A Pleasant, Disbelieving Laugh
A pleasant, disbelieving laugh.
Right.
Something felt off.
The Busan International Film Festival was one of the top three film festivals in all of Korea.
It made no sense that neither I nor Seok-du-hyung had ever heard of the actress who won a rookie award at a festival like that.
Unless she wasn’t some unknown who’d truly burst onto the scene like a comet, there was no way even a modest newcomer wouldn’t have at least crossed our ears.
And now, looking at the profile file in front of me, I could see exactly why neither Seok-du-hyung nor I had known Choi Go-eun existed.
[Name: Kim Go-eun]
[Stage Name: Choi Go-eun]
[Age: 18]
My mouth curled upward.
She wasn’t an adult actress. She was a child actress?
Well, of course neither of us knew her then!
Seok-du-hyung might know every corner of the entertainment world, but he wasn’t so plugged in that he’d know every unknown child actor working in obscurity.
And yet I’m going to end up meeting Choi Go-eun like this...
Should I call this lucky?
No, maybe this is just good timing.
The phrase “butterfly effect” came back to me once again.
Team 1, blown apart because of Team Leader Kim Seong-hun.
Choi Go-eun mixed in among the entertainers broken away from that wrecked Team 1 wasn’t really luck so much as something I’d set in motion myself.
At that thought, the sharp tension in me loosened a little.
On the other hand, feeling my energy spike back to life, I started reading through Choi Go-eun’s profile file in earnest.
Age eighteen. Debut... two years ago.
But after debuting, she’d only made one appearance.
Her entire filmography was a single minor role as an extra in a web drama.
Even for a child actress, isn’t that a little too little?
Had she been neglected?
It sounded absurd, but it was possible.
Kim Seong-hun just swallowed up entertainers however he pleased, and even A-list actors were being shared around by Team 1’s road managers... so a child actress was probably even less of a priority.
I clicked my tongue once and ran my eyes over Choi Go-eun’s profile photo.
Purely on looks, she was a pretty high school girl, the kind with baby fat still lingering in her cheeks.
Looked at kindly, she was the sort of face that would grow into beauty. Looked at from the industry’s point of view, she was ordinary.
I tapped my fingers against the table.
If the future texts are sending me this, there has to be something here...
Still, just from the profile documents, there was no immediate punch to the gut.
Right then, Seok-du-hyung rapped the whiteboard hard with his knuckles.
“All right, enough stalling. Let’s start sorting things out.”
He pointed at Kim Manager, the most senior manager among the Team 5 road managers.
“You all know these aren’t free picks just because they’re on the market, right? We’ve got to compete with the other teams, so if we want to avoid overlapping as much as possible, we need to organize our side first. Kim Manager here goes first. Say one person you want.”
Kim Manager, the senior-most in Team 5, answered as if he’d been waiting for the cue.
“Chun Woo-young.”
“!”
The managers who’d been pricking up their ears let out groans all at once.
“Damn... I was thinking about Chun Woo-young too.”
“Hey, Kim Manager! You’re taking such a good catch with the first pick?”
“Shut up, punk! If you’re so upset, try being more senior than me.”
“Ugh, if it starts like this, all the decent ones are going to get snatched up.”
“If Chun Woo-young gets taken, do we have to settle for Im Hyun-sung or Choi Ji-hyun?”
The meeting room turned noisy in an instant.
Amid the racket, Team 5’s managers sized one another up with fierce, silent battles of timing and judgment.
I crossed my arms and murmured, relaxed.
There’s no way any manager here is trying to take Choi Go-eun, right?
Come on.
Who in their right mind would go after an unknown child actress?
I waited at ease for my turn.
The order moved down from the senior managers, and before long it reached me.
Seok-du-hyung looked at me and tipped his chin.
“Manager Kwon, who are you picking?”
I’d already made up my mind, so there was no hesitation.
“Choi Go-eun.”
“Huh? Who?”
“Choi Go-eun. Choi Go-eun.”
“.................?”
Seok-du-hyung blinked.
The road managers and managers in attendance all tilted their heads in confusion.
“Who’s Choi Go-eun?”
“...Looking at the profile, she’s a child actress?”
“Uh, uh? Manager Kwon? You’re really taking Choi Go-eun? No take-backs!”
“Huh? You’re taking this one?”
“Hey, Manager Kwon. What’s with the sudden indie-film syndrome?”
Indie-film syndrome, my ass.
With all the decent merchandise gone in the earlier rounds, a Busan International Film Festival rookie award sounded pretty damn good.
Meanwhile, Seok-du-hyung still looked like he couldn’t make sense of it.
“You really... want this Choi Go-eun girl?”
“Yes.”
“...”
Seok-du-hyung gave me a look that said he had a lot to say.
But because there were eyes on us, he quickly turned back and continued the remaining meeting.
“Looks like the rough direction’s set. Team 5 will go with this line and push it through. No objections, right?”
The Team 5 managers agreed in silence.
Seok-du-hyung clapped his hands once.
“Manager Kwon stays. Everyone else, out.”
The managers, whose time was worth gold, hurriedly got to their feet and left the room.
Watching their backs, Seok-du-hyung suddenly turned to me.
“So what is it this time?”
“What is what?”
“Why pick Choi Go-eun over perfectly decent options? That girl, she’s the one who asked me something on the roof earlier, right?”
Instead of answering, I just gave him an easy smile.
Seok-du-hyung’s brow furrowed.
“If you don’t want to answer, then say it with words, damn it. Don’t just smile like that!”
He let out a heavy sigh.
“Huu... Fine. I’ll let the Choi Go-eun thing go, but Kwon Chan. Why are you standing out so much lately?”
“How am I standing out?”
“You know people are talking about you among the managers and team leaders, right?”
My eyes widened a little.
“People are talking about me?”
“Yeah, damn it! You’re standing out too much! Starting with Queen of Joseon, and now even To.Any is blowing up!”
“...Is that a bad thing?”
“Not bad, exactly. It’s just that you’re standing out too much. You should be pushing forward at a reasonable pace, but you’re running a one-man race.”
At Seok-du-hyung’s words, I found myself nodding.
Come to think of it, I have been standing out a bit lately.
Maybe that was why.
Lately, every time I came by headquarters, the back of my neck started tingling again.
Just look at the Team 5 road managers and managers.
I couldn’t tell with the juniors, but I could feel the senior managers and road managers quietly sizing me up.
Have I climbed that much?
For that matter... weren’t they a little too openly wary of me?
Was there some other reason?
Then an unfamiliar voice came from beyond the meeting room door.
“I’m here from the CEO’s office. May I come in for a moment?”
“!”
Seok-du-hyung and I both jolted.
...Why is the CEO’s office looking for us?
Frowning, I scrambled through the possibilities.
Was it because of To.Any’s chart rankings?
Or was there something Seok-du-hyung needed to handle?
While I was thinking, Seok-du-hyung gathered himself and answered.
“Yes, yes! Please come in.”
The door to the meeting room opened, and Kim the secretary from the CEO’s office stepped inside.
“Team 5 Leader, I was wondering if Manager Kwon was... Ah. There you are.”
Damn it.
He hadn’t come for Seok-du-hyung. He’d come for me?
My expression hardened before I could stop it, and then Kim the secretary broke into a bright smile.
“I’m here to get the handover signature for the Mercedes-Benz the company’s providing this time.”
“?”
“Here, sign right here, and by the end of today we’ll send it over to Gangnam xx Motors...”
...Huh?
I blinked like an idiot at Kim the secretary’s words, then slowly turned my head.
Seok-du-hyung was staring at me in utter shock.
A low groan escaped me.
Ah...
Right.
I’d completely forgotten.
A brand-new Mercedes-Benz that Baekhak had prepared for me was supposed to arrive today or tomorrow.
And of all times, it had to show up now?
I turned my head.
“...................”
Beyond the open meeting room door.
Every employee in the management division was staring this way with expressions of complete shock.
“...Manager Kwon got a company car??”
Tsk.
I was finished.
***
That evening.
I took the company-issued Mercedes for a drive with Seok-du-hyung.
“Whoa! Damn, this is insane! What on earth is going on? The company gave you a car? And a Mercedes-Benz, too!”
His overreaction was even worse than mine.
But once I actually got inside the new Mercedes... it was hard not to understand.
Wow, the interior is this beautiful?
There was a reason Mercedes was one of the big three German luxury brands.
The exterior was nice, sure, but the interior was on another level.
How should I put it? The luxury wasn’t gaudy; it was restrained enough to make your eyes feel spoiled.
In a ride that couldn’t even compare to a K5’s, I stopped at the samgyeopsal place Seok-du-hyung and I always went to.
“No booze since you’re driving?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m not planning to have a driver on call from the day I get a new car.”
The two of us sat across from each other, clinked soda and cola instead of soju, and laid thick slices of pork belly on the grill.
Sizzle.
I was licking my lips at the sound of the meat cooking when Seok-du-hyung, who’d been staring at me for a while, suddenly muttered, “Now tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“What do you mean, what? Why’d the company give you a Mercedes?”
I thought about it while flipping the meat.
Should I tell him or not?
But Seok-du-hyung seemed like someone I could tell.
He was already in on Kim Seong-hun’s secret, after all.
“Because Queen of Joseon hit big.”
“...Queen of Joseon?”
“Yeah. Queen of Joseon.”
Seok-du-hyung’s eyes went wide.
“S-so this car was your bonus? Your performance award?”
With a slight lift at the corner of my mouth, I explained the whole sequence of events.
Baekhak, which had been teetering because of Kim Seong-hun.
The sudden smash hit that was Queen of Joseon.
Director Park Yu-hyeon, who’d given the Mercedes as a definite reward under CEO Baek Ji-won’s orders.
After hearing everything, Seok-du-hyung let out an impressed sound.
“Huh... now that I hear it all laid out...”
His face turned sour as he trailed off.
“You got lucky, sure, but this does make sense for a Mercedes.”
“Right?”
Seok-du-hyung clicked his tongue.
“Man... it’s good news, but... there’s something kind of...”
“What now?”
“No, I’m saying this looks like trouble.”
“Why would it be trouble?”
“Why else? Because the Team 1 leader position is open, damn it!”
“!”
“The seat’s empty, so someone has to be promoted, and from the perspective of the managers just below that level, why wouldn’t it get messy? Honestly, opportunities like this don’t come around often.”
My eyes widened.
...Right. It really isn’t an opportunity that comes around often.
A management-team leader post at a company like Baekhak wasn’t something you could climb into just because you’d put in the years.
You needed both luck and ability.
Only when those two lined up could you get there.
Seok-du-hyung kept going.
“The managers are all keeping an eye on each other over that seat right now. I’ve heard from the executive office side that they might even bring in someone from outside, but that’s unlikely.”
He looked at me and tipped his chin.
“And in the middle of all that, our Manager Kwon here starts standing out like this, huh? What do you think happens?”
Understanding the situation, the corner of my mouth rose slightly.
“Why? Are they saying an almost-one-year manager is getting side-eyed?”
“Listen to that confidence.”
“No, I just think it’s funny. Worrying about a manager with less than a year under his belt.”
“This is no joke, damn it! Our team’s people are one thing, since we’re all on the same side, but the other side is already talking about putting you down.”
“That bad?”
“That bad. Queen of Joseon, To.Any... and now word’s even spread that the company gave you a car. Why wouldn’t the managers aiming for the team leader seat keep an eye on you?”
Seok-du-hyung gave me serious advice.
“Corporate power games are scary, Chan. This is exactly how in-house politics starts.”
In-house politics, huh...
Come to think of it, after Kim Seong-hun, it was not the sort of problem I could take lightly.
But I wasn’t worried.
While I kept flipping the meat, I muttered, “What’s a little pressure from other managers?”
Right.
What was so scary about pressure from another manager?
I was the one who’d survived Kim Seong-hun’s pressure when he was leading the top-performing Team 1.
Plainly put, pressure from managers at the same level as me... wasn’t just not scary, I didn’t even care about it.
“Listen to you. You’re getting more cocky by the day, you brat.”
Instead of answering Seok-du-hyung’s jab, I handed him a piece of perfectly grilled pork belly.
It might sound like a joke now, but... yes.
If things on the Black Bride side are drawn properly.
The outcome of the management department’s power game was practically decided.
My overwhelming victory.
Besides, I’d been living by swallowing my pride ever since coming to the company.
I don’t avoid fights that come to my door.
“If they want in, tell them to come in.”
Quite the opposite, I’m the one who walks toward trouble.
“But they’d better be ready for it. You know me, hyung. I may not repay kindness, but grudges? I pay those back with interest.”
The moment I said that with a slight curl of my lips, Seok-du-hyung flinched.
“Wow... you evil bastard.”
He let out a dry laugh.
“So you’re not even trying to hide that shitty temper anymore?”
I smiled without saying a word.
Seok-du-hyung didn’t know it, but I’d stopped hiding that shitty temperament a while ago.
***
The next day, after arriving at work, I went up to the rooftop smoking area.
“Seok-du-hyung was right after all.”
The looks being thrown my way were no joke.
Especially from the road managers at my own rank.
I bit down on my cigarette and muttered, “Well, I have stood out a bit.”
To.Any... Queen of Joseon...
Even I had to admit my recent moves were hard not to notice.
But what was I supposed to do when circumstances kept refusing to leave me alone?
Events kept pushing me forward whether I wanted them to or not, so how exactly was that my fault?
As I brushed ash off the cigarette and grumbled, my smartphone rang.
Checking the caller, I lifted the corner of my mouth.
“Yes, Tae-jun.”
- Where are you?
“I’m at the rooftop smoking area right now.”
- Should I come over there?
“No. I’ll head down. Let’s meet at the management office.”
Putting out my cigarette, I muttered, “Well, in-house politics is in-house politics... wonder if Seo Tae-jun came prepared?”
Today was the day I had my meeting with Seo Tae-jun.
It was time to check the big promise he’d made a week ago, when he said he’d bring me Kang Ji-ho from Black Bride.
If Seo Tae-jun’s take on Kang Ji-ho goes just past the character’s line, I can get the rest done by persuading Director Park...
I hoped the performance he’d prepared had crossed that line.
Only then could I give Seo Tae-jun something worth his while.
Finishing my thoughts, I headed down to the management office.
The atmosphere, which had been calm until a moment ago, was strangely restless.
Why is it so noisy? Did something happen again?
Tilting my head, I looked for Seo Tae-jun, who should have arrived by now.
Then I spotted a familiar face in the middle of where everyone’s attention had gathered.
“Manager Kwon?”
Sharp features.
Long, striking proportions.
And... a shaved head?
...Huh??
Seo Tae-jun’s trademark comma-shaped hair was gone!
So shocked I forgot to breathe for a second, I watched as Seo Tae-jun walked up and ran a hand over his freshly shaved scalp.
“How’ve you been?”
It took me a moment to find my voice.
“Tae-jun, your hair...”
“Ah, this? Kang Ji-ho’s a bald character, so I shaved it all off...”
His unfinished sentence trailed away as the corner of his mouth lifted.
“What do you think? It suits me, right? Seeing your face, it looks like I shaved it right.”
Another disbelieving laugh escaped me.
“Heh?”
This time, it was a laugh with a very good meaning behind it.