I’m Debuting With The Bias I Killed Chapter 43

Chapter 43

 

If it had been the usual Go Jae-seong, he would have been keeping a sharp eye on the other teams’ performances, trying to keep them in check.

But right now, Go Jae-seong was the very definition of relaxed. As if there was no point in keeping an eye on them anymore.

“Next…… the baseball uniform team, please come out.”

‘It’s I-yul’s team.’

Joo-han, the undisputed number one, and Kang I-yul. Judging purely by their individual abilities, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them the strongest team in this round.

Out of habit, I checked I-yul’s danger level. Thankfully, there had been no change.

“The song is Youth Anthem? That’ll go well with the baseball uniforms.”

“With Joo-han and I-yul, there’s nothing to worry about.”

The judges’ reactions were different from the start.

And so their performance began.

 

♪ I call you youth

♪ If we are together

♪ Forever young!

 

“Wow…”

For a moment, my attention was stolen by Joo-han. I wasn’t the only one.

Not jealousy, not competition, but an existence outside the standard.

I pulled myself together and focused on I-yul again. And then I realized belatedly.

‘…The choreography is different.’

Before my regression, it had been textbook, knife-sharp synchronized choreography. But now, it had been changed to choreography that emphasized their individual lines. Thanks to that, Kang I-yul’s distinctive dance lines stood out much more.

‘What a good kid.’

He had participated much more this time than he had before my regression.

A smile naturally appeared on my face at that courage and growth that only I knew about.

“But doesn’t Joo-han stand out more than anyone else?”

“I-yul’s good, too, but definitely…”

So I tried to brush off the voices I heard behind me as nothing important.

‘It’s not that bad. They’re exaggerating…… Huh?’

Suddenly, something felt strange. Even though the situation was more advantageous for I-yul, people’s attention was still directed toward Joo-han.

At that moment, Kang I-yul’s danger level began to flicker faintly.

‘Wait…’

A chill ran down my spine.

In the meantime, their performance ended, and the judges began their evaluations.

Honestly, I didn’t hear much of it. Except whenever I heard I-yul’s name.

“Who choreographed it?”

“I-yul participated a lot this time!”

The judges’ gazes briefly turned toward Kang I-yul. But soon, they returned to Joo-han.

“Wow, and you’re still this good, Joo-han?”

“Thank you!”

“Joo-han really is different.”

I-yul’s face, which had been filled with anticipation, slowly hardened.

The fingers of the hand he had hidden behind his back twitched to an irregular rhythm.

A habit that appeared when he was anxious.

“The choreography suited I-yul well, and you did a good job.”

His face brightened for a moment at those words.

“But Joo-han, you really… you could just debut right away.”

‘If that’s all you were going to say, you might as well not have mentioned him at all…’

But all the praise for I-yul was nothing more than seasoning to make Joo-han stand out.

And then the thing I had feared most happened.

The danger level, which had been flickering faster and faster…

 

[Danger Level: 85% (▲3%)]

 

‘It went up by 3%?’

My breath caught in my throat.

‘That can’t be.’

He had done so much better than before my regression…

At that moment, I realized what I had overlooked.

I was Kang I-yul’s fan.

That was why I could see how much he had grown. How hard he had worked, and how much he had changed.

But he couldn’t… What I-yul was looking at wasn’t his improved self.

It was Joo-han beside him.

The person he was always compared to, the opponent he could never beat no matter what. And today, even after giving his all with the choreography he was most confident in, the conclusion was the same.

Joo-han’s overwhelming victory.

That was why I had hoped those two wouldn’t end up on the same team. They were part of the youngest line, but their personalities and tendencies were too different.

If I-yul had simply been someone with no talent at all, it would have been fine. He wouldn’t even have been considered a comparison point. But even after debuting, the two of them were always compared by the public and their fans.

And the conclusion was always the same.

[I-yul’s good, sure. But isn’t Joo-han, who’s the same age, way better?]

I didn’t need to be told how I-yul must have felt after hearing an evaluation like that.

I thought things had gotten better because he had found courage and grown. But right now, Kang I-yul was collapsing even harder than he had before my regression.

From the next evaluation onward, I couldn’t properly take anything in.

Only one thing kept circling around in my head: Kang I-yul’s danger level.

“We’ll conclude the interim evaluation here. Everyone, keep fighting during the remaining time!”

“Yes!”

The judges and Kang Se-jun left, but the atmosphere in the practice room was still excited. Of course, at the center of it was Go Jae-seong.

“Are we really not going to take first place this time?”

“Absolutely.”

“Joo-han, you’d better be nervous, too.”

Joo-han merely smiled and shrugged.

It was the relaxed composure that only someone with overwhelming ability could possess.

Kang I-yul had already gone in front of the mirror. And he started practicing again. Even while the other trainees went to eat and took a short break, Kang I-yul didn’t stop.

I considered talking to him, but quickly shook my head.

‘Not now… It might feel like I’m patronizing him.;

I didn’t take my eyes off him, though. I continued checking his danger level, too.

‘Please, just don’t go over 90%.’

Until now, there had only been one time when Kang I-yul had been in danger.

The day right after my regression, when he had his arm in a cast.

Fortunately, he had never exceeded 90% since then. Nor had Kang I-yul ever faced a situation that threatened his life.

But I still didn’t know much about the status window. At what percentage did it become genuinely dangerous? Just how dangerous would it become?

Even 90% was merely a guess. For now, all I could do was watch.

‘I need to do well first.’

I reviewed the judges’ comments from the interim evaluation.

Most of them were praise directed at Go Jae-seong, but there was one thing I could take away from it.

“Seong-woo’s dancing has improved tremendously. Now you just need to improve your live singing skills.”

The need to improve my live singing skills was something I had been worrying about since my extreme training with Yoo Seong-ah.

Now the public vote would begin. That meant I had to survive the brutal acoustics of a live performance. Performing stable live vocals while dancing would probably become the biggest evaluation criterion.

‘If it’s now…’

I briefly left the practice room and quietly began creating an item.

In fact, this item hadn’t been created during my extreme training with Yoo Seong-ah.

The reason was that I didn’t have enough SP. But in the meantime, the show had aired, and with people’s continued interest, my SP had soared to 1,000.

“…Gill Breathing Technique.”

Whenever someone showed stable live singing while performing an intense dance, people often came up with the “gill theory.”

There was even the joke that if someone could perform that intensely without getting out of breath, maybe they had actual gills instead of lungs.

There couldn’t have been a more intuitive name for this.

 

[※Item creation successful]

▶Item Name: Gill Breathing Technique

▶Effect: An item that allows you to master a breathing technique that keeps your breathing steady during live performances.

 

“It worked……!”

As expected, my SP had dropped to 100.

It was a shame to lose what I had accumulated over a week, but with this item, I would be able to gather even more SP.

But even after waiting for a while, nothing happened.

“What?”

Just as I was wondering whether it had actually been applied, I saw myself in the mirror and froze.

The small thing visible just below my ears was… Gills.

‘This is insane.’

Those guys in the underworld really went all-out with the realism in the weirdest places.

I immediately ran back to the practice room. Then I played the music.

The moment I started singing along with the intense choreography, I could feel it immediately.

‘It really works?’

I didn’t have to worry about when to breathe.

At this newfound sense of freedom, a smile escaped me without me realizing it.

 

***

 

A party room somewhere in Seoul.

Oh Gyeong-jin was watching Episode 4 live with her fandom friend, Jisu, whom she had been stanning with since I-yul was with his first agency.

“Who did you say your second favorite was?”

“Me? The braces guy. Seong-woo. You said Un-jo, right?”

“Yeah. Isn’t Un-jo so cute?”

 

[Trainee Kang I-yul sets off to choose his position.]

 

“It’d be nice if they went to Shadow Play or Blooming…”

 

[Trainee Kang I-yul chooses Sub-Vocal 1 of Shadow Play.]

 

Gyeong-jin shot to her feet.

“Ah, fucking hell?”

“What? Did he hear you?”

“My second and top favorites on one team? This is a stock worth investing in.”

 

↳ I’m going all-in on this stock

↳ Having them together in one frame is such a feast for the eyes

↳ I screamed when I-yul went toward Shadow Play LOL

↳ No, but when I-yul was about to go to Blooming, did you see the braces kid’s expression?

 ↳↳ Yeah LOL looked like he’d seen a ghost

 

“Ah, they’re so cute.”

“I-yul’s probably going to get a lot of screen time again~”

But contrary to the two girls’ expectations, the amount of screen time those two received was on the verge of disappearing completely.

 

[Trainee Han Sang-yoon’s team is having difficulty reaching an agreement.]

 

Instead, the main focus was the conflict of opinions between Han Sang-yoon, Jang Hyeon-jun, and Nam Jun-ho.

“No, we’re busy as hell. What are we supposed to do if we still haven’t decided?”

“I think I-yul suits urban more than hip-hop…”

 

↳ I like Sang-kyung’s irritated face, though?

 ↳↳ I don’t think this is the time to compliment his face

↳ Neither hip-hop nor urban really suits him ;;

↳ But aren’t Braces Guy and I-yul being way too passive?

 ↳↳ Then what can Braces Guy even do when it comes to creating choreography?

 ↳↳ Leave him alone. Apparently he didn’t watch Episode 3

 

[Production Staff: Honestly, which concept did you prefer?]

[Trainee Yoo Seong-woo: I actually had another concept in mind… But either of these two concepts is fine with me. I can just participate in the arrangement according to whichever one we choose.]

[Trainee Kang I-yul: I think urban is a little better.]

 

“At least they’re going with Han Sang-yoon’s side. I guess that’s a relief…”

 

[A special guest! A surprise visit from the original artists!]

 

I-yul’s team was the only team that still hadn’t decided on a concept.

Gyeong-jin muttered without even realizing it.

“Holy shit, what are they going to do?”

“Are they screwed?”

 

↳ WTF, they’re screwed

↳ I’m going crazy; I already got mentally wrecked because my pick fell out of the debut lineup

↳ So this week’s malicious editing is going to be them ;;

 

Even while being diligently stuffed into the background, Yoo Seong-woo’s clumsy dancing caught their eyes.

“Hmm… he really is a hard worker.”

Even as an empty compliment, you couldn’t call him talented at dancing.

“Hey, but do you think Braces Guy will be okay? You hate it when you see people who can’t dance.”

Every one of Gyeong-jin’s previous favorites had been at least a lead dancer, so in her eyes, his skill level was woefully inadequate.

“It’s kind of rough…”

 

↳ Ah, he’s seriously bad at this?

↳ Even so, he’s trying so hard that I can’t even bring myself to curse at him

↳ Don’t be too harsh. At least the kid’s working hard LOL

 ↳↳ Is there anyone there who isn’t working hard?

↳ He really has zero basic skills

 

[Robin’s expression gradually hardens.]

 

As expected, the atmosphere grew increasingly hostile.

The reactions of the other judges alone were already vicious, but this wasn’t even the beginning.

The real thing started the moment Robin opened his mouth.

 

[It feels like you just stuffed in choreography that looks cool regardless of the song.]

[I don’t even know what exactly has been reinterpreted here.]

 

Gyeong-jin quietly grabbed her head.

 

↳ The atmosphere is completely fucked ;;

↳ It’s the first time I’ve seen Robin that angry

 

With no one daring to even breathe easily, an unexpected scene followed.

 

[At that moment, trainee Yoo Seong-woo quietly raises his hand.]

 

“……What?”

 

↳ ???

↳ Seong-woo’s going to get scolded even if he just stays quiet right now?

 

[All eyes turn toward trainee Yoo Seong-woo.]

 

A slow-motion effect played, building up the anticipation before……

 

[We’ll reveal it in 30 seconds!]

 

“Ah, fuck……”

 

↳ Ah, this is pissing me off. I’m secretly looking forward to it

↳ You can really tell the survival-show production team has years of experience

↳ What did you say, Seong-woo?ㅠㅠ

 

“No, they always cut it right at Seong-woo’s part like this, I swear. Is it because the kid is giving them such perfect TV material?”

Watching Gyeong-jin practically explode with frustration, Jisu snorted.

“Hey, anyone watching would think Seong-woo was your favorite.”

“What are you talking about??”

She denied it in an unnecessarily loud voice. But the more loudly Gyeong-jin denied it, the more Jisu simply nodded.

With an expression that said she understood everything.