Most of the staff had left for the day, leaving only the members in the practice room.
I had a private meeting with Director So-hyun.
“Alright, let’s do it that way.”
And the director accepted my intention to drop out.
It seemed like she didn’t even want to persuade me otherwise.
Honestly, I had promised my mom that I would attend for just one semester before deciding, so my dropout was a foregone conclusion from the start.
With everything getting busier again, I was on the verge of collapsing.
Schedules were piling up one after another.
Until now, the director had been cutting off incoming offers, giving me time to breathe.
More than anything, there was no reason to stay in school.
Learning piano? I could always get private lessons from famous pianists who were technically better than school teachers anytime.
The only upside was playing with friends my age.
But with my high mental age, I often lacked the energy to practice and chat with the older sisters.
sigh Entertaining kids is really exhausting.
*
On my way to submit the dropout form.
“Are you sad?”
Mom, driving in the front seat, wore a slightly disappointed expression.
It wasn’t hard to understand.
If my daughter had never missed being first in her class, I’d feel regretful too.
“It’s because I’m awesome, right?”
Moreover, Mom even kept my report cards neatly coated, as if they were precious.
“No, it’s your choice~ You’re what matters.”
Mom still smiled, even so.
I sort of didn’t like that.
In a rebellious spirit, I teased her more.
“I’m regretting it, okay? Do you know how much I suffered to make that?”
Then Mom shot me a look that was half bewildered.
“Seriously.”
But I gestured towards Mom’s necklace.
“By the way, who gifted you that Cartier you’re wearing~?”
With a sigh, she brightened up again as if to play along.
“Our daughter~”
“Yeah, yeah! If you want another one, then shape up your face~!”
“What?”
“Oh, that was a bit cheeky. Sorry.”
“Alright.”
Still, I wondered if her heart was still a little sore even with that smile plastered on her face.
I grinned coyly and spoke up.
“But Mom, I can’t do both anymore.”
Mom nodded.
“Right, you need to debut too.”
“Yeah, I thought I could at least manage in the beginning of the semester, but now it doesn’t seem possible. Just practicing the piano during self-study time, repeating the same passage, and returning to the dorm to study for exams without even getting a break to sit at the desk is driving me nuts.”
“I’m sick of studying for exams after returning to the dorm and not being able to take a break, sitting at my desk.”
“Mom knows how hard our daughter has been working.”
“Exactly. It’s fine for Chiyo Unni or Woo-ah Unni since they’re graduating this year, but it’s obvious that I’m not going to make it to graduation. I think it makes more sense to quit as soon as possible. The Manager suffers every morning, and the Unnis have to coordinate group schedules too. I’m just putting my classmates in a tough spot.”
Mom paused in the middle of listening and reached out to pat my head.
“Yeah, our daughter has worked really hard.”
I shyly glanced at the window.
“Focus on driving. Keep your eyes on the road. Is this really the time to reach out? What would happen if the big star Do-hee Lee got in a car accident?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Honestly, all the jumbled thoughts were things I had talked about extensively with Mom on the phone yesterday, and she had already accepted and understood everything.
Still, the reason I brought it up again was likely because I wanted to receive comfort and praise directly from Mom.
After a long time holding Mom’s hand, I went straight to school to submit my resignation.
To resign, I had to have meetings with my homeroom teacher, guidance teacher, and the principal.
Even though resigning from an arts school was a common occurrence, I was still told to think it over seriously.
[Hyun-a: Resigning? What about my views on Do-hee’s vlog?]
[Me: Not my problem.]
[Hyun-a: You better take responsibility.]
[Me: LOL]
*
News of Do-hee’s resignation spread quickly with the start of the new semester.
[“Did you hear? Do-hee dropped out of high school?”]
When I watched the vlog of someone who was Do-hee’s friend,
It said she dropped out during the break.
─ “No way, really?”
─ “I was so excited thinking about getting Do-hee’s graduation picture after waiting two years… Now I won’t see her in a school uniform?”
└ “But she was mostly in gym clothes instead of a uniform every time we took photos, lol.”
─ “What a shame about her grades… They said she was top of the class first semester.”
└ “Really? Isn’t there a practical exam for arts schools?”
└ “She was first place including her piano practical exam scores.”
└ “Wow, jackpot… That’s such a waste.”
Of course, not everyone was kind.
There were often malicious comments that seemed worried or were just relaying information.
[Information/News: Rumors about Do-hee Lee dropping out these days.]
─ (photo from the resignation article)
1. She could drop out while doing well.
2. If she was going to quit so early, she shouldn’t have enrolled in the first place.
I found myself agreeing with the second point…
It feels like there’s a basic lack of insight, so I’m kind of losing interest.
If it’s a preview, there should be a lot of desperate kids around.
And apparently, they even took first place…
─What do you mean by “a lot”? Everyone just seems to be going along with it, lol.
─Attention-seeking comments.
─But honestly, even if there’s no malice, it seems too showy. It’s not like it’s a real music school, but a piano department, lol…
└I totally agree. Do-hee is trying way too hard to show off. I get it, she’s smart and plays the piano well, but what does that have to do with being an idol?
└Show off? She’s just good at it, it’s really disappointing.
─The comment about her having a bad personality seems somewhat valid. She looks pretty selfish, and she’s always bickering with Kim Seo-yoon.
└Just leave the girl alone.
─ZY even suggests middle school trainees drop out, right? They’re already doing well, why would they need to drop out?
└But Do-hee enrolled after becoming an idol, right? ^^
─And here we go again with the crazy comment farming, sigh.
Fortunately, those kinds of posts got buried quickly.
That’s because posts based on statistics came up.
[The dropout rate in specialized high schools is much higher compared to general high schools.]
─(Graph)
The better the specialized high school, like Seoul Arts High School or Sunhwa Arts High School, the higher the dropout rate.
Most of these are music department students, generally those who have successfully gone abroad to study in Germany or foreign countries,
Or kids trying to enter college early through the GED.
You get why people are picking on Do-hee out of all these, right?
─I get that it’s high, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect anyone. The school picks them and then they leave.
└No, the school doesn’t care at all. They just fill the spots each semester with transfer students.
─Oh, I see. Do the kids complain about it?
└Nope, they have no feelings about it and even celebrate it like it’s a good thing. It’s so casual that teachers even lose track of kids who dropped out six months ago.
└No way, lol.
Actually, these rebuttal posts were written by the Topist agency.
Of course, since they were based on statistics and facts, those posts definitely had an impact.
Thanks to that, the bait regarding the keyword “dropout” changed direction and started to drift elsewhere.
[Looks like Do-hee and Seo-yoon are debuting soon?]
*
As soon as we solved the school issue, a new schedule popped up for me, like they’d been waiting.
A profile shoot.
This schedule was pretty meaningful for all of us.
It was the first official group schedule we’d have together, aside from practice.
We hopped into the car.
Even though we could have split into two cars, we decided to stick together and ride in one car for the meaning.
“Hah, sending you guys to school and having refined tea time with Na-eun Unni was the highlight of my life. Now it’s Do-hee… sigh.”
“Tea time used to be the joy of my life. But now, Do-hee… sigh.”
Just as she finished typing, Kim Seo-yoon started whining.
“What to do?”
Feeling like none of us could relate, Kim Seo-yoon hugged Na-eun Unni.
“Unni, honestly, I’m right, aren’t I?”
And she gave a look that insisted on a nod.
Na-eun Unni’s eyes were darting around.
“Y-yeah?”
It seemed Na-eun Unni couldn’t lie, so she nodded.
I felt betrayed.
But hey, she wasn’t denying it.
“Chiyo, I’m sad. Chiyo, I’m crying.”
“Shut up. It’s your fault.”
Suddenly, Chiyo Unni started counting on her fingers, as if realizing something.
And with the last finger, she nodded as if she had come to a tired realization.
“Do-hee, are you on your period…?”
“Still have time left!?”
The only one enduring Chiyo Unni was Woo-ah Unni.
With her around, even Na-eun Unni must be worn out.
“I don’t think Do-hee is saying that.”
“What?”
“Nope.”
Seo-yoon Unni shook her hands and brought up a different topic.
“So, it’s fine that Do-hee dropped out, but what about you, Woo-ah and Chiyo? You don’t have school today?”
“Oh, us? Well…”
As Woo-ah Unni was about to speak…
“I’m just here for the exam.”
“What?”
Chiyo Unni winked at me while looking my way.
“Period…?”
What are you saying when you wrote down personal study leave from earlier?
“Do-hee.”
“Yeah?”
The front seat, Woo-ah Unni, sitting next to Chiyo Unni, glanced at her and called me.
Guess today she can’t handle it.
“Can we swap seats? I’m a bit tired. I want to nap for a bit.”
Honestly, Woo-ah Unni seemed to be really off today, definitely having a bad day.
She said her stomach was upset this morning.
“Okay, whatever.”
Being the kind soul I am, I naturally swapped seats.
It wouldn’t be boring to hang out with Chiyo Unni until the filming location.
“Woo-ah, you’re such a bad one… we’re a couple, you know…”
“Now we’re a couple. We can just be Do-hee’s couple instead.”
“Ha… femme fatale… girls just keep pestering…”
“Pfft.”
And in the back seat.
“Stick together… the core… with the core…”
Hearing Woo-ah Unni’s mumbling voice, I turned around.
Seo-yoon Unni and Na-eun Unni were giving Woo-ah Unni a thumbs up.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
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