Something Feels Off About My Agency Coworkers
In the capital of the Korean Empire, the city of Mir. This was where Baekryeon High School stood, a prestigious institution with decades of history. Heavily supported by the Imperial Foundation, it was a renowned private high school that had produced countless talented individuals. The news that the Imperial Princess herself would be enrolling as a freshman had only added to its fame. And within this school existed celebrities that every single student knew by face and name.
The Trinity of Baekryeon High. They were three girls of extraordinary beauty, each said to embody the sun, the moon, and the lake. Their looks were considered comparable to those of top-tier idols. Far from inspiring jealousy, they effortlessly drew the admiration of the entire student body. Secret fan clubs dedicated to each member of the Trinity operated discreetly throughout the school…
“What the heck? That sounds like something straight out of a rom-com manga… You’re telling me this actually exists in real life?”
In a quiet café bathed in gentle sunlight, a girl with a neat bob haircut that barely brushed her shoulders wore an utterly dumbfounded expression. She had just heard the story from a friend who attended Baekryeon High. Three girls famous throughout the entire school, all so beautiful they could rival idols, and each with their own fan clubs? No matter how she thought about it, the whole thing sounded completely unrealistic.
The bob-haired girl’s lukewarm reaction was perhaps perfectly natural. But when her childhood friend showed no signs of believing her, the plain-looking girl with braided hair waved her arms wildly in the air and cried out.
“I’m telling you, it’s real! You just don’t know because you go to a different school!”
“Come on… If something like that existed, it would’ve blown up on social media ages ago. This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“T-that’s…!”
Apparently having something to say, the plain girl straightened up slightly and quickly scanned their surroundings. After confirming no one was eavesdropping, she leaned across the table and whispered to her childhood friend as if sharing a secret.
“The thing is… It seems like the information is being controlled so the story can’t spread across the internet.”
“…Yoonji. Covering up a lie with another lie is only going to make things harder later…”
“No, I’m serious! Look at this! Look who goes to my school!”
Perhaps unable to bear being seen as a pitiful liar any longer, her face flushed red as she tapped her smartphone a few times and thrust it toward her friend. On the screen was a photo of the plain girl standing next to someone else.
A girl with glossy black hair that caught the eye. Even with just a faint smile, she shone like the sun. The bob-haired girl studied the face on the screen carefully and immediately recognized who it was.
“This is… the Imperial Princess, isn’t it?”
“Yep, yep! I got lucky and ended up in the same class as her! So I asked if I could take a picture with her, and she happily agreed!”
“Whoa… That’s pretty amazing. So what about it?”
“You still don’t get it after seeing this…? She’s one of the Trinity I mentioned earlier! Her Highness the Imperial Princess herself!”
“Huh, for real?”
At her friend’s bewildered words, the bob-haired girl suddenly noticed something strange. Now that she thought about it… hadn’t she heard absolutely nothing about the Imperial Princess’s recent activities lately? Even though she had officially stopped public appearances, as a student at the same school, there should have been plenty of noisy chatter. Yet strangely, ever since the princess had entered high school, there hadn’t been a single photo of her in the news.
If she really was one of Baekryeon High’s Trinity and information about her was being controlled online, then the claim suddenly made sense. So the Trinity actually existed…
Stunned by the absurd story she could hardly believe, the bob-haired girl voiced the question that had occurred to her.
“You said there were three members of the Trinity earlier, right? Are the other two as pretty as the princess?”
“Obviously? If they weren’t, it wouldn’t be called the Trinity. It’d just be Her Highness being famous all by herself.”
“Well… that’s true, I guess.”
Even so, it didn’t really hit her. After all, the Imperial Princess was beautiful enough to stand beside a top star without being overshadowed. No matter how pretty an ordinary person was, they were still just an ordinary person…
Feeling somewhat skeptical, the bob-haired girl asked with mild curiosity.
“Can you show me any photos? I’m a little curious now that you’ve mentioned girls as pretty as the princess.”
“Um… well, is it okay to show you? Her Highness is basically a celebrity already, so that should be fine, but showing other people’s photos feels like invading their privacy…”
“Then why did you even bring it up?”
The bob-haired girl pressed her forehead in frustration at her friend, who had suddenly started hesitating. Then, as if realizing there was a simple solution, she offered a reasonable suggestion.
“Just tell me their Outstar accounts or whatever. Looking at photos they posted themselves should be fine, right? I’ll look them up myself.”
“As far as I know, neither of them uses Outstar…”
“Wow, what rare creatures. How does a high school girl not use Outstar?”
…But then how was she supposed to know what they looked like?
The bob-haired girl sighed at having returned to square one. Seeing her childhood friend like that, the plain girl thought for a moment before her eyes suddenly lit up. She lifted her smartphone as if she’d come up with a good idea.
“Oh, all three members of the Trinity I mentioned are in the same class! So if you go to the school homepage, there should be a group photo.”
Found it. Take a look.
The bob-haired girl took the phone and carefully examined the photo that appeared on the screen. It showed boys and girls wearing Baekryeon High’s signature white uniforms, famous for their elegance.
As she studied the faces in the group photo, she quickly spotted the three girls. Even in the same uniforms, their aura was completely different from the students around them. It was easy to tell them apart.
“Found them. Here, here, and here. These three, right?”
“Um… you got two right. One is wrong.”
The plain girl shook her head and pointed directly at the photo as she explained. The tall, glamorous beauty in the center was Lee Se-rin, the Trinity’s Sun and the Imperial Princess. The gentle, dog-like girl with a large chest standing relatively in front was Cha Yu-na, the Trinity’s Lake.
The bob-haired girl marveled at the face of the other Trinity member she was finally seeing. Indeed, the girl named Cha Yu-na was cute enough that even standing beside the princess wouldn’t have seemed out of place.
“And the last one, the Trinity’s Moon, is… Huh, she’s not in this photo.”
“What? You said they’re in the same class.”
“Ah, this was taken at the beginning of the semester. She was absent from school for about two weeks back then because she was sick.”
“Is she some kind of delicate beautiful girl or something?”
“Hmm, kind of? She has this unapproachable, flower-like atmosphere.”
An unapproachable flower, huh…
The bob-haired girl furrowed her brow slightly at the image that didn’t come to mind easily. Just then, the café door opened and a cold breeze swept inside. Her gaze reflexively turned toward the entrance, and her movements suddenly froze.
Wow… She’s seriously beautiful.
The person who had just entered the café was a woman of striking appearance. She possessed the cold beauty that blended the charm of both a mature adult and a still-youthful girl. Her sharp eyes, framed by thick lashes, were half-lidded in apparent boredom, evoking the image of a prickly princess. If someone tried to speak to her, she would probably brush them off immediately with clear disinterest.
Yet even while thinking that, there was an undeniable allure that kept drawing the eye. And her true value wasn’t limited to her face alone. Though her overall figure was slender, with thin arms and legs, her large breasts and hips that couldn’t be hidden even by loose clothing gave off a somewhat precarious, dangerous impression.
She wasn’t a manga character. So people like this really existed in the world.
While the bob-haired girl was marveling, the plain girl widened her eyes and muttered quietly.
“S-Seolhwa…”
“You know her?”
“The Trinity’s Moon we were just talking about… that’s Seolhwa right there.”
“Wait, she’s the same age as us?!”
The bob-haired girl was shocked by Seolhwa’s mature appearance, which could easily pass for a college student. She was doubly surprised to learn that this was one of the Trinity members they had been discussing. Still, with a face like that, it made perfect sense for her to stand alongside the princess. The cold aura especially suited the “Moon” title. She looked like a princess descended from the moon itself.
With looks like that, it was no wonder a fan club would form at school…
As the bob-haired girl secretly watched Seolhwa, who had finished ordering and was looking for a seat, the plain girl suddenly leaned all the way over the table and brought up something rather unimportant.
“By the way, the kid you took a picture with earlier is So-hui. She was once called part of the Trinity too.”
“Was once? Did she get stripped of the title?”
“Not stripped, exactly… Remember how I said she was absent for two weeks? At first, So-hui got a ton of attention. But once Seolhwa started coming to school, the general opinion shifted to say that she suited the ‘Moon’ title better, so…”
“Hmm, I can see why…”
Honestly, a face like that was just unfair. The bob-haired girl glanced at Seolhwa, who was walking with perfect, confident posture. Even her gait was flawless, without the slightest awkwardness. She was clearly from a distinguished family.
Fortunately, Seolhwa didn’t seem interested in her surroundings. It appeared she hadn’t noticed the suspicious duo whispering about her. The bob-haired girl continued to admire the girl’s picture-perfect appearance and asked her friend in a small voice.
“What does she usually drink?”
“I’m not sure…? We’ve never hung out together… Judging by her face, espresso seems to suit her…”
“Whoa, you’re right. That does seem to fit her somehow.”
…
Seolhwa’s ears twitched imperceptibly. She sat there without touching her phone, staring blankly out the window. When her order was called, she stood up gracefully. It seemed she was meeting someone. She returned carrying two drinks on a tray—one was a thick mango juice with frozen mango chunks, and the other was a steaming hot espresso.
Seolhwa placed the mango juice on the opposite side of the table and brought the espresso in front of herself. Without adding even a grain of sugar, she took a sip.
“Drinking it without sugar must be incredibly bitter…”
“Does she not like sweet things?”
…!
Inside her shoe where no one could see, Seolhwa’s toes curled up as tightly as physically possible. She secretly teared up at the terrible bitterness filling her mouth. Just what kind of taste was this supposed to be?
This was Seolhwa’s first time ever drinking espresso. She desperately tried to maintain a blank expression. She hated bitter things so much that she only ate the sweetest kinds of chocolate. So why on earth was she drinking espresso, the king of bitter flavors?
The reason was simple. The moment she had finished ordering and looked around the café, she had spotted a classmate. At school, she always acted cold and aloof on purpose. This was simply an extension of that act.
Of course, the owner of the espresso wasn’t her—it belonged to her manager, whom she had asked to come ahead of time. To Seolhwa, who had casually ordered the mango juice thinking Mango juice looks delicious~, drinking the espresso was nothing short of torture.
“She looks like the type who would drink a lot of tea too, doesn’t she?”
“Oh yeah, I get what you mean! Seolhwa has that elegant young lady vibe, right?”
Tea…? The only tea I’ve ever had is iced tea…
“She probably prefers light desserts over sweet ones too.”
“Ah, like matcha or chestnut flavor?”
My taste is for things so sweet they make your tongue hurt?!
Perhaps because she could hear every word when she focused, Seolhwa broke into a cold sweat, unable to take a second sip. Although she was trying to act refined at school following her little sister’s advice… just what kind of image did people have of her?
The pressure made her stomach twist. Ah, this wasn’t going to work. This was too much.
Beginning to panic, she pulled out her smartphone and urgently sent a message to her manager.
Tap tap tap. Maintaining perfect posture, Seolhwa’s fingers flew across the screen. She downed the rest of the espresso in one go, suppressing the urge to vomit, and stood up from her seat.
If she stayed any longer, she wouldn’t be able to keep up the act. Having made that decision, she practically fled the café in a hurry. The bitter taste refused to leave her mouth, and she felt like crying.
“She must be busy…”
“Looks like she had plans to meet someone.”
“M-maybe a boyfriend?”
“Probably some incredibly rich and handsome guy… Like a second-generation chaebol or something.”
From an outside perspective, it probably just looked like something urgent had come up. The two girls continued chatting without feeling any particular sense of incongruity.
After all, Seolhwa was the very picture of a cold ice princess. No matter how imaginative high school girls were, they could never have guessed that she had forced herself to drink an unwanted espresso just to show off her refined image.
The café grew quiet again, as if the brief storm had passed. The bob-haired girl, who had been staring blankly out the window, muttered enviously.
“Hey… should I transfer to your school?”
“Your motives are way too impure…”
Considering she had been the one doubting the existence of the Trinity just minutes ago, her reason for wanting to transfer was extremely impure indeed.