Debut or Die - Chapter 94

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————

A Fatal Illness if I Don’t Debut – Episode 94
“You awake?”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah. Feeling refreshed.”
I spoke plainly, which was rare for me. After a solid nap and a bath, my body felt genuinely restored.
“Come on, everyone look here and smile~”
Big Sae-jin quietly herded the members gathering in the Living Room and snapped a photo.
“For uploading?”
“Yeah.”
He seemed to be applying filters skillfully on his own, so I didn’t interfere. Instead, I pulled out my smartphone to monitor real-time reactions.
‘…It’s slow.’
I’d picked up the cheapest model in the budget range, and with such long daily usage, it was starting to lag.
Well, I don’t have money to replace it now anyway, so I’ll stop thinking about it.
In any case, the SNS timeline was bustling with people waiting for the broadcast.
“Ah, it’s starting.”
“Cha Yu-jin! The reality show’s on!”
“Yes!!”
The broadcast began around the time Cha Yu-jin jumped up from the Kitchen with snacks in hand.
What appeared first was… Testa, excited as they prepared to depart.
[Ryu Chung-woo : Is this much enough to bring?]
[Cha Yu-jin : I love traveling~]
[Big Sae-jin : We’ll have a great trip!]
[A moment later…]
Then a shot of a small aircraft for skydiving soared gracefully across the screen.
The camera panned down, capturing Testa standing blankly in some Rural Area, luggage in hand.
[PD Jung : You see that small aircraft up there?]
[Testa : …?]
[PD Jung : You’re going to get on it and jump out.]
[Testa : (shocked)]
A massive white caption appeared above the dumbfounded Testa.
[The cause of this situation?]
Immediately after, the screen showed the Dormitory.
[Testa’s Dormitory from days ago]
On the Living Room floor scattered with balloons, a massive note reading “Special: Testa’s 1st Place Celebration Trip” received a spotlight CG effect.
And another caption was added.
[※The cause of this situation (SPOILER)]
After that, everything Testa experienced was shown without much editing.
[Cha Yu-jin : A trip!]
The scene of him spinning the roulette with excitement about the trip, landing on an extreme activity, and panicking was edited together humorously.
Of course, the crowning moment came when he noticed the roulette was rigged.
[Ta-da! (Another) Extreme Travel]
[Ta-da! (Yet Another) Extreme Travel]
[Testa : ?!]
An interview segment followed.
[Park Moon-dae (Genius Puppy) : When the roulette stopped, I noticed it bounced once. It seemed unnatural.]
[Park Moon-dae (Scammed Puppy) : But I never thought it would actually be right… (at a loss for words)]
[Lee Sae-jin (Ajusa Added the A) : Ajusa didn’t manipulate it either…!]
Hahahahahaha
Lee Sae-jin’s words are hilarious—she’s saying Ajusa didn’t manipulate things either lol.
It’s definitely sincere and heartfelt lol
-So all that heartwarming stuff up to now was just building momentum for the travel arc
Man, Moon-dae’s stats are really extreme – the things he’s good at, he’s insanely good at, and the things he’s bad at, he’s insanely bad at lol
└Examples of what he’s bad at: horror, drawing
└Oh, we’re gonna see one today ^^
└Man, I’m so hyped for the Haunted House I’m about to lose it
“….”
Why… are you all looking forward to watching me fail.
In any case, on screen, Testa received thorough skydiving instruction and boarded the small aircraft.
[Testa : (focused)]
The members’ attitudes during this process garnered quite a bit of attention.
Rabin memorizing Buddhist chants lol
└Kim Rae-bin : This is… completely safe… anyway, I’m safe….
Sun Ah-hyun has an unexpectedly strong heart—he doesn’t even flinch lol. He probably can’t understand kids who are scared, but he comforts them anyway ← This point is actually so funny lolll
-Ha, but everyone is trying too hard to do this… … . Guys, if you think it’s going to be hard, you can act like a brat. This isn’t survival.
└Oh… suddenly my heart hurts…
-Ryu Chung-woo’s jump was seriously cool, even the instructor was impressed
As for me, I just went up and jumped, so there wasn’t much preparation footage.
However, when I landed, I received a caption and composite effect.
[Puppy Landing]
And a black Corgi jumping out was inserted as a semi-transparent CG.
“Hahahaha!!”
“A puppy! A puppy!”
“…Stop it.”
Stop hitting the couch too.
‘…Those reality show Production Team bastards, whenever they don’t have editing material, they just fill it in with puppies.’
Where on earth do they keep finding video clips like that.
Anyway, the fans were laughing their heads off and having fun. Still, occasionally I see reactions about Tibetan foxes or whatever, which makes me think… Big Sae-jin’s single interview really does have staying power.
[Big Sae-jin : The feeling of flying through the sky? Haha, it’s an experience you can’t easily have. I really enjoyed it.]
[Cha Yu-jin : I want to do it again!]
[Kim Rae-bin : Once I actually jumped, there was a refreshing sense of liberation.]
The broadcast inserted interviews focused on heartwarming remarks, as if to recover from the shock of ‘Sudden Skydiving’.
And next was…
[PD Jung: Well then, everyone, let’s divide into teams to enter the ‘Haunted House Invitation’!]
That extreme horror experience again.
[Big Sae-jin: We…! We have bad memories from making teams…!]
[Kim Rae-bin: We’ll all enter together!]
Fans found Testa’s unconvincing words both pitiful and entertaining.
-Bad memories lolololol
-Ajusa PTSD here too?lolol
-How scary can it even be?lolol
-Ah I was only waiting for this you guys hurry up (popcorn)
And just as they wished… the broadcast showed Testa exploring the haunted house.
But somehow… our team’s footage was the most abundant.
‘…It must be because there are three of us.’
I couldn’t bear to watch otherwise.
[Big Sae-jin: Aaahhhhh!!]
[Cha Yu-jin: Ahhhhhhh!!]
[Park Moon-dae: (Fainted)]
Fainted?
‘He’s moving around perfectly fine, yet they put that caption on?’
As I watched the screen with a flat expression, Big Sae-jin and Cha Yu-jin clapped and laughed.
“Right! We really thought you actually fainted!!”
“You had no soul!”
…So Cha Yu-jin knows sophisticated words like ‘soul’ too.
“…It wasn’t quite that bad.”
“Huh? Really?”
Big Sae-jin giggled.
“Then just repeat one thing you said when that person was chasing you.”
“….”
Did I… say something?
“You don’t remember? You don’t know? That’s because you fainted!”
Big Sae-jin chuckled, thanking himself for forming a team with no audio bleeding.
“Hey, look there. Now it’s coming!”
“….”
When I turned my head, a staff member sprinting down the corridor appeared on screen.
…They really were screaming.
[Bbbirrrrrrrddd…!]
“See?”
Big Sae-jin asked triumphantly.
But immediately after, Cha Yu-jin and Big Sae-jin on both sides of me on screen began screaming even louder.
[Ahhhhhhh!!]
[※Volume adjusted.]
“….”
It was because of these bastards.
Meanwhile, the broadcast was compiling Big Sae-jin’s quiet contributions and airing them with emphasis editing.
[Does everything while terrified]
[Huh? Found it?]
[Big Sae-jin looking after teammates]
[Discovering alone]
-Yo, Big Sae-jin’s actually pretty cool?
-Did you see how he changed direction the moment he spotted it?
-What, so he was just enjoying the fear too lolol he’s really good at exploring
-Competence incarnate
-Mundae is completely frozen. It’s so cute.
-Our puppy can’t even bark, such a good boy
“….”
When I turned my head, Big Sae-jin broke into a wide grin.
“Wow, Big Sae-jin cut down the escape time? Yeah, let’s give the credit to Park Moon-dae!”
“….”
Professional obligations aside, I’d give anything to punch that bastard’s mouth just once.

* * *
‘Haunted House’s Invitation’ ended by letting the broadcast reveal a bit of the backstory.
[What is the identity of the photo Testa took…?]
The storyline combining a classic 20th-century Western haunted house with human sacrifice was quite eerie.
“Ah, so that’s why there was an altar there.”
“…It’s kind of sad.”
“….”
Everyone’s emotional sensibilities are different, so let’s move on.
Anyway, the first episode of the trip wrapped up with a scene of feasting on roasted whole pig.
Since it had become almost standard practice to include the staff’s portions in scenes like this, that moment turned out heartwarming and well-edited.
-It’s good to see you eating well, guys.
and a pig just vanishes in a flash lol
-Don’t they manage their diet? They’re eating meat every time
└What are you talking about, Testa are all skinny people
└You manage your own body first
-Make a mukbang on the W appㅠㅠ
Hmm, that last suggestion is worth considering.
‘The reality show ends next week now.’
Episode 7 was essentially the finale, and episode 8 was apparently coming out as a special compilation of highlights with a subtitle like director’s cut.
Considering that most idol reality shows wrap up within four episodes, this one was drawn out to an almost absurd degree.
It happened because Ajusa had just finished its finale, and with that momentum, another cable network aired a massive drama in the same time slot, leaving Tnet’s schedule wide open.
‘It’s almost longer than our actual activity period.’
Now even our music show appearances end this week. The debut album promotion was essentially finished.
‘Maybe I should do a W App live to commemorate wrapping up activities.’
I went back to my bedroom and logged into the Testa account on W App to check.
And I was slightly surprised. The last live had been just a few hours ago.
[Test]
But the video length was 1 minute and 2 seconds.
‘…One minute?’
I couldn’t figure out what had happened.
Since I hadn’t heard any complaints, nothing had gone wrong, but I had no idea what was going on.
‘Who was it.’
The most likely suspect was Big Sae-jin. But there’s no way he would have done it for only a minute.
I clicked on the black thumbnail.
With some white noise, a dark screen appeared.
And shortly after.
An arm suddenly filled the screen.
[Ah…, this, like this….]
[Huh?]
[…Gasp!]
The video ended there.
‘It’s Sun Ah-hyun.’
It was clear he’d accidentally hit something while practicing and turned on the actual live broadcast.
Looking at the comments, everyone was saying it was cute. Quite a few people were making cheerful guesses that he’d redo it and broadcast it again at night.
But something felt off.
‘Hmm, given his personality, I’d expect him to have posted a long apology on SNS.’
When I checked the Testa SNS account a few times today, I didn’t see any trace of that.
‘Since I was planning to do a W live anyway, I should bring it up.’
It was easier to run if two or three people did it together rather than just me. Having someone enthusiastic involved would lighten my load.
I went to the adjacent room and knocked on the door.
“Can I come in?”
“…Y, yes!”
The door opened quickly. Kim Rae-bin must still be in the living room—Sun Ah-hyun was alone in the room.
“Why, why…?”
But why is he being so cautious?
He’d always been somewhat like that, but it was too early for him to act this way just because I said something to him.
‘Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve heard Sun Ah-hyun speak today.’
He’d been talking quite a bit recently.
His attitude and tone had reverted to the early Ajusa days.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Sun Ah-hyun denied it stubbornly. A nervous laugh escaped him.
“You’re sweating cold sweat right now.”
“…!!”
“If you don’t want to tell me, at least talk to Chung-woo or Manager.”
“Wait, hold on.”
Sun Ah-hyun, still perspiring heavily, forced his lips open with difficulty.
“I, I… m-made a mistake.”
“W Live?”
“You, you saw it….”
“Yeah. I opened it by accident. But it was… no problem at all.”
Everyone had told him the comments were full of joy, but Sun Ah-hyun shook his head heavily.
“That, that wasn’t… an accident.”
“…?”
Sun Ah-hyun swallowed hard.
“I, I meant to open it, but I closed it.”
“….”
“I was, was too scared….”

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————