Chapter 61
They’ve broken.
The sight of the girls who’d tried so hard not to break finally crumbling was so heartbreaking that even I let out a sigh.
I’m going to cry.
I am.
“Girls.”
“Gah! Oh, hello, Team Leader Kim.”
The moment I showed up, all three girls jumped to their feet in surprise and greeted me.
“It’s fine. It’s fine. Just relax.”
“No. Still…”
The Oasis girls fidgeted anxiously, watching my face.
Seeing them like this again after so long, I let out another sigh.
[Mina, A+]
[Lee So-ra, A]
[Serina, B+]
Good grief.
At the last monthly evaluation, Mina had been S, and I’d clearly seen Lee So-ra and Serina reach A+.
How had they fallen this far already?
I realized that our girls only maintained their grades because they fought tooth and nail every single day.
Looking at the Oasis girls made that clear.
“We… even if nobody else does, we can’t face you, Team Leader.”
“Huh?”
Wondering what she meant, I looked at them.
Mina, as their leader, bit her lip hard and answered as if she had no right to ask for anything.
“We asked you to give up the composer, too. We said we’d work hard, but look at us now. At this rate, we might not even be able to debut.”
“If we can’t debut… sniff. Sob…”
“What are we supposed to do now? Waaah! What are we supposed to do?”
The Oasis girls had been trainees for four or five years on average.
Even though things were better than they used to be,
trainees were still a little naive and foolish compared to other people, since they’d spent their lives focused solely on debuting as idols.
There was probably nothing more frightening than having their debut fall through after making it this far.
Even though they tried to force a cheerful smile,
even though they knew they should practice for even one more minute to improve their odds by even a little,
they were so despairing and scared that their bodies wouldn’t listen to them.
‘Good grief. They’re only twenty, and they’re already in such a pitiful state.’
Like I’d said before,
if they’d lived ordinary lives outside this place, they’d have been treated like the most popular girls at school in middle and high school, the kind who stood out wherever they went.
And even in college, they’d have been able to enjoy themselves no matter what they did.
But they’d spent four or five years chasing just one dream of becoming idols, barely having any fun, dancing and singing here until their spirits broke.
This wasn’t something ordinary people could easily understand.
Even after working as a manager for three years, there were still parts of it I couldn’t fully understand.
‘Nobel.’
[Yes, Master.]
‘Your power isn’t limited to the Always girls, is it?’
[Of course not.]
[I’ve never said anything like that in the first place.]
[I simply show you everyone’s talent grades fairly,]
[and gave you the Blessing of Sex. How you use it is entirely up to you. That’s what God wants to see, too.]
[That’s what makes it interesting.]
[I want to see what the other person does with this power, and what’s in their heart when they use it.]
I see.
Honestly, I knew I wasn’t all that good a person.
But…
It wasn’t just because of the conversation I’d had with Cheon Tae-o.
I genuinely wanted to nurture the Oasis girls, too.
“All right, all right. Don’t cry. Let’s stop now. Stop!”
“Hnnng!”
As I wiped away the Oasis girls’ tears and runny noses, I patted their heads and said,
“You girls know the song Lost Stars? I really love that song.”
It was actually a song I used to listen to whenever I felt like quitting my job.
“I know it. I got into the trainee program after auditioning with that song.”
“Sing it for me.”
“Okay.”
Trainees really were born different from other people.
They did whatever you told them to right away.
“God, tell us the reason…… Sob. S-sob…”
Dear God.
Tell us the reason.
Why do young people waste their youth?
I didn’t particularly know the true meaning behind the song.
Still…
“You’re just lost sheep who haven’t found your way yet. You’re young enough. You’ve got plenty of energy. And you’re plenty talented.”
“Waaah!”
As the girls all rushed over and smeared tears and snot all over my expensive suit, I stroked their heads and said,
“You’re plenty charming, too. If that stupid, ill-tempered team leader can’t make it happen, I’ll find a way to make you successful myself. So don’t worry too much.”
“Waaah! Waaah!”
“Imagine how sad your parents would be if they saw you like this. They sent you here for years, hardly able to go to school or make friends, practicing until the soles of your feet were raw, all so you could become an idol.”
“I feel so bad for my mom and dad that I can’t even call them. What if we fail like this? I mean, we’ve already failed… Sob.”
“Don’t worry. Don’t worry. What parent in this world doesn’t love their child? Even if you failed, your parents would’ve welcomed you back with smiles. You’re still kids to me, even at your age. How much more so to your parents?”
“Sniff.”
“Stop crying. Hey, my parents still call me a baby sometimes when we talk on the phone. It’s embarrassing as hell.”
The girls who’d been crying suddenly burst out laughing.
“If you laugh while crying, you’ll grow hair on your butt. Ahem! Well, I shouldn’t say that to idols.”
“Who cares? We’re all adults, too.”
“Now, now. No.”
They seemed to have calmed down a bit.
Isn’t it fascinating?
Just changing their mindset seemed to make the girls shine again.
Their grades on Nobel’s readout hadn’t changed or anything, though.
When you looked at it this way, maybe the status window wasn’t everything.
“For now, the biggest problem is that you still haven’t gotten a song to use for your debut. But don’t worry too much about that. The only way a delayed debut turns into no debut at all is if the company goes under, and this company’s about to become a huge corporation beyond anything you can imagine.”
“Thanks to the Always unnies, right?”
“That’s right.”
“We’ll do more than keep the company on life support. We’ll pave the way for you, too. Take your time and do whatever you want.”
“We will.”
I wasn’t sure how the conversation had gotten to this point.
Was this how parents felt when bragging about their kids?
“Do you girls ever watch our girls practice?”
“We do. And it’s not just us. The Always unnies are always a hot topic among the trainees who are still here.”
“Oh, really?”
What was this feeling?
Hearing them praise my girls made me even more excited and thrilled than hearing praise for myself.
“Girls. Want some konjac jelly?”
“Yes!”
“All right, all right. Eat some, then take your time and tell me about it.”
Like three cats latching onto Churu, they pressed their lips to the konjac jelly and told me all about the Always girls at the company.
“First of all, their looks are insane.”
“Right? They’re gorgeous.”
“At first, people said Hee-ju was the one who needed the most work. But lately her skin’s gotten whiter and smoother, so they say she’s the prettiest one now.”
“She does have a one-of-a-kind charm.”
“And what’s there to say about the others? They’re all so thin you’d think they lived on dew, but they still have curves where it counts.”
“Mm.”
In a way, I knew all about that better than anyone.
I was always touching and fondling them.
Their wrists were so thin they looked like they might snap if I tapped them, but their breasts and hips were pretty voluptuous.
It wasn’t because I fondled and spanked them all the time, was it?
[You can’t rule that out, either.]
[They say a woman’s breasts grow when a man fondles them.]
Gasp.
Was that actually true?
[Maybe that’s why they want to have sex with you even more, Master.]
S-So that’s what it was?
[Just kidding.]
“……?”
[This is hilarious.]
You fucking bitch.
“I think they’re even more amazing because I know what all the trainees here eat. It’s probably nothing but salad at best. How can they work so hard every time without a single complaint?”
“Exactly. It makes no sense. We’re already sick of sparkling water, and they’re not gaining weight, so you’d think they were eating something delicious. But there’s no way anything like that exists.”
I flinched, feeling oddly guilty.
Now that I thought about it, I was starting to understand why the Always girls were so eager to throw themselves at me.
Come to think of it, the most delicious thing they could get was…
My semen?
‘So that’s why they eat it so eagerly.’
Mina continued the story.
“This goes along with what I just said, but it’s not only their looks and figures. Their singing and dancing skills play a part, too. They’re all so good. Until recently, I thought I was still better than Da-young unnie, but I hadn’t seen her for a little while, and now even she’s become exceptional.”
“Uh. Well. There were a lot of twists and turns with that, too.”
To people who only saw her once in a while, Lee Da-young’s skills probably seemed to improve by leaps and bounds every time they saw her.
But during that process, Lee Da-young must’ve shouted the word ‘fuck’ at least a thousand times.
And I couldn’t even count how many times I’d gone to the emergency stairwell with her, holding her hand and soothing her whenever she had a meltdown.
I’d spanked her ass, too.
And sometimes, when she’d demand with a crazed look in her eyes that I choke her, even I got a little scared.
“The results are what matter. The results.”
“W-Well, that’s true.”
“And on top of that, the difficulty of the songs and choreography they practice in the studio every day is a huge topic. Honestly, it’s impossible for other girls to do. Even a lot of the male trainees sprained their ankles trying to copy them.”
“It’s that hard?”
“That hard? What do you mean, that hard? It’s seriously insane! Anyone who’s actually danced knows. They’re always saying, ‘What kind of choreography is that? Was it made to kill people?’”
“Hey, hey, hey. Don’t exaggerate. Don’t exaggerate. It’s just dancing. Just dancing.”
At that, all three Oasis girls exclaimed in unison.
“Ha! This is why people who haven’t tried dancing themselves don’t get it. Other senior artists’ choreography is hard, too. Dance it a few times and you’ll be soaked in sweat. Team Leader, have you ever danced through an entire song? Especially one of Always’s songs?”
“I can’t. I can’t. I can’t dance to begin with. If I were that good, I’d have become an idol myself, you little brats.”
For some reason, whenever we got onto this topic, Always and Oasis were completely united.
“Keep talking. You’ve eaten the konjac jelly, after all. I bought it with my own money. I heard Japanese konjac jelly was famous.”
“It is pretty good.”
One piece of konjac jelly was enough to soften the Oasis girls right up again, and their endless praise of Always continued.
Anyone would think the Always girls had joined the company a few years before them.
“Anyway, they’re just amazing. The choreography and songs are that hard, and even the amount they practice… It feels like I’m watching max-level idols already.”
“Our girls really are pretty amazing.”
“We’re praising the unnies. Why are you the one puffing up with pride, Team Leader?”
“……”
“I’m kidding. We know you’re the one who raised the Always unnies.”
You scared me.
“Okay. That’s enough about that. Let’s get to the point. I have a little time right now, so I was thinking of looking for a composer for you. Is there a genre you want?”
The answer I got was not what I expected.
“Sexy.”
“Huh? No, don’t say that just because you want to succeed or because you’re trying to read my mind. What do you really want?”
“Sex. I mean, sexy.”
“You really want to do a sexy concept?”
I looked at them in disbelief.
The Oasis girls confidently nodded.
“Um. We actually used to hate sexy concepts, too. But we’re adults now, and more than anything, lately we’ve been completely obsessed with them.”
“Y-Yeah.”
“And…”
I scratched my cheek, looking at them as if to ask what was going on.
The girls spoke to me again.
“W-We want to do it with you, Team Leader. Like the unnies do.”
“Do what?”
“S-Sex.”
For a moment, I wondered if I’d heard them right.