Idol Hides His Military Service

-First, please avoid contact with reporters, and try to keep communication to a minimum, too. Do you have anywhere you could stay other than home? I’d like you to be somewhere with good security for at least a day... If there’s really nowhere, I’ll book you a hotel.

Hmm.

It seemed like the meeting with Park Hyungsoo, the main PD, ended pretty well.

But since he said he didn’t know how things would unfold from here, he told me to be careful and suggested I stay at a hotel or something.

'That’s kind of a burden.'

When he said reporters might swarm if I went home, I told him that if he was going to book a hotel, then please just look after my parents.

As for me, if something happened, it wouldn’t be a problem for me to stay one more night here at the dorm anyway.

“Captain! What happened?”

“What the hell, Lee Sion got called away all of a sudden—why are you so late? Did something happen?”

“What, why are you guys still here instead of leaving?”

When I finished the meeting and returned to the dorm, what was waiting for me was none other than Yunkyung and the contestants I was close with.

Since the meeting ran long, a staff member told me the other contestants got on the bus first and left the dorm, but these guys were still here.

“When you suddenly got called away, we were kind of worried, so everyone waited.”

“What are you talking about! Who was worried! I just... got curious, that’s all.”

“Good grief, Gahyeon, earlier you were making a huge fuss, asking if something happened to Sion, weren’t you?”

Pfft.

Shinyu had a face that looked like she’d been worried about me, and Lee Gahyeon tried to deny it like it never happened, but the moment Yuri exposed the truth, Gahyeon’s face turned bright red and she lunged like she was going to choke Yuri.

Watching that, a laugh slipped out before I could stop it.

“With me gone, it’s a total mess, huh?”

“Yeah, right!”

At my facts, the choir of same-age brats echoed out, offended.

But then—

“So what the hell happened that you got called all the way to the production staff meeting room?”

“Something blew up.”

“What?”

I figured it wouldn’t do them any good to know, so I was going to tell them later once it was resolved, but anyway, once we left the dorm, they were going to find out naturally, so I decided I’d just tell them myself.

“I got disciplined for school violence when I was in school.”

“W-Wait. School violence?!”

“Yeah.”

At the words school violence coming out of my mouth, everyone’s eyes went wide, and they all stared at me like I’d just said the stupidest thing they’d ever heard.

“There are people who get bullied by a loser like you?”

“Getting bullied by Captain... That’s not easy...”

“Last time it was the nepotism controversy, and now you’ve even got school violence too? Sion, your incidents are already active-idol level!”

But their reactions were totally different from what I expected.

Like it was something trivial, the team members just brushed it off with joking banter.

“No! I’m saying I did school violence! Even if it’s not hate, shouldn’t the reaction be like, Wow, you’re a total bitch? Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go?”

“Like you’re the type to bully anyone.”

“No. Back when she was in school, she could’ve bullied people by talking about Three Kingdoms nonstop.”

“Honestly, that does qualify as school violence.”

It’s nice that they believe me, but somehow it left a really weird taste.

“So how did it happen? At least tell us.”

“So, the thing is...”

It was something that happened when I was a sophomore in high school.

I liked my high school years quite a bit.

And that was because by the time you’re in high school, kids’ brains have grown enough that they become intelligent lifeforms you can have normal conversations with, so you can live a peaceful life without any major problems.

High schoolers—the age where you gradually realize that all the stuff that looked cool in middle school was actually totally pointless.

But even after becoming high schoolers, there were still guys who didn’t get it, who acted like if they didn’t scream and make noise, they’d lose their reason to exist.

For example, that Pancake-Faced Pig guy who was in my class in sophomore year.

Whenever it was break time, I don’t know what he had to say that was so important, but Pancake-Faced Pig’s friends from other classes would crowd around him and loudly chatter in our classroom.

If they didn’t stick swear words in as conjunctions, was it impossible for them to have a conversation? With their loud voices and the level of their obnoxious talk, they made the classroom atmosphere feel off.

And of course, that was a huge disturbance to me, who had to sleep at school because I’d been protecting the Rift World all night long.

But—

'Hold it in. It’s not like I can pick a fight with kids.'

I decided to just endure it.

In my past life, I probably wouldn’t have held it in and would’ve made a scene, but in this life, I’d learned how to let most things slide, so it was possible.

Isn’t it too harsh to demand a mature personality like mine from brats whose blood hasn’t even dried yet?

As an adult, with the mindset of, Well, kids that age can be like that, I’d let a lot of things go.

Until that happened.

'That crossed the line way too hard.'

Pancake-Faced Pig did something right in front of my eyes that couldn’t be brushed off as childish bravado.

So I openly threw a textbook straight at Pancake-Faced Pig’s head.

"-What the fuck, who the hell was that?!"

As if Pancake-Faced Pig didn’t notice my deep intent of deliberately throwing the Law and Society textbook so he’d reflect on his actions, he screamed in rage, loud enough to shake the classroom.

"-It was me."

Before he could take it out on other kids for no reason, I spoke up to him, but he didn’t even come over—he just kept panting and yelling.

"-You’re not coming? Want me to come to you?"

When I started walking toward him, he went silent like someone had covered his mouth, then he returned to his seat and stared at me like he wanted to kill me. Only when school ended did he finally approach me.

"-You fucking bitch, come out to the recycling station if you don’t want to die."

When I told him to come at me earlier, he didn’t, but now he was calling me out to the recycling station after the fact, so I figured, since it’s come to this, let’s finish it, and I followed him out.

And there, waiting for me at the recycling station, was Pancake-Faced Pig and six friends.

Like they were set on actually killing someone, one of them was even holding a baseball bat.

"-That’s not how you swing that."

There’s a saying: “Kendo triple-dan.”

Because kendo uses a weapon unlike other barehanded martial arts, it means that to fight a first-dan kendo practitioner, you’d need at least third-dan in another martial art—and basically, it means don’t fight someone with a weapon.

But that only applied to people who actually knew how to use weapons.

Pancake-Faced Pig’s underling No. 1 swung the bat at my head without thinking.

If it were me, I would’ve aimed for the torso or the legs.

Because attacks aimed at the head are way too easy to dodge.

Swoooosh.

I lightly twisted my body to the side, dodging the bat as it slammed down, and I extended my right hand and struck the guy under the jaw.

"-Wh-What are you doing, get her! All of you!!!"

When the guy I hit crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, Pancake-Faced Pig shouted in a panic, and the others, following his orders, rushed at me one by one.

So I fairly gave each of them a proper smack in the face, in the order they came.

'Too weak.'

In a human-wave tactic like this, the key is to spread your forces out and attack while encircling the enemy from all sides.

But these guys didn’t even know the basics of that kind of tactics, and since they came at me one at a time like they were making it easy for me, there was no way I’d lose.

"-You’re getting hit today."

After I made the rest of them kiss the floor, I cleanly finished off Pancake-Faced Pig, left alone at the end.

If there were a god of fighting, he would’ve given me a thumbs-up for how clean that fight was.

“So that became a problem?”

Seo Ryujin, who’d listened silently to my whole past recollection, asked me back with a dumbfounded expression.

“Yeah. There was circumstantial evidence they were trying to assault me, but since I didn’t get hit even once, it became kind of a problem.”

Since I beat up seven guys, it seemed like one of the parents of the guys who got hit made a huge fuss.

They caused trouble, saying to hold a school violence committee and expel me.

Of course, the school wasn’t stupid, and it wasn’t like they didn’t know the other side had tried to jump me as a group.

But—

"-Um... Sion. You really didn’t get hit even once?"

The teacher, taking my statement of what happened, ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) asked in embarrassment.

"-...No."

The problem was that the ones who were hurt were the other side, and I—the one who should’ve been the victim—didn’t have a single scratch.

Even if I wanted to claim self-defense, I was so perfectly fine that people were saying I should’ve just taken one hit.

“Then why did you get Measure No. 3? I looked it up, and with this, it feels like it could’ve ended with No. 1 or No. 2.”

After figuring out why I got Measure No. 3, Yunkyung voiced a question, and honestly, like she said, with the situation being what it was, this could’ve ended at around No. 1.

But—

“Ah. That’s because I didn’t write a reflection statement.”

“What?”

The reason I got No. 3 wasn’t anything special.

Not many people go through a school violence committee in their life, so a lot of people don’t know the procedure, but the committee’s measures worked like a deduction system.

"-Did you apologize to the other side? Minus 1 point. Did you submit a reflection statement? Minus 1 point."

Like that, depending on how well the perpetrator showed remorse, points would get deducted from the wrongdoing.

"-Yeah, no~"

I ignored all of it.

Because I hated even saying out loud that I was at fault to those guys.

From the student affairs teacher to the homeroom teacher, they said they understood how I felt, but if I at least pretended outwardly, it could end with Measure No. 1, and they tried to persuade me.

'Wrong is wrong.'

What I learned while living as a soldier in my past life was that every wrongdoing starts from something small.

"-Hey, everyone does it."

If you get swayed by “everyone does it” and compromise on something small, you eventually end up doing things you shouldn’t.

I realized that deeply back then.

If I had apologized at that time, I might’ve lived regretting it even now.

“Anyway, that’s how I ended up with a school violence committee record, and that got exposed outside, so the production staff told me to stay somewhere out of sight while they handle it.”

“Seriously, Lee Sion, there isn’t even a single week that passes peacefully for you.”

At Seo Ryujin’s scolding, I felt a little wronged.

Honestly, isn’t it too much to say this is my fault?

“So where are you going to be today, Captain?”

“Hmm... they said just one day, so I’m thinking about staying here one more night.”

“Then come to our place.”

“Huh?”

At Yunkyung’s words, saying I could stay at her place for a night, I was a little flustered.

“No... your place definitely has good security, but, uh... is it really that easy for people to stay over at your place...”

“Hold on. Mom! It’s Yunkyung—can I come home today with everyone? Headcount? Wait a sec...”

Like she couldn’t hear me, she immediately made a call and started counting our exact number.

“Seven. Seven people. And send a car too! Something sturdy!”

In an instant, my lodging was decided.

***

“Did the meeting end well?”

“Did it end well?”

Park Hyungsoo was still dumbfounded.

'Not just a fistfight—she beat up seven people by herself?'

If an article went out based on what he’d just heard, people would obviously misunderstand.

No matter how you looked at it, the normal assumption would be seven people beating up one person.

Still, if there was any relief, it wasn’t the kind of school violence Hyungsoo had feared, and after hearing the circumstances, he even found himself starting to personally like Lee Sion.

And since it was this level of content, plenty of ways to respond came to mind, so Hyungsoo felt confident he could handle it well.

“How’s the situation?”

“Posts are already going up in the communities, and in real time, a total madhouse is breaking out.”

At Hakyoon’s words, Hyungsoo opened the main communities on his laptop and checked the posts.

“Look at this.”

“What is it?”

And Hyungsoo immediately felt something off.

It wasn’t strange that an exposé post about Lee Sion was spreading through the communities.

Lee Sion was the hottest topic these days, so of course an exposé would draw attention.

'The templates are identical.'

The problem was that the template (a format that acts as a guide when making something) of the Lee Sion exposé posts going up simultaneously across major communities was all exactly the same.

“Hey, this looks like someone planned it.”

“Huh?”

Come to think of it, the timing of the posts was also perfect.

Not long ago, Idol Ground Episode 6 aired, and the communities were hot with reactions to the broadcast, and then, like they’d been waiting, the exposé posts went up.

And along with that, the exposé being neatly organized so even ordinary people could read it, and spreading simultaneously across communities—it was hard to see that as a coincidence.

“Any articles up yet?”

“As soon as we found this, we started calling around and asked them to wait a bit, so there’s only one place so far.”

“Where?”

“Hot Issue Journal. They’re nasty...”

At Hakyoon’s words, this time Hyungsoo searched for Hot Issue Journal on the portal site, and sure enough, a fresh article that had just been posted was at the top.

[Agbaek’s trending contestant Lee Sion, school violence controversy?]

「An exposé post about contestant Lee Sion, who’s been gaining popularity by taking first place in votes on Agbaek under Idol Ground 100 and below, has been posted and is drawing attention.

The poster claims they were assaulted by Lee Sion during school days and suffered a four-week injury...

Also, Lee Sion received a Measure No. 3 on the school violence review committee...

So far, the truth of this exposé has not been confirmed, but if the content is confirmed to be true...」

↳Why are there no articles anywhere else?

↳Lee Sion’s backing is solid, huh. Already blocking articles?

↳How would a personal trainee with no agency block that?

↳This place is just a trash “reporter” bastard who’s crazy about clicks, writing articles off stuff with no fact-check.

↳That “facts” line—fans of people who’ve got something to hide always say that.

“They’re having a field day.”

After quickly skimming the article, Hyungsoo could tell that the Hot Issue Journal piece wasn’t just copying and pasting the exposé—they’d prepared it in advance.

“No way. Are you saying Hot Issue planned this from the start, targeting Lee Sion?”

“Probably a hundred percent.”

To Hyungsoo, this looked like a 100% planned article.

Whether it started because that Pancake-Faced Pig classmate who got hit tipped them off, or the Hot Issue Journal found out about Lee Sion’s disciplinary record through some route and teamed up with the classmate, he didn’t know.

But it didn’t smell like a simple scoop. It reeked of a planned hit piece, with Lee Sion chosen as the target to send into the gutter.

'How dare they touch my guardian angel?'

When Hyungsoo figured out who the main culprit was, fury surged up, but it was frustrating that there wasn’t much he could do.

After learning Lee Sion’s story, he could minimize the controversy, but punishing the bastards who pulled this crap was another matter.

But then—

Riiing.

“Yes, I’ve received the call. Yes, this is Idol Ground 100. Who is this? Jung Sua? You really want to speak to the PD?”

Hakyoon handed the phone over to Park Hyungsoo, who’d been thinking about how to make Hot Issue Journal and the exposer eat shit.

“Yes, I’m on the line. You have something to report? Yes, go ahead.”

And as Hyungsoo took the call, the corners of his mouth slowly rose. By the time the call ended, he was wearing a clear smile.

“Hakyoon, call the kids, reserve the station press room, and get a press conference ready!”

“What? No, wait—senior, where are you going?”

“Director! We’re slamming a press conference tomorrow morning!”

The moment the call ended, Hyungsoo grabbed his keys and jacket and ran out of the meeting room.