Sizzle, sizzle.
Thick, glistening slices of pork belly crackled beautifully on the iron grill.
Why on earth is one serving of pork belly 25,000 won? Do they feed gold to the pigs on Jeju Island?
I had come here after bragging that I'd treat him to something nice, but my stomach was churning at the price.
"Is something on your mind, chief?"
I had gone out of my way to order expensive pork belly for him, but instead of looking touched, Minho Kang just gave me a sour look.
Well, I guess it makes sense.
[Minho Kang]
Type: Manager
Rank: D
Potential: A ⇨ S (Needs attitude adjustment)
His base potential was a whopping A!
He had abilities far too good to be rotting away in Team 5.
As for why someone with such incredible skills was stuck here—
[Special Note: Demoted after playing office politics and getting on the higher-ups' bad side.]
Didn't they say he tried to hitch his wagon to the Team 1 lead, but when that lead left, the new one put a target on his back and got him banished to Team 5?
On paper, it was a pretty common story you could find at any company.
The real problem was that this guy was only in his second year!
Of course, there was no rule saying a rookie couldn't pick a side, but it was almost unheard of for a low-level entry worker to get axed alongside their superior.
In other words, he hadn't just lined up behind the wrong person—he had aggressively played the political game despite being a mere rookie.
He was quite impressive.
Personally, I'm not a fan of him, but he's competent. He'll be useful to boss around.
The only issue was…
[A textbook opportunist! Kiss up, kick down. His loyalty extends only as far as his own self-interest.]
And that was exactly why he was acting so sour toward me.
He figured I wouldn't be sticking around for long anyway, so I was of no use to him.
In that case, all I had to do was show him that I could be useful.
"You never know how things will turn out in life, so why the sour attitude? Who knows? Maybe I'll end up being a big help to you, Manager Kang."
"Help from you?"
"Yeah. For instance, I could help Manager Kang avoid getting sued by the company."
"!!!"
Minho's face stiffened.
"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"Don't you know best? You seem to be close with Reporter Sejung Kim from Star News. I doubt you two were meeting up just because both companies have 'Star' in the name, and I'm dying to know what you talked about."
Minho's face turned blue.
"Y-you s-see… I only met her because my boss in Team 1 ordered me to. It's not like I took bribes or anything…"
I knew that.
[Special Note: While in Team 1, he leaked confidential info on an artist from another team to a reporter under his former team leader's orders.]
At Star Entertainment, competition between teams was fierce.
The rivalry between Team 1 and Team 2 was especially intense.
Just the fact that I used to be the road manager for Team 2's top actress, Ina Kim, was enough for Team 1 to frequently pick fights with me.
That was why they resorted to such dirty tricks.
"Whether it was your former team leader's orders or not, I doubt the company will care. You do realize leaking artist information is a clear violation of the law, right? Not only are you looking at a civil lawsuit for damages, but depending on how they spin it, criminal charges aren't off the table either."
Minho's face drained entirely, turning as pale as a corpse.
"…Did you tell the company?"
"No? Nor do I plan to."
"Are you… turning a blind eye for me?"
"It's not like I get anything out of reporting it to the company. All it would do is ruin my subordinate's career."
I hold your lifeline in my hands, so if you don't want to die, you'd better fall in line.
Smart guy that he was, he seemed to understand exactly what I meant.
"…What is it that you want from me, chief?"
"Nothing much. Just do your job."
Specifically, in my place.
"Job…?"
"What happened in the past is none of my business. What matters to me is right now. I'll be assigning you work from now on, and as long as you get it done, I won't ever bring up your past."
He stared at the sizzling pork belly in silence for a long time.
Ah, the premium pork is going to burn at this rate. If he got the message, he should just eat the meat. Why is he being so dramatic?
Shrugging off his silence, I reached for the pork belly with my chopsticks.
But just as I did, he spoke up.
"…Can I ask you one thing, chief?"
"Go ahead."
"What you said today… should I take that as an invitation to your faction?"
…What faction?
As expected of a guy who got demoted for playing office politics, everything looked like a power play to him.
"That's not it, so don't get the wrong idea and just focus on your work. Demoted or not, as long as you're getting paid, you have a job to do."
My conscience pricked me a bit, saying all this while aiming for a free ride myself. But then again, wasn't slacking off while lecturing your subordinate like a boomer basically a boss's privilege?
Deciding I’d waited long enough, I finally snatched a piece of meat off the iron grill.
Oh, man, this is freaking delicious. The flavor is on a whole different level. Definitely worth the price. God, I love being rich.
Utterly distracted by the flavor of the gold-fed Jeju pork, I completely failed to notice the look Minho was giving me.
* * *
…What a terrifying person.
Minho swallowed hard and looked at Chanwoo.
At first, he hadn't paid any attention to the new chief manager.
He'd written Chanwoo off as nothing more than a powerless manager—just another sacrificial lamb caught in Star Entertainment's dirty politics.
But he was dead wrong.
Chanwoo Lim is a madman.
The moment he joined Team 5, he'd taken down Donghyuk Kim—a chief manager everyone thought untouchable. And now, he was going toe-to-toe with the head director.
Initially, he'd wondered if Chanwoo was just lashing out over his demotion, but that wasn't it either.
His actions were too bold, too sweeping, to be a simple tantrum.
…He's actually planning to take down the head director. A chief manager. A mere manager!
Because of that, Minho had avoided him.
He didn't want to get dragged into a brewing maelstrom.
But today, Chanwoo had sought him out—asking him to join his faction.
Of course, Chanwoo denied it, but Minho was also someone who had been marked by the head director.
Unless Chanwoo intended to push his rivalry with the head director even further, there was no other reason for him to make such a proposal.
…Does the chief manager even have a chance of winning?
Not that it mattered. He didn't have a choice to begin with.
The moment Chanwoo revealed the mistakes he made in Team 1, Minho was finished.
To think that behind that indifferent face, he'd been hiding something this terrifying.
But why?
For some reason, he felt a flicker of excitement stir in his chest.
Partially because the head director wasn't just Chanwoo's enemy.
After all, Minho's demotion to Team 5 was the direct result of the head director purging the former lead of Team 1, who had clashed with him.
Maybe… just maybe, Chief Manager Chanwoo Lim can actually beat the head director…
Although it had only been a short while, Minho had watched Chanwoo closely enough to know he was no ordinary guy.
Perhaps it's not a bad idea to place my hopes on him.
"…Why aren't you eating? Am I supposed to eat all of this myself?"
Look at him—even now, there isn't a flicker of concern on his face. To think that behind that innocent mask, he's planning to overthrow Star Entertainment.
A sudden shiver ran down Minho's spine.
It seemed his will to live had returned, bringing his appetite back with it.
"No. I'll eat."
"Well, you don't have to force yourself…"
Minho piled three pieces of pork belly onto a single lettuce wrap, thinking to himself—
"H-hey! Shoving expensive meat all at once like that is…"
"Mmmph-I lookh forward to working with you from now on."
—that starting tomorrow, work might actually be fun.
* * *
It looked like my talk with Manager Kang had gone pretty well.
"Chief, you've arrived!"
A loud greeting resounded through the air the second I set foot in the office.
Minho bowed deeply at the waist, greeting me as if a board director had just graced the room with his presence.
"…You don't need to go that far. Just work hard."
"Ah, so you mean we should build our strength first while hiding a dagger behind a smile! As expected of you, chief! I will refrain from acting rashly and focus on solidifying our foundation!"
"…?"
Is he making fun of me…?
That didn't seem to be the case.
[Minho Kang]
Type: Manager
Rank: A
Potential: A ⇨ S (Needs attitude adjustment)
Loyalty: A
Maybe it was because he had become my subordinate, but a loyalty stat had appeared, and it was a whopping A.
Hmm… I feel like there's been some kind of misunderstanding. But does it matter?
He was so bursting with enthusiasm that it looked like he'd at least work hard, so I decided to just let it be.
After that, I went about my usual tasks—meaning I pulled up a computer screen and goofed around—before heading to the A&R team.
I had to pick a song for Sena's debut.
"Ah! Manager Lim, you're finally here. Why are you so late?"
"I'm sorry. I lost track of time while handling other tasks."
…In truth, I arrived five minutes late on purpose.
Picking a song is the A&R team's job anyway. Even if I showed up on time, wouldn't I just be sitting there awkwardly like a useless prop?
Still, my conscience wouldn't allow me to be ten minutes late, so I made it exactly five minutes.
Turns out, the A&R team had a good reason to be grumbling.
"Singer Sena said she absolutely wouldn't start until Manager Lim got here."
"I'm sorry. I definitely want to pick the song with Manager Lim."
…What's with her now?
Anyway, the song selection meeting began.
"Here are the nominated songs for you to hear. I pulled some strings with the head director to get these songs from famous trot composers."
Director Myunghoon Song spoke with a smug look, puffing up his shoulders to take all the credit.
"The first song is by Watermelon Gangster. He's the one who released the hit track 'Mr. Park' ten years ago, and this new song is really good too."
A decade ago? Isn't that a bit too far back...?
Since the expert said it was good, I listened quietly.
"How is it? Not bad, right?"
Director Song asked eagerly, his face full of anticipation.
Sena looked at me with bewildered eyes, as if silently asking what I thought.
…Is this even good?
Honestly, it wasn't that great.
But since Director Song was the expert, it was hard for an amateur like me to judge accurately.
[Participating in song selection!]
['Song Inspection' unlocked!]
Oh?
It wasn't just people—I could inspect creative works too!
[Aewol]
Type: Trot
Rank: D
Compatibility With Singer (Sena Lee): C
Verdict: Epic Flop
Good, my ass!
"It sucks."
"…Eh?"
"It doesn't just suck—it's genuinely awful. We absolutely cannot use this song."
Sena must have felt the same way, because her face lit up at my words.
"I thought it was pretty bad, too."
"Then… let's listen to the other songs."
The others were more of the same.
[Love's Battery]
Rank: C
Compatibility With Singer (Sena Lee): D
Verdict: Below Average
[Thrilling Life]
Rank: F
Compatibility With Singer (Sena Lee): D
Verdict: Catastrophic Disaster
"…They all suck."
"All of them?"
As I kept rejecting track after track, Director Song's face gradually stiffened.
But it couldn't be helped.
It'd be one thing if they were at least decent, but all of these are just terrible.
After a moment of thought, I decided to just ask him outright.
"Director Song, do you honestly think these songs are good?"
"…"
"Are you sure you didn't just grab a bunch of cheap, low-budget tracks?"
Director Song remained silent for a long time before letting out a sigh.
"Do you have any idea how expensive tracks from famous trot composers are? Even these were only secured because I pulled strings with the head director."
I could see exactly what was going on.
Since nothing is guaranteed, they probably don't want to invest a lot of money.
I knew she was destined to be an S-rank mega-hit thanks to my skill, but from their perspective, venturing into trot was a huge gamble.
They worried a single flop would flush all their capital down the drain.
Well… the fact that Sena's under Team 5 probably plays a part, too.
What if Sena were on a team that belonged to the head director's faction?
She would have received the absolute best songs.
So I told Sena the truth without holding back.
"Even now, you'd be better off transferring to Team 1 or Team 2. If you really can't stand that idea, you could just cancel your contract with Star Entertainment and move to another agency, like you'd originally planned. Any agency that actually recognizes your talent won't hesitate to pay a twenty-million-won penalty for you."
"Absolutely not! You have to take responsibility for me, manager!"
"...If you say it like that, people are going to get the wrong idea."
"I don't care. Take responsibility!"
…Why is she being so stubborn?
Now that things had come to this, there seemed to be no other option.
I guess I'll just have to make Sena a massive hit myself. After all, I do need to take responsibility.
And it didn't seem like it would be that hard, either.
[Sena Lee]
[Trot Aptitude: Semi-Trot (S-rank)]
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