Will You Date Me?
In the parking lot tucked behind the orphanage, Seok Hyeonwu bowed at a perfect ninety-degree angle and apologized.
“Team Leader Seon, I’m truly sorry! I failed to read Miss Jin Yeoreum’s intentions and allowed the situation to spiral like this. I have no excuse.”
I offered my gentlest smile, the one I reserved for looking like a decent human being, and answered warmly.
“It’s all right. To be honest, I had already anticipated she might accept when I first scouted her.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“I’m seriously considering Jin Yeoreum as a member of our current project at Two Bear Entertainment.”
The lie slipped out effortlessly. I realized, not for the first time, that I apparently had a genuine talent for acting. Seok Hyeonwu’s eyes shone with pure, respectful admiration, as though my performance had genuinely moved him.
“Then this is incredibly fortunate for me! It means Miss Yeoreum can finally do what she truly wants.”
“Of course. I already received approval from the CEO herself.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Seok Hyeonwu looked ready to drop to his knees in gratitude. He pulled a small card the size of a business card from his pocket and held it out.
“Please take this.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a card with my second number on it. Only Miss Yeoreum knows this one. If you ever need me, call this number. I’ll rush over even if it’s the middle of the night. No matter what it is, I’ll help. It will definitely be useful.”
“….”
Seok Hyeonwu had made a mistake, that much was true, but this level of devotion was excessive. The way he treated Jin Yeoreum went far beyond the respect a manager owed a client. My investigation into both Jin Kang Group and Seok Hyeonwu had already confirmed my suspicions. The scouting of Jin Yeoreum hadn’t been done under Jin Kang’s name. The compensation deposited into the account had come from Seok Hyeonwu’s own pocket. Even the client exposure opportunities had been arranged by him personally.
He had shouldered every burden alone, all for the sake of Jin Yeoreum’s peace of mind.
“What exactly is Jin Yeoreum to you, Manager Seok?” I asked, letting my curiosity show.
At the question, Seok Hyeonwu scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed little smile.
“I lost my wife and child together in a car accident.”
“….”
He brought up his greatest wound without hesitation.
“At the funeral, while I was sobbing so hard I could barely breathe, a little girl came up to me and said, ‘If the empty space hurts too much to bear, please think of me as your daughter.’ …Those were the words of eight-year-old Jin Yeoreum at the time.”
“That’s… remarkable.”
“Haha, remarkable? No, she was just a child who hadn’t learned how cruel the world could be yet.”
“….”
Wait, wasn’t this supposed to turn into a touching moment?
“I got angry when I heard it. I thought the child was trying to insult me. Because I believed the empty space left by my child could never be filled by anyone else. So I looked at her with resentment, thinking she was a rude little brat.”
Yet as Seok Hyeonwu spoke, a gentle smile played on his lips.
“It wasn’t some dramatic turning point. Since my job was to assist her, I simply continued doing what I had always done—staying by her side. While Chairman Jin Baekho was always busy, I attended her sports days in his place and sat through parent observation classes. After she started rhythmic gymnastics, I watched every single competition and cheered for her.”
Even without a single special event, time had a way of letting one person settle deeply into another’s heart.
“Before I knew it, I really had come to see her as my daughter. It’s nothing more than that. …Ah, but please keep this a secret from Miss Yeoreum.”
He looked bashful as he said it.
“That’s why I’m endlessly grateful to you, Team Leader Seon. This all started because of my mistake, but thanks to it, Miss Yeoreum has found the strength to move forward again. Honestly, I never liked the idea of her doing volunteer work for decades as some form of atonement.”
The future Seok Hyeonwu hoped for would never come true. Because I had no intention of making it happen.
Even so, I had no choice but to offer him an empty promise.
“I’ll do everything in my power to live up to your expectations, Manager Seok.”
The words tasted bitter in my mouth.
Two days later, I returned to the orphanage. Winter had said she wasn’t feeling well, so my companion this time was Gaeul once again.
“Taeyang oppa. Is it true that Sunny decided to join Two Bear?”
“It’s still tentative, but you can think of it that way for now.”
I didn’t want to tell Gaeul about the dirty underbelly—how I planned to use Jin Yeoreum for noise marketing. So I lied again.
“Well, she is really pretty. …Like, seriously pretty.”
“Right? She has this elegant, refined kind of beauty. She could probably make it as an actress.”
“…Do guys really like that kind of style?”
“Not just guys. Girls like it too.”
“….”
Gaeul stopped tuning her guitar and glanced at me cautiously.
“…Um, Taeyang oppa.”
Sensing she had something serious to say, I stopped fiddling with the camera settings and looked at her.
“Yeah? What is it, Gaeul?”
“Should I try dyeing my hair black too? …Like Sunny.”
What kind of sudden impulse was this? She’d be sick of dyeing it soon enough once she debuted anyway.
“Aww, that’d be a waste.”
“A waste?”
It would be a waste of time, money, and effort. Hair dye wasn’t free. Even someone as emotionally dense as me could predict that saying it that bluntly—making it sound like the company was trying to save money—would hurt her feelings. So I softened it a little.
“Your brown hair is so warm and pretty. We might have to dye it once debut and concept are finalized, but… I’d like to keep seeing it like this for a while longer.”
“…Oh. I see. You want to keep seeing it because it’s warm and pretty.”
“Yeah. Remember when I said you reminded me of everyone’s first love? I think that fresh, innocent beauty has a lot to do with your brown hair.”
Gaeul lowered her head until it looked like she might slam it into the ground, fiddling with her guitar strings. Her voice trembled as she spoke.
“…Then… um… Taeyang oppa. Would you… accept this?”
She plucked a strand of her own hair and held it out to me.
What is the intention behind this exactly?
“Why are you giving this to me…?”
“…You said it was pretty, so I thought you might like to have it.”
“….”
I struggled for an appropriate reaction before finally managing an awkward thank-you.
“…Uh, yeah. Thanks.”
“Hehe.”
I stared at the long, slender strand of Gaeul’s brown hair in my hand, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do with it. Keeping it felt wrong. Throwing it away also felt wrong.
Manager who throws away a gift from his trainee versus manager who carefully preserves a trainee’s hair. Both options made me feel like absolute garbage.
For now, I slipped it into the front pocket of my dress shirt. I’d figure out what to do with it later, when Gaeul wasn’t watching.
“Taeyang oppa. Could you come with me for a sec—”
“Gaeul unnie! Play ‘Bluebeard Whale’ now!”
“Why do you always ask for that old-person song the second you see Gaeul unnie?”
“It’s not old-person music, it’s a legend!”
“I don’t care! Gaeul unnie has to play ‘Missing You’!”
“Kids, wait a moment. I’m trying to talk to Taeyang oppa—”
Gaeul was dragged away by the bickering children. She shot me a pleading look over her shoulder, but I simply waved and cheered her on silently.
Sorry. I’ll take pretty pictures for you, Gaeul.
To complete the quest, I actively filmed Gaeul and Sunny doing their volunteer work. I had explained that creating material for image improvement was a priority, and Jin Yeoreum had given permission. Even if that image improvement was actually for Winter and Gaeul, not her…
Once you started lying, you had to keep lying.
…I didn’t particularly enjoy it.
“Hm? What are you filming?”
While I was focused on shooting, a woman approached me. When I turned around, I saw pastel sky-blue hair swaying gently. Her eyes sparkled like emeralds—probably colored contacts—and she wore a casual bustier dress over a T-shirt that matched her hair color perfectly. Her bright, clear gaze was undeniably beautiful, but it gave more of a refreshing, invigorating impression than a purely aesthetic one.
It was Yoon Haneul, the driving force behind Bubble Shower’s recent resurgence.
“You’ve been filming Sunny unnie and that pretty unnie playing guitar over there for a while. Are you a photographer?”
“No, I’m not a photographer. I’m this kind of person.”
I set the camera down and politely offered her my business card. Since she was someone I had been considering recruiting, I wanted to make a good impression.
She read the card and said,
“…Two Bear Entertainment, Team Leader Seon Taeyang?”
“Yes. I’m currently working on forming a girl group.”
Yoon Haneul let out a small sound of understanding.
“Aha, so you’re the Team Leader Seon that Sunny mentioned. I heard the story. …I heard it was really entertaining. Like, seriously entertaining. Pfft.”
She suddenly burst into laughter, as if she couldn’t hold it in any longer. I couldn’t tell whether this was a positive or negative reaction.
“Hmm… so the protagonist of that story looked like this!”
Once she stopped laughing, she studied my face intently.
“It’s a bit excessively decadent… but that actually makes it sexy? …Yeah, I like it.”
“Haneul?”
She spoke as casually as if she were suggesting we grab coffee.
“Team Leader Seon. Will you date me?”
“….”
I had just received a confession from a trainee I was trying to recruit.