# Chapter 7
Manager Gu didn’t even ask where Seowoo’s house was. He just silently held the steering wheel. Though Seowoo assumed he would naturally know the destination, it felt really strange.
“Do you know where to go?”
When asked that, Manager Gu glanced at Seowoo through the rearview mirror and briefly answered, “Yes.” When Seowoo asked him to say it out loud, the man recited Seowoo’s home address fluently as if reciting a top student’s memorized subject. Seowoo’s expression involuntarily twisted with dismay.
“Did CEO Seo tell you to memorize it?”
“Am I wrong?”
“It’s a problem that you’re too accurate.”
Do these people think my information is public property? How much have they shared? Suddenly, Seowoo felt irritated and wanted to be a little mischievous.
“Let’s change the destination.”
“…Right now, you mean?”
Manager Gu’s previously unchanging expression wavered subtly. A light wrinkle formed between his eyebrows. Feeling like he’d succeeded in a spot-the-difference game, Seowoo nodded.
“The CEO told me to take you home. He said you have no schedule afterward.”
“I have one now.”
“…”
It was an obvious lie. If it had been Dohyun, he would have said “Lying again…” But Manager Gu just silently watched Seowoo through the rearview mirror. He seemed to be trying to determine if it was true. After a short time, his gaze dropped away.
“Where would you like to go?”
Seowoo almost cheered with joy at having deceived this person who was like Seo Dohyun’s limb. His fist clenched automatically, but he held back. He held back and answered kindly.
“I’m going to see a friend.”
“Who are you referring to?”
“…Will you know if I tell you?”
“Please tell me.”
The car stopped smoothly at a traffic signal. His driving skills were excellent. The manager’s gaze remained fixed straight ahead.
“I have a friend I was close with in college. …His name is Woojae.”
“I’ll take you to his place.”
The moment the light turned green, the car smoothly turned left. To whose… house? When Seowoo realized the situation, he was shocked. He grabbed the seat, pushing his upper body as far forward as possible.
“What?!”
“We’re heading to Jung Woojae’s house.”
“No, I mean, how do you know Woojae’s name, and how do you know where his house is?!”
There was no answer to his scream-like shout. Right, Seo Dohyun probably kindly told him everything. That crazy bastard. Not just investigating me, but my friends too? Seowoo leaned back in his seat, almost collapsing.
“Forget it, let’s go home.”
“Understood.”
After confirming it was a no U-turn zone, Manager Gu said, “It will take some time.” Seowoo had tried to be mischievous but only ended up more stressed.
“…Nothing’s going right.”
❖ ❖ ❖
Seowoo’s first thought was to inform Jinhyuk of the situation and ask for help, but after thinking about it for a while, he wasn’t sure if that was the right choice. Even if Seowoo had somehow managed to escape with his life, he wasn’t confident that Jinhyuk would be so lucky.
‘…I’ll just contact him to say everything ended well.’
Since he had suddenly disappeared from the premiere without contacting anyone, Jinhyuk was surely worried. Seowoo belatedly picked up his phone.
The ringtone sounded several times. Instead of the familiar voice, a clear automated message played. Jinhyuk didn’t answer the phone.
Seowoo suddenly checked the time. 8 PM, not a time when someone would be asleep. He called again. Still just the ringtone with no response. It was strange. Even if there were unavoidable circumstances, Jinhyuk wasn’t the type to ignore calls like this – he would have at least rejected them.
“…What’s going on?”
Seowoo tilted his head, looking down at the phone screen that wasn’t responding after several attempts. Jinhyuk’s complexion had looked bad – was he perhaps very sick?
For a moment he thought about going to check on him, but after experiencing so much trouble, he didn’t want to move anymore. I’ll buy some medicine to take tomorrow. Seowoo threw himself onto the bed.
The next morning, Seowoo woke up to the sound of a phone call. He answered assuming it would be Jinhyuk, but it was his president.
“Good morning…”
As Seowoo greeted him with a voice not fully awake, the president calmly returned the greeting.
“Seowoo. Jinhyuk has quit as your manager.”
Seowoo wasn’t surprised. It sounded like too strange of a joke. It was literally like someone knocking on his window while he was sleeping.
Seowoo went over today’s date in his head. No matter how he thought about it, it wasn’t April 1st. Seowoo was neither sociable enough to smoothly respond to such an unfunny joke, nor was he in the mood after what had happened the previous day.
Seowoo buried his head deep in the pillow and curled his body into a ball.
“Why are you playing such a strange prank so early in the morning? You never used to…”
As if expecting this reaction, the president softly sighed. Like teaching the first steps to a child who didn’t know the ways of the world, the president’s voice was gentle.
“We decided to post a new job opening today, so it won’t take long. I’ll assign you a temporary person until we find someone new. They’ll come to your house tomorrow at the scheduled time.”
“…Pardon?”
“Even though they’re not as good as Jinhyuk, they handle work well. They’re friendly and thorough. You’re important – I wouldn’t assign just anyone to you, even temporarily.”
“President. What… what are you saying right now?”
Realizing this wasn’t an atmosphere where he could brush it off as a joke, the sleepiness disappeared from Seowoo’s voice.
His body, which had been buried in the blanket, quickly emerged. Seowoo sat on the edge of the bed, brushing back his messy bangs with one hand. His mind cleared instantly.
The president exhaled a short sigh.
“Jinhyuk wrote his resignation last night.”
“…No, yesterday… yesterday?”
“Yes. I tried to persuade him as much as I could. I asked him to think about it until morning, but he said there was no need and just asked me to accept it. He worked hard for 10 years, so I couldn’t really say more.”
10 years, that’s right. Seowoo had lost contact with most of his school friends. For Seowoo, 10 years was literally the longest period. There were some colleagues and acquaintances he had become quite close with while working as an actor, but Jinhyuk as his manager was special. They had been together almost every day, so it couldn’t be helped.
For the two of them, that time wasn’t simply accumulated as a career. That’s why it was even more difficult for Seowoo to accept this situation.
“I understand how you feel, but Jinhyuk has been struggling lately.”
“…”
“10 years is really, really long. Even in office jobs, few people last this long, let alone…”
The president trailed off, but Seowoo knew exactly what he meant. Let alone in this kind of industry. It’s more surprising that this didn’t happen earlier.
After ending the call, Seowoo tried calling Jinhyuk once more. Now there wasn’t even a ringtone.
Wait, am I blocked now?
Looking down at the screen with the name “Park Jinhyuk” prominently displayed, Seowoo tried to figure out where things had gone wrong.
Should he have ignored Dohyun’s attention and taken care of Jinhyuk? Should he have kept asking what was wrong when Jinhyuk showed signs of fatigue? Damn it, if it weren’t for that Seo Dohyun, this wouldn’t have happened.
Placing blame wouldn’t bring anything back. Seowoo considered visiting Jinhyuk’s house but doing so while being blocked seemed too harsh on Jinhyuk.
Seowoo pondered for a long time. Among his narrow circle of relationships, Jinhyuk was an especially precious person. Jinhyuk was the one who had given sincere advice to Seowoo in his early 20s when he had problems because he got attached to people easily. Jinhyuk had seemed much more mature and knowledgeable about people than Seowoo.
Seowoo took exactly three deep breaths and got up. Let’s take a bath. After soaking in the water thoroughly, since there’s probably no schedule today anyway, let’s just exercise all day.
It wasn’t the time to get hung up on past events. He had to be more upright or he would slip. Every industry was like that, but this field was especially so.
❖ ❖ ❖
I want a drink. Seowoo was momentarily surprised by the fact that he had such a thought. He was originally someone who stayed away from alcohol and tobacco.
He habitually carried throat candies instead of cigarettes, and as a rule, he rarely touched alcohol for the sake of maintaining his body. His alcohol tolerance was mediocre, and he didn’t really have many people to drink with. Exercise was more beneficial for relieving stress.
The problem was that Seowoo had this thought on his way back from the gym after finishing his workout. This wasn’t stress that could be relieved through exercise.
Normally, he would have endured a bit more, but there was no schedule tomorrow that would specifically require him to be captured on camera. It would be fine even if his face swelled slightly.
Without hesitation, Seowoo called his friend Woojae. Woojae answered the phone before the ringtone even rang a few times, and made a fuss about how unusual it was for the great Han Seowoo to suggest drinking, saying he would come pick him up right away. Oddly enough, Seowoo felt reassured by that reaction.
“Okay, I’ll just take a taxi there.”
“What do you mean ‘okay’? I said I’ll pick you up! But in return, you have to tell me what’s going on. Got it?”
There was a playful laugh in Woojae’s voice. But Seowoo couldn’t laugh along. He could neither affirm nor deny, so he just let his words trail off.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
