Debut or Die - Chapter 474

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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 474
Beep beep beep, beep beep, beep beep beep!
Ding!
The sound of someone frantically punching in the security code at the entrance echoed through the Dormitory, and In-young rushed through the door with disheveled hair.
It was Sun Ah-hyun, finally clocking out from the fishing boat.
The guy who had received a barrage of messages summarized as ‘Cha Yu-jin collapsed, regained consciousness, discharged from Hospital, status being monitored, oh no Eugene’s memories changed’ came rushing in with unmistakable urgency.
“Hey, guys, I’m here….”
“….”
“….”
“Um, over here…?”
“Ah-hyun’s here.”
“Welcome, Ah-hyun. You must be exhausted….”
However.
The atmosphere in the Dormitory was so bleak that blowing straight soju wouldn’t seem out of place.
There was no alcohol on the table, but the mood felt so utterly wretched that no one would stop someone if they ran out to buy some right now.
It felt like a funeral home.
“Eu, Eugene…where is he…?”
“…Um.”
Moreover, Cha Yu-jin wasn’t even in the room.
STier’s Cha Yu-jin had unilaterally finished speaking his piece and then retreated into what I’d heard was his own Room.
-I have nothing more to say.
‘Damn it.’
In short, it was a complete disaster.
“For now, Ah-hyun, sit down and rest. You must have been shocked.”
“Y-yes….”
I cleared a seat for Sun Ah-hyun, then returned to silently chugging cold water.
By the way, Cha Yu-jin’s roommate was… still the same as before.
Which is to say, Bae Sae-jin. Damn it.
“Thirty days…that’s what he said, right? If we just do our best during that time, we can… make it work.”
He was nodding as if he grasped the gravity of the situation, but he had no idea what the real problem was.
‘He thinks you’re a drug dealer….’
Bae Sae-jin, oblivious to his roommate’s massive misunderstanding, seemed determined to take good care of one of the youngest members until his memories returned.
“Right. Sae-jin’s got a point.”
He doesn’t. We’d be lucky if we don’t get our collars grabbed.
I pressed my temples.
‘…I still don’t know why the ‘update’ suddenly gave Cha Yu-jin memories from his STier days, or whether STier’s Cha Yu-jin is the one who went in there.’
First, let me rethink the plan.
‘First, I need to clear up the misunderstanding about Bae Sae-jin….’
…But would he even believe me?
Actually, even if he did believe me, that would be a problem.
So that means his group took a fatal blow because of false accusations that weren’t even true.
‘And meanwhile, I have to watch this place where things conveniently worked out—he didn’t become a drug dealer and everything went smoothly.’
The comparison made me irritated, and I might end up being uncooperative.
‘Sigh….’
I heard Bae Sae-jin muttering beside me.
“Maybe it’s only natural.”
“….”
“From Cha Yu-jin’s perspective… he suddenly woke up in an unfamiliar environment, right?”
“Yeah….”
That was when it happened.
Big Sae-jin, who had been quietly observing the situation, shrugged and stepped forward.
“Well… I don’t think we need to worry that much, do we?”
“…??”
“S-Sae-jin hyung?”
“Even if he had a different experience… Eugene is still Eugene, right? So they grew up the same way until about nineteen.”
“So?”
“Well, even if personality and things like that change over a few years…”
Big Sae-jin glanced sideways.
“Don’t you think his taste in food would probably be similar?”
“…!”
He was referring to the brownies and chocolate chips that Bae Sae-jin and Kim Rae-bin had brought.

* * *
Knock, knock, knock.
“I’m going in for a moment.”
Ryu Chung-woo spoke with quiet firmness, and seconds later, he opened the door to the room Cha Yu-jin had entered.
Creak.
Inside, among unpacked luggage still scattered about, Cha Yu-jin lay sprawled carelessly across the bed.
He had his arm covering his face, but he opened his mouth anyway.
“…Now that’s going too far.”
“Hm?”
“I said I wouldn’t answer. Twice.”
Cha Yu-jin lowered his arm and revealed his eyes.
And now, without hesitation, he pointed directly.
At me.
“Not that person either, so ask that person instead.”
In an instant, all eyes turned toward me.
Hmm.
I crossed my arms, and Big Sae-jin strode into the room with easy confidence.
“Hold on, Eugene. I didn’t come here to ask that again. I just wanted to have a conversation.”
“A conversation?”
“Yeah~ Besides, we’re living in the same place now, so it’d be better for you too if we cleared the air, right~ We should know what the situation is!”
Big Sae-jin laughed and sat down on the floor. Cha Yu-jin shifted his position on the bed and gave a slight nod.
“That’s fine.”
“Right? Like, how long are you staying here~ I’m just curious about stuff like that. Just my thoughts!”
And Big Sae-jin didn’t bother waiting for an answer, instead beginning to speak in a comfortable tone, providing his own summary.
What he’d heard from me, along with the strange situations we’d experienced so far—Big Sae-jin’s condensed version was easy to follow.
“…So, we’re thinking you’ll probably only be here for about thirty days.”
“….”
Cha Yu-jin didn’t object.
But after listening all the way through, he opened his mouth with a somewhat sullen expression.
“That’s really….”
“You were going to say nerdy, right? That’s so Eugene~ So like you.”
“….”
Cha Yu-jin stared at Big Sae-jin for a moment.
And then he burst out laughing.
“Hey,”
“What?”
“The Cha Yu-jin you know isn’t me. I don’t think it’s polite to talk to me that way.”
“…!”
Kim Rae-bin, standing beside me, flinched even more.
“Oh, is that so?”
But Big Sae-jin remained unruffled and spoke.
“Then how about we just respect boundaries?”
“Sure. [Nice phrasing. Don’t cross the line.]”
Cha Yu-jin tried to lie back down on the bed, his smile still lingering on his face.
But Big Sae-jin wasn’t finished.
“But you know boundaries are maintained through mutual respect, right? I’m asking you. We have that much of a connection from when we participated together in Ajusa back then, don’t we?”
“….”
Cha Yu-jin hesitated.
In that moment, Ryu Chung-woo extended his hand and spoke.
“Right. It just means we respect each other’s basic courtesy.”
“….”
“Eugene.”
Cha Yu-jin lifted himself up from the bed.
It seemed like he was scanning the faces of everyone who had entered the room.
‘A connection, huh.’
From his perspective, Bae Sae-jin was the one who destroyed his group with drugs, and Big Sae-jin was the one who voluntarily withdrew from the program due to school violence.
‘And I wasn’t even a participant to begin with.’
Yet there were no such comments whatsoever.
Instead, he simply raised his hand.
“….”
And shook hands with Ryu Chung-woo.
“Got it.”
“Thanks.”
Ryu Chung-woo smiled brightly.
The strategy was to push the most easygoing one and the one who showed the most reserved reaction in succession, drawing them both to the table first.
‘Phase one complete.’
Only then did the atmosphere in the room ease slightly.
In that moment, Bae Sae-jin gave a signal. Kim Rae-bin quickly thrust forward an envelope.
‘Phase two initiated.’
“…! Eugene, you’ve been fasting for two meals now. At least eat this!”
“….”
It was brownies and cookies.
Cha Yu-jin peered into the envelope thrust before his eyes and asked with a bewildered expression.
“Brownie? Don’t tell me Kim Rae-bin actually bought this from the hospital?”
“…? Yeah!”
“Oh,”
In that moment, Cha Yu-jin seemed to let out something like a soft chuckle. The way one would look at a close friend.
Though he quickly caught himself and moved past it.
‘…So they were close back at STier too, it seems.’
Of course, I couldn’t let this timing slip away.
I immediately reached out my hand.
And made my request.
“Just one.”
“…What?”
An ambiguous response—whether affirmation or question, I couldn’t quite tell.
Without even glancing inside the envelope, I plunged my hand in, grabbed a brownie at random, and tore open the wrapper.
Then I shoved it into my mouth.
‘…Sweet.’
A kind of… ‘clean, drug-free brownie certification’ performance, if you will.
It was absurd, admittedly.
‘Kim Rae-bin went to buy them, and Bae Sae-jin went along too.’
Given how much this guy had been talking about drugs, I didn’t want him getting squeamish and refusing to eat.
I swallowed the brownie and nodded.
“Delicious.”
“…Moon-dae hyung said so! Then statistically, the probability that it’ll suit your taste has increased!”
“…OK.”
And in the end, Cha Yu-jin didn’t refuse.
He reached out and took the entire envelope, then examined the packaging with an oddly suspicious expression.
Then he began unwrapping them one by one and tossing them into his mouth in rapid succession.
The speed was almost refreshing.
And Testa watched the whole spectacle unfold.
“….”
“….”
‘It’s like watching someone feed raw meat to a wild animal.’
Anyway, if his biological mechanism was wired so that eating sweets put him in a good mood, some kind of response would come eventually.
With that thought, I decided to wait a bit longer.
And a few minutes later.
“Want pizza for dinner? Bulgogi pizza?”
“I like that pizza.”
“Okay~”
Remarkably, this conversation had just happened.
In other words, the atmosphere had definitely… softened.
‘Whether it was thanks to the snacks, I’m not sure.’
Either way, Cha Yu-jin had polished off every last brownie and cookie while sitting on the bed.
And once he confirmed that people were no longer asking questions about his ‘group,’ he gradually reverted to an attitude similar to his usual self.
‘Though the level of conversation did become rather shallow.’
Still, I wasn’t complaining.
“Cola.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Ah, if you’re curious about the current situation or anything about us, feel free to ask whatever you want.”
“Understood.”
In the end, STier’s Cha Yu-jin managed to reach the point where we all sat together eating pizza and engaging in light small talk.
And during that time, an opportunity naturally arose to discuss our current situation.
“Ah, we’re basically wrapping up our active period right now. Just a few schedules left?”
Of course, his answer was predictable.
“But I’m not part of this team. I’m not participating in activities.”
“Hmm.”
“Right.”
There was no point in pressuring someone who refused.
‘His training load must be substantial too.’
Besides, fortunately, Testa’s group activities were nearly finished.
‘Cha Yu-jin wrapped up his solo activities early too.’
To put it simply: ‘Well then, so be it.’
“Our tour starts next month?”
“Yes.”
Taking a brief rest period wasn’t entirely negative.
If only Cha Yu-jin continued without solo activities, there might be some talk, but we could cover that for about a month with health concerns.
So… the problem is just one thing.
“…What do we do about our reality show…?”
“…”
The group reality show for Testa that we’d been ambitiously preparing.
It looked like it was going to fall through.
‘Damn it.’
How could we film a group reality show when one member wasn’t participating?
“The filming schedule… we can’t push it back.”
“No, we can’t.”
This had been barely arranged in the first place.
Moreover, the structure of this reality show made it awkward for anyone to sit out due to health reasons.
Even if someone did drop out, we’d have to film their segments separately and insert them later.
Otherwise, rumors of discord or transfer might spread—that kind of program.
So here’s the thing.
I opened my mouth.
“…Let’s just film it for now.”
“Film it?”
“When Cha Yu-jin comes back in a month, we’ll gather his footage separately and insert it. How about that?”
“…”
This was the best option.
But Kim Rae-bin muttered in a gloomy voice from beside me.
“When Cha Yu-jin comes back… he’ll probably be upset that everyone filmed fun stuff without him…”
“…”
“…Oh, that’s persuasive, Kim Rae-bin.”
“Thank you….”
I covered my face with one hand.
‘Damn it.’
Was it my fault for applying something like the System to this damned Entertainment Company in the first place, creating this mess?
‘But if I hadn’t applied it, the album might have turned out half-baked too….’
This was absolutely maddening.
No, and what good would it do to whine and regret right now? What I need now is a solution.
‘Think it through….’
Let me use my head.
I fell silent, wracking my brain, and after a moment, I spoke.
“Probabilistically speaking.”
“…?”
“When Cha Yu-jin returns… there’s a chance he might still remember.”
“Y-yeah… that could be true?”
Just like how those guys didn’t lose the memories they created when they recovered their memories in the System’s virtual world.
‘If that’s the case.’
“Then having Cha Yu-jin participate in Reality right now is the best option we have.”
“…!”
“However… that Cha Yu-jin said he wouldn’t participate in activities,”
“But I’m going to bring it up anyway.”
Since this isn’t a Stage activity, if STier Cha Yu-jin wants something in return, couldn’t we handle it as a transaction?
And besides, there was something else I wanted to discuss with him anyway.

* * *
“Do you have something else to say?”
I stepped out onto the Balcony.
Cha Yu-jin stood with the glass door half-open, gazing out into the night alone. When he turned to face me, his expression showed little warmth or welcome.
I spoke calmly.
“I wanted to talk to you about your roommate.”
“….”
And then Cha Yu-jin… let out a sigh?
[Hey, I’m not an idiot. Obviously that person has nothing to do with drugs.]
“…!”
[It seems you know STier quite well, and the way you’re treating that “roommate” as a member makes it obvious. But.]
He spoke dryly.
“I’m not curious.”
“….”
[Of course, since he’s not someone I knew before. I have no intention of treating him carelessly.]
Then he tapped my shoulder.
[But don’t cross the line. Understand? You need to keep your boundaries too.]
He left those words behind and walked away from the Balcony.
“….”
I stood where he had been, by the glass door of the Balcony. A cold summer breeze swept across the night.
And I realized something.
‘It didn’t work.’
Whether it was a deal or whatever—nothing about Testa activities would get through to him right now.
“Sigh.”
Perhaps it was fortunate I hadn’t brought it up.
But no one could have predicted it.
That crossing his ‘line’ would happen so quickly.

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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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