Do You Like Broadcasting?

I had ordered far too much food.

Even if all three of them came back carrying something in each hand, there still wouldn't have been enough hands for the mountain of it. On top of that, I had gone and placed the order without so much as handing over any money.

I pulled a card from my wallet and passed it to Tsuki.

"Buy it with this."

"Okay! But... Jiwoo-chan. Are you sure? The food here is expensive..."

I knew that.

Even from the bench we had sat down on to rest, the nearest stall's menu board loomed large and unmistakable. The cheapest item was water, at twenty-five hundred won. How water was allowed to cost twenty-five hundred won was beyond me. You could get the same thing at a convenience store for a thousand.

Not that I didn't understand. This was a world of dreams and childhood innocence — a place stuffed full of little kids' hopes. For adults, on the other hand, it was reality and hell rolled into one. Prices that made your hands tremble just thinking about them. Portions that fell pathetically short of those prices. And last of all — it varied by location, sure — the food could even taste terrible.

You'd be better off spending that money on a bowl of gukbap. Jokes like that floated around the internet often enough.

"It's fine. I checked, and the drama filming fee came in. The money from the game stream came in too. And Tsuki, you and the unnies can get whatever you want."

"No. It's not like I don't have money."

"I'll pass too."

Yuwol seemed to think it wasn't right for a guardian to take money from the person she was looking after, and she turned me down at once. Jina hesitated for a second, but once Yuwol refused, she followed her lead.

"You don't have to turn it down. I just feel bad, like I'm sending you on an errand. If I could move... I'd want to go with you."

I lifted a hand a little. The shaking had eased compared to before, but it was still bad enough that I couldn't take a single step.

"Guess there's no helping it. I'll just have one thing, then."

"Me too..."

"Two... no, you can eat as much as you want. How is a person supposed to stop at just one—"

Yuwol's finger settled over my lips.

"Shh. We can't eat like you do, Jiwoo. And..."

Her gaze, a messy mix of envy and jealousy, dropped to my chest as she went on.

"You've got blessed genes, don't you? You can eat however much you want and never gain a pound. It's not like you work out that much, and it's not like you're lazy either."

The look in her eyes curdled into open complaint.

"Haha... I don't really know why either. Lately, though... my chest has been feeling a little tight. And I only just bought these."

I covered the camera lens so it couldn't see, then tugged my clothes up a little. The bra strap I was wearing was stretched so taut it looked ready to snap. I was probably going to have to buy another one.

Even Jina seemed to catch the infection from that remark and that little demonstration. She scowled.

"Stop it. Are you trying to make us jealous right now?"

"Huh? Jealous? I'm just stating facts..."

"Aaaaah! I don't want to hear it. Yuwol unnie, I'm going ahead to hold our place in line."

Jina clamped both hands over her ears and fled.

What had I done wrong? I had only said what was true. It felt unfair.

"You don't have to make that face! Tsuki really, really loves Jiwoo-chan's huge chest!"

Seizing the opening, Tsuki — who had been sitting right beside me — lunged in for a hug. On any other day I would have ducked away or stopped her. Damn it. My body wouldn't do what I told it to. Small movements were fine, but I still couldn't manage anything big.

"Heheheheh... Jiwoo-chan's chest... I love it so much... slurp..."

"Tsuki. Wipe your drool first. If you do that kind of thing here, you'll get reported for public indecency. You want to go to the police station?"

"Th-the police station! Tsuki doesn't want to be apart from Jiwoo-chan! But... Tsuki doesn't want to go to the police station either..."

Tsuki's shoulders slumped like a wilted hamster, and she let go. Even in that last second of peeling away, her hands clung to my chest with a stubbornness I had to respect.

"Tsuki. Hoyeon unnie is messaging me right now, you know? She says she's not going to let you off when you get back."

"Eek!"

Enter Kang Hoyeon. Only then did Tsuki's hands come off me completely. She shot to her feet, card clutched in her hand, and shouted,

"Th-then I'll be right back! Jiwoo-chan, you wait here! Byeee~!"

Ah. She ran.

Watching Tsuki's back as she bolted, Yuwol and I both snorted with laughter.

No matter how many times I see her, Tsuki is adorable.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

"Am I the first one back?"

Jina, who had left first, appeared with both arms loaded with food.

"No. Unnie and Tsuki went to find us a place to sit. They only left a few things behind and took the rest... they could have left it all, honestly. Since they bought so much, they said they'd film a mukbang too... I'd rather just eat, though."

I muttered the update on where the other two had gone. Jina checked both sides of me and tilted her head.

"So where's the food they supposedly left?"

"Ah. I already ate all of that."

"...What? It hasn't even been ten minutes. You already finished it?"

Jina looked genuinely stunned. Was it really that shocking? ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠They had only left three snack-type things, not even a proper meal. Ten minutes was plenty of time to eat, drink a coffee, and brush your teeth.

As expected of someone who had spent years as an idol trainee — her common sense ran on a different track from ordinary people's.

"I haven't poured years into idol training the way you have, unnie. So this much is nothing."

"No... even a regular person couldn't eat like that... whatever. Just explain already."

I blinked at her. Explain, just like that? Without any lead-in, no Korean person on earth would have known what she was talking about.

"Explain what?"

"What do you mean, what. There's a reason you've been dragging me around, isn't there."

"That's... because I wanted to get closer to you, unnie."

"That's a lie."

Caught.

"You probably don't realize this, so I'll tell you. Jiwoo, you can't lie."

It wasn't that I couldn't.

"I just don't want to lie to you, unnie."

It hadn't even been a lie, honestly. I genuinely wanted to get closer to Jina. From the first time I saw her, sitting beside me at the audition hall, from the moment she struck up a conversation, I had thought she was pretty and that I wanted to be friends. Back then I still hadn't gotten used to being a girl, so I had a hard time speaking up first.

That wasn't the case anymore.

"I really do want to get closer to you, unnie. So, about that..."

"Would you like to be an idol with me?"

"....What?"

What kind of nonsense is this girl spouting? I didn't need her to say it. I could read it on her face. Surprisingly, Jina was easy to read.

The hardest one, against all expectation, was Tsuki. She always wore a face full of smiles, but my long years of office-life instinct and a woman's intuition both said the same thing. Tsuki was hiding some enormous secret none of us knew about. I still ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠didn't know what that secret was. I was simply waiting until she decided to tell us.

First things first.

"What do you think? Do you want to be an idol with me?"

"......"

Jina stared at me without a word. Every thought in her head was written across her face, a tangle of them. Good. I had already handed the streaming phone off to Tsuki. Not because of the idol pitch — that part was pure coincidence. And my followers were quietly fond of Tsuki anyway. Ever since the first photo that took off — the one of the two of us posted to social media — most of the comments had been, Who's the girl next to her? She's pretty.

Then—

"I...."

Jina's tightly shut mouth opened, slowly.

"Being an idol has been my dream since I was little. A huge, glittering stage. People cheering. I wanted to be the one they were cheering for. But my skills were never good enough for that."

I didn't react. I just listened.

"That day... the first moment I saw you, I actually understood. Idols... celebrities... that's something kids like you do, Jiwoo. An ordinary person like me could fly and crawl all she wanted and still never reach the tip of your toes."

I watched her face. No sadness. No bitterness. Nothing mixed in at all — just a calm, even stillness.

"So I told myself the place I joined as a trainee would be the last one, and I was going to give it ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠everything I had... I just didn't expect to get kicked out before it even started. Well. I'd pretty much given up from the moment I turned that guy down."

She didn't even want to remember that day. For the first time, Jina's brow furrowed.

"But... I finally managed to let it go, and then you come at me with an offer like this..."

She hadn't given up. Someone who had given up wouldn't still be practicing every single day. She had only been running from reality. A person who had quit wouldn't have bruises like that on her hands and legs. I knew, because I was taking daily lessons at an agency myself.

"Give me time to think."

"Okay. Take as long as you need. But I'll say just one thing. We've set the lineup at five. And."

"You three are already locked in, right."

I nodded. There was no reason to hide it. Tsuki had her own charm, and so did Yuwol. There was no way Jina hadn't felt that.

I stood up. I had recovered enough, and far off I could see Tsuki waving both arms in big, sweeping arcs.