Shall I Kill Him, Master?
It took Hoyeon's iron decree to get us into swimsuits at all. We finally spilled out of the locker room.
"Wow... there are a lot of people."
"They say this is the most popular water park in Tokyo. Everyone hangs out here during the day and hits the amusement park next door at night."
"Isn't that the same in Korea?"
"Well... people live pretty much the same wherever you go."
I nodded along with Yuwol and looked around. I'd had the feeling people's eyes had been drifting our way for a while now. No — it wasn't just a feeling. They were actually staring straight at us. Men and women alike.
"I get the guys staring, but what's with the girls?"
"Probably that."
Jina, who'd been listening beside us, pointed a finger in one direction. I followed her gesture.
"Whoa..."
I couldn't help the sound that slipped out. Broad, imposing shoulders. Chocolate-bar abs carved into their midsections. Arm muscles so defined you could read them from across the plaza. Two thoroughly macho men were standing there like they'd been planted for display.
"Our bodyguards are no joke."
"Yeah. Getting a body like that couldn't have been easy."
"But... Jiwoo, looks like you're into that kind of thing too."
Yuwol tossed that out in a tone I couldn't quite pin as joke or genuine. There had been a time I'd wanted abs like that myself. I'd rummaged around the internet searching things like how to get abs fast. And did I get them? Of course I failed. Three days was a long run. Most of the time I quit after one. I was already dying just going to work. Exercise? Please. Even now, if Hoyeon and the trainers weren't standing over me, I'd drop the workouts in a heartbeat.
"Abs aren't a bad thing. They're the result of that person's effort. Whether I like them is a different story, though. How do I put this..."
When I actually tried to say it, the words wouldn't come.
"I don't like them, but I respect them."
"What does that even mean? I was asking if you like guys with bodies like that."
"Ah..."
So that's what she meant.
"Then absolutely not. I'm not really into guys. As friends, sure, but romantically..."
"Don't you think you should try dating at least once? You've never even been in a relationship, right?"
Do I have to?
I wasn't sure dating was something I needed to do. I still had my memories as a man from my past life. Dating a guy felt like becoming a couple of two men. I didn't like that. No — I hated it.
"You hate it that much?"
The moment my face twisted, Yuwol looked rather pleased with herself. That look... wait. Did she have a thing for one of the bodyguards? Just because I didn't want to date a guy didn't mean I was telling anyone else not to. It was simply a difference in taste.
"Do you... have a thing for them?"
"Huh? Ah, no. A thing? Please. Come on, let's move! We already stashed our stuff, so let's go have fun!"
Yuwol changed the subject and grabbed my hand, pulling me along. Whether she had no idea that only made her more suspicious, or she knew and was pretending she didn't, I couldn't tell.
Should I let it slide for now?
More than that, I was curious which of the two it was. The diligent one who did everything strictly by the FM playbook — that robot? Or the rookie who still looked green, but had enough potential that FM had picked him for the team?
"Jiwoo! Snap out of it! Why are you zoning out all of a sudden?"
"Ah... sorry. I was just thinking about something."
"Thinking? About streaming again, right? Times like this, it's way better to just rest a little... wait. Why are you pulling out your phone?"
The word streaming was all it took. I pulled out my phone to fire up an SNS broadcast.
"You came all the way here and you're going to stream? Jiwoo, that's a work addiction."
"This hardly counts as a work addiction. I just want to squeeze one in while I can. Don't worry. I won't show my face."
"That's not the problem."
The members' faces had already slipped out at least once. Our viewers were decent enough not to mention it online or on stream, but everyone who knew, knew. Our Red Pill. Still, we weren't ugly — we were pretty enough to actually debut as idols — so I'd heard there were people who lost their minds over it at first. I hadn't seen anyone like that on my own stream, though. I opened the app and hit the go-live button.
Ji_woo has started a broadcast
● 325 watching
Barely any time had passed since I went live, and more than three hundred viewers had already piled in.
"Everyone. Right now I'm Jiwoo, not Kuro, so don't mix up the platforms. Got it?"
"Aigoo. So good. That's why I like my chat — you actually listen. But... we've got viewers from the other members' streams in here too, right? If you're here, raise a hand."
Just as I'd expected, viewers from the other members' channels had wandered into mine.
"I received word that you all made things hard for the members. So don't do that again. These are people I went to a lot of trouble to bring in."
I nodded at the chat as the answers came in immediately. That was when one viewer — out of spite or stubbornness or both — decided to dig in.
"Everyone, settle down. So what is it you actually want to say? Nobody else type. Just the person who's uncomfortable. Go ahead."
"Is that so? That uncomfortable? Then... if you're uncomfortable, sit up straight. There. Fixed. Done. Now get out."
I didn't even hesitate. I banned the uncomfortable viewer on the spot.
"Aaand that's one more hate comment. Plus one more dislike on every video, I bet."
Ah... I'd said video without thinking. I hadn't planned to mention it. It was still confidential.
Ah, whatever.
"Everyone, this is a secret just for this room."
They all seemed curious about why I'd gone live in the first place. Fair enough. I'd been showing nothing but my pretty eyes this whole time, so of course they were getting restless. I'd already cleaned out the shit-stirrer. Maybe it was time to show them.
"The reason I went live today is that I'm on vacation. You all know that, right?"
"I know, right~ Curious where this is?"
"Hehehe... you're actually holding your breath? If that person passes out, they won't get to see me. Fine. I'll give you the answer."
I set the phone on the ground with the camera still covered and stepped back.
"Alright~ Revealing it now! Unnie, lift that for me."
"You sure?"
"Yeah! It's fine!"
"Well, if she says it's fine."
Jina, standing behind the phone, slowly lifted the cloth that had been covering the camera.
I popped out with a big ta-da, and not a single message climbed the chat. What? Did the connection drop? No — the roaming was still fine. I was using two phones just in case, so I checked the other one too. That one was connected as well.
"Did the phone break, then?"
I stepped in close and bent a little at the waist to look at the screen.
Only then did the messages start trickling in, one after another. It wasn't the reaction I'd pictured, but everyone seemed to be having a good time, so I was happy too.
"So? What do you think? Not bad, right?"
"You guys? That's too much. Getting this worked up over me in a swimsuit is way too intense!"
"But that's the natural reaction, so it can't be helped, Jiwoo-chan."
Can't be helped? I looked at Tsuki, asking what that was supposed to mean.
"Look at this pretty body of Jiwoo-chan's! And all the people sneaking glances from every direction! Jiwoo-chan is the best! So pretty! Number one!"
"Uh... thanks."
I thanked her before I could stop myself. Was it really that much? Finding someone prettier than me, across both my past life and this one, wasn't exactly easy, but still...
I felt a presence coming our way.
"Hey... there's four of us too. Wanna hang out?"