Debut or Die - Chapter 86

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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 86
[Ta-da!]
What lay hidden beneath the cloth was… a weighty nameplate.
-???
-? What is that lolol
On the luxurious and massive mother-of-pearl nameplate—the kind you’d find atop a corporate chairman’s desk—characters were inscribed in an elegant serif font.
[Loviewer]
[Loviewer]
Ryu Chung-woo opened his mouth with a smile.
[We decided on this name thinking of our fans who support us with love.]
[It’s LOVE plus Reviewer!]
Cha Yu-jin added further explanation, gazing at the massive nameplate with a satisfied expression.
[We actually had it custom-made!]
[To show that our fans who’ve invested in us so far are the best to us… and, we’re planning to send this to a fan through a raffle once the W Live ends!]
Naturally, the nameplate that suddenly appeared was so unexpected it was nothing but amusing.
For the record, Park Moon-dae had opposed it to the end, but lost the vote and simply gave up.
In any case, since Testa seemed so proud of it, the fans simply flooded the comments with laughing emoticons and hearts. It was endearing, after all.
Of course, fierce live commentary was unfolding across social media.
-You want to tell the W app to take away the old nameplate and get rid of it, right? But it’s the first W app, so let’s take a look ㅠㅠ Let’s take a look!
-Yeah lol just take it down~
-As long as nothing too embarrassing comes out, just read the room~
For now the name is fine, so the nameplate is an unexpectedly cute part that’s understandable, okay?
Thanks to this, the members who approached the smartphone screen out of curiosity about the reaction to the fandom name were able to judge the situation mainly based on words such as ‘ㅋㅋ’, ‘ㅠㅠㅠ’, and ‘I love you’.
[Look! The response seems pretty good!]
[Th-thank goodness….]
[That’s great!]
Testa continued with the next announcement, their face alight with excitement.
[Now then, let me announce our official color!]

* * *
Testa’s first W Live broadcast stretched on for quite a long time.
It was originally scheduled for two hours, but the members found themselves reluctant to end their inaugural W Live by simply following the script—they wanted more.
So in the latter half, quite a bit of behind-the-scenes trivia spilled out.
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[Testa’s MBTI types revealed on W App today lolol]
: Ryu Chung-woo ESFJ / Lee Sae-jin ISFP / Sun Ah-hyun ISFJ / Big Sae-jin ENTJ / Park Moon-dae INTJ / Kim Rae-bin INFP / Cha Yu-jin ENTP
Watching kids who’d never done this kind of thing get excited doing it live was truly a treat… Testa really is a gem even on W Live…
※This wasn’t an official test, so take it for fun!
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-Not a single overlapping type lolololol
-ㅠㅠㅠㅠThe kids were so cute today. I hope they turn on the W app more often.
-The extrovert-introvert split was eerily accurate, especially Big Sae-jin with that confident E energy lololol
-Cheongwoo Every time ESFJ is explained, I am amazed that the kids are the same. They were just like kindergarten babies who loved their teacher. Oh my, they are so cute.
-The ones who seem to lack empathy are the T types. It fits.
└?? Is there really someone doing character assassination with MBTI?
└lololol Here comes the broad brush stroke condemning half of humanity~
Of course, the strongest atmosphere was celebrating the fandom name that had finally been decided.
-Testa honestly made me uncomfortable thinking of “tester,” but thanks to my singers giving it a loving “reviewer” concept for the fans, I completely forgot about it
└This is it—Testa and Reviewer is a destined pairing, no arguments accepted
-I’m planning to legally change my name to Kim Reviewer starting tomorrow when the courthouse opens lol It’s endearing and I could totally keep it up
└lololol Are you insane lol
Two people applying in one day would be weird, so I’m doing it alone
└lololololol
-I also liked how they created the fandom color as a three-tone using sky blue extracted by time slot. Feels connected to this album’s worldbuilding?
└Right, these days fandom colors feel kind of pointless anyway lol
-Actually, I think our light stick is going to stand out really visibly… so maybe the color doesn’t matter as much…
└lol Right lololol
└I’m already excited about the light stick production lololol
Testa’s fans spent their Sunday enjoying the various tidbits that exploded from the first W Live.
Moreover, the final fan sign event of this promotional cycle was happening right then.
-I wonder if the fansign will be okay right after W Live.
-Their schedule is seriously impossible to manage;
Even while worrying about Testa and cursing the Agency, when they heard there would be questions about the W Live, fans couldn’t help but wait for the reports—that’s just how people are.
Fortunately, the atmosphere being transmitted in real-time was excellent.
-Someone gave Kim Rae-bin a baseball bat-shaped maraca lololol He was so embarrassed he wanted to die lololol (photo)
-I asked Park Moon-dae to draw a puppy. Well… anyway, since Moon-dae called himself a puppy, this is officially a puppy now. (photo of a burst hotteok-like drawing)
-Ahyun prepared a gift todayㅠㅠ It’s a deer character penㅠㅠ I got an autograph with this! (picture)
And Testa, feeling that their work was wrapping up successfully, was conducting the fan sign event with even greater energy.

* * *
“Park Moon-dae, could you draw the lightstick here for me?”
“…Of course. Here?”
“Yes!”
It felt like I was receiving similar requests about ten times today alone. I concealed my reluctance and sketched the final version of the lightstick next to my signature.
…Even though I drew it myself, I genuinely couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be.
“Oh my gosh! It’s so good….”
Perhaps the crude appearance made it feel more human, which is why they found it endearing….
‘Or maybe it’s rare precisely because I’m so bad at drawing.’
Either way, as long as the recipient was happy, it didn’t matter much—but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d somehow become a con artist.
‘It’s like I’m just killing time.’
I finished the drawing as quickly as possible and asked again.
“Is there anything else you’d like to see?”
“Oh! Then write something that makes my heart flutter!”
“Hmm, something that makes your heart flutter….”
Vague requests like this seemed to be the most troublesome given the time constraints I was under.
But since I heard this at least twice every fan signing session, I was gradually picking up speed.
I immediately wrote something beneath the lightstick.
[Park Moon-dae’s evening agenda: Thinking about the fan I met at the signing event]
“Hehehehe….”
“See you again.”
The fan sniffled and was moved to the next seat by the staff. Since I’d already endured one earlier, the staff was firm this time and there was nothing to be done about it.
‘Mentioning specific situations related to the other person really does work best.’
Adding a slightly personal touch would be even better, but there was no way I could come up with something in twenty seconds.
‘I’ll probably think of something better this evening.’
I rubbed the back of my neck and waited for the next person, but they hadn’t arrived yet.
“Sae-jin, do you have any secrets to performing well on stage?”
“Hmm~ If you tell me what you think I do well, I’ll make that my secret!”
“Wahhh!”
Big Sae-jin was stringing the conversation along almost like a magic trick, and the staff couldn’t even intervene. It was impressive.
‘Time’s opening up….’
As I turned my attention to the camera calling my name, I heard the fan who’d just left speaking with Sun Ah-hyun.
“Ah, hello.”
“Ah, yes. Hello.”
It seemed this fan didn’t have much interest in Sun Ah-hyun, as there was little enthusiasm in their voice.
“W-what is your n-name, if I may ask?”
“Yes?”
I heard the fan respond with a slightly bewildered tone.
“Y-your n-name…!”
Sun Ah-hyun asked again, but the slightly quieter voice only became more garbled. A hint of irritation was beginning to seep into the other person’s manner of speaking.
“I’m sorry, I can’t quite hear you…”
“S-sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“….”
Something felt off.
After that, Sun Ah-hyun fell silent. I glanced over and saw he was still signing, but his energy had shifted.
“Hello!”
“Hello.”
Finally, Big Sae-jin finished with his fan, and another one approached me. The previous fan was still waving at Big Sae-jin while waiting to hand over their album, when I heard a voice from beside me again.
“Um, I, this…”
“Ah.”
It seemed Sun Ah-hyun had offered a gift he’d prepared.
And then, a voice that sounded slightly hurt rejected it.
“No, that’s okay. Never mind.”
“…!”
The fan sitting in front of Sun Ah-hyun simply got up and left.
In truth, these things happen.
There’s no job where you only meet kind people. Since he wasn’t cursed out to his face, maybe it was just something to brush off with a bad mood.
The problem was that the vibe felt extremely ominous.
‘Speech stutter, unfamiliar peer, rejection.’
The keywords were a perfect triple crown.
Someone had just tap-danced directly on Sun Ah-hyun’s trauma trigger.
“….”
I glanced beside me and saw Sun Ah-hyun rigid, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
‘Damn it…’
If this dragged on any longer, it would be obvious.
I immediately snatched the pen from Sun Ah-hyun’s hand and tore open the packaging.
“…!”
“This is a gift Ah-hyun prepared, so would it be alright if I signed it with this too?”
“Wow! That’s so cool!”
I started signing right away while drawing Sun Ah-hyun into the conversation.
“And Ah-hyun is giving you both this one I’m using right now and an extra wrapped one as well.”
“What…?! Really?”
“Of course. Right?”
“…Y-yes, yes!”
Sun Ah-hyun seemed to snap back to himself and started responding.
‘At least the tension broke.’
“Oh wow, this is amazing, but why am I getting two?”
“It’s a token of our gratitude for spending so much time with Big Sae-jin. Our member does tend to talk a lot.”
“You guys are too much!”
“Hahahaha!”
Big Sae-jin managed to catch it and threw in a quick ad-lib before disappearing.
At this point, everything seemed like a joke, so the fan laughed cheerfully and took the pen.
“Thank you so much~ But how did you know I was your noona?”
“Big Sae-jin mentioned it like ten times over there?”
“Haha!”
The embarrassed fan laughed and, fortunately, engaged earnestly with Sun Ah-hyun, who was next in line, exchanging words naturally.
And Sun Ah-hyun had regained his composure before the next person arrived.
‘We got through it.’
Fortunately, nothing else went wrong for the rest of the fan signing event that day.

* * *
“You okay?”
“…Y-yeah, I’m fine.”
In the car heading back to the Dormitory, Sun Ah-hyun’s condition had definitely improved from earlier.
But his complexion was still pale. And he kept muttering apologies in succession.
“S-sorry… I, I almost c-caused a big problem, didn’t I….”
“That’s not it.”
It could turn into a somewhat annoying scandal, but it wasn’t something that would deal a blow to the group.
But the problem was that if things continued like this, his mental state would shatter first.
‘If he gets caught at another fan signing, he’ll keep worrying about a situation like that happening again.’
And if the ‘Grit’ trait ever deactivated on top of that… it could actually deal real damage to the group. There’d be a hole in the dance line.
“Have you thought about getting counseling?”
“…I, I, I don’t have time….”
“If you tell the Agency, they’d probably cut you some slack. These days, a lot of people take breaks from activities for issues like this.”
Since we’d already completed four weeks of activities, if Sun Ah-hyun said he couldn’t manage, they’d probably accommodate him to some extent.
But Sun Ah-hyun shook his head urgently.
“Th-they said they’d give me a break soon, s-so… I’ll do it then.”
“….”
That’s just for publicity, and they’ll probably give him three or four days and act like they’re doing him a favor.
I was about to suggest that getting help now would be better, but Sun Ah-hyun spoke first.
“R-right now… I don’t want to. W-we’re still in the middle of activities, and I, I don’t want to miss schedules.”
He’s being firm about it.
Since that’s what he wanted, I decided to let it go for now. It was the first time this had happened anyway.
“Hmm… okay. Got it.”
“Mm….”
‘If the atmosphere seems off, I can just contact Sun Ah-hyun’s parents.’
Since we were talking quietly in the car with music playing, the conversation didn’t leak out. I escaped from Cha Yu-jin’s voice singing along to the pop song by putting in earbuds.
“….”
And when we arrived at the Dormitory.
The living room was filled with balloons.
“…?!”

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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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