Chapter 218

Chapter 218

In truth, the posts that had leaked from the guy’s private account were pretty run-of-the-mill.

[I am so f*cking bored right now]

[When will we be finished with this? (fire emoji)]

[Motherf*ckers, I’m so sick of this… It sucks to be a star]

In the same way office workers often complained about their work, his posts were full of cursing and whining. Only a few of his fans would have been disappointed if all he’d done was curse out his agency, but he’d written mean things about his fans and coworkers as well.

Naturally, the internet flipped out.

- Leave the group, son of a b*tch

- LOL I had no idea you were so tired of us. I rue all the time I spent cheering for you. Hope you enjoy living your life as a retired idol now

- Isn’t the hacker the one who deserves flak for leaking a private account? Hasn’t everyone cursed about their job at some point or other? I mean, come on. Though I suppose it’s always fun to tear down a celebrity haha

└ Are you the idol in question? If you have time to write a comment, just retire already

- I don’t think passing emotions like this are all there is to an idol. But still, I wish he could have been a little more careful. My head hurts…

- He has such a poor attitude. I knew this would happen haha

His past actions and mistakes were all dragged to the surface, and people began to air a variety of suspicions and guesses based on the social media posts.

- I think he’s referring to the fans of that radio show before. He made it so obvious he was uncomfortable (video link)

- I think we need to reevaluate all the idols his age who are his friends. Hmm…

- The life of a star, my ass LOL. This was the day after a fansign. Can you believe it? (screen capture of a schedule)

At least half of the accusations brought against him had to be unfounded, but people were having too much fun to care. It was in the midst of this fiasco that Ahyeon was brought up.

[He’s constantly going to nightclubs, but look at him, acting all nice for the camera LOL. Did you have that much of a good time with the girls last night?]

As it happened, the post had been uploaded on the day that he’d filmed for K-NOW with Ahyeon. The fact that it was a male idol he was talking about, that he’d done something together with this idol, and that he had accused the idol in question of acting nice caused the public to zero in on Seon Ahyeon right away.

- Let’s be honest here. He’s the only remaining possibility

- This is all too obviously S.A.H. The timing is perfect. S.A.H. even had nothing on his schedule the day before they filmed. I’m getting goosebumps

- I’m taking a neutral stance for the time being, but this does feel rather ominous. He’s always acted like an angel until now…

Because Ahyeon had such a reputation for being gentle, some doubted that he was actually genuinely a nice person. These were probably the same people making all the posts accusing him. Worse still, there were some less public posts that were already talking about the rumors as if they had been confirmed. If I had to guess, they were doing it to purposely sabotage Ahyeon.

- That goddamn stuttering mess. Did you guys have no idea he goes crazy over girls? His poor fans T_T

- It’s finally happened! Anyone got photos or evidence? Let me spread it all over the internet haha

- Phew. Does this mean we can finally whale on that gloomy, stammering boy? I love it (clapping hands emoji)

These bastards have been lying in wait since the Idol Inc. days. They were the sort who seemed to make it their life’s mission to criticize or tear Ahyeon down. Most of them had disappeared after the show had ended or moved on to the next survival show to catch their interest, but apparently, there were still a few hanging around.

The other members have malicious anti-fans as well, but Ahyeon’s are… a bit different. They weren’t just mean, they were obsessed with ruining Ahyeon’s reputation and intimidating him. They were probably all the more riled up because therapy had given Ahyeon more confidence in public these days.

Not that there’s any point in trying to figure out those bastards. Suing them was the answer, but it was best to put out the fires first. I rubbed my chin.

Handling this probably won’t be too hard. If I released evidence that went against the circumstantial evidence they had about him, the fans would take care of the rest. Even now, Ahyeon’s fans were hard at work slamming the antis, except they were mostly keeping to the more private, out-of-the-way communities.

- LOL it’s so nonsensical, I’m downright puzzled. Nightclubs? You do realize he crochets kitchen scrubbers and embroiders, right?

- Wow, there’s so much defamation to sue people over. I’m going to keep track of everything. Hope you idiots are ready to face off against some well-paid lawyers!

- Ahyeon doesn’t even hang with idols outside his own group. Please cut it out

- I mean, what does it matter even if he did go to a nightclub? (which he obviously didn’t.) He’s a professional idol, and nobody has ever complained about him mistreating the fans, missing a schedule, or having a bad attitude.

I was pleased that the fans were also taking into account the possibility that he might really have gone to a club. Not that it was possible, by any stretch of the imagination, that someone like Ahyeon would be found in a nightclub.

I had plenty of stuff I could upload in response to the accusations, including the news of our moving house on that day, as well as the roommate content we filmed, and so on. Things hadn’t truly gotten out of hand yet and would be straightened out immediately if I uploaded something within the day. Ahyeon’s mental state, however, would need careful consideration.

He could get scared or start to panic. Given his personality, he would refuse to rest, and all his time spent in therapy would be wasted.

The next promotional cycle will be quite something if things go sour like that, won’t it? My head was already starting to ache. It was probably best to quickly deal with the problem so Ahyeon wouldn’t even hear about it. I called the agency right away to try and adjust the content release schedule, but an unfortunate problem arose.

“People have been saying nonsense after Ahyeon’s filming. I think we should just release the content we filmed now. Oh… it’s not ready yet? Can you have it done by tonight, even if it costs more?”

“M-Moondae?”

As bad luck would have it, Ahyeon had come to the veranda looking for me. This was the downside to living in a dorm.

Sh*t.

***

“I-I thought it would be nice if w-we put this next to the bed…”

“Uh, yeah.”

Ahyeon had sought me out to discuss the interior layout of our room. I took the stuffed animal that Ahyeon had handed me and put it aside.

Maybe I should have considered that he’s my roommate. He’d already overheard me, so there was no way of avoiding telling him the truth now.

Ahyeon is the kind who mulls over things. Unless he was told the truth, he would start to come up with scenarios that were worse than the truth.

I’ll make light of it. I adopted a casual tone as I addressed the tense Ahyeon.

“It’s nothing much. An idol is getting some flak, and it has nothing to do with you. I wanted to take some precautionary measures to make sure you weren’t pulled into it.”

“I-I see.”

“Yes.”

“All right,” Ahyeon said, nodding quietly.

He won’t leave it at that.

“B-but…”

Just as I thought.

“Wh-what are they saying about me? You said they were talking about me, right?”

You heard that much, huh?

I didn’t hesitate to answer, telling him glibly, “It’s nonsense. They’re saying you hang around nightclubs.”

“N-nightclubs?”

“Yes. Nobody believes it, but they’re insisting the dates match or something. So I wanted to show them that you were busy with something else that day.”

“O-oh…” Ahyeon nodded calmly once more.

Are we done with this, then? Now all I had to do was keep him away from his phone for a few days, so he couldn’t look anything up.

“There’s no real controversy or anything, so you don’t have to look it up.”

Ahyeon didn’t nod this time. “Then, does that mean you looked into it, Moondae?”

If I denied that was what I’d done, it would make the drama seem big enough that I’d noticed it without actively looking for it. I shrugged.

“Well, sometimes when I monitor things online, I get a little deep.”

“Hmm…” He paused, as if he was unsure whether he should say what was on his mind, but then continued anyway. “Y-you know…”

“Yeah?” I asked.

He balled his fists. “C-could you not look at posts like that from now on, Moondae? I-it can’t be easy. The m-more you read that sort of thing, the harder it gets…”

“Uh…”

I was a bit taken aback. The situation wasn’t handled yet. I hadn’t expected him to say something like this when it was a good thing I’d found out about all this so early. I crossed my arms. “Won’t it make you feel better if we handle it quickly?”

“I-it’s fine,” Ahyeon said rather firmly. “It’s not true, and not everyone believes it. I-I think we can do something to clear things up… if more people start to believe it. S-so I’d prefer it if you didn’t worry about it too much, Moondae.”

It was hard to believe I was hearing this from Seon Ahyeon, who’d once said that he was used to always being criticized during Idol Inc. Perhaps this was the result of consistently attending therapy.

How surprising. I was silent for a while, and eventually, Ahyeon spoke again.

“I… I think I get more nervous i-if I look.”

“Is that right?”

“Y-yes. In the p-past, I was worried that people would believe the rumors… even though they weren’t true. I-I felt like nobody would try and explain things for my sake.”

Was this coming from experience?

“E-even if explaining often works, I was afraid th-things would become a problem again later… I kept on checking and worrying.”

This was coming from experience. Is this about his problems making friends his age in the past?

I listened quietly.

Ahyeon swallowed. “B-but it’s very unlikely, isn’t it, that such a thing will happen?”

“Yes,” I said immediately.

“Y-yeah!” He looked relieved. “So I’d rather… you didn’t worry about it, either.”

Huh. I knew I should feel offended that he was telling me to stop when I was just trying to help him, but he was so clearly correct that I couldn’t bring myself to feel bad about it.

He’s worried about me. I lowered my arms and grinned.

“Well, I don’t monitor things as much as I used to. This time I only happened to come across it by accident.”

After Eugene had said something similar to me, I’d stopped trying so hard to keep track of every little thing. Ahyeon’s face brightened a little.

“I-I see!”

“Yeah. And I find it a little fun, if I’m honest.”

“F-fun…?”

“Not reading the posts. But it’s fun to dig them up and prove them wrong.”

“O-oh.” Ahyeon nodded eagerly. Based on the way he was avoiding my eyes, I had a feeling that he didn’t really understand. “A-all right. If you say so, Moondae…”

“Yes. Don’t worry, I won’t take this very far.”

“Okay.”

That I found putting idiots online in their place entertaining seemed to calm Ahyeon. We’ve started having some odd conversations now that we’re roommates.

Ahyeon’s reaction was kind of unusual, though.

“A-and Moondae… Th-thank you so much for w-worrying about me.”

I shrugged. “Well, as I said, I found out by accident. So I figured we should just respond to it.”

“A-all right. B-but still, it’s not necessary i-if it means other people will have a hard—”

“No. Nobody else is going to have to do any work.”

“Huh?”

I’d had another idea stewing in my mind the moment the agency had explained the edit still needed more time.

“It’ll be just you and me.”

“What…?”

We had nothing to do that evening, so we spent four or five hours working on my laptop. As a result, we were able to upload something by the time midnight rolled around—though it wasn’t the official content I’d requested from the agency.

***

Even the fans often found themselves thinking that TeSTAR made excellent use of their social media account. The members took turns uploading photos or updates almost every day—sometimes of them acting cute, quarreling with each other, or competing playfully over who uploaded better content.

But it wasn’t that common for a video to be uploaded—and not just any video, but a pretty long one. A video hadn’t gone up since the surprise fan song reveal.

- Am I seeing this right? Six minutes and twenty-seven seconds?

- Who is the amazing person responsible for this?

- LOL dunno. Just click it already

The title was nothing special and simply read “Good night.” Fans immediately clicked on the video. They grinned automatically at what they saw.

- Oh my gosh, it’s a vlog

- I love you

It was clumsy footage of the members sitting casually in an unfamiliar living room! There were even subtitles.

[Cha Eugene, the popcorn lover]

[Yum]

Instead of content involving the roommates or the move, which weren’t ready, Park Moondae had quickly edited together some personal footage he’d taken here and there. He’d also used a nineties film camera filter, revealing the footage’s dates and timestamps.

[19:11:21]

[People assigned to the kitchen today]

[Ahyeon is prohibited from going near the stove]

The colors were old-fashioned, dark but warm. The luggage the members hadn’t managed to unpack yet was visible in the kitchen, and they ate and talked together with it in the background. There were also simple edits of the group playing games, smiling and waving at the camera, or saying hello.

[The pajamas were comfy]

[Good night!]

The members were also shown brushing their teeth and going to bed. A chill background track gave the video comfy vibes. The footage was pretty basic even without the filter, and it had a charm that was different from their official videos.

- This is so cute

- They’re still wearing the animal pajamas from when they debuted. We love you!

People loved this sort of content, which had a more personal feel to it. There were the expected side effects as well, of course.

- That’s not the dorm, though

- Huh? Were they on a trip?

- No way! They really must have moved!

- So that just now was a roommate game? Goddamn it, please release it already. I’m already dying to see it

- Did Moondae film this? (Capture of Moondae pointing the camera at himself)

- Please let Moon Puppy and Cha Kitty be roommates again. It’s my life’s wish

The video essentially functioned as a trailer of sorts for the roommate content and the video detailing their move, making people excited. The most important objective was also achieved, of course.

[Ahyeon’s embroidery is complete]

Every member had been in the video throughout, naturally proving without a doubt that Ahyeon was innocent. He couldn’t have gone to a nightclub in the thirty minutes or so that came in between clips.

- What about the nightclub thing? Did he really go? T_T

└ He was playing a game after they moved to a new dorm. F*ck off

The accusations that had already been mostly stamped out by angry fans were now extinguished entirely.

- Crafty bastard

- Did Moondog do this LOL?

- Tsk. Are you really covering for a member who hangs out in nightclubs? Shouldn’t you take lessons from V*TIC?

The antis quickly realized they had lost ground, and were raging ineffectually. It wasn’t long before something new appeared that washed away the pointless talk.

- Hey, something came out on WeTube

- What’s going on today?

- Looks like I won’t be getting any sleep

An hour after the vlog had gone live, at one in the morning, notifications were delivered from T1 Star’s official WeTube channel.

[TeSTAR “Enchanted?” Concept Film]

In the dark thumbnail, Ryu Chungwoo was visible, wearing something that looked like it fit in among their outfits in “Spring Out” and “Present.” There were pine trees behind his seated form.

- No way

It was the concept film that TeSTAR had put together to wrap up their current promotional cycle, and the link needed to connect the universes that existed in their music videos. It was supposed to go up in three days’ time, but Moondae had discussed it with the group and arranged to have it released early. This was only possible because the staff had already finished editing it.

They were fighting with the power of quantity, and the fans reacted accordingly.

- Wow, this is sudden

- I don’t know what’s going on, but thanks, guys

- This group is the best. They give us so much content

The elated fans quickly clicked on the video. The intense mood of the video immediately swallowed up their excitement and their screens.