I'll Teach Him Some Discipline
Ha Eun-yul realized she'd unwittingly let a crack of vulnerability show, and quickly locked her expression down.
"No."
Cold. Like an actress. Without a hint that she was easy, kind, or naive. Even without Yujeong unni's warning, Ha Eun-yul had her own reasons to be that way. This was a place where people smiled as they stabbed you in the back. Look easy, and they'd treat you exactly that way — the industry was crawling with them.
But this manager... he was definitely strange.
"If you watch hikers, they always keep one or two of these in their pockets. Chocolate, candy, that sort of thing. Sugar gives you a quick burst of energy. Like a booster."
Ha Eun-yul tried to keep her gaze as cold as possible as she studied the new manager. For more than ten days they'd crossed paths — he'd picked her up, driven her, dropped her off. In all that time, he'd never asked her a thing, never spoken first.
"Hello."
"We'll be departing now."
"We've arrived."
"Good work today."
That was the extent of it. Greetings, and nothing more. Which was strange. Managers — most people, really — showed more interest than necessary. And because of that... these past ten days had been a little easier. Unnecessary interest forced unnecessary acting out of Ha Eun-yul, and this manager had none of it.
But now.
Why... is he doing this? And candy, all of a sudden?
The manager set the candy down beside her without waiting for an answer, as if he'd genuinely only come to give her candy.
"I'll leave this here. Eat it if you feel like it."
Ha Eun-yul said nothing. Then, as if to restore the usual distance, he walked off at a steady pace and disappeared from view.
What a weird guy, seriously...
Ha Eun-yul looked from the departing manager to the candy he'd left behind.
"Did Eun-yul look tired to you? I don't think so. Her face looked fine," the ghost asked, pouncing the moment they'd put some distance between themselves and Ha Eun-yul.
A twenty-three-year-old actress preparing for a shoot with a bad complexion — that would be a problem. Either the actress hadn't been managing her condition, or Lee Yujeong, who handled her makeup and styling, hadn't been doing her job. Neither of those was the case.
"Well, she's pretty enough that she doesn't look tired, but... she probably is tired."
Mentally, that is. The shoot hadn't even started, but she'd been acting from the moment she left the house. At first, even I had misunderstood Ha Eun-yul as a person. Rude. Cold. They said she hadn't originally been like that, so I figured she'd caught the so-called celebrity disease.
But that wasn't it.
It wasn't that I figured it out because I'm some hyper-empathetic type who's amazing at catching feelings. If anything, I analyze situations more rationally than anyone — and this was the result of observation. Tension that showed at completely the wrong moments. The long, habitual deep breath she took before getting out of the car. The way her eyes wavered like a lost puppy whenever Coordinator Lee Yujeong disappeared. Same thing when Team Leader Baek Sungwook vanished. And how, every time she pushed someone away with a short, clipped answer, she habitually checked the other person's face as they left.
The ghost, who had been watching Ha Eun-yul quietly, spoke up again.
"Oh? She's eating it. She really must've been tired."
"It's less that she's tired... and more that she's anxious."
"What?"
"Kids suck their thumbs, right? They do that because they're anxious."
The real reason he'd given her the candy. Not that sucking on something always meant anxiety — he'd just seen it a lot at the orphanage. When they felt scared, lonely, the kids would suck their fingers. A kind of stress-avoidance behavior. The fastest form of escape available when you have nothing in your hands. Nail-biting was the same kind of thing — an unconscious act to get away from a swarm of ugly feelings. You couldn't tell a grown adult to suck her thumb, so he'd given her a candy to hold in her mouth instead.
The ghost asked the obvious question.
"You're saying Eun-yul is anxious?"
"Yes. She seems to depend quite heavily on Coordinator Lee Yujeong. And she relies on Team Leader Baek Sungwook quite a bit too. Neither of them is around right now. One went back to the car because she forgot something. And the other..."
Speak of the devil. Lee Yujeong came running toward Ha Eun-yul with something like a large bag, and Team Leader Baek Sungwook headed for me.
"What are you doing here? Come greet people with me. It's about time you started making the rounds with the crew."
"I'm fine here."
He seemed to take that as something else entirely, because Team Leader Baek Sungwook laughed as he answered.
"Come on, don't be so tense. It's fine. Just introduce yourself, say hello. You're going to be seeing these people for more than a day or two — this is all part of a manager's job. A manager's supposed to get along with everyone."
He wasn't wrong. But it grated like a thorn lodged in my throat. So when Team Leader Baek Sungwook gave my arm a light tug, I put enough strength into it that I didn't follow.
"?"
"I'll stay here."
"What are you trying to pull right now?"
Team Leader Baek Sungwook frowned at the unexpected reaction. Team Leader — specifically, the Team Leader of Team 2 in Nine Entertainment's management division, which ran as two teams. I was a Road Manager; the rank on the business card they'd issued me not long ago said Assistant Manager. Didn't mean much. One team leader and two managers per team, two such teams, so six positions on the books and five people currently filling them. For all that the gap in rank and title looked enormous, our actual work sat closer together than you'd think.
Was that why I was doing this? No.
"What... are you doing?"
The ghost was startled too. He'd never seen me act like this. As an aide, there'd been no reason to. As a manager, reconnaissance had come first. That didn't mean reconnaissance was over and I was about to yank the thorn out of my throat in one go. Right now, in assembly-office terms, I was a newly hired intern secretary. At best, a Grade 7 executive aide — and even that, not even a month in. So I answered dryly.
"I can see well from here."
"See what? Ah... the set? Did you come here just to sightsee? A manager's supposed to look after the actor and work with the crew, you know."
He was right. But he had the order wrong.
"If I want to keep an eye on Actress Ha, this is the better spot. If I move, I'll lose her."
"...What's the point of staring at her the whole time? She's reading her script just fine."
"I'll just stay here. Watching the actor I'm responsible for — whether she's reading her script properly, whether she needs anything."
Team Leader Baek Sungwook let out a hollow laugh, the sound of a man running out of patience, and released my wrist.
"Ah, whatever. Do what you want. I try to teach the kid something and he's got zero social skills, I swear..."
Then, as if he had nothing more to do with me, he scooped up the coffee in the carrier and headed off toward the others. The ghost, watching him go, spoke slowly.
"Why... did you do that? He was looking out for you."
"Why would he look out for me?"
"Well... you're his junior, and you work at the same company?"
"And the actor?"
At that, the ghost at least seemed to get it — a flicker of oh-crap crossed his face. This ghost really was different. He'd said he used to be the same way, and I'd almost written him off with the rest of them.
"You get it now? That's not management — that's him playing his own politics. I saw plenty of that as an aide. People who claim they're supporting someone when they're really just trying to get their own face known."
That was why Team Leader Baek Sungwook had been grating on me this entire shoot.
"Sungwook's just trying to do a good job... I guess he didn't realize..."
"The actor's been anxious this whole time — it's not that he doesn't know, he just doesn't care. And if he puts the coffee on the company tab and hands it out without a word that Actress Ha is the one buying it? Are people going to be grateful to the actor, or to the guy handing it out?"
"...This is... embarrassing. It's because I didn't teach him properly."
"And why would that be your fault? Company size doesn't matter — if you're wearing a Team Leader title and you can't do the job right, that's on him."
The ghost looked thoroughly mortified. Which was the correct reaction.
"That frappuccino you gave the writer earlier. You bought that on purpose, didn't you? You knew the writer was coming."
The ghost said nothing. Looking after a set comes when the person you're supporting is in a stable state. Which means support comes first. Team Leader Baek Sungwook's support was wrong. Simply because he didn't know — or...
Maybe there's a reason.
I'd positioned myself with a moderately wide view, yet still close enough. Ha Eun-yul and Team Leader Baek Sungwook came into my field of vision slightly offset from each other.
Hmm. That was strange too.
I asked the ghost quietly.
"This is a studio shoot — doesn't Actress Ha have a waiting room?"
"No? She's a supporting lead, more or less — of course she does."
"Then why does Actress Ha always do her script reading on set?"
Why would someone wearing a mask to hide her anxiety do that? A waiting room would be much more comfortable if she wanted to hide.
Then someone spotted Ha Eun-yul and waved at her cheerfully.
Late evening, after shooting and the day's work were done. Behind the Nine Entertainment parking lot.
Team Leader Baek Sungwook put a cigarette in his mouth. A cheerful click, and a hand cupping a lighter flame approached the cigarette.
"Hyung-nim, here."
"Ohh, our Sangrok. Always with the sense."
He took a long drag and exhaled — the day's fatigue seemed to melt away. Except for... that situation during the day. Team Leader Baek Sungwook tossed the line out casually.
"Ah, that new kid's in pretty rough shape."
"The new kid? The cleaning machine who came in as Cheolsik's replacement? Why? I heard he was some gaming shut-in or whatever. Is he that bad?"
A subtle smile formed on Team Leader Baek Sungwook's face. This. This was the flavor of a real conversation. You drop a line, they pick it up. That's how it's supposed to work. He'd carved time out of a busy day to look after the kid — dropped the line — and what did he get back?
I'm fine? I can see well from here?
Baek Sungwook spat out his true feelings without a filter.
"Yeah. The kid's got zero social skills. Guy wants to be a manager but he's not even trying to learn the job — just cleaning. And the more I think about the cleaning, the funnier it gets. If he keeps that up, people are gonna think managers don't have anything to do, so they might as well make us clean, right?"
"Ah... you've got a point. No wonder every time I come into the office lately, the way the staff look at me is like... 'Could you change the water cooler?' 'Could you sweep over there?' I knew something felt off."
"Exactly. What does he even think a manager is? Is it because nobody taught him? Hmm?"
Baek Sungwook dropped the setup, then exhaled a long stream of smoke. And sure enough.
"Want me to straighten him out?"
"Eh... he's still older than you, though."
"What's age got to do with anything in this business? If he's unhappy about it, he should've joined earlier. Or been damn good at the job. He didn't get hired as a janitor — if all he does is clean, he's embarrassing every manager here."
A faint smile formed on Team Leader Baek Sungwook's face.
"Sangrok, you were a phys-ed major, right?"
"Yes. I did judo."
"Right. Don't go too hard — just teach him a little. What a manager's job actually is. Nice and thorough. A conversation."
"Got it."
Team Leader Baek Sungwook put out his cigarette, and Kang Sangrok followed suit. Then:
"Ah. You're taking good care of Hyun-joon, right?"
"Of course. I'm handling everything from one to ten, all of it."
"Good work."
Team Leader Baek Sungwook smiled brightly and headed into the building, adding this as he went.
"You need to make it so he can't function without you. Got it?"
"Please. Of course. Without me, he couldn't even order a single chicken breast properly at this point."
"That's right. That's how he becomes my actor."