Chapter 43
“What the hell is this crazy bastard looking at!”
Yunha suddenly spewed profanity as if he had asked something incredible. Juha was momentarily bewildered and lost for words.
“Hey, you to oppa…”
Seeing his sister jumping around and cursing made Juha feel really bad. He had never wanted to be treated like an oppa, but this was the first time he’d heard such profanity.
Even though he had fed her cold ice cream, Yunha was still red-hot and fuming as she swallowed her anger.
“Whatever, oppa, don’t look up fan reactions and stuff like that. Don’t be curious about things like ‘sseobang’ either.”
Yunha’s voice was firm. But how did she know he was curious about sseobang?
“What’s sseobang?”
“Don’t look it up. If you look it up, I’ll really break oppa’s phone. Ugh, it’s ruining the taste of my ice cream.”
Yunha growled and glared at Juha before going into her room.
‘Why is she acting like that.’
From his blood relative instincts, Yunha wasn’t really angry right now but was worried about Juha. He couldn’t understand why she was acting like that over something so significant.
Since Yunha had just gotten angry and left without giving him a proper answer, Juha had no choice but to look it up himself. Since he couldn’t get any clues about the omega stuff, he decided to look at other things first. As he was slowly reading other posts, strange characters suddenly caught Juha’s eye.
[Title: But doesn’t it seem like Juㅎr will make it into the top 10 this time?]
‘Honestly, it was too much to drop ㅌHㄹi
But the cool Juha putting a leash on the rampaging Tae was fucking handsome
I can’t say he did better than Choi Tae, but if 24th place can stand on the same stage as 1st place and do that well, isn’t he worth competing for top 10?’
└Top 10 is pushing it
└Using sseobang terms is prohibited
└You can’t use seobang terms here
└Are you crazy? Why are you using sseobang terms here? What if the person finds out
└What’s the manager doing? The board is fucking dirty today.
‘What the hell is sseobang?’
Whether it was ‘seobang’ or ‘sseobang,’ the fact that Yunha and everyone else were jumping around about it only aroused more curiosity.
Juha tilted his head and pressed refresh on the post. He just hoped someone would kindly explain it.
However, that post had already been deleted. Instead, a notice appeared on the board in bright red text.
[Title: Posts using ‘sseobang’ terms and content that causes discomfort to the parties involved are subject to deletion]
While this board allows users to freely post their opinions, we are implementing strong regulations on posts that may result in legal action, including provocative content that may cause discomfort to the parties involved, sexual disparagement, and speculative posts with unconfirmed facts.
We also strictly prohibit the use of search prevention terms (commonly known as seobang or sseobang) that the parties involved can recognize.
Violating the above regulations will result in deletion without notice or forced withdrawal, so please keep this in mind when using the service.
-From the Administrator-
‘Why is this so intense?’
At least he learned that ‘sseobang’ was short for ‘search prevention,’ but he couldn’t understand exactly what it meant.
Juha searched the internet for the word ‘sseobang.’
[‘Seobang’ and ‘sseobang’ are abbreviations of search (sseochi) prevention, meaning changing search terms so the parties involved cannot find their names.]
“Ah…”
Now he finally understood what it meant. It was intentionally misspelling names so the parties involved couldn’t find weird posts about omegas or insults about Taeri that they didn’t want them to see.
So that post earlier was deleted because it wrote Juha as ‘Juㅎr’ and Choi Taeri as ‘ㅌHㄹi.’
Though he was just twenty, Juha had no talent for these cutting-edge terms and nodded as if he had gained intense enlightenment.
‘What on earth did they write that they don’t want me to find by searching my name?’
Juha tilted his head and tried entering ‘Juㅎr’ in the portal search bar. And as soon as he read the first post, he realized something was wrong.
[Title: I think I saw Lee Juㅎr today]
‘I’m a convenience store worker, and today Lee Juㅎr came to our convenience store to buy beer
I can’t say which branch for reference
I was originally a Juㅎr fan but as of today I’m switching to U0in
Lee Juㅎr is fucking rude
He was speaking informally while throwing his card and snatching the beer.
At the end he was holding his card and brushing it off like something dirty was on it as he left
Fuck
No talent and shitty personality too’
└You can see his usual personality from how he treats part-timers. He’ll have personality controversies even after debut
└He acts according to how he looks ㅉ. Shitty personality bastard
└But isn’t Juha being too impulsive? After being a trainee for 6 years and finally seeing the light, would he really act that recklessly?
└It’s because he got 1st place in his solo mission. If getting that gives you celebrity disease, you can tell what his usual personality is like, right?
└My friend is a Metabolic fan and said all the Metabolic kids are nice. But the reason this Juha alone went up to the debut group then fell? It’s because his personality is fucking trash
The moment he read the post, Juha’s heart sank. The convenience store part-timer whose face he couldn’t even remember came to mind.
‘Did I throw my card?’
That couldn’t be. There’s no way he would have brushed off his card disgustingly just because the part-timer touched it. Since his trainee days, he had heard countless times to be careful with his personality. Though he wasn’t a warm personality, he prided himself on having that level of manners ingrained in his body.
It was true that he had been dropped from Metabolic, but it certainly wasn’t because of his personality.
With just the one fact that he had gone to a convenience store, absurd rumors were created, and as more people agreed, the rumors were packaged as truth. And combined with that, even rumors that people ‘seemed to have heard somewhere’ were added, making ‘Lee Juha = personality breakdown.’
‘Why are they making up things I never did?’
Anxiety began to creep up from within Juha. It felt chilly like snakes crawling over his bare body. Most of all, the words ‘switched to U0in, namely Yoo Youngin’ caught his eye.
This was definitely competition among fans.
‘My Job is Idol’ contestants fight in the ring, but outside the ring, fans fight. To lift up the trainee they chose, they don’t hesitate to lie and tear down competitors.
He had a bad feeling.
Even though he tried not to read it, his eyes went to the following posts.
[Crazy Juㅎr is so obvious. The bastard trying to ride ㅌHㄹI’s coattails]
└Why does Choi Taeri carry that thing around all the time?
└That’s what I’m saying
└Taeri, get it together
└That crazy bastard got backstabbed and dropped but still hasn’t come to his senses.
The protagonist in the posts that came up when searching only ‘Lee Juha’ versus when searching with sseobang terms was a completely different person.
‘Was I trying to ride Choi Taeri’s coattails?’
Honestly, it was the first time in his life he’d heard such words. If anything, he had lived so thoroughly that he’d been called heartless because he hated owing anyone anything.
[Honestly, hanging around with Kㅏㅎr is a loss for ㅌHㄹI.]
└True words. After 6 years of training, if they sent you home, just stay home.
└I’m curious what rank he’ll get even with that tearful asshole show lol
└After watching the live broadcast, Choi must have really hated it.
└Is there anyone here who wants to see crazy Juha getting his juice squeezed?
└Lee Juice Ha is supply without demand
‘Jwa, Juㅎr, Jut-ja, Kㅏㅎr, crazy Juha… Lee Juice Ha…’
The creativity in sseobang slang was so varied it was suspicious why they used such brilliant creativity for this kind of thing.
While knowing inside that he should stop looking, Juha’s hands kept clicking on other posts. There were countless celebrities who got hurt by comments and online slander posts and took medication, but he thought they must have been like this too.
There’s no need to listen to people who hate you. But you’re curious about what they’re saying.
Wrapped in that thought, he kept clicking on these cruel posts like self-harm.
[Title: 0in is a million times better than this jwa]
‘What’s so pretty about Lee jwa that Choi hugs and comforts him like that, damn it
How much sexier and better is 0in’s name
It goes into holes.’
“Ugh…”
Juha’s body trembled without him realizing it.
Right now he was looking at posts mainly about Juha and Taeri, but there were quite a few about Yoo Youngin, and even Seo Eunwon who was still just a kid.
Moreover, the level of all the posts was uniformly low and disgusting. Of course, among them were some fantasy posts that could be seen as cute.
[Choi Taeri X Lee Jutja omegaverse completed.]
‘Title: I Became the Fireplace of the Hypothermic Northern Grand Duke.
The hypothermic Northern Grand Duke who gets cold easily, Royal Omega Grand Duke Jwa.
The warm-handed Alpha Taeri that the butler newly bought.
Taeri slave’s main job is carrying stones on his body all the time and handing over stones warmed with body heat when the Grand Duke asks.
One day the two go hunting and get isolated, buried in snow with no more heated stones, and the Grand Duke is shivering with blue lips…
‘Your Grace, if you’re that cold, please embrace me.’
‘Don’t order me around. You’re just a slave who does what I tell you to do.’
‘Your Grace, your precious body will freeze to death.’
The Grand Duke reluctantly frowns and embraces him, but Taeri slave’s arms are so warm.
[Click for paid continuation]’
└Crazy… I clicked hundreds of millions of times but the continuation doesn’t come up, so fucking annoying
└Drool is wickedly pooling?
└The main job being to give stones warmed with body heat ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└But it makes so much sense. Since he’d be used to touching those warm stones all the time, how cozy would it be when Jutja hugs Choi?
└I’ll sponsor you so while I’m asking nicely, keep writing
‘This is at least…’
Endearing.
He still didn’t know what omega stuff was though.
The further down he scrolled, the more posts he couldn’t bear to look at filled the page.
He knew not everyone would like him.
Moreover, he knew theoretically that for idols, antis were a symbol of popularity.
But seeing such blatant insults about himself didn’t feel good. He just hoped his parents wouldn’t see it.
“Hey, Lee Juha!”
Suddenly Lee Yunha kicked open the door and entered Juha’s room.
Juha was startled and turned off his phone. Even though they were bickering siblings, he couldn’t let her see posts like these.
“Hey, knock a little!”
Despite Juha’s irritation, Yunha’s eyes were frozen as if panicked. Only then did Juha realize something was strange.
“What’s wrong?”
“Why is Choi Taeri making an explanation?”
Yunha angrily showed her phone.
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you see? Go check Choi Taeri’s InStar.”
With an anxious heart, Juha entered InStar without reply. Instead of a photo, Choi Taeri’s InStar had a black square with a long text written.
[Hello, this is Choi Taeri.
I am writing to clarify the controversy about my attitude and manipulation raised after the 4th episode of ‘My Job is Idol.’
It is entirely my fault for being careless in stage preparation and making mistakes.
This may sound like an excuse, but it was definitely not due to arrogance that I was lazy in stage preparation. Though it doesn’t show on screen, I injured my ankle during practice and couldn’t focus on final preparations.
I was careful during practice because I was worried that practicing too intensively might cause mistakes on stage, but I guess I didn’t think you might misunderstand it as negligence.
I should have informed you in advance, but due to my shortcomings, I seemed to be busy hiding the injury.
My ankle was an area I frequently injured during my dance days, so I thought of it lightly.
First, I want to express my apologies to trainee Lee Juha for not being able to improve our stage quality because of me. I acknowledge that my performance was lacking and humbly accept the judges’ decision.
I sincerely apologize to the production staff and judges who may have been harmed by my oversight. They were all good people who worried about my injury and worked hard to ensure the program proceeded without issues.
My ankle has fully healed during the break. I will do my best in the next competition.
Once again, I deeply thank the fans who have shown interest in me and ‘My Job is Idol.’
I sincerely hope all of you reading this have a peaceful night.
-From Choi Taeri-]
Notes:
“Sseobang” – (abbreviation of “search prevention”)
“Juㅎr” (주ㅎr) – (sseobang version of Juha)
“ㅌHㄹi” (ㅌHㄹi) – (sseobang version of Taeri)
“U0in” (U0in) – (sseobang version of Youngin)
“Jwa” (좌) – (sseobang version of Juha)
“Jutja” (줗ㅏ) – (sseobang version of Juha)
“Kㅏㅎr” (Kㅏㅎr) – (sseobang version of Juha)
“Crazy Juha” (빻주하) – (derogatory sseobang version)
“Lee Juice Ha” (이즙하) – (sexual sseobang version)
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
