It was because the moment their eyes met, something he’d been deliberately turning away from inside stirred.
During his manager days, Executive Director Choi had also physically blocked someone trying to drag the CEO, his assigned trot singer, to various unpleasant situations.
As if reproaching him for how different he’d become from the past, fragments of memory uncomfortably gnawed at his mind.
With CEO Yang Okmi’s appearance, the meeting naturally dissolved. The CEO and Executive Director Choi faced each other alone in the CEO’s office that had been empty for a while.
“When I said I’d step away from company work, you said it was a waste and stopped me. Remember?”
“……”
“The reason I left the company then was because I worried I’d become an ugly adult. I was afraid I’d show an unseemly sight to people who thought of me as a star. Actually, since yACE did so well, greed surged up in me from time to time too. But after that, I’d end up disgusted with myself.”
“……”
Yang Okmi held out a pile of documents in front of him.
Documents containing evidence of how Executive Director Choi had used artists to receive and pocket money, like this time.
“Hanje sent these to me.”
A trembling breath stretched out long.
“What… did you… make so much money selling kids like this…”
The CEO raised her head that had been buried in both hands.
“Let’s stop. At this point, it’s time for you to leave too. I’ll conduct a proper investigation of this with my own hands.”
“……”
“Leave now.”
The CEO wasn’t trying to appease Executive Director Choi.
If he didn’t back down here, she meant she’d use all the authority still remaining to her to oust him. Having shared the days of rolling on the floor together, he could read that much.
“Did I do that wrong?”
Executive Director Choi’s voice had deflated.
“Greed for money—you can have it. Because people are all like that. But.”
“……”
“At nineteen, that was when I was singing <Echo of Love>.”
“……”
“The problem is that such a young kid started to look like a tool.”
“……”
“Will you quit here? Or… do you really want to go all the way with me too?”
After finishing the long conversation, Executive Director Choi headed to the 4th Division.
The division was completely unsettled. And the atmosphere was depressed.
He couldn’t help but recall K-dum from before—much smaller in scale than now but boisterously and energetically preparing for their artists’ activities.
Executive Director Choi quietly resigned.
***
A surprising change came to K-dum.
First, the 4th Division lost its division head, and several executives and employees who followed him also left the company.
The reason wasn’t revealed down to regular employees. But watching the upper heads being replaced one after another, the 4th Division had to tremble in fear for a while.
In the midst of this, an even more shocking announcement came out.
They decided to merge the 4th and 5th Divisions.
The two divisions combined and were given an entirely new name, ‘Miracle Label.’
Kwon Taeyoung, the figurehead division head who had managed K-dum’s stagnant waters, jumped into the front lines in earnest this year by debuting Go Won. And with this merger, he took another big step into management.
Seeing this, everyone at the company thought:
“Wow, Taeyoung. At this rate, aren’t you really going to become CEO?”
“No. It just ended up this way because of how the situation turned out. I’m going to quit everything the day yACE retires.”
In a private room at a restaurant, Kwon Taeyoung passed over a glass of sorghum liquor.
His face, which was always restrained to avoid getting drunk at company dinners, was red in places, and his shirt buttons were undone in a comfortable state.
“Drink a lot.”
The person sitting directly across from him filled the empty glass. The gentle smile was exactly the same as ten-some years ago.
“Cha Yeonsu, what are you up to these days?”
“Me? Walking the dog twice a day, woodworking workshop once a day.”
“……”
“I posted a photo yesterday too. Did you see it?”
He held out his SNS. It was his account that fans now thought was no different from a workshop StarStagram. Fortunately, he barely maintained the pretense of a celebrity account by inserting one selfie or daily life photo toward the back of the feed.
This feed had an attached photo of him sitting on a handmade chair with a dog on his lap.
Even a photo he roughly took himself was believable as an advertising pictorial.
Cha Yeonsu.
yACE’s center, in charge of androgynous image through long hair styling and accessories during activities, holder of the most individual fans within the group.
The face positioned over carelessly thrown-on clothes was sincerely such a waste.
“If you need furniture for the division head’s office, tell me. I’ll make it for you.”
And he’s saying things like this.
“No thoughts of being active?”
“You really could become CEO, huh? Even enticing people who are resting.”
“Haah…”
Seeing him laugh and deflect, he seemed to have no thoughts at all. Kwon Taeyoung knocked back another drink with a crooked attitude.
The yACE members who shared joys and sorrows are the most comfortable people in the world. But among them, Cha Yeonsu, who supported yACE together as the same-age eldest hyung line, was especially someone he could let himself down with.
Cha Yeonsu refilled Kwon Taeyoung’s empty glass and clinked his own glass for a drink together.
“If you’re in a situation where you need help, I’ll naturally do anything.”
It meant that unless that was the case, he’d rest like this.
“Don’t you think it’s a waste?”
“Yeah. I have no greed for individual activities. Unless it’s yACE all being active together.”
“Hanje’s been talking about that a lot lately too.”
“The maknae loves us too much. Even though we’re hyungs who haven’t done much for him.”
Cha Yeonsu reached his hand forward. His finger touched Kwon Taeyoung’s forehead.
“Drinking comfortably is good, but the kids will come soon, so you should be leader-like until greeting them.”
While the hair that had fallen was swept back, Kwon Taeyoung naturally stayed still.
Cha Yeonsu, who smiled gently, turned on his phone and checked the yACE group chat with six people.
“Ah, Yeban says he’s almost here.”
Not even 5 minutes after those words, the door opened. The man who appeared energetically took off his sunglasses.
“Wooow, mom and dad got here first.”
“Welcome. Did you come from filming?”
“Mmhm.”
Kim Yeban, whose pronunciation became round except when reading scripts, smiled hazily and nodded.
Kim Yeban was a member loved by fans for his screw-loose gentle personality and behavior unlike his appearance.
But that squishy clay-like main body changed 180 degrees when playing romance leads or psychopath villain roles, making it one of yACE’s many mysteries.
As soon as Yeban stepped inside, a hand that reached from behind tapped his shoulder.
“I’m not last!”
“Oh, Hanje, hiii.”
“Yeban hyung, long time no see!”
“Yeah, long time…”
“…What? Are you in lyricist condition by any chance? Why are you more spaced out than usual?”
“Are you teasing me right after arriving…?”
“Yeban came back from filming in the provinces.”
“Aha.”
The members who well knew that Yeban’s speaking speed became remarkably slower when fatigue rose immediately understood.
Following him, a man dressed in black from head to toe lightly pushed Baek Hanje’s back.
“What’s the point of covering your face? You left the door open and are making noise, so everyone’s staring.”
“Ah.”
“Get in, idiot.”
“Hyung, Bangwon hyung cursed at me.”
“Don’t do that.”
The three people came in noisily and filled the remaining seats. When making appointments, they always made reservations for six, so one seat just had dishes sitting there empty. It was the owner of the ‘1’ that would never disappear from the group chat.
“Did Taeyoung hyung already drink some?”
“The weight of the crown is heavy.”
“Wooow…”
An exclamation close to mockery spread through the room. Kwon Taeyoung set down his glass with a reddened face.
“If you’re all going to tease, tease after submitting one song each.”
“I’m living diligently, so let me off.”
Baek Hanje downed the first glass without breaking it.
“What’s the maknae so busy doing?”
“…Protecting world peace.”
“Not very busy then.”
“Ah, I’m really busy. Yeonsu hyung, you didn’t schedule a retirement press conference or anything, right?”
“Even I would consult with you guys before doing something like that.”
“Baek Hanje really is busy though. Producing a hoobae.”
“Hoobae? Ah, that friend who appeared together on Under the Same Sky?”
“I saw too. He was having fun playing with Hanje’s hoobae.”
“If he’s at home, call him out. Say you’ll buy him something delicious. It’s right here.”
It became an atmosphere like company department heads saying to call out and see the face of an interesting new employee who joined. Eventually, Baek Hanje rescued Go Won from the crisis situation.
“He went to his family home today.”
“Ah, really?”
“He says he’ll see his family whenever he has time before entering activities. Since he’ll have to sleep in the car for a while now.”
“That’s the same then and now.”
“More if anything. Now to promote, you have to go on YouTube channels as well as broadcast variety shows. Challenges filmed with other singers have become expected.”
“Wow… really amazing. How do you do all that…”
“But if we went back to our debut days and were told to do it, we’d somehow manage, wouldn’t we?”
Hearing that, Cha Yeonsu chuckled.
“Right. At that age, that time, there’s nothing to choose. It’s a good time.”
As he muttered while rotating his glass with a somehow wistful expression, Baek Hanje knocked the table with chopsticks.
“yACE is also at a good time. Let’s have a promotion period. I can make something way better than the song I gave Go Won. I’ll put in all the concepts, instruments, beats the hyungs want.”
“I wonder if we don’t know crisis because Hanje is this reliable.”
“……”
Cha Yeonsu sitting next to him reached out and touched his cheek.
“Yeah, next time when Jin enters Korea, let’s kidnap him straight from the airport. And then immediately prepare for comeback so he can’t go anywhere.”
“Ah, nice. Tie him up in my studio. He just needs his mouth free to sing.”
“Have him record everything there, then take him straight to the practice room to practice choreography, drag him to the stage and that’s perfect.”
“If you succeed in kidnapping Yunjin, contact me. I need to skip out on projects to be active with yACE too.”
Even while laughing and chattering, the drinking session continued with the disappointment of one person missing.
***
“Yes. That’s right. Starting the week after next, I’ll be on TV again singing and dancing. I’m also appearing on a few cooking shows and quiz programs.”
Hearing Go Won’s explanation, his grandmother and grandfather responded slowly with “I see…”
“When activities start, there are many times I can’t look at my phone. If there’s an urgent matter and I don’t answer, you must contact manager hyung.”
“Don’t worry.”
Now that it was his second promotion period, Go Won meticulously conveyed everything—the activity period, scheduled broadcast appearances, and so on.
“Do they give you trouble for mooching off them?”
“What?”
After asking back, Go Won suddenly realized.
‘…Ah, right. I am mooching off them…’
Actually, his house was so spacious that sometimes they didn’t even know each other was there.
So sometimes, no—actually often, he’d sit in the living room and use Bogle. To check if Baek Hanje was there, and also to let him know he was there.
Baek Hanje let Go Won start handling the kitchen supplies as if it were his own house, and also shared the exercise equipment and simple soundproof booth in the house for him to use freely.
That’s right. Far from watching his behavior, at some point he didn’t even think he was in someone else’s house.
“Not at all. Staying there is so comfortable and… nice.”
Ah.
The moment he let out the word ‘nice,’ his shoulders flinched up without realizing it.
He didn’t know the reason. But that word he’d spoken plainly lingered tingling in his mouth like when eating spicy food.
“…Anyway, can everyone come to Seoul next Saturday?”
“Hm? Me too?”
Sua, who was studying with earphones in, turned her head and asked. Even pretending otherwise, her concentration kept getting stolen by her older brother who’d come home after a long time.
Even sitting in the dim house, he seemed to receive light alone, and his expressions and attitude when conversing had changed a bit too.
‘A celebrity is a celebrity.’
To receive this feeling even from her real older brother—it was truly an amazing profession.
“Yeah. Sua and Suhyeon too.”
“Why?”
“Why? Why? Hyung, then are we going to visit that big house your hyung lives in in Seoul that was on TV?”
“No, that’s someone else’s house so we can’t go there…”
Go Won smiled shyly looking at his family. He truly didn’t know a day would come when he’d say this to his family.
“I’m doing a comeback showcase. …So, like my solo concert. Family gets related party seats.”
“…I wanna go!”
Sua exclaimed first with a start. And only then widened her eyes as if surprised by her own voice volume.
“Huh? Huh? Hyung, me too! I wanna go!”
Go Won made a faint smile.
“Yeah, I’ll have to prepare even harder now.”
