Work Text:
Scroll.
Scroll.
Just keep scrolling. Sooner or later someone will appreciate you.
Sooner or later someone will open their damn eyes and see that it wasn’t your fault.
Sooner or later someone will realize it was your fucking company’s fault for ruining you and your friends’ reputations.
No luck.
It’s not my fault, it really isn’t. What did I do wrong?
Wonhee itched at the inner corners of her eyes as she tried to hold back a sniffle. It wasn’t the time to cry. Not now; she could wait another 20 minutes. The world’s so cruel. Especially the people in it. Growing up, Wonhee always knew that life wasn’t fair. This was on another level, though. To think that these are the grownups in the workforce that are expected to provide for the old and young was a sickening thought.
It’s normal to google yourself, right? NingNing sunbaenim does it. She said it’s to monitor her public image or whatever.
The only difference is, they seem to like her. They don’t seem to like Wonhee, though.
Wonhee genuinely believed it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t Yunah’s fault, it wasn’t Minju’s fault, it wasn’t Moka’s fault, it wasn’t Iroha’s fault. It was, of course, the adult’s fault. How bad did they need that laptop?
Can this company do anything right?
And now look at the mess this shitty company’s created. Too late, ILLIT’s forever going to be labeled as liars and thieves while the company hides behind the backs of 5 innocent girls who were lied to and betrayed.
We were promised a debut, not a planet-sized target sown on our backs for everyone to shoot at. I guess the world really freaking hates me.
Too late.
It’s too late.
There’s no reversing what they’ve done.
The internet hates us for existing. They want us dead.
Wonhee looks up from the phone, lifting her chin up towards the ceiling as she tries to regulate her breathing and to stop the unshed tears from seeping out of her eyes. They couldn’t see her cry. That would just give them another reason to bully and harass her.
She tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear before looking up at the camera. She fakes a smile and a laugh at Yunah’s joke. The 5 members sat in front of the camera together speaking awkwardly scripted sentences and phrases that meant nothing.
Glancing over the the left over Yunah’s shoulder, Wonhee looked on nervously as Moka side-eyed their manager. The man standing on the corner gestured them to get back on topic and keep the act up.
Five more minutes , he mouths.
Wonhee almost let out a sigh of relief.
Great! 5 more minutes of real-time hate comments then the trolls get to put everything we said under a microscope for the news outlets to yap about for the next week! Yay! How exciting! What great experiences for a 17 year old girl and her friends that totally won’t affect them for the rest of their lives!
Five more minutes , Wonhee repeats to herself over and over.
The 5 minutes drift by fast. Wonhee reads her lines of the script. She pretends to report the numerous hate comments just like the script said to do.
Yunah nudges her on the shoulder, indicating that they were about to end the live. She and her teammates bid their farewells, and Wonhee finally lets out the tears she’s been holding back.
The world’s such a terrible place , Wonhee half-laughs as the reality sinks in.