《Debut or Die [fan translation]》Chapter 106
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Bae Sejin's name change received moderate attention and things safely passed.
This was because only his last name had changed, and since the new name was one of the nicknames used to distinguish him from Keun Sejin, it didn't feel out of place.
However, the fans were not just thoughtlessly happy about it.
This was because Bae Sejin was not a nickname that was settled by the fans, but rather it was the viewers of who used it to sarcastically call him an 'actor' which then spread as a nickname.
As time passed, the negative nuances were mostly buried, but fans, who still remembered how it first started, couldn't help but feel strange.
However, after reading the full text of the article, a subtle atmosphere for fans to accept the name positively formed.
It was because Bae Sejin's will to break through this head-on was felt by the fans.
It wasn't Bae Sejin's personal fandom but TeStar's fandom that said 'how nice it was to not be confused anymore and that it was amazing and cute', and moved on.
There were no objections because it was already generally agreed not to refer to the two Lee Sejins by their real name to distinguish between them.
However, Keun Sejin's malicious fan accounts became noisy for a while.
However, this reaction only fluctuated briefly below the surface and ended.
As TeStar and the company wished, the name change naturally settled among the public as it was originally, without major disturbances.
And around the time Bae Sejin's name change was no longer news...
The comeback date was approaching.
* * *
"Finally."
The graduate student, who had been released from the lab after two days of staying up all night, staggered past the front door. The puppy she raised was enjoying a nap in the living room.
However, she couldn't go to sleep.
'I have to watch TeStar's music video.'
Even though it was released at midnight yesterday, she still hasn't seen it.
Because of that, the last thing she was aware of was the teaser video she had seen. Even that video was just a combination of short scenes similar to the concept photos that were tied to a melody, so it wasn't really a big treat or hint.
Thanks to this, she was really curious about the music video.
It was late anyway, so she rushed home while gritting her teeth with the thought of seeing it on a bigger screen.
She immediately sat down in front of the computer right after washing her face with cold water, and entered WeTube with her heart beating from excitement.
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Needless to say, as soon as she entered the popular videos tab, the title she had been looking forward to showed up at the top.
"...Whoa!"
She could finally see it. Finally!! She immediately clicked on the music video without needing to look at the thumbnail.
The first thing that came out was a white school hallway across the blue sky.
A dreamy scene that looked like an abstract painting, oddly reminded her of the previous magical boy concept. But before she could take a good look at it, the scene suddenly changed to a pitch-black hallway with the same composition.
'Huh?'
The dark hallway was dripping with water from all sides. Graffiti painted with luminous paint and flickering emergency lights were distorted and bizarrely flashed in the flowing water.
And at that moment, someone appeared at the end of the hallway.
"...!"
The dark figure stumbled and hurriedly walked forward, holding onto the wall.
The moment she thought she had caught a glimpse of who it was, the dark figure reached out their arm and covered the camera with their palm.
The screen went black. And then...
An acoustic guitar started playing.
"...?!"
It was a completely unexpected, frighteningly clear, and faint sound.
And the palm fell off the screen.
There was a clear blue sky full of white clouds. Beneath it was an old school. However, the building didn't look hideous.
The small school nestled between mountains and trees like a painting and it looked like something out of a young adult novel.
And the next moment.
A boy was standing in front of the school gate.
The boy's back looked like he was hesitating for a moment, but he soon grabbed the doorknob.
The moment the door slowly started to open.
A clear, bright voice began to sing.
The boy ran through the open door and into the hallway. The camera panned slightly to the side, revealing his side profile.
It was Park Moondae.
At that moment, a clear drum sound started playing.
Boom Boom! Drdrdrdrdr!
On top of that, the sound of a band and violin filled her ears.
It was a classic sound of the instrument that would have been popular only in the early 2000s, but thanks to the modern arrangement of the beats and detailed elements taken with a synthesizer, it had a more retro sound without a tacky feeling.
In the meantime, the boy who arrived at the door at the end of the hallway suddenly opened it.
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Bang!
Beyond the open door was a dorm room.
Each of the boys who were hanging out in the room looked back at the camera with their eyes wide open.
And the video completely transformed into a story about youth.
The TeStar members were taking classes at a small rural school and enjoying everyday life.
The choreography cuts were put in every time the school area they stayed in changed. Even the slightly awkwardly pushed desk in the corner, which looked like they were cleaned by the students themselves, didn't ruin the atmosphere of the video.
'Oh my god.'
The music video that was mixed with feelings of youth and nostalgia had already been embedded into the graduate student's heart, but this was not the end.
This was because there were new scenes mixed in starting from the beginning of the second verse.
TeStar began experiencing minor anomalies as they encountered specific situations and objects in school and the forest.
For example, the moment Seon Ahyun turned on the water tap at the school playfield, sparkling bubbles came out instead of water.
"Woah..."
She reflexively admired.
The scene of glittering beams riding in the wind and hovering around Seon Ahyun was really great to look at.
Even after that, most of the members' abilities from 'Magical Boy' were portrayed for the first time without being too explicit.
'What about Moondae?'
As she was worried that Moondae was being left out since he already appeared in the opening scene, Moondae's ability was shown on the screen.
The moment Moondae grabbed the doorknob as he was about to follow his friends out of the music room after class, an illusion of mysterious patterns engraved on it, and flickered.
And the door was locked.
'Gasp!'
The music video reached its climax as the graduate student swallowed her screams.
Using their abilities, the seven boys planned to sneak out of school during curfew.
So, in the middle of a starry night.
A mischievous escape began.
When Keun Sejin closed his eyes and checked that the situation in the hallway outside was clear, Cha Yujin turned a small bear clockwork decoration into a human-sized one and covered it with a blanket.
Kim Raebin carefully opened the window with a compass, made a pretty round hole in the window, and looked back at his friends with an uncertain look.
Anyhow, after many twists and turns, the boys eventually succeed in sneaking out of the school building.
The final chorus came out.
Along with modern electronic musical instruments and a sound drop, a group choreography scene with a starry field as the background appeared.
And the moment the fancy choreography stopped.
The members quit dancing and started running in the field. The storyline began to flow naturally in one uninterrupted one-take.
The moment the boys' laughter was inserted over the accompaniment, the drums faded.
The bridge was changed to finish the song softly.
Ryu Chungwoo smiled and fired a toy gun into the sky. With a cheerful rupture sound, the bullets exploded like firecrackers and embroidered the night sky.
The boys laughed and ran out into the field.
The camera captured the view of their backs for quite a long time.
'Ah... that was good.'
She tapped her fingers on the keyboard as her tension relaxed. It was so good, but that was the only action she could do because she didn't have enough physical strength.
However, the video wasn't over yet.
The moment the music ended, the screen suddenly turned dark.
"...?"
The dark screen showed a window of a classroom in the middle of the night. However, the night view outside the window was pitch-black with no stars, making it seem conflicting.
And instead, suddenly, a light flashed through the curtains.
"...!"
The luminous graffiti seen at the beginning of the video densely filled the curtains.
A figure could be finally seen lying face down on the desk by the window thanks to the bleak light.
The composition was familiar to TeStar's fans.
'...Magical Boy's teaser!'
It had the same composition.
...However, this time nothing magical happened.
The video ended like that.
"...Phew!"
The graduate student let out a long sigh.
'The treat at the end... no, before thinking about that... it was so good...!'
The song was good, the choreography was good, and even the outfits were good!
However, due to her physical condition, she couldn't have a completely detailed appreciation in her head, and only her feelings floated around.
'At times like these, I should look at people's responses...!'
Then, she could just empathize with the comments without using her head. Excitedly, she scrolled down the screen to the comment section.
"..."
And she froze at the screen full of English.
It was because of WeTube's policy of exposing English comments at the top. Nevertheless, there was only one Korean comment exposed at the top.
"..."
The graduate student decided to create a social media account.
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