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# Chapter 3
## 3
"Ugh... my head..."
The next morning.
I woke up clutching my head.
The moment I opened my eyes, the aftermath of yesterday came crashing down on me.
It had been great while I was drinking.
We had poured it down our throats like people who wouldn't have a tomorrow.
Every time I exhaled, the strong smell of alcohol stung my nose.
And today, I had to pay the full price for it.
My head felt like it was splitting apart.
My throat was parched.
My stomach was nauseous.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt this awful.
"...If I ever drink like that again, I'm a dog. A dog."
I made a promise I obviously wouldn't be able to keep.
Then I staggered toward the refrigerator.
I pulled out a two-liter bottle of bottled water I'd shoved in there and poured it straight down my throat.
Gulp, gulp!
I emptied the entire two-liter bottle in one go.
"...Haa. I can finally live again."
My nausea was still there, but at least my thirst had eased.
"...I really drank like a lunatic..."
Last night, I didn't part ways with Ho-cheol hyung at the pojangmacha until we'd spent the entire night drinking.
Toward the end, my memories had become hazy.
What had been so great that we'd had to drink that much?
I regretted it, but what could I do?
It had already happened.
"...This house really is insane."
Instead of a cramped one-room apartment, I was surrounded by a luxurious house that looked like something straight out
of a movie or drama.
It gave me a strange feeling.
My hangover was still there, but my mood had improved considerably.
Was this the power of capitalism?
"But am I really going to work?"
All because of this thing called affection.
I was apparently about to become a manager, something that had never been part of my life plan.
And not just any manager.
The road manager of one of South Korea's biggest top stars.
Sigh.
I couldn't help sighing.
A manager.
Honestly, I wasn't thrilled about it.
Forget whether it would be bothersome or not.
It simply wasn't a job that suited me.
"What kind of hyung sees me and immediately dumps this kind of crap on me?"
Still, what could I do?
The deed was already done.
'Of all people, it had to be Do Gahee.'
Was this fate, if you wanted to call it that?
The video I'd seen yesterday.
The more I thought about it, the stranger it became.
Do Gahee had never appeared in a drama or movie with a scene that intense.
I could dismiss it as some kind of composite or deepfake, but...
'Then why was I in it?'
What could possibly be so appealing about a freshly discharged soldier like me?
There were too many things I couldn't understand.
Even though I hadn't actually done anything wrong to Do Gahee, I still felt strangely uneasy.
Embarrassed, maybe?
And for good reason.
After seeing a video like that yesterday, how could I not think about it?
Scrub, scrub.
"...I don't know anymore."
I turned on the TV without giving it much thought.
But then—
[Breaking news.]
[A vehicle carrying famous actress Do Gahee has been involved in a rollover accident.]
[Actress Do Gahee and her manager, who were inside the vehicle, have been rushed to the hospital.]
[The exact cause of the accident is currently under investigation, but judging by what appears to be deliberate damage
to the tires and brakes, authorities suspect that someone may have intentionally caused the accident...]
"...What the hell is this?"
A traffic accident?
And Do Gahee had been in the vehicle?
Startled, I immediately called Baek Ho-cheol.
* Hello? Did you get home okay yesterday—
"Hyung, what do you mean Do Gahee was in a traffic accident?"
* ...A traffic accident? What nonsense are you talking about? Are you still drunk?
"No, it's on the news right now...!"
* Are you pretending to be drunk so you can slack off? Do Gahee is at the company right now. Are you going to keep
talking nonsense? Anyway, sober up and I'll see you at the office later.
Click.
The call ended before I could say another word.
For a moment, anger and emotion surged through me.
Then how was I supposed to explain the news that had just been playing on TV...?
"...What?"
Why was the TV turned off?
I hurriedly turned it back on.
The news came on.
It was the news program from the same station I'd been watching earlier.
But there wasn't a single mention of Do Gahee.
I was so shocked that I searched for it on my phone.
But there were only other articles.
There wasn't a single article about the traffic accident.
...What the hell was going on?
I felt the blood drain from my body.
Had something really gone wrong with my head?
---
It had been a completely bewildering morning, but I washed up and went to work anyway.
'This is driving me crazy.'
What the hell had been happening since yesterday?
My mind was a mess.
And on top of everything else, I had to go to work.
"...Sigh."
What could I do?
I'd already given my word.
Following the address in the text message, I somehow managed to find the company.
The building looked pretty impressive.
'I thought I'd end up doing odd jobs once I entered society... Ho-cheol hyung really made it big.'
No matter how I thought about it, the fact that someone with that face had a respectable job was the most surprising
thing of all.
I took out my wallet and briefly looked at the photograph inside.
It was a picture of my only younger sister.
Unlike someone like me, she had been overflowing with talent and charisma.
Her dream for the future had never changed even once.
She had always wanted to become a celebrity.
I'd jokingly promised her that if she really debuted, I'd become her manager.
For some reason, the memory left a bitter taste in my mouth.
I put the wallet back into my pocket and entered the building.
There was an information desk directly ahead, so I walked over.
"Hello. I'd like to ask you something."
"...Who are you?"
The employee looked at me suspiciously.
I wasn't offended.
Because of my slightly sharp eyes, I'd often encountered situations like this since I was young.
"Ah, it's nothing like that. It's my first day at work today. Where is Management Team 2?"
When I asked politely, the employee's guarded expression softened a little.
"Oh, one moment, please. We need to verify that first as part of the procedure."
The employee made a phone call, and after confirming everything, I was given directions to the Management Team 2 office.
After some twists and turns, I finally arrived at the Team 2 office.
As I stood there awkwardly in front of the office, I could feel the people passing by eyeing me warily.
Then a male employee approached me and spoke.
"Excuse me... may I ask why you're here?"
"...I'm looking for Manager Baek Ho-cheol. Is he inside?"
"The manager? Ah! Are you perhaps... the new... road manager...?"
He looked utterly incredulous.
...Look, it's not like I'm doing this because I want to, either.
"Hey! Is Kang Taebaek here?"
A large figure that was impossible to mistake waved at me cheerfully from a distance.
Ho-cheol hyung came over and patted my shoulder with his giant, pot-lid-sized hand.
"How's the hangover? From the sound of your voice earlier, you were in pretty bad shape. You were just spouting
nonsense."
I wanted to argue, but I couldn't think of anything appropriate to say.
"...How come you look fine?"
Ho-cheol hyung glanced around, checking the reactions of the people nearby, then whispered into my ear.
"...I'm on the verge of death."
Figures.
After drinking that much, how could anyone be perfectly fine the next day?
Seriously, who told him to drink himself half to death the day before work?
He was a working man, so I supposed it made sense for him.
But what the hell had I gotten myself into?
I'd already been completely thrown off by the strange things happening lately.
"You know, I gave them a rough explanation before you got here. Still, introduce yourself!"
"...Introduce myself?"
I wasn't going to see these people three days from now. Did I really have to do this too?
But since he told me to, I did.
"Hello. My name is Kang Taebaek. I met Ho-cheol hyung in the military. I look forward to working with you."
After my brief introduction.
A belated round of applause followed.
This was getting embarrassing.
"Pretty intimidating-looking, right? He may look like that, but he's not a bad guy. He's got plenty of grit too, so
he'll do a good job."
"Ah... yes..."
...They didn't look like they believed a word of it.
And was that really how you were supposed to introduce someone?
I was too tired to argue anymore.
'I don't know anymore either.'
The whole point of this was to dump an unwanted job on me anyway.
I just had to do that and leave.
After completing the bare minimum handover,
and before I officially began my duties as Do Gahee's road manager,
Ho-cheol hyung took me down to the parking lot.
"What do you think? First time seeing a van up close?"
"I've seen them driving around. But I've never driven one."
"There's no need to be nervous. You're used to driving big vehicles anyway, aren't you?"
"Are you saying the military and this are the same?"
"From my experience, there's not much difference."
Seriously.
The guy had really become a sly fox after getting a taste of life in society.
And he looked like a brown bear.
But when I saw the van up close, I felt strangely unsettled.
Maybe I was just feeling off lately.
Or maybe the hangover was making me hallucinate.
The news I'd seen that morning was lodged firmly in my head like a fishbone stuck in my throat.
Maybe it was because the vehicle looked exactly the same.
I found myself inspecting the vehicle's condition unusually carefully.
"You don't have to look that closely. We have the car serviced every day, so don't worry about it. Just drive—"
"...Hyung, come over here."
"...You really never listen to a word I say, do you? What is it now—"
The moment Ho-cheol hyung saw what I was pointing at,
his eyes widened like saucers.
"...Hey. What's this?"
Ho-cheol hyung's voice turned cold.
"How would I know? You said the car gets serviced every day."
Ho-cheol hyung's expression hardened.
I'd known him for a long time, so I could tell.
'He's pissed.'
He was very, very angry right now.
"...Let's go back up to the office for now."
I went back to the office with him.
Ho-cheol hyung rubbed his face with his hand and said,
"Haa... I don't know what's going on either, but—"
"What do you mean you don't know? Anyone can see someone deliberately tampered with it."
"......"
Ho-cheol hyung firmly shut his mouth.
Even though he looked like that,
the guy had incredible observational skills.
There was no way he could have failed to notice it.
"...Thanks. I don't know what to say."
"If you're grateful, buy me a drink later. So, what do we do now?"
"We have to continue with the schedule for now. We can't cancel everything."
The morning had been chaotic from the start.
We hurriedly had the vehicle inspected and switched to a safe, functional van.
Once I got into the driver's seat,
my thoughts became even more confused.
I'd pretended everything was fine in front of Ho-cheol hyung.
But in reality, I was the most confused of all.
'...So it wasn't a hallucination?'
The news I'd seen on TV.
I'd dismissed it as something I'd imagined.
But after what had just happened,
I couldn't possibly ignore it anymore.
My thoughts were all tangled up.
I couldn't make sense of anything.
'Does this mean I can somehow see the future?'
No matter how much I thought about it, that was far too unrealistic.
Then should I just dismiss it as a coincidence?
Did that make any sense either?
As I was lost in thought—
Knock, knock.
Someone tapped on the window.
I turned my head.
A familiar face was standing outside the window.
The most famous top star in South Korea at this moment, and the celebrity I was about to manage.
The woman I'd just seen on TV.
The woman I'd seen in that strange video.
Do Gahee was standing right there.