"Hyung, are you okay?"

"Sejin-ah, let me see the condition of your ankle."

"..."

Lee Sejin looked at his ankle with a pale face, and eventually clenched his teeth and pulled up his pants to check his condition.

His ankle was swelling.

'...This isn't good.'

The injury was confirmed for now.

"...!"

"I-it will be fine! It's a li-little swollen but... i-if you go straight to the hospital..."

Seon Ahyeon inspected his ankle and exclaimed urgently. He majored in dance, so he seemed to have some knowledge of ankle injuries.

"Yeah, Sejin-ah, sit down for a moment. Let's call the manager and go to the emergency room right away."

"...Okay."

Lee Sejin went to sit down on a chair in the corner of the practice room with Ryu Chungwoo supporting him.

Soon after, he left for the hospital with the manager who had received the call.

"To-together..."

"No!! ...The practice shouldn't be delayed because of me. I'll be back."

Lee Sejin strongly refused any company and left the dance practice room with the support of two managers.

"I hope it's not a big deal."

"I know right."

"I-it wasn't too swollen so... i-it will be fine."

Since he only fell down, everyone resumed practice assuming that it was not a major injury.

However, Lee Sejin came back after the choreography practice time had passed.

Besides, he didn't come alone.

"Oh~ So this is our Sejin's dorm. How nice!"

"..."

"Huh? I should come by often."

"...Because of my schedule, I'm rarely at the dorm."

"Is that so~? Then dad can come and take care of it. You don't have to refuse."

"...It's alright."

Lee Sejin was supported by a middle-aged man, and looking at their faces it seemed like a father-son relationship.

The conversation sounded like a convenience store part-timer talking with a drunk obnoxious customer.

'...?'

"Ah, it's our Sejin's friends~ It's me, Sejin's dad!"

"Ah, hello, elder."

"Hello!"

"What do you mean elder~ People think I'm Sejin's older brother when I'm outside with him."

"Haha, you look very young~"

Keun Sejin tried to cut the conversation with a compliment.

Ryu Chungwoo continued with a smile.

"Thank you for taking Sejin back. We have to film in the dorm now so..."

"Oh, I will sit here quietly. Film what you have to film~"

"..."

Ryu Chungwoo looked a little embarrassed.

I checked Lee Sejin's expression.

He didn't look like he was embarrassed or shy for showing a pushy parent to his friends but fatigued and ashamed, but that expression disappeared immediately.

'...He really seems like an obnoxious guest.'

Keun Sejin shook Lee Sejin's father's hand.

"Eyy~ Sir, we should give you a formal invitation for next time. It's not okay to neglect a member's parent like this. We will make preparations and call you back!"

"There's no need to do that~ I'll leave in a bit, you know? It's because I got tired for supporting him."

Hearing him put it that way, there was only one way to get rid of him.

I quickly went into the room and came back with my stuff.

"Sir, you must have had a hard time so you can go back to comfortably eat this."

It was a red ginseng set that I received as a holiday gift from the company.

"...! Aigoo~ I'm not the kind of person who gets things like this. Huh? I didn't mean to ask for something like this."

The middle-aged man quickly took the red ginseng while saying obvious things. I nodded meekly.

"Of course. You want to see the dorm where your son is staying but because we can't do that due to our schedule, we're giving this to you since we are glad to meet you and feel sorry about this."

"Okay~ Huh? You're the one who placed first, right? The one who chose Sejin. Oh, you're very reliable. Sejin-ah, hurry up and thank him."

"..."

"Ah, it's time for our manager to come because of our shoot. Please return safely."

"...Hmm, okay. I'm leaving~ I'll be back soon."

Lee Sejin's father glanced back at Lee Sejin, then slowly opened the door and left.

"..."

Lee Sejin lowered his head.

"That, y-you should sit down..."

Lee Sejin reflexively swung his hand at Seon Ahyun as he approached.

"...!"

Fortunately, Seon Ahyun avoided his hand. Lee Sejin became extremely startled when he noticed.

"I'm... I'm sorry!!"

"I-it's alright!"

What a mess.

Lee Sejin glanced at his room and seemed like he wanted to run away, but instead of doing that as if recalling from his past experiences, he went to the sofa in the living room and sat down.

'...It could also be that it was difficult for him to go to the room because of his leg.'

Since he was wearing a half-cast.

In any case, thanks to this, a conversation could be started.

"...That was your father?"

"...Yeah."

In the heavy atmosphere, Kim Raebin carefully raised his hand.

"Um, where did manager hyung go that you came here with your parent?"

"...There seemed to be some problem and he had to leave in a hurry so he contacted him."

Originally, someone else from the company should have rather been contacted, but the second manager, who was a newcomer, seemed to have contacted Lee Sejin's parent because he was still unfamiliar with the work.

And in a slightly heavy atmosphere, Cha Yujin asked the most important thing.

"Is your ankle okay?"

"-! Th-that's right, your ankle!"

"How long does it take to recover?"

"...It wasn't a big deal. I just have to be careful for a week."

"Hmm, your leg is quite properly fixed for that matter."

"They overdid the cast on purpose. ...Since, I wanted to recover quickly."

A few members raised their thumbs.

It was the two youngest members.

"Hyung..."

"You're so cool!"

Only then did Lee Sejin's expression relax.

And, as if slightly embarrassed, he said with a faint smile.

"...I won't do anything to disturb the group."

"Eyy~"

Lee Sejin's smile darkened a little.

"...That, I won't let my father come either. Don't worry."

"..."

It was quite vague.

'It's his family affairs.'

It wasn't something to ask about sitting in a group like this.

"...? Isn't it fine for him to come?"

...Although I had forgotten that Kim Raebin was here. He didn't seem to have noticed the strange atmosphere earlier.

Lee Sejin became flustered at Kim Raebin's question, and began to stutter like a sea cucumber spitting out its intestines.

//TN: what's with this comparison ㅠㅠ

"That... Since this dorm is quite spacious, he might want to stay to live here."

"Then you can tell the company to give permission..."

"...No! He has bad habits... Anyway, he's not the kind of person who is good to be with."

Lee Sejin looked like he had no idea why he was even talking about this.

"...Anyway, I won't let him come, so you don't have to worry about it. So that's the end of it."

Then he quickly got up from the sofa and waddled into the bedroom.

The remaining members in the living room looked back at each other blankly.

"..."

"Hmm, well... his ankle seemed to be okay, so should we go to bed now?"

"Let's do that."

Everyone stood up from their seats, dazed by Keun Sejin closing up the situation.

"Yujin-ah~ Stop watching Netflix and go to sleep."

"I don't want to..."

Cha Yujin, who was playing Netflix in the living room, depressedly turned off the TV at Ryu Chungwoo's words and trudged into his room.

"...Hmm."

Netflix. It reminded me of Lee Sejin crying while hiding his head on the bed a while ago.

'If it wasn't because of a Netflix show... was it because of his father?'

...I hoped that wasn't the issue.

Not only would it be difficult to solve, but I also didn't know what would happen to Lee Sejin's paper-like mentality.

I headed for the room feeling uncomfortable.

Then I made eye contact with Lee Sejin, who was struggling to put his half-cast leg on top of a hamster body pillow.

"..."

"..."

Lee Sejin looked embarrassed and averted his gaze.

'Let's pretend I didn't see it.'

Instead, Lee Sejin started talking first.

"...I'm sorry. Take my red ginseng."

Oh, it was because of that. I nodded my head.

"Yes. I will eat it well."

"Okay."

Just as the room was about to sink into a peaceful silence, Lee Sejin, who was rustling and checking something, hurriedly continued.

"Bu-but I already opened it and ate one or two from it. I'll buy you a new one, so take that then."

"...? It's alright. I barely eat anyway."

"...Huu."

I heard Lee Sejin let out a long sigh. It sounded more like embarrassment or futility than relief.

Lee Sejin mumbled as he watched the cast weighing on the hamster.

"Why do I keep... becoming a burden."

"It wasn't particularly like that."

"...Anyway, I'll keep myself together this time, so you don't have to worry about it."

"...Yes."

Lee Sejin turned his head and was looking at his smartphone. Both of his eyes seemed to burn with great determination.

Was he watching the choreography video?

'...Well, being passionate is good.'

It was good to be motivated. As long as I don't get asked to be involved.

I turned off my smartphone and put on earplugs.

The last thing I checked was Lee Sejin, who looked at his smartphone with a serious face.

Somehow, the scene of me holding onto a smartphone and clutching it overlapped.

'Could he be trying to deal with the problem about his father?'

You often see people on the Internet bulletin boards looking for comfort, but in reality, family-related problems were not likely to be solved so easily.

'Well... it's even funnier for me to say it.'

Wouldn't it be strange for someone without a family to comment on this? I just decided to go to sleep.

However, Lee Sejin seemed to be looking at his smartphone for quite a while this time as well.

* * *

A few days later, we were on our way back from the last meeting with the collaboration game .

Reportedly, the game production team was so excited when they saw the trailer that they created their own project.

As a result... we got this.

"Wow, they modified it to resemble us."

"That totally looks like me!"

"There's a mole on the cheek..."

Some of the external characteristics of the TeStar members were lightly reflected in the appearance of the early in-game characters.

...Well, that's how it mostly went.

For reference, I was told that my character was changed by making double eyelids to monolids, although I'm sorry but... I didn't see the difference.

"Phew~ It's fun but hard."

"Let's work hard!"

"Let's do our best!"

The music video was released a few days later. The schedule got busier, but the feeling of doing a good job was definitely addictive despite the heavy workload.

Thanks to that, all of TeStar's faces were happy. And this included Lee Sejin.

Lee Sejin, who had a somewhat relieved expression, exchanged conversations with Ryu Chungwoo with a rather comfortable face.

His leg injury seemed to be healing well and I thought it would be nice to keep going smoothly like this until the comeback, but...

An incident broke out on our way out of the company.

"Lee Sejin! You, come here! Huh?!"

"...!"

A middle-aged man with a familiar face was sitting in front of the lobby at the back door of the company. He saw Lee Sejin and jumped up.

It was obviously Lee Sejin's father.

Lee Sejin's face turned blue from panic.

'Fuck.'

Fortunately, the two managers immediately blocked it.

"Sir, you can't do this!"

"Now now, please calm down!"

"Let go! You lot these days are so fucking rude! Huh! You're oppressing people!!"

Lee Sejin's father faltered when he was blocked by the big manager but was pointing his fingers to the end while he was dragged.

"I won't leave you alone, you hear me? You ungrateful bastard of a son!"

"..."

The noisy lobby soon quieted down as Lee Sejin's father was dragged away.

But after a while, something even more tumultuous occurred.

//TN: Lee Sejin is trying so hard not to offend anyone and improve ㅠㅠ