Chapter 93
“Team Leader of Team 1, Team Leader of Team 2… we’re in the position of serving a young boss. My eldest will become a high schooler the day after tomorrow, but having to live watching the mood of some young punk not even thirty… I really… I thought it was only drama material, who would have known it would become my story.”
The team leader laughed heartily, pretending to brush it off casually.
Yoon Juho just tilted his cocktail glass with a meaningless mask-like smile.
“It’s not like he’ll become the chairman. In the end, if he can’t get recognition from his own sister, he’ll be in a cold rice position, right? He was at the New York branch for three years or four years… it’s ridiculous. Kim Jiwon-ssi has been with the company for three years and is now a deputy, right? But that bastard is a team leader? Team leader?”
The pretense of brushing it off casually didn’t last long. The more he spoke, the more his anger seemed to rise, and the team leader’s tone became increasingly harsh.
It was uncomfortable listening to such rough expressions. I found it increasingly difficult to manage my expression. My gaze, wandering wildly through the air, looked toward the entrance where he had disappeared, but his figure could no longer be found.
I picked up the milky cocktail Yoon Juho had made and drank it down like beer without taking time to savor it.
The team leader, with soft fat thickly settled under his chin, brought his glass to his lips while glaring toward the entrance. Then he muttered as if to himself.
“That bastard son acting so arrogant…”
I couldn’t bear this situation any longer. After emptying the remaining half of my cocktail, I handed the empty glass to the bartender.
“I think I need to find my manager. I’ll excuse myself now.”
I bowed to the team leader and deputy and turned away without regret.
He was someone who spoke harshly even about people from the owner family of his own company. He might think of it as courage or justice. So how much easier would it be to tear down someone like me, who’s not even a top star? He might rage that some entertainer nobody who sells their face for a living has no manners.
It didn’t matter.
On the stage set up inside the central hall, some solo singer was performing. It was an OST song from a drama that had recently ended to great popularity. I slowly squeezed through between people enjoying the performance while singing along.
Even in my debut days, performances at such event venues were mostly jazz-related, whether vocal or instrumental. Over the past few years, luxury brands had been changing the nature of their events to target the ‘Young Rich’ in their 20s and 30s who had emerged as new major customers. I could feel that the average age of guests filling the event venue had also noticeably decreased.
“That’s Jung Jiin, Jung Jiin. Wow, amazing. Look how small his face is. Small what, all celebrities are about that level.”
Pretending not to hear the words evaluating me without restraint even at a distance where they were clearly audible, I barely escaped from the crowd.
At the central bar where I had first had cocktails with Manager Yoon upon entering the event venue, I now ordered a straight drink. I needed strong alcohol.
I impatiently emptied the drink filled to about 2 fingers¹⁾.
While saying I was looking for my manager, my eyes were unconsciously searching among people for tall height and horn-rimmed glasses that would stick out.
If I found him? What would I do after finding him?
I hadn’t slept with Yoon Juho for months before reuniting with you. Even if it hadn’t been you, it was a relationship I was going to end.
Was I going to make such excuses? Would that really be consideration for him?
I grimaced strongly as I poured the last sip of whiskey down my throat. His figure, which would surely be easily noticeable if he were within sight, was nowhere to be seen.
“One more on the rocks, please.”
I meaninglessly watched the bartender’s hands pouring whiskey over ice while chewing my lower lip.
The moment I reached out to receive the glass from the bartender, someone quietly grabbed the upper part of my arm from behind. From the firmness of the touching force, I already intuited it wasn’t him. Yet my heart racing with expectation was something I couldn’t help.
“Jiin-ssi, you were here.”
When I turned around, Knox’s Deputy Kim Jiwon was standing there. She ordered water and looked at me with a furrowed brow.
“I’m really sorry about earlier. The atmosphere was really awful, wasn’t it?”
“No. You had a hard time being in the middle. I’m not sure if Deputy-nim had trouble again because I left in the middle.”
“Don’t worry about that. I think our team leader is trying to build personal connections with Yoon Juho-ssi, he’s clinging to that side. What benefit there would be from Yoon Juho becoming friendly with him…”
Even though the last words were muttered like talking to herself, they were clear enough for my ears too. After twisting off the water cap and drinking it refreshingly, she leaned comfortably against the bar.
“Before Team Leader Lee returned to Korea, there was only one PR team, and it was completely his own world. Honestly, everyone in the company knows that Team Leader Lee had already received intensive management training at the New York branch since his college days… Setting aside other things, regarding work capabilities, everyone shut their mouths within half a year. Even though the standards the president set were so high, he’s clearing them one by one. Our team leader just works with his mouth, always saying ‘Isn’t there anything better?'”
She looked down at the glass in my hand and smacked her lips, but just drank more water without ordering alcohol. She seemed to be controlling her alcohol intake since she was working.
“No one in the company thinks they’re rivals, but he alone has an inferiority complex toward Team Leader Lee and acts like that. The fact that Jiin-ssi is scheduled to appear in <Eternal Night> was all in the report too. The truth is he didn’t properly look at it himself.”
“……”
He was suffering from heavy workloads almost every day. I thought about his tight schedule where he had to increase weekday overtime to create proper holidays on weekends. About the achievements he had been accumulating since joining the Korean headquarters, which various articles had covered.
At least, he wasn’t someone who should be treated as an arrogant chaebol occupying a position unworthy of his abilities.
“Ah… this is company business but I complained too long, didn’t I?”
“No. I’ve never worked at a company, so hearing such stories is interesting to me too.”
She showed a slight smile. Then she stood on tiptoes and stretched her arm long to point to the northern corner of the event venue.
“There’s a special room downstairs where VIP guests can comfortably taste wines. I put Jiin-ssi’s name on the list too, so please move there and enjoy comfortably. There are too many watching eyes here, so it must be uncomfortable.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
“You’re a guest I invited who came without even receiving travel expenses, so I should take care of this much. Then, let’s definitely meet again when Jiin-ssi becomes Knox’s model.”
I silently watched her retreating figure and finished the remaining drink. I left the bar thinking he might be downstairs, invisible from here. At the stair entrance, a suited staff member checked the list and permitted entry.
An event inviting VIPs. Among them, a special room gathering only VIPs among VIPs.
Unlike the upstairs decorated like a trendy club, the downstairs was like a dark, dignified hideout.
The interior reminiscent of Lee Seogyeong’s New York mansion basement made my throat tighten for a moment, but I controlled my breathing and went deeper inside.
Small bars were positioned here and there, and there were individual rooms but no hall seating. The individual rooms didn’t have doors, but they were structured so the inside wasn’t clearly visible from outside. Some places had curtains completely drawn.
When I had somewhat adjusted to the dim lighting, someone grabbed my shoulder from behind.
“A disappointed face? There must have been someone you were looking for.”
It was Yoon Juho.
I brushed off his hand and secretly sighed. I couldn’t tell if it was a sigh of relief or disappointment.
“Why does it feel like you’re following me around?”
“Me? You?”
Yoon Juho shrugged with an aggrieved face and laughed. That didn’t matter. I looked at him intently.
“What was that upstairs earlier? It’s really confusing when you suddenly act like that.”
“You suddenly saying you’d end things without any particular reason is confusing for me too.”
“……”
“Actually, I got a lover like you said. So accept the end cleanly.” — For a moment I had the impulse to say that. But judging from Yoon Juho’s current attitude, he didn’t seem like he’d back down with just that.
He’d try to find out who it was, and after that, he’d demand proof that it was true.
“Director Kang Woohyeon and Senior Seo Euiju are here, so I greeted them and came out. Want to go show your face too?”
Both were not comfortable people for me right now. I shook my head.
I walked to the nearest bar table and ordered alcohol. The bartender, who had been giving a long explanation about ‘Creiff’ whiskey, stopped his introduction and served the drink when I showed no interest.
Ignoring Yoon Juho following me, I sat on a bar stool and tilted my glass.
Yoon Juho didn’t sit but stood beside me and ordered a double straight.
“Take this.”
What he suddenly held out was the lip gloss he had directly applied to me upstairs.
“The color looked good on you, so use it.”
“……”
My face twisted terribly. Even lowering my voice, I couldn’t hide my irritation.
“What exactly are you trying to do? Really want to date me or something?”
“I’ve given you more expensive gifts than this when coming back from overseas business trips. What’s the problem with this little thing?”
The timing was the problem. Previously, even when we exchanged luxury liquor or luxury gifts, I felt no emotions were carried in them. We had a physical relationship, but we were also fellow actors. They were objects exchanged without weight. Now I didn’t want to owe Yoon Juho even a single cigarette.
Yoon Juho shook the lip gloss in front of me with a nonchalant expression. I really didn’t have the luxury to pay attention to Yoon Juho right now. Just as I was about to get up to avoid him, someone suddenly interjected.
“Oh? A familiar face.”
“……”
It was his friend and colleague… a man whose name I couldn’t remember well. The man who first acknowledged knowing me turned his gaze toward Yoon Juho standing beside me.
“You know Park Hoyeong, right? He’s in that room over there, come drink together.”
The man spoke cheerfully in Korean with a strong English accent remaining. It was quite different from the stiff atmosphere when I encountered him at his house last time.
¹⁾ Finger: A unit for measuring the amount of alcohol poured. 2 fingers means about the height of two finger joints from the bottom of the glass.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
