I Want to Become a Whale for Big Man! - 1
Friday, 5:30 a.m.
In the basement of a practice studio building in Seongsu-dong, Seoul.
Cold dawn air hung in the room, and the lights glittered faintly.
"...."
With a bag slung over her shoulder and a yellow hoodie on, Aki stood in front of the door and swallowed hard. The short-term intensive lessons she had spent sixty million won of the money Bigman had given her on ten days ago were finally beginning today.
Unlike what Aki had imagined, the lessons had not started the very next day after payment.
So expensive lessons need a preparation period...
-This is a course that professionals take before concerts or events. We need to analyze things precisely, so would it be possible for me to speak with your agency?
The instructor who was leading the short-term lessons had politely asked whether she could contact Aki's agency. She also made suggestions aimed at strengthening Aki's live performance skills.
-Could you send us the group lesson footage the company has done, along with the choreography guide videos and the audio files?
After signing a few confidentiality documents, she took the materials with her. They were traces of the ABCD members' preparations for mini live performances over the past year.
A week later.
A call came in for Aki.
-The lessons are ready. They'll run once a week for a total of ten weeks, and... would Wednesday or Friday work better for you? If you'd prefer another time, we can adjust again.
"...Friday, please."
And then today came.
Friday dawned.
"...."
Aki's heart was split between anticipation and worry.
First, she was thrilled to finally be getting pro-level lessons, something she'd only ever dreamed about. The group lessons the company ran were good too, but the time was never quite long enough for what she wanted.
What worried her was...
I spent sixty million won, and it's only three hours a week. What if there's less to learn than I expected?
Two hours of choreography correction.
One hour of vocal training.
There wasn't even any time set aside for the basics.
This was, in every sense, a lesson for professionals standing on the edge of an immediate debut-stage performance.
That was why she was nervous.
Aki found herself wondering whether she could really be called a "pro."
"Phew. Did I jump the gun too much...?"
Maybe she should have switched to a lesson for trainees instead.
...I'm not even an idol yet.
Regret rose up in waves.
But there was no turning back now.
"I already promised."
With a knot of complicated feelings in her chest, Aki opened the practice room door. Then, following the front desk staff's guidance, she walked to the assigned room.
Down the hall, the order of today's lesson schedule was posted. There were no people listed, only corporate names she recognized from somewhere, all of them mid-sized agencies or larger.
Lee A-yeong
It was reserved under a personal name.
She was the only one.
"...."
Aki stared at it for a moment, then stepped into the practice room.
And greeted everyone in a loud voice.
The basics of being an idol were greetings.
"Hello! Please take care of me starting today!"
"!"
A dance room lined entirely with mirrored walls.
Three backup dancers warming up and two instructors turned to look at her. They had been talking beneath the speaker tower in the corner of the room.
They're all so tall...
The instructors approached and spoke in businesslike voices.
"You must be A-yeong. Welcome. Please take care of us as well from today onward. I'm Kim Yeo-in, in charge of choreography correction."
"Yes! Please take care of me."
"Hello. I'm Nam Jin-woo, in charge of camera-walking correction. You said the live stream will be broadcast online, right?"
"Ah, yes!"
"Understood. We'll keep that in mind while coaching."
"Yes!"
"You see the fluorescent stickers on the floor, right? They've been placed as a simplified marker of the camera path used in an actual studio. Please use them as reference when you perform."
"Um, how am I supposed to use them as reference...?"
"Of course, we'll explain everything. You don't need to worry."
It was as if they were declaring, "We'll turn you into a pro the moment you walk out of here."
So there was no long preamble.
Aki checked the materials on the A4 sheets and her laptop, then immediately started warming up. The three backup dancers each took the positions of Berry, Clara, and DoDa.
"Please take care of us!"
"Please take care of us."
She had been so anxious that someone might mock her for being a VTuber or something of the sort, but the atmosphere was so solemn it was almost funny.
This is the real world of professionals.
Aki found her position.
The matte rubber panels on the floor swallowed every footstep.
Even that tiny detail felt heavy.
"...."
A few hours later.
Aki walked out of the practice room feeling a little drained.
Then she muttered weakly, "That was worth the money."
No,
wasn't it actually cheap at that price...?
Always the one leading the members through group lessons, Aki was a raw beginner here. Ten years of self-study and one year of experience were nothing in front of professionals.
-A-yeong, your knees are folding in too much! Kick bigger so you fill the frame.
-We'll slow only A-yeong's part down to 0.7x.
-Since A-yeong is center, looking straight at the camera feels too forceful. Let's turn the head a little. Even in 3D graphics, line of sight is obvious.
"...."
Aki was overwhelmed. The three backup dancers seemed to have pushed each member's performance level to the limit, and she felt herself being dragged along by the current.
-Sorry. My basics are...
-Huh? No. Your basics are perfectly fine. It's just that this isn't an area you show alone. This is the stage where you need technique beyond filming on a phone.
And then there was vocal training too.
-A-yeong, your pronunciation got stuck in your throat. Open your mouth wider. You need to pull the sound out from your belly, all the way from your stomach.
-We'll adjust the breathing timing right before the chorus.
In just three hours, they had found countless issues. She could finally see how much she'd been wandering around in ignorance.
"...."
Aki walked to the company under the morning sunlight.
Her dyed yellow hair swayed cheerfully.
*
When she arrived at the company, good things started happening one after another.
The general affairs manager, Park Young-soo, said through his glasses, "I spoke with the tax office. Fortunately, thirty million won of the two hundred million won in tax from your side will be refunded. It should be deposited sometime today, so keep that in mind."
"Wha...?"
"I looked into miscellaneous expenses and deductible items, and that's about what it came to."
The one billion won Bigman had sent.
Of that, Aki's share had been 450 million won.
And then 200 million won had been taken away as other income tax.
Thirty million won of that tax was coming back.
Thank goodness...
Ding!
"!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Aki's phone rang.
The refunded tax had been deposited.
[Deposit: 30,000,000 won]
[Balance: 110,000,000 won]
"!"
Aki's face brightened at once.
One hundred million won.
She had crossed that line again.
The balance that had bled out through lesson fees and investments.
That number, one hundred million won, had returned. The guilt that had been gnawing at her for having "wasted a huge amount of money" finally began to ease.
Aki quickly ran through the future in her head.
Bigman's support comes to 2.5 million won a day... and the settlement is around one million won, so all together that's about 12 million won. Once we move to Pazijik after that...
Soon, the balance would be 120 million won.
That would help her mother a great deal.
Aki asked Park Young-soo, "C-could I send all of this to my mom?"
"Hm? No. You can't. Anything over 50 million won gets hit with gift tax, and it's brutal."
"Then..."
Together with the manager, Aki consulted on her future financial plan. In the end, they came up with a reasonable result that wouldn't trigger taxes.
First, send 50 million won to her mother.
Keep another 50 million won as a personal reserve.
In the end,
her living-expense balance would be down to 20 million won.
No matter what happens, I'll be safe for a while now.
Aki felt relief.
At the same time, she let out a bitter smile.
Guess I still need to keep the weekend convenience store job.
Once she moved to a major platform,
Bigman's donations would be cut back sharply.
For a while, there wouldn't be any viewer influx, and there'd be no income.
So she needed a safety net.
"Phew."
Even so,
she was grateful simply to have money that could protect her.
"...."
Aki clutched the smartphone Bigman had bought her and prayed. It was a prayer of thanks to the patron who had led her to this reality.
...Thank you.
Aki went back to the dorm.
Friday was the day she did daytime broadcasts.
Choi Ye-seo and Kim Ae-ri, who were in the middle of lunch, welcomed her. They were sitting in the living room in comfortable clothes, mixing egg rice into their bowls.
Kim Ae-ri smiled brightly. "A-yeong! Want some too?"
"No. I have to go live early in a bit, so... I brought a sandwich, so I'm fine."
"Ah, right. You've got your part-time job Friday night."
"Yeah. What about Do-dam?"
"She's asleep after streaming VR games until dawn. I heard her muttering about Bigman prayers all through the night."
"Ahh..."
Choi Ye-seo shot Kim Ae-ri a sideways glance.
"...We've been living together for a year. Don't you think it's time we started remembering each other's schedules?"
"My memory's bad. I even forgot where I put the tablecloth I bought last year."
"Tablecloth?"
"After we move to Pazijik, I want to try hand-camera stuff too, like making toys. That sort of thing is popular overseas."
"Be careful with the red medication. You're really going to get yourself in trouble. Or should I fix it in place myself with tape or a drill?"
"Hey, I'll manage just fine."
Leaving that conversation behind, Aki went into her room. Then she adjusted the smartphone and computer for facial rigging and hummed to herself.
"Hm-hm... hmm..."
Since I met him,
everything had been going so well.
That was why she was happy.
When she turned on her broadcast, she could meet him.
Even if she didn't show it on the surface, her heart felt warm.
"Hehe."
It was a secret from the other viewers.
*
-Then thank yoooou so much for listening to my songs up until now~! Please look forward to seeing me again next week too~! Like a star in your heart—! This was Aki-chan!
"...."
I turned off Aki-chan's stream.
Before I knew it, time had slipped toward evening.
"Hmm."
Something I'd been noticing lately.
All the ABCD members kept emphasizing "next week."
If it were a 3D debut, there would've been some extra announcement posted. What else could they possibly be announcing?
"...."
An album release?
A 3D showcase?
Or a collaboration?
"...."
I had no idea at all.
So I gave up guessing any further.
...They'll say whatever it is when the time comes.
I gave up on speculation and started getting ready to head out. I put on a headlamp and pulled on work gloves.
I looked like a proper explorer.
Then I opened the game app on my phone.
It was a real-time augmented-reality...
An AR-based treasure hunt game.
[Treasure Hunt GO!]
"...Heh."
I'll find it.
The treasure hidden in Hangang Park.
Like an adventurer traveling through the lost city of Atlantis, I walked toward Hangang Park. People I passed on the street gave me odd looks at the sight of the headlamp on my head, but I didn't care.
Adventurers are solitary beings by nature...
Alone,
and with dignity.
Hangang Park under the sunset.
I pushed through the grass and kept turning my phone camera this way and that. Every so often I tapped the in-game search signal too.
Ding!
Then a clear notification rang out.
[There is a treasure 300 meters ahead!]
"!"
I hurried forward.
As I went, the narration grew more urgent.
[There is a treasure 150 meters ahead!]
"!"
The distance
kept shrinking.
[Look around carefully in this area!]
"...Hah."
I turned the phone screen in every direction. Beneath the darkness, even after the sunset had lowered its head, the night view over the Han River lingered like an afterimage.
And on the screen,
a gold coin was sparkling.
"!"
I tapped it.
Ding—!
[Wow! Congratulations! You found the "Coin of Atlantis"—!]
My ranking shot straight into the top 100.
I had achieved today's goal.
"Heh heh..."
I felt a quiet sense of satisfaction. Even if someone called me an idiot for wandering around at night for dozens of minutes like a grown man doing nonsense, the adventure of getting a legendary coin was real enough.
The rush of beating a dogshit pay-to-win game through sheer time waste is impossible to describe...
"...."
But now what.
"...."
I put the phone in my pocket.
By then, night had fully settled over Hangang Park, and only the beam from my headlamp was shining. Maybe because I didn't come here often, the place felt unfamiliar.
It was a fresh feeling, one I hadn't had in a long time.
"...."
That feeling lasted only a moment.
"...I'm hungry."
I looked around.
I spotted a convenience store tucked into a shabby building. It was the kind of outer-edge place you'd only visit if you were a lunatic obsessed with treasure hunts. It looked empty.
I should just get a hot bar and cup ramen.
Like a conquering general, I strode into the convenience store. Cheerful electronic chimes welcomed me with full ceremony.
The part-timer working there was wearing a baseball cap pulled low as she looked in my direction. She was a woman with striking yellow dyed hair.
"Welcomme!"
"...."
Hmm.
Uh.
Huh...?