Department Manager Park muttered while trembling.
“Right now, we need a crazy bastard who looks like a picture just standing still like Cheon Eunwook. If we don’t hit it big with something right away, who knows how much the CEO will nag again…!”
“Hey. Shut your mouth.”
The section chief lightly smacked Department Manager Park’s mouth with a coffee mix packet.
Right after that, more than 10 suit-wearing men passed through the corridor.
In the center of them was a short, middle-aged man with a protruding belly.
He was a figure that no Baekil Enter employee could fail to recognize.
“CEO! Did you hear? They say the things you invested in are showing signs of a huge hit in the second half of this year!”
“That’s right! And there’s that omega idol group launched last month, and the observation variety show too. The response from the younger generation these days is really hot! As expected! Our CEO Baek’s foresight is doing it again!”
“Hehehe! Well, it feels like I’m the only one working?”
“Oh my, our WS starts with you, CEO, and ends with you, so you’re bound to have a lot of work. The capable person must bear it! Hahaha!”
“Hehehehe! Good grief, you’re really making me work!”
Like that, the group of suits centered around CEO Baek Ilo entered a room. It was a VIP meeting room located throughout the company.
“…Don’t tell me they’re talking about that fucked-up Emotionz?”
“I don’t know. Ugh, I just hope that bastard doesn’t get carried away and start more shit.”
“Somehow it feels like Oilnom has aged 10 years wiping his ass.”
CEO Baek Ilo, in company slang, ‘Oilnom’.
He was the diligent but incompetent type.
How many people had suffered and been blamed under his senseless vision and bulldozer-like execution?
Rookies flopped as soon as they debuted due to his dead-sensed marketing,
Some had their mentals destroyed by unfair contracts, fought like dogs, and got hammered with fines,
Content business ventures were spectacularly ruined with old-fashioned tastes that might have worked in 1988,
New platforms, OTT, and IP businesses were buried without a sound after clumsily imitating ‘success cases’.
All results touched by CEO Baek Ilo’s breath.
The so-called Oil Shock.
“Fuck. I just wish Oilnom bastard would cause one spectacular accident and get completely replaced.”
“Section Chief. Seriously, hypothetically. If Oilnom disappears, who do you think should be the next CEO?”
“I don’t know. The higher-ups are all in that bastard’s line, so there’s no one to choose.”
“Then what about there? VivaPlay.”
“…ViTube?”
“Yeah. The place that pretends not to be Oil while being incredibly perceptive.”
That was exactly where the ‘success case’ that Baek Ilo tried to imitate and got torn apart was.
VivaPlay is a company that the group chairman suddenly stuck into a corner of Baekil Enter.
Although it has the label of a subsidiary, with the special nature of being overseas and the chairman’s direct involvement overlapping, it became a freeloader that Baek Ilo’s hands couldn’t reach.
In other words, it was like an autonomous territory stuck in the middle of a kingdom.
At first, Baek Ilo grumbled about how his grand-uncle’s sense had died too, and what was the point of bringing a company that would fail, but when VivaPlay rode the global era and gained momentum, his attitude changed 180 degrees.
The king who felt a sense of crisis toward the autonomous territory that was gradually growing in weight suddenly declared he would create a new ViTube and Viflix himself… and failed spectacularly.
Since it was work done through one-sided power struggles, the result was obvious.
“That Alexander? What was it again. That guy, as a former star developer, he’s quick with practical work and unlike someone else, manages well too. Wouldn’t it be best if that side swallowed up our entire entertainment company? Anyway, it’s been several years since they covered our revenue holes.”
“Why would Baekil Group be crazy enough to share their pie with an outsider? Even if by some chance the CEO position becomes vacant, in the end another Baek will just sit there.”
“Then I at least hope someone better than Oilnom comes…”
The section chief stretched and let out words like a sigh.
“Aah~ Isn’t there anyone? A Baek family member who’s reasonably perceptive, has no ambition, and is flexible enough to let us do whatever we want.”
“Looking for a unicorn? A chaebol who doesn’t have an inflated ego. What is that, hot iced americano or something.”
“That’s true.”
Hahaha!
The two laughed heartily, then returned to their seats with bitter expressions.
* * *
Scratch.
My ear itches. Did a mosquito bite me?
“Gunho-ya, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. My cheek is a bit itchy.”
When I brushed my hair back, the itchiness disappeared.
Since I hadn’t gotten a haircut recently, my hair quickly grew long, so even when styled, my side hair flowed down.
I should get it trimmed soon. While thinking that, I recalled Haram’s face from a few days ago.
‘Baekil Enter, Department Manager Park?’
‘Hyung, the thing is… someone I got to know while working part-time…’
We sent Cha Narin off first since she had an appointment, and I briefly talked with Haram.
According to what he said, it seemed the entertainment company was viewing Haram positively.
Regardless of Haram’s own intentions.
‘Even though I keep refusing, they persistently cling, so I’m a bit troubled.’
‘Haram-ah. You don’t give your number to strangers carelessly.’
‘I thought they were a good person…’
As good-natured as Haram is, he tends to easily trust others. He also doesn’t know how to firmly refuse.
That Department Manager Park from Baekil Enter probably knows this and keeps pursuing Haram.
‘This time they scheduled an interview on their own… They say high-ranking people are coming too, so absolutely no canceling.’
‘That’s a one-sided appointment. Just ignore it and don’t go.’
‘A-actually…’
‘What now.’
It was a situation where that wasn’t possible.
Haram’s name was already listed on Baekil Enter’s internal roster as a ‘provisional contract rookie’.
As it turned out, in the contract with the fashion company where he did modeling part-time work, there was a clause cleverly inserted about ‘participation in affiliated company content filming and promotion’. Of course, Baekil Enter was brazenly included in that list of affiliates.
Using this as leverage, they were subtly tightening the noose, saying penalty fees could occur if he didn’t participate, or the legal team might contact him.
In other words, it was a maddening collaboration between the part-time workplace and Baekil Enter.
‘Did you know when you signed?’
‘No…’
‘Did they properly explain it?’
‘They said I just needed to write my name where it was highlighted, so I thoughtlessly…’
As soon as I learned that fact, I immediately snatched Haram’s phone and called the number for [Baekil Enter Department Manager Park].
– The customer you are calling cannot answer right now…
‘……’
These bastards are determined. Are they planning to push through like this?
I couldn’t stay still any longer at this excessive tyranny.
Among countless entertainment and management companies, it bothered me that it happened to be a Baekil Group affiliate… but seeing Haram’s dark face, I had no choice but to make a decision.
‘When is it?’
‘Huh?’
‘Let’s go together.’
I decided to accompany him as Haram’s guardian.
It’s similar to how a strong-willed older sibling accompanies a younger one who’s afraid to go get a refund.
‘Not many people know my face, so surely nothing will happen.’
The moment I thought that, the thought ‘Didn’t I think simply at the party too and get into big trouble?’ occurred to me, but I shook my head.
‘Well, refusing to their face doesn’t even take 5 seconds.’
Before that, I planned to take Haram’s contract and show it to a lawyer through my adoptive parents’ connections.
If there were loopholes, I could use them to pressure them back, and if not, I could find similar cases and make it public.
There are many ways.
…The problem is.
‘It overlaps with rut.’
That interview schedule
overlapped with the margin of error in the rut cycle Cha Narin predicted.
‘There aren’t any signs of rut at all. It should be fine.’
Yet when I was tapping the table with my finger due to some inexplicable anxiety.
“Gunho-ya?”
My reverie was broken by a voice from across the table.
“I kept calling but you didn’t answer.”
“Ah, sorry. I was thinking for a moment.”
The youthful face with brown hair, Lee Yeongwoo, said.
“You look busy… You don’t have to take time to buy me stuff like this.”
Soon he put down the fork that had been hovering over the shrimp carpaccio and carefully looked at me and said.
“When you helped me back then, it wasn’t to burden you…”
“It’s not a burden. I’m really grateful, so I want to show my sincerity in my own way.”
I looked at Lee Yeongwoo and continued.
“If you don’t like the meal, is there something else you want?”
“No. Nothing particular like that…”
“Then I should at least buy you this.”
I smiled at him.
So that Yeongwoo’s heart could be as comfortable as possible.
“If you want, I’ll buy it for you for life.”
“L-life?”
“Yeah. All the food you want to eat.”
After saying it lightly as a joke, I put food in my mouth.
Mm, delicious. I quite liked the restaurant Yeongwoo recommended.
First, I’ll save the location on the map, and later sometime with Seolheon…
“……”
The hand holding the fork stopped.
‘Seolheon…’
The face I was trying not to consciously think about came to mind unconsciously.
“Gunho-ya. Just in case, I’m saying this.”
“Hmm?”
Around that time, Yeongwoo suddenly spoke up.
After hesitating for a moment, as if he’d made a big decision, he gathered courage and said.
“It’s coming out, a bit of rut pheromone…!”
I felt déjà vu.
The tone and situation were exactly the same as when he’d shouted ‘It’s coming out, sexy pheromone!’ at the hotel before.
“It seems like you’ll have rut soon, did you know? With your constitution, it seems like it’ll be really hard…”
“It’s okay. I knew.”
“Ah, you knew?!”
“Yeah. I’ve prepared everything. You don’t need to worry.”
“Prepared?”
“I got a partner.”
Clang.
“Yeongwoo-ya?”
“……”
“Your fork fell.”
