Chapter 184

And so, days after that frenzied induc— no, housewarming party, we were stuck at the company drowning in an endless lesson hell.

One especially hot afternoon, Ji Suho came to find us — all sprawled every which way across the practice room — and without preamble, declared:

"Your debut date's been set."

Just like that?

Granted, all the puke-level exercise, dance, diet, and practice we'd been doing was, in fact, for the debut.

For a beat everyone's reactions short-circuited at the sudden news — then Seo Taehyun, bangs tied up with a rubber band and chugging straight from the water bottle, managed to lever himself upright and asked Ji Suho:

"When?"

"You've got two options."

It's not like this is a game — options, for a debut date, seriously….

"Honestly, the company's already about 80% locked it in. But I wanted to hear you guys out too."

Ah — one of the cards was a trap card, then.

At that classic answer-was-already-decided reply, the members sprawled around the room started dragging themselves in to gather — some crawling, some rolling.

Don't be shocked at how rude they were being in front of the Bureau Chief. They'd been at the company since 6 in the morning and were ten hours into getting run into the ground, and Ji Suho had told them to take it easy.

…though even without that, none of us had the energy to sit up anyway — which was really the problem.

"First one — November 20th. Push it into the back half of the year, ride the year-end buzz, and go for next year's Rookie of the Year."

A decent chunk of the domestic award shows wrapped voting and judging around October–November, and albums or tracks released after that rolled into the following year's numbers — so it wasn't a bad strategy.

It was late July, so prep time was more than enough. Two weeks of promotions with the debut track, then drop a year-end seasonal song, and we'd be well-placed to work the award circuit.

Assuming we got invited to the award shows in the first place, of course.

Still, we had two regressors in this group — surely we couldn't flop hard enough that we wouldn't even get award-show invitations, right?

But life's unpredictable — I was starting to genuinely worry when, right in front of me, Jung Siwoo's face appeared, dabbing at sweat with a towel.

Hm. We're not going to flop.

I got a firm feeling that the broadcast PDs, if only to get Jung Siwoo's face on their air, would invite our group to their award ceremonies. A real relief.

Anyway, back to the point — November 20th did feel reasonably solid as a debut date. Except for a few critical minuses.

I raised my hand politely, got the floor from Ji Suho, and said what I was thinking.

"By then all the buzz from the survival will've drained out."

"…right. It's the most textbook plan — that's one of the reasons it got bumped to plan B."

"So what's the next date?"

Whoa, damn — what was that voice?

At Ju Eunchan's voice coming from right beside me, I couldn't help a small shudder. The kid's voice was already good; take the effort out of it and it was straight-up movie-dialogue territory. I honestly thought I'd just watched a scene from some crime-thriller flick.

Watching Ju Eunchan drag himself over next to me and sit up straight with proper posture, I was reassured all over again.

Hm. Yeah, no way we're flopping.

If we ended up a flop group with this face and that face, that had to be because the world itself had ended.

As I was thinking useless things, Ji Suho laid out the next plan.

"The plan the company's basically locked in on right now — September 15th."

"Two months from now?"

"A bit… no, insanely tight."

The moment Ji Suho said it, I used the system window to pull up a three-month calendar overhead.

Late July — so, roughly speaking, we had about a month and three weeks left.

Say we put out a mini album with maybe two tracks including the title….

From now: debut track practice, debut track recording, B-side practice, B-side recording, concept photos, MV shoot, album photos…. Then post the timetable in the second or third week of August and start rolling out the reveals in sequence, debut in September, run the music shows, prep the next album on top of that….

…this schedule is going to kill us?

That wasn't a schedule where just one person got ground down — that was one where every single person involved got fed through a grinder. And on top of that — was there even a debut song? Group concept? MV synopsis? Sure, concept photos could be done at a rented studio, but MV location? Director? Choreo?

Reading our expressions — everyone about to suffocate under the flood of question marks in their heads — Ji Suho quickly added, as if to reassure us:

"For reference, your debut song's already been narrowed down to about five candidates. We're doing a blind test the day after tomorrow, and obviously you'll be part of it. The overall group concept was already settled during your survival."

Aha. Good news amid the bad.

I straightened my back from the wall.

Even with the A&R framework already in place, September 15th was busy — way too busy. The only real upside to that date was squeezing the last drop out of Miro Maze.

If even I could see that, no way Miro couldn't — so why were they still pushing that date so hard?

"Is there a reason it has to be September specifically? Obviously, early debut is great for us…. It just feels a bit rushed."

Seo Taehyun — the third reason our group would absolutely not flop — raised his hand and put the question to Ji Suho. As a guy who'd been around this scene, he seemed to be thinking along the same lines I was.

Sure enough, the moment Ji Suho heard Seo Taehyun's question, he nodded and answered.

"Right. Honestly, we weren't planning to move this fast either…. But during your break, we caught wind of something big."

"Something… big?"

"Around November, Rene's launching their next male idol group."

"Ah, holy sh—…. …ahem, sorry."

I'd almost blurted 'holy shit' out loud without thinking and barely caught myself. Ji Suho and I might be on informal terms, but I couldn't be the crazy trainee cursing his head off in front of the company Bureau Chief.

Yeah — no wonder things had been quiet!

Rene's next group had to be Lanion, the Greek-god male idols — with that nasty-attitude Cha Minseok on the roster!

The group that soaked up all the pre-debut idol-scene aggro and then, after debuting, climbed with terrifying momentum until they were sitting at roughly the same weight class as their three-year-senior Enderway!

Appearing like a comet in what had been a record-level dark age for new male idol groups, they'd gotten idol fans across the scene to swing by for a quick look and end up planting their feet in the ground and waving lightsticks!

A monster rookie that swept Rookie of the Year awards and stormed every year-end stage in their debut year!

Normally I wouldn't have had anything against them — but thinking about the fact that all of that was going onto that rude little punk Cha Minseok's résumé suddenly made me really resent them. Big-time resent them.

Apparently I wasn't the only one — across from me, the Seo-Ju-Dan bunch were each screwing their faces up in their own way.

Dan Haru especially — the second he heard 'Rene' — had shifted into full max-level-bunny-hero mode squaring off against an overkill Demon Lord who refused to stay dead, eyes loaded up with pure delinquent energy.

Cherry Boy, my ass — Seo Taehyun, who looked like he'd crush every cherry you handed him and juice it right out, was radiating pure murder from the seat beside him.

Watching the two of them, I suddenly remembered something Cha Minseok had said the first time I'd met him at Rene.

"…huh? But didn't they say they were debuting in June?"

Obnoxious Cha Minseok had said it clear as day, with his own mouth. That they were locked in for a June debut.

Manners-free punk or not — no way he'd have lied about a debut schedule just to needle Seo Taehyun. I couldn't remember the exact date, but in the previous timeline too, they'd definitely debuted somewhere around just-past-spring.

I could clearly remember Cha Minseok's college-festival fancams trending in real time.

At that, Ji Suho — apparently unsure whether he should even be saying this — let out a quiet hmmm…. while looking off into the distance. Then, wearing an oh-well expression, he shrugged and said:

"That was the plan, yeah. But it looks like they've hurriedly pushed things back too. Probably because we're doing too well."

"Us…. ah. Miro Maze?"

"Yeah. We had strong reactions from the first episode. For a June debut, they should've already been into their rollout by April or May — but they figured they'd get outshone on buzz. And the rival image would've gotten played up too hard."

"Still — jumping from June all the way to November is a bit much."

"Well…. there's also a story that one of the members went into hiding saying he couldn't debut, and they barely managed to drag him back. Heard that one over drinks, so it's not confirmed."

Then that's a hundred percent.

This damn Miro Maze had really messed with a lot of lives.

Coming face to face with yet another butterfly effect I hadn't seen coming, I felt a sharp reminder to be careful — and careful again — before setting anything in motion from here on.

But the massive snowball Miro Maze had set rolling wasn't done yet.

"It's not just Rene. Lime's got a new male idol group scheduled for the first half of next year, and word's out the broadcast networks are ramping up for another male-idol survival too."

"These upper-management types, seriously — zero creativity, just lifting the format wholesale, and they call that a conscience…."

"Huh? Hajin-hyung, what was that?"

"Said next year's idol scene is really gonna be a bloodbath."

Luckily, Ju Eunchan bought it without a hint of suspicion — "Yeah, seriously. Sounds rough." — and I patted his head a couple of times. This kid, looking the way he did — it had to be god's balance patch so he wouldn't get scammed out there in life.

"Anyway — so the company's leaning toward this, even if it's a bit of a gamble: September 15th debut, follow-up promotions late October to early November, a digital single seasonal track around December or January. If it all lands, we can go for this year's Rookie of the Year too."

It was an insane schedule — suffocatingly tight just to hear about — but no one was quick to say they couldn't do it.

Even we could see: sticking our heads into a bloodbath music scene and ending up as nothing at all was way worse — a hundred times worse — than putting in a little more grind to make sure our impression really landed.

"I'm good with it."

As expected, quick-calculating Seo Taehyun was the first to voice his agreement.

"Letting all the Miro Maze buzz just drain away seems like way too much of a waste. And our fans have been running along with us from the survival till now without really getting to enjoy any of it — I want to bring them good news even a little bit sooner."

Translated, that meant: let's throw the fans some bait before the survival high wears off and they turn their eyes somewhere else.

Judging by his expression earlier, there also seemed to be a small side-motive mixed in — a September debut would make him two months' senior to Cha Minseok, who was debuting in November.

"I'm good with September 15th too."

"I think it's fine for me too. Grinding hard was part of what we signed up for."

Ju Eunchan and Jung Siwoo agreed in turn, backing the September 15th debut. I had no reason to object either, so I raised my hand in time and voiced my agreement.

"In favor. During Miro Maze we flipped a whole stage in a single day…. two months is nothing."

Whatever else happened, avoiding the Greek gods first was the smart move. Why bother debuting alongside them, letting all our buzz get stolen, and splitting the market with them?

Four out of seven had already agreed. By majority rule, our debut day was effectively locked in as September 15th — but Ji Suho, apparently wanting to hear the remaining members out too, was quietly waiting for their answers.

And then, someone spoke.

"I'm against it."

It was Lee Yugeon, who'd been sitting silently in one corner of the practice room the whole time, just listening to us talk.

"Aigo, seriously."

Can't a single thing just go smooth around here…!