The Gates Opened on the First Day of Debut - Chapter 55

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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 (55)
“Hello.”
“Gasp…! Insane, absolutely insane!”
As I greeted her with an awkward smile, the startled woman flailed about in a frenzy.
‘Well, since I’ve been spotted, might as well reveal everything boldly.’
The moment I removed my hat and mask, the woman stared at my face as if entranced.
“Y-you’re really Kim Chowol? This can’t be real… Why are you in Hongdae at this hour? Oh, could you be here to check on the advertisement…?”
I nodded silently in response.
“Wow! Oh my god, is this a dream? I’m really your fan. I’m the one who took charge of that advertisement over there. I come by sometimes when there aren’t many people around to check on it, but I never thought I’d actually see you in person….”
The woman pointed to my advertisement as she spoke.
I’d thought she was a fan of another trainee, but she was actually my fan.
Since it had been a long time since I’d seen a fan up close like this, I felt genuinely happy.
“Thank you for your support. I’ll definitely debut.”
“I’m really contacting friends I lost touch with after graduating college and getting them to vote too. Oh, but the people behind you….”
“Ah.”
Remembering Yoo Sung and Okada Hiro, I turned around.
Yoo Sung and Okada Hiro were standing awkwardly, watching the woman and me carefully.
“Come over here and say hello too.”
“…Okay.”
“Understood.”
“Gasp! C-could it be…!”
Upon hearing the two voices, the woman was startled once more.
Yoo Sung and Okada Hiro, now without their hats and masks, greeted her.
“I’m Yoo Sung.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Okada Hiro.”
“I-insane… This is crazy….”
Upon seeing Yoo Sung and Okada Hiro’s faces, the woman suddenly lost her balance and swayed.
“Be careful, won’t you.”
Startled, I gently caught her wrist to keep her from falling.
The woman, who had been staring blankly into space with dazed eyes, came to her senses and regained her footing.
“I-I’m so sorry! I was just… so shocked….”
“It’s fine.”
It’s natural to be surprised when you suddenly meet a trainee you’ve been supporting.
“But why were you removing the sticky notes? I thought you were a station attendant….”
The woman, having finally composed herself, asked carefully.
I glanced at the paper bag filled with colorful sticky notes and spoke.
“I wanted to take them home.”
“Pardon?”
“I wanted to look at them at home… Is it okay if I take them?”
The woman seemed to think for a moment, then suddenly gasped and waved her hands frantically.
“No, no! Please take it! Actually, please do! Everyone will be so happy!”
“Thank you.”
Yoo Sung, Okada, and I bowed our heads in gratitude to the female fan.
“Oh, no, I’m not the one who should be thanked….”
The flustered fan stammered and tried to stop us.
“Well, um… I don’t want to call it compensation or anything, but would you be willing to leave just one sticky note for the fans who come to see the advertisement?”
The fan handed over a sticky note pad and pen she’d brought separately.
“Of course.”
The three of us readily nodded and used the advertisement as a desk to write messages for the fans.
After receiving the sticky notes, the fan immediately took a photo and carefully inserted them between stiff sheets to keep them from wrinkling.
“I’ll laminate these separately and post them here. Oh, would it be okay if I uploaded them to SNS and community sites too? So fans who can’t come see the advertisement can see them as well.”
“Please do. Thank you.”
“No, no. I should be thanking you for coming to see the advertisement.”
The fan kept bowing to us, seemingly unable to contain her gratitude.
At her request, we even took a photo together before resuming our task of collecting the remaining sticky notes.
“Hey, Kim Chowol. Come over here for a second.”
“What?”
Yoo Sung called me over to where his advertisement was located.
I wondered what he wanted.
“Can you reach up there?”
Yoo Sung pointed to a sticky note stuck at the very top of the advertisement.
“Hmm… I won’t know until I try.”
How on earth had someone managed to stick that up there?
I bounced lightly on my feet to warm up.
‘One, two, three…!’
I jumped high from a distance away from the advertisement.
“Ugh…!”
But my hand barely grazed the bottom of the sticky note as I passed.
Watching me jump, Yoo Sung nodded with a serious expression.
“No good.”
“It’s harder than I thought.”
“There’s no way around it. Kim Chowol, you’re going to have to give me a piggyback ride.”
“What?”
What was he talking about?
But Yoo Sung urged me on as if there was nothing wrong with his request.
“If we leave just that one behind, it might get hurt.”
“No… if anyone’s giving a piggyback ride, it should be you carrying me.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m lighter than you?”
“What? Hey, honestly, I’m lighter than you.”
What on earth gave Yoo Sung the confidence to think he was lighter than me?
Yoo Sung and I were similar in height.
Our builds were also the lean, slender type without much muscle, like most idols.
“I lost 5 kilograms after starting the shoot through dieting, you know?”
“You have no idea how strict LMH’s dietary management is.”
Why was the conversation drifting in such an absurd direction?
I was flustered, but my mouth moved of its own accord.
“Then let’s ask Hiro to judge who’s heavier. Hiro!”
“Did you call for me?”
“Come here and listen to us.”
“Pardon?”
Okada, suddenly summoned, looked blankly back and forth between Yoo Sung and me.
“Pick us up one at a time and tell us who’s heavier.”
“Pardon?”
Okada tilted her head in confusion, as if hearing Korean for the first time.
Fortunately, thanks to Okada, Yoo Sung and I came to our senses.
Seeing the innocent look in Okada’s eyes, we belatedly realized how foolish our request had been.
“No, never mind. Sorry, Hiro. Forget you heard that.”
Yoo Sung and I turned away as if nothing had happened.
But when Okada spotted the sticky note still clinging to Yoo Sung’s advertisement, she suddenly asked.
“Do you need that?”
“Oh, yeah. But it’s too high up, so it’s fine.”
“Hmm….”
Okada, who had been staring quietly at the sticky note, suddenly sprang upward with a bounce.
Yoo Sung and I’s eyes widened at her incredible jumping power.
With effortless grace, Okada snatched the sticky note mid-air and landed as lightly as a feather.
“Here you go.”
“U-uh… th-thank you.”
Okada handed the sticky note to Yoo Sung matter-of-factly, as if it were nothing.
“Okada, did you… train in sports?”
“Pardon?”
“Your jumping power is like an athlete’s.”
“Oh.”
Okada straightened her wrinkled jacket and spoke casually.
“I played volleyball in middle school.”
“Volleyball?”
“Yes, so I’m confident about jumping upward.”
I had no idea.
Or was it strange that I knew?
Okada rarely talked about herself.
If I hadn’t asked first today, I would have never found out until the very end.
“So you’ve got everything taken care of?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes!”
I checked the advertisement for Yoo Sung and Okada, which had no sticky notes left on it.
“Then let’s head to the next station.”
“What?”
Yoo Sung, furrowing his brow, tilted his head in confusion and asked.
“The next station? Which station?”
“We’ll go all the way down from Konkuk University Station through Jamsil, Samsung Station, and Gangnam in order.”
“Why…?”
“Because there are advertisements there too, obviously?”
Yoo Sung and Okada clamped their mouths shut, their expressions caught between whether they should be happy about this or not.
“What are you doing? We don’t have time. Let’s go. We need to finish before the first train.”
“Okay…”
“I’ll do my best.”
I dragged Yoo Sung and Okada and set off toward Konkuk University Station.
* * *
[[NEW] Went to Hongdae today to see the kids’ advertisement
Someone removed all the sticky notes
Seeing that only a certain trainee’s sticky notes are gone, it doesn’t look like a station attendant or cleaner did it]
└What? Who took them?
└Whose advertisement is it?
└K.C. Y.S. O.H.
└K.C. Y.S.? Could it be fans of the trainee whose name cannot be mentioned?
└The one whose name cannot be mentioned lol
└Guys, don’t go around badmouthing other trainees and get hit with bad karma. Go look at other posts.
└Real talk, it was the kids who took the sticky notes
└What? Is that true?
[[HOT] Spilling the tea on idol trainees being cocky in Hongdae at dawn on a weekday when the last train is gone (Warning: Long post)(Photos included)
TL;DR
Those who know will know, those who don’t won’t, but I’m the one in charge of Kim Chowol’s advertisement in Hongdae
I’m not trying to be a delusional fan of the trainee I support—I’m just writing down the facts I directly saw and heard, honestly
You know how popular IKE Dol is these days, right?
So many people come to see the advertisements that lately there are even sticky notes invading outside the advertisement area
I was worried our kid might get blamed for poor management, so I’ve been consistently going to check on the advertisement and sticky notes
Fortunately, my studio apartment is near Hongdae, so it’s not a burden
Anyway, that day I worked overtime, came home, ate dinner, and by the time I checked the time it was already dawn
It felt like a waste to just sleep, so I went outside to check on the advertisement
It was late and a weekday so there were barely any people, but when I got to where the advertisement was, I saw three men wearing hats and masks removing sticky notes
What was that? Why was he taking down the post-its? I wondered if he was a station attendant or cleaner—or maybe even an anti-fan—so I asked hurriedly…
But the guys were even more shocked than I was
And when I got closer to look… you know what I mean? No matter how much celebrities bundle themselves up, they still give off that celebrity aura
Just looking at him, you could tell he wasn’t an ordinary person lol
So when I looked more carefully…
lol
lol
lol
His face was exactly the same as my boy’s advertisement on the wall behind me?
I was genuinely depressed after failing the audition, but I never expected to see him in person like this
The moment I recognized him, he took off his hat and mask… honestly, all the fatigue from my entire day just melted away
He even caught me when I nearly stumbled in shock, and his manners were insane
Anyway, I asked him why he was taking down the post-its
And what he said was genuinely…
I wanted to take it home and look at it… *peel peel tear*
I wanted to take it home and look at it… *peel peel tear*
I wanted to take it home and look at it… *peel peel tear*
I wanted to take it home and look at it… *peel peel tear*
I wanted to take it home and look at it… *peel peel tear*
He kept glancing at me while saying it, and honestly it was so cute I nearly fainted right there…
And because I was so focused on my boy, I didn’t notice that Yoo Sung and Okada were standing awkwardly in the back lol
Three tall, handsome guys taking down tiny, cute post-its one by one was absolutely hilarious and adorable
The photo below is the post-it that Kim Chowol, Yoo Sung, and Okada wrote!
I laminated it and stuck it on the advertisement!
[Thank you so much for always supporting us. We will always do our best to repay your encouragement. ―Kim Chowol―]
[I will work hard and definitely debut. Thank you for your support. ―Yoo Sung―]
[Thank you! I’ll do my best! I love all the fans who always support me! ―Hiro―]
And since I didn’t want to leave just yet, I secretly watched from a distance
(No hate! Honestly, when your favorite trainee is right in front of you, how many fans could just leave?)
Kim Chowol and Yoo Sung seemed like genuine best friends lol
I couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying because of the distance, but they were bickering so much lol
They seemed to have a really good relationship
If they didn’t get along, they wouldn’t have come to see the advertisement together in the first place
(Photo of Kim Chowol and Yoo Sung bickering from behind)
(Photo of Kim Chowol, Yoo Sung, and Okada seriously discussing the post-its stuck at their height)
(Photo of Okada floating in the air snatching a post-it)

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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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