Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols Chapter 532 - The Best Boss

Having unanimously decided to wait for Kim Iwol, Spark immediately set to work on a plan to persuade the company, working right until dawn.

 

Under Jeong Seongbin’s leadership, they divided roles and created the necessary materials for a meeting. They put their heads together, repeatedly reviewing and refining the plan to find any potential weaknesses. By the time the final draft was completed, the sun was rising outside the window.

 

As soon as morning broke, Jeong Seongbin headed to the company. He had received word from the CEO to stop by as soon as he arrived, but he pushed that appointment back, using the excuse that he had urgent matters to verify first.

 

The person Jeong Seongbin needed to meet above all else was this man.

 

“You’re early. Have you been waiting long?”

 

“Sunbaenim…!”

 

Yur of Hellas. He was the one person who could give Jeong Seongbin the advice he needed most right now.

 

Last night, the managers had contacted Yur as well, knowing his friendship with Kim Iwol. No one in Hellas knew why Kim Iwol had disappeared. However, having gained a general understanding of the situation through that call, Yur had readily made time for Jeong Seongbin’s request.

 

“How is Spark holding up?”

 

Even though he had been called out at the crack of dawn, Yur’s first concern was for his juniors.

 

It wasn’t always reported in the news, but a member suddenly running away was a fairly common occurrence in the industry. The members of Spark, who had run forward together with nothing but sincerity and shared goals, might not have known it, but the idol world was a place where all sorts of incidents broke out frequently.

 

Similar things had happened around Yur every so often. There were even more cases if you included those that never became known to the public or fandom.

 

Tired of the suffocating idol life, wanting to date, unable to endure the agency’s unfair treatment… the reasons were as diverse as the number of idols who had vanished.

 

Those who left the entertainment industry would often resurface years later, leading different lives. Many started businesses or got married, while others found entirely new careers.

 

‘But if it’s Mr. Iwol, that’s a different story.’

 

It wasn’t as though Kim Iwol had dreamed of dating. Ever since Yur had seen Spark at UtopiA, the members had spent their time huddled together in their underground practice room. Within the agency, they had considerable influence and actively voiced their opinions.

 

There was no way he had simply grown sick of being an idol, either. The Kim Iwol that Yur had seen during the process of preparing for Hellas’s first comeback after the transfer was the complete opposite of someone ‘unmotivated.’

 

For such a diligent person to disappear without a trace… it was natural for those around him to be confused.

 

Then again, had there really been no warning signs?

 

If asked that, Yur was by no means innocent. At least, not from his perspective.

 

Yur had watched Kim Iwol from the closest vantage point when he was on the verge of taking extreme measures. He had seen him crushed by the weight of pressure. In fact, Yur had been so worried about Kim Iwol’s mental state that he would have personally intervened if the company had been half-hearted about finding him just to protect their corporate image.

 

While working on the album together, he had also heard Kim Iwol say multiple times to ‘look after Seongbin’. Whether in person or via text, Kim Iwol had said things like, ‘If you’re around, sunbaenim, I think Seongbin will have someone he can really rely on’.

 

At the time, Yur had simply thought it was an older member worrying about his leader. Looking back now, it was clear that even those words were part of the groundwork Kim Iwol was laying.

 

This wasn’t a good way to handle things for either the fans or the team. There was no way Kim Iwol didn’t know that.

 

If anything, he probably prepared so thoroughly because he knew. When he heard Jeong Seongbin explain that Kim Iwol had prepared contract termination papers, the penalty fee, and even a proposal for the next album, Yur had been inwardly aghast, though he didn’t show it.

 

“…So, I’ve put together a summary of the expected positive effects of hyung’s return in the future, weighing them against the damages caused by his failure to fulfill his contractual obligations during his disappearance. I wanted to ask for your advice, sunbaenim, to see if this sounds reasonable or just absurd.”

 

Jeong Seongbin pushed forward the stack of papers he had prepared. The script cited cases of members returning after hiatuses, comparisons of buzz between full-group and unit activities, and other examples to explain ‘why preserving Kim Iwol’s position would be more advantageous in the long term’.

 

“The company likely knows it’s better to maintain the full group, too. This sort of thing may never have happened at UtopiA, but it does happen fairly often in the entertainment industry. However, since he vanished without any notice, they might see it as a breach of trust. So I think the key will be how convincingly you explain the expected benefits.”

 

“Ah, I’ve organized that part separately!”

 

Jeong Seongbin pulled a thick binder out of the backpack he had placed on the chair next to him. Judging by the thickness alone, it was almost an entire stack of A4 paper.

 

“When did you prepare all of this?”

 

“Last night… we all gathered and worked on it together, so it didn’t take long!”

 

Having been the leader of a team for several times longer than Jeong Seongbin, Yur could read the hardships of a representative through his junior’s humble answer.

 

If an opinion arose within a group and they wanted to relay it to the company, the collection, summarization, and delivery were all the leader’s responsibility. If he had even handled this much paperwork, the amount of labor Jeong Seongbin had put in must have been a lot.

 

“You didn’t sleep at all, did you?”

 

“I’m fine. I don’t have any schedules today anyway!”

 

“You have a lot on your mind, don’t you?”

 

Yur couldn’t tell him not to worry. Under the circumstances, that would have been nothing but empty words. How were they going to explain the disappearance of a member to the fans? And with this incident, the power dynamic that Spark had managed to balance with the agency might be shattered.

 

“…Yes.”

 

Jeong Seongbin smiled weakly. Being good at pretending to be fine was supposedly one of the virtues of an idol, but the junior in front of Yur genuinely looked as though he was on the verge of breaking.

 

“Since everyone in Spark is so well-mannered, I knew you wouldn’t be able to say you’re struggling and would only come to ask for advice. Still, if the negotiations go well, this can be resolved amicably. And there are plenty of people who can help, so don’t worry too much.”

 

Yur couldn’t blindly promise that everything would work out. But he could offer realistic encouragement. Everyone at UtopiA knew that finding another talent on Kim Iwol’s level would be close to impossible.

 

“I’ll look into various ways to help as well. Since Mr. Seongbin prepared so perfectly, all I’ll probably have to do is apply a little influence here and there.. but still.”

 

“I’m sorry. Because of us…”

 

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m not doing this for free.”

 

A look of confusion crossed Jeong Seongbin’s face. Yur laughed and said, 

 

“Mr. Iwol asked me very earnestly. I think it was since he joined the Hellas album planning… He kept saying, ‘Please take good care of Seongbin’.”

 

Yur didn’t mention that Kim Iwol had even volunteered to stream the album. He didn’t because Jeong Seongbin’s expression was already heartbreaking enough.

 

Kim Iwol had always been like that. Even in their daily work, he told the members to just trust him. He tried to create a place for them to lean on. All while he himself never leaned on anyone.

 

What should I have done to make hyung lean on us instead?

 

The question that had tormented Jeong Seongbin all night weighed heavily on his heart.

 

***

 

The beginning of Jeong Seongbin’s self-reproach went back a long way. It was even before he had pulled the members together to start the conversation—it was around the time he had heard about Kim Iwol’s circumstances from Choi Jeho, who had returned from Gwangju.

 

Lee Cheonghyeon had protested strongly. Park Joowoo and Kang Kiyeon were split, eventually leaning toward, ‘If hyung went that far, I’ll wait’.

 

Jeong Seongbin had wavered between the two sides. He felt anxious, thinking this wasn’t right, yet he also worried if he was simply failing to trust his members.

 

‘It’s not that I don’t have doubts. I think the situation is serious, too. We can’t keep it hidden forever.’

 

‘…’

 

‘But I trust that the hyungs have discussed it thoroughly, so I won’t press for more answers this time.’

 

It wasn’t as though he had failed to say what needed to be said. Jeong Seongbin had made his position perfectly clear.

 

But his true feelings were somewhat different. Jeong Seongbin’s inner thoughts were closer to Lee Cheonghyeon’s. It was only his position as the mediator that had forced him to make a more ‘moderate’ decision.

 

Jeong Seongbin had always given Kim Iwol his full trust. Whenever he had a concern, he openly confided in him and asked for his advice. He believed that, if he kept doing so, someday Kim Iwol would open up to him in return.

 

When Kim Iwol started telling bits and pieces of his story, Jeong Seongbin believed that the iron-fortress-like hyung was gradually opening his doors. He thought everything was getting better, however slowly.

 

And then everything was, quite literally, smashed to pieces. Kim Iwol left the group without even giving them a warning. Jeong Seongbin hadn’t realized—until Choi Jeho pointed it out—that Kim Iwol might not have been able to lean on his dongsaengs. It was a mistake stemming from a failure to properly understand his colleague’s nature.

 

Regret flooded over him that he should have firmly pushed his own position instead. If he had, perhaps the outcome might have been different. That shallow what-if kept tormenting Jeong Seongbin.

 

It wasn’t as if Jeong Seongbin had waited just because he was a nice person. Whenever Kim Iwol praised him as the leader or the boss, Jeong Seongbin, too, had looked up to his hyung as someone from whom he had much to learn and had treated him as a role model.

 

The realization that this trust had not only gone unrepaid, but had never even reached the person it was meant for, caused something inside him to crumble.

 

Kim Iwol had always called him a great boss. Even though Jeong Seongbin was younger and often found himself lost and shaken, Kim Iwol had always respected his position. Even while sharing the load, Kim Iwol worried that the responsibility the leader carried might be too heavy.

 

How much had he given back to Kim Iwol in return? What more effort should he have made to be a good leader?

 

Because he didn’t even know what he had been missing, Jeong Seongbin’s pain only deepened.

 

“If I had reflected on this a little earlier, would the result have been different?”

 

Jeong Seongbin smiled bitterly as he voiced the worries that were now useless.