None of Us Saw This Coming

October, 2020: Daegu

Nothing worked for her.

It had been six years or so since her debut and it had also been six years or so since the first time she entered the industry, yet it was the first time ever Irene got meddled into a scandal; it all started a couple of weeks prior when she was involved in a project. Something was bothering her during the time; something that was done by the stylist who was involved in the very project. Irene was usually calm when she was faced with an issue because she had that professional poker face and she always knew better—being constantly put under the spotlight and such, Irene was able to place herself properly in various kinds of situations.

But that day was probably just not her brightest day because she ended up losing control of herself; it was supposed to be a gentle reminder to the stylist but the supposedly gentle reminder was taken as a stringing of harsh words by the stylist, who through their social media claimed that they ended up in tears after being scolded by an idol who acted arrogantly and snobbishly—although they did not put her name, they still put two hashtags that indirectly directed the issue to either Seulgi or her, as the only two members of their group who debuted with the song put in the hashtag.

She never had any ill intention. Yet one thing had led to another, the statement that contained the one-sided version from the stylist had directed the public's judgemental eyes towards both Seulgi and her, so she stepped up to admit everything as her wrongdoings and even posted an apology statement for the stylist through her social media. The whole thing was supposed to end there, so she hoped, but instead, it created what felt much like a domino effect, where suddenly other people claimed to have worked with her and also experienced poor treatment working with her; in all honesty, she could not even remember if she did ever work with any of those who claimed so, but at that time, she did not care, she might indeed have treated others poorly for all she knew and that made her insecure.

That was the first time during her professional years that she failed to figure out what it was she ought to do. At least her agency did not corner her and still gave her support in any way they could. They even went to length making amends with the stylist who started all the shenanigans. People, however, started to push her, criticised her, and cornered her. Some even demanded she quit the group. It was overwhelming for her, yet there was nothing she could do. She knew she was not completely at fault, but she knew where she stood, people would only see what they wanted to see and believed what they chose to believe so there was simply nothing she could do or say that could put a light on the situation. Thus, she chose to bottle everything up and take her time to shy away from the spotlight for a while.

And there she was, finally home, in Daegu. It had been a while since she did, with the pandemic and every other thing in between, she could not find time to visit home. If it was not for her wanting to take some time off away from the eyes of the public, she would not even be there. Perhaps, the scandal was what they called a blessing in disguise. Her mother and father welcomed her home with comforting looks since they knew the story well. All they cared about was their daughter's well-being, the rest of the world be damned.

Irene did not say anything to them though; being the firstborn, she tended to keep everything to herself because she knew telling her parents whatever it was in her mind would do her no good, it would even only give more things to her parents to worry about. That much her parents understood, so they gave her her much-needed space and time out, away from the world that slowly eroded their daughter's sanity. Their little Joohyun needed that, she needed to reconnect with her own support system, the very one that would stay even when the whole world turned its back on her—without any reasoning or explanation needed and as much of an exaggeration as it sounded, right at that time, it felt very much like the world was currently turning its back on her.