The Ice Princess's Naked Rehearsal
Click.
The door shut, bringing the familiar darkness and silence.
'So this is how I'm going to use it?'
Inside the dimly lit storage room filled with broadcasting equipment.
I never expected to bring another member here, to the very place Narae had tried to seduce me just hours earlier.
"Why did you bring me to a place like this?"
Arin, who had followed under the influence of brainwashing, looked around the shadowy space and asked.
She had come along swept up in the atmosphere, but now that she was actually here, the suspicious location and the fact that we were alone seemed to stir belated wariness in her.
"Because it's a special conversation that can only happen between the two of us."
"……??"
Arin narrowed her eyes, wearing an expression that was half understanding, half not.
After trying and failing to grasp my meaning, she asked,
"So?"
Her gaze was emotionless and cold.
Though the brainwashing had made her trust me, it wasn't blind trust.
If I failed to convince her here, the brainwashing could break, and she might even turn hostile toward me.
In the worst case, she could start questioning my identity after such an absurd act, becoming an obstacle to everything that followed.
[No need to worry. Even partial brainwashing means the woman under its influence is connected to you. You'll be able to sense how far you can push your words and whether she'll accept them.]
Just as the Guide said, an invisible sense told me the appropriate level of speech I could use with Arin.
From now on, whatever I said would follow that guidance, so there was almost no chance she would reject the brainwashing.
That didn't mean I could speak without any thought, though.
I still had to maintain a surface-level plausibility while using her true desires as the catalyst.
"Do you know why you can't become like Yuna?"
At my question, Arin lowered her gaze to the floor and answered in a weak voice.
"I don't know… I don't understand. I want to know too. Why I… can't become like Yuna."
"You're shorter and more petite than most idols, Arin."
"I know that."
Arin lifted her eyes and shot me a sharp glare.
"That's a complex of yours, isn't it?"
"……."
She had no answer to the direct hit.
"Shall I guess why it's a complex?"
"No. Don't say it."
Her firm denial was, in fact, perfect confirmation.
I smiled faintly and continued.
"You're anxious. Even while dancing and singing more joyfully than anyone on stage, you're thinking: Do the fans really like me? Aren't they only liking me because of the other members, because of Yuna? If I left ASTRA, would they still like me? With this small body that doesn't suit a female idol… when I'm standing alone under the spotlight, will people still like me?"
"……."
"You lack confidence. That's why you can't become like Yuna."
It was complete nonsense.
Utterly ridiculous.
Confidence was certainly important.
But claiming Arin couldn't reach Yuna's level just because she lacked confidence?
Someone like Yuna didn't reach that position with confidence alone.
It required innate talent and luck as well.
On the surface it sounded plausible, but anyone who thought about it for even a moment would laugh at the sophistry.
Yet the brainwashing wrapped that surface-level nonsense and clouded her judgment.
Arin kept her eyes lowered for a long while without speaking.
"…Then what should I do?"
Arin, her fists lightly clenched, looked filled with frustration.
Watching her, I spoke.
"Of course, you need to build confidence. So as your manager, I'll suggest a solution."
"What is it?"
"Practice dancing naked."
A suggestion that defied common sense.
This was the turning point.
"…What?"
Startled, she tilted her head slightly and looked at me as if I were strange.
It was an attempt to decide whether I had misspoken or she had misheard, but after seeing my still-serious expression, she realized it was neither.
"What are you—"
Her eyes narrowed as judgment finished, a frown forming.
Just as irritation began to surface on her blank face, Arin's expression suddenly went blank, her pupils losing focus.
The moment the brainwashing twisted her perception.
It imprinted on her that the solution I proposed was perfectly reasonable and could help her achieve her dream.
For that brief instant her consciousness was taken away, and without realizing it had been reset, she continued.
"…Will that… really… work?"
"Of course you'd feel embarrassed being naked, right?"
"…Yeah."
"But what if you overcome that embarrassment? If you dance and sing while boldly exposing the very body that's become your complex, wouldn't you perform even better when you stand on stage alone later? If that happens, you'll definitely receive cheers from many people, and you'll gain even more confidence."
"……."
More plausible nonsense.
The brainwashing wrapped that nonsense perfectly.
"In that sense, try it once right now in front of me. I'll be the first audience for your naked dance, ahem! I-I'll become your audience."
I nearly burst out laughing mid-sentence.
Even I found what I was saying so absurd that laughter almost escaped.
Hold it in… hold it in.
"…No."
After her lips twitched once, Arin spoke.
Her voice had grown noticeably smaller.
A faint blush colored her cheeks.
"You don't believe what I'm saying?"
"…I believe it. But I don't want to."
"You said you wanted to surpass Yuna. That you'd do anything to make it happen. Was what you confidently told me earlier a lie? Was that the extent of your resolve? With that level of determination, you still want to become an idol who captures everyone's attention?"
"……."
At my provocative words, Arin stared at her own clenched fist, lost in deep thought, then raised her gaze and looked straight at me.
After hesitating for a moment, she spoke softly, her face tinged with embarrassment.
"You're… a man."
The commonsense statement hit me.
For a second I wondered if the brainwashing had broken, but since she hadn't denied the absurd premise of dancing naked, I relaxed.
"I'm also your fan before that."
"…Fan?"
"Yes, I'm your fan too. Dancing in front of a fan shouldn't be a problem, right? And if I'm a man, wouldn't that be even better? It would be a more embarrassing situation, and overcoming even that would raise your confidence that much more."
"……."
Silence.
I trusted the power of the brainwashing, but her unreadable expression made me strangely uneasy.
The desire to one day look inside her mind in real time once I had her completely under control grew stronger.
"…Fine. But I'll do it properly."
"Yes, I think that's best too."
Despite my serious tone, laughter was exploding inside me.
I wanted to laugh at the fact that she had accepted such an absurd proposal, and even more at the serious expression on her face while accepting it.
A female idol's naked dance.
My heart pounded at the thought of seeing the innocent, shameful display of someone who had just been dancing on stage to the cheers of countless fans, an object of men's adoration.
Despite her determined look, she still hadn't completely shaken off her embarrassment. Arin placed her hands on the belt of her stage skirt and hesitated.
Glance.
She checked my reaction.
While biting her lip to suppress the trembling urge to laugh, I maintained my serious expression.
She closed her eyes once as if resolved, then unfastened her belt.
Swish—
Ziiip—
Thud.
She quickly pulled down the zipper of her skirt as well, and the skirt she had worn on stage fell to the floor.
'Plain…'
The idol's revealed underwear was simple white panties with no pattern.
It suited Arin's personality.
Pop, thud…
She unbuttoned her top next, and the matching white bra fell as well.
Her bare chest was as pale as her skin, but modest to match her small frame.
The breasts were small enough to be covered by a fully spread palm, reminiscent of an immature girl's.
Swish—
Still fighting her embarrassment, she began lowering her panties when her private area was exposed. She flinched, stopping her hands halfway and glancing up at me.
The faint blush deepened in color.
Her gaze, checking my reaction, lost its usual blankness and showed a woman's embarrassment for the first time.
That shy, girlish appearance was probably something she had never shown another person before.
"Look away…"
Avoiding my appreciative stare, Arin spoke in a crawling voice.
'Looking at her like this, she really hasn't lost her baby fat yet… She's completely girlish. Heh heh…'
The bold image she showed on stage and her consistently unreadable cold expression.
Seeing Arin's cute bare face revealed, a mischievous urge rose in me.
"You're going to have a fan watching you dance in that state from now on. If you're already embarrassed, what are you going to do? You said you wanted to be like Yuna—no, to surpass Yuna."
"……."
When I scolded her with a stern face while forcibly holding back laughter, Arin's expression grew heavy.
For several seconds she clenched and unclenched her fists, shaking off her hesitation.
After pulling her panties all the way down from between her thighs and completely removing her top, now fully naked, she spoke to me.
"P… Play the accompaniment…"
A shy voice.
She seemed to have made up her mind, but hadn't completely shaken off her embarrassment.
"Which song?"
"A-anything…!"
"Alright. I'll do as you wish."
Thump—
"Ugh…"
Arin, too embarrassed to even meet my eyes, grew flustered when I played the song she had just performed on stage through my phone.
But a professional was a professional. She quickly took her position and smiled.
With her face flushed red, she began moving her body, gradually taking on the form of dance as she moved.
The woman whose perception had been twisted by brainwashing showed her determination to do her best without questioning her own actions.
Thus began the female idol's naked dance in earnest.
Her solo performance, meant only for me.
