I’m Debuting With The Bias I Killed Chapter 62

Chapter 62

 

There was only one minute left before they had to go onstage.

“The team before us seemed really good…”

The tension was still obvious on the faces of the other four.

I playfully patted Kwon Gi-hyeon on the shoulder and gave my outfit one final check.

“I told you I’d make sure we came in first, right?”

“W-What if we don’t?”

“…Are you doubting me right now?”

Kwon Gi-hyeon immediately shut his mouth and shook his head.

‘Sorry, Gi-hyeon. I sounded way too much like Yoo Seong-ah just now.’

“I-I think we just need to do well.”

“Exactly.”

Their wavering gazes gradually turned toward the stage.

“Vocal team, you’re going up!”

“Yes!”

Just as I was about to climb the stairs, someone grabbed my shoulder.

“I-yul?”

Kang I-yul swallowed quietly before asking,

“You know it’s 100%, right?”

“Of course!”

“I’ll trust you.”

A laugh naturally escaped me.

I trusted him, too.

‘In that final 1% you haven’t shown yet.’

“Waaaaaah!!”

“Seong-woo!”

“I-yulaaaah!!”

“Song Woo-joo!”

The moment we stepped onto the stage, the audience erupted.

The cheers were incomparable to those from the first on-site evaluation. I still hadn’t gotten used to the heat of it all.

The SP in front of my eyes shot up like crazy. The number that had dropped to nearly 300 after using an item surpassed 500 in just a few seconds.

All around the audience, I could see slogans bearing my name and face.

‘This feels really weird…’

Actually, I had made a slogan for I-yul before, too. If you had no sense for design, it was much harder work than you might think.

Maybe that was why my cheeks felt strangely itchy.

“Cute!!”

My ears instantly grew hot. Even after living twice, this was the first time I had ever heard so many people call me cute simultaneously.

Not knowing how I should react, I froze for a moment.

But I was an idol now, wasn’t I?

‘I have to show them something, at least.’

For a moment, I recalled Kang I-yul, who had been captured through my camera lens. Then, imitating him, I tilted my head slightly toward the camera.

“Kyaaaaaaah!!”

Fortunately, the cheers from the audience grew even louder.

Kwon Gi-hyeon and Song Woo-joo awkwardly waved their hands along with me, while Kang I-yul quietly swept his gaze across the audience and waved as well.

‘Did this unintentionally turn into a cuteness battle?’

“Team ‘Adolescence,’ who chose the vocal position. Please introduce the stage you’ve prepared.”

The microphone naturally came toward me.

“Just like our team name, we prepared a performance that honestly captures each of our own adolescences!”

“I’m particularly looking forward to trainee Yoo Seong-woo producing again this time.”

Kang Se-jun asked with a smile,

“Is there anything in particular we should look out for?”

“I think it would be nice if you listened while looking for the parts that have changed from the original song.”

After briefly looking around the audience, I added,

“We almost completely rewrote the lyrics to contain our own stories.”

Kang Se-jun gave a small nod and turned the cue card.

“We’ll now begin Team ‘Adolescence’s’ performance. Code– On!”

The stage went dark.

We each took our positions in the darkness.

I closed my eyes and slowly inhaled. While a short VCR played, I calmed my trembling.

A moment later, the screen lit up.

“Whoa…”

“So cute……!”

“Who is that?”

Filling the entire screen was the face of a newborn baby. Soft hair like dandelion fluff, chubby cheeks that looked ready to burst, and distinct features despite being a baby.

It was unmistakably Kang I-yul.

Then a picture diary appeared, written in crooked handwriting.

The drawing showed him as an idol standing onstage, with a blank space underneath asking what he wanted to become when he grew up.

 

[I (Kang 10-yul) will become a (cool!) (idol singer) when I grow up.]

 

In the middle of it all, he had written ‘I’ as ‘10,’ causing laughter to erupt throughout the audience. I had already seen it several times, but every time I saw it, I thought it was unbearably cute.

Next came childhood photos of Kwon Gi-hyeon, Song Woo-joo, and Jeong Eun-gyu.

One after another, the team members’ childhoods passed by.

And finally…

My photo filled the screen.

‘…It’s been a while.’

My forgotten childhood flashed before my eyes.

Could that child ever have imagined a future like this?

That standing on this stage right now was a miracle harder to believe than dying and coming back to life.

Then, a gentle piano melody began to play.

That was enough reminiscing.

Now it was time to focus on the stage.

The percentage above I-yul’s head was still 101%.

‘Please.’

The first spotlight shone on Kang I-yul.

 

♪ Anyone will do

♪ So please tell me

♪ That I can shine.

 

“Wow……”

‘We did it!’

I knew it before the first verse had even finished.

Kang I-yul’s clear, refreshing tone was brightly filling the space as though sweeping away a fog.

That was why the first verse absolutely had to be Kang I-yul’s.

A voice that wasn’t thin despite having breath mixed into it.

A clear tone that reached forward with strength.

The exclamations from the audience weren’t simply expressions of admiration.

They were the surprised reactions of people who had discovered something they had never heard before.

 

♪ If I dream

♪ Everything will come true

♪ In that sweet illusion

♪ Before I knew it, I had grown too much

♪ And came face-to-face with myself

 

‘Ah, shit, I have to hold it in…….’

I was the one in greater danger every time I heard the lyrics. Anyone who knew I-yul’s past would have no choice but to cry when listening to lyrics like these.

But I-yul himself was singing calmly.

So I couldn’t lose my composure, either.

 

♪ They say it’s easier

♪ If you give up

♪ But those words

♪ Were the most uncomfortable thing for me

 

My clenched fist kept tightening.

After Kwon Gi-hyeon and Song Woo-joo’s parts passed, my turn finally came.

 

♪ If I reach out my hand

♪ It feels like I could touch it

♪ But every time, like smoke

♪ My mirage disappears

 

I slowly opened my tightly closed eyes.

Hundreds of gazes were looking at me, holding their breath.

I met them all.

I was trembling.

Enough to be a little frightening.

Because I was afraid I might start believing the illusion that I was truly someone who shone.

If I became accustomed to these gazes, how painful would the day I lost them be?

 

♪ [With no map and no destination

♪ Where these steps are heading

♪ What will be waiting for me

♪ At the end?

 

At that moment, I realized.

The practice room and the stage were completely different spaces.

Was the melody supposed to come first, or the lyrics?

It was something I had always wondered about. When I was a producer, I thought you simply placed lyrics over a melody.

But after actually singing myself, my thoughts changed.

The melody was merely a means of conveying the lyrics.

The stage gradually raced toward its climax, and finally, the duet part with I-yul approached.

The two of us slowly stood up from our seats.

I-yul took a deep breath and delivered the first lyric.

 

♪ [My childhood wish

 

100% no longer mattered.

Whether it was 110% or 120%, I would simply pour out everything I had.

Without looking away from the eyes before me, I breathed into the microphone.

 

♪ [The snow that piled up all winter

 

Then came the soaring high note.

I felt like I was running out of breath, but instead, I pushed it up with even more strength.

 

♪ Melting it warmly and making it bloom

 

When had it happened?

The number above my head had already disappeared from my sight.

 

♪ [The beginning of a blue spring

 

It didn’t matter even if this wasn’t Kang I-yul’s 100%.

Now, only one line remained.

The part Kang I-yul had never been completely confident about, even until the final practice.

Watching him squeeze his eyes shut, I shouted inwardly.

‘You can do it!’

 

♪ Will you give it to me as a gift?

 

“……!”

In that instant, the air changed.

My gaze rose involuntarily.

And just like that, I took over the final melody.

I wanted to pour out this overwhelming emotion right then and there.

[Kang I-yul: 100%]

We had finally met.

Kang I-yul’s 100%.

 

***

 

At first, it wasn’t a performance Disappear Boy was happy about.

The moment Kang I-yul sang the first verse, sniffles could be heard throughout the audience. But at some point, even Disappear Boy’s heart began to melt like ice.

The performances from the previous two teams had certainly been excellent. But this was the first performance that had truly moved her heart.

The lyrics weren’t flashy or sophisticated. Even so, the lyrics containing the trainees’ sincerity in their entirety moved people’s hearts. On top of that, string sounds that weren’t present in the original song were added, building up the emotions layer by layer.

While filming the duet between Kang I-yul and Yoo Seong-woo, Disappear Boy involuntarily cursed.

“Are these crazy bastards serious…?”

There was no way to capture it properly through a camera lens.

She almost wondered if some kind of teal-colored lighting was shining only on the two of them.

Especially at the very end.

The look in Yoo Seong-woo’s eyes captured through her lens became even more vivid as time passed.

And as though pouring out all those emotions, the highlight began.

 

♪ Even if it’s only for a moment

♪ Even if only once

♪ I hope I can shine~

 

“……Wow.”

“Crazy……”

“What the hell?”

No one could even form a long sentence of admiration.

Amid the fragmented exclamations, she muttered as though hypnotized.

“He completely found his voice before coming here……”

While the two who had poured out everything caught their breath, the harmonies of Kwon Gi-hyeon, Song Woo-joo, and Jeong Eun-gyu followed.

“Their chemistry is so good.”

“Woo-joo is surprisingly good, too…”

With the final verse remaining, the five returned to the positions where they had started.

 

♪ The possibility

♪ I doubted countless times

♪ Now I’ll proudly say

♪ It’s time to shine

 

And simultaneously, they reached underneath their chairs.

“What is that?”

“I can’t really see it……”

The camera zoomed in on the five people’s hands.

“Ah, fucking hell…”

“Whoa……”

It was the trainees’ name tags.

The name tags they had spent all this time competing against one another to remove, or having removed from them.

This time, they attached those name tags to their own chests.

Not their code numbers, but their individual names.

The camera swept over the trainees’ name tags one by one before finally capturing all five in a single frame.

Kwon Gi-hyeon and Song Woo-joo were already crying.

Kang I-yul looked toward the camera while holding back his tears until the very end.

Finally, when the camera showed Yoo Seong-woo, Disappear Boy unconsciously muttered,

“Don’t cry…… No, cry……”

But the tears never fell.

His face was scrunched up so much that she almost wished he would just cry instead.

But somehow, that expression made him even more adorable.

“Ah, he’s fucking cute.”

“He looks like a country puppy…”

Then, something no one had expected happened. Even though the camera was still rolling, Kang I-yul suddenly sprang to his feet first.

“What?”

“Where’s I-yul going?”

Everyone’s gaze naturally followed him, and Disappear Boy muttered with a sigh,

“Fuck, their friendship is beautiful.”

Kang I-yul stopped in front of Yoo Seong-woo.

With a smile so bright that it stretched from ear to ear, he shook Yoo Seong-woo’s shoulders.

He had clearly said something, but it couldn’t be heard by the audience.

“What? What did he say?”

“Ah, I can’t hear anything!”

Of course, she captured that entire scene on camera as well.

“I’ll have to check it properly when I get home.”

When Yoo Seong-woo gestured toward the camera, Kang I-yul seemed to finally snap out of it, return to his spot, and give a little bow.

“Haha, I really enjoyed Team ‘Adolescence’s’ performance.”

Kang Se-jun burst out laughing.

“Trainee Kang I-yul, was there something you needed to say that urgently?”

Kang I-yul gave a sheepish expression and merely nodded slightly.

The sight caused laughter to spread through the audience as well.

“I’ll go first–”

“I’ll go first, judging–”

“Should I go first?”

The three judges’ voices overlapped simultaneously.

A brief silence.

But the winner had already been decided.

“First of all, I’d like to give you high marks for the fact that you included a story that only you could tell.”

It was Song In-hyuk.

“Thank you!”

“Trainee Yoo Seong-woo.”

In an instant, tension filled the venue.

“Yes.”

Song In-hyuk smiled briefly.

“You’re really good.”

The face that had been slightly stiff relaxed in an instant.

“The arrangement was good, and so was the songwriting.”

He paused for a moment before looking straight at Yoo Seong-woo.

“But that isn’t what I rated the highest.”

Even from the audience, they could feel everyone holding their breath.

“Each team member has completely different strengths, and you brought out every single one of them precisely.”

“……”

“Some people think producing means making music.”

Song In-hyuk slowly shook his head.

“I think it means making people.”

Yoo Seong-woo swallowed involuntarily.

“This performance was one that proved that.”

“……Thank you.”

This time, Song In-hyuk looked at Kang I-yul.

“And trainee Kang I-yul.”

“Yes!”

Song In-hyuk smiled warmly.

“I enjoyed looking at your childhood photos.”

“Ah……”

“You’ve dreamed of becoming an idol for a very long time.”

Kang I-yul’s voice trembled faintly.

“…Yes.”

“Something that couldn’t be seen in the practice room came out onstage today.”

“……”

“That’s what I think. Someone like you should be an idol.”

Disappear Boy nodded as if spellbound.

Song In-hyuk put down his evaluation sheet and added,

“Starting with today’s performance, my debut lineup has changed.”