It was the second recording after stage rehearsal when Kim Raebin got injured.

While performing the group movement with a high level of difficulty for Seon Ahyun's part, lying on the edge, he stretched out his foot to get up and got caught on a stage structure.

The reason for this incident was that the stage was more cramped than expected.

'...It was narrower than we were notified.'

No matter how small the stage set by this western talk show was for many people to dance on, we had also prepared to reduce the choreography movement according to what we were told.

'It's not like Kim Raebin's movements went over the lines of the area.'

In other words, the kid's foot is broken because these bastards misinformed us.

'Fuck.'

No, let's not assume that it's broken.

It was probably just bleeding because of the bruise. Perhaps the wound isn't as big as I thought.

"Raebin-ssi, are you able to move your feet?? Don't actually move it, just feel it!"

"...I can but, it hur- it hurts..."

"I'll stop the bleeding first!"

Kim Raebin was loaded into the ambulance after getting first aid and went to the hospital. And the rest of the members were allowed to move to the hospital after simply sorting out the situation.

And we were immediately informed of the results.

"Two weeks?"

"That's the minimum. Obviously, he can't dance and he has to stay still while wearing the cast."

"..."

A company employee, who came out of Kim Raebin's hospital room busily explained through the interpreter.

He was diagnosed with a damaged ligament, bone fracture, and torn skin.

'...The worst was avoided.'

Had he gone through a broken bone or a rupture, he would have had to go for months unable to stand on stage.

Obviously, the current situation wasn't good either.

"With intense choreographies like 'Present', I think we should discuss again after a month has passed..."

It was because the fact that Kim Raebin would not be able to dance throughout these activities was confirmed even though our promotions were still in full swing.

For a song where we put the most emphasis on the performance, this was the perfect bad news.

'Does this damn America have something against us?'

It wasn't even funny that we were taking turns in the hospital since the last time.

I kept my mouth shut and Ryu Chungwoo carefully asked the company employee.

"Did they happen to mention anything about aftereffects?"

"Yes. It's not to the extent that there would be anything like that."

"...Phew."

I could see Ryu Chungwoo sighing in relief. The other guys were barely relieved. Even Cha Yujin was on the verge of crying.

"Wo-would it be okay to go in and meet Raebin now?"

"Yes, yes. The doctor has left now."

We followed him to the hospital so it would be laughable to leave right away without seeing his face.

We opened the door of the hospital room and entered.

"...Raebin-ah?"

Kim Raebin was sitting on the hospital bed looking out of it. His injured foot was pinned up.

Keun Sejin quickly opened his mouth as soon as Kim Raebin turned this way.

"Raebin-ah, is the pain in your foot okay?"

"Yes. But, the performance..."

"You don't have to worry. We just had a discussion and they said you can be on stage if you endure it for two weeks. It's not a big deal~"

However, even with Keun Sejin's words, Kim Raebin seemed to notice the seriousness of the situation.

Just because he had no sense of social skills didn't mean he didn't know what was going on.

Although, I didn't expect it to go like this.

Kim Raebin began to cry with tears streaming down his face.

"I'm sorry... If, if I miss two weeks..."

"Hey, what are you talking about~ Two weeks go by quickly! We already did our comeback stage so what's there to worry about?"

"Sejin is right, Raebin-ah. It's not your fault in the first place. Just focus on recovering. Got it?"

"...Yes."

Kim Raebin sniffled trying to hold back his tears. Holding back a sigh, I pulled a tissue from the table and handed it to him.

I didn't feel happy about this.

"Don't think about anything else and just rest!"

"Just rest, idiot!"

Kim Raebin decided to stay at the hospital for two days so that he could receive care rather than staying alone in a hotel room during the schedules in America.

The members shouted loudly and closed the door as they left Kim Raebin's hospital room.

And only then did the conversation about the actualities come back.

"We should divide Raebin's part, right?"

"Yes, we should."

Ryu Chungwoo crossed his arm and smiled bitterly.

"We'll have to learn new movements first."

"We can't sleep because of jetlag anyway so we should as well try it out~"

"..."

Bae Sejin's face turned pale, but he didn't say anything.

He must have felt too sorry to complain about the increased choreography practice when there was a guy with an injured foot. Compared to , this was a great development.

'We're all tired.'

Kim Raebin was mentally tired, and the rest seemed physically tired.

To be honest, I wanted it to be leaked to the media, whether it was local or Korean, that the accident happened because of the talk show's insincere communication.

Because this was reprehensible.

'But that can't be done carelessly.'

This was the first time we appeared on an English-speaking talk show without any mention of things like the game collaboration. It was best to avoid commotion as much as possible.

Still, I couldn't help but be pissed off about this.

What kind of nuisance was this?

'Should I take a step further?'

The problem was that I had no idea how far it should go for a boycott of appearing on the foreign talk show to be a blow.

I sighed and cleared my thoughts.

'Let's practice.'

I came to a foreign country and still fell into the practice hell again.

* * *

It was when TeStar was reorganizing the performance due to the injury issue.

In Korea, Golden Age's new song, the group of Ha Iljoon, whom Park Moondae called Gold 1, was slowly going viral among idol fans.

Interestingly, these so-called K-pop listener netizens wanted to support Golden Age's new song.

This was because Golden Age had not yet established itself, and thanks to Choi Wongil and Gold 1, the image of them having suffered a lot made them underdogs.

Moreover, since the song was very good, it was fun to raise their score moderately as a kind of realization of justice.

Of course, most of it was just talk of interest, but Golden Age's agency did not miss this opportunity and put together a WeTube promotion and various social media virals.

And this work to increase public exposure was done sensibly without seeming awkward, and eventually succeeded.

A simple dance using the song took the flow on a social media platform where you uploaded short videos.

Thanks to this, Golden Age's song quickly climbed up the music charts.

In addition, TeStar's fandom, which would have normally kept public opinion in check, was in quite a mess.

It was because of the news of Kim Raebin's injury.

TeStar's fans were worried about the injury and sad that they couldn't see the group with a full lineup for a while and were too busy to pay attention to the aggro swirling around.

In fact, from their point of view, Golden Age was not an essential issue.

In any case, Golden Age's new song's slow rise to the top of the chart was due to the limitations of being a rookie male idol group.

In addition, TeStar's latest album, which had the colors of Korea, was highly acclaimed.

TeStar's fans were just annoyed by the occasional appearance of those who tried to stir things up with things like 'Isn't Golden Age's song better?'

No matter which way you looked at it, the difference in level was clear to anyone.

However, for someone whose activities were suspended for two weeks and who could only look at his smartphone in the hospital room and the hotel, this situation came to be significant.

* * *

"Congrats on escaping the cast~"

"You've been through a lot, Raebin."

"No. I'm just sorry for being an inconvenience."

Kim Raebin, who wore a lighter foot protector than before, bowed his head while speaking courageously. He was barely allowed by the doctor to return on stage without doing the choreography.

"Eyy, it's not an inconvenience~ It's just reassuring that you're coming back!"

"Th-that's right!"

"Thank you."

The members moderately comforted Kim Raebin and dispersed to their hotel rooms. It was because we had to wake up early to revise the performance again to include Kim Raebin.

I nodded my head.

"You're in this room."

"Yes!"

The rooms were randomly divided while Kim Raebin went to see the doctor.

'We don't stay in these rooms long anyway.'

Our schedule in Japan was not long. I held the door open until Kim Raebin went in and went in to wash up.

"Take a shower first."

"Yes!"

He took a break for the past several days and became disciplined. I shook my head and briefly showered and came out.

Then my eyes met with Kim Raebin who seemed very nervous.

"...?"

He looked like he was about to make some kind of bombshell statement.

'Could it be that the injury has gotten worse?'

Kim Raebin finally opened his mouth with difficulty as I was also silent, fearing there would be news that the choreography hiatus would be longer.

"That... hyung."

"What is it?"

"Hyung, when you listen to it... do you think Golden Age's new song is more suited to many people's preferences than the songs I've worked on?"

"...??"

What kind of nonsense was this all of a sudden?

As I looked at him dumbfounded, Kim Raebin tightly closed his eyes and recited a stream of words.

"Currently, my contribution to the performance is far from sufficient and if my involvement is acting as a negative factor in terms of music, I will refrain from composing and arranging songs in activities from now on..."

"Wait, wait. What are you talking about?"

I cut him off because this was going in an absurd direction.

'What kind of nonsense is he talking about when the release of the album went well?'

Of course, having self-producing members were a double-edged sword. If it was done well, it would be synergistic, but if not, it could become the source of internal conflict.

It could be easily framed as 'the reason why the music score is bad this time is because of the producing member's stubbornness and incompetence.'

'But Kim Raebin has never failed so far.'

It wasn't like Golden Age got as far as becoming a first-place candidate, and it wasn't like Kim Raebin's form had fallen, so this was kind of out of the blue.

I asked as calmly as possible.

"Why did you suddenly have that thought?"

"That... while I was monitoring the responses to the songs, I happened to watch the video of Golden Age's members' new song due to the influence of the algorithm, and a lot of the upvoted comments there..."

"Give it to me. Let me take a look."

"Yes?"

I received the link to the video from Kim Raebin and checked it.

'...It's a comment reaction video.'

It was the kind of content that collected and showed the best comments related to the stage video.

If public opinion about the song was favorable in the first place, only positive and funny comments would be shown.

Of course, they were full of praise for Golden Age's songs.

And in that process, wouldn't it be quite common to compare them with the currently strongest ones?

If you looked at the comment section of the video and not the comments that appeared in the video, there was a more primary level of comparison.

'Just watching the video, it seems like the popular opinion is that Golden Age's song is better to listen to.'

"Hmm."

I removed my eyes from the phone screen. Kim Raebin muttered.

"...For that reason, I would like to ask for an objective and calm assessment."

Goodness.

'Is it because he feels guilty?'

Kim Raebin was not the kind of person whose confidence in his abilities would get shaken.

Perhaps, it was because he injured his foot and couldn't stand on stage himself, so the pressure to do well on the other thing increased.

That was why he kept looking up the comparisons of the song made by the guys promoting at the same time as us with the title song he made, and in conclusion, he ended up with those thoughts.

"..."

I sat on the bed opposite Kim Raebin.

And I chose my words.