Chapter 104

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Hyung, are you okay?”

“Sejin-ah, let’s take a look at your ankle.”

“……”

Lee Sejin looked at his ankle with a pale face, then eventually grit his teeth and rolled up his pants to check the condition.

The ankle was swelling up.

‘…This isn’t good.’

For now, an injury was confirmed.

“……!”

“I-It’s okay! I-It’s swollen a bit, but…… if we go to the hospital right away……”

Seon Ahyun looked at the ankle and shouted urgently. Being a dance major, he seemed to have some knowledge about ankle injuries.

“Yeah, Sejin-ah, sit down for now. Let’s contact the manager hyung and go to the emergency room right away.”

“……Okay.”

With Ryu Chungwoo’s steady support, Lee Sejin sat on a chair in the corner of the dance studio.

And not long after, he left for the hospital with the manager who arrived after being contacted.

“I-I’ll go with—”

“No!! …The practice shouldn’t be delayed because of me. I’ll be back.”

Lee Sejin adamantly refused to have anyone accompany him and left the dance studio supported by two managers.

“I hope it’s not a big deal.”

“Me too.”

“I-It didn’t swell that much, so… i-it’ll be okay.”

Since it was just a fall, everyone guessed it wouldn’t be a major injury and resumed practice.

However, it was after the choreography practice time had completely passed that Lee Sejin returned.

Furthermore, he wasn’t alone.

“Ah~ So this is our Sejin’s dorm? It’s nice!”

“……”

“Oh? I’ll come often, then.”

“…Because of the schedule, I’m hardly at the dorm.”

“Is that so~? Then this father can come in and manage it for you. You don’t have to be humble.”

“……It’s fine.”

Lee Sejin was being supported by a middle-aged man, and just by their facial features, they looked like father and son.

However, the conversation smelled like a convenience store part-timer and a drunken nuisance.

‘……?’

“Ah, these must be our Sejin’s friends~ I’m Sejin’s father!”

“Ah, elder. Hello.”

“Hello!”

“What do you mean elder~ If I go out with Sejin, people would think I’m his big brother.”

“Haha, you look young for your age~”

Big Sejin cut in while receiving the conversation. Then Ryu Chungwoo smiled and continued.

“Thank you for bringing Sejin home. We have to film in the dorm now, so……”

“Ah, I’ll just sit over there quietly! Go ahead and film what you need to film~”

“……”

Ryu Chungwoo looked a bit troubled.

I checked Lee Sejin’s expression.

It wasn’t embarrassment or awkwardness about showing off an indiscreet parent; rather, exhaustion and a sense of shame were visible in patches before they quickly vanished.

‘…He’s definitely a nuisance, isn’t he?’

Big Sejin waved his hand at Lee Sejin’s father.

“Ayy~ Father, we should invite you formally next time. How can we treat a member’s parent so poorly? We’ll prepare and contact you again!”

“I told you there’s no need for that~ I’ll leave in a bit. It’s just that I’m tired from supporting him all the way here.”

If he spoke like that, there was only one way to get rid of him.

I quickly went into the room and came back with an object.

“Father, you must have had a hard time. Please take this and enjoy it comfortably.”

It was a red ginseng set received as a holiday gift from the company.

“…! Oh my~ I’m not someone who receives things like this. Hmm? I didn’t say that because I wanted something like this.”

While saying obvious things, the middle-aged man quickly took the red ginseng. I nodded my head obediently.

“Of course. It’s just your heart wanting to see the dorm where your son stays. We’re giving it to you because we’re happy and sorry that our schedule doesn’t allow for better hospitality.”

“Right~ Hmm? This friend is the one who took first place, right? The friend who picked Sejin. Uh, very reliable. Sejin-ah, hurry up and say thank you.”

“……”

“Ah, because of our filming, it’s about time for the manager hyung to come. Please return safely.”

“…Hmm, alright. I’ll be going now~ I’ll come back again soon.”

Lee Sejin’s father glanced back at Lee Sejin several times before slowly opening the door and leaving.

“……”

Lee Sejin was hanging his head.

“He-He, you should sit down……”

As Seon Ahyun approached, Lee Sejin reflexively swung his hand and brushed him off.

“……!”

Fortunately, Seon Ahyun avoided his hand. And Lee Sejin was startled.

“S-Sorry!!”

“I-It’s okay!”

What a mess.

Anyway, Lee Sejin looked as if he wanted to run away when he glanced at the room, but perhaps remembering past experiences, he went and sat on the living room sofa instead of running away.

‘…He might just find it hard to go to the room because his leg is uncomfortable.’

Since he was wearing a half-cast.

Anyway, thanks to that, an atmosphere for conversation was created.

“…Is that your father?”

“……Yeah.”

In the heavy atmosphere, Kim Raebin carefully raised his hand.

“By the way, where did the manager hyung go, and why did your parent end up coming?”

“…It seems he contacted him in a hurry while leaving because of some problem.”

Normally, he would have contacted someone else from the company instead, but it seemed the second manager, who joined recently and wasn’t familiar with things, had ended up contacting the parent.

And in the slightly heavy atmosphere, Cha Yujin asked the most important thing.

“Is your ankle okay?”

“…! That’s right, the ankle!”

“How long do they say it will take to recover?”

“……They said it’s no big deal. Just that I need to be careful for a week or two.”

“Hmm, for that, they fixed it quite properly.”

“They did it a bit excessively on purpose. …Because I said I wanted to get better quickly.”

A few members gave a thumbs up. Mostly the minors.

“Hyung……”

“Cool!”

Only then did Lee Sejin’s expression soften. And as if he were a bit embarrassed, he said with a faint smile.

“…I’ll make sure not to cause trouble for the group.”

“Ayy~”

Lee Sejin’s smile darkened slightly.

“……And, I’ll make sure my father can’t come either. Don’t worry.”

“……”

It was quite ambiguous.

‘That’s how family matters are.’

It wasn’t the kind of thing one could demand to be laid bare in a situation where everyone was sitting together like this.

“…? Isn’t it okay for him to come?”

…But I forgot that Kim Raebin was here. That guy seemed not to have noticed the strange atmosphere that flowed earlier.

At Kim Raebin’s question, Lee Sejin’s face became flustered, and like a sea cucumber spitting out its intestines, he began to release his story stammeringly.

“Well… since this dorm is spacious, he might persist on living here himself.”

“Then if you talk to the company and get permission……”

“…No! He has bad habits too…… anyway, he’s a person who brings no good from being together.”

Lee Sejin had a face that suggested he didn’t even know why he was telling such a story.

And he quickly finished speaking.

“…Anyway, I’ll make sure he can’t come, so you don’t have to worry. That, that’s it.”

Then he quickly stood up from the sofa and waddled back into the room.

The members remaining in the living room looked at each other blankly.

“……”

“Hmm, well… his ankle seems fine, and shall we go to sleep now, too?”

“Let’s do that for now.”

At Big Sejin’s organization, everyone stood up from their seats lingeringly.

“Yujin-ah~ Sleep instead of watching NetPlus.”

“I don’t want to……”

Cha Yujin, who was turning on NetPlus in the living room, gloomily turned off the TV at Ryu Chungwoo’s words and trudged into the room.

“……Hmm.”

NetPlus, huh. I remembered Lee Sejin burying his head in the bed and crying not long ago.

‘That wasn’t NetPlus… surely it wasn’t because of his father.’

……I hope it’s not this problem if possible.

Not only was it difficult to solve, but I didn’t know what would happen to Lee Sejin’s paper-like mental health.

I headed to the room with an uneasy feeling.

And I locked eyes with Lee Sejin, who was struggling to place his leg in a half-cast on top of a hamster body pillow.

“……”

“……”

Whether he was embarrassed, Lee Sejin quickly avoided my gaze.

‘Let’s pretend not to see.’

I went and sat on the bed, pretending to look at my smartphone.

Then, Lee Sejin was the one to speak first.

“…Hey, I’m sorry. Take my red ginseng.”

Ah, it was because of that. I nodded my head.

“Yes. I’ll eat it well.”

“Okay.”

Just as the room was about to fall into a peaceful silence, Lee Sejin, who was rustling and checking something, hurriedly continued.

“……Well, but I opened it and ate one or two. I’ll buy a new one, so take that.”

“…? It’s fine. I’ll just eat what’s there. Whatever.”

“……Whew.”

I heard Lee Sejin let out a long sigh. It sounded more like embarrassment or futility than relief.

Lee Sejin muttered while looking at his cast pressing down on the hamster.

“Why do I keep… being a burden.”

“There wasn’t anything in particular like that.”

“……Anyway, I’ll do it properly this time, so you don’t have to worry.”

“…Yes.”

Glancing over, I saw Lee Sejin looking at his smartphone. Both of his eyes looked as if they were burning with a strong will.

Is he watching a choreography video?

‘…Well, passion is good.’

It was a good thing that he had motivation. He just shouldn’t have demanded it of me.

I turned off my smartphone and put on earplugs.

The last thing I checked was Lee Sejin looking into his smartphone with a serious face.

Somehow, the scene of him clutching his smartphone and sobbing overlapped.

‘…Surely he wasn’t saying he would solve the problem with his father.’

You see that often on internet boards looking for a refreshing ending, but family-related problems in reality didn’t seem like they would be solved so easily.

‘Well… it’s even more ridiculous for me to add words when he says he’s got it.’

Wasn’t it strange for a person without a family to give advice? I decided to just sleep.

But Lee Sejin seemed to be looking into his smartphone for quite a long time this time as well.

* * *

A few days later, I was on my way back after finishing the last meeting with the collaboration game .

I heard that the game production team was so excited after seeing the trailer that they created work on their own.

As a result… I received results like this.

“Wow, they modified them to look a bit like us.”

“This is totally me!”

“A mole has appeared on my cheek….”

They lightly reflected a few physical characteristics of the TeStar members in the initial appearance of the characters.

– No, it’s not like we overhauled everything, we just modified them a bit within the materials we have~
– How is it? It really reminds you of the trailer, doesn’t it!! Especially Lee Sejin-ssi’s rimless glasses! That really went into modification work immediately with a unanimous vote!

…Well, it was mostly like this.

For reference, they said my character’s double eyelids were changed to inner double eyelids, but sorry… I couldn’t tell much of a difference.

“Phew~ It’s fun but exhausting.”

“Let’s cheer up!”

“Let’s do our best!”

The music video reveal was just a few days away. The schedule had become busier, but the feeling of ‘things going well’ despite the pouring work was certainly addictive.

Thanks to that, everyone in TeStar, regardless of who it was, had a happy face. And this included Lee Sejin as well.

Lee Sejin, who had a somewhat relieved face, exchanged conversations with Ryu Chungwoo with a fairly comfortable expression.

It seemed that guy’s injured leg was also healing well, and I thought it would be good if things sailed smoothly until the comeback…….

The incident broke out on the way out of the company.

“Lee Sejin!! You, come here, huh?!”

“……!”

A middle-aged man I recognized had been sitting in front of the lobby by the company’s back door and jumped up when he saw Lee Sejin.

Naturally, it was Lee Sejin’s father.

Lee Sejin’s face turned deathly pale.

‘Shit.’

Fortunately, two managers immediately blocked him.

“Father, you shouldn’t do this!”

“Now, now, calm down!”

“Let go! These youngsters these days have no damn manners! Huh! Persecuting a person!!”

Although Lee Sejin’s father hesitated when blocked by a burly manager, he was dragged away while pointing his finger until the end.

“I won’t leave you alone, huh? You unfilial bastard who will be struck by lightning!”

“……”

The noisy lobby soon became quiet as Lee Sejin’s father was dragged out.

However, a more chaotic situation occurred a moment later.