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Chapter 328: Stay Strong (1)

“I will call you back later. I really need to go now,” he said with forced urgency. But his father, relentless as ever, showed no signs of wrapping up the call. I couldn’t make out everything, but the bits of the conversation I caught were laced with harshness. The voice through the phone was unmistakably throwing curses.

The longer the call lasted, the more Goh Yoo-Joon seemed to shrink in on himself. When I moved closer, he let out a deep sigh and abruptly ended the call.

“Why bother listening until he’s done talking? It’s just endless cursing anyway."

“Ah, dad’s out of jail now,” he muttered.

Great, back to his old scamming tricks, no doubt.

There had been a huge scandal back when I was still a trainer, one that had rocked the entire entertainment industry. Goh Yoo-Joon’s father had been caught up in a massive investment fraud, and arrested for swindling large sums. At that time, it came out that Goh Yoo-Joon had sent around three billion won to his father’s account, which his father then used to defraud others. This had sparked a fiery debate, with people accusing Goh Yoo-Joon of being in on the scheme.

I wasn’t in close touch with the members back then, so I hadn’t heard from Goh Yoo-Joon directly. Instead, the scandal was so big that it was impossible not to know about it.

That was about four years ago. He was eventually cleared of those charges, but people who didn’t know the ins and outs of the team\'s breakup still linked that tarnished image to their downfall. One thing was clear: his father had used him without a second thought for his son’s reputation.

“What did he want this time?”

“He said now that I am doing well, I should start by paying off his debts.”

His father had always been like this, even before he went to prison for gambling and fraud. He frequently called Goh Yoo-Joon, oftentimes drunk, sometimes just to vent his frustrations about his estranged wife or to belittle Goh Yoo-Joon\'s dreams of stardom.

And now, Goh Yoo-Joon’s phone was ringing again.

“Look, even if I wanted to pay his debts, I’d need money, right? We haven’t even been paid yet.” he said with a hint of desperation in his voice.

“Just be honest and say we weren’t paid yet. What else can we do?”

“He wouldn’t believe it. It’s kind of scary, actually. He has threatened to air our family’s issues online. What if he really does that?” Goh Yoo-Joon managed a nervous laugh, a grimace really, as if he was used to masking his fears with humor.

I patted him on the back, took the phone from his hands, and turned it off completely before handing it back. “You know you’ve got a ton of people who care about you, right? Don’t let him intimidate you. Maybe you should talk to Su-Hwan hyung about this. Also, avoid taking his calls for a while.”

When emotions run high, conversations tend to spiral and make rash actions all too easy. It might be best to cut off contact for now and let his father cool down alone.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah.”

“Want me to go?”

He nodded in response, and I left the room. I headed back to the living room since Goh Yoo-Joon would need some time alone to collect himself.

“Let’s head to bed,” Joo-Han suggested as soon as I reappeared, ushering the members off to their rooms.

“What’s going on with Yoo-Joon?” Su-Hwan asked me as I was about to return to my room.

“Not really sure,” I replied while shaking my head.

Frowning with concern, Su-Hwan headed toward Goh Yoo-Joon’s room. It seemed he wanted to check on him, likely guessing something was off right after the livestream had ended. Goh Yoo-Joon wasn’t one to easily share his family troubles. There were just too many painful details he’d rather keep buried, including why his father had gone to prison.

***

A month had passed since the trip to the lodge. We were still on vacation, and the other members, aside from Yoon-Chan and I, were resting either at their dorms or homes.

Goh Yoo-Joon still hadn’t shared his situation with the company or the members. It seemed he might have given his father the royalties he had earned since the threatening calls had gradually ceased. At least, that was what he claimed. Since that day, he hadn’t spoken to me about his father either. Whenever I asked, he would just shrug it off and say he hadn’t received any calls. All I could do was just trust him.

Honestly, it was a delicate matter, touching on family issues like this. Fortunately, any major incidents weren\'t expected to happen for another four years, which gave Goh Yoo-Joon, the members, and the company plenty of time to talk things over. Well... As long as there were no immediate issues with Goh Yoo-Joon.

I was aware there was more to the story he was keeping back, and I planned to find time soon to have a serious talk with him.

We were in the middle of shooting for Newbie Crew.

“Ah...”

Sighs of frustration could be heard here and there.

Since returning from the lodge, there had been a few shoots for this show. Despite some members, including Ji-Hyuk, taking extra training sessions, the clear cut for success just wasn’t appearing. Thanks to their efforts, the skills of the squad had skyrocketed and given me some breathing room to secure my own screen time.

“Such a pity, really.”

“Who missed the gimmick just now? Something wasn’t handled properly.”

“Oh, that was my fault. I’m sorry.”

“Ah... Just let us know when you miss something, so we can retry immediately.”

“Yes, sorry.”

The quality of our end-game raiding content had improved, and everyone was getting better. The problem was that the repetition of attempts made everyone particularly sensitive about mistakes and insufficient damage. Any other raiding teams would have reacted similarly.

When mistakes happened in later phases, emotions ran high and often led to heated exchanges. This occurred especially when comedian Seong-Jin voiced his frustrations toward actors Min-Jae and Sang-Hyun.

‘And Seong-Jin isn’t even scolding Ji-Hyuk.’

From my perspective as the team leader, a bigger issue was Seong-Jin because he dampened the team spirit. The frequent mistakes made by Min-Jae and Sang-Hyun were somewhat problematic.

“Ugh, I almost thought we had it. If a gimmick isn’t handled, just say it. Why keep quiet?”

He should’ve cooled off after scolding them once, but he went on and on, adding tension and making everyone uncomfortable.

“Hey, it’s okay. We needed to retry anyway because of the lack of damage. Seong-Jin, have some water.” I tried to lighten the mood while staring at the boss monster, who was still in full health, watching us struggle. “I will tell you when to handle the gimmicks, so please be careful next time. Shall we start again?”

It was overwhelming. Both the boss monster and the team atmosphere were draining my energy.

“Let’s have one last go before we head out for a team dinner.”

“Yes!”

“We made a lot of progress today. Let’s give it our all until the end, hyungs.”

With that, I tried to boost the team’s morale and kicked off another raid.

***

After today’s raid attempts, shooting for the next episode of Newbie Crew began at a barbecue restaurant near the broadcast station. It was evident not only to the team, but also to the production crew that the team\'s atmosphere was becoming increasingly sensitive. Thus, tonight’s shoot was essentially a dinner where everyone could openly share their grievances and hopes.

“Hyun-Woo was under so much burden today because I died several times.”

“No, it wasn’t because of you.”

“You were supposed to be a ranged damage dealer, right? But you are so good as a healer too?”

“Everything just worked out as I played,” I replied.

“Maybe next time, we should try Hyun-Woo as a damage dealer. This way, we might not lack damage.”

“Oh, hyung! Then who will heal? Hyun-Woo, have a drink! Oh? You haven’t finished your drink? Can’t handle your liquor?” Comedian Jeong-Hoon couldn’t believe someone couldn’t drink, clicking his tongue in disbelief.

Ji-Hyuk squeezed in between me and Jeong-Hoon. “It’s okay not to drink! Here.” He emptied my glass of soju and filled it with cider instead. “Just enjoy the atmosphere.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Everyone else was quite drunk as they all enjoyed drinking except for me. If I was leading the team in the game, On Jeong-Woo was in charge of the non-game proceedings.

“Everyone, we are nearing the end of the shoot. We don’t have many days left for raid challenges, but you’ve all really worked hard.”

At Jeong-Woo\'s words, the cast members set down their glasses with a bitter expression. It wasn\'t because the raid progression was slow. Thanks to everyone\'s diligent training, the raid was progressing well toward our goal, and it looked like we could clear it within two weeks.

However, the stress among the team members had been severe during the process.

“Ah, what hard work are you talking about? Hyun-Woo has had it the toughest."

“I should have done better, but these darn fingers of mine just won’t cooperate."

Everyone blamed themselves and created an atmosphere of heartfelt honesty.

On Jeong-Woo looked at Seong-Jin, who had apparently disrupted the team atmosphere, seemingly about to give him a chance to air his grievances or apologize first. However, I was looking not at Seong-Jin, but at CEO Lee Mi-Hyang.

I cautiously raised my hand. “Uh, Jeong-Woo hyung, I..."

On Jeong-Woo quickly looked from Seong-Jin to me. “Yes, Hyun-Woo.”

“I have something to say.” Knowing Seong-Jin\'s temperament from the raids, giving him the chance to speak first would surely start with complaints.

“Hyun-Woo, you couldn’t speak much to save the game. So, what should we do now?"

I remembered Joo-Han’s advice after we watched the preview video monitoring of Newbie Crew not long ago. He had told me to cry, but I had no intention of doing that. Instead, I planned to address things emotionally to prevent further disruptions of the mood.

“I’ve always turned to play One Hours whenever things got tough since I was very young."

The mood was often set by the opening remarks in the Game of Truth.