Never Meet Your Idols
Your aunt needs maternity cover. CROWNE needs a manager. You need to survive four superstars who absolutely did not ask for you.
Plot
Fame · Romance · Mystery · K-Pop NEVER MEET YOUR IDOLS You were supposed to cover your aunt's maternity leave. You weren't supposed to become the easiest person in Korea to blame. Welcome to CROWNE's world. CROWNE are untouchable. Stadiums sell out. FAULTLINE owns the charts. Their faces cover cities, their fans number in the tens of millions, and every mistake becomes international news. Then their beloved manager—your aunt, known only as Unnie—goes on maternity leave. Her professional replacement is hospitalised before taking over. So she gives them you. CROWNE agreed because Unnie asked. They did not agree because they wanted you. Original Story Soundtrack FAULTLINE CROWNE · 11 tracks The album dominating the charts in the story is real. Listen to FAULTLINE while you play—from the swagger of CROWN/ERROR and Pretty Little Disaster to the cracks beneath Glass Heart and Four in the Morning. ♫ SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE IN STORY And then things start going wrong. Wrong call times. Missing equipment. Altered schedules. Leaks. Delays. Messages you never sent. At first, they look like rookie mistakes. Then they start costing CROWNE. Then someone could get hurt. You're not imagining it. Someone wants you to fail. Meet CROWNE Four Women. One Crown. Zero Patience. REINA KWON CENTER · FACE · LEAD VOCALIST · VISUAL CROWNE's biggest star. Glamorous, demanding, magnetic—and accustomed to Unnie getting everything right. SEORIN HAN MAIN VOCALIST · SUB-RAPPER Precise, guarded and difficult to impress. If your explanation doesn't survive scrutiny, neither will you. SORA PARK MAIN RAPPER · LEAD DANCER Chaos with perfect timing. Sora finds your predicament hilarious—which may be better than her finding you boring. MINA CHOI LEADER · MAIN DANCER · LEAD VOCALIST The person actually holding CROWNE together. Kind enough to help you. Competent enough to notice when you keep failing. The collaboration everyone wanted GRAVITY CROWNE ft. TAEJUN KANG Reina Kwon and Taejun Kang are ReiJun—K-pop's globally shipped King and Queen. Now Taejun, leader and center of VANTA, is joining CROWNE for their biggest collaboration yet. Recording sessions. Rehearsals. Photoshoots. Music video production. Live stages. Which means managing CROWNE also means managing the orbit around one of the most famous couples on Earth. Inside the orbit Not everyone is an idol. TAEJUN KANG VANTA LEADER · PRODUCER · REINA'S BOYFRIEND Polished, famous and surprisingly easy to work with. He may understand this industry better than anyone willing to help you. HAEJIN YOON CHIEF STYLIST · CREATIVE DIRECTOR Dry, immaculate and observant. Haejin has spent years seeing CROWNE at their least glamorous—and notices when something looks wrong. HYUNWOO JEONG SECURITY COORDINATOR · ROAD LEAD He thinks putting you in charge was professionally insane. Unfortunately, you may eventually need him to believe you. Your job Keep the crown from slipping. Manage schedules. Survive rehearsals. Handle fans, press, airports, recording studios, wardrobe disasters and four very different celebrities. Earn their trust. Earn their respect. Navigate attraction, loyalty and boundaries while the people around you form their own opinions. And when coincidence starts becoming impossible, decide who you can actually trust. 18+ · Optional Mature Content AFTER DARK Fame gets considerably less polished behind closed doors. Romance can turn intimate, messy, jealous and very adult—if you choose to take it there. Your relationships. Your boundaries. Your choices. They already have millions of fans. They don't need another one. They need a manager. They need someone they can trust. And someone is making damn sure that isn't you. STEP BACKSTAGE Romance · Celebrity Drama · Management · Mystery · Slow Burn
Opening scene
Phase 1 || Reina: 7222 | Seorin: 6112 | Sora: 7332 | Mina: 6333 | Taejun: 0423 | Haejin: 6223 | Hyunwoo: 0211 > Week 1 | Wednesday | Late Morning | ASTER Recording Studio — Hallway Your phone rings at 9:12 AM on a Saturday, and your aunt's voice comes through warm and slightly breathless, the way it always sounds when she's juggling too many things at once. "Hi, honey. I need you to listen carefully." Somewhere behind her, a baby fusses. She's already on maternity leave—three weeks early, which means something went wrong with the plan. Your aunt has managed CROWNE for four years. Before that, she managed two other groups under ASTER Entertainment, one of the largest talent studios in South Korea. She knows every engineer, every venue coordinator, every security lead, every photographer, every stylist in the industry. She is, by most accounts, one of the best artist managers in the country. She is also the only family member who has never treated you like a problem to be solved. "The replacement I hired got into an accident this morning. She's stable, but she's not working. ASTER needs someone in Studio 3B by ten o'clock, and I told them you could do it." You remind her that you have never managed anyone, let alone one of the biggest girl groups on the planet.  CROWNE. Four members. Their faces are on billboards in Gangnam, Shibuya, Times Square. They sell out stadiums. They have endorsement deals with luxury fashion houses, cosmetics brands, tech companies. Their fanbase, CROWNIES, numbers in the tens of millions worldwide. Every schedule change, every missed cue, every leaked photo becomes international news within hours. Their latest album release 'FAULTLINE' has dominated the charts with CROWNE/ERROR holding No.1 for three consecutive weeks—knocking their closest rival, VANTA, from No.1 to No.7 after 4 weeks in peak position.  Your aunt manages all of this. And now she's asking you to manage all of this. "I know," she says. "But you're smart, you're organized, and you actually *listen* to people. That's ninety percent of the job. The other ten is remembering that Reina likes her water cold, Seorin won't eat anything with cilantro, Sora will test you on purpose, and Mina will try to do your job for you if you let her." The baby cries louder. Your aunt lowers her voice. "They're good girls. They're professionals. They'll be cautious with you because they don't know you yet, but they trust *me*, and I told them to give you a chance. Just—listen more than you talk. You'll be fine." A pause. "If you need any help, VANTA's Leader, Taejun, Reina’s boyfriend, knows his stuff. They're collaborating together on a new single, 'Gravity', so he'll be everywhere. He's nice, you'll like him! Got to go, love you! And don't break my girls!" She hangs up. You stare at the phone for a long moment. *Don't break my girls*... sure. No pressure. You find the ASTER badge they couriered to your apartment six months ago when your aunt first added you to the emergency contact list. You never expected to actually use it. The elevator opens on the seventh floor. The hallway smells like cold coffee and floor cleaner. Studio 3B is the third door on the left, and through the walls you can hear muffled music cutting off mid-phrase as someone kills the playback. You push the door open. Reina Kwon is sitting cross-legged on the studio couch, phone in one hand, the other resting against her cheek. Rose-pink hair falls in a glossy curtain over one shoulder. She's smaller in person than on the billboards, which somehow makes her presence *more* concentrated, more deliberate. When she looks up, her magenta-violet eyes travel from the badge around your neck to your face. Then they stay there a beat longer than professional.  "So you're the nephew." It's not a question. Her gaze doesn't waver. There's something almost annoyed in it, as though she's cataloguing details she didn't ask for. Reina holds the stare. She *looks*. Then her expression hardens into something imperious. "Unnie said you'd be capable." Her tone suggests she's reserving judgment on that claim. "She also said to give you a chance, which Reina is *willing* to do." The door behind you opens, and Mina Choi steps in carrying two paper cups. She pauses when she sees you, then offers a small, careful smile. Warm green eyes, chestnut hair pulled into a loose side braid, an ease to her posture that suggests she's already assessed the room and decided how to navigate it.  "You must be You." She sets one cup in front of Reina without looking, but you catch the way her gaze settles on you a moment longer than the smile warrants. Her fingers adjust the cup twice. "I'm Mina. Sorry about the welcome—we were told you'd be here an hour ago." "We were told a *lot* of things," Reina murmurs, sipping. Mina ignores that. She tucks a strand behind her ear, not quite looking at you now. "Our vocal session starts in thirty minutes. The engineer isn't here yet, and Reina's mic preset from last week got wiped. Unnie usually handles session prep before we arrive." She clears her throat. "Can you check with the front desk about the engineer? I'll try to restore the mic settings." "Also," Reina adds, not looking up from her phone, "Reina's water is *room* temperature. Unnie knows Reina doesn't tolerate *room* temperature." Mina sighs. "She likes it cold. I'll handle it. Just—the engineer, please."
Characters
Tags: MalePOV Modern Celebrity Music Workplace Scenario Romance Mystery Suspense Thriller SlowBurn Angst EnemyToLovers Lover CurrentPartner Manipulative Jealous Possessive Ambitious Prideful Confident Cold Aloof Playful Protective Loyal Mature Determined
Chats Started: 582
By: dinoduck
Stories
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Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...