| Episode 27. Workplace Bullying (1)
“What?”
“Like, maybe you caused some ridiculous accident and need help cleaning it up, or you’re getting money extorted from you by some scary upperclassman at school and dreaming of revenge.”
“It’s absolutely nothing like that!”
At my examples, Jeong Seongbin looked horrified and shook his head hard.
What a relief. I couldn’t be in the same boat as someone thinking such terrifying thoughts.
Feeling much lighter, I waited for Jeong Seongbin to speak first.
Before meeting Jeong Seongbin, I’d hinted that we should wait until he opened his mouth, so Choi Jeho was also keeping his mouth shut and staying quiet.
With that terrifying muzzle of his sealed, my mind felt considerably at ease.
“There’s something I wanted to tell you first before you hyungs misunderstand.”
For someone who began so solemnly, Jeong Seongbin spoke rather cautiously.
“Well, we’re debuting in the same group now. But the CEO told me… asked me what I thought about being the leader.”
So that part seems to be going according to the original flow.
In the current situation, where volatility was as extreme as Department Head Nam’s moods, this was welcome news.
I was waiting with satisfaction for what would come next, but Jeong Seongbin only lowered his head and said nothing.
‘No way. Is that what he called us for?’
With Jeong Seongbin’s personality, I didn’t think he’d call only the hyungs over just to ask us to congratulate him on becoming leader.
When I glanced beside me, Choi Jeho practically had “Is that all you had to say?” written across his face.
You Spark bastards, be grateful to me. If I hadn’t shut Choi Jeho’s mouth in advance, the occasion of welcoming your superior for the next seven years could have ended in disaster.
But if that really was the entirety of his business, the reason Jeong Seongbin called us was obvious.
He must feel apologetic about becoming leader when there were older members on the team.
There had been a few people like that at Hanpyeong Industries too, people who felt awkward dealing with subordinates older than themselves.
Age gaps that could be brushed off while you were still peers often only hit home after a promotion.
‘Still… does he not realize there’s no one else who can be leader besides him?’
I recalled the dazzling lineup of Spark.
Starting with Choi Jeho, the world’s greatest mouth-fighter who caused discord every time he opened his mouth.
Then Park Juu, whose fans marked the dates on their calendars if he said as many as five sentences even in their own content.
Lee Cheonghyeon, who looked endlessly bright and like he lived in a flower garden.
And Kang Giyeon, the clear-eyed madman whose gaze was always lit with madness.
There wasn’t a single one of them suited to stand in front of the public and say, “Hello, we’re Spark! Please take good care of us!”
It was like a company with five employees, all five of whom only did fieldwork, with no one to approve anything.
In short, the combination was hopeless. Unless Jeong Seongbin was there.
“If we were to choose a leader among us, I also thought you were the most suitable.”
I honestly stated my opinion. But Jeong Seongbin’s expression was still dark.
“With you hyungs here, I don’t think it’s really… right for me to be leader.”
“Were you the type to be that obsessed with seniority?”
It was half a joke, but half a genuine question.
To begin with, I’d already been bothered by the fact that Jeong Seongbin was the only trainee who used extremely polite speech.
If I could reach an agreement with Choi Jeho, I was thinking we needed to institute a system of casual speech within the group as soon as possible.
After he finished speaking, Jeong Seongbin’s shoulders trembled slightly. It seemed he had really been agonizing over this on his own.
“If you’re feeling pressured because you have to represent a bunch of members with poor social skills, I don’t know what to say. But if you’re worried because of age, you don’t have to be at all.”
“I never thought the members had poor social skills…!”
Jeong Seongbin waved his hands in denial.
What a kind guy. I had thought that, though.
“Then is the reason you’re worried really because of age?”
“I think there must be a reason why the eldest hyung is the leader in most teams. Compared to you hyungs, I lack leadership and things like that….”
I was surprised. I hadn’t known Jeong Seongbin, who had been widely praised in the idol scene as a leader with top-tier character, was this fainthearted.
As far as I remembered, the stories about Jeong Seongbin’s school days that circulated among fans had plenty of sociable anecdotes about him getting along well with all sorts of people.
It seemed that a long trainee life inevitably lowered one’s self-esteem.
‘That doesn’t sit well with me.’
Unlike me, whose self-esteem had been eroded from getting beaten down at Hanpyeong Industries, these kids were still just children who weren’t even twenty yet.
It seemed this team needed to recover its self-esteem before debuting. Except for Choi Jeho.
However, separate from protecting his self-esteem, I’d also be in trouble if Jeong Seongbin didn’t become leader.
Even excluding me, who had the constitution of a low-ranking employee who didn’t want to stand out.
Judging from years of monitoring experience, the Spark guys wouldn’t even be able to open their mouths anywhere without Jeong Seongbin.
For the sake of the people desperately scraping together every second of their favorite’s screen time, Spark needed Jeong Seongbin.
At times like this, the most effective method was to make him say with his own mouth why it had to be him.
“Putting everything else aside, Seongbin.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think there’s anyone on our team besides you who could be leader?”
At my words, Jeong Seongbin flinched.
I knew.
A kid who thought as much as Jeong Seongbin would have imagined, at least twenty times, what it would be like if someone other than him became leader.
“I don’t think it’d be particularly good if Choi Jeho, who sincerely fights even with the maknae, became leader. Or if I did, when I can’t tell a left turn from a right turn if someone explains it verbally.”
“Why are you dragging me into this when I was sitting quietly?”
“Are you denying what I just said?”
“Keep talking.”
Even aside from personality, there were plenty of reasons why Jeong Seongbin had to be leader.
He was the one who led practice, and he was the one who took care of the trainees in the smallest details.
That wasn’t something that could be explained away simply as his nature.
After all, being willing to go through trouble for others wasn’t something that happened automatically just because someone put a title on you.
After kindly explaining even “When the younger members become leader_the despair version.zip,” I added,
“So you don’t need to feel sorry to us, or worry that the hyungs will feel uncomfortable because a younger member became leader.”
“Hyung….”
“The others are your friends or younger than you, so it’ll be fine. But if Choi Jeho doesn’t listen later, tell me. I’ll fight him for you.”
“Why do you only assume I won’t listen? You might be the one who drives Jeong Seongbin crazy.”
“I’m the type to grovel hard before those in power, so that won’t happen.”
Perhaps Jeong Seongbin mistook my words for a joke, because only then did his expression relax.
Honestly. I was serious.
Though he had picked fights with everything I said, Choi Jeho also indirectly expressed his own opinion.
“To begin with, there isn’t really anyone who can be leader besides Jeong Seongbin.”
Sometimes, one word from someone you’d never expect to say such a thing strikes deeper than a hundred words.
After getting through even Choi Jeho’s gate, Jeong Seongbin finally smiled in relief.
‘It’s a relief if he isn’t burdened by the leader position itself, but….’
I thought we’d gotten over the biggest mountain when we talked about rankings. I was too complacent.
It would be a problem if Jeong Seongbin’s self-esteem continued not to recover even after overcoming the issue of his ranking.
All the more so when we already had the case of Kang Giyeon, who was suffering after losing his confidence.
As I looked at Jeong Seongbin’s back while he led the way to the practice room, I sincerely hoped that this wasn’t a side effect of me moving up the debut schedule, and that from now on, please, nothing would happen.
However, my prayer was utterly shattered exactly three days later.
I mean, it was smashed to pieces.
* * *
The incident happened when I went to get my phone from the manager and, while I was at it, picked up the confidentiality agreement.
+
[SYSTEM] A “new task” has been assigned.
▷ Take a photo that includes the confidentiality agreement
▷ Reward: EXP (5)
+
I suppose you could say I was puzzled by a task completely different in nature from the ones so far.
‘Did they mess around with the documents or something?’
Until now, the system had never given me a task that would harm my idol activities, only ones that would help them.
At first, I wondered if there were some poisonous clauses in the confidentiality agreement. But there was no way I would have missed a few poisonous clauses.
‘The part about it not being the agreement itself, but a photo including the agreement, is especially suspicious.’
Judging by the task description, it seemed like the agreement was just being used.
In fact, even when I took a photo with the agreement placed right in the center, no notification appeared saying the task was complete.
‘What the hell do you want me to do?’
I placed the agreement in the left corner, then held it up in the air on the right, taking around twenty photos.
Then, when only the edge of the agreement was visible and about three-quarters of the break room door behind it was captured on the screen—
+
[SYSTEM] The “task” has been completed.
▷ Reward: EXP (5)
▷ Accumulated EXP: 60
▷ Accumulated Points: 0
+
Along with a dazzling light, the completion notification appeared.
‘It’s complete when I took a photo this shitty?’
I checked the last photo I’d taken in my gallery.
The focus had landed in the completely wrong place, so even the words “confidentiality agreement” weren’t visible.
The focus had landed in such a strange place that the man beyond the glass door of the break room and Jeong Seongbin were instead clearly visible.
‘…Huh?’
I took my eyes off the phone screen and stared at the break room in front of me.
Jeong Seongbin really was standing inside the break room. With a face clearly full of tension.
The person sitting across from him was also a familiar face.
It was Jang Junhu, the owner of the song we had sung not long ago during the guide recording experience.
‘Were those two close enough to meet separately?’
Even as I questioned it, my head already knew.
As long as one side was sitting there leisurely, making the other stand while snickering, I had to throw out the assumption that they were close.
As if to confirm my assumption, Jang Junhu picked something up and threw it near Jeong Seongbin.
‘This crazy bastard?’
I immediately knocked on the break room door and entered. Both their gazes turned toward me in an instant.
“Seongbin, you were here?”
At my sudden appearance, both their faces stiffened.
I looked straight at Jang Junhu and greeted him like an inexperienced rookie who had failed to realize a great senior was present.
“Senior Jang Junhu, you were here too! Hello, sir!”
“…Uh. I haven’t seen you before.”
“I’m Kim Iwol, a trainee who joined this time, sunbae-nim!”
For the first time in a while, the voice I used back when Department Head Nam drilled discipline into me came out.
When I glanced at the floor, a water bottle with a little water inside was rolling around.
Fuck, what if it had hit the kid?
My fist clenched on its own. I barely held back my primordial rage and spoke.
“The manager was looking for Seongbin. If you were in the middle of talking, should I wait outside? I’ll let the manager know in advance.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Thank you!”
Like a clueless bastard, I brightly bowed ninety degrees and then pulled Jeong Seongbin by the arm.
I hoped I was overreacting, but if Jang Junhu had been giving Jeong Seongbin shit, I intended to separate Jeong Seongbin from this place first.
“Wait.”
Just as we were about to leave the break room for now, Jang Junhu called us to a stop.
Jang Junhu’s gaze was fixed on the phone in my hand.
“Aren’t trainees not allowed to carry phones around?”
Jang Junhu asked, sitting crookedly.
I maintained the most good-natured smile I could and replied.
“I have circumstances, so I’m using it with the manager’s permission.”
At that, Jang Junhu crooked a finger at me.
“Bring it here.”
At Jang Junhu’s words, the atmosphere froze in an instant.
Strength entered the hand holding the phone.