Chapter 104

Chapter 104

“Hey, are you all right?”

“Sejin, let’s have a look at your ankle,” Chungwoo said.

Lee Sejin stared down at his ankle with a waned expression, then gritted his teeth as he pulled up his pant leg. His ankle was already swelling up.

That’s not good. He was injured, though it wasn’t clear how badly.

“I-it s-should be okay! I-it’s a bit swollen, but... i-if we g-go to the hospital right away...” Ahyeon cried, studying the injury. Being a dance major, he was somewhat familiar with ankle injuries.

“Yes, Sejin. You should sit down for now. Let’s call the managers and get you to the hospital,” Chungwoo advised.

“Okay...”

Our leader supported him carefully as he got to his feet and helped him to a chair in the corner of the choreography room. The managers showed up before long to whisk him away.

“I-I can go with him—”

“No! We can’t delay practice because of me. I’ll just go with the manager.” Lee Sejin refused any offers for someone to accompany him and left, supported on either side by the managers.

“I hope it’s nothing serious.”

“Yeah.”

“I-it wasn’t that swollen... I-it’ll be fine.”

Everyone assumed it was nothing serious since it had just been a minor fall, and we resumed practicing. Lee Sejin only returned, however, when our practice session was almost over. And he wasn’t alone.

“Well well! So this is your dorm, Sejin? I like it!”

Sejin said nothing in reply.

“Eh? I’ll come around often.”

“I’m hardly ever here since I’m so busy,” Lee Sejin said in a low voice.

“Yeah? Then I can stay here and keep the place tidy for ya, as your father. No refusing now, eh?”

“You don’t need to...”

A middle-aged man was helping Lee Sejin walk and it was obvious based on their resemblance that he was the actor’s father. The older man, however, sounded like someone at a bar who’d had a little too much to drink.

What in the world?

“Oh, you must be Sejin’s friends! I’m his dad!”

“Oh, hello, sir.”

“Hello!”

“Don’t call me sir! You know, people always assume I’m his older brother when they see me out in public.”

“Haha! You look very young for your age!” Big Sejin agreed, hoping to cut the conversation short.

Chungwoo smiled and said, “Thank you for bringing Sejin back. We’re going to be filming in the dorm now, so...”

“Oh, I’ll be over there in the corner! Don’t mind me!”

Chungwoo looked distressed. I glanced at Lee Sejin. He didn’t seem embarrassed or shy like one might expect when faced with a silly parent—instead, his expression was heavy with fatigue and humiliation.

This guy is real trouble, huh? Big Sejin waved his hand at Lee Sejin’s dad.

“Oh no, sir! We should invite you around properly another time. This is no way to treat one of our members’ dads. We’ll give you a call when we have some food and drink ready for you!”

“I’m telling you, that’s not necessary! I’ll just stay for a bit! It’s just that I’m tired from helping him here.”

If the man was going this far, there was only one way to be rid of him. I hurried to my room and came back carrying something.

“Thank you so much for your help, sir. You should hurry home and take some of this.” It was the red ginseng gift set I’d received for the holidays from the agency.

“Oh my! I’m not usually the sort of person who accepts gifts, you see? I wasn’t asking for anything,” he said, making a fairly see-through attempt at modesty, but snatching the gift set all the same.

I nodded at him. “Of course. You just wanted to see the dorm where your son is living these days. We don’t really have the time to show you around right now, so I wanted to give you this. We’re very happy to have met you, I assure you.”

“Oh, all right. You must be the one who got first place on that show. You picked Sejin, right? What a good lad you are. Sejin, hurry up and thank him.”

Lee Sejin was silent.

“Oh, our managers will be arriving soon to begin filming. Please take care.”

“Hmm... All right. I’ll be on my way! You’ll see me again before long.” The man glanced at Lee Sejin a few times, slowly walking out the door.

Lee Sejin said nothing, merely hanging his head.

“Y-you... you should sit down...” Ahyeon stammered, approaching him. Lee Sejin lashed out, swiping at him with his hand.”

Thankfully, Ahyeon backed away, and Lee Sejin seemed immediately horrified at what he’d just done.

“Oh no! I’m sorry!”

“I-it’s okay!”

What a mess. Lee Sejin glanced at his room, obviously wanting nothing more than to run and hide, but he seemed to remember the last time he’d done just that and instead went to sit on the living room sofa.

Or maybe it’s just that he can’t make it all the way to our room with his injury. He’d returned with his foot in a soft cast. That set the mood for the conversation, at least.

“Was that... your dad?” Chungwoo asked.

“Yeah...”

The atmosphere was heavy and Raebin raised his hand cautiously. “Uh, where is the manager? Why did your dad come instead?”

“I think one of them contacted my dad on the way to the hospital.”

It was customary to contact someone within the agency, but the second manager was new to the job. Apparently, he’d made the mistake of calling Lee Sejin’s parents instead.

As the somber mood sat heavily over us, Eugene asked the most important question. “How’s your ankle?”

“Oh! Th-that’s right, your ankle!”

“How long will it take to recover?”

“The doctor said it wasn’t anything serious. I just have to be careful for a couple of weeks.”

“The cast looks pretty intense for such a light injury.”

“Oh, they did that on purpose. I told them I needed to get better as soon as possible.”

A few of the members gave him a thumbs up—the underage guys to be more specific.

“Man...”

“You’re so cool!”

Lee Sejin finally relaxed. Looking a little shy, he said with a faint smile, “I promise I won’t be a burden to you guys.”

“Oh, don’t say that!”

Lee Sejin’s face fell slightly. “And... I’ll make sure my dad doesn’t come here again. Don’t worry.”

No one said anything to this. It was a difficult topic.

As all family matters are. It wasn’t the sort of thing that we could just come out and ask him about while all of us were crowded around as a group.

“Huh? It’s fine if he comes, isn’t it?”

Oh, I forgot. Kim Raebin is here, too. He didn’t seem to have picked up on the odd tension in the air earlier, either.

Lee Sejin looked taken aback by the question, then began to stammer, like a dog being forced to spit something out of its mouth. “Well... since our dorm is so big... He might insist that he be allowed to live here.”

“Then we can ask the agency for permission—”

“No! He’s prone to stealing and... he’s not the sort of person you want to be around.” Lee Sejin seemed puzzled by his own words, unsure why he was explaining this to them. He quickly put an end to the conversation. “In any case... You don’t have to worry about him. I’ll make sure he doesn’t come here again. T-that’s all there is to it.”

Then he waddled to his room, disappearing quickly. The rest of us stared at each other without a word.

“Hmm... His ankle seems fine. Shall we call it a night?” Big Sejin said.

“Yes. Let’s do that for now.”

Everyone got to their feet slowly.

“Eugene. You need to get some sleep, not watch another movie,” Chungwoo lectured sternly.

“But I don’t want to...” Eugene, who’d been navigating through a streaming site on the TV in the living room, glumly turned it off and trudged into his room.

“Hmm...”

That reminds me. I recalled that Lee Sejin had been crying into his pillow not all that long ago.

Maybe that was because of his dad, not a movie? I hoped his tears didn’t have anything to do with our current problem. Not only would it be hard to resolve, but there was no telling what would happen given how easily Lee Sejin’s composure might be rattled if he were really this upset about the situation.

I went into our shared room, feeling troubled about the whole situation. I locked eyes with Lee Sejin, who’d been in the process of propping his soft cast up on a hamster body pillow with some difficulty. He seemed embarrassed and avoided my eyes.

I’ll just act like nothing’s wrong. I pretended to be focused on my phone as I sat on my bed. It was Lee Sejin who spoke first.

“Uh... sorry about that earlier. You can have my ginseng gift set.”

Oh, so that’s why he looks so uncomfortable. I nodded.

“All right. Thank you.”

“Yeah.”

A peaceful silence settled over the room, disturbed only by Lee Sejin rummaging about for something.

“B-but I ate a couple of them. I’ll buy a new box. You can have that instead.”

“Huh? It’s okay. I’ll just have whatever is left.”

He exhaled heavily, seemingly more from embarrassment or despondency than relief. He stared at his cast, squished up against the hamster’s body.

“I don’t understand... Why I’m the one who always ends up being a burden to you guys.”

“I don’t think that’s the case,” I replied.

“Regardless... I’ll keep on top of things from now on. You don’t have to worry.”

“Okay.”

Glancing over at him, I saw that he was staring at his phone. His eyes seemed to be burning with grim determination.

Is he watching one of our choreography videos? Well, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with being passionate. It was good that he was so motivated. Just as long as he didn’t inconvenience me, of course. I turned off my phone, shoving in my earplugs. Sending a final glance his way, I saw him staring down at his phone with a serious expression on his face.

I was reminded of how he’d been crying while clutching his phone, for some reason that was unknown to me.

Was he referring to his dad just now? That he would handle him? In real life, family issues weren’t such a simple thing to resolve, though cathartic stories with peaceful resolutions were common enough online.

Well, if he says he’s got everything handled... it’s not my place to question it. I didn’t even have a family. It would be strange of me to offer advice. I decided to just go to sleep. It seemed, however, that Lee Sejin was going to stay up staring at his phone for a while more.

***

A few days later, we wrapped up our final meeting with the game studio responsible for 127 Section and headed back to the agency. We’d heard on the grapevine that the studio staff had become extremely excited after seeing the trailer and had put in some extra work without being asked.

They’d shown us some changes to the game that had been made as a result.

“Wow. The characters look a little more like us now.”

“That’s totally me!”

“There’s a mole on the side of this character’s face...”

The original character designs had been altered to incorporate a few physical characteristics belonging to the TeSTAR members.

“We didn’t do a complete overhaul or anything, just made a few minor adjustments to our existing models!”

“What do you think? The characters match the trailer more now, right? Especially the rimless glasses for Lee Sejin! Everyone agreed we should add those!”

This was generally how the conversation had unfolded regarding the changes. My character’s eyes had apparently been altered so they now had slightly less prominent double eyelids. I felt bad for thinking it, but I didn’t really see the difference.

“Phew. This is challenging, but fun.”

“Let’s keep it up, guys!”

“Yeah!”

The music video was going live in only a few days time. We were busier than before, but feeling like we were in the zone was addictive despite the heavier workload.

As a result, every member seemed to be enjoying themselves, including Lee Sejin. He looked relieved about something and was conversing with Chungwoo wearing a relaxed expression. His ankle was healing well, and I was hoping that things would be smooth sailing until our comeback.

It wasn’t to be, however, because an incident unfolded on our way out of the agency building later that day.

“Lee Sejin! You get over here right now!”

A familiar middle-aged man who’d been sitting in the lobby near the back entrance shot out of his seat as soon as he saw Lee Sejin. It was his dad, of course. The blood drained from Lee Sejin’s face.

Well, f*ck. Thankfully, the managers intervened immediately.

“Sir, you can’t!”

“Please calm down, sir.”

“Let go of me! Youngsters these days are so f*cking rude. How dare you mess with me!”

Lee Sejin’s dad flinched back at being confronted by the fairly built managers, but he wagged his finger at them even as he was dragged away.

“You’re going to regret this, you hear? You ungrateful, disrespectful bastard!”

His shouts reverberated around the lobby, fading to nothing as the man was hauled out. It didn’t take long for the situation to get even more messy.