I’m Debuting With The Bias I Killed - Chapter 62

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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 62
One minute remained before we stepped onto the Stage.
“The team before us did really well…….”
Tension was still written plainly across all four of our faces.
I flicked Kwon Ki-hyun’s shoulder playfully and checked our outfits one final time.
“I promised I’d get us first place, didn’t I?”
“B-but what if we can’t……?”
“……are you doubting me right now?”
Kwon Ki-hyun pressed his lips shut and shook his head firmly.
‘Sorry, Ki-hyun. I just sounded way too much like Seong-ah.’
“I think we just have to do well ourselves.”
“That’s right.”
Eyes that had been wavering turned, one by one, toward the Stage.
“Vocal team is heading up!”
“Yes!”
Just as I was about to climb the stairs, someone grabbed my shoulder.
“I-yul?”
Kang I-yul swallowed softly and asked.
“100% Perfection. You know that, right?”
“Of course!”
“I believe in you.”
A smile spilled out naturally.
I believe too.
‘That last 1% you haven’t shown us yet.’
“Wahhhhh!!”
“Seong-woo!”
“I-yullllll!!”
“Woo-ju!”
The moment we stepped onto the Stage, the Audience seating erupted.
The roar was incomparable to the first Live Evaluation. The heat still wasn’t something I’d grown easily accustomed to.
SP surged wildly before my eyes. The score that had dropped to around 300 after the item usage climbed past 500 in mere seconds.
I could see Slogans bearing my name and face scattered throughout the seating.
‘This feels really strange…….’
Actually, I’d tried making a Slogan once with I-yul. Without a sense of design, it turned out to be far harder work than expected.
Maybe that’s why my cheeks tingled.
“So cute!!”
My ears flushed hot in an instant. Even if I lived twice, hearing so many people call me cute all at once was a first.
I froze for a moment, unsure how to respond.
But right now, I’m an idol, aren’t I?
‘I should show them something.’
I recalled Kang I-yul, the image burned into my camera lens. And following his lead, I tilted my head slightly toward the camera.
“Kyahhhhh!!”
Thankfully, the Audience’s roar grew even louder.
Kwon Ki-hyun and Song Woo-ju awkwardly waved their hands in turn, and Kang I-yul swept across the seating with a quiet wave.
‘Looks like we’ve accidentally started an aegyo competition.’
“Team Puberty, who selected the Vocal position, please introduce your prepared Stage.”
The microphone naturally came to me.
“Like our team name, we’ve prepared a Stage that honestly captures each of our personal adolescences!”
“We’re especially looking forward to trainee Yu Seong-woo’s Producing this time around.”
Kang Se-jun asked with a smile.
“If there’s a point of interest for the viewers?”
“I think it would be good to listen while looking for differences from the original.”
I glanced across the Audience seating before adding.
“We almost completely rewrote the lyrics to include our own story.”
Kang Se-jun nodded slightly and flipped the cue card.
“Team Puberty’s Stage is about to begin. Code-on!”
The Stage went dark.
In the darkness, we each took our positions.
I closed my eyes and breathed in slowly. During the brief VCR, I steadied the trembling in my hands.
Moments later, light bloomed on the screen.
“Huh, huh, huh…….”
“So adorable……!”
“Who is that?”
The screen filled with an infant’s face. Soft hair like dandelion seeds, cheeks plump as if ready to burst, and despite being a baby, features already sharp and distinct.
Anyone could see it was Kang I-yul.
Then a picture diary written in crooked letters appeared.
In the drawing was himself as an idol on stage, and below it a blank space to write what he would become when he grew up.
[I (Kang 10-yul) will become a (cool!) (idol singer) when I grow up.]
The mix-up of writing “I” as “10” sent laughter rippling through the audience. I’d seen it many times before, but it made my heart ache with affection every single time.
Then came childhood photos of Kwon Ki-hyun, Song Woo-ju, and Jung Eun-gyu, the other members cycling across the screen.
And finally.
My photograph filled the display.
‘……It’s been a while.’
Childhood memories I’d long forgotten flickered past.
Could that child have imagined this future?
That standing on this stage now was a miracle harder to believe than being dead and brought back to life.
Then soft piano melody began to flow.
Enough sentiment.
Now it was time to focus on the performance.
The percentage above I-yul’s head still read 101%.
‘Please.’
The first light illuminated Kang I-yul.
[Someone, anyone
tell me
that I can shine.]
“Wow…….”
‘We’ve got this!’
I could tell before even the first phrase ended.
Kang I-yul’s clear, refreshing voice was filling the space with brightness, like mist parting before wind.
That’s why the first phrase had to be him.
A voice that carried breath yet remained full and resonant.
Crystalline but forceful, the tone pushing forward with power.
The gasp from the audience seats wasn’t mere admiration.
It was the startled reaction of people discovering something entirely new.
[If you dream, everything
will come true, or so
goes the sweet fantasy
where somehow I’ve already
grown far too much]
‘Damn it, I need to hold it together…….’
Every time I heard the lyrics, I was the one in danger. For anyone who knew I-yul’s past, these words were impossible not to weep over.
But I-yul himself was singing with perfect calm.
So I couldn’t afford to waver.
[That it’s easier to give up
was the one thing
I could never accept]
My clenched fists kept tensing harder.
After Kwon Ki-hyun and Song Woo-ju’s sections passed, at last it was my turn.
[Reach out my hand
and it feels like I could touch it
but each time it vanishes
like an illusion, my mirage]
I gently opened my eyes that I’d been pressing shut. Hundreds of gazes holding their breath lock onto mine.
I’m trembling. Almost frightened.
Afraid I might truly believe I’m a radiant person.
If I grow accustomed to these eyes, how painful would the day be when I lose them?
[With no map and no destination
where this step is heading
what waits for me
at the end of it all]
In that moment, I understood. The practice room and the stage were entirely different spaces.
Which comes first—the melody or the lyrics? It was a question I’d always wrestled with. As a producer, I’d thought you laid the lyrics over the melody.
But now, singing the song myself, my thinking had shifted.
The melody was nothing more than a vehicle for the lyrics.
The stage rushed toward its crescendo, and finally, the duet part with I-yul drew near.
The two of us rose slowly from our places.
I-yul drew in a sharp breath and delivered the first line.
[The wish of my childhood]
Hitting 100% perfection meant nothing now.
Whether it was 110 or 120, I poured out everything I had.
Without flinching from his gaze, I exhaled into the microphone.
[The snow that fell all winter long]
The note climbed higher and higher.
My breath threatened to give out, but I pushed harder instead.
[Warming it gently, blooming within me]
When had it happened?
The numbers hovering above my head had already vanished from my sight.
[The beginning of a blue spring]
It didn’t matter if this wasn’t Kang I-yul’s full potential.
Only one measure remained.
The part that even Kang I-yul hadn’t been certain about, right through the final rehearsal.
Watching him squeeze his eyes shut, I silently cried out.
‘You can do this!’
[Will you give it to me]
“……!”
The air shifted in an instant.
Without thinking, my gaze lifted. And I picked up the final melody in one seamless breath.
I wanted to pour out this overwhelming surge right then and there.
[Kang I-yul: 100% Perfection]
At last, we’d found it.
Kang I-yul’s true potential.
* * *
At first, it hadn’t been a welcome stage. The moment Kang I-yul delivered the opening line, sobs rippled through the audience seating.
But somewhere along the way, even Disappear Boy’s heart had begun to thaw like ice melting.
The two teams before them had certainly been excellent.
Yet this was the first stage that had truly moved the heart.
The lyrics weren’t flashy or refined. And yet, the earnestness of the trainees came through in every word, stirring something in the listener’s chest.
The string arrangements—absent from the original—layered emotion upon emotion.
Disappear Boy, filming the duet between Kang I-yul and Yu Seong-woo, found himself cursing without thinking.
“Are these guys not insane……?”
The camera lens could barely capture it. He found himself wondering if a teal-colored light was shining only on those two.
Especially in those final moments.
Yu Seong-woo’s eyes, caught in the lens, grew more vivid and piercing with each passing second.
And as if pouring out all that emotion, the highlight began.
[Even just for a moment
Even just once
I wish to shine-]
“……Wow.”
“Insane…….”
“What……?”
No one could muster a full sentence of praise.
Between the fragmented gasps, she murmured as if under a spell.
“They’ve completely leveled up…….”
As the two of them caught their breath, the harmonies of Kwon Ki-hyun, Song Woo-ju, and Jung Eun-gyu wove in.
“Their blend is insane?”
“Woo-ju’s unexpected too-”
With only the final measure left, all five returned to their opening positions.
[All the doubts I harbored
About my own potential
Now I can speak of with confidence]
It’s time to shine]
At the same moment, he slipped his hand beneath the chair.
“What is it?”
“I can’t quite see…….”
The camera zoomed in on the five trainees’ hands.
“Oh, this is insane…….”
“Ah…….”
They were the trainees’ name badges.
The very badges they’d been competing over, tearing off and being torn from each other throughout this journey.
This time, they pinned them to their own chests.
Not code numbers—their real names, written out for all to see.
The camera panned across each badge before pulling back to frame all five of them in a single shot.
Kwon Ki-hyun and Song Woo-ju were already crying.
Kang I-yul held his tears back to the very end, his gaze fixed on the lens.
When the camera finally turned to Yu Seong-woo, even Disappear Boy found himself murmuring without thinking.
“Don’t cry…… no, do cry…….”
Yet no tears fell.
His face was crumpled so deeply that crying would have been easier. And somehow, that made him all the more endearing.
“God, he’s adorable. Seriously.”
“Like a country puppy…….”
In that instant, something no one had anticipated unfolded.
Even as the camera rolled, Kang I-yul suddenly pushed himself up from his seat.
“What?”
“Where’s I-yul going?”
Eyes naturally followed him, and Disappear Boy breathed out a soft murmur.
“Friendship is such a beautiful thing.”
Kang I-yul stopped directly in front of Yu Seong-woo, beaming so broadly his smile reached his eyes, and shook his shoulders.
He was clearly saying something, but it didn’t carry all the way to the audience.
“What? What did he say?”
“Man, I can’t hear a word of it!”
Of course, she captured every moment of it on camera.
“I’ll have to check it properly once I get home.”
When Yu Seong-woo gestured toward the camera, Kang I-yul seemed to come back to himself and returned to his seat with a respectful bow.
“Ha, the performance from team Puberty—thank you for watching so intently.”
Kang Se-jun burst out laughing.
“Trainee Kang I-yul, did you have something so urgent to say?”
Kang I-yul, looking sheepish, merely nodded slightly. The audience broke into laughter at the sight.
“I’ll start—”
“Allow me to begin, as a judge—”
“Should I go first?”
All three judges’ voices overlapped at once.
A brief silence hung in the air.
But the winner was already decided.
“First, I’d like to give you a high score for incorporating a story only you all could tell.”
It was Song In-hyuk.
“Thank you!”
“Trainee Yu Seong-woo.”
In that moment, a palpable tension settled over the venue.
“Yes.”
Song In-hyuk let out a short laugh.
“You’re really quite skilled.”
The face that had grown slightly rigid melted in an instant.
“The arrangement and the lyrics were both excellent.”
He paused briefly, then looked directly at Yu Seong-woo.
“But that’s not what I valued most highly.”
You could feel the audience holding its breath.
“Each team member has different strengths, and you drew them all out precisely.”
“…….”
“Some people think producing is simply about making music.”
Song In-hyuk shook his head slowly.
“I think of it as making people.”
Yu Seong-woo swallowed without realizing it.
“This stage proved that.”
“…Thank you.”
Song In-hyuk turned his gaze to Kang I-yul.
“And trainee Kang I-yul.”
“Yes!”
Song In-hyuk smiled faintly.
“I enjoyed seeing the childhood photo.”
“Ah….”
“You’ve been dreaming of being an idol for so long.”
Kang I-yul’s voice trembled softly.
“…Yes.”
“Something that didn’t show in the practice room came out on stage today.”
“….”
“I believe that’s the kind of person who should be an idol.”
Disappear Boy nodded as if entranced.
Song In-hyuk set down his scoring sheet and added, “From this stage onward, my debut lineup has changed.”

I Killed My Favorite and Will Debut (Serialized)
Author │ Yu Ssu
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Publishing House │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 401, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
© Yu Ssu 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder and may not be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation may result in criminal and civil 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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