Debut or Die

Asking Seon Ahyeon for cooperation related to the stage was already a proven method.

Even during <Idol Inc.> midterm evaluation where we just knew each other, he was happy to teach me.

However, the conversation went a little differently than I expected.

“N-No!”

“…?”

As soon as I explained the situation, Seon Ahyeon changed his attitude.

‘Could this guy have awakened his competitive spirit?’

I looked at him dumbfounded, and he hesitated a bit before continuing.

“Y-You’re hurt, doing that kind of thing is dangerous…”

Oh, is it about that?

“It’s fine. I didn’t mean I would practice right away. I plan to do it once I recover properly.”

Since I was used to exercising a bit, I was going to focus on conceptualizing and memorizing first, and then I planned to practice in earnest with about two weeks left.

I wasn’t a character in a drama who got shot and then immediately ran around in the next episode, and of course, I did my best to take care of myself.

However, even with this detailed explanation, Seon Ahyeon’s complexion didn’t look good.

“S-Still, it seems to be putting a lot of pressure on the joints than I thought… C-Can you not do that…?”

“Hmm…”

“Y-You’re good already! You’re good at singing, even if you don’t do that…”

I was doing well but he was on the verge of sweating profusely.

‘…You’re sensitive to injuries.’

I thought it was simply because he majored in dance, but there was something more desperate than that.

“Hmm.”

Anyway, it would be difficult to get an answer at this rate, so let’s change the words a little.

“Yeah. I think you’re right.”

“…! R-Really?”

“Hn. I’ll take care of my body and refrain myself.”

Seon Ahyeon’s complexion brightened.

I added stealthily after that.

“Then, using the device for a short moment… Yeah, can I ask you for a safe posture just in case?”

“Y-Yeah!”

Done.

Seon Ahyeon nodded in agreement. I played a video on my smartphone and showed it to him.

“Here’s the part where I pull back my strength…”

It was the so-called ‘josammo sa^[1]josammo sa = short-sightedness/deceit/deception. In which both outcomes are the same but we’re led to believe that it’s not. It originated from the story of a man and his monkeys. He told them he would give 3 acorns for breakfast and 4 for dinner and the monkeys got angry. So he told them he would give 4 acorns for breakfast and 3 for dinner and the monkeys liked it. ‘ style of speech.

Actually, if you thought about it carefully, it meant I would do what I was originally going to do, but with this guy’s personality, he would fall for the implication that the other person had agreed.

I picked up some practical tips from Seon Ahyeon and even got a promise of a demonstration in the practice room.

“Thank you.”

“I-It’s nothing!”

And it was only after Seon Ahyeon arrived at the huge practice room rented for the concert that he noticed the oddity.

The company seemed to be moving fast, they had already rented the device.

“H-Huh…”

Seon Ahyeon’s expression was plastered with ‘?’, but the situation was already over.

“This, uh I don’t…?”

“You said you’d tell me.”

“B-But…”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Well… You can stop if you don’t want to. The instructor is here, so I can ask him.”

“…! N-No! I’ll tell you!”

“Thank you.”

This was how I secured Seon Ahyeon’s demonstration.

It was easy if you’d done it before, even without the instructor’s advice.

And it felt different.

‘…There’s definitely a difference.’

I had to learn that.

“Oh!”

It was a smooth progress, except for when Cha Eugene broke into the middle and almost hit his head on the floor while excitedly intervening, saying that he would try it too.

However, some of the members stealthily asked.

“Moondae, have you received treatment? Are you sure it’s okay to do this?”

“Ah, it’s fine.”

I immediately nodded to Ryu Chungwoo’s insinuating question.

“I decide to try this so I don’t have to overdo it once I recover.”

“…Okay, but don’t overdo it.”

I was really fine. Not only did I skip all of my schedules, but my recovery was definitely faster than my original body.

‘Is it because of the Bacchus 500?’

Since the speed of accumulation of fatigue was slow, it must be compensated by recovery.

I crossed my arms and looked at the device where Cha Eugene had just descended down with a grin.

‘As expected, this picture will be fine.’

Now I had a taste of what I was doing. I felt good.

I looked forward to the concert.

* * *

“This… A cup to celebrate success.”

“Oh, that’s great! Cheers!!!”

Park Moondae’s homma drank beer with her friend who was a graduate student.

‘Argh!’

It was thrilling.

They had successfully completed the pre-sale for Testar’s second concert which was held a while ago!

Both of them did.

“This is the standing area, right? Do I have to stand and watch?”

“No, no! There’s a chair there! You can just sit and stand depending on the atmosphere.”

“Ah~ I see!”

The graduate student, who had a good seat in the front seats among the so-called ‘righteous standing^[2]‘Righteous standing’ seat = even if there are chairs laid out, everyone gets to stand up and watch. It’s apparently a culture of concert viewing. ‘ seats with simple chairs in the standing area, smiled brightly.

‘I heard she barely made it.’

Looking at the scene with a bit of pity, Park Moondae’s homma glanced at her own smartphone that just rang.

Bzzt!

And as soon as she checked the contents, she grabbed her smartphone.

“Gasp, Moondae posted something!”

“Heol!”

Hello Loviewer

This is Moondae (dog emoticon)

This is tonight’s dinner

I made it

(Photo) (Photo)

Chungwoo hyung took the picture

Loviewer, enjoy your meal

In the attached photo, a home-cooked meal with soybean paste stew and fried egg was prepared quite nicely.

And there was even a picture of Park Moondae’s profile, seriously taking his prize.

‘I’m going crazy, seriously.’

The homma felt like hitting her head.

Park Moondae was really the best. He was just too much.

‘Take a break!!’

He cut off his schedule to rest, so why is he sitting there cooking?

In addition, looking at the photos again, she noticed things that bothered her.

The graduate student muttered with a worried face.

“He’s still wearing a protector on his wrist…”

“I think he has it on his back, too. The shape came out on his clothes.”

It had already been a week since she heard the news of the injury, but she couldn’t help but worry.

The atmosphere of the drinking party subsided a little.

“…But Moondae’s solo song is not a song with fierce movements, so the concert will be okay, right? He sang it standing up in <My Singer> too.”

“That’s right. He’ll sit down and sing.”

The two made a reasonable guess, saying that he could skip the group choreography and sit down if it was necessary.

‘He must be very regretful.”

As a result of watching his activities for more than a year, Park Moondae seemed to be the type who pretended to be not greedy on stage.

The homma held back her desire to cry, thinking that she should send red ginseng through his agency right away.

“…Still, I think this concert will be more fun than the first one! The concert hall is bigger!”

“Hmm, t-that’s right.”

The graduate student attempted to change the atmosphere, and the homma responded accordingly, but she couldn’t help feeling bitter.

She remembered what she had been ignoring in the face of a happy situation where both of them were successful in ticketing

‘Gocheok Dome, of all places…’

The concert was held at the Gymnastics Stadium with 13,000 seats last time and now it was held at Gocheok Sky Dome and opened with 21,000 seats.

Of course, since it was Testar’s concert that was gaining momentum like crazy, increasing the scale was the right choice for the agency.

However, as a fan, she didn’t like really like Gocheok Dome.

‘The field of vision is bad.’

She wanted to cry out that she’d rather have Gymnastics Stadium and extended the period for two weeks, but she knew it was impossible because of the tour.

‘Hiks.’

The homma, who couldn’t completely follow the entire tour due to personal circumstances, drank the beer in a single shot.

‘I’ll just have to buy the data a few times…’

She was drunk.

And she managed to bring up a good topic.

“…And after the concert, it will be the award ceremony season. I’ll see them often even when they’re on a tour!”

“Oh! That’s right!”

Expectations for Testar’s performance at the awards ceremony were quite high.

‘There’s a possibility that VTIC won’t be able to attend.’

This was because one of their members was involved in a dirty social controversy at the club, and the group’s comeback was delayed.

Thanks to this, VTIC only released pre-released songs and there was no news of them, so the fans seemed to be anxious.

After cutting off the controversial member like a knife, she heard their official SNS had been quiet too.

Even on a member’s birthday, they were quiet.

‘It was Cheongryeo’s birthday, wasn’t it?’

She didn’t know if he was secretly preying on her kid or if they were actually close, but anyway, the person she was most familiar with slipped into her mind.

But it disappeared in an instant.

‘Well, he’s in the first-tier group, so he’ll do well on his own.’

In fact, even without the variable VTIC, Testar’s momentum was certain.

In particular, Park Moondae’s rise had been sharper recently.

To some extent, there had been a number of new hommas for the past half a year.

‘So many people have transferred!’

It wasn’t just once or twice that she witnessed other group’s hommas sneakily transferred offline without a word.

Even the person who took the same area as her in this concert was like that.

‘It’s a twin fansite tied with Keun Sejin!’

She heard rumors saying that they took pictures of Keun Sejin at the first concert last time and picked out high-quality eye-contact photos from the <I like waiting> stage and posted them on an anonymous site.

However, when she actually opened the platform, it started with the other cuts from that photo.

Together with Park Moondae and two-cut photos!

‘…I thought they would only take pictures of Keun Sejin, but I never imagined we would take pictures of Park Moondae together.’

A subtle feeling of competitiveness ignited her heart.

For this concert, she would definitely choose a picture of Moondae that was better than the twin fansite she transferred to!

Ignoring the fact that she had also transferred, the homma made a firm resolution.

“I’m going to pick out a really great cut this time.”

“Ah~ That’s great! Show it to me too!”

The graduate student answered brightly. And they ordered a new beer.

“Then, cheers!”

“Cheers!”

Thinking of the upcoming concert, the two clinked their glasses again with pounding hearts.

She couldn’t have imagined that she would cry while waving and breaking the lightstick on the first day of the concert.

* * *

And on the day of Testar’s concert, in the rehearsal site.

“Now, move it right away!”

“Yes!”

Various people were busy moving ahead of the performance.

Among them, there were many one-day part-time workers who were urgently hired to fill the immediate unnecessary work.

‘Oh, it’s so hard.’

A one-day staff put down their load irritably. They applied for a wage of 70,000 won a day, but they were sick of the endless labor.

“…”

The one-day staff looked around and sneakily took out their smartphone. And they posted an angry message on an anonymous site.

[A male idol concert staff. Not taking questions]

: I have to load and unload. They give the lowest wage and ask for so much sh*t

There are already a lot of fangirls outside. Not doing anythingㅉㅉ

‘This aggro is fine, right?’

There were a few comments that seemed interesting.

But it wasn’t a good talk.

– ㅋㅋThis bastard never load and unload delivery stuff before

– What kind of staff are you? Sounds like a part-time job

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Then why don’t you order the part-time workers to do it

– Fangirl = Spend money, OP = Receive the lowest wage

‘Motherf*ckers…!’

The part-time worker huffed and turned off their smartphone screen.

“Over there! What are you doing?!”

“…! …Yes.”

The part-time worker noticed the sharp criticism and carried the luggage half-heartedly. The other busy part-timers glanced at them, but they already lost motivation.

‘Should I run away?’

As they switched up their mind, they suddenly heard a buzz from one side.

‘What?’

When they raised their head and looked up, they saw famous faces.

“…!”

Testar had come for the rehearsal.

They bowed their heads here and there as they busily moved down the aisle with the staff.

“Hello~”

“…!”

Coincidentally, Lee Sejin made eye contact with the part-timer and greeted them amicably.

It was a large, well-maintained physique and face.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay~”

Park Moondae tapped Lee Sejin. The two bowed their heads a few more times and quickly moved their feet again.

“They are all so handsome.”

“Wow.”

“It’s kind of amazing.”

The other one-day part-timers whispered excitedly next to them but the part-timer who was about to escape felt worse.

‘Well, how amazing is their job?’

It was a sense of deprivation.

It was an attitude that came out because someone in their age group had achieved tremendous accomplishments, and they didn’t want to admit it.

However, the desire to escape had diminished a little.

‘Let’s see how great they are.’

Whether it was personality or skill, shouldn’t there be any flaws in the people who rose without a period of obscurity in a single program?

These days, all kinds of facts could be testified with a single authentication post.

‘Well, it’s anonymous, so can you catch me?’

The part-timer thought complacently and fell into a not-so-wholesome pleasant delusion.

And regardless of one person’s fantasy, the concert was ready to proceed smoothly amidst the expectations and hard work of many people.

• 1. josammo sa = short-sightedness/deceit/deception. In which both outcomes are the same but we’re led to believe that it’s not. It originated from the story of a man and his monkeys. He told them he would give 3 acorns for breakfast and 4 for dinner and the monkeys got angry. So he told them he would give 4 acorns for breakfast and 3 for dinner and the monkeys liked it.
• 2. ‘Righteous standing’ seat = even if there are chairs laid out, everyone gets to stand up and watch. It’s apparently a culture of concert viewing.