I’m Debuting With The Bias I Killed – Chapter 52

Author: Cireng

Chapter 52

Ten minutes earlier.

Kang I-yul was having a hard time making a decision.

Normally, there was no reason for him to hesitate. He had naturally intended to choose the dance position.

But the same questions kept circling in his mind.

‘What if Joo-han chooses the dance position?’

‘What if I get compared to him again, like in Round 4?’

Before he knew it, the tips of his fingernails had reached his lips.

Click.

As he unconsciously bit his nails, he suddenly raised his gaze at the shadow blocking his view.

“……?”

It was Yoo Seong-woo. He was smiling brightly as usual.

“What brings you…”

“I-yul, can we talk for a moment?”

Kang I-yul tensed up.

‘This hyung is finally getting angry.’

Or perhaps…

‘Is he going to ask me for something?’

Either way, he had nothing to say. Seong-woo had gotten hurt because of him.

“What position are you thinking of choosing?”

“I’m thinking about dance…”

“I figured.”

Yoo Seong-woo nodded with his arms folded.

Gulp.

He swallowed dryly.

“Do you want to join the vocal team with me?”

“…What?”

“I want to place first in this mission.”

Kang I-yul blinked.

“……”

“To do that, I need you on my team.”

“But I’m not a vocalist.”

“Who says that?”

Yoo Seong-woo let out a small laugh.

“You don’t know how well you sing, do you?”

“There are a lot of people who sing better than me…”

“That’s true.”

Unexpectedly, Yoo Seong-woo admitted it immediately.

“But the person I need isn’t the one who sings the best. It’s you.”

At those words, Kang I-yul’s eyes wavered.

“You said it at the hospital.”

Yoo Seong-woo smiled gently.

“You said you didn’t know how to repay me.”

“……”

“Then help me this time.”

His eyes, filled with certainty, shone firmly.

“I happen to know your voice pretty well.”

It was an absurd thing to say, yet somehow, Kang I-yul found himself believing him.

“Hmm?”

Just then…

“Filming will resume in three minutes!”

A staff member’s voice could be heard.

“Let’s go for now.”

“……”

“We’ll be late.”

Kang I-yul ultimately couldn’t answer and simply followed behind him.

Once filming began, Kang I-yul briefly looked toward the dance position.

Then he shifted his gaze.

The vocal position. Yoo Seong-woo was standing in front of it, waiting for him.

He no longer hesitated.

‘I have to repay my debt.’

Slowly, but surely, he began to walk.

***

‘No. I should trust him. Since I hadn’t received a definite answer, I couldn’t let my guard down until the very end.’

Perhaps that was why…

When Kang I-yul stood in front of the vocal position, I unconsciously shouted,

“We did it!”

I-yul, standing beside me, spoke quietly in a voice only I could hear.

“I came here trusting only what you said, hyung.”

“You made the right choice.”

In my heart, I wanted to lift him up, carry him around the practice room once, and celebrate. But considering his massive build, I decided to leave that as nothing more than an imagination.

Instead, I went up on my tiptoes and wrapped my arm around his shoulders. Just a few pats made the pose look rather ridiculous.

Even so, I-yul didn’t tell me to get off him.

‘Could it be that he’s putting up with this, too?’

I was touched, but since filming was still underway, I quietly withdrew my arm.

Kang Se-jun also spoke up with interest at the unexpected turn of events.

“Trainee Kang I-yul, this is quite a twist. Is there a particular reason you chose the vocal position?”

“I came because I wanted to be on the same team as Seong-woo hyung.”

“……?”

While everyone blinked, wondering if they had heard him correctly, I-yul added without changing his expression,

“I chose it because I thought I could place first if I was on the same team as him.”

Wow. I never would’ve dreamed that I-yul could say something like that.

Kang Se-jun also chuckled.

“Trainee Yoo Seong-woo has earned an incredible amount of trust from trainee Kang I-yul. How does it feel to be on the same team?”

‘Of course I’m fucking thrilled. Why are you even asking that?’

I answered only in my head before speaking with a smile.

“Since he came to this team because he trusts me, we’re definitely going to place first!”

Do you know what I hate the most?

It’s the sight of someone riding the bus.

But this time, I was more than willing to take the wheel.

‘Let me do it, Kang I-yul’s honorary driver.’

“We’ll look forward to the chemistry between these two trainees.”

The remaining trainees quickly made their selections as well.

Kwon Gi-hyeon and Song Woo-joo came to the vocal team. Since I had worked with both of them before, I felt less burdened. Finally, Jeong Eun-gyu, who had become a minor topic of discussion during the previous round, joined us as well.

As expected, the top-ranking trainees flocked to the dance position.

Go Jae-seong, Joo-han, and Han Sang-yoon.

It was an Avengers team, with half of its members being trainees from the debut lineup. On top of that, Hwang Geon-hee seemed to have given up even his primary position, rap, in order to ride Go Jae-seong’s bus once again.

But Hwang Geon-hee’s future would not be as beautiful as he imagined.

“Once again, benefits will be awarded to the first-place team and the first-place trainee within each team. The position that takes first place will receive 500 votes for the entire team. The first-place trainee within the team will receive an additional 1,000 votes.”

Since the results would be calculated based on averages, having more people did not necessarily mean having an advantage.

If anything, when the higher-ranking trainees were concentrated in one team, competition between their fandoms would naturally become more intense.

The voting system itself makes that unavoidable.

Once it was revealed on this week’s broadcast that Go Jae-seong had become Code 1, the controversy would probably grow even louder.

In particular, Joo-han’s fandom and Go Jae-seong’s fandom would clash quite severely.

Before my regression, Go Jae-seong had chosen the rap position, and neither his team nor he personally had received any benefits.

‘He would definitely try to change the future.’

And I intended to overturn that future once again.

“All right, all team formations have now been completed.”

While filming was briefly paused, I gathered the team members in the spot where the cameras could capture us best.

“This reminds me of Round 2, hyung.”

“Yeah. I didn’t expect three of us to end up on the same team.”

In the meantime, Kwon Gi-hyeon and Song Woo-joo had changed quite a lot, too. The guys who had barely said a word before were now approaching me first to start conversations. It was tremendous progress.

“Have you decided to do the vocal position for good now?”

“Actually… part of the reason I came was that I wanted to be on the same team as you, hyung.”

I-yul, who had been listening quietly, raised his head.

“What the heck? Isn’t everyone relying on me a little too much?”

“We didn’t get eliminated in Round 2 thanks to you, hyung…”

‘What good kids.’

Good. I had already resolved to make sure we took first place in the position this round, no matter what.

“You all know the song, right?”

“Yes!”

“I’ve listened to this song so many times. The lyrics are so good.”

Lee Seol’s Shine was a song carrying the message: everyone’s time to shine is different. If you wait, your time will come someday.

Thanks to its comforting lyrics, it had received immense love across generations.

And that was precisely the problem.

It wasn’t easy to produce a new song with such high recognition. No matter how well you did, the best you could usually hope for was It’s good enough to compare with the original, or at least they didn’t ruin the original.

‘And if you slipped up?’

Words like destroyed the original or insulted the original would follow.

So there was only one method I chose.

“How about we try writing our own lyrics?”

“W-We can do that, too?”

“I’ve never written lyrics before…”

“Lyrics?”

As expected, they were intimidated before even trying. I silently looked at the four of them.

“…I-I’ll try.”

“N-Now that I think about it, I think I can do it.”

I nearly laughed at Kwon Gi-hyeon and Song Woo-joo’s hurried answers.

Only Jeong Eun-gyu, who had no idea what was going on, looked back and forth between the two of them.

“Don’t think about it too hard. You can just scribble down anything.”

“What should the subject be?”

“For now, let’s each write about whatever we want.”

“Is that really okay?”

‘What is this feeling? It’s like I’ve become a kindergarten teacher…’

I almost said, Our friends can do whatever they want~!

“Of course. That’s how brainstorming works in the first place. If you keep throwing ideas out there, something will eventually stick.”

Waiting for ideas to fall from the sky was far too reckless. First, we had to get everything in our heads out onto paper.

“Let’s all meet up again in an hour.”

Kwon Gi-hyeon and Song Woo-joo raised their heads almost simultaneously. Their eyes grew round, as if they had heard something they weren’t supposed to.

“One hour?”

“Isn’t that too short?”

It was a perfectly reasonable reaction.

But…

“What more are you going to come up with if I give you more time? Ideas usually come when you’re under pressure.”

That was how it worked in reality, too. There were far more cases where work due tomorrow turned out better than work with a month left until the deadline. The longer you thought, the slower your hands became.

I deliberately tilted my head.

“Ah, but it might be a little difficult for Gi-hyeon and Woo-joo. I-yul and Eun-gyu, are you two okay?”

I-yul calmly nodded. Jeong Eun-gyu hesitated for a moment before making an OK sign.

“Can’t be helped, then. Gi-hyeon and Woo-joo can have more time–”

The two guys who had been thinking for a moment quickly spoke up.

“I-I can do it, too!”

“Let’s give it a shot. One hour.”

‘Well, of course.’

They were at an age when they lived for their competitive spirit and died for their pride.

I hadn’t even shouted, Ready, set, go! Yet all four of them picked up blank sheets of paper and scattered almost simultaneously.

Their brainstorming methods were all different.

I-yul stared at the blank paper for nearly ten minutes before beginning to write down one or two words at a time. I took a peek, and even with just those few words, I couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction.

As expected, he has talent.

Kwon Gi-hyeon lay down with the blank paper beneath his head, then folded it in half, and so on… I had thought he was simply quiet, but it turned out he also had very few letters inside his head.

Song Woo-joo continued writing something. Jeong Eun-gyu was diligently filling up his blank sheet as well.

“Hyung, aren’t you doing it?”

“Yeah. Why is your paper blank?”

“I’m letting it ripen inside my head.”

“Huh?”

‘Shall I get started, then~’

I slowly loosened up my hand. Then I began writing down the words that came to mind without any hesitation.

Five minutes later, the guys checked my paper and fell silent.

There were far more words on it than what they had managed to squeeze out over nearly forty minutes.

“…You were right, hyung.”

When the promised hour was up, everyone submitted their papers. Their subtly tense expressions made them look exactly like elementary school students having their homework checked.

“Hmm……”

Every time my eyes moved, their gazes moved along with them. Feeling mischievous, I deliberately rolled my eyes around quickly. I-yul couldn’t keep up with the speed and merely blinked.

‘Cute.’

“But our…”

I spread the papers the team members had written across the floor.

“It seems like you all wrote things that were too pretty.”

Everyone gave an awkward smile.

Honestly, they had probably sensed it themselves.

A hopeful future, shining youth, dreams.

They were all good words, but they didn’t particularly feel like their own stories.

They’re like pretty soap bubbles.

They might be beautiful in the moment, but they wouldn’t remain for long.

“How about we just talk comfortably?”

“Talk about what?”