Keun Sejin smiled bitterly.

“The agency I am in. Happy friends.”

“Ah.”

At that moment, the aspiring idols roughly grasped the atmosphere.

And I, the former data collector, also noticed.

‘There… That place is famous for not responding to controversy in its early stages.’

Come to think of it, even though he is in the middle of all this he hasn’t been contacted by his agency yet. By now, it had already been over an hour since the article was posted, and there were all kinds of uproar on social media. If it was a small, fast-paced agency, they would have contacted Keun Sejin by now.

“Well…… I joined because it was a great place for albums. Haha.”

Keun Sejin formally laughed a few times, and then got up from the bed.

“T-Then, how about asking a friend to upload it? Y-You have a lot of friends.”

“Well… According to our regulations, official internet activities are prohibited during filming, so let’s ask some people you know. If you send them a picture and ask them to upload it, the kids will get excited and know what to do.”

“……”

‘Let’s just leave it be.’

Even now, I was on the verge of regretting because I had meddled too much. But in the end, thinking I should finish what I started, I gave my own advice.

“If you tell them yourself, it will be recorded. It’s better to just tell the production crew and upload it yourself.”

This was my roundabout way of saying ‘there is a chance that the culprit is among your acquaintances, so be careful’. Keun Sejin nodded head as if he understood it.

“That would be better. Let’s see……”

Keun Sejin opened the notepad app with his phone and smiled when he saw the rest of the team still huddled together.

“Everyone must be tired, but thank you for taking care of me. I will quietly write it myself. So everyone should sleep now.”

“Hey, it’s a bit weird to leave you alone in this situation and just sleep.”

Keun Sejin seriously answered Gold 1’s worries.

“If we all don’t sleep now, won’t we see hell tomorrow……”

“……”

There was a lot of work to get done tomorrow.

It was a very convincing statement.

In the end, the rest of the team members returned to their beds with a smile on their faces.

I also fell asleep laying in bed.

Unfortunately, however, I woke up early in the morning. Because I was thirsty.

‘I talked too much before going to bed.’

When I quietly got up and headed for the sink, Keun Sejin, who was sitting at the table looking at his phone, reacted.

“Huh. Moondae, aren’t you sleeping?”

“Because I am thirsty.”

“I see.”

Seeing that he was still awake, it seems Keun Sejin still hadn’t finished writing his explanation. Or he was still rummaging through the internet public opinion.

Neither was a very good sign.

“Did you write it all down?”

“Well…… It was little.”

Keun Sejin looked down at his phone with a conflicted expression, and he spoke after a few seconds.

“I thought if I uploaded it myself, it might start another drama.”

“What drama?”

“Well, first, they will say that it’s a privilege to communicate directly through social media while filming…… And if my explanation is firm, they will say something like ‘I didn’t know his personality was like that’, but on the other hand, it’s compassionate they will say ‘he was stabbed like that’.”

It was a possible scenario.

“So I wanted to pretend to be an anonymous acquaintance, would you like to take a look?”

Keun Sejin handed me the phone.

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

[Keun Sejin’s friend.]

: The photo of the accusation posted today is photoshopped. One of the pictures I had was the original photo.

(Original photo) (Photoshopped photo) The second photo is created by cropping the first photo.

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

…

“……”

“How is it?”

What to do with this.

If this was a normal academic life, it would be a good explanation. Everything that needs to be said was included and it was easy to read thanks to the double spacing.

The problem was that the article did not fit in with anonymous Internet sites.

I looked back involuntarily. The bed was waiting for me.

However, if I told him to post this, there was a very high chance that all the hard work we did during midnight would be in vain.

‘Ha……’

Sleep… Let’s sleep tomorrow.

“…This isn’t it.”

“What?”

“No.”

I eventually brought my phone while crying and eating mustard seed*.

(T/N: A saying that means pretending to enjoy doing something you are forced into doing)

In the end, the one doing it was me, f*ck.

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***

3:30 in the morning.

It was a time where most people would be sleeping. At a time when only the most serious Internet users were counting the night and talking nonsense.

Keun Sejin’s school violence controversy was swept away once, and only intermittent gossip showed up.

And during that time, an article was posted on an anonymous site related to an idol.

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

[Eh, I think I found a picture of Keun Sejin.]

: (Photoshopped photo) Isn’t this the original? (original photo)

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

Attached to the post was a group photo of Keun Sejin and other students whose faces were roughly blacked out.

It was a light post written with a common telecommunication company’s IP, but the comments from early morning users who were checking it’s contents quickly increased.

– OMG

– What

– Where did you get this?

– Hey, this looks real;;

– Like a pilgrimage?

– Did they crop that picture and post it?

– How did you know?

└ My friend’s place had a lot of stuff related to Keun Sejin, I found it while searching

└ Isn’t this a stalker kid;;

└ You would do the same if you were there too

└ Hahaha, you are hitting me with facts

└ Wow the bastard’s face is covered up. Is a lawsuit scary hahaha

The author’s replies fueled the comments even more, and eventually someone who checked the article made an accurate comparison shot.

– I cropped it, it’s the same picture (Photo)

└ Gasp

└ ㄷㄷㄷ

└ Crazy

– Hahahaha, it was actually photoshopped, it’s so funny, why are they trying to create a lie like this?

– Wow, I thought Keun Sejin would be delisted, but it was an operative force.

└ Crazy hahaha

└ Buy his grass even now, go go

The comments grew faster and faster.

And soon, someone found out that the original photo was taken when Keun Sejin was running for the student council president election.

– I searched Cheongsol High School’s website and found similar promotional pictures. Looks like it was for an election campaign? (link)

└ Wow, it’s an inferiority complex

└ They have been fighting since the election in the fake post

└ Wow, the kid who fabricated the post, really wrote it with a clenched teeth

└ They were caught now, soI think they are going to have no teeth hahaha

After coming this far, screenshots of the article began circulating on social media and communities.

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

[Mysterious Realization of Justice.jpg (feat. Keun Sejin is not a school bully)]

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

– Keun Sejin’s edited photo of school violence is on the rise

– Someone found the original photo

Just like when the first post was posted, the number of comments increased in an instant.

This article seemed more sincere because of the added nuance of having discovered it by chance.

Public opinion quickly turned to laughing at the school violence accusation.

Keun Sejin’s fans, who couldn’t sleep, quickly joined in the task of uploading the screenshots.

They posted combative comments and kicked the people who said bullshit like ‘The picture is fake, but the content may be true’.

And information that the accusation was edited quickly filled the internet public opinion.

It happened before the end of the day’s work hours.

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***

“They deleted it.”

Keun Sejin muttered.

When the public opinion completely flipped after it was discovered that the picture was edited, the person who wrote the accusation deleted the post without sound and disappeared.

It would have been difficult if they bite back dirtier, but the public opinion was so overturned that it seemed like they gave up.

“…I’m glad, really.”

Keun Sejin sighed in deep relief and put his head on his table. As he relaxed, he was hit by fatigue.

“Thank you. I really… I am ashamed.”

It was worth being thankful for. If he uploaded the draft as it was, things wouldn’t have occurred like this.

‘Data Seller 1st win……’

I never thought that I would use the time I spent snooping around to see price trends like this. This suffering… Let’s say we are clearing up that karma.

“In the first place… If I hadn’t touched a cigarette, this riot wouldn’t have happened.”

Keun Sejin muttered in a voice full of shame. It seems he knew he was stupid.

“Why did you smoke?”

“……Ah, back then… I was pushed out of a group I was supposed to debut with. I even recorded a demo…… They debuted well with someone other than me, and even sold their albums well.”

“……In ‘Happy Friends’?”

Have they ever debuted male idols with good results in the past 5 years?

“No, somewhere else…… But they didn’t plan on starting another group for a while, so I connected with this one right now.”

“Okay.”

At this point, there were only one or two male idol groups that debuted within three or four years that succeeded with their first album.

And both were big companies.

‘…Wouldn’t it be better to hang in there even if he has to debut a bit late?’

5 years had passed since he was 17, so he was 22 now. He was at a good age to debut as an elder in the team. It would have been more reasonable to stick with that formation than to go to Happy Friends.

“…At that time, I was so confident that I would be a rookie within that year and signed the contract…… It’s been 4 years since then but it still hasn’t been given. Haha.”

“……”

Ah, so that’s why.

Originally, he wouldn’t believe such verbal contracts, but since he was mentally crushed in his first year, he couldn’t afford to take care of it.

“As you can see, there are no trainees in Happy Friend who are eligible to debut right away. So, I have to make my debut through this program……”

“……”

“That’s why I’m saying this, but thank you once again for stopping me from leaving. Park Moondae.”

This was the first time this guy was exposing his real feelings while blatantly criticizing someone like this.

‘Is that his own way of sincerity?’

“Yes. Thank you very much.”

“…What? haha!”

Keun Sejin laughed and hit his head back on the table. He wanted to laugh, but I guess he was too tired.

I pondered bitterly.

‘…Have I been too friendly?’

I was trying to keep some distance because of the danger that he might be a drug addict, but at some point, I couldn’t get him away, and I think we became too close thanks to it.

‘Anyway, if we look at what happened so far, the chances seem low.’

Keun Sejin probably didn’t make his debut because he resigned when the school violence broke out. Even if he didn’t resign, he wouldn’t have been able to easily overturn the public opinion like he did now, so it would have been difficult for him to debut.

‘Well, but child actor Lee Sejin doesn’t seem that likely to debut right now.’

Still, Lee Sejin’s broadcast volume and image might have been influenced by the variable ‘Park Moondae’, so this was more likely.

‘Anyway, this is not an important issue right now.’

Let’s keep Schrödinger’s drug addict in a box. What was urgent now was the team match stage in two days.

Bababamba Babang!

“Huaah!!”

“Ugh……”

Just in time, with the morning wake-up call, the team members woke up wriggling in bed.

‘Another day without rest has begun……’

As I stood with my eyes wide open, Keun Sejin spoke again. He seemed to be continuing the previous conversation.

“No, really…, When I’m done with this, I’ll buy you a meal. What do you want to eat?”

Beef.”

“……It doesn’t have to be Korean does it?”

“If it tastes good.”

There was exactly 50 hours left until the rehearsal for the team battle.

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***

The 3rd team match stage was held on a large stage, one of the sets for Tnet’s signature music program ‘MusicBomb’.

It was meant to show a great performance on a stage where senior idols stood, but in fact, it seemed to be because it was a good place to create reaction cuts.

“Just three days ago, on this stage! VTIC had a pre-recording session!”

“Wow!”

The participants cheered upon hearing MC’s words.

In fact, the stage sets were completely different and they had nothing in common except that they occupied the same space.

However, the participants seemed excited just by using the same space as the top idols.

I didn’t feel bad either.

‘VTIC… They were good guys.’

Since the unit price was high, it was worth filming here.

“Just like the senior idols did, please show your skills to the fullest!”

After the MC finished going through the script, the preparations for the rehearsal began in earnest.

“Everyone! We will go in the same order as the actual show!”

“Yes!”

In an instant, the sound of instructions and music shook the stage.

With the order, the participants still had some leeway. So, the 〈Moon Rabbit〉 team gathered around the corner.

“Shall we say fighting once before we go? We’ve worked really hard until now, so let’s show them a performance as much as the work we put in.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

“T-That’s right.”

The team members nodded their heads with tense faces. However, it was clear that the tension wasn’t from anxiety, but rather, anticipation.

“〈Moon Rabbit〉 team.”

The team members put their hands together.

“Fighting!!”

The shouts were almost militant.

‘Oh my god.’

It was unfamiliar of me to willingly take part in this activity even though there were no cameras that followed closely.

But even then, it didn’t feel bad.

“Then let’s go!”

Indeed, the stage was right in front of us.