BTS Eighth Member | The Life: Year 2016

Chapter 58- The Trial

October 31st, 2016:

I was in the van on the way back to Big Hit with Sejin who had picked me up from Source Music.

"Good rehearsal?" he asks, looking over at me in the passenger seat.

"Yeah, really good," I smile, "a mental recharge".

"I'm glad to hear it," he smiles himself, before it slipping slightly as he went to look back at the road, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. It was obvious he wanted to say something but didn't know how to breach the subject.

"I'm assuming the lawyers have called you," I breach it for him.

"Yeah," he sighs, not looking at me in the eye.

"And?" I ask, looking at him expectantly.

"Um... it might be harder than they initially thought," he says, looking at me cautiously, "the judge was changed last minute. We originally had one of the few women judges, but then it was changed to this like 76-year-old male one. The justice system says it was a matter of scheduling and workload. Thankfully, there is a jury, but only two are women and most are well into their 40s and above–"

"So, I definitely don't have a jury of my peers," I interrupt him upset.

"Well technically, it's meant to be a jury of Daeseong's peers,' Sejin corrects me a bit anxious about my reaction.

"This feels like such a scam," I shake my head upset, looking out the window at the people going about their day completely unphased.

"They tried really hard to get some good jurors, but in Korea, people that will obviously defend you are fewer, and even fewer since most can easily be shown to be biased from outside news," Sejin continues, "and well, for the actual trial. They're trying to present Daeseong as this wronged, kind, hardworking man and you this pompous, self-righteous, entitled, and... um... American little idol".

I let out an angry cackle.

"They do know I'm Canadian," I say angrily

"You know, bolder, more adventurous," he explains further, "They say Daeseong went to your place intoxicated and, "while it's not his proudest moment", he didn't do anything wrong. Especially since he was drunk, he shouldn't be judged on his drunk actions" Sejin says, anger evident in his voice as well, "they say you opened the door, which meant you knew it was him and invited him in as a result. And given how strong you are, if you really didn't want it, you could have beaten him off. Thus you secretly wanted it".

I didn't have the words. The worst part was most people were going to believe him.

"They had his friend come in and say that he wasn't the type of guy to do that. His ex-girlfriend came and said he had never been violent with her," Sejin keeps going after seeing I wasn't going to say anything, "Beomsoo appeared as a witness too".

"What!" I shout, utterly shocked.

"Yeah... he talked about how you had it out for him since the beginning and built this like conspiracy against him with the rest of us to get him fired," Sejin frowns.