The reason I chose Seo Yoo-jin during team selection was just one thing.
‘I feel like I won’t be able to forget this for a lifetime.’
Seo Yoo-jin is among our Na Ah Ah participants, part of the youngest group, and if you include the production team and trainers (adults), she’s practically a baby.
Seeing such a young girl struggling and crying… while everyone pretends not to notice… and some even capturing it on camera, this situation was incredibly frustrating.
‘I can wait as long as it takes. And… I will respect whatever choice you make.’
Just then, Kang Hyung-man’s words came to mind, and so I decided to go for it.
“Ah, shall I say it again? I will nominate participant Seo Yoo-jin.”
“……”
This situation seemed to have also bewildered Han Si-woo, who couldn’t hide his expression and asked me with a confused face.
“Ah, no… but Seo Yoo-jin is at the same leader level as Ye-rin, so isn’t she not eligible to be picked?”
“……”
Han Si-woo’s words were the truth.
In a proper game, it wouldn’t make sense for one team’s leader to pick another team’s leader.
But I recalled a variety show I had seen before and decided to be shameless about it.
“But there was no rule that says a leader can’t pick another leader, right? I just chose Yoo-jin because she hasn’t been picked by anyone yet?”
“……”
Han Si-woo was at a loss for words due to my reply when Na Han-na raised her hand and said,
“Uh, then I’ll pick Ye-rin unnie.”
“…Puhut.”
With Na Han-na’s sudden ad-lib, someone let out a small laugh, lightening the mood.
Seizing the moment, Han Si-woo looked over at the production team.
His expression seemed to be asking how to resolve this situation.
However, since the production team hadn’t figured out a proper response yet, Shin PD wore an unusually urgent expression…
“Cut, cut! Let’s take a break for a moment!”
He waved his hands, declaring a filming halt.
Swish, swish.
At Shin PD’s order, the cameramen lowered their cameras…
“Huheeeeeeeng…!”
Only then did the surrounding participants slowly approach to comfort Seo Yoo-jin, who was sobbing heartbreakingly.
And I was the first to approach her…
Tap.
“Don’t cry.”
Just like Kang Hyung-man had done for me before, I placed my hand on her head and gently patted it.
“Uuuuuuu…! Heu…! Unnie…! Eeeeeng…!”
Seo Yoo-jin grabbed my hand that was patting her head, pulling it to her cheek and rubbing her face against it.
It wasn’t the right time to smile, but seeing her in that state made her look like a pet, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Huheeeeng…!”
Even in that state, Seo Yoo-jin continued to shed tears while holding onto my hand for a long time.
“Everyone, gather for a moment!”
After a brief filming break, Shin PD summoned the production team for an emergency meeting.
Among them, the first rookie writer to rush up to Shin PD asked,
“…Senior. This is an unexpected situation. What are your thoughts on how to handle it?”
“Well,… I’m just as confused and my mind isn’t working. I called you all here because I don’t know what to do. Just speak freely.”
Ha Ye-rin’s unexpected behavior was a detour from the picture Shin PD had drawn.
The production team had to decide whether to ignore Ha Ye-rin’s behavior or take this opportunity to sketch a new image.
At that moment, hearing Shin PD’s invitation to speak freely, the rookie writer mustered up the courage and raised his hand.
“How about just putting Seo Yoo-jin into Ha Ye-rin’s team? The idea of a leader picking another team’s leader is funny, and also…”
The rookie writer’s expression grew quite somber.
“…this incident might be a lifeline for Seo Yoo-jin, right? I feel like we’ve made her seem like a witch too much in editing, so I hope we can help her somehow. …I’m just feeling too guilty…”
Even if Shin PD had directly directed her, the rookie writer had also contributed to Seo Yoo-jin’s witch hunt through editing.
The rookie writer felt guilty about this, and with a heavy heart, really wanted to help Seo Yoo-jin if he could.
But…
“What? Conscience? Buddy, what did you just say?”
…The rookie writer’s words seriously irritated Shin PD.
Conscience.
It was a word Shin PD despised.
“We’re working right now, aren’t we? Why would conscience matter? Huh?”
“W-well…”
“Our relationship with the participants is merely a business one. If we give them what we want, they give us what we want in return. So what’s this about conscience? Ha! Are we going to get conned by the participants?”
“…I-I’m sorry.”
“How did such a thing end up in our team, tsk.”
As Shin PD unleashed a tirade, the rookie writer shrank even lower.
At this moment, a more experienced writer stepped up to calm the situation.
“Ha ha, senior. Our rookie here still has a lot to learn. Please bear with us. But I don’t think what the rookie said is entirely wrong? Continuing the situation and giving Seo Yoo-jin a chance for redemption could also lead to a nice picture, don’t you think?”
“……”
When his junior spoke up, Shin PD closed his eyes for a moment and turned his mind to clarity.
And soon, a new idea for this episode formed in his mind.
“Alright… hey guys. Let’s change our shooting concept this week.”
“How… shall we change it?”
“…The Prodigal Son Returns.”
As soon as they heard “The Prodigal Son Returns,” the other production team members realized that Shin PD had decided to extend a lifeline to Seo Yoo-jin.
“First, in this competition… let’s reduce the existing six teams to five, and just put Seo Yoo-jin directly into Ha Ye-rin’s team. And we have that song selection game prepared behind the scenes, right?”
“…Yes, we do.”
Originally, the production team had prepared a song selection game following the team selection.
Of course, it was a game where participants would pick songs according to the production team’s preferences.
“Let’s also change that to a free selection by the teams. Let them pick whatever good songs they like.”
“…Eh? Oh, yes, understood.”
“Make sure the cameras pay close attention to Ha Ye-rin’s team and collect a lot of warm moments… Alright, let’s give Seo Yoo-jin a washing machine of redemption this episode. Oh, and by the way…”
Shin PD turned to his junior with a glint in his eyes and commanded,
“Call Director Jeong from SAV right away. Tell them they are going to rescue that trainee, and will they please stop shaking up the advertisers. I got ten calls from the department head this morning alone.”
“…Ah, yes. I’ll call right away.”
When Shin PD curses, it means he’s really angry.
SAV had been contacting the advertisers while the advertisers expressed concerns to the department head, leading to Shin PD getting criticized.
After a string of blame, Shin PD was utterly fed up.
Initially, in order to resolve this, Shin PD had aimed to hit another peak rating with a more sensational theme in the sixth episode, calming the department heads and advertisers down.
After all, all they wanted was a higher viewership rating.
‘But still, this method isn’t too bad…’
Thinking that by taking care of Seo Yoo-jin on the show as a form of reconciliation, SAV would ease up on the pressure, Shin PD decided to adjust the plan according to Ha Ye-rin’s unexpected move.
Well,… it might not yield as high a rating as the original concept, but that could be somewhat compensated for by Ha Ye-rin’s angelic behavior.
Since many Na Ah Ah viewers would be enamored with Ha Ye-rin.
“Alright, since our rookie writer feels guilty, let’s go for a more viewer-friendly approach this week.”
“……”
Shin PD didn’t forget to jab at the rookie writer one last time as he wrapped up the meeting.
“This meeting is done. Si-woo and the other trainers, inform them of what we decided in this meeting. We’ll resume filming in five minutes. That’s all, let’s return to our positions.”
“Yes…!”
With that, the production team’s emergency meeting concluded, and Na Ah Ah resumed filming.
Though it was an unforeseen situation leading to a sudden meeting, Shin PD thought it produced a decent outcome.
But…
“……”
…the rookie writer thought differently.
‘This isn’t just a case of giving a disease with one hand and a cure with the other…’
After all, the team that built Seo Yoo-jin’s witch hunt was the production team, so how could they call it viewer-friendly to be nice to her now?
‘Should I just quit…?’
The rookie writer seriously contemplated whether to resign from the broadcasting station.
He had entered the broadcasting world out of a simple desire to befriend celebrities, but the production team structure made it difficult to get close to them.
Was that all?
Getting scolded harshly by seniors and bosses was common, and late-night work was frequent.
On top of that, under a comprehensive wage system, there wasn’t even proper overtime pay, with the atmosphere being “Hang in there, keep going, it will get better someday, let’s go fighting!”
Mentally he was drained and physically feeling rough…
Not to mention, he wasn’t even earning much…
And the biggest problem was…
‘After all, conscience…’
Since malicious editing was one of the primary tasks, the guilt was unbearable.
‘This whole Seo Yoo-jin thing… it wasn’t even that deserving of the backlash…’
As he bowed his head, the image of Seo Yoo-jin sorrowfully crying flashed before his eyes.
Again, he felt a pang of guilt in his heart and after a long sigh…
“First of all, for now… I must endure…”
With his resignation letter hidden in his pocket, he headed back to the set.
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