Chapter 125
Chapter 125
‘Did that guy really pull a stunt like this?’
It was strange.
I knew Keun Se-jin was quick to assess a situation and skilled at swaying public opinion in his favor.
But was he really the type to go as far as rigging the cards just to pick his unit?
Rather than taking the risk of getting caught, I figured he would have just taken whatever situation he was given and steered it to his advantage as much as possible.
‘It’s not like he’d do that just because he wanted to avoid Bae Se-jin, either.’
Hmm, something didn't feel right.
However, the situation wasn't ideal for pressing the matter. I didn't have any evidence, and bringing it up while the dorm was rigged with cameras would be like shooting myself in the foot.
Besides, even if it were true, what could I really say? It wasn't like a major problem had occurred just because he’d nudged a one-off concert unit in the direction he wanted.
Bringing it up would most likely just ruin the atmosphere for nothing.
‘…I’ll let it slide for now.’
I walked over to the bed in Room 1, which was no longer mine. Keun Se-jin followed me in slowly, looking around as if inspecting his new room.
“Oh, I’m taking Moon-dae’s bed. Moon-dae, I shall now hand over my bed to you.”
“…Where is it?”
“What, did you forget? It’s the one on the far left~”
“Right. I’ll make sure to avoid that one.”
“Gasp, are you too overwhelmed with honor to use it? It’s okay, Moon-dae. Don’t be shy, make yourself at home~”
“…….”
He was acting exactly like his usual self.
I shook my head, packed my things, and left Room 1.
‘If another problem comes up, I can bring it up then.’
That moment arrived sooner than expected.
It was at an awards ceremony just a few days later.
Excluding the Korean Music Awards, this was effectively the last major awards ceremony of the season.
However, several big-name artists were absent, likely due to overlapping tour schedules.
This meant VTIC wasn't there either.
‘…At least I don’t have to worry about the sledgehammer.’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, a text arrived.
[VTIC Cheong-ryeo Sunbae-nim: This seems to be the last one. Congrats on the Rookie of the Year award ^^]
“…….”
I felt like I’d been hit by a mental sledgehammer.
I sent a brief reply and turned off my smartphone. Keun Se-jin, noticing, spoke up.
“Are you still in touch with Cheong-ryeo Sunbae-nim?”
“……Yeah.”
“Hmm~ I see, I see.”
Keun Se-jin looked like he wanted to add something more, but we arrived at the waiting room before he could.
A paper was taped to the door.
[Zairop / TeSTAR]
We weren't getting a private waiting room this time.
‘To be fair, we’ve been getting exceptionally good waiting rooms for rookies thanks to our performance so far.’
I’d heard that even for groups that had made it somewhat big, it was common to wait in partitioned areas when space was tight.
‘Sharing one room between two groups is actually considered a good situation.’
Anyway, the group we were sharing with was… a boy group from a famous agency.
‘Are they about three or four years our seniors?’
It was a predictable lineup.
Ryu Cheong-woo gave the members a light reminder.
“Um, let’s make sure to greet them well when we go in.”
“Yes!”
But unlike the typical reactions of the other members, Keun Se-jin, standing right next to me, faltered.
“…! …Hmm.”
……Wait a minute.
‘Now that I think about it, if I calculate their agency and debut date….’
Before I could think further, the manager opened the door.
“Hello, Sunbae-nim!”
“Ah~ Hello~”
Generic greetings were exchanged, but soon the Zairop guys approached with exaggerated smiles.
“Ah~ Se-jin!”
“How have you been?”
I knew it.
It seemed this was indeed ‘that’ group—the cause of Keun Se-jin’s brief deviation before Idol Inc.
The first debut lineup of his first agency, the one he was culled from right before their debut.
“Wow~ Hello, Sunbae-nim! It’s really good to see you!”
“Hey, what’s with the ‘Sunbae-nim’? Just call me Hyung~”
“Ayy, how could I do that~”
Keun Se-jin laughed, shaking hands and bumping fists with a few of them. They looked quite close.
The other members… they had expressions that said, ‘Keun Se-jin is just being Keun Se-jin.’ He was a social butterfly, after all.
However, the atmosphere shifted slightly after that.
“Se-jin, man, you don’t even check your messages. Hyung’s feelings are hurt.”
“Ayy, you know how it is! I’ve been so busy since debuting!”
“Right. It’s good that you’re finally busy, Se-jin~ It took quite a while, didn't it? You got lucky.”
‘Oh, really?’
These guys were subtly mocking Keun Se-jin for his past failures to debut.
Keun Se-jin replied with a beaming smile.
“It’s great~ I’m sorry my replies are late even though you guys text me so often! I guess our schedules just don't align because I'm so busy with work.”
He was essentially asking if they were so damn free because they had no work.
“…No, well, it’s not like we did it that often? We were just curious about how you were doing.”
“Oh? I’ve been appearing all over the place lately, so shouldn't it be easy to keep up with me? Please let me know how you guys are doing sometimes, too~ I’m quite curious myself.”
“…….”
Wow, he just threw their lack of recent activity and poor results right back in their faces.
No matter how you looked at it, it was a landslide victory for Keun Se-jin.
By this point, most of the members except for Kim Rae-bin seemed to have caught on to the situation, their eyes darting around.
The Zairop members looked like their expressions were about to rot.
“…Right. Even if you don’t want to know, you’ll be hearing plenty about us this year~”
“Is that so? Wow, I’m looking forward to it! Please look forward to TeSTAR as well.”
“…….”
That was a pure crushing blow via a difference in weight class.
In the end, the Zairop members forced a smile and ended the greeting.
“Right. Let’s both work hard.”
“Yes!”
It seemed the conversation was over.
But apparently unable to hold back, one Zairop member who had been standing blankly in the back chimed in.
“But I’ve only heard news about TeSTAR? I haven't really heard anything about you specifically?”
“……!”
The surprising part was that Keun Se-jin actually seemed affected by this trivial comment.
He still had a smile on his face, but instead of offering a rebuttal, he remained silent.
‘Huh?’
At that moment, Kim Rae-bin couldn't hold back and raised his hand to speak.
For the record, he wasn't holding back anger, but rather a reaction to a pure logical error.
He didn't even know the context, so he couldn't even be angry.
“…? Since Se-jin Hyung is a part of TeSTAR, isn't news about TeSTAR news about Hyung?”
“Exactly!”
Cha Yu-jin quickly agreed.
But Zairop didn't give up.
“No, I mean, I only hear about the group, but I don't hear much about Lee Se-jin himself~”
“……? Ah, we have never done individual activities outside of group activities. You can consider news of TeSTAR as news of Se-jin Hyung-nim.”
“…….”
It probably wasn't Kim Rae-bin’s intention, but thanks to him, Zairop’s argument became complete nonsense.
It was over.
‘Should I wrap this up?’
I chimed in with a smile.
“Yes. From now on, whenever you hear news about TeSTAR, you can just think of Lee Se-jin. Right?”
“You are exactly right!”
In contrast to Kim Rae-bin’s proud face, the Zairop members’ faces were completely sour.
“……Ah, right.”
Even if they were seniors, they didn't have the guts to keep picking a fight with a much bigger group at an awards ceremony, so the conversation ended there.
However, Keun Se-jin didn't seem to snap out of it.
‘This guy is definitely acting strange.’
Keun Se-jin, who had been staring at his smartphone in silence for an hour, was creating a hell of a sense of dissonance.
…And connecting the current situation with the unit card incident from a few days ago, a point of suspicion emerged.
‘……I can’t just leave him like this.’
Keun Se-jin was often the one holding the microphone.
If this continued, a problem might arise when it was time for an acceptance speech, so it was better to clear the air now.
“…I’m going to the car for a second.”
“Huh?”
“I left something behind.”
I stood up and got the keys from the manager.
“Should I go find it for you?”
“It’s okay. I’ll be right back.”
Then I tapped Keun Se-jin, who was sitting near the door.
“Hey, let’s go.”
“……Huh? What?”
“I need another person to help move something. I need to take some photos, too.”
“…….”
Keun Se-jin scanned me from head to toe in silence, then stood up with only his mouth smiling.
“…Sure~”
It was clear he was offended by something, but let’s move first.
I walked down the hallway in silence with him and reached the car.
After making sure no one was around, we got into the car, and I spoke up.
“…….”
“Is something bothering you lately?”
“…Whew.”
Keun Se-jin looked up at the car ceiling and sighed. He seemed to realize why I had called him out.
“No.”
“……Really? Then cool your head before you head back up. You looked uncomfortable in the waiting room.”
“……!”
I shrugged and rummaged through the car to find a neck pillow.
I could just say this was what I came for.
“I’ll make up an excuse, so just be back before it’s time. Later.”
“…….”
I grabbed the car door handle. Then, from behind me, Keun Se-jin let out a long sigh.
“…Sorry. This is just… a bit tough.”
“Sounds like there is a problem.”
“A problem…… I wonder if I should call it that.”
Keun Se-jin seemed to find it hard to speak, and the silence stretched on.
‘Is it better if I just say it?’
I hesitated for a moment before opening my mouth.
“Actually, I saw you picking the unit card. …You knew what Card 3 was and avoided it, didn't you?”
“……!”
“…Was it because having three people would mean less screen time than two?”
Seeing him get hit by that ‘The group is doing well, not you~’ comment earlier, I wondered if he was sensitive about his individual presence being diminished.
But Keun Se-jin shook his head.
“……No.”
He fiddled with his smartphone for a bit, then slowly continued.
“I avoided it because it was you and Bae Se-jin Hyung. It would have been hard to show off dancing with that lineup.”
“……!”
“It’s obvious. The song would have been centered around you with a vocal-focused performance… and I would have just ended up as the center for a dance break or something. Even that would have had to be adjusted for that Hyung, so the difficulty would have been mediocre.”
“……We could have challenged ourselves with a dance-focused performance centered around you.”
“Haha. Oh, Moon-dae. As if you’d take a gamble like that for a concert where fans are spending their money.”
“…….”
“And even if we had a dance-focused performance tailored to me, the fans probably wouldn't have liked it much.”
“Why do you think that?”
“……This is driving me crazy.”
Keun Se-jin sighed a few times, then, after much hesitation, handed me his smartphone.
It was a social media search result… using his search-shielded name.
“…….”
“Don’t tell me that you only find hate comments when you search like this. When it comes out this consistently, it means it’s the general opinion of the fans to some extent.”
Keun Se-jin was calm.
I scrolled further down the feed to check the overall trend.
‘…Seon A-hyun made too much of an impression.’
His impressive feat of handling an accident with a backflip and his ongoing progress in overcoming his stutter had caused his status regarding his abilities to skyrocket.
And among the same dance line, Cha Yu-jin was so popular and had such great star quality that his center position was secure.
As a result, only Keun Se-jin was left floating.
It seemed the fans who had already been lukewarm toward Keun Se-jin felt that point very strongly.
“Of course, these are mostly the thoughts of people who dislike me…… but anyway, it’s true that I’m falling behind in terms of position image.”
“…….”
“A-hyun doing well? It’s great. It’s good for the group. But I can’t stand myself being in this state.”
I spoke slowly.
“…So that’s why you chose Cha Yu-jin?”
“Yeah.”
Keun Se-jin took his smartphone back.
“I have to do better than Cha Yu-jin in this unit stage.”
“…….”
“Because a one-on-one comparison will be possible. …I don’t see any other way out, do you?”