The next morning.
Because today is the day of the Midterm Evaluation, I, Park Yoo-jung, and Lee Hye-jeong came to have breakfast a bit earlier than usual.
…Actually, I should probably drop the “usual” part.
Originally, Lee Hye-jeong loved eating so much that she’d finish two bowls at breakfast, lunch, or dinner…
“…Sister, aren’t you eating?”
“…Uh, I’m not feeling well.”
She was just pretending to eat, barely touching the food.
Right now, Lee Hye-jeong’s tray had decent rice, soup, and side dishes, but the only thing slightly less was one of the side dishes: egg roll.
This morning, other than taking a bite of the egg roll, she hadn’t eaten anything else.
“Sisters-! I have something to do, so I’ll head up first! See you later in the Practice Room!”
After sending Park Yoo-jung off first, leaving just the two of us, I cautiously opened my mouth to Lee Hye-jeong.
“…Sister.”
“…Yeah.”
“…You might be in big trouble like this.”
“……”
Today marks the fourth day since Na Ah Ah Week 2 began.
For those four days, Lee Hye-jeong has only pretended to eat and hasn’t really eaten at all.
Our team has been on a rigorous schedule, practicing until dawn for four days straight.
With such intense caloric consumption, it wouldn’t be surprising if something happened to her due to not even eating properly.
So I couldn’t help but voice my concern to her.
“Losing weight is great and all, but… what if you collapse like this?”
“……”
“Sister, you’ve already done enough. So… let’s stop now. Starting from lunch today, let’s slowly increase your food intake again, okay?”
In reality, Lee Hye-jeong has lost even more weight than four days ago, before Na Ah Ah Week 2 started.
Right now, Lee Hye-jeong’s body is… just slightly thinner than the Na Ah Ah average.
In other words, she’s much slimmer compared to the average woman.
It only took two weeks for her, who was a bit chubby, to reach this state.
She probably knows better than anyone that her current body condition is not good.
“…Okay, Ye-rin, you’re right.”
“…Sister.”
“From lunch today, I’ll start again….”
Just then, as she was slowly nodding her head in response to my continued persuasion,
“Huh? Oh, Ye-rin!”
At the sudden call, I turned around…
“Haha, good morning! I see you were eating?”
It was Na Ah Ah’s main PD, Shin PD.
The restaurant is used not only by the participants but also by the production team and judges.
Though there’s a rule about not contacting the production team without reason, Shin PD casually ignored that and approached our table.
“I’ve been meaning to say hello, but the timing just never matched up, haha. Did you watch last week’s broadcast?”
“…Yes.”
“Thanks to Ye-rin, the broadcast went well, and the audience response was great, haha. Please do the same for this week.”
With Shin PD’s sudden appearance, I faced him with a colder expression than usual.
But he didn’t seem to care and kept talking to me.
Then…
“Hoh… but by the way…”
His gaze eventually landed on Lee Hye-jeong, right in front of me.
“I was wondering who this person in front of Ye-rin was, and now I see it’s Hye-jeong?”
“Yes, yes! PD-nim! How have you been this past week…?”
Unlike my expressionless face toward Shin PD, Lee Hye-jeong was eagerly responding with a longing expression.
Shin PD gave her a quick once-over and smiled again.
“I didn’t recognize you because you’ve changed so much. Haha, Hye-jeong, or should I say Hye-jung?”
‘…No way.’
I silently prayed for Shin PD to stop talking.
But he soon blurted it out.
“You look really good right now.”
“……”
“If you keep working hard, we can expect great results. …Oh? Is it already time? Haha, I have to go; I’m busy. So you two take care~.”
Lee Hye-jeong’s face had a gaunt look from the weight she lost too quickly.
Though there’s a chance her currently frail appearance might look beautiful…
‘…There’s nothing healthy about this.’
But what? Telling someone like that they look good? Telling them to work hard?
When Shin PD said to work hard, he meant much more than just putting effort into the stage, didn’t he?
He probably meant to keep losing weight as she is now.
Under normal circumstances, I could’ve ignored such comments.
But the problem was…
“……More.”
Lee Hye-jeong looked at Shin PD as if she had encountered a messiah, dazedly repeating his words.
I hurriedly tried to convince her again…
“…Sister, don’t take what that person said too seriously. For now…”
“Yeah, Ye-rin. Thanks for worrying about me. But…”
Her eyes only showed a pitiful longing.
“Sister…, I’ll handle it myself.”
“……”
Seeing her like that, I could no longer say anything to her.
After finishing breakfast…, the time for the Midterm Evaluation drew near.
The Midterm Evaluation isn’t held with everyone gathered, but rather teams wait in their designated practice rooms while the trainers come to watch.
“I wonder who will come to our team?”
“I know, right?”
Since different trainers come for each team’s Midterm Evaluation, guessing which trainer will come to evaluate which team was also one of the fun points.
So we waited with a slightly nervous heart to see who would enter.
And soon, the door opened…
Click.
“I’ve come to watch the Midterm Evaluation.”
“…Huh?”
“Oh?!”
“Hello, everyone.”
…It was none other than Han Si-woo.
“Oh wow, awesome!”
“Ha, Han Si-woo?!”
As Han Si-woo entered, the team members shouted excitedly.
As the main producer of Na Ah Ah and the most recognized judge, his presence meant the production team had high hopes for us.
“Haha, I asked the production team to send me here because I wanted to see our Mackerel Sandwich Team’s performance in advance.”
“Wowww-!”
With Han Si-woo’s warm words, our team’s atmosphere brightened.
“…Great.”
Especially Seo Yoo-jin seemed to see this as a good opportunity, clenching her fist tightly.
Park Yoo-jung also smiled brighter than usual at Han Si-woo’s arrival, while Lee Hye-jeong still looked dazed, recalling her earlier conversation with Shin PD.
The one furrowing her brows at Han Si-woo’s arrival was…
‘…We’re doomed.’
…Only me.
Though Han Si-woo was wearing a friendly face, he was, in fact, an extraordinary critic.
And there’s no way he wouldn’t notice the problems within our team.
But there was no way to turn Han Si-woo, who had already entered our practice room, away.
“Alright, please start with your performance now.”
Thus, my worries went unresolved as the Midterm Evaluation began.
♪♬♩-!
We’ve already practiced this choreography dozens, if not hundreds, of times.
In fact, the Midterm Evaluation only reviews up to the first verse.
Having mastered both the song and dance up to the second verse, there was no way we would make trivial mistakes during the first.
“…That’s it!”
As the first verse ended and Seo Yoo-jin let out a breath filled with relief, she smiled confidently.
From her perspective, the fact that she didn’t see any mistakes must have made her quite satisfied.
However…
“……”
Contrary to her expectations, Han Si-woo’s expression wasn’t good.
He didn’t look angry, but… he seemed somewhat dissatisfied.
We clearly completed the performance successfully, yet seeing Han Si-woo’s negative reaction left the team rattled.
“…I watched it well.”
After a moment’s contemplation, Han Si-woo picked up the microphone.
“First of all, you performed well despite the short time, and the quality of the performance was high. The choice to preserve the original song as much as possible was excellent, and your choreography was well understood. However…”
“……!”
We had seen Han Si-woo’s harsh expressions many times during our time in Na Ah Ah.
So, we could tell that he was about to launch into some critique.
And the target of that critique was…
“Ha Ye-rin participant.”
“……”
“I’d like to ask what you think the problem with this team is.”
…It was directed right at me.
Until now, Han Si-woo had called me ‘Ye-rin’.
I had thought this meant he was expressing some affection or interest.
But now, he referred to me as ‘Ha Ye-rin participant.’
…Of course, he recognized that I was, indeed, the biggest issue within our team.
“……Our team’s problem is…”
“It must be hard to say. You know you’re ruining the team’s atmosphere.”
“……!!”
After pinpointing me as the problem, the other team members were visibly shocked.
The other team members were too busy memorizing the choreography to realize this.
They probably never thought that I, who had been the fastest to memorize the dance and hadn’t made a single mistake until now, would be the problem.
“I’ve believed since before that Ye-rin’s stage lacked detail. But I thought it would be resolved as time went on.”
“……”
“What is the concept of this song? It’s about a girl who wants to know the love she doesn’t understand, about finding her own love, an innocent and pure girl’s perspective. But how can the atmosphere come alive when the person in charge of the center stays expressionless and cold on stage?”
Of course, my expressionless face was the problem.
While the other team members might have only focused on arm and leg movements, I and Lee Hye-jeong recognized it immediately after watching the rehearsal footage yesterday.
That my blank expressions were ruining the stage atmosphere in the center.
“…Ha Ye-rin participant. I had high hopes for you personally. Did you know that?”
“……Yes.”
“However, seeing today’s performance has greatly disappointed me.”
There’s a saying about how the scariest thing is when a fan turns into an anti-fan.
Han Si-woo’s face was filled with immense disappointment and betrayal.
And he sighed again, picked up the microphone, and said…
“If this isn’t resolved… it might be better to change the center of this team.”
…He delivered a potentially brutal verdict.
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