“Who’s going to the Pyeongtaek factory?”
“Assistant Manager Yoon and I are going.”
“Okay, this time don’t just meet with the person in charge, make sure to check if the president is there too. We can’t have them fleeing in the night again.”
As always, the weekly meeting filled only with boring work talk was wrapping up, and everyone was preparing to return to their seats. That’s when Department Head Kim, who was in charge of the product management department Sungjin belonged to, suddenly brought up a topic he’d forgotten.
“Oh, and. That program headquarters is supporting production for, Cool Pass or Cool Beauty or whatever. Anyone want to apply? They’re saying each department has to submit one person as mandatory.”
At the sudden topic, all the roughly ten employees filling the conference room shut their mouths. Would ordinary citizens want to go on a program like that?
Someone stole a glance at Sungjin, who had the most standout appearance among them, but Sungjin avoided their eyes, pretending not to notice anything.
“It’s not like everyone who applies gets in. First, we need a lot of applicants so they can at least select from among them, so just submit anyone. If you happen to get selected, you’ll be able to date models, influencers, handsome men and beautiful women—how great is that?”
Even so, no one stepped forward. As Sungjin also kept his mouth shut obediently, the employee next to him poked his side and whispered.
“Assistant Manager Yoon, how about it? Just apply, won’t you? I have a friend on the support team and heard the appearance fee alone is 1.5 million per episode. It’s 10 episodes, so if you film for a few weeks and get 15 million plus the additional support from the company, isn’t that sweet as hell? Other people can’t do it because they don’t have the visuals.”
Sungjin squeezed his eyes shut inwardly. Just the appearance fee alone was 15 million, he could freely skip work during the filming period, and on top of that, there was the 200 million won contract fee for being selected as the in-house model. It was an extremely attractive offer. At least while I’m a promotional model, my evaluation will be good and I won’t get fired. Then I could secure three years’ worth of incentives and salary.
Even if I’m unlucky and all my assets are tied up by a scammer, I can avoid ending up on the streets, right? If he just closed his eyes and did one crazy thing, he could solve all the various crises right in front of him at once.
“Hmm? No one? Do I have to pick and designate someone myself?”
Just as Sungjin was pretending not to hear, Department Head Kim, who had been standing in front of the whiteboard, approached him from behind.
“Sungjin, why don’t you try going out there? Your looks are this good and you don’t even have a girlfriend? You could go and meet someone nice, right? And like I said earlier, there’s no guarantee you’ll get in. There are so many handsome and pretty employees among the store workers.”
Department Head Kim personally placed his hand on Sungjin’s shoulder, then patted his back and added.
“Just submit it, just submit. You just need to submit the documents representing our team, okay?”
That suggestion felt exactly like the devil’s whisper. As Department Head Kim said, there was no guarantee he’d get in just by submitting. They said all applicants would receive a 50,000 won company gift card regardless of whether they passed or not, so it would be a gain even if he just received the gift card and sold it at a discount market. Where does 50,000 won just pop up from the ground? The reality was that he was facing a crisis where his security deposit might vanish even though he hadn’t done anything.
After a long silence, Sungjin eventually surrendered.
“Understood.”
With those words, the conference room atmosphere instantly lightened.
“Wow, that’s great. I really hope you get selected.”
“Go and make a girlfriend there.”
“You never know. If it goes all the way to marriage, shouldn’t you do something for Department Head?”
That won’t happen. Sungjin swallowed a sigh inwardly. These days they abbreviate it as ‘yeonpeu,’ right? Even if they put men and women of the same age together to match them up, there was no chance he’d fall for a woman.
Of course, he’d never dated a man either, but he’d almost done it once. He’d just had the courage to do something crazy for a moment under the influence of alcohol, but got scared midway and ran away, and by the next day, he couldn’t even remember what the man who took him looked like.
He was incredibly… incredibly pretty, I think. Only the thought “Why is such a handsome person interested in me?” remained in his head.
If I’d done it then, I wouldn’t have remained a virgin until twenty-eight at least. Regretting it now, it was already something that had passed years ago. Sungjin had no intention of revealing his orientation to those around him, nor did he intend to meet anyone while taking risks of being caught. Naturally, he had even less intention of setting foot in bars or clubs where only gay people gathered.
Knowing that in this era of endless self-promotion, you couldn’t make a lover without stepping forward first, he still chose to be weeded out instead.
Even if my appearance is decent enough to succeed in seducing someone, this pathetic inner self could never be hidden forever. Because the experiences of only being rejected that had accumulated since childhood didn’t disappear just because he aged.
Rather than taking risks and getting hurt, all he wanted from life was to just quietly accumulate dust, and when he got appropriately old, retire and build the house he’d dreamed of his whole life in a quiet, secluded countryside with few people.
I didn’t know a crisis like the current situation would strike before that, though… He could only hope there weren’t bigger tragedies waiting ahead.
Sungjin began filling out the application documents his superior handed him while earnestly hoping.
Department: Product Management Name: Yoon Sungjin Date of Birth: ……
As he filled in the required items with dead eyes, something strange caught Sungjin’s attention. There was a word that didn’t fit with a typical yeonpeu.
Sexual Orientation
Unlike other items, below the entry that kindly included English notation, there was even a notice written in gray.
[This item will not be disclosed externally and will be used to understand applicants’ orientations. There are no separate penalties or verification procedures, so please fill it out comfortably.]
Only then did Sungjin recall what his colleague had said as if it were huge gossip.
“What’s kind of unusual is that same-sex couples can apparently become the final couple too. Our company is kind of famous for that anyway. They sponsor related events every year and stuff.”
Just as those words said, YUCAN, originally a North American company, was famous for implementing pro-diversity policies befitting the global era. Even the company founder was known to be openly gay, having adopted and raised children with his male partner.
If such a company was supporting it, producing a gender-neutral yeonpeu wasn’t that strange. Since domestic OTT platforms have already produced and aired same-sex yeonpeu, there would be nothing more to hold back about.
After all, viewers who watch yeonpeu want to see the raw spectacle of attractive people gathering and exposing their irrational sides. Who cares whether the participants like men or women? As long as it’s stimulating, that’s enough. While it seemed quite challenging, it wasn’t that strange.
‘……’
The problem is that I have to fill in an answer to that survey right now. Submission was to be uploaded directly to a dedicated web page managed by the production company, so there was no risk of company people seeing it. Even so, his heart trembled at the slightest possibility.
The reason he was applying to this broadcast that didn’t even suit him was entirely to regain stability in his daily life. It’s a bit ironic to jump into the world of highly stimulating show business for stability, but I don’t want to take any risks that might threaten my peace.
‘……’
After a moment’s deliberation, Sungjin quickly typed and filled it in, worried someone might see his application contents, then scrolled down. There will be plenty of skilled people applying anyway, would they even read this carefully? It wasn’t like he was submitting it earnestly hoping to be selected anyway. The rest of the personal information wasn’t much to worry about, so he easily completed it.
