Debut or Die - Chapter 52

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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 52
After the eliminated contestants vacated their rooms, the remaining participants reconvened at the Dormitory, having changed into training clothes.
Gone were the tears and farewells from before; now the atmosphere was thick with an odd sense of superiority.
‘It’s unavoidable.’
Having made it to the finals with support from countless strangers, their egos had naturally inflated.
Anyone without exceptional mental fortitude would have been intoxicated by this atmosphere. And they were all so young.
The MC was nowhere to be seen—probably had clocked out for the day.
Instead, Young-rin was conducting the filming.
“Congratulations to the 20 participants who will complete the final stage of 【Idol Stock Company】. Shall we give them a round of applause?”
“Yes!”
Applause erupted. But that wasn’t what mattered right now.
‘Where is everything?’
This was clearly the moment for the final team selection. Yet the Filming Studio was bare. Not a single prop in sight.
All that remained was the large screen. What were they planning?
“First, we’ll reveal the song you’ll all perform on the final stage.”
[Hello! This is Eagler.]
“Gasp.”
A composer team appeared on the screen to greet us. They were a renowned group who had worked on several hit idol title tracks. As familiar music videos flashed by, the participants grew excited.
[We at Eagler are thrilled to present this song to all of you!]
‘A new track.’
They’d saved a song for the debut team’s album until the finals. The budget scale before the season started was becoming clear.
[Lalu~ La Li~]
Regardless, the song was excellent. It had a catchy melody and wasn’t the type to briefly chart on music sites thanks to the show’s publicity before vanishing instantly.
The problem was I couldn’t understand what the guide vocal was singing.
‘It sounds like they’re just… making it up as they go.’
Wait. Could it be?
“This song is titled 【Final】. And it has… no lyrics!”
“Pardon?”
“There are no lyrics?”
The participants’ reactions poured out at Young-rin’s words. Soon, one of the composers on the screen awkwardly struck a fighting pose and read from a script.
[Please use your creativity to complete the 【Final】 demo version! Fighting!]
Young-rin continued, picking up from the video’s audio.
“That’s right. 【Final】 is an incomplete song.”
“…!”
“You participants must write the lyrics yourselves, complete the choreography, and give this song an appropriate subtitle. Additionally, you may also rearrange it.”
I should have seen this coming.
‘Has some self-production curse attached itself to us?’
No matter how well self-producing idols perform, I never expected this at the finals.
Didn’t we see how the production departments of every team except the Moon Rabbit team basically fell apart in the third team battle?
The Husky team’s first place was all thanks to Cha Yu-jin. Even their audio tracks were mediocre.
‘And the finals are live broadcast, so what are they thinking?’
I listened to the end of the final stage song flowing from the scoreboard, feeling uneasy.
One thing’s certain—I need to be on the same team as Kim Rae-bin. Songwriting and arrangement? There’s nothing more to consider. I’m securing this guy no matter what.
‘But how exactly are we supposed to form teams?’
As if answering that very thought, Young-rin made the announcement.
“And the team composition for creating the stage together is… completely free.”
“…!!”
“Regardless of who you team up with or what kind of team you form, the Production Team will have no involvement whatsoever. Simply form a team of up to 7 members and proceed with practice.”
Oh no.
‘This is a mess.’
If anyone missteps here, they’ll become a controversy generator by the finals.
From what I know, the live broadcast on finals day itself was already riddled with traps. I didn’t expect the finals stage preparation phase to be a minefield too, though.
“And the prize for winning the Final Stage is… 10 million won.”
“Whoa!”
Strange sounds erupted from various places.
Everyone seemed flustered by the sudden prize money.
“For fair competition, the Production Team has decided to leave the final debut status of participants entirely in the hands of our shareholders.”
That hollow sentiment aside, 10 million won means I’d probably receive around 7.8 million after taxes.
‘I want to take that no matter what.’
By the way, I still haven’t received the refrigerator I won at the talent show. I hope they’re not going to drag out the prize money and then wash their hands of it.
While calculating, I listened to the rest of Young-rin’s words.
“Then, team composition for creating the Final Stage together, starting… now!”
The moment those words left her mouth, the participants rushed into action.
“Moon-dae.”
“Hyung.”
I was immediately approached from both sides. 7th place Big Sae-jin and 5th place Kim Rae-bin.
Big Sae-jin confirmed Kim Rae-bin and smiled slightly.
No overlapping positions, then.
“Should the three of us go together?”
“I’m in.”
“Yeah.”
The agreement was settled in an instant. In the meantime, Sun Ah-hyun, who had been standing in 2nd place, hesitantly approached.
Well, Sun Ah-hyun was someone I wouldn’t lose out on having around anyway, so it’d be fine.
“Want to join us?”
“Y-yes!”
Sun Ah-hyun’s face brightened. The other team members nodded without much resistance.
That makes four of us.
I furrowed my brow.
2nd place, 5th place, 6th place, 7th place.
‘Isn’t this a bit much?’
If I wasn’t careful, the top-ranked participants would be accused of nepotism, of keeping everything within their own circle.
It seemed I needed to add someone with decent skills, a relatively lower ranking, and no prior connections.
“Hyung. What about Cha Yu-jin….”
“Mm.”
Kim Rae-bin broached the subject.
I’d already spotted Cha Yu-jin and Ryu Chung-woo conversing over there.
1st place. 4th place.
No, that won’t work.
“How about we just close recruitment here?”
“Pardon?”
‘If I reject this and insist on adding someone unfamiliar with a lower rank, it won’t fly.’
I cleanly abandoned the idea of additional recruitment.
Big Sae-jin immediately jumped in with support. He’d already grasped the situation.
“We need to think about screen time for our stage too~ Since it’s the finale, wouldn’t it be great to show more? Right now each position is perfectly balanced!”
“….”
There was no denying it. If Cha Yu-jin joined, who knew what distortions might appear in the editing or screen time.
Kim Rae-bin fell silent for a moment, his expression contemplative, then nodded peacefully.
“You’re right.”
A wise decision.
‘It’s not like votes are on the line—it’s just prize money.’
I still didn’t know the voting method, but even if individual voting put us at a disadvantage for winning, it didn’t matter. Ultimately, stage time was more important.
Four people was enough.
With the situation settled, Big Sae-jin turned briskly on his heel.
“Then let’s report it like this….”
“Over here. Hyungs!”
Just then, someone interrupted Big Sae-jin and entered.
It was Gold 2.
“Um, could we… join you guys?”
Surprisingly, Gold 2 approached us alongside Lee Sae-jin, who ranked 11th.
‘How did he manage to convince her?’
Gold 2 was trying hard not to show his anxiety and tension, but honestly, it was painfully obvious.
“….”
How could I reject this without getting criticized?
I glanced at Big Sae-jin. He wore a pitiful smile. He was clearly struggling to squeeze out a rejection.
We’d just arranged a nice, lean team, and now this was annoying.
But Gold 2 was spirited. Though there was something rather sad about it.
“I really can do this! I’m confident I’ll work hard! I can handle any part without complaints!”
This picture was getting weird.
If Cha Yu-jin came asking to join, I could reject him without issue. I could just spin it as a rival dynamic with some humor.
But a high school sophomore ranked 18th doing this? And more than half this team had been in the same group as him in the first team competition.
‘This is turning into edit-worthy material.’
I suppressed a sigh.
It would have been better to cut him off immediately with something like “Sorry, the four of us decided to do it together,” but no one wanted to take that bullet.
Accepting would’ve been the easier path, but I’d already used the screen time excuse to shut down Cha Yu-jin. It felt awkward for me or Big Sae-jin to be the ones saying yes.
“C-could we… do it together…?”
Fortunately, the softest-hearted one here surrendered first. Sun Ah-hyun opened his mouth cautiously, gauging the mood.
‘Well played.’
Now the key was convincing Kim Rae-bin…
“That should be fine.”
Huh?
‘He accepted that easily?’
Kim Rae-bin nodded his head readily, catching me off guard.
Whether he was reacting sharply because he’d already experienced the editor’s spicy touch, or if there was another reason, I couldn’t say.
“Um, what about you, Moon-dae?”
“I’m good with it.”
“Great. Then shall we do this together?”
“Yes! Thank you so much!”
Gold 2 threw both hands up in a victory pose. Behind him, Lee Sae-jin lowered and raised her head with a rigid expression.
It was genuinely surprising that she could still manage to be stiff about it.
“No need to thank us—let’s just do our best.”
Big Sae-jin quickly organized the situation and turned to Young-rin. After exchanging a few words, text appeared on the scoreboard.
[Team 1 Confirmed!]
[Sun Ah-hyun(2), Kim Rae-bin(5), Park Moon-dae(6), Lee Sae-jin B(7), Lee Sae-jin A(11), Kwon Hee-seung(18)]
It was finalized.
I felt a bit flat about how hastily we’d thrown it together. I hadn’t even wanted to include Lee Sae-jin, a potential powder keg.
But it was better than being marked as annoying for insisting on doing it just among ourselves.
Then, from behind, Cha Yu-jin’s voice rang out, full of regret.
“Oh, I missed it!”
“…”
It seemed that team had been discussing Park Moon-dae as their main vocalist. Team 1 had formed so quickly that the timing never came.
“Hyung! Let’s do it together next time!”
“That’d be nice.”
I answered Cha Yu-jin, who was waving his hands enthusiastically among the participants, and thought to myself.
‘This is the last one—where’s the next time going to come from?’
Cha Yu-jin was someone with an eternally bright mind.

* * *
“Man, forming our team quickly really expanded our practice time!”
Big Sae-jin grinned as he spoke. By the fourth round, it was refreshing to skip the pointless “getting to know each other” time-wasting that plagued earlier stages.
“First, let’s elect a leader and get started right away!”
“Ooh~”
Everyone gazed at Big Sae-jin with admiration. Since he’d led every team competition so far, they clearly assumed he’d do it again.
Big Sae-jin smiled and shook his head.
“Actually, I won’t be running for leader!”
“…!?”
“Why, why?”
Faced with his shocked teammates, Big Sae-jin deliberately blinked his eyes in an exaggerated, embarrassed manner.
I wanted to poke those eyes out.
“I… want to be the main dancer!”
“….”
Those two positions weren’t mutually exclusive, and I had no idea what this nonsense was about now.
‘You did both in the second round.’
Was he seriously planning to use that statement when gunning for main dancer? Along with some pathetic line like “I gave up being leader!”
Surprisingly, Lee Sae-jin, who came from an acting background, spoke up casually.
“You can do both.”
“Ah, yeah. But this time I want to challenge myself with full commitment.”
Big Sae-jin smiled and clasped his hands together.
“Besides, there’s a lot to edit this time. I was thinking about it in the third round too—wouldn’t it be better if someone with creative talent became the leader?”
With that, he turned his gaze toward Kim Rae-bin.
Kim Rae-bin stared blankly at Big Sae-jin for a moment, then noticing my gaze, he opened his mouth with an “Ah” of realization.
“I’d like to recommend Park Moon-dae hyung.”
“….”
That’s not it.

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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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