'That guy would do something like that?'

It was a little odd.

I knew that Keun Sejin was the kind of guy who could make quick situational judgments and draw public opinion in his favor. But was he the kind of guy who would choose his unit by playing tricks on the cards?

Rather than taking the risk of being caught doing something like that, it seemed like he would have just led the given situation to his advantage as much as possible.

'I don't think he would do that just because he wanted to avoid Bae Sejin.'

Hmm, this didn't feel good.

However, the situation would not be very good even if I questioned it. There was no evidence, and to bring it up while there were cameras in the dorm would be like self-destructing.

And even if it was true, what could I say? It was a one-time concert unit, so it wasn't like it was a big deal just because he sneaked around the unit in the way that he wanted. It was highly likely that the atmosphere would just become strained for no reason.

'...Let's move on for now.'

I went to the bed in room 1 which was now my old room. Keun Sejin slowly came along as if he was looking around where his room would now be.

"Oh, I should use Moondae's bed. Moondae-ya, I'll hand over my bed to you."

"...Which one?"

"What the, did you forget? It's the far left one~"

"Okay. I'll avoid that one."

"Gasp, you're so grateful that you can't use it? It's okay, Moondae. Don't be reserved and use it comfortably~"

"..."

He was pretty much the same as usual.

I shook my head, packed my things, and left room number one.

'If another problem occurs, maybe I'll bring it up then.'

And that timing came sooner than expected.

It was the awards ceremony just a few days later.

* * *

Excluding the Korean Music Awards, this was practically almost the last large-scale awards ceremony.

However, some major singers did not attend. It seemed to be because it overlapped with tour schedules.

In other words, VTIC didn't come either.

'...I don't have to worry about sledgehammers.'

As soon as I thought so, a text message came.

"..."

It felt like I had been hit by a mental sledgehammer.

I replied with a short message and turned off my smartphone. Then Keun Sejin pretended to notice.

"Do you keep in touch with Chungryeo sunbae-nim?"

"...Yeah."

"Hmm~ I see, I see."

Keun Sejin seemed to want to add something more but we arrived at the awards ceremony waiting room before that.

A piece of paper was attached to the door to the waiting room.

This time, it wasn't a single waiting room.

'Honestly, we were given good waiting rooms for a rookie thanks to our records so far.'

I heard that there were many cases where people waited in room dividers in an environment where there were not enough waiting rooms.

'The situation is actually already good if there are two groups in one room.'

Hmm, so the ones waiting with us this time were... a male idol group from a famous agency.

'They are three or four years our senior.'

It was a predictable lineup.

Ryu Chungwoo gently asked the members.

"Well, let's greet them as we go in."

"Yes!"

However, contrary to the other members' normal reactions, Keun Sejin right next to me was agitated.

"...! ...Um."

...Wait a minute.

'Come to think of it, if I calculate these guys' debut date with their agency...'

But before I had time to think further, the door was opened by the manager.

"Hello, sunbae-nim!"

"Ah~ Hello~"

It was an exchange of insignificant greetings with no meaning behind it, but soon these Zyroph guys approached with an exaggerated smile.

"Ah~ Sejin!"

"How have you been?"

So it was this.

It seemed like this was 'that' group that caused Keun Sejin's short derailment before .

This was the first debut group of Keun Sejin's first agency that weeded him out from the group right before his debut.

"Wow~ Hello. Sunbae-nim~ It's really nice to meet you!"

"Hey, what do you mean sunbae-nim! Just call me hyung~"

"Eyy, how could I do that~"

Keun Sejin smiled, shook his hand with some of the guys, and gave fist bumps. It looked very friendly.

The other members... had a face that thought 'Keun Sejin is acting like his typical self'. Since he was such a sociable guy.

However, the atmosphere changed slightly after that.

"Sejin, you don't even look at the chat. Hyung is disappointed."

"Eyy, you know it too~ I've been busy since I just debuted!"

"Okay. Good for you that you're busy right now, Sejin. This is a lot later than I thought! Lucky for you."

'What?'

These guys were being sarcastic about Keun Sejin's failure to debut.

Keun Sejin smiled and replied.

"It's great~ I'm sorry for the late reply when you text me often, sunbae-nim! I've been busy with work so I haven't had time to check."

Meaning, 'You guys much be damn free since you don't have any schedule.'

"...No, well, it's not like it was that often. I was just curious about what you were up to."

"Oh? You can easily know what I've been up to since I've been appearing here and there lately. I would like to know how you've been doing, sunbae-nim~ I'm curious about everything."

"..."

Since those guys' previous promotions weren't very good, he could turn things around like this without mentioning a word about score results.

No matter how you looked at it, this was Keun Sejin's decisive win.

And at this point, most of the members except for Kim Raebin were rolling their eyes as if they had grasped the situation.

Zyroph's members' faces almost became distorted.

"...Sure. You'll be hearing news of us this year even if you didn't want to~"

"Is that so? Wow, I'm looking forward to it! Please look forward to our TeStar as well."

"..."

They were crushed purely by the difference in the weight class.

Eventually, the members of Zyroph ended their greetings with forced smiles.

"Okay. Let's both work hard."

"Yes!"

That's how the conversation seemed to end.

However, one of Zyroph's members, who was standing in the back intervened as if he couldn't stand it anymore.

"But I've only been hearing about TeStar, though? There hasn't been much about you, right?"

"..."

What was surprising was that these trivial words seemed to have given Keun Sejin a blow.

Keun Sejin was still smiling but he kept his mouth shut instead of offering any rebuttal.

'Huh?'

And at this point, Kim Raebin couldn't resist it and raised his hand to speak. For your information, it wasn't that he couldn't resist it because of anger but because of the pure logical error of what was said. He wasn't upset since he didn't even know what was going on.

"...? Since Sejin hyung is in TeStar, wouldn't news about TeStar be news about him?"

"That's right!"

Cha Yujin readily agreed.

However, Zyroph didn't give up.

"No, it's because I've only heard things about the group and not about Lee Sejin~"

"...? Ah, we have never done individual activities other than group activities. You can think of TeStar's news as Sejin hyung-nim's news."

"..."

It may not have been Kim Raebin's intention, but thanks to him, Zyroph's words became unreasonable.

It was over.

'Should I wrap this up?'

I smiled and interjected.

"Yes. From now on, when you hear about TeStar you can think of Lee Sejin. Is that right?"

"Exactly!"

Contrary to Kim Raebin's proud face, Zyroph's faces became completely distorted.

"...Ah, okay."

No matter how much of a senior they were, the conversation ended like that, whether these bastards had the guts to come all the way to the awards ceremony and throw a fit at a group with a larger weight class.

However, Keun Sejin's condition didn't turn back.

'This guy is being really weird.'

Keun Sejin, who had been silently looking at his smartphone for an hour, made it seem really out of place.

...And connecting the situation just now with the unit card incident a few days ago, created a point of suspicion.

'...It would be iffy to leave it like this.'

Keun Sejin often held the microphone. If it kept going like his, there could be a problem at the time when we had to say our acceptance speech, so it was better to shake this off now.

"...I'll go to the car for a minute."

"Huh?"

"I left something behind."

I got up and got the key from the manager.

"Should I go find it for you?"

"It's okay. I'll be back soon."

Then I tapped Keun Sejin who was sitting near the door.

"Hey, let's go."

"...Huh? What?"

"I think I need one more person since I have something to move. I also have to take pictures."

"..."

Keun Sejin looked at me up and down without saying a word, then stood up with a smile on his lips.

"...Fine~"

There was obviously some sarcasm in his tone, but let's move on for now.

And I walked down the hallway without talking to this guy and arrived at the car. After confirming that no one was around, I opened my mouth after getting into the car.

"..."

"Do you have any problems lately?"

"...Huu."

Keun Sejin looked up at the ceiling of the car and sighed. It seemed that he realized my purpose in calling him out.

"No."

"...Really? Then cool your head before going up. You seemed uncomfortable in the waiting room."

"...!"

I shrugged and searched the car for a neck pillow. I guess I could say that I came here looking for that.

"I'll make a rough excuse, so come back before it's time. Then."

"..."

I grabbed the car door. Then, behind me, Keun Sejin let out a long sigh.

"...Sorry. This is a little hard."

"Sounds like there is a problem."

"A problem... should I call it that?"

It seemed difficult for Keun Sejin to talk about it, so the silence continued.

'Should I just say it?'

After thinking for a moment, I opened my mouth.

"Actually, I saw it when you chose the unit card. ...You knew the card was number 3 and avoided it."

"...!"

"...Was it because the amount of footage is less with three people than two people?"

Seeing that comments such as 'the group is doing well, not you~' hit him earlier, I thought that he was touchy about the decrease in the number of his parts to show himself.

However, Keun Sejin shook his head.

"...No."

And while fiddling with his smartphone, he slowly continued.

"I avoided it because of you and Bae Sejin hyung. Since it would be difficult to show dancing with that number of people."

"...!"

"It's obvious. The song would be composed to be a vocal-oriented performance centered on you... and all I would have gotten was a dance break in the center and be done with it. Even that would have to be tailored for Sejin hyung, so it seems that the difficulty would have been too simple for me."

"...We could have tried dancing with you centered."

"Haha. Aigoo Moondae-ya. You would think to take such an adventurous risk on a concert where fans had spent money."

"..."

"And even if the performance was made to be dance-oriented to suit me, the fans wouldn't like it very much."

"Why do you think so?"

"...This is driving me crazy."

Keun Sejin sighed a few times, and he held out his smartphone several times hesitantly. It was a social media search result that was searched using his own anti-discovery name.

"..."

"Let's not talk about how cursing would obviously come out if I search like this. This really means that the fans' general opinion is like this to some extent if these results come out in a bulk like this."

Keun Sejin was composed.

I went further down on social media and checked the overall flow again.

'...Seon Ahyun was very impressive.'

The status of Seon Ahyun's ability skyrocketed because of the impressive image he made from recovering from the accident with a backflip and overcoming his stuttering.

And among the same dance line, Cha Yujin was very popular and had great talent, so the center position was clearly his.

As a result, only Keun Sejin was left hanging.

The fans, who had looked at Keun Sejin with disdain since the beginning, seemed to have the strongest opinion on this point.

"Of course, these opinions are centered on those who hate me, but... anyway, it's true that I'm being pushed behind in position appearance."

"..."

"Ahyun is doing well? Of course, that's great. It's good for the group too. But I can't stand being in this state."

I slowly opened my mouth.

"...So, what about Cha Yujin?"

"Right."

Keun Sejin got his smartphone back.

"I have to do better than Cha Yujin on the unit performance this time."

"..."

"Since like that, a one-on-one comparison would be possible... I can't see any other escape route than that."