Episode 4 of *Jeodol* Season 3, featuring the first competition stage and the rehearsal process.
It was an episode where I could break away from my youngest-member or cute image and show a more mature, charismatic side.
About an hour and a half after Episode 4 began.
[Now, let’s watch Group 2’s stage, covering “It G”! Group 2, please come up!]
At last, Group 2 of our team appeared on the stage shown on the screen.
- Waaaah!!
The thunderous applause and cheers that had risen from the audience beneath the stage that day were inserted along with the trainers’ conversation.
[Oh, Group 2 is really popular!]
[Still, you never know. You have to watch all the way to the end of the stage to find out.]
It was obviously a scripted line intended to build tension for the viewers.
But as a participant, I knew.
Our Group 2 had won by a wide margin in votes.
[One, two, three! Hello~ We’re the Lookies you’ll want to see again and again and again!]
There I was on the screen, linking arms with Ye-eun and forming a heart.
“Heh-heh, our daughter’s so cute.”
My mother teased me with a sly grin.
“I know. I’m cute.”
“Huh...?”
Since I usually reacted as though I were having a fit whenever she said things like that, my mother looked completely baffled.
‘Well, I do look cute on screen, even to myself.’
I acknowledged it boldly.
But the troubles of the past?
They didn’t matter anymore.
I had simply done my best every moment.
It would be foolish to feel ashamed of myself for that.
Of course, I had no intention of remaining this way.
I would even turn those troubles into something unbelievable.
Today, I would be reborn with a new image...
“Did... Mom teasing you make you feel really bad?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Mom’s sorry. I won’t tease you anymore.”
“No? Tease me as much as you want. It won’t be long before even that moment is gone.”
My mother’s expression grew strange, then turned serious as she shook my father by the shoulder.
“Honey... Honey...”
“What is it?”
“What should we do? I think our daughter’s been hurt.”
My father gave a hearty laugh and said,
“Aw, she’s fine. It’s probably not that. She’s likely just going through middle-school syndrome. I went through it too—I was like that for quite a while. Our daughter’s just reached that age. Try to understand her. She’s at an age when she’s especially sensitive, you know?”
“Oh, is that it?”
...In any case, if they showed the rehearsal process today, the number of times I would die of embarrassment was about to decrease.
And no matter what my parents were talking about, the broadcast continued.
‘It’s finally starting.’
A chilly BGM from the very beginning.
The screen showed us fidgeting anxiously from the moment the team was formed, after seeing each other’s individual qualities.
[Who’s going to be our main vocalist...?]
[We should probably choose a song without any high notes...]
[Is there even a girl-group song like that...?]
[Maybe “BOO,” which came out last year?]
The team members’ stiff expressions.
Then came the inserted interviews.
[An Eunseo: There are three people in our group who want the rapper position...(sigh)]
[Meirin: Everyone... got harsh criticism in the vocal parts...(I did.) So we don’t have any confidence either...]
[Gong Chaerin: A song without any high notes, no matter what... Please!!!]
Interviews that highlighted our team’s problems from the very first scene.
Apparently, the direction of our editing was meant to be a story of growth.
Since we had actually won the team battle, there was nothing wrong with that.
‘Ye-eun’s ranking is going to rise a lot.’
Of course, it wasn’t bad for me either.
In a growth narrative, the qualities of the leader who guided the team were also more likely to stand out.
After the interviews, the spinning wheel appeared, along with a solo shot of Chaerin.
[Please... let it be “BOO”... Oh...!?]
The wheel stopped precariously on “BOO.”
- Clack -
[“It G” by 3M!]
[Noooooo!!!!!]
[Gong Chaerin: I wanted to cry... Since 3M’s songs have so many high notes......]
[Does anyone want to... be the main vocalist?]
I suppose this was the point where I had contributed as a leader.
Not only had I read Ye-eun’s feelings when she had been hesitating despite wanting to be the main vocalist and asked what she thought, I had also encouraged her and helped her gain confidence.
Of course, it wasn’t anything extraordinary.
Still, while I was stuck with nothing but a youngest-member image, it would have been the first scene that could sufficiently turn that image around.
But even after I waited, my lines were nowhere to be seen, as though they had been completely edited out.
‘What...?’
Then, amid the silence, they showed a close-up of Ye-eun.
Intercut with the present, the scene showed Ye-eun receiving harsh criticism during a Tier 5 class.
[Ye-eun, your pitch is far too unstable.]
In the criticism scene, Ye-eun looked as though she was about to cry. But when the screen returned to the main footage, her eyes were wide open, as if she had made up her mind.
[Okay. Everyone, move aside! I’ll be the main vocalist. Anyone have a problem?]
...What?
***
Before I knew it, the broadcast had ended.
“What... was that?”
“Our daughter came out cute again today~”
“Unnie! You looked absolutely gorgeous!”
“...”
I was dumbfounded.
Our rehearsal process had been edited into a flow completely different from what I had imagined.
The process of assigning parts and learning the choreography.
[Wow! Unnie, you’ve already learned the choreography?]
[Whoa~ Chaerin unnie dances so well~]
There I was, clinging to Chaerin and showering her with praise.
It was the image of a cute youngest member.
It was true that Chaerin had helped me a lot, but...
That had clearly been my leadership moment...?
I had even corrected the choreography’s formations...
And I had learned a lot of the choreography myself...?
[Gong Chaerin: Since our leader is the youngest member, it feels like she brightens up the team atmosphere.]
I was flustered even then, but I let it go.
Since I had taken up an excessive amount of airtime from Episodes 1 through 3, the PD probably couldn’t give me any more while trying to distribute screen time to the other trainees.
But when Eunseo’s center position—the team’s most decisive crisis—received harsh criticism...
[An Eunseo: I felt so sorry to the team. I felt like I was holding everyone back...]
The footage of me comforting Eunseo after she cried over the criticism had been filmed with my back to the camera. It was edited to make it look as though, when Eunseo started crying, I had become sorrowful too and cried along with her.
That was when I sensed that something was seriously wrong.
[An Eunseo: Still, everyone comforted me so much, and I’m grateful... I want to practice hard and show everyone a good performance.]
My mother hugged me and patted my back after seeing me on the screen, apparently crying.
“Our daughter must have had such a hard time.”
“Take your hands off me... It wasn’t like that...”
“It’s okay. That can happen.”
“I said it wasn’t...”
Right...
Well, it had probably been an unavoidable choice by the PD for the sake of creating an emotional story.
I could sacrifice myself this much.
Surely they would show at least one genuinely leader-like scene.
And then came the final part of the rehearsal process.
It did appear.
For some reason, it was accompanied by a cheerful BGM that reminded me of spring.
Scenes were inserted alongside the unnies’ interviews.
[Unnie, that was really good just now! If we keep going like this, we’ll win!]
[Hwang Eun-chae: Throughout practice, she kept chattering beside each team member and praising them one by one...(she was) so cute! I just wanted to bite her cheeks.]
[Let’s do it one more time! Fighting!]
[Gong Chaerin: She works so hard because she’s the leader...(laughs) She’s just a cute healing totem. Everyone must have been exhausted after practicing all day, but she kept cheering us on with “fighting, fighting!” beside us...(laughing so hard she could barely breathe)]
Apparently, the PD had no intention of changing my image from a cute youngest member.
Right... That must have been why I’d appeared like that throughout Episodes 1 through 3...
After that, the first competition showed every member successfully completing the stage, bringing the growth narrative to a satisfying conclusion. But my image had merely become fixed in place without undergoing any change whatsoever.
“This is... an evil edit...”
- KakaoTalk! KakaoTalk! KakaoTalk!
- KakaoTalk! KakaoTalk! KakaoTalk!
- KakaoTalk! KakaoTalk! KakaoTalk!
Once again, I had no choice but to turn off my phone, which was ringing incessantly.
***
The morning of the day after Episode 4 aired.
The first round of voting, which had begun with the premiere approximately three weeks earlier, was set to close in a few hours.
The trainees also had to gather at the filming center to record the ranking announcement ceremony.
So those of us riding Manager Yeongho’s car had decided to meet in front of Top East’s headquarters early that morning.
The main road in front of the building.
As I walked up the road, I saw Na-eun and Seo-yun chatting and laughing happily near the entrance in the distance.
...They must be happy.
They had secured favorable images for themselves, after all.
“Dohee’s here~!?”
Na-eun must have spotted me approaching from afar, because she grinned broadly and called out in a loud voice.
She had plenty of energy this early in the morning.
Of course she did.
They had secured favorable images for themselves...
“Haa...”
Meanwhile, Seo-yun went out of her way to run all the way from there and throw her arms around me.
“Our maknae~ Didn’t you miss your unnie? You haven’t even read my messages... I’m hurt~”
Kim Seo-yun spoke brightly.
“Would I miss you?”
“Aw... I missed our maknae so much... You haven’t been living with your phone turned off, have you?”
“...”
Kim Seo-yun smiled sweetly and said,
“Then you haven’t seen the comments either, right? There are so many posts about our maknae online that, if things go well, you might even be able to aim for first place~”
That was good news.
But Kim Seo-yun hadn’t said it with good intentions.
“So what?”
“Then your unnie will pick one and read the comments to you~”
She took out her phone and opened YouTube, going to the fancam of my stage.
“Even as the leader, Dohee’s still a cute maknae lol.”
“Dohee’s aegyo is insane. Why is she so lovable~”
“So cute. She totally loves her unnies, like a little baby lol.”
“I’ve seriously never seen anyone this cute before~ㅠㅠ”
“Oh, just shut up.”
“Gasp. The cute maknae cursed! Na-eun unnie! Our maknae cursed!”
Ah.
My head hurt first thing in the morning...