I Became An Idol To Pay Off My Debt

Of course, it’s really unfortunate that Lee Hye-jeong collapsed due to malnutrition.

But since the event has already happened, I thought it might be good to publicize it and increase Lee Hye-jeong’s recognition.

“But if they cut that part from the broadcast, the viewers won’t know…”

Looking back, it was strange from the beginning.

The production team couldn’t possibly be unaware that Lee Hye-jeong had lost a lot of weight compared to before. The viewers were already able to notice her changes right away.

– “But who is that next to the Mackerel Sandwich Team?”
– “Who’s the one next to Ha Ye-rin right now?”
– “That’s her. The girl who made it to 7th place in K Star.”
– “Is that Lee Hye-jeong?”
– “Wow, she’s lost a ton of weight, huh?”

Yet, despite the viewers’ interest, Lee Hye-jeong had no solo screen time assigned to her in today’s episode.

Since they didn’t show it on the broadcast, even the viewers who were initially curious about Lee Hye-jeong’s changed appearance had to lose interest.

“Why on earth…?”

The production team didn’t seem to hold any grudges against Lee Hye-jeong, so why weren’t they giving her any screen time?

During the first week, they might have felt her physique wasn’t to their liking, but now she has lost weight and looks beautiful, so why…

At that time, I couldn’t understand the reason and nervously bit my nails because of my worries about Lee Hye-jeong.

And then later…, quite by chance, I found out the reason.

The absence of Lee Hye-jeong’s screen time in episode three was due to the overwhelming amount of content for that episode.

From the opening to team selection, song selection, practice, midterm evaluation, and the voting results, the production team simply couldn’t squeeze in all that content in time, even adding an extra hour.

Thus, with so much content to include, Lee Hye-jeong’s story felt like a relatively unimportant issue to the production team.

Why waste time on a participant who was going to drop out eventually?

From their perspective, Lee Hye-jeong’s story just wasn’t appealing.

But at the time of the broadcast, not knowing the production team’s standpoint, I couldn’t help but be anxious about Lee Hye-jeong’s minimal screen time.

And as if to reflect my feelings…

[Ha Ye-rin (Brotherhood Planning): I’ve come up with a rearrangement idea that stays true to the original concept.]
[Ha Ye-rin (Brotherhood Planning): It’s going to be centered around nerds!]
[Nerd…?]
[Ha Ye-rin (Brotherhood Planning): Come over here and check this out.]
[Ha Ye-rin explaining her ideas to the team members!]
[Park Yoo-jung (Levi): It sounds promising!]
[Seo Yoo-jin (SAV): I think we can manage it.]
[Nodding team members.]

– “Nerd?”
– “Does a Tail Rose song fit a nerd concept?”
– “Wooah!”
– “Ye-rin must have thought this through!”
– “I saw on the community that their team performance was amazing; I’m looking forward to it!”
– “Is that really someone who practiced for just a month? Ye-rin is a true genius.”

As if I were some kind of genius, the spotlight was all on me as the team’s competition began amidst everyone’s expectations.

*

Right after the team competition ended, I could get an immediate sense of how the stage had gone from Lee Ji-woo’s reaction.

“Ye-rin—!!”
“Ji-woo, sensei? Ugh—!”
As soon as my performance finished, she dove into me with a touched expression.

“How amazing—!! This is insane! The dance is incredible, and the concept is phenomenal! Did my student really perform this?! Total genius!”
“Just… got lucky. I told you, it was a random idea.”

The nerd concept for [Where is my first love!] was an idea that popped into my head while watching the music video, like a goat trying to step back.

However, with my head buried in Ji-woo’s chest, she shook her head, clearly caught up in her feelings.

“No, no! I can confidently say that’s not luck; it’s skill. And there’s something even better I need to praise!”
“Praise? Ah…”

I tilted my head, realizing too late what she was getting at and halted.

“Your expressions! Your expressions! That’s what you’ve always pointed out! But how come your expressions are perfect this time? My baby! You’re amazing! When did you get so into your acting?”
“……”

The expression acting that Ji-woo couldn’t stop praising.

That was a result of the Sky Demon Martial Arts’ first skill, Sky Demon Enchantment, obtained without any hardship.

This fact made me feel a little… guilty.

“… That was just luck too.”
“Luck? Ha ha, our Ye-rin is so humble~ But I bet no one but you thinks it’s luck! Look, check this out.”

Ji-woo showed me the comment section, which was currently blowing up.

– “I’m in love.”
– “Wow, it’s like I can only say wow.”
– “No joke, I’m voting for Ye-rin every day.”
– “Just wow, Ye-rin.”
– “Do we even need to look further? It’s obvious that Ha Ye-rin wins.”
– “Seriously, she’s ridiculously pretty…”
– “They say Ye-rin has everything thought out, right?”
– “I never expected it to be expressed like this…”
– “Each time, she’s updating her peak visuals.”
– “Those who said Ha Ye-rin’s team would fail, where are they now? Haha.”
– “How is she pretty even with glasses on?”
– “For a moment, I thought she was confessing to me, answering into the air. I’m so deep into this right now.”
– “She’s simply a genius, a genius.”

At a glance, the comments seemed exaggerated, almost forced in their praise.

– “Yoo-jung totally rocked this competition.”
– “Wow, Seo Yoo-jin is in trouble.”
– “Lee Hye-jeong’s singing is undeniably at the top with Na Ah Ah.”

Among them were also people cheering for not just me, but other team members as well…

– “I love you, Ye-rin. For real.”
– “Just debut already; what are you still doing in the broadcast?”
– “Honestly, this stage was better than Tail Rose’s; it’s just God Ye-rin.”
– “How could you tear it apart from the very first stage…”
– “Hey idiots, instead of commenting, go vote!”
– “Ye-rin’s likely to be first in the ranking announcement.”

…the Na Ah Ah streaming comments reflected a fan cafe thread where my name occupied a dominating share.

This atmosphere continued even through the broadcasts of the other teams’ performances until the middle.

– “They’re just… whatever.”
– “Man, I guess since they tore the first stage up, everything after seems lackluster.”
– “Sigh…”
– “Just play Ye-rin’s performance on repeat.”

Viewers kept comparing my first-stage performance with the other teams that followed.

Thanks to this, I monopolized the comment section during the more than hour-long team competition.

And this atmosphere…

[Han Si-woo: The next team to perform is the Veggie Sandwich Team covering “Thank you very much” by Bumble Black!]

… cracked the moment Yoo Seol’s team was called.

– “Ooooh!”
– “Finally!!”
– “Wow! Yoo Seol is so cute!”
– “Please do well!”
– “Fighting!”

In the comment section that had only been filled with my name until now, it started to shift, swept away like waves, filling up with Yoo Seol’s name.

This intensified even more after Yoo Seol successfully completed her performance.

– “Wow!”
– “Wooah!”
– “She’s totally on an ex-trainee level.”
– “Yoo Seol could debut right now.”
– “That was insane, for real.”
– “What did I just see? Is this a music festival?”

These comments, which seemed exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness, actually reflected the quality of Yoo Seol’s stage.

“… She’s truly something else.”

Even Lee Ji-woo, whose heart had been smitten by me, said as much.

Thus, the cheers for Yoo Seol continued for quite a while.

And once Na Han-na’s stage ended, the team competition came to a close…

– “Haha, but isn’t it still Ha Ye-rin over Yoo Seol?”

Like a cue, someone tossed a stone into the comment section.

– “Eh, but Yoo Seol is still better, she has the experience.”
– “Something just feels better about Ha Ye-rin.”
– “Honestly, in terms of completeness, it does seem like Yoo Seol.”

At first, the comments seemed like casual discussion, each opinion expressed freely and calmly.

However, this escalated dramatically after the team rankings were announced.

[Han Si-woo: The vote count difference between teams one and two is just four votes.]
[Han Si-woo: The glorious first place team is… Congratulations! The Mackerel Sandwich Team!]

– “What?!”
– “Huh?”
– “Wow!”
– “As expected!”

Our team defeated Yoo Seol’s team to take first place, not computing with Yoo Seol’s fandom, who expressed dissatisfaction.

– “What the hell?”
– “Didn’t anyone see that Yoo Seol performed better?”
– “Are they somehow manipulating the vote count?”
– “This is ridiculous, haha, a nobody from a small agency…”

Then, my fans erupted in response to the uproar from Yoo Seol’s fandom…

– “Haha, 21-year-olds with no lives, pipe down~”
– “These idiots think there’s vote manipulation?”
– “If Yoo Seol was that great, she would have debuted at JJ.”
– “Why can’t you just admit it?”

Before long, the comment section had devolved into a tangled mess of insults and attacks between both sides.

– “Hey, from the looks of the community, Ha Ye-rin’s fans are everywhere; female fans voting like crazy for girl crush or whatever.”
– “Shut up about being a female fan haha, I’m a guy, you idiots; should I post a pic of my manhood on the community?”
– “Yoo Seol had the girl crush concept, but you’re making excuses haha.”
– “Is Ha Ye-rin supposed to sing better or dance better? She’s getting too much praise for nothing.”
– “That’s what you call a unique character that can’t be put into words.”
– “Honestly, Ye-rin is prettier than Yoo Seol.”
– “Ha Ye-rin looks like a queen bee; her fans probably just take after their dads, being all puffed up.”

– “That tiny girl, who’s barely 160, shouldn’t fans of hers get a mental check? Those filthy pedos.”
– “In any case, I think Ha Ye-rin’s going to be first in the ranking announcement haha, it’s clear Ha Ye-rin will win.”
– “No way, Yoo Seol’s going to be first!”

“Whoa…”

I watched this unfolding more entertainingly than I expected.

As the two sides fiercely battled their arguments, it was indeed a sight to behold.

However…

Tap.

“Hey? Sensei, I was still watching that.”
“No, no. Kids who don’t even have their ID yet shouldn’t be watching this kind of stuff.”

As I read through the flood of comments, Ji-woo shut the laptop monitor closed.

“Ye-rin, you have filming for Na Ah Ah tomorrow, right? And it starts right away with the ranking announcement. You’ll probably not get enough sleep while filming, so you need to manage your mental state and condition now.”
“Ah…”

I was a bit disgruntled, but what Ji-woo said was indeed true.

If I kept looking at the comment section and saw excessive insults aimed at me, I would definitely lose sleep over it.

So I nodded at her words.

“…Okay.”
“Don’t go secretly looking up stuff online at night after saying this okay? It’s a promise, with sensei.”
“Sure.”

Only after I made a pinky promise with Ji-woo did she finally smile in relief.

“Just in case anything goes wrong, I’ll watch the internet reactions all night and let you know if anything comes up.”
“Thanks, sensei.”

In the end, Ji-woo was only looking out for me.

Because of this, I trusted her and didn’t check my phone when I went back to the hotel, falling asleep right away.

Starting from filming tomorrow, along with the ranking announcement, there will be a second team competition, so it’s going to be a tough schedule.

So, thinking I should sleep while I can, I slept soundly until morning.

Then the next morning.

The gathering time at the Na Ah Ah set was 8 AM.

Since it would take about 40 minutes to drive there, I decided to meet Kang Hyung-man at the hotel lobby at 7 AM.

However…

Vrooom—.
“…Hmm? …What?”
Vrooom—.
“…Am I late?”

Even though it was still dark outside, my phone was ringing urgently as if searching for me, making me jump up and check it.

[6:28 AM]

“…What the heck.”

I had set my alarm for 6:40 AM, but I woke up 12 minutes early.

[Ji-woo sensei]

“…What brings you to contact me this early in the morning?”

Feeling a bit grumpy, I answered the call.

Then…

“Hello….”
[Yes, Ye-rin! We have a situation!]
“…What?”

I could hear her voice urgently calling for me.

“…What’s going on?”
[Um… You should see for yourself! It’s right in front of your door, so open it quickly…!]
“In front of my door…?”

At that moment, I started to sense something was very wrong.
For her to come looking for me this early in the morning, how serious could this be?

As I opened the hotel door…

“…Ye-rin.”
“Sensei, your face….”

Looking at Ji-woo, waiting at my door, I was convinced something was wrong.

Had she not slept a wink all night, the dark circles under her eyes sagging almost to her mouth.

“…What on earth happened?”

In that moment, all sorts of negative thoughts flooded my mind.
School violence…
No way.
Cigarettes…
I’ve never even touched Ha Ye-rin’s body.
“Could it be that yesterday’s incident continued…?”

Could it be that the fandom of Yoo Seol, unable to accept the results, did something…?

“That, um… Well, it’s just that I kept checking the internet responses from last night… But, a video was uploaded to YouTube at midnight, and that…”
“Upload? What was posted on YouTube…?”

Ji-woo was in such a panic that she stuttered, struggling to find the words.

And soon…

“Oh no, I can’t explain it…! Ye-rin…! Look at this!”

As she trembled, handing me her phone, I took it nervously…

“…Huh?”

On the YouTube screen was something I never expected unfolding.

[My Idol Academia: 1st Team Competition (Where is my first love!) – Brotherhood Planning Ha Ye-rin (Solo Camera)]
[Views: 578,306 – 6 hours ago]
[Trending Video: #1]

“Ye, Ye-rin, your solo camera video hit #1 on Trending!!!”

My personal camera video that had been silently uploaded without anyone noticing at midnight.

That video alone soared to 570,000 views within just six hours and ranked #1 on YouTube’s trending section.

---