I’m Debuting With The Bias I Killed Chapter 30

Chapter 30

 

I couldn’t properly remember how the rest of the stages passed by.

“You prepared the stage really well, didn’t you?”

By the time I came to my senses, the feedback for the Blooming team was already well underway.

“Especially trainee Go Jae-seong.”

The original artist mimicked the gesture with his hand.

“This–running your hand down your face like this. It suits you really well.”

“Thank you!”

Go Jae-seong smiled brightly.

I stared blankly at that smiling face.

The move that had instantly pulled Kang I-yul into the safe zone of the debut lineup after the broadcast. The scene that fans had replayed hundreds of times as GIFs and that had caused his fancam views to explode. It was the stage that had even made the judges comment, “I didn’t know Kang I-yul had such a daring side.”

“We always said it would be great if we could have just one more killing part like that while promoting.”

I couldn’t hear the conversation taking place in the friendly atmosphere. My head was already filled with questions.

Could it be that even something like this was a prank by His Excellency the King of Hell?

[S: His Excellency the King of Hell does not interfere in matters of the human world. Please refrain from reckless remarks concerning His Excellency the King of Hell.]

At this rate, if I insulted the King of Hell, would he drag me back to that other world?

[S: It is not impossible.]

My posture instinctively became more respectful. Right. Although it took the form of a system, I must not forget that its essence was the King of Hell.

The king of the afterlife who held people’s lifelines in his hands, and the administrator of this wish ticket.

I quickly shook my head.

Right. That was absurd. The gesture itself, running a hand down one’s face, was common.

‘The reason I-yul shot up in popularity was that he made a common gesture feel special, wasn’t it?’

The song Blooming itself might have evoked that kind of movement. Anyone could have come up with a similar point.

I tried to think of it that way.

‘Right. There’s no way Go Jae-seong could be a regressor-’

Suspicious things Go Jae-seong had done kept trying to come back to mind, but what mattered right now was the stage in front of me. I took a deep breath, trying to empty my increasingly complicated thoughts.

“Nervous?”

“Ah, yes. A little.”

Calming my startled heart was the top priority. When you get nervous, your throat tends to stiffen first.

If the main vocalist couldn’t even sing properly, it was all over.

“Please get the ‘Shadow Play’ team ready next.”

Ah, please.

I should’ve just raised my hand first. I regretted it, but the water had already been spilled.

 

***

 

Robin moved to the center.

“I’m looking forward to a great stage.”

He smiled brightly and waved his hand, and it really looked as though the word idol had been written all over his face.

Having to perform on a stage that was certain to fail in front of an idol that professional. There was only one thing I could do right now.

Dance as hard as I could.

But the two members who had taken the hip-hop parts didn’t look too happy.

Their eyes alone were saying it.

‘He’s going to evaluate us?’

Well, I didn’t bother pointing it out. They would find out soon enough why the youngest member of that team had come out as their representative.

“We prepared two versions of the choreography. So the atmosphere in the first and second verses may be a little different.”

“Oh, that sounds interesting-”

The stage began with Han Sang-yoon’s neat explanation.

First, the choreography for the first verse was hip-hop-based.

Nam Jun-ho and Jang Hyeon-jun came out strongly from the center.

The movements were flashy, but it felt like they had forcibly stuffed hip-hop choreography into the song. The timing was subtly off, and the dynamics didn’t work together either.

Each time that happened, Robin’s expression changed with remarkable honesty.

‘His expressions sure are varied.’

The second verse began, and the positions naturally switched.

The fast beat and urban dance actually went surprisingly well together. It was like the feeling of eating a dish made from a combination that seemed like it shouldn’t work, only to find that it was unexpectedly edible.

Robin’s expression relaxed a little too. 

But when he looked at me, it stiffened again.

‘…Yeah, mister, I’m pretty damn clumsy, huh?’

Even so, I did my best. I hoped he would at least recognize that.

The stage, lasting a little over two minutes, came to an end.

I swallowed nervously.

‘I can roughly guess what he’s going to say.’

“Hmm……”

Robin slowly opened his mouth.

“First of all, it’s impressive that you managed to come up with choreography like this in just one day.”

“Thank you.”

“But this is choreography for our song, right?”

The air instantly turned cold.

“To be honest.”

His voice was gentle, at least.

“It feels like you just crammed in choreography that looks cool.”

But the content was as sharp as could be.

“Especially the first verse. You made it with a hip-hop feel, right?”

“……Yes, that’s right.”

“The choreography is intense, but so what?”

The expressions of the two hip-hop members hardened.

“There’s no reason why it needs to be intense.”

“If you danced this choreography exactly as it is to the Born to Be song, it would actually fit better.”

It was an accurate assessment. Jang Hyeon-jun’s choreography looked cool, but honestly, it had absolutely nothing to do with Shadow Play.

“The second verse was at least a little better. Because it fit the song.”

His tone softened slightly.

“But it has no impact.”

The corners of Han Sang-yoon’s lips started to rise, then stopped halfway.

“The formations and composition are fine, but there’s no choreography that really sticks in your memory.”

The practice room became completely silent.

“More than anything-”

Robin tapped the back of his hand lightly with his fingertips.

“I think you need to think about what the theme is again. It’s a reinterpretation of the original song, right? A reinterpretation.”

“…….”

“I don’t even know what exactly has been reinterpreted here.”

He had hit the nail right on the head. Hip-hop and urban had gone in different directions, but ultimately, they had the same problem.

They hadn’t interpreted the song.

They had simply put the kind of dance they were good at onto it.

“I think you should rethink the stage concept from the ground up.”

The atmosphere was so fierce that even the original artists of the other songs were watching their reactions.

‘He’s saying this much?’

But to me, it was an opportunity.

Originally, I had planned to make this suggestion to the members after all the evaluations were over, but since they had laid the groundwork this thoroughly, it was worth throwing it out there.

I quietly raised my hand.

“Um, perhaps-”

The team members’ gazes all snapped toward me at once.

‘Now?’

That was exactly what their eyes seemed to be saying.

I pretended not to notice and opened my mouth.

“How about a concept like this?”

“What kind?”

Robin tilted his head slightly.

“I was thinking, what if we built the stage around the feeling of being slightly obsessed with a lover?”

“Obsession?”

At the completely unexpected keyword, I heard Jang Hyeon-jun sigh.

‘Hope that gets caught on camera-’

“The song is bright and cute, but the lyrics sound scarier than I expected.”

At that moment, Robin’s eyes widened.

“What? Have you heard our guide track by any chance?”

“Huh?”

“Or did someone tell you about it?”

This time, I was the one who became flustered.

The guide track? Could he somehow know that I had been the producer?

Should I be suspicious of him instead of Go Jae-seong? With so many ridiculous things happening one after another, I even had that thought for a moment.

“No, the guide track?”

I desperately composed my expression.

“Actually, the guide version of this song was completely eerie.”

“Really?”

“Robin, this is something even I haven’t heard on another broadcast.”

The practice room buzzed at the unexpected reaction. Even after searching through my memories from before my regression, this was something I had never heard before.

‘They never mentioned this on the broadcast either.’

Beyond the camera, the main PD’s eyes sparkled. Well, since this was the first time it was being revealed on the show, I could already picture the buzz around it rising.

“Interesting.”

Robin looked at me.

“How did you notice that from the lyrics?”

“Actually, trainee Kang I-yul said at first that the lyrics sounded a little scary.”

Kang I-yul’s eyes widened. He looked like he had absolutely not expected his name to come up here.

“Oh, you two have good instincts.”

“After hearing that, I thought about the lyrics more carefully, and the feeling was completely different.”

Robin’s expression changed as though he was intrigued.

“That’s right. The original song was actually supposed to have a heavier feeling, but when it came to our team, we changed it to be bright like this.”

Then he added while looking at me.

“But if we went in the direction you just mentioned, it would’ve fit even if we had kept the guide version exactly as it was.”

The faces of the two hip-hop guys completely hardened.

“It might be worth bringing that out.”

With that one sentence, the conclusion was decided.

 

***

 

After the evaluation ended, nobody spoke first.

‘Finally, it’s gotten a little quieter.’

They had been so full of confidence until now, but after getting properly beaten down by Robin, they looked completely dazed.

Even before my regression, Robin’s cutting remarks had been quite a topic of discussion. If anything, he had been even harsher back then than he was now.

‘This is actually pretty mild-’

But to the kids who didn’t know that, it must have been a huge shock.

“Haa……”

Nam Jun-ho let out a deep sigh.

“I think we should use the choreography Sang-yoon came up with as a base and think a little more about a point choreography.”

Taking that as my cue, I spoke up too.

“Since Robin said it sounded interesting, I’m thinking of arranging the song to bring out the feeling of obsession. What do you guys think?”

“But what exactly is that supposed to feel like?”

Nam Jun-ho frowned.

“Yeah. Honestly, I don’t really know either. It’s just a bright song, so what exactly is supposed to be scary about it-”

Jang Hyeon-jun nodded.

Instead of answering, I opened my laptop. There was no need to explain at length. It would be faster to let them hear it directly.

Tap. The first note dropped.

From the very beginning, it had a completely different texture from the original.

An eerie, quiet note. One beat later, a low chord overlapped it.

I had deliberately left space empty.

So silent it was almost suffocating.

“Huh?”

I repeated the chord used as the bass once more, then layered a melody over it this time.

I twisted the original line only slightly. I merely lowered the part that had sounded purely bright by a semitone and dragged it out a little, but it created a completely different feeling.

That boundary where it felt like you were smiling, yet somehow got chills down your spine.

“Wh-what is this?”

Nam Jun-ho leaned his body forward.

The second section I had prepared was the highlight part.

I continued the building melody, then bang cut it off powerfully, as if a window had shattered. If the point choreography came in here, it was a composition that would inevitably draw everyone’s eyes.

I had deliberately played the two strongest sections first: the intro and the highlight.

“……Wow.”

And the result was clear.

Pure, spontaneous exclamations of amazement.

Only then did I stop my hands.

It had been only a few measures.

I had merely shown them a little of the atmosphere, but everyone already had expressions as though they had encountered a whole new world.

“……It can become this?”

Han Sang-yoon let out a hollow laugh.

“Wait, again-”

“Play that again-”

Their words overlapped. The team members, who had never once managed to agree on an opinion until now, said the exact same thing at the same time.

I chuckled and pressed the play button on the arranging program again.

This time, I added a little more technique.

Uneasily wavering chords, a suffocatingly repetitive melody.

A bright yet strangely chilly atmosphere.

The intention was even clearer than before.

“This is insane……”

Amid all the exclamations, Kang I-yul’s words came through especially clearly.

“It’s amazing.”

Han Sang-yoon raised his head. His eyes had changed.

“Let’s absolutely go with this. We have to.”

Jang Hyeon-jun also nodded blankly. This time, there wasn’t a single objection.

Their gazes, which had always been pointed in different directions, were focused on one place for the first time.

“Seong-woo.”

Han Sang-yoon called me quietly.

“Finish this all the way through as soon as you can.”

“Yeah. We’ll remake the choreography.”

Nam Jun-ho immediately joined in.

“So.”

Jang Hyeon-jun grinned.

“Hurry up and let us hear the next part.”

I laughed at that moment.

Just a few hours ago, these guys had been arguing over whose opinion was right, but now they were concentrating on every single note I pressed.

A strange thrill ran down my spine.

‘Right. This is the power of music.’

A completely different Shadow Play stage from the one before my regression was vividly taking shape in my mind.

If Go Jae-seong had stolen the future, I would create it.

A new future.