Chapter 157
Chapter 157
Kim Rae-bin was injured during the second recording after the stage rehearsal.
While performing a high-difficulty group move during Seon A-hyun’s part, he had been lying at the very edge and went to kick his legs out to stand up, only to strike a stage structure.
The cause of the accident was that the stage was narrower than expected.
‘…It was even smaller than what they told us.’
No matter how small the stage sets prepared for these Western talk shows were for a group dance, we had already shortened our choreography paths to compensate.
‘It’s not like Kim Rae-bin strayed from his path, either.’
In other words, these bastards gave us the wrong information, and as a result, the kid’s foot got wrecked.
‘Fuck.’
No, let’s not jump to the conclusion that it’s "wrecked."
It was bleeding because of a contusion, but it might not be as serious a wound as it looked.
“Rae-bin, can you move your foot? Don’t actually move it, just tell me if you can feel it!”
“…I can, but it hu—it hurts….”
“Let’s stop the bleeding first!”
After receiving emergency treatment, Kim Rae-bin was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. The rest of the members were able to head to the hospital as well after briefly wrapping things up.
Since it was impossible to resume the recording anyway, the first recording was semi-forcibly fixed as the broadcast version.
Soon, the conclusion was briefed to us.
“Two weeks?”
“And that’s the minimum. Dancing is out of the question, and that’s only if he stays still while wearing a brace.”
“…….”
The company staff member, who had just come out of Kim Rae-bin’s hospital room, explained busily through an interpreter.
The diagnosis was ligament damage, a cracked bone, and torn skin.
‘…We avoided the worst.’
If it had been a full fracture or a rupture, he wouldn’t have been able to stand on stage for months.
Of course, the situation was still grim.
“They said for intense choreography like Haengcha, they’ll have to monitor his progress for a month before we can talk about it again….”
Since we were right in the middle of promotions, it was essentially confirmed that Kim Rae-bin wouldn’t be able to perform the choreography for the rest of this cycle.
It was the perfect disaster for a song that focused heavily on performance.
‘Is this damn trip to America cursed or something?’
It wasn’t even funny how we were taking turns ending up in the hospital since last time.
I kept my mouth shut, while Ryu Cheong-woo cautiously asked the staff member, “Was there any mention of long-term aftereffects?”
“No. It doesn’t seem to be that severe.”
“……Phew.”
I saw Ryu Cheong-woo let out a sigh of relief. The others also looked like they could finally breathe. Cha Yu-jin, on the other hand, looked like he was on the verge of tears.
“Can, can we go in and see Rae-bin now…?”
“Yes, yes. The doctor just left.”
Since we had followed him all the way to the hospital, it would have been awkward to leave without seeing his face.
We opened the door to the hospital room and walked in.
“……Rae-bin?”
Kim Rae-bin was sitting on the hospital bed with a dazed expression. His injured foot was elevated and fixed in place.
As soon as Kim Rae-bin looked toward us, Keun Se-jin spoke up quickly.
“Rae-bin, how’s the pain in your foot?”
“It is fine. But, the stage…….”
“You don’t need to worry about that. We just talked to them, and they said you can be back on stage if you just hang in there for two weeks. It’s no big deal~”
Despite Keun Se-jin’s words, Kim Rae-bin seemed to realize the gravity of the situation.
The guy might lack social intuition, but it wasn’t like he didn’t know how things worked in this industry.
However, I didn’t expect this reaction.
Kim Rae-bin’s eyes welled up, and fat tears began to roll down his cheeks.
“I am sorry……. If I am out for t-two weeks…….”
“Hey, what are you talking about? Two weeks will fly by! We’ve already done our comeback stage, so what’s there to worry about?”
“Se-jin is right, Rae-bin. It wasn’t your fault in the first place. Just focus on recovering. Okay?”
“……Yes.”
Sniff. Kim Rae-bin snuffled, trying his best to hold back his tears. Holding back a sigh, I pulled a tissue from the box on the table and handed it to him.
I didn’t feel great about this.
“Don’t think about anything else and just rest!”
“Rest, you dummy!”
Since he would just be alone in the hotel during the US schedule anyway, it was decided that Kim Rae-bin would stay in the hospital for about two days so he could receive proper care.
The members talked big to reassure him before closing the door to his room and stepping out.
Only then did the conversation return to reality.
“We’ll have to redistribute Rae-bin’s parts, right?”
“We have to.”
Ryu Cheong-woo crossed his arms and gave a bitter smile.
“We’ll have to learn the new formations first.”
“Well, I can’t sleep because of the jet lag anyway, so might as well give it a shot~”
“…….”
Bae Se-jin’s face looked pale, but he didn’t say a word.
I suppose he felt too guilty to complain about the extra practice when someone had just injured their foot. Compared to his attitude during Idol Inc., this was a massive improvement.
‘Everyone’s going to be exhausted.’
Kim Rae-bin would be mentally exhausted, and the rest of us would be physically exhausted.
Honestly, part of me wanted to leak to the press—whether here or in Korea—that this accident happened because of the talk show’s negligent communication.
Because they were being spiteful.
‘But I can’t just do that recklessly.’
This was our first time appearing on a Western talk show without any strings attached, like a game collaboration. It was best to avoid noise as much as possible.
Still, I couldn’t help but be pissed off.
What a nuisance.
‘Do we need to get even bigger?’
The problem was that I didn’t even have a sense of how much bigger we needed to get for a boycott of an overseas talk show to actually hurt them.
I sighed and cleared my head of distracting thoughts.
‘Let’s just practice.’
It looked like I was trapped in practice hell again, even in a foreign country.
While TeSTAR was reorganizing their performance due to the injury issue…
In Korea, the new song by Golden Age—the group of Ha Il-jun, whom Park Moon-dae called Gold 1—was finally starting to gain word-of-mouth traction within the idol fandom.
The interesting thing was that these so-called K-POP listener netizens wanted to push Golden Age’s new song.
Because Golden Age was seen as an underdog that hadn't quite established itself yet, and they had an image of having suffered a lot because of Choi Won-gil and Gold 1.
Moreover, since the song was genuinely good, people felt a sort of satisfaction—like a form of justice—in helping their results climb.
Of course, most of it was just talk for entertainment, but Golden Age’s agency didn't miss this timing. They coordinated WeTube promotions and various social media viral marketing.
And this work to increase public exposure was carried out sensibly and naturally, ultimately succeeding.
[Golden Age Hi Goody Challenge]
On a certain platform for short-form videos, a simple dance using the song started trending.
Thanks to that, Golden Age’s track began rapidly reverse-climbing the music charts.
Furthermore, TeSTAR’s fandom, which would usually have kept this public opinion in check, was in a state of chaos.
It was all because of the news of Kim Rae-bin’s injury.
TeSTAR fans were too busy dealing with their worry over the injury, their disappointment at not being able to see the full group for a while, and the swirling comments from trolls.
In fact, from their perspective, keeping Golden Age in check wasn't even a necessity.
After all, Golden Age’s late-blooming chart climb failed to break into the top tier of the charts due to the inherent limitations of being a rookie boy group.
Moreover, TeSTAR’s current album, which emphasized Korean aesthetics, was receiving immense critical acclaim.
TeSTAR fans were simply annoyed by the occasional trolls who tried to provoke them by saying things like, "Honestly, isn't Golden Age's song better?"
By any metric, the difference in their levels was clear to anyone.
However, to someone who had been stuck in a hospital room and a hotel for two weeks with nothing to do but stare at his smartphone, this situation carried significant weight.
“Congrats on escaping the cast~”
“You worked hard, Rae-bin.”
“No. I am only sorry for causing trouble.”
Kim Rae-bin, now wearing a lighter foot brace, spoke energetically and bowed his head. He had just barely received permission from the doctor to return to the stage, provided he didn't dance.
“Ayy, it wasn't trouble~ But it sure is reassuring to have you back!”
“Th-that’s right!”
“Thank you.”
The members gave Kim Rae-bin some light encouragement before scattering to their respective hotel rooms. They needed to get some sleep so they could wake up and revise the stage formations to include Kim Rae-bin again.
I tilted my head toward the door.
“This is your room.”
“Yes!”
The rooms had been assigned arbitrarily while Kim Rae-bin was away for his check-up.
‘It’s not like we’re staying here for long anyway.’
The Japan schedule was short. I held the door open for Kim Rae-bin and then headed in to wash up.
“I’ll shower first.”
“Yes!”
He was acting incredibly disciplined, probably because he’d been resting for the past few days. I shook my head, finished a quick shower, and stepped out.
My eyes met Kim Rae-bin’s, who looked incredibly tense.
“……?”
He looked like he was about to make some kind of bombshell announcement.
‘Did his injury get worse or something?’
I remained silent, fearing he was about to deliver the unwelcome news that his absence from the choreography would be extended. Finally, Kim Rae-bin spoke with great difficulty.
“Um… Hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“Does it also sound to you… like Golden Age’s new song is a masterpiece that appeals more to the general public’s taste than the songs I have worked on?”
“…??”
Where the hell did this come from?
I stared at him in disbelief, and Kim Rae-bin squeezed his eyes shut and let out a stream of words.
“Currently, my contribution to the performance is severely lacking, and if my involvement is also acting as a negative factor in terms of the music, then from now on, I will refrain from composing and arranging activities—”
“Wait, wait. What are you talking about?”
I cut him off before he could spiral any further into nonsense.
‘What kind of bullshit is this after putting out such a successful album?’
Of course, self-producing members were a double-edged sword. If they did well, it was synergy, but if they didn't, it became a source of internal conflict.
It was easy to create a narrative like, 'The reason this song's performance is poor is because of the self-producing member's stubbornness and lack of ability.'
‘But Kim Rae-bin has never failed so far.’
It wasn't like Golden Age had suddenly surged up as a candidate for first place, and it wasn't like Kim Rae-bin’s form had dropped. So why this sudden nonsense?
I asked as calmly as possible, “What made you suddenly think that?”
“Well… while monitoring the reaction to our music, I happened to see a video of Golden Age’s new song due to the algorithm, and a comment there that received a large number of likes said…….”
“Give it here. Let me see.”
“Pardon?”
I took the video link from Kim Rae-bin and checked it.
[Golden Age_Hi Goody_Comment Collection]
‘…It was a comment reaction video.’
It was content that showed the best comments alongside the performance video.
These kinds of videos, if the general opinion of the song is favorable to begin with, only look for and show positive and funny comments.
Naturally, it was full of nothing but praise for Golden Age’s song.
And in that process, it was common to compare them to the strongest group currently active.
If you looked at the comments on the video itself, rather than the ones featured in it, the comparisons were even more blunt.
To the point where, if you only watched this video, the sentiment that "Honestly, Golden Age's song was better to listen to" seemed like the dominant public opinion.
“Hmm.”
I looked away from the smartphone screen. Kim Rae-bin muttered.
“…For those reasons, I would like to ask for an objective and cold evaluation.”
Good grief.
‘Is it because of guilt?’
Kim Rae-bin wasn't usually the type to have his confidence in his own abilities shaken.
Perhaps because he couldn't stand on stage due to his foot injury, the pressure to excel in other areas had intensified.
That was likely why he kept seeking out comparisons between his title track and the songs of groups promoting at the same time, eventually leading him to these thoughts.
“…….”
I sat on the edge of the bed opposite Kim Rae-bin.
And I chose my words carefully.