Wicked Entertainment

Episode 1: Welcome to Wicked Entertainment

Wicked Entertainment

~EPISODE 1~

Welcome to WICKED

FRIDAY

"This is completely unacceptable," the director with the untoned yellow hair was shouting at nobody and everybody at the same time. "How can you expect me to work my vision like this?"

He turned to Nie, his sun-damaged face firelit with rage. "Tell them to be prepared for my vision tomorrow, or I will not direct this music video."

He stomped off the colourful basement set, lighting up a cigarette, and staff members jumped out of his way as he puffed in fervent gulps of nicotine.

Nie sighed, closing her eyes, and took a few strained deep breaths before she opened her mouth to translate for the girl group's manager.

"I got it, I got it," he said in English, waving a dismissive hand at Nie. He muttered a few choice words in Korean under his breath, plastered on a smile, and walked towards the confused and upset-looking teenage girls.

The girls had spent upwards of four hours in hair and makeup, not to mention countless hours in rehearsals, only to now be faced with the decision that an uppity old man didn't like what they had to offer. Nie's heart hurt for them, of course, but she had to get back to work. She hoisted her laptop underneath her arm and held her ID out to one of the staff members who returned her phone from the lockbox. 

Nie could hear the tired sobs of the girls as she got into the elevator, and she turned her back to the basement set, allowing the doors to seal her safely inside, away from their devastated moans.

Nie walked by Recording Studio D on her way back to the office. A little smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she thought about the most talented trainee she'd ever met, Chandler Jeon, holed up inside, scribbling away at some new song as he completely drowned out anything else around him. The faint scent of freshly brewed coffee wafted from underneath the door.

"Who ya thinkin'bout?" Nie's best work friend, Hyeri Han, fell into step alongside her. "Is it Dante?" she finished in a whisper, as if the inferno would jump out at his spoken name.

"It's definitely not Dante," Nie muttered, rolling her eyes as they turned a corner and continued down the dark corridor. "I'd rather be thinking of—hello—"

Nie bowed.

"Hello." Hyeri bowed too.

A grunt was all they got in response.

"Wow," Hyeri mumbled to Nie when the passer-by was out of earshot. "If you speak of the devil, he really does appear." She pursed her lips. "He's hot, though... Isn't he?" She paused, suddenly lost in thought.

"His name is Dante—" Nie grinned. "It's implied."

"Dante, babe, wait up!"

Dante, the K-Pop industry's Golden Child, was pursued down the hallway by a pretty, icy white-haired idol who threw Nie and Hyeri a look of utter disgust as she ran by them.

"Ugh." Hyeri made a mock vomiting sound. "Has that witch not found someone else to sink her talons into yet?"

Nie shrugged. "Maybe she's nice once you get to know her?" Nie's mind had already dismissed Ivy as unimportant, but Hyeri was content to gossip about her.

"Yeah," Hyeri scoffed. "That's why her members cower in fear every time she opens her mouth."

Nie's voice was absentminded. "Chan seems to think she's just under a lot of pressure."