Team-leader-level manager Oh Hyeonsu was perplexed.
‘She’s not the type to ask for personal favors.’
Even when her ankle was injured and had swollen terribly, she received treatment without a single complaint that it hurt, then performed at the year-end stage the very next day.
Not once since her debut had she ever complained aloud about how hard things were amid the grueling schedule.
That was how professional and mature she was when it came to work.
The same could be seen in the way she treated the staff.
Dohui was always considerate, choosing each word carefully and speaking with proper courtesy.
It was pitiful, too. She seemed like the sort of child who must be exhausted twenty-four hours a day from constantly worrying about everyone around her.
‘She’s probably showing her true self when she’s with the members.’
Once she became close to someone, she had the personality of a child. She was the youngest, after all.
“What kind of favor is it?”
Perhaps for that reason, it was difficult to refuse when a child who normally hid her true feelings in front of adults came to him with a request.
“A personal schedule.”
A personal schedule…
‘I thought there was almost nothing I didn’t know about her.’
Since she was the kind of child who simply fit herself around her schedule and endured, he had assumed she could handle it.
She must have been tired after all.
“You’ve been really tired, haven’t you?”
‘Well, she does have more personal schedules than most of the others…’
Even these days, during their inactive period, she had a schedule practically every other day.
On days without schedules, she had practice and lessons.
Living without a single day of rest was naturally exhausting.
The project group he had previously managed, ‘MonoRush’—
Even the boys, who were in good physical shape, had struggled with it.
There was no way a sixteen-year-old middle-school girl could be fine.
‘I still have a long way to go.’
He had entered the entertainment industry with the single-minded goal of creating the best group.
He felt guilty for still being inadequate when it came to taking care of the members right in front of him.
He had only been managing them in earnest for half a year, but he had been watching over them since the beginning. He had thought he had finally figured out what kind of personality she had.
She was subtly very conscious of other people’s opinions and possessed a strong sense of independence.
In other words, she was quick to read other people’s expressions, but when it came to herself, she simply endured.
‘She must endure even more because she’s the type to lead by example.’
In some ways, she had the perfect temperament for a celebrity, but…
It also meant she could become worn out easily.
‘Fortunately, she occasionally acts out without a care.’
Like her recent ceremonial first pitch.
Or fooling around with the members on television.
‘And it all turned into a good image for her, too.’
Come to think of it, he remembered a text message Dahong had received from Dohui not long ago.
—Manager, please come to the dorm quickly…
Dahong had immediately reported the message to him.
He had rushed to the members’ dormitory, worried that something might really have happened.
—Heheh… I’m your unnie!
But what he encountered at the dorm was Dohui being rolled up in a mat by the other members.
She was probably being punished for the prank she had pulled on a Japanese program.
—Manager, please save me…
Perhaps one of the members had hit her particularly hard.
The sight of Dohui tearing up because she was genuinely in pain came to mind, and a quiet laugh escaped him.
In any case, Dohui hesitantly began to speak.
“No. It’s not that I’m tired from the schedules…”
For someone who was usually overflowing with foolish antics to hesitate like this in front of an adult—
He felt sorry seeing her hide her emotions.
“It’s okay. You can speak comfortably with me. This is what managers are here for.”
Dohui blinked.
She hesitated for a moment, then finally opened her mouth.
“It’s… about Hana unnie.”
“Hana?”
A personal schedule and Hana.
What could the connection be?
Even after racking his brain, he couldn’t think of anything.
“What about Hana? Is something wrong?”
But judging from Dohui’s miserable expression, it was clear that something was going on.
“It’s just that Hana unnie…”
“Yes, what about Hana?”
“She makes me do physical training every day I have off, and it’s killing me… Please give Hana unnie some kind of personal schedule…”
Dohui’s first complaint, utterly unexpected, was—
“Ah.”
Surprisingly, it was nothing more than a very middle-school-girl-like bit of whining.
***
I wondered if I was making something out of nothing.
So with the manager, I deliberately acted childish and spoke indirectly.
‘What I wanted to say was that I wished Hana unnie would get a personal schedule.’
Hana unnie had seemed a little adrift lately.
The other members didn’t seem to have noticed, but—
I could see the shadow on Hana unnie’s face.
I suspected it was probably because of her position and image.
It was obvious when I searched each member’s name and looked at the fan posts that consistently came up.
—That expression is exactly the one kids make right before they cry. So cuteㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Yeeun looks like she’s trying not to cry, she’s seriously so cuteㅋㅋㅋ Dohui’s teasing her from the sideㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ha, Yeeun is love.
—Why is Park Yeeun so freaking cuteㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—It’s hilarious that she’s crying because Dohui stole her side dishㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Elementary school grad VS middle school gradㅋㅋㅋㅋ
The keyword that consistently appeared when searching for Yeeun unnie was ‘cute.’
And not just any kind of cuteness—the cute, pathetic kind.
Yeeun unnie possessed that uniquely distinctive image.
—She’s splitting the beat into nanoscopic pieces when she dances. Wow…
—She dances so damn well.
—I honestly never got moved watching dance performances, but she’s really different.
—She’d probably do well even on one of those survival shows for dancers.
The keyword that appeared most often when searching for Chaerin unnie was ‘dance.’
Chaerin unnie’s dancing ability clearly stood out in Seven, and she was also the member who paid the most attention to detail during choreography practice.
The other members were the same.
Each one had a consistent keyword that appeared at a certain rate in searches.
Sera unnie was associated with her vocal ability, a catlike personality that made it impossible to tell what she was thinking, and her catlike appearance.
Seoyun unnie was known as one of the main vocalists, as well as for her so-called beagle-like personality.
Harang unnie was the main rapper, with a sharp, outgoing personality that likewise gave off strong beagle energy.
And the keywords that appeared when searching for me were—
Visual, piano, center, youngest, …cute.
The team’s most popular member, and so on.
I had a few keywords I wasn’t entirely happy with, but there was no mistaking the image the public associated with me.
But when you searched for Hana unnie—
—Hana doesn’t seem to have any particularly special charm.
—She just has that cute hamster face, but no aegyo.
—Honestly, she’s good at both dancing and singing, but put another way, there’s nothing she’s exceptionally good at, yeah…
—Hana’s just one of those inspirational human-victory stories because she used to be an athlete and came from a single-parent familyㅋㅋ
—Her agency isn’t anything special, either.
Her image was closer to a backstory than a character.
Those were the opinions of people who disliked Hana unnie, of course, but she didn’t have a strong enough impression to refute them.
—Hana’s leader moments ㄷㄷ
The only truly three-dimensional image she had was that of a leader.
In truth, being the leader was a powerful character trait in itself.
But Seven’s contract period was only a year and a half.
At present, it seemed as if our popularity alone could last a lifetime.
But after seeing the members of the project boy group ‘MonoRush’ from my agency living as unremarkable celebrities after disbandment, there was no telling what the future would hold.
So it was only natural that Hana unnie would worry about what came after disbandment.
She needed opportunities to show off her charms.
Moreover, perhaps because she felt burdened after becoming the leader, she tended to focus on controlling the members and neglect her own position.
Therefore, my conclusion was—
Hana unnie needed a ‘personal schedule’ that she could think about for herself.
‘But it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.’
Shock Entertainment’s goal was to squeeze out as much cash as possible during the contract period.
That policy could be confirmed immediately by looking at Seven’s schedule plan.
Five albums to be launched during the short period of a year and a half.
Naturally, the members’ share of the schedule would be packed tight.
Of course, as members, we would earn a fair amount of money.
‘But while planning our current activities, the company won’t have the time to worry about what we’ll do after disbandment.’
In other words, if we wanted to build up our foundations for future activities, we had to take care of it ourselves while managing our schedules.
‘And Hana unnie’s original agency, the one she’d return to after disbandment, isn’t a particularly large company, either.’
That was why I had asked the manager to look after her, even if I had to make the request sound like the immature plea of a little child.
I wanted him to grant the request of his cash cow.
I was working behind the scenes like the Dark Knight.
‘How can I be so kindhearted, too?’
That was the day I came to harbor the wish of pushing aside Naeun unnie someday and taking the position of leader myself.
***
“How about this?”
“…Drinking?”
What kind of nonsense was that?
“Yeah. Wouldn’t drinking alcohol make for good content?”
Never mind the content—you were an idol!
“I don’t think so.”
Perhaps the manager had exerted some influence.
Before long, the agency suggested a personal schedule to Hana unnie.
It was a YouTube variety show.
More specifically, it would be a personal channel under Hana unnie’s name.
The personal schedule had originally been planned simply to develop her position, image, and recognition, but—
If the YouTube channel went well, she could continue it even after disbandment. I felt that things had worked out well.
“Hehe, then what should I do?”
‘Seeing how happy she is, even making that little humming sound, makes me feel proud, too.’
“I don’t think it would be bad for you to host the show, at least to start with.”
She was quite good at hosting things normally, too.
“Really?”
“Yeah. You could invite guests to talk with them, cook the dishes you’re good at for them… Everyone’s doing things like that these days.”
There was no harm in following the trend.
“Come to think of it, the content team mentioned a similar format.”
“But the important thing is the specific concept and how well you can talk.”
“I’m good at talking. But is having a drink really that bad? Isn’t it a good concept?”
Good concept, my foot.
You were an idol, Hana!
“…I guess I should leave out the alcohol, right?”
At least she knew where to draw the line. Perhaps she had the bare minimum of a conscience.
Thinking of Yeeun unnie, who had been subtly attacking me lately without even knowing how grateful she ought to be—
More importantly, YouTube these days was practically on the level of terrestrial broadcasting, so quality would be important.
“Does the company have a production budget for you? What about the production staff?”
There would be no shortage of things that needed careful work, from the subtitles to the editing.
Hana unnie smiled brightly and spoke.
“The company’s content team said they’d help with production.”
Shock Entertainment seemed to be taking this quite seriously.
Well, even if it was a personal channel, the profits would be shared with the company according to the contract, so naturally they’d want it to succeed.
“What about appearance fees for guests? That’ll cost quite a bit, too.”
“Of course I’ve thought of that.”
Swish—
As if she had been waiting for this, Hana unnie took something out of her bag.
The paper she held out to me read:
“Unpaid…?”
“You just have to sign.”
Of course I had been planning to appear for free.
“Unnie, I’m expensive.”
“So what? Hurry up and sign.”
Her fist was far too close for me to keep joking around.
“I’m… expensive…”
Hana unnie gazed at my signature on the contract with a satisfied smile.
“Of course. After all the cooking I’ve done for you, you should at least do this much.”
How much cooking had she actually done for me?
“To begin with, we’ve mostly been ordering delivery lately…”
Hana unnie reached out and clamped a hand over my mouth, then brought her hand down again and pinched my stomach.
Her fingers caught a moderate layer of fat.
“Dohui, you’ve put on some weight, haven’t you?”
Hana unnie’s smile was frightening.
“I’ve gained a little, but it’s just a cute little belly, so it’s adorable, right…?”
It’s not like I was a man. Did I really need to have abs?
“This won’t do. Starting today, let’s manage our diets and work out together.”
I’d done something good…
So why…?