"What?!"
Almost everyone shouted at once, so Edna winced as the burst of sound hit her ears.
Ivan and Kian spoke over each other. "How are we even supposed to debut again?"
Raven let out a long, exhausted sigh. He brought his hand to the space between his brows and pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers.
Julian and Angelo exchanged glances, while Evelyn was too stunned to even form a proper thought. The only one who didn't seem surprised was Ash.
"I figured the CEO would try to make use of this situation, but I didn't expect a decision like this," Ash said as he sat down on one of the single armchairs.
"I'm not gonna lie, I didn't expect it either, sweetheart. Even I have a hard time figuring out what goes on in the CEO's head…"
After saying that, Edna shrugged and rolled her eyes. From her gestures alone, it was clear she didn't think very highly of the CEO.
The only thing running through Evelyn's mind, however, was her sister. According to what Adelyn had told her, the game's story originally began with the group's debut stage.
They performed flawlessly amidst the cheers of fans who had known them since their trainee days, and it became one of the most talked-about debuts.
But when Evelyn transmigrated into this world, things hadn't started that way.
The group had debuted a month before the original main character fell into a coma— meaning they'd only been active for four months in total, coma included.
So now… was the decision to make them debut again actually a way to force the story back toward its original plot?
"Adelyn… What's going through your mind?' she murmured.
Evelyn had already begun forming countless scenarios in her head.
Was her sister watching her from the real world right now… even controlling her?
The moment she imagined herself as a two dimensional character on a computer screen, her head started to spin.
"You're really serious about this?' Kian asked, still wearing the same stunned expression.
Ivan pressed his palms together and propped them under his chin.
"Hmm… This could actually be a good idea. Because we never even got to perform our debut stage, and more importantly, we couldn't do any of our album promotions before Evelyn's accident."
Edna snapped her fingers and pointed at Ivan.
"This is exactly why I adore you, Ivan. You usually have unnecessary ideas, but sometimes you catch the most important point!"
Every sign of Raven showed he was furious as he took a few steps forward and stopped right in front of Edna.
"So what's going to happen to our previous album? Did I write all those songs for nothing? You're throwing away all our hard work."
Edna lowered her sunglasses slightly and looked at the young man in front of her with sharp eyes.
"You didn't write all of those songs by yourself, Raven. And have you ever seen a group that releases albums that quickly, one after another? You should see this as an advantage."
Angelo, his face tinted with shyness, felt as if he had no choice but to step in.
"We can't exactly say we've ever seen a group debut twice, either."
Ash crossed his arms where he sat. Tilting his head slightly to the side, he glanced at Evelyn —who was staring blankly at the floor— before speaking.
"You know I respect your ideas and our CEO's, Edna. But I'm not sure if this is actually a good idea."
After motioning with her hand for Raven to step aside, Edna watched him grumble his way out of her line of sight. Once her view cleared, she met Ash's eyes and spoke.
"I trust you, and all of you too, dear Ash. But you know the only thing I'm doing here is my job."
No one could say anything after that. Each of them had debuted thanks to the company, so they all knew the final decision would never be theirs to make.
After a brief stretch of silence, Edna shifted her gaze to Evelyn and let a sly smile curl across her lips.
"What do you think about all this, dear Evelyn?"
Edna's question pulled Evelyn out of the thoughts she had sunk into.
When she lifted her head and saw the sly smile on Edna's face, she hesitated, taking a moment to think before answering.
"Since I've never seen a group debut a second time before, I think it'll attract a lot of attention."
As always, she chose to be honest.
Yes, releasing a new album before they had even promoted the previous one —and the fact that the first album likely would be forgotten— could be seen as unfair to the members' hard work.
But she needed to approach the situation realistically. Because it seemed there was no way to persuade the CEO, who was stubborn about their decisions.
Edna suddenly began applauding her with a satisfied expression. Evelyn lifted her eyebrows in surprise.
"Yes, sweetheart! That's exactly what I wanted to hear. That was exactly why we made this decision."
Edna was about to continue speaking when Raven cut in.
"Restarting the promotions for our debut album and performing the debut stage again would have been a much more logical choice. Since everyone's attention is already on the group, promoting the old album would have the same impact."
Evelyn and the others found Raven's reasoning logical. Some of them even made approving sounds, but Edna snapped her fingers to draw the attention back to herself.
"Evelyn, the only thing you remember is your group members, correct?"
After exchanging looks with the members, Evelyn nodded. Edna snapped her fingers again.
"Then you probably don't remember the songs from your debut album either, right?"
Evelyn bit the inside of her lip and nodded again.
"And you don't remember any of the choreography for those songs, do you?"
Thinking Edna was enjoying this excuse she'd come up with a little too much, Ash lightly cleared his throat and stepped in.
"I think that's enough, Edna. You're making it too obvious that you're using Evelyn's memory loss as an excuse. What about the concept? Is it going to be completely different from our first debut?"
Before Edna could answer, Julian added to Ash's question.
"When is the debut going to be?"
Encouraged by Julian, Angelo spoke as well.
"Is it going to be a single, a mini album, or a full-length album?"
"You guys are already excited about this… " Raven muttered.
Edna answered each of their questions one by one. But after that, just like a few minutes ago, she winced at the collective shouting that hit her all at once.
"Your second debut album, which will be released exactly one month from now, will have the concept Reborn, and it will be a full-length album with eight tracks!"
"What?!"