The Most Important Thing in This Business: Choice (8)
"Give it here a second."
The moment the phone hit my palm, I tore through the short article.
Multiple music-industry insiders. If those bastards were standing in front of me, I would have ripped their mouths clean open.
I called Kim Hyunjo at once.
"Chief, did you see the article about Simon Lee?"
"Saw it a minute ago. Insiders, my ass. The way they're blabbing like it's already locked in, I doubt it's anyone actually on the inside. Geon-young says somebody might've overheard you talking with Simon Lee at the Next K-Star recording."
The afternoon flashed through my mind, and with it the look in the traitor's eyes as he'd watched me. For a split second I wondered whether he was mixed up in those "multiple insiders." He would want Simon Lee's song locked in as the title. Once the press broke it first, the company would have no choice but to weigh Simon Lee's position as well.
"Young-hoon hyung says they'll sit down with the A&R team tomorrow for an internal staff meeting and lock it as fast as they can. Drag it out with a correction piece or whatever, and you'll just sour the mood with Simon Lee when he's being this eager."
Which meant Simon Lee's song becoming the title was as good as decided.
"Will this affect the Double Title Track plan?"
I listened with one ear, eyes on the rearview mirror. In the glass my gaze met Lee Taehee's. My face was locked tight with anxiety; hers was calm.
"I already told Young-hoon hyung how hard you've been pushing Taehee's own song as a double title. You've got a track record, too—you shoved Cat Guardian Spirit through and it paid off. Anyway, it won't take long. Just wait."
The second I hung up, Lim Seoyoung asked, as if she'd been waiting for it.
"Oppa, we might actually go double title? You mean the song Taehee unnie made, right?"
"Nothing's certain. I'll tell you once it's decided."
That was all I gave her before I drove them back to the dorm. Lim Seoyoung and LJ scrambled out ahead of each other, and Lee Songha—who had kept watching me with worry, as if my face looked too grim—said goodbye and got out as well. Only Lee Taehee was left.
"Unnie, what are you doing? You're not getting out?"
"You go up first. I'll talk for a minute and come in."
Lee Taehee said it while looking my way. The others looked puzzled, but they nodded without a word. Only after the other two had dragged the slow-footed Lee Songha off and disappeared did Taehee open her mouth.
"I'm sorry about today. You were off, and I suddenly made work out of it."
"Hm? No. You're the one who must've been startled."
I'd been so caught up in the article that I'd forgotten the earlier mess entirely.
"I should have been more careful. I think I slipped and got soaked in the mood. It was the first time that many people recognized us on the street and came over, and the first time they actually called us Neptune."
A quiet smile rose at the corner of her mouth, as if she were turning it over again. She looked back at me and went on.
"I want the name Neptune to be spoken for a long time. For that, the next album has to do well. I don't have any other ambitions. So if you're pushing a double title for my sake, you don't have to."
"What?"
"I heard every word of Hyunjo oppa."
When I turned, Lee Taehee was smiling under the dim light.
"I'll be plenty proud just having a song I made on the album. I'm not going to miss the title, drop into some pit of despair, and turn into an alcoholic. That isn't going to happen."
She said it in that same even voice, a joke folded in. I answered through a tangle of feelings.
"It's not that. I'm telling you, to me that song was better than Simon Lee's."
"......Last time I thought you were just saying it to make it nice to hear."
Her narrow eyes creased, just slightly.
"Thank you. For hearing it that way."
If I could have, I would have told her.
In the future I saw, the song Lee Taehee made became the song that stood for Neptune.
If I hadn't changed the present—if the traitor hadn't shown up carrying Simon Lee's song—I would have met that future without a single problem. Thinking it, the resolve hardened in me. A resolve to set the derailed path straight, no matter what it took.
The moment the sun came up, I went into work like I was heading into a fight. The second Team Leader 3 set foot in the company, I latched onto him. Running my mouth in front of staff I barely knew would get me nothing but a bellyful of people calling me crazy, so convincing him for certain seemed like the best move I had. There was Cat Guardian Spirit, too. If he already thought my instincts were decent, he wouldn't brush me off outright.
"Team Leader, I still think now is the right time to release Taehee's self-composed song. If we push it as a double title, when they go on variety with Simon Lee it'll back the singer-songwriter, artist image even harder. It would drive the nail all the way into the skilled girl group image......"
I hauled out everything I'd turned over through the night and threw it at him. He listened for a long while with a thoroughly fed-up face, then waved a hand, folded his arms, and let out a groan.
"Good grief. You liked that song that much?"
"Yes. Not just me—the others rated it highly too. Songha especially said it felt exactly like a Neptune song, that she thought she could sing it well."
I even sold the members' names, Songha's along with them. Team Leader 3 scratched at a jaw rough with stubble.
"All right, all right. Last time you got hooked on Cat Guardian Spirit, and this time it's Taehee's song. I'll admit it—after what happened then, I've got this feeling of a feeling that I shouldn't ignore what you say."
"I really do think it's a song with a real shot."
"I'll push for the double title as hard as I can. But if the other staff disagree, there's nothing I can do either."
I sat on the terrace overlooking the conference room and stared a hole through the closed door. My head kept working. If the meeting came out badly, what then? Every kind of insane idea rose up. I even thought—seriously—about putting on a full shaman act and going around declaring that by my gut, Taehee's song was going to be a massive hit. I didn't know how far my reputation had spread, but maybe among the staff there was someone, like Team Leader 3, who already felt uneasy about brushing me off.
I pressed hard at my temple. A manager who had only just joined—my position felt painfully powerless. If I had been somewhere I could choose and decide everything myself, I wouldn't have been burning like this.
I was sunk in that endless thinking when a voice cut in out of nowhere.
"Still agonizing over Taehee's song, I see."
The traitor sat down in the chair across from me. My head was a mess already, and the sight of his easy face stuck my mood to the floor. Somehow he looked even better than he had yesterday. Well, he had reason to. Thanks to the article breaking, Simon Lee's song was as good as nailed down as the title.
Then one question surfaced. That future, where the traitor had pushed Lee Taehee's song and made it a success—in that future, had her song been decided as a double title?
He kept talking.
"I don't get why you're insisting on pushing a double title."
"The song's good. These days, if the songs are good enough, plenty of singers even put out triple titles."
I answered while sweeping back my messy hair. The traitor made a strange face, then shrugged.
"I don't know. I think it's better to push one sure thing properly. You pour everything into that. Try something risky for no reason and mess it up, and you could end up with neither."
"A sure thing?"
"The way I see it, Simon Lee's song is going to be Neptune's first hit. And......"
He paused, then went on.
"This time, I think my gut is the one that's right."
The traitor looked at me and smiled, just a little. For an instant I wanted that face gone from in front of me.
How long did I wait? At last the conference room door opened, and the staff spilled out in a murmur. I shot to my feet and went to Team Leader 3. He'd been scratching the back of his neck; when he saw me, he clicked his tongue.
Damn it. It hadn't gone well.
"Everyone agreed Taehee's song is good."
He said it while patting my arm.
"But the article about working with Simon Lee already broke, and they said there's no need to split the public's attention with a double title strategy when we've already got a song that's going to be talked about. So the opinion leaned toward putting Taehee's song on the next album. Nothing we could do."
There was no path left through any normal means. I was thinking that all that remained was something insane when he muttered, almost to himself.
"Unless the CEO says to go double title. Then maybe."
"The CEO?"
I jerked my head up, and he made a thoughtful sound and nodded.
"He got in a little while ago, so I'll go report, and once he makes the call it's final. It'll probably go that way. The Blackout album was the same, and most of Neptune's previous albums too—he left them to the staff."
For a moment CEO Baek Han-sung's face flashed in front of me, and with it the memory of him calling me directly. Out of nowhere he had asked whether Cat Guardian Spirit would land well in China. Before that, too, he had told me a lucky person was someone you kept close.
Maybe. Maybe if he saw me before deciding on Neptune's next album, he would ask for my opinion again. And one more thing. I remembered him saying that once Cat Guardian Spirit succeeded, he would grant me what I wanted. Back then I had been grinding my teeth at Son Chae-young and Mr. Shim Kyung-taek, so I had said I wanted Son Chae-young to pay for what she'd done. But this mattered more than that.
I swallowed and said it.
"Team Leader. When you go to the CEO's office, could I come with you?"
"Don't tell me you're going to the CEO......"
He looked me up and down as if he couldn't believe it, then slapped my back.
"This guy's going to cause a disaster. A few trips into the CEO's office and your guts have crawled right out of your stomach? Is the CEO your friend? No. Absolutely not!"
"I'll keep my mouth shut and just stand behind you."
"I said no!"
Not a word of it took. Team Leader 3 shook his head and disappeared alone toward the sixth floor.
Of course I understood. If I had been him, I would have been thinking, what kind of lunatic is this. But I had no choice but to do something crazy—if that was what it took to connect the present to the future I knew.
I agonized for a long while, then took out my phone and found the number I had saved. A number that had called exactly once. CEO Baek Han-sung's personal number.
CEO Baek Han-sung looked at the synopsis on his desk with a peculiar gaze. It was the early synopsis for Cat Guardian Spirit.
"Does this look like a drama that succeeds to you?"
At the question, the division head drinking black tea on the sofa shook his head.
"Looking at that alone, it's just another project from a new production company. If the script and the characters hadn't been decent, I wouldn't have recommended Ji-joon take it. And honestly, even after reading the script, I thought the target rating was five percent."
"What on earth did he see in this?"
CEO Baek Han-sung murmured it, as if intrigued. Just then, with a knock, Team Leader 3 entered the office.
"CEO, the staff meeting on the title track for Neptune's next album just ended."
"Mm. All right."
"There was a lot of talk about strategy between Simon Lee's song and Lee Taehee's self-composed track, and the opinion was leaning toward taking Simon Lee's song as the title this time......"
"Which side did Jung Sunwoo pick?"
CEO Baek Han-sung asked it out of nowhere. Team Leader 3 blinked.
"......Sir?"
He tapped the desk a few times with his fingertips, and asked again.