Philanthropist or Investor
Time really flies.
I've already gotten used to commuting here.
It's been two weeks since we relocated the company building to Seongsu-dong. These days, when I walk into the office, I see more unfamiliar faces than familiar ones. Of course I'm picking up names and faces quickly, but it'll probably take a few more days.
At least U-I only has three employees, so that's a relief.
"Good morning~"
"You've arrived, sir!"
"You're here?"
Lee Myeongjin, the guy with the booming voice. Heo Seonye, the pregnant woman. Both of them had become official U-I employees — and both were extremely satisfied with the working environment.
Of course they were. There was barely any work, and they still got paid at roughly the same level as other companies. Though it wasn't as if there was zero work.
"Sir. You have external meetings scheduled at eleven, two, and four."
"......"
No matter how I turned it over in my head, it was genuinely unexpected.
She'd switched jobs because of workplace sexual harassment — and yet she'd decided to work at a company whose CEO had once handed her a pair of women's panties and told her to wipe her tears?
I'd figured she wouldn't take the job anyway, so I'd sent the acceptance text as a way of boosting her self-esteem after my little "mistake." But Jeong Sora had asked about her start date and shown up for work right away. So somehow I'd ended up hiring three people when I'd only meant to hire two.
"Is there something on my face?"
"No. Which companies are the meetings with?"
"Dazney, Waving, and Cooply."
"And Pineapple is tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow at one forty-five p.m."
"Hmm... Got it. I'll be back later."
"You'll need to leave by ten."
"Okay~"
I stamped my presence at the U-I office on the fifth floor, then headed down to Art Company on the fourth.
Art Actors Division.
The fourth floor currently served as the Art Actors headquarters, specializing in the management of actors, while the third floor housed the Art Music Division, specializing in the management of singers. Of course, the only "singer" being managed on the third floor was the trainee Mei, who'd come back to Korea with me yesterday.
"Head of Department Park Eunmi."
"Yes, sir."
I'd promoted Park Eunmi — who until recently had worn a manager's title while single-handedly handling the work of a hundred people — to Head of Department. I'd also diligently filled out the staff to match. Now no single employee needed to play the role of a hundred anymore. Which meant they needed to produce results that much harder. I couldn't turn this into a company drowning in massive losses.
"What happened with the actors you were in contact with last time?"
"They said they'd think about it a little more."
"All of them??"
"Yes. But the contracts with the rookie actors are scheduled to be completed within this week."
"Hmm... Then check whether we can put more rookies into Hidden. And look into projects that need investment — ones we can use as bargaining chips for actor contracts."
"Understood."
"Alright, everyone hang in there~"
I only briefly met with Head of Department Park Eunmi before turning around, and Shin Yena was looking at me with pitiful eyes. But I didn't have time to play with her today. I had three external meetings.
I went down to the third floor and entered the Art Music Division office.
"You're here, sir?"
"Hello, Director."
Head of Department Yoon Heejeong. Early forties — a capable talent who'd delivered outstanding results at one of the Big Four agencies, different from Kim Ijun's. She wasn't quite at Head of Department level, honestly, but just as I'd done when offering Kim Ijun a team leader position, I'd promised her exceptional treatment and managed to bring her over with difficulty.
"When is the open audition scheduled?"
"This Sunday at ten a.m."
"And Origin?"
"Meteor has basically abandoned them at this point, so bringing them over shouldn't be difficult — but Meteor will probably demand a substantial buyout fee. There's still a lot of time left on their contracts."
"Hmm... Accept anything under five hundred million won. If they ask for more than that, it's better to just wait until mutual contract termination."
"If they know what we want, they won't agree to mutual termination."
"Then we'll wait a bit longer for now."
"Should I meet with the Origin members separately?"
"No. That would be illegal. Let's wait one more month, and if there's no news, we'll inquire then."
"Understood."
I wrapped up the conversation quickly and headed down to the practice rooms in the basement. Then I watched for a moment.
"She said she was too embarrassed to show me... but she's good."
I cracked the practice room door open slightly, and Iseul's voice drifted out as she practiced acting earnestly in front of a camera.
"I still don't even know your name? Why won't you tell me? Don't you want to get close to me?? Fine... Yu. Eun. Ho. Eun~ho-ya~~"
"That's not the name, is it?"
"Kyaaah!!!!"
Iseul shrieked in pure shock and collapsed to the floor, staring at me with a thoroughly startled face as she gasped for breath.
"Wh-when did you... get there..?"
"Thirty seconds ago? I opened the door at 'I still don't even know your name.'"
"What do I do..! What do I do...!! Why were you peeping! Why?!! Hiiing...."
"What's so embarrassing? Your acting was good. I just got heart-fluttered."
"What...?"
"I said I got heart-fluttered."
"....E-Eunho..."
"Aagh!!"
"Pfft..!"
I clutched my chest and acted it out with my whole body, and Iseul covered her mouth as she burst into laughter, then got to her feet.
"Are you okay?"
"Not okay. This is gonna last a while."
"Hee~"
"Ah, more importantly — you'll probably have to go home alone today."
"Are you really busy..?"
"Yeah. So look after Mei for me. Buy her lunch too. Use this for the bill."
"No! I have money too! Even if I got it from you, oppa...."
I walked over to Iseul, who was still sorely lacking in confidence, and gave her a firm hug.
"If you grow wings and fly away later, you're in trouble."
"O-Oppa..."
"Hmm?"
"Mei is... watching...."
"......"
I slowly turned around and locked eyes with Mei, who was standing stock-still in the practice room doorway I'd left open.
"Uwaah!!! Wh-what?! How long have you been standing there?!!"
"If you grow wings and fly away later, you're in trouble. Uwek..."
"That little..!!"
"I'll pretend I didn't see or hear anything~~"
I was about to chase after Mei as she coolly turned away, but Iseul grabbed me, so I just headed out to the underground parking garage.
She said she'd handle talking to her, so it should be fine, right? Yeah — if her mouth was loose enough that rumors spread around the company, I'd just send her back to America.
But this was getting pretty uncomfortable.
"I can just go by myself, you know?"
I said it while staring at the back of Jeong Sora's head as she sat in the driver's seat.
Jeong Sora looked at me through the rearview mirror and answered with a firm expression.
"I'm a secretary. Driving is naturally a secretary's job."
"......"
I'd only planned to hire two people, and there wasn't much work anyway, so I'd just asked Jeong Sora to manage my schedule. But she'd taken that as being hired as a secretary and was now even behind the wheel. Honestly, it was convenient and nice — but still pretty burdensome.
But my thoughts about Jeong Sora vanished from my head the moment the meeting started.
"Three billion won?"
"Yes. That's the maximum amount we can offer."
Dazney Plus — who wanted to become Metflix's competitor — had offered three billion won as the licensing fee for K-Sler.
I'd been thinking up to fifteen billion at most, and they were offering a mere three billion? Were they joking right now?
"This is a production that cost over a hundred and thirty billion won just in production costs. And Metflix offered twenty billion."
"In Metflix's case, there's the condition of exclusive early release, isn't there? Unless it's something on the level of Frozen, the revenue we can generate by releasing a month later isn't that significant. This amount takes that into consideration."
"......"
From Dazney's perspective, it was a reasonable proposal. In a situation where no one knew yet whether K-Sler would succeed or fail, they wouldn't want to pay big money for a work they hadn't produced themselves — and one that Metflix would release a full month earlier.
But I never imagined they'd offer an amount this absurdly low.
Three billion? Three billion??
"Will you take the contract?"
Would you?!
"No. I'll be taking my leave."
I barely managed to rephrase the words rising to my throat into something polite and exited the meeting room. Then I ate a lunch I couldn't tell was going into my mouth or my nose, and moved on to the next meeting location.
Waving. Excluding overseas OTT platforms, it was the third-ranked OTT platform in Korea.
"How about around two billion won? We're not even acquiring a film that's already been released — I don't think we can offer a larger amount than this."
"......"
Naturally, I declined.
The next meeting was with Cooply, the second-ranked domestic OTT platform that had been making more aggressive investments than expected.
"Hmm... A K-pop animation film.... I like it. We can't know whether it'll succeed, but Cooply would like to stream it."
"Then we just need to negotiate the amount."
"We'll offer two billion won. However, if it draws more than five million viewers, we'll pay an additional one billion."
"......"
Had I taken this industry too lightly? Was this a catastrophic investment failure born of pure ignorance?
I didn't even think I needed to bother with tomorrow's meeting. Pineapple and TVing would probably offer similar amounts.
At this rate, we needed at least ten million viewers or more. Only then would the OTT platforms offer slightly higher amounts. Of course, even then it'd still be a loss.
"So there's only one method left..."
The girl group and boy group that would be produced based on K-Sler. I had to make them succeed no matter what. Otherwise, I'd just be the idiot who'd donated over a hundred billion won.
Finally, today had arrived.
Art Company's open audition. It might all be decided by the applicants gathered here — whether I became an idiot philanthropist king... or a miracle investor.
"Contestant number one. Miss Lee Seohyeon, entering."