Yoo Jeongyeon was, above all else, a breath of fresh air.
She was so unlike the other eight, and in more ways than one. The others put a lot of thought into their clothes, their makeup, their accessories - Jeongyeon was content simply to roll out of bed and throw on a hoodie and sneakers five minutes before you’d picked her up for her tennis practice. The others were into social media, endorsements from big brands, and what the general public was saying about them in online forums and in the comments - Jeongyeon was more into taking her dogs for walks, volunteering at an animal shelter with her sister, or building lego sets at home.
Moreover, while the others were very much involved in the inter-group rivalry between Nayeon and Chaeyoung - Jeongyeon was more than content to simply watch from afar and let her groupmates battle it out.
“I don’t really have a dog in the fight,” she says, casually, bending to pick up a ball from amongst the dozens on the floor of the private tennis court after you bring up the topic. “Nayeon is one of my best friends, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I think she’s an angel.”
“So knowing what you know about her, it doesn’t swing you over to Chaeyoung’s side?” you ask as you approach her with the bin you were both using to collect the tennis balls. Her tennis instructor had called in sick, and so you’d spent the last couple of hours feeding balls into the automatic serving machine for her to practice her returns.
“No. Like I said, I love Nayeon for who she is. It doesn’t mean I agree with the way she treats Chaeyoung, or for that matter, the way Chaeyoung treats her.”
“Fully neutral, then, huh?”
“Like Switzerland,” she says with a smile and a wink, “unlike you. From those photos it looks like you’re well and truly on Nayeon’s side.”
You sigh as you toss another couple of balls into the bin. The fallout of the leaked photos depicting you and an only half-clothed Nayeon embracing in the hallway of her apartment had been managed relatively well by JYP’s PR department, truth be told. Thankfully none of the photos showed your face, and so JYP staff had put out a statement that you were simply an old family friend who was paying Nayeon a friendly visit. Rumors persisted, but generally it seemed most of the uproar had blown over.
You were fully expecting to be fired from your position as the girls’ pseudo-manager, but it seemed the girls had more than enough pull in the organization to let you keep your job. You wondered if Nayeon or one of the others had stepped in to defend you - you’d have to ask her about it the next time you saw her.
“You know what I was doing there,” you say to Jeongyeon, who has returned to the bin with another armful of tennis balls. She smirks, knowing full well what you meant.
“I’m sure the pussy is great,” she says, nonchalantly. “But you really need to be careful when it comes to getting caught like that. Yes, we’re all women, and yes, women our age are allowed to fuck whoever they want, but given our line of work, we still have to watch out for that kind of thing, you know? It could really hurt our images - and thus our careers.”
“I know. I just think it’s shitty that someone would take those pics with the sole aim of fucking with you girls.”
“Yeah, it’s shitty. I know it’s shitty. The media is shitty, people are shitty. But it comes with the territory.”
“I know. You’re right, Jeongyeon,” you admit. You’d spent little time with Jeongyeon compared to the others, but you’d spent enough time with her to know that she was often the voice of reason in the group. “But in my defense,” you continue, “there was no way I could have known there was paparazzi outside Nayeon and Momo’s apartment, just waiting for the moment to snap a couple of pictures.”
“That’s true,” she replies with a frown. “How did they even get into the building, anyway? It had to have been a resident, or someone let them in.”
“Right? It seems kind of sus that someone would be lurking out in the hallway just waiting for me and Nayeon to run out there.”
The two of you stand there in silence next to the bin of tennis balls, pondering the situation.
“Do you think… it was one of us?” she asks.
The thought that the photographer could have been one of the girls hadn’t occurred to you. But you supposed it was possible that one of the girls who had beef with Nayeon - or at least, was on Chaeyoung’s side, or doing her bidding - could have snapped the photos. Aside from Jeongyeon, who lived with her sister in a separate apartment, all the members lived in the same building, if in different units, so access to that particular hallway wouldn’t have been a problem for any one of them.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” you admit. “Do you think someone snapped those photos and leaked them to start shit with Nayeon?”
“Beats me,” Jeongyeon says with a shrug, although the slight furrow in her brow and the seriousness of her tone hinted at the concern she was hiding behind her casual tone. “Either way, it’s a really shitty thing to do. Nayeon’s been inconsolable. I called her right after the pictures leaked, and she spent an hour just crying on the line. She and Momo and I were supposed to go for dinner yesterday, but the three of us just spent the entire night in her room consoling her. She must’ve thought her career was over.”
Your frown deepens. The last thing you’d wanted was for Nayeon’s career to be affected - especially after she’d spilled her feelings about it to you. You knew what relationship rumors did to an idol’s career.
“Hey, don’t worry about it too much,” Jeongyeon says. “JYP’s got a good PR department. You’ve seen how they’ve handled it. Most of the public seems to have bought the ‘family friend’ story.”
“I suppose,” you agree. “But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a shitty thing to do. I need to find out who was behind it.”
Jeongyeon nods, but doesn’t say anything further. She gazes blankly at the bin of tennis balls, reaching down and grabbing one before turning it around in her hands.
“You like her, don’t you?” she asks.
Caught a little off guard by her question, you can do little more than mumble a “Who?”
“Nayeon. You have feelings for her. You seem awfully concerned about this whole thing.”
“I’m just her manag-… I mean, I’m just a toy for you girls.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I don’t have feelings for Nayeon, Jeongyeon.”
“So Chaeyoung, then? She was the one who picked you out of the crowd, picked you to be our toy. You’ve spent more time with her than with any of us. I see the way you look at each other.”
You take a moment to compose your answer - and Jeongyeon gives you a sly smirk when you look up at her, as though your silence had told her all she needed to know.
“She must’ve been pretty pissed off about the whole thing, huh?” she asks.
“I think so. I tried to reach out to her after the pics leaked, but she wasn’t having me. She was pretty pissed off.” You left out the details, including the choice names Chaeyoung had for Nayeon. It seemed Chaeyoung was perfectly fine with you sleeping with the other girls - but seeing you and Nayeon sharing a more emotionally intimate moment seemed to have struck a chord with her.
Jeongyeon gives you a short nod, her eyes focused on the ball in her hands. After a moment she tosses it into your chest.
“Alright, that’s enough small talk,” she says with a smile. “Now go set up the machine and serve me another set, ball boy.”
—
Jeongyeon, it appeared, was a breath of fresh air in yet another way.
For the most part, the other girls had been relatively similar in terms of the power dynamic when it came to your more intimate duties. A few had bossed you around - at least initially - while some were more submissive. Some were somewhere in between, or happy to switch between the two poles at will or as the session went on. Either way, you never felt like you weren’t in control of the proceedings whenever you were with any of the girls.
But none were quite like Jeongyeon. It was clear right from the very start who was calling the shots.
You were a little nervous when she’d pulled you into the private, secure shower rooms of the upscale indoor tennis facility; not for fear of getting caught, but rather because you’d never been intimate with her before. Despite having worked with them for months, the stars had never quite aligned and you’d never been alone with her for very long, so the opportunity had never presented itself. You figured she’d be like the other girls, and that she’d pull you into the shower with her, you’d fuck, then you’d both go on your merry way.
But instead she made you wait outside her shower door.
She hadn’t even undressed in front of you - she’d instead tossed her sweaty clothes over the closed shower door for you to pick up. And so you spent the next twenty minutes standing there, awkwardly, her sweaty hoodie and leggings in your hands as she showered - although you did make note of the fact that she wasn’t wearing underwear.
At least the shower door was only partially frosted, and its semi-transparent surface had given you a solid view of her soft, curvy body as she cleaned the afternoon’s worth of sweat off herself. Like the other girls, she had been slim and bordering on underweight when she’d debuted - but growing into adulthood had given her a curvier, fuller, more womanly shape than the other girls. Even through the frosted glass the differences were obvious; the other girls were thin sticks compared to Jeongyeon’s full, womanly shape. It was plain to see in her hips, those round thighs, and her long, luxurious legs.
“Towels please,” she says as she nears the end of her shower, “Two of them.” With more enthusiasm than you were expecting you pick up a couple of the luxurious looking towels from the nearby shelf and pass it to her over the shower door.
You find yourself licking your lips at the sight as you watch her dry herself through the frosted panel. Intentionally or not, she turns her back to you as she bends over to dry her legs - presenting you with the silhouette of her found, firm butt as she does so. You feel your lower lip curl under your front tooth at the sight.
She found you still standing there when she finished up, swinging the shower door open in a rush of hot steam and moist air. She stepped through the fog as if by magic, like some fairy creature emerging from the mists - one towel wrapped tight around her torso, the other around her drying hair.
“Enjoyed the show, did you?” she asks, an alluring smirk on her lips.