I Spent a Night with a Top Star Actress – Chapter 6 – An accident.

Author: Dawn

When a person is rushed and has no room to breathe, their field of view narrows.

I used to be the same.

Before I won the lottery, I had no room either.

That old version of me overlapped with Team Leader Ma Seok-du.

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

The sight of him didn’t strike me as pathetic. It made sense to me.

Where does a salaryman find the room to look at the future?

Living up to the present is impressive enough on its own.

But this case was one you couldn’t look at through the present.

At least, that was what my gut said.

I rolled my glass in my hand and got started.

“Look into it.”

Actually, there was no need to look into anything.

I’d already checked before I came.

Reporter Seo, someone I’d been friendly with for a while, had given me the answer I wanted.

‘Twenty’s redhead? Ahh…. That Park Gyu-ri? She’s a pretty famous trainee, isn’t she? There’s plenty of talk about her private life.’

‘Director Kim Jang-hoon is famous, sure. I think he got pushed out of his last company for touching a trainee too.’

Gossip worth less than a tabloid sheet.

But in this industry, a story circulating in a reporter’s mouth means the man’s behavior hasn’t been good.

It was only circumstantial. In the current situation, that was enough.

Because from here, Team Leader Ma Seok-du was going to turn the circumstantial into hard evidence.

“Nothing bad comes from looking, right? Hyung, you’ve got plenty of connections. Dig around behind those two.”

Team Leader Ma Seok-du hesitated.

“…. Still, they’re family here. Digging around behind them isn’t right, is it, Chan?”

“Family, my ass. Does family paw at each other and suck face?”

“….”

“And think it through, hyung. If Twenty has a problem, you’re the one who gets fired.”

Team Leader Ma Seok-du’s shoulders jerked.

“…. What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If a problem comes up after the Twenty girls debut, whose word do you think they’ll listen to? Director Kim Jang-hoon, who the CEO brought in personally? Or Team Leader Ma Seok-du, with his poor numbers?”

“….”

“If it were me, I wouldn’t cut Director Kim Jang-hoon. I’d cut Team Leader Ma Seok-du. Trash or not, Director Kim Jang-hoon is the one with the ability.”

Team Leader Ma Seok-du’s eyebrows twitched.

“Fuck? I don’t have ability?”

“You’re a better person than you are a talent.”

“…. I’ll give you that. So what do you want? Dig deeper?”

He’d taken the bait.

But I didn’t yank the rod up too soon.

For all his size, Seok-du hyung is timid and easily scared.

Push too fast and he’d panic and back away.

So, lightly, a tap.

I made the offer like a joke, so a serious situation would feel like nothing at all.

“Dig deeper. If there’s no more evidence, we bury the case like you said, right? And if evidence does come out….”

I waved the baited rod around a little.

“Gather it properly and cut him loose. Cut Director Kim Jang-hoon’s neck before yours goes.”

A few days passed after the drinks with Seok-du hyung.

I went to work as usual and went home as usual.

That peaceful routine made me forget the incidents that had been burning through my head just days before.

But the situation wasn’t over.

Team Leader Ma Seok-du had been away from his desk for days now, and that alone said the case was in motion.

‘Would it have been better to help Seok-du hyung?’

I shook my head.

I’d already done as much as I could.

A company I’d already decided to leave.

Whether a scandal blew up, whether an affair happened, whether a sponsorship happened.

Honestly, none of it had anything to do with me.

If I’d made the board bigger anyway, it was purely because of Seok-du hyung.

What was left was Seok-du hyung’s share.

He’s stupid from being too good a person, but he still made team leader at Baekhak.

Trusting he’d handle it himself, I took a day off.

I ate a quick lunch and got into the ’14 K5 I’d bought secondhand.

I’d finished the installment loan on it just last year, so it was fully mine now, but today I kept noticing flaws all over it.

“Should I change cars?”

Honestly, isn’t this too shabby a car for a lottery jackpot winner?

I should be driving at least one of the German big three.

Thinking useless thoughts, I went to the real estate office I’d booked.

The agent, tiredness on her face covered by heavy makeup, greeted me like she knew me.

“Ah, Kwon Chan-ssi?”

“Yes. I’m a little early for the appointment, aren’t I?”

“Oh, better than late. Shall we sit for a moment?”

The agent made coffee and asked a question.

“Coffee, green tea? Which sounds good?”

I’d had enough caffeine on the way over, so I declined.

The agent took a sip of the coffee she’d been preparing for me and spoke.

“From what I heard on the phone, you wanted to see apartments over in Yongsan?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm…. Do you have a size in mind?”

“Twenty-eight pyeong, thirty-two pyeong? That’s about the size I want.” (+) ^[1]

“The national standard, then. Shall we take a look at what’s listed?”

The agent turned her laptop screen toward me.

I meant to look carefully, but there was nothing to look carefully at.

There were barely any listings on the screen at all.

The agent seemed to know it too.

“Twenty-eight and thirty-two pyeong listings in Yongsan have dried right up lately. The president moved his office to Yongsan out of nowhere.”

I clicked my tongue lightly.

“I’d like to look at other areas too. Would that be all right?”

“Of course. Our office has Yongsan, Gangnam, Sinsa and Nonhyeon all locked down, so look as much as you like.”

Widening the range brought up listings I actually liked.

The agent caught on like a ghost and asked.

“If you have the time, shall I show you in person?”

“Oh, I’d be grateful if you did.”

I went around Gangnam, Nonhyeon, Sinsa and Yongsan with the agent.

Among them, my eye caught on an older building on the outskirts, but attached to the Gangnam area all the same.

“This one’s twenty-five pyeong, but two billion. In Gangnam you can’t buy a listing at this price.”

“Twenty-five pyeong goes for two billion?” (+) ^[2]

“Oh, it’s Gangnam. Places like this go so fast people are fighting over them. Everyone says real estate has turned, turned, but that’s the provinces. Seoul, and Gangnam especially, is different.”

The agent spoke with confidence.

“You know that while everyone else was falling, Seocho and the rest of the Gangnam area bounced right back up? In the end, Korea is Seoul. And within Seoul, Seocho, Nonhyeon, Gangnam. Prices on this line don’t drop no matter what. There’s a reason the industry calls it Gangnam Undefeated.”

I scratched my chin slowly.

‘I already knew all this, but hearing it from someone working the ground hits differently.’

Was Gangnam really undefeated?

Turning the market’s proverb over in my head, I asked.

“Would a loan come through?”

“How much of a budget are you holding?”

“One point three billion? Roughly that much.”

The agent broke into a huge smile.

“With that much, absolutely. Where do you work?”

“I’m in entertainment.”

“Hmm. I don’t know entertainment well myself, but somewhere like Baekhak? A loan would come through no problem.”

The corner of my mouth twitched slightly.

Somewhere like Baekhak, no worries about a loan.

Then the agent tossed out a joke.

“Oh, but how does a young man your age put together one point three billion? Did you win the lottery or something?”

My heart went thump!

Luckily, the shake of it didn’t reach my face.

“I wish.”

“Lucky you~ I work in real estate and I still don’t own my own place. But with one point three billion, honestly, outside of Seoul you’d have no housing worries, right?”

“…. Right?”

“Then you’re buying as an investment, and if it were me I’d buy in Gangnam, no question. If the loan worries you, turn it into jeonse or monthly rent. Lots of people do it that way now.” (+) ^[3]

That caught my ear.

Turn it into jeonse or monthly rent?

“Would a tenant come right away?”

“Absolutely! Like I said, a listing like this is one people can’t find. On monthly rent you’d get at least two million a month. That’s why everyone doing gap investment takes the loan and puts the place up on monthly rent.”

Two million won is close to a month of my salary.

Without meaning to, my fist tightened a little.

Pressing down on a heart that had started racing along with it, I said.

“Could I think it over and get back to you?”

“Of course. It’s a big contract, you should think it over.”

I took a business card from the agent and went home.

An eight-pyeong studio came into view.

Coming from a twenty-five pyeong place worth two million a month back to an eight-pyeong studio that’s basically a semi-basement, it didn’t feel real.

Unable to shake the strange feeling, I ended up pulling out a can of beer.

-Kssh!

The sharp bite of alcohol tickled the back of my throat.

After emptying half the can in one go, I muttered.

“…I only meant to look, and now I really want it.”

Winning the lottery hadn’t changed my life.

But it had handed me the chance to change my life.

If I rolled 1.4 billion won well, I could eat well and live well for the rest of my life.

That was why I’d gone to the real estate office today, to look at apartments I could buy with 1.4 billion.

‘It’s not like I play stocks, or have any talent for running a business.’

I’d gone with no other options left and no real expectations…

So why was my chest pounding like this?

“Me, buying a Gangnam apartment? A plain salaryman like me?”

It felt so unreal that a laugh burst out of me!

“Ah, cut it… cut the nonsense out. Please….”

I slapped my mouth, smack smack, then cleanly finished the half can of beer left.

I brushed the stale taste out of my mouth and lay down.

But I couldn’t fall asleep easily, and kept picturing the Gangnam apartment I’d seen today.

‘How many people in Korea live in Gangnam?’

Five hundred thousand?

And out of those five hundred thousand, how many own their homes there?

Even generously, it wouldn’t come to one percent.

And that one percent moved Korea.

A class of society I used to think of as a league of their own.

And now, through a coincidence called the lottery, I could get one foot into that class too.

The anticipation of that starting line kept me tossing all night.

Thanks to which, I showed up to work the next day with puffy, swollen eyes.

And I got to see the management department turned completely upside down.

“Did you hear? They say Director Kim Jang-hoon had a sponsorship going.”

The sponsorship of the century, the board I’d enlarged with my own hands, had been exposed.

I came in to find the office in an unsettled mood.

“…Did you hear?”

“Wow… how did it end up like that?”

“My god, Director Kim Jang-hoon, the one the CEO brought in personally…”

Odd murmuring reached my ears.

“What! A sponsorship!”

“Hey, hey, keep it down, you!”

“Team Leader Kim, did you hear? Director Kim Jang-hoon and one of the girls in the debut group…”

“You know that pretty trainee in Twenty! Not only did she sleep with the director, but a trainee at another company…”

The office was steeped in dopamine over the first gossip in a long time.

Thinking that what was coming had come, I sat down without a sound.

Team 5’s road manager Jeon Hyeong-woo, who’d been talking with people from other departments, came rushing over.

“Manager Kwon!”

“Chief.”

“Ah… Chief Kwon! Have you heard the news?”

I asked back, playing dumb.

“What news?”

“I only heard this morning myself… it’s huge, huge! They found a sponsorship relationship inside the company!”

“A sponsorship? Who?”

“Director Kim Jang-hoon! You know him, right!? Twenty’s general director! That man, my god… they’re saying he’s got that kind of thing going with a trainee in the debut group, and the company intranet board has blown up over it!”

My eyes widened slightly.

‘A post went up on the intranet board?’

Don’t tell me Seok-du hyung posted it.

The only people who knew about this were me and Seok-du hyung, and I hadn’t so much as logged into the intranet board, so the one remaining culprit had to be Seok-du hyung.

But then, thinking about Ma Seok-du-ssi’s character, he isn’t a man who runs his mouth carelessly.

While I was wondering, Jeon Hyeong-woo the road clicked his tongue.

“Director Kim Jang-hoon, I never saw him that way, but he’s real trash.”

Playing dumb, I asked back.

“Really. He seemed like such a good guy.”

“Right? Wow… I mean, this is exactly the same as a road rolling around with the celebrity he’s in charge of, isn’t it?”

“….”

“Huh? Chief? Why do you look like that? Why the face like you just ate crap?”

…I couldn’t say it’s my conscience stinging me, so I managed my expression.

Then an unfamiliar voice called my name.

“Chief Kwon?”

I turned my head to see the leader of Management Team 1.