Chapter 23: Unexpected Target

Having safely finished the music show broadcast, they arrived at the dorm.

Perhaps because everyone had been so tense, they all fell sound asleep in the car.

“Hyung, hurry up and finish washing! I’m last!”

“Yeah~”

Since there was only one bathroom, they played rock-paper-scissors to decide the turn to wash up.

Feeling unusually lucky today, Jemin took 1st place among the 5 members.

It bothered him that he couldn’t do fan service after finishing the broadcast.

While showering, he thought he should upload something before going to bed.

Coming out while shaking his wet hair thoroughly with a towel, he made eye contact with Woohyeong, who was next in line.

“I’ll come out quickly, so wait.”

“I already washed up though?”

Jemin couldn’t understand what on earth Woohyeong was saying.

Anxious feelings crept in, wondering if he had something to say.

Jemin shook his head.

He would just let it go in one ear and out the other anyway, so there was no need to borrow trouble in advance.

“Should I watch today’s stage video?”

Following the event fancam, he wanted to hear that the stage fancam blew up as well.

He was confident because all the members worked hard enough to hear those kinds of words on today’s stage.

Jemin entered the video streaming site.

As expected, the view count was quite high.

“Huh? Why are there so many dislikes?”

Except for the bizarre title music video, the proportion of dislikes on other videos hadn’t even exceeded 3%.

However, today’s stage video didn’t just have a similar proportion of likes and dislikes; there were actually more dislikes.

Jemin instinctively felt that something had blown up.

“Could what Jeong Woohyeong was trying to say be…”

Jemin pressed a hand to his forehead, thinking Woohyeong must have made a slip of the tongue or acted inappropriately.

Handling this kind of clean-up was usually the responsibility of Yoonbin or Jemin.

Even if they managed to slide by muddling through last time by luck, this was the second time.

He would definitely get dragged back into previous incidents and take twice as much criticism.

Jemin thought he should figure out what was going on first, so he entered the comment section.

The comment section was already overflowing.

• Let’s make it Ending instead of Anding lol

• How long has it been since debut to rebel against a senior? In Korea, character controversy is what ruins you, and this is already the second time lol

• You didn’t even blow up that much, but look at you changing right after getting just that little bit of fame lol

• If you’re going to be like this, why did you name him as a role model?

• Receiving that kind of treatment from kids like this, even I would lament…

Looking closely at the comments, it seemed related to PPP.

Jemin couldn’t guess a single thing.

On a video uploaded less than a day ago, PPP fans swarmed in.

At the over a thousand malicious comments, Jemin’s heart beat rapidly.

Biting his fingernails, he felt it wasn’t an ordinary big deal.

• Is something going on?

  └ Three-line summary:

1. Ryu Seong did a Fan Live just now and shared a story about being ignored by a junior.

2. But he said it was a member who picked him as a role model.

3. By logical assumption, everyone is attacking Yu Jemin.

Scrolling down, Jemin opened his eyes wide at an unexpected comment.

“Not Jeong Woohyeong, but me?”

Although it was a mean thing to say to Woohyeong, he naturally thought if a controversy arose, it would be because of Woohyeong.

Not only was that not the case, but to think a huge mess broke out because of himself—it was unbelievable.

“When did I ever ignore…”

If anything, he was the one being ignored; he had never ignored anyone.

Feeling suffocated, Jemin searched for Ryu Seong’s Fan Live video.

Could it be that people misunderstood and made a mountain out of a molehill? That couldn’t be.

Jemin reflected on today’s events to see if he had failed to control his facial expressions, but he hadn’t done a single thing to get caught out on.

“Ah~ Winning 1st place today? Of course I’m thankful~ To be honest, I was feeling depressed thinking if it was really time for me to step down now. I heard words from a junior who picked me as a role model that treated me kind of lightly. So I wondered… ‘Do I look like a has-been?’ But our 3Ps proved PPP’s healthiness once again, so I’m the one who’s thankful. Yes? Who is it? Ah~ I can’t really tell you that… Please don’t look for them! Yes. Since that friend is full of ambition, he must have made a mistake like that. Would he say things like ‘I’ll overtake you’ on purpose?”

Ryu Seong’s words could be true.

Some junior might have said they would surpass Ryu Seong.

However, at least that person was not Jemin.

“It wasn’t me!”

Jemin had acted like a passionate fan of Ryu Seong and treated him with max-level social skills.

Feeling suffocated, Jemin wailed and clutched his hair.

1. Male idol junior.

2. Full of ambition.

3. Named Ryu Seong as a role model.

4. Looking at today’s conversation, seems like someone whose schedule overlapped today.

However, the person who satisfied these four conditions happened to be nobody but Jemin.

The situation was the same in other communities outside the video site.

HIT! [The #1 Two-Faced Idol.jpg (Comments 999+)]

HIT! [Idol who called him a role model senior to his face, but called him a has-been behind his back .yjm (Comments 999+)]

HIT! [The group currently in controversy also had a fan-hatred controversy (Comments 999+)]

Ryu Seong’s ‘backstabbing junior’ had already been assigned to Jemin as the subject.

On top of that, Woohyeong’s previous fan-hatred controversy was reignited, and the group was taking heat to the point of being virtually buried.

• Hul, crazy, I just saw it now, but when they announced 1st place and gave the bouquet, doesn’t he seem to glare a bit?

• Right, f*ck lol He must’ve thought he’d take 1st place

• F*ck … Guys, protect Ryu Seong

They even laid out a board to openly attack Jemin with malicious screenshots.

They even brought up the interview where Jemin had named him as a role model, showing a overheated pattern.

• You don’t even know if it’s Yu Jemin or not; let’s stay quiet

  └ Blindly covering things up has its limits lol

  Are you really lacking learning ability? Acting like this, you’re going to delete your comments like crazy if it turns out false

  └ Yeah, next Jem-stan

Occasional opinions stating that the situation should be viewed objectively also came up, but PPP’s fans pretending to be the general public silenced them.

• Don’t you know even after seeing Jeong Woohyeong’s fan-hatred lol 4ever is a group formed without looking at character lol It’s obvious

• I’m telling you, Seo Eunhan isn’t pure, he’s just thoughtless lol

• Is James a black-haired foreigner? Isn’t that bastard going to the military?

• Doesn’t Yoonbin’s muscle look like he bulked up on drugs?

Seeing the arrows of criticism pointing not just at himself but at the members as well, Jemin broke into a cold sweat.

His heart thudded wildly and his hands trembled violently.

If he had actually done something wrong, he would apologize cleanly, but since that wasn’t the case, it was driving him crazy.

“Jemin-hyung! Did you see? What on earth is this?”

“No, it’s so absurd. Hyung only greeted him politely.”

Eunhan and Yoonbin also seemed to have grasped the situation, entering through Jemin’s room door.

“They’re completely fighting right now. It’s scary.”

James spoke, pointing at his phone screen.

“I’d rather he just revealed the name so I could say it’s not me…”

Because Ryu Seong vaguely lumped it together in the first place, Jemin couldn’t even say ‘It’s not me’ here.

Doing so would rather add fuel to reporting it as news.

Right now, articles were pulled with headlines like <Who Ryu Seong?! ignored is junior the who> without a clear subject, but if Jemin opened his mouth, it would change.

First of all, Jemin’s name as well as the team name would be attached to articles and appear on entertainment news, and then things would become way too big.

“First, we should ask to talk through the agency.”

Jemin lost his mind due to being caught up in a headache-inducing matter.

Even so, he had no confidence.

Unless Ryu Seong’s side said it wasn’t Jemin, it was a situation where he would be criticized as an established fact.

“Hyung did nothing wrong and has a clear conscience, so it’ll work out well.”

Yoonbin patted Jemin’s shoulder.

“Is Woohyeong-hyung not even worried about Jemin-hyung? He’s cold-hearted.”

Woohyeong was nowhere to be seen, having slipped away.

Eunhan clicked his tongue, saying Woohyeong didn’t even say a word when such an incident happened to his own group member.

“Looks like Woohyeong-hyung is still washing up.”

Jemin had no capacity to feel hurt about who cared for him or not.

He was busy trying to figure out how to navigate through this crisis somehow.

CluelessNiti @everlasting4evereternity

Isn’t he checking them because he almost lost 1st place to Ryu Seong? How can you believe someone just running their mouth lol

│

PurPaPur @PerfectPowerfulPerformance

PPP Award Records:

23rd Popular Culture K-POP Idol Category Rookie Award

17th Integrated Music and Album Awards Singer of the Year

47th Hallyu K-wave Male Idol Category Grand Prize

…and 32 other cases

Why would RS lie over a mere domestic music show 1st place?

Ah, your 4ever who hasn’t even won 1st place yet might do that lol

In the worsening situation, Jemin felt like he should contact Ryu Seong-Senior even through his personal SNS.

[Hello, Ryu Seong-Senior! I am 4ever’s Jemin.

First, I wanted to speak to you directly, but I apologize for inevitably sending a message like this.

Reason being, among Senior’s Fan Live video currently, I am contacting you wondering if the junior mentioned who looked down on you and said they would surpass you might be me.

In my memory, I have never said such a thing, but was there any part among the words or actions I did today that made you feel bad? If there is any part where your feelings were hurt by my words, I want to apologize directly.

However, as much as I named Senior as my role model, I have never looked down on Senior or spoken in that manner as mentioned in the Fan Live.

Since I am currently being misunderstood as that person, I am sending a message despite it being late at night.

Thank you.]

Jemin hesitated whether to send this lengthy message he had written.

Even though he had done nothing wrong, it felt like if he didn’t even do this, he would just end up taking all the blame.

“Why is this bastard at a time like this…”

Just at the moment he was about to press send, a notification rang.

Woohyeong uploaded a video to the official account.

He wouldn’t post when asked to normally.

Because Woohyeong uploaded without even reading the room when he should be keeping a low profile, Jemin’s head hurt twice as much.

“This guy probably doesn’t even know what situation I’m in right now.”

Even without this, PPP’s fandom had swarmed 4ever’s recent posts and was throwing a fit.

Uploading something new here was no different from placing a target marker.

[#Woohyeong Mad Music Behind V-log]

Belatedly checking the title of the video Woohyeong uploaded, Jemin jumped up from his seat.

“Wait a second, Jeong Woohyeong, don’t tell me.”