Chapter 42

Keun Sejin smiled bitterly.

“My agency… It’s Happy Friend, you know.”

“Ah.”

At that moment, aspiring idols roughly grasped the atmosphere.

And I, who used to sell data, noticed.

‘That place… It’s a place famous for not giving initial responses to controversies.’

Come to think of it, it had already been an hour since the article was posted but the agency hadn’t contacted him in the middle of this mess, and now there was a riot on all SNS. If it had been a small-scale and fast-paced agency, they would have already contacted Keun Sejin.

“Well.. Still, I joined because that place released albums well. haha.”

Keun Sejin laughed formally a few times and got up from the bed.

“T-Then, how about asking your friend to p-post it? Y-You have a lot of friends.”

“Hmm… According to the regulations, official Internet activities are prohibited during filming, so let’s ask your acquaintances. If you send them a picture and ask them to upload it, they’ll get excited and know what to do.”

“…”

‘Should I just leave it alone?’

Even now, I was about to regret it because I had meddled too much. But in the end, I gave advice, thinking that I should deal with it until the very end.

“If you personally ask them, they might record it. It’s better to tell the producers and upload it yourself.”

He indirectly said, ‘I think one of your acquaintances is the culprit, so be careful’. Keun Sejin nodded as if he noticed it at once.

“That would be better. Let’s see…”

Keun Sejin opened the notepad app on his smartphone, then smiled at the rest of the team members who were still huddled together.

“Thank you for taking care of me, everyone must be tired. I’ll write it quietly by myself. You should go to bed now.”

“Hey, it’s a bit weird for us to sleep and leave you alone in a situation like this.”

Keun Sejin replied seriously to Gold 1’s worries.

“If we all can’t sleep, aren’t we really going to see hell tomorrow…”

“…”

There was an awful lot of work to do tomorrow.

It was a very convincing statement.

Eventually, all the rest of the team members returned to their beds with haggard faces.

I also lay in bed and fell asleep.

Unfortunately, however, I woke up early in the morning. Because I was thirsty.

‘I talked too much before I went to bed.’

As I got up quietly and headed to the sink, Keun Sejin, who sat at the table and looked at his smartphone, reacted.

“Oh, you’re not sleeping?”

“I’m thirsty.”

“I see.”

Seeing that he hadn’t slept yet, it seemed Keun Sejin hadn’t finished working on the explanation yet. Or he was still rummaging through Internet public opinion.

Neither sign was very good.

“Are you done?”

“Um… I did write it down.”

Keun Sejin looked down at the smartphone with a conflicted expression, then after a little time passed, he spoke.

“I thought if I uploaded it myself, another noisy mess would come out of it.”

“What noisy mess?”

“Well, first of all, they would say that communicating directly on SNS during filming is a privilege… If my explanation sounds stern, they would react like ‘I didn’t know his personality was like that’, and if it sounds compassionate, I think they would say ‘He’s doing this because he got caught’.”

It was a likely scenario.

“So I tried to write it down pretending to be an anonymous acquaintance, do you want to see it?”

Keun Sejin handed over the smartphone.

[This is Keun Sejin’s friend]

: The photo of the accusation posted today is photoshopped. One of the photos I have is the original photo.

(Original picture) (photoshopped picture) The second photo is made by cropping the first photo.

…

“…”

“What do you think?”

What to do with this?

If this were normal academic life, it would be a good explanation. He included everything that needed to be said and he made it easy to understand by adding parentheses.

The problem was that the article was not suitable for Internet anonymous sites.

I unconsciously looked back. The bed was waiting for me.

But if I told him to post this, there was a very high chance that everything we did at midnight would be in vain.

‘Ha…’

Sleep… Let’s sleep tomorrow.

“…This isn’t right.”

“What?”

“I said this isn’t right.”

In the end, I sucked it up and brought out my smartphone.

F*ck, I am the one who does everything in the end

* * *

3:30 in the morning.

It was time for most people to go to bed. At a time when only the most hardcore Internet users were saying useless things at night.

The controversy over Keun Sejin’s school bullying was also swept away at once and it was time to come up with sporadic gossip.

At that time, an article was posted on an anonymous site related to an idol.

[I think I found a picture of Keun Sejin]

: (Photoshopped photo) Isn’t this the original? (Original photo)

Attached to the article was a group photo of Keun Sejin and other students whose faces were roughly blackened.

It was a light article written with a common IP, but comments from early-morning users who confirmed the contents quickly increased.

– What

– What is it

– Where did you get it?

– Hey, I think this is real;;;;

– Is it a pilgrimage?

– Did they cut out that photo?

– How did you know?

└I found this Keun Sejin’s photo on my friend’s private account

└Isn’t this a stalker;;

└You would have done it too

└ㅋㅋㅋYou hit with facts

└Wow, the little bastard covered their face, are you scared of getting chargesㅋㅋㅋ

The author’s feedback fueled the atmosphere of the comment section even more, and soon someone who checked the article made an accurate comparison shot.

– When cropped, it’s the same. (Picture)

└Hiii

└ㄷㄷㄷ

└Crazy

– ㅋㅋㅋㅋIt’s funny that it’s photoshopped, are they such a loser that they have to make that up?

– Wow, I thought Keun Sejin is resigning but he’s actually operating the stocks

└Crazyㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└Let’s buy it nowㄱㄱ

The comments grew bigger and faster.

It wasn’t long before someone discovered that the original photo was taken when Keun Sejin was running for student council president.

– I searched the website of Cheongsol High School and found a similar promotional photo. I think it’s during the election campaign. (Link)

└Wow, that’s really hot

└They’re blatantly against the election in the fake postㅋㅋ

└Wow, the sulky kid must have written that with clenched teeth

└They’re caught right now so they’re going to lose it

After coming this far, the captures of this article started circulating on social media and in communities.

[Unanswered justice.jpg (feat. Keun Sejin is not a school bully)]

– Keun Sejin’s fabricated school bullying photo has surfaced.

– Who found Keun Sejin’s original photo?

Just like when the first article was posted, the number of comments increased in an instant.

With the implications that it seemed to be discovered by chance, this article seemed more truthful.

Public opinion quickly turned to ridicule the school bullying accusation.

Keun Sejin’s fans, who couldn’t sleep, quickly joined the job of uploading the captured copies.

They commented diligently, kicking out people who said ‘The photo is a hoax, but the content may be true’ and told them to stop the bullshit.

The information that the accusation was fabricated quickly occupied Internet public opinion.

It happened before the end of the day’s rush hours.

* * *

“They deleted it.”

Keun Sejin murmured.

When it was revealed that the photo was fabricated, public opinion completely turned over and the person who wrote the accusation quietly deleted the article and disappeared.

It would have been difficult if the situation had been messier, but it seemed they had given up because public opinion was totally reversed.

“…I’m glad, really.”

With a deep sigh of relief, Keun Sejin hit his head on the table. As the tension eased, he seemed to have been crushed by fatigue.

“Thank you. I am really… ashamed.”

I deserved the gratitude. It wouldn’t have been like this if he had posted the draft as it was.

‘Data seller wins 1…’

I never thought the time when I was snooping around to see the price flow would be used like this again. This hardship… let’s just say I’ve settled my karma.

“In the first place… If I hadn’t touched a cigarette, this mess wouldn’t have happened.”

Keun Sejin muttered with a sense of shame. He seemed to know it was stupid too.

“Why did you smoke?”

“…Oh, Back then…. I was behind the debut team. I even recorded a demo… They made a good debut by adding someone else besides me, and they sold their albums well.”

“…In ‘Happy Friends’?”

They haven’t picked a group of male idols with good grades in the past 5 years, though?

“No, somewhere else. …But I don’t plan on joining another team for a while, so I’m here now.”

“Yes.”

At this time, there were only one or two group male idols who debuted three or four years ago and did well on their first album.

And both were from big agencies.

‘…Wouldn’t it be better to hold on even if you would debut a little late?’

He was 22 years old now after 5 years since he turned 17 years old. It was a good age to debut as the oldest team member. It would have been more reasonable to stick to the formation than to go to Happy Friend.

“…At that time I bragged so much that I’d become a rookie within this year, and got contracted, but… It’s already been 4 years since then. Haha.”

“…”

So, that’s why.

Originally, verbal contracts shouldn’t be trusted, but since he was just a high school freshman and his mental state was crushed, I guess he couldn’t afford to care.

“As you can see, none of the trainees from Happy Friend’s agency can make their debut right away. So I have to make my debut on this program…”

“…”

“That’s why I’m saying this, thank you once again for stopping me from leaving. Park Moondae.”

This was the first time this guy exposed his inner feelings while blatantly criticizing someone else like this.

‘He’s sincere in his own way.’

“Okay. Thank you very much.”

“…What? Haha!”

Keun Sejin laughed and hit his head on the table. I wanted to laugh, but I guess I was too tired.

I pondered bitterly.

‘…Aren’t I too relaxed?’

I tried to keep a distance because he was a drug addict, but at some point, I couldn’t help it and we became too close.

‘Looking at his track record so far, the odds seem low.’

Keun Sejin had most likely resigned and failed to make his debut when the school bullying broke out. Even if he hadn’t resigned, it wouldn’t have been easy to reverse public opinion like now, so it would have been hard for him to debut.

‘Well, child actor Lee Sejin doesn’t seem to be in a good state to debut now either.’

Still, Lee Sejin’s broadcast volume and image might have been influenced by the variable ‘Park Moondae’, so it was also a possibility.

‘Anyway, this is not an important issue right now.’

Let’s just put Schrödinger’s drug addict in a box. What is urgent now is the team match stage in two days.

Ta-da! Ba-da!

“Ugh!”

“Uh…”

Just in time, team members woke up from bed at the sound of the morning alarm.

‘Another day without a break has begun…’

Standing with heavy eyes, Keun Sejin talked to me again. It seemed to be the continuation of the previous conversation.

“No, really… I’ll buy you a meal after this. What do you want to eat?”

“Beef.”

“…It doesn’t have to be domestic, right?”

“As long as it’s delicious.”

It was exactly 50 hours before the team rehearsal.

* * *

The 3rd team battle stage was held on a large stage that belonged to ‘MusicBomb’, Tnet’s signature music program.

It meant that we should show a great performance on a stage where senior idols had performed, but in fact, I think it was simply because they liked to pick the reaction cuts.

“On this stage, just three days ago! VTIC did a pre-recording!”

“Wooow!”

The participants cheered at the MC’s words.

Actually, the stage sets were completely different, so there was nothing in common except that they had occupied the same space.

However, the participants seemed excited just by sharing the same space as the top idols.

I didn’t feel bad either.

‘VTIC… Those guys are fine.’

It was worth taking pictures of them because their unit prices were expensive.

“Just like the senior idols have done, I hope you show your skills to the fullest!”

After the MC finished the script, the preparations for the rehearsal began in earnest.

“Everyone! The order is the same as the actual show!”

“Yes!”

In an instant, the stage turned chaotic with instructions and the sound of music.

According to the order, the participants still had some time to relax. So the ‘Moon Rabbit’ team gathered in the corner in the meantime.

“Shall we say fighting before we go? We’ve worked hard, so as much we’ve put in our effort, let’s show them a wonderful stage.”

“Ah, good.”

“O-Okay.”

The team members nodded their heads with tense faces. However, it was clear that the tension was not from anxiety, but from expectation.

“The team.”

The team members gathered their hands together.

“Fighting!”

The shouts sounded almost aggressive.

‘Oh, my God.’

Willingly participated in this even though there were no cameras close by felt unfamiliar to me.

It wasn’t a bad feeling though.

“Then let’s go!”

Indeed, the stage was right in front of our eyes.