Hwang Yeeun, in the Flesh

When the Newbie Guide shoot ended and I got home, I asked my mother a single question.

"Mom, I was just curious. Why do you keep Auntie at such a distance?"

A question about her and Auntie.

At a glance they looked like the usual pair — Mother clinging, Auntie grumbling even as she fussed over her — but the two of them were nothing like that. If I had to name the feeling, it was Auntie quietly trying to close the gap, and Mother holding her off at a polite distance. One old line in particular had snagged in my mind: If you'd been a man, I would have reported you ages ago. So I asked what secret, exactly, she and Auntie were keeping.

"Hm? I keep my distance from Jeongmi?"

Mother turned the question straight back on me, wearing the face of someone hearing a thing for the very first time. I could still see it, though — a thin flicker of fluster underneath. Even a woman once called the greatest actress alive could not lie to her own child.

"It just looked that way. If I imagined it, I'm sorry."

"It looked that way..."

She turned the words over, mouth working, plainly weighing whether this was something you told your daughter. If it put her in a bind, I had no intention of digging any further.

"All right. I'll tell you, too."

She gave it up readily: the secret between her and Auntie.

And that secret was—

"Jeongmi is... actually bisexual."

"...What?"

A secret I had never once imagined. I was more than a little thrown.

"Jeongmi and I..."

Auntie Jeongmi had been Mother's friend since high school, and she had been in love with her at first sight from those same years. Even after Mother debuted as an actress, Jeongmi followed her into the industry and made a name for herself as a stylist, stubborn to the last. I didn't need it spelled out to feel how deeply Auntie Jeongmi had loved her.

Mother, of course, met Father by chance in the middle of her acting life, fell at first sight, and went straight to marriage. They became a couple famous for how well they got along, and Auntie gave up. The wedding was big enough to lead the evening news on all three networks, and their story was famous enough to earn its own television special. Even I, who couldn't care less about romance, heard that old tale and thought I might want a love like it once in my life. Auntie would have had no choice but to let go.

She told Mother she was putting those feelings away. Mother, who had been agonizing over what to do with the relationship, was simply glad they could remain friends — because if Auntie hadn't folded, friendship would have been impossible after that. And later Auntie married and even had a child, so in its way the thing ended happily on both sides.

If anyone asked why I was bringing this up, the answer was simple. The world holds more kinds of people than you expect. I had known that already, of course. There are plenty of gay people overseas, and bisexual people too. But after Mother's story, it occurred to me that such people might be standing right beside me. Mother herself was the proof.

"But Eunha. It isn't enough to watch out for men, you know? The world has more dispositions in it than you'd think."

That those words were neither fussing nor a joke at my expense — I only understood that afterward.

"Um... could I get your number? You're my type..."

If I hadn't heard that story, I would have written her off as some weirdo and moved on. Having heard it, my mind refused to go anywhere else. It didn't help that she looked like Auntie, either. I had no idea when she might lose control again, and I had already felt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the difference in strength clear as day, so the emergency button was already pressed.

"Y-you stay right there! I just called a seriously scary bodyguard, okay? When he gets here—"

Now I only had to hold out until Driver Kwon arrived.

"Miss!"

He got here fast. Then again, the waiting room wasn't far, so of course he could. Still — even with GPS, finding someone is hard unless you're in the same building, isn't it? How high-end was that thing? No. Enough of these pointless thoughts.

"Driver! That person—"

"Eek...?!"

The woman went sharply flustered the moment she saw him. Fair enough. She had probably never laid eyes on a bodyguard with a presence like that. I ducked behind Driver Kwon, solid just to look at, meaning to watch the two of them from safety. Then I stopped.

Why did he look flustered too?

"What... Yeeun, what are you doing here...?"

"Eh?"

"A-and why is Uncle Seonguk here?"

"Eeeh?"

What? Why do these two know each other?

"Well... you see, miss..."

His face said he had no idea where to begin, and the one thing I could read off it was that their relationship was not the kind you explained in a sentence.

"The truth is..."

After a short silence he tried to lay it out. Unfortunately, the woman in front of me — Yeeun — cut him off at once.

"Uncle Seonguk being a bodyguard means... Eunha really is Aunt Hayeon's daughter?"

The thing I most wanted to hear just then got severed mid-breath, but I wasn't angry. Because something even more curious had just appeared.

"W-wait a second. You knew I was Eunha? Fine, I'll grant you that — but Aunt Hayeon?"

Anyone who liked Project A and paid attention to internet broadcasts could know I was Eunha. My face was plastered enormous across the Newbie Guide video on Rioat's official K-tube. She was here at PCK Park, so she had to be tied to Project A, and figuring out who I was wouldn't have been hard.

The problem was what came next. Aunt Hayeon's daughter?

Yoon Hayeon. That was my mother's name — and, at the same time, the actress who had recently retired, judged the most beautiful woman in the country. Because Mother and I look alike, some people do speculate that the actress Yoon Hayeon and I are mother and daughter. Most of it is baseless conspiracy. Afraid of harming Father's company over nothing, I had even lied in reply to donation messages that suspected a tie between him and me. After that stream he hadn't hidden how hurt he was, but he understood why I had answered that way, and he let it rest.

The point was this. I had hidden my family with absolute thoroughness, lying to viewers to do it.

"Well, of course I'd know. You went to that —— salon in Gangnam recently, didn't you?"

A moment ago she had been all polite speech. Just like that, it flipped to something blunt and familiar. Not that I had the attention to spare for the change.

"How do you even know that..."

The only people who knew I had gone to that salon were Driver Kwon, Mother, and Auntie Jeongmi. It would not have leaked from Mother or from him, which left Auntie Jeongmi. And if it had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠come from her side, then this person who knew—

"Wait. No way...?"

"Yeah. My mom runs that place."

She was actually Auntie Jeongmi's daughter?

Faced with a coincidence this absurd, I had no choice but to press a hand to my forehead.

"You have no idea how much Mom talked about Aunt Hayeon's daughter. I always wanted to meet you, and my number-one bias turns out to be her... what a ridiculous coincidence!"

The woman — no, Yeeun — looked at me with sparkling eyes. She eased closer and held out a hand.

"Hey, it's really nice to meet you like this. I'm Hwang Yeeun. Sorry about that scene earlier. Same as Mom, I lose all sense when I see a pretty person... hehe."

I was, of course, still hiding behind Driver Kwon. Take the hand, or ignore it? Still, if she was Auntie Jeongmi's daughter, she was also the daughter of Mother's friend. She was apologizing, and staying hidden didn't feel quite right, so I decided to take it.

"Ah, no, nice to meet you too. I'm Choi Eunha. You already know, but my mother is Yoon Hayeon. My father is... w-wait a second!"

Wait. What is she doing?

"Wow, your hands are incredibly clean. I figured they'd be a little rough if you gamed all day."

Yeeun turned the hand I had offered this way and that, fiddling with it. I caught it and pulled free at once. She hadn't been gripping hard, thankfully, so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it came away easily. Had the handshake only been an excuse to look at my hand? All at once she was frightening again. Was this how Mother had felt? No — worse, for her. In her case it had been a close friend. I could feel, clear as anything, why Mother had said she would have reported her if she had been a man.

"Yeeun... that's enough."

Driver Kwon, unable to watch any longer, stepped in. He had seemed to be weighing how to handle her, given the familiarity between them, but now he had clearly decided.

"Okay, okay. I'll go quietly today. Oh, Eunha! Next time we meet, you call me Unnie Yeeun. Got it?"

"Eh? Me? No."

"Oh... that face just now was incredible too. Every single second of you belongs in a photoshoot, huh?"

"What photoshoot—!"

What kind of cringey nonsense is that?

She looked perfectly normal — honestly, a little pretty — and then she sprayed lines like some kind of pervert, and it was a serious turnoff. Come to think of it, she had called me her number-one bias. Was she one of my viewers, too? The thought brought a sharp wave of revulsion.

"Well, I'll be going. Nice to see you, Uncle Seonguk. Byeee~"

Hwang Yeeun left as meekly as if today were enough, having said only what she wanted right up to the end. Still, if she was leaving quietly, there was nothing more to say.

"Haa... what an exhausting person."

"She wasn't like that before... She's gotten worse."

Right. So Driver Kwon had known Hwang Yeeun from long ago.

"Um, what were you about to say earlier? You seemed to have known that Yeeun person for a long time."

He had been on the verge of telling me, and her talking had buried it before I could properly hear.

"Mm... well."

He said it might turn into a rather long story and suggested I sit. There happened to be a bench in the hallway, so I sat and listened.

"The truth is, before I guarded you, miss, I guarded Madam. Up until about ten years ago."

...

The CL office, fourth floor of PCK Park.

Two women were working inside. One was a tired-looking woman in glasses. The other was Hwang Yeeun, who had been with Eunha only a moment ago.

"So... is this about enough?"

"Yes, thank you for coming all this way. If it weren't for you, Miss Yeeun, we really would have been in trouble..."

The work had originally belonged to the staffer herself, but she often leaned on her acquaintance Hwang Yeeun, and by now she could not manage without her.

"Not at all. If I can help, I should."

Had Hwang Yeeun, manager of a second-division team, come nursing improper motives and demanded anything confidential, the woman would have thrown her out without hesitation. Yeeun asked for nothing. All the staffer felt was gratitude. Of course, if she ever learned that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the reason Hwang Yeeun kept coming here was a little less innocent than it looked, she would have been horrified too.

"By the way, Miss Yeeun, you seem to be in a really good mood today. Did something happy happen?"

To her eye, today's Hwang Yeeun was running at a noticeably higher voltage. Yeeun always smiled, and she was easy to like, but today she looked especially delighted.

"Something happy? Hehe... yes."

Hwang Yeeun closed her eyes for a moment, calling back the meeting with Eunha, and went on.

"I found someone I like. I met them just a little while ago."

Love — from a woman who claimed no interest in romance and, outside of work, had nothing to do with men at all. Her face was so much like a girl fallen into her first love that the staffer quietly decided to cheer her on.

"I hope it works out."

"Thank you."

Her looks were already exceptional, and her credentials were good enough that, if she only set her mind to it, she could land at a conglomerate on the level of H Group. It should not be a difficult thing for her.

It never once occurred to the staffer that the person Hwang Yeeun loved was a woman, the same as she was.