The Gates Opened on the First Day of Debut - Chapter 18

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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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The Gate Burst Open on My Debut Day (18)
“Sh—”
I jabbed my elbow into Yoo Sung’s ribs before he could finish cursing.
Once I gave him the signal, Yoo Sung immediately clamped his mouth shut.
It had just slipped out unconsciously because of Ju Gilhyung, but Yoo Sung probably hadn’t actually intended to curse.
‘Ju Gilhyung, Ju Gilhyung…’
I watched him approach me slowly, like a cow being dragged to the slaughterhouse, and lost myself in thought.
“I’m Kim Chowol. It’s nice to meet you.”
“…Ju Gilhyung from LMH.”
I smiled broadly and took his hand.
He tried to pull away immediately, but perhaps conscious of the cameras, he clicked his tongue softly and shook my hand instead.
Okada took a step closer to me, wiggling her fingers nervously.
She seemed to have picked up on the unusual tension flowing between Yoo Sung and Ju Gilhyung.
Seo Ijae was watching Ju Gilhyung with an unreadable expression, while Yoo Sung had turned his head away, his brows deeply furrowed.
“By the way, how old are you? I’m twenty.”
“I’m twenty too.”
Ju Gilhyung answered my question with a slight tilt of his chin.
Speaking casually to someone I’d just met for the first time today…
Should I call that bold or stupid?
“Should we drop the formalities? We’ll be spending at least a week together anyway.”
“Sure, whatever.”
“Good to meet you, Gilhyung.”
As I approached him eagerly, Ju Gilhyung seemed a bit taken aback.
Whether he was flustered or not, I kept smiling.
There’s a saying that you can’t spit in a smiling face.
Sure, the world was full of trash who’d spit even at a smiling face, but with this many cameras around, he wouldn’t dare do it openly.
“Has everyone finished greeting their Guild members? Then let me explain the mission song for the second Main Quest!”
The MC spoke in a bright, high-pitched tone.
I turned to look at my Guild members to take stock of the situation and spoke.
“We haven’t finished greeting each other yet, but… let’s check the mission song first. Is that okay?”
“Yes, hyung!”
Only Okada answered me, while the others simply nodded.
Yoo Sung and Ju Gilhyung made it painfully clear they had no interest in greeting each other.
‘Hmm…’
I could already see the broadcast caption in my mind: “Is the Kim Chowol Guild in crisis? Will they be okay?”
Viewers would point fingers, calling it a “group project disaster,” and they’d dissect and criticize the trainees they didn’t like on SNS and Community Sites.
But I was seeing this situation a bit differently.
‘This is actually good.’
For an ordinary person, this team composition would be unbearable.
Me—unable to dance or sing well, but ranked high thanks to other stats.
Okada, a Japanese trainee whose Korean was still lacking, and Seo Ijae, a former idol trainee from a struggling company who found it difficult to communicate despite being Korean.
And then there was Yoo Sung and Ju Gilhyung, both of whom had made mistakes during the stat evaluation stage.
‘Perfect.’
Why I called our guild perfect became immediately clear when I looked around.
‘Everyone is watching us.’
All the trainees and production staff gathered here were watching us even more intently than they watched Han Theo’s guild—perhaps even more than Han Theo’s guild itself.
What was the most important element in a team competition survival audition program?
Talented and good-natured team members?
Perfect teamwork and a polished stage performance?
No, that wasn’t it.
Skill, personality, teamwork—they were all merely supplementary elements.
‘In the end, team competitions are the same. You need narrative and character.’
And there was one thing necessary to create a compelling narrative.
‘A villain.’
I looked at Ju Gilhyung, who had become a guild member as a special mercenary, and thought to myself.
We had everything we needed to successfully complete the second Main Quest.
* * *
The twenty guilds were divided into ten groups.
Each group contained two guilds, and those two guilds would prepare their stage performance with the same song.
A true one-on-one showdown.
The mission song was from a second-generation male idol group, and it couldn’t be selected by the guild—it was all determined randomly.
“Our opponent is the 2nd Place Trainee’s guild.”
I glanced toward the opposing guild and continued speaking.
“…The one with Han Theo, who’s in first place.”
“We’re done for.”
Ju Gilhyung let out a scoff.
Yoo Sung furrowed his brows sharply at Ju Gilhyung’s sarcasm.
When Ju Gilhyung first joined our guild, he had conducted himself with relative restraint, whether out of shyness or caution.
But once he realized that no one was going to call him out, he gradually began to let loose.
“First place and second place? How are we supposed to beat them? The production staff are probably desperate to push that team forward anyway.”
Was that really the case?
Ju Gilhyung seemed unaware that the staff members were watching not only Han Theo’s guild but our guild as well.
I couldn’t speak to his skill or personality, but his lack of perception was certainly evident.
“It might be worth trying.”
The one who interjected into our conversation was none other than Seo Ijae.
Seo Ijae spoke while gazing at the sheet music for the mission song placed before us.
“With this song, it might actually be doable.”
The other guild members besides me seemed unable to understand what Seo Ijae was saying.
“You’re right… We have Sung on our side, after all.”
“What are you talking about?”
Yoo Sung couldn’t help but interject the moment his name was mentioned.
Seo Ijae didn’t seem inclined to explain in detail, so I stepped forward to take over the explanation.
“Do you know what our mission song is?”
“If you don’t know, you should quit being a trainee. It’s Starlight, the one Kim Junwoo the judge performed.”
“Right.”
Our mission song, Starlight, is the title track from Nexus’s third mini album—a second-generation male idol group that Kim Junwoo belongs to.
Nexus, the representative male idol group of the second generation, debuted in the mid-2000s, an era called the golden age of male idols, and experienced numerous trials and errors.
Incomprehensible concepts that even the members didn’t understand, songs that mixed various styles into something neither here nor there, and choreography that was ridiculously difficult yet somehow tacky.
Watching the stage videos of their debut song and second mini album’s title track reveals just how much Nexus struggled in their early days.
In any case, with the perfect trinity of concept, song, and choreography, Nexus—which was called a failed idol group even in their debut days—decided to produce their own music on the Leader’s suggestion that things couldn’t continue this way.
Starlight was that first self-produced song.
The members who gathered to produce their own music, realizing the severity of their situation, discovered their songwriting abilities were still lacking.
How could they create a good song with insufficient composition skills? The members continued to deliberate.
After much consideration, they reached a conclusion: “Don’t overthink it.”
Simple is best. If they couldn’t showcase every member’s charm, at least they’d make the center stand out.
Until the second mini album, the center had been the Leader, but by unanimous vote, Kim Junwoo became the center for Starlight.
Kim Junwoo, in his early twenties at the time, had shed his baby fat and was at his visual peak.
The members created Starlight—by Kim Junwoo, for Kim Junwoo, and of Kim Junwoo.
So what happened to Starlight?
It was naturally a massive hit.
Everything began with a single photograph taken by Kim Junwoo’s home manager at the Debut Showcase.
That “miraculous single shot”—captivating to people regardless of age or gender—made Kim Junwoo and Starlight instantly famous.
Who is this guy? An idol?
Kim Junwoo from Nexus? I’ve never seen him before, but he’s incredibly handsome!
Watching the stage, they all performed well. Why didn’t they break through until now?
I’m hearing Nexus’s song for the first time today, and it’s amazing!
Starlight spread by word of mouth, reaching even the general public who had no interest in idols.
With high-quality song and choreography, combined with the center Kim Junwoo’s charm and star quality, Starlight ranked first on every music site, becoming an absolute blockbuster.
“So why are you saying Starlight is worth attempting?”
Yoo Sung asked, pressing the point with a frustrated expression.
I glanced toward the guild where Han Theo was and continued my explanation.
“Our stage will become a battle for the center.”
“A battle for the center?”
“Think about the Starlight stage. Actually, let’s watch it together.”
I played the Starlight stage video on the tablet that was issued to each guild.
Kim Junwoo stood alone in the middle, while the other members surrounded him like backup dancers.
Yoo Sung’s eyes sparkled as he finally understood what I meant.
“See? The other members do have parts. But only the center stands out.”
The other guild members nodded in agreement.
I pointed directly at Kim Junwoo on the tablet screen with my finger and spoke.
“Starlight is a song of the center, by the center, and for the center.”
As I finished my explanation, Yoo Sung began glancing at me sideways.
I could immediately tell what Yoo Sung was thinking.
He wanted to be the center, but seemed hesitant to say it outright with the cameras watching.
‘But Sung, if not you, then who among us would be the center?’
I turned to look at Seo Ijae and Okada.
Seo Ijae was watching the Nexus Starlight stage video with an unreadable expression.
‘What’s this? Why are you looking at me like that?’
Meanwhile, Okada was staring at me with sparkling, radiant eyes.
A creeping sense of unease began to bloom deep within my chest.
Sure enough, Okada raised her right hand and spoke up.
“I think it would be great if Chowol hyung was the center!”
Why on earth does she like me so much?
I suppressed a sigh threatening to burst out and turned to Okada.
“Well, I’m not really sure about being the center….”
“Why not!”
“There’s someone who would suit it better than me. Do I really have to do it?”
I glanced at Yoo Sung as I spoke.
Yoo Sung, whose eyes met mine, quickly looked away.
‘What’s wrong with him now?’
At my refusal, Okada drooped her shoulders with a dejected expression, like a scolded puppy.
Then Ju Gilhyung, who had been quietly observing Okada and me, let out a small scoff and spoke.
“You certainly know your place.”
“What?”
Yoo Sung, who had been looking away to avoid my gaze, suddenly turned his head toward Ju Gilhyung.
“What did you just say?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You said something. I heard it all.”
Ju Gilhyung shrugged his shoulders and continued as if asking what the problem was.
“If you heard it all, why ask again? It’s true that Kim Chowol doesn’t suit being the center.”
“Ugh… you know your tone really gets on my nerves, right?”
I looked back and forth between Yoo Sung and Ju Gilhyung with a bewildered expression.
‘Wait, are they fighting because of me right now?’
Somehow, I had become the tragic heroine caught between two men.

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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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