Star Manager (4)

"Ah. That manager's definitely good."

PD Yoon said it as he turned his eyes toward the managers' seats.

The manager, Jung Sunwoo, stood out at once among a row of otherwise featureless ones. He was still dragging a palm down his drawn face, as if the shock of having his dark history aired for everyone hadn't quite worn off. Even that drew the eye.

Writer Park laughed, looking at the same spot.

"Good doesn't cover it. He's excellent. Most of the Neptune lines I want to save are the ones they trade with their manager."

"You're right. Now that you mention it."

"The feel is completely different. At first they were just tossing out the usual lines, like they'd memorized them cold. The moment they got paired with that manager, the lines started jumping, raw and alive."

In the early stretch, Neptune might as well have had We're a rookie girl group written across their faces. The staff had let it pass. They hadn't pinned any great hopes on a rookie girl group with no variety experience to speak of.

What they'd wanted from Neptune was simple enough: unpack the behind-the-scenes talk about Lee Songha that viewers actually cared about, and hold the audience's eye with pretty faces in a lineup that might as well have been a men's bathhouse. That was the extent of it.

A little bonus chemistry with their young manager would have been nice, if it happened.

That bonus had gone off properly.

Just as Writer Park said, the manager's hand in the current atmosphere was enormous.

She spun the marker in her fingers as she went on.

"Bring rookies out and nine out of ten of them get so eager they overdo it, but he doesn't weigh anything down. He tosses lines out clean. His voice and diction are good, so it slips right into your ear. That's why your eyes keep going back to him."

"This is something. The people we were counting on are so painful I can barely watch, and the ones we never expected much from are the ones who came through."

"I know. Imagine if we hadn't booked that team at the last minute."

"Makes me dizzy just thinking about it. We might have been cracking soju in the edit bay."

The guests the crew had trusted to deliver at least an average showing were flopping, one after another. Kim Dongho, who had claimed to be an aspiring comedian, was testing the MCs' patience with gags colder than the cold snap. Park Tae-pyung hadn't so much as spoken to him in a while.

PD Yoon licked his lips.

"If he can do even that much once we get outside, I won't ask for anything else."

"Tae-pyung looks like he'll look after him. We can afford to hope, can't we?"

"Look after him? Not Seokwoo — Senior Tae-pyung?"

The tone said she must have misspoken, and Writer Park only shrugged. Her eyes moved between Jung Sunwoo and Park Tae-pyung, who was cackling away in front of his seat.

"He dotes on rookies who are actually good. He says so himself. From where I'm sitting, Manager Jung Sunwoo has landed dead center in Tae-pyung's taste."

The moment the studio shoot ended, the great migration began.

Staff and cast alike cleared the studio and poured outside in a rush for the outdoor filming. They had said cold snap, cold snap, and it really was filthy cold. I sighed, and a pale cloud of breath drifted out. It looked like my soul.

Wearing a faint smile, I asked the woman VJ who was filming me.

"That embarrassing bit from earlier. It won't get edited out, will it?"

"Not a chance. If I were the PD in charge, I'd use it no matter what."

I had figured as much. The main PD had come by earlier with his mouth stretched to his ears, buried me in a storm of praise, and left. Keep this up, he said, and once it aired the booking calls would start coming for me too. Something like that.

About as welcome as the grit in a flea's eye.

Behind me, Lim Seoyoung poked my shoulder. She blinked those round eyes with the face of a state criminal being marched into exile, or a puppy that had committed some catastrophic mistake. If she'd had a tail, it would have been drooping, dragging along the ground.

The male VJ assigned to Neptune shoved his camera in and filmed the whole thing.

"Oppa. Oppa."

"What. What."

I answered as if nothing were wrong, and Lim Seoyoung's face brightened.

"Really, truly, I think my mouth lost its mind. I was already having a meltdown because they said there was no trivia quiz, and then that Lee Songha kept nailing every answer and the win was flickering right in front of me, so I panicked. It felt like the world would end if we lost. Aaah, Oppa, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Obviously."

"Really?"

"Yeah. In front of the camera."

"......And if there isn't a camera?"

I glanced at the camera and said it darkly.

"Seoyoung. If I go home for Lunar New Year and die, the cause of death will be fatal humiliation, and I will have them bury you alive in the grave with me."

"Hic!"

Lim Seoyoung crumpled on the spot. It felt as if her soul had left and only a paper-thin hide was left fluttering. I watched for a few seconds, and only then tapped her hunched shoulder.

"I'm kidding, so pull your neck back in."

"This time it's real, right? Really real?"

"I'll just take your doll instead of you."

"Ah, Oppa!"

Revived, Lim Seoyoung slapped my shoulder.

The other members wore the looks of people who had seen this coming, and laughed.

I stole a glance at the VJs. From the studio up to now, a fair amount of Lim Seoyoung's real personality had shown. To my eye it was plenty likable, though that might have been a parent's blindness, the kind that finds even a hedgehog adorable.

I started to worry what it would look like to anyone else, and the worry slipped quietly away.

The VJs watching Lim Seoyoung were twitching at the corners of their mouths. Above that sat the pleasant smiles of older sisters and brothers.

A line of sleek vans stood along the road in front of the broadcast station.

There were already early arrivals waiting by the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠van our team would take. Jang Noksu and Kim Dongho were working out their chemistry almost like a rehearsal, down to the lines and reactions they would trade inside the car.

When I drew close, Kim Dongho flicked me an unpleasant look. He had been doing that for a while. Looks like that were nothing new after traveling with the Neptune kids, so I didn't much care. I just couldn't tell why.

Had my reactions been too weak for his liking?

But for gags that made space-time itself shrivel, that reaction had been the best available. The cast, and even the MCs, were shuddering. If I alone had jumped up for a standing ovation, wouldn't that have been the bigger joke?

Anyway, I seemed to be the youngest one here, so I cleared my throat and started in.

"I'll drive..."

"You can't."

Park Tae-pyung popped out from behind me.

"You heard the rules in the studio. The second you get in the car, your positions flip. Celebrities become the managers. Managers become the celebrities."

With that, he handed out name tags. The tags the Neptune kids received had my name on them. Mine, in turn, was made so I could swap in the names of all four of them.

So I was meant to imitate four kids by myself. This was going to be a busy day.

I checked on the kids and found them with their heads together, whispering and plotting.

Park Tae-pyung looked around the group.

"Jung Sunwoo and Kim Dongho here are celebrities, so they're out. I'm an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠MC, so I'm out. One of the people left is going to have to take the wheel."

"Oh, you're riding with us?"

Kim Dongho asked, visibly delighted, and Park Tae-pyung nodded.

"If I'm going anyway, I mean to stick with the team that's likely to get a lot of airtime."

"Thank you! We prepared a few more gags, if you'd just once..."

"Don't! It's cold enough already. You'll freeze to death!"

Park Tae-pyung barked it, then set ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a hand on my shoulder where I stood still.

"And not that team. This one."

At the added line, Kim Dongho's face crumpled.

A team likely to get a lot of airtime. That was the verdict of Park Tae-pyung himself, whose prickliness was sandpaper. I had expected as much from the moment the crew's reaction turned excessively friendly, and from the moment Kim Hyunjo's pleased look deepened, but at this level we had held our own.

Jang Noksu took the wheel. There had been no other choice. I couldn't hand Neptune's kids the steering wheel.

Lim Seoyoung muttered as she climbed into the very back seat.

"I have a license too. I got it in case something like this happened."

"No. Put it away. Yours isn't a license, it's a stand-in for an ID. If you drive, our closing location is a police station or an ER."

I got the kids in first, and was about to climb in last when laughter burst inside the car. Park Tae-pyung was clutching his stomach. It wasn't for the camera installed in the van. It was a real howl.

Wondering what on earth was going on, I climbed up and nearly slid right back down.

Because of the faces of the kids huddled together.

Every one of them had their mouth clamped shut and their eyes strained hard. They were scowling with everything they had, pulling the ugliest faces they could manage. Park Tae-pyung roared with laughter and declared that if the four of them marched off to demand a refund looking like that, it would be perfect.

I worked my mouth, then asked.

"What are you doing?"

"We're imitating Oppa's face."

Lim Seoyoung said it with her lips trembling, as if she were holding in a laugh.

"You got a complaint about me? When have I ever made a face like that?"

"Look in a mirror."

LJ answered. Then she paused, and put on the expression of someone grinning at her own reflection.

"The mirror's for me. Smile practice, whenever I get a chance."

"Smile practice for me too."

Lim Seoyoung joined in, delighted.

I stared, at a loss, and Lee Taehee held her phone out at me.

"This has to be filmed."

She took the photo with her eyes smiling.

Even more excited, Lim Seoyoung offered a tip.

"Unnie, you're not allowed to make it come out well. Oppa always shoots our photos like he took them with his feet."

Stop it, you brats!

The words rose all the way to my throat, but what came out was a sigh. Clicking my tongue, I climbed into the car. Park Tae-pyung laughed even harder at the sight of me wedged among the kids and their hideous faces. That man was going to throw up if he kept it up.

Then someone stuck their head out from the back seat.

Fortunately, this time it was Lee Songha. I had just let go of the tension that came with what now when she spoke.

Lee Songha pinched a crease between her brows.

"When you get in a car, you buckle your seat belt first."

After that, it was chaos.

While we rode, and through all the filming that followed, the kids imitated me with tremendous passion, and I repaid them with a four-personality performance into which I poured my soul.

It was like this. We threw a bomb, they fired a missile, and we launched a nuke in return. The result, in short, was that both sides were blown to pieces.

It was such a mess I wondered whether the broadcast would even be all right, but the reactions were good. The woman VJ following me kept muttering that there was nothing worth throwing away.

Fine. If the broadcast just came out fun and tight, and Neptune's landing on network television succeeded because of it, then the goal was met. My image, shoved into a blender and ground to paste — well. As always, it would be noisy for a little while and quiet down before long. It would. It had better.

Anyway, when the recording ended, what remained for us were the crew's warm smiles.

Park Tae-pyung's empty promise that he would plant me in the weekend variety show he hosted, so I absolutely had to come on with them.

And memories that would require a few high kicks under the blanket.

Oh, right. One more thing.

The winning prize, a gift set of the finest hanwoo beef, was ours.

A few days after we finished a variety recording that looked destined to go down as an all-time dark chapter.

As compensation for the appearance, that day finally came.

The day that had come to feel as mythical as dragons and the Little Mermaid. The day that showed up only if you forgot you were waiting for it. The day that had vanished like a mirage so many times it made you want to explode.

A day off.

I had laid a perfect plan two days in advance, just for today.

First, an early matinee, then a simple lunch near the theater. Second and third, two more films back to back, then dinner and a cup of coffee to recover. And last, the blockbuster I was looking forward to most.

Just thinking about it made one side of my chest ache with happiness.

Humming, I bought popcorn and coffee. Then I squeezed onto the elevator among the pairs, couples and friends who had come together.

Movies enjoyed alone are the best. Of course they are.

The truth was, I didn't have a friend who would run four films in a single day with me.

"I'll check your ticket."

"Thank you."

The theater employee's standard line sounded like an angel's trumpet.

I showed my mobile ticket. Confirming that I had four tickets across different times, the employee looked at me as if trying to work out what kind of person I was.

I walked into the auditorium with a light step. A mobile carrier ad was playing on the screen. I sat in the seat that felt like a nest for my soul and took out my phone.

Silent, or vibrate? Kim Hyunjo had sworn that today, no matter what, he would not contact me, so I should rest easy... but this damned manager's life was packed with things that couldn't be helped.

If I set it to silent, I would be too busy wondering whether a call had come to concentrate. I was about to put it on the smallest vibration and slip it into my pants pocket.

It buzzed.

I had an ominous feeling that I shouldn't check.

No. The world can't be that cruel to me.

Hoping it was spam, I glared at the screen. There was still hope when I confirmed the 02 prefix of a Seoul landline. Damn it. The middle digits were familiar. Whichever team it was, it was a company number.

"Hello?"

After a few seconds of debate, I stepped toward the door and answered.

An unfamiliar woman's voice came through.

She just needs to state some trivial business and hang up within a minute.

"What's going on? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Did something happen with Neptune..."

So the bad feeling had been right.

I barely held back the urge to hang up while tossing out something like kshhh, kshhh, you're breaking up. How many people did this company employ, that they would dump a schedule on the one person who finally had a day off?

First I'll call Kim Hyunjo and ask what the situation is...

Wait. Who? Chief Jo?

I asked again, feeling as if I had just walked out of a horror movie.

"......That cover schedule. Whose schedule is it?"