Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Even as a Villain, I Want to Debut
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“Uh… um.”
I froze on the spot.
I’d roughly thought up an excuse for if this kind of situation arose.
But now that it was actually happening right in front of me, the words wouldn’t come out.
“So, like…”
The sound circled around inside my mouth.
No excuse would change the fact that I’d been caught sneaking into someone else’s house.
I didn’t think he’d come back this early.
I glanced at the clock.
It was over ten minutes round trip. And yet he’d arrived ridiculously fast.
Is that even possible? As I stared, Won Ji-an set the black plastic bag with the cola inside on the desk and spoke.
“I bought it at the supermarket near the house.”
“Supermarket?”
“Yeah. You wouldn’t know since you don’t live here, but there’s a local store that doesn’t show up on map apps. I usually shop there. Way cheaper than the convenience store.”
Anyone else would’ve exploded in anger, but Won Ji-an remained utterly calm.
Did he have no emotions? Or did he not even see this as something worth getting mad about? I couldn’t tell. He just kept a blank expression.
“Sorry.”
For now, I decided to apologize first.
My circumstances were my own. Still, the fact was I’d been caught red-handed doing something shady.
That was when the quest window popped up, and at the same time, Won Ji-an’s gaze shifted sideways.
“You did it for a quest, huh?”
My eyes widened involuntarily.
“You too…?”
“Yeah. I can see the system too.”
His unexpected, matter-of-fact confession left me unsure what expression to make.
“Since when?”
“Not long ago.”
Won Ji-an spoke casually as he pulled over the chair in front of the desk and sat down.
“Don’t feel too bad about it. It’s not a big deal. We’re both in the same boat anyway, right? Stuck doing whatever because of the system.”
That gave me a lot to think about.
Won Ji-an could see the system too? Well, since I could, it made sense another like me might as well.
I’d suspected it, but hearing it straight from him felt weird.
“Won-woo, what happens to you?”
“Huh?”
Won Ji-an fixed me with a steady gaze.
“If you don’t debut.”
…If I don’t debut?
The question dragged the harsh reality I’d been trying to ignore back to the forefront.
It choked me to say it out loud, but…
“…I die in three years.”
“I see.”
He gave a wry smile, unsurprised by my words.
“What about you?”
Now I was curious.
Were his conditions the same as mine?
“Mine’s similar to yours, but different.”
Won Ji-an continued.
“If I don’t debut, I vanish. The day after the show ends.”
“Vanish?”
He nodded.
“It’s not dying, exactly. More like evaporating, they say. My body turns to smoke and disappears, so in this world, it’d be ruled a missing person.”
“…Ah.”
I couldn’t find words.
I at least get three years before death, but he vanishes the very next day after the finale. That’s brutal.
In terms of pressure, his was worse than mine.
“Um…”
I flapped my mouth, not knowing how to comfort him, when—
“No need to console me. You’re not much different, Won-woo.”
True enough. What right did I have to comfort anyone? We were both doomed if we didn’t debut.
“I got the one-liter cola.”
“Oh…? Yeah. Thanks.”
Cola talk, in the middle of this?
It made me feel even guiltier for lying to send him out.
If I’d known, I should’ve been honest from the start and asked his real name. We wouldn’t be in this awkward spot.
“Come to think of it, I only told you mine. I haven’t heard yours, Won-woo. What’s your real name?”
My real name?
“Uh… um.”
I froze again.
A fierce internal debate raged: should I tell him?
What would he think if he learned I was the kid who’d been a total jerk to him in my past life?
He might hate me. Even if not hate, he wouldn’t like me.
I’d feel repulsed in his shoes.
“My name is, um…”
As I hesitated—
“Moon Do-hyun, right?”
I looked up in shock.
“…How’d you know?”
“From the beginning.”
“The beginning?”
Won Ji-an, spinning in the swivel chair, came to a stop.
“I wasn’t totally sure at first. Just guessed from your speech and vibe. Later, it turned into certainty.”
“…From what?”
“It was just obvious. That it was you.”
I still had doubts despite his words.
Was that possible? We weren’t even close back then.
“Actually, I knew ages ago the original story was changing. So I figured you weren’t ordinary.”
Won Ji-an continued quietly.
“And by my standards, you were the only one who fit. You’ve never been ordinary, past or present.”
I was caught off guard.
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“In what way?”
He muttered softly.
“Just… out of all those kids, you were the smartest, sharpest, the one who’d grit your teeth and get anything done. You always stood out in class, all by yourself.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You seemed special.”
Special…
It felt strange. I’d never thought of myself that way.
If anything, in school I’d been a nobody, keeping my head down quietly. Far from special.
But to someone, I looked special.
I mulled over the unfamiliar words when—
“Anyway, congrats on clearing the quest.”
“Huh?”
“You found out my real name.”
Won Ji-an smiled faintly. He took the notebook from my hand.
“Like I said, I get it. We’re in the same situation. Right?”
“…Thanks.”
“How far’d you read?”
“Just the sheet music.”
He sighed in relief and closed the notebook.
“My goal is to debut with you, Won-woo. And survive in this world. Not as an extra…”
He trailed off, his serious tone fading momentarily.
Then he spoke again.
“Anyway, let’s get along from now on.”
As I sat there dazed, Won Ji-an suddenly stuck out his hand.
I shook it reflexively.
“Now we’re the only two who know each other’s real names.”
Our hands clasped, he bowed his head slightly.
“…Yeah.”
I couldn’t deny it.
In this moment, we understood each other better than anyone.
We’d found the one person we could rely on in this godforsaken world.
The alerts chimed, and a window announced the title acquisition.
A system notice confirming I’d become Won Ji-an’s friend. He glanced at my screen and rolled his eyes silently.
Is he embarrassed?
Seeing his own favorability rise right in front of him.
“Thanks. For thinking well of me.”
He fiddled with the cola cap awkwardly before standing.
“I’ll put the cola in the fridge.”
“Oh, right. Gotta chill it.”
Still, I was glad to be friends with Won Ji-an. Learning his name naturally revealed his identity too.
I never suspected Won Ji-an was Dan I-kyung.
How long had he known I was Moon Do-hyun?
It suddenly hit me. How hilarious must I have seemed to him? Before, I’d brushed him off irritably whenever he approached.
Now here I was, making the effort to get close—and we ended up friends.
People really were unpredictable.
After the quest cleared, an alert arrived about the shop system unlocking.
Guess getting gold as a quest reward unlocked the shop too.
I opened the shop window.
I didn’t have much gold yet, so I couldn’t buy much, but I skimmed through anyway.
It was like a game shop, full of various items.
Oh, there’s Favorability Cookies.
The first thing that caught my eye was the Favorability Cookie.
Looks useful.
With this, no need to work hard at bonding.
On the other hand, maybe it’s better to earn bonds the hard way instead of spending gold.
For now, I’ll check other items later.
I closed the shop and headed out to watch the broadcast.
Air time hit, and we sat side by side on the sofa, turning on the TV.
“Oh, here it comes.”
Perfect timing—the pizza arrived just as the ads started.
Before the show began, I’d set the pizza on the table and poured fridge-cold cola into cups full of ice.
Lee Hae-won’s unusually quiet today.
Unlike the first episode, no messages from him.
His mistake timed perfectly with the end of the first ep, so he seemed extra tense for this one.
Internet reactions probably aren’t helping…
YouTube comments were fine, but elsewhere, not so much.
Other communities were tearing into him viciously. Cynical takes on his flub dominated. Not outright mockery yet.
Hope the edit’s kinder this time.
The broadcast began.
First up: confident Lee Hae-won’s interview.
The edit wasn’t malicious toward him, but not friendly either. They replayed his mistake five times.
Trainees’ and judges’ grimacing reactions were packed in.
At least it flowed into a recovery…
Next, him recalling the forgotten lyrics and finishing steadily—but it wasn’t impactful.
If anything, it screamed narrow escape. Barely surviving.
Can’t be helped. Dramatically showing a flubbed recall would be weird. The mistake itself was a minus to begin with.
As he got C-rank, the live chat exploded in disbelief.
Chat’s blowing up.
The flub was mere seconds, but slowed and repeated ad nauseam, it felt longer.
Viewers wouldn’t care. Broadcasts were just entertainment to vent real-life stress; truth was secondary.
Everyone was like that. Even past me.
The change? I’m a player now, not a spectator.
I picked up my smartphone.
Wonder how Lee Hae-won’s doing.
Worried, I messaged him first. Just asking if he was okay. But the 1 didn’t vanish.
…He’ll be fine. Probably.
With vague reassurance, I set the phone down and kept watching.
Rank evals continued. Next was someone after Lee Hae-won.
I know that name.
Yoon Hyun-min, impossible to forget if you’d read the novel.
Yoon Hyun-min entered with a friendly smile and got surprisingly long screen time.
Yoon Hyun-min. In the original, he narrowly missed debut and dropped out.
Not a lead, but more than an extra. A mid-tier villain who mocked the protagonist instead of bully Do Won-woo tormenting Lee Hae-won.
Handled the sleazy, cathartic lines too crude for the hero.
Thus, barely described in the original, and even live, he hadn’t impressed.
But…
Wait, something’s off?
I’d seen his stage live, so I noticed the broadcast version differed.
Did they edit in favoritism?
Somehow, only he got excessive favorable edits no one else did.
Slyly masking his shortcomings.
This is…
Anyone could see it.
This was a push.
Someone pulling strings.