(JTBC)

Girl group Gugudan and project girl group I.O.I‘s Kim Se-jeong appeared as a guest on JTBC’s “Talking Street” on Wednesday, where she revealed her childhood hardships.

In the episode, Kim stood in front of an audience of bystanders on the street and recalled an incident in high school. “I was being scolded for something I did wrong and I was reflecting on what I did, but my teacher asked if I was laughing,“ Kim said.

“I tried to lower the sides of my lips but I was unsure how and I stood there with no expression for half an hour. I didn‘t know how to express myself except for smiling,” she said.

She explained that the reason she only knew how to smile was because she had to hide her true emotions her whole life.

(JTBC)

Kim explained, “I lived in an impoverished family. My mom had a lot of debt and raised me and my brother alone. She worked at restaurants, delivered milk and taught at academies to make ends meet.”

“My mom lived and worked very hard, so I thought that as her daughter I couldn’t let her know how I was truly feeling. So I hid my emotions by smiling, and a dark child grew inside of me,” she said. ”I couldn’t even show my true emotions to my family, how could I show my friends?“

Kim recalled that she had lost a lot of her friends and she spent most of her teenage years alone, because she was unable to connect with her friends emotionally.

Fortunately she is no longer in such a dark time, and she no longer has that darkness in her and she is able to express her emotions freely.

Check out the segment below:

By Lee Sang-won (sangdoze@heraldcorp.com)