An Offer You Can't Refuse
Kang Hyeongman watched my family throw a fit over a cigarette with a look of pure contempt, then spoke in a voice gone ice-cold.
"…So. You took the money you borrowed from me and dumped every last won into crypto. That about right?"
"H-hngh— K-Kang, sir, th-that's…!"
Dad, who'd been strong enough to wrestle me down a moment ago, turned into a frog staring down a snake the second Kang Hyeongman opened his mouth.
"Then how exactly do you plan on paying back the two hundred million you owe me?"
"Ah… w-well, you see…!"
Dad's eyes darted around before he and Mom shoved me forward.
"Heh heh. Why don't you talk it over with our daughter?"
"Dad…!"
"You know how it is, Mr. Kang. My girl's a machine when it comes to making money. An absolute machine."
"And she takes after us, so she's a looker too, ho ho. Yerin, honey, Mommy made you pretty—so you should repay that kindness, right?"
"Mom…! How can you all…"
Truth was, any affection I'd had for my parents had dried up a long time ago.
And yet…
…We're family. They're the mom and dad who brought me into this world…
…We were still family. The family I'd wished for with my dying breath in my previous life.
How could people who called themselves my parents do this to me?
Tears pricked at my eyes, but I forced them back and clenched my teeth.
…Stay calm.
As long as the chains of family bound us, I couldn't cut myself free from these people. Feeling sad was one thing—but first I had to figure out what to do about two hundred million in debt.
If we didn't pay it back, there was no telling what the gangster sitting in front of me would do to the daughter of the people who owed him.
I looked Kang Hyeongman straight in the eye, trying to project as much trustworthiness as I could muster.
"I'm already working two part-time jobs. If you just give me time… I'll pay it all back eventually."
"You're going to pay off two hundred million with part-time work? Planning to flip burgers for the rest of your life?"
Kang Hyeongman clicked his tongue once and turned his attention to the parents behind me.
"You're in this deep and you still won't look for work? Just dump every last scrap of responsibility on your daughter?"
"Ah… well… the economy's so bad these days, jobs are hard to come by…"
"I said I'd put you in a factory production line. Remember that?"
"I'm just not cut out for that kind of work, heh heh…"
"And I'm a woman, so factory work is a bit…"
"Worthless parasites."
Kang Hyeongman looked at my parents with pure contempt, then lit another cigarette.
I raised my hand a little and spoke up carefully.
"Um… Mister. Could you maybe introduce me to that production job instead?"
"……If you go into a factory, what about school?"
"I'll just drop out. I can always take the GED later."
"……."
Hooo—.
At my answer, Kang Hyeongman exhaled a long stream of smoke, his face twisted into an expression I couldn't quite read.
"I fully support my daughter going into factory work! In this country, who cares about academic credentials anyw—"
"You. Shut it."
One word from Kang Hyeongman silenced my father. He tapped ash into the tray and looked at me.
"I understand how you feel. But that factory is no place for a minor like you."
"Then…"
"I had a different kind of work in mind for you."
His gaze slid over me.
"……!"
Kang Hyeongman's indifferent, cold eyes raked over my face with deliberate thoroughness, and I flinched in spite of myself.
"I'll be honest. I've never seen a kid as pretty as you. So here's what I'm thinking…"
"……."
"Wouldn't it be a waste to bury a face like yours in an ordinary life?"
His hand slipped into the breast pocket of his suit and came out with something.
In that instant, I could more or less guess what kind of "work" Kang Hyeongman was about to recommend.
What else would a gangster offer a young, pretty girl?
He's going to sell me to a hostess bar…!
No matter how desperate I was for money, I had no intention of grinding my dignity into the dirt to earn it. I was ready to shut him down hard before he could even finish pulling whatever it was out of his pocket.
But then…
"How about trying out as an idol?"
"Mister, I am absolutely not going near a hostess bar— wait. What? An idol?"
The words that came out of Kang Hyeongman's mouth were nothing like what I'd expected.
…An idol? Out of nowhere?
I tilted my head, and Kang Hyeongman's face crumpled.
"A hostess bar… Did you seriously think we were the kind of scum who'd sell a minor into a place like that?"
"No… I mean, not exactly… but why suddenly tell me to become an idol?"
"Just look at this first."
What he'd pulled from his suit pocket turned out to be a small business card. I took it and looked it over slowly.
CEO Kang Hyeongman
…Truly catastrophic naming sense. Hyeongje Entertainment? That sounded like a debt-collection firm.
More importantly, the CEO line read Kang Hyeongman. So this man was the boss?
He must have caught the look on my face, because he kept going.
"This is a new venture our organization has been putting together with high hopes."
"An entertainment company?"
"That's right."
"…Doesn't seem like a great choice."
In my previous life, a friend of mine had worked as a road manager for idols, so I knew a little about how this industry worked. The entertainment world was a tangled mess of long-established interests—a nightmare for any new company trying to break in.
And these people were gangsters, weren't they? This wasn't the nineties. A bunch of thugs running a talent agency wasn't going to win anyone over.
Kang Hyeongman must have already felt that problem firsthand, because his face tightened almost imperceptibly.
"You're not wrong… This industry's been harder to crack than I expected. Worst of all, we can't get any trainees to sign on."
There was a note of genuine grievance in his voice. I glanced around the room.
Kang Hyeongman himself was one thing… but the goons—sorry, employees—around him were something else. Never mind the rough faces; their bodies were built like brick walls and their expressions could curdle milk. A few were bald. A few had scars carved across their faces.
Any trainee who'd willingly walk into this agency would have to be out of their mind…
Without a threat hanging over their head, no trainee would come near this place.
Which brought us to the problem.
"So I'd like you to join our company."
That threat… was currently pointed at me.
"Uh… um… Mister… that's…"
I scrambled for a natural way to turn him down. I knew this new body of mine was pretty. So why hadn't I already thrown myself into the entertainment industry to make money?
Because I had very good reasons not to.
And wanting to be an idol didn't mean you could just become one overnight. You needed years as a trainee at minimum—and every bit of support the company gave you during that time turned into debt you'd have to pay back later. For someone who needed to start earning money now to clear a debt, it was the wrong line of work entirely.
Right. I'll just say that and refuse.
But… as if he'd read my mind…
"I know what you're thinking. Look at this."
Kang Hyeongman tapped his cigarette against the ashtray, pulled a smartphone from his coat, and held the screen out toward me.
I looked. It was an ad for a cable program.
"My Idol Academia…?"
"Looks like you've heard of it already."
"Well…"
How could I not have?
My Idol Academia—or MIA for short—had been such a massive hit that even past-life me, who'd barely paid attention to media, had heard of it. A girl-group survival audition show.
A hundred contestants… six debut spots, right?
The six who made it were exceptional, and so were plenty of the ones who didn't—so audiences had watched every episode with their hearts in their throats. If I remembered right, the finale had cracked eight percent in the ratings.
But why was Kang Hyeongman bringing up a show like that?
MIA had drawn huge attention from the moment production was announced, and dozens of agencies had signed on. There shouldn't have been any room for a brand-new nobody like Hyeongje Entertainment to squeeze in.
Kang Hyeongman answered that question for me almost immediately.
"The board member sponsoring the show is a big brother of mine. When he heard I was starting an agency, he promised to lock us in a guaranteed slot."
"Ah…"
Connections. Of course.
"So… what do you say? Give it a shot. It'll be a real opportunity."
"……."
A real opportunity…
Yeah. It was a good opportunity. One hundred down to six. If you somehow landed among them by some miracle of luck, you'd debut as a major idol overnight. Even if you got cut, you'd walk away with name recognition that would help with the next debut.
If you actually wanted to be an idol, there was no better chance than this.
But…
Idols just aren't for me.
Like I'd been telling myself this whole time—I had too many reasons why the entertainment path didn't fit. MIA was a new variable, sure, but not enough of one to change my mind.
So I was about to refuse Kang Hyeongman's offer again when—
"Mister, even so, being an idol is still…"
"Hold on. Sanggu. Bring that over."
Kang Hyeongman had one of his men fetch a sheet of paper, then held it out to me.
"Exclusive contract with Hyeongje Entertainment. Read it, then decide."
"An exclusive contract…?"
What on earth was written in there that he wanted me to read it before deciding?
I tilted my head and picked it up. Mom and Dad, clearly curious about the contents, crowded in on either side of me to read along.
Hmm… looks ordinary enough…?
I scanned carefully for any poison-pill clauses, but it was just a standard contract.
Then my eyes reached the final section—
"……Huh?"
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.