Debut or Die

“You’re awake?”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, it was refreshing.”

I rarely said it out loud. After a good nap and a bath, I really felt good.

“Now, everyone, look here and smile~”

Keun Sejin caught the guys sneakily gathering in the living room and took a picture.

“For upload?”

“Hn.”

I didn’t meddle because I thought I could revise it later. Instead, I took out my smartphone to monitor real-time responses.

‘…It’s slow.’

I picked up the lowest price among the low-end types and it was slowly getting worse, perhaps because the daily usage time was too long.

Well, I didn’t have money to change it now, so let’s not think about it anymore.

Anyway, the SNS timeline was crowded with people waiting for the main broadcast.

“Ah, it’s starting.”

“Cha Eugene! The reality show is here!”

“Yes!”

The broadcast started when Cha Eugene ran out of the kitchen with snacks.

The first thing that came out… It was the excited Testar preparing for departure.

[Ryu Chungwoo: Can I bring this much?]

[Cha Eugene: I like traveling~]

[Keun Sejin: We’ll finish the trip and return home safely!]

[A little later…]

Then a cut of a skydiving airplane leisurely flying appeared.

The camera slid down to reveal Testar, who was standing blankly in some countryside, carrying their luggage.

[PD Jung: You see that light airplane up there?]

[Testar: …?]

[PD Jung: You’re going to get in there and jump off.]

[Testar: (Shocked)]

A huge white caption floated above Testar who was bewildered.

[Why is this happening?]

Shortly after, the screen showed the dorm.

[Testar’s dorm a few days ago]

Above the living room floor with balloons, a huge note with the words ‘Special! Testar’s 1st Place Celebration Trip’ received a spotlight CG.

And a caption was added.

[※The cause of this situation (Spoiler)]

After that… What Testar went through came out without much editing.

[Cha Eugene: A trip!]

It meant that the figure of us getting excited about the trip, spinning the roulette, and being taken aback by the extreme travel came out humorously well-edited.

Of course, the finishing touch came from noticing the manipulation of the roulette wheel.

[Tada! (Again) Extreme travel]

[Tada! (Again) (Again) Extreme travel]

[Testar: ?!]

An interview was attached.

[Park Moondae (Genius puppy): When the roulette stopped, it bounced once. It looked unnatural.]

[Park Moondae (Cheated puppy): But my guess was really correct… (Speechless)]

[Lee Sejin (A in Idol Inc): Even Idol Inc never did such manipulation…!]

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– Lee Sejin’s words are so funny. He said even Idol Inc never did such manipulationㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└I’m sure he’s being seriousㅋㅋㅋ

– The only thing that’s been heartwarming so far was the driving in the travel episode

– No, Moondae’s ability is really extreme. He’s really good at what he’s good at and really bad at what he’s bad atㅋㅋㅋ

└Examples of the things he’s bad at: horror, drawing

└Hey, we’ll see one of that two today^^

└I’m looking forward to the haunted house so much that I’m going crazy

“…”

Why… are you looking forward to something I am bad at?

Anyway, Testar on the screen received meticulous skydiving training and boarded the light airplane.

[Testar: (Focused)]

During this process, the attitude of the members drew quite a bit of attention.

– Raebin is chanting prayersㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ Kim Rabbit: This is… completely safe… I’m safe…

– Seon Ahyeon is surprisingly strong-willed, he doesn’t even blink an eyeㅋㅋ I don’t understand those who are scared, but I have to comfort them <- This point is really funnyㅋㅋㅋ

– Ha, but everyone is trying too hard for this… Guys, if you think it’s hard, you can mess around, this isn’t survivalㅠㅠ

└Ah… My heart suddenly hurts…

– Ryu Chungwoo running is so cool, even the instructor is amazed

I just got on and ran, so there was nothing special about the portion of my preparation.

Just a caption and a format when landing… I got one.

[Puppy landing]

And jumping… A black Welsh corgi was inserted as a translucent CG.

“Hahahaha!!”

“Puppy! Puppy!”

“…Stop it.”

Stop hitting the sofa, too.

‘…The reality production guys, when there’s nothing to edit, they deal with it using puppies.’

Where the hell did you get that kind of video material from?

Anyway, fans laughed and enjoyed it. But given the occasional responses mentioning Tibetan foxes… Keun Sejin’s interview seemed to last for a long time.

[Keun Sejin: It feels like flying in the sky? Haha, it’s not an easy experience. I liked it.]

[Cha Eugene: I want to do it again!]

[Kim Raebin: When I jumped down, I felt a refreshing sense of freedom.]

On the screen, interviews with warm words were inserted to deal with the shock of ‘abrupt skydiving’.

And next…

[PD Jung: Everyone, please divide into groups to join the ‘Invitation to the Haunted House’!]

It was the extreme horror experience.

[Keun Sejin: We…! We have bad memories of making groups…!]

[Kim Raebin: We will enter together!]

Fans were both saddened and delighted by Testar’s words that weren’t going to work.

– Bad memories adlibㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– Idol Inc PTSD here?ㅋㅋㅋ

– Is it that scaryㅋㅋ

– Ah, I’ve been waiting for this, guys, hurry up and go in (popcorn)

And as they wished… The figure of Testar exploring the haunted house was broadcasted.

But somehow… Our portion was the biggest.

‘…It must be because there are three of us.’

If I didn’t think like that, I wouldn’t be able to see it out of embarrassment.

[Keun Sejin: Aarrgh!]

[Cha Eugene: Uaaaa!]]

[Park Moondae: (Fainted)]

Fainted?

‘I was moving just fine, why do you put captions like that?’

Looking at the screen, Keun Sejin and Cha Eugene clapped and laughed.

“Right! I thought you really fainted!”

“Your soul left your body!”

…Cha Eugene also knew advanced words like soul.

“…It wasn’t like that.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Keun Sejin grinned.

“Then tell me the one thing said when you were being chased.”

“…”

Was there… something said?

“You don’t remember, right? You don’t know, right? It’s because you fainted!”

Keun Sejin chuckled, saying that we should thank him for forming the group.

“Hey, look over there. It’s coming out now!”

“…”

When I turned my head, I saw an employee running down the hallway on the screen.

…Sure enough, there was a sound of screaming.

[Bbbirrrrrrrddd…!]

“See?”

Keun Sejin asked triumphantly.

But right after that, Cha Eugene and Keun Sejin started screaming louder on both sides of the screen.

[Aaaaaaa!!]

[※The volume is adjusted.]

“…”

It was because of these guys.

In the meantime, the broadcasting team collected Keun Sejin’s quiet activities, edited them with emphasis, and broadcasted them.

[Doing everything while being scared]

[Oh? He found it?]

[Keunse who takes care of his team members]

[Found it alone]

– Hey, Keun Sejin is kind of cool?

– Did you see him change direction as soon as he found it?

– What’s this, he’s just enjoying the fearㅋㅋㅋ He’s really good at exploring

– He is the competence itself

– Moondae is completely frozen, so cuteㅠㅠ

– Our puppy can’t even bark, he’s so gentle

“…”

When I turned my head, Keun Sejin was smiling broadly.

“Wow, Keun Sejin shortened the escape time? As expected, he was taking care of Moondae!”

It must be hard have been for him, but I wish I could hit that guy’s mouth at least once.

* * *

‘Invitation to the Haunted House’ ended by telling a little bit of its backstory on the broadcast.

[The identity of the photos taken by Testar is…?]

The storyline, which combined human sacrifice with the 20th-century western classic haunted house, was quite creepy.

“Ah, that’s why there was an altar there.”

“…It’s kind of sad.”

“…”

People had different sensitivities, so let’s move on.

Anyway, the first part of the trip ended with the scene of eating a whole grilled pig.

Taking care of the staff’s share in this kind of cut was now almost a national rule, so the scene came out well.

– It’s nice to see you guys eating wellㅠㅠ

– Wow, the pig disappeared in a snapㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– Are they not managing themselves? They always eat meat

└What are you talking about? All of Testar members are too thin

└Manage your own body

– Please do a mukbang on the W appㅠㅠ

Hmm, that last comment was worth considering.

‘The reality show will end next week.’

Episode 7 was actually the end, and episode 8 seemed to be a special highlights compilation with captions like director’s cuts.

In fact, considering that most idol reality shows were finished within 4 episodes, this was already lengthened to a mind-blowing level.

In addition to the momentum when <Idol Inc> had just finished its final episode, a huge drama was coming out on another cable at the same time slot so Tnet’s scheduling was empty.

‘It’s almost longer than the activity period.’

The music show was also the last this week. The debut album activity could be seen as complete.

‘Should I do a W live to commemorate the end of the activity?’

I went back to my bedroom and logged into Testar’s account on the W app to check.

And I was a little surprised. The last live was just a few hours ago.

[Test]

But the length of the video was 1 minute and 2 seconds.

‘…One minute?’

I didn’t know what the hell happened.

Considering that I couldn’t hear anything, it wasn’t an accident, but I didn’t know what was going on.

‘Who is it?’

First of all, the most likely candidate was Keun Sejin. But there was no way that guy only did it for one minute.

I clicked on the black thumbnail.

With some white noise, a dark screen was printed out.

And after a while.

Suddenly, the screen was filled with forearms.

[Ah…, l-like this…]

[Huh?]

[…Ugh!]

It was the end of the video.

‘It’s Seon Ahyeon.’

It seemed he had touched something wrong and turned on the actual live while practicing.

Looking at the comments, everyone was crying because it was so cute. There were quite a few people who made happy guesses that he was rearranging and would play it at night.

It was just a little strange.

‘Um, with his personality, I think he would have posted a long apology on SNS.’

When I accessed Testa’s SNS account several times today, I didn’t see any trace of it.

‘I was going to do W live anyway, so I’ll have to talk about it.’

It was also easier to proceed with one or three people together than do it alone.

I would be less burdened if a motivated guy joined.

I went to the next room and knocked on the door.

“Can I come in?”

“…Y-Yeah!”

The door opened immediately. Kim Raebin was still in the living room and Seon Ahyeon was alone in the room.

“W-What is it…?”

But why are you walking on eggshells?

I used to be like that too, but the time for this had already passed.

‘Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve heard Seon Ahyeon saying something today.’

He’d become quite talkative lately.

Now, his attitude and tone had returned back to the beginning of <Idol Inc.>.

“What’s going on with you?”

“N-No.”

Seon Ahyeon stubbornly denied it. Huh.

“You’re breaking out in a cold sweat right now.”

“…!!”

“If you don’t want to tell me, tell Chungwoo hyung or the manager hyung.”

“W-Wait.”

Seon Ahyeon struggled to open his mouth, still breaking out in a cold sweat.

“I-I… m-made a mistake.”

“W live?”

“Y-You saw…”

“Yeah. You accidentally turned it on. But well… It’s not a problem.”

Everyone in the comments said that they enjoyed it, but Seon Ahyeon shook his head heavily.

“T-That… I-I turned it on, it wasn’t an accident.”

“…?”

Seon Ahyeon swallowed.

“I-I was going to turn it on, but then I turned it off.”

“…”

“I-I was too s-scared….”