Chapter 135

Chapter 135

I continued to listen to the recording. The more I heard, the more I became certain that this was the conversation I’d had with Choi Wongil on the emergency exit stairs at MBS.

Sh*t.

“Everyone behaved the same as I did! It’s not like I was the only one... Everyone fought over roles, cussed at each other, and all that.”

The low-quality recording of Wongil’s voice repeated the excuses he’d offered on his own behalf, bringing up the other contestants like that justified his actions. However, most listeners were likely to find his behavior despicable.

Not only had he picked a fight with me backstage out of the blue, but he was also whining and blaming others for his actions. Now, through a bit of magical editing toward the end, all that was made infinitely worse. One of his responses had been changed around completely.

“Because everything worked out for you.”

“No. Would you trade places with me if you could?”

“That’s impossible!”

“So you would be interested if it were possible. Hmm. But be honest, you don’t want to trade families with me, do you?”

“No.”

Wongil’s response, which should have come after I’d asked about his family, had been inserted earlier in our conversation instead. It made the entire thing sound much weirder than it had been.

He looks much more cruel than he actually is. In the recording, the moment I mentioned my family history, he basically replied that he had no desire to live as an orphan like me. The only thing he envied was my career.

As might be expected, there was no sign of Choi Wongil’s apology. There was a bit of static toward the end, and the video came to an end. This static made it seem as though I’d been taken aback by Wongil’s answer and at a loss for words. This seemed intentional as well.

“Hmm...”

I looked down at the comments again. One of the top comments transcribed Choi Wongil’s words, making it sound more incendiary than it was. It was the same one I’d read earlier. The comments that received the most likes after that were... exactly what I’d expected to see. Nearly half of them were about me.

- Wow. Just wow. Did you hear him?

- Park Moondae’s parents are dead, you know. I can’t believe the way he reacted to that question

- LOL listen to him. What a terrible person

- I didn’t like Wongil from the moment I saw him. He’s a greedy little sh*t and burning with some kind of inferiority complex. Moondae, on the other hand, is a great person and is always setting the bar higher

- Moondae keeps on trying to soothe him but look at what Choi Wongil turned around and said to him in return... I feel so bad for him T_T

- Did he seriously just say he envied a guy whose parents died just because he’s doing well in his career?

- How can we be sure this is real? There’s no evidence. Are you all TeSTAR fans or something?

└ You Wongil fans are real eager to sweep this under the rug, huh? Get a life!

└ There’s another recording. That one has a video, too

└ Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for trying to accuse the fans over something like this?

-★☆There’s a part one. Go and listen to it, everyone (link)☆★

Part one... The video I’d just watched had #2 in the title. There was apparently one that preceded this. I clicked the link provided in the comment.

A shaky low-resolution camera was filming Choi Wongil as he muttered something, sitting alone on the stairs of the broadcast station.

Looks like whoever filmed this made do with what they had. The footage was obviously filmed on a zoomed-in smartphone camera. Wongil was muttering something under his breath, probably unaware that he was talking out loud because he was on the verge of having a mental breakdown. The problem was, he was muttering about people on the internet.

“Bastards who leave comments don’t care what they’re saying... They don’t even think about what they write, and then forget about it straight away…”

Wongil wasn’t entirely in the wrong to say something like this. Considering all the bullying he’d faced on the internet, it was conceivable that he would say something like this in therapy or when talking to himself.

Frankly, this recording could have caused people to feel pity for him. Those who’d hated on him during Idol Inc., however, would be deeply annoyed.

- LOL listen to him try and rationalize

- People criticized him because of his character, but he’s blaming everyone else LOL

- Yeah, such cases do exist, but not for you, Choi Wongil.

The censure and sarcasm were spirited even here. This was probably thanks to the neatly edited recording of my conversation with him.

My head hurts. I could tell that I hadn’t been the target, at least.

They were after Choi Wongil. This was evident in how much effort had been put into editing the recording before uploading it. The culprit was probably the person I’d seen on the stairs. They’d waited until Wongil’s group debut was announced instead of uploading it right away, which meant they were really out to get him.

And they used me to do it. It drove me nuts that I’d been used as firewood to get the fire blazing. There had been plenty of comments supporting and sympathizing with me, and though this could easily be mistaken as a good thing, it was nothing of the sort.

The unfortunate family history I’d only just managed to bury amongst the background noise had reared its ugly head again. There were posts going up all over social media now that read like the following:

- Saying you’re envious of a person who lost his parents to an accident and dropped out of school because of bullying shows that you have a severe lack of empathy

- I’m in tears thinking about how Moondae must have felt hearing him say that. Wongil must be out of his mind

These people weren’t even TeSTAR fans.

I’m way past the point where I stand to gain from something like this. We were well-established as a group, and I was no longer hungry for points on an audition show. This sort of talk would only be an obstacle to me since it would color my reputation.

What would happen if the first thing people were reminded of whenever they saw Park Moondae was his shocking and unfortunate backstory, instead of their performances or the group’s reputation? And we’d just begun the promotional cycle for our new album, no less. Even content that should have been fun and enjoyable would be dragged down by this.

I’d rather be known as a crybaby—that’s funny, at least. In other words, this was not a fortunate development for me, either.

Do I really have to put up with this on the day of our first comeback appearance? I was exhausted already.

“Phew...”

I decided to start by trying to control what I could. I immediately flagged down one of the managers and explained the situation. After the manager had rushed out, smartphone in hand, I quickly looked up Goldie #1’s number on my phone.

Chungwoo came straight to me upon seeing what I was doing. “What’s going on?”

“Check the video that’s fifth on WeTube’s trending page... actually, it’s third now.” The video was still climbing the charts. The whole situation was driving me nuts.

Big Sejin rushed over, already having seen it. “Is this video about Choi Wongil real?”

“It’s been edited. One second.”

Goldie #1 had picked up the phone.

“Hey.”

“Moondae, did you see the—”

“Yeah, I saw it.”

“Okay. I’m sorry I have to ask, but about what Wongil said—”

“It’s been edited. He wasn’t that rude, and he even apologized to me toward the end of the conversation.”

I could hear him exhale loudly, as if relieved. “Ha... Okay. I’m really relieved that it’s not true, but god...”

“Does your agency know?”

“Yeah. They’re already in a meeting about it. The thing is...”

Goldie #1 sighed deeply.

“To tell you the truth, Wongil... He hasn’t been doing too well. I’m not sure what the agency will do about this, either. I hope it gets handled, but… Let me speak to our agency again. Does your agency know about this, too?”

“Yeah. I just told them.”

The two companies were probably already in contact.

“I guess they’ll figure something out, then. Phew... But what do we do about Wongil?”

Goldie #1 and I exchanged a few more words before he hurriedly ended the call, giving me a pretty good idea of the current situation on his end.

Choi Wongil might be removed from the debut group altogether at this rate. With the destruction the videos were wreaking, his agency seemed to be getting ready to let him go. I had a feeling they would kick him from the group if the internet’s reaction was not favorable, even after giving an explanation.

And from what Goldie #1 said about Choi Wongil’s state… Hold on, I have a bad feeling about this. He’s not having... bad thoughts, is he? I started to sweat. The speed at which this situation was handled might be key here.

If we’re too late, things are going to spin completely out of control. If the controversy continued to grow, and his agency released a statement while waiting for the right time to get rid of him entirely, then a brooding Choi Wongil hit rock bottom, it would be all over. Even if the situation improved after that, I would be the one to suffer the consequences.

The reason was simple. In the public’s eyes, I was the good guy, and Choi Wongil was bad. Objectively speaking, the things I’d said in the recording hadn’t been particularly well-intentioned. I’d basically followed the careful script any idol had to in response to someone who was looking for trouble.

But right now, I was being praised as if I’d behaved like a saint in response to his comments. This was only because the case against Wongil was made stronger if I was a victim. But what if Wongil suffered the full force of the public’s ire and it came out later that he hadn’t deserved it? People would start to pity him and the tables would rapidly turn.

- To be honest, it was Moondae who brought up his family. It’s only because he has a huge fanbase that he wasn’t criticized

- Wongil got the short end of the stick because he had no fans T_T

Comments like this would crop up, accusing Moondae’s fans of painting him as the victim. Of course, any past controversies would be dredged up in the process and the public would get to engage in another exhilarating round of justified bashing.

I can’t allow that to happen. Ever. This incident needed to be dismissed before it developed into something big. And Wongil had already suffered too much at such a young age to have to go through this.

I’ll have to work fast. I needed to end this before articles started appearing on the front page of news portals, otherwise, Wongil would be royally f*cked.

I quickly spoke with the agency with the help of a manager, getting permission to carry out my plan.

“What are you going to do?” Bae Sejin asked quietly, coming over to my side. It seemed the other members had all been caught up.

“I’ll have to explain on his behalf.”

“On the TeSTAR account?”

“No.”

Bae Sejin seemed to be thinking of his own statement, but things were different this time.

The controversy will get worse if I upload a statement myself. Addressing it directly could lead to TeSTAR’s comeback being ruined by the controversy. But I couldn’t leave it to the agencies to make their own official statements, since people would just think they had twisted the story to their advantage. That left only one solution—I needed to employ a third party.

I called Goldie #1 again.

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Hey, do you have time to talk right now?”

“Yeah. Has something urgent come up?”

“Something like that. I think we should create a chat log.”

The live broadcast was rapidly approaching. I had thirty minutes to create the evidence I needed.

***

Excited trolls, netizens who were caught up in the drama, and furious Park Moondae fans all began to tear Choi Wongil apart at once. Almost no one was willing to mount a defense on his behalf, and news of the recording spread far and wide, with everyone condemning the young boy’s actions.

In the meantime, netizens were praising Park Moondae to the moon and back.

[Park Moondae crying as the fans sing to him at the concert]

[Collection of accounts about how Park Moondae looked out for the other contestants throughout Idol Inc.]

[The situation that led to Park Moondae dropping out of school (contains images)]

Anything that could be used to paint him in a positive light, from the early days of Idol Inc. right up until recent events, was brought to the surface.

However, Moondae’s fans weren’t sure if they should be happy about this turn of events. They had a variety of motivations for feeling this way, from those who were simply upset with Choi Wongil to those who were worried about the aftermath, but they were just as taken aback by how sudden all this was.

- Am I strange for not wanting Moondae’s past to be dragged up like this?

- This recording BS is driving me nuts. I’m angry AF

- CW is such an asshole. TeSTAR has a comeback stage in thirty minutes. I hope the TeSTAR members never have to hear about this T_T

- But I’m happy at least that everyone seems to know what a good puppy Moondae is

Amidst all this, a post was uploaded to Goldie #1’s social media account.

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

(Photos)

I considered the situation for a long time after I heard what Wongil had to say and decided to ask Moondae myself. Wongil is a hard-working guy, so please don’t hate on him too much.

He doesn’t have a social media account, so I’m uploading this on mine instead.

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

The photos were screenshots of a chat room, taken by Goldie #1. The chat room was titled Park Moondae at the top, and the messages began with a text from Goldie #1.

[Me: Moondae, sorry to bother you, but could you check this out? Is this real? (link to video)]

[Park Moondae: ?]

[Park Moondae: One second]

The link led to the video “Recording #2 of Choi Wongil,” of course. A reply appeared the exact length of the video later.

[Park Moondae: What in the world?]

[Park Moondae: Our conversation didn’t go like that at all...]

[Me: T_T]

[Me: Right! This definitely isn’t what happened?]

[Park Moondae: No. This seems like a malicious edit]

[Park Moondae: We ended the conversation by exchanging compliments, I think]

[Park Moondae: Tell Wongil to sue whoever uploaded this video for defamation. They cut up the recording and rearranged it to their liking]

[Me: LOL T_T. Okay! Thanks (heart-throwing emoji)]

[Park Moondae: Don’t mention it (bowing yellow puppy emoji)]

The screen captures ended with Goldie #1 asking about fourteen minutes later if it was all right to upload the chat to social media, and Park Moondae agreeing easily.

- No way...

- Even recordings can be faked these days, huh?

- This is Ha Iljoon’s official account, right?

- Holy crap

Goldie #1’s agency, which was very competent, unlike some companies we’d had the displeasure of dealing with, quickly began putting out articles and flooded the top comments on WeTube as more and more people learned of the shocking news.

- This is fake (link)

- Park Moondae came out and said this is edited. He told Choi Wongil to sue LOL

- There’s an article about this. The agency’s really taking whoever edited this to court. You’re f*cked, asshole

The criticism directed at Choi Wongil began to die down before it could do irreversible damage. As the haters were stomped out and the excitement died down, the internet’s rage was redirected at the person who’d uploaded the video.

Moondae checked his phone as soon as TeSTAR finished performing and immediately looked into how the situation was unfolding.

***

That’s the emergency dealt with for now. I locked my phone and sighed. This was only a stopgap measure, however. If the uploader had anything else in his arsenal, Choi Wongil could end up being dealt another heavy blow.

I still had a long way to go to fix all this, as well. The talk about my past hadn’t died down, and the comments I’d just read on one of the articles didn’t sit right with me.

- I’m sure he was hurt because of similar comments while he was growing up. That young man has a good heart. I hope Wongil will learn a lesson from this!

- Moondae’s such a good person. He deserves more success!

- Wow, Moondae just saved Wongil...

In other words, people just thought I was being nice and letting him off the hook. Even if the video had been discredited, people had still heard him speak to me in a belligerent tone of voice. The correction I’d given to Goldie #1 had been twisted into a kind gesture on my part. If things had ended there, everyone might have simply moved on. The thing was, though,

Wongil’s agency was capitalizing on the situation. Apparently, they were worried that any further explanation would only make the situation worse. Seemingly wanting to divert public attention entirely, their articles were focused on how kind my reaction had been, instead of Choi Wongil. This resulted in the comments I was now seeing everywhere.

I don’t like this. Something felt off about it. Adjectives like benevolent or altruistic could be snatched away just as quickly as they’d been given. A single flaw was enough to destroy my reputation, and there were probably plenty of people waiting to jump on the chance to drag me down.

The assholes who made infographics to try and keep us from getting a Rookie of the Year award can’t have just disappeared. Given this situation, in the best-case scenario, I would be portrayed as a kind person just in passing. All the attention along with the effusive praise I was getting now, was a burden I didn’t want to bear.

There’s a reason celebrities avoid kindness marketing. In the end, I came to my own conclusion about it.

I need to shake off this new reputation people are building for me. We needed to do something impactful enough to bury this entire mess early in our promotional cycle.

Variety shows are the only answer.