Debuting by Riding the Returnee’s Bus Chapter 63

I was getting angry.

 

The saying, ‘Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile’, fit this situation perfectly. I wasn’t showing it, but there was no way I couldn’t be irritated.

 

Actually… on one hand, I could understand their desperation.Their years as trainees kept piling up, while their hopes of debut kept slipping away, and they hadn’t shown any notable performance even in Idol Classism, which was considered their last hope. How could they not be anxious?

 

To make matters worse, they had been utterly humiliated in the interim evaluation, and more disgrace was waiting for them. Once the first interim evaluation aired, it was certain they would be ridiculed. They’d probably concluded that the only way to restore their reputation was to face it head-on.

 

It was a ploy to pull themselves together and win over public sentiment by showing a completely different side from the interim evaluation.

 

‘Phew….’

 

I remembered something similar happening back when I was a slave. Strictly speaking, the circumstances were different, but it was the same in that they came to me with a favor that wasn’t really a favor just to survive.

 

The Master’s slave, Joy, was a slave who enjoyed the Master’s exclusive affection and was a model student who always achieved good results in experiments and ‘games’. The slaves who failed to produce results—more accurately, those on the verge of death—would come to me and beg me to put in a good word with the Master.

 

Of course, the Lee Unha of that time refused their requests. I wasn’t even in a position to grant them. It was true that I was favored, but I was still just another slave who could die at any moment, and at the time, I’d become deeply sick of looking after other people or forming relationships.

 

In the end, those guys died. Another slave who’d accepted their request died. Yet another slave who’d accepted their request also died.

 

I felt no guilt. I only felt a sense of relief, thinking that if I had made a mistake, I might have died too—or worse, become a body that was neither dead nor alive, suffering forever. Before they died, they sent me looks of resentment, but I felt nothing even when I saw those eyes.

 

‘And you expect me to help you?’

 

This was a situation where I had to clearly express my refusal.

 

“I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do that.”

 

A silence fell for a moment.

 

“Huh?”

 

They didn’t seem to expect me to refuse.

 

“No, Un-ha. This isn’t something that would be a loss for you.”

 

“Why isn’t it a loss? Of course it’s a loss. You said I’m already guaranteed to debut… but who knows what will happen later? If I show poor performance in this mission… evaluations can turn bad at any time. If I miss the chance to debut because of that, I’ll regret yielding to you guys in this mission for the rest of my life. Besides, asking me to publicly support you is basically asking me to paint a target on my own back… That’s a burden for me too.”

 

“Uh? I mean, we just….”

 

“Hyungs.”

 

“…….”

 

“You aren’t idiots. You’ve been trainees for a long time, and you’ve researched this industry just as much. You’ve seen it all. You know what the right answer is, what the wrong answer is… and you know exactly who is being stubborn. You already know what the choice that truly benefits the team is.”

 

“Uh….”

 

“We have to follow the parts Judge Paige assigned. Even if your pride is hurt, even if you don’t stand out as much, this has to center around Taehee. I can give you my intro part. But the chorus absolutely has to be Taehee… no, we have to give Haejun hyung full authority. He needs to be the one directing everything from beginning to end.”

 

“No, we mean….”

 

“This is a competition.”

 

“We know, but….”

 

“I’m saying we have to win, no matter what. Are you confident you can win? Can you take down the Nobility team we’re up against?”

 

“If we work hard….”

 

“Working hard isn’t enough. We have to win.”

 

“It’s not like we get eliminated if we lose this mission.”

 

“How can you be so sure we won’t? They never announced it, but you never know. You know what this program’s like. We could absolutely be eliminated.”

 

“So, because you don’t want to be eliminated….”

 

“Of course, I don’t want to be eliminated. I want to debut too. I’m sure everyone else feels the same. I think I’ve yielded to you guys a lot already. From the song selection to getting to this point, I’ve been yielding. But….”

 

“…….”

 

“Have you guys yielded even once?”

 

“We….”

 

“I’m not stupid. I know you latched onto the [TOP9] song because you were chasing a storyline. I know you’ve been trying to get Haejun hyung and Taehee to reconcile whenever the cameras were rolling. I understood that you were desperate, so I kept my mouth shut.”

 

“…….”

 

“But this is going too far. If this had really been the best choice for the team, I wouldn’t have said anything. But from beginning to end, every decision you’ve made has been for yourselves. And now you’re asking for another compromise? No matter how desperate you are… isn’t this a bit shameless?”

 

I ended up pouring my words out in a rush. Compared to how I had treated the Hopeless Trio, these words were almost cute, but from the Elder Duo’s perspective, they were offensive enough. Naturally, I expected a strong backlash.

 

‘If we start fighting here, this is going to get really loud.’

 

“…….”

 

‘They’re not going to snap and come at me, are they?’

 

Even at a glance, both of them looked physically strong. A flicker of regret passed through my mind, wondering if I should have brought this up when Number 98 was around. Of course, it was almost laughable that someone who had fought for his life against slimes, goblins, and countless other small monsters during games would worry about getting beaten up by these two, but the difference in physical weight classes was never something you could completely ignore.

 

‘No. After seeing what happened with Kim Haejun and Jung Taehee, there’s no way they’d do something that stupid.’

 

I was listening closely, expecting them to at most raise their voices or spit out curses.

 

“Sorry….”

 

It was unexpected.

 

“We’re sorry….”

 

When I looked up slightly, I saw faces filled with self-loathing and depression. They even had tears in their eyes. It seemed they had hit a reality check because of my words, or perhaps they were looking back on everything that had happened… their emotions had welled up.

 

‘Why are the kids here… so fragile?’

 

I never imagined it would be settled this easily, so I was even more flustered. After acting like villains all this time, they were admitting they were wrong and lowering themselves so readily…. It almost made me think I should have just spoken up much earlier.

 

“Pretend you didn’t hear what we just said… Unha.”

 

“And don’t worry about the team mission. We’ll do our best regardless of the conversation we had today….”

 

Caught off guard by their attitude, I didn’t know what to say. It was a bit of a random thought, but… I started wondering if I had been acting too defensively. I wondered if I had been getting stressed over nothing.

 

Had I been acting too sensitive toward these mid-20s guys who spent all day stuck in a practice room, as if they were some kind of massive threat? Of course, that didn’t mean the Elder Duo’s behavior had been justified.No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t bring myself to think well of them after everything that had happened.

 

But separate from that, I couldn’t help seriously wondering if I had been judging them through the mindset I’d developed in that other world—back when I was the slave Lee Unha. Outwardly, I had acted as though we were cooperating, as though we were one team, but from the very beginning I had kept my guard up.

 

When I remembered that these guys weren’t trying to bury Lee Unha in the Master’s lab, nor were they forming a faction to plot a conspiracy, I realized I had overreacted.

 

Come to think of it, I had been acting that way the whole time. While they were drawing lines, I was drawing lines too. I had completely separated myself and Jung Taehee from that duo, so what more was there to say? I kept talking about how we needed to become one team, but I hadn’t actually done it either.

 

“Haah….”

 

‘Yeah. You two must have been desperate too.’

 

“Phew….”

 

‘It’s not like helping you a little here is going to kill me… It’s not like I’ll be taking your place in those experiments… And picking fights with kids who’ve grown up in a greenhouse like this feels kind of ridiculous….’

 

That didn’t mean I was going to hand over the parts. No matter how I thought about it, the best way for the team to succeed was to leave everything to Kim Haejun. But I felt like I could help in a different way.

 

“Um. hyungs.”

 

“Uh… yeah?”

 

“Just leave the part distribution to Haejun hyung like I suggested.”

 

“We understand.”

 

“But… I’ll make sure you two don’t end up as background decorations.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“How?”

 

“We just have to make it look like you guys are playing a pivotal role. And you actually will be.”

 

“Us? A pivotal role?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Is that possible? We….”

 

‘Why did your confidence disappear all of a sudden?’

 

“You’ve been trainees for a long time, haven’t you? Your experience is overwhelming. In Haejun hyung’s case, he has so much talent that he’ll be fine even if we leave him alone… but his mental state isn’t great. Public opinion is terrible right now, too.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Taehee adapts fast and sings well, but he’s never been a trainee, so he’s still lacking in many ways.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I’m the same. I was only a trainee for a short time. I was basically kicked out.”

 

“You? You were kicked out?”

 

“Yes. They said I had no talent. I came here thinking this was my last chance, too. If this didn’t work, I was going to give up entirely. I got lucky and things worked out well, but… I fully understand how you guys feel.”

 

“…….”

 

“I see….”

 

“Yes. Anyway, the point is that I still have a lot to learn. How about you teach me your know-how and… things like that? I’ll tell Taehee too, to ask you guys for advice as much as possible. And… I’ll do the same.”

 

I thought it would be more effective to speak without the innocent act.

 

“Don’t you think it’d make for a good story?”

 

“Uh….”

 

“This has broadcast potential, hyungs.”

 

“Uh.”

 

“It’ll give you a narrative.”

 

“Uh….”

 

“Focus on showing how you lead your juniors. In the meantime, try to expose as many scenes as possible where the two of you talk about the struggles you have as the oldest members.”

 

“Uh… yeah….”

 

“I don’t know if there’s a demand for it, but you have to do something to get exposure so it makes it into the broadcast. Don’t make it too obvious, but try to be affectionate with each other. I’m saying try to create an ‘Oldest Hyungs’ line. Whether there’s demand for it or not, isn’t that still better than having no concept at all?”

 

In my eyes, I could see the Elder Duo nodding as if they were possessed.