Chapter 153

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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If I had to pick the person in this group who seemed the least likely to have a dating rumor, he would have been one of the top two, yet ‘dating’ was attached to his search term autocomplete.

“Take a look.”

Big Sejin, who had come to his senses, immediately urged me. I clicked on the search term ‘Seon Ahyun dating’.

The first post that appeared was this.

– After making that stuttering loser Seon Ahyun act like a decent human being, he’s already lost his head over a female idol? It’s only been a year since their debut lol. Impressive, get it together.

Primitive criticisms that I had seen on the surface back when was at its peak were attached to the shares.

It didn’t mean that fans’ jokes like ‘Seon Ahyun is dating me’ were trending, but that a real dating rumor had popped up from somewhere.

“Is there a summary post or something?”

“Wait a moment.”

I immediately accessed a portal site board where celebrity gossip was posted.

Sure enough, a familiar name was visible at number two.

[Is Seon Ahyun dating Dami from TwinT?]

“TwinT?”

A famous girl group whose activities hadn’t even overlapped with ours popped up.

‘I’ve never seen them anywhere except for year-end programs and award ceremonies.’

It was awkward just imagining Seon Ahyun asking for her number separately.

‘He certainly wouldn’t have the guts for that.’

I clicked on the title with a disgruntled expression.

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Don’t the places in the photos Seon Ahyun posted on TeSTAR’s account and the photos Dami posted on InHeart all overlap?

(Comparison Image)

The posting dates are similar and the captions are alike.

The sunglasses, bracelets, and watches they both wore recently all overlap.

(Comparison Image)

In an interview this year, Seon Ahyun suddenly said his ideal type was someone older, and Dami said her ideal type was someone younger.

And Seon Ahyun holding his phone in a recent self-produced content.

(Short GIF)

He’s constantly smiling and typing something for a long time. Doesn’t that look like someone who can be suspected of dating to anyone?

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The post, which had neatly attached detailed classifications of images, seemed plausible just by reading it, but of course, there were many gaps.

Because it was all pieced together.

‘The sunglasses and watches are probably all gifts from fans.’

Bae Sejin had gotten angry and told him to just go to sleep because Seon Ahyun was opening them for four hours on the night of his birthday.

‘As for the phone, Seon Ahyun always sends long messages, so that’s why he holds it for a long time.’

The interview was the same. It was nothing more than putting together circumstances.

However… a few things from that pieced-together circumstantial evidence appeared in the comments and were quite unsettling.

– All those scenery photos Seon Ahyun uploaded are at places that aren’t on TeSTAR’s schedule lol. Why did he go there alone?

– Gasp, the uncle of Dami is an executive at that cosmetics company where Seon Ahyun filmed a solo commercial… Ah, I have a bad feeling.

– I don’t know about anything else, but it’s so transparent how they give each other signals on SNS lol.

Whether it was the post or the comments, the number of downvotes relative to the number of upvotes was quite high at about half, but the problem was that a huge number of upvotes had been attached.

It meant that this rumor was plausible.

“…….”

“…….”

Big Sejin and I looked through the comments in silence for a while.

Big Sejin spoke first.

“Should we tell him?”

“Not to him directly. It would be better to tell the company though.”

“Hmm, I guess so, right? Let’s not show it to Ahyun.”

Rather than making him have useless thoughts ahead of the comeback, it was better to just probe whether he was acquainted with this girl just in case.

But this implicit agreement was broken in the very next moment.

“W-what……?”

“……!”

Looking back, Seon Ahyun was holding a handful of chocolate bars.

I didn’t know that he would be walking around saying he would give something again.

“…No,”

“D-did I do something wrong…?”

“N-no! There’s no way! We were just joking around between us~!”

“B-but, you said you’d tell the company.”

“…….”

“…….”

In the end, Seon Ahyun got to hear about the current dating rumor situation, which had been euphemistically refined.

“Ahyun, they’re asking if you’re dating by any chance?”

“Wh-wh-what?!”

As we were giving a blunt briefing in the dance practice room, before long, the rest of the guys naturally joined the conversation.

“…There are really many people with nothing to do. Are you really dating?”

Bae Sejin asked grumpily. Seon Ahyun was terrified.

“N-no…!”

“Then do you know this lady?”

“I-I don’t know her…?”

“Then could we ask where all these photos were taken by any chance?”

“That…….”

Seon Ahyun’s face turned slightly red.

“O-on the way to counseling, when I felt like it occasionally… I-I took photos of the roadside and stuff.”

“Oh… that’s nice.”

“You did well.”

A few awkward praises poured out.

Yes. Enjoying spare time was naturally a good thing, but the problem was that the situation had become terribly twisted.

And a picture of why it turned out like this roughly emerged.

‘…I guess that side also receives counseling in the same place.’

The most likely circumstance was that the female idol who had the dating rumor with Seon Ahyun also received counseling there.

‘Since those were photos taken on the way to or from counseling on that side too, the attached captions would have been similar.’

It was a bit of a sensitive personal matter, so it was hard to talk about it though.

‘On top of that, did it end up in this state because a solo commercial happened to be involved?’

In fact, being ‘the daughter of the niece of a director of the advertiser company’ was a distant acquaintance through several people, but since it was written as one connection, it looked plausible and was a problem.

It was likely even more so because there had been quite a few cases where dating actually started through such acquaintances.

“W-will it grow into a big deal…? T-that I’m sorry for causing a misunderstanding… An apology or an explanation letter……”

“It won’t grow. Don’t post anything.”

“No, it’s not even true, so what kind of apology is it, Ahyun?!”

In any case, such dating rumors with only circumstances and no evidence would roughly stir up SNS or communities and then fizzle out.

An excuse was highly likely to become a self-inflicted wound instead.

‘Because it looked suspicious.’

Furthermore, on the day it was revealed that he was going to the same place for counseling as the person in the dating rumor, the controversy would have been inflated as much as the excuse had worked.

Pretending not to know was the right answer.

‘However, the problem was that people who actually believe it would also appear.’

Because the circumstances were plausible, it was bad for an atmosphere like ‘It seems true that Ahyun is dating, but let’s let it slide’ to circulate under the surface of the fandom.

This was because a compensation mentality would then arise in some people.

Things like, ‘I let even this kind of thing about you slide, so you can’t even do this?’

And Seon Ahyun was the type who was weak to guilt and conscious of others. If such opinions jumped to the surface, he was perfect to be dragged around.

He was doing that even then.

“B-but… I-I think there will be people who are worried.”

“Ahyun, if you react to such rumors, they’ll be even more worried instead.”

“W-will they?”

Ryu Chungwoo’s words were right.

It was best if Seon Ahyun could just brush it off and move on with ‘It was nonsense~’ without making a separate comment.

‘…The problem was, the method was ambiguous.’

If other members suddenly uploaded photos taken at the same location with Seon Ahyun right now, wouldn’t that be like shouting ‘I was conscious of the dating rumor’?

There would definitely be people who would counter that the company made them do it.

‘Should I attack the source instead?’

But no matter how dirty the source was, it didn’t work well in such gossip related to dating. Because it wasn’t an ethical issue.

‘Hmm. Is it best to take it now… and mix and post various things after manipulating the photo time a bit?’

Occasionally, when daily photos turned out okay, he would bundle them and post them on SNS; if he slipped it in while posting them as if it were nothing, there would be people who would discover it.

Of course, the problem was whether he could avoid getting caught.

I pondered the method a bit carefully. It was because I wanted to cleanly brush it off and make a comeback if possible.

“I-I’m sorry. Because of me……”

“Why is this because of you? It’s just that they caught something, so don’t worry about it.”

“Moondae is right, Ahyun. Don’t worry too much.”

At Ryu Chungwoo’s words, I shrugged my shoulders.

“If necessary, I’ll just manipulate the photos.”

“……! Th-that’s….”

“Oh~ right. Moondae wouldn’t get caught!”

Don’t encourage me. I just said it to reassure Seon Ahyun.

But before such an extreme thing happened, the hand of resolution came from somewhere else.

Big Sejin, who was swiping through his smartphone, made a fuss.

“Hey hey, something popped up in the comments.”

“What is it?”

I checked the latest comment on the phone screen that Big Sejin held out.

– lol you idiots, take a look at Dami’s InHeart. Ugh, acting like you were hooked.

(Capture)

I took PDFs of all the sexual harassment posts about Dami. Yeah, let’s have the malicious commenters receive financial treatment~

The attached capture was a photo of Dami playing around with a man at the location of the photo used in the dating rumor.

– Family dinner out? My handsome younger brother.

Along with a caption like this.

‘I got it for free.’

It was virtually over.

It didn’t matter even if she was conscious of the dating rumor. Since it was private life with her family, it would be hard to say it was a company response.

Furthermore, upon checking the original… the date on the metadata also matched.

I nodded my head.

“It’ll subside quickly.”

Then, the tension on the members’ faces vanished.

“Ha, it’s done.”

“Thank you, Dami-sunbaenim.”

“Th-thank you…!”

Seon Ahyun, don’t you even think about conveying that gratitude directly.

“Thank you. F-for worrying together……”

“Don’t mention it!”

“That’s a relief, Ahyun.”

I waved my hand at Seon Ahyun’s gratitude and checked the photo of the two on Big Sejin’s smartphone screen once more.

‘…Hmm, it’s a face I’ve seen somewhere.’

Coincidentally, Big Sejin acted as if he knew.

“Ah, this guy is one of those. Ribbon Chicken?”

“Yeah.”

Ah, that guy was right.

The younger brother of Dami captured in the photo was the guy I had faced in the finals of .

The member of the Gold 1 group.

The name… I don’t remember. To be honest, I don’t think his singing skills were that impressive either.

‘Even coming to the finals was a stroke of luck.’

However, Cheongryeo’s advice did come to mind.

– That group was doing well. Keep them in mind.

“……Hmm.”

From songs to such minor buzz, it seemed like… these guys were subtly lucky.

I reached a conclusion at an appropriate level.

‘Let’s keep in contact with their composer.’

Buying them out right away was going too far.

While I was organizing my thoughts like that, Cha Yujin’s unexpected voice was suddenly heard.

“But why can’t we date?”

“Eh??”

Everyone froze.

“You… want to date!?”

“Yes! Hyung, do you hate dating??”

“Ah, no… well.”

Bae Sejin stuttered. Well, it was indeed a strange thing to specifically hate dating.

Cha Yujin’s words probably had a similar context.

‘It’s not that he likes someone specific, but that he wants to date if the opportunity comes.’

Of course, as much as he had training experience in an agency, that guy also knew the reality.

“I know it’s not allowed! But I don’t know the reason……”

“Hmm……”

It was a very difficult subject to explain.

In fact, rather than the problem of dating itself, the problem was that in an occupation where ‘not dating’ was established as the normal state, if one dated while making it obvious, it was interpreted as a signal of ‘I want to date rather than do idol activities’…….

“Th-the fans don’t like it!”

“…!”

What was with that guy that day.

Seon Ahyun shouted again with a bright red face.

“Th-there are fans who think of you as their boyfriend…!”

“Why?”

“Uh, uh….”

Big Sejin stepped in with a broad smile.

“Because you’re handsome~!”

“Aha!”

Cha Yujin nodded with a face that looked as if everything had become clear.

“Okay. I won’t!”

“…….”

I wondered if it was okay to jump to a conclusion like that… but.

‘I don’t know either.’

It worked, so it was fine.

That day, Cha Yujin posted on SNS, ‘Am I your boyfriend?’

He was blocking his own path to dating on his own.

And another week later.

The music video teaser for this TeSTAR album was released.

However, the length was as much as 8 minutes.