On July 5th, Hyeri’s YouTube channel “Hyell’s CLUB” featured her close friend Jung Ho-yeon, where they discussed various topics.
Jung Ho-yeon talked about rising to stardom overnight after “Squid Game”, “At that time, I thought a lot. How do I do this? So many things were happening at once, and I wondered if I could handle it all. I was stuck on that feeling for a long time. When I look at all of those things through a bigger lens, it just becomes a tiny part of my life. All of these massive things just became obstacles that I slowly walked over, one step at a time. My mind got a lot calmer. I don’t really think about it all anymore.”
Reflecting on her modeling days, she shared, “I have never wanted to take a break from work even once. But for any real reason, there are always times when there isn’t a lot of work. That’s just the reality for freelancers. Those times come and go. And because I always worked so hard, when those times came, I would think, am I doing something wrong? I’d think when I tried so hard and it wasn’t working out, was it because I wasn’t talented? I’d have those kinds of thoughts. How did you get over those thoughts? I would just be like, ‘No, I love my job.’ ‘I want to keep doing this.’“
She added, “I think that having a healthy amount of competitive spirit also helps. I have two close friends, Seon and Jingyeong, and we were all active at the same time. We’d see each other working hard, and I’d always think, ‘She’s working hard, so I have to as well.’ ‘I can’t lose to her!’ I do think that contributed to me sticking with modeling. All of us did try to live with a sense of self-centeredness, trying to give ourselves value. But sometimes I’d look over here. While I see how that person lives and how this person lives, I’d compare myself to them in a healthy way. From this, I’d get inspired, like, ‘I could try that too.’ I feel like that was a good way to go about it for me.”
Hyeri asked how she felt opening the Louis Vuitton show after “Squid Game”. Jung Ho-yeon replied, “I wasn’t able to do the Louis Vuitton show for a few seasons, and then I came back after I was done with ‘Squid Game’. So I don’t remember exactly, but it was the first time I had done the Louis Vuitton show in 2 or 3 years. I was so nervous. When I was still only modeling, since it was a show that I did every season, it was just another job. I appeared on the show like that. But I haven’t walked the runway for quite a long time. It’s been too long. I was the opening for the show.“
She confessed, “I had never done an opening before. Opening is a little different. You’re the first one to break the ice. The first person goes out and then the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th all walk out after. If the 1st person messes up, that means the people behind me mess up. There are a lot of details you have to be aware of. Whether I walk in the center or I go to the side a little bit, you have to have all of that in mind. If I go out down the middle, when I come back, because everyone follows behind me down the middle, the walk back gets tighter. You have to be precise in your walk to get all of these things correct, but it was my first time opening. I was terrified. So nervous. You know I worry a lot. ‘What do I do if I mess up the line?’, ‘What if I fall?’, ‘What if I walk too fast?’, ‘What if I walk too slow?’ I had all these worries, thinking, ‘I can’t mess up the Louis Vuitton show!’“
Hyeri commented, “I will say, when you did that show, I felt like you suddenly switched into model mode. You looked unfamiliar. It was so cool.” Jung Ho-yeon responded, “The funny thing about that is that I’m pretty close to you but when I see you on TV, you seem like you’re a really distant person from me. That’s the magic of the medium, I think. Everyone is like that, I think.”
