Want Some Candy?
The break room at Nine Entertainment.
PR Manager Kim Nakyung sat down with a steaming Americano, fresh from the coffee machine, and blew across the surface.
"Something's off, don't you think?"
"About what?"
At Kim Nakyung's words, Marketing Assistant Manager Kwak Eunji, who had already claimed her seat, rounded her eyes. The real fun of coming into the office was gossip like this, after all. A topic that started with something's off had a way of blooming into a thoroughly entertaining conversation.
"I'm talking about Actress Ha's scandal the other day. The scandal broke. And then it got cleaned up in a single day? Doesn't that seem weird?"
"Which part of that is weird, Manager?"
Kim Nakyung flashed a sly grin at Kwak Eunji, who still hadn't caught her meaning.
"You've been with the company a little over two years now, right?"
"That's right."
"Before you got here, this place was really something. But the important point isn't that we used to be successful. Back then we had a lot of actors, so there were plenty of incidents, big and small. Plenty of press we had to handle."
"Uh-huh..."
"So I know roughly how these things usually go. When something blows up at the company, the people upstairs send down guidelines. The director, the executive director, the CEO — they all get frantically busy."
Kwak Eunji nodded along vigorously, then ventured a question.
"We were busy too, though?"
"Busy, sure, but we never got any results. We couldn't resolve anything on our end, we couldn't even get a handle on the situation, so they never even sent us response guidelines. Right?"
"That's true."
"Right. So all we could do was keep telling the reporters who called the same thing over and over. It's not true. We're looking into it. Please wait."
At that, Kwak Eunji suddenly looked nauseated, gagging as if her stomach had turned.
"Ugh. I feel sick again."
"Aigoo... even saying it makes me feel the same. Ptooey, ptooey."
"Ptooey!"
One was a manager and the other an assistant manager, but thinking in terms of staff ranks and senior titles and all the rest would be a mistake. The company had shrunk so much that there was exactly one person in PR and one person in marketing. And even then, their duties weren't cleanly divided — they simply split the same work between them. Which meant dealing with reporters ultimately fell to marketing and PR, and the two of them had been run ragged handling the press.
Kim Nakyung soothed her stomach with another sip of hot coffee and went on.
"When the people upstairs don't send down guidelines? A scandal like this drags on forever. If the company can't even respond, how is it supposed to get cleaned up?"
"Ah, right, right."
"So that's what's weird."
She had a point. The company hadn't done a thing, and yet the incident had been wrapped up at lightning speed. Moon Cheol-sik had supposedly been questioned by the police, but since nobody actually filed a complaint or pressed charges, there wasn't much for it to grow into. He'd gone in for questioning a few times on his own, then quietly faded away — that was the rumor riding the wind.
"Maybe... CEO Choi did something behind the scenes?"
"The one who doesn't even come in anymore? The actual CEO?"
"Yeah."
Kim Nakyung had said it herself, but it was a fairly plausible theory. They said that in show business, even a chimney that had never been lit could give off smoke — but once the smoke was already rising, it never just vanished into thin air.
That was when Kwak Eunji pointed through the break room window at a man on the other side.
"I think that guy is the weirdest one."
"The new manager?"
"Yes. On days when Actress Ha doesn't have a shoot, he spends the entire day cleaning the office."
Kim Nakyung found herself scanning the break room. Come to think of it...
"Has our break room always been this clean?"
"Not except on the days the cleaning lady comes. And even after she cleaned, it was never this good."
"Right? And at some point the office started smelling nice, too."
"Oh, that's true."
Kim Nakyung fixed her gaze on the coffee in her hand.
"This coffee. Did it used to refill itself every day even if nobody stocked it?"
"Come on. This isn't Hogwarts. How would unstocked coffee just appear on its own?"
She couldn't remember when it had started. But things had begun getting easier. Filling the printer with paper. Restocking the coffee machine with beans. Wrestling the empty water-cooler jug into place... Lately, she couldn't remember doing any of it.
Kim Nakyung narrowed her eyes, studying the new manager through the glass. He was cleaning with remarkable diligence. Now he was mopping the floor.
"Well, he cleans well, I'll give him that. People around the office were worried, but he's more hardworking than expected."
"Huh? Why? Why were they worried? Also... isn't he kind of handsome?"
"Handsome, my ass. Hey, don't you dare catch feelings at work and start dating a guy like that. You'll be in for a world of trouble."
Kwak Eunji glanced sideways at her senior. Not that the warning was unfounded. Her eyes did keep drifting that way. He was diligent... and he looked pretty decent, too.
"When he rolls up his sleeves to clean, the veins in his arms just... pop."
"What are you, shopping for a servant? Looking at the veins in a man's arms? A person needs to have prospects, you know."
"Prospects... hmm... but he works so hard... my dad always said if a man is just diligent, that's enough..."
Kwak Eunji was already mourning a romance that had been shut down before it even started.
"I heard he graduated from Korea University, but he hasn't left the house in over ten years."
"What?"
"You know the type. Hikikomori, shut-in, game addict, that sort of thing."
"Ah..."
"Look at how pale his skin is. That's what happens when you never see the sun."
I put the mop I'd used on the floor away in the closet next to the bathroom. Washed clean and wrung out, of course.
"Feels refreshing. The company's looking a lot tidier now."
Cleaning was the kind of thing that felt tiring and bothersome while you were doing it. But once you actually did it, you felt as refreshed as if you'd just taken a bath. Even more so when it was the space you lived and worked in. The person I served might not come here often, but if it was a space I belonged to, that was all the more reason to treat it that way.
I was heading back into the office when I ran into Team Leader Baek Sungwook near the entrance.
"Oh. There you are."
"Were you looking for me?"
"Yeah. Afternoon schedule. Time to go pick up Seul, isn't it?"
I checked the watch on my wrist. A bit early, but a reasonable time to head out. Then Team Leader Baek Sungwook looked at my arm and smiled wryly.
"What's that, some kind of merch?"
"Pardon?"
Merch? I'd picked up enough around here, and done enough studying, to know what merch was. But why would this be...?
I lifted my arm to check the watch again, tilting my head, and Team Leader Baek Sungwook slung an arm around my shoulder.
"Or is it a souvenir? A National Assembly tour commemorative? Once you get your paycheck, just buy yourself an ordinary digital watch. It's not like you're a National Assembly member. What's with the National Assembly logo?"
"Ah..."
I wasn't a National Assembly member, but I had received it from one. Assemblyman Choi Giseok had fastened it around my wrist when he and I first became a district representative — when he'd won his second term. He'd said it was thanks to me.
I glanced back at the Ghost trailing after me and frowned.
What's with the huuuh. This was why first impressions mattered. Start out as a game addict, and even when you were doing just fine, every kind of prejudice wrapped itself around you. Merch, souvenirs... well, to be fair, it was the kind of watch they did hand out for that purpose...
"What are you doing? Aren't you coming? Oh, the car keys? I grabbed them. I'm coming along this time."
"...Yes."
Ah, this was really something.
I walked with my head slightly bowed. The Ghost sidled up beside me, peered at my lowered face, and startled.
It was just too funny.
At first it had been absurd, and a little irritating. But it was fun. Really fun. You're the first person who's ever treated me like this. It was like an expanded edition of that feeling.
The filming set of the drama Melancholy Romance.
In a little over ten days of working as a manager, I was absorbing quite a lot of information.
"Whew... Director. Have one of these while you work."
Team Leader Baek Sungwook had quite the reputation, for one.
"Oh? I'll enjoy this. Team Leader Baek."
"Please take good care of our Eun-yul and make her look pretty. Haha."
"Ah, of course, of course."
"That's what I like to hear! I'm counting on you! Fighting!"
"Oh! Writer! How long has it been? You barely ever come to set. What's the occasion today? Here, have one of these."
"I'm fine. I don't drink Americanos."
"Ahh. Wouldn't you know it, I just happen to have a Frappuccino packed with chocolate chips — the kind you love. Extra whipped cream."
"Oh my? That's exactly my taste. Did you get this for me?"
"I didn't even know you were coming. For some reason I just had a craving for one today, hahaha."
"What do I do? If I drink this, am I stealing yours, Team Leader Baek?"
"Please, help yourself. I bought it because I randomly craved it, but I don't actually like sweet things much."
"Then I won't stand on ceremony. I'll enjoy it."
He was making the rounds with a carrier of coffees in hand, handing them out and greeting everyone as he went.
"Did you used to work like that?"
"Hmm."
The Ghost glanced at me as I made that short sound from a corner of the set, then asked carefully.
"No, it's not that. Building rapport is important."
I was genuinely watching it with that thought in mind. Constantly observing things even on a film set was a kind of habit.
...Though something about it did sit a little wrong.
I looked over at Ha Eun-yul, who was reviewing her script a short distance from the camera.
"Right. Rumors are like wildfires. Fail to put them out early and they become impossible to contain."
That was why, even without a complete picture of the situation, I had tied the whole thing off as the fault of the reporter who'd exclusively broken the manager's misconduct and the dating scandal. Because what shuts people's mouths isn't the truth.
The right timing.
Miss the timing, and people will turn their faces even from the truth. So even if it wasn't the complete truth, I'd had to throw out a story they could latch onto — at the right moment.
Quite some time had passed since the rumors died down, but people still offered Ha Eun-yul a word of comfort or encouragement as they passed.
"Aigoo... Eun-yul, you must've had such a hard time."
"It's fine."
"It's not fine. You think someone's close to you and they stab you in the back... this is why you have to be careful who you keep around."
"Yes. Thank you for worrying."
One person passed. Then another.
"Are you doing a little better?"
"Ah, yes."
"Hang in there."
"Yes."
The Ghost followed my gaze, watching alongside me, then murmured with a hint of regret.
"What was she like before?"
"Like what?"
At my follow-up, the Ghost sounded almost frustrated.
"They say you can't fool a ghost, right? Guess that saying was wrong."
"Maybe that's why you're so easy to fool."
I answered quietly, my eyes still fixed on Ha Eun-yul.
And then.
"If she used to be bright... then yes, she has changed. Just not in the way you think."
I didn't answer the Ghost. I walked toward Ha Eun-yul, who was glancing around, pulling what I'd prepared from my pocket as I went.
"Want some candy?"
"...What?"
At the unexpected ambush, a hairline crack ran through Ha Eun-yul's mask.