The Team Doomed to Fail
I was assigned to a team on the verge of collapse. The Grace of Prophecy, the Grace of Healing (including repairs), the Grace of Tongues, and even the Divine Spirit that protects me… After meeting God and receiving these Graces, things I could never have imagined became reality. At this point, couldn’t I overcome death itself, just like His son?
‘Just asking, but…’
Speak.
‘After I die, could I be brought back to life after a few days?’
Resurrection, you mean?
‘Yeah.’
It is possible, but I would strongly advise against it. The death itself would be excruciatingly painful.
‘…….’
Whipped with hooks until your flesh is torn to shreds, forced to wear a crown of thorns, nailed to a cross…
‘Stop!’
That is why I advised against it.
‘I won’t bring it up again.’
I had no desire to be nailed to a cross.
“Has that friend arrived?”
The head of the department asked as he closed a file.
“Yes. He’s filling out his employment paperwork right now. Should I have him come up when he’s done?”
“No need. He’s an employee now, so the people on the ground should handle him. Once the paperwork is finished, tell the general affairs team to assign him to Team 5.”
“Singer Team 5?” the HR team leader asked, surprised.
“Yeah. Is there a problem?”
“After what happened to Red Blossom, there hasn’t been a single word about them, so I assumed the team was being disbanded.”
“Nothing has been decided yet. Don’t go spreading rumors.”
The HR team leader opened Shin Juwon’s resume again. A graduate of Korea University, no prior experience, and nothing particularly notable except for his solid build. He couldn’t understand why a new hire like this was being sent to a team rumored to be on the chopping block.
Singer Team 5 Office —
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Park Chanhyeok, the team leader, hung up the phone with a dumbfounded expression.
“Who was it? Why do you look like that?” asked Song Seungjun, the chief sitting across from him.
“General affairs. They’re sending us a new hire.”
“What?”
Both Song Seungjun and the youngest member, Kang Onyu, who was sitting beside him, widened their eyes in shock.
“They stayed silent when we begged them to hire more people, and now they suddenly send a rookie?”
“Exactly what I’m saying.” Park Chanhyeok opened his email and clicked on the attachment. “His name is Shin Juwon. Onyu, go to the general affairs team and bring the new guy up.”
“Yes, sir.”
Song Seungjun downed the canned coffee sitting next to his monitor.
“Let me see his resume. I want to know what kind of guy he is.”
“There’s nothing to see. Korea University grad, no previous job experience, and his self-introduction is just vague fluff. Something about wanting to make celebrities shine even brighter?”
“Wow, that’s harsh. They really sent someone who knows absolutely nothing.”
“Right? Anyway, do we even have anything for him to do when he gets here?”
“I’ll split the Red Blossom workload with Onyu and have him take some of it.”
“We’d need a schedule to manage in the first place.”
“Yeoreum still goes to the broadcasting station occasionally, so I’ll send the two of them together. And Team 3 sometimes asks for support, right?”
Park Chanhyeok opened Red Blossom’s schedule and let out a deep sigh. Aside from Ryu Yeoreum’s occasional minor acting roles, the calendar was completely empty.
No matter where you go, first impressions matter. Especially as a new hire, you have to show overflowing enthusiasm and energy. So the moment I stepped into the office, I greeted them in a loud, clear voice.
“Hello! I’m Shin Juwon. I look forward to working with you all!”
But the senior who brought me was faster. Before anyone could even respond to my greeting, he grabbed the two people in the office and dragged them straight into the conference room.
What the…? Is this how they establish hierarchy here?
That person had a strange expression the entire way here.
After giving a formal greeting, he didn’t say another word and simply walked ahead. A short while later, the three of them emerged from the conference room. The other two now wore expressions similar to the senior’s.
“Uh… I’m Park Chanhyeok, in charge of Singer Team 5. Nice to meet you.”
“Yes! It’s an honor, Team Leader!”
“I’m Song Seungjun, the chief. Let’s work well together from now on.”
“Yes, Chief! I’ll do my best!”
“I’m Kang Onyu. Nice to meet you.”
“Yes, Senior. Please speak comfortably with me.”
Park Chanhyeok, Song Seungjun, Kang Onyu… I repeated their names in my head several times. It’s best to memorize the names of the people you’ll be working with as quickly as possible.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
“I heard you were the one who saved Soyeon in the underground parking lot yesterday… Is that true?”
It seemed the rumor had already spread throughout the company. So that’s why the senior had such a weird look on his face.
“That’s… yes, that was me.”
I scratched the back of my head as I answered. Come to think of it, there was no reason to hide it. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I just hoped people wouldn’t start saying I was a parachute hire who got in through connections.
The team leader suddenly grabbed my hand. I could practically see hearts in his eyes… It was honestly a little gross.
“Whoa, so the hero of the parking lot is right here. Welcome! We’re glad to have you!”
“Hero… of the parking lot?”
“You stopped a guy charging with a knife using your own body. If that’s not a hero, what is?”
The story had already snowballed in just one day: that I had dodged the blade with perfect timing, twisted his arm, slammed him to the floor, beaten him half to death so he could barely walk, coolly disappeared, then been tracked down and brought in with great difficulty. It made me sound like some kind of superhero.
“I get scared just looking at a knife and can’t even get close. How did you even think to block it?”
“Well, the truth is… I didn’t even realize he had a knife…”
The barrage of praise continued to the point where my hands and feet curled up in embarrassment. I was grateful they weren’t calling me a parachute hire, but this was mortifying.
“What kind of guy brings a knife to a parking lot and waits? Soyeon isn’t the type to make enemies like that.”
Honestly, I was curious about that too.
“You haven’t heard yet? That bastard was Soyeon’s manager until recently. He got fired.”
“What?”
As befitting a top-class actress, Cha Soyeon always had at least three managers assigned to her. The guy was a road manager who got caught stealing her belongings and was let go by the company not long ago.
“They cut him quietly to avoid any scandal, but the bastard held a grudge. He apparently thought it was all Soyeon’s fault that he got fired.”
So he was the type to show up with a knife just because he lost his job. I should have been rougher with him.
“Still, it’s nice to get a new hire like this before we shut down. Feels good.”
“Shut down?”
Everyone made an awkward face at my question. After a brief pause, the team leader spoke.
“I was going to tell you anyway, so this works out. Everyone, into the conference room.”
An awkward silence filled the room.
“I was shocked when I got the call about a new hire. There are a lot of rumors that our team is being disbanded.”
What was that supposed to mean? They sent me to a team that was getting axed?
“Let me explain how the singer teams work. Think of it as an organizational overview.”
There were five singer teams in total. The number of teams had grown as they assigned dedicated groups to each one. Teams 1 through 3 had first-tier and 1.5-tier groups, so there were no issues. But Teams 4 and 5 had no artists at all. Team 4 was at least preparing a debut group, while Team 5 was essentially on indefinite hiatus.
“Was our team always empty?”
“Not exactly. Have you heard of Red Blossom?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“That makes sense. Every album they released flopped.”
Team 5 had been created specifically to manage the girl group Red Blossom. Two years ago, they had debuted with the company’s full support and expectations, but both their first and second albums had failed miserably. To make matters worse, last year the members even filed a lawsuit to terminate their exclusive contracts.
“Two of the members sued the company for breach of contract. They claimed we didn’t provide proper support and just left them to rot.”
It was a five-member girl group, but two members had left like that. If they had been a popular group, the company would have done everything to keep them, but since they were a failed idol group, there was no such effort. One member was also working as an actress, which was barely keeping the group on life support.
“Half the staff left too. There’s talk of merging us with Team 4, so the three of us have been living day to day.”
“Then… what’s going to happen to Red Blossom?”
“What else? They’ve been like this for two years. They’re basically scheduled for disbandment. Those girls are finished too.”
Even if a girl group successfully establishes itself in the market, their prime is considered to last only three to four years. Red Blossom had already wasted two of those years. Moreover, in the fourth generation, even with reduced member counts, three people were simply too few. And since they were a failed group, there was naturally no expectation of recruiting new members.
This makes Mission: Impossible look easy. Why on earth did they send me here?
“Don’t worry too much. The team might change, but the company doesn’t just throw employees away.”
That wasn’t the problem. It looked like my first step in this company was going to be completely wrong.
I can feel your sincerity. You want to save the team, don’t you?
‘Of course I do. It’s my first job and my first team. How can I just let it die?’
I was under the impression that when humans enter a company as new hires, they simply do whatever their superiors tell them to do.
‘They said the team is going to disappear. There won’t be any work to do. In that case, I’ll have to create work if I have to. I don’t want to just sit here and watch it all fall apart.’
That is exactly the type of talent the company is looking for.
‘I really hope the chairman thinks the same way.’
Suddenly, I became curious about the three remaining members.
“Team Leader. Shouldn’t I greet the Red Blossom members? We’re on the same team…”
“Of course you should. Yeoreum has a schedule today, so it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. I’ll have the three of them come in so you can introduce yourself in the office.”
“Understood.”
The next day —
I arrived early and cleaned up both the office and the conference room. I hadn’t noticed properly yesterday, but there were boxes stacked in one corner of the conference room. Seeing them made the talk of the team shutting down feel all too real. They were already packing up.
‘Is there no Grace for saving a failing team?’
Graces require a specific target and situation. What you currently desire is far too vague.
So I had to clearly define exactly what I wanted, including the scope. I had learned one more thing about the Graces.
I was sitting at my desk organizing the drawers when the office door opened.
“Team Leader, we’re here.”
Three beautiful women walked in. Their long, slender limbs gave off an unmistakable girl group aura. Of course, they were all new faces to me… Wait. The one at the very back was the girl from that time…
She spotted me too, her mouth falling open as she pointed straight at me.
“It’s the security uncle!”
“Security… uncle?”