Chapter 227. An Unexpected Outing (3)
In the end, the emergency response meeting concluded without much fuss, with even the PR and Marketing team agreeing that Hajin should personally address the issue.
Everyone was convinced by Hajin’s argument that as long as he made it clear in advance that he couldn’t drink alcohol, he wouldn’t be caught up in similar rumors in the future.
– “The key thing is… to make this seem like just a ‘minor incident.’ It’s important to dismiss the absurd rumors rather than giving the impression that Hajin reacted because he had something to hide. Keep it as light and humorous as possible.”
– “It’s all about image in this industry anyway. Even if something similar happens in the future, it’s better to frame it as ‘attention-seeking trolls being jealous’ rather than Hajin having any issues.”
True to her introduction during the interview as a seasoned K-pop veteran, the PR and Marketing team member suggested a pretty solid approach. Hajin nodded, indicating he’d consider her advice as he devised his plan.
Additionally, Miro’s side decided to announce the second round of lawsuits based on the evidence they had gathered so far, and they would also make the current lawsuit progress public. After all, sometimes a single lawsuit is more frightening than a hundred words.
As expected from a company that had been dealing with all sorts of controversies and rumors since the Utopia days, their handling of the situation was swift and efficient, which was comforting.
“So, what’s your plan?”
Suho asked Hajin as they exited the conference room.
“Usually, rumors get attention, but explanations don’t. Going live just to talk about this might come off as if I’m overly sensitive to the rumors, which I don’t like.”
Hajin nodded in agreement at Suho’s realistic concerns.
“Yeah, so I’m planning to make the main content something else.”
Hajin then pulled out a receipt from the table earlier and handed it to Suho.
“What’s this…?”
Suho’s expression subtly changed as he looked at the receipt, which was filled with identical items.
“…It’s your album, isn’t it?”
Hajin nodded lightly and unwrapped a mini chocolate from his pocket, popping it into his mouth. When Hajin was about to leave the dorm earlier, Taehyun, seeing him half out of it, had insisted he take it to help keep his wits about him.
Today, Hajin chewed and swallowed the chocolate, which melted quickly in the unusually hot temperature inside his mouth. Then, he explained his plan to Suho with a calm voice.
“I’m going to do some album unboxing on my live stream.”
“…I must have heard wrong, right?”
“No, you heard perfectly fine. They seem really curious about what I was up to that day, so I should let them know.”
Album unboxing.
This was the reason Hajin had gone to Hongdae with Suho’s card on his day off and was yet another alibi to prove his innocence.
* * *
A few days later.
Destis received a notification for a live broadcast on their phones.
**<[STILOG] I’m Opening Albums Until I Get a Jung Siwoo Photocard │ Album Unboxing · Spending My Manager’s Money · Idol · Hongdae · Miro · Chatting · Health Checkup · Photocard Hunting>**
‘……?’
Though the broadcast title was unusual and somewhat daunting in its length, the Destis, having experienced the peculiar nature of Kairos’s social media activities and live streams over the years, could easily identify the provider of this crazy content.
– **Is Hajin here?**
– **Kang Ha is here ㅎㅇ**
– **The puppy is here ㅏㅏㅏㅏ**
Hajin, wearing a black beanie and a purple hoodie, waved at the phone during the broadcast.
A gentle smile played on his lips, with not a hint of fierceness.
“Hello, Destis. I’m Kang Hajin, the leader, captain, head, captain, real power, new authority, and future of Kairos.”
– **Honestly, I would’ve been disappointed if he hadn’t been made leader.**
└ **They would have made Dan Haru a puppet leader and given the job to Haru instead.**
└ **Jung Siwoo would have assisted next to him.**
└ **Lee Doha would have clapped for his good diction.**
└ **Is our group’s older line really okay like this?**
“Today is neither Kiss Day, nor Kairog, nor Okka Day… so I’ve decided to come here for my first solo live stream. I’ve copied the title from something you guys are doing.”
– **At this point, who else is curious about Kang Hajin’s YouTube timeline?**
– **This guy must have been watching some ridiculously fun fanlogs, huh?**
– **Hajin, you’re my blog friend, aren’t you? Be honest.**
The atmosphere in the live broadcast was mostly peaceful.
No, it seemed like everyone was making an effort to maintain such an atmosphere.
Before turning on the live stream, Hajin recalled the somewhat unsettled atmosphere of the Bluebird private account timeline.
‘They’re probably feeling relieved but also wishing I hadn’t come… They must be feeling frustrated, right?’
Hajin had no intention of continuing his first solo live broadcast in such an uncomfortable mood.
After chatting casually with Destis about everyday things, Hajin opened his mouth again once the viewer count had risen to its average.
Casually, as if merely sharing his daily life.
“Oh, right. Desti, I had a health checkup recently.”
Hajin smiled as he casually brought up the topic.
“You know how we canceled our schedule on the day Music Tree was canceled? I took that opportunity to finally get the health checkup I’d been putting off, and I found something really interesting to show you all. I did well, right?”
Hajin brought out his health checkup report, which he had placed on one side of the desk, along with a separate alcohol enzyme breakdown test he had recently taken. Then, he casually held his health checkup report up to the camera.
“Oh? Do you guys want to see my health checkup results? If Desti wants, I can share my blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, and bone density. But maybe the endoscopy results are a bit too much? I have my privacy too, you know.”
– **You… had privacy…?**
– **Years into the K-pop life… Now I’m getting my idol’s fasting blood sugar shared with me.**
– **Our Hajin likes sweets so much, I’m glad he doesn’t have diabetes.**
– **Am I the only one surprised that Hajin’s height is really 182.00?**
Satisfied with the speed of the chat window, Hajin unfolded the next paper.
The paper, labeled <Alcohol Risk Screening Analysis Report>, contained quite a bit of text, but only one sentence mattered.
“Can you see it? ‘Extremely low activity of alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme.’”
Hajin’s expression twisted slightly, his lips tightening.
“This means I physically can’t handle alcohol at all.”
He let out a small breath, as if finding the situation absurd. Seeing the chat window speed up even more, Hajin folded his arms and leaned forward.
“So if anyone ever starts spouting nonsense, don’t believe it and just let it slide, okay? There are a lot of weird people out there~ so many of them.”
A subtle anger could be sensed from Hajin’s expression, even though he was smiling knowingly.
Hajin put down the report with a sharp snap and took a sip of water.
“I was going to just ignore it… but I didn’t want you all to be stressed by this nonsense, so I’m addressing it.”
Hajin turned his gaze to check the monitoring system he had set up beforehand.
It was supposed to be more user-friendly, and indeed, the new system was conveniently displaying real-time reactions and comments from various communities and the chat window.
[Hajin just mentioned the club rumor on his live stream.]
Says he can’t drink at all, don’t believe the nonsense.
– **Really? He looks like he could down a whole bottle.**
└ **He even brought out the test result, says he’s alcohol intolerant or allergic or something.**
[Those who said it was Hajin at the club got fact-checked by him.]
Hajin must’ve been shocked when he saw that rumor.
– **???: Hey, I heard Hajin was drinking at the club~ They said he was downing shots.**
Hajin: Me? (pulls out alcohol enzyme test result)
– **Came in ready to throw punches after reading the title, but dropped my fist after reading the content.**
– **People won’t care about this, right? The fandom’s tendency to overreact to every little thing is really tiring.**
[But Hajin really must be pissed.]
I’ve never seen him so serious before…
Usually, he’s all about being tough, but now I’m leaning towards thinking he’s really strict.
– **I was surprised too, he’s genuinely scary when he gets serious.**
– **He’s our little fairy princess, but remember when Jaeyoung once said you shouldn’t mess with Hajin during the Toomee days?**
└ **Sorry, could you please correct that to ‘Princess Fairy’? 🙏**
Though not as intense as when the club rumors first started spreading, Hajin directly addressing the issue and even presenting the alcohol enzyme test results seemed to successfully capture people’s attention.
Since the story had already started, Hajin decided to pick topics that would spark more curiosity and keep the conversation going.
“Do I feel bitter about not being able to drink? But I’ve never really liked alcohol. I don
’t like drinking or smoking. I hate the misconceptions people have about me because of my face, so that makes me dislike it even more. …Oh. But how am I so good at drinking games, you ask?”
Hajin’s eyes briefly took on a nostalgic look, as if he were reminiscing.
“You see… when you go to church retreats, everyone there plays games completely sober. At drinking parties, people’s judgment gets a bit fuzzy because they’re drinking, right? But in church, everyone’s sober, so the more you play games, the sharper your instincts and intuition get. So…”
Hajin shuddered slightly, as if recalling something terrifying.
“You have to play the games with the mindset that if you don’t survive here, you might end up in hell….”
Hajin’s eyes lost focus as he recalled the church youth group leaders who were scarier than the notorious heavy drinkers he had known.
– **LOL this is hilarious.**
– **Cue the crying emoji. Lol, that’s right, you were a church oppa.**
– **Our artificially crafted entertainment captain.**
– **Hajin, what do you do when you go out with friends to drinking places? You must have a lot of group dinners too. 😢**
“My friends aren’t really into drinking either… Talking at a café and playing games is more fun than repeating the same drunk conversations, right? And even without alcohol, we’re always loud…”
The chat window was suddenly filled with messages of understanding.
– **Ah, that’s totally fair.**
– **If you were good at drinking too… (gazes into the distance)**
– **Right, they don’t sell iced tea at bars… No cake either… It makes sense you’d hate it.**
– **God really nailed the balance patch.**
“…Why do I feel weird seeing everyone suddenly agreeing with me?”
Hajin raised an eyebrow as he checked the chat window.
‘Well, anyway… it seems the explanation is mostly done.’
It was time to get to the main event.
Hajin straightened up from his bent-over position as he had been reading the chat, and he placed the shopping bags full of ‘dummy’ items on the desk.
– **???????**
– **What’s that?**
The chat window was filled with question marks, despite the word ‘album unboxing’ being prominently featured in the live stream title. Destis had assumed it was just some non-sale albums handed out by the company.
“Alright, everyone.”
Hajin poured out a total of thirty mini albums, ten each of three different versions, onto the desk. It was a dramatic display that would soon be made into gifs and spread across Bluebird.
“Shall we get into the main content now?”
Hajin then began pulling out a carrot knife, OPP bags for photocards, and a collector’s album from his hoodie pocket.
Comments like ‘Is Hajin Doraemon?’ and ‘Hajin, you know people usually use bags for that, right?’ appeared, but Kang Hajin remained solely focused on his objective.
From the many items in his pocket, the last thing he pulled out was a bundle of receipts. Hajin placed them on the albums and spread his arms like a magician introducing a show.
“This is the ‘I bought it with my manager’s money’ album unboxing. I’m going to open the first mini-debut concept albums of Kairos. …By the way, I’m not leaving until I pull the photocard I want.”
Hajin’s expression was solemn as he clasped his hands together in a prayer-like gesture.