Debut or Die-Chapter 319
“Leave ‘Park Mundae’ as is?”
So... whether he disappears like this or not, I’ll just go back to when I won the grand prize and keep living as TeSTAR.
There’s no need to pretend I understand the workings of the system anymore or talk with Park Mundae. He didn’t seem to know anything.
I’ve done what I could, so I’ll stop caring and fully claim {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} this idol life I’ve spent years developing.
I won’t deny it.
Ruthless as it sounds, it did hit the right note when I heard it. I had to admit that the life I lived in that body was mine, too.
“But....”
I took a deep breath and relaxed my fist.
“It’s not the same.”
“.......”
Cheongryeo stopped drumming his fingers on the table.
“Of course the experiences I had in Park Mundae’s body are mine. I did them.”
“Right. Then....”
“But the body itself is separate.”
I leaned back.
“You can’t just assume something is yours simply because you used it for years. Park Mundae’s background and growth belong entirely to him.”
“.......”
“I also got some unexpected help along the way.”
If Park Mundae hadn’t been living righteously, he wouldn’t have risen to number one so dramatically. And after debut, his past would’ve gotten him canceled in no time.
Cheongryeo stared at me.
“Haven’t you ever thought that you might’ve succeeded faster if you’d done it in your original body?”
“I haven’t thought about it—but I can’t be sure. And honestly, it’s irrelevant to the achievement itself.”
I snorted.
“Park Mundae has the right to live in Park Mundae’s body. Don’t muddy the issue.”
“.......”
He fell silent, watching me, then finally spoke quietly.
“So, you mean you’d give up the junior’s career if that’s what he wants?”
“I never said I’d give it up.”
“Then.”
I crossed my arms.
“We need to reach an agreement.”
Now that his status ailment had ended, I intended to hear his demands and negotiate.
And I’m not incapable of that.
“I just mean I won’t take advantage of him.”
“I don’t understand. You don’t need to consider him so much.”
I shrugged.
“Well... maybe I’ve grown attached.”
After sharing how Park Mundae had been these past few years, days on end, I, too, had become human.
‘Isn’t it absurd that instead of thinking how to make him fold, I’m considering respecting his will?’
At that moment, the guy across from me removed his hand from the table without expression.
“Attached?”
“Yeah.”
“That I’d grown attached.”
“You mean that carries the same weight as your achievement?”
I pushed my glasses up.
“You keep framing it as a choice between two things—swap the word ‘choice’ for ‘career’ and think again.”
“.......”
“Isn’t life easier now with both, rather than having sacrificed one for the other?”
Just then, the dog under the table barked. Cheongryeo reflexively reached down.
I saw the dog nudge my hand.
“I intend to handle this so we both get to keep what we have.”
“.......”
Cheongryeo fell silent, his expression inscrutable as he seemed to weigh calculations or thoughts in his mind.
‘Surprising.’
I thought he’d egg me on to eliminate a rival, but instead...
‘Maybe his advice was brutal but honest.’
I added briefly.
“Anyway... thanks for recognizing that TeSTAR’s Park Mundae is me.”
“.......”
Hearing that after all this bullshit was honest—it didn’t feel bad.
He paused, then gave a bitter smile.
“Alright. Well, if that’s the case.”
No, cancel that. I’m annoyed at how he acts like he granted some great permission.
Cheongryeo withdrew his hand from his dog.
“It’s a shame. I was willing to help, just in case.”
He can’t be saying he wanted to help bury the real Park Mundae, can he?
‘How precious is a first-tier idol career?’
To snap him out of this unnecessary obsession, I changed the subject.
“Then call me on this body tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Once today is over, I want to confirm who’s in this body.”
“Mm.”
“Don’t pull any tricks.”
To prevent any mishaps, I planned to leave a note telling Park Mundae to recognize the voice on that call and ignore it going forward.
Cheongryeo shrugged.
“Fine. I’ll contact the other body, too—so wait.”
“You don’t need to....”
Wait a second.
I recalled the call he’d made out of the blue on some day in November.
“...Hey, I wondered if you had anything to tell me.”
And then:
“Not yet?”
“......”
Recalling the date, I realized today was exactly the day before that call.
‘So that’s it.’
He contacted me knowing this situation, but kept silent until the target switch.
He’s impossible to predict. I clicked my tongue and stood.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yeah.”
We’d said all there was to say, and I hadn’t gained anything solid—so I planned to physically look for more traces of Park Mundae.
“Alright, take care. I’ll be waiting for your call tomorrow.”
Feeling that I’d already received that call was... odd.
“Sure.”
With that, I ended the conversation with Cheongryeo and returned to my officetel.
As soon as I arrived, I started searching.
‘There’s nothing.’
There were no real traces of everyday life, as if he’d been holed up in a dorm academy. Only the bedroom was filled with hobby items.
TeSTAR albums and MD goods.
All safely kept in drawers I never had time to open when we chatted.
‘He even came to the concert again.’
I found MD from the world tour earlier this year.
“He really made the most of it.”
I smirked and put them back. It wasn’t a bad feeling that they’d helped him relieve stress during exam prep.
But the situation remained unchanged.
Park Mundae’s whereabouts were still a mystery, and the only thing I could verify was a calendar note in his smartphone:
– Day to meet hyung!
“......”
Other than that, no special schedules, no logged-in SNS accounts. He seemed to have done nothing but study, aside from looking up TeSTAR.
I tried to check his status window several times, but only my “reward pending” screen appeared.
“Sigh.”
That was that.
Close to midnight, I sat on the sofa and started scribbling a note.
– Since you’re not here, I’ll leave this in writing. Congrats on passing, and thanks for your hard work.
......
I’d set Cheongryeo’s call to record, so I listed everything: memorize his voice, don’t leak any extra information when we meet, and how to contact me in December.
Then the clock struck midnight.
Ding—
I was lying on the sofa.
A small bell rang in the corner.
‘He changed the clock.’
‘Looks like another concert MD...’
With that brief thought, I was overcome by the need to sleep as always these past few days.
Ding—
But the bell rang again.
‘Wait.’
And suddenly I was conscious and thinking.
‘I’m coming back.’
Something disrupted me just as I was about to fall completely asleep....
“Hyung!”
“...!”
I sat up.
I was still in the officetel. But there was something unfamiliar.
“Wow, it’s so good to see you, hyung...!”
On the floor before the sofa sat a strangely shaped boy.
He looked somewhat like me, but not exactly the same....
“Park Mundae.”
At his name, he smiled awkwardly.
“I—I’m not sure if I can go by that name.”
I could guess why he said that. He looked like someone who’d taken Park Mundae’s shell and mixed in some Ryu Geonwoo, fixing him in his early twenties.
‘You didn’t seriously receive that as your new body, did you.’
Fatigue brought on a headache. I pressed my temple and rose from the sofa.
“But your name is still correct.”
“That... you use that name, too. So I used your name... Ah, please call me ‘Bigdal’ for now!”
It sounded like a handle from a gaming meetup, but whatever. I nodded and moved to the main point.
“What’s happening right now?”
Despite the crisis, he seemed oddly calm.
The boy in front of me, tension on his face, reached for the blinds on the balcony.
He pushed a button.
“Ah, first... look at this.”
Whirr.
The blinds opened, revealing....
“...!”
The sunset outside wasn’t normal. Golden, violet, and red rays clashed in a dizzying display, and I felt as if I could hear music from a music box.
I recognized it.
“It’s the scene from the ‘Magic Boy’ teaser—you and I were both impressed by it, right? It’s been manifested.”
“...Manifested?”
“Yes.”
He smiled awkwardly.
“They say... this is the Imaginal World.”
“......!”
“So it’s not real, but something that occurs only in our minds—um....”
“I know what it is, so stop.”
“Okay.”
I figured it as something like the daydream I had in that coma-like state.
And I understood why he appeared as he did: while living as ‘Ryu Geonwoo,’ some of that self-awareness must have intermingled.
‘What an experience.’
I sighed.
He smiled awkwardly again.
“Hyung, you really know everything....”
I almost lost it; he doesn’t need to say that.
“That can’t be true. More importantly, you seem familiar with this.”
“.......”
“Did you stay here all day today—well, yesterday?”
Originally, Park Mundae—‘Bigdal’—sat carefully on the floor. Then he answered earnestly.
“Yes.”
As I thought.
“And it wasn’t just yesterday.”
“What?”
“When my status ailment was lifted, you know I kept pressing ‘Sync Accept,’ right?”
I remembered. It always made me uneasy that it only showed ‘Accumulation Complete.’
“It turned out to sync with the time I spent with you.”
“With me?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“I was in a different form.” 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Bigdal nervously rubbed his palm against his thigh, then spoke quietly, shifting to an abrupt, unrelated topic.
“Hyung, I want to apologize first.”
“For making you suffer like that... it’s actually my fault.”
“.......”
“When you went into that coma, I had some strange thoughts.”
He began to explain the situation at the time slowly.
“They said you might never wake up. So I... I started clearing out your house. That’s when I realized.”
His thoughts resonated directly in my mind like an echo.
–This....
It was the camera I used.
And among the data he didn’t bother to delete was something I’d uploaded with my ‘gun1234’ account.
He must’ve recognized it instantly while cleaning up.
That blow must have been decisive.
–Oh, what do I do....
“At that moment... I think I was too heartbroken. You’d been helping me ever since, but I couldn’t help you, and I thought you’d die....”
“.......”
“So as I packed to leave, I accidentally leaned on the stair railing outside with the trash in my hand. Without thinking....”
That cheap one-room building’s railings always looked unstable when stepping out to smoke.
“But the railing couldn’t bear the weight and collapsed....”
And of all times, it collapsed just when he was most distracted.
–Ping!
At the worst timing.
“I thought I’d just broken a leg or something... I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want you to worry. But I think... I was moments from death.”
I almost bit my tongue. But he wasn’t done.
“So the system must have malfunctioned.”
“Malfunctioned?”
“This system grants wishes based on the last thought before death.”
Bigdal swallowed.
“But... I wished for you to live long and happily, and you were in that coma-like state just as I was—so an error occurred. It misunderstood the target.”
“...!”
“You, instead of me, went back to the past and lived in my body.”
–Ugh....
I recalled waking up in that filthy motel room—but the perspective had been mine.
“I think I fused with the system during that process... but some of my consciousness remained. Like an instinct to set things right.”
Then I realized: he kept using the word “system” naturally—the exact usage I’d defined alone, never explained to anyone.
I managed to speak.
“...Status window.”
He nodded.
“That’s right.”
“.......”
“So, hyung, I was... your status window.”
