Debut or Die

“Yeah~ We’re so good, right? There are a lot of talented people, and there are a lot of good-looking people!”

Gold grade Lee Sejin said with a big smile. Everyone felt embarrassed, but they all nodded as if they agreed.

Even if everyone pretended to be as harmonious as they were, it was a natural thing because it was the right time to grow up. It’s a relief to see that everyone has at least some sense.

“But, ah, Actor Sejin. We have the same name—. How do we differentiate ourselves?”

“Yes?”

“Oh, that’s nice!”

“Right? Since you’re an Actor, how about Bae Sejin?” (T/n: I think they take 배 from 배우 which means actor for this part.)

The gold grade participant who joined first grinned and added.

“Hey, then, because you’re big, you will be Big Sejin.”

“Big Sejin? Hey, that’s nice. Call! What do you think? Sejin Hyung-nim?”

“….”

Child Actor Lee Sejin bit his lip as if he was holding back something, and said it.

“I just like my name.”

“….”

“Ah—. I see.”

The excitement disappeared in an instant. Then Gold grade Lee Sejin hurriedly opened his mouth.

“Oh, that’s fine. Then, Hyung and Dongsaengs, please call me Big Sejin from now on~”

“It’s nice~.”

“What a nice nickname!”

Clap clap clap. The atmosphere was set with applause. Then, around the time each person introduced themselves, the MC picked up the microphone again.

“Participants, did you say hello to each other?”

“Please let us choose whatever song we want.”

One of the team members muttered desperately. But there was no chance.

“Now then— let’s start the song selection!”

“Whoa—”

“The song selection is random—”

Everyone murmurs with tired looks.

The MC waved his hand out and said humorously.

“Ey, everyone! This is one of the hit songs of the representative idols of the agency you picked! Don’t be disappointed!”

They might have thought it was worth doing, so the atmosphere has gotten better.

“Now, the representative song will start playing at the sign in front of you. If you want to stop, just press the switch! Then, the first participant to join the sign, please come forward!”

The team members immediately changed their attitude.

“Hyung-nim, I will trust you!”

“The only way to live is a masterpiece song!”

“Phew, do I have to show my ability again?”

The first participant stepped forward in front of the sign with a cheer.

“Now, get ready… launch it!”

“Whoaa!”

A team member made a strange noise and immediately pressed the switch. Big Sejin (Since he brought this up himself, I’m going to call him this from now on) murmured next to me.

“No, we should’ve seen it and pressed it—”

The titles of a few songs were shown on a sign that rolled slowly.

[Tiger / VTIC]

[LIFE / VTIC]

[Eternal Song / VTIC]

VTIC. At the moment, they are the male idols whose albums sell the most copies.

“Everything is fine… please.”

Choi Wongil’s desperate murmuring was heard at the end. I waited patiently for the screen to stop.

The screen then slowly stopped.

[Into A New World / MallangDalkom]

“…?”

“……??”

“……!?”

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A terrible silence fell.

Except for myself, all of the team members’ eyes became like ‘BONOBONO’ as they looked at the sign. (t/n: Bonobono (보노보노) is a character in a manga.)

“I, is it an error?”

The team member who touched the sign mumbled something in a puzzled voice. However, there was no response from the production staff.

It meant it was real.

“Is it include female idols?”

“Are there any female idol songs?”

Everyone, including us, was saying similar things.

Of course, the reaction was not as strong as ours.

The people on the team muttered as if they were crazy.

“Yeah… So, was it a flower fairy?”

“That… uh, debut song, uh-huh.”

Undoubtedly, ‘Into A New World’ was an innocent and dreamy song that stood for a flower fairy.

Besides, it’s a debut song. A song that has never been number #1 on public television since it came out before MallangDalkom’s concept changed into something cute and bitter.

“Ah! Thank you!”

“This is amazing!”

The surrounding area was filled with cheers as if there was a good song. It was natural because it would have been full of masterpiece songs. But the climax came from here.

“Aaaaah!!”

“Hyung!! Hyung!!”

The team next to our sign picked “Tiger” by VTIC.

For reference, that song was the title track of the album that received Daesang at the largest music site awards ceremony in Korea two months ago.

I could say that it’s one of the most popular songs right now.

Maybe that’s why everyone was hugging and making a fuss. The grade of the team members was low, so the atmosphere improved greatly as if they had already won.

“….”

And our side is getting very quiet. It looked like no one could get over the shock.

What am I going to do?

‘I was avoiding this.’

I was sweeping my chest. This is because I realized that I chose the sign of the agency with ease.

VTIC’s ‘Tiger’?

I just can’t do it.

I was lucky enough to avoid it.

In that way, the match’s luck is great right now.

‘It seems like everyone hasn’t realized it yet.’

When I saw the team members gathering in a depressed mood, I thought it was rather good.

If there’s a sense of crisis, they’ll work cooperatively.

* * *

“I think the key doesn’t match.”

Did I think they would work cooperatively? I’d like to say that I was wrong to have such high expectations.

Already, a man who seems to have given up on everything has started to show up.

“Wongil-ah, if you try it again—”

“I’ve tried it again a few times, and I don’t think it’s going to work again—”

Choi Wongil lowered his head gloomily and said this.

“That, it was originally a female song, but we changed it to a male key, so I don’t think it fits well. I think I can do the high part—”

He looks at me while talking like that.

‘You want my part.’

I was wearing the main vocal badge early on, and the three gold grade participants were cheering me on.

Choi Wongil was quiet and only watched me put on my badge, maybe because he got a low grade.

Then he found a place where he could stretch his feet, so he stretched them.

I laughed bitterly.

“Shall we?”

“…!”

Big Sejin hit my thigh. This is really—.

“Hey, don’t play around with the kid. At times like this, you have to help him sing his part! What are you doing?”

People talk about it as if it’s a joke, which is only natural. It’s not something he did once or twice.

‘Indeed, he’s not just a good punk with no shame.’

I hid my doubts and spoke again firmly.

“No, I really don’t mind changing it. If you are going to do it, you should do it at the beginning before you learn the choreography.”

“R, really?”

“Yeah.”

I calmly ended the conversation. Choi Wongil looked very suspicious, but he quickly nodded because he was afraid I might change my mind.

“Well, then I want to do the first verse chorus—”

“Okay, then I’ll do the bridge part.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s change parts. That’s the part where you say you can’t do it.”

Choi Wongil nodded his head reluctantly. He didn’t seem to want me to take part that he couldn’t.

He wanted to take the chorus, but he didn’t want to let go of his part.

I don’t believe it was because he is unable to put things away in the right order, but was falling into silver grade the trigger? It tasted a little off.

Big Sejin looked at Choi Wongil and me alternately and sighed quietly.

‘I must have taken the 1st chorus in the picture he drew.’

Then he pretended not to, and continued energetically.

“Okay, then the part would be like this.”

There was one main position left. They felt nervous as if they weren’t gold grade participants.

“Now all we have to do is choose the main dancer.”

Before Big Sejin spoke more, I raised my hand.

“Oh, I have an opinion.”

“Yeah?”

“If everyone is okay, I want to decide the direction of the arrangement before choosing the main dancer.”

“…Huh?”

An arrangement.

Even though it was the most important topic, everyone was unconsciously avoiding it.

‘Into A New World’ is an innocent female idol song.

And ‘innocent’ is—it was a very difficult concept to digest.

People often think that it is easy to do as long as it looks pretty, but that is not true at all.

This is because it’s a concept that is difficult to make look strong.

In order for them to leave such an impression on the audience with such a song while they were competing on the survival stage, they had to be exceptionally talented or incredibly good.

Maybe everyone thought that far, but the opinion of the arrangement started out like this.

“A little…How about changing the lyrics and going strong?”

“With a strong beat?”

“yes. It’s perfect for a new world~ with so much ambition to do it!”

The first gold—. It’s annoying to call it this way. Should I call him Gold 1 appropriately?

So, this was Gold 1’s opinion. This is something that any participant in a survival show who is thinking can come up with.

Strong change.

The problem is that it looks like it would be difficult for this song to give the impression of being “full of ambition,” as the saying goes.

The lyrics of ‘Into the New World’ are like this.

– At some point, I realized

I wandered in an imperfect time

In this unstoppable maze of time

Please save me from being trapped in it

It’s withering away gradually.

In this little space inside (little flower~)

I’m waiting for the day it will bloom again

Please come to find me

This is the first verse.

If you want to be ambitious, you need to change the lyrics so that they focus more on the speaker. If you don’t, the song’s story gets messed up from the pre-chorus on.

This is because the chorus of this song is about asking the other person to come to you quickly.

– One step, two steps

The sound of you coming

It’s ringing in my ears

Don’t hesitate and give me your hand

Now, I’m going into a new world~

Come to me

Come to me

It’s dazzling, a paradise by your side

Come to me

Come to me

Melody of love for you (continues)

“Then do we have to change the lyrics of ‘Come to me’ after ‘Into A New World’?”

“Uh… if we say ‘come to you’…”

Gold 1 muttered and scratched his head. He seems to have realized that the problem is not only that.

“Then, shouldn’t we have to change everything from ‘Save Me’?”

“Mhmm.”

Yes. Since the chorus is so focused on what the listener does, changing that to “I’m coming quickly” takes away from the meaning of the next lyrics.

“If we’re going to do this, we’ll have to change the whole thing.”

“Yeah…But if we make too many changes, we might suffer from fairness.”

It was also a question of whether the opposing team or the production staff would allow them to fix everything like that.

“….”

The team members got quiet as they slowly realized how serious the situation was.

Big Sejin quickly intervened and changed the subject.

“Why don’t we discuss the arrangement with the teachers and decide? I think it would be better to learn the choreography as soon as possible to get feedback! Is it okay, Moondae-ya?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Let’s do it.”

I obediently agree. Anyway, the idea of bringing up the arrangement at this point was meant to shock them.

The more desperate the atmosphere is, the less noise will come out when I give my opinion about the arrangement.

“Okay, let’s play the choreography video!”

When Big Sejin played the dance video, everyone turned their heads to look at the tablet PC screen.

No matter where they hear the chorus, no one on the team probably remembers the choreography in detail.

However, as expected, less than 15 seconds after the choreography video started, everyone gave out voices.

“Ah—”