Moving Day at Girin Entertainment
Everyone was just rising from their seats when Team Leader Park suddenly turned to Director Kim and struck up a conversation.
President Lee Jae-man caught on instantly—this was going to be about LK Electronics. And so, to give them room to talk, he spoke up first.
"Representative, I'll head over ahead of you and get things ready, so take your time coming over. I should call the Five Girls girls too, shouldn't I?"
"They should probably be there with us, don't you think? In a way, they're the stars of today. We'll follow right behind you, then."
"Wow, President Lee, your instincts are killer."
"President Lee Jae-man has been in the entertainment business for years—of course he'd have that kind of sense. By the way, what was it you needed to tell the Director?"
"Director, what are we doing on Monday?"
"What about it? Did we commit some crime? We show up to work like normal. What's the problem? What do you think, Representative Kim?"
"I feel exactly the same as you, Director. I think we should walk in with our heads held high and clock in like always. I have absolutely no intention of quitting this company like I was chased out."
"Then it's settled—we report to work as normal on Monday. Hehe. Well then, shall we go meet Five Girls?"
"Three days together was plenty. What more could you possibly want?"
"Come on, until yesterday I was seeing them under high tension—I couldn't even get a proper word out. But today's a day I can look at them with an easy mind, isn't it?"
"Fine, fine. Let's go meet the Five Girls you're so desperate to see. But in exchange—you'd better not get too familiar with the girls."
"Relax. It's all just an uncle's affection, nothing more."
"Ugh, seriously. As long as you keep your mouth shut."
Young-hoon and the two men soon made their way to the Girin Entertainment office in Sinsa-dong. Su-min, apparently having already heard they were on their way, flung the door open and greeted them with bright delight.
"Oppa, welcome!"
"Good to see you too, Su-min."
At the youngest member of Five Girls beaming so brightly, Team Leader Park Sung-ho found himself completely unable to speak. It was a total reversal from the cocky confidence he'd shown earlier. It looked like it would take him some time before he could hold a comfortable conversation.
Young-hoon had already visited a couple of times during the renovation work, so he deliberately put on an exaggerated show, teasing them.
"Nice office. Looks a hundred times better than the Seongnam one."
"Right, Oppa? Isn't it?"
"How's the dorm treating you girls? Living a little more comfortably now?"
"Oppa, we each have our own room now. It's the best."
"Su-min said she's buying beef today, so feel free to loosen that belt and dig in."
"Obviously! If it's you treating, it's an automatic yes! Everyone else pays for their own!"
Sensing that Young-hoon and Su-min's banter could stretch on forever, President Lee Jae-man stepped in to wrap things up.
"Ahem, if I may cut in for a moment—let me, as your president, say a few words. You all already know that our girls are breaking into China, and you all know that the people gathered here will be joining our company starting next month, and..."
When he showed signs of rambling on, Hye-in couldn't take it any longer and cut him off.
"President, stop stalling and just tell us already. I'm suffocating over here."
"Ha, right then, straight to the point. With the contract payment we just received, we'll be replacing the practice room's sound equipment with the latest models. And every employee except the Five Girls members will receive a bonus of ten million won each."
"Whoa!"
The office erupted into chaos. Amid the commotion, Ga-eun spoke up with a pout.
"Hing, I want a bonus too..."
Young-hoon gave a soft smile at her adorable whining and gently soothed her.
"Miss Kim Ga-eun, don't be too greedy. On Monday, your president here will be handing out bonuses of about five hundred million won apiece. That ought to do it, right?"
"Gasp! Five hundred million? Yes, sir! Oppa, I'm at your service!"
"Su-min, you said you're buying the meat, so let's get going. Oppa's hungry."
"Yes sir, let's go!"
At that very moment, Chairman Wang Chenchen and Chairman Xu Jiayin were each flying back to China aboard their private jets.
Chairman Wang Chenchen was anxious. According to Chairman Jang and Chairman Choi, the effects of the elixir lasted four to five days—and already two full days had passed since he'd drunk it. Two precious days squandered. He had to make the most of the three that remained. He needed to get back as fast as possible and put it to use, but the plane was infuriatingly slow. He found himself genuinely yearning to swap it for a jet on the spot.
And then his youngest daughter kept picking at his nerves.
"Daddy, can't you give me the present Representative Kim gave you?"
Father or not, this supreme elixir of the ages was something he could absolutely never hand over. In his mind, it existed for him alone to drink and enjoy. With that in his heart, he tried to calmly placate her.
"That elixir only works on men. It's useless for women."
"Daddy, what kind of lie is that? I know everything. The morning after drinking it, my skin was so much fairer and bouncier. And my whole body felt full of energy. Hohohoho."
For a moment, Chairman Wang was simply dumbfounded. Hearing that she wanted to spend this supreme elixir of the ages on mere skincare made the back of his neck throb. Money may rot in heaps around him, but no one on earth spent thirty billion won on skin care. Even Mansur, said to be the richest man on the planet, wouldn't burn thirty billion on his complexion.
"Absolutely not, and that's final. You heard how much this is worth, didn't you? And you want to waste it on skincare? Don't even dream it."
Wang Mimi had fully expected an explosive reaction if she asked for the elixir. So she decided to play her strongest card.
"Then should I tell Mommy about the young mistress you're keeping?"
"What on earth are you saying! Your father has no mistress! Don't you dare say things that will cause a disaster!"
Like middle-aged men everywhere, the person Chairman Wang feared most in all the world was his own wife. He'd believed his secret young companion was known to no one—but his youngest daughter had caught on. It was only a matter of time before it reached his wife's ears.
"Oh ho, is that so? Then I suppose the elixir's effects will go to Mommy instead. Lucky her."
"Well, I suppose that's how it'll be..."
In that instant, Wang Mimi's expression turned grave, and she pressed the deal with a half-threat.
"Either Mommy takes it all, or you give me half. Decide fast. If you split it with me, I might just look the other way."
His darling youngest daughter suddenly felt like a sworn enemy to Chairman Wang. He was about to have half a bottle of the elixir snatched from under his nose. Still, he supposed he should console himself that he'd saved half... Chairman Wang Chenchen couldn't shake the feeling that he'd been royally cheated.
Chairman Xu Jiayin, meanwhile, was driven half-mad by how agonizingly slow his plane seemed to fly. Just before takeoff, he'd told his young mistress to change into something inviting and wait for him—and a mere hour had passed since then. At least two more hours remained before he'd reach her place. With his heart burning in impatience—fly faster, plane, please—his youngest daughter was staring fixedly at him.
So the inevitable had finally come...
Chairman Xu's heart plummeted, but he feigned composure. The look on his youngest daughter's face was unmistakably the one she wore whenever she wanted something from him.
"Daaaddy, the elixir Representative Kim gave you as a present—will you split it with me, or should I just take the whole thing?"
Just as expected. A deal demanding the elixir. But this elixir was a treasure worth guarding with his very life.
"What... are you talking about? That's something I received from Representative Kim. Have some respect for the giver's sincerity—how could I hand it to someone else?"
"Daddy, is your daughter a stranger? How could you say such a thing to your pretty little girl?"
"Lin-hong, look... that elixir is for men. Even if I gave it to you, it wouldn't do much."
"Hmph, Daddy, that elixir works wonders on women too. Do you have any idea how much fairer it makes your skin?"
"Still, absolutely not! How about this instead—I'll buy you all the skin care products you want."
When nothing he said got through, Xu Linhong realized the time had come to play her final card.
"Hmph, I'm rich too, you know. If that's how you want to play it... then I'll tell Mommy you have a young mistress."
Chairman Xu knew perfectly well that if he gave ground here, he was done for—so he chose to stand firm.
"What nonsense! Don't you know your father's heart belongs to your mother and your mother alone?"
"Oh, really? Then you wouldn't mind if Mommy heard all about the elixir you received? Hand over half while I'm asking nicely. You can always buy more later, Daddy."
There was no way out now. If he kept refusing to give up the elixir, today next year would most certainly become the anniversary of his death.
"Aigoo... I swear, you're not a daughter, you're my nemesis."
In the end, Chairman Xu Jiayin too had half a bottle of the elixir pried from his grasp by his youngest daughter.
The Girin Entertainment crew stuffed themselves silly with beef, then topped off the night with draft beer before parting ways to their respective homes.
When Young-hoon arrived home, Su-jin was nowhere to be seen—apparently out having fun. Thank goodness. It looked like he'd be spared her nagging tonight.
Young-hoon went to his study and opened the safe he'd installed when he moved in, checking its contents. He'd made twenty-five bottles of Magic Additive Wine in the beginning, and now only eight remained. The Magic Seasoning was nearly gone as well.
Tomorrow I should make about twenty bottles of Magic Additive Wine, and no matter what else happens, I have to work out the Downgraded Magic Additive. And I still need to find a way to turn the additive into powder... Ah, there's so much to do. Might as well make about five kilograms of Magic Seasoning while I'm at it. Hold on—there's plenty of time. Should I just make it now? First, let me check where Su-jin is...
Young-hoon called Su-jin, but she didn't pick up. So he sent her a KakaoTalk message instead.
Young-hoon threw on some clothes and headed out to buy the ingredients for the Magic Additive and the Magic Seasoning. He made the rounds of the supermarket and the traditional market, gathered everything he needed, and got back home a little past nine.
For the Magic Additive, he could simply reuse the magic circle he'd drawn previously, but the Magic Seasoning required a fresh one. He arranged the ingredients in bowls, set them on the circle, and after an hour everything completed smoothly.
He sealed the Magic Seasoning away in the safe, then added about ten grams of Magic Additive to each of the wines he'd bought at the supermarket, producing his batch of Magic Additive Wine. These were bottles he'd have to sell for twenty to thirty billion won apiece, and it would be a problem if they looked like cheap swill—so this time he'd chosen wines in the fifty-thousand-won range.
Now, at last, it was time to attempt the Downgraded Magic Additive. However much he racked his brain, no solution presented itself. For a start, he decided the ingredients would go in exactly the same. Then he'd experiment with adjusting the time the mixture spent on the magic circle—not in hours, but in minutes, for the first round of trials. Thankfully, he had a fair amount of ingredients left to work with.
He mixed a batch into wine and tasted it—no appreciable change in flavor. It was only past the twenty- and thirty-minute marks that the taste began to improve. At roughly forty minutes, the Magic Additive was indistinguishable in flavor from the original. All that remained was to test what effects it had on the human body.
He drank a single glass of the wine, and an hour later the "equipment" (?) had grown somewhat larger—but nothing like the reckless, out-of-control expansion he'd feared.
"Right, decision made. Forty minutes on the magic circle, no more. If problems crop up later, I'll stretch it to fifty then."
And so the Downgraded Magic Additive was born.
Now he needed to find a way to turn the solution into powder. He dredged through the knowledge of the Archmage Hains one more time. Nothing complicated: left in the open air, the moisture would simply evaporate and leave powder behind. But with no time to spare, he popped it into the microwave instead. After about five minutes, the liquid Magic Additive had been reduced to pure powder. Perhaps because the moisture had evaporated, the yield had shrunk somewhat.
With the stock of Magic Additive Wine now up to twenty-eight bottles, he felt like a rich man. And just in case, he made five extra bottles of Downgraded Magic Additive Wine as well.
By the time he'd laid the Magic Additive Wine reverently to rest in the safe and glanced at the clock, it was just shy of midnight. Su-jin would be home soon. He settled onto the sofa to wait up for her—and drifted off to sleep.
If Su-jin hadn't come home and woken him, he'd have slept on that sofa clear through the night. And so another long, long day drew to a close.