Debut or Die

“Hyung, are you okay?”

“Sejin, let’s see your ankle.”

“…”

Lee Sejin looked at his ankle with a pale face, and eventually clenched his teeth and pulled his pants to check its condition.

His ankle was swollen.

‘…This isn’t good.’

The injury was confirmed.

“…!”

“I-It’s all right! I-It’s a little swollen, but… I-If you go straight to the hospital…”

Seon Ahyeon looked at the ankle and shouted urgently. As a dance major, he seemed to have some knowledge of ankle injuries.

“Yes, Sejin, sit down for now. Let’s call our manager and go to the emergency room right away.”

“…Yes.”

Lee Sejin sat down in a chair in the corner of the dance room with Ryu Chungwoo’s stable support.

And shortly afterward, he left for the hospital with the manager who had been contacted.

“G-Go together…”

“No!! …You can’t delay the practice because of me. I’ll be back.”

Lee Sejin strongly refused to be accompanied and left the dance practice room with the help of the two managers.

“I hope it’s not a big deal.”

“I hope so too.”

“I-It’s not that swollen… I-It will be fine.”

Since it was just a fall, everyone resumed practice again, thinking that it wouldn’t be a major injury.

However, it was only after the dance practice was over that Lee Sejin returned.

Besides, he wasn’t alone.

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

“…”

“Yeah? I’ll come often.”

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

“Is that so~? Then this dad can come in and take care of it. You don’t have to refuse.”

“…It’s fine.”

Lee Sejin was being supported by a middle-aged man, but looking at the man’s face, it seemed he was his father.

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

(TL note: I feel the need to explain. The real word used here is Korean slang for a rude customer. I figured I should use the English equivalent to fit the context more.)

‘…?’

“Ah, our Sejin’s friends~ I am Sejin’s dad!”

“Ah, sir. Hello.”

“Hello!”

“What do you mean with sir~ When I go out with Sejin, people think I’m his eldest brother.”

“Haha, you look young.”

Keun Sejin cut him off while receiving the conversation.

Then Ryu Chungwoo continued with a smile.

“Thank you for taking Sejin home. We have to film the dorm now…”

“Ah, I’ll sit there quietly! Keep filming~”

“…”

Ryu Chungwoo looked a little at loss.

I checked Lee Sejin’s expression.

It wasn’t embarrassment or bashfulness for introducing rude parents, but more like fatigue and shame that appeared and disappeared quickly.

‘…It seems he’s really a Karen?’

Keun Sejin waved his hand to Lee Sejin’s father.

“Ei~ Sejin’s father, we’ll have to formally invite you next time. Is it okay to treat a member’s parents like this? We will prepare and get back to you!”

“You don’t have to do that~ I’ll be gone after a while. It’s because I’m having a hard time supporting him.”

In other words, there was only one way to get rid of him.

I hurriedly went into my room and returned with something.

“Sejin’s father, you must have worked hard, so come in and eat comfortably.”

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

“…! Aigoo~ I’m not the kind of person who accepts things like this. Hmm? I didn’t mean to ask for something like this.”

The middle-aged man quickly took the red ginseng while saying obvious things. I nodded obediently.

“Of course. You want to see the dorm where your son is staying. I am glad and sorry that you can’t do that due to our schedule.”

“Okay~ Hn? You’re the friend who won first place, right? The friend Sejin picked. Yeah, very reliable. Sejin, hurry up and say thank you.”

“…”

“Oh, it’s time for our manager to come because of our filming. Get home safe.”

“…Mm, yes, I’m off~ I’ll be back soon.”

Lee Sejin’s father glanced at Lee Sejin, then slowly opened the door and left.

“…”

Lee Sejin lowered his head.

“That, y-you have to sit down…”

When Seon Ahyeon approached, Lee Sejin reflexively waved his hand and swung it away.

“…!”

Fortunately, Seon Ahyeon avoided his hand. And Lee Sejin was horrified.

“I… I’m sorry!!!”

“I-It’s all right!”

What a mess.

In any case, Lee Sejin glanced at his room and looked as though he wanted to want to run away, but instead of running away, as if recalling past experiences, he went to the sofa in the living room and sat down.

‘…It could be that it’s just difficult getting to his room because of his legs.’

Because he was wearing a half-cast.

Anyway, thanks to that, an atmosphere to talk was created.

“…Is that your father?”

“…Yeah.”

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

“Then, where did the manager hyung go and your parents come from?”

“…There was a problem, and it seemed the manager contacted him on the way in a hurry.”

Originally, the manager would rather have contacted someone from another company, but it seemed he contacted the parents because the second manager who came in later was a newcomer.

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

“Is your ankle okay?”

“-! T-That’s right, ankle!”

“How long do you think it will take to recover?”

“…It wasn’t a big deal. I just have to be careful for a few weeks.”

“Hmm, they fixed it a little too well for that.”

“I overdid it on purpose. …because I want to get better soon.”

A few members raised their thumbs.

Mostly the minors.

“Hyung…”

“So cool!”

Only then did Lee Sejin’s expression loosen.

And, as if a little embarrassed, he spoke with a faint smile.

“…I’ll make sure I don’t bother the group.”

“Ei~”

Lee Sejin’s smile darkened slightly.

“……I won’t let Father come either. Don’t worry.”

“…”

It was so ambiguous.

‘That’s what family affairs are like.’

It wasn’t the kind of thing to ask for it in a group situation like this.

“… ? Wouldn’t it be fine if he comes?”

…I forgot that Kim Raebin was here. It seemed he didn’t notice the strange atmosphere that had flowed earlier.

At Raebin Kim’s question, Lee Sejin became embarrassed and began to stutter like a sea cucumber spitting out its intestines.

“That… This dorm is spacious, he might insist on staying here.”

“Then tell the company and get permission…”

“…Don’t! He has bad hand habits… Anyway, he’s not a good person to be with.”

Lee Sejin looked like he didn’t even know why he was talking about this.

And he quickly finished talking.

“…Anyway, I won’t let him come, so you don’t have to worry about it. T-That’s it.”

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

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

“…”

“Hmm, well… His ankle seems to be okay, shall we go to bed now?”

“Let’s do that for now.”

Idling around, everyone got up from their seats at Keun Sejin’s arrangement.

“Eugene, don’t watch Netfler and go to sleep.”

“I don’t want to…”

Cha Eugene, who was playing Netfler in the living room, turned off the TV depressedly at Ryu Chungwoo’s words and trudged into his room.

“…Um.”

Netfler. It reminded me of Lee Sejin crying in his bed a while ago.

‘It wasn’t Netfler… No way, was it because of his father?’

…I hoped it wasn’t an issue.

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

I headed to the room feeling uncomfortable.

Then I made eye contact with Lee Sejin, who was struggling to put his half-cast leg on top of the hamster body pillow.

“…”

“…”

Lee Sejin looked embarrassed and averted his gaze.

‘I’ll pretend I didn’t see it.’

I went to bed pretending to look at my smartphone and sat down.

Then, Lee Sejin started talking.

“…I’m sorry. Take my red ginseng.”

Oh, it’s about that. I nodded.

“Yes. I will eat well.”

“Alright.”

As soon as the room was about to sink into a peaceful silence, Lee Sejin, who was checking something, hurriedly continued.

“B-But I already opened it and ate one or two. I’ll buy you a new one, so take this.”

“…? It’s all right. I’ll just eat it. Well.”

“…Huft.”

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

.

Lee Sejin muttered as he looked at his cast pressing down on the hamster.

“Why do I keep… being a burden?”

“There’s no such thing.”

“…Anyway, I’ll pull myself together this time, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“…Yes.”

Turning his head, Lee Sejin looked at his smartphone. His eyes seemed to be burning with determination.

Are you watching the dance video?

‘…Well, passion is good.’

It’s good to have motivation. Just don’t ask me for it.

I turned off my smartphone and put on earplugs.

The last thing I checked was Lee Sejin, who was staring at his smartphone with a serious face.

Somehow, the scene of him holding his smartphone and crying overlapped.

‘…Could it be that he’s trying to solve the issue regarding his father?’

It was often seen on the Internet bulletin board looking for cider, but in reality, family-related problems were not likely to be solved so easily.

‘Well… It’s even funnier coming from me.’

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

However, Lee Sejin seemed to be looking at his smartphone for quite a while this time as well.

* * *

A few days later, I was on my way back from the last meeting with the collab game <127 Section>.

I heard that the game production team was so excited to see the trailer that projected their own work.

Consequently… I received this result.

“Wow, they modified it to make them look like us.”

“This is totally me!”

“I have a mole on my cheek…”

Some of the external characteristics of Testar members were lightly reflected in the appearance of the initial characters.

– No, I didn’t fix everything, I just tweaked it a little in the materials we had.

– What do you think? It totally reminds me of the trailer! Especially, Lee Sejin’s rimless glasses! We unanimously revised it right away

…Well, it was mostly like that.

By the way, I heard that my character had changed from double eyelids to inner double eyelids, I’m sorry, but…I don’t know the difference.

“Huft~ It’s fun and difficult.”

“We can do it!”

“Let’s do our best!”

The music video was released a few days later. The schedule became busier, but even with the heavy workload, the feeling of ‘doing well’ was definitely addictive.

Thanks to this, all of Testar members had happy faces. And this included Lee Sejin.

Looking somewhat relieved, Lee Sejin exchanged conversations with Ryu Chungwoo with a fairly relaxed face.

His leg injury seemed to be recovering well, and I thought it would be nice for things to go smoothly until the comeback like this…

The incident happened on the way out of the company.

“Lee Sejin! Come here, huh?!”

“…!”

A familiar middle-aged man was sitting in front of the lobby at the back door of the company and jumped up when he saw Lee Sejin.

Of course, it was Lee Sejin’s father.

Lee Sejin’s face turned blue.

‘F*ck.’

Fortunately, the two managers blocked him right away.

“Sejin’s father, you can’t do this!”

“Calm down!”

“Let go! People these days are f*cking rude! Oh! You’re so oppressing!!!”

Lee Sejin’s father faltered when the bulky manager blocked him, but he pointed his finger until the end as he was dragged away.

“I won’t leave you alone! This unfilial child will receive retribution!”

“…”

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

But after a while, a more tumultuous situation occurred.