Incident
I took a slow sip of the coffee I’d bought on my way to work that morning.
As the strong caffeine ran through my veins, my fogged-up mind snapped awake.
The reality I’d been trying to avoid rose up in front of me all at once.
"...What the hell is going on this early in the morning?"
I’d gone to sleep, come into work, and already two incidents had blown up in my face.
-[International delivery (attached image)]
-[Trainee Park Gyu-ri / Director Kim Jang-hun]
That morning, I’d gotten a text from an international number.
For an office worker, spam messages were so normal they barely counted as unusual.
The problem was the photo attached to that text.
"Director Kim Jang-hun, red-haired Park Gyu-ri."
Those two were tangled up together.
To put it a little crudely, they were going at it in the photo like there was no tomorrow.
I already knew there was a sponsor arrangement, so I wasn’t exactly shocked.
Who, exactly, had sent this to me?
"Coincidence?"
No.
It made no sense to say it was accidental.
This was clearly a photo sent to me with a purpose.
...Still, if I look only at the situation itself, this is solid evidence.
If I reported it upstairs, we could expose Director Kim Jang-hun’s sponsor relationship with the redhead.
Of course, the fallout would blow Team 5 apart too.
Scratching my head, I thought about the next incident.
Team Leader. That bastard ran.
Who?
The rookie road manager, remember? That bastard Jang Hyeon-su. He got a taste of Lee Ha-eun yesterday and bailed on us. He’s not answering his phone.
As I recalled the news Jeon Hyeong-u had brought me, I let out a snort.
"...Well, this one’s at least within the bounds of human reason."
Jang Hyeon-su running away after being put through the wringer by Lee Ha-eun was no surprise at all.
If anything, I’d expected it. The only thing that felt a little fresh was that it had taken less than a day.
"Where should I start?"
One incident was absurd but oddly intriguing and entertaining.
The other was perfectly reasonable, but annoying enough to make my skin crawl.
After a moment’s thought, I picked the latter.
It seemed best to clear the problems I could actually solve first.
Once I’d made up my mind, I called right away.
After a few rings, that familiar sharp voice stabbed into my ear.
"Hello?"
I cleared my throat and greeted her.
"You’ve set a record, Lee Ha-eun."
"Kwon Chan?"
"I thought you’d at least make it three days. Not even one, huh? Were you that unhappy with the new manager?"
I’d spoken pretty sharply, but there was no answer.
I took another sip of coffee and waited at my leisure.
A moment later, I heard a silky laugh, the kind that sounded like it could melt a smartphone.
"You called me first thing in the morning just to say that?"
She was laughing?
That’s a little unexpected.
With the Lee Ha-eun I knew, this was the point where she should’ve exploded and started biting back.
Tilting my head, I replied, "Yeah. You’ve got a schedule starting soon, and you want to do it without a manager?"
"I’m Lee Ha-eun."
"So?"
"And you attach some rookie as my manager? Do you have a brain or not?"
I narrowed my eyes slightly.
Ah. So that was the point that got Jang Hyeon-su cut.
It was such a Lee Ha-eun reason that I found myself nodding along automatically.
"Fair enough."
"Get me someone proper."
"How about Jeon Hyeong-u? The one you saw yesterday."
"I don’t like him."
"Then who do you want?"
From the other end of the line, a sultry nasal laugh drifted out.
"You?"
It was only one word, but it pinched the air out of my lungs.
I sucked in a breath like I was about to die of suffocation.
"You’re not tied down just because you became a team leader, are you?"
She wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t tied down.
The problem was that I didn’t want to run with you.
No, even worse than that, why was she asking me to change managers because she was uncomfortable, then calling for me again?
I was so dumbfounded I answered honestly.
"Sorry, but I’m not interested."
"Want me to make you interested?"
I laughed under my breath.
Lee Ha-eun’s voice turned cold in an instant.
"You’re laughing?"
"Yeah. It’s funny hearing you threaten me."
"I’m not threatening you."
"Sure, sure. Not a threat. But go on, if you think you can. I’ll just quit."
Lee Ha-eun went quiet for a beat, then answered.
"You keep threatening to quit on me."
Her tone had risen a little.
She’s pissed.
I considered needling her some more, then decided to stop there.
I didn’t want to start a fight with Lee Ha-eun first thing in the morning.
"I’ll assign Jeon Hyeong-u as your temporary manager."
"..."
"If you force us to replace him too... well, Team 5 won’t be able to handle you, so you’ll get reassigned to another team. Just keep that in mind."
I didn’t get a response.
-click, click...
Like the madwoman she was, she hung up without warning.
A dry laugh slipped out of me.
"What a temper."
Still, that problem had been more or less sorted out.
The remaining one was the sponsor issue with Director Kim Jang-hun.
I lifted my head and looked out toward the horizon.
Warm sunlight brushed against my skin.
Winter seemed to be gone, and spring really had arrived.
Enjoying that warmth for a moment, I muttered, "This one’s easy too... I already know the answer."
Now that I had solid evidence, there was no reason to delay exposing Director Kim Jang-hun and To.Any’s redhead over their sponsor relationship.
But I wouldn’t be the one to expose it.
"Team Leader. Let’s have a drink tonight."
It was Team 5 leader Ma Seok-du who had to be the one to drag Director Kim Jang-hun down.
***
That evening.
I threw a small party with the leader of our Management Team 5, Brother Ma Seok-du.
"Hey! Since your big brother’s paying, eat as much as you want!"
Nothing pissed me off quite like the awkward Gyeongsang dialect that Seoul natives tried to fake.
I frowned and said, "What movie have you been obsessed with this time?"
"Heh... I binged Veteran after watching some NutTube yesterday."
"Way to prove you’re a fossil. Even the movies you watch are fossil material."
"You little bastard, talking to your brother like that?"
Brother Seok-du poured me a shot of soju.
The clear liquor in the glass trembled, right on the verge of spilling over.
Since he’d poured me that much out of brotherly love, I couldn’t exactly refuse the favor.
I mixed us a soju-beer combo in a 7-to-3 ratio.
Obviously, the seven was soju.
Brother Seok-du threw back the drink I’d mixed him and laughed loudly.
"Ha! That hits the spot!"
I had a feeling I might’ve given too good a gift to a man who couldn’t live without alcohol.
Shaking my head, I downed the soju he’d poured me too.
I soothed the burn clawing at my throat with sweet sirloin.
Brother Seok-du poured another round and said, "Our Chan is already a team leader, huh."
"How many drinks have you had already, and you’re getting sentimental?"
"When you get older, you get sentimental fast, idiot. So tell me, what’s it like being a team leader? Pretty manageable?"
It was manageable.
Honestly, it was easier than being a road manager.
As long as I ignore everything that’s happened since I got here.
As I thought that, I pretended to hesitate.
Brother Seok-du reacted immediately.
"What’s with that look? You’ve got a lot you want to say."
"Forget it."
I played it coy once.
If I told him too easily, the shock might hit Brother Seok-du too hard.
"You’re trying to play hard to get when even women couldn’t do that to you?"
"What hard to get? Just drink."
"You know my personality. Do you want me to get so drunk I spill it myself, or are you going to confess like a good little subordinate?"
Brother Seok-du, now restless, snorted through his nose.
The sight of him was like looking at our idiot nephew.
Is this guy really thirty-four?
I laughed before I could stop myself.
"What? Why are you laughing?"
"Forget it. Look at this."
"What is it?"
"Don’t freak out. Just check it."
Brother Seok-du blinked and looked down at the smartphone I handed him.
A moment later, Ma Seok-du’s already rough face twisted into something that looked like a real gangster’s.
"...What the fuck? What is this, Chan?"
I took a swallow of soju and answered.
"What do you think it is? Exactly what you’re seeing. Director Kim Jang-hun was screwing around with one of the debut lineup girls."
***
It was supposed to be a promotion celebration, but the mood had turned heavy in an instant.
Brother Seok-du couldn’t take his eyes off my smartphone, and I just sipped my soju in silence.
I don’t know how much time passed like that.
Brother Seok-du ran a hand through his hair and muttered, "Who else knows about this besides you?"
At his question, I remembered the spam text that had arrived that morning.
Probably no need to tell him that part, right?
I gave him a vague answer.
But I left the door open.
"For now, just me. But who knows? They’ve been flaunting it so openly."
Brother Seok-du couldn’t hold back his anger and raised his voice.
"...Is Kim Jang-hun out of his damn mind? No, seriously! Do you know what kind of girls these are, and he’s putting his hands on them?"
We’d clearly booked a private room for the celebration at the right time.
"The company’s expectations for To.Any are huge right now, and the bastard in charge is screwing around with them? Wow... what a useless piece of shit! That’s fucking—ugh..."
Shouting at the top of his lungs, Brother Seok-du slammed another drink into his mouth.
I watched him for a moment, then casually tossed out the bait.
"So what are you going to do, Brother?"
"What do you mean, what am I going to do?"
"Are you going to tell the people above?"
Brother Seok-du’s eyes trembled wide.
"...Would covering it up actually cover anything up?"
"A lot of people would lose their heads."
At my words, Brother Seok-du let out a long, heavy sigh.
Team Leader Ma Seok-du, who had been slumped like a half-starved brown bear for the past few days, muttered in a gloomy voice, "Still... let’s bury it, Chan. This is not a problem we can handle."
The corners of my mouth lifted slightly.
"Because you can’t handle Director Kim Jang-hun?"
"Yeah. The chairman personally moved to bring that man in. As you know, how many people are there in this industry who can handle being a total director? Especially in a girl group market that’s half dead. There aren’t many who can do that job."
"And one of them is Director Kim Jang-hun."
"Right. One of them is Director Kim Jang-hun. And not just that—he’s the one the chairman personally brought in."
Brother Seok-du let out another weary breath.
"It’s disgusting, but what can we do? That man’s still a talented piece of trash."
I rolled my glass in my hand.
Yeah... that’s true.
Like Brother Seok-du said, in this industry, a talented bastard got treated better than a kind one who couldn’t do the job.
So the ending to this incident was already decided too.
If we don’t cut Director Kim Jang-hun loose, Brother Seok-du’s head will roll.
I didn’t want to see Brother Seok-du get cut loose from Baekhak.
That was why I was sticking my nose into this at all.
With that thought, I opened my mouth.
"Brother."
"...Yeah, what."
"Do you think a piece of trash only does trash things with one person?"
Ma Seok-du jumped in surprise.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"The red-haired To.Any member, Park Gyu-ri, and this guy Kim Jang-hun. You think it was just the two of them going at it?"
"!"
"No, seriously... from what I can tell, that’s not it. The redhead from To.Any, sure, but Kim Jang-hun? I think he was probably involved with quite a few people."
Team Leader Ma Seok-du’s mouth fell open.
"...You’re saying there’s more than just the two of them?"
"Yeah. So listen carefully."
I warned Brother Seok-du not as a little brother, but as the team leader of Team 5.
"If we can’t drag these bastards down, the one who dies is you. Not Director Kim Jang-hun. Your head’s the one that’s going to roll, Team Leader Ma Seok-du."
Ma Seok-du’s pupils shook as if an earthquake had hit them.