Chapter 22: The Unbearable Shallowness of My Human Relationships
It’s a text, you idiot!
It was a reporter.
It’s a call, you idiot!
It was a broadcasting station.
I hung up.
It’s a text, you idiot!
Another reporter.
It’s a call, you idiot!
Another broadcasting station…
I hung up again.
It’s a text, you idiot!
This time, it was someone I didn’t know.
Probably one of Eyes’ hardcore fans.
Even if I opened it, I had a feeling it would be filled with curses.
Ah…
It was so noisy I felt like I was going insane.
Calls and messages kept coming without a single break.
“Damn it. I need to change this notification sound first. I’m getting sick of hearing my own voice.”
I switched my phone to vibration mode.
That felt a little better.
There probably wasn’t any noise pollution worse than this.
Since I had nowhere else to go, I was wandering aimlessly through the streets.
Afraid someone might recognize my face, I even bought a pair of sunglasses and a hat—things I would normally never wear in my life.
Arang, can you hear me?
No answer.
Eyes, can you hear me?
I remembered that after adjusting the frequency last time, Eyes had also been able to join our conversation, so I tried reaching out to her.
But Eyes didn’t answer either.
It seemed that Arang had to connect the frequencies in the middle like some kind of relay station before communication with Eyes became possible.
At that moment, my phone buzzed.
I checked the caller ID.
It was the old-fashioned Team Leader.
Thinking about the consequences later, I answered.
“Hey! What the hell did you do to make reporters swarm all over the police station?!”
Judging from how he started by yelling, his irritation level was already at maximum.
“Sob… Team Leader, I don’t even know why things ended up like this. I ran away from home and I’m wandering the streets right now.”
Of course, I had already thought ahead for situations like this.
“Are you crying?”
“No… sniff. Why would I be crying……?”
“You sound like you’re crying.”
If I wanted to activate the Team Leader’s humane neighborhood-uncle mode, I had to make myself sound as pitiful as possible.
“You idiot, why is a grown man bawling over something like this? I heard roughly what happened, but personally, if you managed to get such a pretty girl, I should be congratulating you.”
“Sob… thank you, Team Leader.”
It was activating.
“I’ll take care of things over here, so you stay hidden somewhere quiet until things calm down. Want me to extend your leave?”
Yes.
It activated.
“Yes……”
“Good. Don’t worry about the police station. I’ll contact you when I think things have settled enough, and you can come back to work then.”
“Sob… you’re the only one I have, Team Leader.”
“You brat. Hang in there! I’m hanging up.”
Compared to building bridges across this cruel world, this much manipulation was a piece of cake.
After hanging up, something felt strange.
During yesterday’s incident, that Lustful Ghost had turned the fan meeting into complete chaos, and quite a few people seemed to have been injured.
Yet strangely, the media wasn’t saying much about that part.
Even the Team Leader didn’t seem to know much.
Instead, all the attention was focused entirely on Eyes’ interview, almost as if the other incident had been deliberately removed from the story.
Eh… I’ve already got enough trouble dealing with my own situation. Why bother thinking about something else?
I gave up thinking deeply about it.
My phone buzzed again.
I checked the caller.
It was Madam Jang, the Witch of Rodeo.
Madam Jang was basically my natural enemy.
If I answered for no reason, I might get completely stripped down verbally again without gaining anything.
I rejected the call.
My phone buzzed again.
This time, it was someone I didn’t know.
Buzz.
Then Madam Jang sent me a message.
I ignored it.
Because of Eyes, I didn’t want to deal with anything else.
Buzz. Buzz.
My phone kept trembling like someone suffering from chills.
Calls and messages from unknown people showed no sign of stopping.
At this rate, the phone itself might break.
So I turned it off.
Inside the president’s office of the entertainment agency Three Seven.
Eyes was blankly staring at the ceiling.
In front of her, President Lee Jowon had risen from his desk.
His face was redder than gochujang as he glared at Eyes like he wanted to devour her alive.
“Eyes, are you insane? Are you out of your mind?! How does it make any sense for you to announce a relationship and give an exclusive interview about leaving the group without even asking for my permission?!”
President Lee Jowon was furious enough that steam might as well have been coming from his head.
I spoiled her because she was the most popular one, and now this bitch betrays me at the very end?
President Lee Jowon seriously wondered if Eyes had lost her mind.
He had heard stories about her muttering to herself sometimes, but he had never imagined her condition would be this serious.
“You know you violated your contract, right?”
“Yeeep!”
For some reason, Eyes cheerfully answered while still staring at the ceiling.
“You know you’ll have to pay back the signing bonus and every bit of money I’ve given you until now, right?”
“Yeeees!”
Even after hearing that she might have to repay hundreds of millions of won, Eyes still looked happy.
President Lee Jowon was speechless.
“Manager! What food do I hate the most?”
“Yukgaejang and yukhoe.”
The man who had been listening from the side answered.
“What curse do I hate the most?”
“‘Yuksiral’ and ‘yukgap tteone.’”
“What movie do I hate the most?”
“The Sixth Sense.”
“Then why do I hate the number six?”
“Because you failed six times… sir.”
“Exactly. That’s it. Eyes, you heard what the manager just said, right? If you leave, Seven Fairies becomes Six Fairies. Then naturally, this group has to disband! Disband! I believe the number six is cursed. Couldn’t you reconsider for the sake of the other girls?”
President Lee Jowon tried calming his emotions so he could persuade Eyes.
Eyes tilted her head.
“Then just recruit one more member.”
“……”
“Well… that’s technically true……”
Only then did President Lee Jowon realize that there was no point trying to reason with a girl whose mind was somewhere else entirely.
“Just leave……”
“Yeeeeep.”
Eyes happily ran out of the president’s office.
She looked ready to head straight to the staff room, pack her belongings, and walk out for good.
President Lee Jowon sighed.
“Manager. What are we supposed to do? We can’t let her leave Fairies.”
“She has forty percent of the popularity votes by herself.”
President Lee Jowon’s worries deepened.
If I fail for the seventh time, do I have to make the next group with eight members? If that fails, nine? Am I eventually going to end up with a hundred-member group?
“Should we quickly recruit another member?”
There didn’t seem to be much choice.
“There’s no one like Eyes, though. People are already posting on social media that without Eyes, Fairies aren’t fairies anymore, they’re monsters. In my opinion, Fairies doesn’t have much hope left.”
Normally, Eyes looked like nothing more than a cute and pretty girl.
But the moment she stepped onto a stage, it was as if she cast magic.
Her seductive, sensual dancing and outstanding singing skills turned her into a completely different person.
That contrast had made Eyes explosively popular.
In truth, she had practically become the entire identity of Fairies.
“Ah, my head……”
The more the manager spoke, the more President Lee Jowon felt that his seventh girl group was also going to fail.
“Hey, Manager. Isn’t there some way to change Eyes’ mind? Taking back a retirement announcement happens all the time in this industry.”
The manager thought for a moment.
“Wouldn’t removing the root cause be the best solution?”
“The root cause?”
“Eyes suddenly became like this after meeting that guy at yesterday’s fan meeting.”
“That’s true……”
“Then if we make that guy give up on Eyes, wouldn’t that solve everything?”
President Lee Jowon slapped his knee.
“That’s it!”
The manager nodded.
“Eyes is a simple and eccentric girl anyway. Once she breaks up with that guy, getting her to return probably won’t be difficult.”
President Lee Jowon looked impressed.
“You’re practically Zhuge Liang himself. Manager, I’ve underestimated you. I’m feeling generous. Starting this month, I’ll raise your salary by ten percent.”
“Thank you, President. But there is one problem……”
“What is it, Zhuge Liang?”
“That guy is a violent crimes detective. Unless we use considerable physical force, I think it’ll be difficult to make him give up Eyes.”
“Then what do we do?”
The manager was confident that if he played this well, he could secure at least a twenty-percent raise.
“I heard something recently. The Galchi Gang that used to control Rodeo Street was completely destroyed by another organization.”
“Really?”
President Lee Jowon immediately became interested.
“Apparently, the guys who destroyed the Galchi Gang belong to a ridiculously vicious organization called the ‘Hell Evil Ghost Gang.’ Why don’t we ask them for help?”
“That name alone sounds terrifying. Would it really be okay for us to get involved with guys like that……?”
President Lee Jowon looked slightly worried.
“Aren’t violent organizations created for money anyway?”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Since Eyes will have to pay us money for breaking the contract, couldn’t we use some of that money to hire them?”
“Then go ahead and look into it.”
Even with a rough calculation, it seemed that the money Eyes could earn for him in the future would far exceed whatever he spent now, even if he used all the penalty money she paid back.
High risk, high return.
This was a gamble worth taking.
The manager remained standing there.
“……”
President Lee Jowon frowned.
“What? Do you have something else to say?”
“My salary……”
“I already raised it ten percent.”
“…But I’m Zhuge Liang. Couldn’t it be twenty percent……?”
“Why do you keep changing your story? What company in the world gives someone two raises in one sitting, you idiot!”
“Yes… then I’ll be going.”
The manager left the office wearing an expression that clearly said, What kind of person is this?
Once he was alone, President Lee Jowon turned his chair toward the window and fell into thought.
Until now, there was almost nothing he hadn’t done if money was involved.
After spending so many years in the entertainment industry, Lee Jowon had met every kind of strange bastard imaginable.
Perverted producers staring at idols with filthy intentions.
Powerful men trying desperately to satisfy their desires with famous actresses.
Rich chaebol heirs.
In his eyes, the world was filled with greedy beasts.
Of course, he fully admitted that he was one of those beasts himself.
If becoming a beast meant earning money, then becoming one was easy.
Still… I feel uneasy. Something feels wrong……
He had been through countless hardships and overcome all kinds of problems over the years.
But this time, the uneasy feeling just wouldn’t disappear.
Still, Eyes was his source of money.
More than that.
She was a goose carrying golden eggs.
Until he had squeezed every last golden egg out of that goose, he had to keep using her.
The moment he thought about money, President Lee Jowon’s anxiety slowly began to fade.
“Unni, this is too much! How could you do something like that without saying a single word to us?!”
The moment Eyes returned to the staff room, Seulgi confronted her.
“Do what?”
“Haven’t you heard the rumors that we might disband because of you?”
At Seulgi’s words, the other girls also stared at Eyes resentfully.
“What disbandment? I just spoke to the president, and it sounded like he was going to recruit someone else to replace me.”
“What are you talking about?! There’s no way the president would do that! If we disband, are you going to take responsibility, Unni?”
Seulgi looked completely different from usual.
Her face was vicious, and the killing intent in the eyes of the other members genuinely caught Eyes off guard.
Jinhee, this isn’t going to work. Help me out.
—Unni, you mean it?
Yeah.
—Then I’ll crush these bitches for you for the first time in a while.
Possession switch!
Eyes’ pupils flashed silver for a moment before returning to normal.
She turned toward Seulgi.
Her atmosphere had completely changed.
“So, Seulgi, what exactly do you want me to do? Hmm?”
Eyes looked at Seulgi seductively and slowly stroked her cheek.
Seulgi stiffened.
“U-Unni should cancel your retirement and say that the dating rumor was a misunderstanding……”
Now that Eyes’ entire aura had changed, Seulgi seemed flustered.
“And that’ll solve everything?”
“Yes.”
Eyes smiled.
Then her voice instantly became cold.
“Then what the hell does that make me, bitch?”
“What?”
“I held a press conference this morning. You want me to go back and say, ‘Ah, that was just a joke. Please forget all about it’? Then what do I become? Wouldn’t I just look like a crazy bitch? Don’t you think so, bitch?!”
“Eek!”
Seulgi recoiled in horror.
Eyes, who usually alternated between innocent and clueless, had suddenly started spewing rough and vulgar words.
“You bitches are all trying to turn me into the villain here! And what, do you think I’m some cafeteria responsible for feeding all of you? Is it somehow entirely my fault if the group disbands?!”
The louder Eyes’ voice became and the more aggressively she pointed at them, the more the other girls shrank back into a corner.
“You bitches really have a talent for exhausting people when I give you an inch. Next time we meet, let’s not do this again. Got it?”
“Yes……”
The girls answered in weak voices, unable to talk back.
Eyes ignored them, packed her belongings, and left the room.
However, even as Eyes disappeared through the door, Seulgi continued staring at her back with poisonous eyes.
Wandering around the streets wasn’t exactly something I could keep doing forever.
I had no idea how long I was supposed to continue this nonsense.
The darkness of evening was slowly settling in.
Now I had to start worrying about where I was going to sleep.
I thought about places I could go.
Detective Park?
I really should stop freeloading off my junior.
It made me look way too pathetic.
Officer Kim?
Detective Park would probably come charging at me like he wanted to kill me.
And putting that aside, I couldn’t exactly go stay at the home of a woman who lived alone.
Wait. Is this really the full extent of my human relationships? Hold on… isn’t this actually pretty serious?
If I excluded the old-fashioned Team Leader and Madam Jang, there was Arang, Junghoo, Mancheon, Eyes, Chicken Grandpa……
No way.
I had more relationships with people from the afterlife than with living humans.
That absolutely did not seem normal.
Was there something wrong with the way I’ve lived until now?
No matter how much I thought about it, I was pretty sure I had lived a good life without doing anything that would make people hate me.
So why the hell had reality turned out like this?
“Detective Kang, I have come to escort you.”
Someone was calling me.
I turned around.
Uncle Franken was standing there with a polite posture.
My eyes lit up.
“Uncle Franken! I’m so happy to see you! I missed you too!”
I meant it sincerely.
I threw my arms around Uncle Franken’s enormous body and spoke with genuine emotion.
It felt like I had finally been freed from the absolute loneliness that had made me feel like I was the only person left in the world.
Uncle Franken spoke calmly.
“Madam said you weren’t answering her calls and were ignoring her messages, so she ordered me to personally bring you back. I believe I spent the entire day wandering the streets searching for you, Detective Kang.”
My smile froze.
“Madam Jang? She wants me?”
“Yes.”
The moment I heard the name Madam Jang, I suddenly wanted to return to that absolute loneliness.
Perhaps he noticed what I was thinking.
Uncle Franken placed one enormous hand on my shoulder.
The message was obvious.
Don’t even think about running away.
Uncle Franken smiled with his massive mouth.
It was terrifying…
No.
Very charming.
And just like that, I followed(?) Uncle Franken.
