Chapter 182

The very day I made up my mind to put out a statement.

The instant Kang Hajin got off the phone with Ji Suho, he was straight onto another call.

—Hello…?

"Lee Hyunil."

The person on the other end was Lee Hyunil — the same one he'd parted with a few hours earlier.

Cutting right to it, Hajin got to the point.

"Do you actually want to help me?"

—Huh?

"Are you actually going to help me. Spit it out, I don't have time."

—…ah. Y-yeah. I said that's why I came to find you, hyung.

At Hyunil's hurried answer, Hajin nodded and shot back briskly.

"Then do one interview. That's all. In exchange, I'll guarantee anonymity."

—An interview?

"Yeah. There's a recording of everything, so you just have to say what you said. I'll be in touch through the company for the details."

—…….

"If you can't do it, tell me now. So I can call someone else."

Lee Hyunil thought about it for a moment, then said yes, he'd do it. Satisfied with the answer, Hajin — jotting something down in his notebook — made one more request.

"And if you've got contact info for the other kids who got ostracized along with you by those guys, send them over. Even if they weren't ostracized — just the ones who were around back then."

—Ah. Yeah, got it. I'll text them to you.

"Cool."

Once he'd gotten that answer, Hajin was about to hang up.

Actually, he had been about to hang up. And this time, he'd meant to really cut every last tie with Hyunil.

But one tiny nail lodged in his chest kept snagging at him. In the end, right before hanging up, Hajin called Hyunil in a low voice.

"Hey."

—Yeah?

"…I get it."

—Get what…?

"I said I get it. Forgiveness — I don't know. But I get it."

This, then, was something twenty-nine-year-old Kang Hajin was saying — not twenty-year-old Kang Hajin.

Lee Hyunil had been, to Kang Hajin, a perpetrator and a bystander both — but at the same time, he'd also been another of Park Shinuk's victims.

Park Shinuk, the actual perpetrator, was probably sleeping soundly right about now, feet stretched out — and Hajin, himself a victim, didn't want to take that out on another victim like Lee Hyunil and dump his guilt on him.

"So from here on, don't do it again."

—…….

"If you really are sorry to me, and if what you went through with Park Shinuk was really that hard on you. From here on, don't hide behind another victim because you're afraid you'll get ostracized."

—…….

"Let's not do that. …I'm hanging up."

Without waiting for Lee Hyunil's answer, Kang Hajin ended the call, just like that.

From here on, what kind of person Lee Hyunil chose to live as was up to Lee Hyunil.

He could take this whole thing as a cautionary example and become a better person,

or he could stay trapped in fear, appointing himself the perpetrator again, and go on living that way.

Just the way Kang Hajin, after that day, had desperately tried to be a good person.

"Probably…. a few of the hyungs' KakaoTalk profiles are still around."

From middle school right up to now, Hajin had never once changed his phone number.

He'd switched phones once going into high school, but he'd kept all his contacts and accounts the same. Which meant unless someone had blocked or deleted his number the way Lee Hyunil had, his messenger should still have contacts for a few of the guys from his KD Ent days.

In the messenger list, Hajin spotted the name of a hyung who'd left the company before that happened — a hyung he'd stayed loosely in touch with even after leaving — and shot off a message straight into the chat.

@ me hyung long time ㅎ @ Seo Gureum ㅁㅊ it's kang hajin superstar. SUPERSTAR [flailing hype emoticon]

"This hyung hasn't changed."

At reconnecting with someone he'd known for what felt like a decade or more, Hajin let out a small laugh. Then, heart just a little unsteady, he kept typing.

@ me hyung i'm really really sorry to reach out out of nowhere after so long but do u mind if i ask you for a favor?

Kang Hajin had tried to be a good person — but what kind of person he actually was, that wasn't something he could decide on his own.

And that had to be true for Park Shinuk and Yu Gwangchae, too.

@ Seo Gureum this is about the yu gwangchae thing right? knew that sob would pull sth like this eventually what do u need anything except co-signing loans and organ donation

Alright, let's do this.

See who's lived their life a little more right.

Hajin's eyes shone brighter than they ever had.

---

The E-Spatch article set off a massive shockwave.

source: E-Spatch ◎ Timeline Scrambled, Cause and Effect Reversed 'Among the hyungs who trained with us, there really was one who quit trainee life and gave up on his idol dream because of conflict with Kang Hajin-hyung.' So claims the poster, Mr. B. According to the timeline this publication has put together, however, the facts don't quite line up. Kang Hajin's serious falling-out with the trainees came in September. In December of the same year, Kang Hajin dissolved his trainee contract with KD Entertainment. The 'trainee hyung' (hereafter Mr. C) left KD Entertainment in February of the following year. In July, KD Entertainment declared bankruptcy. From September onward, Kang Hajin and Mr. C had no further contact. And if the testimony of the other trainees is accurate, it's difficult to see how Kang Hajin could have posed any further threat to Mr. C. Additionally, per our reporting, after leaving KD Ent, Mr. C continued to audition at various entertainment companies, and even signed with a mid-sized agency where he resumed his trainee life. Kang Hajin, in contrast, did not set foot anywhere near the idol industry for nearly three years after leaving KD Entertainment. Until last year's Rene open audition — his springboard onto 'Miro Maze' — he showed no interest whatsoever in entertainment work. In fact, some of his academic high school classmates only learned he had been a trainee and idol hopeful in the first place through his appearance on 'Miro Maze.' (Interview with an academic high school classmate of Hajin's) …. So — of that 'hyung who quit trainee life and gave up on his idol dream over the conflict' — was it Mr. C, or was it Kang Hajin?

The article, mixing fact and dramatization to good effect, unfolded like the reveal of a hidden 'twist' in a mystery movie. People, staggered by this 'shocking fact,' were getting hooked.

title: [Kang Hajin E-Spatch article summary (fact-checked)] - 1. Kang Hajin verbally abused ppl → partly true. (Was doing the drill-sergeant thing, had some attitude issues. Kang Hajin himself admits it.) 2. Kang Hajin hit trainees and bossed them around → false. 3. There was a trainee who quit because of Kang Hajin → false. 4. Debut lineup fell apart because of Kang Hajin → false. ★ And additionally revealed in the E-spatch article: 1. The hyung supposedly forced out because of Kang Hajin, plus the poster, led all the trainees to ostracize Kang Hajin. 2. Deliberately didn't let Kang Hajin in on practice and didn't pass on announcements properly to set him up to get scolded. 3. There was a group chat that excluded Kang Hajin (has screenshots). 4. When new trainees came in, they made sure they couldn't hang out with Kang Hajin either. (Testimony that the poster was leading this.) 5. After Kang Hajin left, the poster and that group of trainee hyungs targeted another trainee and ostracized them too (with direct victim testimony). 6. Fifty million testimonies from ppl around Kang Hajin saying he's not that kind of guy. I already dropped my neutral gear the moment I saw the exposé had lies mixed into it, and once I saw the poster had deliberately organized the bullying of Kang Hajin, I fully drifted over to Kang Hajin's side. With the situation this big and still no other posters besides the original one coming forward, and everyone around Kang Hajin saying he's not that kind of person and stepping up to testify themselves — isn't the answer obvious? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ - anon1: one-line summary "so. who's the victim now?" - anon2: but end of the day the verbal abuse part WAS true right? if someone talked to me and dragged me like that i'd cut them off too > anon3: you'd cut someone off by BULLYING them? real level check > anon2: no but if literally every trainee besides kang hajin joined in the bullying wasn't kang hajin the problem??? if anything to me it says his personality was garbage-tier and it makes me more sour on him but everyone's going soft on him > anon3: go read the article. they targeted and bullied another kid after him too. that's "cutting someone off"? that's just beating on somebody bc you don't like their face - anon4: wait so kang hajin's the victim? title: [do y'all really believe the KH E-spatch article?] - it being E-spatch plus honestly reeking of Miro doing damage control; kind of doesn't sit right with me - people like this always: even if Kang Hajin wrote a handwritten statement and showed evidence they wouldn't believe him - who else is supposed to put out the response article — Rene? title: [whoa the KH exposé post got nuked] - such a run-away ending - no-swag legend - the poster and that hyung guy were doing AMAs on Onestagram acting all innocent and dropping hints and it was pissing me off SO bad and now their Onestagrams also got wiped ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ > but i'm curious how do ppl even know things like this? their Onestagram accounts and whatever > when the exposé first dropped someone posted a guess about who it might be, and after that they gave themselves away through comments and AMAs on Onestagram ㅇㅇ then when Kang Hajin's rebuttal article came out now the account's wiped > ohhh thankuu

Internet opinion had flipped completely.

The original poster, Park Shinuk, put up a clarification and a follow-up exposé, but the new story couldn't be squared with what he'd posted earlier — it either got fact-checked into the ground or backfired into an admission that he'd ostracized Hajin simply because he hated him.

Not long after, all the exposé posts came down, and the pair — who'd been quietly enjoying the attention through their own Onestagram accounts — couldn't hold up under the flood of DMs and comments from Destis, and ended up deleting every last one of their SNS accounts too.

handle: @SS_university name: Sunset University Made it through the dark night — thank you for coming to us. #My_Proud_Kang_Hajin #Ostracism_Is_Violence #you_are_not_alone [photo] [photo] engagement: shares 7,104 · quotes 492 · hearts 8,542 handle: @kang_HD name: Kangha-D As a Desti who went through something similar to Hajin back in school, and who's found so much comfort and moved so much seeing Hajin these days, for the teenagers out there who might be going through similar pain — #My_Proud_Kang_Hajin #Ostracism_Is_Violence #you_are_not_alone [photo]

The Kang-stans and Destis who'd been holding their breath and locking their accounts for the past few days had begun raising their voices. They focused on the keyword 'ostracism,' and during the trending-hashtag campaign, they paired it with an anti-youth-violence catchphrase — which nudged everyone watching to add opinions of their own.

title: [wait, so is Kang Hajin a spotless victim...] - kang hajin's not a spotless victim... isn't that a bit of point-muddying...ㅎ - throwing anti-school-violence trending onto some idol controversy; peak overreach ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ acting a fool, seriously, i hate it - huh school violence is 'violence that happens at school' so it's got nothing to do with the Kang Hajin thing why school violence? - it's not like they lit a fire going "how DARE they ostracize Kang Hajin," what's with the weird takes y'all, take a break from the sites and try real life for a sec ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ > fr these ppl probably haven't donated ten won to the anti-school-violence foundation but they've got endless complaints every damn day title: [yo, the Kang-stans are f-ing extreme] - some fans acted classless so they ran a fandom-purification movement, and now Kang Hajin got in a fight with someone and they're running an anti-school-violence campaign? tlqkfㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ - they're pro-movement types. the type who probably do independence movements and student movements too, i bet - don't...poke a Kang-stan lightly.......☆ - it's not even actual school violence ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ trying to steal a school-violence-victim image is gross > what does he lack that he'd need to steal a school-violence-victim image ㅎ...did you think before typing? > it's not stealing, he IS a violence victim, bullying is violence too dummy - meanwhile the anti-school-violence foundation itself said in an interview they were grateful for the attention^^ people who normally have zero interest suddenly playing anti-school-violence PR ambassador only at times like this is even more lame~

Just like always, the idol scene burned red-hot.

The Destis, the way they had during the last fandom-purification campaign, put aside who was whose fan and, as Destis of Kairos, handled the controversy and fought back against the trolls. On one hand, it helped tighten the fandom's internal solidarity — on the other, it came with considerable burnout.

'They haven't even debuted yet…. and how many controversies is this already?'

Around the time some Destis were starting to think they'd stay Kairos fans but maybe needed to switch their top bias —

A notification popped up: a new post had gone up in Kairos's official fan cafe, the one that had been set up right after the finals.

[Kang Hajin] Hello. This is Kang Hajin of Kairos.

The greeting from Kairos's Kang Hajin — the one they had been waiting and waiting for.