The Birth of Pobitz
The group name was decided: Pobitz.
“So what do we do now?” Elena muttered, glancing my way. The other members followed her gaze. Honestly, even with all those eyes on me, I didn’t have a single idea.
“Uh… practice?”
What else did idols do? Practice dancing and singing.
Pobitz had no songs or choreography of its own yet, so practicing other girl groups’ tracks and dances was the only sensible move.
Goal’s to debut inside a week. That means we need songs and choreo… only way is to lean on the agency. Big company like this has to have a few tracks and routines stockpiled.
“What do you mean, ‘what’?! Obviously we start with the contracts!”
Lilith, practically vibrating with excitement, told us to wait a second and dashed out. She returned with a stern-looking middle-aged man in a suit and glasses.
“Good day. I am Stefan, head of the legal team at Lilith Entertainment.”
He introduced himself in a calm voice, then quietly surveyed the members of Pobitz. A slow nod followed.
“I see why the CEO was so worked up. The visuals alone are staggering. If you debut, the entire industry will shake.”
“Stefan! Pull out the contracts already!”
“Please refrain from rushing me. Here are the contracts. The terms are identical to Miss Ju Seo-hyeon’s. Read them carefully and sign.”
He handed the papers to the members, then turned to me and frowned. I was the odd one out at Lilith Entertainment—no contract of my own. From the company’s perspective, my presence was probably unwelcome.
“Frankly, I’m not fond of contracts like this.”
Yuria and Elena examined every line with meticulous care. Mi-ryeong, on the other hand, skimmed hers, grabbed a pen, and signed on the spot. She trotted over to my side and held the paper up like a trophy.
“Producer! How’s this? Isn’t my signature cool? I practiced it just in case something like today’s debut ever happened.”
“…You prepared a signature? You wanted to be an idol?”
“You never know.”
I looked at her signature. It was “Mi-ryeong” scrawled in bold Korean characters.
“I was going to do it in Chinese characters at first… but too many strokes, too much hassle. So I just went with Hangul. Pretty, right?”
It was pretty. Fans would definitely want that signature.
“Is it okay to write it like that on a contract?”
Stefan answered my obvious question.
“It’s fine. She signed it herself, so the contractual conditions are satisfied.”
Current managed celebrities: Ju Seo-hyeon, Mi-ryeong
You acquire contribution points based on the popularity of managed celebrities. You acquire AP equal to contribution points every month.
Ju Seo-hyeon’s popularity: 2
I checked the system window and nodded. Soon Yuria and Elena signed as well.
Current managed celebrities: Ju Seo-hyeon (Pobitz), Mi-ryeong (Pobitz), Yuria (Pobitz), Elena (Pobitz).
Stefan collected the contracts, glasses glinting as he spoke.
“With this, you are all artists under Lilith Entertainment. We look forward to working with you.”
“Yahoo! Jackpot!”
Lilith celebrated with an exaggerated face. She grinned for a moment, then composed herself like a proper CEO.
“You pass on visuals alone… but we still need to gauge your actual skill, right? Real practice starts tomorrow. Today we do a test first.”
“CEO, I’ll take my leave now.”
“Mm. Stefan, before you go—tell me. How do you think Pobitz will do?”
“They’ll rise. With visuals like these, there’s no reason they wouldn’t. Top twenty at minimum. If their skills back it up… they could aim for the top five.”
“You didn’t say they’d take the top spot.”
“You already know how monstrous the current number one is without me saying it.”
“Yeah, fair. That annoying goddess isn’t easy to topple.”
Stefan left the practice room.
Lilith looked over the members once more and smirked.
“Nobody tense up. This is just a test. So, who first? Right—Mi-ryeong, you go.”
“Huh? Me first? Just like that?”
“These things always start with the youngest.”
“O-okay. I’ll show you the singing and dancing I polished through personal broadcasts!”
“You did personal broadcasts?”
“In another world.”
“Ahh. Experienced rookie, then. What song do you like?”
“Summer Sunflower. Do you have that one?”
“Korean song, right? We’ve got pretty much everything.”
Mi-ryeong began singing and dancing at the same time.
“Whoa…”
Lilith clasped her hands and her mouth fell open. Mi-ryeong’s singing and dancing were nearly perfect.
“Good. Mi-ryeong, you’re incredible. I can’t even find anything to criticize. If I had to nitpick… the dancing’s a little sticky? Stimulating. Must be the personal broadcast influence.”
“It’s natural sex appeal—can’t help it. I’m a nine-tailed fox who bewitches men, after all.”
“Huh? That’s your concept? Not bad. But you said you’re going for a pure girl-group image, right? Better tone down the sexiness a bit.”
“Pure…”
Mi-ryeong looked around.
Calling them pure was a stretch—every member had an outstanding figure. Just standing still, they radiated sex appeal. Elena was the closest to the pure type.
“Can we even pull that off?”
“Of course you can.”
“Yes. If the Producer says so… then we can.”
Mi-ryeong scurried over and hugged me from behind. Ju Seo-hyeon and Yuria stared hard in our direction. Elena openly furrowed her brow.
“You, fox. You’re clinging to the Producer far too much. Planning to start scandals before we even debut?”
“Come on, this is nothing. No one’s watching, so who cares? It’s just a sign of affection.”
Calling it simple affection was a stretch—the soft weight of her chest pressing into my back was far too much. Lucky only we were here; any outsider would have called the skinship problematic.
I didn’t defend Mi-ryeong. I just kept my mouth shut and waited for the storm to pass. Backing her up here would only make things worse.
Next up was Yuria. Lilith’s eyes went round with admiration.
“Yuria. Did you do personal broadcasts too? Your singing and dancing are almost perfect. I can barely find anything to point out.”
“I’ve practiced idol dances a few times before, so it’s nothing special.”
Yuria answered as if it were trivial.
Her words weren’t a lie. In the Baekhwan world she had practiced idol dancing and singing. I’d ordered it because I wanted to watch her and the maids perform.
Then came Elena.
“Singing’s fine… but the dancing’s a little flat. Tia doesn’t move her body much, does she?”
“It’s been a long time since I danced like this. I’m reasonably confident with swordsmanship… but dancing is different.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re not completely hopeless. A little practice and you’ll be fine.”
“…….”
Elena pressed her lips tight and crossed her arms. Displeasure filled her eyes. The proud woman clearly hated that she danced worse than the other members.
“Seo-hyeon, let’s test you too.”
CEO Lilith spoke to Ju Seo-hyeon, who had been standing blankly.
“…Me too? I danced yesterday.”
“Come on. No one else was there then. Don’t dodge it. Okay?”
Ju Seo-hyeon made her reluctance obvious, but Lilith stuck to her with a face of pure shamelessness. In the end Ju Seo-hyeon took the test in front of the members.
“Ohh… your dancing’s even better than yesterday?!”
Lilith made a big fuss. After finishing, Ju Seo-hyeon simply nodded in place. Not a single breath out of place. With her stamina she could dance ten idol tracks back-to-back without breaking a sweat.
“Alright then… shall we sit? I’ll roughly explain the upcoming schedule.”
Under Lilith’s lead, everyone sat on the floor.
Clang.
The metallic sound rang out the moment Ju Seo-hyeon sat down. Because no one was speaking, it was especially loud.
Every gaze locked onto Ju Seo-hyeon. Her cheeks flushed bright red.
“Th-this is… I mean…”
“Why so flustered? You just put your smartphone in your back pocket, right? But is the phone okay? That was pretty loud.”
Mi-ryeong approached her. Ju Seo-hyeon flinched and shot to her feet, dodging away.
“Why are you running? I’m not doing anything. Am I dirty? That’s so mean.”
“No, it’s not that…”
Mi-ryeong’s eyes dropped to Ju Seo-hyeon’s hips. She was wearing slightly loose training pants.
“…Huh? There’s no back pocket. Then what was that sound earlier…?”
“Did you put on steel panties or something?”
“Steel panties… there’s no reason to wear panties made of steel. Perhaps she’s wearing a chastity belt?”
Leave it to Yuria. I never expected her to immediately deduce that Ju Seo-hyeon was wearing a chastity belt.
“A chastity belt! I’ve only heard of them—I’ve never seen someone actually wearing one! Unnie Seo-hyeon, can you show me the chastity belt just once?”
“What? Y-you want me to take my pants off right here?”
“We’re the same members. It’s just us girls, so what’s the problem?”
“N-no! Seong Yujin is here!”
“That chastity belt… you put it on because of the Producer, didn’t you?”
“…….”
Ju Seo-hyeon, face still red, offered no rebuttal. Embarrassment had locked her tongue. I’d put the chastity belt on her this morning simply because she was being annoying for no reason.
“Focus! We’ll deal with that later… first the schedule. Debut is in one week. I didn’t decide that—Manager Seong… no, Producer Seong did.”
Elena’s brow furrowed.
“One week. Isn’t that far too tight? I don’t know much about idols… but I don’t think one week is enough for anything.”
“No. With you, it’s possible.”
I spoke with absolute conviction. With their skill and talent, memorizing songs and choreography inside a week was entirely doable.
Everyone nodded at my words. Ju Seo-hyeon looked a little uneasy, but she didn’t refuse.
“You’ll debut through a music broadcast one week from now. We already have a few prepared songs and choreographies. We’ll need to tweak them a bit to fit you… but by tomorrow the tracks and dances will be ready. And this is just my opinion… how about promoting in advance through SNS? These days the trend is securing fans on SNS before debut. Means you can already have a big fanbase the moment you debut.”
Solid idea. With their looks, they could pull in plenty of fans before the official debut.
Dropping a bomb on the music show for the debut would be cool too…
But we didn’t have much time. To raise popularity, aggressive SNS activity starting now was the better play.
“No one objects? Later we’ll open SNS accounts and take some casual photos. Filming short self-introduction videos wouldn’t hurt either.”
Lilith looked like she was having fun drawing up the plans. I asked her in a serious tone.
“CEO. We need to shoot a music video. Within the week. So… how far can the budget go?”
“I saw potential in Pobitz. You think I’d skimp on budget for an idol whose success is basically guaranteed? Producer Seong. Don’t worry about money. Even if one of the company pillars starts shaking, I’ll still fund you.”
“CEO Lilith truly has an outstanding eye.”
“Haha. I do, don’t I?”