School violence in the idol industry was a scandal with no real answer. The data accumulated from all the past incidents regarding that proved this.

Especially when bullying or physical violence was involved. I had never seen any way to get past it aside from resigning or leaving for the military.

But, for it to happen to a participant from the same team?

‘… Let’s check it first.’

I clicked on the post first. In the meantime, more comments were added.

============================

[3rd place! IJC’s Keun Sejin accused of school violence. (491)]

: Hold on, hold on, I’m writing this because I feel like I will die if I hold this in.

Participant Lee Sejin who goes by ‘Keun Sejin’ from 〈Re-listed! Idol Joint-Stock company〉 harassed people all through Cheongsol high school.

I couldn’t sleep from crying over how unfair it was when I kept seeing articles on the internet making him seem like a good exemplary student, saying things like he probably ran for the student president election in high school.

Lee Sejin has been drinking and smoking since middle school, and he bullied me by hanging out with a group of people who pretended not to be kind.

……

============================

The long article that followed insisted on Keun Sejin’s clever behavior in school violence.

The description of the one-on-one bullying was detailed and even included detailed examples. At first glance, it felt convincing even for me.

‘This is not just a rumor that will be used once.’

Whether it’s real or not, it was a deliberate post. They even attached a photo at the bottom.

The author’s own high school graduation album.

And there was a picture of Keun Sejin with a cigarette on his finger.

Below the picture was this text.

============================

[I have a lot of other pictures. If you understand the situation even a little, resign now. I don’t know anything else, but I can’t stand a kid like you becoming an idol]

============================

‘… Even if it’s not real, once the label is attached, it’s hard to get rid of it, but they even uploaded a photo.”

In an audition program, this was almost a death sentence. And it was a huge negative impact for this team.

Even if Keun Sejin survived, the editing of the team was over, and even if he resigned, it was hell. We would have to practice everything again from part distribution to movement.

“……”

I sighed and shook my head.

‘Let’s confirm it first.’

“I just saw the article.”

“……”

A heavy silence passed.

No one asked what was going on.

‘It seems like everyone else saw it too.’

Keun Sejin was silently lowering his head on the phone screen.

“Are you sure it’s you in this picture?”

“……I don’t know.”

Keun Sejin muttered in a dazed voice.

“I’ve never filmed anything like this……”

But he couldn’t say no for sure.

I asked again.

“Did you smoke?”

“Wait, when I was in high school…… I had some for a few days…… But, I stopped right away. And I’ve never done anything like this. Seriously, why would I do it at school……”

Keun Sejin, whose voice grew louder and louder, closed his mouth as if he was suffocating. And he looked down at his phone again.

‘He is reading the comments.’

It was obvious that they would be terrifying to look at. Gold 1 noticed the situation and quickly stopped it.

“Hey, don’t you look at that. Just turn it off. Turn it off.”

“…I have to see it to respond. But… Yes, it is already over.”

Keun Sejin put down her smartphone. His lower hand was trembling.

“Honestly, I don’t think I’d believe it either? I smoked, but I never took a picture, and if I say that everything except the cigarette is a lie…… It’s not convincing.”

As he spoke, Sejin was becoming more and more calm. No, rather than getting calmer…… he was giving up.

“…People won’t believe me, will they?”

“……”

It seemed difficult to turn over a situation that involved pictures.

Apart from that, It was really unfair for Keun Sejin. The actions described in the accusation were quite different from those of Keun Sejin.

‘Because of his personality… I don’t think it will leave a scar even if he tormented someone.’

Unless they tried manipulating the situation so he didn’t even know he was bothering them and making them suffer from their own interest.

He wasn’t the kind of guy who would use this type of gossiping.

But this was just a speculation. It hadn’t been long since we met, so I couldn’t reach hasty conclusions. Because human beings had many different sides to them.

There were many cases of someone being a trashy boss, yet being a reliable father to his son.

“……”

After thinking for a while, I turned on the phone screen again. And I started carefully reading the article accusing Keun Sejin from the beginning again.

Meanwhile, Keun Sejin and the other team members began struggling with despair and sadness.

Keun Sejin muttered in a low voice.

“I…… I will resign tomorrow.”

“…!!”

“Hey, wait a minute.”

“T-T-Think, C-Calmly……”

“I’ve already done enough. It’s true that I smoked…… If I continue here, I think the controversy will only increase.”

Keun Sejin looked like he was struggling to make his voice go back to normal.

“After it calms down a little, if I explain it well, wouldn’t it be possible to debut in a year or so? And it’s a little… I really don’t remember taking pictures, but it was posted anyway, so it’s a bit scary.”

“……”

Keun Sejin, who always had time to spare, spoke like that, and the other team members didn’t seem to be able to make any other sounds.

I responded while still looking at my phone.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“……Why?”

“The person who wrote this said ‘If you understand the situation, resign now’. If you resign now, their words will become the truth.”

It wasn’t any of my business, but as I kept listening to their words, Keun Sejin’s fever seemed to be gradually rising.

“Stop. If you keep this up it’ll only make me feel bad. Even if I refute the situation, the results are the same.”

“It’s important to have good rebuttal material.”

“What?”

I picked up my phone and turned the screen towards Keun Sejin.

The screen had a zoomed in picture of the accusation photo.

“This is photoshopped.”

“……!!”

He was so surprised that it looked like his eyes would pop out.

Actually, if he thought about it calmly in the first place, he would have been able to guess that it was photoshopped, but I guess he couldn’t out of fear.

I handed my phone to Keun Sejin. And I pointed at a part of the picture with my index finger.

First, the hand holding a cigarette.

“Here, if you zoom in on the design program… The pixels are a bit broken. I guess they lowered the picture quality on purpose, but there are still a few points.”

and the cigarettes.

“Cigarettes by itself wouldn’t shine this much. The exposure of the photo should be brighter than this, but it looks too white, so they lowered it a bit too much while they were doing it.”

It was an easy mistake to make for beginners trying to put in a white object in the picture. It’s true that the white stood out, but it looks awkward, so it’s crushed.

My phone’s performance was so poor that it cut off a little, but there was no problem with confirming it.

‘…I didn’t expect to benefit like this from my work as a data collector.’

I briefly recalled my past where I would receive an extra fee to grant requests like ‘Please erase that crazy pattern on the clothes ㅜㅜ’.

Only read this at europalation (dot) wordpress (dot) com, please do not repost

“H-How do you know this? Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Keun Sejin looked at the phone without saying a word.

At the sight of a glimmer of hope, Gold 1 cried out.

“Hey!! Then post an explanation now! That it’s photoshopped!”

“O-Oh… right! I have to post it…”

“No, wait.”

It seems because he was a good guy in real life, he didn’t know much about internet physiology. I explained bluntly.

“I also looked into it, but I’m sure there were some people among your fans who realized that it was photoshopped.”

“Ah!”

“T-Then if you wait, the fans……”

“No, I mean…… Even if there is a part that can be considered photoshopped because it’s fun to curse, they won’t believe it. They would be sarcastic for saying they like Keun Sejin.”

“……Ah.”

Before the atmosphere in the room got destroyed, I had to add an extra explanation right away.

“So find it.”

“Huh?”

“The original photo. If you post it along with the original, they can’t refute you when you say it’s photoshopped.”

Seeing Keun Sejin in the photo staring at the lens meant that he knew the existence of a camera.

If so, it was highly likely that this picture was taken by one of his acquaintances.

‘But in this situation, it’s dangerous to call all your acquaintances.’

Maybe a friend posted it.

‘Seeing that the person who posted the accusation confidently uploaded the photo, they seem convinced that not many people will be able to find the original photo, but……’

No, wait. Since this is easy to specify, it seems unlikely.

‘Hmm, otherwise……’

I was deep in thought and asked Keun Sejin.

“When you take pictures with other people, do you tend to save them all?”

“The ones I am in, yes.”

“Then first…… Why don’t we look at your album from the day you took a lot of photos for an event or gathering?”

If they cropped Keun Sejin from several group photos and then changed the background, they would not be able to find the original photo.

“Moondae, what were you doing before? Are you actually an NIS employee?”

“No way.”

I quickly pushed away Gold 1’s nonsense.

The other team members were already sitting next to Keun Sejin, looking for pictures together with beaked eyes.

“Look at the group photos, not the individual photos. It could be enlarged.”

“Okay.”

Keun Sejin, who barely returned to his usual tone, quickly opened his phone gallery.

And the time of painful search continued.

How many pictures did this guy take? His high school pictures kept on going endlessly.

Half an hour passed, and we didn’t even finish the 1st year yet.

“Se-Sejin, you have a lot of friends.”

“…haha.”

To the point that Seon Ahyun mumbled something like this in a tired voice. Keun Sejin let out an embarrassing laugh and flipped through the photos.

And around the time when the pictures from the first semester of his 2nd year started showing

“Hyung, this!”

“… !”

Kim Raebin pointed to a picture passing through with his fingers. Keun Sejin quickly checked the picture.

It was a picture of five or six people standing together and smiling at the camera. There were several pictures taken at the same place before and after this one was taken, only in different poses.

Keun Sejin was a little away in the corner. And when we zoomed in on the upper body, we could clearly see it.

It was the picture in the accusation.

“…Ha.”

Keun Sejin bowed his head and let out a long sigh of relief.

And somehow, he muttered in a dejected voice.

“……It’s a picture from the election campaign.”

“Hmm.”

Come to think of it, at the beginning of the accusation, it mentioned something about running for the student president. I don’t know who it is, but they must have been very close.

‘Maybe I should have told him to look at the pictures from then.’

But anyway, we found it, so it’s fine.

“What…”

Keun Sejin stretched back as if the tension had been relieved. He almost hit his head on the wall behind his bed, but it’s clear that he wouldn’t care even if that had happened.

“Thank god. It was in my photo album.”

“Yeah.”

I nodded my head.

Gold 1 spoke vigorously from the side.

“Good! You had an agency, right? Send it away! Ask them to make a counterargument!”

It was advice with common sense. Since things had already grown big, it would be better to respond officially with evidence.

However, a disheartening reaction came back.

“To my agency?”

Keun Sejin rubbed the back of his neck with a mysterious expression.

“Hmm… That’s a little…”

“…?”

It was the agency’s job to do this, and yet.