Naturally, the company was horrified when they first found out I had been hospitalized.
They had gone to all the trouble of giving me a vacation, only to hear I needed four weeks to recover. It must have felt like a bolt from the blue.
And when I explained how the whole thing had happened, they were even more horrified.
“A-A stalker??”
“Yes. I ran into some lunatic…….”
It was more or less the same excuse I’d patched together for the members, but when I added, “I hit them pretty hard too,” even the people from the agency went pale.
They clearly wanted to ask me to keep quiet rather than let the story break and send public opinion into chaos, so when I personally said I wanted to bury the matter, they practically lit up.
“Right, Moondae-ssi. We’ll increase the security personnel as much as possible, so please don’t worry! Of all times, for something like this to happen while you were on vacation…….”
It was quite a feat of skill, the way they even managed to subtly imply that because it had happened during my vacation, it wasn’t their responsibility.
Granted, I had been on vacation, but they knew perfectly well I was staying at the dorm and still hadn’t contacted me even once for several days, so maybe they felt a little guilty.
‘Predictable.’
Anyway, thanks to that, coming up with an article headline was easy.
[TeSTAR’s Park Moondae Hospitalized After Fall During Concert Practice]
Nice and clean.
We also decided to post an official notice through the company account, and the details were neatly dressed up as sprains and bruises.
‘Good enough.’
Honestly, I thought that would be the end of the topic.
When I searched, there were already vague rumors circulating under the surface that I’d been hospitalized, but everyone seemed to be keeping quiet because the sources were questionable.
Naturally, the story had first emerged from the crowd obsessed with idols’ private lives.
-Heard Gom-meo got hospitalized. Since it’s vacation, probably not faking sick?
-ㅠㅠㅠLooks like Park Moondae really is hospitalized, he hasn’t come back to the dorm, making me worry
-No sightings of him. Seems like he’s still messaging though.. what is it
Nothing beyond that had really made its way into the open.
On top of that, I’d been admitted to a hospital the company had been using for ages, so the people there knew how to keep their mouths shut.
Meaning hardly anything about my exact condition had leaked.
There were occasionally rumors that happened to be right, but they got mixed in with so many lies and other rumors that they were dismissed as rumors too.
-I heard from someone I know that some psycho sasaeng got to him and he broke something… hmm
-It’s probably just exhaustion. Honestly no point making a fuss, everyone knows he gets sick whenever he gets time off anyway
-Wrist injury lol probably just got hurt practicing choreography, he’s a practice addict so totally believable
With that being the general state of things, I figured the excuse that I’d suffered a “stage accident during concert practice” would sound convincing enough, and it wasn’t exactly a particularly shocking reason either.
Besides, the company quickly moved to keep the press under embargo so no pointless articles would come out before the official statement.
The new division head really did seem to know how to run the company.
‘This should be fine.’
I privately gave them a passing grade and enjoyed the remainder of my vacation.
‘At least I salvaged four days.’
My hospitalization did get extended until the end of my vacation so we could keep the story straight for the company and the official materials, but I didn’t particularly mind.
Aside from my vacation being cut in half, being in a private room wasn’t all that different from what I’d originally planned to do anyway.
Still, one thing did bother me a little.
‘…This place must be expensive.’
From what I’d heard, even a six-person room here cost a fair amount. A private room must have been outrageously expensive.
That made it even funnier considering my injuries were mild enough that outpatient treatment would actually have been fine.
‘What a ridiculous experience.’
Well, no point complaining about something good. The company was paying for it anyway, so I spent the time resting comfortably.
I read books, watched some videos. Basically, I ate the three meals the hospital served and passed the time without thinking about anything.
Sometimes the members who came to visit brought outside food, so I got some nice bonus meals too.
“M-Moondae. I brought strawberries.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“I-I’ll wash them…!”
Usually, it was Seon Ahyeon, though the others brought things from time to time as well.
“Moondae, Moondae~ Pizza!”
‘This guy just seems to be using the hospital visit as an excuse to buy whatever he wants to eat.’
Anyway, four days of lying around doing nothing but consuming food was surprisingly exhilarating.
And then came the final day of vacation.
As planned, the articles and official announcement went live.
[Park Moondae Falls During Concert Practice… ‘Four Weeks to Recover’]
[TeSTAR’s Park Moondae Reportedly Injured During Vacation]
Except… once the news actually broke, things went a little differently from what I’d expected.
The reaction was far more intense.
-Ah what do we do about Moondae
-I’m losing my mind, T1 you X bastards, you can’t even manage your stages properly?
-He finally gets a vacation and still goes in to practice, then ends up hospitalized, I’m so upset I could cry
-What the hell did they make him do that he fell off the stage badly enough to need four weeks to recover… please stop making them do dangerous shit
-Park Moondae falling because he was careless? Don’t believe it. Bet they ordered some screwed-up stage equipment themselves and now they’re media-playing it away, I’m fucking furious lol
Park Moondae’s fans were making a spectacular display of worry and rage.
‘Wait.’
I actually broke out in a cold sweat.
It wasn’t like I was unconscious. I hadn’t even broken a leg. Did they really need to go this far?
We’d agreed I would miss about ten days of official group schedules even after the vacation ended, so I’d expected people to complain about that, but surprisingly, there were almost none.
And whenever one did appear, the fans beat them into the ground.
-Messes around during vacation then skips schedules lol what a disaster
└Haha I guess your fave is basically on vacation every day, since they can’t book any schedulesㅠ
└Calling practicing “messing around” tells me everything I need to know about how you stan, okay
└Oh dear! Words of wisdom from someone who stans a flop idol with dead-fish eyes! (clapping emoji)
Brutal.
‘Still… I didn’t expect the agency to get attacked this badly.’
Since our self-produced content frequently showed the members participating in album and stage production, I’d assumed people would take the stage equipment in a similar way.
Maybe… they were simply so worried that they desperately wanted to identify a cause somehow and make sure it got fixed.
‘…Does Park Moondae getting hurt really bother them that much.’
It felt strange.
“……Hmm.”
I rolled up the sleeve of my hospital gown.
It still looked slightly swollen, but most of the dark bruising had faded, leaving only a moderate yellow-and-blue tint.
‘This should be okay.’
I was scheduled to be discharged back to the dorm tomorrow anyway, so while I was still in the hospital, I might as well do something.
Click.
I took a selfie and uploaded it to SNS.
========================
Hello, Loviewers.
This is Park Moondae.
I’m disappointed and sorry that my poor management of my condition has caused me to miss activities.
It isn’t a serious injury, and I’m scheduled to be discharged tomorrow. I’ll recover quickly so I can show you a healthy side of myself again.
(Photo)
========================
At a time like this, writing politely was probably the best way to stop people from saying anything unnecessary.
“Looks fine.”
No pointless expressions, and I’d included all the necessary information along with a recent photo for an update.
This should put everyone’s mind at ease.
Satisfied, I immediately began monitoring the responses to the post.
“…??”
And then I was baffled.
-ㅠㅠㅠㅠA Moondae post that doesn’t start with “I’m Moondae” feels way too unfamiliar, what do I do, Moondae, please don’t blame yourself for being hurt ahㅠㅠㅠ
-There’s no Moondae-puppy… no Tibetan Moondae either… Moondae without emojis…
-This isn’t something you need to make such a formal apology for, T1 you garbage company, what the hell did you say to him
-Moondae, rather than you pushing yourself because you want to get back to schedules quickly, I’d rather you rest properly, recover well, and come back with a bright face. Please don’t stress over thisㅠㅠ
Below those, my post began getting translated into English, Japanese, and all sorts of other languages, accompanied by an endless stream of crying emojis.
It was practically a tidal wave of sobbing.
Some people were even adjusting the contrast values around my wrist until they could identify the traces of bruising.
“…….”
What am I supposed to do with this?
Read only on MUGEX
In the end, when I was discharged the next morning, I uploaded a photo I’d taken with the members along with the words, “I’m Moondae.”
Only then did the mood calm down somewhat, though the general atmosphere of sobbing and excessive emotional investment remained.
‘I’d better… work really hard on the concert.’
If I couldn’t show them that I was perfectly fine, I had no idea where this mood would go. I engraved that fact into my mind with the sensation of cold sweat threatening to break out again.
And the moment I finished the discharge procedures and stepped back into the dorm, yet another intense reaction was waiting for me.
Cha Eugene had just returned from his own vacation.
“Moondae hyung! I’m ba— Huuuuh?!”
“No!”
“M-Moondae hurt his ribs!”
Apparently he’d returned at dawn and hadn’t had time to be briefed, because the guy who had raised both hands in the entryway and was about to smack me on the back was immediately physically restrained by the other members.
Cha Eugene’s eyes went wide.
“Ribs?? Meat?”
“Here.”
When I vaguely pointed around my waist, Cha Eugene pointed at me with a shocked expression.
“You got hit?? You weren’t the one hitting??”
“…I got hit while I was hitting them.”
“He hurt his wrist too.”
“Oh my God!”
Cha Eugene muttered with a devastated expression.
“You lost….”
“I told you, I won. I hit them more.”
[What, did you at least knock their jaw off??]
“Yeah. Got them in the jaw and cracked them over the head too.”
“Oh.”
Only then did Cha Eugene nod, his respect restored.
“Cool!”
“Sure.”
A wave of exhaustion abruptly washed over me.
‘…Come to think of it, I’m roommates with this guy.’
So much had happened that I’d forgotten.
‘I want to go back to my private room.’
It was a sudden wish, and naturally, it did not come true.
[So, my mom isn’t a huge fan of seafood. But she did like hairtail! Mm, the meat was sweet.]
“……Hairtail is good.”
[It’d be nice if our whole team went to eat it together!]
The moment I lay down in my own bed for the first time in a while, I ended up listening to Cha Eugene recount his Jeju Island trip with his mother right up until his schedule.
Three separate attempts to quietly slip out into the living room were thwarted by barrages of questions.
At this point, the only hope left was that I wasn’t accompanying them to the schedule.
‘Please.’
And just as planned, the members, including Cha Eugene, left the dorm to attend a short evening schedule.
Starting tomorrow, the final concert rehearsals would begin in earnest, so this was one of the few official schedules I would miss.
“We’ll be back. Get some proper rest.”
“If anything happens, call manager hyung!”
“We will return at approximately ten o’clock later this evening.”
“Yeah. Do well.”
The crowd drained from the dorm like the receding tide. The moment they were gone, I lay back down on the bed.
“Whew.”
I had one of the semi-dried persimmons Kim Raebin had given me as repayment for my passionate video-call singing performance in my mouth.
Sweet.
The world was quiet.
“……Hmm.”
But compared to what I’d expected… I didn’t actually feel that great.
‘It feels like oversleeping and deciding to skip an important major class on my own.’
Missing an entire schedule outright made it feel like I was taking nothing but losses with no benefit.
‘Might as well plan.’
I should at least pretend to work. Frowning, I thought through several of the problems immediately in front of me.
The highest priority was… obviously the concert.
‘Should I change the staging for my solo song?’
Since it was a stage I performed alone, it would be a problem if the appeal dropped sharply because my injury hadn’t fully healed.
And if I wanted the excuse that Park Moondae had gone off to practice alone during vacation and gotten hurt to sound believable, this was the best way to do it.
‘It needs to be the kind of stage where a mistake could plausibly cause a fall and a wrist injury.’
At the same time, it needed to be a performance flexible enough to accommodate the possibility that my current injuries still wouldn’t be completely healed…….
‘Hmm.’
I considered several options before stopping on one.
“Is this the best one?”
And a little after ten that night.
I called over one of the guys who had returned from the schedule.
“Ahyeon.”
“Mm-hmm??”
“Can I ask you something related to your major?”
“H-Huh??”
If I couldn’t take care of everything, then at least I should maximize the impact of the moment.