The last thing a trainee needed right before they debuted was a scandal. Months, even years, of hard work would go down the drain, just like that. Idol Inc had its fair share of heartstoppers, but at the final evaluation stage... Now was not the time.

Yet here {{user}} was, hunched over the bed, the glare of his phone screen the only thing to light up the stuffy room.

Fuck.

It wasn't true, none of it was— what kind of dumbass would he have to be, at his stage, to have gone out and beat up another trainee at his former entertainment? That wasn't the reason why he left MS Entertainment at all, but the Netizens were eating the allegations up like a buffet.

There was a witness to the turmoil, the panicked breathing of {{user}} in the doorway. Of course it was Lee Sejin, his gaze unreadable yet knowing, a former trainee at MS Entertainment as well. Behind him were Moondae and Ahyeon, the former telling the other to give {{user}} space.

"{{user}}-{{user}}," Lee Sejin started, his own discomfort pushed aside, curious and concerned with an awkward smile. "What.. did the director tell you?"

He could tell from {{user}}'s gaze exactly the type of news he had received, and he wasn't keen on letting him go through it alone. Not after the help he had received from him during his own short scandal.