Idols Never Break! (2)
“You looked like you were heading somewhere by car. Does this have anything to do with that?”
Eunchae fixed me with a sharp stare.
I already know everything. Don’t even think about lying.
That was the look she was giving me.
Of course, this wasn’t the first or second time I’d been on the receiving end of that glare from her. There had been a few occasions early on when I’d gotten flustered and let myself get cornered… but I wasn’t some amateur who only got burned once or twice. In situations like this, the best move was always the same.
“No connection.”
Playing dumb was the way to go.
“Then what was it?”
“Yesterday Harin said she had family business to take care of, so I drove her over.”
“…Is that so?”
“As for the music show, the PD over there had been keeping an eye on Harin for a while, so we got a special slot. You should be thanking her.”
“Hmmm~.”
She stared hard into my eyes, trying to figure out whether I was lying. I met her gaze without looking away.
Park Dong-chul really had known Harin from before, so it wasn’t a complete fabrication.
“If Manager says so, then I guess that’s how it is.”
Thankfully, she seemed to buy it.
“You should be thanking Harin unnie too, Manager. We made a comeback and still couldn’t get on a single music show… and now we’re finally going on air thanks to her.”
“…Yeah. Grateful.”
What I was actually thinking was a little different, but every word she said was true.
“Is everything else ready?”
“Of course. We posted the notices on Instagram and YouTube, and the dance instructor agreed to help with intensive stage practice. I’m also looking into some people who can shoot fancams.”
“…Fancams?”
At the mention of fancams, Eunchae’s voice dropped a little.
“Yeah.”
“…Will it even help?”
“We have to hope it does.”
“Hmmm…”
Eunchae fiddled with her phone, looking faintly displeased.
“Look… I know you’ve been through a lot, but photos and fancams are still promotional tools. You know that better than anyone.”
“That’s true, but… honestly, it still feels weird.”
“…Because of that old… hidden-camera thing?”
“If you bring that up one more time, Manager, I’m going to pull every last hair out of your head.”
“…Alright. I’m sorry.”
Eunchae had blown up because of those photos, but she had also been the one tormented by countless sasaengs and camera-wielding creeps because of them. It had even gotten to the point where some bastard snuck photos of her changing clothes in the waiting room… putting her right at the center of both buzz and controversy.
And of course the photos that got out were of her in sheer lingerie that showed everything—so the whole thing exploded in the worst possible way. The company had worked themselves to death trying to scrub those images, but they still floated back up on the internet every now and then.
…………In fact, I still had one saved on my phone. I looked at it sometimes.
“…Still. We have to do it, right?”
Eunchae muttered, biting her lip lightly.
“We can’t stop people from taking pictures.”
“That’s part of it, but… it’s for Sepia.”
“….”
It was admirable, in its way.
Eunchae could be high-strung and sharp-tongued, but she wasn’t a bad kid at heart. She cared about the team a lot—maybe not quite as much as Harin, but still. Six years had matured her quite a bit.
Back when she was a trainee… better not go there. Between puberty and everything else, she had been a real handful.
“If we’re going to do it, then do it properly. Gather some people who actually know how to shoot well. You never know. It might turn out like the old days.”
“If it actually went that way, I’d have nothing left to wish for.”
Time to get to the real point.
I let out a quiet sigh and opened my mouth again, voice low.
“Speaking of those photos reminded me of something.”
“…?”
I laid two business cards down in front of Eunchae.
The people who held the final say on model casting for Venus.
Executive Director Bu Ra-jang.
Director Baek Pan-su.
“Want to try being a model?”
“A model? What do you mean…”
“An ad… yeah. An advertising model.”
“An ad? …Me?”
Eunchae’s eyes went huge.
She looked even more disbelieving than when I’d told her about the music show appearance. Fair enough. Advertising models weren’t something just anyone got to do.
For an idol, you needed to be at least mid-tier or higher. Good image, the kind of name people had at least vaguely heard of.
Sepia was lucky enough that no one was completely unfamiliar with the name… but that had been years ago. It was only thanks to Eunchae that we’d managed to snatch even a single moment of real fame. Without that…
“What kind of ad is it? Is the whole of Sepia doing it?”
“Yeah. The whole group.”
“Th-then…”
“But the ad is a little…”
“…?”
I shifted my gaze to the business cards I’d set in front of her.
The distinctive Venus logo gleamed.
A provocative mark that stylized the female form.
Venus was… a women’s lingerie company.
A place light-years away from anything a pure, innocent idol group should be advertising.
“…Ah.”
Eunchae stared at the cards for a long moment before something clicked. One hand flew up to cover her mouth.
“No way. You’re not serious? The company I’m thinking of…”
“That’s the one.”
“…Have you lost your mind?”
Her face twisted in an instant.
Even hearing that, I honestly had nothing to say in my defense.
“Eunchae.”
“Manager? Tell me it’s not. You’re doing other business stuff and they just want us to shoot some regular ad, right? If it’s not that…”
“…It’s exactly what you’re thinking.”
The proposal Venus had put on the table was for their own lingerie models.
Eunchae still hadn’t managed to smooth out her crumpled expression. She just kept glaring at me.
“Manager.”
“Yeah.”
“You know what I went through, right?”
“…I know.”
She was the one who had suffered after someone secretly photographed her in her underwear. And by pure coincidence, the lingerie she had been wearing that day had also been from Venus.
“And you’re still telling me to do an ad like this? Me, of all people?”
I knew better than anyone how insane it sounded.
Especially Eunchae… after the hidden-camera lingerie incident, she carried massive trauma around exposure and photo shoots. In the beginning, just having fans shove cameras at her asking for pictures had been enough to make her panic and collapse.
She was better now… but still sensitive about it.
“…Yeah.”
“I’m going to pretend I never heard this. Don’t tell the other members either.”
Eunchae shot to her feet and snatched the business cards right off the table. Her fist clenched tight, crumpling them.
“Eunchae.”
“I’m holding myself back from punching you right now, Manager.”
The fist holding the cards trembled.
I had expected a reaction something like this… at least to a degree. I also knew full well I was asking something I had no right to ask.
Same as it had been with Harin.
But even so. Even knowing that, it still had to be done.
“…The CEO asked for this.”
“…What?”
“The CEO wants us to do it. This job.”
“….”
Eunchae carefully sat back down. Whether she had read something in my face or not, worry filled her expression.
“You know how the company is doing.”
“…The company’s always been in bad shape.”
“And you know he poured a ridiculous amount of money into this album.”
“…Yes.”
The CEO hadn’t told us directly, but there were rumors he’d sold off shares, even dipped into loan sharks. Desperation for success wasn’t just our problem alone.
“We need the ad contract fee… we do.”
“….”
The CEO hadn’t given me the exact figure for the advertising fee. All I knew was that it was enough to cover the entire production cost of the fourth album and still leave plenty left over.
For a niche, has-been idol group like us, it was a sum beyond imagination.
“That’s… an insane amount of money. If it’s that much.”
“It is.”
“Take that money… and be lingerie models.”
“…Yeah.”
When you boiled it down, that was exactly it.
“Still. If you really can’t do it…”
“No. I can do it.”
Eunchae cut me off firmly.
“Being a model… I can do that. I will.”
“Wait… …Really?”
It was unexpected.
I never thought Eunchae—the one I expected to have the hardest time with this—would agree so easily…
“But Manager. We’re idols. An idol doing lingerie modeling… is there any precedent for that? Is this actually okay?”
“Precedent…”
I thought it over carefully.
There was none.
“I’m… not scared of taking pictures or standing in front of people in lingerie. I’ll do it. For Sepia, I’ll do it. …But is this really something that helps Sepia?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m scared people will look at Sepia and only ever think of us as lingerie models.”
Eunchae’s concern made sense.
Even when a pure-concept girl group just shifted into something sexier, it already caused ripples among fans and the public image. Doing actual lingerie modeling… that was completely uncharted territory.
No matter what activities Sepia did from now on, the “lingerie model” label would stick. Just look at Eunchae—people still brought up those underwear photos from years ago.
What she was really asking was whether selling off Sepia’s future was worth it.
“You don’t… have to worry about that.”
“…Huh?”
“Because it’s not going to be an open advertisement.”
“…?”
I leaned in and quietly whispered the outline of the ad plan and its contents into Eunchae’s ear.
As she listened, her eyes wavered.
“…You want us to wear Venus lingerie on a music show… and expose it mid-dance?”