109. Trash Journalist
109. Trash Journalist
***
My eyelids opened under the hot sunlight. I pulled myself upright.
Slip.
Countless pure-white strands filled my vision.
Serin blankly swept back her tousled hair, tidying it, then abruptly let out a sigh.
"I spent some time outside... is it even possible to be this tired?"
All I'd done yesterday was spend the full day outside with Eunha, and I was genuinely exhausted.
Apart from Eunha, I'd been unconsciously conscious of other people's gazes, and that seemed to have put a load on my body too.
Rustle, rustle.
I fumbled around the bedding, searching for something familiar, but I couldn't feel that familiar rectangular shape.
I kept pawing uselessly, flipping through the blanket, and only when I turned my head this way and that did I spot the smartphone sitting on the desktop.
I let out a small sigh and got up.
Maybe because I'd skipped exercise yesterday, the morning was more bearable than usual, but it still felt like more of the same.
I hadn't taken more than a few steps before I habitually picked up the phone.
There were notifications.
An absurd number of them.
I blankly opened BaTalk to check, and the count was beyond anything I'd expected.
Yoon Sua.
[Why haven't you checked your messages yet?] 10:05 AM
[Serin, don't tell me you're still asleep?] 10:20 AM
[You're not even answering calls... I'm getting worried] 10:24
- 12 missed calls.
Han Seoyun.
[Sis. When you see this, send me a reply as soon as you can] 9:11 PM
[Sis, you're playing games again, aren't you?] 9:50 PM
[Are you really going to hurt my feelings and not answer again?] 10:20 PM
Kim Hayoon.
[The RinTube opening video already passed 2 million views!!] 3:20 AM
(An emoticon of a cute otter adorably setting off a fanfare) 4:00 AM
[Rin, please check it soon! If there's anything I can help Soyul with on the next video...] 4:53 AM
Park Soyul.
(3 images of various emails.jpg)
[I'm messaging you because I think there are a few business-related emails you'll need to check yourself. The materials I sent are a bit much for me to judge alone, so I think you'll need to look them over and give me an answer.] 8:52 AM
Yoo Eunha.
[I had fun today, Serin.] 8:52 PM
[Serin, I messaged you because I was bored] 9:01 PM
[You definitely said you'd reply...] 9:06 PM
(An emoticon of a little rabbit with its ears drooping in disappointment) 9:10 PM
"What is all... this."
I blankly checked the endless messages. The messages that had come in overnight alone easily topped a hundred.
'No, this is over two hundred.'
The incomprehensibly piled-up messages made my head ache... and I even felt confused about where to start.
But only for a moment. I decided to answer them as I saw them.
"Then Seoyun first."
First I checked the messages Seoyun had sent in the evening. Most of them were about my health. Whether I was overdoing it, whether I was eating properly—mostly nagging disguised as light small talk.
But since I knew all those messages were out of concern for me, they also came across as endearing.
Maybe because I hadn't answered in time, the later messages were mostly her sulking and whining, and reading them left me dumbfounded.
"Over text she really seems like a little kid..."
As I said that, I let out a hollow laugh, wondering what it said about me that I had someone like that worrying about me.
I used my phone to send Seoyun a reassuring message, saying I was eating well and playing games in moderation—that I was fine.
Then I started going through the rest of the messages one by one.
The editors' messages were mostly business and RinTube-related, and none of them needed an urgent reply.
As for Eunha's messages, she'd sent a few at first, but when I didn't reply she seemed a little down, so I belatedly messaged her that I'd collapsed into sleep.
Me.
[I fell asleep right away yesterday, so I only just checked. It's because I'm weak when it comes to sleep... so if you were hurt, I'm sorry. And I had fun yesterday too.]
As I worked through them, I noticed Sua's chat showed (37) unread messages.
It was abnormally piled up compared to the others.
No matter what, Sua didn't normally message this much.
Yoon Sua.
[Serin, don't tell me you're still asleep?] 10:20 AM
[You're really not even answering calls...] 10:24
I checked from the bottom up, and the messages were mostly her worrying because I was asleep and hadn't replied.
Sua's messages felt different from usual, which struck me as a little odd.
"What's with her...?"
Anyone reading the messages would think I'd been kidnapped, they were so full of worry.
As I kept checking and decided there were too many, I scrolled straight to the very top in one go.
Yoon Sua.
(Attached image.JPG)
[This photo... isn't this you?]
8:42 PM
It seemed to be the first BaTalk message that had arrived after I fell asleep yesterday.
And there were several images.
—!!
"...What the hell."
The instant I saw the images, goosebumps shot across my whole body.
The images Sua had sent were from yesterday. They were images of Eunha and me.
One photo of us coming out of the cafe, just before getting into Eunha's car.
One photo of us coming out of the restaurant and walking toward Eunha's car.
Two photos in total.
But unlike Eunha, who was clear in the photos, my figure had been mosaicked to some degree.
"When the hell...?"
Even so, my guard went up, and the words slipped out before I knew it.
As for anyone approaching nearby, aside from the female employee at the cafe making a fuss about being Eunha's fan, I didn't even have a memory worth mentioning.
In the first place, we hadn't given anyone an opening, and both Eunha and I spent so much time in private spaces that we'd barely even been exposed to the outside.
Even in the department store VIP lounge, there had been one or two people who recognized Eunha and said they were fans, but no one had approached us without reserve.
On top of that, Eunha had rented out the entire cafe where we first met, and she'd booked the restaurant as a private space.
Slip.
I scrolled down the phone screen and checked Sua's messages one by one.
Yoon Sua.
[Those images were attached to an article. I recognized right away that the people in it were you and Jeanne d'Arc.]
[The article title is 'Jeanne d'Arc's Sudden Rest Declaration, Followed by a Sweet Break.']
[I attached the article link here.]
10:25 PM
The message even had the article link.
When I tapped it.
A site soon loaded.
*
————
—[Exclusive] Jeanne d'Arc's Sudden Rest Declaration, Followed by a Sweet Break—
(Deleted image.)
(Deleted image.)
Jeanne d'Arc (Yoo Eunha, 25) abruptly declared a rest in the middle of the ACK Summer Season.
Following her victory interview after the match against BS, her final match before the rest, Jeanne d'Arc's remarks such as "It's hard" and "It hasn't been fun lately" became a hot topic among fans and various communities along with her rest declaration.
She was spotted enjoying her break with a woman at a high-end cafe in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam. Unlike usual, she wore a smile and had a lighter expression, appearing to shed the weight of being a player and rest as a private individual.
......
Meanwhile, Jeanne d'Arc's team 'TSJ (Team SJ Entertainment)' currently holds first place in the ACK League, but 'G1,' which achieved a seven-game win streak just days ago, is threatening that spot with only a one-point difference.
————
*
Yoon Sua.
[This article caused a huge controversy among TSJ's fandom.]
[With the team right before playoffs, people were debating whether it was okay for a core player to be resting so openly, and on top of that, all sorts of things were being said about you being with her... Honestly, it was really chaotic even during my personal stream yesterday.]
[I was worried the fallout might hit you too, since you were photographed together...]
10:41 PM
......
[For now, though, whether TSJ took action to protect Jeanne d'Arc, the article's content has been revised and all the images have been taken down.]
1:32 AM
I scrolled down, checking each of Sua's messages one by one.
Even as I read them, a sigh escaped me without my realizing.
"...Haa."
When I first saw the images, I'd genuinely broken out in goosebumps and snapped wide awake, but the more of Sua's messages I read, the more it seemed TSJ had taken action to protect their player.
I didn't know how a reporter had recognized Eunha and taken the photos, but it meant my image had been caught in them too.
If there was any relief, it was that my figure in the images was properly mosaicked, so there were no details that could confirm my face or identifying features.
But on the other hand, the fact that Eunha's figure was far too clear grated on me.
"What a piece of shit."
They'd probably written the article to exploit Eunha's fame, but I couldn't even tell when the photos had been taken.
Judging from the visible images, they seemed to have been taken from a distance, and that alone gave me chills.
The fact that someone had photographed me without my even noticing—just recognizing that made me feel filthy.
"First, I need to answer Sua..."
Me.
[After I got home yesterday, I was just tired and fell straight asleep. I only just checked my messages...]
Yoon Sua.
[Ah. So that's what it was...? I was a little startled because you kept not replying when I messaged. I wondered if something had happened]
Me.
[Sua, thanks for worrying. But I just checked the images you sent—do pro players' private lives normally end up in articles like this?]
Even as I messaged, I was dumbfounded.
Eunha was clearly an Another World pro gamer, not a celebrity.
Yet she was still subject to paparazzi-style articles like this.
And thinking about yesterday's route and the places we'd met, how had they known to take photos and write an article?
Yoon Sua.
[Not all pro players... but some pro players, and especially Jeanne d'Arc, have unrivaled popularity. I know there are actually quite a few paparazzi around her.]
Me.
[No, but this is clearly her private life. Can't the people who wrote an article like that be punished or something?]
Yoon Sua.
[The thing is, Serin... pro players these days are basically no different from celebrities. Articles get written under the name of the press's 'right to know,' but unless those articles are truly malicious or run the player down, I know it's really hard to actually punish them]
Reading Sua's message made me frown.
My image had been mosaicked and never made public in the first place, so I could just hole up at home and be done with it.
'But what about Eunha?'
As far as I knew, she was supposed to return to the team in a few days and compete again.
The fact that even those few days of rest had to be spent worrying about things like this made me feel sorry for her.
"How... is Eunha putting up with this?"
Then, out of nowhere, I remembered that she'd rented out the cafe yesterday, and even rented a private space for the restaurant.
Along with her saying she liked quiet places, or that places without people were better.
And at the end, her saying that even while resting, she didn't really feel like she was resting.
Only now did all of Eunha's words feel like they each had a reason.
Yoon Sua.
[Honestly, I don't fully know everything either. It seems like getting the article's photos and content revised is possible, but actually punishing them is hard. Still, TSJ is a fairly influential team, so early this morning they did announce that they'd respond more strongly to privacy-related articles going forward to protect their players]
Reading Sua's follow-up message, it all felt incredibly complicated.
Just as celebrities can't punish every reporter who photographs them and writes articles, even if you want to punish reporters who write whatever they please, it's hard unless the content is malicious or disparaging.
Still, it felt like a small relief that TSJ was going to come down harder on player privacy issues going forward.
The woman who had sincerely expressed that she wanted to get close to me. I'd only met her and spent a single day with her yesterday, but Eunha's situation didn't feel like someone else's problem at all.
—BaTalk!
Just as I was thinking that, a BaTalk message from Eunha arrived.