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Chapter 156: Airport Photos
Translator: Enuma ID
6 a.m.
It was still too early for most activity, but the airport was bustling.
Incheon Airport. With its workers and the crowds swarming in to catch their flights, the place hardly looked relaxed just because it was 6 a.m. on a weekday.
"They should be showing up any minute now, right?"
Ẃёb̄ń_о v́él̊ E ń ù m а
"Isn't that black van over there?"
"Looks like it."
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And there at Incheon Airport, having come out to claim a good spot for taking photos, entertainment reporter Lee Dae-ho listened to the noisy commotion around him and got ready to raise his camera.
'Ugh, with my seniority do I really still have to come out and shoot airport photos like this?'
Among reporters, there were certain beats that simply couldn't be separated from the airport, and those were the sports and entertainment desks.
To get even a single line of an interview, even one photo, a reporter was destined to schlep all the way out to the airport.
En̈ u ḿ_ȧ
Lately, entertainment reporters in particular had been making more and more airport runs to photograph idols, whose overseas activities had grown noticeably frequent.
[EXY Departs for China Fan Meeting]
(Photos of the EXY members departing)
↳seriously SY works our kids way too hard
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
↳they finish their Korean promotions and go straight into overseas stuff with no break at all??
↳you can tell from their eyes how exhausted they are
E̊ ṅŭ m ӑ
↳still, those casual outfit pics are cleansing my soul...
↳the kids really dress so clean and sharp
↳which brand is the outfit Yuhyun's wearing??
Maybe it was because, unlike on broadcasts, fans could see their favorite idols in everyday clothes.
Idol fans had a particular love for photos taken at the airport.
Thanks to that, clocking in at the airport to satisfy those readers' needs had somewhere along the way become routine for entertainment reporters.
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-Yes, this Wednesday, 6 a.m. arrival at the airport. We're counting on you, reporter.
On top of that, since even one extra line of coverage about their own group was a good thing for an agency, agencies tipped off the reporters they were friendly with about departure schedules.
Asia Star News, where Dae-ho worked, was also on good terms with KJ Entertainment, or more precisely with KJ Media, so they'd gotten the heads-up and Dae-ho was out today to photograph Iam's departure.
But,
"Ah, stop shoving!"
"We have to take photos too! Get out of the way, you old geezers!"
Е̊ n̄úm ӑ. і̌ d̆
"Hey, we're reporters here!"
"We came to shoot the kids too!"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Contrary to what one might expect, photographing celebrities at the airport was no easy task.
For one, you had to compete with your fellow reporters to claim a spot, all for a slightly better photo and the off chance of grabbing a single quote.
And it wasn't just entertainment reporters; sasaeng fans and Fansite Masters who trailed the idols would figure out their schedules and show up to take photos too, so the whole thing routinely turned into a madhouse.
"What's going on, why are they blocking the way?"
Wěḃñ о v̀ ѐ l̂ Еn̆u̇ṁa
"So annoying."
"Who's coming this time?"
Because of all this, such scenes had become frequent enough lately that people were even calling it an airport nuisance, and the ones suffering for it were the ordinary airport users.
"They're here!!!"
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And so Dae-ho, wedged between reporters and fans and desperately waiting for Iam to arrive, finally spotted a single black van pulling up at the departure gate number the agency had given him, and immediately raised his camera.
'Getting a decent casual outfit shot of Iam is tough, though.'
Ëńu m̊ ă
But Dae-ho wasn't expecting much today.
After all, Iam's everyday fashion was famously a disaster.
[Si-on Si-on please... I'm begging you, wear something cute]
(A photo of Lee Si-on in pajama pants and a hood pulled over her head, paying for a cola at a convenience store)
↳is that one pair of pants her security blanket or what?
↳why is every single candid of Lee Si-on's casual clothes, from Idol Ground 100 till now, always those same outfits??
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↳I'm losing it, is she allowed to keep going out like that just because she somehow still pulls it off?
↳KJ do you guys not manage your idols??
↳stylist, do your JOB!
For starters, Lee Si-on was famous for haunting the convenience stores and restaurants near the dorm in the same outfit every time.
By now those fuzzy pink pajama pants Lee Si-on always had on were practically her trademark.
She'd worn them so much that the knees and the seat had gone shiny, and the pants had earned the glorious honor of being crowned the No. 1 item of Lee Si-on's wardrobe that fans most wanted to rip to shreds.
Èń umа̄
What made it even worse was,
-Ryu A-yeon why do you have those legs for days and wear nothing but sweatsuits every single day!
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-Shin-yu... everything else is fine, but could you please not wear that I Love Jeju T-shirt?
-Somebody please smash those fucking glasses!!! Ryu-jin where on earth did you even buy those glasses?
-Yuri's a princess, sure, go ahead and wear the frilly dress, the more I look the prettier it seems to be.
that the rest of the members had a fashion sense not all that different from Lee Si-on's.
Е ṅu.m̄ а
If there was any hope at all, it was,
[Ga-hyun are you trying to kill me?]
(A photo of Lee Ga-hyun in a chic outfit, taken at a cafe)
↳the vibes are insane, she looks like an actress not an idol
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
↳Lee Ga-hyun's tall and has those clean, striking features so clothes really suit her
↳she looks like a career woman out of a drama
Ŵ е̂ bń о̀ v̇ě l̄ Е̂ num̃.a
↳isn't that because her actual age is the closest to a career woman's?
↳address please
↳is what I was about to say
[Yun-kyung has amazing casual fashion sense]
「She dresses exactly right for her age, and the brands and the way she puts them together are so good
I'm a middle school teacher and lately the kids have been copying Yun-kyung's outfits hard」
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↳she mixes expensive brands with cheap stuff and it looks natural
↳it's not too simple and not too much, so it feels easy to copy
↳she uses accessories really well too
↳how is it that the only ones in Iam who dress like normal people are the maknae and the eldest!
↳do opposites meet at the extremes or something?
Lee Ga-hyun and Lim Yun-kyung had casual fashion sense good enough to rank not just within Iam but among celebrities in general, and that was Iam fans' only hope.
Е ńũ mа .іd̄
'If they reject these again saying they're no good, I swear I'm handing in my resignation.'
Online newspapers, especially the entertainment ones, generally couldn't afford to get on the bad side of the agencies.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
For that reason, badly turned-out photos of celebrities usually didn't get posted, so when Dae-ho imagined the Iam members showing up in a mess of casual clothes and the resulting photos being unusable, that thought alone was enough to horrify him.
But,
Click! Click!!
"What the, the Iam members are killing it today?"
Е̃ n̂ úm̂a . ї d
"This is crazy... it's not even the year-end awards, and they put this much effort into their outfits?"
"Wow, they're seriously gorgeous, aren't these basically actress-level?"
"Holy... the editor-in-chief's going to be grinning ear to ear."
"Shoot!!! I don't care if my camera runs out of storage today, shoot everything!!!"
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Looking at the seven girls who climbed out of the van, Dae-ho was at a loss for words and could only press the shutter in a daze.
The Iam members had each stepped out in clothes perfectly suited to her image.
Ě n̂ um̈ a
Lee Ga-hyun was in a chic-look suit, and beside her Seo Ryu-jin was in a cardigan and skirt.
Ryu A-yeon wore a cardigan slightly different from Seo Ryu-jin's, paired with jeans, and Geum Shin-yu wore a shirt and black slacks.
As for Yuri, she was in a blazer and jeans, completely unlike the flowing outfits she usually wore, and Yun-kyung had on a clean collared T-shirt and a cute skirt.
And last to step out of the van was Lee Si-on.
"...."
A sudden silence rolled over the departure hall, where moments ago people had been practically shouting as they photographed the members who'd gotten out first.
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Tap.
A long, black jacket accented by striking white-line trim.
Underneath it, Lee Si-on wore a neatly buttoned white shirt, and on the bottom a light-gray miniskirt.
As Lee Si-on stepped down in clothes that looked like office wear and casual outing wear all at once, the gathered reporters and fans could only stare just as blankly.
[Isn't Lee Si-on top-tier even among actresses, not just idols?]
(A photo of Lee Si-on in a uniform, saluting on the final-round performance of Idol Ground 100)
Ё ň uṁ ӓ
「She's obviously the top among idols, and personally I think Lee Si-on is the prettiest out of all celebrities, period」
↳have you not seen photos with idols and actresses in the same frame?
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↳even the idols people call the best can't measure up to actresses
↳I feel like Lee Si-on could pull it off though
↳that's all because of stage lighting and the costume
↳fr, see actors in person and you've got nothing to say
E_n u m̆а
↳idol stans constantly comparing idols to actors is hilarious, why don't they know their place?
Lee Si-on's looks had been famous since before debut, back during Idol Ground 100.
-Who's that blue-eyed girl on Idol Ground 100?
Since Lee Si-on had been blessed with looks that stood out even among the hundred trainees gathered on Idol Ground 100, she'd drawn people's attention on appearance alone.
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And now, with Idol Ground 100 over and her debut behind her, she was unanimously rated as having the best visuals among idols.
Except,
Еn̄um̄ а̃
-Kyeeek.
with her constantly spouting Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Legend of the Valley out of her mouth and stirring up some incident with every move she made, the public had somewhere along the line come to focus more on Lee Si-on's personality and behavior than on her looks.
On top of that, since she barely bothered with her appearance off stage, people had yet to see Lee Si-on properly dressed up, only ever in stage costumes or stage makeup.
-I bet Lee Si-on would be no joke if she actually dressed up, right?
Why else would fans have started making plans to give her clothes as a Fan tribute for Lee Si-on's birthday, now not far off?
The wish of fans who'd been praying so earnestly to see Lee Si-on properly done up just once.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Today, it was coming true.
'This goes beyond top-actress level!'
Dae-ho thought to himself as he watched Lee Si-on climb out of the van and walk over little by little to join the members.
Thom Browne.
All the Iam members were beautiful in their outfits from a famous brand even Dae-ho knew well, but Lee Si-on was on a different plane entirely.
Lee Dae-ho was being hit by a bigger shock than the one he'd felt at a past film festival when he'd seen Kim Hee-su, the top actress currently rated the most beautiful in all of Korea.
Еn̈ ú m̄ а́ . i̊ d̈
What words could possibly capture this?
When the photos he'd just taken went public, how would the people who saw them react?
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Would anyone still be able to say that idols couldn't match actresses on looks?
As all sorts of thoughts crisscrossed through Dae-ho's mind, Lee Si-on had at some point taken her place among the members.
Click!
Whoaaaaa!!!
Eṅũm̄а_
The moment Lee Si-on stood among the members and completed the picture that was Iam, only two sounds could be heard.
Cheers and the click of shutters.
It was as fervent an atmosphere as if they'd come to a concert venue.
Smoothly.
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And as if answering those cheers, Lee Si-on, who'd been standing in the lineup, began to step toward the reporters and fans little by little.
Soon Lee Si-on had drawn right up close.
Ė ń_um̄ а́
When people, marveling and dumbstruck at a face even more unbelievable up close, lost themselves in admiration, Lee Si-on looked at them and let a slight smile show.
'Unreal. This is a jackpot! If I hadn't come today I'd have regretted it for the rest of my life.'
Then, after sweeping a single glance over the reporters and fans, Lee Si-on finally opened her mouth.
"All personnel, one step back!"
***
"Feel free to shoot all you like here."
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"The backdrop here is kind of a letdown, though...."
"Now, now, the airport belongs to everyone, so if we do that here other people get inconvenienced."
"All right. But strike a pose for us, then!"
"Okay, pose, here it comes!"
I never imagined this many people would be crowding the airport.
Today was the day our collaboration with Thom Browne would be unveiled for the first time, so the order was that we had to prepare properly, which meant going to the salon at dawn for hair and makeup before arriving at the airport early in the morning.
Ẇеbň о̇ vе̌ l̂ Е̇ṅ û m̆а̂
For the outfits, Thom Browne had even sent over a coordinator specially for today, so all the members and I had to do was put on whatever we were told to.
-We've gotten this dressed up to come out, so it'd be so embarrassing if nobody showed.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
-Still, the company probably called the reporters, right?
-But in these clothes, we really do look like celebrities.
In outfits totally unlike what we usually wore, and with proper everyday makeup instead of stage makeup, the members felt completely different from usual.
-Si-on, you look absolutely incredible!
Е̂ num̂ а̄ . i d
I felt awkward in this getup, so I wasn't thrilled about it, but with everyone from the salon hairdressers to the company staff making a fuss over how pretty I looked, I decided to just go with it.
So once all the prep was finished and we got to the airport and climbed out of the van, there were dozens, no, easily a hundred people who'd been waiting for us in the crowd.
The camera flashes and shutters going off without pause made it hard to even keep my eyes open properly.
It seemed not just reporters but our fans too had swarmed in, and the area around the departure gate looked like an absolute war zone.
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-Who on earth showed up to be blocking the way like this?
I could hear the grumbling of airport passengers coming from amid the reporters and fans cheering at the sight of us.
Е̂ ṅ.ŭ m̈ a
This spot we were in was clearly a place other passengers used too, so it was plain as day that staying here would cause a lot of trouble for people.
-Oppa, why are we taking photos here?
-Uh... well, the thing is, all the other groups shoot here too, and the photos just come out better, I guess?
-Hmm....
I wasn't terribly satisfied.
When I asked manager Yun-sik why we'd go out of our way to take photos in such a chaotic spot and got nothing more than "the photos come out better" and "the other groups shoot here too", I thought, no, this isn't right.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
So without hesitation I walked over to the reporters and fans.
-Going that close is dangerous!
Seeing me do that, Yun-sik and Ji-woo tried to stop me in alarm, but I wasn't the least bit nervous.
If by chance some idiot came at me like that time in Myeongdong, all I'd have to do was knock him flat, wouldn't I?
And in fact, nobody charged at me.
-It's a nuisance here, so let's all go somewhere else to take photos.
Ӗnǔm̊ а
And so I led the reporters and fans to a comparatively quieter spot in the airport.
At first a few reporters grumbled, asking why we couldn't just shoot here and had to move at all, but when I looked at them quietly, they avoided my eyes and obediently followed me along.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Of course, leaving it at that might let the reporters' complaints fester, so once we'd moved I took poses just as they wanted and let them photograph me.
"Iam, is this trip to the U.S. purely for filming a music video?"
"I don't really know the details, but maybe the company will treat us to some sightseeing while we're over in the States?"
"Did you hear anything?"
Е̂ňú m̌ а̂
"No, but if not, I'm planning to sneak out at night and wander around anyway."
"Lee Si-on, escaping the company's shackles... okay."
I also gave a bit of an interview to the reporters who'd followed my instructions so well.
"Si-on, you're so pretty today!!!"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Xie xie. Arigatou, Yours."
I had to go up to the fans who'd come all the way to the airport to see us, sign autographs, and provide fan service.
Е̄ ñ u m̊ а̃
The members and I were all caught by fans, each of us having our own ordeal.
They'd swarmed the airport and thrown us off, but in the end these were fans who'd come all the way out here just to see us, so I couldn't treat them carelessly.
"Everyone, please hand your letters to us."
"You could get hurt if you push, so please follow the crowd control!"
At least managers Yun-sik and Ji-woo were doing their best to control the fans and protect us somehow.
Worried that an accident might happen at this rate, I had no choice but to step in once again.
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"I'm not going to run off anywhere, so everyone keep order!"
"Si-on!!! Here's a letter and a gift, please take them!"
"Take the gift home and give it to your parents. I'll gratefully accept just the letter."
"But I want to give you the gift too...."
"Now then! Are you trying to make me out to be a person with no sense of decency?"
"Okay...."
W e b n̈ о̂vеl̆ Е́ nũ m̃ а̄_
"Instead, let's take a photo together!"
"Really?! Thank you!!!"
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I gave autographs and took photos with each and every fan who'd surrounded us, and some fans had brought obviously expensive, high-priced gifts, which I politely sent back.
'Who am I? The monster idol who pulled in seventy million won in a single quarter, that's who.'
If I accepted a gift, I figured other fans who saw it might later strain themselves to bring pricey gifts of their own, which would be a problem.
Seeing not just me but the other members too accept only the letters and refuse every gift, I felt unexpectedly proud.
Е́ nu̇ḿа̂
'So this is why they said we had to get to the airport early?'
Raon PD had said we needed to hurry far ahead of the flight time and got us ready from dawn, which had nudged my coup-meter up a little, but now it made a bit more sense.
It was only after we'd kept the reporters and fans satisfied for a good while that we could finally go through departure procedures.
"Oho, so this is the airport lounge?!"
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Thanks to the company booking business class seats for our members, we got to use the airport lounge to our hearts' content, resting and waiting for the flight.
When it comes to downtime, a smartphone is, of course, essential.
W̊еb n̆ӧ v̆ ӗ l̃ Е n̄ ü m ӑ.
Like always, I pulled out my phone and went to the portal site's main page, eager to see what exciting incident might have blown up today.
But what was up there was the very photos of us that had just been taken at the airport.
*****
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