Chapter 314 : Gogh Girl (2)
Chapter 314: Gogh Girl (2)
She envied the lives of ordinary people.
To some, it might have sounded like a ridiculous wish,
but that was Cha Eunha's genuine feeling.
Since childhood, she'd been called a prodigy.
The life of the Gogh Girl, whose every detail had been picked apart by the public, had never been beautiful.
"Isn't that the Gogh Girl?"
"Oh. The one who can't even paint but got famous because of TV?"
It felt as though people on the street were criticizing her.
Perhaps they hadn't actually whispered those things.
But back then,
those stares had terrified her.
Cha Eunha spent years shut away inside her room.
The wounds people had left on her didn't heal easily,
so she hid herself to avoid receiving even deeper ones.
But she couldn't let her future rot forever inside a room barely five pyeong in size.
Cha Eunha was still young.
She was still talented.
And she had finally begun to find her courage.
She picked up the paintbrush she'd avoided for so long.
Painting again after several years was fun.
Whenever she held a brush and drew a line.
Whenever she filled a blank canvas with her own story.
Only then did Cha Eunha truly feel alive.
She was happy.
For the first time,
she felt certain she could live like everyone else.
She enrolled in an art university.
'I hope nobody recognizes me...'
Contrary to the worries she'd had when entering school,
her classmates didn't seem to know much about the television program that had aired when she was little.
Enough time had passed for everyone to grow up,
and her face had changed as well.
Thanks to that,
the anxiety that had constantly choked her slowly faded away.
Like any ordinary freshman,
she went on blind dates, enjoyed festivals,
and lived a happy college life.
Her classmates weren't interested in Cha Eunha's past.
She was simply the girl who was good at painting.
Someone useful to have on group assignments.
That was about the extent of her presence,
and she naturally blended in among them.
“Cha Seongbin is seriously so handsome....”
“Hey. Did you watch Universe Dust's self-content? I told you to watch it!”
Conversations about her older brother occasionally drifted through the room,
but that was exactly why she never acknowledged them.
Cha Eunha was completely satisfied with her life now.
Just then,
while she was lost in thought—
“Hey, Cha Eunha!”
One of the classmates she was close with linked arms with her.
“When's your next free period? You're coming to the cafeteria afterward, right?”
“Me? Starting at two. What's on the menu today?”
“Chicken Mayo Rice Bowl... I think? We'll have to go check!”
“I'll wait at the dormitory after class.”
“Okay! I'm off!”
Cha Eunha smiled shyly and nodded.
Her social circle still wasn't particularly large,
but the wariness she'd always felt toward other people had definitely faded.
At this rate,
her dream wasn't far away.
The childhood dream of living an ordinary life like everyone else.
Smiling softly,
Cha Eunha headed toward the third floor for her general education class.
Class was about to begin.
Having arrived slightly late,
she hurried down the hallway.
Room 307.
It was the classroom for <History of Western Art>.
Creak—
Cha Eunha opened the classroom door and stepped inside.
Then—
“……”
An unnaturally heavy silence filled the room.
'I'm not that late, though?'
Swallowing nervously,
Cha Eunha glanced around.
The professor hadn't arrived yet,
so quietly entering through the back door shouldn't have been a problem.
But strangely,
every student's eyes were fixed on her.
Cha Eunha blinked slowly.
Something was wrong.
Sensing something ominous in all those eyes staring directly at her,
Cha Eunha instinctively tried to turn around and leave.
Just then,
she heard people whispering.
“It's her, right?”
“I think so.”
“Hey, I told you the articles are already out.”
“You go ask her.”
“Me? I'm not close to her.”
No way.
Her bad feeling slowly turned into certainty.
Cha Eunha's legs trembled.
Even innocent curiosity terrified her so much that she wanted to run out of the classroom.
But her legs remained frozen in place,
as though they'd stopped working.
A female student sitting in the back turned around.
Aside from exchanging a few words during the MT,
they were practically strangers.
The girl looked at her with sparkling eyes and asked,
“Hey, is your older brother really Cha Seongbin from Stardust?”
In the end,
she heard the one question she'd never wanted to hear.
[So Gogh Girl really is Cha Seongbin's younger sister.]
The articles are already out ㄷㄷㄷ
So his younger sister was famous too? Why did he hide it?
I vaguely remember seeing her on TV when we were kids.
Wasn't she introduced as a genius girl who was amazing at painting?
Then I remember all those posts from classmates exposing her, and things got really noisy.
After that nobody mentioned her again.
Turns out her older brother was Cha Seongbin. Legendary.
What were those classmates' exposé posts???
└They said Gogh Girl actually wasn't talented at all and only became famous because of TV ㅇㅇ. In the end she couldn't even get into an arts high school.
└As far as I know, she went to an art university.
└She did?? Which one?
└H University, Department of Western Painting.
└Oh, she still got into a good school.
└Wasn't it probably because she used her TV appearance really well in her personal statement? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
She does seem pretty good at painting though.
└Who said she couldn't paint? The problem was that they kept hyping her up with the title "Gogh Girl" ㅋㅋㅋ. She wasn't that good.
└If she wasn't talented, did all the talent go to her brother?
└Who knows? ㅋㅋㅋ Maybe Cha Seongbin's talent is just TV hype too. I heard real idols just slap their names onto composing credits and coast.
└That's your bias group, not ours ㅋㅋㅋ. Our Seongbin writes and composes everything himself.
└Look at all these people who know nothing about K-pop jumping in now ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. Cha Seongbin's literally famous because of his composing.
It must be stressful for the younger sister when her brother is doing so well.
└????
└Maybe she's stressed because she wanted to make it big through TV too and failed ㅋㅋㅋ
└One hundred percent ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Kids who get called prodigies are always like that ㅋㅋㅋ
└Leaving malicious comments about someone who just became an adult is pathetic;;;
└But it's true, isn't it??
[Found a picture of Cha Seongbin's younger sister.]
It's a recent photo.
Oh, she's pretty ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Guess good looks really do run in the family?
She's a private citizen. Are you insane?
└Why is she a private citizen? She was on TV before ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Didn't she go on television because she wanted to be public?
└That was years ago when she was a little kid. She's just an ordinary person now ㅠㅠ. Ha... There must've been a reason Seongbin never mentioned her, yet people are digging this stuff up anyway.
This is seriously creepy. They even found pictures where she was tagged on her friend's Stargram just to judge her appearance.;
└But it's true. Wasn't she called Gogh Girl and given that nickname because she was pretty even back then?
└So she wasn't famous because of talent, she got famous because of her face ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Should've just become an idol instead.
└She's an ordinary college student majoring in Western Painting, so knock it off.
└The way this is coming out, she's probably debuting soon.
She's a private citizen. Please take this down.
└She's already all over real-time JjaekJjaek.... Ha ㅠㅠ Dustys, hurry and upload different pictures.
└The only way is to bury it with other photos ㅠㅠㅠ
└Yeah, I'm joining the real-time JjaekJjaek posting campaign too....
She'd been quiet for so long. Guess she wanted attention again? Is she planning to debut by riding her brother's fame?
└I'm one of her classmates in the Department of Western Painting. Eunha just goes to college normally ㅠㅠ. As far as I know, she has no intention of debuting and isn't even signed with an agency, so please just delete this post. ㅠㅠ
└If you're really her classmate, post some pictures before you go ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└People really have no shame.
[If only she hadn't appeared on TV back then, this would've all stayed buried.]
She happened to appear on TV as a kid + the exposé posts happened + now her older brother's incredibly successful,
so I don't think this is going to die down anytime soon ㅠㅠ
What a shame for the younger sister. She's just a private citizen, yet her face has been exposed everywhere ㅠㅠㅠ
Once you've been on TV, it's hard to call you a private citizen anymore ㅋㅋㅋ
└So everyone who's ever appeared on TV automatically becomes a celebrity? Ha.... Seriously.
└She literally said she doesn't want to be known. Please stop ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└I didn't even know Cha Seongbin had a younger sister. He never mentioned her at all...
.
.
.
The waiting room for the music broadcast.
The hairstyling for our Figure out stage had just been finished.
Although I'd gradually become more accustomed to performing on stage since our debut,
the first week of music show promotions was always nerve-racking.
So it wasn't strange that a solemn atmosphere filled the waiting room.
Even so,
on the surface,
we usually laughed and joked around.
Especially people like Seo Haim and Cha Seongbin, who never stopped talking for even a second.
The fact that both of them were silent today was unusual.
Knock knock—
A knock sounded at the door.
Amid the silence,
Kang Siwoo slowly stood up.
“It's time for your pre-recording.”
“Ah, yes. We're ready.”
It was time to head to the pre-recording.
I stood up after Kang Siwoo and turned toward Cha Seongbin.
Even though it was time to leave,
he was still blankly staring into the mirror,
making it obvious he hadn't even heard the staff member.
Carefully,
I tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hyung, we have to go.”
“Ah.... Yeah, okay.”
As Cha Seongbin stood up,
he staggered slightly.
It had already been five hours since the article came out.
There was no way he wouldn't know what had happened.
Jin Sehyun eventually took his phone away because he couldn't bear watching anymore,
but by then,
it was already too late.
Honestly,
I understood.
Living as a celebrity's family member wasn't exactly ideal.
There were people like Do Seojun who enjoyed attention,
of course.
But there were also people who feared it.
Cha Eunha was undoubtedly the latter.
Just imagining how hurt his younger sister must have been,
there was no way he could focus on anything.
I quietly watched Cha Seongbin's unsteady figure as he slowly walked away.
The four-leaf clover tucked into the back of his phone case caught my eye.
It was the lucky charm I'd given him.
Somehow,
I didn't think that four-leaf clover would be able to protect Cha Seongbin today.
I slowly closed my eyes.
“…This is bad.”
Cha Seongbin's mentality had completely shattered.