Chapter 57: A person who found something to protect (8)
TL: emptycube
Sponsor: Beefcake
“…!”
Without being able to scream, Son Chaeyoung stiffened like a mannequin. Looking at how only her pupils slid downwards in her widened eyes, it seemed she couldn’t grasp the situation and what had hit her face.
The tiramisu cake, still a black mess stuck onto her face, slowly slid down.
While taking in the once in a lifetime scene in front of me, I thought for a moment.
Although the cake I spent a lot of money on became like that, I didn’t feel like the money was wasted.
The cake choice was great. If it was simply a cream cake, then I thought it would feel slightly lacking.
“Wh-what, th-this, Chae-Chaeyoung…”
Chief Jo’s stutter broke the silence. He stared at me then at Lee Songha with the pale face of someone who had watched a terrifying horror movie before rummaging through his pockets and hurriedly disappearing, saying that he would bring tissues.
“… Are you crazy?”
Son Chaeyoung said as she wiped her cheek with the back of her hand and furiously brushed off the cakey mess. I thought she would rampage like a beast like before, but perhaps it was similar to the quiet before the storm as her voice was unexpectedly calm.
However, there was a vicious look in her eyes.
I raised my arm and shielded Lee Songha just in case.
“No,”
Replied Lee Songha.
When I turned around, I became surprised. Her voice was as calm as usual, but her eyes seemed to be burning. Her attitude seemed as though, if Son Chaeyoung raised her hand again, she’d throw the cake box at her too.
Well, she was like that. I had forgotten for a while.
I had forgotten that Lee Songha, who would become dejected whenever she troubled her team because of her mistakes, was the type who would say what she wanted and fight when necessary.
“You’re the one who started it.”
“You?”{1}
Son Chaeyoung laughed as if taken aback. Lee Songha didn’t care and continued,
“You tried to hit him.”
“So? Did he get hit? He dodged it like a slippery eel. Also, because I vented my anger on your manager, you throw a cake at your company senior? Have you lost your mind because people praise you for being a genius? Do you think that you can still-!”
“Don’t vent.”
Lee Songha cut her off.
“What?”
“Don’t vent your anger on someone else’s-“
Someone else’s?
“Someone else’s oppa.”
It felt like she had hurriedly changed her words.
However, I didn’t have the chance to be curious. Behind Son Chaeyoung, the door opened again. Then the still pale-faced Chief Jo glanced outside before entering then closing the door.
He had a bunch of tissues in one hand.
“Chaeyoung, before anyone sees you, you sho-“
“Oppa, is someone seeing me the problem? When I was hit with a cake?”
She spat after snatching the tissues. Chief Jo did a double take before looking at Lee Songha with a frown.
“What were you thi-!”
However, Chief Jo’s expression soon became bitter. It was clear he was also aware that Son Chaeyoung requested Teacher Shim Kyungtaek to block Lee Songha’s path. That was why he couldn’t scold her. When thinking of what Son Chaeyoung did, she deserved a rock thrown at her, let alone a cake.
Instead of Lee Songha, Chief Jo picked on me.
“Hey, you! How could you just watch instead of stopping her?!”
“I didn’t see it as I was thinking about Teacher Shim Kyungtaek.”
Chief Jo flinched like someone who had been suddenly attacked at my words. As if this sight irritated her, Son Chaeyoung angrily threw the tissues she was wiping her face with on the floor.
“Ah, I’m pissed. Don’t think about picking on Teacher Shim with this incident. I heard that you now know everything. I did it. I asked the teacher to stop Lee Songha from acting.”
“Chaeyoung!”
Frightened, Chief Jo checked outside.
I momentarily halted. Although Teacher Shim Kyungtaek told me everything, I never thought that Son Chaeyoung would admit it with her own mouth as if it was nothing.
I suddenly became worried and looked at Lee Songha. However, Lee Songha was less agitated than before. She simply stared at Son Chaeyoung with eyes that seemed calm and deep like a bottomless pool of water.
I couldn’t tell what she was thinking with those eyes.
“But what are you going to do about it now that you know?”
Son Chaeyoung asked me.
“Who are you going to whine to? The director? The CEO? Try it. What do you think the CEO is going to say to me?”
“Chaeyoung, really, what if someone hears you?!”
When Chief Jo grabbed her arm and tried to stop her, Son Chaeyoung raised her voice.
“There’s no one besides these two anyways! And what did I do wrong?! I only hid it because it was embarrassing, do you think I hid it because I was scared?!”
“You. Haa, you clearly told the team leader you wouldn’t do it aga-!”
“I did it because I didn’t like her. When I thought that she might join my project, I became so irritated that I couldn’t read the script or sleep! I made so much money for the company, they can just gloss it over with that!”
Even her assigned manager, Chief Jo, seemed flabbergasted. Although he was looking at Son Chaeyoung like a moving bomb, Son Chaeyoung didn’t stop and continued,
“That’s why I became relaxed, oppa.”
“What?”
“Since there was nothing getting in my way, I became relaxed and didn’t get stressed. Because of that, the drama went well and so did the movie. I did so many commercials and advertisements last year too. Do you think that she’d make more than me even if she continued acting? In the company’s perspective, wasn’t this better?”
My anger surged, calmed, was taken aback, then calmed again.
There was one thing on my mind now.
Just where did someone like her come from?
It was like I was looking into Son Chayoung the human and not the actress. When you took off her clean, innocent fabricated façade, there was an obscure, disgusting monster inside.
“Can I tell you something?”
Without waiting for my reply, she said sarcastically,
“There not much time before I have to renew my contract. That is why the director and CEO aren’t going to say anything to me right now. From the drama releasing in January to extending commercial and advertising contracts, there’s a lot riding on me.”
Ah, so this was it. This was what Teacher Shim Kyungtaek meant.
That it would be better if I had just glossed over it without knowing.
“If the CEO asks me to apologize, then, well, I’ll think about it. So, until then, don’t piss someone off with something like this. It seems you don’t know because it hasn’t been long since you’ve started working, but this industry is always like this.”
I swallow the countless words that surged up my throat and said,
“Although it hasn’t been long since I’ve started working, there something I clearly learned.”
“Something you learned?”
Son Chaeyoung, who had a mocking smile, narrowed her eyes.
I looked at Lee Songha. She was still standing tall behind me.
However, I could feel her thin fingers clinging on my shirt.
Although I might not know the ways of the world, I wasn’t simply a naïve person. Meaning, I wasn’t the type to completely believe CEO Baek Hansung would make Son Chaeyoung pay a worthy price for her actions after listening to her words.
That wasn’t naivety but stupidity.
This industry was a breeding ground of absurdity and irrationality. There was nothing more to say about this as this was a celebrity management organization with an enormous food chain of boss-subordinate relationships.
Son Chaeyoung was a top actress residing in the upper echelon, while Lee Songha and I were buried way below, to the point where it would be difficult to see us, and were only now sticking our heads out and looking up towards the top.
However, because I was in this position, I could say this.
“You never know what will happen the very next day in this industry.”
Kim Hyunjo and the team 3 leader arrived long after the appointed time.
The team 3 leader’s expression stiffened after checking the cake on the meeting room floor and the cocoa powder still stuck on Son Chaeyoung’s neck. When the two of them entered, Son Chaeyoung clicked her tongue as if they were a hindrance.
Then she bobbed her head in greeting to the team 3 leader and left.
“Son Chaeyoung.”
When the team 3 leader called out to her, Son Chaeyoung momentarily stopped.
“This isn’t something we can just gloss over.”
“It’s tiresome to say the same thing multiple times. Please talk with my team leader.”
She said with a smile before disappearing without turning back. Chief Jo followed behind while reading at the team 3 leader’s expression.
Kim Hyunjo and the team 3 leader shook their heads. They both revealed the same expression I had on previously. An expression that said, ‘Just where did someone like her come from?’
I, once again, thought that the influence of a top star was quite amazing and that, if I didn’t want to see such dirty figures in this industry, I needed to at least have the title of a CEO.
“How ill-mannered. She’s no good.”
The team 3 leader sat in an empty seat and said,
“It looks like Shim Kyungtaek, that damn bastard, called the team 2 leader. He fumed about how you crossed the line or whatever so we were late because we got in a dispute.”
“He looked like he was going to grind you up.”
Kim Hyunjo added with a frown.
Since I already became an eyesore to the team 2 leader after the Sung Dowon incident, with this, it seemed that I had crossed a point of no return. Well, I had no thoughts on turning things around for this incident.
The team 3 leader tapped my arm.
“You have nothing to worry about. I firmly told the team 2 leader that I told you to do it and to not even think about letting his temper out on you.”
“Ah, yes.”
“How dare he try to vent his anger out on someone else after being stabbed in the back? He should have taken better care of his people. If it were me, I would be too embarrassed to show my face.”
When the team 3 leader continued to grumble, Kim Hyunjo tapped the table and changed the subject.
“While both hyung and I have listened to the audio file, tell us from the start.”
Still aware of Lee Songha, who was sitting next to me, I opened my mouth.
From the incident with Shim Kyungtaek in the morning, to the incident just now. As I told the events which took place while taking out the unnecessary bits and emphasizing others, Kim Hyunjo and the team 3 leader’s expressions progressively turned uglier. The only one who remained calm was Lee Songha, the person this concerned.
No, at this point, she surpassed calmness and approached the boundaries of imperturbability.
On the other hand, the two who showed intense reactions at each word, using swears I hadn’t even heard of before, became rampant like angry bulls when they heard the part when Son Chaeyoung mentioned the director and the CEO.
“There’s a limit to wickedness. At this point, she’s just a crazy bitch.”
“Songha, you should have thrown the table at her instead of the cake,”
Added Kim Hyunjo. I deeply agreed with him.
“Hyung, how much longer is it until Son Chaeyoung’s contract renewal?”
“I don’t know the exact date, but since they made a 2-year exclusive contract last time, there isn’t much time left. That’s why the team 2 leader was busy since last month, trying to curry favor with Son Chaeyoung. Even Team Leader Park from the PR team was exhausted.”
“Don’t tell me the director and the CEO will really…”
Kim Hyunjo said while glancing at Lee Songha. He was worried that the director and the CEO would really gloss over this for the contract renewal like Son Chaeyoung said.
The team 3 leader frowned.
“This isn’t a 1-person company for Son Chaeyoung, she needs to take responsibility for her actions. This goes the same for that Shim Kyungtaek bastard. When I investigated, it looked like there were previous cases before Songha as well. I’ll call the director and the CEO and discuss it with them.”
The two talked for a while before each saying a word of encouragement to Lee Songha and getting up. Since they left with murderous looks, it looked like their target was either Chief Jo or the team 2 leader.
I was also about to leave, but I kept thinking of the disaster in the meeting room.
I rolled up my sleeves and wiped the cake plastered everywhere. Lee Songha, who was next to me, helping me clean up with tissues, said,
“Sorry.”
“About what?”
“I threw the cake you bought me.”
Then she looked at the cake dropped under the table as if it was a waste.
Although she knew her life had almost been twisted by Son Chaeyoung’s wickedness, the words she said with a serious expression were… I wanted to open her head and see what kind of thoughts were contained in that small head of hers. It was this moment when I felt it was a pity my ability wasn’t mind reading.
“I was only able to take one bite, but it was incredibly tasty. It was expensive, right?”
“No, you did well to throw it.”
The price didn’t matter.
“It’s all good since it was worthwhile.”
I grinned when I recalled Son Chaeyoung’s face plastered with cake. It seemed Lee Songha recalled the same thing as her lips curved slightly upwards.
“Don’t think it was a waste. I’ll buy you one that’s bigger.”
“Yes.”
As she picked up the tissues and placed them in the cake box, she said in a passing tone,
“That witch.”
“Huh?”
“If I work hard and become successful, can I drive her out far away?”
Even after I took Lee Songha to her residence and went home, her last words kept ringing in my ears.
Her words asking if she could drive Son Chaeyoung far away.
Although she said it in a passing tone, the more I thought about it, the heavier her words felt.
While I was thinking about it, slouched on my desk, my phone rang.
It was a number I was seeing for the first time.
Well, it seemed by phone number became public since broadcast writers and entertainment reporters would call me all day and night so I was used unknown numbers now.
“Yes, this is Jung Sunwoo.”
-Umm. Are you free to talk?
Whoa.
I hurriedly turned the phone, which was against my ear, and confirmed the phone number.
Did I ever see this number on my company’s list of phone numbers?
He sounded like CEO Baek Hansung.
“Umm, are you the CEO…”
-Right. I called you because I wanted to ask you something.
I heard a low laughter from the other side.
That moment, I suddenly recalled what CEO Baek Hansung said to me privately in his office.
What to give me if the drama is a success.
If there was something I wanted, to tell him then.
I straightened my back and said while sitting,
“I’m free to talk. I also… have something I would like to tell you.”
{1} The reason she reacts like this is because Lee Songha didn’t refer to her as her senior.
