The Gates Opened on the First Day of Debut Chapter 21

“Th-The center? Me?”

 

In a rare moment of panic, I asked while stuttering.

 

The vocal trainer and even the dance trainer were visibly shocked, but Kim Junwoo simply shrugged as if it weren’t an issue.

 

“Yes. Are you not interested?”

 

“Uh… it’s not that I don’t have ambition, but my skills are still lacking…” 

 

There wasn’t a trainee in the world who would dislike being the center.

 

Except, of course, for Okada, who liked me to an unusual degree, and Seo Yijae, who was suffering from burnout.

 

Actually, when our mission song was revealed to be Starlight, I had briefly thought about it.

 

‘What if… I become the center?’

 

However, looking at my miserable stats, I immediately folded that thought. 

 

If I took on the center position with these stats, I would be roasted to crisp, failing to even make it to the live broadcast stage before getting eliminated. 

 

I had the Copycat trait, but it was too risky to rely solely on Okada’s dance stats for the center position.

 

Moreover, the center of our opposing guild was Han Theo.

 

‘A Han Theo vs. Yoo Sung matchup would be worth watching, but Han Teo vs. Kim Cho-wol? Well… that’s basically throwing the game.’ 

 

So, I had decisively given up on the center.

 

However, giving up on the center didn’t mean I was giving up on the stage.

 

“Is that so? I think Trainee Kim Chowol would suit it just as well as Trainee Yoo Sung.”

 

Suit it where, exactly…?

 

I rolled my eyes, scanning the expressions of Kim Junwoo and the other judges.

 

I thought for a moment whether they were playing a prank on me, but that didn’t seem to be the case. 

 

That meant he genuinely thought I suited the center position….

 

“It might be difficult for Starlight, but if given the chance, I will definitely aim for the center later.”

 

“Hmm… well, I understand. It’s still a bit of a shame….”

 

Kim Junwoo kept smacking his lips as if he were truly disappointed.

 

By this point, even I was feeling frustrated to death.

 

Is he doing this because he’s worried about me?

 

But there really was no need for concern.

 

I had already prepared a way to survive….

 

“Anyway, that concludes the intermediate evaluation. Good work, everyone. Kim Chowol’s guild, change your center and practice again. We’ll see you at the final evaluation.”

 

“Yes!”

 

The guild members, including myself, answered loudly.

 

Of course, Joo Gilhyung kept his mouth shut.

 

After bowing to the judges, we headed out to return to the practice room.

 

As soon as we stepped outside, Joo Gilhyung, who hadn’t said a word, began stomping off in the opposite direction of the practice room.

 

“Gilhyung! Let’s go practice!”

 

I called out to him loudly, but Joo Gilhyung didn’t stop, acting as if he hadn’t heard me.

 

I snorted inwardly.

 

‘Well, I didn’t expect anything anyway.’

 

I slowly retracted my outstretched arm and looked back at my guild members.

 

“Uh… should we start practicing for now?”

 

“Yeah. The center has changed, after all.”

 

Seo Yijae, who was unusually quiet, spoke up with a nod.

 

We decided to head back to the practice room for the time being.

 

*    *    *

 

“Should we re-divide the parts first?”

 

Back in the practice room, I spoke to Yoo Sung, Okada, and Seo Yijae.

 

The three guild members nodded.

 

“Sungie can just take the center parts as they are. The problem is Gilhyung’s parts….”

 

Since Joo Gilhyung was missing, dividing the parts was a bit awkward.

 

Reducing or changing parts behind his back?

 

It could look like we were bullying Joo Gilhyung.

 

If we got on Jang Hyuksoo’s bad side, we could plummet to the depths in an instant.

 

‘Though it seems like it’ll be fine this time.’

 

Since Joo Gilhyung was such a compelling villain, they wouldn’t try to make us look like the villains instead of him.

 

But I still had to be cautious.

 

After some thought, I pointed at the sheet music for Starlight.

 

“Hiro and Hyung, you guys take one or two of Yoo Sung’s original parts.”

 

Yoo Sung had the most parts excluding the center.

 

Giving all of Yoo Sung’s original parts to Joo Gilhyung didn’t seem like a great idea.

 

Even if Okada and Seo Yijae took one or two, Yoo Sung would still have plenty, so it didn’t matter.

 

I thought it was a fairly rational decision, but the three of them looked back at me in surprise.

 

“What? What about you?”

 

“Me?”

 

“Your parts are already the fewest. You’re saying you won’t take any?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

 

At my answer, Yoo Sung’s expression gradually grew fierce.

 

“Don’t you want to debut?”

 

“Huh? Of course I do.”

 

“If you want to debut, you should be greedy for parts.”

 

Yoo Sung let out a deep sigh of frustration.

 

Okada, who had been fidgeting for a while, tugged at my clothes and spoke.

 

“Hyung, I’m okay. You take the parts!”

 

“I don’t need them either.”

 

Following Okada, even Seo Yijae yielded the parts.

 

Flustered, I waved my hands.

 

“No, really, I’m fine! And while Gilhyung makes mistakes often, he’s still better than me, isn’t he?”

 

If I took more parts here, there’s no telling what people would say behind my back.

 

They’d probably trash me, saying a guy with no talent who luckily got a high rank and formed a guild was now viciously being greedy for parts.

 

“For the quality of the stage, it’s right for Gilhyung to have more parts than me.”

 

Of course, half of that was the truth and half was a lie.

 

I was aiming for a ‘big impact’ rather than parts that were barely noticeable whether they were there or not.

 

“If we re-divide the parts… hm, I think it would be good if Hiro took this and this, and Yijae Hyung took from here to here. How does that sound?”

 

The three didn’t say anything to my suggestion.

 

I didn’t give them a chance to speak and stood up immediately.

 

“Now, let’s practice, practice! Sungie, you need time to practice the center parts separately, right?”

 

“No, I’m fine.”

 

At Yoo Sung’s words, Okada and Seo Yijae were shocked.

 

Since I had expected this to some extent, I just pretended to be surprised.

 

“Because I’ve already memorized all the center’s lyrics and choreography.”

 

Seo Yijae was so surprised his eyes went wide as he asked Yoo Sung.

 

“You wouldn’t have had time while practicing your own parts… when on earth did you memorize them?”

 

Yoo Sung scratched the back of his neck, looking a bit embarrassed.

 

“They just get memorized even if I don’t want them to. If I watch the stage video about three times….”

 

This obnoxious, talented b*stard.

 

While some people have to regress dozens of times to memorize lyrics and choreography, he memorizes everything after watching it just three times.

 

Why is the world so unfair?

 

The only consolation was that both Okada and Seo Yijae were so dumbfounded that they couldn’t say a word.

 

“Enough of that, let’s hurry up and practice. We don’t have much time.” 

 

At Yoo Sung’s words, Okada and Seo Yijae belatedly came to their senses.

 

I connected the Bluetooth speaker to the tablet.

 

Okada crept up to me and whispered softly.

 

“Hyung.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Do you know it after watching it three times too, Hyung?” 

 

What is he talking about now?

 

I looked at Okada with a bewildered expression.

 

“You know it right away too, Hyung.”

 

Only then did I realize what Okada was saying.

 

It seemed he was asking if I also memorized lyrics and choreography quickly like Yoo Sung.

 

Unfortunately, my memorization skills are average.

 

The reason it seemed like I memorized lyrics and choreography quickly was all thanks to dozens of regressions. 

 

“No.”

 

“B-but, you knew it right away too, Hyung.”

 

“That’s… well, I prepared in advance.”

 

“Prepared in advance?”

 

“予習。 先に勉強してきたって。(Preparation. It means I studied ahead of time.)” 

 

“あ、予習！(Ah, preparation!)” 

 

Well, it wasn’t a lie.

 

Even if I learned it by crashing and breaking through real-life experience.

 

“Let’s practice now.”

 

“Yes!”

 

Okada smiled brightly and nodded at my words.

 

Even though he now knew my memorization skills were average, he didn’t seem to care.

 

In fact, the look in his eyes became even more burdensome.

 

I wondered what on earth Okada was thinking, but on the other hand, I didn’t really want to know.

 

*    *    *

 

While we re-divided the parts and practiced until dawn, Joo Gilhyung never showed his face until the very end.

 

“Ugh!”

 

While practicing, Seo Yijae missed his footing and fell to the floor.

 

We stopped practicing immediately.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“I’m fine. I just scraped it a little.”

 

I bent down to check Seo Yijae’s condition. 

 

His knee was a bit red from being scraped on the floor, but as he said, it wasn’t a serious injury.

 

After checking the wound, I shifted my gaze to his face.

 

“Hyung, you’re exhausted, aren’t you?”

 

“….”

 

Seo Yijae clamped his mouth shut at my question.

 

With his younger teammates practicing hard, he probably felt a bit embarrassed to say he was tired.

 

I checked the time.

 

[3:21 A.M.]

 

We had started in the morning, and after lunch and the intermediate evaluation, we had kept practicing….

 

Excluding meal times and small breaks in between, we had practiced for at least 10 hours.

 

“Shall we stop here for today?”

 

Seo Yijae seemed reluctant to stop practicing because of him, but Yoo Sung and Okada nodded obediently.

 

Yoo Sung and Okada hadn’t shown it, but they must have been exhausted as well.

 

“We need to rest so we can work hard during practice tomorrow.”

 

We tidied up the practice room.

 

Since we would be coming back in about six hours anyway, we only cleaned up the trash. 

 

Walking through the cold air, we arrived at the dormitory building and parted ways to go to our respective rooms.

 

Yoo Sung and I were in the same room since we were in the same guild, but Okada and Seo Yijae had different rooms.

 

Since they were temporary members who joined as special mercenaries, they hadn’t moved rooms.

 

“See you at the cafeteria tomorrow… ah, this morning.”

 

After a brief greeting with Okada and Seo Yijae, I went to the room I shared with Yoo Sung.

 

After a quick wash, Yoo Sung and I lay down on our beds immediately.

 

Tick, tick.

 

The sound of the clock hands moving echoed in the quiet room.

 

About ten minutes must have passed.

 

Yoo Sung, whom I thought had fallen asleep, suddenly spoke.

 

“You knew, didn’t you?”

 

“….”

 

“I know you’re not asleep.”

 

Yoo Sung said in a sharp voice.

 

I knew exactly what he was talking about.

 

‘The center is you.’

 

Those were the words I had said in front of the vending machine after Joo Gilhyung was chosen as the center.

 

In Yoo Sung’s eyes, I must seem like some kind of prophet.

 

But I couldn’t do something like prophesying.

 

This was just… a sort of intuition that develops when you repeat an experience dozens of times that others can’t.

 

“If I really had the ability to prophesy, I would have become a shaman, not an idol.”

 

“….”

 

“I just… believed in you.”

 

I believed in the Yoo Sung I had seen through dozens of regressions and my own intuition.

 

Yoo Sung said nothing to my answer.

 

Just as the silence stretched and I began to think he had fallen asleep without responding.

 

Instead of an answer from Yoo Sung, a familiar notification sound rang in my ears.

 

[The progress of the Sub-Quest has been updated.]

 

[Please check the Sub-Quest.]

 

[Sub-Quest: 

Recruit Companions

Description: Recruit companions for a successful debut. 

Companions Recruitment Progress (2/6) 

Success Reward: Deferral of Gate occurrence (180 days)]

 

[1. Okada Hiro (Status window available) 

2. Yoo Sung (Status window available) 
3. — 
4. — 
5. — 
6. —]

 

[Hidden Quest cleared.]

 

[Hidden Quest: Recruit your first S-rank companion. 

Reward: 1 Item Selection Ticket]

 

The corners of my mouth curled up.

 

Ah, this is interesting.

 

Even if Yoo Sung didn’t answer, I could tell his true feelings.