“…Um, sunbae-nim.”
“What?”
As if timed, the car bumped over a speed bump. Does something come to mind even now?
“I learned how to connect Bluetooth to the car… should I play it?”
“…Yeah, become the best DJ.”
DJ Go succeeded in pressing various car buttons here and there to connect to his phone. At that point, the car was already passing through the dorm’s main gate. Since we came by car for a 10-minute walking distance, probably….
“…I’ll play it next time.”
Go Won, who had been sticking his nose to the panel, awkwardly straightened his body. I turned on the hazard lights and pulled the car as close as possible to the dorm building entrance.
Even until then, nothing happened.
Is this also a long-term battle? The kind that needs to be resolved over a long time….
Whatever it is, there’s no more excuse to hold him now.
“Go in.”
“Yes. Thank you for the meal.”
The big frame bowed at the waist then straightened. I watched Go Won’s disappearing back then opened my phone.
Did I perhaps step wrong?
A celebrity’s crisis doesn’t simply arise only in reality. Various rumors, slander, misunderstandings, etc. spreading on the internet cause huge damage to image.
Then not the real Go Won but the reputation side…. I tried to write Go Won’s name in the search bar while the car was parked, then covered it again.
‘No.’
This isn’t that kind.
The intuition of someone who had already experienced the quest scenario once said so.
That some kind of crisis definitely hasn’t ended yet.
When I opened the car door and got out, I could see lights on in some floor’s corridor of the dorm building. A shadow swayed greatly above it.
When I entered the building, noisy sounds were heard.
“……! ……!!!!”
4th floor? 5th floor?
There’s no time to calculate and consider. I just ran up the stairs.
Detecting movement, the corridor’s sensor lights turned on one by one.
“Let go, you fucking bastard! I’ll fuck up your life!”
The scene I faced was enough for the quest window to give a bright red warning.
“……!”
A person screaming wildly with disheveled hair, and Go Won with a flustered expression not knowing what to do while grabbing and subduing the assailant’s wrist.
A fist-sized stone was gripped in the opponent’s hand.
Trying desperately to swing it at Go Won, Go Won’s hand already had scratches from trying to stop the opponent.
The physique difference between Go Won and the assailant was enough to counterattack. But Go Won couldn’t do anything to the opponent in case something went wrong.
“Go Won!”
I strode into the chaotic situation. Seeing another person appear, the opponent struggled and escaped from Go Won’s hands.
“Kuk…!”
At the same time I pulled Go Won’s nape, the stone the stalker threw flew at knee height. The stone fell to the corridor floor with a loud noise. In that gap, the culprit ran down the stairs as if tumbling.
“Ah….”
“Don’t chase.”
I held Go Won back. And took out my phone.
“You catching them, you becoming the reporter, neither is okay.”
I called General Manager Park.
“Hyung, a crazy bastard in front of Go Won’s house. Came with a stone.”
After a shocked reaction, the answer came that he’d come right away.
‘…So this was it….’
Should I say thank you for giving a warning….
Following 1st place on the audition show to a successful debut. It was the perfect time for a malicious sasaeng to appear. I’d been overlooking this.
“Go Won, are you hurt anywhere?”
Not hearing an answer, when I turned around, the kid was looking somewhere with wide-open eyes. As soon as I looked there, my eyes widened too.
Beggar fucking XXXXX……
Contempt-filled curses, sexual harassment, insults about family and company and other surroundings.
I wondered where that stone was used—they’d scraped the door to leave writing. It was filled seamlessly with malice much worse than what was shouted at Go Won earlier.
The breathing heard from beside me trembled roughly.
“Don’t look.”
I covered Go Won’s eyes with my palm.
“……”
There’s no need to face head-on writing whose purpose is to stab the insides. Especially in a situation like this, even more so.
“Don’t look, and think of other thoughts in your head. Things that made you laugh recently, meals you ate deliciously….”
“……”
“When practice went well and you were praised, …keep breathing. You’re doing well.”
Becoming an object of hatred to someone is something ordinary people would have difficulty experiencing.
But as much as celebrities are loved by people they’ve never met, they’re also defenslessly exposed to the opposite emotion.
Probably that person who ran away has no big reason either.
Just as there are people who love him because Go Won is handsome, dances well, and got 1st place on a survival show, there are also people who hate him for the same reasons.
At that moment, I felt the inside of my palm getting wet. Perhaps Go Won also knew, as he tried to turn his head. But I first wrapped the back of his head to block it.
“It’s okay.”
“……”
“I can’t see it either anyway.”
Go Won bit his lip hard. After trembling his shoulders for a moment, moisture finally faintly touched my palm.
Too short a time to say he cried, he calmed his breathing and grabbed my wrist to slowly lower it.
Perhaps fairly strong in crisis situations, he quickly regained composure.
Still, I was going to cover it again if his gaze went toward the door, but Go Won was looking at my face instead of the door. Facing him head-on, a pale color of being frightened still faintly remained.
“This building has CCTV well installed in front, and by now the company has also started moving right away.”
“…Yes.”
“Don’t look back.”
What’s good about chewing over it?
“Sunbae-nim, how did you know?”
“Intuition.”
“……”
‘It’s not like you’d believe me if I said the quest window told me.’
By the way, this quest window bastard…. shouldn’t you tell me in advance for things like this? Just leaving one red warning is all?
You kept nagging me to take care of Go Won, but what if I’d felt relieved after dropping him off at home and just went back?
Moreover, another problem is….
Q Emergency. Detecting HBN’s Crisis
Break through crisis situation
Upon Success: Open HBN’s slot selection
Upon Failure: Scenario quest progress suspended
The warning sign disappeared, and the blanks that looked urgent also disappeared, but quest completion didn’t appear.
I don’t know if it means more crisis remains, or if Go Won’s mental state is greatly shaken and still dangerous even though he’s trying to act calm.
“No, what is this!”
Just then, General Manager Park and staff arrived. They turned pale seeing Go Won’s ashen face.
And after checking the content written on the door, they narrowed their eyes just like I did earlier.
“Ah, this is….”
“Hyung.”
I quietly pointed at Go Won with my chin.
“You have to take care of him first. Was the culprit caught?”
“Yeah, actually someone must have reported them because they ran away bumping into things here and there like crazy. They said they caught them right away.”
While another manager examined Go Won’s injuries, General Manager Park lowered his voice.
“Rather than a sasaeng… seems like another singer’s fan.”
Right. Because it felt like real grudge rather than excessive affection.
“Yeah, I think so too. Is there a fandom that would hate him this much?”
“Well, the atmosphere with Newton isn’t good these days, and he seems to be called a traitor by some Debut Chart trainee fans, and um, there seem to be people with antipathy among yACE fans too.”
“Huh.”
“There are really a lot of strange people in the world. Right, Won-ah? Oh my, what is this on your hand? Are you okay elsewhere?”
“Yes, sunbae-nim came right away so….”
“We’ll handle things here now, so go to the car. Myeongho is on the 1st floor.”
“It’s fine. I’ll take care of him. Tell Wonjong hyung to come up too and handle this door quickly first.”
Soon the company will be turned upside down so I don’t need to worry here, but Go Won… even out of anxiety, I should watch directly until the quest ends.
I pushed away the worried people and came down to the 1st floor with Go Won.
“Is it better to go to your family home?”
“……”
“Tell me the address. I’ll take you.”
I asked thinking he might want to calm his heart with his family at home, but the kid kept his mouth shut and didn’t answer.
Is he not keen on that side?
“Then I’ll take you to a nearby hotel. Sleep there tonight.”
“No.”
“Do you have somewhere to go….”
“I’ll go back to the dorm in a bit.”
“What?”
Did he go crazy from shock?
Thinking that, the moment I turned around, I faced a clear wall.
“I can lock the door and sleep. They were caught anyway, so they won’t come back.”
“……”
“…Thank you for helping. I’ll take care of it myself from now on without being a burden.”
‘Ah, was this it?’
