Secret Account (3)
Finally, the schedule was over. After one day off and wrapping up next week’s remaining commitments, this promotional cycle would be completely finished. Of course, even after promotions ended, we’d still have to show up at the company for practice, but at least there would be far less need to flatter others and force smiles. That alone was a relief.
The only problem was…
“Are you feeling all right?”
“Yeah… I got over the cold a while ago.”
…Ever since I caught that cold, the manager had become unbearably nosy. Today, because of the route, Hinami and the others got out first, leaving just the two of us in the car, which only made it worse. He had always been overly attentive, but lately his attempts to strike up conversation were painfully obvious.
Before, his consideration had been small things like bringing drinks or preparing neck pillows and eye masks. These days, whenever we were alone in the car, he was the one who spoke first, every single time. If I were still the naive girl I used to be, I might have just thought he was being kind. But after seeing so much filth in this industry, I could no longer accept it that innocently.
“Ah, you’ve been saying you’re tired a lot lately, so I was wondering if your condition was bad.”
“The schedule’s been brutal for a while.”
In the end, he was just another man with “manager” attached to his title. He was about my height. Unlike his first impression, he had lost weight, but he still looked scrawny and unattractive. That didn’t mean he lacked sexual desire, though. It sounded stupid even thinking it, but he probably liked me as a woman. The way he treated me was different from the other members, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
I couldn’t deny that he was nice, but any manager who wasn’t nice to the idols he managed would be the real problem. If he had never shown any personal interest, maybe it would have been different. But the moment he started acting overly familiar for no reason, any goodwill I might have had disappeared. The age gap was nearly a full zodiac cycle. His looks weren’t terrible, but he had no charm. He wasn’t particularly skilled at his job either. At best, he was diligent…? That was about it. In this industry, most people were at least diligent.
“I have canned coffee. Would you like some?”
“Is it sugar-free?”
“Yes.”
“…Give it here. For now.”
At least he wasn’t incompetent at the actual job. He just couldn’t hide his feelings. He wasn’t openly flirting, so there wasn’t much I could do. I took the coffee he handed me, popped the tab, and sighed inwardly as I drank.
A few weeks ago, I might have seriously considered asking for a new manager. Now, I didn’t want to bother. If he had any sense, he would realize nothing was going to happen and eventually quit after staring at my face from a distance. Compared to the other people around me, he was still relatively harmless. …Not that I wouldn’t curse him out.
I tapped out a post on my secret account.
“If you’re done, give me the can. I’ll throw it out for recycling.”
“Sure.”
I finished the rest of the coffee, snapped the lid back on neatly, and handed it back to the manager. The car rattled along. It felt like we had been driving forever, but there were still about seven minutes until we reached home. Every time I rode in a car, the quiet, rhythmic sound of the wheels made me strangely sleepy. If the other members were here, their noise would keep me awake, but right now there was no one chattering…
“…I’m going to sleep for a bit. Wake me when we arrive.”
“…Understood.”
…Eye mask on. Just for a little while… I’ll sleep…
**
“Not getting up?”
“……”
…I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. I was just doing my job as a manager. That was all.
“…She’s not waking up.”
She had been unusually prickly lately, and it had hurt a little. But the moment I saw her face, she was so beautiful that I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. After hesitating until the end about whether to wake her, I gave up on the pointless thought and leaned back against the seat.
…There was no turning back now. Leaving her to change like this wasn’t something a fan should do either.
“……”
Out of everyone at the agency, she was the only one who treated me like a human being. The younger girls ordered me around without hesitation, and the older ones were no different. Hinami bullied me whenever she was bored. The only decent person here was Seo Jia. Honestly, if it weren’t for her, I probably would have quit a long time ago.
“Hoo…”
Looking at her beautiful face reflected in the rearview mirror, I steadied myself. I wasn’t trying to do anything bad. I just wanted to know what was going on. Ever since she took those two days off for the cold, her condition had been strange. She had no motivation, and the kindness she used to show had completely disappeared. Maybe the cold was just an excuse, and there was something else going on.
…If I could just check that, it would be enough. Carefully, I slipped the phone out of her hand. She wouldn’t notice, but I still moved as quietly as possible. I took out my personal phone instead of the work one, turned on the screen, and used her face to unlock it. I wondered what kind of secrets were hidden inside.
…Without her knowing, I looked through it.
“……”
First, the photos. When I opened the gallery, aside from the trendy game screenshots, there wasn’t anything particularly special. Most of them were food or scenery shots. I was admiring how cleanly she lived even in a place like this when I suddenly noticed a photo with a hand in it and zoomed in.
…I couldn’t tell who it was, but it was clearly her hand flipping the middle finger. What was this? Who was she… sending it to? A friend… probably?
“……”
Unable to find an answer, I searched through the rest of the phone. First, the messenger apps. But no matter how much I looked through her private conversations with the other members, I couldn’t find that photo. The same went for chats with friends I didn’t know. Eventually, after failing to find anything, I left the messengers and checked other apps…
…I found her secret SNS account.
I tapped the icon with the blue background and the little bird flying around, and saw the hidden side of Seo Jia that I had never known before.
…The side of her I had never seen.
“…Hah.”
It was a typical lurker account with zero followers and only following others. Who was she even posting for?
…She had been posting all kinds of filthy, nasty things online.
—She was insulting me. Insulting her own fans. Revealing her ugly true nature.
“……”
For a moment, I wondered if my eyes were playing tricks on me. The woman I had worked with for so long would never say things like that. But after finding the middle-finger photo from the gallery on her timeline as well, I finally snapped out of the illusion I had about her.
…Yeah. She was just like everyone else in the end.
“Ha… haha…”
Forgetting that she might wake up, I let out a hollow laugh. I thought she was different. I believed in her. She was the only decent person in this trash heap. Even she had been laughing at me and cursing me behind my back. And not just me—her own fans too.
Feeling both furious and miserable, I barely managed to steady my trembling hand and reached toward her gently rising and falling chest…
“……”
Just as I was about to touch her, I heard a car approaching from afar. I quickly put the phone back in her hand and returned to the driver’s seat, pretending nothing had happened. I fiddled with my own phone instead of hers, acting like I was just waiting for her to wake up. I hoped the sound of the car would pass, but unfortunately, it didn’t drive by. It pulled into the same parking lot.
…It was fine. No one had seen what I did. I should just get out of the car. That way, even if there was any misunderstanding, I’d at least have an alibi…
“Huh… what the hell.”
But the moment I stepped out and saw the car parked nearby, the situation that unfolded before my eyes made my earlier worries seem trivial.
“…Hinami-ssi?”
“……”
She was wearing a mask and a hat pulled low, but there was no mistaking that outfit and hair. It was definitely Hinami, the one I had dropped off at home earlier. And she wasn’t alone. She was with a man.
“…Manager-nim?”
“Ah… yes.”
Hinami, who had been holding the man’s arm as she got out, froze completely. I was just as stunned, my body going rigid at the sight. The only one who still had his wits about him—the man—showed clear discomfort and started walking straight toward me.
“Why… are you still here?”
“…No, that’s…”
The moment I heard his tone, it felt like he had figured out what I had done. Panicking, I waved my hands and leaned against the car, then pointed at her and blurted out the first excuse that came to mind.
“Seo Jia-ssi fell asleep, so I was waiting for her to wake up…”
“Ah… shit. There’s a limit to how badly an excuse can miss the mark…”
The man cursed at the ground in a rough voice and scratched his head for no reason. For a second, I was startled and thought he was a stranger, but when I looked closer, I recognized him. He was probably Seo Jia’s boyfriend. But why was he with Hinami…?
“Ha… Listen, Manager-nim. Sorry, but this is a private matter. Don’t say anything. Don’t remember anything. If you talk, it won’t just be bad for you—it’ll hurt the company too.”
“……”
“At this hour, I finished work and went home alone, and you finished work and went home too. We never ran into each other. Got it?”
“Ah, y-yes…”
Overwhelmed by the blatant threat, I nodded repeatedly. Then I saw Hinami clinging to the man’s back, trembling, and felt a surge of anger. Her tweet from earlier flashed through my mind. The words “doesn’t know his place.”
“Let’s go up for now.”
“Ah, yes…”
“…Excuse me.”
…At least I had known her longer than this guy, right? No matter how close she was to her boyfriend, she should at least show basic courtesy to a coworker. How could she look at someone she knew like they were some terrifying ghost…?
“What.”
“Even so, I’m still a manager. Acting so openly like this…”
Unable to hold back any longer, I was about to say something when—
“…Manager-nim?”
…From behind me, the woman I had put to sleep stirred, her eyes half-open, staring at us. I had no idea how much she had heard or understood about the situation.