Jealousy
“The price, you say? Yes, there is one thing I want.”
I had already prepared my answer regarding compensation. Something that wouldn’t make me seem too materialistic, yet still sounded reasonable.
“I want to watch Gyeoul grow from up close.”
It was the so-called guardian sensibility. Who would think anything shady about someone wanting to keep an eye on the child they raised?
Upon hearing my words, Cheon Jonghun fell into deep contemplation. I thought he would answer after a brief moment, but his deliberation stretched past three minutes. Was introducing a road manager position really something that required such profound thought?
“…You wouldn’t be asking for something as trivial as footage, so I suppose you want to personally raise that child. Are you hoping SS will remain a mere investor?”
An investor? I shook my head. What I wanted wasn’t anything that grand.
“No. Raising Gyeoul will be the responsibility of the project’s final decision-maker, Team Leader Cheon Jonghun. I’m not seeking excessive authority. I simply want to work alongside her and witness her growth.”
I spoke with a wistful look in my eyes.
“The road manager position seems ideal for that.”
“A road manager, not a producer?”
Cheon Jonghun’s odd question left me puzzled. What was he talking about, a producer? I had no producing experience in my career.
“Yes, I want the road manager position.”
“…There’s no way someone like you would fail a public recruitment exam, so you must want something else from me.”
No, my documents had been rejected outright. But reality was different, and it felt awkward to correct someone who was overestimating me. So I simply smiled as if it were nothing.
“SS has many management departments, so you want to be assigned to that child without being placed elsewhere. …In that case, you’ll have to work under me. Are you confident?”
Working under Cheon Jonghun, with his perfectionist tendencies, wouldn’t be easy. Still, it would be far better than being a road manager at Flower Entertainment. There, sleep was never guaranteed. I had once gone an entire week with only two hours of sleep a night. That wasn’t something a human being should endure.
Recalling what I had heard about SS managers in my previous life, they treated even their road managers with a degree of humanity. That was precisely why I had gone to such lengths to join SS. A demanding superior wasn’t enough of a drawback to make me give up.
“It would be an honor to work under you, Team Leader Cheon. As I mentioned before, I’m a fan of yours.”
“…Very well. However, personally inserting you into my team wouldn’t look good. So I’ll introduce you to the hiring manager instead. Will that suffice as compensation?”
It was more than enough. Once my documents passed, winning over a single hiring manager would be trivial.
“If I can have that opportunity, it’s sufficient. If things reach that point, I’ll have to prove myself by working hard. That I’m qualified to work under Team Leader Cheon Jonghun.”
Cheon Jonghun nodded and spoke to the man standing beside him.
“Start with short-term training. We’ll need at least some verification. If minimal diligence is confirmed, proceed immediately with the contract and background check. Give him full authority, Sanghun. Prepare accordingly.”
The man called Sanghun nodded.
“I won’t let you down.”
It seemed Gyeoul’s acceptance had been confirmed.
“It will be the best choice. Then I’ll deliver this good news to Gyeoul as well.”
As I gathered my things to leave and share the news with Gyeoul, Cheon Jonghun called out from behind me.
“…One more question.”
“Yes, please ask anything.”
“What is your relationship with that child? Family? Lovers?”
“No, what kind of outrageous question is that? Lovers? What kind of insane manager dates their assigned idol these days?”
“Then, family?”
“Not that either.”
“In that case, why are you going this far?”
Going this far? Cheon Jonghun’s question was difficult to understand in context.
“I don’t quite follow what you mean.”
“Why are you so devoted to that child?”
Only then did I realize the gap between Cheon Jonghun’s perception and my own. There was no reason for the word “devotion” to come up. At most, I had let her stay for a week and corrected her singing and dancing a little. In exchange, I had even secured a chance to join SS. It was a profitable deal. Taking the guardian position was merely a convenient pretext.
Yet from Cheon Jonghun’s perspective, it didn’t appear that way. I had crafted a concept to avoid seeming overly eager to join SS, and it had worked too well.
I decided not to betray his expectations. If he saw me as an idealist, playing along with that image was fine. After all, idealists were easier to exploit as subordinates than egoists.
“Gyeoul is a flower bud.”
So I began to speak.
“A delicate bud that has only just formed, its tender leaves barely touching the world. Such a bud has apparently faced winds laced with salt and the frost of dawn far too harshly. Before long, it was preparing to wither.”
I continued with metaphors, avoiding specifics.
“That felt like such a waste. Because in my eyes, I could already see how brilliantly that bud would bloom.”
In reality, the crisis had been nothing more than losing her wallet, but it was all a matter of phrasing.
“I shielded it from the rain and wind just enough to prevent it from falling, and now we’ve reached this point. Yet I still feel there’s a role left for me to play.”
Both the man called Sanghun and the woman beside Cheon Jonghun watched me.
“Using the word ‘devotion’ to describe this feels like too much of a stretch. So, from my perspective…”
I looked at Cheon Jonghun, who observed me with an expressionless face.
“I’ve simply become Gyeoul’s fan.”
Most people who entered the world of management shared similar motivations. They had been captivated by a dazzling star. Enough to devote their lives to it. Cheon Jonghun, myself, and everyone else in this industry had started that way.
“…I understand. I’ll pass your contact information to the hiring manager, so there won’t be any need for you to contact me in the future. Refrain from calling this number from now on.”
After drawing that line and averting his gaze, I bowed politely to Cheon Jonghun and stepped out the door.
When I pulled it open, Gyeoul, who had been pressed against it, tumbled forward. I caught her just in time, pulling her into an embrace.
“What were you doing clinging to the door like that? That’s dangerous.”
I suspected she might have been eavesdropping with her ear to the door.
Gyeoul’s cheeks flushed bright red as she fidgeted nervously.
“…Well, um… Ah! The atmosphere felt so scary that I thought I might have done something wrong, so I was pressing my head against the door as a form of self-reflection.”
Of course. This coward would never have the courage to eavesdrop. She had been self-punishing instead. What a hopelessly awkward thought process.
“There’s no need for that. You’re in.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Who else would they accept if not you? You worked hard for six days.”
Gyeoul burst into tears as if it were only natural. I had grown so accustomed to her leaky tear ducts that I casually pulled out a tissue meant for her and wiped her face.
In the end, Gyeoul became a trainee, and I obtained the opportunity to join SS. It was the best possible outcome.
***
After finishing work, Cheon Jonghun arrived at the reserved restaurant table precisely at 7 p.m. To make time for this dinner, he had started his schedule at 4 a.m., yet he felt no particular emotion about the effort. He viewed all such hardships as his own choices. He wasn’t the type of person who wanted to publicize his efforts and sacrifices to others.
However, the fact that only one out of the five attendees, including himself, had arrived put him in a rather foul mood. It was even more so because he treated promises as sacred.
“Where are the others?”
Cheon Jonghun asked his younger sister, Cheon A-ram, who wore a red shirt and black slacks with gray pinstripes.
Cheon A-ram used her third fork and tongs to cleanly extract the snail’s contents as she replied.
“Father is busy as usual, and Mother said a new item arrived at the department store, so she’s eating there. Second Brother said he has an urgent meeting and can’t make it.”
Cheon Jonghun was deeply displeased by his family’s casual attitude toward the promise. But he quickly composed himself. After all, the one he had wanted to see today was Cheon A-ram, so it didn’t matter much.
“Well, it works out. There was something I wanted to tell you.”
“To me, from you, Brother? …That’s quite an interesting thing to say.”
Cheon A-ram stopped cutting the snail with her knife and looked at him with interest. Cheon Jonghun disliked conversing with her because of that gaze that seemed to see through people’s true nature. But he decided not to dwell on it now. He had seen far more unpleasant gazes since then.
“Six days ago, I received a call from a number that wasn’t saved in my private contacts…”
Cheon Jonghun recounted the story of the man who had suddenly proposed introducing a trainee to him. The tale concluded with him deciding to begin short-term training for the trainee the man had recommended.
“Hmm… That’s quite an entertaining story. I didn’t know you had a talent for storytelling, Brother.”
Cheon A-ram listened to the story with interest. But she didn’t stop there.
“So why are you telling me this? We’re not exactly close enough to share personal experiences like this, are we?”
“Because you’re SS’s hiring manager. And because I promised to introduce that guy to the hiring manager.”
Cheon A-ram smiled coldly, as if she understood.
“Aha, so you have no intention of keeping that promise?”
“I didn’t break the promise. I fulfilled it faithfully by telling you, the hiring manager, right now.”
Cheon Jonghun’s expression as he said this seemed shameless.
“My promise was only to introduce him to the hiring manager, so it’s been fulfilled as he wished. Whether you hire him or not from here is none of my concern.”
“Then you should have told a different hiring manager. Not me, the former hiring manager who resigned two months ago.”
Cheon Jonghun didn’t respond. That silence itself was the answer. He had deliberately obstructed Seon Taeyang’s entry into SS. Through a maneuver that would seem endlessly childish to anyone else’s eyes. This was unlike Cheon Jonghun, who had such high pride that he tried his best to keep promises once made, even if it meant suffering losses himself.
Cheon A-ram felt an intense curiosity and interest in this new side of her brother.
“Why did you do it? What reason would a man like Cheon Jonghun, who has such a strong desire for talent, have to push away such a promising prospect? Normally, you would have claimed him as yours before anyone else could even drool over him.”
Cheon A-ram’s eyes gleamed. They held a charm that seemed to captivate people, but the allure was so excessive that it became unsettling. Cheon Jonghun thought that gaze resembled a viper’s.
“Because his approach was unpleasant. There’s no other reason.”
“No, that’s not it. Cheon Jonghun values ability far more than formality. Even if someone is rude, if they deliver results, he treats them with importance. Simply finding the approach unpleasant isn’t enough reason to go through the trouble of breaking a promise like this.”
Cheon A-ram muttered like a witch reciting an incantation, questioning herself.
“Pride? Not enough. Disgust? Partially. Hostility? That’s closer to the result.”
Cheon Jonghun was reflected in Cheon A-ram’s deep, dark pupils.
“Enough. I think we’ve discussed this enough…”
At that moment, a serpentine smile bloomed on Cheon A-ram’s face.
“…Ah! …Haha, hahaha! That was it! That was it!”
Cheon A-ram’s loud laughter filled the quiet restaurant. Normally, Cheon Jonghun would have pointed out her rudeness, but he couldn’t. He was overwhelmed by the intensity of her emotions.
When the laughter subsided, her red lips parted. And like the serpent that had offered the forbidden fruit, Cheon A-ram gave a name to Cheon Jonghun’s hidden emotion.
“Brother, you’re jealous of that person right now.”