I Spent a Night with a Top Star Actress – Chapter 3 – An accident.

Author: Dawn

I opened my eyes in a one-room apartment the sunlight barely reaches.

“…Mmm.”

I’d slept deeply.

Considering how badly insomnia used to hound me, that’s a remarkable change.

“Ugh, sleeping this well is its own kind of strange.”

I stretched out a hand and picked up the bankbook I’d laid carefully beside my pillow.

The Nonghyup bankbook with 1.4 billion won in it.

The corner of my mouth twitched.

“…. Ah, seriously. I need to do a dopamine detox.”

Looking at that bankbook with 1.4 billion in it, my brain went soft and melted.

I shook my head and muttered.

“It’s bad. Really bad…”

I set the 1.4 billion bankbook down carefully and took a shower.

Once I’d shaved clean too, I pulled out a suit for the first time in a while.

I’d bought it with my first paycheck after joining the company, and I’d hardly ever had occasion to wear it.

Baekhak has a free dress code like the other agencies, and back in my road manager days I was on my feet so much that I wore track clothes more than anything.

But today is the day I hand over the ropes to the new rookie road managers.

Entertainment companies say they aim for a horizontal workplace culture, but the road manager side still prefers a vertical one.

‘Well, it can’t really be otherwise.’

Guys who joined to see celebrities.

Guys who applied because there were no special qualifications required.

All kinds of people crawl into this industry.

So the chiefs who teach the rookies, and the road managers with some years on them, wear suits on purpose.

‘Something about how you have to get discipline into them hard from day one…’

I didn’t understand this culture at first, but once I’d put in some years I couldn’t help nodding along.

With all kinds of people applying, the quit rate is unbelievably high.

So the ones who aren’t going to make it need to be pushed out fast, from day one.

That’s easier for the people already settled in, and it’s better for the ones who aren’t going to make it too.

So I put on a suit for the first time in ages and showed up at Baekhak Entertainment, and the people I knew called out to me.

“What’s this? Is today something special for our Manager Kwon? Why the suit?”

“It’s the day I teach the new rookies.”

“Huh? Our Manager Kwon is teaching rookies?”

The PR team leader’s eyes went wide.

“No way! Did our Manager Kwon make chief?”

“It’s not Manager Kwon anymore, it’s Chief Kwon, thank you.”

“Kyahahahaha! Chief Kwon, he says! I can’t handle this. When did you make chief? Have you paid for the promotion dinner yet?”

“I’ve been chief for one day now. One. Promotion dinner, my foot…”

The PR team leader’s eyes curved into half-moons.

“You’re pleased and still grumbling… Heh heh. Still, it’s good to see you looking better.”

“When did I ever look bad?”

“All the time! You’ve looked like a corpse every day since you got put on Lee Ha-eun.”

I tilted my head.

She isn’t even in my department, and my face was bad enough that the PR team leader noticed?

‘…. I suppose that might be true.’

Thinking about the chronic stomachaches and headaches Lee Ha-eun gave me…. it isn’t hard to accept.

Meanwhile the PR team leader patted my shoulder.

“Aw, you’ve had it rough. That Lee Ha-eun girl has a fierce temper. Nothing left for our Chief Kwon now but good days.”

I played along enough to be polite, then slipped away.

I went into the management office on the fifth floor and headed for my desk.

I dropped my things off and took off my suit jacket, and Team Leader Ma Seok-du came over with an iced americano in his right hand and his phone in his left.

“Chief Kwon.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

“Your rookies are here. These are their interview documents… Go pick them up and start the handover.”

“Yes, understood.”

Ten seconds after sitting down, I was up again.

I took the elevator down to the first floor and looked at the documents Seok-du hyung had handed me on the way.

One is a woman, the other a man.

Neither has any experience in this industry, and both graduated from four-year universities.

But the man is older than me.

“Thirty?”

Only two years apart, but for someone coming into this business as a rookie road manager, that’s pretty…. No.

That’s too old.

“This is a little worrying… Tch.”

Being older isn’t a flaw in itself, but the culture here is what it is.

The job means bowing your head a lot, and people with some age on them have a hard time bowing.

My bad feeling turned out to be right.

“You’re pretty young for a chief, aren’t you?”

Rookie road manager Jang Hyeon-su.

My thirty-year-old subordinate held his head up stiff from the first meeting.

Two rookie road managers were assigned under me.

‘Jang Hyeon-su, thirty. Lee Ye-ji, twenty-four.’

Lee Ye-ji, the twenty-four-year-old, had no big problems.

She was just, how to put it…. a textbook rookie road manager.

The kind of kid who became a road manager because she wanted to see celebrities.

‘This one…. right. If she’s got a head for the work, there’s room to reform her.’

The problem is Jang Hyeon-su, the thirty-year-old.

He says he came from a security firm, and the guy is built like a mountain and never shuts his mouth.

“Wow… Baekhak Entertainment still looks sharp. When I worked at ‘L’ Security I came in here on a protection job for a Baekhak celebrity, and nothing’s changed since!”

“Anyway, you’re twenty-eight, Chief? Every chief I ever met was in his thirties. You’re really young.”

“What’s Lee Ha-eun like in person? On TV she looks like an actual goddess. Is she pretty in real life too?”

Even after the tour of the company was done and we’d come back to my desk, his mouth kept going.

Thanks to him, my mouth pulled up crooked.

‘Look at this guy.’

He acts like he isn’t, but I could feel it.

This Jang Hyeon-su.

He’s quietly looking down on me right now.

He probably thinks he’s hiding it well, but he can’t get past the read I built up over years as a road manager.

‘If you’re going to throw your weight around, keep it within reason.’

He kept unloading industry knowledge he’d picked up somewhere, and not one piece of it was right.

I propped up my chin and thought about it.

‘What do I do?’

Normally I’d have just warned him in some measured way.

In working life, going smooth beats going sharp. Fewer problems that way.

But right now I didn’t much feel like it.

‘A rookie road manager I’m going to have to manage and control from here on.’

And that rookie is already throwing his age around.

If I let this go, this Jang Hyeon-su is going to cross a line sooner or later.

I’d decided to quit, and I didn’t want to be around to see him cross it.

In that moment, the personality I’d rounded off went sharp again.

“Jang Hyeon-su-ssi.”

“Yes?”

“Isn’t that a lot of talking for a man on his first day?”

For the first time, Jang Hyeon-su shut his mouth.

Beside him, Lee Ye-ji blinked, startled.

“…”

The mood froze over in an instant.

I slowly folded my arms and looked the two of them over.

Lee Ye-ji had lowered her head. Jang Hyeon-su…. still wanted to hold on to his pride, apparently, because his head stayed up stiff.

The corner of my mouth lifted.

“Honestly, at first it was fun and I listened… but do you know something? Every single thing you said was a slip.”

“…”

“Rookie or not, a man about to be a manager going on about how pretty Lee Ha-eun is… You’re making a demonstration to me right now, aren’t you? Asking me to fire you?”

Jang Hyeon-su, head still up, got flustered and started making excuses.

“N, no, that isn’t what I meant…”

“Then what did you mean?”

“…”

“Go ahead and say it. I’ll listen. What exactly was going through your head when you ran your mouth at me about what Lee Ha-eun looks like in person, whether she’s pretty. Or did you come in here without doing any research?”

“…”

“What era do you think this is? It takes one search. A person about to be a manager doesn’t get to rate the celebrity he’s assigned to.”

Having said all of it, I made a point of smiling.

Sometimes a smile is a more effective threat than a scowl.

Fortunately, this Jang Hyeon-su wasn’t so slow that he missed it.

Jang Hyeon-su’s lips moved, and then the head he’d been holding up stiff came down.

“…. I’m sorry, Chief.”

“Sorry, and it’s our first meeting?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“You’d better remember that phrase.”

“?”

“It’s the phrase you’re going to live with from now on. I’m sorry, my apologies, I’ll do better next time.”

“!”

“Sounds like I’m scaring you, doesn’t it? Try one week and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.”

Jang Hyeon-su’s breath stopped.

To me, at least, it looked that way.

Lee Ye-ji beside him was just about to cry.

I looked at the two of them for a while, then turned my head.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Jeon Hyeong-woo, a road manager on Team 5, enjoying the show.

“Jeon Hyeong-woo-ssi.”

“…. Yes, Chief?”

“You’re off duty today, right?”

“I am, aren’t I?”

“Then handle Jang Hyeon-su-ssi’s training for me. There’s no way I can teach him.”

“!”

“Lee Ha-eun’s schedule starts today, so just teach him whatever alongside it. You know what I’m saying, right?”

Jeon Hyeong-woo’s eyes went wide.

But I kept my face straight, shamelessly.

After a moment, Jeon Hyeong-woo the road manager twitched his mouth up.

“Heh heh…. You’re buying me a meal later, Chief Kwon.”

“I’ll definitely buy.”

“Yes, sir! I’ll head out, then!”

Jeon Hyeong-woo took the dazed Jang Hyeon-su and disappeared.

Watching them go, I muttered.

‘That felt good, but… tch.’

Was that too much for a first day?

A little guilt crept up on me.

Whatever I look like, Confucian thinking is drilled into my bones.

Meaning I’m pretty scrupulous toward people older than me.

That’s part of why the senior road managers were fond of me.

In that sense, with Jang Hyeon-su being older than me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d ridden him…. a bit too hard.

But I shook my head soon enough.

‘You have to get a leash on him this tight or he’ll cross a line.’

I finished the thought and turned my head.

There was Lee Ye-ji-ssi, twenty-four, who’d lost her fellow new hire in a single moment.

And Lee Ye-ji-ssi…. was in a slightly odd state.

“…Hic.”

A grown adult of twenty-four was streaming tears down her face.

On the road to Baekhak Entertainment’s second center in Sangam.

I glanced over at Lee Ye-ji-ssi in the passenger seat.

“…”

Our rookie road manager, who’d cried on her first day, was curled up tight.

She looked like a hamster whose sunflower seeds had been taken away…. From the mood alone, you’d think I’d threatened her.

I clicked my tongue lightly.

‘Her personality is on the soft side.’

Better than Jang Hyeon-su, but Lee Ye-ji’s condition wasn’t great either.

Given how this business works, a soft personality isn’t a strength.

So I forced my mouth open and tried to turn the mood around.

“The celebrities you’ll be handling from now on are the debut group kids.”

Jang Hyeon-su looked all but written off, and I couldn’t afford to lose both rookies.

For Seok-du hyung’s sake at the very least, I had to make one of them into a person.

“When the celebrity you handle throws fits… I mean, has a bad temper, it’s hard on the road manager, but these are debut-group kids, so it won’t be that hard.”

Lee Ye-ji forced her voice out to answer.

“…. Yes, Chief.”

“Well, anything you want to ask?”

“N, no, nothing.”

“Then what are you going to do when you make a mistake later?”

“?”

“If you make a mistake, I’m the one who cleans it up. Can you handle that?”

“!”

“Mistakes are fine, but I can’t handle mistakes made out of ignorance. Better to make a mistake about something you knew.”

Lee Ye-ji’s lips moved.

“…. I’m sorry.”

“It isn’t a sorry kind of thing, I’m just saying. Understand my position as the one teaching you a little, that’s all.”

“O, okay, then…!”

Lee Ye-ji forced her voice up a tone and asked me all sorts of things.

Most of it was material she’d have covered in her orientation training, but her effort to lift the mood even by force was worth something, so I answered each one step by step.

Maybe my explanations were kinder than she’d expected, because Lee Ye-ji bowed her head with a brighter face than before.

“Thank you, Chief!”

It was a bow I’d forced out of her, so I waved a hand.

I got out of the car and took Lee Ye-ji to practice room 3 at Baekhak’s second center.

“Ah, Chief Kwon?”

A man half bald held out his hand.

“Kim Jang-hoon, visual director. Good to meet you.”

“Kwon Chan, Management Team 5.”

“Right. Your team leader told me in advance. Shall we go in and talk first?”

Visual director Kim Jang-hoon opened the practice room door.

My gaze traveled slowly.

Under the bright lights.