After returning home and finishing his shower, Seungun returned to the company the vehicle he’d left at Gi Siyoung’s house yesterday. Today there was no on-site schedule, and on such days he had to commute to the office and do paperwork. Road managers had plenty of work to do too.
In the morning, he entered a meeting with Myeongwoo and the staff in charge of Gi Siyoung to coordinate schedules. If schedules changed or anything, they had to contact Gi Siyoung. He also wrote reports on vehicle driving records and expense settlements from tasks he’d performed previously, and prepared and reviewed all the necessary items for the next schedule without omission.
Seungun, who mainly had to drive, spent a lot of time meticulously inspecting the vehicle and always keeping it clean.
“Seungun-ah, let’s go eat lunch!”
Before he knew it, it was lunchtime. Having jogged from dawn and come to work to fill his stomach with just one energy bar, he was hit with hunger like crazy at the words to go eat. During lunchtime he usually used the cafeteria with the office staff, but occasionally it was fine to visit a good restaurant near the company like today.
Seungun realized that office workers always went to a cafe after eating and bought drinks to their taste. If they didn’t have time for that, they would return to the company and at minimum brew coffee capsules or make instant coffee. The mere one hour of lunchtime was consumed very quickly, and when lunchtime ended, people’s complexions noticeably darkened unlike when they were eating.
“From now on, there’s only getting hotter than now left.”
“I know, right. I need to install the air conditioner quickly.”
“Oh my, you haven’t even installed the air conditioner yet? When did you move!”
“I keep working overtime every day… and it’s a bit awkward to have strangers come into my house.”
“Do it quickly. Even if you make a reservation now, it’ll take forever, right? Last year when my air conditioner broke, the reservations were all full so I ended up surviving on a fan.”
“I should do it quickly.”
The employees all crossed the overpass together while chattering. The tree leaves occupying the edge of the road stretching out below the overpass were green. Soon the bearable heat would end and steaming heat would arrive. Seungun matched steps with his colleagues while touching his crown that already felt hot.
“Ah, I don’t want to go in. I don’t want to work. Send me home.”
“Me too. I want to work from home but they won’t let us work from home even if we die.”
The office staff were descending the overpass stairs all together. Suddenly, they discovered an unfamiliar woman who had stopped walking and was looking upward. Single-lidded eyes, a small and sharp nose, lips with only lipstick applied without makeup. The woman, who had a small and thin build, was carrying a leather backpack as big as her torso. She in simple clothing raised her thin lips in a smirk and offered a greeting.
“Oh? Hello!”
“……”
“It’s me, me! Min Jihyeon! You’ve been well, right?”
The greeting’s recipient was none other than Lee Myeongwoo. The office staff looked back and forth between the woman and Myeongwoo, then said “We’ll go ahead” and quickly descended the stairs. Seungun stopped standing next to Myeongwoo. From the attitude of his coworkers hurriedly leaving, he figured she wasn’t an ordinary woman.
“Yeah. Whatever.”
He was quite surprised at Myeongwoo’s insincere answer. It was the first time he’d shown such an attitude toward a person face-to-face. Min Jihyeon crossed her arms and raised her chin.
“You’re not going to ask me if I’ve been well?”
“You seem to be doing well. Is there any particular reason to ask? You’ve been steadily putting out articles too.”
Even at Myeongwoo’s blunt tone, the woman showed no hesitation. In the meantime, she must have very quickly confirmed Seungun’s appearance and features too, as she shifted her interest elsewhere.
“A friend you’re raising these days? Nice mask. Good proportions too. Already looks good for photos.”
Min Jihyeon tapped the floor with the toe of her sneakers while making a square camera shape with her hands, closing one eye and pretending to frame Seungun. Myeongwoo blocked her path.
“He’s a manager who just joined recently. Have you lost your touch?”
“Hmm. So he’s a manager.”
“I’m going now. I don’t know about you, reporter-nim, but our lunchtime is set.”
“Seeing him going around with Myeongwoo-ssi, he must be actor Gi Siyoung’s manager, right?”
Min Jihyeon asked again toward the back of Myeongwoo’s head as he passed by her. Myeongwoo sighed deeply and turned his head sharply.
“Haa… Seungun-ah, say hello. That person is…”
“I’m called Min Jihyeon.”
Min Jihyeon cut off Myeongwoo’s words. Then she held out a business card from her pocket. Myeongwoo freely expressed his displeasure toward such a Min Jihyeon. Seungun received the woman’s business card. The card read like this.
Under Grid
– Reporter Min Jihyeon
“Aren’t you going to give me your business card, manager-nim?”
“Ah, yes. I’m—”
Seungun tried to give the business card issued by the company, but Myeongwoo firmly grabbed Seungun’s arm. The strength was so strong that Seungun just released the power in his arm.
“Look how late it already is. Hey, we really need to go quickly. Then let’s see each other again by chance like today.”
“Okay, see you again.”
Min Jihyeon answered cheerfully. She was someone who didn’t care at all whether the other person radiated negative energy toward her or not. In a way, she was even shameless. Min Jihyeon, who didn’t lose her balanced smile until the end, waved her hand until Myeongwoo and Seungun descended the stairs completely.
“Tsk. What bad luck. Seungun-ah, remember that woman’s face clearly right now. And don’t associate with her either.”
Myeongwoo whispered to Seungun while coming down the overpass stairs.
“Why? Who on earth is that person? Looking at the business card, she’s a reporter.”
“Is this the first time you’ve seen this company name?”
“Yes.”
Seungun rubbed the woman’s name written on the stiff business card with his thumb.
“Ah, well, you said you didn’t have any favorite celebrities either. The place called ‘Under Grid’ where that woman works, you see. Haa, it’s just a stalker group.”
“Stalkers?”
“If you have friends around you who like celebrities, ask them. They’ll probably all shudder.”
“Is it such a bad quality place?”
“When they catch one article topic, they write really trashy garbage third-rate novels.”
“Ah.”
“And that woman Min Jihyeon is top trash among the trash reporters.”
“……”
“You know what that woman’s nickname is? Because once she catches something, she clings to the end—a leech. A leech. People in the industry say they’re sick and tired of Min Jihyeon too. They’ve never seen anything good from being attached to her.”
“Still, calling a woman a leech is a bit…”
Myeongwoo thumped his chest as if saying it was frustrating.
“This kid doesn’t get it because he hasn’t experienced it. There was a female actor who was doing really well in the past who got buried overnight, you know? The reason was that she cohabited for 10 years with a man in a common-law marriage relationship. That article was also spread by that woman. What else was there. Ah, spreading tabloids about an old idol guy dating a rookie female idol who just debuted—that was all this person too. Yeah, I guess it’s all to make a living. But that woman doesn’t even negotiate with companies. Rather, if you come out to negotiate, she goes ahead and bursts it, you know?”
“Why?”
“To squeeze out more money! When high-level photos are taken, the damage is so great that they also get paid while taking separate photos for show. Companies without money can’t stop it either and just have to watch their company kids fall into ruin… How resentful must that be.”
Myeongwoo burst out in indignation.
Seungun returned to the office and searched for ‘Under Grid’ on a portal site. Then he also searched for the name ‘Min Jihyeon’. Half were articles written as reporter Min Jihyeon, and half were curses directed at such a Min Jihyeon. He carefully read the articles Min Jihyeon had spread until now.
Among them were many major entertainment industry incident and accident articles that even Seungun would know.
The articles by other reporters belonging to the company called ‘Under Grid’ were usually that way too. Myeongwoo kept chattering from the side that they were bad quality people who burst evidence at very appropriate times.
“Ah, I’ve seen articles like these before too.”
The photos taken while gloomily spying and following were uniformly poor quality, and the main reaction in comments was that it was really creepy how they took photos in this quality even with good cameras. In other words, how far away must they have been watching them for the quality to be like this. As Myeongwoo said, if you were a fan of actors, idols, or stars, they were no different from stalkers that everyone called trash reporters.
“Got it? Just rip up this business card too.”
Myeongwoo took the business card from Seungun’s hand and ripped it to shreds.
