IDOL PROJECT THREE
episode five weekly drabble - trainee relationships 503 words
Though Hana is friendly towards most of the trainees she encounters, both within the idol project setting and outside of it, she actually has few trainee friends. Before the competition, she would have probably counted Mirae as her only true friend who is also a trainee. Within her own company, she isn’t particularly close with anyone, and anyone she had been more friendly with has either left or graduated into Eternity. Her and Mirae had met somewhat on accident some time before the competition, and their friendship has solidified further through living together and discovering uncommon similarities in their families’ backgrounds, despite being in the competition setting that is Idol Project. Through the competition, though, she feels that she has met some people who she likes enough to want to befriend properly - both Sean and also Raekyung (who she knew to a degree beforehand) are people she’d immediately felt comfortable with, and could see them becoming good friends in future. She also had taken a liking towards Taeha, and would like to get to know both her and Myungji (about whom she feels confused how they have rarely interacted, given her friendship with the girl’s sister) better outside of the show.
Really, there are few trainees she dislikes - just because she doesn’t form many deep friendships doesn’t mean she automatically dislikes everyone, and Hana has enjoyed the company of almost all the trainees she has encountered so far. However, there are a few she is wary of. Hana would be happy if she never saw nor heard of Chanmi again for the rest of her career, for after having to deal with her ego and unpleasantness up close and personal for two weeks in a row she decided then and there that she had had enough of the girl for the foreseeable future. Mercedes, too, though the girl has done nothing to Hana personally, is someone Hana has developed mixed feelings about. The girl presents a nice front to Hana, but Hana knows she has been unpleasant to Taeha, who Hana views as a sweetheart and during the younger’s time in the competition had felt somewhat protective over her, so Hana can’t help but look upon Mercedes with a degree of distrust.
Mercedes also happens to be the person who Hana sees as her biggest rivals - within Idol Project, at least. They are in different companies, so once the show is over, Hana will hold no feelings of rivalry toward the other girl, but in the competition so far it has been she and Mercedes that have been next to each other in the ranking every week, no matter where they sit on the scoreboard. Hana views Mercedes as the one she has to beat, or rather stay on top of, to achieve her dream of getting into the group, so although she is civil with and will work together with Mercedes when asked, internally she is measuring herself against the other girl and upping her performance where she can.