Debut or Die

Chapter 37

The participant who entered the <Rabbit> room after me was Seon Ahyeon.

“…Ah!”

Seon Ahyeon sneaked into the room with a nervous face, and as soon as he met my eyes, his expression brightened and he quickly ran inside.

And smiled broadly.

“I-it’s nice that we’re together t-this time.”

“Yeah, please take care of me.”

“Hn, I-I will do my best…”

It was at that point that Seon Ahyeon, who was excited and opened his mouth right away, made eye contact with Kim Raebin, who was looking this way.

“…!!”

Seon Ahyeon was shocked and stiffened the moment that he realized Kim Raebin’s existence.

‘Come to think of it, these two have no contact with each other.’

Because their grades were different and they’d never met in a team match.

Seon Ahyeon hurriedly stepped forward, looked between me and Kim Raebin, swallowed his saliva, and greeted Kim Raebin.

“P-p-please take good care of me…”

He was so serious.

“Yes, I look forward to your kind cooperation.”

“N-no, it should be me…”

Kim Raebin also bowed his head with a serious look. Then Seon Ahyeon quickly slammed his head down to the floor.

It was a strange scene that I had only seen happen in Internet humor.

‘If these two are left alone, the conversation won’t proceed.’

As I watched Kim Raebin and Seon Ahyeon’s personnel battle, which was likely to continue forever, the fourth team member opened the door vigorously and entered.

“Who’s the rabbit?!”

It was Keun Sejin. I didn’t know why, but it seemed he was completely absorbed in the room concept as he waved the rabbit head-shaped badge in one hand.

Keun Sejin quickly confirmed Seon Ahyeon and Kim Raebin. And then he looked at me and laughed.

Why again?

“What, why are you here, Moondae?”

“…?”

When I looked at him with a look that asked what nonsense he was saying, Keun Sejin continued to slowly speak.

“No, there is a <Puppy> room so I thought you naturally would be there. I thought we couldn’t do it together this time.”

“…”

Was the Tibetan fox interview not enough? I intended to take on the puppy image, but the reality check was a separate matter, I wanted to hit this guy at least once.

Keun Sejin quickly approached the people and changed the subject.

“Anyway, isn’t it good to do it together~ Our team is good this time too! Let’s do well! Is there one more person left?”

The total number of room with nameplates were six. Considering that there were currently 30 active participants, there was an extremely high probability that each room would be assigned five people.

‘Then since there are four people who have come so far, there’s only one person left.’

But I didn’t know who would come.

‘For now, we’ve got all positions as they are.’

The team members were evenly distributed without overlapping images and both our ranks and skills were good.

Kim Raebin would arrange the song, and Keun Sejin would likely pick the leader role anyway, so it was good too. All-rounder Seon Ahyeon made the stage easier.

In fact, it meant that it didn’t matter if there were just four of us like this.

‘As long as a troll doesn’t come.’

I remembered several of them, including Choi Wongil. It didn’t really matter who came if it wasn’t for them.

The problem was that until now, the team members had never been smoothly organized.

I assessed the situation.

‘From here… I can cover up for Lee Sejin.’

Because even though he was uncooperative, he wasn’t the type to bombard others for profit, so I just had to be gentle with him.

Still, there was a possibility that his mentality died down because of the ranking announcement ceremony, so it was better not to do it together with him if possible.

Then the last team member I am hoping for… Well, in alphabetical order, there was only one person left besides the ones that were already sold out.

‘Gold 1 is the most comforting.’

When thinking of the participant with the highest possibility, Keun Sejin smiled and suggested.

“Why don’t we hide behind the door? He’s the last one, it would be nice to welcome him with all of our heart and sincerity.”

It was an obvious idea, but it was also a joke that would come out well on the show if the last team member’s reaction was okay.

The problem was that if Choi Wongil came in like this, the atmosphere would be weird, but the other three already went behind the door so I just gave up.

If I stopped them, I would be the one who looked weird in front of the camera.

The small murmur of the team members from behind the door was heard in one ear, and Keun Sejin, who was attached to the wall, shouted quietly.

“He’s here!”

Then he boisterously raised his index finger and put it on top of his lips. I was keeping my mouth shut anyway, so I just continued to stay silent.

Soon the door opened with the sound of footsteps.

“Excuse me… Eh?”

“Ta-da!”

After a while, a head popped out from behind the door.

“Gyaaah!”

The participant, who opened the door and looked inside, jumped into the sky and moved funny. The guy was more of a scaredy-cat than I expected.

‘Congratulations on getting a broadcast portion.’

The last team member who rolled around with a strange scream had a familiar face.

“Aigoo, I’m sorry. Hyung!”

Unexpectedly, Gold 1 joined.

‘…This is fine.’

For the first time, I gave a positive evaluation after seeing the team composition.

* * *

“Please take good care of our rabbit class~”

“Wow!”

Clap clap clap. The discussion began with an ordinary reaction without any expression.

Including my college life, the atmosphere was the most harmonious among the team projects I’d ever been through.

With the camera on, no one was swearing or doing anything else.

‘It’s like a real kindergarten.’

Of course, not all teams were on the hopeful side like the <Rabbit> class.

For example, the two or three teams that were tied with the lower ranks due to the crowding of ranking sections had already given up halfway.

“Ah…”

“Well, let’s do well…”

“…So it becomes like this.”

However, unexpectedly, the despair came out from a different team consisting of top-level trainees. Choi Wongil and Lee Sejin joined Ryu Chungwoo and Cha Eugene’s team. In addition, the troll who grabbed Kim Raebin by the collar was on that team.

Some of the participants murmured.

“How can they get tied up like that?”

“The combination is amazing.”

I could hear Ryu Chungwoo’s stomach melting down all the way from here.

‘It’s unfortunate, but it’s rather good for me.’

It would be convenient if they took all the aggro editing.

By the time I drew this brief conclusion, Keun Sejin was proceeding with the discussion.

“Now, let’s talk about the song first! Is there a song you want to sing?”

A number of team members raised their hands with their eyes shining. Even Seon Ahyeon slowly lifted his hand up, everyone looked pretty excited.

It was understandable. Since ‘Free Song Selection’ finally came out for the first time.

I remembered the MC’s announcement I had just heard.

‘You can choose every detail you want, including songs, choreography, and concepts that suit your team! It’s called <Self-produced Stage!>’

In other words, the production team wanted to eat it raw.

‘Last season, they picked using mini-games.’

This meant that the production team had already prepared the concepts in advance, including the costumes and stage equipment. It was a structure in which the participants chose what they wanted from among them.

However, this season, without any such thing, they were telling us to come up with it on our own.

Perhaps at the time of this season’s planning, they couldn’t plan ahead due to a lack of budget.

By the way, the show was successful and gained a lot of additional budgets, and one of its advantages was that there were few budget restrictions on the content now.

‘That’s probably why they’re all excited.’

I listened to other team members’ opinions one by one.

The order of the speaking was set clockwise, and Seon Ahyeon, who got the right to speak first, shouted a little.

“H-how about <I Like the Wait>…!”

<I Like the Wait>. Its distinctive features were the high notes and musical-like choreography.

The refreshing and sophisticated teen sensibility hit the target audience properly.

As of this point, it was a song released by a nine-member boyband five years ago, and it gave the group the honor of winning first place.

Looking back on his track record, it was a song that Seon Ahyeon would surely like.

“Oh, the first nominated song is great.”

“That’s right. We’re all young! Refreshing! The concept has never been shown before.”

I added a word, too.

“It’s fine.”

“H-Hn!!”

Seon Ahyeon lit up and nodded wildly. Even if it wasn’t chosen like this, he looked like he was going to die from just positive reactions.

‘How can you live like that with that face?’

It was a bit pitifully absurd.

“Next is Raebin!”

“Considering the composition of the members, I think VTIC sunbaenim’s <Soul(Hone)> is the most effective choice.”

His comments poured out as if he was prepared for this.

“It used a lot of oriental sound samples, so the concept is unique, and the range is appropriate. It’s a song with a difficulty level of choreography, so it’s easy to show performance elements, and it’s easy to put a dance break interlude. I can draft the arrangement within a day!”

“Yes…”

‘You must really want to do it.’

Maybe I wasn’t the only one who thought so, the other team members responded slowly with bewildered expressions.

Then Kim Raebin looked around and hesitated.

“Well, of course… if you have any other good opinions, that’s fine.”

“Okay okay, I also like the song that Raebin chose. Let’s listen to other opinions slowly~”

Keun Sejin shrugged it off.

‘But it would be better to listen to the opinions of the person who will arrange the song in detail.’

It seemed Keun Sejin didn’t intend to accept Kim Raebin’s words more, perhaps there was a song he wanted to push for.

‘Should I take it?’

I opened my mouth.

“What was your favorite part among the things you said?”

“What? …Ah, well, rather than liking a particular element, I took into account the overall best fit for the task.“

It meant that his focus was on the overall perfection of the stage. I nodded.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“That’s right. I was surprised.”

“Raebin has a plan!”

“…Thank you.”

When the team members praised him, Kim Raebin bowed his head and muttered.

After a brief atmosphere of warmly watching the awkward Kim Raebin was created, Keun Sejin finally gave his opinion.

“Now is the time.”

“…?”

“We’ve come this far, so it’s time for a sexy concept…!”

“S-s-sexy…”

“Argh!”

“Ugh…”

Cringed reactions followed. Keun Sejin laughed out loud.

“Hahaha! Can you honestly deny it? Can you?”

“…”

It was silly to brazenly say it out loud, but…

‘…That makes sense.’

There was no denying that it was a good idea.

‘If we pull it off properly, there’s no stronger concept than this.’

The sexy concept had traditionally been proved as a route to success, If you could look great while keeping the level of sophistication,

I crossed my arms and asked Keun Sejin.

“What kind of song do you want to do?”

“Oh? As expected, Moondae has a good eye. Actually, I don’t want to push for one song in particular, but rather, compare several songs… I’d like to discuss and decide on a song that will most successfully show the sexy concept, what do you think?”

“…”

It was good.

But the other two opinions were also good.

I turned my head and looked at Gold 1, who had not yet spoken.

The figure of Gold 1 was burned white.

“I… don’t know. I was just trying to live it up with rabbits. But everyone… seem to have… A very clear vision…?”

It seemed other opinions were so firm that he lost his fighting power. It was understandable. I shrugged my shoulders.

“M-Moondae… W-what do you want to do?”

“Me? I haven’t decided anything in particular.”

When I answered Seon Ahyeon’s question right away, Keun Sejin’s eyes shone.

“Oh, then I want to hear Moondae’s choice! Which of our opinions do you like best?“

“…!”

Sejin Keun’s words caught the attention of the rest of the team.

It was very burdensome. However, it was a situation that couldn’t be ignored.

‘Which do I like best?’

I was lost in thought.