Greedy Chapter 11

# Chapter Eleven - "Walkin' the World"

    Hanarin hurt everyone's ears by shrieking. It wasn't a big deal. Just a little change for a friend of mine. It's just a rinse, so it'll last a few washes at the most. But Hanarin seemed to find it really amusing…

    "So, why are you doing this in our room again? N-Not that we mind much, but you're kind of… You're making a little bit of a mess…"

    "A mess? Sorry! You're kind of the expert on pink, and Tae-Tae wanted to make sure that…"

    "I have my reasons. After all, you're the expert on pink hair. Well, one of them."

    This morning I woke up earlier than normal and invaded the dorm room of two of my friends, Hanarin and Juney. The reason was simple. I was trying to disguise my friend Tae-Eun as Junko, and what better experts on Junko are there than these two?

    We also got one of Tae-Tae's friends on a videocall. I'm not sure that was a *super* nice thing to do, but if there's an expert on Junko outside of this room, then she *would* be it…

    "So, what do you think, Ai?" Carefully, my bestie turned toward the camera and unwrapped the thick cotton towel from around her hair, shaking her long mane loose. Naturally possessing pure white locks, today's plan necessitated a slight change so Tae-Eun could blend in with the crowd - specifically, *my* crowd - and one temporary rinse and dry later Tae-Eun's glorious locks were now a rosy pink color not too different from the shade Ai's face turned within moments of the grand unveiling. It's not exactly Junko's shade - Junko's hair is more orangey-pink, and Tae-Tae's was verging on bubblegum - but with their builds I have to say that it isn't the worst resemblance. "You're the expert. Do I make a convincing Junko? What do you think? Am I gorgeous?"

    "Wh-Why did you… No! D-Don't pretend to be Junko! It's too weird…" Ai's protests quickly devolved into gibberish before she went silent, or perhaps her voice just got too high pitched for us to hear. Unfortunately for her, the authentic article joined the call.

   "Hello, Ai. What do you think? Can she pass as me? I helped her pick out the outfit myself."

    The girl on the other end of the call freaked out, sputtering and choking on her own tongue before hanging up suddenly. I felt a little bad but Tae-Tae had been insistent, and Junko promised to call her once we've left and play nice to make up for it.

  "I think it should work. You just have to get past the front desk, right? If you wear those giant sunglasses then Dam-Bi should be able to sneak you in. There's usually only one guy at the desk." Rinko held up a hand as she spoke, angling it to cover, from her perspective, part of Tae-Eun's face. "Yes, that's perfect! That's totally Junko!"

    "Well that's step one. Step two is getting her into the recording booth without Mr. Ono getting suspicious that something's up. Hopefully he forgets his glasses again today…"

    Today there are two things my bestie and I needed to get done. The easy task was preparing for this afternoon's recording session - which is where Hanarin and Juney's help had come in - by getting my bestie to look the part she would be playing. Tae-Tae had landed on a cute little blue sweater and black skirt that looks marvelous with a pair of chunky heels. The sort of thing it wasn't hard to imagine Junko wearing. Why would Tae-Tae go through so much trouble for little old me? Well, she's my best friend, for one. She also feels really bad for blowing off game night so much lately for various reasons, and this is my way of letting her make it up to me while sneaking in some extra friend time.

    The only thing left is the next task on the agenda: getting Tae-Tae into the I MY ME studio to record my new single with me.

    You see, the problem in a nutshell is that my bestie and I belong to different talent agencies. Normally that's not a huge deal. It's just a regular-sized deal, and one that's easy enough to overcome through favors and connections. Even though there are a lot of idols in the city, there aren't so many that most producers can afford not to play nice at least a little bit, and if someone is going to be the right person for the job - like, say, your best friend having the most perfect voice to sing your backup vocals even better than any of the girls at your agency - it's usually just a matter of scheduling them and promising a little reciprocation in the future. And, if I were still a solo idol I'd have had absolutely no problem picking my own backup, my own photoshoots, and everything else, but now that I'm part of the biggest group of idols in Tokyo, everything's just getting way too… too…

    "Huh. Is Mr. Ono going to be that easy to fool? He's not *that* old. I mean, he's Kazue's father…" Junko painted a bleak picture of our chances of success.

    "Yeah, now that I think about it, you look just like Junko if I squint, but if I don't… Maybe you need more makeup?"

    Still, we aren't going to give up. As a singer I'm an artist, and artists need to stand up for their art! Even if your producer is really scary sometimes.

    "Maybe I can try to impersonate Junko until I'm in the booth. How's this?" Tae-Tae grinned directly at Rinko, who had taken a seat quietly on the edge of her bed since she had last spoken. She let loose her best Junko voice, "Well, if it isn't my cutest friend. Tell me, Rinko darling, are you sure I'm not the spitting image of your best friend? I'm so happy to see you! We should get dinner later, just the two of us. There's so many things I think we should talk about."

    "Ahahaha!" Rinko laughed hard, amused by the impression, though Junko shrunk away a bit from embarrassment. "That's perfect! Do it like that!"

    We can do this…

    I know we can!

    How hard can it be to impersonate one little idol…

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