We'll Keep It Appropriate

Around the time the Ghost had just stepped into Im Jinseo's home—

The CEO's office at Travel Entertainment.

Jung Joon-min, CEO of Travel Entertainment, had sunk deep into his chair, as if he wanted the leather to swallow him whole.

"Haa..."

The long, drawn-out sigh said everything about the tangle in his chest.

His gaze drifted to the desktop photo frame sitting at the corner of his desk.

A picture taken at a movie premiere with Im Jinseo. She was smiling brightly; he looked happier than he had ever been. The two of them, side by side.

Jung Joon-min stared at the photograph for a long time. Then he dragged his hands down his face again and again, as if washing it dry, and picked up the documents lying on the desk.

"So this is what I did to you."

Some man had refused to budge, insisting the papers had to be delivered in person, so Jung had ended up receiving them himself. When he'd torn the envelope open, he hadn't imagined he would still be sitting here hours later, drowning in it.

His eyes bored into the envelope.

He had already confirmed the contents long ago.

A handful of photographs related to Im Jinseo's secret.

And a brief line of text.

Exhaustion outweighed everything now. But when he had first seen those papers, his heart had dropped through the floor.

Then the deliberation. Report it to the police? Contact Im Jinseo? If they wanted money, how much should he be willing to pay?

He had wanted to protect Im Jinseo the actress, yes—but more than that, he had wanted to protect Im Jinseo the woman.

After hours of agonizing, he had pressed the number...

And what followed was not a threat. It was a rather courteous explanation.

That the man was the Management Team Leader at Nine Entertainment. What he had done in a previous life. That Jung Joon-min did not have the capacity to contain a secret the man had uncovered in a single week—arrogant as hell. That he could keep the rumor from spreading for as long as Im Jinseo wanted it kept—even more arrogant. And the coup de grâce: from now on, he would take care of Im Jinseo, so Jung should let her go.

If you listened only to the tone—nice, calm, not a wasted word—you could almost mistake it for a clean business transaction. The man had been a gentleman.

But it was a threat, plain and simple. No matter how polite the diction, no matter how tidy the other party's manner, a threat is a threat. Holding someone's weakness and shaking it—that is blackmail. And Jung had shaken.

He had confirmed the man was the genuine article. He had frantically called around, mobilized every connection he had.

And still, in a fleeting moment, the thought had crossed his mind: maybe money could still stop this.

Fuck...

That was when Jung Joon-min understood his own sin.

He, too, had blackmailed Im Jinseo.

He had only ever thought of it as her refusing his love. He had never once agreed that the word "blackmail" applied. But what he had done was no different from the person who had sent these photographs.

He had been polite about it, that was all. He had held her weakness and tried to get what he wanted. The moment he understood that, he let go.

The last scrap of lingering attachment vanished. He was not fool enough to think a marriage won by coercion would ever be real.

At last, Jung Joon-min picked up his phone and dialed, fast, as if he would not allow himself to stop.

He picked up immediately, as if he had been waiting.

Jung Joon-min kept it short. No preamble. No ornament.

"Please take good care of Jinseo."

Team Leader Lee Jaewook was equally brief. The call ended as quickly as it had begun.

Jung Joon-min bit down on his lip until he tasted blood.

"Ha. I was kidding myself again. What a pathetic bastard."

Something like bile rose in his throat. He pressed a hand to his chest several times, then sent Im Jinseo a text. He had refined it, and refined it again, packing every word down tight—but he left out the regret for everything that had never reached her.

The phone buzzed, and buzzed, and buzzed.

"...Live well. I can't protect you anymore, no matter what becomes of you."

Jinseo.

No—Actress Im Jinseo was calling him. Jung Joon-min did not pick up.

He simply stood, took the envelope, and walked to the shredder.

Inside the envelope, Im Jinseo and a very small child disappeared into the blades.

Two days later. Monday afternoon.

PR Team Manager Kim Nakyung confirmed that the press release she had sent to the reporters had gone up properly, then let out a shallow sigh.

"Huu... I don't even know if I should be happy about this..."

"Why? Did the articles come out wrong?"

At Assistant Manager Kwak Eunji's question, Manager Kim Nakyung shook her head.

"It's an agency transfer. What's there to get wrong? I just... I don't like that woman."

"I heard her personality is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no joke. Is that true?"

"Oh, her personality's no joke, all right. But more than that..."

"More than that?"

Manager Kim Nakyung craned her neck toward the CEO's office.

"She's the traitor who ran first. First one out the door."

"Ah...? Back then? Wow, no way! Is that for real, Manager?"

"Why would I lie about something like that? Honestly... she bolts first and then has the nerve to crawl back in."

"Crawling back, though... isn't her caliber a little too big for that?"

"It's a figure of speech. Whatever it is, I don't want to look at her, and that's that."

Beyond their line of sight, the CEO's office door opened, and Im Jinseo appeared once more.

She was done up to the nines—not like someone who had come to sign a contract, but like someone who had just wrapped a magazine shoot.

Their eyes followed the man who came out after her: Team Leader Lee Jaewook.

"What even was that guy, really?"

"Team Leader Lee?"

"Yeah. Uncanny, that's what he is."

This time, "impressive" felt less accurate than "uncanny." Of course, Manager Kim Nakyung's phrasing was thick with her dislike of Im Jinseo. Calling Team Leader Lee Jaewook impressive somehow felt like it would make Im Jinseo impressive by association.

I followed quietly behind Im Jinseo.

That was just how it worked. The contract was done. From this moment on, she was our company's actress. Our actress.

She was someone I would take care of now.

And yet Im Jinseo was... how to put it?

She was definitely a strange person. Director Choi Yoona had said Nine Entertainment would be uncomfortable for her, so I had offered to hold the meeting at Im Jinseo's house, or even book a hotel suite if she preferred. She had come to Nine Entertainment anyway.

And even after the contract was signed, even after the press release had gone live in real time, she was still taking a slow tour of the building.

"This place hasn't changed."

Im Jinseo's fingertips traced softly along the wall as she passed.

The Ghost was following behind us without a word, a knot of complicated feeling written all over him. Did she know?

"...It's been a while. This, too."

Im Jinseo said it as she opened the break room door. A while since the break room? The thought had just formed when the Ghost spoke.

"This used to be my office."

Ah.

I hadn't known that.

Then again, they had used the entire third floor of this building back then. The layout would have been a little different.

Just then, after walking slowly for some time, checking every corner of the not-particularly-large break room, Im Jinseo turned around.

Directly at me.

There was no one else in this break room but Im Jinseo and me. I had closed the door when I followed her in. Director Choi Yoona had worn a rather complicated expression, claimed she had an appointment, and left the building immediately.

It wasn't that she had simply run because she disliked Im Jinseo. The position makes the person, they say, and Director Choi Yoona had been moving in a way that rather suited the duties of a CEO.

If I were to evaluate her coldly... the shortcomings were not one or two. The deficiencies were even more numerous. And yet Director Choi Yoona had one very large virtue that covered a multitude of faults.

Affection for the company. And persistence.

Emotional capacities like these, surprisingly, matter more than technical competence.

While I was thinking of Director Choi Yoona, Im Jinseo's lips moved.

"It was you, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

The moment I answered, Im Jinseo burst into exaggerated laughter.

"Wow, you actually got that just now? That's hilarious. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠First time. I've never met anyone like you."

"......"

It wasn't something that warranted a reply, so I didn't give one. She didn't seem to mind. Im Jinseo went on, a smile still in her face.

"Usually I have to say it two, three times and it wears me out. You're the first person who's ever answered without asking even once. Don't tell me you caught that too?"

"Yes."

"Then tell me. How'd you do it?"

Not a conversational habit that would earn her many fans. And if she was the type to talk like this and then scold people for not following—even more so.

It was you, wasn't it? meant this woman was smarter than I had expected.

CEO Jung Joon-min's contract termination notice. The same day, our company's offer of a management meeting. Im Jinseo had connected the two.

Figured Nine Entertainment had done something. Was that why she had signed the contract without a second word?

For Im Jinseo, getting out of Travel had come first. It hadn't necessarily had to be us, and there hadn't been any particular profit in it for her, either.

The rather sharp Im Jinseo kept looking into my eyes. Asking me, in a roundabout way, to tell her how we had peeled CEO Jung Joon-min off her.

I checked the Ghost at the edge of my vision. His mouth was a hard, straight line. He was asking me.

I keep my promises.

I reassured the Ghost with my eyes, then answered Im Jinseo. In the lightest tone I could manage.

"I called him. Word was the two of you weren't getting along these days, so I asked if he wouldn't mind sending you back."

"What?"

"She was originally our actress. We let her go without a fuss, didn't we? That's how Travel was able to snatch Actress Im Jinseo so easily. I told him that if she wanted out, he should let her go. I suggested we play it with some manners, and he said he understood."

"...That's really all of it?"

"I'm not sure what you were expecting. Is there something else?"

I'm no actor. But hiding my cards is something I'm rather good at.

I asked Im Jinseo with an expression that suggested I was the one growing suspicious.

"If there's anything you ought to tell me in advance, please do. I need to know beforehand if I'm going to contain it when something blows later."

"What are you talking about? There's nothing like that."

I may be decent at it, but Im Jinseo was definitely an actress. She lied without a single shift in her complexion.

Not a bad thing. Truth isn't always the answer in this life. There are times when anyone has to lie. And if you're going to lie, you might as well be good at it.

I changed the subject with a careful manner, as if leaving a residue of doubt behind.

"Then I'll proceed on that understanding and begin preparing your next project."

"Next project? Ah... the next project... hnn..."

"Director Hong Chan-dong's next film."

She was still thinking, so this time I got ahead of her. She jumped with delight. Good reactions. Maybe that was why her reactions on the bad side had been so large, too.

Beaming, Im Jinseo asked,

"Oh my?! How?"

"We received a call from CEO Jung of Travel Entertainment. The project hadn't come in to Travel Entertainment—it had come in addressed to Actress Im Jinseo. So even with the agency change, it could still go forward."

"CEO Jung Joon-min...?"

A question overlaid the joy on her face, but I pretended not to notice that, too. For Im Jinseo, it was enough that it remain simply CEO Jung Joon-min's surrender, or a change of heart.

Of course, there would be a sliver of unease—what if CEO Jung Joon-min decided to expose everything?—but that wasn't something I could do anything about.

Not once I had decided to play ignorant.

"Yes. The reason Director Choi Yoona left the moment we put out the press release is a meeting with Director Hong Chan-dong. If an article about the agency transfer dropped while they were sitting on the other end waiting, they might reach out to the next actress in line. That was the assessment, so she moved first."

"Yoona's grown a lot, huh...? She can do things like that now?"

"Trials have a way of making people grow."

At my words, Im Jinseo's eyes curved into crescents as she looked me over again. The eyes were smiling. The rest of the muscles in her face were not. A rather fierce expression.

"You like putting bones in your words."

"I tend not to say things that don't mean anything."

"I'll be in your care. This worked out well, anyway. I hate managers who talk too much. The excessively nice ones who paper everything over with a smile—I hate those even more."

I met the gaze of Im Jinseo, who was smiling only with her eyes, for a moment.

This woman was twisted. Twisted in so many colors that other people would have a hard time understanding her.

But I understood what she had just said.

A manager who talked a lot. A manager who was excessively kind, who smiled easily. She hated that kind of manager.

Not because she truly hated him—because she had liked him, and he had left.

The Ghost, who had left and yet still clung to a threadbare string of hope, bowed to me at a full ninety degrees.

"Thank you, Jaewook. It's better to just leave Jinseo as Jinseo. That's the kind of actress she is—her acting only works that way. And... she's a lot more fragile than you'd think. She's so fragile she pretends to be tough, so please don't think too badly of her. I'm asking you."

I gave both of them—the Ghost and Im Jinseo—the same answer.

"Not bad, for now. The vibe."

"I'll inform you of the schedule as soon as the meeting with Director Hong Chan-dong is arranged."

I answered dryly and took the hand Im Jinseo held out.

Until Assistant Manager Kang Sangrok yanked the break room door open in a rush.