Page 23 of Wish Upon a K-Star

T he first episode airs and the company couldn’t be happier.

Despite my certainty that we’ll be the first ever couple on OCM to be fired, the viewers don’t hate us.

Actually, it’s hard to trust it yet, but they seem to like us.

I monitor the entire episode, making little mental notes for myself so I can do better in the future. As predicted, I was completely awkward during the initial riddle-solving segment. Though, the producers kindly edited my struggle to frame it as adorably fumbling with the clues.

But once Minseok is on the screen with me, things smooth out. Our bickering is presented as banter. The captions on-screen keep labeling us as old friends, probably at the request of Bright Star. And the commentary is definitely that our little jabs at each other have the undertones of young flirtation.

It’s embarrassing, especially knowing Minseok is probably watching as well. He wouldn’t actually think I was flirting with him, right? He has to know it’s just the editing of the show.

The most surprising thing is that the crew somehow got Miss Ha to do a testimonial interview. When they got it, I have no clue. But she’s standing in her kitchen talking about us as kids, coming in to eat together, thick as thieves.

To my dismay they do air the scene where she mentions my crush. But then it cuts back to the testimonial interview. “The thing is those kids don’t know that Miss Ha sees everything. And I noticed him noticing her too. That’s why I’m not surprised they’re together now.” She shakes her ladle at the camera like she’s lecturing it. “It was just a matter of time, if you ask me.”

I’m not sure how they got her to say that. It can’t be true, but maybe the director thought it would add a bit of flavor to pretend my crush wasn’t completely one-sided. After all, it feeds the romance angle of the show.

At least the producers seem to like how much better I am at the crane game than Minseok. Me teaching him how to win the doll is an entire segment at the end of the episode. Including our hug when we won.

After the episode airs, the narrative online quickly becomes focused on any moments from our debut and pre-debut time. Clips surface of small moments of us interacting.

The power and sleuthing skills of netizens has always scared me. But maybe that’s because it’s always been used against me. Now, there are screenshots from old vlogs. A fuzzy zoom-in of us at a music show when I was promoting with Helloglow and Minseok with WDB. We’re on opposite sides of the stage, but netizens insist there’s a moment where we make “meaningful eye contact.” Amateur body language analysis claiming we were secretly waving or smiling at each other. They even find a still from CCTV footage of us at a convenience store pre-debut.

The netizens seem to love the idea that Minseok and I have had some secret friendship we were so good at hiding that it hasn’t come out until now.

It all feels like another lie, though. Minseok and I are not friends. Acquaintances. Frenemies. A passing embarrassing childish crush. But friends? I don’t know if I could claim that.

Yet this half-truth helps me.

Does letting it spread make me a hypocrite? When I’ve been the victim of nasty half-truths meant to drag me in the past? Or is this something I’m owed after surviving all that?