An Unpleasant Stage
The next morning.
Because today was intermediate evaluation day, Park Yujeong, Lee Hyejeong, and I came down for breakfast a little earlier than usual, the way we always did.
…No. Looking at things now, I should probably drop the "the way we always did."
Lee Hyejeong, who used to love food so much she'd put away two bowls whether it was breakfast, lunch, or dinner…
"Unni, aren't you going to eat?"
"…Mm. My stomach's not feeling great."
She was only going through the motions. She never properly touched the food.
On Lee Hyejeong's tray sat a reasonable portion of rice, soup, and side dishes—the only thing reduced was one of the sides, the rolled omelet.
Aside from a single bite of that rolled omelet this morning, Lee Hyejeong hadn't eaten a thing.
"Unnis—! I've got something to do, so I'm heading up first! See you in the practice room later!"
After we sent Park Yujeong off ahead and it was just the two of us left, I carefully opened my mouth toward Lee Hyejeong.
"…Unni."
"…Yeah."
"…If you keep this up, something bad's going to happen."
"……."
Today marked the fourth day since Week 2 of My Idol Academia had begun.
For those entire four days… Lee Hyejeong had only pretended to eat, barely consuming anything at all.
Our team had been pushing through grueling practice sessions that ran until dawn for four days straight.
With calorie expenditure that extreme—and on top of that not even eating—it wouldn't have been strange if something serious happened.
So I couldn't help but speak to her with genuine concern.
"Losing weight is fine, but… what are you going to do if you collapse?"
"……."
"Unni, you've already done enough. So… stop now. Starting from lunch today, slowly increase how much you eat again. Okay?"
In truth, Lee Hyejeong had lost even more weight than she had four days ago, before Week 2 of My Idol Academia even started.
Her body right now… was a little thinner than even the My Idol Academia average.
Put another way, she was far thinner than the average ordinary woman.
It had only taken two weeks for her—who'd originally been a bit chubby—to reach this state.
She herself would know better than anyone that her current condition wasn't good.
"…Yeah. You're right, Yerin."
"…Unni."
"Starting from lunch today, I'll…"
Just as she was about to slowly nod under my continued persuasion—
"Hm? Oh, Yerin!"
At the sudden voice calling my name, I turned around to find—
"Haha, good morning. Having breakfast, I see?"
—Shin PD, the main producer of My Idol Academia.
The cafeteria was used not only by contestants but by the production staff and judges as well.
There was a rule that production staff and contestants weren't supposed to make contact without reason, but Shin PD casually ignored that sort of thing and approached our table.
"I've been meaning to say hello for a while now, but the timing never worked out, haha. You watched last week's broadcast, right?"
"…Yes."
"Thanks to you, Yerin, the show came out well and the viewer response was great, haha. Keep it up this week too."
At Shin PD's sudden appearance, I faced him with a colder expression than usual.
But he paid that no mind whatsoever and kept talking to me.
And then—
"Ooh… but you know…"
His gaze finally landed on Lee Hyejeong sitting across from me.
"I was wondering who this was sitting in front of Yerin, but looking closer, it's Hyejeong, isn't it?"
"Yes, yes! PD-nim! How have you been this past week…?"
Unlike me, who'd faced Shin PD with a blank expression, Lee Hyejeong addressed him with an extremely earnest, almost desperate look.
Shin PD swept his eyes over her once, then smiled again as he spoke.
"You've changed so much from before, I didn't even recognize you. Haha, Hyejeong-ssi—no, Hyejeong."
…No.
I prayed inwardly for Shin PD not to say anything more.
But Shin PD went ahead and said it anyway.
"You look really good right now."
"……."
"If you keep working hard going forward, I think we can expect good results. …Oh? Is it already that time? Haha, I'm busy, so I'll be heading off. Good luck, both of you~"
Lee Hyejeong had lost weight so rapidly that her face looked a little haggard.
That face of hers somehow carried a fragile, sickly beauty that could be seen as attractive, but…
…No matter how you look at it, she doesn't look healthy.
And he said what…? That she looked good? To work even harder?
When Shin PD said to work hard, it probably didn't just mean working hard on the stage.
He probably meant… keep losing weight just like this, too.
Ordinarily, it would have been a comment you could just let slide.
But the problem was—
"……More."
—that Lee Hyejeong was murmuring Shin PD's words with vacant eyes, like someone who'd just met the Messiah.
I hurriedly tried to persuade her again, but—
"…Unni, don't take what that guy said too seriously. For now…"
"Yeah, Yerin. Thanks for worrying about me. But…"
Her eyes already held nothing but a pitiful, desperate longing.
"Unni will… Unni will handle it herself."
"……."
Looking at her like that… I couldn't say another word.
After breakfast ended… the time for the intermediate evaluation arrived.
The intermediate evaluation wasn't something done all together; instead, each team waited in their assigned practice room, and the trainers would come by to watch.
"I wonder who we're getting for our team?"
"Yeah."
Since different trainers came for each team's intermediate evaluation, seeing which trainer would evaluate which team was another point of interest.
So we waited with slightly racing hearts for who would walk through the door.
And soon, the door opened and in came—
Click.
"I'm here for the intermediate evaluation."
"…Huh?"
"Wha—?!"
"Hello, everyone."
…It was none other than Han Siwoo.
"Holy crap!"
"H-Han Siwoo-nim—?!"
When Han Siwoo appeared, the team members erupted in excitement.
The fact that the main producer of My Idol Academia—and the most well-known among the judges—had come meant that from the production side, our team was the one they were looking forward to the most.
"Haha, I begged the production staff to send me here because I wanted to see our Mackerel Sandwich Team's stage in advance."
"Waaaaah—!"
When Han Siwoo said that with such a warm atmosphere, our team's mood lifted right along with it.
"…Nice."
Seo Yujin in particular clenched her fist, thinking this was a good opportunity.
Park Yujeong wore an even brighter smile than usual at Han Siwoo's arrival, while Lee Hyejeong still wore a vacant expression, as if replaying her conversation with Shin PD from earlier.
The only one whose face crumpled at Han Siwoo's arrival was…
…We're screwed.
…me, and me alone.
Han Siwoo wore a kind face, but in reality he was an absolute master of cutting remarks.
And there was no way Han Siwoo wouldn't notice our team's problems.
But there was no way to send Han Siwoo back out of our practice room now that he was already inside.
"Alright then, please begin the performance."
And so, with my worries still unresolved, the intermediate evaluation began.
♪♬♩-!
Choreography we'd already practiced dozens—no, hundreds of times.
What's more, the intermediate evaluation only covered up through the first verse.
There was no way we'd make some trivial mistake in the first verse when we'd already mastered every dance move and every note through the second verse.
"…That's all!"
As the first verse cut off and Seo Yujin finished the stage with a breath full of residual tension, she broke into a wide smile.
From her perspective, there hadn't been a single wrong part, so she seemed quite satisfied.
But—
"……."
Contrary to her expectations, Han Siwoo's expression wasn't good.
He wasn't angry, but… his face looked somehow unsettled.
Even though we'd clearly finished the stage successfully… when Han Siwoo showed a negative reaction, the team members grew flustered.
"…I've seen it."
After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Siwoo picked up the microphone.
"First of all, even though you must have had limited time, the completeness of the stage was high. The choice to preserve the original song as much as possible was excellent, and your mastery of the choreography looked solid. However…"
"……."
"From the perspective of an audience member watching this stage… it wasn't very pleasant."
"……!"
We'd spent enough time on My Idol Academia to have seen Han Siwoo's cold side many times.
So we could tell that from this point on, Han Siwoo was about to start delivering his cutting remarks.
And the direction of those remarks was—
"Contestant Ha Yerin."
"……."
"What do you think is this team's problem?"
—aimed straight at me.
Until now, Han Siwoo had always called me "Yerin."
I'd thought of that as him unconsciously expressing affection and interest.
But now he was calling me "Contestant Ha Yerin."
…As expected, Han Siwoo had instantly figured out that the biggest problem with our team was me.
"……Our team's problem is—"
"It's hard to say, isn't it. That you yourself are ruining the team's atmosphere."
"……!!"
When Han Siwoo pointed to me as our team's problem, the other members were greatly shocked.
The other members had been so busy just memorizing the choreography.
They never would have thought that I—who'd memorized the choreography first among us and hadn't made a single mistake so far—would have a problem.
"I've thought for a while that Yerin's stages lacked detail. But I figured it would be resolved once a little more time passed."
"……."
"What is the concept of this song? It's the fresh, pure image of a girl who doesn't know love, who wants to know love, who wants to find her own love. But if the person serving as center is performing with such a blank, cold expression—can the atmosphere possibly come alive?"
As expected, my blank expression was the problem.
The other members had probably only been watching arm and leg movements, so they didn't know… but Lee Hyejeong and I had watched yesterday's practice footage and known immediately.
That expressionless me was ruining the stage atmosphere from center position.
"…Contestant Ha Yerin. I had personally high expectations for you as a contestant. Did you know that?"
"……Yes."
"But seeing today's stage, I'm greatly disappointed."
There's a saying for this.
The scariest thing is when a fan turns into an anti.
Han Siwoo's face right now was filled with enormous disappointment and a sense of betrayal.
And with that, he sighed, picked up the microphone again, and—
"If this can't be resolved… it might be better to change this team's center."
—delivered a verdict that could only be called rather cruel.