Debut or Die

After all the eliminated players left the room, the remaining participants changed into training clothes and regrouped at the dorm.

Now that they had a send-off filled with tears and snot, everyone seemed to be filled with the strange sense of being the chosen ones.

‘It can’t be helped.’

They came to the finals with the support of an unspecified number of people, so it was only natural that their egos grew bloated.

If I wasn’t mentally strong enough, I would have gotten drunk in the atmosphere. They were too young.

Perhaps having gotten off work, The MC didn’t show up.

Instead, Youngrin hosted the filming.

“Re-listed! Idol Inc.>, the 20 participants who will complete the final stage. Congratulations. Shall we clap?”

“Yes!”

Clap clap clap. But what was important now was not this greeting.

‘Why isn’t there anything?’

It was definitely the time to divide the final team. But there was nothing on the set. I didn’t see a single prop waiting.

There was only an electronic display. What are you going to do?

“First of all, I’ll reveal the song you’re going to perform on the final stage.”

[Hello! This is Eagle.]

“Gasp.”

A team of composers greeted us on the display. It was a famous team that worked on several famous idol titles. The participants were excited as a few cuts of familiar music videos passed.

[The song that Eagle is giving to the participants… We’ll reveal it right away!]

‘It’s a new song.’

It wasn’t until the final that they gave a song that could be included in the debut team’s album. I could guess the size of the budget before the start of the season.

[Lalu~ lali~]

Anyway, the song was good. It wasn’t the kind of catchy songs that would quickly enter the program on the music charts and then disappear in an instant.

The problem was that I didn’t know what the guide vocalist was saying.

‘I think they just sing it as it is.’

Wait, no way?

“The title of this song is <Final>. And the lyric… There isn’t any!”

“What?”

“There are no lyrics?”

The participants reacted to Youngrin’s words. Then, one of the composition team members on the electronic display read the script with an awkward cheering pose.

[With your creativity, please complete the demo version of <Final>! Fighting!]

Youngrin spoke as if taking over from the voice on the video.

“Yes, <Final> is unfinished.”

“…!”

“Participants must write their own lyrics, complete the choreography, and attach a subtitle that suits the song. Arrangements are also possible.”

I knew it would be like this.

‘Are you haunted by self-produced concepts?’

No matter how successful the concept of self-produced idols was, I didn’t know it would be like this even in the final.

Didn’t you see all the production parts besides the <Moon Rabbit> team in the 3rd team match?

<Husky> team’s first place was Cha Eugene. Just listening to the song was not good enough.

‘The final is broadcasted live, what are you going to do?’

I listened to the last stage song playing on the electronic display with a grain of salt.

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What was certain was that I should be on the same team as Kim Raebin. Lyrics and arrangement? There was nothing more to be said, I just had to catch this guy first.

‘So how do you form the team?’

Youngrin announced as if responding to my thought.

“And the team you’re going to make the stage with is… totally up to you.”

“…!!”

“Whoever you team up with, the production team won’t be involved at all. Form a team of up to seven people and proceed with the practice.”

Aigoo.

‘It’s a mess.’

If anyone did something wrong, they would become a last-minute controversial post generator.

As far as I knew, the live broadcast on the day of the final was also heavily lined up with landmines. I didn’t know the preparation for the final stage would also be filled with minefields.

“And the benefit of winning the final stage is… Ten million won.”

“Gasp!”

Strange noises broke out here and there.

Everyone seemed bewildered by the sudden prize money.

“To make the competition fair, the production team has decided to leave the final debut of participants entirely in the hands of the shareholders.”

Her voice just passed me by, ten million won… After deducting taxes, it would be around 780,000 won.

‘I want to win that, no matter what.’

By the way, I hadn’t received the refrigerator I’d gotten at the talent show yet. No way, those guys are not going to play dumb and postpone sending the prize money, right?

I listened to the rest of Youngrin’s words while calculating.

“Then, let’s form a team to make the final stage together, now… Get started!”

As soon as those words were dropped, the participants jumped into action.

“Moondae.”

“Hyung.”

The guys on both of my sides spoke straight away. Keun Sejin in seventh place and Kim Raebin in fifth place.

Keun Sejin smiled after checking out Kim Raebin.

There were no overlapping positions.

“Why don’t the three of us do it together?”

“All right.”

“Yes.”

The agreement was reached in no time. In the meantime, Seon Ahyeon, who was in second place over there, approached with hesitation.

Well, this was Seon Ahyeon… Having him on the team wouldn’t hurt, so it should be fine.

“Shall we do it together?”

“H-Hn!”

Seon Ahyeon’s face brightened. Other team members also nodded without much objection.

That made the four of us.

I frowned.

2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th.

‘Is it too much?’

The top ranks might get criticized for only being friends among themselves.

It seemed I should add a participant I wasn’t familiar with who had good skills and a relatively low ranking.

“Hyung, Cha Eugene…”

“Um.”

Kim Raebin tried his luck.

I checked out Cha Eugene and Ryu Chungwoo who were already talking over there.

First place, fourth place.

Ah, this wouldn’t work.

“Why don’t we just end it here?”

“Yes?”

‘Even if I want to add a low rank that I am not close with, it won’t work if they refuse it anyway.’

I neatly gave up on the additional recruitment.

Keun Sejin immediately came in as a support. This guy seemed to have already figured out the situation.

“We have to think about the significance of our stage, too~ Since it’s the last one, wouldn’t it be nice to show off more? Each of our position is already perfect!”

“…”

He couldn’t deny it. If Cha Eugene came in, we wouldn’t know what kind of distortion would appear in the editing or the portion.

Kim Raebin was silent for a moment with a troubled face and then nodded peacefully.

“You’re right.”

It was a wise decision.

‘Because it’s not about the vote, it’s the prize.’

I didn’t know the voting method yet, but it didn’t matter if it was an individual vote or an unfavorable victory. Ultimately, the portion on stage was more important.

Four people were enough.

Keun Sejin turned vigorously to the organized situation.

“Then let’s take it like this…”

“There, hyung-nim!”

At that time, someone came in after cutting off Keun Sejin.

It was Gold 2.

“Ah, can we… Can we do it together?”

Gold 2 surprisingly came to us with 11th place Lee Sejin.

‘How did you coax him?’

Gold 2 was trying not to show his nervousness, but frankly, it was obvious.

“…”

How do I refuse him in a way that won’t get me cursed at?

I glanced at Keun Sejin. He had an apologetic smile. It was clear that he was squeezing out a rejection phrase.

He must be thinking that it was bothersome since we already put together a small number of the best people.

But Gold 2 was brave. I meant that in a slightly sad way.

“Really! I am confident that I will work hard! No matter which parts I take, I can do it well without complaining!”

The picture was getting weird.

Rather, it was okay to refuse if it was Cha Eugene who came and asked to join. We could mix it with a bit of humor and split it into a rival gimmick.

But we couldn’t do that the 18th-ranked high school freshman. A majority of this team was also in the same group as him in the first team match.

‘They’ll make some editing about our distance.’

I held back my sigh.

Rather, as soon as he came here, we should have finished quickly with words like, ‘Sorry, we decided to do it with just four of us’. But no one wanted to carry the torch.

It was better to just accept it but we already rejected Cha Eugene with the portion excuse right before this. It would be strange if me or Keun Sejin, who made the remarks, wanted to accept them.

“C-Can’t we do it together…?”

Fortunately, the weakest person here declared surrender first. Seon Ahyeon opened his mouth while quietly watching.

‘Good job.’

Now, the key was to persuade Kim Raebin…

“I think it’ll be fine.”

Huh?

‘You easily accept this?’

Kim Raebin nodded unexpectedly.

I didn’t know if he reacted quickly because he had already tasted the spicy taste of editing once, or if there was another reason.

“Well, how about Moondae?”

“It’s fine.”

“Okay. Then shall we do it together?”

“Gasp! Thank you!”

Gold 2 raised both of his hands and posed for a hurray. In the back, Lee Sejin lowered his head with a stiff expression and then straightened it.

It was amazing that he could still be unfriendly.

“What do you mean thank you, let’s do well.”

Keun Sejin quickly cleared up the situation and headed for Youngrin. They exchanged a few words, and soon letters appeared on the electronic display.

[Team 1 confirmed!]

[Seon Ahyeon (2), Kim Raebin (5), Park Moondae (6), Lee Sejin B (7), Lee Sejin A (11), Kwon Heeseung (18)]

It was confirmed.

I felt a little bitter because this turned out sloppier than I thought. I didn’t want to put a concerning bomb like Lee Sejin.

But making him join us would be better than being filmed as a hater.

At that moment, Cha Eugene’s voice filled with regret echoed from behind.

“Ah, I missed it!”

“…”

I guess that team was talking about ‘Park Moondae’ being the main vocalist. Team 1 was made so quickly that the timing did not come.

“Hyung! Let’s do it together next time!”

“That would be great.”

I thought as I answered Cha Eugene, who was waving his hand among the participants.

‘This is the last one. How could there be a next time?’

Cha Eugene had a pure brain until the end.

* * *

“Hey, we made our team quickly, so our practice time has increased!”

Keun Sejin smiled and proceeded with the conversation. Slowly coming to the fourth round, it was good that we didn’t waste time with the useless process of ‘getting to know each other’.

“Once we select a leader, we can proceed immediately!”

“Oh~”

People continued to look at Keun Sejin with exclamations.They seemed to think that since he had been the leader in all team matches so far, he would do it again this time.

Keun Sejin smiled and shook his head.

“Ah, I won’t run for the leader!”

“…!?”

“What, why?”

To the shocked team members, Keun Sejin purposely blinked exaggeratedly as if embarrassed.

I wanted to poke his eyeballs.

“I want to be the main dancer!”

“…”

I didn’t know what bullshit he was saying now but those two were not positions that couldn’t be held at the same time.

‘You had both positions during the second round.’

Are you using that remark to target the main dancer? With lame comments like, ‘I give up being the leader!’.

Surprisingly, actor Lee Sejin spoke out.

“You can do both.”

“Ah~ that’s right. But this time, I’m going to try my best.”

Keun Sejin smiled and put his hands together.

“Besides, there are a lot of things to put in this time, so, well, I thought about it in the third round as well. I think someone who is talented in creating stuff should be the leader!”

At those words, I turned to Kim Raebin.

Kim Raebin looked at Keun Sejin, noticed my gaze, and opened his mouth with an exclamation ‘Ah’.

“I want to recommend Park Moondae hyung.”

“…”

That’s not it.