Debut or Die - Chapter 498

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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 498
【First Meeting】 Stage Competition Venue.
[Weekend afternoon entertainment! A gathering of stars, a collaboration for the ages, the Stage of 【First Meeting】 is about to begin!]
MC delivered the standardized script with the fluidity of years of experience. The Audience Seating erupted with enthusiastic cheers and applause.
[This competition’s theme is ‘Millennial 2000’! We’ve designed the Stage around a 2000s aesthetic.]
[The performers selected artists in their preferred genres to collaborate with, and these collaborations have come to fruition. We hope you’ll look forward to seeing what kind of Stage performances are born from this!]
MC then quickly summarized the voting rules.
Simple. If you enjoyed the performance, press the button!
It was the same clichéd spiel delivered at every recording, but this time there were quite a few audience members hearing it for the first time.
‘I can’t believe I’m here.’
‘Jae-hyun, thank you. I’m finally repaying my filial debt.’
They were all people who had applied after hearing about Chung-ryeo’s appearance. In other words, many were VTIC fans rather than existing viewers.
And that was a double-edged sword in this competition.
If Chung-ryeo failed to deliver a performance worthy of first place but won through audience voting, that alone would spark controversy.
But the fans seated there harbored almost no such concerns.
‘It’s Jae-hyun, after all.’
It was a faith that solidified the longer one remained a fan.
VTIC, especially Chung-ryeo, had never delivered a disappointing performance.
[Now, the curtain rises on that special Stage.]
And finally, Season 7’s third themed competition began.
Waaaah—
With polite cheers, singers and master artisans took the Stage and performed.
By singers, I mean mostly established artists with strong appeal to middle-aged and older demographics.
There were no male idols like VTIC.
‘Oh.’
Because the fields were so different, even Chung-ryeo’s fans watched without any sense of rivalry, quite favorably.
‘That’s good.’
‘They’re all performing well.’
Pure evaluation flowed naturally.
There were quite a few boldly unconventional performances.
A vocal artist and a former rapper performing a representative 2000s musical hit had a charm that made oldness feel hip, and the collaboration between an acrobatics master and a dance singer, while slightly discordant, was quite impressive.
‘Wow!’
It resonated especially with the younger VTIC fans.
Since they didn’t watch the program regularly, they were unfamiliar with its signature, audience-pleasing Stage composition, making it feel fresh.
And they began imagining Chung-ryeo’s Stage in their own way.
‘Who did Jae-hyun perform with?’
‘If he’d performed with an opera singer, that would’ve been really cool.’
Occasionally there were performances where singers performed together due to insufficient master artisan bookings or poor pairings, but no one imagined Chung-ryeo would be in that situation.
‘Hmm, to perform better than these people….’
There were even one or two performances that made fans nervously worry that Jae-hyun might make a mistake.
And as time passed, the sixth stage.
The order right before the final performance.
MC finally opened the curtain on what everyone had been waiting for.
[Our next performer is… a global K-pop artist representing South Korea. It’s Chung-ryeo from VTIC!]
Ahhhhh!!
Woah!
The moment the word “global” was mentioned, fans who had caught on were already cheering enthusiastically.
And even middle-aged and older audience members who weren’t necessarily fans responded well. After all, everyone had heard the name VTIC on the news or YouTube.
Anticipation for a famous celebrity!
Those gazes trying to gauge how well they would perform.
Amid that surging adrenaline, MC continued the proceedings while controlling the tempo.
[And the collaboration partner Chung-ryeo has chosen is….]
A brief pause for effect.
And just as the audience’s curiosity reached its peak.
A thunderbolt of a revelation dropped.
[The nation’s idol! The main vocalist of Testa, Park Moon-dae!]
“…??”
“…?!”
What?
Unlike the amused reactions of middle-aged audience members thinking “young idols performing together~”, Chung-ryeo’s fans in the seating area doubted their ears and gasped inwardly.
Why is Testa appearing here…?
‘Chung-ryeo?’
‘Hey, Shin Jae-hyun!’
Some fans even screamed that a kindergartener with a recorder talent would be better.
[Then let’s meet them now! Collaboration start!]
Without time to collect themselves, the stage began with MC’s shout!
Lights illuminated the darkened stage.
“…!”
The fans reflexively held their breath and focused their gaze on the stage.
But… there was no singer.
Only a standing microphone on the outer edge stood alone under the spotlight.
Whooooo-
A brief wind sound echoed.
In that silence, a familiar riff melody played on piano filled the air.
A familiar accompaniment.
And cutting through that quiet background music came a melancholic chorus.
-Snow falls on my winter
Enveloping both my cheeks
With cold and tender warmth
And you
【Winter Love】.
It was a hit song from an emotional hip-hop group that had been popular in the mid-2000s. A track that followed the formula of an addictive chorus featuring a famous female solo artist.
That featured part is recreated through a handsome man’s voice.
-Um, umm- Um, umm-
Um, umm-
A melancholic hum.
An emotion infinitely close to the original—singing in reminiscence of love’s bittersweet aftertaste after parting.
“….”
It wasn’t Chung-ryeo singing.
‘Park Moon-dae…?’
Yet with a voice so crystalline and refreshing despite its simplicity, the audience suddenly leaned in to listen.
The soft piano accompaniment and humming resonated gently through the audience seating.
-Yes
And as the accompaniment shifted to major key, at the moment when a rapid rap should have entered with a brighter atmosphere alongside the band sound as in the original—
-No
“…!”
The notes fell heavier.
Thud.
A fluid and somber piano accompaniment laid down heavily.
Over that weighty minor-key note, the tempo of the accompaniment dropped… becoming even slower.
Dangerously leisurely and dark.
And then In-young appeared.
-The night with lights extinguished
Our yearning hearts
“…!!”
Chung-ryeo!
The vocalist wearing a headset microphone walked out from the periphery. The movement alone made the stage feel completely filled.
Black slacks paired strikingly with a navy stage shirt.
‘Oh wow!’
Yet even as suppressed cheers erupted from the audience, some people were puzzled.
‘Huh?’
The song Chung-ryeo sang.
The melody was familiar to the ear.
But… it wasn’t 【Winter Love】, the song that had been developing moments ago.
-I hear the voice of love
【Summer Night’s Heat】.
Like the previous song, it was indeed from the 2000s.
But it was a song by a female solo artist famous for her sexy concept.
Moreover, unlike the original—a fast-tempo techno dance track—the choreography and song develop over a heavy accompaniment in a slower tempo.
-Summer night
That scorching, intoxicating moment—
Contemporary dance movements, with a hint of waacking flair, unfolded across my solid frame.
A dancer emerged and mirrored the choreography to fill the Stage, but it only added flourish.
The lighting’s rhythm, unwavering live vocals, meticulous detail in every gesture, and flawless dynamics—the dance itself radiated catharsis.
The Stage felt complete, tightly woven together by that alone.
The natural ease of someone who’d spent years on Stage commanded the audience’s gaze without wavering.
-I’ve been waiting for this, you know
While condensing the original’s glamour and sensuality, I layered in a slower, quieter, weightier tempo that added a primal artistry.
The dated, somewhat corny charm of the old pop standard—the kind that could easily sound tacky—vanished without a trace, suppressed entirely.
‘Insane.’
‘He could’ve done it alone!’
‘Why is Park Moon-dae in front…?’
The fans surrendered to the flow of their own consciousness, completely absorbed in the Stage.
-A moment becomes eternity
Burning love’s flame
Summer night
Meanwhile, the performance—casual yet weighted—flowed with grace, pulling the Stage forward until the first verse’s chorus ended in a blink.
Then the music paused briefly.
Chung-ryeo walked toward the standing microphone at the edge of the Stage, his footsteps audible.
“….”
The audience held their breath, watching intently, waiting for the next surge of catharsis.
Suddenly, someone else emerged from the opposite side beneath the spotlight.
“…!”
Park Moon-dae.
The singer with neatly styled soft blonde hair gripped the standing microphone at the opposite edge of the Stage.
And the accompaniment resumed.
-My love is in winter
Even when spring arrives, in my heart
“…?”
The previous backing track from “Summer Night’s Heat,” which Chung-ryeo had sung, continued seamlessly without discord.
And Park Moon-dae’s melody meshed perfectly, naturally.
‘Wait…?’
Two songs from the same era, using similar compositional grammar, had been woven together.
But their atmospheres and lyrics were polar opposites.
The result was an extraordinarily delicate ambiance.
A narrative had emerged.
A brief summer night’s love and an eternal winter’s parting.
-Snowdrifts that never melt
The warmth of eternal winter
Ooh—
My lonely voice gained clarity and solid strength, rising with the accompaniment.
The vocal ad-libs climbed effortlessly toward the climax, beautiful to the ear.
-Snow falls in my winter
Wrapping both cheeks
Cold and tender warmth
The high note soared seamlessly into a crystalline register, elegant and sublime.
-Yes, you
And there, the melody and lyrics continued.
-You and me
in summer night
Chung-ryeo’s song cutting in.
The two of us sang as if dividing the parts of a single song, alternating between our respective melodies.
-I can’t miss this chance
And at the crescendo’s peak, two massive spotlights flooded the center of the Stage.
The two of us on Stage began to move.
“…!”
We moved to the center, matching the building accompaniment.
Mirror choreography.
-Summer night
Scorching and intoxicating
(voices heard)
Movements intertwined, lyrics blending together.
-My love is in winter
(in summer night)
Before long, we switched songs, then naturally picked up where the other left off.
-A moment becomes eternity
(warmth of eternal winter)
And the final verse.
-And you.
The performers faced each other and stopped the choreography.
Then we harmonized and lifted the song higher.
-Yes, you!
You, you, u- uu, umm, umumm,
The strings sang with overwhelming emotion.
The choreography reached its climax.
-Um, umumm, Um, umumm, um, Umm…
The humming of two melodies blended together, creating exquisite harmony before falling away.
Our two movements mirrored each other perfectly as we executed an intricate pair choreography.
Feet crossing, torsos bending, hands grasping each other’s shoulders—every movement executed with flawless precision, filling the space like acrobatics.
All those seemingly gentle motions required absolute control of every limb to appear truly elegant.
In other words, performing a perfect-pitch live hum while executing these movements—not belting out high notes—was an almost surreal sight to behold.
‘Wow.’
“….”
Eyes were drawn in, fixed upon the Stage.
A choreography composition that only a performer with extremely high understanding and mastery of dance stages—K-pop stages—could pull off.
‘Ah….’
So a select few fans finally understood why Chung-ryeo had chosen Park Moon-dae.
‘That’s it.’
‘If they wanted to do something like this, they would’ve picked an idol.’
Though there was a misunderstanding as well.
In truth, Park Moon-dae couldn’t have executed this climactic choreography section alone with his current abilities.
But through sheer practice volume, he’d managed to copy a mere thirty-second sequence ‘identically’ to his partner and perform it.
Especially when the person himself—who’d spent decades developing effective methods to imprint choreography into his members’ bodies—had personally drilled every single movement into him.
Even the impossible became possible, if only for a moment.
And at the end of that ‘impossible’ synchronization rate, rising above the gorgeously built-up accompaniment, came a short, crystalline harmony in the upper register.
-A moment hot and intoxicating-
I’ve been waiting, you know
Catharsis!
-Wh-whewhewhewhe!
Aligned with the brass accompaniment, backs pressed together, facing the Audience Seating, the Stage that began in winter now ends in a summer night.
Boom!
“….”
And so the Stage ended.
An idol-like Stage framework infused with artistry suited to this program.
That atmosphere!
And the exquisite arrangement, live vocals, and acrobatic choreography to match.
The very essence of performance.
‘Killed it.’
‘Insane.’
Waaahhhhh!!
Screams of acclaim filled the Audience Seating.
Not cheers born from fandom, but pure reaction to the Stage itself.
[That was truly an incredible Stage!]
Even the MC’s comment sounded genuine.
Soon the two on Stage smiled softly and bowed respectfully toward the Audience Seating several times before returning to their seats with composure.
The voting was coming, but the result was already decided.
The fans already knew.
‘We can definitely vote for this.’
Even when aired, no one would ever criticize Chung-ryeo for taking first place.
That certainty made the fans in the seats overflow with emotion.
Yet despite everything, most of the fans in the Audience Seating left with confusion and question marks swirling in their minds.
‘How did they end up teaming with Park Moon-dae??’
‘What’s with that insane song selection?’
And those curiosities would soon be satisfied.
Come the weekend broadcast, the process of the two forming a team would receive substantial airtime.

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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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