Chapter 4. Using One Enemy Against Another (以夷制夷)
After making the rounds around the office with Daehoon and showing my face to everyone, I entered Team 2’s office.
Team 1 managed the boy group Astra.
Team 3 had the highly anticipated Solis.
And Team 2 was the team in charge of Blue Moon.
Looking at the schedules earlier, both Team 1 and Team 3 were completely packed.
Meanwhile, Team 2’s schedule was empty except for one event—the Namwon Lee Mongryong Festival.
The office itself was practically shut down.
I sat in the seat of the team leader who had apparently resigned not long ago and looked around.
For some reason, every depressing corner of the office stood out far too clearly.
I should go see the girls.
It was only my first day at work, yet this damn office was already making me feel uneasy.
I stepped into the hallway where the practice rooms were located and heard music playing quietly from somewhere.
It was Solis practicing their choreography in Practice Room B.
Each practice room door had a window, so I could see inside.
All five members were pretty decent dancers.
One of them was even singing while dancing.
Her voice didn’t have any particularly strong charm, but she was good enough that there was nothing to complain about.
They were, in every sense of the word, the safe choice.
Let’s get along from now on.
I greeted them silently in my mind.
For some reason, I had the feeling we really would get along.
Still, officially, I was Team 2’s leader.
Oh Su probably didn’t mean for me to make it painfully obvious that I only cared about Team 3.
Just thinking about Blue Moon made my mood rise again, but I quickly calmed myself and headed to Practice Room A next door.
Practice Room A was quiet.
Just like before, I looked through the window.
Unlike Solis, the members were each doing their own thing.
Eunchae and Aran had earphones in and were practicing some kind of street dance.
I had absolutely no idea what style it was.
Meanwhile, Anna was wearing earphones and staring intently at her phone.
It looked like she was watching rap videos.
The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, the members started scrambling around before suddenly running into the changing room.
“What? Why are you all acting like that?”
A moment later, the changing room door opened and the members came walking out together.
Serin stood at the front, holding a cake.
Judging from how much the candles had melted, it looked like they had already missed their timing once.
“Happy birth— Ah.”
Aran, who had almost started singing the Happy Birthday song, lightly slapped herself on the mouth.
“What’s all this?”
“We felt like we didn’t properly thank you earlier. We all put some money together and bought this. Thank you!”
Following Serin’s timing, all the members bowed deeply at the waist.
I suddenly felt like some old man receiving a New Year’s bow from his grandchildren.
This was...
So...
Nice...
The glittering party hat on Aran’s head bumped against Anna’s waist and fell to the floor.
Seeing that, Youngchae quietly snapped at her.
“I told you not to wear that...”
“Serin unnie said I could.”
Serin shrugged her shoulders as if she had never heard such a thing in her life.
Anyway.
A cake?
It wasn’t even my birthday.
“Ah, you really didn’t have to go this far for something so small... Now I’m the one feeling grateful.”
“It’s nothing! When four of us split the cost, it was only a few thousand won each.”
Money aside, going all the way to a bakery to buy it must have been a hassle.
“Hurry up and try it!”
“Ah, should I?”
“Then I’ll go get forks!”
The words had barely left her mouth before Aran dashed out of the practice room.
“By the way, how did you know I’d come here and wait for me?”
Was it because Daehoon had pushed everything through like a bandit?
Ever since the fan signing event, these girls had seemed absolutely certain that I would become their team leader.
And technically, I had.
But only for two months.
My suddenly cheerful mood sank a little.
“We always practice until this time. We just don’t practice choreography anymore.”
Youngchae said that as she dropped onto the floor.
There were still beads of sweat on her forehead.
She looked exhausted.
Choreography practice...
Come to think of it, it had already been more than a year since their latest song, Moonlight Circus, had been released.
Unless the company had thrown its conscience into a bowl of rice and eaten it, there was no way they could force the girls to practice the same song for more than a year while refusing to give them a new one.
The CEO was already considering terminating their contracts.
Naturally, the members had to think about their own futures too.
“Team Leader! Eat!”
Aran had already returned.
She shouted as she handed out six small plates and six forks.
Once I picked up mine, the other members each took theirs and stared at me with sparkling eyes.
“Why aren’t any of you eating...?”
“You have to eat first, Team Leader.”
Well...
It was supposed to be a cake for me.
I cut off a corner of the cake and put it into my mouth.
At that exact moment, every member lunged toward the cake.
“Hmm?”
Startled, I backed away.
Apparently, the cake was now the only thing they could see.
Under the members’ relentless assault, the poor cake disappeared at a frightening speed.
Watching them, I finally realized something.
Why had they gone out of their way to buy me a cake when it wasn’t my birthday and there was nothing to celebrate?
They just wanted to eat cake themselves.
No matter how you looked at it, four girls attacking a cake at once meant it didn’t last long.
Youngchae, who usually wore such a cold expression, was now lying flat on her back with cream smeared all around her mouth.
Anna and Aran were watching YouTube together and giggling.
For the members, this peaceful routine was probably frustrating.
But to me, it felt strangely pleasant.
When work became too busy, even your heart started drying out.
While the members chatted, I took the dishes away.
On my way back, I ran into the members of Solis.
I had actually wanted a chance to talk with them personally.
They happened to be talking to our Aran.
From what I’d heard, all of them were younger than her.
Seeing Aran standing there like the oldest unnie among them felt strangely unfamiliar.
“You’re Solis, right? I’ve only seen you on TV, but you’re even prettier in person. Nice to meet you.”
I spoke to them warmly.
They briefly exchanged glances with one another before simply staring at me.
Had they realized I’d pretended to recognize them even though I barely knew who they were?
“Whoa. He’s freaking tall.”
“Seriously.”
While I stood there feeling slightly awkward after my greeting was ignored, Aran introduced me instead.
“He’s our new team leader. Apparently, he used to be a manager at a really huge agency!”
Aran bragged about me like a daughter bragging about her father.
Seeing that made my shoulders rise involuntarily.
Apparently, my mere existence had become something worth bragging about.
“What? Why do you have a new team leader?”
“You didn’t know? Our last team leader—”
“No, I know that. But wasn’t the director taking care of your work after that?”
Judging from her overbearing attitude, she might have been younger than Aran, but she seemed to rank higher than her.
Maybe even higher than me and Kwon Daehoon.
The fact that she referred to Oh Su only by his position made that obvious enough.
“Well, the director has a lot of work to do.”
Aran’s confidence visibly shrank.
She grabbed the edge of my clothes while continuing the conversation.
The way her fingers kept fiddling with the fabric made it obvious she was nervous.
“Is he temporary? Are you temporary? Like a contract worker or something? But Blue Moon only has two months left anyway.”
“We’re going to renew our contracts...”
At those words, one of the Solis members scratched her head.
“Ah, shit. That’s freaking annoying.”
The curse was cut slightly short, but the moment I heard it, a chill ran through me.
Wasn’t the fact that Blue Moon wouldn’t be renewing something only the CEO and I knew?
More importantly...
Was me becoming their team leader really something worth getting that angry about?
“Hey. Did something bad happen today? Why are you swearing like that? And at someone older than you, too.”
“I wasn’t swearing at her. I was talking to myself.”
I sensed something was wrong and stepped in, but that Solis member’s attitude showed absolutely no signs of stopping.
“Tsk... Where did you work before this? She said you came from some huge agency.”
“Ah. It wasn’t that big. You probably wouldn’t know it even if I told you.”
I tried to brush it off, but Aran immediately stepped in as if she were tattling.
“He worked at Pantheon for a long time at team leader level. All those idols there were raised by Manager Do Junhyeok.”
“Pantheon?”
The girl and the other members started repeating, “Prostitution, prostitution,” before bursting into loud laughter.
“Those were all false rumors! Our team leader was framed!”
“Ah. Of course he was.”
Despite Aran’s explanation, their laughter didn’t stop.
Were they seriously mocking me right in front of my face?
It was something I had never even imagined happening before, so it took me a moment to understand the situation.
Was I dreaming?
“Hey! Stop laughing!”
Aran, who wasn’t good at raising her voice, shouted angrily.
But the girls didn’t care.
There was no way they hadn’t heard her.
Unless they looked down on her completely, there was no reason they could ignore her this openly.
When they had only been laughing at me, I had planned to let it slide because they were young.
But when I saw them ignoring Aran...
I started getting genuinely angry.
“Looking at you girls reminds me of our Wonwoo. You’re kind of like the female version of Victory.”
“What? Wonwoo? Victory’s Wonwoo?”
The Solis members, who had been laughing loudly, slowly fell silent.
“Yeah. I saw you dancing earlier too. You were really good. I’m sure you girls can become just like Victory.”
“You’re mocking us right now, aren’t you? You’re saying we should flop like Victory!”
Victory had still been one of the top idol groups until recently, so technically, I could have claimed it was a compliment.
But if they heard it as me wishing for them to fail...
...then yes.
They heard me correctly.
I still didn’t feel satisfied, so I was about to add another remark when—
Bang!
The door to Practice Room A flew open.
The sudden noise startled everyone, and all our heads turned toward it.
The person who emerged was none other than Youngchae.
The Solis members seemed even more shaken when they saw her.
Youngchae leaned against the doorframe and slowly looked over the Solis members.
Her expression was downright terrifying.
The girls visibly stiffened before bowing their heads slightly in greeting.
Even in workout clothes, with her sweat-damp hair stuck to her face, her beauty remained untouched.
Fortunately, she had already wiped the whipped cream off her mouth.
“Let me laugh too, friends. What's so funny?”
“What? Ah, no... It’s just...”
Their attitude toward her was completely different from the one they had shown me and Aran.
As expected.
One scary girl their own age was a hundred times more frightening than ten adults.
Just look at how quiet they became.
“You won’t tell me? What is it? Some kind of story only you girls are allowed to know? Now I’m curious.”
Youngchae pretended to whine as she lightly tapped one of them.
The girl visibly shrank back.
As the Solis members stammered, Youngchae’s expression grew colder and colder.
“They were swearing at me and making fun of our team leader!”
“When did we ever do that?!”
Aran, still angry, immediately tattled.
Hearing that, Youngchae stopped tapping the girl.
The touch must have been annoying, but the moment Youngchae’s hand stopped, the Solis member froze in fear.
“We never did that.”
“You did!”
What a nerve-racking sight.
My palms were actually getting sweaty.
I rubbed them against my pants.
“Okay, enough. Go back inside before you keep arguing and end up getting scolded... by Aran.”
“Yes!”
The Solis members practically fled back into Practice Room B.
I couldn’t hide my amazement at how quickly Youngchae had resolved the situation.
“Ah...! I was seriously going to give them a piece of my mind today!”
“A piece of your mind, my ass. You looked like a monkey in a zoo.”
Youngchae’s previously cold face slowly softened in response to Aran’s usual whining.
Before long, she looked like her normal self again.
Then her eyes met mine.
Youngchae awkwardly cleared her throat.
“Just how badly did you terrorize those girls for them to freeze up like statues?”
“I never terrorized them! They’re just still used to acting like that because they used to bow and scrape around us!”
“That’s right. Unnie didn’t do anything. She just naturally has the face of a school bully.”
Aran tried to defend her.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly the kind of defense Youngchae would appreciate.
Still, I understood what she meant.
This was all thanks to Youngchae’s naturally cold expression.
It hadn’t exactly been an emergency, but at least both Aran and I felt much better now.
“I look like a school bully? Nobody’s ever misunderstood me like that before.”
“Exactly. What school bully? You’re just pretty.”
At my words, Youngchae snorted as though telling me not to say something so ridiculous.
Still, apparently she found it amusing, because she quietly covered her smiling face.
Unexpectedly, she seemed weak against compliments.
“But were those girls especially angry today, or are they always like that?”
“Hmm... I don’t really know. We’re not close.”
Aran nodded along with Youngchae’s answer.
They were being way too obvious for me to believe they actually didn’t know.
They probably knew perfectly well.
But answering honestly would only turn into gossip, so they had chosen to dodge the question instead.
Even so, that was enough for me to make up my mind.
Even if it meant becoming unemployed again in two months...
I was going to stay with Blue Moon.
Not Solis.
I had expected the final two months of their contracts to be packed with work.
But even that wasn’t the case.
“Hey. Are we really allowed to just sit around doing nothing like this?”
Apparently, Daehoon had been handling Team 2 until I arrived.
Now that I was here, he should have been able to return to his own office.
For some reason, however, he didn’t.
With the careers of Blue Moon’s four members hanging by a thread, he probably couldn’t bring himself to simply wash his hands of them.
The bastard who had resigned before me hadn’t even left behind the most basic handover documents.
At this rate, I, the manager, would have to ask the members what their own schedules were.
“Do you know what the biggest difference I noticed after leaving Pantheon and working here is?”
“What?”
“At Pantheon, you only work on things that have a real chance of succeeding. Here, you start working after things have already failed. It feels like throwing darts with your eyes closed. Your chance of hitting anything is way too low. But there’s no other way.”
Visiting clothing brands to introduce ourselves.
Visiting city halls and county offices outside Seoul.
Visiting broadcasting stations.
Visiting the PR departments of various companies.
Big companies had no reason to offer us advertisements or event appearances.
So all we could do was visit small companies that barely seemed large enough to advertise anything and hope to get lucky.
It was a truly pitiful routine.
They couldn’t move forward.
They couldn’t move backward.
There was a reason they were spending their days crying and wasting time.
Daehoon groaned dramatically and suddenly stood from his seat.
“Where are you going?”
“Monthly meeting.”
I didn’t know whether the structure here was identical to Pantheon’s, but it was probably a meeting where each team’s managers gathered every month to report their results and discuss things.
“If there’s something like that scheduled, write it down somewhere. Do I seriously have to ask you about every little thing?”
“Wow. You’re seriously one fiery rookie.”
How nice would it be if he simply told me these things before I had to ask?
“Anyway, hyung, you don’t need to come. We’d need results to report first. You’ll only hear unpleasant things if you show up for no reason.”
Every new thing I learned somehow managed to exceed my expectations.
What was the point of sending the members around to exhausting events?
Even their own company treated them like failed idols.
In the end, despite Daehoon trying to stop me, I decided to attend the monthly meeting.
I wasn’t going there just to kill time.
I needed to see how this company actually operated.
And besides...
There was something I needed to declare to the CEO regarding Solis.
