Became an Exposed Idol on Music Broadcast (3)
But I had to steel my heart for this.
It wasn't as if I hadn't seen this coming—in fact, I'd intended it to some degree. Just the fact that Sepia's name itself was being mentioned across SNS and online communities was encouraging enough. Whatever the reason, someone would watch the video one more time, listen to the song once more.
"That's as far as it goes for now. Other reactions will probably take a little more time to surface."
"Aww~. Too bad."
"Still, it's a relief the response isn't bad."
"Yeah…. It's all thanks to you girls working so hard."
I smoothed it over with the kids that way.
"Sepia, please come up to the stage!"
As the time for the first-place award ceremony approached, a staff member knocked on the waiting room door. The girls got ready again and headed for the stage. I carefully turned my phone back on and checked the reactions.
Company policy forbade the kids from looking up internet reactions themselves. It helped with mental management against things like hate comments, and it also let me filter things for them this way.
If I didn't filter…
They would learn that countless people were sexually harassing them without them even knowing. It was the fate of every girl group, and though I'd grown used to it… it still left a bad taste.
I didn't want to look any further, so I turned off the phone screen and shifted my gaze to the TV.
"This week's first-place winner is Gold Sun! Congratulations!"
Cheers erupted on the TV screen along with the MC's words. Behind the Gold Sun members who were cheering, embracing each other, and shedding tears, Sepia was visible. Not even first place—second row of the supporting cast. That was Sepia's current position.
"To our CEO, our producers, our composers and lyricists, our choreographers, and all our fans—thank you so much!"
When the camera caught the face of a Gold Sun member delivering the formal thanks, Se-a appeared faintly in the background. She was standing a little apart from the other members. It looked for all the world like she had deliberately chosen that spot. I wondered if I should scold her again… but it felt wrong to make a fuss over something like that either. The unease just kept lingering.
With that, the music broadcast was completely over. But today's schedule still wasn't finished. The last remaining item was paying respects to the PD. The one receiving the greetings was, of course, the PD of this Music Center… Park Dong-chul.
"Whoa~."
A pure gasp of admiration slipped from Sarang's lips. The PD's office was at the very end of the corridor, and in that cramped hallway more than ten groups were lined up on both sides. Each of them held gift boxes or shopping bags. All of them had come just to offer a single greeting to the PD. We had prepared a gift as well, of course. A gift box sat in Harin's hands.
Naturally, the greeting order was also decided by debut seniority. A popular singer-songwriter with fifteen years under his belt had already finished his greetings and was walking down the corridor, receiving bows from the juniors as he headed home. Sepia was somewhere in the middle here. That meant we could probably leave in about twenty minutes. I'd been here a few times myself, so I could roughly calculate the wait. The absolute rookies—the newest groups—were last. If the greetings dragged on, they might have to wait nearly an hour just in this hallway. We'd been the same when we were rookies…
That was when it happened.
"Ah. Here. You ladies are Sepia, right?"
The singer-songwriter who had been passing in front of us suddenly stopped. The girls, though startled, reacted immediately.
"Yes! Sunbaenim! We're Sepia! Thank you for your hard work today!"
As if they had practiced it, the girls all bowed at a perfect ninety degrees in unison. I dipped my head slightly as well and looked at the singer-songwriter. His expression… was not good.
"Haa~. The PD asked me to pass this along. He says he'll receive Sepia's greeting last."
"……What?"
"Sepia greets him last, he said. Hah. Seriously. Does he think I'm some kind of errand boy? Ah. I'm not talking to you, so don't worry about it. I'm just so floored I can't—"
With a thoroughly crumpled expression, the singer-songwriter stomped off down the corridor and around the corner. The girls and I exchanged bewildered looks. Sepia last? All of a sudden? I couldn't know the reason, but it seemed to be Park Dong-chul's order. He'd gone and used a senior singer with a notoriously foul temper as a message mule, so now we'd gotten on that guy's bad side too…. Damn it. Just our luck.
"Do we… have to wait, then?"
Harin asked me carefully.
"Looks like we have to. Let's wait for now."
In the end we waited another thirty minutes after that. Even Fearless and Gold Sun—groups far junior to Sepia—finished their greetings and left, while we still had to wait in the corridor.
"Sunbaenims! Thank you for your hard work!"
The Gold Sun members passed us in the hallway, spotted us, and offered their greetings.
"Congrats on first place~!"
"Thank you! Se-a sunbaenim!"
Se-a accepted the greeting and beamed, waving her hand until Gold Sun was completely out of sight. I'd wanted to give her a look about it from earlier, but… I couldn't keep scolding her forever either. I could only hope my anxiety was nothing more than baseless worry.
"…It's our turn now."
Harin said, staring fixedly at the PD office door. The brand-new rookie group that had gone in last was finishing their greetings and coming out. Total wait time: forty-five minutes. No one was left in the corridor anymore.
"Let's go."
"Yes!"
We alone walked down the empty corridor and quietly knocked on the PD office door.
Thud-thud.
"Come in."
Park Dong-chul's arrogant voice came through. We carefully opened the door and entered. The girls first. Me last. After closing the PD office door, I went and stood beside our girls, who were lined up in front of the office desk. At some point Harin must have presented the gift; the gift box we had prepared now sat among the pile of presents and shopping bags beside Park Dong-chul's desk.
"One, two, three. We are Sepia, the brightest in the world! PD-nim, thank you for your hard work today! Thank you!"
I bowed my waist along with the kids. Park Dong-chul had been resting his chin on one hand from the start, looking us up and down without a word. What was this. The atmosphere was bad. It reminded me of when Harin and Park Dong-chul had first met. The way he would explode the moment anything even slightly spoiled his mood. It felt similar to that, and the feeling was not good.
"Manager Jeon."
Park Dong-chul called me. He didn't turn his head or meet my eyes.
"Yes, PD-nim."
"You know, while I've been working as a broadcasting PD. Huh? I've seen every kind of shit imaginable. Live broadcasts especially are sensitive. You know that, right?"
"…Yes. I know."
What was he getting at.
"You know that thing. Back in the day, some bastards whipped their dicks out and ran around on a live broadcast, and a whole program got wrecked and the PD in charge went through hell. The kids might not know, but Manager Jeon would, right?"
"……Yes."
In my memory it was an incident from nearly twenty years ago. It made sense the kids wouldn't know. I glanced at their faces. They all had their heads down like children being scolded by a teacher. They seemed to have already sensed that the atmosphere was bad.
"That's why we're sensitive about live broadcasts, and about exposure. From a PD's perspective, it's a nightmare."
"…………Yes."
I was starting to guess what he was about to say, and an uneasy feeling crept over me.
"Sepia……. Hmm. Harin?"
"Ah… yes."
At Park Dong-chul's words, Harin lifted her head. Park Dong-chul looked her body up and down, then released the hand propping his chin and stood from his seat.
"Lift your skirt."
"……What?"
"I said lift your skirt."
Harin's pupils trembled. Eunchae, standing beside her, saw Harin's expression and whipped her head toward Park Dong-chul.
"W-wait a second! PD-nim. This is sexual harass—!"
"Manager Jeon. Make her shut up. Hey. Lift the skirt."
Fuck…. He wasn't even telling her to be quiet himself—he was deliberately making me do it. He was clarifying the hierarchy. He could say it because he knew I had no choice but to obey.
I put a finger to my lips toward Eunchae, gesturing for her to stay quiet.
"…Manager…? …Really?"
Eunchae still looked unconvinced, but she didn't protest any further. The one I was most worried about was Harin. Her face had already gone bright red, and she couldn't even lift her head properly. Only the hand gripping the hem of her skirt was trembling violently.
"Hurry up and lift it. We don't have time."
"………Yes."
The violently shaking hand rose little by little. The skirt hem caught in that hand rose little by little as well. While the girls watched Harin with shocked eyes or covered their mouths, I forced myself to turn my head away from her. Not looking. That was the only thing I could do for Harin right now.
Ssshhh.
The sound stopped once she had lifted it all the way.
"…Do you understand what I'm trying to say, Manager Jeon?"
"Yes. I understand."
"Look and then talk."
Park Dong-chul pointed at Harin. Fuck. I'd been trying so hard not to look….
I had no choice but to turn my head toward Harin. There… was an idol who had lifted her own skirt for a middle-aged PD, exposing her panties. Her white thighs, of course, and every single lace of her pink panties were completely visible.
"…Ugh…."
Harin, knowing I was looking, refused to meet my eyes and bit down hard on her lip.
"What the hell is this. This. Huh? Is this an idol?"
"…I'm sorry."
"Are you people exhibitionists? Is this some kind of red-light district? Or are you just perverts? You don't even have the basics down. The basics. Is putting on a single pair of safety shorts that hard?"
"……."
Even under the torrent of abuse, not a single word of rebuttal was possible.
"Tell me. Manager Jeon. You did this on purpose, didn't you? If it wasn't on purpose I can't understand it. Isn't that what rehearsals are for—to check this kind of thing? The staff already said you confirmed there were no safety shorts during rehearsal too, right?"
"…It absolutely was not intentional."
If I admitted intent here, Sepia was finished on the spot. I had to play dumb somehow.
"Then what. Trying to screw me over? Wanted to really stick it to me once? Cause a broadcast accident and get my head cut off?"
"…I'm sorry."
Park Dong-chul's rage was, in a way, only natural. This underwear product placement hadn't been coordinated with him either. I just… hadn't expected him to go this far.
"Ah. Fine. Whatever. Let's just say Sepia won't be appearing on my show from now on. Huh? Originally I should send a formal complaint to your agency, but I'm cutting you some slack because I believe Manager Jeon that it was a mistake. Don't let me see you again, and don't even think about coming on."
"PD-nim."
"Enough. I'm done talking. Now go. Get the hell out."
"PD-nim. I'm truly sorry. Please……."
"I said get the hell out already?"
Park Dong-chul's voice rose. As if he had no intention of listening to me at all, he spun his chair around so he wasn't even looking at us and just stared at his phone. I couldn't lose this opportunity we'd worked so hard to seize. The opportunity Harin had thrown her body into to grab. We had to appear next week too…!
"PD-nim."
It wasn't me who called him. My gaze, along with the other girls', turned toward the source of the voice. At the end of that gaze, Harin—who had still been holding up her skirt—lowered it and straightened her clothes. In a voice that was emotionless and cold… yet filled with resolve, Harin spoke.
"PD-nim. …Would it be all right if I 'persuaded' you?"