[Feeling down, so I bought bread] ▶ [Life is loneliness]
The stream title, which had already been concerning, took a turn for the worse.
Diah’s virtual avatar—previously fuming—now looked on the verge of tears, as if she was desperately holding them back.
♪ We used to love each other~~ But now we're saying goodbye~~ ♪
A youthful voice continued to belt out one heartbreak song after another.
Simply put, Diah was genuinely sulking.
Of course, neither the Noeulis watching the stream nor Ji Hye-min actually believed that she was truly upset.
At the end of the day, this was still part of the act.
♪ Hello, it’s meee~~ How are you doing theeeeere~~? ♪
The sheer novelty of this side of Diah drew even more attention.
Since debut, she had always ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) been the one throwing punches.
Now, she had been devastated by one Noeulis’s infidelity and was pouring her heartbreak into sad songs.
For those who knew her usual antics, this was more than enough to pique their curiosity.
And as her voice warmed up from the repeated singing—
Even her pitch, which had been unstable at first, smoothed out completely.
♪ Forgetting, being forgotten, erasing it all~~ But missing the moment we first met~~ ♪
Who cared if this had originally been an Iron Fist stream?
Right now, Diah’s meltdown concert was top-tier entertainment.
And today was Saturday night—a time when most people were at home relaxing.
With no school or work early the next day, viewership numbers soared.
Diah’s channel had already reached a point where she could pull in big audiences—
and with prime time on her side, this was shaping up to be one of her best-performing streams.
And so, Diah’s Heartbreak Live wrapped up in a massive success.
“Thanks for watching today’s stream, everyone... See you next time... bye-bye... And I hope that cheating Noeulis slips on a banana peel or something....”
Even as she signed off with a pitifully dejected voice, Diah’s stream was flourishing.
The sheer chaos in the chat after her sign-off was proof enough.
Some highlights included:
Of course, Diah’s main channel—
the newly 500K-strong [Diah Diah]—wasn’t staying idle either.
[Editor] - Breaking news
[Editor] - made it to trending videos.
The editor had clearly sensed a golden opportunity.
With lightning-fast editing, the full stream recap was ready by Sunday afternoon.
It had officially hit YouTube’s trending page.
From a content standpoint, everything had worked out perfectly.
...Even if Ha-eun herself felt a little conflicted.
‘At some point, I kinda lost myself in it....’
She had been genuinely worried that she let her emotions get too swept up mid-stream.
Even to herself, Saturday’s Diah had felt way more childish than usual.
If she spun it positively—she had simply been expressing her emotions honestly.
If she spun it negatively—she had been whining to over 10,000 people.
It was fun precisely because it was unlike her usual streams,
but she wondered if she might have gone a little overboard.
And yet, of all her recent broadcasts—
this one had performed the best.
‘...Even when I think I understand, I really don’t....’
That said—maybe because she had vented all her pent-up feelings through music—
her mood was much better now.
The lingering loneliness wasn’t completely gone,
but compared to when she had impulsively called Ji Hye-min out of frustration—
she definitely felt lighter.
[ H-Ha-eun... After exams, do you want to go on a trip? No, let’s go on a trip! All of us! ]
“...Right after exams?”
[ Y-Yeah! You worked hard, so we should celebrate! ]
Cream—who had been avoiding her messages recently—was suddenly calling her now.
she was proposing a full-group trip with Illusionary Realm.
Ha-eun... couldn’t quite figure out why.
But she also didn’t reject it.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
A trip with Illusionary Realm members was always healing.
And if it was right after the college entrance exams,
it wouldn’t conflict with her filming schedule for God and the Goblin.
So, with Ha-eun’s attendance confirmed, even though the exact destination was still undecided—
[ ...Still, your voice sounds a little better now. I’m relieved. ]
“You didn’t think I was actually sick, right?”
[ Ah—No. I mean, I saw your Insta. You posted a picture playing with Baeksulhwa, so... ]
Both Cream and Ji Hye-min—along with others—let out relieved sighs.
They hoped the news of the upcoming trip would lift Ha-eun’s spirits even more.
Monday had come around once again, as it always did—
time slipping by far too quickly over the weekend.
As usual, after finishing school, Ha-eun headed straight to the filming site of God and the Goblin.
Like always, she went around greeting various staff members, including Director Kwon Jae-hyeop.
“You got plenty of rest over the weekend? How’s your condition?”
“Ah, I think... I’m fine.”
“That’s good. Let’s give it our best today.”
With that, Director Kwon returned to his preparations, and Ha-eun also focused on hers.
She recalled their conversation from the previous shoot.
“Tone down the emotions a little. Just a little. Make sure you don’t look like a full-on depressive case....”
Truthfully, it wasn’t easy for Ha-eun to moderate her deep emotions.
The memories she summoned to immerse herself in the role of Baeksulhwa pulled her into an abyss without fail.
After all, past life memories were heavy.
If she wanted to act with a subtle level of emotion, as the director had requested—
she would have to use something other than those overwhelming recollections.
“Can’t be acting like I’m on the verge of breaking down while working a part-time job.”
She needed to look troubled, but not outright miserable.
In a few minutes, she would be acting as Baeksulhwa, a girl getting through life somehow, rather than crumbling under the weight of it.
So, instead of the usual painful memories she used to evoke Baeksulhwa’s emotions,
Ha-eun summoned different ones.
She even overlaid familiar faces onto the extras playing her classmates.
That one’s Cream-unni, that one’s Nael, those over there are the Noeulis who unsubscribed....
anchoring her emotions to something less vague to make it easier to portray them.
And with that, Ha-eun’s image training took on sharper clarity.
Soon after, the cameras and lights were adjusted to their proper positions.
“Alright, let’s begin. 3, 2, 1... Action!”
With Director Kwon’s cue, the filming for Scene #29 Café began.
Ha-eun, dressed in a café uniform, faced off against the extras in school uniforms.
「...How can I help you with your order?」
Baeksulhwa, ever the master of maintaining a neutral expression, lowered her gaze as she spoke.
Then came the sneering voices of her classmates.
「Wow, look at you, thinking you’re some kind of barista.」
「I heard part-timers don’t even get proper wages these days. Want a tip?」
「If our order’s not ready in a minute, we’re calling the manager~.」
Their words weren’t anything more or less than pure bullying.
Rather than reacting to their taunts, Baeksulhwa responded with a cold, detached tone.
And when their drinks were finally served—
the girls laughed amongst themselves, made a mess of the table, and left.
「You gotta do what you gotta do to make money.」
「Make sure you recycle properly, Sulhwa. Gotta think about the environment!」
Their mocking voices echoed as they walked away beyond the café’s glass doors.
Baeksulhwa exhaled a quiet sigh.
She was tired, but she refused to let their words weigh on her.
Yet, as she cleaned up the mess—
her gaze briefly flickered toward the glass wall,
where other students sat happily chatting with their friends.
‘Oh... this is working.’
‘This is different from last time.’
The right level of exhaustion and frustration had been captured on camera.
It wasn’t like before, when it felt like the entire world was caving in on her.
Instead of forcing isolation and despair,
Ha-eun had genuinely embodied the quiet sting of loneliness.
Because she already had a natural synchronicity with Baeksulhwa,
Director Kwon felt, for the first time, that the character was truly coming to life.
‘I was worried it wouldn’t work out, but I’m glad I gave her that direction.’
More often than not, when actors tried to adjust their performances after receiving feedback,
they ended up missing the mark.
But right now, Ha-eun’s expression was exactly as he had envisioned.
「...They even soaked the tissues. What a waste...」
Seeing her clean up the table, Director Kwon thought—
That’s it. This is exactly what I wanted.
「Is all that sighing because of those kids?」
「...I won’t say it isn’t.」
Baek Jin’s voice entered the scene.
「What the hell?! My clothes are soaked!!」
A passing truck had splashed filthy puddle water all over the classmates waiting at the crosswalk.
But Ha-eun’s reaction—
Instead of satisfaction,
she looked startled—almost caught off guard.
Even her next line didn’t match the script.
「Wait... Did you do that on purpose?」
「I won’t say I didn’t.」
Fortunately, Kang Sun-woo improvised in response, preventing the scene from going off track.
this version actually felt more natural.
「Do you feel a little better now?」
「Uh... Um... ...Thank you.」
「No need to mention it.」
With that, Scene #29 Café wrapped up—
slightly different from the script, but successfully filmed nonetheless.
As Ha-eun sat on a folding chair, waiting for the next shoot,
Director Kwon approached her.
“You didn’t know they were going to get splashed? You looked pretty shocked just now.”
“A-Ah, no, I knew... it just... hit them a lot harder than I expected.”
“Ah, I see. Well, good work. Baeksulhwa is perfect now. I don’t think I have anything left to correct.”
Hearing the praise, Ha-eun awkwardly smiled.
She couldn’t exactly say—
That she had been startled because she imagined it was Cream, Nael, and the unsubscribed Noeulis getting drenched.