Chapter 66. Shin Hyung-geol’s Dining Table Theory
Of course, it was smaller than something like an express bus, but Shin Hyung-geol's car felt so enormous that it was almost surprising the thing could even move.
To slide from the left side of the seat to the right, I had to scoot my butt along for quite a while.
It glided smoothly over the rough roads around Universe that I'd driven over hundreds of times.
I couldn't tell whether the driver was simply that skilled or the car's suspension was that good, but even speed bumps weren't intimidating.
It really did seem like Shin Hyung-geol had sent this car.
The treatment was so VIP-level that I expected to be taken to some fancy Japanese restaurant with floor seating, the sort chaebol families always visited in movies.
But contrary to my expectations, the car stopped in front of what looked like an abandoned building.
"Please wait here for just a moment."
The driver said.
Looking more carefully, it wasn't exactly an abandoned building.
It seemed more like construction had stopped halfway after the architecture company went bankrupt.
Unfinished concrete was exposed everywhere without a single trace of final work.
There were steel frames sticking out here and there too.
Didn't that stuff corrode quickly if it got rained on?
While I tried to figure out what exactly we were waiting for here, and what the faint light leaking from inside the building was, I started getting hungry.
Probably because I'd also been tense, imagining myself getting stabbed by Turb's CEO in some dark corner of that building.
Then a woman dressed almost like a hotelier walked out.
The car door opened automatically.
"CEO Do Jun-hyeok. I'll escort you."
A hotel?
I had no idea what was happening, so I looked toward the driver.
He simply bowed as if wishing me a pleasant trip.
I followed the woman into the building.
The deeper we went inside, the stronger the smell of damp construction materials became.
Just when I started thinking something had gone seriously wrong, we passed the entrance and turned a corner.
A spotless, luxurious restaurant appeared before me.
It made the exterior of the building feel downright shameless.
The space opened up almost three stories high, and countless brilliant lights glittered across the ceiling.
The inner walls had been finished in pristine white marble.
Decorative candleholders stood here and there, while every table had glassware and tablecloths neatly arranged.
There wasn't a single thing that didn't shine.
People whose identities I couldn't begin to guess were quietly eating throughout the restaurant, their utensils softly clinking together.
"Wow..."
The scenery was so unexpected that I felt like I should say something.
But no words came out.
All I managed was a vague stammer.
"CEO Do Jun-hyeok will be seated separately."
The woman led me deeper into the restaurant to a private room with a low table.
She opened the traditional sliding door.
Inside sat Shin Hyung-geol.
It was a face I'd only ever seen on Root Entertainment's website.
White hair carefully styled back with pomade.
A sharp jawline.
Deep wrinkles around his eyes, yet his gaze remained fierce.
"You're here. Sit down. So we finally meet."
A large, perfectly grilled fish sat by itself in the middle of the table.
I sat across from Shin Hyung-geol with the fish between us.
After exchanging a brief greeting, I immediately asked why he'd summoned me.
"I called you because I have something to tell you about a program called Rebooting."
"Rebooting?"
Without warning, Shin Hyung-geol started explaining the interests and negotiations behind the program's creation.
The major agencies had grown exhausted from constantly fighting over trainees.
That had been the starting point.
The public explanation was that idols from each agency who weren't popular, along with a few trainees, would all be mixed together and fairly redistributed.
In other words, rather than constantly stealing trainees from each other and eating away at their own industry, the producers had decided it might be better to take current but unknown idols with some experience and reorganize their planning.
They would gather all the troublesome acts each company was stuck with, make them popular together, then divide the benefits.
The idea actually sounded pretty good.
Almost admirable, even.
"But Turb ended up giving things away without getting anything in return. Things turned out that way because of what happened... Meanwhile, Jun-hyeok, you entered without putting anything on the table, and now you're there to take something."
So if there was something I wanted to eat, I had to offer something of mine that somebody else wanted.
"It wasn't intentional."
"Of course it wasn't. Every schedule must be important to you. I'm only saying that's the situation you've entered. You don't necessarily need to know all of this."
The real point came after that.
The show was supposedly going to proceed without a script, but the agency heads had already roughly decided which trainees they intended to take.
When Turb dropped out, the others were actually happy because they could divide Turb's share among themselves.
Which meant that even if I joined, I probably wouldn't be able to take any of the idols who looked especially talented.
They'd all already been spoken for.
What was I supposed to be, then?
"Then what exactly am I supposed to do...?"
"Once those people divide up the important idol members, you'll have to find someone good among the ones nobody paid attention to and take them. If you behave like you did on Jackpot; Japan..."
Shin Hyung-geol smiled faintly.
"I know overturning the board is one of your specialties, but I wouldn't recommend it this time. If you force down food you can't swallow, you'll only hurt yourself. Hahaha."
I understood their circumstances, but Tak Hyun-mo was putting everything he had into making the program successful.
And I had high expectations too.
Yet in the end, it was basically nothing more than a card-trading event for the big agencies.
Universe barely had a bundle of household goods to its name.
What could we possibly put on the table?
If we had nothing to offer, then they were basically telling us to pick through the bones after everyone else had finished eating.
I wanted to flip the entire table over.
But I probably shouldn't.
He had clearly been observing me for some time.
There had to be a reason he had gone out of his way to summon me now and warn me.
Nam Won-su, Ji Cheon-woo, and Turb's CEO were all people whose destruction directly benefited me.
But people like Seo Hoe-dong and Shin Hyung-geol were far more useful when I was on good terms with them.
For now, it was better not to provoke him.
