“You need to pull the cake pops out of your parents’ bakery,” he says. “The ones that you designed to look like light sticks. We haven’t authorized you to use the Girls Forever light sticks copyright, so this is confusing to fans. We need you to stop selling them by the end of today, or there could be legal trouble.”

“Legal trouble? But they’re just cake pops!” she blurts, and then her eyes widen at having talked back.

“So they shouldn’t be hard to get rid of, right?”

“Yeah, I guess…” She shuffles her weight from foot to foot. “Have you thought about my YouTube baking channel idea? I already wrote up some scripts of some videos I could do…”

He smiles apologetically. “I’m sorry, but DB has decided that won’t work. We just don’t have a precedent of any of our idols doing YouTube channels.”

Youngeun shoots a glance at me, then in a tentative voice says, “But there’s no precedent of anyone doing a fashion line before…”

Now all the girls are looking at me. I feel like I’ve just been shoved under the bus.

“That is slightly different,” Mr. Han says. “DB has let idol groups sell clothes as merch before. But Youngeun, please don’t let this stop you from baking for fun in your free time. Cake pops aside, that is completely okay with us.”

It’s a bit condescending, but before Youngeun can open her mouth, he waves at us and heads toward the door. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you girls later.”

Silence settles around us, until Jiyoon glances at her watch. “The cars should be here now.”

Youngeun sighs. “You’ll all have to go without me. I’ll meet you at the villa later. There’s some cake pops I have to go and eat now.”

TWELVE

“Ooh, Unni, I love that color!”

Leah looks over from her plush salon armchair as the pedicurist paints peach-sparkle polish on my toes.

“I was just thinking I should have gone for something bright, like yours,” I say, nodding to her lime-green toes.

“Nah, that color is way more your style. Classy and elega—”

“Sorry to interrupt, girls.” I jump, startled to see the director standing over us, headphones slung around his neck. “Just wanted to let you know that once your pedicures are done, we’re going to start moving over to the next filming location.”

Right. This isn’t just a sister date.

We’re filming our reality show.