She Took the Bait
The name on Shin Mi-yun's reservation list: Baek A-jeong.
She was a rookie under the major agency TNB Entertainment, an actress the company was pushing hard.
You could always tell how hard a company was pushing someone by the rank of the manager stuck to their side.
Nobodies wandered around alone with no manager at all, and never even dreamed of walking into a salon this exclusive. Actresses who got a little attention at least had a road manager trailing them. And for someone the company was truly investing in—someone like A-jeong—you got a team-leader-level manager.
The man assigned to A-jeong was Team Leader No Hak-gyu.
A capable veteran with deep roots in the industry, and a familiar face at Neulsoop as well.
That was why Shin Mi-yun figured she could slot A-jeong into the VIP tier.
Her backing is solid.
TNB was a major corporate entertainment company. If it meant developing an actress they were pushing, burning through one or two million won on a massage was nothing to them.
And A-jeong had one fatal shortcoming.
She said she can't lose the weight.
A baby face paired with massive breasts—for the average man, that combination was pure kryptonite. A-jeong had been born with exactly that look, but unfortunately the charm only worked in person. It did not translate to the camera.
There was a reason idols dieted themselves half to death. There was a reason even genuinely beautiful actresses all seemed to share the same rail-thin frame.
To look good on screen, slimness always beat volume.
By that measure, Baek A-jeong's body was a liability for an actress.
If I introduce Baek A-jeong, I can get that massage again…
It was essential—for the hip lift that had been her complex. And for the chance to feel those intoxicating hands on her body one more time…
When A-jeong's turn came, Mi-yun worked slowly through her hair and launched into her pitch.
"You said it's an interview today, right?"
"Y-yes…"
"Where's the interview?"
"A women's magazine. Oliang…"
"Ahh, Oliang. Their readers run a little older, don't they?"
"Y-yes, that's right… So Team Leader said to go with an elegant concept…"
Baek A-jeong had a timid personality and spoke slowly. Still, she answered everything she was asked, so keeping the small talk going wasn't difficult.
"Ooh, an elegant concept? That'll suit you."
"R-really…?"
"How about we pull the back up and braid it on a diagonal, let it fall like this—leave a few loose strands on this side."
"P-please do…"
"But if we style the hair like this, the outfit really needs to open wide through the shoulders."
"The shoulders?"
"Here. Up to here."
"Uuh…"
Mi-yun pointed to the tip of A-jeong's shoulder as she spoke. A neckline cut that wide would inevitably bare the collarbones and the tops of the shoulders.
With A-jeong's glamorous build, her collarbones weren't especially defined, and the line from shoulder into upper arm was on the plump side for a celebrity.
Exposing that would be hard for her.
Which was exactly what Mi-yun was counting on.
"What is it? Nervous?"
"Y-yes… Clothes cut that low are…"
"What's wrong with it? You look gorgeous."
"I just… can't lose the weight. Up to the shoulders is a little…"
"Aigoo. You should lean on the company and get them to throw some real support your way."
"I do go to PT regularly…"
"Not PT. Things like meridians work, massage—you know."
"Meridians…?"
Baek A-jeong's eyes went round as she asked.
That rabbit face on a body that glamorous. No matter how you looked at it, it was cheating.
Shin Mi-yun was dying of envy even as she kept working the sales pitch.
"Just getting a good massage can completely change how you look on camera. You know how you wake up puffy if you eat something at night and go straight to sleep?"
"Y-yes…"
"That's you, A-jeong. You're walking around with swelling all the time. Just get the fluid out and you'd look so much better."
"R-really?"
"Of course. Look at me. After my massage, my neck and shoulder line completely changed."
Shin Mi-yun deliberately tugged her shirt down over one shoulder, showing off her trapezius and collarbone.
Compared to her old skinny frame, her traps had once sat too high and bulky. Haun's massage had erased them; now she boasted a slender, elegant neckline.
"I used to have this whole ridge sticking up right here. But look. Perfect right angle now, right?"
"Waaah… Unnie, your collarbones are so pretty…"
A-jeong murmured it almost to herself, clearly envious of Mi-yun's transformation.
Mi-yun smiled and pressed on.
"It's a massage clinic I went to not long ago, and they're genuinely incredible. They usually only take VIP clients, but… hang on, where did I put the card."
She had spent years peddling essences, hair treatments, scalp-care products—every kind of upsell—to her clients. Selling salon-linked products counted toward her incentives, after all.
And the people who came here were already prepared to spend serious money on beauty. Recommending a massage that actually helped was nothing.
"Here. Noir Clinic. This one."
"…Huh?"
The moment she handed over the card, Baek A-jeong murmured as if she'd seen it somewhere before.
"This is… the place with the really handsome guy as the director…"
"Huh? You know it?"
Mi-yun faltered for a second.
Haun had said he only took VIPs—had he already locked down clients from TNB Entertainment?
But A-jeong's next words put her at ease.
"A few days ago Team Leader exchanged cards with him here. He tried to scout him, but…"
"Ah, that day. The first day Haun-ssaem came in. Right, same day."
"You call him Haun-ssaem?"
"Yeah. He's the director. Of Noir Clinic."
"Ahh…"
"Insanely handsome, right?"
"……Yes."
A-jeong dropped her gaze, a small smile touching her lips.
Mi-yun understood exactly what she was feeling.
Haun's face alone was enough to set a woman's heart racing.
Which only made reeling her in with the massage that much easier.
"You should try it once. It's normally a private clinic that only does VIPs, but it looks like they're taking on more clients while they expand the business. Perfect timing, right?"
"Is it…?"
"Of course. The results are unreal, I'm telling you."
Baek A-jeong was all but sold.
But every won she spent on a massage would come out of TNB Entertainment's budget. Her own willingness mattered—but so did the company's. And the man who moved that needle was Team Leader No Hak-gyu.
No Hak-gyu is picky, though…
A man who took managing his talent deadly seriously. The kind of person sales pitches bounced right off.
But this wasn't a sales pitch. Shin Mi-yun had felt the results herself, hadn't she? All she had to do was make him feel them too.
Right on cue, Team Leader No Hak-gyu walked in, glancing at his watch.
"Still not done?"
"Almost finished. Be careful not to let the back come loose, and if you can, wear something that shows plenty of neckline."
"Well, that's the stylist's job."
No Hak-gyu clearly did not appreciate Mi-yun weighing in on the wardrobe.
He already knew the problem with the rookie actress he managed: an upper body that was simply too voluptuous.
Shin Mi-yun nodded and kept going.
"It's the shoulders and arms, right?"
"You know that and you're still telling her to show her neckline?"
"The more you cover it, the bulkier it looks. If you're that worried, you should have put her in massage a long time ago."
"Massage?"
"I heard you got a card too, sir. Noir Clinic."
"Noir?…… Ah. That guy from then?"
He frowned, searching his memory, then gave a small nod of recognition and turned back to Shin Mi-yun.
"Tsk. That face belongs in entertainment, not beauty…"
"No. Beauty is exactly where he belongs."
"And how would the Deputy Rep know that?"
"Because I tried it. The results hit like a truck."
"You tried it?"
No Hak-gyu looked at Shin Mi-yun with the startled expression of a man wondering what on earth had possessed her to trust something like that.
As far as he was concerned, a young male beauty-clinic director he'd never met before was not someone you handed your trust to lightly.
But Shin Mi-yun had a way to make him believe.
"Team Leader No. Do I look any different to you?"
"I wouldn't know."
"My shoulder line—and here. Hip lift!"
Shin Mi-yun deliberately stuck her hips out toward No Hak-gyu. He had seen her often enough to know exactly how stick-thin she used to be.
Suddenly thrusting a newly attractive pair of hips right at him was not something a man could take in stride.
"Uh—uhh…"
"Want to know what I heard this morning? That I must have gotten butt implants. But look. Do these look like implants to you?"
"Ahem, ahem…! Th-that's…"
"Go on, touch them. Here."
The only reason Shin Mi-yun could brazenly tell him to touch was No Hak-gyu's reputation. Whether in his private life or his work, he was known for keeping things clean. She was certain a man like that wouldn't get any filthy ideas from one touch over clothing.
And she was right.
"Hrmm…"
Using only his thumb and index finger, No Hak-gyu gave her hip the lightest tap, then nodded.
"It's real."
"Right!? All thanks to Haun-ssaem's massage, I'm telling you. Just try it once—call it a leap of faith."
"Massage… meridians…"
No Hak-gyu looked at Baek A-jeong sitting in front of the mirror. Those permanently hunched shoulders, as if she had no confidence in herself—shoulders that were already round, curled even tighter until they looked plump.
If they could just fix that… With that thought, No Hak-gyu made his decision.
"All right. It's the Deputy Rep's recommendation. We'll try it once. But…"
Ding-dong—
Click!
"C-come in…!"
"Hello, A-jeong-ssi. Good to see you again."
"Y-yes… hello…"
The bait named Shin Mi-yun had done its job.
I had reeled in the big catch named Baek A-jeong.
The face that peeked out as she opened the apartment door, shyly dipping her head, looked pure and innocent. Big eyes cast down, small lips working as she spoke—she really did look like a rabbit, or maybe a squirrel.
But the body underneath was pure, unfiltered volume. Even buried under a loose knit sweater, the sheer bulk of her chest was impossible to miss.
G-cup minimum.
Just thinking about running my hands over every inch of her with the Lust Arts sent blood rushing south.
There was just one problem.
"Hello, Jeong Haun-ssi."
"Yes, hello."
"Good to see you again. Team Leader No Hak-gyu."
The man who stepped out of the living room—Team Leader No Hak-gyu of TNB Entertainment.
"Ah, don't get the wrong idea. If I'm going to expense this through the company, I need to report what kind of therapy it actually was. That's why I'm here. You don't mind if I stay, do you?"
"No, that's fine."
It was not fine.
It was extremely, spectacularly not fine.
With that bastard in the house, there was almost nothing I could do.
But I had no choice right now.
All I could do was erase his suspicions somehow and work my way in slowly.
Get her worked up and harvest inner energy… while her manager is sitting right there…
A high-difficulty mission had just dropped in my lap.