The Woman Who Snatches Me As If She Was Waiting
“I’m truly sorry, Mr. Taeyang!”
“Ha… Understood. Working together would be difficult, but I hope we can remain on good terms going forward.”
The CEO of Popo Entertainment apologized repeatedly at my words. Whether the apology was sincere or not, he even sent a photo of himself kneeling via messenger as an extra. But I had no desire whatsoever to see a man in his fifties kneeling before me. I had simply wanted a job.
“No, why isn’t anyone hiring me? My plan should have been perfect.”
After leaving SS with Gyeowool, I had combed through every memory from before my regression, listed every agency that needed seasoned trainees, and contacted them one by one. Most had been intrigued by my pitch and engaged in conversation, but the moment they heard my name and Gyeowool’s, they recoiled in shock and cut ties. Refusals were understandable when circumstances didn’t align, yet I had been certain at least one would work out.
That one had been Popo Entertainment, the agency that would achieve a miraculous reverse-run success in three years. Its CEO would lose his only daughter to cancer after that success. In later interviews, he would speak of his crushing regret for having been too busy to pay attention to her. His anguished lament that he should have at least arranged a health checkup if he could turn back time had become widely known, starkly contrasting with the agency’s dramatic rise.
I had contacted Popo Entertainment’s CEO and strongly urged him to get his daughter examined. At first he thought it was a prank call, but when I matched internal details about the agency and his family using knowledge from before my regression, he agreed to the checkup as a gamble. The results revealed his daughter’s cancer was in its early stages. The CEO had wept and thanked me profusely. Smiling, I asked him to include Gyeowool and me in Popo Entertainment’s debut lineup, showing him footage of Gyeowool’s practice sessions where her A-rank talent shone through.
The CEO had said he was the one who should be grateful for the introduction and promised me employment. Then, just yesterday, he had abruptly informed me he could no longer keep that promise—despite the fact that we had met in person and exchanged greetings only the day before.
“Did Cheon Jonghun pull some strings?”
If Cheon Jonghun’s influence was involved, the current situation would make a little more sense. But only a little. Objectively, the possibility was slim. Assuming he had orchestrated everything would mean he had pressured every single agency I contacted to reject both Gyeowool and me. That was no simple task. For one of the three major agencies to target two specific people carried serious implications, especially without any justifiable reason to give the other agencies.
This was different from when Ban Seongcheol had blacklisted me at Flower Entertainment. From the company’s perspective back then, I could be painted as a man who betrayed the agency and stole an artist to start my own. There had been grounds to speak about it to other agencies and professionals. But SS had no such grounds now. Setting aside the bullying incident they wanted to hide, the surface-level facts were these: a man named Seon Taeyang had taken one trainee out of SS. With no destination in mind, the two of us were simply operating as freelancers. Who would call that “poaching”? It wasn’t a group, just one person, and no destination had even been decided. She wasn’t a proven professional with market value—she was still a trainee. It would simply look like a trainee had left SS on her own, with me as a mere helper. Moreover, other agencies weren’t blind or deaf; they would suspect something unpleasant had occurred between the trainee and SS, otherwise SS wouldn’t have allowed her to leave. Therefore, the idea that Cheon Jonghun had ordered every agency to block us was highly unlikely. Doing so would damage SS’s own reputation and earn the resentment of the agencies being ordered around. It would look ugly for one agency to boss others around just because it was doing well. There would also be people eager to exploit the situation as leverage. In every respect, the cost of crushing Gyeowool and me this way far outweighed any benefit. If he simply wanted to make our lives miserable, legally entangling and harassing us would have been far more efficient. The only outcome of this choice was that Gyeowool and I would remain unemployed in the entertainment industry—and Cheon Jonghun would have to bear full responsibility for ordering such an irrational move.
Cheon Jonghun was not the type to commit such irrational acts. It would be impossible unless that arrogant man had completely lost his mind.
“Ah, then why the hell can’t I get hired?”
I still couldn’t find the answer. Just then, the middle-aged coworker I was working with called out.
“Hey, Mr. Seon! Break time’s over! Stop with the phone and get ready to unload!”
“Coming right away, hyung!”
I shoved my smartphone into my pocket and hurried over.
“Damn, finally done.”
While job hunting, I had decided to take on simple part-time work in my spare time to earn seed money for stocks. I still didn’t think that had been a bad decision. However, choosing loading and unloading work had probably been the worst choice. I had been lured in by the higher hourly wage compared to other places and the convenience of not requiring interviews or long-term commitments. This wasn’t something you could endure just because you were physically fit. Rubbing my aching body, I changed clothes and stepped outside.
“Could you spare me a moment?”
Outside, a woman wearing a tailored jacket draped over her shoulders like a cape, a red dress shirt, and wide slacks with white stripes addressed me. I recognized the brand instantly thanks to my crash course in fashion brands for sponsorship deals. Every piece of clothing and accessory she wore was exorbitantly priced luxury. Yet even those luxury items lost their color in the face of her presence. Her human aura was simply that strong.
“Me?”
“Yes. I’m talking to you, Seon Taeyang.”
Her presence was overwhelming. Her eyes gleamed like a starving snake regarding everything around her as prey. It felt as though she might swallow me whole. If I ever met a mafia boss from a Hong Kong noir film, this was probably the feeling I would get. Getting involved with this woman didn’t seem like it would end well. Keeping my guard up, I asked,
“…Who are you?”
“Now that you mention it, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Cheon A-ram. I started a small agency not long ago.”
She handed me her business card as she spoke.
[Two Bear Entertainment CEO – Cheon A-ram]
It was a company I had never heard of, even as a regressor.
“I thought this introduction might feel more intuitive for you, Mr. Taeyang. Let me try again. I’m Cheon A-ram, former hiring manager at SS and younger sister of Cheon Jonghun.”
She was someone I had never expected.
“Are you the hiring manager Cheon Jonghun mentioned when he recommended me?”
“That’s right.”
“…May I ask why someone like you is approaching me now?”
“Of course I should explain. The reason I came to see you, Mr. Taeyang, is to scout you.”
Scout?
“Ah, to be precise, the plan is to scout both you and Miss Han Gyeowool together.”
Cheon A-ram smiled and added, “You two are a set, after all.” I couldn’t argue with that.
“I’ll promise you a team-leader-level manager position. Come to Two Bear Entertainment with Miss Han Gyeowool.”
Her offer was tempting. Especially now, when every employment path had been blocked for unknown reasons. Yet it was suspiciously perfect—too convenient for people who had fallen out with SS. I asked with suspicion,
“Why us? Why Gyeowool and me specifically?”
Cheon A-ram smiled elegantly, her eyes gleaming like a viper’s.
“Because I’m selective about people. So selective it could even be called a sickness.”
“…You mean you’re looking for talented people?”
“Talent is good. Since I invest in humans, I do consider it. But it’s only second priority.”
“Then what’s first priority?”
“Humanism.”
Humanism?
“…Pardon?”
“A heart that puts people first. A belief that chooses humans over material things. That’s what I want.”
What kind of nonsense was this?
“I looked into you and Miss Han Gyeowool. After hearing about you from my eldest brother, I felt a strong interest.”
Cheon A-ram openly admitted to investigating my background.
“The story of Miss Gyeowool, driven into a corner, and Mr. Taeyang appearing like a hero to always save her. It was truly fascinating.”
“…I didn’t do anything that grand.”
“No. What you did was indeed grand. That’s why I became certain. You two are exactly the humanists I’ve been looking for.”
“…Humanists.”
I scoffed inwardly. Humanists? It was a ridiculous word. Having once devoted my life to becoming a good person, it sounded even more foolish. The entertainment industry was not a market where everyone could succeed. It was a wilderness where you had to push competitors aside and climb to the top to achieve success. No romantic idealist could survive as CEO in a place like that. Now I understood why I had no memory of an agency called Two Bear Entertainment. With a president like her, it was no wonder it had gone under. I was certain: boarding her ship would mean sinking together with it. My mind had already hardened into refusal.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not the kind of person you’re expecting—”
“Oh, right. I forgot to mention the salary.”
Cheon A-ram pulled out the calculator on her smartphone and showed me the after-tax annual salary, bonuses, and performance incentives I would receive.
“Please call me the humanist Seon Taeyang, President!”
It was an amount that would make even a dog bark.
Quest Complete! Reward: Jukebox on Fingers has been granted.
That was how Gyeowool and I joined Two Bear Entertainment.