I’m Debuting With The Bias I Killed - Chapter 24

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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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Episode 24
The music started again for what felt like the hundredth time.
They’d all changed, unmistakably so.
“Raise your right arm higher!”
“Dong-seok, you’re a beat too fast!”
“Okay—”
They listened to each other’s rhythm, matched their footfalls, and waited for the timing.
‘Good.’
I deliberately moved half a beat late.
The reaction came instantly.
“Wow, Yu Seong-woo messed up again!”
“No, that one was on purpose!”
“Let’s just go without him!”
Laughter erupted in the Practice Studio.
I grinned and fell back into position.
‘That’s good enough.’
It was a completely different team from the beginning.
Somehow it was already three in the morning.
The lights in the other teams’ practice studios had gone out one by one, but ours still hadn’t stopped.
‘Maybe it’s because they’re young—they’ve got amazing stamina.’
“One, two, three, four—”
Thump.
At some point, all five feet hit the floor at once.
“Huh?”
The sound didn’t scatter. It sounded like one person, not five.
“Just now—”
“We got it, right? We got it?”
Eyes wide, we looked at each other.
“We did.”
The moment Song Woo-ju gave the confirmation, cheers erupted without warning.
“We got it! Yes!!”
Ji Dong-seok collapsed flat on his back.
“Again—”
The joy was short-lived; Song Woo-ju immediately started the music again.
“This time, let’s nail it even better!”
But no one complained.
‘It was electric.’
We all wanted to feel that sensation again.
We reformed the formation. Since it was past midnight, I pulled the perfectly matched movements from just before into the Editing Program.
“One! Two! Pop here!”
At Song Woo-ju’s call, we all bounced. Seeing our reflection in the mirror was breathtaking. Now when I do the Wave, my joints actually flow together!
“Watch the Step! Sharp! Sharp!”
Screee-squeak!
When had the sound of feet dragging across the Practice Studio floor sounded so crisp?
‘Just a bit more, just a little bit more.’
Sweat dripped from my chin. Yet everyone was still smiling.
And then, at some point, it wasn’t the movements anymore—our breathing aligned. Without counting the beat, we moved as one.
That was how our stage came together.
* * *
Round 2, one day before the stage. The wake-up song played as usual.
But today, an urgent announcement followed.
[All trainees must gather at the Practice Studio by 9 AM. An external schedule has been arranged.]
“An external schedule?”
“What’s that supposed to mean all of a sudden?”
When all the trainees had gathered, Horang-i appeared.
“Today at 5 PM, there will be a Signal Song stage at the CNet Broadcasting Station Plaza.”
The moment she finished, the trainees stirred.
“What? CNet?”
“Today?”
“A Signal Song stage…….”
The announcement was shocking enough that everyone was startled by a different detail.
“All of a sudden?”
“Aren’t we competing tomorrow?”
But my surprise came from a different reason.
‘This wasn’t the right timing.’
Before the regression, there was the same event. But that was something they’d done after the Survival show aired and the public reaction exploded.
‘We haven’t even broadcast yet—’
“The buzz already hit.”
I muttered it almost to myself.
“What?”
Ji Dong-seok asked.
“Nothing, just find it interesting.”
I couldn’t explain it to him.
The SP was climbing at an unusual pace—so when we’d only released the Signal Song, it seemed the reaction was already fiercer than before the regression.
That made this ridiculous schedule start to make sense.
Today was Thursday, and five in the afternoon meant exactly one hour before CNet’s music broadcast, Music Count, would air.
‘When all the fans would be gathered.’
The audience coming to watch the music broadcast, and fans who couldn’t get in but came by during their commute. This was the busiest timing for the broadcasting station.
‘Insane.’
“After styling, we’re heading straight to CNet.”
It meant CNet had given us that golden time slot.
“Wow, so we’re dancing in front of actual people?”
“Do you think people will even come……?”
“I feel like there’ll be more of us than audience members.”
The trainees’ faces stiffened rapidly.
‘Cute, though—’
They were clearly still trainees. CNet wasn’t foolish, and if they were booking the schedule this hastily, it meant interest in the Survival show was already substantial.
It was a shame to lose practice time, but this was an enormous opportunity.
We quickly blocked out the choreography in the CNet Internal Studio, then finally moved to the plaza. We’d come through the Underground Parking Lot when we arrived, so this was my first time seeing this view.
And the moment I stepped outside.
“Whoa—”
I gasped before I could help it.
The plaza was already packed with people.
DSLRs, sketchbooks, phones—everyone held something in their hands as they looked at us.
‘This… is serious.’
I found myself clenching and unclenching my fists.
I’d faced this landscape hundreds of times before, but this was my first time looking at fans from this side.
“Alright, everyone take your positions!”
The staff’s voice rang out.
The trainees moved in a rush. I found my spot in the Signal Song formation.
The camera directly in front, and the people.
No matter where I looked, eyes met mine.
“Yi-yul, I love you!”
“Woo-ju, debut with us!”
“Seong-woo, fighting!”
The names of trainees already known were called out from all over. The called trainees naturally waved their hands and struck poses.
Since I’d hidden my name even in the profile, it was obvious no one knew who I was.
But right then.
“Braces!”
Someone’s shout cut clearly through the air.
I instinctively looked toward the voice. A woman holding a large camera.
She was carefully pointing at me.
“Me?”
“Yeah!”
‘Why me?’
In that moment.
Click! The flash went off. My mind went white for an instant, and I just did what came naturally.
……gave a thumbs up.
Click.
Click.
He reached out to stop her, but the woman had already burst out laughing.
Ji Dong-seok, standing beside him, snickered along with her.
“What—”
Only then did he register his surroundings.
V-signs, heart shapes, flower finger frames—everyone was striking poses that screamed idol, unmistakably.
And there in the middle was him alone, throwing thumbs-ups like some corporate executive.
‘I’ve lost it.’
Heat flooded his face. And yet, strangely, he didn’t feel bad about it.
He’d always been the one behind the camera, shooting Kang Yi-yul. Now someone was clicking the shutter at him.
‘Weird.’
In some ways, this felt stranger than coming back from the dead.
After a moment’s thought, he pointed directly at his braces with his finger.
“Oh my gosh!”
The woman with the camera bounced on her heels. The shutter went wild.
Click-click-click—
The sound hammered against his chest in the strangest way.
“Rolling!”
The intro surged forward at the signal. The plaza erupted.
“Whoa!”
The roar was bigger than expected—he flinched for a moment, but his body knew the timing perfectly.
[Boom!]
Moves rehearsed endlessly, beats matched over and over.
But now it was all different.
There was a camera. There were people. There were eyes watching him.
This was dangerous.
‘This is fun.’
His lips curved up on their own.
“Braces, over here!!”
He turned his head and met their gaze.
The camera swung toward him again.
A thrill he’d never felt in his entire life wrapped around him.
‘Wow—’
Why people craved the stage so desperately, why they staked their lives on becoming idols.
Why Kang Yi-yul shined so bright.
He understood for the first time.
The music climbed toward its peak.
His breath grew ragged, his heartbeat faster than the tempo.
Yet his body felt impossibly light.
‘Being alive—I’ve never felt it this vividly before.’
The final ending.
“Whoa!”
A roar loud enough to deafen erupted from the crowd.
He bowed his head and caught his breath. It rose all the way to his throat.
And yet.
“……Ha.”
His lips kept rising. Laughter spilled out despite himself.
Everyone was the same.
Dazed expressions, eyes alive with excitement.
The trainees who’d been standing there moments before had just tasted the stage for the first time.
He looked across the plaza once more.
[SP 510 (+10)]
[SP 520 (+10)]
.
.
.
[SP 550 (+10)]
The status window flickering relentlessly, shutters clicking without pause. Flashes filling his entire field of vision.
A moment he’d never forget for the rest of his life.
* * *
Even after the bewildering, electrifying flash mob came to an end, nobody seemed capable of returning to reality.
Even after returning to the Practice Studio, the energy remained electric.
“There were seriously so many people out there, weren’t there?”
“They even took a photo of me.”
“Wow, I still can’t believe it.”
It was already late into the night, but no one complained of fatigue. We were all still riding high on the rush of that first taste of cheers from a crowd.
It was exactly the right frame of mind for practice.
“All right.”
I started the music.
“Let’s run it.”
“Your arm angle keeps dropping there.”
“Yeah? Thanks. Is this better?”
Now when there was something to correct, we said it plainly without dancing around it. Compared to the first day, it was remarkable progress.
[SP 600]
A moment later.
[SP 620]
Even as I kept using the hourglasses and Editing Programs, the numbers climbed back up quickly.
‘The internet reaction must be picking up too.’
“Take a look at this part.”
“On the count of three, we hit the Step.”
Fortunately, the more we repeated the movement, the better the footage we captured became.
“One, two— three!”
Snap!
The sharp sound of our shoe soles struck the studio floor in unison.
“That’s exactly it!”
The heaviness from the first day seemed like ancient history now. My teammates’ faces glowed with vitality.
Riding that high, I opened the Editing Program. By now, it contained only the best takes I could manage.
I began editing the footage with meticulous care.
It was much like editing music composition. Stitching together the strongest takes, smoothing the transitions naturally.
At last, the final cut was complete.
“Should we do one last run-through and call it a night?”
“Nnnngh…….”
They dragged themselves up like zombies.
The music began, and I hit play on the video.
As we reached the movements Song Woo-ju had repeatedly corrected, his eyes grew sharp.
I deliberately landed the Step right on the three.
“One, two— three!!”
Song Woo-ju’s eyes widened in shock. So much so that he lost his own timing.
“Focus—”
“Yes, sir.”
Now I was the one giving direction. That shift sent a subtle thrill through me.
“The timing matters here! Get the angle right!”
A choreography of the same movement repeating in domino fashion—the kind of part that demands even sharper execution because of the staggered timing. The sort of tricky sequence that looks sloppy the moment anyone speeds up or slows down.
Snap, snap, snap, snap!
“Yesss!!”
“We just nailed that, right?”
Do you know how crucial the experience of success is?
“Come on, again! Go again!”
Desperate not to lose the feeling of what we’d just pulled off, they all gasped and rushed back into formation.
Even then, no one missed the live vocals.
“Hey, hey— don’t miss the vocal timing!”
The closing pose: all of us opening our hands together and spreading them toward the sky.
“One! Two! Three!”
The beat locked in perfectly, and they screamed.
“Aaaahhhhh!!!”
It was like early hominids discovering fire for the first time.
“Did you see? Did you see, hyung!”
“If we just do exactly this tomorrow, I think we’ve got it.”
“I seriously feel like my head’s about to explode right now!”
Adrenaline coursed through me too, and I bounced on my heels. Now, finally, it felt like we were within reach of something like idols—even just the very first letter of it.
That night, sleep wouldn’t come easily. I could only pray that they would deliver exactly what they showed me today.
‘I don’t make mistakes.’
I Kill My Favorite and Debut (Serialized)
Author │ Yu Sseul
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ Room 401, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
© Yu Sseul 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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