Chapter 70

Chapter 70

Lee Sejin, sitting morosely on his bed, looked shocked as I forced the door open and came inside.

“Augh!”

“Get it together.”

I sat on the opposite bed. Chungwoo and Big Sejin, whom I’d expected would follow me inside, were nowhere in sight.

I guess they decided to be tactful. It was in character for them. It didn’t matter. With Lee Sejin behaving this way, I wasn’t going to get any sleep anytime soon. I wanted to hear what he was thinking.

I wish we had some beer or something. There was no chance of getting any inside a dorm belonging to an idol group on the cusp of their debut, though. Disappointed though I was, I addressed him.

“Sejin, you do realize the agency is going to want to speak to you tomorrow, be it earlier or later in the morning, right? Isn’t it better if you just figure things out in the dorm—where you’ll be relatively comfortable—before you leave? This isn’t a situation you can avoid, as much as you might want to.”

My “Words of Persuasion” trait apparently wasn’t working today. It took him a while to respond.

“I don’t know...” he said.

“What don’t you know?”

“I don’t know what I want to do...”

It was a bit late to be worrying about his career path now, wasn’t it?

“Do you want to go back to your agency and continue acting?”

“No... I don’t want to go back.”

“Then you do want to keep acting?”

“Of course I do.” Lee Sejin buried his face in his hands. “I never wanted to become an idol in the first place...”

This reminds me of when I first came across my status abnormality. I sucked on my bottom lip. So he didn’t compete on the show because he wanted to.

“You joined Idol Inc. because your former agency forced you to?”

“That’s right... I’d been on hiatus for too long... They said I needed to do something if I wanted to work again.”

“Hmm. You may say that, but you worked really hard on the show,” I found myself saying.

“What else was I supposed to do? I don’t have much talent,” he replied, sounding a little offended.

Hmm, that wasn’t the impression I got. I remembered what he’d said to me at the finals.

“You mean it’s not the end for you, since you’re going to debut?”

It sounded a lot like he wanted to debut as well. I could also see just how much his stats had changed.

There’s not an F in sight. Lee Sejin had increased his dancing stat, which had been at F at the beginning, to a D+. That wasn’t the sort of growth achievable without a lot of hard work. That told me everything I needed to know.

“You thought it was fun, didn’t you?” I asked. “It turned out to be fun and before you realized what was happening, you were working harder.”

At first, he was quiet but unable to deny it, Sejin replied, “Yes. Performing on stage... It was nice. I wanted to keep doing it, but I also want to keep acting.”

“Then act.”

“What?”

I had no idea why he was so hung up over this. “Just wait a few years and the agency will be handing you acting roles before you even have to ask for them. Act. After five years, your contract will expire. You can choose not to renew it if you just want to focus on acting.”

Sejin, who’d been listening to me speak with his mouth slightly agape, smiled wryly at me and hung his head. “I can’t.”

“Huh?”

“You have no idea what my old agency is like, do you?”

It was true, I didn’t know much about the agency. Acting had never been one of my interests. Apparently already close to giving up, he started filling me in on all the details.

“DreamK... they’re not a good agency. If I choose to stay, there’s no knowing what they’ll do.”

“Do they have dirt on you?”

If he mentioned anything about drugs, I decided I’d suggest he leave before anyone else did. Much to my relief, he frowned and said, “What dirt? I haven’t done anything bad. What I mean is, they’ll try to spread bad rumors about me.”

He went on to explain that they’d already done the same thing to multiple actors who’d refused to extend their contracts with them. Come contract renewal season, they often deployed this tactic to undermine the actors’ worth.

They’re a textbook example of an immoral agency.

“Hmm, can you think of any rumors they might try to spread about you?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? For starters, they’ll say that I only auditioned to revive my acting career and that I wasn’t interested in becoming an idol.”

“Hmm…”

“Then they’ll say I had an affair with a married woman... or something else that’s not technically a crime and can’t be proven.”

“Well, T1 is our investor. I don’t think they would go that far against such a big company.”

“Their goal would be to make things look so bad for me that T1 will fire me first,” he muttered bitterly.

“I was... a last-minute addition to the group, anyway. People online weren’t pleased about me joining. Lots of them are saying I should be taken out of the group since I’m not as good as the others.”

“Huh...”

It was obvious he’d done his fair share of deep-diving through the trash on the web. To be fair, there had been talk of this sort—given that he’d only joined the group as a lucky last-minute reward, that he was a former actor, and that he was the least talented in the group, some people simply wanted him out.

I shrugged. “That sort of talk will fade once we debut.”

“I know you saying that doesn’t change anything, but it does make me feel better.”

“I wasn’t trying to console you.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“We’re debuting at the same time as VTIC’s comeback. Our fans will have to band together if they want to keep VTIC at bay.”

Lee Sejin stared at me in shocked silence. When there was a powerful enemy on the outside, those on the inside tended to come together.

“And if you leave, people will just target someone else in the group. That’s how it usually goes. I don’t think there’s much point in dwelling on it.”

It didn’t matter what social group it was, people tended to ostracize the weak, which meant it wasn’t really Lee Sejin’s fault he’d been singled out. For a moment it seemed as though he was going to cry, but instead, he pulled himself together, shaking his head.

“Even so... there’s no way to stop my old agency at the moment. It’s not like just speaking to them will stop them from starting rumors about me.”

“Then do it yourself.”

“What?”

I folded my arms over my chest. “Make a statement before they do.”

“A statement?”

“Tell everyone that you did the show because the agency forced you to, but now that you’ve found your calling, you don’t want to go back. Be sure to emphasize how the agency forced you and that you were able to escape them thanks to the audition show.”

He stared at me, stunned.

“That should mostly stop any rumors in their tracks, don’t you think?” I was suggesting we prepare the fans, so they would recognize any malicious rumors for the lies they were when they saw them. If the public reacted unfavorably, the agency would be hard-pressed to continue with the lawsuit. Then T1, who didn’t want to share Lee Sejin with anyone, would take things from there.

He was silent for a moment, mouth agape. “What exactly did you do after you dropped out of high school?” he asked.

“I competed on the show.”

I’d heard similar questions fairly frequently these days. At least he wasn’t suggesting I worked for the National Intelligence Service.

“So discuss all that with our agency, all right?”

“All right.”

It looked like the situation would be handled. Ryu Chungwoo could console him if necessary and wrap things up. I held back a sigh.

“Should I upload it to our social media account?” he asked.

“Tell them you’re going to write the statement in your own handwriting.”

***

After news broke about the charges being brought by DreamK, Lee Sejin’s former agency, every news site online featured at least one article about the matter. Since it was indisputable that the contract was unfair in nature, there were a variety of different responses as discussions began to circle around abuse of power.

- It’s not fair that they just stole someone away before their contract had even expired. They should have kept the contract and just let them promote in the group while still signed

- But that’ll mean the proceeds will have to go to both parties. The members aren’t freelancers, are they? Why is that necessary? This is better for idols

- Frankly, that agency probably didn’t do anything for him. Isn’t that why he joined the audition show? LOL It’s obvious what they’re doing here. Now that he’s successful, they want him back!

- Considering all the money they must have invested in him since he was a trainee, it’s true they’re losing a lot in this arrangement

- What’s all this fuss over Lee Sejin, anyway? Just let his agency take him. Six is enough. The quality of the performances and the team dynamic will be better without him

Those who wanted Lee Sejin to be removed from the team were especially vocal.

- Seriously, though, he’s not adding much, is he?

- Just drop him. The others will do just fine! T_T

- The debut is only a week away. Why is this happening?

- Will anyone even miss this guy? He came to the audition unwillingly and got lucky enough to debut. Anyone? None, I gather

- TeSTAR fought to debut by going without sleep and practicing so much they cried. He’s not suitable for the group, so let’s get rid of him.

It was a vicious cycle since Lee Sejin’s fans were hurt by these comments.

The next morning, TeSTAR’s social media account uploaded a post, the first since their group photo. Fans scrambled to open it and read through the photo of a hand-penned letter.

It had been written by Lee Sejin.

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[Hello. I’m Lee Sejin, a member of TeSTAR.]

: I’m writing this to share my thoughts on the recent news.

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

The letter, written in a cautious and neat hand, began by describing his life as an actor from a very young age. More concisely, it described how his previous agency had taken advantage of him.

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[...and the unreasonable schedule demanded from me was damaging to my health, forcing me to put a halt to my acting career as a child. I believe sleeping only three hours a day was too much for a twelve-year-old to handle.]

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

He continued on, writing that just as he’d recovered physically and was about to start acting again, he was forced by the agency to audition for the show.

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[...I refused multiple times since I’d never performed on a stage in my life, but they pressured me by saying that I would get no opportunities to act unless I appeared on the show. This was how I came to join Idol Incorporated.]

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

Then, throughout the duration of the show, he’d discovered an unexpected joy in performing on stage.

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[I was happy to meet people who were willing to approach me despite my shyness, and I was happy performing together with those friends. It was a thrilling experience to be on stage with them.

Though it was completely unexpected, it became my fervent wish to continue on this career path. And thankfully, my dream came true as I received the precious opportunity to debut with my friends.

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

Lee Sejin ended the letter by saying that he wanted to debut as part of TeSTAR with his team, no matter what it took.

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[I would like to apologize for bringing you such unpleasant news in my first post. I hope to bring you a more pleasant update next time, as a member of TeSTAR. Thank you for taking the time to read this message.]

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

It wasn’t long after this letter was released that any TeSTAR fan who harbored even the slightest goodwill toward Lee Sejin came alive.

- T_T

- Sejin wants to be an idol! Just leave him be! T_T

- They have no conscience, those bastards! Unfair contract, my ass! After what they did to him when he was twelve? The balls on them!

- T1 is in the right this time. And DreamK deserves to be beat down.

- To be honest, I had my doubts about whether Sejin really wanted this, since he got in by the skin of his teeth, you know? T_T I’m sorry

Fans who had supported him since his childhood were even more appalled.

- It physically hurts to think about how much he suffered as a twelve-year-old, though he was always smiling on TV...

- I thought Sejin had just become a lot calmer after growing up... Oh man...

- I wanted to see Sejin take up acting again, but I also want him to go after his dream. He can’t go back to that agency, that’s for sure.

Once public opinion turned around, most people who’d been having a good time writing malicious things about him disappeared. There were still a lot of people who were making sarcastic comments, but they were no longer the majority.

- Lee Sejin’s pretty good at tugging on people’s heartstrings, isn’t he? But he’s still the worst member. Ugh.

└ He’s better than you! Here you are feeling threatened by a twenty-three-year-old!

└ LOL get him where it hurts

- Lee Sejin’s saying he tested the waters and found being an idol wasn’t half bad LOL. I’ll bet he’ll keep at it for what, three years? Before he leaves the team. I pity the contestants who could have won in his place

└ Okay, that’s a seriously warped way to think...

└ The thing about people like them? They’ll comment on other posts, criticizing the members who lost to Lee Sejin

The fans of the other TeSTAR members felt for Lee Sejin after reading his letter and had begun to rally against malicious comments about the incident.

Tnet took the opportunity to flatten DreamK using a carrot-and-stick strategy—the stick being much bigger than the carrot.

The same day all the articles started getting deleted and the fans began to change their stance regarding Lee Sejin, another teaser was released at midnight which was the final nail in the coffin. This time, however, it wasn’t uploaded to the official TeSTAR WeTube channel. Instead, it was added to the teaser for the reality show.

[TeSTAR “Hi-five” | Official Teaser]

Did they add it to the channel by mistake? This isn’t Magical Boys... The fans were confused but clicked the video quickly anyway.

They were in for a surprise.