Symbol of Luck (3)
When would they even lock in the variety-show shoot? And what would the concept be this time?
Star Manager had been absurdly lucky last time, so hoping for anything close to that again was probably greedy. He had no idea how much good it would do just to slip in some background music, or a music video chopped down to fifteen seconds.
If only there were a way to work the exposure in naturally, inside the show itself...
"Okay, cut!"
While he was sunk in thought, the director called it, looking thoroughly pleased.
Jung Sunwoo rapped his knuckles against his head and shook the thoughts loose. For days now, every spare moment had been the same loop played over and over, until his skull felt too heavy to haul around on his neck.
"Great work, everyone!"
The instant filming ended, dozens of staff let out a cheer through faces wrung dry with exhaustion. Neptune, who had been on their feet all day for the print shots, the TV shots, and the behind-the-scenes footage for marketing, collapsed in a heap on the lawn.
He was checking the time when the director came over, small eyes bright.
"The background was so good today I was worried the members would get swallowed by it, but there's nothing here I'd even need to touch up. I heard every one of Neptune is a visual, and it's true. Point a camera at them and it's a picture. Not a single frame to throw away."
"Thank you. That's because you shot it so well, Director."
"The concept for the new song was excellent too. The track is good, the response is good. Congratulations. I've been hearing Neptune's name quite a bit off the ad boards lately. I know you as a group that's been through a lot, but it looks like you're finally going to see the light."
It was what he heard everywhere he went these days. He took care to put a smile on his face and answered with thanks and the proper show of modesty. It would have been nice if the conversation had ended there, but the director shot a sidelong look at the Neptune members and kept going.
"The shoot wrapped up nicely, so how about a little get-together afterward, just us? The folks from the client side too. Do the members drink at all? Those kinds of nights are how a three-month one-off ad turns into six months, and then into a year."
That, too, was something he'd been hearing a lot lately. There were apparently companies that shoved their girl-group kids into seats like that, but their own policy was an iron wall.
"Ah, we've got a schedule starting at dawn tomorrow, so today would be a little difficult."
He tossed out an empty promise about catching the next chance and put some distance between himself and the director. The staff from the advertising company were smacking their lips as well, as if they had been looking forward to the same thing. This industry had no shortage of men who couldn't act their age, itching to sit a girl-group member young enough to be their daughter at their side and play.
"Um, oppa."
When he walked over to the members, Lim Seoyoung called him in a small, hesitant voice.
"What?"
"We don't have a schedule right away, right? Can't we stay here a little longer before we go?"
"Why are you hesitating that much just to ask? It's a commercial shoot, so we didn't know when it would end and I cleared the whole block. It's fine. But wouldn't you rather go back to the dorm and get some sleep?"
Tomorrow was packed too. He could hand the baton off to the traitor and catch his breath, but they would have to strap on towering heels and tear across a stage as if they were in peak condition, whether they had slept or not.
"Sleep sounds nice, but if it isn't today, we won't get to come to a place like this again."
Seoyoung looked over the shoot location with eyes sticky with lingering attachment.
A lawn warmed through by the sun. Cherry trees in lavish bloom, and a quiet pond heaped with fallen petals. The garden the location manager had picked over and over for the commercial was as beautiful as an illustration out of a fairy tale.
Lee Taehee, who had been lying there like a plant busy photosynthesizing, scratched at her neck.
"Relaxing for a minute before we go might be nice. It's been a long time since I've seen cherry blossoms this close."
"You should rest a little too, oppa. You seem tired all the time lately."
Even Lee Songha put a word in. LJ said nothing at all, only looked at him, but her body was already stuck to the grass as if she had no intention of leaving.
"All right. Let's do that."
He asked the ad team to indulge them and bought a little time. While the members lay sprawled on the lawn, he sat on a bench and took out his phone. His finger found the music-chart app on its own.
He confirmed the rankings hadn't budged since the last time he looked, and clicked his tongue.
A shadow fell across him. He lifted his head to find LJ watching him with her head tipped to one side.
True to someone who exercised for the fun of it, she usually blew through any schedule without trouble, but today was a little off. Stifled, maybe. Or thirsty.
Cans of the sparkling water they were advertising lay scattered around them, and he was just about to hand her one.
"I'm suffering from pent-up frustration. Because of you, oppa."
The sparkling water dropped and rolled across the ground.
"Because of me—what?"
"Here. Smile a little. Everyone's watching your mood even more carefully than the CEO's."
He caught himself smoothing his face without thinking, then blinked.
"Me? Why?"
LJ dropped into the seat beside him. She crossed her legs out of habit, hooked one arm over the back of the bench, and looked at him through narrowed eyes.
"Because you look disappointed in us."
"...What?"
"You are disappointed. Because our chart numbers didn't live up to what you expected. After all those years of albums dying one after another, living on eggshells—you think we wouldn't notice?"
The words only spun on his tongue.
"Taehee-unnie can't bring it up easily, since her own song is the title track. Songha over there is just digging at the dirt. And Seoyoung shrivels up like a drowned rat every time you check the charts."
LJ clicked her tongue, swinging her crossed leg.
"So it isn't even fun to mess with her anymore. That used to be my single biggest source of energy. These days I can't get any relief. Relief, I said. At this rate I might cause an accident."
She finished it like a joke. It wasn't one.
He felt as if someone had dumped cold water over him. He turned to look at the others. Taehee and Songha were lying there talking in a languid sprawl, and Seoyoung was gathering cherry petals and sprinkling them over the members, delighted with herself.
Looking back, it was true.
Lately the kids had been stiff in front of him. He hadn't realized they were watching everything he did. On the surface they had seemed no different from usual—or rather, his own head had been so tangled that he had simply assumed they were the same and let it pass.
"I'm sorry. It's a really good song to me, and I got greedy because I was disappointed the ranking was low. That's all. I wasn't disappointed in you. I didn't know the others were walking on eggshells around me. Thank you for telling me."
"I watch you too. And I'm not even the type who bothers reading other people."
LJ said it indifferently, brushed herself off, and stood. Then she waded in among the members and yanked Seoyoung's hair. Seoyoung squawked in protest, then stole a glance his way. At some point Taehee was looking at him too, and so was Songha.
He smiled on reflex.
The worries packed tight in his head scattered.
He had been impatient. He changed the present in order to carve out a better future, and when changing the present made things worse instead, he had been desperate to set it right at once. So fixated on the future that he hadn't seen what was in front of him.
They had worked so hard, and these numbers were already a success worth being glad of, worth being proud of. He had nearly spoiled the whole thing.
He scratched his head and shot to his feet, then walked over and sat down on the grass. Their eyes clung to him so plainly that he wondered how he had failed to notice until now. He stretched long and flopped onto his back on the lawn.
"Let's just look at the cherry blossoms to our hearts' content, and then we'll go. The blossom road in Yeouido will be packed, so we couldn't all go together anyway. What if people recognized you and swarmed like bees? The album blowing up is great, but that part's a little unfortunate."
At his words the air around them went quiet for a moment. Then Songha rolled over, coming a little closer. Seoyoung's lips twitched before she spoke.
"You know, oppa. I called my mom, and she said she went out yesterday and heard our song in a store. Twice."
"Really? I should wander around a bit myself. Ah. Right. No time."
"And the membership on our fan page exploded. If you sneak into the chat on the days they open it, the fans..."
Life crept back into Seoyoung's voice. Soon other voices joined it, and laughter tickled at his ears.
They lay on the grass for nearly an hour, talking about nothing in particular. After he admitted he had probably been too greedy because it was their first album, the mood grew even rowdier.
Lying at his ease and watching the cherry trees sway, he told himself to take it slow. Don't get so frantic over the future. Don't tie yourself in knots.
But that was a separate matter. Variety shows or anything else, his intention to try everything he could hadn't changed one bit.
If luck held, they might gather a good response from the public, the way they had on Star Manager. And if that happened, he could snap that nose Sugar Cat was carrying around so high.
"It's been a while."
The members of Sugar Cat came into the waiting room all smiles, every one of them wearing a face that said she was dying to brag. He glanced at Seoyoung and found her returning the greeting with a soulless expression.
He had heard Sugar Cat had a comeback stage on today's music-show schedule, so he had expected something like this. Expected it, and the sight of them still killed his appetite on the spot.
Han Saet-byul smiled, fluttering eyelashes as fuzzy as a caterpillar's coat.
"I saw you on that variety show with Simon Lee. You were really working hard. Such a shame they edited so much of you out. Do you have any more variety appearances coming? We'll monitor them for you."
Monitor. Sure.
He started to get up, meaning to send them out before they could pick at Seoyoung any further, but LJ was on her feet first. She shut the waiting-room door, which had been hanging slightly open, and asked Sugar Cat outright:
"What are you doing at a music show?"
"What do you mean, what are we doing? Don't you know we have a comeback stage?"
"Oh. An album came out?"
Pressed shoulder to shoulder, the Sugar Cat members looked as if they might burst.
"Do you live without looking at the charts? Our song is above yours, you know."
"Ah. That. The one where you featured on a BYG track?"
At a tone anyone could hear was mocking, Saet-byul's eyes went sharp. Sunwoo took a casual look around the waiting room. So long as there was no camera, fine. The door was shut, so none of it would carry out into the noise beyond. Only Seoyoung was staring in a fluster. Taehee and Songha showed no sign of intending to stop this.
"Can't you read Korean? BYG featured on our song!"
"Did they? BYG's part is more than half of a four-minute song, so I assumed you were the backup. And with BYG's fans pouring in outside, I guess you're sharing the stage too. Anyone watching would think you were the backup dancers. You should ask them to plaster a huge name super on the screen that says Sugar Cat."
"Hey!"
Saet-byul shrieked. Another member forced out a scoff.
"If you're jealous, don't sneer. Go ask Blackout for a feature yourselves. Whatever you say, we're taking first on the music shows."
"Then do that. If you're done talking, leave."
LJ jerked her chin. Then, as if something had just occurred to her, she added:
"Oh, and I'll monitor the live broadcast for you. Whether or not you look like backup dancers."
Sugar Cat yapped a little longer, then left as if they had been chased out. He had always associated LJ, forever bickering with Seoyoung, with a cat. Today she had looked like one of the big ones.
LJ raised an eyebrow at Seoyoung, who was staring at her.
"What? What is it?"
"...Nothing."
Seoyoung shook her head. The corner of her mouth twitched.
LJ dropped onto the sofa and smiled crookedly.
"I hope some huge act makes a comeback. So those girls can't get first place."
Chopsticks picked up the glaring red yukhoe. Choi Geon-young tasted a few pieces of the raw seasoned beef, then set the chopsticks down.
"No word from him after that?"
"They gave him a card, but he never called. Dead conversation anyway."
The man across from him tipped his glass as he spoke.
"The terms I offered were because they said having Jung Sunwoo around would help with signing Son Chae-young. But from what I saw, Son Chae-young isn't getting out of W&U easily. CEO Baek must really be as frightening as they say."
"So there really was no contact."
Choi Geon-young's long, straight brows drew together faintly.
"If he'd been in touch, I was going to float a rumor that he was thinking of jumping ship."
"That friend of yours is really something, though. Working right beside you for nearly half a year without a scratch. No—not just fine. I hear he's the one taking all the spotlight."
"Still, I won this round. The chart numbers are a little disappointing, but."
Choi rested his arms on the table, propped his chin on one hand, and smiled. At that guileless dimpled smile, the man shook his head.
"You each brought in a title track and called it a double title, right?"
"Yeah. Keep riding one or two more variety shows with Simon Lee like this, and the company's promo strategy will zero in on Simon Lee's song too."
"But you. What exactly went back and forth between you and that Simon Lee?"
"Back and forth? I worked hard and persuaded him."
"With you, 'working hard' means you don't care what means you use. Isn't that it?"
The man let out a short laugh. Choi shrugged.
"Isn't that obvious?"
"Only to a bastard like you."
At the man's words, Choi's smile deepened.
"And in this business, bastards like me are the ones who succeed."
By the time he finished the schedule and reached his studio apartment, it was the middle of the night, as always.
Yawning, he took out his phone. Tomorrow morning's schedule belonged to the traitor, so he could set the alarm a little later. He was about to adjust it when the phone buzzed.
It was the writer he had texted not long ago.