Chapter 85: Trojan Horse (1)
"...So, it seems like you're asking me to become your exclusive talent agent. Is that correct?"
"Yes. I'll take care of your vacation and bonus pay separately as well. As you should know, this sort of treatment is usually reserved for the exclusive talent agents of top stars."
Ju Yung-In's gaze was peculiarly sparkling as she looked at me, and her eyes were filled with confidence as if she were certain I wouldn’t be able to resist her offer. Considering her annual earnings were assumed to be around 1.5 billion won, such an offer wouldn’t be out of reach for her. However, it was surprising to see Ju Yung-In, who usually wouldn't spend a penny for others, making such an offer.
I quietly met her gaze.
At that moment, memories of her from my past life started to resurface in my mind.
-Honey, would you marry me again if we were reborn?
-What are you talking about all of a sudden?
-Just answer me.
-What's this all about? ...Sure, I would. What about you?
-Hmm, what should I do?
-What? You asked first! Are you saying you wouldn't marry me again if we were reborn?
-Enough about that. Honey, you just don’t get the point, do you? Anyway, didn't you negotiate your salary? How much did President Kim offer you this year? 1 billion won? 1.5 billion won?
-Always so greedy, huh? With the performance bonus, I’m thinking maybe around 2 billion won?
-Wow~ my husband is so capable! Then, can I buy a new luxury bag when I go to Italy? No, more like two.
-How much are you planning to spend this time?
-Oh, come on~ For someone like me, anything less than 50 million won is unworthy. I have a reputation to uphold, you know. If I carry something cheap, people will instantly start talking. You wouldn't want your wife to be the talk of the town, would you?
I wished memories like these could just be deleted like pages in the planner so they wouldn’t pop up every now and then to irritate me.
'Whatever. There’s no point getting angry over the past now.'
I tried to erase the memories and turned down her offer. "I'm not interested."
The frustrated Ju Yung-In stood up abruptly. She rarely got flustered, but now she was spluttering.
"Mr. Jung! It's not 10 million but 100 million won. 100 million won! You would get your salary on time from the company plus an annual bonus of 100 million!"
Even though Ju Yung-In persisted, I calmly stood my ground. "No matter the amount, I'm not interested in being an exclusive talent agent. My goal is to rise up the ranks in the company and become a director, so please put aside such offers."
Ju Yung-In started to scrutinize me. It was as if she couldn't believe there was someone like me.
Then, Ju Yung-In sighed and sat down again. "So, you're aiming to become a director? Fine. But just so you know, once you're officially appointed, I should be your top priority. You got that?"
‘This has nothing to do with me wanting to become a director. I just hate you!’
I couldn’t understand Ju Yung-In’s stubbornness and asked, "Why are you so insistent on assigning me as your talent agent? Hasn't Mr. Kim Dong-Soo been doing a good job so far?"
Ju Yung-In answered with an irritated look. "Are you seriously asking because you don't know?"
"I'm asking because I don't know."
Despite my indifferent answer on the outside, I felt like I was about to explode.
'Please, just leave me alone! Why are you sticking to me like glue?'
Unaware of my thoughts, Ju Yung-In said, "I’ve been watching the work you did for Jung Yoo-Jin and Cherry Blossom, and even bringing in Lee Tae-Poong to our company. No matter how much I look, there's no other talent agent in our company who is as good as you, and that’s including Mr. Kim Dong-Soo."
Ju Yung-In continued confidently, "So, I’m asking you to work with me. Choosing a talent agent who can raise your value is a logical decision, isn't it?"
I knew she was calculative, but I didn't expect such shrewdness from someone who was only twenty-four years old. The way she analyzed and compared every employee at Hoop Entertainment left me astounded.
I had planned to make Ju Yung-In dislike me so that she would give up on me, but I realized that wouldn't be possible. She was even willing to pay me 100 million won to have me as her exclusive talent agent.
Ju Yung-In's eyes were shimmering with intense greed.
In my past life, I had never seen her give up on a target once she set her sight on it. In that case, it seemed better to use this situation to my advantage. After all, losing might turn out to be a win in some situations.
"Then, I have one condition too."
"Tell me. I'm ready to offer you anything you want," Ju Yung-In replied confidently.
The condition I set was that I would leave work by 9 p.m. no matter what.
Ju Yung-In pondered for a while before accepting it. "Alright. Let's do that."
"You promise? In any situation?"
"Haha, of course. That's nothing."
A smile finally started to appear on Ju Yung-In's face, which had been furrowed in annoyance until now.
At that moment, I laughed inwardly. 'You'll regret this, Ju Yung-In.'
***
After wrapping up the talk with Ju Yung-In, I immediately rushed to see Kang Ji-Yung.
"Just endure it for a month. After all, this will all be over once Kim Dong-Soo secures the contract renewal with Ju Yung-In," Kang Ji-Yung said.
She promised to reward me for my hard work once this was over. When I told her I just wished such a situation would never happen again, she agreed and ensured it wouldn’t.
"Alright, then. Please take good care of Yoo-Jin and Cherry Blossom for me, Ms. Kang."
"Don't worry. You know you can trust me."
Just like that, I ended up spending a month with Ju Yung-In. I planned to gather detailed information as much as possible during the time that I was assigned to Actor Division 3. After all, that was the main reason I accepted Ju Yung-In's proposal.
***
[February 17th]
I immediately headed to Yoo-Jin's house after Ju Yung-In was done with her scheduled work for the day. As I arrived after 9 p.m., I found Miso staging a hunger strike and repeatedly muttering 'I hate Uncle Yoon-Ho!' and 'Hmph!' about thirteen times before finally turning away in a huff.
Fortunately, she had eaten plenty before starting her protest. I was worried sick, but I managed to end her hunger strike by tempting her with gummy bears. Even while her mouth was full of gummy bears, Miso demanded that I return home by 9 p.m. every day to see her.
In the meantime, Yoo-Jin suddenly pledged to succeed. She vowed to outshine Ju Yung-In and ensure the company never faced such a dilemma again.
[February 18th]
Cherry Blossom was shocked by the news that I would be focusing on Actor Division 3 for a while. Woo Yeon-Hee was worried that I might become Ju Yung-In's exclusive talent agent permanently. I reassured them that it would just be for a month and advised them to practice hard while I was away.
Sae-Ri promised they would win first place and then make me their exclusive talent agent. However, when I asked her about Yoo-Jin, she agreed that she would let me get away with managing Yoo-Jin as well.
[February 21st]
After a few days, Actor Division 3 started to feel more familiar. As I got closer to the employees by making them coffee every morning, I began to understand how Actor Division 3 worked. However, several irregularities couldn't be overlooked. I started to investigate right away and found out that money was being siphoned off in Actor Division 3. But gathering evidence for this wasn't going to be easy.
[February 22nd]
While I was taking care of Ju Yung-In on-site, my colleague, Young-Jin, looked after Yoo-Jin. Thankfully, there weren’t any major issues except for Choi Jong-Hyuk messing with Yoo-Jin. However, the main problem was Ju Yung-In. As days passed, she kept trying to close the gap between us. It got so bad that I felt extremely uncomfortable around her.
[February 24th]
We headed to Jeju Island for Ju Yung-In's advertisement shoot. However, only one room was available due to a reservation issue. I let Ju Yung-In have the room to herself and decided to sleep in the van.
But at 9:30 p.m., I received a call from her. I didn’t answer since I was off duty, but she texted saying someone seemed to be watching her room. I told her not to message me since I was off work and placed my phone aside.
However, she continued to message me, insisting it was true. Although I didn’t reply initially, I started to worry that it could be true. So, I secretly went up to her room and stayed for about two minutes. But I soon realized it was a lie. She seemed to be lying more and more these days.
[February 25th]
I grew closer to the talent agents assigned to Actor Division 3. While I made their coffee, they started sharing tips about the preferences and dislikes of the PDs and other staff they worked with. They initially didn’t take me seriously at all, but soon began to show interest in what I had to say after getting good results from following my advice.
Thanks to my advice proving to be a great help on-site, I could learn more about the inner workings of Actor Division 3. Nevertheless, I was only able to provide advice because Kim Dong-Soo didn’t bother restraining me, as he wanted to play the nice guy. This allowed me to identify issues in Actor Division 3 that I hadn’t known about.
[March 1st]
I casually warned Sung Han-Yung, an A-list star, that his next project might be canceled. Deciding to share this information with him had been a hard decision to make. He cursed at me and called me a jinx. But before the day was over, he came back and asked if I was a psychic, as his project had indeed been canceled during dinner.
Since then, actors from Division 3 who had been keeping their distance from me started approaching me one by one. I knew about some things, guessed about others, and even took a gamble on some. By “predicting” future events for these actors, I deepened my relationships with them.
[March 5th]
Kang Ji-Yung noticed that the choreography team lead, Seong Eun-Soo, wasn’t paying any attention to Cherry Blossom. This revelation caused quite a stir in the company and led to a significant rift between Singer Divisions 1 and 2. Employees from Singer Division 1 bad-mouthed Cherry Blossom’s new song, saying it was bound to fail.
However, this seemed to motivate Cherry Blossom to practice harder. Choreographer Park Seon-Nyeo also gritted her teeth in determination. Their chances of success grew even more thanks to this incident.
[March 6th]
I finalized an exclusive advertisement deal with LM Clothing’s CEO, Moon Young-Mi. Upon hearing that HK Clothing was eyeing Yoo-Jin, the final contract was settled for 250 million won for a year, which was 50 million won more than initially offered. Now, I no longer had to worry about HK Clothing anymore because Moon Young-Mi was determined not to lose Yoo-Jin to HK Clothing.
[March 10th]
I received a call from Jang Jun-Hyuk, whose life I had saved recently. He informed me his condition had greatly improved and that he would be discharged from the hospital soon. He might need outpatient treatment for a few more months, but he was eager to start working on projects as soon as he got better.
His exclusive talent agent, Lee Seung-Hoon, cautiously told me Jang Jun-Hyuk would be able to start working again around June. The legal division at the company was busy resolving issues with the advertisement contract that were related to Jang Jun-Hyuk. Hearing Lee Seung-Hoon’s laughing voice brightened my mood.
[March 11th]
Lee Tae-Poong’s condition was improving day by day. To help with his dyslexia, his exclusive talent agent, Lee Dae-Ho, made recordings of his scripts for him. Lee Tae-Poong was now able to memorize the entire script with no problem. Lee Tae-Poong’s acting was getting better day by day.
The date of my return to Actor Division 2 was drawing near. But recently, Kim Dong-Soo had been glancing at me as if looking at a spy, which was unnerving. It seemed he was onto me about the things I had been doing in Actor Division 3 over the past month.
***
On March 16th, Lee Gi-Cheol, the second-in-command at Hoop Entertainment, was sipping the coffee he’d taken from the break room.
“Wow, Jung Yoon-Ho really has a talent for making good coffee.”
The coffee Jung Yoon-Ho prepared every morning in the break room was extremely popular. He didn’t make more than one pot a day, so some talent agents even started coming to work early just to get a cup.
“Geez, I can’t even ask him to make more without losing face.”
Lee Gi-Cheol was pleased with how quickly Jung Yoon-Ho had adapted to Actor Division 3 and the way he handled Ju Yung-In so impeccably. Ever since Jung Yoon-Ho took over managing Ju Yung-In, Ju Yung-In had stopped bothering Kim Dong-Soo and Lee Gi-Cheol.
Lee Gi-Cheol even considered permanently recruiting Jung Yoon-Ho to Actor Division 3.
Knock, knock.
“Who is it?” Lee Gi-Cheol called out.
“It's me,” answered the person outside.
It was Kim Dong-Soo's voice.
“Come on in.”
Click.
The door opened, and Kim Dong-Soo entered with an irritated expression.
“You're drinking that coffee too?” he asked.
“What? It actually tastes really good. Do you want a cup as well?”
“Sigh...”
Kim Dong-Soo’s sigh annoyed Lee Gi-Cheol. “What is it? What’s with the sigh first thing in the morning?”
“Mr. Lee, do you even know what’s going on in Actor Division 3 these days?”
“What about it? It’s lively and good, isn’t it? I heard everyone has been working well.”
Kim Dong-Soo sat on the sofa with a scowl. “Lately, the acquisition of seed money hasn’t been going well.”
Lee Gi-Cheol exclaimed in surprise, “Huh? Why’s that!?”
The seed money that Kim Dong-Soo mentioned was their war chest for taking over Hoop Entertainment upon making its IPO. If that plan were to fail, it would then serve as their startup capital for a new company.
Kim Dong-Soo’s gaze drifted toward Lee Gi-Cheol’s coffee cup. Following his gaze, Lee Gi-Cheol looked at his cup as well.
“Is it because of Jung Yoon-Ho?”
“...Yes.”
“Elaborate so I can understand.”
Sitting beside Lee Gi-Cheol, Kim Dong-Soo began to talk about the problems that had arisen recently.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m