I hadn’t bought much, and since I’d already packed all my clothes for filming, the apartment contained nothing of worth.
‘So I’ll just slip out quietly….’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, my smartphone rang.
Bzzzzt!
[Sun Ah-hyun]
The instant I saw the name on the screen, I realized the problem.
The walls of this one-room apartment were thin as paper—there was no soundproofing.
‘Damn.’
I hurriedly stepped away from the door.
Then I immediately bolted toward the emergency exit.
The moment I turned the corner before the emergency exit and slipped into the blind spot, I heard the door open.
Creak.
I caught a glimpse of the back of a woman’s head as she poked through the door gap, looked around, and entered.
She looked perfectly ordinary. The problem was that I’d never seen her before in my life, and she was trespassing in my home.
Cold sweat broke out on my skin.
‘This is insane.’
I went out to the stairwell outside the emergency exit and answered the call.
The one calling was Sun Ah-hyun, just as the screen showed.
-M-Moon-dae, hey… have you eaten yet?
“I haven’t, but now’s not really the time for me to be eating.”
-W-what?
“Someone’s broken into my apartment.”
-W-what?
I heard Sun Ah-hyun’s voice catching his breath through the phone, and his parents’ voices asking what was wrong.
Normally I would have brushed it off and hung up, but this wasn’t a situation I could dismiss as trivial.
‘I’ll have to ask him to give me a ride to the police station.’
If I called 112 and a police car showed up, the neighborhood would become chaotic, and there was a risk that strange rumors might spread unnecessarily.
With everything coming down to the wire, I didn’t need to give anyone ammunition.
So I planned to go there myself, explain the situation, and hand her over quietly.
‘I thought calling a taxi would take forever, so this works out better anyway.’
-W-wait. W-we’ll be right there. Come down now! Y-you need to report it….
“I’m planning to go and do it myself. Sorry, but could you just give me a ride to the police station?”
-Of course!
I called Sun Ah-hyun and headed straight down the stairs.
I couldn’t believe all the things I was experiencing.

* * *
Fortunately, everything that followed proceeded without a hitch.
Thanks to Sun Ah-hyun and his parents, who were even more panicked than I was, rushing to the Police Station right away, I was able to file a report immediately.
-What? Ah, a woman….
-I don’t know her.
-Ah, I see.
The police seemed rather indifferent, but they dispatched a unit nonetheless.
And here’s what was revealed:
‘I never imagined there would be more than one.’
There were four people total inside my one-room apartment.
They had ransacked the place together and were indiscriminately grabbing dishes and clothes.
It turned out that several of them, who had a history of stalking other idols, had joined forces to tail me and then broke into my one-room apartment, which had poor security.
‘I never could have imagined this.’
I rubbed my shoulders with a bitter taste in my mouth.
The bigger problem was that the police consistently showed no real interest in making arrests.
‘I guess I just had bad luck with the local precinct.’
The four who had been caught showed no signs of tension and kept trying to talk to me, giggling incessantly.
-Hey!
-Moon-dae, can’t you hear me?
-You can hear, can’t you? Say something~
-Park Moon-dae!
‘Looks like they’ll just get a warning or a fine.’
I really needed to move out of this one-room apartment or something serious would happen.
“M-Moon-dae. Are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh. I’m fine.”
Sun Ah-hyun fidgeted with his chopsticks, picking them up and putting them down. I felt embarrassed being in a position where I was eating off his hospitality.
Here’s what I learned after everything was settled:
-W-we decided to eat out nearby, and I thought it would be nice if you joined us too….
-Ah. So that’s why you called.
-Mm-hmm!
Thanks to that, I ended up joining Sun Ah-hyun’s family dinner.
‘This place makes really good ribs.’
I quietly brought the meat to my mouth. Since I hadn’t slept, I might as well eat well.
“Goodness, there are really strange people these days. How could they do such a thing….”
“Shouldn’t you contact your parents first?”
Sun Ah-hyun’s parents seemed quite shocked and kept repeating this conversation pattern over and over.
I paused for a moment, then decided to tell the truth.
I’d received considerable help today and was even being fed—the least I could do was answer sincerely and show some integrity.
“There was an accident a while back… my parents aren’t around anymore.”
Sun Ah-hyun’s father drew in a sharp breath, and his mother asked quietly from her side of the table.
“Is there another adult we should contact?”
“Not really… no one comes to mind.”
Part of it was because I’d only just arrived in Park Moon-dae’s body, but Park Moon-dae himself seemed to have no guardian either.
‘That’s surprisingly similar.’
Now that I thought about it, I found that rather interesting. I wondered if the similarity in our backgrounds might have been one of the reasons I’d ended up in Park Moon-dae’s body.
But the atmosphere around the dining table was sinking like a swamp, so I needed to salvage the situation first.
“It wasn’t always like this from childhood. Various circumstances just piled up and led to this… but I’m managing fine now without any particular issues.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Sun Ah-hyun’s mother smiled instead of making a fuss.
“Well, living alone must keep you busy with all sorts of things. I’m really grateful that our Ah-hyun has been taking such good care of you.”
“No, I’ve received a lot of help from him.”
“….”
I expected Sun Ah-hyun to jump up and protest at this point, but he said nothing. When I glanced over, he was quietly flipping meat on the grill with his mouth firmly shut.
‘Did he not know I didn’t have parents?’
Now that I thought about it, I’d only told the Production Team, and it had never been brought up on the broadcast since.
He probably would have been quite shocked, but Sun Ah-hyun seemed to be trying his best not to show it.
‘He must prefer that kind of reaction.’
Now I wondered if Sun Ah-hyun’s habit of following Park Moon-dae around in the early stages of filming might have stemmed from that very reason.
‘Perhaps because I handled Sun Ah-hyun’s condition appropriately and reacted well during the first evaluation.’
My reasoning seemed to fit together reasonably well.
‘Though it’s not exactly crucial detective work.’
I shrugged and went back to eating meat. Since there was no other option for now, I’d spend tonight at the one-room apartment and look for somewhere else to stay tomorrow.
But right after the meal, an unexpected lifeline was thrown my way.
“You’re going back… there?”
“Since I was taken in, they probably won’t come today at least.”
“Still, though….”
When I mentioned I was planning to return to the one-room apartment, Sun Ah-hyun and his family huddled together in concern, and I ended up being able to stay at Sun Ah-hyun’s apartment until the next shoot.
“…?”
I had no idea what was happening, but it was a windfall, so I’d keep quiet and follow along.

* * *
While Park Moon-dae savored the unexpected joy of upgrading his living quarters, people on the Internet who had finished attending the filming were spoiling the episode like madmen.
Because the program was going so well, the confidentiality clauses had completely lost their bite by this point.
As an individual, Cha Yu-jin was undeniably the most mentioned, but as a team, Park Moon-dae’s Team was overwhelmingly dominant.
-Why’d they put that in the opening? The next team must’ve felt so bad
-High rankings have their reasons! They were all so handsome
-When that stage airs, the Internet’s gonna explode lol
-Why’s Sun Ah-hyun getting hate? He was incredible
Many tried to suppress the momentum, dismissing it as fan mobilization from Park Moon-dae’s Team members, but as attendance verification posts poured in, they quietly left their insults and disappeared.
And here was a named fan account operator who, like Park Moon-dae himself, hadn’t won the lottery for attendance and had been out of it all day.
The very person who had snuck a hidden camera into the first team match and ended up focusing on Park Moon-dae.
‘Was my network really this weak?’
Since the fanbase had only recently formed around this survival show participant, she had refrained from excessive socializing as a named account—and what came back was defeat in the information war.
With trembling hands, she clicked on the current trending post.
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[Went to the filming. (Photo included) (361)]
: It was my first time doing something like this, so I went there with excitement, but just seeing Moon Dae’s face was worth it.
I came out as the first team from Mundae University and wore a rabbit mask and hanbok. He seemed like a character from a fusion fantasy historical drama. It was so bad I couldn’t stand it… so I took a quick picture ㅠㅠ
And the stage broadcast thing is really bullshit. He did so well that my heart is still pounding ㅠㅠ
His singing was literally otherworldly and his dancing was flawless, so I have no idea what those people are talking about when they say he can’t dance.
I’ll write a detailed review below!
….
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She read through the post word by word, then couldn’t help herself and scrolled down hard when she saw the mention of a photo.
Below was a half-body photo of Park Moon-dae wearing the rabbit mask at an angle and draped in a blue robe.
“Ah!!”
Against a black background scattered with starlight, the blonde Park Moon-dae in his navy blue robe was so devastatingly handsome that it broke her heart.
‘Should I… buy the footage?’
She muttered, unable to overcome her despair. But even the data brokers usually didn’t sell stuff like this until after broadcast, worried about legal issues.
The more she imagined that appearance—which she wouldn’t see until episode 9’s preview at the earliest, or episode 10’s actual broadcast at the latest—the more her head spun.
“…Let me just look at ads… ads…”
She pulled up new ad concepts to post before the final episode, trying to compose herself.
‘Wait, but if I used that photo from back then in this ad too! That would be perfect!’
And then she wailed again and logged back into SNS.
Her routine of searching for attendance reviews continued until episode 9’s preview dropped.

* * *
Staying at Sun Ah-hyun’s Apartment offered a qualitatively different life from my days in the One-room apartment.
Of course, there had been the headache of negotiating compensation with the landlord over the damaged entrance lock in between.
But that sort of thing had been an annual occurrence even before Park Moon-dae’s body came to me, so there was no real reason to feel upset about it.
What mattered was sleeping in a Room without mold. And the excellent soundproofing meant I could sleep without earplugs, which helped considerably.
However, the pleasure of a noise-free environment was not a luxury I could enjoy today.
“What, you two were having fun without me!”
Big Sae-jin had come to visit.
Big Sae-jin, who had been chattering in the same-age group chat about watching Episode 9 together, had suddenly accelerated when I mentioned I was staying at Sun Ah-hyun’s place, and had barged in from this morning.
“Oh, welcome!”
Sun Ah-hyun looked delighted. Since the host was happy, there wasn’t much I could say about it.
Big Sae-jin grinned widely as he entered the Living Room, then pulled out the board games he’d brought.
…He really seemed intent on having a proper time.
Zing.
“Is that Park Moon-dae calling?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
I noticed my smartphone on the dining table ringing.
[Kim Rae-bin: Hello hyung. Today is the day Episode 9 airs. If you have time, would it be possible to watch it together?]
Well, since we’re on the same Team anyway, it seemed fine to include him here.
With Big Sae-jin around, a quiet viewing was out of the question anyway.
“Should I invite Rae-bin to watch Episode 9 with us?”
“Huh? I’m in~”
“Y-yeah, sounds good!”
Unanimous approval came immediately.
I casually texted Kim Rae-bin explaining the situation.
Then, after a brief pause, a reply came back.
[Kim Rae-bin: Um… Cha Yu-jin is here too. Would it be okay if we watched together?]
“….”
Well, that’s a bit….

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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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