You Know What That Hyung-nim Is

A manager's daily routine is irregular.

That is simply the nature of looking after someone else. You do not move to the rhythm of your own day. You move to the schedule of the person in your care.

Even so.

There are rules of a sort.

Once filming wrapped and Ha Eun-yul's schedule was finished, I would drop her off at home and come back again to return the car to the company.

Except… today had been a little irregular. It had not been because of Actress Ha Eun-yul's schedule, though.

Late at night, I turned the wheel and pulled into the entrance of the parking garage.

"You don't really have to return the car when it's this late… just this once."

The Ghost offered the advice with a worried air, apparently feeling guilty for no good reason.

"I couldn't do that. If the company says it's all right, then it's all right. I can't use it for private reasons."

"Still. Before long, the company will tell you that you don't have to return the car."

"There are too many cars. At the company."

"Well, it is an actor-focused agency, so even though the scale has shrunk they tend to keep a lot of vehicles, don't they? Like you said, they probably do need to cut back some… but once you're actually out in the field, covering everything with just one or two cars gets pretty inconvenient."

I glanced at the Ghost in the passenger seat, then pointed into the parking garage with my eyes.

"No. Objectively speaking, there are too many cars. Look. Over there — Team Leader Park Munsu's car that we saw this afternoon, Director Choi Yoona's car, even General Manager Kim Misook's car."

"Huh… you're right? Wait, you memorized all the cars?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

I killed the engine and checked the time on the dashboard once more.

Was there some kind of meeting going on?

With that thought I stepped into the office — and the conference room door opened, and Director Choi Yoona came out into the hallway.

Her face was set like stone.

"Gaming. What did you say you did?"

"League of Legends. Tell her League of Legends."

The Ghost offered advice with absolutely no sense of the room. But this was not a question. This was an interrogation. Why would anyone interrogate a person over what kind of game they played? Which meant… she was asking about the past.

Looks like she's figured something out.

"Have you been waiting for me this whole time?"

I asked it back without losing my composure. I edged a little closer and checked inside the conference room — and Kang Sangrok was avoiding my eyes.

This is exactly why I have always believed you cannot control what comes out of people's mouths.

Park Munsu slammed the car door shut.

"Let's see what kind of guy you really were."

He would admit the order had been backwards. They were on different teams, yes — but the man was still one of the two Team Leaders who split the management division between them. He should have looked into the résumé before going anywhere near him. He had that much authority. And even if he hadn't, he would have had a pretext.

"So the guy's got some steel in him… let's see how he's been living."

It was not as if Park Munsu was doing this purely because his temper had boiled over. He was in a hurry. Actor Bong Tae-soo was agonizing over his next project, and Park Munsu did not have the ability to help him. There was no one inside the company he could lean on — he was the one doing the teaching, if anything. And then he had gotten excited, first ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thing, just because someone who actually knew how to read a script had shown up.

"I'll see it with my own eyes and make my own call. Then I'll treat him with the respect he's earned. That work?"

Ding.

The elevator arrived at the floor that housed the Nine Entertainment office, and Park Munsu's footsteps quickened as if he meant to wear his impatient nature on his sleeve.

And then.

"General Manager! I'm Lee Jae—"

He was already lifting his voice the instant he stepped into the office, then stopped and took a look around. He had almost rushed it again. He had already made a fool of himself in front of a new hire whose identity he did not even know, just because he had been in too much of a hurry. Taking a breath here, even now, was the right call — and for once, Park Munsu actually managed to get his thoughts in order.

He had the title of Team Leader, true enough. But a pretext was a pretext — hang it on your nose and it was a nose ring; hang it on your ear and it was an earring. The company had shrunk considerably, but it still had a proper skeleton, and it was the sort of place that valued its systems. Announcing at the top of your lungs that you intended to look through another employee's record was not the kind of thing you did out in the open.

Park Munsu swept a look around the room. Sure enough, office staff were hiding behind their partitions, with nothing but their eyes and ears poking out.

The person he was actually looking for — General Manager Kim Misook — was nowhere to be seen. Assistant Manager Kwak Eunji, whose eyes happened to meet his, startled badly and pointed toward the conference room.

"The General Manager is in there with the Director. Assistant Manager Kang Sangrok is in there with them too…"

Perfect.

If Director Choi Yoona was in the room, so much the better. Kim Misook had a habit of using Choi Yoona as an excuse whenever a situation got uncomfortable. As for Kang Sangrok… he hardly mattered. He was all bulk and no bite, a classic case of strong against the weak and weak against the strong, which meant he was intimidated by Park Munsu himself.

Park Munsu headed straight for the conference room.

He opened the door and stepped inside, and the puzzled eyes of Director Choi Yoona and General Manager Kim Misook turned toward Team Leader Park Munsu. The hulking Assistant Manager Kang Sangrok looked equally unsure what this was about.

Kim Misook was the first to speak.

"Why are you back again? No — wait. Perfect timing, actually. Since Sangrok is here, if you've got anything to hand over, say it. We were just mapping out Hyun-joon's promotion circuit, which variety shows he should go on, all of that. Even better if you take a look while you're here."

"Lee Jaewook. Give me that friend."

"…What?"

Every face in the room twisted at once. The atmosphere said, quite plainly, that this was a sentence with the front and back cut off and no one had any idea what it was supposed to mean.

Ah… I got my words tangled again.

Park Munsu gave a slight shake of his head.

He had passion. He was good at the work. His affection for his actors ran deep. He knew that much about himself — that he had, in decent measure, the things a manager was supposed to have. But since coming to this company, his shortcomings had been standing out in much sharper relief. It was because he was being chased. He wanted to take care of his actors, and he still did not have the ability on the actor side of things, so he was running around like a rabbit with its tail on fire.

"I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself."

"No… it's fine. Honestly, I was a little startled. I thought I'd just met a prospective son-in-law demanding I hand over my daughter."

"Give Lee Jaewook to our team. I like him."

You could not know everything about a person from a verbal explanation. This industry was half mouths to begin with, and he had never been fond of evaluating people off rumors alone. Checking the résumé was the cleanest way — and for that, you needed a pretext. Fortunately, Park Munsu's own title was Team Leader. If he said he wanted to bring the man onto his team and asked whether he could take a look at the résumé, it would be awkward for anyone to refuse.

"No. That friend is in sync with Actress Ha, remember? And as you know perfectly well, Team Leader Park, we were the ones who made a mess of things with Actress Ha. So? How are we supposed to switch his team in the middle of that?"

Kim Misook's small resistance only made him more curious. What mattered right now was not actually bringing the man onto his team. It was finding out what kind of person he was. So he laid down his real card with complete confidence.

"Then at least show me the résumé. I want to see what kind of friend he is and make my own judgment."

And then.

Director Choi Yoona's eyes and General Manager Kim Misook's eyes narrowed in unison, as if they had rehearsed it.

"Thaaat… friend's ré…sumé doesn't really have much to look at, though…?"

"So you won't show it to me? Ah — if you're worried about something else, it's enough if I just see the contents with the personal information covered. I'm a Team Leader too. I think I'm qualified to look at that much."

"That's not it. The résumé is blank."

"…What?"

At Park Munsu's confusion, Choi Yoona answered in Kim Misook's place.

"He used to… game a bit, apparently. Assistant Manager Lee Jaewook. I was going to keep it to myself because it's personal, but thanks to a certain someone the whole staff already seems to know, so I'll tell you. You hadn't heard?"

"He… gamed?"

"Yes. You know. The thing where you don't leave the house and just take a break."

"……Gaming…?"

Park Munsu tipped his head back in disbelief and blinked — and Assistant Manager Kang Sangrok muttered as if he were talking to himself.

"It's not gaming. That hyung-nim, you know, that thing. What was it. The National Assembly member… that thing he does."

"?"

"Huh?"

"What did you just say?"

At Kang Sangrok's offhand remark, Choi Yoona was the one who managed the most question-like question, and Kang Sangrok's face went oh no.

"Ah…! Over there, uh… if you have anything to hand over, just tell me and I'll put it over there…"

Panic only made it worse. Park Munsu planted a hand on the table and stared Kang Sangrok down. Maybe it was the athlete in him — the man could not hide an expression to save his life.

"You just panicked hard. Say that again. You said something just now. National Assembly member, something."

Team Leader Park Munsu's questions came one after another. General Manager Kim Misook's eyes. Director Choi Yoona, young as she was, the company's actual head. With three people's attention locked on him, Kang Sangrok lifted a thick arm and scratched his head.

"…Ah, uh, could you maybe keep this a secret? I promised I wouldn't say anything, so…"

There was no way to read this except as a man with an agenda. If Assistant Manager Kang Sangrok had not slipped, they might have gone on knowing nothing. No. They should not call it a slip.

They had found out by chance. Thank God for that.

Inside the conference room, five people. Four, if you excluded Assistant Manager Lee Jaewook. Four pairs of eyes met in midair.

Seven hours earlier, after learning Assistant Manager Lee Jaewook's past through Manager Kang Sangrok, Choi Yoona had immediately gathered all four phones into the center of the table.

"Everyone put your phones out. Hurry! For now, only we can know about this."

In a moment of crisis, Choi Yoona had summoned every scrap of composure she had. Something had flashed through her mind, sharp and sudden.

Plenty of people have their eyes on this company.

Or a sponsor? There were still rumors that political and business figures did that sort of thing — but planting your own aide as a mole would be going much too far, wouldn't it? So… not a sponsor, then? Maybe he had been fired for not being good enough? That had to be it, surely. There was no madman alive who would walk away from being a National Assembly aide of his own free will to become a celebrity manager — and a Road Manager at that.

They had sent the other employees home a little early, and the discussion had stretched on for a long time. Four heads had gathered in one place and started turning together.

"Oh, I didn't know about any of that. Whew… that's scary. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner. But he said it was okay if I told people…"

They set Kang Sangrok's apology aside for the moment. First, they had to get a grip on the situation.

"He probably figured that was the way to avoid suspicion. The man was a National Assembly aide — imagine how sharp he is."

"Ah…! Holy crap!"

"Not holy crap… Hah. First, let me get to the point. The people who need to know already know this, but outsiders are trying to acquire our company."

Choi Yoona had to come clean. Kang Sangrok being in the room made her hesitate a little, but the people sitting here needed to share the information. And the fact that there were people circling the company was not exactly a secret. In this industry, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rumors came and went no matter what you did.

"So he quit being an aide — no, got thrown out — and started up as an entertainment M&A broker or something?"

"That actually makes a fair bit of sense. It was weird. He adapted ridiculously well — like, impossibly well, you know? But if that's the case, why was he so diligent about the cleaning? Does cleaning well help you acquire a company?"

The conversation went that far, and then they started working the phones, putting all four of their contact networks into full operation. Every guess they could make had already been made, and from here on, putting their heads together was not going to produce an answer. They needed information on the person known as Aide Lee Jaewook.

"I… honestly don't really know anyone on that side, so… hhh…"

…Excluding Kang Sangrok. The one who landed a source the fastest was, as expected, the veteran in the room — General Manager Kim Misook.

"This is a little strange. The political desk reporter was completely stunned. He said, what's that monster doing over there. Is that real. He was shocked."

"Monster…? You told him he was here?"

"Yeah. He's tight-lipped, and we have a bit of a personal relationship, so he won't talk behind our backs. Anyway — you all know Representative Choi Giseok, right? The one who won in Jongno. Next presidential contender, all that. He's been everywhere lately."

Kim Misook recited what she had heard.

"They say he was that man's right hand? He never stepped out in front — maybe he doesn't want to do his own politics — so people like us wouldn't really know him, but in those circles he's famous."

"Famous how?"

"They just call him a complete monster. The one who brought Representative Choi Giseok back when he was wandering around like a door-to-door salesman — that was Lee Jaewook. The one who pulled off that stunning reversal in Jongno this time — that was him too. And apparently people over there have been wondering why he hasn't been around lately."

"So he got discarded after he was used… something ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like that? You see that kind of thing in politics sometimes, don't you? It even shows up in dramas."

At Team Leader Park Munsu's words, Kim Misook's face turned grave.

"I asked that too, just in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠case. He said there is absolutely no chance of that. They're close — extremely close — and, decisively."

"Decisively what?"

"One in a thousand, one in ten thousand — if he ever hit the market as a free agent, assembly members would line up to take him. That's what the reporter said."

And from there, they hit a wall.

An aide that capable… so then, why?

They could not reason their way to it. Digging up information did not give them an answer either. It was a situation that four people's heads simply could not make sense of.

After a long deliberation, Choi Yoona brought the conclusion that had ended in we don't know and put the question to Lee Jaewook.

"What are you, really?"

"You already know, don't you? I'm sorry I hid it when I joined. I was advised that if I wrote my actual background, I wouldn't get hired."

This man… what was he? Why was he this calm even now? Assistant Manager Lee Jaewook, who had gone from being a company employee to a person whose intentions could no longer be read at all, opened his mouth again.