The Imaginary Bully
Lee Jimae?
Had I been found out?
I never imagined I'd get exposed before I'd even begun.
Lim Hyun-kyung had sworn she wouldn't tell a soul, but you can never be certain what people will do. Which meant, in short, that she had something to hold over me.
"Jiwoo? You don't look well. Should we call it a day?"
"Ah, no... I'm fine."
At the dance coach's words, the teammates practicing with me turned to look. I lifted my head and found my own face in the wall of mirrors. The expression staring back was dark enough to throw off the whole room.
I forced the corners of my mouth up, trying to put on the brightest face I could manage.
"Jiwoo-chan... your face looks weird."
"...You're not supposed to tell people their face looks weird."
"But still..."
Of course they were worried. Even I could see that the girl in the mirror looked off.
"Is something wrong?"
Lee Yuwol's warm, gentle voice brushed my ear. It wasn't only her. Tsuki and Jina wore the same worried look.
I must have worried them without even realizing it.
I dragged a hand across my face, wiping away the sweat with it.
"I'm all right now. There was just a bit of trouble at school, that's all."
"...School?"
"Lee Jimae?"
"Who's that?"
Huh? The air in the room had turned ugly all of a sudden. I opened my mouth to tell them it wasn't like that.
"Yes... Representative. It appears Jiwoo is being bullied at school."
"Coach? That's not—"
"Don't worry, Jiwoo. I already put in a request for psychiatric counseling. We'll take care of this cleanly."
"Um..."
"Jiwoo-chan! Don't worry! Just bury yourself in Tsuki's arms and cry it out once — you'll feel so much lighter! Come on, lean those heavy boobs on Tsuki!"
"Enough with the nonsense."
"Eeh... you're only ever cold to Tsuki."
Either they couldn't hear me, or they'd locked themselves inside a world of their own. In their heads I was already a pitiful kid getting shaken down for cash by school thugs.
Ah, whatever. Time will sort it out.
I left them behind — still huddled together with worry written all over their faces, deep in earnest discussion — and slipped out of the practice room.
"Jiwoo? What are you doing out here? Isn't this practice time?"
"Ah... well, everyone seemed busy, so practice got paused for a bit. I stepped out to get some air."
"Did you? You know you have to take care of your body, right? You eat a lot, Jiwoo. That means you've got to move just as much."
"Yeees, I know..."
I cracked a window, and a cool breeze drifted into the building. Summer hadn't arrived yet, so the wind alone was enough to dry the sweat in no time.
Judging by the look of her, Kang Hoyeon hadn't heard the story yet. She seemed to have come out for a breather of her own, taking slow sips from the coffee in her hand.
"So why were you late today?"
"Ah, that? It's nothing, really... or is it? Maybe it isn't nothing?"
Kang Hoyeon muttered to herself, tilting her head. The reason was simple enough. At the moment, JO Entertainment might as well have been a battlefield.
"Yes, this is JO Entertainment! Ah, you'd like Lee Jiwoo on a variety show? Let me check on that!"
"No, I'm not ignoring you, reporter. Our actress has a schedule as well. That's why."
"Ah, PD... hello. I see. You'd like to put our actress on as a panelist? Shall we set up a meeting first?"
"You're a mukbang NewTuber, you said... Yes, yes, please send us an email for now."
The staff hadn't only just gotten this busy. From the moment episode one of Ghost Singer had aired, straight through the PUG game commercial we'd shot last week, my career had landed hit after hit, and inquiries for ads and sponsorships were pouring in from every direction. Fresh scripts and collab offers were flooding in on top of that. The promo team barely had time to plant their butts in their chairs, rushing around selling me to anyone who would listen.
To cover for a promo team that didn't have enough hands, Kang Hoyeon — who'd worked on the scouting team and already knew her way around publicity — had rolled up both sleeves and thrown herself into the work.
"Delivery! Where do you want this?!"
"Hold on a second!"
Promo wasn't the only department losing its mind. Packages kept arriving without warning, one after another. Most of them were scenarios, or contracts drawn up with various writers for the new idols.
Should I lend a hand for a bit?
A company that hadn't even been around for five years. Being chronically short-handed was just how things were. I sat down at an empty desk in promo.
Hm? A chill ran down my spine...
I turned around to find Kang Hoyeon watching me with her arms folded.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Well... I thought you might need help. I was going to pitch in for a minute."
"The best way you can help, Jiwoo, is by doing your own job."
My own job? And what was that supposed to be? I gave her a blank look, and Kang Hoyeon let out a short sigh.
"Get back to the practice room. Now!"
"Ah, yes!"
At her scolding I bolted from promo and headed straight for the practice room.
When the day's practice finally ended, Representative Jo Kyuhyun called for me. I opened the door to his office and found him clutching his head, a sheaf of papers still in his hands.
"Representative?"
"Ah. Jiwoo, you're here. Have a seat for a moment."
About ten minutes passed like that. Then Jo Kyuhyun set the papers down. They'd looked important. He stood, left the representative's chair, and sat in the one across from me.
He was the one who opened.
"Jiwoo. As you can see, these are the variety shows that have come in for you. On top of that, the scripts keep piling up, and reporters are flooding us with interview requests and NewTube collab offers. What do you want to do?"
Interviews, of all things? That was the first I was hearing of it. I studied the four proposals laid out on the table in silence.
Interviews — pass. Turning reporters into enemies this early could mean ugly articles, but Jo Kyuhyun would handle that on his own.
Variety, then. Not a bad idea. With my name recognition climbing, appearing on a variety show was the natural next step for a celebrity. Hold for now.
Scripts — already under contract for the film Magnificent Bride. Pass.
Last was the NewTube collab, and of the four I examined that one the most carefully. It wasn't an offer from a famous NewTuber so much as a collaboration with a channel run by a celebrity from another company. A simple talk show, more or less — dump out the differences from before the drama and after, plus a few plans going forward.
NewTube wouldn't be bad either. And yet...
Something about it just didn't pull me in. I finished turning it over and spoke without much heat.
"Variety looks like the best option."
"Right? Honestly, I thought variety looked best too. Still had to ask the person in question. Once we launch the VTuber idol project in about two months, movies and broadcasts are going to eat all our time. We won't have any left to spare on anything else."
"Agreed."
I was busy now, and I was only going to get busier. When every minute counted, I had no intention of throwing time away.
Jo Kyuhyun scrapped the other three proposals and leaned forward.
"Now we have to pick the most important thing — which variety show."
The variety offers that had come in for me were a pile of their own, ranging from genuine hits to programs so obscure I had to wonder if they even existed.
"The one I recommend most is this."
He tapped a single page.
Solo Viewpoint. An observation show that filmed an actor's everyday life without a filter. It was popular enough that agencies supposedly spent their days calling the PD first, scrambling just to get their talent on. For a PD that proud to reach out on his own was genuinely surprising.
But.
"I'll go with this one."
The first variety show I chose was none other than My Hero.
Jo Kyuhyun found the choice puzzling, and his brow furrowed a little.
"Why this one? This show's ratings are in the gutter."
My Hero averaged a mere 2.7 percent. Set against Solo Viewpoint's 17.2 percent, that was a gap of nearly seven times. Of course he didn't understand. The whole point was to appear somewhere popular and drag your name recognition up with it.
"I like this one."
Even so, I wasn't changing my mind.
"Mind if I ask why?"
There wasn't much of a reason to speak of. Solo Viewpoint was infamous for devil's editing, all in the name of juicing the ratings. We were already living in the dorm — the other members' faces would end up on air too. I had no interest in one little mistake of mine getting all of us dragged.
My Hero, by contrast, wasn't an observation show at all. It was a variety program where you played games to win prizes. Answering questions was something I was confident about. No — overflowing with confidence, even.
When I laid it out honestly, Jo Kyuhyun nodded slowly.
"All right. Let's do that. I got so caught up in the idea of putting you on variety that I completely forgot about the other members."
And just like that, my first variety show was decided. My Hero.
The next day, once school let out, I waited for Kang Hoyeon like always.
At least that much was a relief.
At lunch, after finishing the cafeteria meal with time still to spare, I had gone up to a second-year classroom. I was there to see Lim Hyun-kyung. She'd looked a little startled when I showed up out of nowhere, but she didn't seem inclined to reveal my identity either. I got a yes out of her. Just in case, I'd even recorded it, so if anything came up later the advantage would still be mine.
That was when it happened.
A black van screeched to a stop in front of me. The door slid open, and Kang Hoyeon appeared.
"Jiwoo! Get in! We're late!"
Her face was urgent. Today was the day of the second broadcast with PUG. A meeting had been thrown onto the schedule beforehand, and there was nowhere near enough time to get through it and still make the salon. Choi Gayeong, the road manager, floored it right to the edge of reckless, got us to the salon in a hurry, wrapped the styling, and headed for the meeting place.
Around seven in the evening, we arrived at an upscale restaurant near Pangyo Station. Quiet atmosphere, rooms divided off by partitions — the perfect place for a discreet meeting.
They must have realized we'd arrived. The people already seated rose from their chairs.
"Thank you for making the time. I'm PD Oh Seok-ho."
They welcomed me.