The Malicious Member Has Returned! Episode 179
* * *
I flashed a bright smile at Director Shin, who was furrowing his brow with a half-dumbfounded and half-‘how on earth did you?’ expression.
‘How on earth did you?’
Say it properly.
In cases like this, ‘How did you go this far?’ would be more fitting.
I knew it, but to think there was such a picky custom for just one cup of black coffee.
“Boss. I’m going to order now. Uh… what was it? Guatemalan beans, black, four shots….”
“Huh? Huh? W-wait a moment!”
“A 12-ounce cup. And this should be hot, but not too hot. If you’re going to add ice, make sure it’s only two pieces….”
“Chunyong-ssi? Chunyong-ssi?”
“…And please sprinkle a little cinnamon powder on top at the end.”
“Uwaah! Are you doing this to torment me?!”
“As if I would…!”
…
I thought I was going to die of embarrassment the entire time I was telling the coffee truck boss!
“Ahem….”
Recalling the awkwardness from earlier for a moment, I once again held out the coffee I’d been holding toward Director Shin.
“Take it for now, just take it.”
“…….”
And as if my prediction had been correct, Director Shin hid his discomfiture beneath a poker face and obediently accepted the coffee I held out.
No matter that we were on a film set, if this hadn’t matched his taste in the slightest, Director Shin would have definitely refused it coldly.
So even if I didn’t get the beans exactly right, this much was a passing score.
Holding the coffee I offered, Director Shin, who had looked me up and down, slowly opened his mouth again.
“…What is this?”
“Pardon?”
“Leaving aside how you knew my coffee tastes, why are you putting on such an obvious act of flattery?”
Well, I’d thought he would ask how I knew his coffee taste first.
Be that as it may, as if showing that he was a businessman who valued ends over means, Director Shin seemed more concerned with the intention lurking beneath the surface than the coffee I offered itself.
“…Not just you, but the other members too, they’ve been crawling around me like cats of some sort. Did they all at least get the orders right?”
“Well, I’m not sure….”
I tried my best to maintain eye contact as if nothing was wrong.
I was confident I could easily answer if he interrogated me about how I matched his coffee taste, but to ask me outright what my ulterior motive was.
“It’s just, this is your first time visiting our filming set. So isn’t everyone just wanting to treat you well?”
“Treat me well? Me? …Kids with no social experience wouldn’t think that. There’s no reason to act like that unless they have some ulterior motive. So speak up.”
See.
Just as expected, interrogating me with skilled ventriloquism when the film set people passed by during a brief break.
This was a well-known trait of Director Shin, and his nature.
Sensitive, suspicious of everything.
Expecting that others also acted with ulterior motives just like himself, and committing acts even before that.
Because he was this kind of person, wasn’t it obvious that he tried to kick Logan out first for his own gain?
And used me as a shield for Liu Wei’s escape to China.
“…….”
Because of the memories of the
There was no need to be angry now.
Because at this point in time, they hadn’t happened yet.
Above all, that person was the top decision-maker bringing in investments for our T.O.J right now, and I was someone who dearly wished for T.O.J to succeed.
Think of the goal, Kim Chunyong.
…
Just as the person before me would do, I calmly soothed my slightly heated heart and slowly chose the words I would say next.
“What’s important is that our members are paying attention to Director Shin, and I paid attention to Director Shin and ‘specially’ even brought coffee. Isn’t that right?”
“So why?”
“Whew. Because I obviously want to make a good impression, of course.”
“Heh….”
On Director Shin’s face, who let out a hollow laugh at my brazen words, emotions were openly displayed in a way most unlike him.
As if saying, ‘Look at this punk.’
He had roughly noticed why I was acting this way, but he wouldn’t have expected me to say it so directly.
Because during the previous repackage album meeting, he had revealed his displeasure toward me himself.
Acting like this despite hearing that meant one of two things.
Either I was so tactless that I didn’t know it was displeasure.
Or, I understood everything but had something I wanted.
“…….”
Director Shin, who had been staring at me intently, soon plopped down into a chair near him and slowly opened his mouth.
“…Sit down for a moment.”
—I got him.
The moment I heard those words, I naturally squatted down beside him and smiled brightly.
Just preventing Director Shin from nitpicking about the jacket shoot was a huge gain, but it would be even better if I could get more than that.
From the start, that’s what tiger hunting was like.
You had to gain something more than just letting it pass without care.
“—Next! Mr. Hwaseong, please come in for filming!”
“Yes!”
“Chunyong-ssi! You’re going in right after, so please stand by!”
The noisy and busy filming set filled both our fields of vision, and Director Shin’s mouth, which had been quietly observing it, slowly opened again.
“…What are you hoping to gain by wanting to make a good impression?”
As if responding to my blunt display of purpose, the main point came out immediately without beating around the bush.
“We’re not in that kind of relationship to begin with. I have no reason to pay attention to you either. However, I need to know the reason you’re acting like this.”
“…….”
We’re not in that kind of relationship.
I replayed the words that had been embedded in my head earlier and slowly chose my words.
From here on, I had to be careful.
Because if I laid out the board only to be ignored and sent back for nothing, it would only hurt my mood with nothing good coming of it.
What did I want right now, sitting next to Director Shin without drawing people’s eyes.
And what words could move this person’s heart.
And what could I obtain afterward?
The result of squeezing my brain, which was much clearer and sharper than when I was busy drinking, but not all that smart, to the limit.
“…Our team will succeed.”
A more fundamental statement popped out.
And Director Shin’s expression upon hearing those words changing into something like ‘what kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden,’ well.
No need to even mention it.
But from this point on was the start of a proper conversation between Director Shin and me.
Because we had met in a twisted state from the beginning.
Before tying other knots, let’s untangle that twisted part first.
* * *
The jacket shoot site was inevitably always busy.
They had to extract the maximum results within a limited time, and if necessary, they had to additionally shoot pictorial cuts to be inserted here and there in the album.
Therefore, in this case, not only the professionalism of the filming staff but also the roles of the subjects were very important.
Knowing how to present themselves well for the camera.
And knowing with their heads which moment would be captured.
“…….”
However, Shin Giho was a person ignorant of such things.
He had no need to know them in the first place, and even if he did, he had no place to use them.
However, such a person was standing at T.O.J’s filming site for a while, holding a lukewarm, cooled coffee in one hand.
Well, it was because something bothered him about just leaving.
“Yes, Chunyong-ssi, please come in for filming right now! Pose directing starting!”
“Yes!”
It was that red-haired idol who had just been conversing with him until moments ago and was now revealing himself under the lights.
‘…I don’t like him.’
Truly, Kim Chunyong was someone Shin Giho could not like even if he wanted to.
The main culprit who made the trainee Shin Giho had invested so much effort into voluntarily drop out and return.
And an eyesore who snatched that spot, reminding Shin Giho of his own failure.
Furthermore, an impertinent bastard who couldn’t even read the room and babbled on and on at an agency director.
“…Tch.”
Without taking his eyes off Kim Chunyong, who was now beginning to move his body following Moon Yunha’s directing, Shin Giho naturally took a sip of coffee.
In his head, the conversation he had exchanged with Kim Chunyong until just moments ago was being fuzzily organized.
“Your team will do well? Just to say that, you pulled this with me….”
“Honestly, Director, you don’t really care whether our team succeeds or fails right now. Right? You’d be happy if we did well, but you don’t want to put in that much effort.”
“Such insolence. Who interrupts an elder’s words like that?”
“Haha… still, I’m better than Liu Wei, aren’t I?”
“Heh….”
That name that popped out immediately without beating around the bush, Liu Wei.
Because there were parts where what Kim Chunyong and Shin Giho knew differed from each other, if they didn’t pin down the subject like this from the start, their words tended to miss the mark.
Ah, honestly, they were uncomfortable with each other.
However, Kim Chunyong, who had judged that he wouldn’t be able to talk like this if not now, showed no mercy.
“…Anyway, you’re going to bring in investment. From none other than Logan’s parents. That’s why you permitted Logan’s song to be included.”
“I don’t need to tell you all my reasons.”
“Yes. I know, so I’m not very curious. However….”
‘Since it’s come to this, wouldn’t it be easier to just push us? You need the credentials of having produced a successful idol too, Director.’
Those words of Kim Chunyong were a latent declaration of truce.
Since our purposes aligned to some extent, let’s strategically join hands this time.
They were quite impudent words for a mere idol member to say to a director, but considering the ill fate accumulated since
The problem was Shin Giho’s will.
‘What the hell does he know to babble on uselessly like that.’
In truth, ‘pushing’ required much more effort than one might think.
Grabbing the most appropriate timing for activities, putting in more promotions and advertisements, and bringing in other programs and filming to recover that investment.
No matter that it was an entertainment agency, there clearly existed a system within the company.
So he couldn’t act rashly for gains that were hard to even dare estimate.
Moreover, T.O.J, and Kim Chunyong within it, was a figure who had fallen out of Shin Giho’s favor—the one who could decide such a will.
No matter how nicely one put it, it was difficult for things to go easily.
However, there was exactly one thing Kim Chunyong touched on that got to Shin Giho.
“Haha… but you know.”
“What?”
“Our debut album indicators, weren’t they good?”
The thing Shin Giho cared about and believed in the most.
Everything was told by numbers.
What would happen next and how things would progress could be predicted solely by numbers.
No matter how much Kim Chunyong was displeasing to Shin Giho, and no matter how much he didn’t want to put effort into T.O.J, that alone was an unchanging truth.
“Chunyong, dear! Sweep your hair to the side! That’s it!”
“…Tch.”
Shin Giho, who had been quietly listening to Moon Yunha’s lightning-fast directing toward Kim Chunyong during the shoot, clicked his tongue and slowly moved his steps toward the exit.
“…Ah, I think I need to go film now. Then, Director, you too….”
“Wait.”
“…Yes?”
“How did you know my coffee taste?”
“Ah, that.”
‘The part-timers at the company first-floor cafe recommended that it’s delicious when drank like this. They said you drink it every day.’
And Shin Giho’s hand was naturally moving toward his phone.
“Yeah, I’m heading out now. And… see if we can pull in any ads, talk to the team in charge.”
With his other hand, still holding the lukewarm coffee.