Debut or Die - Chapter 74

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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 74
Testa’s music chart performance caused an absolute sensation.
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[Testa 24Hits Entry Rankings (1 hour)]
: Hi-five 85th, Magic Boy 88th
New record for highest male idol entry ranking since chart restructuring
One song ranked higher than VTIC lol
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-They’re insane
-Ajusa is scary
-We need to add Testa to the top 3 male idol tier, right? lol Let’s kick out T-Holic, they’re washed up
└This guy isn’t even a Testa fan. Please report this troll.
└Report submitted~
-I knew it from the teaser, the hype was insane lol
-They sold 250k albums in just one day and the preorder period was short too, they really came out with a different class right after debut
-Wow I’m getting addicted to this success? I’m already hooked lol
└lololol I’m getting secondhand highs
Domestic recognition had already reached its peak.
Everyone who’d watched 【Ajusa】 even once was adding their own comments, creating absolute chaos.
Moreover, as competition formed, VTIC fans’ reactions turned noticeably cold.
-Debut album entry with a record-breaking ranking lol Broadcasting stations really disrupted the ecosystem
-You have to look at the numbers, it’s obviously just riding the wave
└Unfortunately the music source is exploding right now lol If it came out a month ago, they could’ve aimed for the 70s
└Brain opinion’s terrible lol Ah, Testa fans don’t understand numbers in many ways~
-Enjoy the moment~ Azusa will all be missing in the next album. It will end with a career high debut album~
└VTIC fans’ comments are going crazy right? lol
└How pathetic, Tika
-Everyone seemed to have some controversy during the audition program, but it’s weird that so many people are listening to them…
Thanks to malicious netizens enthusiastically stoking the flames and sowing discord, the atmosphere between fandoms was freezing over like thin ice.
However, separately, people who had only moderate interest in idols found it incredibly entertaining.
-Wow so we’ll see both VTIC and Testa on music shows this week
-This is gonna be fun lol
-At this rate, won’t Testa hit #1 next week?
└Not sure, VTIC’s initial sales period ended today but they sold about 180k today
└Yikes, those numbers are insane too
└It probably depends on how much Testa’s stage performance boosts their music source ranking?
└Oh, Testa needs to book a lot of variety show schedules lol
The next day, Testa climbed to 17th on the daily chart with “Hi-five” and 19th with “Magic Boy”.
The speed was absurdly fast, but naturally it wasn’t quite at VTIC’s level.
-Testa is insane though?
-VTIC is in a different league entirely lolol honestly it’s hard to believe a rookie boy group is charting like that on music platforms
-Even just maintaining that ranking without dropping would be huge
Everyone reacted with appropriate surprise and satisfied expectations.
And so Thursday arrived.
It was Testa’s first music broadcast pre-recording day.

* * *
“I’m so sleepy.”
“Tell me about it.”
I never thought I’d find myself genuinely sympathizing with Cha Yu-jin’s complaint.
‘I knew it started at dawn. But I didn’t account for all the prep time.’
Let’s say the music broadcast pre-recording starts at 4:30 AM. Then we’d need to be waiting at the Broadcasting Station by 4 AM at the latest. Which means we’d have to head to the Shop several hours before that….
In short, it was night labor.
‘We’ll be moving around indoors the whole time, but what about the people coming to watch?’
They say it’s open applications with a lottery draw, but honestly, if you’re calling people in at this hour, shouldn’t you at least pay them hourly wages?
At least the weather wasn’t cold. No one would catch a cold waiting around in this temperature.
“I’m gonna sleep….”
The moment Cha Yu-jin entered the Waiting Room, he collapsed onto the sofa.
“Should we, should we wake him? If his, his voice wakes up groggy, it might not come out well….”
“He’s always been like that and performed fine anyway. Don’t worry about it.”
“Oh, okay then.”
At Kim Rae-bin’s firm words, Sun Ah-hyun lowered his hands. His face was pale.
It looked more like nervousness than lack of sleep.
“…Wait a moment.”
“Huh?”
I rummaged through the small bag I carried around and tossed a bundle of candies to Sun Ah-hyun.
They were glucose candies.
“Have some. They help when you’re tired.”
“Oh, oh okay….”
“Whoa, give me some too!”
Big Sae-jin, who had been staring at his smartphone, quickly tried to snatch one of Sun Ah-hyun’s candies, but surprisingly, Sun Ah-hyun stopped him.
“I, I’ll enjoy them!”
“No, Ah-hyun…!”
….
Without a word, I pulled out more candies from my bag and tossed them over. Big Sae-jin accepted them with a grin.
“Oh, thanks!”
‘…Either way, I’ll need to buy three or four times as much if they’re going to eat as much as they want.’
With my financial situation still not great, this wasn’t exactly a desirable development.
Just then, the manager and Ryu Chung-woo entered through the door with a camera.
‘Is this for reality content again?’
Since this music broadcast was on Tnet, access seemed straightforward.
The manager beamed and waved his hand. Ryu Chung-woo spoke with a smile.
“Guys, the fans sent us lunch boxes!”
“Huh!”
“…Lunch boxes!”
Cha Yu-jin, who had been sleeping, bolted upright. It was truly surprising.
The lunch boxes that had arrived in the Waiting Room were absolutely magnificent.
‘I never thought I’d see a five-tiered lunch box in person.’
I was somewhat taken aback as I unpacked the lunch box with its compartments filled with various dishes.
Normally, lunch boxes were something less impressive than a proper meal—more of a quick bite to get through.
A sticker was affixed to the very top of the lunch box.
[Testa’s debut is]
[magic ♡]
Below it was simply written ‘All Testa Fans’.
“….”
It seemed like multiple fan communities had collaborated to prepare this. Since it was the group’s first debut stage, they probably decided to send it together rather than dividing it by individual names.
It was a thoughtful gesture that showed consideration for the members.
“Let’s take a photo.”
“I think it would be good to take one shot as is first, then open it and take another.”
“That’s an excellent idea. We should have Moon Dae, who’s good at photography, take it.”
“Sure.”
“Oh?”
I adjusted the angle and focus with my phone without hesitation, taking several shots. Then I immediately adjusted the brightness and saturation to correct the color tone.
“You really took great photos.”
“Y-your manual dexterity seems really good…!”
“Thanks. Would it be okay if we uploaded this?”
“Huh?”
I had asked the members, but this was really a question directed at the manager.
Since Lee Sae-jin had posted that message, we hadn’t uploaded anything personal yet. There were concerns about spoilers and the overall atmosphere.
I thought it would be fine to start managing it gradually, and fortunately the manager gave a quick nod of approval.
The members also caught sight of that gesture and continued the conversation.
“Of course it’s fine~”
“Moon Dae came up with a good idea.”
“Can we eat now?”
Cha Yu-jin’s earnest question was tacitly ignored.
Instead, Kim Rae-bin nodded seriously.
“I think it would be great if we started uploading various updates frequently from this point on.”
“…Right.”
But you—try to get approval before posting when you can.
“Let’s definitely include ‘love’ in it.”
“Wait, if we’re not careful, won’t it look like we’re saying we love them just because they gave us a lunch box…?”
“Gasp.”
While I edited the photos, the members began earnestly crafting the caption.
“There’s a 180-character limit. Let’s choose our words carefully.”
“Yes!”
And so the final caption read as follows.
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[This is Testa’s official account!]
: Waiting to record Testa’s first music broadcast! Thank you so much for the lunch box! I will eat hard, work hard, and perform well on stage. As much as we worked hard to prepare, there is so much we want to show you! To everyone who waited, thank you so much and I love youㅠㅠ Let’s see each other for a long time♡ (Photo) (Photo) (Photo)
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“Perfect! Posted!”
While the members beamed with pride, Ryu Chung-woo, who had been watching with a faint smile, suddenly wore a panicked expression.
“…?”
“Wait, what time is it right now?”
“…!”
…3:50 AM.
The dead of night.
Sun Ah-hyun’s face went pale.
“W-we just, in the m-middle of the night, sent a notification.”
“If we delete it… will the notification not go out?”
“It definitely already went out….”
“….”
The atmosphere grew heavy.
Of course, many idols posted at odd hours, but the problem was that we’d just sent group news for the first time in a month like a late-night text message.
Cha Yu-jin, who had been looking at the lunch box with a sad expression, asked.
“Why?”
“Notifications at dawn are inconsiderate.”
“I see.”
Cha Yu-jin spoke brightly.
“Let’s apologize!”
“…!”
A moment later, another notification appeared on Testa’s account.
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[This is Testa’s official account!]
: Sorry for suddenly posting this early in the morning. We lost sense of time, so something like this happened… Next time, we will definitely come during the day! (picture)
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The attached additional photo showed all of us in Testa’s waiting room with our heads bowed.
I felt something was off.
“…Wait a moment.”
“Hm?”
“I think we just spoiled our outfit.”
“…!!”
Fortunately, I managed to get permission from the Production Team.
But the members’ faces had grown pale after experiencing an unexpected wardrobe breach right before the recording.
“…From now on, let’s think about SNS posts for at least 30 minutes before uploading them.”
“Yes….”
After that chaotic ordeal ended, the recording time was right around the corner.
“Let’s eat the bento boxes quickly now!”
“No time. We’ll eat after.”
“Ugh….”
Cha Yu-jin looked dejected.
We each grabbed a vitamin drink that came with the bento boxes and headed straight to the Stage.
“Waaaaaah!!”
About 200 people who had been waiting in line since evening cheered for us.
For reference, we hadn’t even gone up on the Stage yet. We had simply walked back and forth beside it.
Big Sae-jin spoke seriously.
“Let’s not ask questions like ‘why did we eat?’ It feels like only we’re eating bento boxes and rubbing it in at this ungodly hour.”
The members, who had just fully realized it was early morning from the previous incident, nodded eagerly.
Except for Cha Yu-jin.
“But I didn’t get to eat….”
“We’ll eat right after.”
“…Okay.”
Ryu Chung-woo smoothly took control of the situation.
“Please head up~!”
“Yes~”
The members went up on the Stage following the staff’s instructions.
The set was impressive. It featured the essence of the broken High School set from the music video, complete with purple LED lighting and bubble effects.
‘They really spent some money on this.’
But there was no time to examine the set in detail. Hundreds of people were watching from below.
“This is our first recording Stage. Thank you for your support.”
“Thank you~”
Following Ryu Chung-woo’s lead, the members greeted, and the cheers from below mixed with screams and greetings.
“Is there anything you’d like to ask Testa….”
“Post more often!”
“Ah, posts.”
Explosive laughter erupted from below the Stage—apparently they had all seen the posts we uploaded earlier. Ryu Chung-woo couldn’t help but laugh too.
“We’ll post more often. Just not at early morning.”
“We’ll post today!”
“What’s the unit for ‘more often’….”
“Every day!!”
The fans shouted at the top of their lungs. They weren’t holding back for Kim Rae-bin either. Impressive.
Since this was my first time having a conversation this close to the stage, I couldn’t honestly say the interaction felt natural.
But it had its own fresh charm. Since it was just a brief moment during our rookie days, the fans would enjoy this atmosphere too.
“Ah, we’re starting.”
After exchanging a few brief words, the members quickly took their positions on stage at the staff’s signal.
Since I was opening with the first part from center stage, I stepped forward.
“Moon-dae!”
I hesitated for a moment, then made a small heart with my hands. Not what they call a K-heart. Just a simple hand heart.
“Ahhhhh!!”
My limbs felt like they might burst, but seeing everyone enjoying themselves made it worthwhile.
Their legs must ache from the early morning, so they deserved this kind of joy.
As the response died down, the intro began to play.
♬♪♩♪- ♬♪♬♪- ♪♩-
And powerful voices rose from below the stage.
‘…It’s a fan chant.’
I never thought I’d get to hear this.
-I think of you
All day long, the you I’ll meet tomorrow
“Think of you!”
As I entered the first verse, I found myself smiling without realizing it.
It was genuinely enjoyable.

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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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