Accident
Baekhak Entertainment wasn’t one of the industry’s giants for nothing.
Its center office occupied a twenty-story building right in the middle of Gangnam.
The open view had a calming effect on the tangled mess in my head.
One cigarette, two cigarettes, three cigarettes.
I smoked and smoked until my throat started to sting.
By the time I tried to light a fourth, I choked on the smoke and tears sprang to my eyes.
I flicked the unlit cigarette to the floor and muttered, “What the hell did I just do?”
A week ago.
I’d slept with a crazy woman.
Lee Ha-eun, the top star herself.
Two grown adults going to bed together and just holding hands would have been ridiculous.
We definitely did everything there was to do...
Yeah.
We did everything.
With Lee Ha-eun, that top-star actress.
Why? For what reason? How did it happen?
It started simply enough.
I won the lottery and decided to quit my job.
But of all days, it had to be Lee Ha-eun’s birthday.
Lee Ha-eun was the kind of woman who didn’t have a single friend she could call to make plans, thanks to her god-awful personality.
There was no way she had some acquaintance waiting around to celebrate her birthday.
So on Lee Ha-eun’s birthday, her hysteria peaked.
And thanks to that, we had a massive fight.
Lee Ha-eun could treat me like garbage because I was her manager.
But at that point, I had already won the lottery and decided to quit.
I no longer had any reason to put up with her abuse.
So I didn’t swallow her usual stream of venom. I threw it right back at her.
I’d been drinking too, so I wasn’t exactly in my right mind.
Crazy bitch. Rotten bitch. Goddamn bitch...
I let out every last bit of resentment and rage I’d been bottling up for a year.
And then what did that insane woman do?
...She didn’t even blink, I think.
Instead, she snarled back and grabbed me by the collar.
So I took the resignation letter I was holding and shoved it in her face...
Lee Ha-eun cried.
The woman who hadn’t even flinched while I cursed her out was suddenly crying like a child because I said I was quitting.
After that, things get fuzzy.
Like we’d both been possessed, we started tearing into each other again, kissing, biting, and more.
Once the mood caught fire, there was no stopping it.
And just like that, I crossed the line and slept with the actress I managed.
With that godforsaken bitch, no, with the top-star actress.
When I finished sorting through the memory, I muttered, “...You’ve completely lost it, Kwon Chan.”
My heart was pounding like crazy.
Just remembering it made me so dizzy with adrenaline that it felt like my brain might melt out of my skull.
I hurriedly reached inside my jacket and pulled out my bankbook.
- 1,400,000,000 won
The moment I saw the number printed there, the ragged breathing I’d had a second ago eased down as if nothing had happened.
“Right... that’s right.”
I had 1.4 billion won now.
Not a hundred million. 1.4 billion.
The confidence that came with that lump sum made me forget the accident I’d caused a few days earlier.
I put the bankbook away again and headed for Meeting Room 5.
The team members who were already there greeted me.
“Your face is a work of art again today, Kwon Chan.”
“Jeez, at this rate somebody’s going to die. Did Lee Ha-eun go off again?”
I brushed off their teasing greetings.
Back when I had nothing, I would’ve bristled and snapped back, but now I let it slide.
Just then, the conference room door opened and a man who looked like a gang boss stepped inside.
Ma Seok-du, the team leader of Management Team 5.
The most successful man I knew rubbed the tired corners of his eyes and said, “I’ve got a business trip this morning, so let’s start the meeting right away.”
The meeting went on in a heavy atmosphere.
Team 5’s recent performance had sunk to the bottom, and if things stayed like this, we could be hit with restructuring.
The sort of realistic problems that made any office worker’s blood run cold were put on the table as meeting topics.
If it had been any other day, I would’ve sat there tense as a wire, listening to every word, but now I didn’t feel a thing.
Doesn’t matter. I’m quitting anyway.
I’d postponed it a little because of what happened with Lee Ha-eun, but my decision hadn’t changed.
I was leaving Baekhak.
Restructuring, performance, all of it had nothing to do with me anymore.
Then Team Leader Ma Seok-du suddenly seized my shoulder.
“...So with this round of personnel changes, Kwon Chan has been promoted to Chief Manager.”
My eyes went wide.
“What are you talking about, Team Leader?”
“What do you mean what am I talking about? I’m saying you got promoted to Chief Manager.”
Ma Seok-du curled one corner of his mouth in a sly grin.
“You’ve been running roads for five years, so it was about time you moved up. Congratulations, Chief Manager Kwon.”
***
I had a separate interview with Team Leader Ma Seok-du, who’d said he had a meeting in the morning.
“I got promoted to Chief Manager?”
“Yeah, you idiot. I pushed hard for it this time! I convinced the head of department that after the way you held on through a whole year with Lee Ha-eun, it was time to move you up to Chief Manager.”
“...”
“You’d better do well, idiot! You’re a full year ahead of your peers. And you know there are plenty of people out there giving me the side-eye because you and I are acquaintances, right? Just because you got promoted doesn’t mean you can lose the grit you started with. Keep your usual attitude in check...”
I let Team Leader Ma’s cheerful nagging go in one ear and out the other.
Inside all that noise, my tangled mind suddenly cleared.
I’m Chief Manager?
So I’d been promoted?
Me, the guy who’d slept with his assigned actress?
I couldn’t keep my expression under control.
Maybe that showed.
Team Leader Ma tilted his head and asked, “Why the hell do you look like you ate something rotten? Aren’t you happy you got promoted to Chief Manager?”
I hurriedly pulled myself together.
“I’m happy.”
“Is that what a happy man looks like?”
“Then what, should I jump around and dance?”
“Look at you, smartass. I thought I’d managed to straighten your speech out a little lately. Why are you suddenly acting up again?”
“I’m talking the same as always. But...”
I asked the question as casually as I could, while my heart hammered away in my chest.
“...Now that I’m Chief Manager, am I still handling Lee Ha-eun?”
Fortunately, I managed to keep my face steady this time.
Team Leader Ma scratched his cheek and said, “That’s the weird part...”
“Weird?”
“Lee Ha-eun called last night. Said she wanted to change managers.”
“!”
“Feels like the day finally came, but... before she met you, she’d burned through more managers than I can count. Yet after meeting you, she finally settled down, right? And then out of nowhere she asked to switch managers.”
Team Leader Ma fixed me with a long stare.
“Don’t tell me you and Lee Ha-eun had a round, Chan?”
I was speechless.
I didn’t know what exactly he meant by “a round,” but since we had done it, there was no point denying it.
Team Leader Ma clicked his tongue.
“So you did, huh. What’d you throw this time? An iPhone? A tablet? Or did she just toss a bag at your face?”
“...”
“Whatever. Fine. It worked out, anyway. Since you got promoted, it’s probably time to start easing away from Lee Ha-eun.”
Team Leader Ma handed me a few sheets of paper.
“I’m assigning you two new road managers. Put one on Lee Ha-eun and the other on the girl group that’s debuting this time.”
“Now that you’re Chief Manager, you need to focus more on oversight than running around on foot. You get what I mean, right? You’re in your fifth year now, so handle it on your own and...”
I let his words drift by me again.
Lee Ha-eun wants to change managers?
Not that strange, really.
She’d slept with me, so it would be awkward to keep traveling around together.
And yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
Of all the countless options available to that goddamn bitch, she’d chosen the tamest path.
It’s a miracle she didn’t sue me.
What exactly was she thinking?
As expected of that deranged lunatic, I couldn’t get a read on her at all.
“Anyway, good work, Chief Manager Kwon.”
“Yes. Understood, Team Leader.”
“Keep your evening free two days from now. Since you got promoted, you owe me a drink.”
“Let’s make it beef.”
Team Leader Ma laughed and waved me off.
I bowed my head in passing and came out, lost in thought.
But there was no way my cluttered mind was actually turning over properly.
Lee Ha-eun, promotion to Chief Manager, lottery winnings...
Every irritating issue stuck to my brain like sticky tar and wouldn’t come off.
In the end, I got up from my seat and headed back to the rooftop.
Then I made a call.
...
The ring went on for a long time.
But I waited quietly.
How long had it been?
The ringing cut off abruptly, and a sharp voice stabbed into my ear like a needle.
“Hello?”
I took a short breath and spoke.
“Have you been well, Lee Ha-eun?”
***
Lee Ha-eun suddenly said to me,
“Let’s call it an accident.”
As expected, she was incredible.
This crazy woman always went beyond what I expected.
“What happened that day, let’s just call it an accident.”
An actress slept with her manager.
And she wanted to write that off as an accident.
From where I stood, it was impossible to understand.
“Can that even work?”
“No. It can’t.”
“Then why are you saying we should treat it like an accident?”
“Are you going to take responsibility, then?”
“Responsibility?”
I let out a dry laugh.
Why would I take responsibility?
Lee Ha-eun laughed too over the receiver.
“Exactly. So let’s call it an accident. It’s awkward for both of us, isn’t it?”
I chose my words carefully.
But there was no way I could choose them carefully enough.
“Are you seriously insane?”
“That wording’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”
Instead of answering, I took out a cigarette and put it between my lips.
Maybe she sensed that brief silence.
Lee Ha-eun spoke first.
“I’ve said what I needed to say. I’ve got a schedule, so I’m hanging up.”
The call ended.
I lit the cigarette hanging from my mouth.
Once the nicotine got in, the thoughts that had wandered off for a while finally came back.
“...What the hell is she thinking?”
I really didn’t know.
People said top-star celebrities, especially actresses, all had a screw loose somewhere, but with her it felt less like a loose screw and more like she was missing a whole chunk of her brain.
I let out a long sigh and muttered, “...Fine. Let it be what it’s going to be.”
I was tired now.
Of spending my strength on problems like this.
So I decided to think simply.
Sleeping with Lee Ha-eun was an accident.
The promotion to Chief Manager was nice, but I was still quitting the company.
The problem was Team Leader Ma Seok-du.
If I quit now, Team 5’s atmosphere would get destroyed.
I couldn’t do that to Seok-du hyung as a person.
He was a guy with nothing to his name who’d brought me into Baekhak Entertainment, one of the biggest companies in the business, and even pushed me up to Chief Manager.
I’ll still quit, but I should probably delay it a little longer.
I stroked my chin and carefully chose the timing.
“Girl group... right. I can quit after I get the girl group I’m handling through their debut.”
The timing wasn’t bad.
Resolve the team’s urgent issues, get the new road managers used to the work, and once they’ve got a feel for things, I’d leave the company.
That would count as me keeping the duty owed to a younger brother.
After deciding, I ground out my cigarette.
When I lifted my head, I saw the open stretch of Gangnam spread out below me.
Having 1.4 billion won in my pocket made me appreciate things like this.
The forest of towers that used to loom endlessly high now felt like it was sitting beneath my feet.
“Well, not bad.”
For the first time since joining the company, I felt at ease.
Right now, it seemed like I could do anything.