I’m Debuting With The Bias I Killed Chapter 38

Chapter 38

 

Recently, a new trend had emerged among the members of Nexity.

Specifically, impersonating Kang Se-jun’s MC segments.

“Code-on!”

“No, hyung! That’s not how you do it. You have to do it like this.”

The youngest member, Xenon, pointed his index finger forward.

“The hand is the key point!”

Even lowering his voice by two tones.

“Code, on.”

The living room erupted.

“Wahahahahaha!!”

In the end, Kang Se-jun couldn’t hold back and grabbed Xenon’s ear, pulling it.

“Aaah! Hyung!”

“Cut it out, will you?”

“It hurts!”

“I grabbed it so it would hurt, you punk.”

That was what daily life at Nexity’s dorm had been like lately. Ever since Boys Code began, the members had been watching the live broadcast every week.

“Episode 3 is starting-”

“Hyun-woo hyung! Aren’t you watching Episode 3?”

“Oh, of course we have to watch when our famous MC is here!”

The level of mockery honed over the years. Kang Se-jun squeezed his eyes shut.

“Ah, hyung. By the way, orthodontic braces… No, Yoo Seong-woo? What do you think of him?”

“Seong-woo? Why?”

“Apparently, he’s Xenon’s one pick.”

Kang Se-jun let out a small, disbelieving laugh.

“Today is… the second round, right? We’ll know once we watch.”

“What? Sounds like he’s going to get a lot of screen time?”

Kang Se-jun shrugged.

 

[Trainees rush to the studio for the secret mission.]

[The first trainee to arrive is……]

 

“Oh.”

Yoo Seong-woo appeared, and Xenon clapped.

“He’s coming out right away.”

 

[The trainees feel deflated upon hearing that the prize is a snack set.]

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo: I really wanted to eat this because I’m on a diet…… Thank you!]

 

He hugged the snack set, looking genuinely delighted.

Hyun-woo burst out laughing.

“Wow, what’s with that guy?”

“Why?”

“He’s really positive, isn’t he?”

Kang Se-jun took a sip of the beer beside him and added a comment.

“I thought it was ridiculous when the production team first told me about it, you know? They make them race around from the morning, and the prize is a snack set. What are they, elementary school kids?”

“Wasn’t the mission not really intended to give them something in the first place?”

“Yeah. Look at the other kids’ reactions. They’re baffled.”

“Cute.”

After the team selections were completed, the broadcast continued with scenes of each team holding meetings.

 

[While everyone is enthusiastically discussing, there is one team that is particularly quiet……]

[An awkward atmosphere flows through the ‘Refreshing’ team.]

[Silence continues for an hour.]

 

“Oh, dear.”

The Nexity members were engrossed in Boys Code as though they were watching a drama.

“How are they going to be idols if they’re that introverted?”

The members clicked their tongues.

“Exactly. Don’t you think you need to be at least as outgoing as Xenon?”

“Me? I’m not outgoing at all, though?”

 

[At that moment, trainee Yoo Seong-woo speaks.]

 

“Whoa, looks like Seong-woo is about to do something.”

“I told you, he’s even going to call for a vote at this rate.”

“That’s right, hyung. When does the public voting start?”

“What? Is he seriously planning to do that?”

Xenon nodded as though it were obvious. Kang Se-jun shook his head from side to side.

“Don’t show it off anywhere, okay? It’ll cause fairness issues for no reason.”

“Oh, shoot. You’re right!”

 

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo: Trust me with the part distribution. Leave it to me.]

 

“Huh?”

 

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo: I’ll ask one last time. Is there any part you want to do?]

[Team members only look at each other, gauging the situation.]

 

“Unexpectedly manly, isn’t he?”

“Right? I thought he was the quiet type.”

 

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo suggests the vocal position to trainee Song Woo-joo, who is assigned to rap.]

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo: Then you should’ve said from the beginning that you wanted to do the rap part, right?]

 

His tone was gentle, but his words were firm. The Nexity members simultaneously leaned halfway backward in admiration.

“He’s got some serious backbone, doesn’t he?”

“That’s amazing. Isn’t it usually hard to say things like that?”

Kang Se-jun also smiled faintly.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a kid speak his mind that clearly on a survival show.”

“Is it tougher because it’s an in-house survival show?”

 

[Trainee Song Woo-joo gradually gives in to trainee Yoo Seong-woo’s persuasion.]

 

“Seong-woo? He’d be good as a producer, too. He knows how to produce, after all.”

“How did he see the vocalist in someone who does rap?”

“He knows how to coax people-”

Even in the eyes of Nexity’s professional idol members, Yoo Seong-woo was beginning to look like an increasingly interesting trainee.

 

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo: Is having more parts really what’s important? The team needs to win first.]

 

“The kid’s got good character. He really does.”

“Hyung, do you want to vote together?”

“Should we?”

 

[Another conflict arises in the Refreshing team during choreography creation.]

 

“Oh dear, those kids really aren’t going to make it.”

“Hyung, you don’t know that. This could all be malicious editing created through editing tricks, you know.”

But Yoo Seong-woo turned the atmosphere upside down once again.

 

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo shows the choreography he created himself.]

 

“Wait.”

“…What is that?”

 

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo enthusiastically flails around.]

[The team members are unable to continue speaking.]

[Trainee Song Woo-joo: I really…… thought I was dreaming.]

 

A moment of silence passed at the sight of dance moves they had never seen anywhere before.

“…PWAHAHAHA!!”

Xenon was the first to clutch his stomach and burst into laughter. He even rolled around on the living room floor.

In an instant, the entire dorm became a sea of laughter.

“Wow- this is incredible.”

“Seong-woo’s going to have a hard time debuting, isn’t he?”

“He reminds me of Xenon when he was a baby.”

“Ah, hyung!”

On the screen, Yoo Seong-woo had an aggrieved expression.

 

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo: There weren’t any other opinions. Why?]

 

“Ah, this guy is killing me.”

“My stomach hurts, ah……”

“But he really is seriously awkward at dancing…”

Kang Se-jun couldn’t take his eyes off Yoo Seong-woo’s dancing.

With dancing skills like that.

‘How did he manage the actual stage?’

 

[The team members begin gathering their opinions one by one.]

[Choreography creation begins under the leadership of trainee Song Woo-joo.]

[Production Team: You suddenly became really enthusiastic about participating…]

[Trainee Song Woo-joo: Ah…… It’s just that I thought there was absolutely no way we could go on stage with that choreography… And then an idea suddenly came to me.]

 

It must have been a truly horrifying memory, because even his shoulders were trembling slightly. The Nexity members couldn’t hold back their laughter.

 

[Production Team: The original choreography… You weren’t serious about it, right?]

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo: Ahh- Even the other kids ask if I’m joking around, but what am I supposed to do when even the writer says that? I’m genuinely upset…]

[Production Team: Were you serious?]

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo: W-Was it really that bad?]

[The scene is utterly destroyed by trainee Yoo Seong-woo’s innocent question.]

 

Nexity’s dorm was also utterly destroyed. Even the orthodontic braces that showed whenever he awkwardly bit his lip were hilarious.

The broadcast soon moved on to the midterm evaluation.

 

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo’s rhythm gradually begins to fall apart.]

 

Swish, swish

“Ugh, I get nervous every time that sound effect comes out.”

 

[Jackpy: Your practice was insufficient. Overall, it feels too… disjointed.]

[Trainee Song Woo-joo: ……It was upsetting. Seong-woo hyung worked hard, and we really worked hard, too.]

[Trainee Ji Dong-seok: We can’t help it! Still, we’ll work hard for the remaining time!]

 

“That’s positive.”

Failure, frustration, and practicing again.

The practice scenes, which didn’t seem to end even at ten times the speed, conveyed more than enough of how much this team had practically lived in the practice room.

 

[The Refreshing team finally becomes one team.]

[WOOOOOOOAAAH!!]

 

“That’s it!”

“Anyone watching would think we’re watching the World Cup.”

The Nexity members were completely immersed by this point.

‘The PD must love this.’

It was the kind of star quality that made me understand why every episode’s ending had featured Yoo Seong-woo, starting from the preview.

 

[Kang Se-jun: The Refreshing concept team, let’s begin the stage. Code on!]

 

They didn’t even have the energy to tease Kang Se-jun’s line. Everyone began watching the stage with bated breath.

Small gasps escaped every time each movement fell into place.

 

♪ Oh! I’ll gather the courage to tell you-

♪ That you’re my first love

♪ I’ll give you my everything-!

 

And when Yoo Seong-woo successfully performed his high-note part, Xenon clenched his fist tightly.

“This guy’s going to be the main vocalist, isn’t he?”

 

♪ Today, too,

♪ The road I take to meet you

♪ Is always sunny!

 

[The stage ends with applause.]

 

“Wow, he really did well, didn’t he?”

“Seong-woo is definitely going to move up into the debut lineup. Right?”

But contrary to expectations, when Yoo Seong-woo remained at Code 6, questions erupted from everyone almost simultaneously.

“No, why?”

“Hyung, what on earth are the judging criteria here?”

“This won’t do. Tell them to open voting quickly. This isn’t right!”

Xenon was huffing angrily when a hand suddenly landed on his head.

“Just wait a little.”

“But that guy-”

Hyun-woo, who had been quiet until now, muttered while looking at the screen.

“He’s going to debut.”

At those words, everyone nodded.

The most dangerous person in a survival show isn’t an overwhelmingly gifted genius. It’s someone the viewers begin supporting without even realizing it.

In Kang Se-jun’s eyes, Yoo Seong-woo was precisely that kind of protagonist.

 

***

 

The two weeks that felt like two months had ended. No, to be precise, it had really been two months for me.

Thanks to the SP that had skyrocketed after Episode 2 aired, I turned the hourglass every single day. As a result, while it had been two weeks for everyone else, it had been nearly two months for me.

They say humans are creatures of adaptation, right? Dancing wasn’t the only thing I had repeated for nearly two months. Yoo Seong-ah’s shouting and scolding, along with the merciless sting of her hand whenever I got a movement wrong or failed to memorize it……

Honestly, I felt like even the most malicious comments wouldn’t bother me anymore. After all, they hadn’t been fired directly at me one-on-one as Yoo Seong-ah did.

“Okay, this is the last one.”

Yoo Seong-ah and I stood in front of the mirror.

I moved my body in time with the beat Yoo Seong-ah counted aloud.

“One, two, three, four!”

Steps, waves, isolations. The basic movements flowed together naturally.

Suddenly, my reflection in the mirror felt unfamiliar.

‘Huh? Is that really me?’

The old me hadn’t been moving my body. I had been fighting against it.

My brain would tell me to go right, but my body would go left. Whenever I tried to do a wave, every joint in my bones seemed to jerk and stop so distinctly that I could feel them one by one.

“Next, wave!”

That same body now moved exactly as I intended.

‘Goodbye to the days when I was nagged for playing Tetris with my arms.’

My arms were actually riding the wave. I remembered Yoo Seong-ah’s massage stick, which would strike me with a thwack every time my movements broke. That sensation had now become ingrained in my arms.

“Next, steps!”

Scrape

The soles of my sneakers scraped against the floor. My feet moved in time with the beat, and my balance didn’t waver.

‘Ah… So this is why people like dancing.’

Being able to move my body however I wanted was far more exhilarating than I had expected.

“Final eight-count!”

Scrape-!

I finished the final movement cleanly.

…Clap, clap, clap.

Applause quietly echoed through the practice room.

“It’s done……!”

I collapsed onto the floor as though I had fallen over.

Then I raised both arms high into the air. A victory V.

This was a historic moment. In two weeks, a squid had evolved into a human.

“Ha…”

Yoo Seong-ah was holding her forehead.

Could she possibly be moved by my dazzling improvement?

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I’m really amazing.”

‘Of course.’

I quietly nodded.

“I…… I turned a clumsy person into a human….”

Yoo Seong-ah said in a trembling voice.

“In just two weeks, too.”

I didn’t argue. Strictly speaking, it had been two months, but aside from that, she wasn’t wrong.

“Hey, from now on, we should use you for promotional purposes. Something like, ‘Even someone with two left feet can do it in two weeks!’”

“…Yeah.”

My tear-inducing special training had finally come to an end. I was finally getting released from prison.

“When you go back in now, when are you coming out again?”

“Probably won’t be coming out for a while.”

“Good. And don’t forget.”

Maybe it was because I had heard it so many times over the past two weeks, but I answered like a robot.

“I’ll never tell anyone that you’re my older sister.”

“That’s right. Off you go.”

I clutched my legs, which were still aching from muscle soreness, and descended the stairs. It was finally time to say goodbye to this horrible practice room.

I wasn’t going to return right away. There was still one place I needed to visit.

 

[Beautiful Smile Dental Clinic]

 

I took one last photo.

“Eee-”

Click-!

It was goodbye to my orthodontic braces, too, as of today.