episode_0125

“Yerin… .”

“… … .”

Lee Hye-jeong looked up at me with a puzzled face… , I look down at Lee Hye-jeong with pitiful eyes.

“… … .”

“… … .”

So the bathroom was filled with silence.

What can I do for Lee Hye-jeong?

To find out, I had to first know why Lee Hye-jeong was acting like this.

Anxiety about not being able to become an idol, a lifelong dream.

And the self-blame that it is because of her body and the resulting obsession.

I am not a doctor or a therapist.

Even if I were a doctor or a therapist, I couldn’t treat Lee Hye-jeong right now.

So, I took out what I had kept in my pocket since I had an appointment with Lee Hye-jeong and handed it to Lee Hye-jeong.

“… Sister, take it.”

“… This is.”

It is none other than… .

“Stomach medicine.”

“… … .”

“It’s a Japanese snack. If you eat it when your stomach hurts, it will help you relax.”

… It was a stomach medicine.

It was Lee Ji-woo who gave this to me.

As soon as I heard from Hannah Na that Hyejeong Lee was anorexic, I told this to Jiwoo Lee… , Lee Ji-woo immediately handed this to me.

Lee Ji-woo said that more idol trainees suffer from anorexia than expected.

There were many of Lee Ji-woo’s disciples… , He gave me this stomach medicine every time that happened.

When you vomit on an empty stomach, a lot of stomach acid is secreted and you feel sick. If you eat this every time, the effect is direct.

Lee Hye-jeong, who probably knew this in advance, smiled a small and weak smile after receiving the stomach medicine from me.

Then, after tearing the wrapping paper… .

“Thank you, Yerin. I’ll eat well.”

“Ah… , but the water… .”

“Just turn on the water and drink it.”

Shoot-.

I took tap water in my hand and swallowed it along with the medicine.

gulp.

The medicine must have taken effect right away. As soon as she swallowed it, Lee Hye-jeong looked a little relaxed.

But the bathroom was immediately filled with silence again.

And soon… .

“If you brought this, I think I knew in advance… , how did you know?”

Breaking the silence, Hyejung Lee asked with an awkward smile.

“Hannah told me. sister… , I feel like I’m vomiting… .”

“Hannah You didn’t look like that, but you were quick to notice. I’m hiding it because I’m pretty good at hiding it… .”

“Since when have you been like this? also… , From then on?”

“… … .”

Hyejeong Lee nodded weakly in response to my question and then spoke quietly.

“At first, I didn’t eat just to lose weight. I lost weight after going for a few days without eating the food I used to eat so much.”

“… … .”

“3 days of drinking only water… , then eat 3 meals of oatmeal and then drink only water again for 2 days. Naaa, I endured it like that every week when I wasn’t filming. Then I fell once in Naaah… , At that time, you kept watching me and told me to increase the amount of food I ate.”

right.

During the first Naaah competition, Hyejeong Lee collapsed and I accompanied her to the emergency room.

“After that, I felt serious about it and tried to slowly increase my food intake again… .”

“… … .”

“It didn’t go over… . Just eating rice makes me feel sick… . I think it was from then on. As soon as I ate something, I started throwing up.”

Lee Hye-jeong spoke calmly, but it was something that could not be heard calmly.

When I looked at him seriously, Lee Hye-jeong waved her hand as if to break the mood and placed her hand affectionately on my shoulder and said,

“Don’t look at me like that, Yerin. I also searched and searched… , this is just a temporary symptom caused by stress and anxiety.”

“… Because that stress and anxiety is getting better, right?”

“I guess so… .”

When the story of Naaah came out, Hyejeong Lee’s eyes immediately became a little gloomy.

However, Lee Hye-jeong raised the corners of her mouth slightly as if she did not want to show this and said.

“I had high expectations, but I think it’s because my grades weren’t that good. … It’s okay though. Well, if I find a good company again, I can debut soon.”

“… … .”

From Lee Hye-jeong’s answer, I could tell that she had already given up on being selected for Naa’s debut group.

… It was worth it.

Hyejeong Lee’s current ranking is 11th.

To debut in Naaah, she had to be in the top 6, but neither the production team nor public opinion was interested in Lee Hye-jung.

… Lee Hye-jeong no longer had a driving force to increase the number of votes.

“… Phew.”

At this, I sighed softly and picked up my phone.

Then he tapped the screen and spoke to Lee Hye-jeong.

“… sister. Looks like he’s already given up. She doesn’t look like her usual sister at all.”

“… … .”

“If you are given the last chance to change the rankings… , can you work hard?”

“… What is that?”

Sigh.

I showed the phone screen I was currently looking at to Hyejeong Lee, who tilted her head.

that… .

“Yerin… , This… .”

“This time, I created a new account for each person.”

This was a new personal account that I, who had stayed away from social media, opened this time.

And that first post… , It was a photo taken of me and Lee Hye-jeong in front of the movie poster.

The reason why I created a personal account this time and uploaded a photo taken with Lee Hye-jeong is… , This was because this was the way to help Lee Hye-jeong that Lee Ji-woo had mentioned.

‘Yerin, there is a way for you to help that friend… .’

‘What is that method? Please tell us.’

‘that is… , showing off to your fans through social media that you and that friend are close. Then, through a trickle-down effect, the interest in you will flow to that friend as well.’

I walked up to Lee Hye-jeong, who was looking at my personal account blankly, and hugged her shoulder and said with a small smile.

“Sister, please follow me back. Will you do it?”

“Uh… , Yes… .”

“Wow. Then let’s go and play billiards. I’ll take another picture while I’m playing billiards and post it on Instagram. Oh, of course I’m going to tag you in everything I posted today, right?”

“… … .”

I said that and went down the stairs, dragging Lee Hye-jeong’s hand.

Looking at me like that, Lee Hye-jeong asked with a slightly blank expression.

“… Yerin.”

“… Yes?”

“… Why on earth are you doing this to me? What did I say… .”

To Lee Hye-jeong’s question, I just smiled and answered.

“What is your sister? It’s Hyejeong.”

“… … .”

Honestly, I don’t know if this method will work.

The best you can do is create a social media account… , I followed up with Lee Hye-jeong… , does it make sense to post a picture of me with her and tag her?

… It may be meaningless. We may not be able to put Lee Hye-jung on the right to debut.

but… .

Because of what I did today, a new feeling of hope filled Lee Hye-jeong’s eyes.

I also had a feeling that Hyejeong Lee’s anorexia would improve a little through this.

I felt proud and had a great day with Lee Hye-jeong that day.

And I… .

In just 2 hours after opening the personal account, we gathered 100,000 followers.

**

Two weeks, which seemed like a long time, went by faster than I thought.

I met Lee Hye-jeong a few more times while traveling between school and work for two weeks.

Every time we met, we posted a post on Inbyeol, and as a result… .

“… Yerin. You already have over 1 million followers? no… , It’s been a little over a week since I created the account, so how can I do this… ?”

I went from having 1 million Instagram followers to looking at 2 million.

Lee Ji-woo, who was looking at this in disbelief, saw something again and spoke.

“Looking at it, Hyejeong Lee seems to have gained 100,000 to 200,000 more followers in the meantime? and… .”

“Yes, Hyejeong’s followers have also increased a lot.”

All the posts I’ve posted so far have been with Lee Hye-jeong. Additionally, the account I was following was Hyejeong Lee’s.

Maybe that’s why a lot of my fans followed and supported the account of Lee Hye-jung, who seems to be my close friend.

It was like seeing the trickle-down effect.

Lee Ji-woo, who probably didn’t know that his advice would end up like this, looked at his phone a little blankly and then hinted to me.

“… Yerin, can you follow me too? Sir, I also want to increase my number of followers… !”

“Well, that’s… , I’ll do it when it’s over.”

“Heeing.”

If other people start following here, the firepower against Lee Hye-jung will decrease.

Accordingly, I had already rejected the requests of Seo Yu-jin and Park Yu-jeong, who were whining for me to join them as well.

She had no choice but to refuse Lee Ji-woo’s request, so she lowered her head once and then shifted her gaze to the monitor.

“Okay… Okay… . It’s 10 o’clock now, so let’s see if we get better.”

“Yes.”

Today was the day Naaah finally aired.

Because of last week’s cancellation, viewers’ expectations for today’s NaaAh broadcast were extremely excited, and I also looked at the screen a little nervously.

‘This episode is important.’

The content of this episode included a one-on-one match between me and Yu Seol.

Additionally, this episode was the first episode to air after I had an argument with PD Shin.

‘I wonder if Shin PD did the devil’s editing out of petty retaliation… .’

I started watching the broadcast, paying attention to my portion size.

and… .

“… Huh?”

… Not long after I started watching the broadcast, I immediately noticed something strange.

**

“… Yes, yes. Director. haha… , That will never happen. yes… , please go in.”

After being humiliated by Ha Ye-rin and Han Si-woo last time, PD Shin tried to somehow put Ha Ye-rin at a broadcast disadvantage.

But I couldn’t.

From the very next day after arguing with Ha Ye-rin… , this was because suspicions of actor hijacking came through Naahah’s major advertisers.

bang!

“What the fuck!”

After getting upset again by the director who needed to be seen well, PD Shin couldn’t hold back his anger and hit the desk.

‘Brother Planning, those thugs… ! What on earth is it? ?’

If you think about it, Ha Ye-rin was also parachuted in at first.

At the time, I thought I just had a small relationship with the advertiser, but that wasn’t the case.

To the extent that pressure can be applied so directly… , it was clear that the relationship between Brothers Planning and advertisers was very close.

“Damn… , shit… !”

If you make a blatant evil edit towards Ha Ye-rin here, you will eat Kusari again.

Producer Shin could not touch Ha Ye-rin through editing.

“… Fuck.”

However, his pride did not allow him to remain still.

How dare one performer… , even trainees who hadn’t debuted yet touched him.

Retaliation was absolutely necessary. It had to be repaid.

But there was no way.

It was at that time that Shin PD was biting his nails nervously.

“Huh? Yerin Hay created a personal account.”

“… What?”

The place where PD Shin is now is inside the Naaah editing room.

Furthermore, as its importance grew in the latter half of the year, PD Shin was to directly direct the editing.

When the junior writer mentioned Ha Ye-rin, PD Shin quickly approached her and looked at the bottom of her phone and asked.

“… He originally didn’t have any social media accounts. But you suddenly created a personal account?”

“Yes, here. and… , but we did produce one star. The speed at which followers accumulate… .”

The junior writer looked at Ha Ye-rin’s post, found something strange, and tilted his head.

“But the posts are all about pictures taken with Lee Hye-jeong. The only person on the following list is Lee Hye-jung… . Were the two of you that close?”

“… … .”

PD Shin looked back on past memories while looking at the photos Ha Ye-rin took with Lee Hye-jeong.

Come to think of it, Ha Ye-rin was clearly attached to Lee Hye-jung in Naaah a lot.

It was clear that we became friends because we were in A class together in the early days of NaaAh.

then… .

‘aha.’

PD Shin was able to quickly understand the meaning of the posts on Ha Ye-rin’s personal account.

‘Ha Ye-rin is trying to push Lee Hye-jeong.’

Then, smiling as if he was having fun, he gave an order to his junior writer.

“Hey.”

“Yes, senior.”

“Lee Hye-jeong’s amount of content in this episode will be reduced as much as possible.”

“… Yes?”

The junior writer couldn’t hold back his embarrassment at Shin PD’s sudden order and tilted his head.

“Suddenly, what is that…? .”

“Why? Is that difficult?”

“No, that’s not it… .”

“Then do as I tell you.”

“… Yes.”

Methods of injuring an opponent are not necessarily limited to hitting the opponent directly.

Shin PD knew well that bullying people close to the other person was also an effective way to hurt the other person.

Since he can’t touch Ha Ye-rin because of his relationship with her, he buries Lee Hye-jeong, who was close to her.

Producer Shin chuckled, feeling proud of himself at his own idea.

‘I’ll clearly tell you what happens if you dare touch the director. Cheeky bitch, you may be able to debut, but Lee Hye-jeong will never debut?’

Seeing PD Shin’s mean attitude, the youngest writer in the corner quietly raised his hand and said.

“I… , Seniors. We’re now in the latter half of the program, so shouldn’t such malicious editing stop? Now that there are only a few performers left, viewers will also know about our atrocities. Then obviously there is noise… .”

Devil’s editing was also used to focus attention at the beginning of the program, but it was dangerous to use it at the end.

This was because the number of actors was small compared to the first part, so it was obvious that the production team had done some devilish editing.

Moreover, Lee Hye-jeong was a former K-Star audition star, so compared to other top-ranked performers, the total number of fans was at least higher than that of core fans.

‘Those people probably won’t understand that Lee Hye-jeong’s screenplay, which was already small, has become smaller… .’

This was clearly not a command given by rational thinking.

But Shin PD… .

“The youngest.”

“… … Yes.”

“We have never finished a program without noise before.”

She spoke with a firm face, as if she didn’t care about the reactions of Lee Hye-jung’s fans, who were only a handful.

“PD is me. So take my word for it. Or should I resign?”

“… No, sorry.”

As PD Shin said that, his eyes were already filled with malice.

And the youngest writer had no choice but to edit according to the new PD’s wishes.

… Even though I don’t think this is the case.