Debut or Die

[Come out!]

After seeing the excited people starting to post comments, the two giggled and pulled back the camera.

Then, the professional attire worn by those two drew attentions.

Professional cooking attire… They were wearing aprons and latex gloves.

[Hello, Loviewer!]

[Hello!]

The two bowed their heads and checked the screen. Cha Eugene checked a Korean comment and waved his hand.

[Glad to see you, too!]

[Haha, me too! And the reason we turned on W Live today…It’s to cook this chicken!]

As Keun Sejin quickly adjusted the camera, two immaculate raw chickens devoured the selfie filter and were briefly caught on camera.

[Now, do you see that chicken? Actually, that’s the chicken I ordered as Moondae’s birthday present!]

Despite the reaction full of question marks, Keun Sejin continued his next words naturally.

[We’re going to cook today and serve delicious food for Moondae and the year-end party!]

[Chicken soup for the soul! Chicken soup!]

– What’s that?

– You’re going to cook that?

– Can you do it?ㅜㅜ

– Chicken soup for the soul wasn’t just an adlibㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Despite the worried comments, the two laughed wholeheartedly.

[If it doesn’t taste good, we’ll eat it and Moondae and the members will order something delicious!]

[But we’ll do it right this time!]

At Cha Eugene’s unfounded confidence, the comments became more anxious.

– Call Moondae.

– Guys, I don’t think this is right.

– It’s cute but scary.

Those two, who were definitely at the top of the team in terms of strong interpersonal relationships and mentality, filtered out bad comments such as ‘no fun’ and ‘don’t be stupidㅜ’ and only accepted the fans’ reaction.

[Aha, Moondae hyung! Hyungs, come back soon!]

[That’s right~ They’re a bit late because of their schedule! We’re going to prepare the main dish first, and we’re going to make simple ones together!]

By the way, it was a lie.

The choreography was slightly modified, so they were late for an hour or two because they had to go into additional practice.

However, the two people who learned it the fastest asked for understanding and returned home early so that they could turn on W live according to the planned time.

But the rest of the members had no idea that these two would do a cooking content on W live…

[Let’s start!]

[The best!]

And the dishes from those two were stably ruined.

Not forgetting the experience of the burnt soup made with Seon Ahyeon last time, Cha Eugene controlled the fire quite well, but the problem broke out elsewhere.

[Wow! Next is… cumin!]

[Hmm? Cumin? Unfortunately, we don’t have such exotic spices in our dorm. Let’s add chili powder!]

[Great! Add honey, too!]

[Honey’s great!]

The two of them left a perfectly fine recipe and added strong ingredients however they wanted.

The comments were full of confusion, bewilderment, and laughter.

– Don’t

– Throw away the honey.

– Do you have chicken stock? Guys!ㅠㅠㅠ

– Yeah, delivery is good these days.

– The comments are going up so fast it made me dizzyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

And as the fans expected, the result was an oddly-flavored chicken soup.

[Oh, done!]

[Let’s taste it…]

[…]

[…]

The two of them, who tasted it with excitement, looked speechless.

The comments were filled with people bursting out laughing.

The two smiled and nodded their heads with faces unique to those who had tasted ruined dishes.

Before the response saying it was a waste of food could come out, Keun Sejin blocked it sharply, pretending to be heartbroken

[Haha, we’ll eat up this taste of defeat, so don’t worry…]

[It’s fine to eat.]

After checking the comments that were dried up or laughing, Keun Sejin shrugged and started communicating again.

[Let’s order chicken first…]

And at that moment, the members returned with the sound of the front door opening.

[They’re here!]

[Welcome!]

The moment Cha Eugene ran out, Keun Sejin made a gesture of placing his finger on his lips toward the camera.

Then, he quickly hid the pot and attempted to destroy the evidence.

Of course, there was no choice.

[What are you doing?]

[Huh? Haha! It’s W Live~ Say hello to Moondae, Loviewers!]

[Ah.]

Park Moondae stopped the interrogation and lowered his face toward the screen.

[How have you been?]

In an instant, countless greetings passed by in the comments. Park Moondae smiled faintly and nodded.

[Yes, hello.]

[This is Moondae!]

[…]

It was an exquisite timing selection.

Park Moondae looked coldly at Keun Sejin, who burst out laughing after imitating his SNS speech habits.

Several members who were entering the kitchen hurriedly covered their mouths and lowered their heads to hold back their laughter.

‘This bastard, seriously.’

Unlike Park Moondae’s inner feelings, the comments were all positive.

Looking at the chat window plastered with ‘ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ’ and puppy emoticons, Moondae Park decided to put up with it.

‘The cost-effectiveness is good.’

And he decided to check the pot properly instead.

[Everyone, what did they do?]

Comments fluctuated with a cover that matched the atmosphere and a small number of taunts.

– We played together!

– Talk~

– We just talked

– I saw Eugene’s aegyoㅠㅠ Do an aegyo too, Moondae

– Cookingㅋㅋㅋ

– Sejin was blublublub

– We didn’t do anythingㅋㅋ

Keun Sejin slickly slapped Park Moondae’s back and turned the angle.

[Us? We were having a casual conversation~ Right, Eugene?]

[That’s right!]

Cha Eugene added happily.

[And we cooked!]

[Ugh.]

Keun Sejin shrunk.

And Kim Raebin muttered with a blank face of confusion.

[He’s wearing an apron, but he didn’t expect to be caught…?]

The fans burst into laughter.

And Park Moondae immediately checked the pot that Keun Sejin had put down.

[…Is it chicken soup?]

[That’s right.]

[It’s the end of the year, and I was going to cook a chicken to celebrate your birthday… But I’ll just give you chicken. We’ll eat them all!]

[Eat!]

[…]

Park Moondae made a mysterious expression, then took a bite of the contents of the pot.

And smirked.

[You guys didn’t follow Cha Eugene’s mother recipe.]

[I tried to be creative.]

[I added honey.]

[Yeah, I thought so.]

Park Moondae clicked his tongue, and eventually grabbed the pot and put it back on the countertop.

Then he took out more ingredients from the fridge and started adding them to the pot.

[Oh, Moondae!]

[Please make it delicious!]

Keun Sejin and Cha Eugene grasped the situation and immediately entered a light worship mode.

[I-I’ll help too…!]

[…Really? Then taste this.]

[Y-Yes!]

Not noticing Park Moondae’s euphemistic rejection, Seon Ahyeon brought a spoon and tasted the soup wholeheartedly.

And his face became an expression full of question marks and exclamation marks alternately.

[I-It’s good! B-But… That, the taste is…]

[Dakbokkeumtang^[1]spicy braised chicken breast , right?]

[U-Uh! That’s right!]

Indeed.

The chicken soup was nowhere to be found, and the food in the pot was dakbokkeumtang…!

The shocking statement also stirred up a commotion among fans. But the person who cooked it was nonchalant.

[Good.]

Park Moondae turned his head to the smartphone where the W live was broadcasted and explained it kindly.

[With chili powder and honey… I just added soy sauce and red pepper paste and turned it into Korean food. The soup is boiled down a lot, so I think this is right.]

[Heol, it’s good! Everyone, this is really delicious. How did you do that? Park Moondae, what the hell?]

[Wow, the cooking is successful!]

[…]

Park Moondae temporarily gained the full trust of those two. Of course, he had never wished for it.

Still, making dinner with one pot was far from enough, so naturally, the members brought a fire plate and grilled pork belly.

[I can do it well this time!]

[I’m good at grilling meat.]

Surprisingly, Cha Eugene and Keun Sejin were really good at grilling meat, so they made up for the ruined whole dish smoothly.

[…It’s delicious.]

[It really feels like a year-end party. It’s great!]

The two eldest brothers who voluntarily cleaned up the kitchen also praised it.

And they both felt strange while eating the dish in the pot that was supposed to be chicken soup.

The pasta noodles that went in tasted a bit awkward, but when they thought of it as sujebi^[2]Korean-style pasta soup , it felt fine again.

[Chicken soup…]

[You made that again.]

At the meaningful words, the comments cried out, asking for the meaning of ‘again’.

– There’s definitely a story.

– Explain the chicken soup and best friend vibe.

– ㅠㅠㅠShare it

[Ah, of course, I have to tell you!]

[It happened on the 15th, the day of Moondae hyung’s birthday…]

Thanks to this, Testar was able to cut out the parts that needed to be cut out appropriately and happily talk about Park Moondae’s birthday episode.

It was an atmosphere of real-time communication that was rare for Testar, who had many ups and downs. After hearing the rumor, even casual fans logged in, and viewers continued to gather.

And more than two and a half hours after it started, the members finally confirmed the ‘question’.

[A question… Oh, this. ‘KBC Ahyeon’s backflip, was it in the original choreography or was it an adlib?’]

In fact, this question had already been asked several times from the beginning.

However, Cha Eugene was extremely focused on cooking and couldn’t read the long Korean comments that were passing by quickly.

And Keun Sejin deliberately pretended not to see it.

It was because answering when everyone was together had a bigger impact and the picture was even better when the capture was moving around.

Ryu Chungwoo, who was amused because of the atmosphere, replied with a smile.

[Ah, it was adlib! It was really amazing!]

[Amazing!]

[Ah, the details? At that time, there was a problem with our in-ears…]

Testar happily explained the situation at the time in detail, and in the middle, Park Moondae and Keun Sejin drew a precautionary line.

[Those two grabbed Ahyeon’s back! So how was it, Ahyeon-ssi?]

[I-I felt like I could do it somehow… I-I jumped at once…!]

[It was an amazing sight, but it was not what we intended, and Ahyeon said that from now on he will try it only after safety is secured. Right?]

[Y-Yeah! B-Body is important…!]

Testar soon wrapped up the topic and ended the broadcast after talking about another small story for about half an hour, but of course, this part was the first to be captured.

[Testar’s adlib accident is confirmed]

: You can confirm on the W app

(screenshot link with subtitles)

– It’s for real

– Seon Ahyeon, did you do any training?

– What I should do about the people who ridiculed fans as delusionalㅋㅋㅋ

– Seon Ahyeon, is he a god?

– I thought just being able to fix it was amazing, but what kind of unrealistic situation is that

– Wow, it was not even planned before. It was just an improvisation;

– Is it possible that they lied because it became a hot issue?

└So many staff members had watched the rehearsal, so why would they lie about this?

└Is Testar at a level where they need to lie?ㅋㅋㅋ

└Leave them alone. I guess they don’t know because they’re clinging to failed idols like Onyx

People were freaked out by the conclusion that became phenomenal. And the news spread to WeTube and FaceReader.

[Resolving Testar’s accident, the absurd guess come true?]

[The power of surviving stocks idol is scary]

[Astounding dance skills of Idol Inc’s 3rd place winner]

And so, the unfair image and controversy associated with Testar had lost its power. Testar was able to shake off the mess with this topic.

As such, the controversy over the Rookie of the Year Award completely disappeared as time passed by, to the point that just mentioning it was awkward.

– My kids are geniuses…

– As expected, it’s fun to watch idol performances, but Testar is so cute that I can’t help but love them

– I have to strike when the iron is hot, I want to sell their cuteness, tooㅠㅠ

Testar’s fans, who were full of happiness, tried to share the warm content from W live, but it didn’t have much effect.

It was because people had already become accustomed to provocative topics that Testar created…

A little embarrassed, the fans stopped talking about the chicken soup.

In any case, winning the Rookie of the Year Award at major awards ceremonies in January was practically confirmed.

Testar, who had transfused with an image full of talents, was expected to greet the New Year at the broadcasting station as befitting of an idol with good grades.

However, they also met unexpectedly welcome faces there.

* * *

December 31st MBC Song Festival.

“Thank you!”

As soon as we finished our first stage, time flew by.

This was because MBS hit the live broadcast for four hours and scattered Testar’s stages in the first and third parts.

Of course, that didn’t mean that they made us sing two songs. The stage we just did was a cover of the first verse of a male idol song in the 2000s.

In addition, the third part of the stage was only three minutes long so we had to cut off the second verse.

Hmm, considering the result of Testar’s performances this year, it was like a perfect picture of neglect.

‘I wonder if this should be viewed as origin discrimination or agency discrimination.’

Probably both.

“Still, it’s nice to have plenty of time to change clothes. I like it~”

I nodded.

‘On a positive note, we avoided the worst.’

I meant Imjingak.

“That’s right. We didn’t go outdoors.”

“…T-That’s true.”

Wearing summer uniforms, outdoor performances this winter would have been a great spectacle.

It happened when we were crossing the corridor of the broadcasting station while chatting like that.

Someone suddenly greeted us.

“Wow, it’s Testar! Please give me your autograph!”

It was a voice I’d heard before.

And the eyes of the members who turned their heads to check the person widened so big as if they would pop out.

“…Heol!”

“Hyung!”

Surprisingly, the person who greeted us… was Gold 1, Ha Iljoon.

“Hey, how are you?”

Gold 1 waved eagerly among a group of people. Several members approached him with delight.

And I found another familiar face next to Gold 1.

“…Oh.”

It was Choi Wongil.

• 1. spicy braised chicken breast
• 2. Korean-style pasta soup