Strike While the Iron Is Hot
As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot. I decided we’d move today. There was no point wasting time on catching a single drug dealer. Once practice ended, I’d slip out at night and infiltrate the Hot-Dream club in Incheon. The plan was simple and clean: spot the target, plant a micro tracking device on him, then if he wandered into some quiet corner, Seong Jiyeong and I would surround and snatch him in an instant.
“You’re seriously thinking of going out dressed like that?”
“Huh? Why?”
“Well… I mean, sure. It’s you, so I guess no one would dare try anything. The bouncers have eyes too. But we’re about to debut. Walking around so obviously like this feels a little… much, doesn’t it?”
“Ah, is it that bad?”
“This is definitely Yeriyeri’s mistake~ Even before debut, an idol trainee should be more careful. Going to a club could cause problems later, you know~”
Seong Jiyeong’s complaint made sense, but Yu Hana’s teasing tone was annoying. Wasn’t this whole situation her fault for not giving me proper information in the first place? That girl really knew how to get under my skin.
My current outfit was nothing special: bare face with zero makeup except for a touch of pink lipstick, a plain white t-shirt, and jeans. Judging by everyone’s reactions, my judgment in picking club-appropriate clothes had apparently been way off.
“No, Tasha, what on earth…”
“Whoa, Shasha~ That’s actually insane.”
But someone managed to outdo me. Tasha. She was seriously planning to walk into the club wearing her full Rabbit Yaksha gear. If a Rabbit Yaksha suddenly appeared in a nightclub… I didn’t even want to imagine the chaos that would follow.
“Hmm? Is there a problem?”
The fact that she didn’t even understand why it was a problem was the real problem. This hot-blooded idiot. She really seemed to live her life without thinking much at all.
The members scheduled for tonight’s club infiltration were me, Tasha, and Seong Jiyeong. We’d decided only the combat-oriented members would move in case things went south. But looking at the current state of things, it seemed the entire outing would have to rely completely on Seong Jiyeong. Both Tasha and I were far too indifferent when it came to dressing ourselves up.
“First, let’s do your makeup. We need to make sure nothing follows us even after debut.”
“Can makeup really do that?”
“Of course. Why do you think I bothered learning makeup techniques?”
“You learned makeup because… wait, don’t tell me.”
“Idols aren’t the only ones with sasaeng fans. Phantoms have them too. And ours come armed with guns.”
“Ah, the Security Force? Yeah, I guess they do qualify as psychotic sasaengs. But…”
“What?”
“Never mind. Just… do the makeup well, please.”
Seong Jiyeong, who never seemed interested in romance or anything of the sort, had mastered makeup purely for disguise purposes. Since the Security Force could chase her at any moment, she refused to leave even the slightest trace. In truth, the Security Force were far worse than regular idol sasaengs. They used cutting-edge equipment to analyze a Phantom’s form down to the nanometer to identify who they were dealing with.
Though I did have one complaint about that logic. With her teleportation ability, Seong Jiyeong could simply choose never to appear on camera at all if she wanted. In the end, the fact that she got caught on film at all was entirely her own doing.
Before heading out, Seong Jiyeong would apply a first layer of makeup disguise, then wear her mask on top of that. She even prepared an extra layer in case the mask came off. Honestly, it sounded incredibly tedious. If she had just toned down her exhibitionist tendencies a little, she wouldn’t have to go through all this hassle. The reporters and everyone else wouldn’t even know whether Golden Roll was a man or a woman.
Of course, that would have been difficult for Seong Jiyeong, who had dragged all the members into striking idol ending poses.
“Now that I think about it, I’ve been a bit careless too.”
I had gone out on missions twice so far. The second time didn’t have any obvious issues. Even though the tights revealed my lower body line, the military jacket had completely hidden my upper body. Plus the jacket was long enough to cover a good portion below the waist too. If they could track me from just that, I’d have to admit defeat and accept it humbly.
The first mission was a bit more concerning. I had been wearing a full-body suit that showed everything. But I had an excuse. I never expected things to turn out like this. Who could have predicted that the footage would leak, that Seong Jiyeong would show up, and that our whole group would end up in this situation? If I had known that much, I would’ve played the stock market or crypto instead of becoming an idol.
At least I was lucky in a few ways. The suit was black and the place was dark, so it was hard to make out details. When we moved into brighter areas, the suit’s hyper mode had activated and distorted my body shape quite a bit. And since Tasha and I had been fighting non-stop, the cameras couldn’t capture clear images of us anyway.
In that sense, Tasha and Seong Jiyeong’s outfits were quite ideal. Both of them were completely covered up so their body shapes were impossible to discern. Tasha especially was wearing that bizarre martial arts uniform that hid her figure entirely, so there was no way she’d get identified. Since she was the most careless one among us, her neat outfit was actually good news for the team.
Strangely enough, the member who had revealed the most physical lines was Yu Hana. The Rabbit Asuka costume she chose was an office look, and quite a revealing one at that. But who was she? That sly squinty-eyed fox. She had done something to the outfit, cleverly using padding and shaping to disguise her lines. It was far more devious than simply covering up. That subtle padding that didn’t look obvious at all could completely fool people’s senses.
She really wasn’t someone to take lightly.
Anyway, from now on, whenever we went out there would be tons of people trying to capture us on video or in photos, so we needed to be more careful. Even now, people suspecting the Blood Rabbit’s identity were carefully observing all the female idols. The ending pose we had shown was just that perfect. All the female idols known for combat abilities had already been checked once. Things had died down lately since nothing new came up, but there was no telling how it would develop later.
“There. All done.”
“Oh. I really don’t recognize myself.”
While I had been lost in thought, Seong Jiyeong finished my makeup. How should I put it? I looked like a completely different person. She had turned me into one of those Gangnam beauties you see everywhere in Gangnam, but the fact that she could make me look this much worse than my original face was honestly an impressive skill.
“What about Tasha?”
“Tasha doesn’t need full makeup.”
“Really?”
“Yes. For Tasha… just use this and this.”
“Oh, that definitely…”
Compared to the careful work she put into my face, Tasha’s disguise was much simpler. It ended with just a black wig and black colored contacts. The Western-looking Tasha had transformed into an Eastern-looking Asian. It was pretty fascinating. No wonder she got along so well with the other members. Her facial features actually leaned somewhat Asian. Looking at her now, she even resembled Ji Seoeun a little.
Anyway, her image had changed so drastically that it would be really hard for anyone to guess it was Tasha.
“Jiyeong definitely has good sense.”
Seong Jiyeong’s sense was so good that even Yu Hana acknowledged it. Considering the subtle relationship between those two, that was quite something. Well, every team needed at least one member like that. You never knew what might happen later.
Thanks to Seong Jiyeong’s sense, we were able to properly finish preparing for our outing.
It didn’t take long to reach the Hot-Dream club. We teleported to Seong Jiyeong’s safe house in Guro, got into the car she had prepared, and drove for a while. Of course, since Hot-Dream was a fairly well-known location, we could have teleported directly there. But if other people noticed us, it would lead to a massive headache. Relying on the car for part of the journey was the obvious choice.
“Secretary Nam. We don’t know how long it will take, so please head back right away.”
“Understood, Miss.”
The person who had driven us here was “Secretary Nam,” who had apparently assisted Seong Jiyeong for a long time. He looked to be in his fifties. From the atmosphere, it seemed he knew that Seong Jiyeong was Golden Roll. At that age, he had probably been close to her since her father’s time. For Seong Jiyeong, Secretary Nam was probably in a similar position to Yu Hana’s uncles.
“Hmm, there are a lot of people.”
“Yeah. Why are there so many people out this late? Tomorrow isn’t even a holiday, is it?”
“Places like this don’t really care about things like holidays.”
“I see. Quite a different world.”
As Tasha pointed out, the area in front of the club was already packed with people. Considering tomorrow was a weekday, it was hard to understand. But everyone had their own circumstances. It was best not to worry about other people’s business and just handle our own matters before heading back.
“Let’s go in quickly.”
“I hope we finish this in one day.”
“That’s going to be a problem too.”
Now that I thought about it, if we didn’t find the guy today, we’d have to come back tomorrow. What a waste of good sleep. I really didn’t like losing precious sleeping time like this. But what could I do? Since we had come this far, we might as well finish it cleanly and go home. If the song from F.A turned out to be mediocre after all this effort, even I might get a little angry.