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A person who truly knows how to enjoy culture had a duty to savor a product that had been out for quite a while and was still enjoying steady popularity.
IP 85.152 sipped the newly released Creamy Soda Mango flavor and focused on the TV.
“If you’re sick and all alone, it feels sooo miserable! That’s why I came-.”
Jeong Heejeong arrived carrying both arms full of things. The moment Go Yungyo opened the door, she strode inside as if it were her own house.
“Uh... long time....”
“Y-yeah....”
Go Yungyo and Na Yuna exchanged awkward greetings. But the awkwardness lasted only a moment. Heejeong immediately pulled Yungyo toward the bed.
“Hurry, hurry, lie down. I bought medicine, okay? First you need to drink the ssanghwa tonic while it’s still warm, then take the medicine. And I’ll make porridge for you!”
“...Hey. Didn’t you buy some?”
“I couldn’t stop her.... Sorry....”
Crash bang clatter-!
While Heejeong took over the kitchen, it became Yuna’s job to give Yungyo her medicine. She pressed a cooling patch onto her sweat-damp forehead.
“About then... I’m sorry.”
Standing beside Yungyo, Yuna finally worked up the courage to speak sincerely for the first time.
“I was going to... try contacting you. But maybe... it could’ve been awkward....”
“What would be awkward?”
IP 85.152 took another sip of Creamy Soda and stared at Han Yeoreum. On screen, Na Yuna didn’t show it much, but she was clearly tense.
‘As expected, I was right.’
Na Yuna kept her distance from others. She carried herself in a way that could seem somewhat indifferent.
And from that kind of nonverbal behavior, IP 85.152 could sense something.
It wasn’t that Na Yuna didn’t care about friendships.
If anything, she cared too much.
The Yuna on screen wasn’t speaking in her usual voice. Her voice sank inward. She sounded like she was mumbling, uncertain, as if she herself didn’t even know what she was trying to say.
“Th-that... asking you to take me back again... might feel like I’m forcing something.”
She kept explaining her behavior over and over. It was so long-winded it almost felt like an excuse. Han Yeoreum’s pronunciation blurred pitifully.
It was the kind of voice unique to people who found relationships difficult.
‘Han Yeoreum’s insanely good at playing this kind of loser too.’
It was completely different from the characters she had played until now. IP 85.152, who had initially thought the cynical attitude somewhat resembled the early Seoryeong from 〈Strange Tales〉, revised the analysis.
That wasn’t it.
This was simply another side of Na Yuna.
Still only twenty-three. A freshman at the kind of age where human relationships could be especially hard.
“What, were you dating me or something?”
At Yuna’s overly stiff attitude, Yungyo let out a weak laugh.
Craaash-!
“Still... it’s not like we were that close. You might’ve thought I was clingy and tactless....”
“You think that while Jeong Heejeong exists?”
Yungyo flicked her gaze toward Heejeong, who was currently turning the kitchen into total chaos.
“But... is my nose weird right now...?”
“Waaah! Yuna! Come here for a sec!”
“Ah, shit. She’s burning the whole house down.”
Yungyo shot upright from where she had been lying. She didn’t even need to look. It was obvious. While flailing around trying to make porridge, Heejeong had definitely burned something.
As Yungyo staggered, Yuna tightly wrapped an arm around her to support her. Once again, the distance between them instantly closed.
“...What is this?”
Yungyo stared in horror at the disaster Heejeong had created.
“The water ratio... you have to follow the recipe. And you used high heat again, didn’t you?”
“...I wanted you to eat it quickly.... And if it says medium heat, doesn’t that mean you can turn it up just a little more...?”
“You didn’t sauté the onions? Why are they so fresh?”
“I picked expensive onions, so I think they’re fresher....”
“And what is this black... thing?”
“Seaweed! It’s extra-special really delicious roasted seaweed.”
It wasn’t something a human being should eat. Yungyo pressed a hand to her forehead in despair.
“But Yungyo really knows her stuff. Guess they don’t call you a princess for nothing—you can tell what’s wrong the second you look at it? Hehe.”
At Heejeong’s words, Yungyo thought to herself.
-It felt like something had gone wrong with her head. She must have had too high a fever. So she just.
Blurted it out.
“I’m actually not a princess. I was just pretending to be one. Everything I did around you guys was all just a concept....”
The end of her voice cracked pitifully.
“Ever since I was five, I’ve been flipping pancakes with a spatula in my hand. My family’s hopelessly patriarchal, so we held twelve ancestral rites a year....”
As if she had wanted to say it all along, Go Yungyo’s words came out without obstruction.
Na Yuna and Jeong Heejeong simply blinked over and over, as if they couldn’t understand what she was even saying.
“I felt bad for my mom and sisters-in-law, so I thought at least I should help. Anyway, I’m fucking amazing at making pancakes. I’m just good at housework in general. The real princess is you, Heejeong.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. You just... look like someone who grew up loved.”
At the word princess, Heejeong burst into loud laughter.
“Hey! I don’t have a dad!”
At the sudden bombshell, Yungyo and Yuna froze.
“He died when I was really little. Then rumors spread and I got bullied a bit too.... And Mom likes my older sister more. Heejeong’s the leftover side dish, y’know.”
“....”
“....”
Watching Heejeong lay bare her painful past so boldly, Yuna could only move her lips soundlessly.
“Wait. Is this turning into one of those pitying atmospheres right now? Huh? Are rumors gonna spread around the department that I don’t have a dad and start bullying me again?”
“...Bullying is.”
-For the sake of Heejeong, who was pretending she was fine, she wanted to step in.
Over Yuna’s trembling voice, a calmer voice layered itself on top.
“I... was bullied too.”
Yuna’s delicate throat bobbed. Gulp. You could see her swallowing down something hot and heavy.
-The truth was, she had wanted someone, anyone, to find out.
“In high school... I didn’t go to cram school, and I was, kind of, good at studying... maybe I was a little tactless. I shared my report card with my friends, and... yeah. After that, things kind of....”
-I couldn’t tell Mom and Dad. I couldn’t tell the people I met at the retake academy, or the people on the same shift at work. I just couldn’t say it.
“At first it was only... a few people in my class....”
-Because this is the kind of thing you can only tell friends.
IP 85.152 focused on Han Yeoreum’s increasingly unsteady breathing. The hidden panting, subtle enough not to show, told the viewer that Na Yuna was summoning an enormous amount of courage.
Just the feeling that remembering it again was overwhelming.
Han Yeoreum conveyed that vividly even through the screen.
-Yuna was always looking at other people’s Yousta.. T_T so that’s why she wasn’t an influencer, just a god-tier normal person
︎˪ omg why??
︎˪ probably the kids who bullied her
-Bullying in middle and high school really eats people alive. Eating lunch alone in the cafeteria is max difficulty TT_TT you fucking bastards stop hurting Yuna
But they still couldn’t know exactly what had happened to Yuna.
Yuna continued speaking with trembling lips.
-Some kinds of bullying aren’t as cruel as what you see in dramas or movies. Unlike being shot or stabbed, ostracism in a classroom is surprisingly trivial.
Narration settled over Na Yuna’s tense face.
-But just like a paper cut still bleeds... something in me was always stinging. The looks, the laughter, all the time I had to remain alone—it felt like being cut by every moment of it.
The viewers must have wondered what had happened to Yuna. Unlike Jeong Heejeong and Go Yungyo, Na Yuna had never cried even once. Not in front of others, and not even when she was alone.
-That’s why I wanted to get into a good university.
This was Na Yuna’s pride.
Because crying meant losing.
Just as she still did not shed tears now, she never gave the viewers the full details.
Because it was something she could only tell friends.
-No matter what you did, I wanted to prove it couldn’t hurt me.
So Na Yuna confessed it only to Go Yungyo and Jeong Heejeong on screen.
-I’m going insane TT__TT ah I’m watching with my mom and trying not to cry. Mom, actually your daughter was bullied too.. Haha
-I remember hiding in the bathroom alone during PE class haha the kids came in and deliberately said loud enough for me to hear, “Where’d Iksun go?”...
-Han Yeoreum’s voice is insane. I never fully got why Yuna was so obsessed with university prestige, but now I understand all at once, me too TT_TT
︎˪ fr there were so many comments before mocking Na Yuna for stubbornly insisting on a top university even with her bad family situation LOL
The live thread burned hot with Na Yuna’s inner feelings that no one had known until now. The speed of the comments was on an entirely different level than before.
Na Yuna did not break down sobbing. She did not tell the viewers exactly what had happened.
And yet Han Yeoreum’s breathing—
that sound of someone scraping together every last bit of courage just to say what they had never been able to tell anyone—
shook the viewers to their core in an instant.
Drip.
A droplet fell from the end of the cold aluminum can.
“....”
IP 85.152 realized they had been holding the Creamy Soda in their hand for quite a long time without drinking.
Because from the moment Han Yeoreum appeared on screen, every single sense had to be poured into one place.
“This makes us feel, like, totally! extra special now.”
As always, it was Jeong Heejeong who changed the mood. Because Heejeong was always quick to read the room. She stepped in for Yuna, who didn’t know where to stop.
“This is really really really a secret only we know now. We shared it, right? So Yungyo, hurry up and eat.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nooo. Your loving bestie made it for you, and you’re not gonna eat it? We’re totally past having any secrets between us now.”
“How am I supposed to eat this?!”
There was no dramatic comfort.
It wasn’t a moment where it felt like you had become me. freёweɓnovel.com
Just an ordinary slice of everyday life.
And that was exactly why the scene hit harder. freewebnoveℓ.com
“Let’s just order something... the meal I said I’d buy you last time. I’ll get it now.”
Watching the two bicker, Yuna finally spoke. In the end, the fifty thousand won her dad had given her was spent that day. The three of them slept together in one room.
And then they all caught the cold.
[Youth Disqualified Minor Gallery]
[I’ve decided I’m following So Yesol’s next project no matter what]
Today’s episode was seriously so good
Anonymous (118.22) you are literally me
Anonymous (223.3) So Yesol’s debut film was fucking amazing too if you haven’t seen it you absolutely should
[The directing was so fucking sophisticated, not a single character collapsed LOLOLOL]
If Na Yuna had cried and dumped her whole past, honestly this wouldn’t have been the kind of drama worth rewatching over and over
Anonymous (19.112) Loved how they muted all the sound there. Felt like they were preserving Na Yuna’s pride, holy shit
Anonymous (106.10) The narration dropped right on cue and Han Yeoreum’s diction was so good it was pure dopamine
Anonymous (39.5) When people are so nervous they feel like they’re going crazy, their ears ring, right? So I thought the sound disappearing was from Na Yuna’s POV. Sophisticated directing fr
IP 85.152 carefully filtered the unusually large number of posts and pinned the best ones.
* * *
As usual, Aetami searched Yeoreum on her way to work.
[Han Yeoreum’s calm confession... “I was bullied” moves viewers to tears]
[〈Youth Disqualified!〉 a quietly luxurious healing drama with no cheap bait]
[MBS’s huge success in capturing 20–30 viewers’ hearts, 〈Youth Disqualified!〉 peaks at 14% minute-by-minute ratings]
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say every article photo from yesterday’s 〈Youth Disqualified!〉 episode had been unified into a single image.
The scene where they shared their secrets at Yungyo’s house.
And among them, the response to Han Yeoreum’s Na Yuna was, of course, the strongest.
That ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ dry, matter-of-fact calmness moved viewers’ hearts even more.
