We’ve already seen a lot of “boyfriend for hire” stuff around Asia, which seems to be really into the idea of paying for romantic encounters, but until now we’ve never seen someone offering their boyish good looks and charming company for free.
Meet Dev and San, two kindhearted Indian models working as freelance “idols” – a popular term in Asia for models you can hire for a variety of situations – for the low, low price of absolutely nothing.
Of course, like all things that sound too good to be true, Dev and San – while clearly real, actual human beings – are just doing this as part of a marketing stunt for language school Misao Language Institute.
Modeled after Mika and Rika, two free idols who are not doing it sarcastically but probably are playing a long game with the goal of one day becoming paid models, the Dev and San gag falls somewhere in the middle of the incongruous triangle of adorable, hilarious and kind of racist.
Misao says anyone is free to employ any of a huge stable of images of Dev and San posing by simply applying with this online form. All comers are free to use the images in any medium, as many times as they want. Unfortunately, as of this writing, you’re not able to meet Dev and San in the flesh – the better to possibly rescue them from what appears to be indentured servitude, or whatever, just hang out, since they seem like pretty fun-loving guys – but hey, you can at least get some pretty decent stock photos out of them!
