Debut or Die

“…??”

When someone said something like ‘I don’t know’ in today’s Grand Prize award speech, of course, the concert hall froze.

It wasn’t even a tone that came out of emotion and embarrassment, it was just a soft and mysterious tone.

‘This bastard can’t be going crazy and talking nonsense, right?’

A chill ran down my spine. Of course, that bastard probably didn’t know that VTIC Cheongryeo’s record of attempted murder would be published as an article if he mentioned Park Moondae.

Most of the people watching the stage were probably running their pupils around mercilessly at that awkward timing.

Cheongryeo continued.

[I really don’t know. There was once a night when I was so desperate for this spot that I cried and couldn’t sleep, and I couldn’t stand it.]

Even if the members next to him were frozen, Cheongryeo’s slow words continued.

[And after the time that felt like it would never come, I finally reach this far.]

Cheongryeo tilted his head.

[I still don’t know what kind of enlightenment the desperateness at that time gave me. But now, my feeling is more than that.]

The audience held their breath. Cheongryeo laughed.

[Thank you. For not letting me give up.]

That was how the speech ended.

Belatedly, normal applause started pouring out from the people who realized that it had a proper heartwarming and emotional ending.

Fans had been cheering enthusiastically from the beginning.

Perhaps they were thinking that such feelings came out because of the recent commotion among the members.

Probably… That feeling actually came from other experiences.

“…”

I sat down quietly, following the others.

On stage, the VTIC guys were wiping away tears and clumsily patting Cheongryeo’s back. It must be something he didn’t normally do.

Still, with the title song of the Grand Prize album playing, VTIC stood on stage until the song was over.

Then, after the camera light was turned off for a while, they slowly came down from the stage.

“Hmm.”

I felt like he just greeted me from over there, but I couldn’t be sure because of the distance.

It didn’t matter.

Anyway, the ceremony ended with such cheers.

“I want to win the Grand Prize!”

As soon as we left and got in the car, Cha Eugene murmured somewhat sulkily.

It seemed he got interested because VTIC received the Grand Prize the moment we came down with the Popularity Award.

“Why? We did get one. Artist of the Year Award at ToneA!”

“It’s not real! They present our broadcast!”

Surprisingly, Keun Sejin didn’t waver despite the harsh remarks.

“Hey, we still earned it~”

“No. I want to win it fair and square.”

Hmm, now it was time for Kim Raebin to step in.

“We did win it fair and square.”

I knew it.

“It’s the same thing.”

“That’s not true!”

“It is!”

I was just glad there were no people around. I picked up my smartphone and ignored the two people who inadvertently started bickering while forgetting about the Grand Prize.

It wasn’t just once or twice this happened, and they would go quiet on their own even if no one stopped them.

“A-Are you reading the comments about us?”

“Might as well.”

I was thinking of monitoring it out of habit, but there were things I had to organize first.

[You have a new message +34]

There were a lot of text messages and message notifications.

Maybe those were congratulatory messages. Against all expectations, Testar received the Popularity Award, so the article must have been quite big.

‘There’s nothing urgent.’

It was just sent out of courtesy by strangers I had exchanged numbers with anyway.

I just skimmed through text messages and message notifications.

… And, I saw a distinct text message among the congratulatory texts.

[I brought this guy in]

Not beating around the bush, in the text message that came with only those five words without any other explanation, a picture of a rather filthy dog was attached.

The guy sleeping in the corner of the sofa looked like a retriever mix.

“…”

Well, I supposed it was over with this.

I skipped the message without deleting it.

And just as I was about to start monitoring again, I heard a deafening call from behind.

“Moondae hyung! Don’t you think Cha Eugene’s remarks on the Grand Prize are rash and reckless?!”

“We must have a dream! Kim Raebin is narrow-minded!”

You even know words like narrow-minded?

Anyway, it seemed that the topic of conversation had turned to Grand Prize after those two fought.

‘Where is the leader?’

Looking at Ryu Chungwoo, it seemed he was busy talking to the manager about the next schedule.

It couldn’t be helped.

I nodded and opened my mouth.

“Winning a Grand Prize would be nice.”

“That’s right!”

“But if you want to say you will win Grand Prize next year, it’s better not to say it too often.”

“Why?”

I smirked.

“It would be less touching if you win it after talking about it so much, wouldn’t it?”

“…!”

Behind the shocked faces of those two, Keun Sejin snickered.

“Hey, look at Moondae’s spirit.”

“That’s cool.”

“Thank you for your advice on the new perspective.”

Don’t mention it.

In fact, if Testar maintained this momentum, there was a good chance of winning the Grand Prize within a year or two.

‘VTIC will go to the army, too.’

Of course, I didn’t know if I would be living as Park Moondae until then.

For now, let’s assume that would be the case.

“T-That’s right, Moondae. Let’s work hard and get the Grand Prize…!”

“Yes.”

“Grand Prize!”

Cha Eugene was excited and began started humming a song and put Grand Prize as the subject instead of Present.

Bae Sejin covered his ears with earphones and went into the corner. Too bad.

‘That will keep him in a good mood for a while.’

Well, it wasn’t just because of Grand Prize.

“Grand Prize for the day I finally go home~”

It was because the next reality shooting destination was his home in San Diego that Cha Eugene sang like that.

Thinking about baking hundreds of hotteoks in two weeks, I felt like I was already getting muscle pain.

As expected, the food business was heavy labor.

‘Well, my arms are all healed.’

I looked at my wrist, where the bruise had almost disappeared.

Now, even in the examination, they didn’t say any caution.

So by then… It seemed I could resume my solo performance as well.

‘Good.’

I was already looking forward to the encore concert in Seoul.

Of course, I had to finish the rest of the Japan tour in January before that.

* * *

Testar’s concert tour in Japan was conducted in an arena size.

It was the size right before the dome tour, which was often seen as a symbol of a super-big singer, and it was an ambitious size before <Idol Inc.> was aired in Japan.

By the way, Park Moondae was bitter that the remaining tickets were sold through dumping.

(TL note: Dumping: selling a large volume of a product in a single transaction at a price lower than the market price.)

However, after <Idol Inc.> aired, it turned out to be a good prediction of demand.

[Testar’s first arena tour in Japan, 8 concerts in 4 cities sold out]

Ticketing for concerts in the form of a lottery was highly competitive in each city.

And the performances that wouldn’t disappoint those who succeeded in the competitive ticketing continued.

– Everyone did the opening with a smile, so cool and cute!

– Here is an idol otaku who screamed at their favorite solo performance (laugh)

– The moment the encore came out, this magical moment was also over, I really couldn’t hold back my tears because of that feeling… I am still crying｡ﾟ (ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ) ﾟ｡

– Not even 1mm of them is messed up by the flowing sweat, so he can’t be human, right? This kid is obviously an angel who came down to Earth

‘No, where are the pictures…!’

Bang. Kim Rabin’s personal fan hit the keyboard with her fist.

She would be lucky if there was a supply of one or two fancams for each stage, as there had been many cases where solo cuts were completely wiped out.

‘Why isn’t there any detailed review on the stage?!’

The solo fan cried out that this was why she didn’t like the tour in Japan. The control was so strict it was like there was no schedule at all.

Still, Testar was kind.

Dear Loviewer, I’m here

(Bear emoticon)

This is today’s penalty outfitㅋㅋㅋ But everyone is still cute, right? For sure! (Coy emoticon)

(Photo)

Even during the tour, each member took turns and constantly left a review of today’s schedule and performance on SNS.

‘Big Bird always picks and uploads the best pictures.’

Kim Raebin’s solo fan grumbled, but she saved the photos of Kim Raebin and Park Moondae that Keun Sejin uploaded.

“So cute…”

Testar’s improvised stage penalty outfit was a kindergarten uniform.

If you scraped together the contents mentioned in Japanese fans’ reviews, it was said that <It’s Me>, Idol Inc season 3’s theme song, was arranged as a children’s song.

‘F*ck…!’

She heard that in Yokohama–or was it Jokohama?–last week, they even performed a song from a famous idol rhythm game unit, but her stomach hurt because it ended with one blurry picture.

The solo fan banged her head on the desk.

Bang!

‘Please come back to the country…!’

Fortunately, thanks to the overwhelming stage of the award ceremony and cute congratulatory W live not too long ago, the public opinion of domestic fans was still fine.

However, there was a subtle anxiety that VTIC might lose all of its influx this year.

This was because they were still on a winning streak making a first-place record after their comeback stage at the awards ceremony.

‘That bastard is good at talking.’

The solo fan wriggled her eyebrows when she recalled Cheongryeo’s speech at the award ceremony that incited hardcore fans with huge aggro.

She recalled it along with the VTIC fans who stealthily made provoking noises.

– ㅠㅠI guess my kids feel sorry for their juniors because they can’t change generations. They’re so nice to them…

– It can’t be helped that a great team continues to lead this game, they’re just following their abilities! So I think we’ll see each other in the top spot for a long time. I love you

└This is a remark of a Tika who is scared that the junior will rise up following their abnormal abilities and beat them up

At that time, Kim Raebin’s fan, who was still furious even after defending Testar in the last comment, exclaimed.

‘Guys, please give us something in Korea!’

It was then.

Tiring.

“Huh?”

She got a WeTube notification on her smartphone.

[(Trailer) I’ll sell hotteok instead of lemonade at the maknae’s house (Resolute) Testar’s Idol Working Holiday Season 2]

“Crazy!”

At the long-awaited popular content, the fan hit the Bluetooth keyboard.

* * *

The morning after the Japan arena tour was completely over.

When I woke up after a good sleep on the plane, I arrived at Cha Eugene’s neighborhood as planned.

I bought some presents and headed to his home, but a few unexpected things happened there.

Mainly because of language issues.

It was because an old woman who ran out of Cha Eugene’s house spread her arms wide and shouted.

“Bienvenido carifto!!“

And Cha Eugene replied.

“Abuela, estoy aqui!“

“…??”

It’s not English… isn’t it?

‘Spanish?’

Of course, it was a language that no one on the team had ever spoken before.

Cha Eugene ran out and hugged the old woman through the unexpected language barrier.

It must be his grandmother.

Ryu Chungwoo hurriedly grabbed Cha Eugene.

“E-Eugene? Is that your grandmother?”

“Yes! Ah, she speaks English! My grandmother speaks English well!”

Rather than that, his carefreeness in not bothering to mention that he spoke Spanish was more surprising.

In any case, after a clumsy introduction in English, a welcome greeting, and a gift exchange, the reality shooting began in earnest.

First of all, obviously, it started with the scene where we asked Cha Eugene’s family to eat hotteok.

“What about your parents?”

“They’re working now!”

For that reason, the solo cut of the grandmother was included instead of the other people who said they hadn’t left work yet.

And the grandmother cleanly emptied the plate.

“I guess she likes it.”

“That’s a relief.”

As the six grown-up men who gathered in the kitchen to bake hotteok were whispering, Cha Eugene, who had been talking with his grandmother, interpreted.

[It’s delicious, but um, she said she wants it a little sweeter! Because it’s a snack!]

“Yes.”

I nodded.

Looking back at the breakfast earlier, it seemed that this place generally had sweeter tastes than Korea.

“Then let’s add dalgona.”

(TL notes: Dalgona is a Korean candy made by adding baking soda to sugar and stirring it.)

“What?”

“Yes?”

And after a while, we decided to sell a crazy snack called dalgona ice cream hotteok.