I’m Debuting With The Bias I Killed Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 

“Code 4 trainee, please come forward.”

There was a brief silence. Go Jae-seong didn’t move. His face looked as though he didn’t even realize he had been called.

“Code 4 trainee?”

It wasn’t until the second call that his shoulders flinched.

“…Ah, yes!”

He barely managed a smile as he walked forward. He pretended to be calm, but it was already too late.

There was no way the cameras had missed his stiff expression.

“That concludes the announcement for the Code B group.”

The atmosphere in the practice room turned cold.

“……That’s it?”

Someone muttered.

The fact that my number hadn’t been called even in Code B meant…

‘I’m Code A?’

The murmuring spread in an instant.

“Does that make sense?”

“No, how long has he even been here?”

“I thought for sure Jae-seong would be A…”

“What the hell are the criteria?”

Overt suspicion and dissatisfaction poured out from behind me.

Even though it was still too early to reveal names, Go Jae-seong’s name was popping up here and there.

There were five people left, but everyone’s attention naturally focused on only two people.

Go Jae-seong and me. Yet Go Jae-seong was the one trying to stop the other trainees.

“Enough. There must have been a reason.”

Even while pretending to calm them down, he couldn’t hide his aggrieved expression.

‘What a sly bastard.’

Without saying anything himself, he made the people around him voice their dissatisfaction for him. That was Go Jae-seong’s method throughout the entire survival show.

“Congratulations, Code 2 trainee.”

Despite the considerable commotion, Kang Se-jun continued the announcement.

“You are the sole Code S and have become the first center of Boys Code.”

“Thank you so much!”

Joo-han stepped forward and bowed deeply.

“I’ll work hard!”

As expected, the center was Joo-han again this time. I had secretly hoped it would be Kang I-yul, but seeing it with my own eyes, I couldn’t deny that Joo-han had the skills to deserve it.

But there was one meaningful change.

Kang I-yul had become Code 3 instead of Code 6.

Unlike before, when he had narrowly missed the upper ranks, this time he had confidently made it into the debut group.

His all-out effort despite his injury seemed to have moved the judges considerably.

And there was one more thing.

[Danger Level: 85% (▼5%)]

‘Thank you, King of Hell!!’

It had dropped by 5% all at once. It was the result of me making the debut group and Kang I-yul’s ranking rising as well.

‘I just have to keep going like this.’

If I could stay in the debut group until the end and debut together with him.

Maybe I really could bring it all the way down to 0%.

“Code 20, Code 3, Code 10, and Code 1 trainees have automatically been assigned to the Code A group.”

“Seong-woo, congratulations!”

Han Sang-yoon patted me on the shoulder.

“Ah, ah. Yes, Sang-yoon… nim, you too.”

“You’re doing it again.”

Han Sang-yoon laughed, but the atmosphere around us didn’t loosen at all.

No one cared about who the center was anymore.

Everyone was fixated on one thing.

‘Why am I Code A?’

“Looks like there are some trainees who aren’t happy with the results.”

‘Oh, he really went straight for the jugular.’

Kang Se-jun’s remark, accompanied by a smile, immediately silenced the commotion.

“Let me explain the criteria for today’s signal song evaluation again.”

Kang Se-jun flipped through his cue cards.

“Today’s evaluation was not simply about choosing the person who danced the best.”

The expressions of several trainees stiffened.

“The signal song was revealed to you two days ago. Everyone was given the exact same song, choreography, and amount of time.”

Kang Se-jun’s gaze swept past the Code C group.

“The judges evaluated who was able to observe the choreography most accurately and execute it during that short period of time.”

“…Accurately?”

Someone cautiously asked.

“Yes. Accurately.”

This time, Katin took the microphone.

“Being good at dancing and accurately performing the choreography you’re given are two different things.”

He demonstrated a brief movement with his hand.

“The direction of your fingertips, the angle of your fingers. They might seem trivial, right?”

The trainees silently looked at him.

“But choreographers don’t put in details like these for no reason. They’re movements designed to create the mood and key points of the song.”

Katin lowered his hand.

“So missing a detail isn’t simply a mistake.”

His voice became firm.

“It means you either didn’t focus on the task you were given, or you just roughly arranged it according to your own familiar way of doing things.”

The murmuring disappeared completely.

‘So this was it.’

In the broadcast before my regression, this explanation had passed by briefly through editing. But hearing it directly on-site made the criteria crystal clear.

How faithfully had you completed the task you were given, within the allotted time?

That was the standard for this signal song evaluation.

“The trainees called to Code A and S…”

Katin looked toward our side.

“… were selected for the upper ranks because they accomplished all of that.”

“Ah…”

Short exclamations escaped from the trainees as if they finally understood.

“Actually… the discussion over the last spot took quite a while.”

At Kang Se-jun’s words, everyone’s eyes turned toward me again.

‘I know too, you bastards.’

Even the judges probably hadn’t found it easy to move me up to the Code A group.

But what came next was beyond everyone’s expectations.

“Code 10, who forgot the lyrics but continued the performance through freestyle. And Code 4, who missed two choreography details.”

And I was even more shocked than when Go Jae-seong had been called for Code B.

“What? The rookie was a lock?”

“They were actually debating between Choi Un-jo and Go Jae-seong?”

The direction of the murmuring completely reversed.

“Both of them had clear mistakes, so it was an extremely close decision.”

Kang Se-jun took a breath and observed the trainees’ reactions.

“The conclusion came down to the completeness of the performance. That’s why the final spot was given to Code 10.”

He smiled and looked toward Choi Un-jo, and Choi Un-jo… Thumped his chest twice with his fist. With a satisfied expression and the corners of his mouth curling upward, it was the reaction of someone thoroughly accustomed to praise.

“From now on, you’ll be performing on all kinds of stages. After debuting, you’ll face even tighter schedules and more difficult stages.”

He slowly looked around at the trainees.

“I hope you’ll do your best and complete the stage.”

It was advice that carried even more weight because it came from Kang Se-jun.

“Then, please take your places according to your respective Code groups.”

The codes for the debut group were displayed on the screen.

 

[Code 2 ▶ Code 1

Code 1 ▶ Code 2

Code 3 ▶ Code 3

Code 20 ▶ Code 4

Code 10 ▶ Code 5]

 

Joo-han, Code S and first place, stood at the very front.

Behind him, in order of ranking within the Code A group, stood Han Sang-yoon, Kang I-yul, me, and Choi Un-jo.

‘I’m ranked above Choi Un-jo.’

More than being ranked fourth, the thrill of standing beside Kang I-yul was overwhelming. And there was Go Jae-seong, standing one step behind us.

“The top five, please choose an additional item.”

Kang Se-jun closed his cue cards.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the signal song filming site!”

And with that, the shocking midterm evaluation came to an end.

“…Cut! That’s all for today’s filming.”

“Good work!”

“Thank you–”

 

***

 

Even after filming was over, it didn’t feel real.

‘I’m… in the upper ranks?’

Code A. The words kept bouncing around in my head.

My goal had been clear from the beginning. Just avoid the Code C group, which would receive a penalty during the signal song shoot.

So I had practiced like my life depended on it, but I thought the best I could manage was somewhere in the middle. No matter how carefully I handled all the details, I wasn’t actually good at dancing.

“Seong-woo, congratulations.”

The staff member who had witnessed me crying offered me sincere congratulations.

“I didn’t know, but you’re really good at singing.”

“Seriously… No wonder you cried. It must’ve been so frustrating, knowing you could do this well but your body just wouldn’t keep up.”

Singing…

The moment I heard those words, the puzzle finally fell into place.

The first thing was singing.

I had been setting the bar far too high all this time.

It was only natural. Before my regression, I heard fully polished vocals every day in the recording studio. Singers who sounded like the finished recording from the very first take. The spine-tingling live vocals I heard through my headphones… that was my standard.

‘This much is basic.’

Because of that, I had never thought of myself as being good at singing.

Hitting the right notes, memorizing the lyrics, singing all the way through while dancing… I had considered all of those things completely normal.

But it was only after watching the other trainees’ performances today that I realized.

‘Ah, right. They’re still trainees.’

People who were too out of breath to properly sing even a single line, people who forgot the lyrics while focusing on dancing, people who simply couldn’t hit high notes in the first place.

By trainee standards, I was higher up than I had thought. Just being able to sing all the way through while dancing already put me above the middle of the pack.

‘Of course, this is only possible because Nix isn’t a major agency.’

It was a company that had to gather trainees right up until filming for the survival show. In fact, before my regression, they ultimately couldn’t even fill all twenty spots and proceeded with nineteen trainees, so a considerable number of them were essentially filler.

And second, the details.

The evaluation criteria I had just heard came back to me.

How accurately had you completed the choreography within the same amount of time?

The evaluation criteria themselves had been the same before my regression. The difference was that Joo-han had been the only person who properly met those criteria.

The rest of the trainees had missed details to a similar degree, and in the end, the Code A ranking had inevitably been divided according to the completeness of their performances.

Even Go Jae-seong, who had missed only two this time, had missed more than five before my regression.

But this time was different.

Not only I, but Kang I-yul and Han Sang-yoon, who had practiced with me, hadn’t missed a single detail.

The moment the number of trainees who performed accurately increased, the evaluation criteria finally exerted their full effect.

The criteria hadn’t changed. The people who met the criteria had changed.

“…That’s crazy.”

The plan I had made to survive had ended up shaking the entire evaluation board.

My heart pounded hard. Getting a good position during the signal song shoot was an opportunity to get ahead from the very beginning.

But the joy lasted only a moment before anxiety crept in.

‘If my dancing skills get exposed later…’

I mocked myself inwardly.

‘I’m seriously going to get buried.’

The stronger the spotlight, the darker the shadow behind it.

I knew that fact better than anyone.

In the end, there was only one answer.

Practice, and more practice.

As if out of habit, I stood in front of the mirror again.

There wouldn’t be any live singing during tomorrow’s shoot. My advantage in singing would disappear, leaving only dancing. That actually put me at an even greater disadvantage.

The position of my feet, the angle of my arms, even the exact moment I turned my head. I slowly went over each movement one by one.

Now that I was Code A, I had to look like someone who belonged there.

But…

My body wavered from the very first move.

“Huh?”

My center of gravity pitched forward.

I hurriedly planted my foot to regain my balance, but something felt strange.

My body followed a beat later than I expected.

‘Maybe because I’ve relaxed after the tension.’

I brushed it off as nothing and started again.

This time, it was fine. The movements flowed naturally.

And then came the highlight.

One, two, three. The moment I bounced my chest three times.

Thump.

My heart dropped heavily once.

My breath caught in my throat.

‘Wait.’

I stopped moving with a hand clutching my chest.

I hurriedly steadied my breathing. But my heart refused to calm down.

‘Why is it doing this?’

I had pushed myself a little too hard in preparation for the midterm evaluation, but I hadn’t been this exhausted.

I slowly walked over to the wall. The moment I placed my palm against it, the cold sensation reached me a beat late.

That was when it happened. The edge of my vision warped slightly. My focus blurred, then returned, only to blur and return again.

I blinked hard.

Once, and then again. Only then did my vision return to normal.

“……Wow.”

A hollow laugh escaped me without my realizing it.

This wasn’t simple fatigue.

‘The Time-Reversing Hourglass.’

For as much time as I had turned back, everything my body should have gone through during that time remained behind. It wasn’t just the memories of practicing that remained. The fatigue from practicing had also accumulated, multiplied.

I leaned my back against the wall and lowered my head slightly. I was dizzy, but not to the point where I couldn’t practice right now.

But my body was warning me first. That if I continued like this, I would definitely cross the line.

‘Dangerous.’

Even without the status window appearing, I could instinctively feel it.

I thought I had gained more time than everyone else, but in reality, I had been piling up debt.

And not just any debt… the kind of private loan with an astronomical interest rate.

I looked at myself in the mirror again.

The dark circles beneath my eyes were definitely more pronounced.

“…I’ll have to control myself.”

The item wasn’t something I could use recklessly. I could only create things I truly needed, but that also meant I should only use them when I truly needed them.

It meant that deciding when that was ultimately fell on me as well.

I took my position again. This time, I only lightly went through the movements. I reviewed the points I needed to pay attention to during tomorrow’s shoot. The me reflected in the mirror moved very slowly.

For now, I was okay. But next time, I might not be.

That undeniable fact was quietly pushing me forward.