"You keep talking about surviving."
I frowned.
"We're on a survival show."
"That's not what I mean."
Yuhyun shifted his weight against the wall, arms crossing loosely over his chest.
"Every time we get through something, you talk about the next thing that could eliminate you. The next ranking. The next stage. The next mistake."
I didn't answer.
Because he was right.
"I've never heard you talk about what happens if you actually make it."
The question sat between us like broken glass—sharp and dangerous.
I'd spent months training myself not to think beyond the next evaluation. Because imagining debut meant imagining loss. And the closer I got, the more devastating failure became.
Safer to focus on immediate threats.
Safer not to want something I might never reach.
"I didn't let myself think about debut either."
That surprised me.
Yuhyun smiled, but there wasn't much humor in it.
