TAKE 7
Director Kang, bursting with fury, threw his tablet PC onto the table. A single article floated on the bright, clean screen. The subjects of the article were a currently rising female actress and the leader of a first-tier male idol group in a dating scandal.
As naturally happens with articles involving idols, especially dating rumors, the number of fans who pressed the ‘dislike’ button was overwhelmingly greater than those who pressed ‘like.’ The female actress in question was from Siyoung’s agency family. The private photos of the two had poor quality because they’d been zoomed in so much when taken, but their features and clothing were clear enough to recognize.
“Because of you, I had to make those kids who were dating just fine acknowledge their relationship. Aren’t you even embarrassed in front of your juniors?”
“……”
Gi Siyoung brought the tablet PC onto his thigh. He slowly scrolled down with his index finger. After reading the article written in novel format from their first meeting to the current situation, Siyoung raised the corners of his mouth crookedly. It was an expression that showed he didn’t care at all.
“They’ll be loved even more from now on. Tell them it’s thanks to me.”
“Siyoung-ah!”
“What?”
Director Kang, unable to handle the heat rising from his toes, flapped his loosened shirt.
“What’s wrong with you? Can’t you just stay home and reflect on days like this?”
“Reflect?”
Gi Siyoung glared at Director Kang with raised eyes. Then Director Kang immediately lowered his tail and backpedaled.
“I don’t mean it like that….”
“As I thought.”
“What do you mean ‘as you thought’?”
“Director Kang, even though you defended me to my face, you ultimately thought I was playing innocent, didn’t you?”
“……”
“That bastard Lee Jinwoo needed a beating from the start. I did what his parents failed to do. Rather, those parents should be bowing to me, right? Thanking me for fixing their son’s manners.”
Gi Siyoung muttered while touching his sharp eyes. At his shameless attitude even after wielding violence, Director Kang was at a loss for words. Communication no longer worked. What could he do when the person who committed the wrong would refuse to regret it even if they were about to die?
Yesterday, he’d received contact from Myeongwoo, and it had taken tremendous capital and energy to bring here intact the bastard who had created a situation serious enough to warrant arrest. Moreover, wasn’t this right after the drunk driving incident had blown up?
He’d ranked first in brand reputation just last week. That glory had completely collapsed in one week.
“By the way, Director Kang.”
“What?”
Gi Siyoung suddenly asked Director Kang, who had aged twice over in one day.
“Did you contact Im Seungun?”
“Yeah, he’s probably coming diligently now.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a knock sounded.
“They say even a tiger comes when you talk about it. See? He came right away.”
“……”
Director Kang grumbled and stood up. He didn’t want to be with Gi Siyoung even a little bit longer. When you hate someone, one method is to rather keep distance and spend time until your feelings settle.
He wanted to grab his card and jacket and breeze out of the office to soothe the heart of the agency actress whose dating scandal had broken at her peak, but he couldn’t leave just the two of them alone in this office.
“Hello.”
Seungun, who appeared peeking through the door, bowed in greeting.
“It’s not a good day.”
“……”
Director Kang had summoned him to the office. He’d thought he would be yelled at to get lost because he no longer qualified as a manager after the drunk driving and violence incidents. He’d come up prepared, but Director Kang sat with an expression of indifference, and only Gi Siyoung, with his long legs stretched onto the table, was splendid like a flowering plant. Gi Siyoung held out his palm as if he’d been waiting.
“Did you bring what Director Kang told you to bring?”
“Yes. I brought it, but….”
Seungun opened his bag with doubt. Inside was a resume folded in half. It was the resume he’d written when applying to the management company.
“But why my resume….”
“……”
Before he could finish, Gi Siyoung snatched the paper away. Seungun looked at Director Kang. But he just shook his head. Flap, flap! Gi Siyoung roughly unfolded the paper in the air. His eyes were busy as they spread it out and scanned quickly and tenaciously from top to bottom. Without taking his eyes off the paper as they busily moved back and forth, he called Seungun’s name.
“Im Seungun-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“It’s not written here that you worked as a tout. Isn’t this employment fraud?”
He crumpled the resume and waved it in the air.
“I don’t care how you ended up working as a nightclub tout, but you can’t work next to me with those nightclub habits.”
“…I have nothing to say.”
Gi Siyoung sneered. Not writing it on the resume was clearly wrong. They say there’s no high or low in occupations, but reality isn’t like that.
“How long did you work with that friend you met yesterday?”
“We worked together for about half a year. And he’s not a friend.”
“I looked up the establishment name and it was at the level of a cheap cabaret.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“What the hell are you guys talking about?”
The bastard who had acknowledged Im Seungun spilled his story in detail with just a poke on the shoulder. Siyoung had no hesitation in shaking down Seungun with the information obtained there.
“You probably acted coy and poured drinks there. That’s why when told to pour drinks, you sat beside him without complaint and obediently poured, right? Do you need money these days? Is the salary too little?”
“Hey, Gi Siyoung! Listening and listening, you’re going too far!”
Director Kang stepped in, unable to watch anymore. But Gi Siyoung wasn’t one to stop there. He raised his eyes menacingly. Director Kang backed away with a yelp at that momentum.
“How much do you get for pouring drinks? Did Lee Jinwoo slip you a tip before I came in?”
“Why are you even curious about that?”
“Are you indifferent or enlightened—why are you so detached about your own affairs? Does someone praise you for being cool if you do that? When you get slapped in the face, slap their ear back the same way, and when they hold out a bottle telling you to pour drinks, smash their skull with it or something.”
Seungun’s eyes widened.
‘What do you know to be acting up? What do you know! If I need money, I can live as a nightclub tout! Do you know the world I live in? Have you jumped in front of a car and gotten hit on purpose to get settlement money? Even now I’m just sniffing around under that trash human looking for dirt, plotting to stab you in the back. You could never live like me. You know? If you lived like me, you’d commit suicide before even starting. You don’t know anything, you don’t know how I’ve lived!’
There are lives that some people absolutely don’t understand.
Lives where assuming only the worst-case scenario has become a habit, for instance.
“Im Seungun-ssi. Can’t you hear me?”
Gi Siyoung snapped his fingers at Seungun, who was staring at him stupidly.
“…Yes?”
“I’m barely holding back from cutting off your head right now. The fact that a bastard who was just a cheap nightclub tout is now working as my manager—the level has dropped considerably and I can’t help but have preconceptions.”
There was a law against saying what you wanted to say as is. Seungun kept his mouth tightly shut.
“Hey, but, but Seungun must have had his circumstances too. Working at a nightclub isn’t even bad. Right?”
Director Kang began to reason with Gi Siyoung.
“But why did you pretend not to know your colleague?”
“What?”
“You pretended not to know that person in front of me. The person you were chatting with in the hallway was him, right?”
“…Gi Siyoung-ssi is right.”
“……”
“I didn’t say anything because I was embarrassed, because I was embarrassed. That’s also why I didn’t write it on my resume. I’m human too, so I get embarrassed. You just told me I’m low-level. I know my own level well, I know well how other people will see me. That’s why I pretended not to know him. They said Libero is Gi Siyoung-ssi’s regular place. Then we’ll run into each other often from now on, and I thought it would make things awkward if I acknowledged him every time.”
“……”
Seungun poured it out like rapid fire. Gi Siyoung, who had been rubbing his chin with his bandaged hand, narrowed his eyes and asked.
“And one more thing. You didn’t answer my earlier question. Why did you obediently pour drinks for that bastard Lee Jinwoo? Why did you just stay still? Why did you put up with being treated like that?”
“I endured it because it was endurable.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t something I couldn’t endure. But my thinking was short. I didn’t think that if I looked pathetic, Gi Siyoung-ssi would look pathetic too.”
“You call that….”
Gi Siyoung trailed off. Somehow the focus of the conversation was off. Lee Jinwoo, no matter how lacking in common sense that bastard was, wasn’t the type to do that to a fellow actor’s manager. From the start, Im Seungun had obediently poured drinks for Lee Jinwoo, according to surrounding testimonies. That was the problem. And Lee Jinwoo, provoked by Gi Siyoung’s remarks, had wanted to control Im Seungun.
“Ah…. This is maddening.”
Gi Siyoung muttered while leaning the back of his head against the sofa.
