The Day 'A Loving Heart' Drops (1)
November 1st.
November had finally arrived.
As Young-hoon stepped out of his apartment, he grabbed a couple bottles of wine. With A Loving Heart dropping today, he figured they might come in handy.
Sure enough, when he arrived at the office, not a soul was there. First place, as usual.
He pulled out his work notebook and ran through the day's schedule — and there it was, flagged with an important marker, just as he'd expected.
November 1st: A Loving Heart — digital release.
The song would be unveiled to the world at six o'clock that evening.
Yet Young-hoon felt not a trace of nerves or excitement. Like the saying goes, a treasure already in the bag — it was only a matter of time, and he was absolutely certain the song would chart sooner or later. If anything, the radio appearance on November 10th would be the real accelerant.
He decided he ought to be with the Five Girls girls when the single went live at six.
As for work at the company, the quantitative evaluations had wrapped up with October's sales figures. Farming terms, they'd officially entered the off-season. From November on, there was a disproportionate amount of training — trainee education, product education, job training — and he'd likely have to board at the training institute for at least ten days.
Of course, the team-level qualitative evaluation still remained. But that counted for barely fifteen percent of the score compared to the quantitative side. The most heavily weighted item was the information report — identifying and presenting market and competitor trends. Competitor intelligence in particular was prized above all, carrying the highest point value.
But how was anyone supposed to get their hands on a competitor's secrets so easily? In the end, the qualitative evaluation was pure theater — a formality. Bottom line, teams would be ranked strictly by sales results, and the qualitative items were just seasoning. Only the announcement remained, and Marketing Team 3's first-place finish nationwide was a foregone conclusion.
Having sorted out the day's to-dos in his head while reviewing his notebook, Young-hoon brewed a cup of bean coffee and savored the aroma.
Honestly, he'd never known much about the taste of coffee. Until recently, he'd believed nothing could beat a sweet powdered mix. But whether it was the influence of the Archmage Hains or not, whole-bean coffee had started tasting better than the instant stuff. He still couldn't pinpoint exactly what he was tasting — it certainly wasn't the flavor he wanted. Roasting methods and ideal blending ratios were stored away in his head; he simply couldn't source the materials yet, so the experiments were on hold for now. Soon, though.
While Young-hoon was lost in these thoughts, the employees trickled in one by one. Having drank and caroused to their hearts' content the night before, every face wore its hangover plainly.
And as expected, Deputy Hong still hadn't shown. The man was planning to skip out again today. Deputy General Manager Cho, apparently having hit the second round with Hong, looked like alcohol was dripping off his face.
Kim Jin-man printed out the final nationwide sales results for October and reported them to Deputy General Manager Cho — who, already knowing the outcome, didn't so much as glance at the report. He simply called for Manager Kim to have a quick meeting.
Before long, every member of the team except Deputy Hong had gathered in the conference room.
"Good work in October, everyone. Starting this month we're in the team evaluations, so put some effort into the qualitative items. Manager Kim will take charge of that. Anything else? No? Then get back to work."
Only saying what he wanted to say — that was Deputy General Manager Cho's trademark. He had a habit of rarely listening to anyone else, least of all his subordinates. Maybe it was the elite complex baked into his bones.
The one small mercy: while other team leaders routinely ran meetings for over an hour, Cho had never once dragged one past thirty minutes. When Team 3's meetings did run long, it was invariably because Deputy Hong was pulling one of his stunts — and then Manager Kim had to cut things short, though his soft heart rarely let him do it cleanly.
Deputy General Manager Cho called Manager Kim over, barked out some work instructions, and left the office. Off to the sauna to sweat it all out, no doubt. The team leaders of the other departments began slipping away as well, all of them clearly headed to the sauna to shake off last night's liquor.
Suddenly, the office had become a liberated zone. The senior staff would start slipping out one by one, and eventually only the women and the newest hires would remain. Today was a rest day for everyone, plain and simple.
Manager Kim called Team 3 together.
"The team leader has an appointment outside, so he's officially on a business trip. There's a near one hundred percent chance he clocks out on location. You all are tired from yesterday's deadline and company dinner too, so feel free to play hooky, within reason. Anyone planning to leave early today?"
Young-hoon shot his hand up at exactly the right moment.
"Manager Kim. I'll head out in the afternoon and clock out on location."
"Got it. Anyone else?"
Assistant Manager Park raised his hand as well.
"Alright. I'm also heading out this afternoon and clocking out on location. If anything comes up, give me a call. Rest well today, and let's hit it hard tomorrow."
Everyone returned to their desks with wide grins.
A little while later, Assistant Manager Park sent him a KakaoTalk message.
Before long, Hwang of Marketing Team 2 came sidling over, sweet-talking Young-hoon into a game of pool for lunch stakes.
Team 3 happened to have a pool ace on its roster: Kim Jin-man. Hwang surely knew it too, and yet there he was, walking into a bet with no chance of winning. It was almost pitiable.
When lunchtime came, Teams 3 and 2 headed for the billiard hall. Midway through the games they ordered jajangmyeon and sweet-and-sour pork, savoring a small moment of idle pleasure on this first day of November. True to form, Team 3 swept the victory and Team 2 picked up the entire tab — but everyone wore a happy face. Wasn't that precisely the small, quiet joy of the office worker?
By the time they got back to the office, it was three o'clock. Time to make his exit.
Young-hoon slipped out of the company and headed for the Girin Entertainment office in Seongnam.
Four in the afternoon.
The moment he walked in, President Lee Jae-man greeted him warmly.
"Welcome, Mr. Kim."
"Good to see you. Has it been about a week since we last met?"
"We met last Thursday, so it's exactly one week today."
Just then, Kyeong-hwan and Five Girls pushed open the office door and came in.
"Hello, Teacher!"
The Five Girls members' ringing greeting nearly lifted the roof off the office. Behind them, Kyeong-hwan gave a quiet bow.
"Good to see you too, Kyeong-hwan. So, girls — how are you feeling? It's release day. No jitters?"
"Almost time now, oppa..."
"What's wrong? Nervous?"
"Are you okay, big brother?"
"What would I have to be nervous about? Not worried in the slightest. I mean, do you girls have any name recognition? Did we run ads for the release? Or push it hard on social media? No? Then let's not get our hopes up. In my opinion, November 10th — your radio appearance — is the real D-day."
Ha-yeon, the third member, answered in a deflated voice.
"Still, we promoted a lot on social media. And we reached out to everyone we know, too..."
"I know, I know. But if you get your hopes too high and nothing happens, that just makes the disappointment worse. Let's take it easy and be patient for now. You've all been practicing hard, right?"
"Of course we have, oppa. Who do you think we are? Save the worrying."
"When will you hand the arranged version of Return to Love over to Producer Yoo Sung-hoon?"
"Mr. Kim, we should be able to send it over by tomorrow at the latest. We'll get into the studio and record as soon as we possibly can."
"Wow, you're all working so hard."
Young-hoon marveled, once again, at how smoothly everything ran under Lee Jae-man's watch.
But then the president began fidgeting, clearly holding something back.
"Um... Mr. Kim, there are a few things I'd like to discuss."
"Oh? Is it all right if Five Girls hears this too?"
"Yes, well, it shouldn't be a problem."
"Then go ahead."
"Going forward, Five Girls will be actively promoting, which means we need to prepare accordingly — and frankly, it's going to cost money."
"I don't know anything about this industry, so walk me through it. What do you need to prepare? And how much money are we talking?"
"First, I'd like to bring back the coordinator and stylist we used to work with."
"If they're needed, of course you should. What else?"
"Once the schedule picks up, I don't think Kyeong-hwan can cover Five Girls alone. I'd like to hire one more road manager."
"If you find the right person, hire them. Anything else?"
"The van Five Girls rides around in now is old. I'd like to lease a new one."
"How much would that cost? And since we're at it, get something big and safe."
President Lee Jae-man handed Young-hoon a car catalog, as if he'd had everything prepared in advance.
"If you look at the catalog, a nine-seater runs about three million won a month to lease, with a two-hundred-million-won... sorry — a twenty-million-won down payment. I was thinking we could cover it with the OST advance we received. What are your thoughts, Mr. Kim?"
"Go ahead. Think of it as an initial investment."
"Also, I'd like to hire a woman to handle the phones and keep the books at the office."
"Isn't that obviously necessary too? Hire someone right away."
Young-hoon answered without a moment's hesitation — these were all things Five Girls would plainly need as they relaunched their careers.
"Anything else on your mind?"
"Yes. And this is the most important one."
"Go ahead."
"We've received a request from PD Shin Hye-yoon. She wants Five Girls to sing the two OST songs at the pre-production press conference for Love After Separation on November 3rd. It's a rather delicate matter."
"What's delicate about it?"
"A Loving Heart will be fine once it's released today, but After Farewell has only been registered for distribution — its release isn't scheduled until November 11th."
"As long as there's no legal problem, I say we're fine. Look into it, and if there's no issue, proceed exactly as PD Shin requested. By the way, how much appearance fee is she offering?"
"Since attendance hasn't been firmly decided yet, we haven't gotten that far in the conversation."
"Squeeze out as much as you can. No — never mind, forget it. I'll call her myself."
Young-hoon was about to dial PD Shin Hye-yoon straightaway when he happened to glance around — and found everyone staring at him with eyes full of expectation.
"Why are you all just staring at me? Shouldn't you be off practicing?"
Five Girls squirmed, clearly reluctant to get up.
"What? Did you have something to say to me? I just granted the president's every request, didn't I? Out. Now!!"
When Young-hoon barked at them out of sheer embarrassment, Kyeong-hwan and the girls reluctantly filed out of the office.
Only then did Young-hoon place the call to PD Shin Hye-yoon.
Hye-yoon was in the middle of a whirlwind of work when her phone rang. She checked the caller at once.