I Spent a Night with a Top Star Actress – Chapter 5 – An accident.

Author: Dawn

I slowly drank the coffee I’d bought on my way in that morning.

Strong caffeine went into my bloodstream and my sleep-fogged head cleared all at once.

Naturally, the reality I’d been avoiding came up in front of me.

“…. What is all this, first thing in the morning?”

I slept, got up, came to work, and two incidents had blown open.

-[International sender (image attached)]

-[Trainee Park Gyu-ri / Director Kim Jang-hoon]

This morning, a text came in from an international sender.

Spam messages are so normal for an office worker that it isn’t strange in itself.

The problem was the photo attached to this one.

“Director Kim Jang-hoon, the redhead Park Gyu-ri.”

The two of them, tangled up in each other.

To put it a little more bluntly, in that photo they were all over each other, going at it like there was no tomorrow.

‘I already knew about the sponsorship, so it isn’t much of a surprise.’

Who, exactly, and why.

Why would anyone send a photo like this to me?

“Coincidence?”

No.

Calling it a coincidence made no sense.

The right read was that someone sent it to me with an intent behind it.

‘…. But taking the situation on its own, this is solid evidence.’

If I report it upward, the sponsorship between Director Kim Jang-hoon and the redhead comes out.

Our Team 5 gets destroyed in the backlash, but still.

I scratched my head and thought about the second incident.

‘Chief. The guy bolted.’

‘Who?’

‘The rookie road manager. That Jang Hyeon-su. He got a taste of Lee Ha-eun’s spice yesterday and ran off. He isn’t picking up.’

Turning over the news Jeon Hyeong-woo had brought me, I let out a small laugh.

“…. This one at least makes some sense.”

Jang Hyeon-su running off after Lee Ha-eun worked him over isn’t surprising in the slightest.

If anything, I’d expected it. The only fresh part was that it took less than a day.

“Where do I start?”

One incident that makes no sense, but is quietly interesting and even fun.

One incident that makes sense, but that I don’t want to touch and that only irritates me.

I thought about it and picked the second.

Starting with the one I can actually solve looked like the better move.

Decision made, I called right away.

The line rang a few times, and that distinctive sharp voice pricked my ear.

-Hello?

I cleared my throat for a second and offered a greeting.

“You’ve set a record, Lee Ha-eun-ssi.”

-Kwon Chan?

“I thought he’d last three days at least, and he didn’t make one. Did you dislike the new manager that much?”

I said it pretty sharply, and no answer came back at all.

I drank my coffee and waited, unhurried.

After a moment, a laugh came through, so coy it could have melted the phone.

-You called me first thing in the morning to talk about that?

She’s laughing?

‘That’s a little unexpected.’

By the Lee Ha-eun pattern I know, this is the timing for her to come at me shrieking.

I tilted my head as I answered.

“Yes. You’ve got schedules starting up again, and how’s that going to work without a manager?”

-I’m Lee Ha-eun.

“And?”

-Who sticks a new hire on me as a manager? Do you people think at all?

I raised my eyes slightly.

‘Ah, so that was the point that got Jang Hyeon-su cut?’

The reason was so very Lee Ha-eun that I found myself agreeing as I answered.

“Fair enough.”

-Put a proper one on me.

“How about Jeon Hyeong-woo-ssi? The one you saw yesterday.”

-I don’t like him.

“Then who do you want?”

On the other end of the line, a suggestive little sound came through her nose.

-You?

One word, and my breath jammed in my throat.

I felt like I might choke to death, so I sucked hard on my filter.

-It’s not like making chief means you can’t work the road, is it?

Right, it isn’t that I can’t.

The problem is that I don’t want to work it with you.

No, more than that. Why is the person who asked for a new manager because it was uncomfortable calling me back?

It was ridiculous enough that I answered honestly.

“Sorry, but I’m not interested.”

-Should I make you interested?

A snort came out of me.

Lee Ha-eun’s voice froze over instantly.

-You’re laughing?

“Yes. Because you threatening me is funny.”

-It isn’t a threat.

“Sure. It isn’t a threat. But go ahead and try if you want. I’ll just quit.”

Lee Ha-eun caught her breath for a moment before answering.

-You keep threatening me with quitting.

Her voice went up half a tone.

‘She’s angry.’

I considered riding her a little more, then decided to stop there.

I don’t want to fight with Lee Ha-eun first thing in the morning.

“I’ll assign Jeon Hyeong-woo-ssi, the one you saw yesterday, as your temporary manager.”

-….

“If you swap him out too…. well. Team 5 can’t handle you, Lee Ha-eun-ssi, so you’ll be reassigned to another team. Just so you know.”

I didn’t get an answer.

-Click, click…

True to being out of her mind, she hung up whenever she felt like it.

A hollow laugh came out of me.

“That temper of hers.”

Still, that side of things was more or less settled.

What’s left is Director Kim Jang-hoon’s sponsorship.

I raised my head and looked at the horizon.

I could feel warm sunlight.

Winter has gone and spring really has come, apparently.

I enjoyed the warmth for a moment and muttered.

“This side too…. well, the answer’s already decided.”

Now that I have solid evidence, there’s no reason to put off exposing the sponsorship between Director Kim Jang-hoon and Twenty’s redhead.

Except the one exposing it isn’t me.

“Team Leader. Let’s have a soju tonight.”

Pulling Director Kim Jang-hoon down isn’t my job. It’s Ma Seok-du’s, the leader of Team 5.

That evening.

I held a modest party with Ma Seok-du, leader of our Management Team 5.

“Oi! Yer hyung’s buyin’, so eat plenty!”

Nothing gets on my nerves like a born-and-raised Seoulite doing an awkward Gyeongsang accent.

I creased my brow.

“What movie have you gotten stuck on this time?”

“Heh heh… I was on NutTube yesterday and I marathoned the whole of Nameless Gangster.”

“Boomer through and through. Even the movies you watch are boomer.”

“You little shit? Listen to how you talk to your hyung.”

Seok-du hyung poured me a soju.

The soju in the glass sat right at the rim, wobbling like it might spill.

He’d poured me as much as an older brother loves his younger one, so I had to return the favor.

I mixed him a soju-beer bomb at a seven-to-three ratio.

Seven being soju, naturally.

Seok-du hyung laughed out loud and downed the bomb I’d mixed in one shot.

“Kyah! That’s killer!”

A man who can’t control himself around alcohol, and I may have given him too fine a gift.

I shook my head and shot down the soju he’d poured me.

I put out the alcohol burning my throat with a sweet piece of chuck flap.

Seok-du hyung poured me another and spoke.

“Our Chan’s a chief already.”

“How long have you been drinking, and you’re already getting sentimental?”

“You get sentimental fast when you’re older, brat. So how is it, being chief? Manageable?”

It’s manageable.

Honestly, it’s easier than being a road manager.

‘Aside from the incidents that just blew up.’

Along with the thought, I made a show of hesitating.

Seok-du hyung reacted immediately.

“What’s with that face? Looks like you’ve got a lot you want to say.”

“Forget it.”

I pulled back once.

Telling him too easily would only make the shock worse for him.

“You never played push-and-pull with a woman and you’re doing it to me?”

“Push-and-pull, my foot. Just drink.”

“You know how I am, right? You want to tell me when you’re wasted, or do you want to come clean on your own?”

Seok-du hyung got impatient and snorted through his nose.

The sight of him looked exactly like…. looking at my bratty nephew.

‘Is this guy really thirty-four?’

It was ridiculous enough that a laugh burst out of me.

“What? Why are you laughing?”

“Never mind. Just look at this.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t be too shocked. Take a look.”

Seok-du hyung blinked and examined the phone I handed him.

A moment later.

Ma Seok-du’s face, already rough to start with, twisted up like an actual thug’s.

“…. The fuck? What is this, Chan?”

I drank my soju as I answered.

“What do you think it is? Exactly what it looks like. Director Kim Jang-hoon is running a sponsorship with a debut-group kid.”

It was supposed to be a promotion party, and the mood went heavy in one stroke.

Seok-du hyung couldn’t take his eyes off my phone, and I sipped soju without saying anything.

I don’t know how much time passed like that.

Seok-du hyung raked his hair into a mess and muttered.

“Does anyone besides you know about this?”

His question brought back the spam message that had come in this morning.

‘I don’t think there’s any need to bring that up.’

I deflected reasonably.

But I left room.

“For now it’s just me, but who knows. They’re carrying on this openly.”

Seok-du hyung couldn’t hold his anger and raised his voice.

“…Kim Jang-hoon, that son of a bitch. Has he lost his mind? No! Does he know what those girls mean to us, laying hands on them?”

Booking a private room for the celebration turned out to be a good call.

“Do you know how much the company is banking on Twenty right now, and the general director lays hands on them? Wow…. The bastard has no professional ethics! This is fucking…. Haa…”

Seok-du hyung finished bellowing and poured liquor into his stomach.

I watched him for a while, then abruptly cast a hook.

“So what are you going to do?”

“What do you mean, what am I going to do?”

“Are you reporting it upward?”

Seok-du hyung’s eyes shook hard.

“…. Is this the kind of problem that stays buried if we bury it?”

“A lot of heads would roll.”

At that, Seok-du hyung let out a hard sigh.

Team Leader Ma Seok-du, shoulders sagging like a moon bear that hadn’t eaten in days, muttered in a gloomy voice.

“…. Let’s bury it anyway, Chan. This isn’t a problem we can handle.”

The corner of my mouth lifted slightly.

“Because Director Kim Jang-hoon is more than you can handle?”

“That’s right. The CEO moved personally to bring that man in. You know how this industry is. How many people can actually do the general director job? Especially in a girl group market that’s half dead, there are only a handful.”

“And one of them is Director Kim Jang-hoon.”

“That’s right. One of them is Director Kim Jang-hoon. A director the CEO brought in himself, at that.”

Seok-du hyung let out a hard sigh.

“Filthy as it is, what can we do? The man is a piece of trash, but he’s a piece of trash with ability.”

I rolled my glass.

‘Right…. true.’

Like Seok-du hyung said, this industry treats a talented piece of trash better than a decent guy with no talent.

So the ending of this incident is already decided too.

‘If Director Kim Jang-hoon doesn’t get cut out, my Seok-du hyung’s neck goes instead.’

I don’t want to watch Seok-du hyung get fired from Baekhak.

That’s why I’m sticking my nose into this.

Along with the thought, I opened my mouth.