Debut or Die

‘You call the company?’

I happened to be at the salon. Because I was preparing for my dinner schedule.

I could see Kim Raebin, who was getting his hair dried next to me, opened his eyes wide. It was clear that he had read through the shape of the manager’s mouth.

It was a place full of staff, so I felt even more reluctant

‘I don’t know what they’re going to say.’

Meanwhile, the hair designer who was holding my hair readily accelerated the situation.

“Take it, take it~ It’s okay. I’m almost done.”

Maybe they thought I was hesitating because I was afraid it’d get in the way of getting my hair done.

‘I don’t want to take it, but…’

I held back my sigh. Then I told the manager.

“…Can you tell him I’ll contact him later?”

“Uh, he said you don’t know his number? He changed his number and called you this way. Moondae, you don’t answer numbers you don’t know.”

“…”

It was obvious why he had to call through the company when he could just text.

‘He knows I blocked him.’

There was nothing I could do if he went this far.

It was also unpleasant to keep asking the manager to do something.

Let’s finish it quickly.

“Yes, okay.”

I got the smartphone from the manager and put it in my ear.

“I changed my phone number. This is Park Moondae.”

– Ah, finally.

I heard a voice full of laughter.

Do I have to listen to that thing’s laugh?

“I heard you’ve changed your number. I’ll save this number.”

– Yes. Go ahead and do that. Congratulations on the Rookie Award.

My hand holding the handle of the chair automatically tightened.

“…The awards ceremony is not over yet, so we don’t know. Then…”

As soon as I was about to finish my words, Cheongryeo replied without giving me a break.

– It’s practically confirmed. Well, aren’t you wondering what’s going to happen next?

I’m not curious, you bastard.

I didn’t think I would get proper information even if I interacted with this guy anyway.

He backstabbed me and now he was trying to hook me in.

“Not really. Anyway, I’ll save the number. I hope you safely finish your year-end activities, sunbae-nim.”

It meant that I would hang up now.

– …Ah, it turns out like this.

Then, suddenly, his voice changed to a slightly awkward tone.

– Um, I think there’s been a misunderstanding… I will never do anything that will harm my juniors. I have a line, too.

It sounded like a line.

“Is that so? I understand.”

– We’ll continue to meet during the year-end activities… Hmm, maybe I should explain it at that time. It’s kind of hard to do it over the phone.

“It would be nice to have a chance to meet you. Then I’m sorry, but I have a schedule, so I’ll hang up.”

Cheongryeo replied jokingly.

– Okay. Don’t accidentally block it this time.

“Yes. Then.”

I quickly hung up the phone. If it was at the dorm, I would have said something, but I held back because I was at the salon.

Then I returned the phone to the manager.

“Here, hyung. Thank you.”

“Okay~ Ah, I’ll text you this person’s number.”

“…”

I couldn’t curse out the kindness of the manager who didn’t know the whole story. I held back my sigh and closed my eyes as I leaned against the chair.

‘It’s troublesome.’

At first, I wondered if I could take some kind of benefit, but this bastard was the worst kind of troll.

Besides, he seemed like a real crazy guy, I couldn’t predict his sudden change of attitude

‘As expected, stop loss^[1]A stop loss is an action taken to limit investment losses. is the answer.’

Finish it quietly without provoking him.

After two years, the future I knew was over anyway. Then I would be no use to him, so he naturally would slip away.

Until then, it was enough that I didn’t get involved and avoided the situation.

Testar was likely to be at the top tier by the time the next album came out, so if that guy didn’t want to waste his position, he couldn’t come out more blatantly than this time.

Aside from being insane, it seemed that he was quite obsessed with his status as an idol.

‘Then we just need to stop building bad feelings like wanting to kill each other.’

Mm, I was originally going to throw him away because I was so angry, but once things were settled and I thought about it rationally, the risk was too high.

‘There’s no need to risk your life to catch the troll.’

I kept this as a backup plan just in case. I cleared my thoughts and opened my eyes.

And Kim Raebin, whose eyes were shining next to me, spoke up.

“…What about their arrangement program?”

“It’s confidential.”

“I see…”

I’m sorry, but I don’t think the day will come when I ask that.

I threw a glucose candy to Kim Raebin, who was sullen.

* * *

After running through a few year-end events, the day for a new year-end stage soon arrived.

This time it was the KBC Song Festival.

Since only singers who were quite active this year were invited to the show, we received relatively better stage footage than at the other public TV channels…

The problem was elsewhere.

“It’s here!”

“Heol, that’s the commercial then! The artificial intelligence!”

“Oh, my gosh.”

…It was a commercial break between the first and second parts, and I could see the actual product of the three-month 350 million won .

On the screen, sitting in a set that seemed to be a white living room, Testar was shown holding different props.

For your information… they were lightsticks. In the form of a sparkling magic wand at that.

…I would like to make an excuse that I had no choice.

In any case, the advantage of the artificial intelligence assistant contracted for this was that it was small and detachable.

[Connect to an item that shows sensibility.]

[Your secretary who can understand its users, play a song you have in mind.]

Then, the screen suddenly illuminated a character-type artificial intelligence speaker with ambiguous eye color.

Cha Eugene laughed and tapped the speaker.

[I want to hear Airplane~]

Then, out of nowhere, the speaker began to let out a powerful low-pitched ‘Floating, floating Airplane’ sound.

[…?]

After the scene of surprised Cha Eugene, calm-faced Park Moondae popped out.

Park Moondae smiled as he waved his lightstick.

[Curiousy, play Airplane]

Then the audio was filled with Testar’s song ‘Airplane’.

On top of the clean BGM, the cut of the Testar members making gestures passed.

[Magical Boy Testar]

[Magical artificial intelligence assistant!]

…There, Park Moondae, who had a picture of dog ears on him out of the blue, pretended to be a puppy and shouted ‘Curious’, and the ad ended in an instant.

[Curious! Woof woof!]

And the waiting room was filled with laughter.

“Hahahahaha!!”

“Cough.”

This… No matter how much I thought about it, they were laughing out of relief for having avoided it.

“…”

I held back my sigh. Ryu Chungwoo, who was the first to stop laughing, cleared his throat and only then began comforting me.

“Ahem, I think it’s because you won first place, Moondae. Isn’t it nice that you have a lot of footage in the commercial?”

“T-That’s right…!”

“Right right~ Chungwoo hyung-nim said something good..”

Ah, is that so?

I nodded.

“I see. That’s true.”

“Right?”

“Yes. I can’t wait to see other versions.”

“…??”

“Other…?!”

Bae Sejin quietly told the truth to the astonished members.

“…This was written in the script as seven versions.”

“…!”

For a while, whenever I watched TV, I would come to enjoy the thrill of Russian roulette.

The members’ faces were filled with tension, perhaps thinking of their own version.

Well, there wasn’t much time to worry. It was because our stage was near the end of part 2.

And this stage was important.

Because It was our first year-end performance since SBC.

‘We have to drive a wedge into the public opinion that has turned around.’

If we looked clumsy, it was inevitable that words like ‘I don’t know Testar’s skills… They must have worked hard only on the special stage’ would come out.

We had to do well here.

Thanks to this, these guys quickly fell into a different sense of tension.

And just before going on stage, we gathered together and even put in spirit.

“Ah, Testar will show you something today!”

“Let’s go!”

I wondered if we had to use this phrase, but… Well, the atmosphere was alive, so it was fine.

Testar rode the lift and went up to the stage.

Waaaaaaa!

All kinds of lights rippled in the audience.

It still hadn’t quite hit me that each of those lights was a person.

Still, there was one lightstick that stood out. As expected, it was Testar’s lightstick.

Because its luminous power was extraordinary.

‘It looks like a flashlight between the fireflies.’

Anyway, it was nice to be able to recognize them right away. It was a live broadcast, so we couldn’t do anything special, but I could say hello over there when I entered.

In the meantime, the admission intro was over.

I walked out to the middle and took a seat.

Then, the prelude to ‘Magical Boy’, which was arranged for the end-of-year stage, began to play.

It was the live orchestra version.

To the live violin melody from below the stage, I started the intro.

“I think of you whom I met tomorrow all day long, dreaming a dream as blue as daytime-“

The ensemble of strings and wind instruments filled the hall with splendor.

It was a complete live concert in real-time.

It meant that in an attempt to save the live atmosphere, they didn’t install any AR.

‘I can relax because I sing the intro.’

If you couldn’t match the pitch and beat when you entered, it would be a catastrophe. It was right for the person with the lowest probability of failure to take charge.

And after that, everyone performed live properly, so it had been stable.

“Cast a spell”

“Make a wish come true, true, true~”

Some modern dance moves were mixed into the choreography to match the splendid performance. It became more like an epic fantasy rather than a dream, but it was nice in its own way.

I was embarrassed because the outfit was too loose, but the people seemed to love it.

‘Seon Ahyeon is flying.’

He looked more excited than usual because he was the best person to receive this concept. Even in the dance break part, where only the violin solo and percussion were left, the artistry remained.

And it was the part where the song naturally went over to the chorus of ‘Airplane’.

– Airplane

Screech-!

‘The in-ear, really.’

A sound like a chalkboard scraping rang out of my ears.

A device attached to prevent missing the beat from shouts or echoes ended up hindering the concentration.

Scree scree screech!

…Even if there were a few times in the past when the volume was too loud or I couldn’t hear anything, this was the first time I had this mess.

‘I am going crazy.’

I couldn’t stand it any longer and roughly pulled out the in-ear aside with the accompaniment. It turned out to be a transmission error as I saw several members doing the same thing next to me.

‘The public TVs run really well at the end of the year.’

But something even more crazy happened next.

During the lying-down choreography, the in-ear that Bae Sejin chose slipped down and fell on the stage.

It was clear that the person fastening it had made a mistake.

‘…I’ll kick it with my feet at the next part.’

However, at that moment, Seon Ahyeon, who was coming to the center while changing his route, stepped the wrong line and slipped on it.

With his head to the floor, at that!

“…!”

Reflexively, I grabbed Seon Ahyeon’s back.

And I made eye contact with Ryu Chungwoo, who did the same thing on the other side.

‘Stand him up and return right away.’

This kind of thing couldn’t be helped.

The situation happened in an instant and the judgment was over in an instant.

However, just as I was about to put in strength to my hand, Seon Ahyeon kicked his feet as he slipped and give his body a rebound.

“…!”

Using inertia, Seon Ahyeon stretched both his legs and did elegant backflips with his hands resting on me and Ryu Chungwoo who grabbed his back.

And landing like a painting, he sang his own part.

“…fly high, I hope my flying heart will become a star that shines beyond the Milky Way.”

“…!”

Contrary to my shock, the modified choreography came out of my body as practiced. It was a real relief.

When the last verse continued, the members naturally returned to their original movements.

Bae Sejin sang while pressing the microphone. His face and voice were fine, but his fingers were trembling faintly.

“…I want my hands to touch-“

The song ended with a choreography in which seven people standing in a circle gathered and spread their hands to the sky.

“…”

Aaaagh!

The camera’s on-air lights went off with cheers.

And after the lights were turned off, expressions as though they were being soaked in cold sweat began to appear on the members’ faces.

‘…Has it been settled?’

First of all, the stage…, no, shouldn’t we look at Seon Ahyeon’s condition first?

‘What kind of crazy guy do backflips while falling down there without practice?’

Wasn’t it a situation where your head could break if something went wrong?

However, due to the broadcast, there was no time to wander off here. We quickly waved our hands to the fans and got off the stage.

And without even having time to argue, I immediately faced the monitoring screen.

“…!”

• 1. A stop loss is an action taken to limit investment losses.