The Best Accessory
“So maybe this Ryu Risa could just happen to pick out exactly what I want, one piece after another. I do all this work for free, so at the very least I should get to have a little fun with it.”
Ju Jun-seo unleashed his tirade from behind her.
“She said she was busy, but she seems to have time to spare after all. Seriously, this isn't some variety show — who assigns missions like this? It's absurd. At her level, the moment she looks at someone's face, the perfect outfit should just print out automatically. What is she even trying to….”
“Shh. Jun-seo. Keep thoughts like that inside your head.”
“You told me to say it out loud! Noona, you've got no conscience, making a kid do this right now. So this is why she called us to the agency instead of her office — she just wanted to watch this happen. I knew something was off.”
I took a moment to survey the showroom. Endless space, with countless garments hanging on every rack.
Everything from luxury brands anyone would recognize by name alone to designer labels I'd never even heard of.
It was too much to even commit to memory, let alone browse. No wonder it was so hard to know where to begin — my hand wouldn't move toward anything.
“What? Can't do it?”
But here's the thing.
“No. Just give me thirty minutes.”
I already know all the trends at this point. Even the ones still hidden from the public — the waves that are about to hit.
I had no intention of passing up the chance to work alongside Ryu Risa for free.
If anything, I should be thanking her.
I wanted Ryu Risa to take an interest in me. The hangers in Ryu Risa's hands — I wanted every single one of them to be clothes meant for Han Yeo-reum.
My heart pounded hard.
The way to catch Ryu Risa's interest, right here, right now….
The calculation came to me with startling speed. I headed straight for the stairs.
[Eye wear & accessory] 2F
“…Hey.”
Ju Jun-seo trailed after Han Yeo-reum as she climbed the stairs. Contrary to any expectation that she'd start browsing from the first floor, she made straight for the second, where the accessories were gathered.
“Don't pay attention to what that woman said earlier. She's got skill, sure, but her personality has always been a disaster. And honestly, if you can't manage to pick something out, I'll just choose for you — something that goes with my outfit. I mean, I've worn thousands of outfits in my time as a model. You think I can't handle women's clothes?”
Framed photographs lined the stairwell, hung there by the agency as advertising.
From Eun Baek-hap all the way to Do Gyeo-ul. Han Yeo-reum stared at the captured moments when each had been named a Best Dresser, and only then turned to Ju Jun-seo.
“Did you pick out your suit?”
“Roughly. A clean black suit. You should do a safe black dress too, and then—”
“So whatever accessories I choose, you'd wear them to match me?”
Maybe it was because she stood at the top of the staircase.
Han Yeo-reum's voice seemed to reverberate through the whole showroom. Delivered in crisp, precise enunciation, her words came across less like a suggestion and more like a command.
“Yeah. I'll match you.”
“Anything at all?”
Ju Jun-seo nodded without protest. He'd worn every kind of garment imaginable in his modeling career; Han Yeo-reum's demand was hardly a difficult one.
And besides, I owed her one.
After all, this was the very Ju Jun-seo whose path into acting lessons she had arranged.
Apparently satisfied with his answer, Han Yeo-reum smiled.
“Got a brand in mind? Just name it, and I'll pick out something that suits you.”
“I've already chosen my accessories.”
“…Without even looking?”
Han Yeo-reum put deliberate weight on the word accessories and looked him dead in the eye.
“Sunbae. Go back down to the first floor and get fitted for that suit first.”
“What?”
“Hurry up!”
Then she raced up the remaining stairs without so much as a backward glance. From a distance, her voice could be heard asking a staff member:
“Where do you keep the brooches?”
“Twenty-five minutes.”
Ryu Risa hummed happily to herself as she checked over the garments that had come in this week.
At her level, the routine business of stopping by an agency showroom was something she normally would have delegated to the assistants below her. But Ryu Risa never once slacked on her showroom rounds.
Hand something this fun to someone else? Are you kidding me? This is my job.
New clothes, new accessories, new shoes, new bags! Every last one of them set Ryu Risa's heart racing.
Imagining how the same garment could transform depending on who wore it — that was Ryu Risa's whole life.
She thought back to Ju Jun-seo getting fitted for his suit before heading up to the second floor.
What on earth is he planning to bring back that he needed a fitting first?
A clean black suit. At an awards ceremony, it was the guaranteed, unbeatable choice. And on a former model like Ju Jun-seo, there was no way it wouldn't look good.
Han Yeo-reum's outfit, on the other hand, was going to be tricky to choose right now.
“This shop doesn't carry dresses to begin with.”
When people thought of awards ceremonies, the default image of a woman's outfit was a gown. To get your hands on one of those glamorous dresses, you had to visit the brand shops in the back section, where dresses were gathered separately.
Bridal-white boutiques, or dress houses like Layer House. But this place was a shop devoted entirely to everyday wear.
“Putting everyday clothes next to a suit is just… kind of off, isn't it~”
Short of a miracle, hitting a perfect score would be nearly impossible no matter what they picked.
And yet Ryu Risa couldn't help but be curious. This rookie actress Han Yeo-reum — the one chosen by that money-mad Dokgo Gyeol and that money-obsessed Jegal Rok.
What's she going to bring me?
She hoped it wouldn't simply be the most expensive thing in the building — one of those luxury pieces whose only selling point was the logo. Logo play was one of the things Ryu Risa despised most in this world.
“Twenty-nine minutes.”
Exactly one minute remained on the clock. That was when the sound of footsteps descending from the second floor reached her.
Ryu Risa deliberately didn't turn around. Her stomach tingled with butterflies — she felt like a child on the verge of discovering something delightful.
“Can I turn around now, then? Hm? Is it alright?”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
Ryu Risa pressed down the corners of her mouth and turned. She couldn't afford to smile and give Han Yeo-reum the false impression that she already liked what she'd chosen.
“…Is this it? What you brought me?”
And there, before Ryu Risa's eyes, stood something utterly absurd.
“Yes. What I want to wear is a look built around a brooch.”
An antique-designed brooch resting on a small open palm.
“It pairs perfectly with the partner I brought.”
And beside it—
“….”
stood Ju Jun-seo, expressionless. Flawlessly put together. The single finest accessory of all.
They don't have dresses here.
I'd scanned the entire place the moment I walked in, after all.
No minidresses either. Nothing resembling what people call an 'awards-show gown,' naturally.
I'd only ever heard the name of this place; it was my first time stepping inside. So even before greeting Ryu Risa, I'd swept my eyes over every hanging garment in the showroom.
Which means what I need to do isn't—
My task wasn't to pick out an outfit to wear to the awards ceremony.
It was to make Ryu Risa want to bring in a dress from somewhere else.
With Ryu Risa's name alone, she can pull from any luxury brand in the world, no matter how exclusive.
Something far rarer and far more beautiful than anything hanging on these racks.
And I happened to know exactly which items were about to trend, too.
I might not know the fine details of upcoming fashion, but accessories? I know those inside and out. Before long, pinning on a brooch was going to be the trend on everyone's lips.
I placed the brooch down on Ryu Risa's open palm. And then, one more thing I'd prepared for this moment.
An accessory with an impact that dwarfed the brooch entirely.
“Since I'll be walking the carpet with Ju Jun-seo sunbae, I went with something formal.”
It was Ju Jun-seo — his hands covered edge to edge in tattoo stickers.
Fitted into a formal suit behind those black-rimmed glasses, Ju Jun-seo looked impeccably proper, yet he couldn't quite hide the wild edge that radiated from his features.
So I added details that matched the aura Ju Jun-seo already carried.
Lettering tattoo stickers along every knuckle ridge on the backs of his hands, and a tiny additional tattoo just below his ear.
Dokgo Min, Dokgo Gyeol — geniuses all draw their inspiration from one small, perfect detail.
Which meant Ryu Risa had to be the same. I looked up at the shimmering stat floating above her head.
Her Artistry was higher than anyone I had ever met. Ryu Risa looked at me, then at Ju Jun-seo, then back at the brooch clutched in her hand — over and over, her gaze cycling between the three of us.
“….”
Then her mouth fell open as if she'd been genuinely, gravely shocked — and she froze in place, still as a paused video frame.