Prince From Another Dimension Becomes An Idol [EN]: Chapter 222

#222.

“Oh! Hyung! You’re here early?”

Louis quickly greeted Do-jae.

Do-jae nodded in acknowledgment as he entered and headed towards the table where the members were gathered.

Seeing Woo-cheol’s tear-stained face, Do-jae’s brow furrowed slightly.

Do-jae strode over and gently grabbed Woo-cheol’s chin, quickly examining his face.

“Did you cry?”

Woo-cheol, belatedly embarrassed, pulled away.

He was also a little intimidated by Do-jae’s angry expression.

Do-jae, already upset about Woo-cheol’s situation before going to the meeting, wore a rare look of anger.

His well-defined eyes narrowed sharply, making him look quite fierce.

“Well…”

“Why did you cry? It’s something that can be resolved by revealing the truth.”

Do-jae spoke in a gentle but firm tone.

Woo-cheol, who had expected Do-jae to comfort him kindly, felt even more emotional.

“There will be people who won’t believe me even if I reveal the truth!”

“You’re revealing it for the people who will believe you, not for the ones who won’t.”

“I know, but… it’s so unfair…”

“There might be even more unfair things happening in the future. You can’t cry every time that happens.”

In fact, if it were his own issue, Do-jae wouldn’t have cared much.

He would state his position as clearly as possible, but he knew that people would believe what they wanted to believe anyway.

However, he was angry because it was Woo-cheol’s issue, not his own.

He became impatient, wanting the matter to be resolved as quickly as possible.

“Sorry. I’m not scolding you, but…”

Do-jae ran a hand through his hair, looking frustrated.

He had also become more sensitive because one of the officials at the meeting had asked about Woo-cheol’s situation.

Do-jae, too, couldn’t stand the thought of people who knew nothing judging Woo-cheol carelessly.

‘Even though I know it can’t be helped…’

Do-jae realized anew how much he cared for the members.

He felt strange, unable to think and act rationally.

‘What if Woo-cheol really did something wrong…’

Do-jae shook his head inwardly.

During the Big Boyz Hwang Joo-ho incident, Do-jae had judged more coldly than anyone else that Hwang Joo-ho should leave the group.

But now, he wondered if he could make a proper judgment even if the members really did something wrong.

‘Eventually, I’ll make the right choice.’

Even so, the thought alone was painful.

He could only hope that such a thing would not happen.

“No, you’re right, hyungs [older brothers or male figures],” Woo-cheol said, shaking his head at Do-jae’s apology.

“Instead of just being upset, I need to focus on resolving the situation quickly…”

He could deal with his upset feelings later.

He had felt it during the music manipulation incident, but people were so quick to talk without knowing anything.

The more famous they became, the more people would speak carelessly.

Especially when there was some kind of ‘evidence’ like this time, there would be an even more explosive outpouring of criticism.

The price of achieving their dreams was sometimes harsh, but they needed to toughen up, like developing calluses.

As Do-jae said, he couldn’t afford to be hurt and cry every time that happened.

He would only be hurting himself.

Thanks to the members being there for him, Woo-cheol regained his composure faster than he expected and began searching through his phone.

Fortunately, it wasn’t as if there was no way to clear up the misunderstanding.

‘It’s a bit embarrassing, though…’

“This is my MyTube [Korean version of YouTube] subscription list.”

Woo-cheol handed his phone to Gi-jun, who checked it.

“Wouldn’t it be enough to just make this all public…”

“We can just say we unsubscribed from that channel and then made it public.”

Gyu-sung and Heung-min exchanged worried words from the side.

However, there was no need for such worries.

Woo-cheol reached out and pointed to the account that had been mistaken for YooCheolTV.

“It seems like this is what looked like YooCheolTV when it was captured…”

The members all checked the phone screen.

The profile picture showed a man making a V sign against the backdrop of a school-like building.

The color scheme of the background, the ‘man’ making a ‘V’ sign, and even the channel name being ‘WooCheolV’…

At first glance, it was easy to confuse it with YooCheolTV.

It was truly a series of unbelievable coincidences, but ‘controversies’ often started from unexpected coincidences.

“We can just reveal that we were subscribed to this!”

Louis shouted as if he was relieved.

Louis’s expression brightened at the thought that this was something that could be left as a minor happening if only this was revealed.

However, it wasn’t something that could be resolved just by releasing the capture.

People would surely try to dig into whether the ‘WooCheolV’ channel really existed, or whether it was a fabricated coincidence.

“What kind of channel is this?”

At Do-jae’s question, Woo-cheol felt embarrassed, forgetting his upset feelings.

“Well…”

He felt his face flush red again at the thought that he might have to reveal the channel itself.

With a ‘what the heck’ attitude, Woo-cheol clicked on the ‘WooCheolV’ channel.

Only 3 subscribers.

There were no videos.

“Huh? There are no videos? What did you subscribe to?”

Heung-min tilted his head in confusion.

Woo-cheol logged out of his current account and logged into a new account.

It was the ‘WooCheolV’ account.

“Is this your account, Woo-cheol?”

Woo-cheol nodded with an embarrassed face.

When he logged in with a different account, the videos were visible.

There were 5 videos of Woo-cheol when he was an elementary school student.

Looking at it again, the man in the profile picture was Woo-cheol around the age of 12.

“What is it? Did you make it when you were a kid?”

“…Ha…”

Woo-cheol answered Heung-min’s question with a sigh.

The members forgot the serious atmosphere and played the first video of WooCheolV.

Then, a very mischievous-looking child appeared, drawing a ‘V’ on the back of his hand.

He was wearing sunglasses and a fake gold necklace; he didn’t know where he got them from.

-Drop the bet!

“‘Beat’ instead of ‘Bet’?”

Louis asked as if he was genuinely puzzled.

His innocent question made Woo-cheol even more heartbroken.

He was already a ‘laughing challenge’ just by appearing, but he couldn’t even pronounce a single English sentence properly.

The hyungs [older brothers or male figures] bit their lips tightly and focused on the video.

Woo-cheol (12) in the video held what appeared to be his mom’s phone in his hand, played the accompaniment himself, and started rapping.

-No matter what anyone says, I’m a prepared player!

-I’ll show you a taste hotter than tteokbokki [spicy Korean rice cakes]!

-I’ll fight you with my skills!

-I’ll be the best anytime, I am!

“…….”

“…….”

The silence that had weighed heavily on the dorm just 10 minutes ago.

It enveloped the dorm once again.

But it was a completely different kind of silence.

The calm before the storm…….

“Pfft!”

“Ugh!”

“Puhaha”

“Euhahaha! Ugh, I’m going crazy! Euhahaha!”

Eventually, the members couldn’t hold back their laughter and burst out laughing.

Woo-cheol had no choice but to lower his head again.

“Euhahak, wh, what is this?”

Heung-min asked as if he was about to collapse, clutching his stomach.

Woo-cheol muttered in a gloomy tone.

“Ah…. I dreamed of being a rapper for a while…….”

Then, after seeing an idol stage, Woo-cheol became a trainee to become an idol.

“Fight me, I’ll be the best again…. Is that supposed to be a rhyme?”

“Tteokbokki must have been very spicy for Woo-cheol…….”

Woo-cheol really wanted to find a rat hole to hide in at Gi-jun and Gyu-sung’s serious analysis.

He never imagined that a dark history that even Heung-min and Gi-jun didn’t know about would be revealed in this way…….

A ridiculous laugh leaked out at his appearance from ten years ago.

“I was young! Stop teasing me! Still…. Isn’t it a little…. cute?!”

Do-jae nodded at Woo-cheol, who was asking for agreement.

“There was talent… yes.”

He couldn’t help but laugh even as he spoke.

“I came to my senses as soon as I entered middle school and turned it private.”

“But the number of views is 125…….”

Gyu-sung muttered in a pitiful voice, and Woo-cheol confessed.

“I probably watched it about 100 times.”

“Why?”

“Because it looked cool…….”

Woo-cheol answered Louis’s question.

Woo-cheol was quite fond of himself.

The remaining 4 videos, uploaded at weekly intervals, were similar in content.

The combination of ridiculous rap and Woo-cheol’s pretentious expression was truly a collaboration of madness.

Not a photo, but a video of his dark history.

And he was keeping it himself.

“The channel creation date is here, so it would be good to reveal that as well.”

Woo-cheol nodded at Do-jae’s words.

The MyTube creation date of WooCheolV, who was a blue chip in the hip-hop world… was much earlier than the creation date of the problematic MyTube channel.

It meant that there was no reason for other controversies to arise.

And the members conveyed this fact to the company as well.

They were relieved, as they had been worried about how to explain it, as Woo-cheol’s mentality seemed to have been greatly shaken.

“Looking at it, it would be better to just reveal the channel. It seems like it would be much more effective in covering up the negative issue…. It seems like it would help Woo-cheol’s image as well…….”

And at Team Leader Jung Hee-young’s slightly cruel suggestion, Woo-cheol asked back.

“Is it right that the image will improve?”

“If you give laughter, isn’t that a good thing?”

“Team Leader!”

***

On the evening of the day Woo-cheol’s controversy was reported, Kingdom Entertainment quickly organized and uploaded a statement.

It was a statement directly refuting the controversy.

The statement, which clearly summarized the circumstances of the incident and the actual facts, also contained the following:

‘Kingdom Entertainment and the MOST members are well aware of the influence of broadcasters active in various media.

Therefore, even if it is not an illegal act, we always have strict standards for actions that could harm their professionalism.

We ask that you believe in this part.’

It meant that they would not ignore the seriousness of the controversy itself.

It also emphasized that they would not have covered up Woo-cheol if the controversy was true, and that Woo-cheol was innocent.

Of course, they also did not fail to mention that if the controversy continued to grow despite clarifying his innocence in this way, they would take active measures to protect the artist.

As soon as the statement came out, those who believed it believed it, and those who did not want to believe it still criticized Woo-cheol as they had been doing, saying that the explanation was not satisfactory.

However, the latter people had no choice but to remain in the minority.

Because the video of the ‘WooCheolV’ channel was released.

-Ah ㅋㅋㅋ so funny ㅋㅋㅋ what kind of person who watches YooCheolTV is this ㅋㅋㅋ

-Ah ㅠㅠㅠㅠ I could have misunderstood ㅠㅠㅠㅠ but the videos in the channel are completely different ㅠㅠㅠㅠ Woo-cheol, sorry for misunderstanding ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Why did the profile overlap;

-Elementary school ㅋㅋㅋ MyTube ㅋㅋㅋ kids these days are different

-Crazy haters, only revealed our Woo-cheol’s dark history because of you ㅋㅋㅋ(((Woo-cheol)))

-So pure ㅋㅋㅋ

-Woo-cheol, be the best! ㅋㅋㅋ

-This child grew up to be the real best! ㅋㅋㅋ

-ㄷㄷ so scary, I think I’ll lose if I fight him

-Ugh my hands and feet ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-The spicy taste of tteokbokki ㅋㅋㅋ scary ㅠㅠ ㅋㅋㅋ

-You know John Cena?! You know Park Woo-cheol?

-Cute ㅋㅋㅋ

-I didn’t think anything, but I think I became fond of him

-Laughing so hard ㅋㅋㅋ

-I’m glad I stayed still.. it wasn’t this time either ㅡㅡ anyway haters ㅡㅡ

-Shuk shuk shuk shuk shibal shuk shuk shibal haters die shuk shuk shuk

-Those who were trying to bring him down at this time, won’t they say anything now?

-Ah why is he like my cousin and cute ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-He’s an adult who grew up so well now ( Woo-cheol’s photo attached)

-Wow so handsome

As if they had never criticized Woo-cheol, people felt affection for Woo-cheol, finding the young Woo-cheol cute.

It was a bitter thing to think that they could be criticized again for something that wasn’t true, but anyway, it was fortunate that things were resolved well.

***

Since then, Remora Season 2 has been released without any major problems, one episode per week.

In the meantime, the members prepared for a new stage.