| Episode 80. KPI Design Support Program (2)
‘It’s over.’
Thank heavens I hadn’t gotten up from the sofa yet. If I had, my legs might have given out and I would have collapsed on the spot.
So does this mean I can get my memories of my sister back now?
And prevent her accident, too?
It means I can get a job at some other company instead of Hanpyeong Industries, right?
My mind went completely blank. Wondering if I had misread the words, I blinked and reread the message written on the system, not missing a single syllable.
No matter how many times I checked, the system’s words remained the same.
+
[SYSTEM] “Eul’s” KPI, “Debut as a six-member boy group,” has been confirmed.
+
My heart pounded rapidly.
At the same time, I quickly began planning what came next.
First, I should tell the company I want to leave before the next original content video goes up. That way, they’ll cut out my parts from the next video onward.
As for the penalty fee, if I sell all the stocks I’d been sitting on, I should somehow manage. If it comes down to it, I’ll work three part-time jobs and even sell my hair.
The sooner I leave, the sooner that bastard Lee Cheonghyeon can use the space where my bedding was for his work laptop or luggage, so I should hurry and find a gosiwon or something.
Just in case, I was thinking of putting together the next concept proposal, list of ideas, and handover documents I’d been organizing bit by bit and handing them over to the planning team on a USB.
‘I’ll just supplement the keywords that came up during today’s live broadcast and give it to them. And then…….’
I glanced once at the guys watching their own stage video with shining eyes, then looked away.
I should tell these guys as soon as possible, too.
It seemed only right to tell them first before I told the company. They were the ones who had suffered the most damage because of my addition, and they were the ones who would continue to suffer image-wise for a good while.
The thought that leaving early would be better for the team than me staying and dragging the members down was the only thing that made my heart feel a little lighter.
Just as I was trying to find the right timing, thinking, ‘Once this part ends……’ and ‘Once this verse ends……,’ the system lit up again.
Already on edge, I wondered why the hell it was doing this now and irritably checked the system.
Written there was something utterly absurd.
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[SYSTEM] A work instruction has arrived from the “Person in Charge.”
▶ I saw the results this time, and Assistant Manager Kim did manage to pull his weight, more or less. Well, I suppose Assistant Manager Kim should at least earn his paycheck. Try a little harder on the next one.
[SYSTEM] “Eul’s” KPI has been designated as “Achieve first place on a music show as six-member Spark.”
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What kind of bullshit is this?
I already achieved the KPI, didn’t I? Why is this coming up again?
I stared blankly at the system window, then checked the “Performance Reward” section I had seen before once more.
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[SYSTEM] A “Performance Reward” has been designated for “Eul” upon achieving the final KPI.
+
So, clearly, it said that if I achieved the KPI, I would receive a reward…….
At that moment, my gaze landed on one spot.
‘Final?’
As far as I remembered, the word “final” had not been in front of the “Debut as a six-member boy group” KPI.
Thinking, No way, I called up the system. I could feel the ominous aura of being screwed rising again and again.
Then the system screen changed once more. It was a window containing information related to KPIs that I had not seen before.
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[SYSTEM] “Eul” is being notified of the “KPI Progress Status.”
▷ 1st: Debut as a six-member boy group
▷ 2nd: Achieve first place on a music show as six-member Spark
▷ (The following are undisclosed)
.
.
.
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Fuck.
Fuck, does this even make sense?
They’re deceiving people with this kind of shitty wordplay?
I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even speak properly. My head went blank in a different way from before.
My body trembled with emptiness and despair.
So, in other words, I had to achieve who knew how many KPIs before the final KPI would show up.
And only after completing all of that would I receive this so-called final KPI reward?
And without knowing that, I’d been played for a fool, breaking my back preparing to say goodbye?
Anger surged up inside me. System or whatever, I wanted to rip it all apart and shove it into a trash can.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”
While I was spitting out every curse word I knew in my head like a machine gun, someone shook my arm and asked.
It was Choi Jeho.
“Hyung, are you okay? You don’t look so good.”
Then Jeong Seongbin asked with a worried expression.
Come to think of it, the living room was quiet. At some point, another stage video had been paused.
“Hyung, were you tired and trying to go to sleep first? Did I hold you back for no reason?”
Lee Cheonghyeon scratched his head, looking awkward.
“You must be tired. We’ll clean up and go in too, so go rest first.”
“I’ll turn off the living room light right away……!”
Kang Giyeon and Park Juu each added a word in turn.
Even the system should say something that makes sense.
The bucket of cold water I’ve thrown over these guys’ debut path is huge. If it hadn’t been for me, they would have filled the choreography with difficult moves and gone viral as “the rookie boy group with insanely difficult synchronized dancing,” or been praised as “a talented boy group where every vocalist is heavenly” and had nothing but success ahead of them.
And now it wants me to keep riding the bus these guys are driving, freeloading on them over and over? With no end in sight?
I gritted my teeth and made it into the debut group, thinking I had thrown away whatever conscience I had. Because I hated Hanpyeong Industries as much as hell itself, and because I wanted to save my sister somehow.
But I didn’t have the confidence to use these guys again and again for my own selfish desires.
After all, the lives staked on this team didn’t belong only to these five guys.
My chest felt tight. I couldn’t bring myself to meet the five pairs of eyes looking at me.
“……Sorry, I think I’m just a little tired. Don’t mind me. You guys keep watching.”
So I ran away.
And, trying not to listen to the sound of the guys quietly cleaning up the living room, I pulled the blanket over my head and tried to sleep.
* * *
Naturally, I didn’t sleep a wink.
The only small mercy was that Choi Jeho and Lee Cheonghyeon were sleeping in, taking full advantage of the end of promotions.
All night long, I organized the pros and cons of me staying in Spark.
There were roughly two pros.
1. The team would not have to go through the issue of a member leaving right after debut.
2. I might be able to prevent some major controversy that could happen in the future.
On the other hand, there were plenty of cons.
1. My pathetic movements make the overall level of the team look lower.
2. The longer I stay, the more material future fans will have to mosaic out.
3. The average visuals drop.
4. The average age of the team rises.
.
.
.
And more than anything, what weighed on my mind was that it would be rude to the future fans who would come to like the five-member Spark.
Even without looking in the mirror, I could clearly imagine the dark circles under my eyes had deepened.
I trudged out to the living room.
Then, out of habit, I was about to toast some bread, but the thought that even bread was a luxury for a bastard like me made me sit at the dining table and open my laptop instead.
Just then, a message from our manager had arrived on the PC messenger.
Manager Chanyeong
[Guys, organize your original content ideas and upload them here by the end of today~]
It was about the individual original content videos we were planning to prepare and upload during the off-season to show each member’s personal charm.
Back when we were planning, I had only come up with topic examples for the five of them and hadn’t even thought about my own. After all, the content filmed then was supposed to be released only after my departure announcement.
“Ha…….”
I let out a deep sigh and rubbed my face dry.
If I wanted to achieve my initial goal, I had to stay in this team no matter what. And I had to aim for even higher goals while I was at it.
It wasn’t as if I had unlimited time, either.
Spark got their first win in their fourth year after debut. Their results were pretty good after that, but until then, they had struggled nonstop.
Considering that I had to prevent my sister’s accident, which would happen a few years from now, I had to secure as much time as possible. I never knew when the system would play another trick and smack me in the back of the head again.
The conclusion was that I had to make this group take first place as soon as possible and finish every last one of the remaining undisclosed KPIs.
If I could do that, would I have lived my life as Department Head Nam’s lackey at Hanpyeong Industries?
Maybe because I’d been so angry since yesterday, my head hurt now.
‘First place……. First place, huh.’
Like a machine, I searched “idol first place” on a portal site.
News articles about idols who had recently taken first place on music shows appeared in a long list. It was an impressive lineup.
And Spark had to break through all that and take first place. With a sandbag called me attached?
Yeah, absolutely impossible.
A hollow laugh escaped me on its own. If it were about moving up the five members’ first win, that would be one thing, but I couldn’t imagine a picture where Spark took first place with me included.
My gaze soon shifted to the manager’s message.
Before worrying about the distant future of first place, this was more urgent. Because I had been so focused on leaving that I hadn’t thought about my own original content at all.
But would there even be anyone who wanted to watch original content about me in the first place?
A live broadcast by an incompetent male idol who cakes on base makeup to hide his dark circles, makes a name headband at dawn, and whose only special talents are memorizing subway maps and matching Job Planet star ratings, no less. Even I wouldn’t want to watch that.
I tried to remember what content had been fun when I monitored Spark’s original content.
And failed spectacularly. I had briefly forgotten that these guys were a no-fun group acknowledged even by their fans.
‘Couldn’t I do something like Study With Me……?’
I wanted to go with a “Let’s all study together for finals!” kind of vibe, but since a man who had graduated high school ages ago was stuffed inside me, it was obvious that wouldn’t be fun either, so I gave up.
I was confident when it came to coming up with video topics for other people. If it was Spark, I could even come up with twenty things for each member to do.
But if someone asked what would be good for me to do alone, I had nothing to say.
Just as I was racking my brains, I heard a bedroom door open. When I turned around, Kang Giyeon was coming out while yawning.
“You’re up early. I thought you’d sleep in.”
“My eyes just opened early. What about you? It’s Saturday, but you’re up early too.”
“It’s become a habit.”
Seeing that my laptop was on, Kang Giyeon asked what I was doing so early in the morning. I answered while closing one internet window after another.
“The manager asked us to decide what we’re doing for original content and let him know, so I was thinking about it. Did you decide?”
“I was looking at the list you gave me and thought of a few candidates. I was going to ask you later anyway, hyung. Do you have time?”
“I do. But I’m the problem.”
“Why?”
Kang Giyeon pulled out the chair across from me and sat down as he asked.
“Because I can’t think of anything suitable.”
“Didn’t you find ten for each of us?”
“When it comes to me doing it, nothing feels right.”
After listening to me, Kang Giyeon said without much hesitation,
“You can do that, hyung.”
“What?”
“‘I’ll Answer Anything.’”