Chapter 1

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: My One and Only
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A training center somewhere in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Despite the late hour, the sharp, synchronized sound of footsteps could be heard leaking out of the practice room.

“Seven, eight, boom!”

A powerful count echoed through the room.

“Good job. Don’t forget to align your angles.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

A dozen or so trainees, their eyes shining, answered loudly to the woman who appeared to be their instructor.

“I think we just need to work on the timing of the turns a bit more. Everything else is already looking great.”

“Thank you!”

“Is Yeon-woo the class leader? You’ve worked hard training everyone. Seeing you today, I think you’re ready to move up.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

The trainee who received the praise gasped for breath and bowed deeply.

At that moment, a drop of sweat fell onto the practice room floor. It was a testament to her effort and sincerity.

While these young people were gathered together, shedding sweat for their dreams, there was one trainee in the corner of the back row with the eyes of a dead fish.

Though her eyes were unfocused and hollow, her movements were perfectly in sync with the other trainees.

“By the way, Hye-sung.”

“Yes?”

The trainee with the dead-fish eyes answered with a start at the instructor’s call.

“You’re not sick, are you? Your expression has been…”

“Ah… I’m sorry. I think I didn’t get enough sleep. From practicing…”

As if she had really pulled an all-nighter, her lips trembled weakly as she spoke.

“Really? No wonder you’ve improved so much. Still, don’t overdo it. You look really pale.”

“Okay.”

“Well, I’ll be going now. Let’s do just as well as we did today at the recording, alright?”

“Yes! Thank you for your hard work! Thank you!”

As soon as the instructor left the practice room, the trainees, who had been standing at attention, gathered together and began to chatter excitedly. They seemed quite thrilled to have been praised.

While everyone was laughing and celebrating the compliments, the trainee with the dead-fish eyes, Hye-sung, suddenly plopped down on the floor. As if she’d been completely discharged.

And she muttered to herself.

*Why am I putting myself through this hell to become an idol, a life that was never meant for me…*

Why was a trainee with such an attitude here, you ask?

The story goes back a few days.

* * *

“Gyaaaaaaah!!!”

A woman in shabby clothes, sprawled on the floor, let out a scream that filled the room.

“What is this bullshit!!!”

The woman threw the chicken leg she was holding and yelled at her smartphone screen.

“What does this mean, huh? This? Huh? What? Huh?!”

The woman’s name was Yoon Hye-sung. She was a perfectly ordinary 27-year-old, just starting her career, and she continued to berate her screen as if it would answer back.

“I said, what does this mean!”

Hye-sung glared at the screen as if she was about to pick a fight.

“No, no, no. Nope, not happening.”

Just a moment ago she was screaming in anger, but now she was shaking her head violently, chanting “no” like a rapper in some desperate attempt at denial.

[Syunopeu Season 5 Eliminated Contestants Update]

**.**.20**｜Views 42,890

Na Yeon-woo

Went back to being a trainee

Heard she left the company recently

Not sure if she was cut

She made a personal SNS account too

(Photo)(Link)

It’s a private account, but you can tell it's Na Yeon-woo from the profile pic.

My friend followed her and she accepted…

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.

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(167 Comments)

-Whoa, Na Yeon-woo? She still hasn't debuted? That company sucks at its job... She was right to leave a place like that.

-It’s so sad she ended up a normal person by just one rank ㅠㅠ To be honest, she was the prettiest one...

└She's still only 20, so another company will probably snatch her up soon.

└She's better off just living as a gorgeous non-celebrity and doing vlogs on WeTube. It’s not like her skills were that exceptional.

└└Hey, she said she wanted to be an idol, so saying that is a bit...

It was a post on the entertainment board of a large online community.

And it was the reason Hye-sung was screaming her head off.

The post was an update on the contestants from an audition program that had ended a year and a half ago. The moment Hye-sung’s eyes landed on the words ‘Na Yeon-woo’ and ‘left the company,’ she snapped.

Na Yeon-woo was the apple of her eye, the girl she wanted to support with every penny she had, her precious daughter (not her actual daughter). She was her current ultimate bias.

“Why would Yeon-woo leave the company? Her debut is just around the corner. It has to be a rumor, it must be fake…”

With trembling fingers, Hye-sung checked the SNS account linked in the post.

“Freak… It really is Yeon-woo.”

Hye-sung, letting out a cute little curse, collapsed onto the floor. She felt her heart plummet to her feet.

“But why…”

Dumbfounded, Hye-sung returned to the post and scrolled down roughly. The refreshed screen didn’t have any particularly nasty comments, but in her current state, every single one of them got on her nerves.

“Muggles should just shut up if they don’t know anything. So annoying…”

Her mood soured, Hye-sung quickly moved her fingers to check the reactions on the SNS platform frequented by idol fans.

She hadn’t been able to log in properly for about two weeks because of work. Had everyone else already heard the news? She scrolled down, hoping to at least vent about the agency with her friends.

But the timeline she saw was different from what she expected, and her heart sank even further.

“Everyone made a blood pact to love Yeon-woo forever…”

It was no wonder she felt that way. Her timeline was filled with pictures of other idols, just like any other day. It meant that no pictures of Na Yeon-woo had been shared for quite some time.

“…I guess I’m really the only one left.”

It had been well over a year since the program ended. There were no fellow fans left to rage against the agency and cry with her. Everyone had given up, unable to endure the long hiatus.

About three months after the show ended without Na Yeon-woo making the debut team, most of her fan friends had vanished, becoming ghosts on the internet.

A few others held on for a couple more months before switching to other idols, only keeping their old accounts active. That was why Hye-sung’s timeline was flooded with pictures of other idols.

“Those idiots… they couldn’t even hold onto the fans they gathered because they kept her hidden away. Of course this would happen…”

And what was the result? A depressing timeline where photos of her old fan friends’ new "daughters" and "sons" were plastered everywhere, while she alone was left shouting into the void, asking when Yeon-woo would debut, only to receive a sad two or three likes in response.

Truthfully, even before learning about Na Yeon-woo leaving her company today, Hye-sung had been feeling a sense of emptiness. Before, she had comrades to endure with, but it wasn't easy to persevere alone through an indefinite wait and a total content drought.

“Are you telling me to stop now too, Yeon-woo? Huh? Why did you leave the company? What am I supposed to do…”

Frustrated, Hye-sung went back to the community post and started typing a comment, but she ended up deleting it and closing the window.

“…Love… is self-harm…”

No sooner had Hye-sung’s eyes begun to sting than a lukewarm tear trickled down her cheek.

“Waaaaah!!!”

Collapsing onto the floor, Hye-sung began to sob. It was embarrassing to be 27 and crying over an idol, but she couldn’t just stop the tears from flowing.

“Yeon-wooooo… *sob*… *hic*… my baby, my girl… *waaah*… What’s going to happen to my Yeon-woo? This shitty world…”

And so, Hye-sung lay sprawled on the floor, crying for a long time. Just like she had on the day Na Yeon-woo was eliminated.

* * *

Exactly one year and six months ago, Hye-sung had seen Na Yeon-woo for the first time on an idol survival audition show called .

Syunopeu Season 5 was an audition to form a new girl group, following the same format as the four previous seasons.

Because of this, general viewers, feeling fatigued, had already voiced negative reactions like “I’m sick of this” and “Stop making so many idols” even before it aired.

Hye-sung felt the same way. She watched the first episode with a bored attitude. She hadn’t planned on watching it; it just happened to be on.

Hye-sung, who had been watching the first episode with dead fish eyes, felt her own eyes fly wide open the moment Na Yeon-woo appeared.

“Whoa. She’s kinda my type.”

At first, she just thought Na Yeon-woo was good-looking, but hearing her voice felt like her ears were opening wide. Whether it was love at first sight or something else, her mind was filled with the desire to see more of her performances.

“She’s good. Her voice is nice, too.”

This quickly turned into:

“The producers are trying to crush my girl’s spirit!!”

It didn’t take long at all.

*There are only a few active idols I can even call Eonni anymore… It’s normal for idols these days to be younger than me, but seven years is a bit…*

At first, she tried hard not to like her. The fact that Na Yeon-woo was seven years younger than her made her feel strangely solemn.

But the heart wants what it wants, and by the time she came to her senses, she hadn’t just been drawn in; she was completely soaked, on the verge of drowning.

*They say it’s game over when you start finding everything they do cute… I’m in big trouble. I think I’m going to die from how cute she is just breathing.*

They say love comes unexpectedly. Apparently, that didn’t just apply to romantic love. An ultimate bias could also appear out of nowhere, as if dropped from the sky.

She simply couldn’t help but like this girl, couldn’t help but cheer for her. She wanted to hear her voice, be moved by her smile, scream her name, and brag to the whole world about how amazing her girl was.

*What do I do? Just looking at a picture of Yeon-woo makes my heart swell. Ah… I shouldn’t fall any deeper…*

There’s a timing to stanning, too. If you deny your own feelings when you know them so well, you’ll definitely regret it. You have to love with all your heart when you can, so the end can be clean. Having been a fan of several idols before, Hye-sung knew this well.

“Whatever, I’m just gonna stan her.”

It was simple. Just like her. There was nothing grand about it. Her heart was just drawn to her. She had already fallen for her. In fact, she was even happy that some joy had entered her dry, mundane life.

The feeling of gratitude when someone you didn’t even know a while ago becomes your source of vitality, the strength to endure, and floods your daily life. It was a feeling Hye-sung hadn’t felt in a long time, and it was a pleasant one.

And so, Hye-sung, who had dived headfirst into the fandom in the blink of an eye, finally started calling Na Yeon-woo “my girl” after the third episode aired.

“I can’t live without Yeon-woo. I’ll die after I see my girl debut.”

After seeing Na Yeon-woo in the preview for the fourth episode, she claimed she could see the future and began making a huge fuss. It was only a matter of time before she became completely obsessed with the show.

Hye-sung, who had started stanning in a "raising-a-child" style, naturally paid for services she didn’t even need with all of her family members’ accounts just to get paid voting rights. And despite being busy preparing for a job, she even ran a GIF account to promote her.

As if proving Hye-sung’s eye for talent, Na Yeon-woo shed her initial clumsy image and flawlessly executed her performances as the show progressed, making it all the way to the finale.

Na Yeon-woo’s rank, which had hovered in the danger zone for the entire broadcast, finally entered the debut range right before the finale, and Hye-sung’s euphoria at that moment was enough to pierce the heavens. A post she (username: Nyang-kki-nyu) made at the time even became a popular meme.

KimCrunch @basasacing

Just because it’s fried doesn’t make it a fritter.
Only what is in Kim Crunch’s mouth is a fritter.

Nyang-kki-nyu @myfairbunny

The center is not the middle.
Wherever Na Yeon-woo stands, that is the center.

3,327 Retweets 978 Quote Tweets 2,823 Likes

However, in a truly unfortunate turn of events, Na Yeon-woo was eliminated, missing the debut spot by a single rank.

The difference was a mere 700-odd votes.