Chapter 104
Chapter 104
"Hyung, are you okay?"
"Se-jin, let's take a look at that ankle."
"..."
Lee Se-jin stared at his ankle with a pale face. Finally, he gritted his teeth and rolled up his pant leg to check the damage.
The ankle was already starting to swell.
...This doesn't look good.
An injury was a certainty at this point.
"..."
"I-it's okay! It's a bit swollen, but... if we go to the hospital right away..."
Seon A-hyun cried out urgently after examining the ankle. Being a dance major, he seemed to have a fair amount of knowledge regarding ankle injuries.
"Right, Se-jin. Sit down for a second. I'll call the manager so we can head to the emergency room immediately."
"...Okay."
With Ryu Cheong-woo's steady support, Lee Se-jin sat down on a chair in the corner of the practice room.
Not long after, the manager arrived, and Se-jin left for the hospital.
"I'll go w-with—"
"No!! ...I can't let practice get delayed because of me. I'll be back."
Lee Se-jin adamantly refused any company and left the choreography room supported by two managers.
"I hope it's nothing serious."
"I agree."
"I-it didn't swell that much... so it'll be fine."
Since it was just a trip and fall, everyone assumed it wouldn't be a major injury and resumed practice.
However, Lee Se-jin didn't return until after the scheduled practice time had ended.
And he wasn't alone.
"Ah~ so this is our Se-jin's dorm? It's nice!"
"..."
"Oh? I'll have to visit often."
"...We're rarely here because of our schedule."
"Is that so? Then your old man can just move in and take care of the place. No need to be shy."
"...It's fine."
Lee Se-jin was being supported by a middle-aged man. Just looking at their faces, it was obvious they were father and son.
However, their conversation had the distinct stench of a convenience store part-timer dealing with a drunk, entitled nuisance.
...What?
"Ah, you must be Se-jin's friends! I'm Se-jin's dad!"
"Ah, hello, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Hello!"
"Don't call me 'sir'~ When I'm out with Se-jin, people think I'm his older brother."
"Haha, you certainly look young for your age~"
Keun Se-jin cut in, picking up the conversation.
Then Ryu Cheong-woo added with a smile, "Thank you for bringing Se-jin home. We actually have to film in the dorm now, so..."
"Oh, I'll just sit quietly over there! Go ahead and film whatever you need~"
"..."
Ryu Cheong-woo looked slightly troubled.
I checked Lee Se-jin's expression. It wasn't the typical embarrassment or shyness one feels when showing off an eccentric parent; instead, a thick layer of exhaustion and shame flickered across his face before vanishing.
...He really is a nuisance, isn't he?
Keun Se-jin waved his hand at Lee Se-jin's father.
"Oh, come on, Father. We should invite you properly next time. We can't treat a member's parent so poorly. We'll prepare something and get back to you!"
"I told you, there's no need for that~ I'll head out in a bit. I'm just tired from hauling him all the way here."
When someone pushes that hard, there's only one way to get rid of them.
I quickly went into my room and returned with an item.
"Father, you must have worked hard. Please take this and enjoy it at home."
It was a red ginseng set I had received from the company as a holiday gift.
"...! Oh my~ I'm not the type of person to accept things like this. Really. I wasn't saying all that just to get a gift."
While spouting the obvious clichés, the middle-aged man nimbly snatched the red ginseng. I simply nodded.
"Of course. You just wanted to see where your son is staying. We're just so busy with our schedule that we can't host you properly, so we're giving you this out of gratitude and apology."
"Right~ Oh? You're the friend who got first place, aren't you? The one who picked Se-jin. Yeah, you look very reliable. Se-jin, hurry up and say thank you."
"..."
"Ah, the manager should be arriving soon for our shoot. Please get home safely."
"...Hmm, alright then. I'll be going~ I'll be back soon."
Lee Se-jin's father glanced back at him several times before slowly opening the door and leaving.
"..."
Lee Se-jin kept his head bowed.
"H-hey, you should s-sit down..."
As Seon A-hyun approached, Lee Se-jin reflexively swung his arm and swatted his hand away.
"..."
Fortunately, Seon A-hyun dodged in time. Lee Se-jin looked absolutely horrified by his own reaction.
"I... I'm sorry!!"
"I-it's okay!"
What a mess.
Lee Se-jin kept glancing toward the bedroom as if he wanted to bolt, but perhaps remembering past experiences, he went to sit on the living room sofa instead of running away.
...Though it might just be that his leg is too uncomfortable to make it to the room.
He was wearing a half-cast, after all.
Regardless, the situation allowed for a conversation to start.
"...Was that your father?"
"...Yeah."
In the heavy atmosphere, Kim Rae-bin cautiously raised his hand.
"Um, but where did the manager go, and why did your parent end up coming instead?"
"...Something came up, and it seems he called him in a hurry before leaving."
Normally, they would have contacted someone else from the company, but the second manager who joined later was a rookie. It seemed he wasn't used to the protocol and had called the parents instead.
Then, amidst the slightly heavy mood, Cha Yu-jin asked the most important question.
"Is your ankle okay?"
"—! R-right, your ankle!"
"How long did they say it would take to recover?"
"...They said it's no big deal. Just have to be careful for a week or two."
"Hmm, for 'no big deal,' they certainly immobilized it thoroughly."
"They did it a bit excessively on purpose. ...Because I said I wanted to get better as quickly as possible."
A few members gave him a thumbs up.
Mostly the minors.
"Hyung..."
"That's cool!"
Only then did Lee Se-jin's expression soften.
With a faint, somewhat bashful smile, he spoke.
"...I'll make sure I don't become a burden to the group."
"Oh, come on~"
Lee Se-jin's smile darkened slightly.
"...And, uh, I won't let my father come back either. Don't worry."
"..."
It was an awkward topic.
That's how family matters are.
It wasn't the kind of thing you could demand someone to lay bare while everyone was sitting around in a group.
"...? Is it not okay for him to visit?"
...I forgot Kim Rae-bin was here. That guy didn't seem to have noticed the strange vibe from earlier at all.
At Kim Rae-bin's question, Lee Se-jin's face turned frantic. Like a sea cucumber spitting out its guts, he began to stammer out his circumstances.
"Well... since this dorm is big, he might try to insist on living here."
"Then if we talk to the company and get permission..."
"...No! He's got bad habits... anyway, he's not the kind of person who's good to be around."
Lee Se-jin looked like he didn't even know why he was saying all this.
He quickly finished his sentence.
"...Anyway, I won't let him come, so you don't have to worry about it. That's... that's all."
He hurriedly stood up from the sofa and waddled back into his room.
The members left in the living room looked at each other blankly.
"..."
"Well, anyway... his ankle seems okay, so shall we head to bed too?"
"Let's do that for now."
At Keun Se-jin's suggestion, everyone reluctantly stood up.
"Yu-jin~ don't stay up watching Netplus, just go to sleep."
"I don't want to..."
Cha Yu-jin, who was about to turn on Netplus in the living room, turned off the TV gloomily at Ryu Cheong-woo's words and trudged into his room.
"...Hmm."
Netplus, huh. It reminded me of when Lee Se-jin was crying with his head buried in the bed a while ago.
Was that not because of Netplus... but because of his father?
...I really hoped that wasn't the case.
Not only would it be difficult to solve, but there was no telling what would happen to Lee Se-jin's paper-thin mental state.
I headed to the room with a lingering sense of unease.
There, I locked eyes with Lee Se-jin, who was struggling to prop his casted leg up on a hamster body pillow.
"..."
"..."
Embarrassed, Lee Se-jin quickly looked away.
Let's just pretend I didn't see anything.
I sat on my bed, pretending to look at my smartphone.
Surprisingly, Lee Se-jin was the one to speak first.
"...Hey, sorry about earlier. You can take my red ginseng set."
Ah, so it was because of that. I nodded.
"Sure. I'll enjoy it."
"Okay."
Just as the room was about to settle into a peaceful silence, Lee Se-jin, who was rustling around checking something, spoke up urgently.
"Wait, I actually opened it and ate one or two. I'll buy a new one, so take that one instead."
"...? It's fine. I'll just eat what's left. Whatever."
"...Sigh."
I heard Lee Se-jin let out a long sigh. It sounded more like embarrassment or futility than relief.
Lee Se-jin muttered to himself as he stared at his cast crushing the hamster pillow.
"Why do I keep... being a burden?"
"You haven't really been one."
"...Anyway, I'll get my act together this time, so you don't have to worry."
"...Got it."
Glancing over, I saw Lee Se-jin staring at his phone. His eyes looked like they were burning with intense determination.
Is he watching choreography videos or something?
...Well, passion is good.
It's a good thing that he's motivated. As long as he doesn't demand the same from me.
I turned off my phone and put in my earplugs.
The last thing I saw was Lee Se-jin staring at his phone with a dead-serious expression.
For some reason, it overlapped with the scene of him clutching his phone and sobbing.
...Was he saying he'd solve the problem with his father?
You see that kind of thing all the time on internet forums looking for "justice," but in reality, family issues aren't usually solved that easily.
Well... if he says he's got it, it would be weirder for me to butt in.
Wouldn't it be strange for someone without a family to give advice? I decided to just go to sleep.
However, Lee Se-jin seemed to be staring at his phone for quite a long time that night as well.
A few days later, we were on our way back from the final meeting for the collaboration game, Section 127.
From what I heard, the game production team had been so excited after seeing the trailer that they had created extra work for themselves.
As a result... this was what we got.
"Wow, they modified them to look a bit more like us."
"This is totally me!"
"I have a mole on my cheek now..."
They had lightly reflected some of the TeSTAR members' physical characteristics onto the initial character designs.
—No, we didn't overhaul everything, we just tweaked them a bit using the assets we had~
—What do you think? Doesn't it totally remind you of the trailer!! Especially Lee Se-jin's rimless glasses! That was a unanimous decision to start the modification work immediately!
...It was mostly stuff like that.
For the record, they said my character's eyelids were changed to monolid-style double eyelids, but honestly... I couldn't tell much of a difference.
"Phew~ it's fun but exhausting."
"Let's hang in there!"
"Let's do our best!"
The music video release was only a few days away. The schedule had become even more packed, but the feeling of 'success' that came with the flood of work was definitely addictive.
Thanks to that, every single member of TeSTAR had a cheerful face. And that included Lee Se-jin.
Looking somewhat relieved, Lee Se-jin was chatting quite comfortably with Ryu Cheong-woo.
His leg seemed to be healing well, and I hoped we could continue sailing smoothly until the comeback...
But trouble broke out on our way out of the company.
"Lee Se-jin!! You, come here, huh?!"
"..."
A familiar middle-aged man, who had been sitting in the lobby near the back entrance of the company, jumped to his feet the moment he saw Lee Se-jin.
It was, of course, Lee Se-jin's father.
Lee Se-jin's face turned deathly pale.
Shit.
Fortunately, two managers immediately blocked the man's path.
"Father, you can't do this!"
"Now, now, please calm down!"
"Let go of me! You young punks have no damn respect! Huh! Persecuting a man like this!!"
Blocked by the bulky managers, Lee Se-jin's father faltered, but he continued to point his finger and shout as he was dragged away.
"I'm not letting this go, you hear me?! You ungrateful, heaven-cursed brat!"
"..."
The noisy lobby soon quieted down as Lee Se-jin's father was dragged out.
However, a moment later, an even more chaotic situation occurred.