Chapter 208

Chapter 208

We’d experienced quite a few disturbing attempts to invade our privacy since our debut.

“No way! Did that taxi just try to crash into us on purpose?”

“W-wait… Th-that person keeps on trying to slap us from behind…”

“Wow! TeSTAR! Please sign this. I also want to take photographs!”

“I’m sorry? But this place is off limits—”

“He’s the producer’s nephew. Just do as he asks.”

At worst, people tried to cause minor car accidents on purpose, while on the less concerning end of the spectrum, people would force their way into the waiting room while we were occupying it at music shows.

This was a side effect I’d anticipated, so I hadn’t thought much of it, assuming it was just a drawback of the job. As we lived in the age of technology, there seemed to be more attempts at hacking our devices than people trying to come and see us themselves. We’d encountered few problems in the dorm, though.

It didn’t seem likely that the disaster that happened with my studio apartment would repeat itself. The apartment complex’s security was too good to allow anything like that to happen. Anyone trying to repeat what had happened at my old studio apartment, when I’d only been staying there temporarily, wouldn’t get anywhere. I got the feeling that Bae Sejin must have felt a strong urge to buy a nice, secure apartment after spending some time living in our current dorm, but it seemed our time in this dorm was up.

“They got through?”

“Ugh, yes. They bribed a delivery man to get into the parking lot. But the thing is, the way they were caught…”

“Wh-what do you mean?” Raebin asked nervously.

The chief manager sighed and said, “It was actually a feint! Some of them got into the security room and were checking the blind spots in the cameras when they were caught. They confessed to everything, so everyone involved was arrested. Can you believe it?”

“Whoa…”

This was absurd. Had they actually gone as far as bribing someone and then executing a two-pronged attack? With the amount of planning that must have gone into this, I felt it was mostly just a waste of effort and emotion. It wasn’t surprising, though.

I saw a few similar cases back when I was a paparazzo. I’d gotten requests to follow someone all day and take photos and videos of them. These sorts of jobs paid well, but I’d avoided them, not wanting to earn myself a criminal record. In any case, after all of this had happened, the building management and the residents had presented us with a formal complaint.

“They said they always have a hard time getting rid of people camping out in front of the complex, too. They’re at their limit…”

“Hmm…”

In other words, this was our problem, and they were done helping us with it. It was a fairly reasonable stance to take, which left us feeling pretty awkward about it. What was more, the agency couldn’t ignore the situation, either. The moment the residents went to the press with it, things would get really out of hand.

[TeSTAR’s dorm controversy… Residents of apartment complex terrified by the noise and intruders]

I could already picture a pretty chilling title for the article that would come out.

Moving seems to be the only solution. The agency probably didn’t want to invest money and manpower into this complex, so were instead choosing to move. This would allow them to tell the press that they’d upgraded our accommodations. Still, the fact that the chief manager was telling us these details was meaningful in more ways than one. It would be easier for them to get our cooperation by providing us with all the information and scaring us, rather than simply telling us they’d found better housing for us. This applied to all future actions regarding stalkers, too.

In that sense, he really is more capable at his job than our first manager… Still, I felt like I needed to find a new road manager with a better personality. Many of our members went all out when it came to their work. We needed someone affectionate and quick as our manager.

“Since we’re moving anyway, I thought we might move to a bigger, better dorm. What do you think?”

“Yes! Let’s go!” Eugene exclaimed.

“One moment. Guys, raise your hand if you want to move,” Chungwoo said. Eugene and a few of the others quickly complied.

Big Sejin didn’t raise his hand. Instead, he waved it with a grin, as if he was about to.

“Oh, moving sounds nice! But where are we going?”

“We’re still looking into that. But one thing’s for certain—the security will be tighter, and the location more ideal!”

“Right! So we’re going to move somewhere closer to the salon, right? I agree, then!”

Big Sejin was basically saying he refused to move unless it was close enough to the heart of Seoul for the salon in Cheongdam-dong to be nearby.

“Haha! I understand! Would you like to take a look at the candidate locations? I’ll send them to you!”

“Yes!”

A file soon appeared in the agency group chat. I immediately clicked it and scrolled through the locations.

Not bad. I couldn’t be sure without going to see them with my own eyes, of course, but the names and locations checked out to me.

These are all places where celebrities usually live— Wait a second. Why is this place on the list? As it happened, the chief manager was already talking about the place that I’d just mentally stumbled over.

“We’re thinking SV Village is the best bet. TeSTAR’s pretty popular now, after all! I’ve been trying to convince the higher-ups that TeSTAR deserves to live in a place like this!”

No.

“Why not somewhere closer to a broadcast station? For instance, Endre Palace…”

“Oh, we’re considering that one, too!” the chief manager deftly switched tack.

Ahyeon asked, “M-Moondae, do you really hate l-long car rides that much?”

“Yeah… You could say that.”

“I-I see!”

This was plainly untrue. It was just that I knew exactly who lived at SV Village.

That’s where VTIC’s dorm is. This wasn’t all that meaningful now, since the group had been around for a while and all of the members had moved out already. But there was no reason for us to become neighbors, though.

Not that I think he’s likely to leave his house at the moment, based on the way he’s acting. I had no idea why he was sending me photos of his dog rolling around in the garden, but I hoped he would continue living that way. We had no way of knowing how things would go down, though, so I was going to be careful.

“I’ll take your opinions and relay them to the company!” the manager said.

“Okay!”

The meeting wrapped up neatly, and it seemed as though we would be moving by the time our promotional cycle was over.

Looks like there won’t be any more problems, I thought, not knowing that the news was about to leak.

***

- TSuns are moving T_T To E Palace

- F*ckers, acting all rich now, are they?

└ LOL is this the point where they explain their privacy concerns?

- ROFL. They’re such amazing stars now, they can’t bear to see us waiting outside their dorms anymore T_T

- God, that’s annoying. F*ck! We only just managed to get through security

They’re out of their minds. The office worker who was also a fansite master for Big Sejin and Moondae closed out of the window. She’d been scrolling through social media in her free time, only to discover this post.

[TeSTAR’s stalkers are disgusting]

Someone had taken screenshots of their private accounts. The post got plenty of hate, with comments like, Why bring this to people’s attention at all? and The screen captures are also an invasion of privacy. But the uploader didn’t delete the post, which made their intentions pretty obvious.

They want to ruin TeSTAR’s promotions. The office worker mentally went through the obvious suspects—VTIC fans, One Curve’s fans, and so on—before stopping short. These attempts weren’t likely to be effective, anyway. TeSTAR’s promotional cycle was going extremely well. Their mass appeal, which had taken a downward turn after Idol Inc. had left them a group less likely to attract a general audience. But the reality show had put a stop to that.

People must be anxious about us being on the rise again. That’s why they’re kicking up all this fuss. The fansite master’s two biases had adopted new concepts to great success. Lee Sejin was wearing a different kind of monocle at every music show, and Park Moondae had silver hair—both changes were received with effusive praise.

- He licked a pen nib in the music video, but in the fancam, he’s licking my goddamn heart. Moondae devours people’s hearts for lunch

- Moondae needs to keep his silver hair forever. He’s like a thousand-year-old elite yokai (fist emoji)

- I knew this would happen. The era of the black puppy and the golden puppy has come

└ The silver hair suggests he’s more of a Tibetan fox

People were gushing, not only on their private social media accounts but in the comment sections of WeTube fancams.

I did well to choose Park Moondae. Making merchandise and selling it would be more than enough to cover her expenses, at this rate. She logged onto her social media with great satisfaction.

Stalkers were no big deal. This problem would be forgotten when new content dropped. Moondae and Sejin weren’t the sort to be made vulnerable by a stalker anyway, so there would be no additional issues.

Lee Sejin, for one, I can be sure of. Her years of experience in K-pop told her that Lee Sejin simply wasn’t the type of person who would take pity on a stalker. He was an ambitious guy who was skilled at creating and ending relationships, and he knew the difference between business and pleasure.

And Park Moondae? He won’t get in trouble, either. He would simply be puzzled as to why people were wasting their time stalking other people. While he did seem to have a weak spot for people who liked him, based on the way he made sure his public image remained spotless, he was probably pretty smart. After concluding this line of thought, she gulped down a zero-calorie soda and continued to touch up the photos she’d taken. She had yet to release a picture of the two of them from the last concert.

“What is it?”

- Hey, have you seen this? T_T

An internet forum link from an anonymous account she hadn’t heard of before seemed ominous.

[TeSTAR skillfully shoves aside photographer]

The fansite master immediately opened the post. Inside the post was a GIF of someone tall and broad pointing a camera at a TeSTAR member, who then used their elbow and arm to push it away. The member in question was none other than… Ryu Chungwoo.

This was very surprising to her. She’d expected that he would be adept at avoiding conflicts of this nature, given his background as an athlete. It looked like he was about to hit the other person.

The top comments were saying similar things.

- No way. I didn’t know Chungwoo was like that

- People who get in idols’ faces deserve a good beating, to be honest LOL. Wasn’t expecting that from Chungwoo, though

- What did Chungwoo do wrong? Why is this even worth a thousand comments? What a scary place the world has become

- I think it’s amazing. This is why people should work out

As the number of likes and dislikes on the post climbed, a whole slew of opinions appeared in the comments.

“Strange.”

While the fansite master was satisfied that it wasn’t one of the two members she biased, she had an odd feeling she couldn’t shake. Chungwoo wasn’t an idiot, and he wouldn’t do something like this when there were cameras around, and he also had managers and security nearby to rely on.

I have a feeling this looks worse than it is because of the angle. As expected, pictures taken from different angles of the same scene and testimonies soon inundated the comments.

- That bastard pushed through security and all but threw himself at the members. Things could have gotten really dangerous if Chungwoo hadn’t reacted like that

- He didn’t even hit the guy. There’s footage from other angles showing that the big guy tripped over his own foot. Enough of this nonsense (screen capture)

- I don’t get why they’re criticizing him for defending himself, which is what a person should do. People are bringing up his past as an athlete and everything, and it’s super annoying

Chungwoo’s fans, who were usually not very aggressive, were loudly protesting. The fansite master could completely understand where they were coming from. Criticism of the leader had come out of nowhere. Then a suspicion reared its ugly head within her.

Did someone arrange this whole thing? She was right. A paparazzo had been hired and paid good money, and there was a group chat room full of people who’d done their level best to turn the event into a controversy. The people who paid the paparazzo were the very same people who’d gotten through the security at TeSTAR’s apartment complex. They’d lost their minds upon hearing the news that TeSTAR was moving to a new apartment building with better security.

As was to be expected, the agency was soon discussing this new issue as well.

***

“Are you nuts? You need to get your sh*t together.”

“I’m sorry.”

The person being rebuked wasn’t a TeSTAR member, of course, but their first manager.

“Why’d you move out of the way? What does that accomplish? Have you forgotten what you’re paid for, you bastard?”

He was being subjected to verbal abuse for stepping out of the way when an aggressive fan had lunged at the group, camera swinging.

I get that they’re angry at him… but this is going too far. The manager wasn’t a martial artist, he was just an office worker, and he shouldn’t have to put himself in physical danger. This public scolding was all for show.

“I’m sorry. I’ll pay better attention to security from now on!”

They were covering their asses by criticizing the first manager, just in case we were made angry by their lackluster security.

This whole ploy speaks of experience. There was plenty of security most of the time, and this incident was an isolated one. But they were trying to soothe us anyway, which just showed how skilled they were at their jobs.

A few of the members were very confused by the situation.

“I-it’s all right,” Ahyeon said.

“I don’t think you need to blame the manager for this…” Raebin said.

“Oh! Thank you!” the chief manager said, looking somewhat relieved.

“Chungwoo, don’t worry about this too much! It’s all been explained, and many people thought you did an amazing job.”

Chungwoo only smiled bitterly. He was a former national athlete and had always seemed so gentle to the public, which meant this incident had dealt a great blow against him. Anyone who didn’t like him would use this as the perfect excuse to act shocked and condemn him.

“Don’t worry!”

“Uh, all right.”

I didn’t think it was wise for the manager to say what he did next, however.

“But you don’t need to act should this happen again. The agency should be the ones to handle this, and if the artist gets involved, this sort of thing can happen…”

While this sounded like a self-rebuke, there was an odd nuance to his words, almost like he was questioning why Chungwoo had done what he’d done.

I’d like to ask the manager the same question. That was uncalled for. I was considering intervening when Chungwoo spoke up in a sharp tone that was unlike him.

“You mean to say I should have stood there and let someone be attacked?”

“N-no, that’s not… I meant stepping out of the way would have been best! There were lots of people watching…”

Chungwoo was silent for some time. Then he simply said, “Fine.”

He sounded tired.

Chungwoo didn’t say anything for the rest of the day, except for when we were required to do so in public.

Damn it… He was obviously experiencing burnout.