But Jion had reason to be thrilled. At first, it had simply been jealousy over the skinship between Jion and Eungi that made him step forward, but Seonwoo Jin soon began skillfully resolving the problem. After comforting Eungi, who was crying from feeling wronged and upset, he began confirming the facts one by one.
“The graduation album posted in this post seems to be you. I know you’re not that kind of kid, but did you ever brag about having money when you were in school? Any place you can think of?”
“Not really. I did carry around brand-name sneakers, bags… wallets… things like that, and bought lots of snacks at the school store, but other than that, I rode the bus to school just like everyone else……”
“You went to an all-boys school, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then, well. It’s inferiority complex.”
Seonwoo Jin, who had received particularly many groundless attacks from the same sex due to his good looks from birth and personality that didn’t look around at others, quickly grasped the situation.
“If it had been co-ed, you would’ve been intimidated by all the girls who liked you, but since it was all-boys, well. There must’ve been tons of losers who were slimy to your face and sharpening their knives behind your back.”
Seonwoo Jin shrugged as if it wasn’t surprising. That calm and clean summary gave Jion and Eungi, who were listening, some inexplicable certainty and stability. Seonwoo Jin calmly asked Eungi.
“Do you have any classmates who could refute this post?”
“When I graduated high school, I changed my contact info saying I was debuting……”
“Still, among them, is there anyone you’re close with or can contact?”
“Well……”
Eungi hesitated before answering.
“There is one person I was really close with……”
Seeing Eungi trail off and lower his head, Jion caught on to the unspoken words. Eungi was thinking that the friend he’d been close with might be the one who wrote the post. Seonwoo Jin also noticed the situation from Eungi’s silence and Jion’s subtle expression and didn’t ask further. As the atmosphere sank, Jion wrapped his arm around Eungi’s shoulder and comforted him.
“Let’s stop looking at your phone today and go to bed early. Okay?”
“Yes……”
“Want to sleep with us?”
It was said out of consideration in case sleeping in the same room as Jinyeong was uncomfortable, but the expressions of the two men who heard Jion’s suggestion changed subtly. Naturally, jealousy monster, jealousy incarnate Seonwoo Jin didn’t want Jion to share a bed with Eungi, and Eungi……
“Ah, hyung. I can’t… hug and sleep like you hyungs do…… I can’t do that.”
Eungi was also the person who saw the most of the two’s excessive physical contact and unity while editing vlogs. Eungi, who had been crying with tears and snot like a child until just moments ago, waved his hands with the face of a plain manly man, looking disgusted.
“Good night!”
Worried that Jion and Seonwoo Jin might suggest hugging and sleeping on a narrow bed like they do, Eungi hurriedly said goodbye and ran into his room where Jinyeong was lying down. Seeing him climb the bunk bed ladder making clattering sounds, he seemed much calmer than at first.
Some problems are half-solved once you know the cause. But this problem couldn’t be easily resolved just by knowing the cause.
The public originally prefers talking about bad stories over good ones, and wants to drag down people who suddenly rise to success.
Moreover, unknown idols from an unknown agency like BNCZ had no senior idols from the same company, so they couldn’t receive protection from the agency’s loyal fandom, and were rather vulnerable to attacks from other boy group fans who were keeping the rising group in check.
The fact that the only proof was barely one graduation album photo wasn’t important to people looking for things to criticize. What people were interested in was only that the unknown idol who had been filming videos with a shabby dorm as the background was actually the son of an incredibly rich family, and might have committed school violence.
[BNCZ felt fake from when they acted innocent]
ㅋㅋㅋI thought it was disgusting from when they romanticized eating pork belly on newspaper on that pukey yellow flooringㅋㅋIn reality: yeah, poverty aversion
The next morning, internet public opinion became more serious, and Eungi had become irredeemable trash. After a brief morning meeting, Jion seriously suggested.
“Let’s sue. I think taking legal action is the right thing to do.”
“But what if my friend really wrote it……”
“So. Did you actually bully them or not?”
“I never bullied anyone. But what if they just wrote it in a moment of anger and then get sued…… Their family is struggling financially……”
The other members had no objections. Only Eungi hesitated, wondering if his friend might have posted it, but Jion, who had failed once before, was firm.
“I understand you’re worried your friend might get sued, Eungi. But it’s not just you who suffers from such rumors.”
They were just starting to gain momentum, so they couldn’t just watch the spreading malicious rumors. The controversy needed to be extinguished and the rumors needed to be clarified. Whether the public accepted it or not wasn’t important. From the fans’ perspective, there was a big difference between having an official statement come out and not having one.
At Jion’s firm appearance, Eungi had no choice but to nod, and through leader Ryu Geon, a request for legal action was submitted to the company.
The company showed a lukewarm attitude, saying wasn’t it enough if Eungi himself was upright, if he lived honestly there was no problem, and wasn’t it scratching at nothing by taking legal action, but when they strongly insisted that if they didn’t respond properly, they would sue using Eungi’s personal money, they promised to at least issue an official statement.
And just when they thought things had been roughly sorted out. While the members were eating a late lunch with complicated feelings, public opinion began to reverse with one post that went up.
[I’m BNCZ Kim Eungi’s classmate]
Unlike the post full of malicious content about Eungi, the post that went up claiming to be Eungi’s real classmate was full of rebuttals.
Hello. I’m Park Kyeong-h, Kim Eungi’s high school friend.
I’m writing this because a malicious rumor post about my friend has been posted.
Eungi did ride in a chauffeur-driven car, but only briefly because he hurt his leg. And he hurt his leg because I tackled him too deeply while playing soccer. But he didn’t charge me for treatment costs or anything, just said it was okay since we were just playing around. That kind of friend.
(Photo)
And the story about being teased for having beggar brand sneakers during PE class, that’s my story, so who are you? ㅋㅋ Is this you by any chance?
(Screenshot)
This is a post where Eungi bought me expensive sneakers as a birthday present, and I teased Eungi for wearing cheaper shoes than me. The one who called him a beggar wasn’t Eungi, it was me
Throughout the post were selfies of Eungi and the friend who posted, and screenshots from SNS of the friend joking around calling Eungi a beggar. Anyone could see they were close, and it was a more believable post than the earlier malicious rumor post with just one graduation album photo.
Throughout school, Eungi only bought snacks for his friends and never did anything bad. I also got a lot of bread from Eungi. Seeing you have the graduation album, you seem to be from the same school, but I don’t know who you are, so why don’t you come to the class reunion once.
p.s. Eungi, I don’t know if you’ll see this but congrats on debuting, but seriously isn’t the group name really tacky ㅇㅈ?
At the friend’s sincere post, public opinion changed instantly.
Bronze Silver Gold Eungi @bronzesilvergold123
Where did all those bitches who said our kid did poverty cosplay go? ^^
[bncz Kim Eungi loser theory rapidly rising]
Kim Eungi got beaten by his high school friend(?) hurt his leg and walked on crutches and bought super expensive sneakers for his birthday and bought tons of snacks at the school store<fact
[Comments]
Anonymous 1
Isn’t this a school violence confession, not a clarification?ㄷㄷ;
Anonymous 2
Park Kyeong-h, you’re friends right? Friends right?
(Star Wars meme)
Anonymous 3
So in reality, Kim Eungi was bullied by Park Kyeong-h for all 3 years of high school?
With the reversed public opinion, the group atmosphere that had been cold for days also changed. Ryu Geon, who had been subtly keeping his distance since finding out Eungi was incredibly rich, grabbed Eungi’s hand all day and asked.
“So you’re sure that friend didn’t bully you in school?”
“Ah, Kyeongho and I were really friends.”
“But he made you hurt your leg.”
“That was while playing soccer during lunch……”
“You’re sure he didn’t really bully you?”
Though things had been awkward for a while after the school violence rumor post, Ryu Geon was the famous Eungi-mom within the group. Ryu Geon was worried whether the clarification post might hurt Eungi by bringing up bad memories. But fortunately, Eungi was fine. He actually seemed very happy.
“We were really close friends!”
Seeing Eungi’s bright appearance, all the members were relieved. Fortunately, Park Kyeongho was just a friend who shared a slightly rough type of friendship, not the type who bullied or extorted money with malicious intent like people were worried about.
And as soon as the agency’s notice hinting at legal action as requested went up, the original post was quietly deleted. Posts that had cursed Eungi without even checking the facts also began to be deleted one by one, and posts saying they believed in Eungi’s innocence began appearing on the fan cafe that had been gritting its teeth and ignoring the malicious rumors.
[Our Eungi noona believed in you ㅠㅠㅠ]
[Oppa you must have suffered so much!]
[I knew it couldn’t be true]
Eungi put yellow hearts on all the posts instead of long sentences. He said it was his favorite color. Eungi, who had completely regained his energy, took the members to a grilled clam restaurant as if to apologize for not showing his wealth until now. It was a restaurant that Park Kyeongho had opened.
“Kyeongho and I are really friends, please believe me!”
Eungi filmed a vlog to promote the restaurant of the friend he’d contacted after a long time, and every time a clam opened its mouth wide, Ryu Geon asked Kyeongho.
“You’re really friends with Eungi, right?”
“You never hit Eungi, right?”
“Eungi really said he wanted to buy those sneakers for you?”
“I didn’t hit him. This is unfair.”
“Hyung, Kyeongho really didn’t hit me. I wanted to buy them for him, so I bought them.”
And that scene was captured entirely in Eungi’s vlog, becoming material for a post that Hayeon would screenshot stitch by stitch and upload with the title ‘BNCZ Member Relationships’. There was a slight crisis, but everything was going smoothly.
“Ah, I’m full. Right?”
On the way back after eating enough that the smell of sea salt came up from their throats, Jion looked at his colleagues walking ahead with a smile, then turned to Seonwoo Jin and asked. Seonwoo Jin was by Jion’s side as if it were natural today as well.
“Yeah. Right. It was delicious.”
“Eungi’s friend is amazing. He said his family was struggling financially, but he’s already started a business and established himself.”
“Right.”
“……I want us to establish ourselves quickly too.”
Jion looked up at the black sky and smiled slightly. The dream of performing on a year-end stage just once. Others might laugh at it saying what kind of dream is a mere year-end stage, not even a big dream like Billboard chart #1, but to Jion, who had failed without ever succeeding, it was a very precious and distant dream.
“……?”
At the sight of Jion looking up at the sky with a distant expression, Seonwoo Jin’s lips twitched as if to say something, but in the end, he couldn’t say what he was going to say and just grabbed Jion’s hand.
“What?”
“……I’ll definitely work hard……”
“Hm?”
“I’ll definitely work hard and make you succeed.”
We’re in the same group, so will us succeed if you alone work hard?
A cynical thought briefly crossed Jion’s worn-out heart, but Jion soon suppressed reason and was moved by Seonwoo Jin’s admirableness. Whether he’d come to his senses or this was his true nature, lately Seonwoo Jin seemed different from before regression in many ways. Like how he comforted Eungi and sorted out the situation, and also how he took care of him……
Jion unconsciously stared intently at Seonwoo Jin’s profile. Fortunately, it was dark night with the sun already set. If it had been just a bit brighter, Seonwoo Jin might have been caught with his reddened ears and expression frozen with tension. If that had happened, Jion might have thought awkwardly about the held wrist and released that hand.
“Let’s work hard!”
Jion still thought the subtle fluttering and pounding he felt toward Seonwoo Jin was a reaction coming from the unexpectedly reliable appearance from the unexpectedness he hadn’t anticipated and solely from his handsome face. So instead of pulling away his wrist that somehow felt hot, Jion carefully leaned his head against his shoulder then pulled away, acting cute. It was just an evening when he felt like doing that.
