The Conditions for Becoming a Kind Idol Leader - Chapter 40
Since the sender was an unregistered user, there was no name saved with the message. Still, the fact that they had called him Go Young-in meant they knew this was his number.
When he opened the chat, he found a website link attached as well. For a second, he wondered if it was another sasaeng, and quickly scrolled through the messages above it. It wasn’t a sasaeng after all, but something Kyeon In-woo had sent.
At least it wasn’t some deranged stalker again.
But the link that came with the text was a news article link, and that... felt deeply ominous. Young-in had PTSD when it came to news links about Zero One. There had been days when he refreshed the news page over and over, bracing himself for whatever fresh article might have dropped that morning. There was no helping it.
He took a deep breath and clicked the link Kyeon In-woo had sent.
[Perfect Daily] Zero One causes a sasaeng disturbance in agency parking lot... "Police called"
Clearly, he’d been watching the chat the whole time, because the second the count disappeared, a flood of messages came in one after another.
Shit... who leaked this now? It was going to come out eventually, sure, but how long had it even been since this happened? He opened SNS. The article hadn’t spread everywhere yet, thankfully, but posts about it were already starting to appear one by one.
He felt bad that the fans were probably going to worry. Once the company contacted him, he’d need to put up a post right away saying he was fine.
Since the agency hadn’t made an official announcement yet, and since they hadn’t coordinated what to say, it was awkward to post anything first. Part of him wanted to ignore all that and just write it now, honestly.
Normally, this was the manager’s job... but no. Come to think of it, he couldn’t even think of that man as just a manager anymore.
He’d felt something was off for a while now. He’d been unsure, but this incident had confirmed it.
He didn’t know exactly what the manager had done. But one thing was certain: the manager was involved in this. Not just involved—at this point, it was safer to assume he was an accomplice.
There was the fact that the deranged bastard had the backup key only managers and road managers were supposed to have. There was also the fact that he was close with that bastard’s family member, Ju Dong-yun, or whatever the hell his name was.
Whether Ju Dong-yun knew his own family was that hopeless didn’t interest him. For now, it was right to assume he was tangled up in this too.
Earlier, when Lim Se-bin had tried to go down, the manager had panicked far too hard and asked if he really had to leave now. And then there’d been the conversation in the parking lot.
For one thing, the manager had clearly asked Go Young-in whether there was anything suspicious in the car besides the item.
He never even said there was something suspicious in the car, so how the hell did you know to check it the second you got there, without even confirming anything?
[I was just with Kyeon In-woo until a minute ago]
[He said this was the first he’d heard of it]
Young-in read through the text Kyeon In-woo had sent, one character at a time, again.
…….
He rubbed his thumb back and forth across the top of the chat window. Naturally, the content was still exactly the same.
He’d said before he left that he’d tell the members and get them back to the dorm early.
Then Kyeon In-woo is, what, not in Zero One?
Pyo Jae-ho had been inside the agency building with him, so that was probably just an unexpected variable. But since the manager hadn’t bothered telling the others, it seemed he’d never intended for them to come back to the dorm together in the first place. There had to be a reason. Like a reason he needed to keep them from coming home right away.
Then what about Lim Se-bin’s issue? Had that not been properly relayed to the members from the start?
Now that he thought about it, Kyeon In-woo’s reaction when he’d asked him earlier had been strange. He hadn’t answered like he was hearing some random nonsense out of nowhere? Young-in had brushed it off because the guy was always weird, but now it felt as if the conversation itself had been subtly misaligned.
…….
So Cheon Sa-yoon hadn’t brought it up a few months ago for no reason. Back then, Young-in had only been confused because nothing happened for a while afterward—but now he understood why Sa-yoon had said what he did.
Snippets of things Cheon Sa-yoon had said and done over the past few months flickered through his mind.
…….
The manager finally came back toward him, looking as if he’d been properly thrown out and left with a face drained of all color. When he noticed Young-in watching him, he lifted his head.
“Ah, Young-in. Sorry. I should’ve helped you clean up... Se-bin just suddenly started acting like that for no reason, hahaha...”
The way he scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin, speaking his name all too familiarly, was disgustingly obnoxious.
Just like someone else.
Right. So.
Instead of answering, Young-in quietly tapped the table with his fingers.
Just like Cheon Sa-yoon had known all this would happen and pretended not to.
He placed the car key he’d picked up earlier on the table and looked at the manager.
Whether the man still hadn’t understood the situation, or whether this too was part of the act, he looked stupid enough that Young-in almost had to admire the performance.
“Huh? You had the key... When did you take it?”
The manager rummaged through his pocket, speaking in an puzzled voice, then froze and slowly pulled his hand back out.
Another car key was sitting in his palm.
…….
Was he actually trying to think? He’d gone quiet all of a sudden.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me? I need an explanation.”
The mouth that had been sealed shut like a clam showed no sign of opening. Young-in merely watched the manager in silence.
Shit. He was already using every ounce of strength he had just to force the muscles around his mouth into a smile because of that obnoxiously oblivious status window, so at least the bastard standing in front of him could show a little sincerity.
“Th...”
“Th?”
After dragging it out for ages and darting his eyes around anxiously, the manager finally bowed his head, let out a long sigh, and sagged his arms like a man who’d given up completely.
Young-in had expected an apology, or at least some halfway convincing excuse, but...
“Haa, I told you... why did you... not tell anyone?”
What.
“If you’d told me from the beginning and asked for help, would this have gotten this big?”
What kind of absurd bullshit was that? Just because words came out of your mouth didn’t make them sense.
“But look at it. Really, look at it. Since when did you trust me that much? You just told me and left it at that. I didn’t know you trusted me like that. You guys... um... weren’t exactly friendly with me either.”
What did friendliness have to do with this? Wasn’t this literally the manager’s job? Of course public and private matters had to be handled differently. What kind of logic was this, something not even an elementary schooler would say?
“This is a public matter. I don’t understand what that has to do with being friendly. If not to the manager, who am I supposed to tell about something like this?”
“Th, that’s right. I just... haa... fine. Fine, it’s all my fault. It really is all my fault. My lack of ability, too, and the fact that I made a stupid choice in the heat of the moment. How could I have known it would turn out like this? I didn’t know either.”
Yes, I’m sure you understand that part very well. Obviously it was your fault. So how exactly is this on me? I’d appreciate it if you understood that making that pitiful face won’t help.
“I know I’d have no excuse if I got fired. I really do, okay? I’m not saying I don’t admit I screwed up. But getting investigated by the police is seriously a problem, you know...?”
The manager, who had been acting like he’d given up, suddenly plopped down and crawled over to him, grabbing hold of his pant leg. Young-in had no idea what the hell he thought he was doing...
And then he kept spewing out more and more pitiful excuses like he was shoveling shit with his mouth.
“Young-in, can’t you let it slide a little for the sake of the years we’ve known each other? Huh? I’ll talk to Dong-yun and his younger brother and tell them to stop doing this in the future.”
“You know it won’t matter if you say it to me, right?”
Fuck. He’d been about to shove the bastard off him, only to get a rebuke from the status window.
“N-no, that’s not what I meant. I’m saying this because it’s you, okay? Honestly, among all the members, you’re the easiest to talk to, so this...”
So that means I’m the easiest one to push around.
Instead of shoving him, Young-in stomped on the floor hard, but the status window showed up again and still refused to die.
While he was stuck in a miserable tug-of-war with the manager, who clung to him like a leech no matter how much he told him to get lost, Kyeon In-woo came in through the dorm door with the agency staff and Cheon Sa-yoon, who had apparently brought him back. In a way, it was like help had arrived. So why did he feel even less relieved?
Kyeon In-woo seemed to hate even the fact that he’d arrived at the same time as Cheon Sa-yoon, because he tore himself away at once and strode over. Once he reached the middle of the living room and saw the manager and Young-in taking turns glaring at each other, he frowned hard.
“...What the hell are you doing?”
“Uh... In-woo, you’re here?”
The manager let go of Young-in’s clothes and backed away as he called out to Kyeon In-woo, but the moment he saw Cheon Sa-yoon and the staff behind him, his face went blank with shock. Shit. He’d back off just from seeing Kyeon In-woo’s face, so why the hell had he clung on this long?
The agency staff who came with Cheon Sa-yoon seemed to have known the whole situation from the start and had come specifically to take the manager away. The second they got inside, they soothed and cajoled him until they finally got him out of there. It annoyed Young-in even more that the manager, who had seemed like he’d never let go no matter what, actually left so obediently. So he really was that easy to handle.
Anyway, now that the manager was gone, the dorm should have gone quiet just like that...
“Tell me.”
Of course it wouldn’t end that easily.
Apparently having sensed that something was off, Kyeon In-woo started making a scene and demanding an explanation. So Young-in gave him a brief rundown of what had happened.
The moment he heard it, Kyeon In-woo cursed up a storm and tried to charge after the manager and staff to ram into them, and Young-in barely managed to hold him back with the exhausted patience of someone raising a feral dog. Why were people so violent? Could he please, please remember he was an idol?
“You fucking idiot, Go Young-in. You’re such a damn pushover.”
Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop Kyeon In-woo’s mouth.
“What the hell do you even have a mouth for? Are you just going to stand there and let this shit happen again? Again? I swear, every time you pull crap like this I just can’t—damn it... Are you doing this on purpose, so I’d see it?”
Young-in was taken aback by the sudden accusation. What the hell kind of self-importance was that? Why was he making the leap to that? As if.
“It’s not like I’m happy about this situation either. If I had my way, I’d have...
He wanted to swear, and...
“I’d have hit him...”
He’d even briefly thought about whether he should just go ahead and pretend to throw a punch.
…….
“If I had my way, what. For fuck’s sake, why do you always stop halfway through?”
It wasn’t that he’d stopped halfway. It was that he couldn’t finish even if he wanted to. Young-in had no intention of making Kyeon In-woo understand, nor any way to make him understand. Staring at the man standing with one leg cocked, trying to hold back his anger, he didn’t know what to say.
Back then, because of that one damn word, he’d gotten hit with a long-term penalty on comeback day, ended up hospitalized, and completely ruined the album and the performance. And because that had made him fail to uphold the duties of a perfect idol, he’d been hit with consecutive penalties that kept him unable to get back on his feet for six months, wiping out the entire first half of the year. Those things were no longer real.
I’m sure they threw an absolute shit fit over that, though.
There had been plenty of other absurdly entertaining things that happened because of penalties, too.
“In-woo, I’m thinking the same thing you are.”
“...Sure you are.”
No, really. I am.
After looking at Young-in’s expression, Kyeon In-woo let out a deep sigh and walked right past him into the room. The fact that he’d even shoved Young-in with his shoulder as he passed only proved what a rotten personality he had.
Cheon Sa-yoon had been standing quietly by the front door, taking in everything. Once he confirmed that Kyeon In-woo had gone inside, he strolled over at an unhurried pace.
“Young-in hyung.”
His voice was as soft as ever, in that maddeningly sweet way that always made Young-in’s temper spike. The bastard definitely knew that speaking like that made it worse.
Ah... I had something to say to him too. Did he wait because he knew I’d speak to him myself? Or was it just coincidence?
Whatever the reason, every single move he made was irritating. Young-in opened his mouth in a low voice.
“Sa-yoon.”
“Yes?”
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
Cheon Sa-yoon tilted his head slightly and asked back as though he truly had no idea what Young-in meant.
“About the manager.”
Oh. That was all? Cheon Sa-yoon let out a small, amused sound, and his eyes curved gently.
“Yes. I knew.”
And of course, the answer came smooth and effortless, not a trace of hesitation in it.