Chapter 54

Chapter 54. An Opportunity That Arrived Like Fate

"Isn't office romance morally forbidden?"

"It's forbidden by common sense. But you two aren't dating."

That was what Dae-hun said when I told him I intended to hire Kim Jin-hee.

After finishing the battle that was officially called an interview but could more accurately be called romantic warfare, Dae-hun's first words were:

If you're hiring Kim Jin-hee, fire me first.

Still, fate had brought her back to him.

I recommended accepting it.

For a moment, his words actually made me hesitate.

All three applicants were talented.

In the end, I decided to reject Song Eun-bin.

She looked like the most unusual applicant, but ironically her experience was the most ordinary.

It was better in several ways.

Lee Hana and Kim Jin-hee were simply stronger candidates.

"By the way, why are you hiring only female managers? Do you have some kind of ulterior motive?"

"My ulterior motive toward Blue Moon is already enough. If some rough-looking male managers develop ulterior motives too, we'll have problems."

Better to avoid problems before they happened.

Oh Su had already given me authority over personnel.

So I pushed ahead with my decision.

Then came their first day at work.

"Wow. She actually came."

Dae-hun muttered loudly when Jin-hee arrived in a neat suit.

Jin-hee shot him a frightening glare.

"Of course I came. This is my workplace."

While the two argued, Lee Hana was unloading heavy camera equipment from a cargo trailer attached to the back of her motorcycle.

She carried everything into Team 2's office.

"Ms. Lee Hana. You look like you're struggling, so I'll help. But your workplace isn't here. You applied to the promotion team."

"What? This isn't the promotion office?"

Shoo.

I led her into the hallway and pointed toward the promotion team.

She was good at photography and schedule management.

Promotion suited her.

If she performed well, I was even open to giving her a management position later.

"You could've told me from the beginning~ Fine."

"Go introduce yourself to your coworkers too. And don't do anything too flashy."

"Me? Flashy? I'm excellent at naturally blending in anywhere."

When I returned to the office, Jin-hee was setting up her desk beside Dae-hun.

She struggled with something.

Dae-hun immediately complained.

"Seriously, are you computer illiterate? Give me the mouse."

"I can use Excel and Word! I just can't do this specific thing!"

"Can someone who can't use those two things even call themselves Korean?"

Dae-hun took the mouse and fixed the monitor settings for her.

Watching them filled me with strange satisfaction.

It felt like three years' worth of worries had disappeared.

I quietly approached and held out the company card.

Dae-hun accepted it automatically and stared at me.

"I'll give you two hours. Go talk about everything that's happened since you broke up. You two know plenty of good restaurants in Seoul, right?"

Jin-hee sighed deeply.

Lee Hana was assigned to the promotion team.

Kim Jin-hee joined Team 2.

Apparently, the relationship between Dae-hun and Jin-hee had stabilized into a strategic alliance.

And I became CEO.

Oh Su agreed to continue helping from outside the company.

The promotion-team employees weren't especially shocked by the sudden CEO change.

Team Leader Min simply congratulated me briefly.

Apparently, he felt he still had to show at least a little regret about Oh Su leaving.

Seung-tae, on the other hand, acted as if I'd become the heir to a chaebol family.

He bounced around flattering me.

He even made the ridiculous request that I create some impressive department called the Strategic Planning Office and put him in it.

I thanked him for the congratulations and sent him back to the department he already belonged to.

The Blue Moon Success Strategy Planning Office.

In other words, Team 2.

The members were more concerned about me leaving Team 2 than about me becoming CEO.

They seemed genuinely shocked.

Then they nearly flipped over again when they saw Jin-hee.

Apparently, when the members had still been trainees, Director Kwon often met a beautiful former-Marine older woman.

She had drawn plenty of attention.

Everyone knew Dae-hun and Jin-hee had definitely broken up.

Nobody dared ask why the two were suddenly coworkers.

"I became CEO very suddenly, but I'll keep taking care of you. Your schedules will only become busier. Dae-hun and I can't personally manage everything forever. You understand, right?"

"Yeees..."

The members answered weakly.

"And this is your new Team 2 manager. You've heard of her, right? Ms. Kim Jin-hee. She'll stay beside you during schedules."

"Nice to meet you, everyone. Let's get along."

"Hello."

The members bowed deeply.

Jin-hee noticed their discomfort.

Eventually, she spoke first.

"You all know what kind of relationship Manager Kwon Dae-hun and I used to have, right? It might feel awkward, but that's already over. None of you will suffer because of it. So relax."

"Really?"

"Of course. Manager Kwon is a good person too, isn't he?"

Jin-hee spoke with a trustworthy expression.

Aran carefully watched her mood and agreed.

"R-Right. When we were trainees, he even rented us a pension in Yangyang so we could rest a little over Christmas."

"A pension... in Yangyang? Was that four years ago at Christmas?"

"...?"

Something else?

Jin-hee muttered after hearing Aran.

"He told me he gave it to his parents... That bastard lied again. You're dead."

Then she stormed out of the practice room with a terrifying expression.

Naturally, Aran's face turned white because she realized she'd said something she shouldn't have.

Come to think of it, I remembered Dae-hun once recommending a Yangyang trip to me after saying he'd fought with his girlfriend and couldn't go.

I'd been busy at the time and declined.

Apparently, there was still something worth arguing about from that incident.

Knowing Dae-hun, I could guess what happened.

He probably fought with Jin-hee, got angry, and gave the pension reservation to the members.

Then they reconciled before Christmas.

By then it was too embarrassing to ask for it back.

So he lied and said his parents had taken it.

I'd thought things would calm down once they ran out of old arguments.

I had badly underestimated them.

The office was probably going to remain noisy for several months.

"Manager... no, CEO! Please stop them! And don't tell her that I told you about it!"

Aran clung to me.

"Fine. I'll handle it. Don't worry. Also, they only talk like that. They're actually close."

"Really?"

"Of course. They're just embarrassed, so they're pretending to hate each other."

Aran's expression softened slightly.

The lie was painfully obvious, so I felt a little guilty.

I decided to think of it as a pharmacist using the placebo effect.

We only hired two people.

Yet work already felt much easier.

Lee Hana shocked the existing promotion staff by fully documenting everything the team had been doing.

Among entertainment-industry jobs, promotion had to deal with especially many sudden events.

People almost treated improvisation as the entire job.

Lee Hana boldly told her seniors,

"You have so many emergencies because nothing was organized properly in the first place."

Then she actually began fixing the system.

She wasn't only skilled as a photographer.

The obsessive fan energy that had allowed her to survive as a photographer for so long was now shining in professional work.

Kim Jin-hee had worried me because of how much she fought with Dae-hun.

But she also settled naturally into Team 2.

Her position was essentially the Team 2 manager role I'd previously held.

She also became close to the Blue Moon members fairly quickly.

Explaining that I wasn't abandoning Blue Moon by becoming CEO, but creating a more systematic way to manage them, had helped a lot.

The company gradually regained structure.

Serin spent her time doing script readings with the actors of 〈Good Pro〉.

And I decided to begin the next comeback project without further delay.

If I wanted to properly continue the noble spirit of former CEO Oh Deok-su, all I needed to think about, awake or asleep, was Blue Moon's success.

Why was I suddenly treating Oh Su like a respected elder?

Isn't it basic courtesy to romanticize someone once they leave the front lines?

"First, let's look through the proposals we've received from studios. If there's nothing good, we'll have to go searching ourselves again. Universe's steady bestseller has always been legwork."

Dae-hun said while holding the microphone in the conference room.

Team 2 Manager Kim Jin-hee was there.

Yang Seung-tae.

Choi Joo-hong, though I had no idea why he was there.

Lee Hana.

Even members of the promotion team had gathered to select the next song.

Song selection was arguably the most important part of a comeback project.

Later, we could rearrange it.

Change the lyrics.

Create choreography.

Film the music video.

Produce the album.

Promote everything.

Still, the most important thing was what song we were selling.

In cooking terms, this was choosing fresh ingredients.

Dae-hun returned to the computer and opened the proposals he'd collected.

After 〈N.Dolphin〉 succeeded, we'd received quite a lot.

Our range of choices had expanded.

"Ugh! It hasn't even been a year, and we're already preparing another comeback!"

Serin shouted with a happier expression than ever.

She was busy with acting.

But she hadn't forgotten her main identity as a Blue Moon member.

Maybe releasing songs this often was unusual for Blue Moon.

But for idols managed by me, it was normal.

Future top-tier idols releasing new songs two or three times a year?

What was wrong with that?

"All right. Let's listen!"

Dae-hun played the songs one by one.

Some were mediocre.

But most were high quality.

Several producers had clearly analyzed 〈N.Dolphin〉 carefully and designed songs that maintained the concept while still working as proper follow-ups.

Even if we didn't use them immediately, some could become future comeback songs.

"Hey. Stop moving around so much."

"Yes, sir."

Yang Seung-tae stood behind everyone.

He kept bouncing and dancing.

I ordered him to behave.

This was an important moment.

Why was he trying to create chaos?

"But all these songs are good. Choreography keeps appearing in my head immediately."

Still, whenever an upbeat track played, Yang Seung-tae gradually began moving again.

After every song, we asked the employees for opinions.

Every single time, Yang Seung-tae danced happily and said the song was great.

Then Dae-hun played a project file titled 〈Homesick Girl〉.

"Wow! This song is seriously good!"

"I agree."

Yang Seung-tae immediately began making a scene and dancing.

Then Youngchae agreed.

Youngchae had quietly listened to everything until now.

This was the first time she personally expressed strong preference.

"Oh. Really? You like it, Youngchae?"

"Yes. It sounds like a good song to dance to."

〈Homesick Girl〉 had a simple melody.

But the mechanical sounds in the chorus constantly changed.

It gradually became addictive.

Even when you listened two or three times, the excitement continued rising.

The chopped drum beat only changed once or twice throughout the song.

It maintained the base tempo steadily.

"Want to use this one?"

I asked Yang Seung-tae.

He answered without stopping his dance.

"It's good, but we shouldn't decide yet. This is a project that'll take several months. Let's be more careful, President Do."

Where had that sudden caution come from?

He'd been dancing like an idiot two seconds ago.

Still, he wasn't wrong.

Regardless of what Seung-tae said, I planned to listen to everything.

Bzzzt.

Dae-hun was checking everyone's reactions and about to play the next song when a message arrived.

[Title: 3/7]

[Recorded: 2023.08.23. 19:12]

I remembered how a future message had arrived at the perfect moment before we chose 〈N.Dolphin〉.

I immediately checked.

Spam.

At this point, receiving spam messages was almost becoming routine.

Maybe I should call it my favorite part of management work.

Management was unstable and usually offered no guarantee of reward.

The spam messages gave me excitement and huge potential rewards.

I happily opened the GIF.

It showed the famous international pop singer Austin River dancing cheerfully.

Left, right, left-left.

Right, left, right-right.

Judging by the UI, it looked like a Nutube short-form video.

The view count displayed in the lower-right corner had passed one hundred million.

A three-second GIF of the future short had been sent to me.

At first glance, it looked so ordinary that I briefly wondered whether I'd accidentally opened a random Nutube Short.

Then I noticed something.

The dance Austin River was performing was exactly the same ridiculous dance Yang Seung-tae had just improvised to 〈Homesick Girl〉.