Debut or Die-Chapter 344
The next day, Seon Ah-hyun’s attitude at camp continued to shift—suddenly more proactive than ever.
It started in the camp scheduling meeting.
“Then we don’t need to collect any more concept reference images, right? Should we go with what we have?”
“I’m fine with it!”
“Okay. Then, does anyone else have any opinions...?”
This is normally said assuming nobody does.
“I-I do...!”
“...!”
But before the sentence even finished, someone who’d never once interrupted before raised their hand.
Ryu Cheong-woo looked a bit surprised but asked kindly, “All right—Ah-hyun, what do you think?”
“I think...we should widen the scope and gather images one more time. We still have time....”
“Hm....”
And Seon Ah-hyun even voiced explicit opposition.
‘What’s gotten into them?’
‘If we submit now, is there an ethical issue?’
The other members’ eyes gave away thoughts like that, yet Seon Ah-hyun didn’t stop there.
“Just two more days...! Couldn’t we? The project team said the deadline is the day after tomorrow afternoon... So even if we hand it in early, it won’t move faster...!”
They even started sweating arguments with supporting logic.
And the logic was surprisingly solid.
“Oh, that’s right.”
“Wow—Ah-hyun, you remember that? From three months ago....”
“Yeah, I...noted it down....”
They weren’t bursting with genius ideas. But they made sound judgments given the situation, and argued persistently.
It matched the diligent attitude Seon Ah-hyun usually showed.
“Th-that’s why...! Let’s take two more days to think...!”
“Of course I agree! Right?”
“Mhm, right.”
Only their confidence was ten times stronger than usual. Everyone else, surprised, went along with it.
‘What is happening?’
I wasn’t sure if I should be pleased, but something felt off. Had some emotional shift driven this outburst?
“Mundae, what do you think!?”
My heart almost stopped.
“...I agree with you.”
“Mhm!”
Now they were collecting my agreement too. Such unprecedented enthusiasm.
‘What the hell.’
And the same energy carried into the evening composition meeting.
“I—I’d like more string accompaniment in the song!”
“Ooh.”
“What kind of string instrument?”
“Something sharp and lively, but dramatic... For example, fiddle! I think it suits the concept even better...!”
“Fiddle?”
Then Seon Ah-hyun eagerly began defining fiddles.
It’s the least classical violin technique, given its own name, with a country flair and bouncing tones, and so on....
“Ooh.”
It was like a presentation. Cha Yoo-jin, listening with interest, seemed ready to applaud.
“That’s a great suggestion! Nice one, hyung!”
“Mhm!”
And Seon Ah-hyun, face almost bursting with pride, didn’t refuse the praise.
What is this?
I really couldn’t ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ make sense of it.
‘Well, at worst they’ll tire when someone else pushes back.’
True—if this motivation came from wanting to participate more, that could be good. Seon Ah-hyun had just been too shy to speak up, not lacking ideas.
“All right, then—we’ll add violin for both sharpness and warmth to complement the string arrangement....”
“No, not just violin—fiddle! I’d like fiddle, please!”
“Okay, got it!”
“.......”
Maybe it was too much.
‘They’re attacking this like it’s a matter of life and death.’
“I’ll work hard on it!”
“Th-thank you...!”
Even Big Sejin paid attention as the meeting, guided by Seon Ah-hyun, wrapped up.
That night, Big Sejin sat in the kitchen sipping sparkling water and asked seriously, “Mundae, Mundae—there isn’t some tragic backstory about not being able to release our album, right?”
“.......”
“Uh, or did you make Ah-hyun work so we’d prove our value... Jeez!”
As if. I watched the guy who’d been swatted exaggerating and stifled a sigh.
“...There must be another reason. It’s not that.”
“Really? Hm... Well.”
Deciding it wasn’t bad, Big Sejin shrugged and let it go.
“We’re friends. You don’t have to know every detail, right?”
“.......”
Funny coming from the guy who pokes into everyone’s business.
Meanwhile, Seon Ah-hyun dashed to their room and hasn’t come out since the night camp session ended.
‘What are they doing?’
I pressed my lips together, then spoke.
“...I worry Seon Ah-hyun might feel left out.”
“Hm?”
“You and I keep talking whenever anything comes up, and they end up excluded.”
Although rank and age are the same.
Perhaps out of frustration at that unfair treatment, they’d thrown themselves into the meetings.
Big Sejin thought for a moment, nodded, then said, “Yeah, maybe they did feel that. But Ah-hyun’s not that type... Oh.”
He sighed.
“I guess Ah-hyun wasn’t great at friendships in school, huh?”
“...Yeah.”
“That might’ve made them feel down.”
Sejin glanced at me and asked sincerely, “What do we do?”
“.......”
How would I know?
Of course he wasn’t offering a real plan—just asking how to manage secrets among us.
If Seon Ah-hyun’s odd behavior stems from knowing our supernatural phenomenon...
“Hm... I can’t tell you what to do, but Ah-hyun won’t change just by listening to you, I think?”
“......”
I thought the same.
‘They’re so honest and kind.’
I let out a short sigh.
“Hey—and we’re not going to ostracize you for being mature... Ow! Hey, that hurt!”
Right, in our twenties, fist strength is real.
...Well, I’ll admit I struck first out of guilt—that’s embarrassing.
I sighed as I watched Big Sejin cackle. When he finally composed himself, he changed the subject.
“Oh, by the way—how should we explain things to Heeseung? I’m invited to that meeting too. Should I just say I was invited and gently persuade him?”
He grinned mischievously.
“Or should I just say I came from the future too? That’d be hilarious.”
“Enough.”
Don’t go spouting untimely world-breaking theories.
“That joke won’t work. It’s more like a baton passed down.”
“Ooh—you’ve analyzed a lot, Mundae. So you worried about Heeseung to figure that out?”
Quick twin.
I clasped my hands.
“Yeah, Gold 2 is useful.”
“.......”
Yet Big Sejin didn’t respond for a moment.
‘What now?’
Then suddenly, serious and curious, he asked, “But Mundae.”
Why?
“I wanted to ask—Gold 2. Are you talking about Heeseung?”
“...!!”
How’d he know...
“.......”
Wait, did I say that out loud?
“You really called him Gold 2? Why?”
“......I,”
“Hold on. Let me guess—Gold rank from AJUSA? You numbered them?”
“.......”
“You guessed it?? That’s wild! Mundae, you heartless guy—AJUSA ended ages ago and you still call him Gold!”
Damn.
I ground my teeth at the guy laughing.
“It’s my prerogative. Why?”
“You’re so embarrassing... No, no, sorry. I laughed too hard—really sorry~”
He tried to apologize insincerely.
But Big Sejin straightened his face and lit up.
“Mundae, seriously—did you call me that too? Did you number everyone from AJUSA? Am I Gold 1?”
Dream big.
“...You’ve always been Big Sejin.”
“Oh~ that’s still a nickname. I like it.”
I sighed as I watched him nod. This is maddening.
“When did you stop calling me that?”
“.......”
“Mundae?”
He’s still doing it.
I left the whining guy and went to my room to sleep.
The next day, the album camp continued—and so did Seon Ah-hyun’s momentum.
“If we keep this pace, we’ll have to work through the night. Nobody wants overtime, right? So....”
“Overtime...! Let’s do it!”
“......uh.”
That enthusiastic... it’s character collapse. Watching Seon Ah-hyun burning with passion like I’m some special device, I stayed silent.
“Hyung, I hate overtime!”
“W-well, it’s necessary if we need to...!”
Oh wow, now they’re shutting down Cha Yoo-jin’s protests.
It’s not bad; productivity might jump. But that’s too much...
I noticed Seon Ah-hyun wiping cold sweat from the back of their neck and made a decision.
‘I need some luck on their side.’
“Thanks for your hard work~”
“Okay, let’s wrap up.”
As soon as the after-dinner meeting adjourned, I followed Seon Ah-hyun to their room.
Knock knock.
“...!”
“It’s me.”
Thunk.
I opened the door to see Seon Ah-hyun hunched over their desk, as if hiding something.
What are you doing?
“Are... you looking for something?”
“Just...wanted to talk....”
I approached and realized what they were shielding.
Articles, reviews, ratings.
They’d printed and organized every piece about our previous album—a scrapbook of sorts.
[Most Important Part?]
[Expression Issues]
And in neat handwriting, they’d added comments throughout.
But that wasn’t all: their e-reader, reflexively covered, also displayed something.
[Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Vol. 5]
...No way.
‘They made it separately.’
Clearly all prep material for TeSTAR’s new album.
Still, I asked once.
“What’s all this?”
“...! Oh, right, this is......”
Seon Ah-hyun hesitated, then answered with surprising confidence.
“It’s... from the Edgar Allan Poe works Sejin hyung mentioned... I thought I found themes that match us.”
“...!”
“‘The Black Cat’ was cool too, but it overlapped a bit with ‘The Summons’... I wanted to blend in what TeSTAR does best.”
Seon Ah-hyun seemed nervous but smiled faintly.
And what they proposed already sounded compelling.
“.......”
“Here.”
I took the notebook hidden under the e-reader, offered with shaky hands.
Inside were titles and the existing TeSTAR concept clusters they wanted to merge.
I quickly read the emphasized words.
[Energy Eruption]
[Immersion, Momentum]
Then I read through the rest of the notes.
“.......”
“Oh, it’s not fully organized into a clean draft yet... I couldn’t share until I had supporting rationale.”
Seon Ah-hyun looked a bit embarrassed and bowed.
“I’m... not good at speaking. So I thought if I structured the content thoroughly, it’d help....”
Honestly.
“Watching you today, you didn’t need to worry about that.”
Seon Ah-hyun’s face turned bright red.
“Th-thank you. But if I finalize it....”
“Oh, so you were working on it separately!”
Surprise.
I turned to see Kim Rae-bin, who’d been working in headphones at that desk, now looking up at me.
‘Since when were you here?’
He’d been silently focused.
“I didn’t realize the album reviews you’ve been reading in the dorm were for our old album.”
“Mhm....”
Seon Ah-hyun blushed and confirmed; Kim Rae-bin nodded in appreciation, eyes shining.
“I thought it was a new hobby from touring, but you’ve been conducting a massive analysis. You truly combine diligence and talent.”
“...M-mhmm.”
Though wanting to modestly refuse, Seon Ah-hyun still accepted.
I chuckled.
“That’s right. Excellent work.”
“...!”
“And the content is great. You could’ve proposed it right away; it’s more than sufficient as is.”
“R-really?!”
Would I lie here?
“Yeah.”
To be blunt, anyone hearing that concise conclusion would be hooked immediately.
‘The reasoning process is so clean.’
Sure, some people like Kim Rae-bin can conjure flawless inspiration. But others piece together countless details like a puzzle, filtering rigorously to find the one solution.
And that’s exactly what Seon Ah-hyun did.
They’d skimmed and analyzed every TeSTAR album entry and reached a conclusion—utterly compelling.
‘They must’ve worked so hard.’
I thought of the forlorn face from when they felt they couldn’t contribute to camp—and felt genuine admiration.
This exceeded expectations.
“I want to try this right away too.”
“...!”
Seon Ah-hyun’s eyes sparkled as if moved to tears.
“M-Mundae, really...thank you.”
“No, thank you for the great idea.”
But Seon Ah-hyun’s words weren’t over.
“Th-then...umm... I was wondering—could I ask...about that, you know....”
At that moment, I realized what “that” referred to.
‘Are they asking me to reveal the secret?’
I must have misunderstood. This enthusiasm wasn’t born of irritation.
Their guarded behavior felt like some kind of secret society qualification test.
“Oh, no! No... I’ll just...keep organizing this....”
Despite denying it, Seon Ah-hyun looked expectant as they crept toward the desk.
“May I—could I see it?”
“Mhm!”
“.......”
...Apparently, Seon Ah-hyun fused two strong emotions into a supremely productive drive: a desire to contribute to the album camp and to earn peer recognition.
‘If I don’t say something now, I’ll regret it.’
“.......”
Damn it. I don’t know.
‘Better carve out a moment.’
At this rate, everyone with a closed mouth will find out. I splashed water on my face.
That night, the meeting Seon Ah-hyun convened unfolded into their presentation—and the well-informed members reacted much as I had: with resounding praise.
“...I prefer this direction too.”
“Then let’s finalize it and push forward. Great job, Ah-hyun.”
“Mhm, th-thank you.... I appreciate it!”
From the idea-maker to the realist, everyone loved it, and Seon Ah-hyun bowed repeatedly, the atmosphere bright and celebratory.
Until the next words.
“Hm, then we need to recheck the schedule.”
“...?”
Ryu Cheong-woo smiled.
“That means...we have to revise every single finalized plan again.”
“.......”
“.......”
Seon Ah-hyun’s eyes snapped open.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“What are you talking about? It’s good that the album concept’s improving.”
It sounded like the lament of office workers.
‘K-Pop Hell Overtime Camp...reopens.’
The silver lining was that this overtime camp was highly effective.
“Let’s just add this one thing.”
“Mhm.”
And since we were at it, I added in a balance tweak I’d held back but now felt driven to include.
‘This is the final draft.’
By the time the warmth of day returned, we’d finished preparing for the new album’s release.
