Chapter 115
Chapter 115
It was HAZERD's 10th day since debut.
The moment no idol could ever avoid had come for them.
Indeed. The past controversy.
'No, wait.'
I needed to choose my words carefully.
The word 'controversy' shouldn't be attached to a post like this.
[omg Kim Sanho was literally bullied that's so sad]
When I first saw that post, to be perfectly honest...
I'd thought it might've been something like that, so I wasn't particularly surprised.
I just wanted to clarify, though, that the bullying I'd imagined was merely the kind where people just don't talk to you.
In the pitch-black dawn, I frowned at the dazzling glare of my phone screen and clicked on the post.
Let me say this in advance: it wasn't a controversy.
It wasn't the kind of content that would tarnish Kim Sanho's image.
It was merely....
[anyone who's ever dabbled in violin knows this, Kim Sanho used to sweep every single violin competition out there
but some mf pushed him and he went tumbling down... got a shoulder injury and just gave up violin for good tbh instead of taking the classic music path riding on his dad's connections as a nepo baby with a wide open future he's doing idol shit what a fcking waste]
I had simply found out the reason behind Kim Sanho's shoulder injury.
* * *
The post clearly had the objective of sharing a juicy story rather than expressing concern for Kim Sanho.
Comments
—I saw in a fansign recap that Kim Sanho gave up violin because of a shoulder injury, so THAT was why?
—omg...ㅠㅠㅠ
—HAZERD's choreo is crazy intense, wouldn't the aftereffects of a shoulder injury be a huge problem?;;;
—fr is that mf not a total psycho? What happened to the attacker? Don't tell me they got off because they were a minor?
└Didn't even go to juvenile court, from what I know Kim Sanho's family let it slide and it got swept under the rug, basically just means they're permanently persona non grata around these circles
└ omg... why would they let it slide...
—"Sweep every competition" is an exaggeration, he used to place 1st or 2nd each time and that was at best in the junior division, lol... ppl are treating him like some tragic genius whose wings were clipped by injury
└tf placing 1st or 2nd every time IS sweeping
└a junior division win these days with Kim Ha-rok level connections is a direct express ticket to the global stage
'He said it was a fall accident.'
Well... I supposed that was true.
No, never mind. Even if it were me, I probably wouldn't have wanted to go out of my way to talk about such a sensitive story.
In the end, though, it was a shame that a sensitive chapter of his past had been reduced to a piece of gossip floating around the internet.
A message arrived right then from Jeong Sowol, who was the very reason I'd been feeling unsettled after reading through Kim Sanho's past posts since the crack of dawn.
[Jeong Sowol: hyung did you know??]
[Me: No]
[Me: More importantly, don't go monitoring weird websites]
[Jeong Sowol: nope I saw it on Wit]
[Jeong Sowol: it's spreading like crazy rn]
[Jeong Sowol: so unfair]
Jeong Sowol was right. I searched for Kim Sanho on a portal site, and it was exactly as he said.
[Kim Ha-rok's son (HAZERD's Kim Sanho) the reason he quit the violin]
'That was fast.'
Hadn't it been only a short while since the original post went up?
Honestly, it was an unavoidable part of being an idol for your past to be consumed as gossip.
Especially if it was this kind of... content. If nobody paid it any attention, then that in itself would mean we'd have to reconsider the group's future.
Still, the current situation was definitely problematic.
It was the fact that the tone of every single derivative post read as subtly off.
(Screenshot.jpg)
With a stacked gold spoon family and the skills to place 1st and 2nd, his future was wide open, but a shoulder injury took him out ㄷㄷ guess even a gold spoon can't do anything about an injury
Still, debuting and hitting the top 100 digital chart right away, debut chodong 9th place, looking at him being an idol you really can't worry about a gold spoon kid
'How many times are they going to use the word gold spoon?'
The keyword 'shoulder injury', the core of the original post, was minimized as much as possible, while the keyword 'gold spoon' was being obsessively emphasized.
The comment section had absorbed this cunning focus as well, driving the narrative that Kim Sanho quitting violin and converting to an idol was the 'easy life of a gold spoon family's young master'.
Even if the inner reality of Kim Sanho's family was... a total bean paste mess, it was true that, on the surface, it was a gold spoon family.
In today's idol scene, the title of 'gold spoon' could be a selling point, but at the same time, it was a double-edged sword that fostered antipathy.
And this current trend was undoubtedly a movement to frame Kim Sanho's family background in a negative light.
'Is this a reverse viral campaign?'
Posts with identical content were being simultaneously uploaded not just on idol communities, but on all sorts of miscellaneous gossip sites, even ghost communities.
Wasn't the spread speed and scope far too unnatural to simply dismiss it as the curious interest of idol fans?
At this point, I could be certain.
This was clearly a reverse viral campaign.
'They saw a gap and got all excited.'
I'd anticipated we'd go through this at least once after debut.
To be honest... I'd thought it was far better to face checks than to not face any at all.
I'd thought that, but I hadn't known the method would be to exploit Kim Sanho's past.
'What should I do?'
Exposing the actual situation of Kim Sanho's home seemed like the simplest and cleanest way to break through this crisis.
But we couldn't forget that in this country... after an exposé, a legal battle over defamation could follow.
A person of Kim Ha-rok's status and wealth wouldn't possibly not take legal action in a matter involving his reputation.
And since he had opposed Kim Sanho's idol career from the start, he might even double down and go on the offensive. A newly debuted rookie group needed to avoid that kind of noise.
'That must have been why Kim Ha-rok was so bold back then.'
Of course, going all the way to a courtroom fight was a 'you die and I die' style mud fight for both sides, so it was indeed a tiresome affair.
Thanks to that, he seemed to have stayed quiet since Kim Sanho had been forcibly dragged back out, but still.
If the situation grew bigger... wouldn't even Kim Ha-rok step forward?
[Jeong Sowol: hyung plz think of a overcom way]
[Me: Does San-ho know this post is up?]
[Me: It's overcome, not overcom]
[Jeong Sowol: idk]
[Jeong Sowol: brb gonna ask Gyeon-woo hyung]
[Jeong Sowol: oh wait just gonna invite him]
['Jeong Sowol' has invited 'Baek Gyeonwoo'.]
[Jeong Sowol: hyung you asleep?]
[Jeong Sowol: prolly sleeping]
It hadn't even been a minute after the invite, wasn't the conclusion coming a little too quickly?
......Well, looking at the time, I guessed the question itself was the problem.
'It's time to wake up.'
As if it had read my mind, my alarm went off almost immediately.
Hearing the rustling from Kim Yuri in the upper bunk, I turned off my phone for a moment.
"Wake up."
"Ugh....... I'm almost up......."
After shaking Kim Yuri awake from where he had buried his face in his pillow and passed back out, I left the room.
Then I turned my phone back on.
[Baek Gyeonwoo: I'm dead tired]
[Baek Gyeonwoo: Anyway why wake me up if I'm just gonna wake up on my own in 2 mins]
[Jeong Sowol: you didn't even wake up so why are you mad]
......Was this combo really okay?
* * *
Normally, my way of handling things would have been to inform the person in question, Kim Sanho, and discuss a countermeasure together.
This time, however, Jeong Sowol was fiercely against it.
Unlike me, who had only skimmed through things in the early morning, Jeong Sowol seemed to have already looked at the online public opinion in quite a bit of detail.
According to him, a recent social issue related to gold spoons had been layered on top of Kim Sanho's past, resulting in a lot of very unsavory comments.
Granted, there were many sympathetic reactions as well, but I agreed with Jeong Sowol's opinion that the very mention of his family situation could be a trigger for Kim Sanho, so we should keep it hidden for now.
......Ah, the reason we didn't invite Han Neuti and Kim Yuri to our three-way group chat was simple.
[Jeong Sowol: if we only leave out San-ho hyung, it feels like we're kinda bullying him]
[Baek Gyeonwoo: So you're saying we should make it a trio of bullying instead]
[Jeong Sowol: Yep]
Since Jeong Sowol and Baek Gyeonwoo were the only ones on the team who didn't watch their mouths, if we absolutely had to leave someone out, it definitely seemed right to exclude the relatively safer Han Neuti and Kim Yuri.
Besides, those two rarely went on the internet outside of when necessary, so there was a high chance they didn't know what was going on.
As soon as we got into the car after getting ready for work, Jeong Sowol sent a message.
[Jeong Sowol: Today's to-do list
1 Not leave the group chat (especially Gyeon-woo hyung)
2 Keep San-ho hyung from seeing the internet
3 Act normal in front of him
4 Buy him something delicious]
[Baek Gyeonwoo: acting cocky]
[Jeong Sowol: I wasn't cocky]
[Baek Gyeonwoo: I said the line's cocky]
This grave project actually proceeded surprisingly smoothly.
To be precise, it was more accurate to say there was no window to even take notice of it.
The schedule was relentlessly busy, and we had to use the waiting time during music shows to catch up on our severe lack of sleep.
It was a variable that our waiting room... was assigned as the same one as Hainoeo, but luckily, they were also exhausted and didn't pay us any particular attention.
No. A problem did arise.
That member, having apparently slept well during the long wait and recovered his energy, came to talk to us again.
"San-ho......."
Draping an arm over Kim Sanho's shoulder, he tried to lead Kim Sanho away without even asking for permission.
Seeing that, I.......
......Before I could even step in, Baek Gyeonwoo stepped in instead.
"We're heading to the convenience store, we'll be back later."
As he said that, Baek Gyeonwoo naturally pulled Kim Sanho's arm toward himself.
Then he looked back at me and jerked his chin.
"Hey, hurry up. You said you were hungry."
It clearly looked like he had intended to call only me.......
Maybe because they happened to be hungry, or just bored, the other members also all got up in a group and swarmed out of the room.
And at the convenience store we had swarmed into as a group, a surprise event happened to be waiting.
"Alright, if more than half of your team succeeds in the bottle flip challenge, then all of the snacks here! Freely! You'll receive a free pass to take as much as you want!"
It was a game corner.
Not a scripted segment, but a truly impromptu event corner held only for the idols who visited the convenience store.
"What do you mean, throw a water bottle and make it land upright?"
"Like this?"
"No, we're not playing baseball or something....... You've gotta throw it toward the floor, not up!"
And so, we ambitiously threw the water bottles.
"Gyeon-woo's good at games but sucks at this kind of thing, huh?"
"Gyeon-woo hyung plays a lot of games, he isn't good at them."
"You two be quiet."
And threw again.
"Wow, Neuti hyung's good at this."
"Yeah, I used to practice this a lot at one point."
"You really do practice all kinds of weird things."
"......That tone sounded kinda off?"
We threw with passion.
"Yes, HAZERD 1 point!"
"......."
"Move along. You've failed."
In the end, having earned nothing but a new flaky image for ourselves instead of the free pass, we had to trudge empty-handed back to the waiting room.
When we returned, Hainoeo had taken advantage of our absence and were sprawled out comfortably all over the place.
I spoke toward them.
"They were filming a game corner at the convenience store."
Since every single camera shot was precious to them, their eyes lit up the moment they heard me, and they immediately dashed out to the convenience store.
They, too, were rookie idols exactly like us, with no choice in the matter.
Thanks to that, we were able to avoid an awkward conversation with Hainoeo.
"Give me the water bottle."
"......To practice?"
"Yeah."
And so, for a long while, the only sound echoing through our waiting room was the sound of water bottles being flung.
The internet situation was completely forgotten, and today seemed like it would, again, be wrapped up by a music show schedule no different from any other day.
But the real variable... came to us in a way we had absolutely never predicted.
"Kids!"
Our manager burst through the waiting room door and shouted.
"You guys are nominated for 1st place this week!"