When Lee Hyoeun declared she wanted to become a singer, she carved a line deep into her heart.
I’m putting myself on the chopping block.
A famous entertainer had said it once: standing before the public is the same as climbing up onto the cutting board yourself.
No one coerced or forced you up there; you chose it. So you accept that you’ll be sliced and diced to some degree.
Right. You’re choosing a different kind of life, so you have to treat some of it as fate and endure it.
Including what was happening now.
I have something to say about a certain up-and-coming solo female singer.
I’ll call her L so I don’t get countersued for defamation by using her real name.
I was in the same class as L in middle school. (I can prove it if necessary.) I thought we were close enough. When I found out she’d debuted as a singer, I was as happy as if it were my own success.
A post went up on a community board claiming to be from her “friend.”
But I guess that was just my delusion. I reached out to congratulate her and got nothing back.
Not just me. She supposedly ignored congratulations from friends who used to be close to her.
My friends were hurt, but honestly, I kind of expected it.
Back in school, L only came to her friends when she needed something.
In this post, she—Hyoeun—was a selfish kid who only cared about herself.
She always took class president, pretending to take care of everyone, but in the end she was only friendly to the kids who could help her.
She especially hung out more with the boys. If that were all, I wouldn’t be writing this.
The truth is, while pretending to be the sociable class president, L subtly looked down on or ostracized kids who didn’t fit in.
A person with two faces, who incited ostracism at school.
When the class did inter-class competitions, she told kids who weren’t good at it to sit out from the start.
When we prepared for the talent show, she always had to be center, and if someone wasn’t good she’d subtly mock them and make them a laughingstock.
There was no physical violence, but it was definitely school bullying.
And yet I kept being friends with L because she controlled the class atmosphere.
Plus she was very good at handling people, and I’m kind of soft-hearted.
But L, even if you treated me that way, shouldn’t you at least not do that to Seoyoon? You knew Seoyoon had a tough home life, and she helped you a lot in high school.
Now that you’re a little hot, cutting her off like that… isn’t that too much?
Now she was a nasty woman who, once she started doing well, pretended not to know even the friend who had helped her.
I’m really curious how you’ll act when you get even more popular. I’ll still be cheering you on from afar.
To Lee Hyoeun, that final sentence read like a curse.
Since it had come to this, she decided to face the butchering head-on and started scrolling through the comments one by one.
↳ If it’s the solo female singer trending right now as “L,” isn’t it Lee Hyoeun?
↳ Looks like it, yeah.
↳ Lee Hyoeun? Isn’t she the one HS gave a song to?
↳ Yeah, she did that OST project with HS and just debuted with a song called “to me” ㅠㅠ I liked her ‘cause she seemed bright and could sing…
They hadn’t written her real name, but at this moment there was no other “solo female rookie” it could be. Anyone could tell the post was taking aim at her.
↳ At this point isn’t HS the problem? He’s got a huge rep for being rude; didn’t he have a drug (?) scandal too?
↳ The person above, everyone but you knows that was manufactured by Hidden; don’t spout off without knowing the facts;
↳ On a human level, let’s leave HS out of this.
Someone even tried to drag Hyunseung into it.
↳ Ugh I had a girl like that at my school; pretends to be nice while cleverly building factions and ostracizing people; eats away at your self-esteem; acts chill and plays queen bee among the boys; aahhh PTSD; I hate it;;
↳ The post didn’t even say L was that bad, you’re overreacting lol
↳ People in this country get whipped around by subjective memories and opinions without any solid evidence; it’s sickening
↳ You sound extremely whipped around right now lololololol
Before she knew it, the thread had drifted off topic and they were tearing into each other.
↳ Anyway there’s no real evidence here and it’s super subjective—best to slam it into neutral and wait. If she’s really like that, exposés will blow up on their own.
↳ True. There are no eternal secrets. If someone really did wrong, it’ll surface.
Even amid the mess, some held the middle line.
Slide, slide—.
She kept checking through the hundreds of comments below when—
“Hyoeun.”
The department head covered her phone screen with his hand and tried to stop her.
“That’s enough.”
Only then could Hyoeun put the phone down.
“We’re going to respond firmly right away. Still, I thought you should know, so I called this quick meeting.”
At that, Hyoeun lifted her head and looked around at who was seated with her.
The department head, the PR team lead, the managers from Management Team 2 she belonged to, and even Hyunseung.
She had vowed not to cause harm to anyone anymore, and after letting go of her mother with her own hands, she thought nothing like that would happen again.
But once again it felt like she’d caused trouble for many people, people who were working for her and helping her. All she felt was sorry.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“I am sorry.”
“You don’t need to be.”
It wasn’t even a post stating flatly that she was a perpetrator of school violence—it was just one person’s subjective feelings.
But the problem was: even those kinds of posts get believers.
Even after they’d proved the scandal about Hyunseung was fabricated, there were still people who believed it was true.
The public reads what it wants to read, decides how it wants to decide.
And Hyoeun… knew that much, and hadn’t she resolved to endure it?
“I’ll handle this myself.”
“Huh?”
“It’s really okay. Someone in the comments said it, you know?”
She forced a small smile and went on.
“There are no eternal secrets. If someone really is like that and did wrong, it’ll surface.”
The managers exchanged looks, gauging each other, and then one staffer who’d recently been promoted to the vacant chief position carefully spoke up.
“But, Hyoeun… you never actually… led any school violence or ostracism, right?”
Cruel as it might sound in this moment, they had to confirm the truth. Only then could they protect her.
Or, well… drop her quickly.
“Chief Lee, that’s something we can have Legal verify in due time. There’s no rush.”
The department head rebuked him, and at that moment—
“I’ll vouch for her.”
Hyunseung raised his hand and spoke.
“I went to the same school as her.”
“Oh, right!”
“She’s absolutely not the type to lead bullying.”
“Of course. I know that.”
The department head nodded emphatically.
“She’s the Grand Duke of Meddling, so busy worrying about this friend’s business and that friend’s business she couldn’t even do her own.”
Hyunseung barreled on.
“Not to mention she woke me up from my beauty sleep all the time, I can’t tell you how tired I was. Though, thanks for waking me at lunch.”
When he finished, the room went silent.
No one could tell if he was covering for her or roasting her.
“Hy-Hyunseung…”
Hyoeun’s face flushed scarlet, like it might explode.
“What?”
He cocked his head, as if he didn’t understand.
When she only mouthed words and couldn’t get them out, he suddenly pushed back his chair and stood, adding:
“If you’re going to ‘handle it yourself,’ go start a one-person agency.”
“People who know me will know I’m not like that, and more than anything this is just what you go through when you stand before the public, and you have to endure…”
“Endure?” Hyunseung echoed, his eyebrows lifting.
“Who told you to endure that?”
“Huh? I, I mean…”
“Who says it’s just something you have to go through if you’re in the public eye?”
“N-no, I meant…”
“If you think that, who’s going to recognize it? It won’t just pass, it won’t become nothing. Nothing changes. You have to say it’s not true before it gets out of control.”
With that, he stormed out of the conference room.
Bang!
No one understood why he was so angry.
Two days passed.
The internet was aflame with “Lee Hyoeun’s school days.”
People spreading unverified claims at random, and a company pledging a hard-line response—the two camps clashed head-on, and the entertainment front page was filled every day with the name “Lee Hyoeun.”
“Hoo—.”
Hyoeun remembered the friend named “Seoyoon” mentioned in that first post that took aim at her.
Right, Han Seoyoon.
She did look after me.
With money.
When she learned about Hyoeun’s difficult home situation and that she was abused by her mother, she used it as leverage to make Hyoeun run errands and do her homework.
“Thanks—if it weren’t for you, I’d have been in trouble.”
And she would always press money into her hand.
In other words, she was paying her to keep her mouth shut.
At the time…
Hyoeun endured it. Seoyoon belonged to the crew everyone called “iljin,” and she was scary—and if Hyoeun wanted to go to college, her only chance to get away from her mother, she needed every penny.
Of course… once they graduated, there wasn’t a single call.
Ah.
There was a call the day Hyoeun made her debut stage.
[ Hyoeun~ I saw your stage! Amazing ㅠㅠ I’m so proud my friend became a singer ㅠㅠ Oh, and I’ll throw a reunion slash celebration party for you so you have to come! Call me when you see this! ]
She didn’t reply.
And then—
[ So are you close with HS? You must be, right? ㅎㅎ I’m a huge fan of HS ㅠㅠ ]
It was just too blatant.
She’d almost… almost been grateful for the talk about throwing her a party.
Resolute, Hyoeun decided to face her old “friend”…
No. Her perpetrator, Han Seoyoon.
[ Seoyoon, I’m only seeing your message now. Tell me when and where the reunion is—I’ll make time to come. ]
To tie off for good everything that had tormented her.
“Time to do what I have to do.”
She sent the text, then turned back to the mirror to dive into practice again when—
Bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz!
The phone she’d tossed on the floor vibrated.
“Hm?”
She glanced over at the screen.
[ Department Head ] the name read.
Bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz!
The unbroken vibration felt like a very urgent call.
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