We'll Debut Together
Phew… I almost missed worship time.
I gripped Lee Hyejeong's hand and stared at the screen, tense.
The final grade evaluations for Class A were about to begin.
I'd gone first, originally. I'd been the very first of the A-rank trainees to take the final evaluation, earned Han Siwoo's lavish praise, and held on to my A.
But then—
……Huh?
From the very opening, the broadcast was already different from reality.
Hyejeong, who should have performed second after me, was being introduced as the first act.
Her hand tightened around mine.
"……."
She'd already sensed the editing's malice; her grip on me tightened without her realizing it.
I pretended not to notice and kept my eyes on the screen.
On-screen Hyejeong appeared, face tight with nerves. The judges watching her didn't look kind, either.
Under that heavy atmosphere, on-screen Hyejeong's stage began.
In reality, Hyejeong had finished the performance cleanly and held her A with her head high.
The moment you saw us—
On-screen Hyejeong pushed through the stage without any major trouble, just as she had in real life.
And then—
We open our eyes!
Singing and dancing at the same time is hard even for active idols. You can't expect studio-quality vocals, and even veterans slip up during live performances. Expecting perfection from a trainee was never realistic.
The half-beat she was late on was a mistake, sure—but for a full performance, it was the kind of thing you could let slide.
But the production team had other ideas.
They slapped on a caption and fattened the moment up, as if she'd committed some unforgivable crime.
On top of that—
They cut in shots of the judges scowling.
Lies.
I'd been standing right there. I knew better than anyone. Not a single judge had made a face like that during Hyejeong's stage.
The production team had spliced in grimaces from when the judges watched lower-ranked contestants and dropped them here instead. And they'd stripped out every strong moment from Hyejeong's performance.
Cut the good parts, package the small mistakes as disasters, and ship it to air—viewers would only ever believe she'd bombed the stage.
…The result was inevitable.
The shot of Han Siwoo handing her a B had clearly been re-filmed.
I swept the set with a resentful look, searching for him. Even if the producers had asked, I hated that he'd gone along and shot that fake scene.
But—
"…Yerin."
"…Unnie."
"…It's okay."
Hyejeong's hands were shaking, and still all she could say was that she was fine.
On the broadcast, the moment devil's editing dropped her to B, the other contestants around us started glancing over, reading the room. Hyejeong ignored those looks and kept watching.
Her cheeks looked thinner today than usual.
Just like that, Hyejeong's final grade evaluation was wrapped in a little over a minute of airtime.
I'd originally gone first. On the broadcast, I appeared second, right after Hyejeong.
The moment I came on, a dark, heavy BGM rolled in.
And with it—
They spotlighted every moment I'd been unfairly hammered on vocals during the custom classes—scenes dripping with the implication that I was headed for a B.
I could read the production team's intent clear as day.
Push someone to the edge of a cliff, then let them shine—the impact hits twice as hard.
Looks like they're planning to push me again this time.
And my guess was dead-on.
We always dream.
We are dreaming!
The moment you saw us—
The second I finished the stage clean—
The camera zoomed in on the trainer's tear-streaked face and cut straight into old footage.
After a shot of the trainer watching us grind through the night, the screen cut back to the present.
Even knowing the full story, Trainer Kim Yesol's tears looked moving. To the audience at home, it must have hit even harder.
That swell of emotion carried straight through Yu Seol's stage as well.
And so the final grade evaluations wrapped with me and Yu Seol walking away as the biggest beneficiaries.
After that came the group theme-song behind-the-scenes and the Episode 3 preview, and the broadcast ended.
The moment it cut to black, the production staff started pulling contestants aside one by one for reaction interviews. Their eyes swung toward me too, clearly hoping to grab a soundbite—
"…Bathroom for a second."
"Ah—me too."
Instead of answering them, I followed Hyejeong toward the restroom.
Everyone else was busy with interviews, so the bathroom was empty and quiet.
The door thudded shut behind me. The second I stepped in, Hyejeong turned, gave me a small crooked smile, and spoke.
"Our Yerin. Still worried about Unnie, so you came after me?"
"……."
"Thank you, Yerin. But Unnie's really okay. …I just have to work even harder than I am now."
Working hard mattered. The way she was doing it, though, was wrong.
I didn't want to watch her collapse again. …I didn't want to watch her go off the rails.
I took her hand.
"…You're not okay. You're struggling right now. That's why you tried to come here alone."
"……."
Her eyes were brimming the same way they had before.
Of course, after what happened with Yu Seol last time, I knew. Pointless meddling, pity… could cut someone deeper than silence.
"Tomorrow… it's our first team competition. The first time we perform live in front of an audience."
"…Yeah."
"Tomorrow we give it everything and get a good result. And…"
But I couldn't leave the next part unsaid.
"Later on, we debut together. For sure."
"……!"
"The two of us… in the same idol group… we debut through My Idol Academia. No matter what."
Lee Hyejeong.
She'd practiced beside me, bleeding and sweating the same hours. I'd landed good camera time and stamped my face into the viewers' minds. She'd been thrown away on air like a worn-out shoe.
She'd worked as hard as me—no, harder—and still walked away empty-handed. It hurt to look at. It stuck in my throat.
And she mattered.
She stepped in and wrapped her arms around me, as if my feelings had reached her.
Just like the time the production team forced her down to B and she clung to me in a bathroom, choking on how unfair it was.
Her body was trembling.
"…Yeah. Let's debut together. For sure."
"……."
I was going to debut through My Idol Academia.
But not alone.
There would be five other members—and I'd already decided one of those seats belonged to Hyejeong.
Of course, to make that happen…
Tomorrow's stage. Crush it. Overwhelmingly.
I had to light up tomorrow's stage so bright it made eyes ache… and pull Hyejeong into that light with me.
Another reason to throw myself into the performance had just landed in my lap.
I swore I'd chew tomorrow's stage to pieces and spit out the bones.
Holding that promise to debut together, Hyejeong and I linked hands and walked back to the set—
Time raced forward, and the day of the team competition arrived.
Rewind the clock to the day My Idol Academia Episode 3—the first team competition—aired.
XX Division Headquarters Duty Unit, Security Company.
After roll call, every security company soldier except the six on duty—forty-three men—gathered in the training hall set apart from the barracks for what was billed as a company debrief.
Of course…
"You sons of bitches—!!"
…It was a mass punishment session wearing the name of a debrief.
"Fuck—! How dogshit do you have to stand watch for this division to get this kind of heat, you fucking bastards!!"
The big hall where the whole company was packed had originally been a training space the ceremonial unit used for event practice. No duty officer had any reason to come here, so the senior could scream his lungs out in peace.
He wasn't doing this just to torment the juniors for fun. Today… there was a real reason to call everyone in.
"You insane bastards couldn't track the division commander's location for five hours—does that even make sense? Hey. Im Seongbin."
"C-Corporal Im Seongbin."
"You got gate squad leader on your first stripe and it went straight to your head, didn't it? This afternoon when the 77th Regiment commander called. When he asked where the division commander was—what did you say."
"……."
"What did you say, you fucking bastard!"
"I-I said he was at the official residence."
"At that exact moment the division commander was sitting in Vehicle One at the 77th Regiment gate, you son of a bitch—!!"
Which meant the 77th Regiment commander got chewed out by the division commander, the regiment commander's rage slammed into the headquarters duty unit commander, and the duty unit commander's rage, of course, slammed into the security company.
A full-blown cascade of shit rolling downhill.
The senior dumped another bucket of curses on them, then announced the punishment the security company had been handed.
"Hoo… The headquarters duty unit commander is cutting the security company's consolation leave for this quarter."
"……!!"
"……!!"
The training hall erupted the second the words landed.
Security company work was brutal enough that they got three days of consolation leave every quarter. That leave was the only bright spot in the job—and it had just been axed…?
A cold silence settled over the room. Senior or junior, it didn't matter—the air went dead.
Into that atmosphere stepped Sergeant Yu Changseon, the absolute top of the security company.
Time for final judgment.
"Fuck, thanks a lot, Seongbin. Thanks to you we're working three extra days, you bastard."
"……."
"You didn't think we were just gonna let this slide, right? …The squad leaders talked it over. We're stripping your gate squad leader post."
"Th-that's…!"
Lose gate squad leader now and there was no telling when another TO would open up.
The punishment was harsher than expected; Corporal Im Seongbin started to push back. Sergeant Yu Changseon's face went flat and cold.
"This idiot still doesn't get how badly he fucked up…"
The air was one spark from exploding—when suddenly—
Someone's hand shot straight up.
"S-S-S-Sergeant Yu Changseon…!!"
"…The fuck is this now."
…A private who'd only been in the unit three weeks.
A private jumping into this atmosphere made every senior's face turn ugly.
"You out of your mind?"
"The fuck are you to cut in."
"Put that hand down, you crazy bastard."
But the private didn't lower his hand. He stared straight at Sergeant Yu Changseon and forced the words out.
"I-It's 10:48 right now…!"
"So what."
"M-My Idol Academia Episode 3 started forty-eight minutes ago…!!"
"……."
"……."
The second the private finished, the training hall filled with a silence so thick it choked.
Especially Corporal Heo Sangdo, who'd been stuck on night gate squad every single time My Idol Academia aired—
Has that bastard lost it?
—couldn't understand how a private could bring up an idol show in a moment like this.
In the end he couldn't hold it in. Corporal Heo Sangdo opened his mouth.
"This crazy bastard's lost every scrap of fear he ever—"
"YOU SON OF A BITCH—!!!!!!"
"……!"
"……!"
Before Heo Sangdo could finish, Sergeant Yu Changseon's roar shook the hall.
Heo Sangdo swallowed hard.
He could swear he'd never seen Sergeant Yu Changseon this apoplectic in his life—
"WHY ARE YOU ONLY SAYING THAT NOW!!!! I TOLD YOU TO TELL ME AT TEN-TWENTY SO WE COULD FINISH THE DEBRIEF BEFORE YERIN'S STAGE—!!!!!"
…Huh? That was the part he was mad about…?
"I-I-I'm sorry…! Th-the atmosphere was too serious…"
"You fucking—!! Hey! Stop! Dismissed! Company debrief over! Everybody fuck off! I have to watch My Idol Academia!"
With that, Sergeant Yu Changseon blasted out of the training hall and sprinted for the barracks.
"Sergeant Yu Changseon! Me too…!"
"Ah, shit. That's why I said just do the debrief tomorrow!"
The seniors with enough rank to move freely fell in behind him like they'd been waiting for the excuse.
They hit the barracks at something close to light speed—
"Where's the remote, fuck—!"
—and by the time they finally found it and slammed the TV on—
—they were just in time. Ha Yerin's Mackerel Sandwich team was about to take the stage.
The company men let out a collective breath of relief and checked the lineup—and the second they got a good look—
"…Huh? The fuck."
—groans of pure disappointment burst out of them.
"Why the hell is she wearing glasses."
"What's with that skirt. It's stupid long."
"…Why'd they style them so goddamn tacky?"
Glasses, stifling outfits, outdated hair—every single piece of Mackerel Sandwich's stage styling was something they hated on sight.
Even so—
"Shut it, you bastards. Our Yerin's got a plan. She always does."
—fanatic Sergeant Yu Changseon refused to abandon a single scrap of faith or expectation in Ha Yerin.
And with Inquisitor Yu Changseon locking down the company's emotions—
"Anyone who doesn't cheer for our Yerin, or talks shit about her—I will personally end you. Conduct yourselves accordingly."
"Y-Yes, sir…! Understood…!"
—the Mackerel Sandwich team's stage began.