Manager. The word means a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff. It can also mean a person who controls the professional and business activities of a performer, sports player, group of musicians, etc. In this case, we are talking of the latter, more precisely, a manager of a group. A Kpop group. As you must assume, the bigger the group, the more managers they would have, and it is true. Usually, a solo artist has a single manager, it may also be one for a duo, for a quartet, depending on if they’re all from the same gender or not, there may be one or two, bigger than that there are usually three, but when we hit the nine, ten, and above members, there is a need to have more managers, and if you’re in a well off company, you may be lucky to have your manager, instead of sharing them with the other members. But that is also rare.

Some fandoms end up cheering for certain managers if they know they treat their idols correctly. Like in Red Velvet, Blackpink, and even Twice’s case, some fans even account for their success not in their companies, but on a certain manager. Sadness unnie. The resemblance to the character was what brought the name to the surface. Managers are very well respected in the Kpop community. With that said, some managers even have their fan base within the fandoms.

But we're not here, to listen to the meaning of the word manager, or how important they’re for the idols and the fandoms. We’re here to talk about one specific manager, more correctly, a special and important manager for a big Kpop group. Moon Eunbyul. A twenty-three-year-old woman. Ex-trainee, hurt saving another trainee from a car crash, whose idol life ended before it even started. Eunbyul was a trainee for JYP. She trained with the big names in the company, but after the accident she had to quit, after shattering her leg bones, she could never dance professionally again, so her dream ended that fateful day, but she’s not sad, she’s still in the business today.

She “debuted” as a manager in 2015, as the youngest manager in history, with only eighteen, she was the youngest manager for the nine-member group Twice. It’s been five years since Eunbyul became a manager for Twice. She was there since “Sixteen”, she saw the girls cry, smile, laugh, have fun, and later on debut as nine. She already knew all the girls previously, from her years of being a trainee, she entered the same year as Jihyo, being same-aged friends they enjoyed their careless child lives at the company and later on their teenage lives. That was until they were fifteen and Eunbyul had the accident that left her unable to accomplish her dream.

But no more sad stories, let’s go to what matters here, being a manager for Twice. In Eunbyul’s case, being a manager is slightly different. She does take care of their schedule and all that, but she also acts as their private manager, she also happens to live with them, more precisely she shares a room with Jihyo. Who she happens to be dating. All those dating news about Jihyo and Kang Daniel dating were all lies created by both companies to try and increase sales when in reality Jihyo was sharing a romantic connection to her old friend and manager Eunbyul. They’ve been dating since they were eighteen, two months after the end of “Sixteen”, and yes everyone at the company knew, that was one of the reasons why Eunbyul was living with Twice.

Now you may ask, how come the fans don’t know anything? Easy. The fans aren’t as observant as they think they are. It true that most of the girls are lesbians, the rest being biuals, and two others being panuals, but the fans aren’t as smart as they think they are. Idols and their companies are way smarter, they only show what they want you to know. But we are digressing, once again.

Living with Twice isn’t always easy. Eunbyul has to be the first one up and the last one asleep in that house. She’ll make breakfast for the girls, sometimes someone will help, most times they don’t, she needs to wake up the members, and some are hard to wake up, she’ll need to have snacks, blankets, and even mats for the girls to sleep on, she needs to be informed of their whereabouts at all times, and she needs to make sure no one is late, ever. Besides, she needs to be up, showered, and have breakfast before any of the girls have to be up. She’ll only go to sleep when everyone else is asleep unless it’s a day off the next day or days, then she has more freedom.

During schedules, she needs to drive them to their destination, order their drinks and foods, and once on sets, she needs to be attentive to every member, accompany them to the bathroom, check everything before they post them online, and make sure no member is doing VLive’s without authorization, etc.

It’s very tiresome being a manager, but she wouldn’t trade it for the world. She gets to enjoy the company of her friends, enjoy several karaoke nights, great foods, meet new people, and enjoy time with her girlfriend. Despite all the hardships, she loves living with the girls. She goes to the gym with Momo and Jihyo, she teaches the foreign line Korean while they teach her their languages back, she plays games with Mina, she draws with Chaeyoung, she builds Legos with Jeongyeon, she practices the piano with Dahyun, she has impromptu rap battles with Nayeon, she learns their choreographies and lyrics to songs. She had lots of fun with them.

The fans also love her as if she was the tenth member of the group. She learned mixed martial arts for the girls’ protection, she learned how to cook for the girls, she learned how to fix stuff for the girls, and every skill she learned she learned it for the girls. But in return, they also teach her things and they also learned things for her.

 

- Unnie? – a small voice came through the door after a couple of soft knocks on the door.

 

Getting up from the bed slowly, to not wake Jihyo up, Eunbyul padded to the door and opened it slightly checking who it was. The only presence of light came from the moon in the sky. In front of her stood Chaeyoung with a cute blanket filled with cartoon tigers. The girl showed signs of pain and was looking paler than she should, she looked tired, but her face had traces of tears, and that made the warning bells in Eunbyul’s head ring loudly. Closing the door behind her, she held Chaeyoung to her chest and checked her temperature using her hand.

 

- What’s wrong Chaengie? – the younger let a few more droplets fall from her eyes before answering.

- My tummy hurts. – she answered with a pout and then a grimace. – It has been hurting since this afternoon, but now it’s worse.

- Why didn’t you say anything?

- I told Pinky oppa and he gave me some meds, but it’s hurting more now.

- Ok. Go dress more warmly and let’s head to the hospital. I’ll meet you here in a few minutes if you can’t get dressed just bring a jacket ok?

 

After the younger nodded, Eunbyul watched her head to her room, so she went back inside her shared room and through the dark, she got dressed and walked outside to meet Chaeyoung who was waiting for her, still in her pajamas, but now with a warmer jacket and ready to go. They got their shoes and headed to Eunbyul’s car. They got to the hospital soon after, and after giving Chaeyoung her mask they headed inside. After being administered, Eunbyul texted JYP and her leader manager, telling them what was happening, she also remembered to text Jihyo where they were in case Chaeyoung had to stay there until morning.

Around an hour after, Chaeyoung was next to her with the reports of a stomach bug and some prescription for the meds. After buying the meds in a 24/7 pharmacy, they headed home. Eunbyul heated a hot pack and went with Chaeyoung to the maknae’s room, while Chaeyoung laid down on her bed, Eunbyul was seated next to her belly, pressing the hot pack to her tummy and rubbing it slowly.

It was around eight in the morning when Jihyo woke up. She was looking for the warm body of her girlfriend and couldn’t find her, hence why she woke up, to begin with. She was checking the time on her phone when she noticed she had a text from her girlfriend, dated around three in the morning.

 

From: Love <3

I’m at the hospital with Chaeyoung.

Her stomach was hurting, since the afternoon.

I already texted JYP and Colossus oppa.

Letting you know in case I’m not home before you wake up.

Love you.

3:36 a.m.

 

Jihyo quickly texted her girlfriend and even tried to call her, but her phone was off, so with no other option, she called Colossus, the leader of the managers' team, only named Colossus for being so tall. He told her that the two girls had left the hospital at around four and were home since he had no other news from them after that. Thinking about where they would be, she quickly entered the youngers’ room, seeing her girlfriend half-asleep still rubbing Chaeyoung’s belly, while the latter slept.

She softly called for Eunbyul, who opened her eyes in shock and locked eyes with Jihyo, immediately calming down. She got down from the bunk bed and went to the kitchen with Jihyo, who finally kissed and hugged her. She felt the taller girl relax against her body and forced them to head to the bedroom, with Eunbyul trying to refuse.

 

- No baby, you’re tired, you need to sleep, you’ve been up since seven yesterday, it’s been more than twenty-four hours. – Jihyo said, trying to lay her girlfriend in bed.

- No, I need to make breakfast for Chaeyoung and feed her the meds. – Eunbyul tried to refute.

- It’s ok, sleep. – Jihyo finally made her lay down on the bed. – I’ll make her breakfast and make sure she takes her meds, you sleep.

- But if she’s still hurting, wake me up. – Eunbyul said, her eyes closed, almost asleep, but still worrying. – Wake me up in four hours, so I can make you guys lunch.

- Sleep, Eunbyul.

 

And like that Eunbyul fell asleep soundly. Like promised Jihyo made sure Chaeyoung ate before taking her meds, she made sure the members didn’t make much noise so she could sleep, and she let Eunbyul sleep until two in the afternoon when she then woke her up so she could eat something. And like that, the meaning of the word manager also became the protector of idols. Because Eunbyul cared for every member, she took care of them, and in return, they took care of her too.