The Idol Obsessed by Her Uncle Fan Wants to Run Away (2)
“……And that’s the story.”
I finished speaking toward Sarang, who sat with her arms crossed and kept sipping her coffee without pause.
Even while she listened she gave no reaction, no answer—just kept drinking. Before long the cup was empty, only ice remaining, yet she still chewed the straw with a grinding, restless motion.
“You listening?”
“Yeah. I’m listening.”
There was a strangely irritable edge mixed into her voice, nothing like her usual self.
“……I was wondering what this was about~. You suddenly called me out alone, so I thought it was going to be something huge.”
I had summoned her the moment I finished talking with Department Head Han Myeong-su. That meant I had ended up dragging her out of practice without warning.
“Something huge?”
“Harin unnie and……. No. Never mind. …Haa. Hogu oppa. Can I ask you a few things?”
“As many as you want.”
“You’re dating unnie, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow~. You answered right away? I thought you’d try to dodge it.”
“Doesn’t seem like something I can hide. You already figured it out anyway.”
“Eunchae unnie and Se-a don’t say anything, but they both know~. How could they not? Harin unnie’s walking around with hearts in her eyes.”
“Figured as much.”
“……Since when?”
“…Not long.”
To be exact, a little over forty hours.
“Really……?”
Sarang finally set the cup down on the table and pushed it aside. That made three already.
“Want another?”
“Yeah. Yogurt this time. Plain.”
“This isn’t company money—I’m paying out of pocket. Trying to bankrupt me?”
“Pretty cheap price for keeping the dating secret, don’t you think?”
When she put it that way, I had nothing left to say. I opened the café app and ordered one more.
“One more thing I’m curious about.”
“Yeah.”
“Who confessed first?”
“…Harin.”
“That’s actually surprising.”
“Is it?”
“Harin unnie~. Right? She doesn’t look like the type who’d say something like that first, no matter where you put her.”
That was true too. I had known for a while that Harin felt… if not full romantic interest, at least some kind of goodwill toward me. I had also known she was absolutely not the type to confess first.
……Which was exactly why her confession made me happy and uneasy at the same time. Was it really a coincidence that she had confessed right when Park Dong-chul told her to?
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“How far have you gone?”
“…What?”
Another completely out-of-nowhere question.
“With Harin unnie. Huh? How far?”
She looked up at me, eyes sparkling.
“…Not that far yet……. Wait, why do I even have to answer this?”
“Just~ curious.”
“I told you it hasn’t been long. About that level.”
“Did you kiss?”
Sarang leaned forward, her body drifting closer and closer to mine. If she had a tail it would have been wagging like a fan. This puppy of a girl.
“…Not yet.”
“Wow~. Unnie’s one thing, but oppa, you’re thirty and still this innocent?”
“There hasn’t been any time.”
“There’s always time if you look for it……. Ah~. So that’s why you’re telling me this?”
“What?”
“Tomorrow. Tuesday. Se-a’s going out to play, Eunchae unnie’s going home…. Me and Harin unnie didn’t have any special schedule so we were going to practice, then suddenly oppa shows up and tells me to go on a date with some middle-aged guy. I was wondering why, but maybe…….”
“I get what you’re thinking, but don’t get the wrong idea—I’m not deliberately setting this up. Harin’s Harin, and this is a completely separate matter.”
“Yes~ yes~. Of course you are. Anyway you and Harin unnie will be left alone together, right? All just coincidence, juuust luck, right? Oppa hit the jackpot, huh?”
“…….”
“See? Nothing to say. Right~?”
“I called you here to explain the date, so why do you keep…….”
“I’m more interested in you and Harin unnie flirting, though? I’m gonna tell Eunchae unnie and Se-a later too.”
“Those two…… ugh. Even if I tell you not to, it won’t matter. Please just stop and let’s talk about work. Okay?”
Bzzzt.
My phone alarm went off.
“Oh? My yogurt’s ready. One sec~.”
She wasn’t listening at all. Sarang had always been like that, so I gave up and leaned back into the sofa. In the gap I checked my phone.
Messages from Harin.
I felt bad for making her worry for no reason.
A reply came instantly.
She had probably wanted to eat together. She sounded a little disappointed. But there was nothing I could do about it. Not right now. We were in the middle of something important.
“This yogurt’s really good? You should get one too, oppa.”
Sarang was already back in her seat holding a large cup.
“You’re not even buying it and you’re saying that?”
“Ehh~. I’m recommending it. Recommending.”
Why is this kid so…….
No. Maybe this was actually for the best. Considering what Sarang had to do tomorrow, her personality might not be such a bad thing after all.
“Okay, enough. Work talk now.”
“Okay~.”
She sucked down a long pull of yogurt through the straw in one go. She did not look like she was taking any of this seriously. Even if it went in one ear and out the other, I briefly explained again what she needed to do tomorrow.
“…So tomorrow you just go on a date with the person I introduce you to. That’s it.”
“Simple~. Not as big a deal as I thought?”
“Not a big deal……. Wait. Do you know who it is?”
“You said he’s my fan?”
“That’s… true, but.”
“Got a picture? I feel like I might remember the face if I see it.”
“No picture… but. If I describe him you’ll probably know. The older guy who always shows up in a suit.”
“Uh……. Ah~. I think I might know who.”
“You remember?”
“I’d have to see the face to be sure.”
“…Really?”
“A date’s nothing……. These days on NTube there are even one-day dates between fans and idols, right? Like lottery winners. I can just think of it like that.”
“Still… I don’t think there are cases of a girl-group member going out with a guy in his fifties.”
Normally they paired female fans or fans of completely absurd age gaps to avoid any controversy.
“He was in his fifties? Ah~. Dad’s age, basically. Completely.”
“…You understand why we’re doing this, right? It’s not some variety shoot…….”
“Yeah. I know. Secret side work, basically.”
Sarang was better at cutting to the heart of things than I expected.
“For secret side work, a date’s pretty wholesome. Actually so wholesome it feels suspicious. I was sure it was going to be some weird uncle in a hotel or something…….”
“Hey hey. People can hear you.”
“Got it~. Anyway, that’s what I thought it was.”
……I felt a guilty twinge thinking of Harin and Eunchae for no reason.
“You say stuff like that so casually?”
“Hogu oppa might not know, but I’ve gotten offers a few times to meet people who’d sponsor me.”
“…What?”
An unexpected word made my brain freeze for a second.
“Someone offered five hundred each time if I just met them on weekends.”
“…Did you?”
“Of course not~. Why would I? With someone I don’t even like. I’m more of a pure-hearted type than I look.”
“…Then what about this?”
“Hogu oppa said it’s work. Plus it’s just a date. If it was a complete stranger maybe, but he’s my fan too…. Just fan service?”
“Right…….”
“Huh~? What. Oppa, are you jealous? Wow~. While you have Harin unnie.”
“Why does the conversation keep going there. I’m the one in charge of you, so of course I’m worried.”
“If you were worried… you shouldn’t have brought this up in the first place~.”
She wasn’t wrong. If I wanted to proudly call myself the one responsible for these kids, I should have stopped it from the very first time with Harin. Stopped it… and somehow found another way. But I also knew the situation wasn’t good enough for that.
I knew how precarious Sepia was. Of course this particular matter had nothing to do with Sepia, but—
“If the CEO changes…… the very survival of Sepia will rest in that person’s hands.”
……That single line from Department Head Han Myeong-su had left me with no choice but to accept again. Even if the CEO changed there might be ways to persuade the new one… but I couldn’t just sit and do nothing in the face of uncertainty.
But Department Head Han Myeong-su should naturally be on the CEO’s side, right? Why go out of his way to……. I wasn’t him, so I could never know what he truly wanted.
“Anyway. I’ll do it. Tomorrow’s date.”
“For real?”
“There’s no way not to. And…….”
“……?”
“I should disappear quick so Hogu oppa and Harin unnie get time to make progress. Right?”
“No. Again…. Hey. I told you it’s not like that.”
“When it’s over you have to tell me, okay? How far you got.”
“Why would I tell you that?”
“Ah. And. So you don’t cause an accident during promotions. Make sure you use a condom.”
“Pffft—!”
I sprayed the coffee I was drinking. Nearby people glanced our way. Damn……. I wiped my mouth and clothes with a napkin first.
“Hehe…. Oppa’s really innocent, huh? Cute~. Is Harin unnie gonna be like this too?”
“Don’t you dare say that kind of thing to her. Seriously.”
Of course Harin was…… already a body that had finished raw creampies with another man. Fuck. Just talking about it made the memory surface again—the moans Harin had made when she mixed bodies with Park Dong-chul. Damn. Damn.
“…Hogu oppa.”
“Yeah?”
I was still wiping the coffee stains when Sarang called me again. I lifted my head. Her expression was a little different from before. She was drinking sweet yogurt, yet her face looked bitter.
“Be good to Harin unnie…….”
I wanted to be good to her more than anything, but our situation was far from smooth. Even so, I said something I didn’t fully mean, just to put Sarang at ease.
“…Of course.”