I'll Hang Up

Two days later.

The Nine Entertainment office.

"Why's the company so much fun these days?"

Manager Kim Nakyung wrapped her arms around herself and gave a little shiver.

"You say it's fun, but why are you shivering?"

Assistant Manager Kwak Eunji looked genuinely puzzled. Kim Nakyung beamed.

"It's thrilling. It's new. Ugh, I've always been confused whether I work a regular office job or actually do PR at an entertainment company, you know?"

"……"

"But. Ugh… I love it. I love it so much."

Kwak Eunji gave a slight shake of her head, but Kim Nakyung paid no attention whatsoever.

"This is why I joined an entertainment company in the first place, right? Dopamine addiction. But I had this massive reality check. Why did our company turn into a monastery? It wasn't like this before. Something blew up every single day. People would storm in and throw a script on the desk — Team Leader, I'm not shooting this. The director's a son of a bitch — just like that. Yeah, and one actress came in and just bawled her eyes out. The actors who saw it got all worked up and stormed right out of the office."

"Where to?"

"Who knows, back then. They just left. Just walked out, step by step. In those days the actors acted like someone had smeared honey all over this company — they were always here. Back then… ha, this still hurts. We used to occupy three whole floors of this building. These days we can't even fill one properly."

"Right, right."

Kwak Eunji's eyes lit up, and Kim Nakyung, as if catching the same high, kept going.

"Anyway. They'd fall in one by one. Gangsters, whatever — they all had the looks, you know? Of course there were the serious acting types too. Anyway, it was a bit like a movie. Then they'd go as a pack. And that would settle it."

"?"

"That evening or the next day, someone would show up carrying a fruit basket. Sorry about yesterday. I wanted to apologize… Because we had clout. The actors were tight with each other, too."

"Ah…!"

Kwak Eunji's little gasp of wonder made Kim Nakyung burst out laughing. Her tone had dropped quite a bit from when she'd started talking.

Talking so excitedly, the old days had come flooding back — and with them, a pang of regret at how different Nine Entertainment was now.

"Back then everyone seemed like they had energy to spare. These days they're all sick chickens, you know? Well… a lot of people left. Actors, support staff, all of them."

"Nine Entertainment's glory days? I'm curious too. Whenever everyone gets that misty-eyed look like a bunch of old folks going those were the days, I always wonder what it was really like."

Kwak Eunji had joined when Nine Entertainment was shrinking. You wouldn't know, but we had so much fun back then, Kim Nakyung thought to herself, and looked toward the conference room. She didn't bother hiding her smile.

"Since Team Leader Lee came in, the company's changed. Definitely."

"It's interesting, but… should we even be calling this fun? It doesn't look that great from here."

"Better than quiet."

And then—

"Ah, this is really too much! Son of a biiitch!"

Actor Bong Tae-soo's shout from the conference room rang through the entire office.

Every employee was already looking that way, so no one jumped or even looked startled.

Kwak Eunji found that incredibly strange.

"An actor is grabbing his manager by the collar… why is everyone just sitting there?"

"You saw that, right? You saw, you saw? The inspector grabbed Bong Tae-soo's collar too. Oh my, what a day. How long has it been since we've seen a mutual collar-grab?"

Kwak Eunji didn't agree with everything Kim Nakyung said. But she agreed with one thing.

"…People have gotten weird since Team Leader Lee Jaewook arrived."

"Ugh. Should we go crack the door open a little? So we can hear better?"

"……"

Kwak Eunji frowned, and Kim Nakyung burst out laughing.

"In a normal company, this wouldn't fly. But if an entertainment company turns into a monastery, that's a sign it's dying. We were like that. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Whether it's good or bad… no, wait, words have a way of coming true. Anyway, whatever it is, it has to be noisy. That's the kind of company that actually succeeds."

Kwak Eunji narrowed her eyes.

The conference room.

The man who had been the starting point of all this change — Team Leader Lee Jaewook — was the only one who remained perfectly calm.

And that was even stranger.

Quiet, a man of few words, but with real depth to him… that was how Team Leader Park Munsu had described actor Bong Tae-soo.

"A lead role? Yeah, sure. I want it! I want it so badly I could lose my mind! A premium supporting actor? I'd rather play a lead even once — even if it's a knockoff — and then call it quits! Do you even know an actor's heart?!"

None of that description seemed to fit in the slightest.

Of course, Park Munsu wasn't exactly normal either.

"You're the only one in a hurry, huh? I told you! There's a time for everything! You can't wait for that, and what? Don't you get it? You little shit! You don't know how I feel either, do you?! You run your ass off until a dog's paws sweat, and they still think they made it because they're so damn talented!"

Words you would never believe came from the mouth of a man who acted before he thought — they burst straight out of Team Leader Park Munsu.

I gave a small nod of agreement to the Ghost.

Ha.

This guy. The type you should never, ever bring to a negotiation.

I looked up at the ceiling for a moment, replaying how things had gotten to this point.

Before actor Bong Tae-soo arrived, I had briefed Team Leader Park Munsu on the project and the situation. After hearing it all, he'd said it was his actor, so he'd do the talking. I'd had my doubts, but figured it wouldn't be a big deal and let him. Then the moment Bong Tae-soo walked in, Park Munsu said this:

Needless to say, Bong Tae-soo's easygoing face had gone rigid.

After that, the feelings had slowly begun to swell, and now we had this. They must have had a lot already built up between them, because both of them went off the rails before I could even get a word in.

And they were still going.

"Shut up! Your eye for projects is complete garbage! What? It's going to fail? Why?! Just curse me out to my face! The look on you as you walk away is so damn ugly! Fail, then! Hold a ritual and curse the whole thing!"

"I'm telling you it's true, damn it! You're so blinded by a lead role you'd eat shit even if I told you it was soybean paste! Fine, go! Get out! Do a lead once, tank it, and you'll never be able to even mention a lead role again! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Good! I'm sick to death of that lead-role song and dance!"

"Oh, is that so? Sorry for making you sick of it, Team Leader Park!"

"If you're sorry, do better! Do you know how much I've looked after you?!"

"You? I called you Team Leader Park, and you just said 'you,' didn't you?"

"You dropped the formalities first! And we're the same age anyway, aren't we?!"

Emotional words flying back and forth wasn't a bad thing in itself. But if I left them any longer, it might become irreversible.

Tap—tap—tap!

Uncharacteristically, I slammed the script of Blue Moon, Red Star down on the desk.

Fortunately, both men's eyes turned to me. Confirming that, I launched straight into what I had to say.

"Lim Jinhyeok. He walks just fine."

Team Leader Park Munsu, who already knew, made an oh-crap face. Actor Bong Tae-soo looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about.

"What?"

"He walks just fine. He does go to the hospital, but it isn't orthopedics — he's been diligently visiting a dermatology clinic. Here are the photos."

I held out the tablet. Bong Tae-soo let go of Park Munsu's collar and took it.

"Uh…?"

"If you swipe, there's video too. He walks perfectly well on two feet."

"What?"

Confirming Bong Tae-soo's frozen face, I gave a slight shake of my head.

Really.

Honestly, it was so absurd I could have burst out laughing. I found myself wondering how many normal people this company even had.

Maybe this was just what the entertainment industry was like.

Looking at politics, the ones who survive have some kind of strange energy about them, don't they? Shamelessness and a thick face are standard equipment. In that world, a thin skin means you don't survive.

This industry seemed to have something similar.

The ones who survive are also the ones who, once they lock onto something, can't see anything else. So it was funny, too.

Detective Park Daesu had brought the evidence in a single day.

If the Ghost were still alive — if he'd spoken as Director Kim Taewoo, the man famous for his eye for scripts — we wouldn't have needed evidence at all.

I'd prepared it thinking the difference in who was speaking would matter, and it seemed to have worked, at least. It was just… too blatant, wasn't it?

Lim Jinhyeok, running around perfectly fine.

Anyway, it hadn't gone the way I'd intended, but I'd gotten the information across to Bong Tae-soo. I stood up from my seat.

"Go ahead and fight it out. Transfer agencies if you want. But I can tell you this much for certain: on Lim Jinhyeok's end, he caught the scent of screenwriter Oh Haneul's signature monstrosity in this script."

"…Haa. This… ahh… no wonder Oh's work made it all the way down to me."

"We caught the scent too. But if an actor wants to do it, he should. If you're going to do it anyway, you'll have to terminate your contract with us. We'll arrange that if you want."

I was about to walk past Bong Tae-soo, who was holding the tablet with a deathly expression… then decided to add a few more words for the two men who'd be left in awkward silence once I left.

"Timing matters. 'The more urgent you are, the longer way around you should take.' It sounds like a terribly callous thing to say, but sometimes that's exactly what's needed."

"…Haa……"

Bong Tae-soo sighed as if the ground were collapsing beneath him. I didn't bother stopping the words I'd already started.

"A good project. A lead role. If you stay, I'll find one for you before this contract ends."

Persimmons don't fall just because you stand under the tree with your mouth open. But sometimes you have to keep your mouth open until they do.

I was actually in the process of finding a project that would fit Bong Tae-soo perfectly — more precisely, a project that would cast him as the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lead. I just didn't mention that.

Planting expectations with uncertain words wasn't like me, and this was already more than enough.

"…I'll find you a good… project… Actor Bong. I mean… even if I do have dead-fish eyes. I have to try."

"Ah… earlier I……"

Bong Tae-soo looked at the ceiling for a moment, then continued.

"Team Leader Park, you didn't know? About Lim Jinhyeok walking?"

"……"

"The problem isn't the dead-fish eyes — it's that you act before you think. No, ha. If you'd shown me that first, this… wouldn't have……"

"You too, Actor Bong……"

That's enough.

I just left them and walked out. I hoped they'd get even more awkward.

In a little while they'd apologize, maybe even shake hands or share a light hug.

Just imagining it, goosebumps were already rising on my arms.

I've been seeing a lot of horrifying things lately.

Two men holding hands tightly, saying they're ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sorry, they love each other. Then one of those two grabbing a new guy by the collar, going we were good though, weren't we… From where I was standing, it wasn't exactly a beautiful picture.

I headed for the elevator when the phone in my pocket rang.

An unknown number.

Unknown numbers can come up. Especially when your job is assisting and managing people. But some premonition made me open with something shorter than usual.

"Hello?"

"Yes."

A gentle voice. Even the attitude of offering me a binary choice.

Not bad.

But I chose an answer that wasn't on the menu.

That not-bad attitude and voice had scraped my mood quite a bit. Far more than those two men's unsightly fight and the awkwardness that followed.

"I'll see you another time."

"I'll hang up now."

I hung up first and stepped into the elevator.

The Ghost, who'd boarded with me, glanced at my face and asked.

"Because in that short call, he did every single thing I hate."