Chapter 152

Chapter 152

I was met by an unwelcome face as soon as I entered the set for the advertisement I was shooting.

“How have you been? It seemed as though you had a lot to think about.”

VTIC’s Cheongryeo was here.

Goddamn it. What the hell is he doing here? The agency hadn’t even given me a heads-up. They’d rushed me here saying the opportunity to film a great ad had come up, and all I’d gotten to see in advance was the script. Hadn’t it occurred to them that they should at least mention in passing that I was going to be working with someone I knew?

I wish I could leave this agency. I suddenly had no desire to work. Allowing this to show would only stir rumors, however. I decided to simply nod.

“Yes. Thanks to the advice you gave me, I was able to handle it just fine.”

“Oh, is that right? That’s good to hear.” Cheongryeo smiled and held out a hand. “Let’s have a good shoot today, then.”

“Sure thing.” I wasn’t childish enough to squeeze his hand, but the handshake was over quickly.

“I’ll see you in a bit, then.”

“All right, Cheongryeo.”

I didn’t want to see him.

Thinking of the script, an odd feeling settled in the pit of my stomach as I changed and prepared to film. My outfit consisted of a sweatsuit that was in a style proving popular at the moment. It featured a corporate logo, however.

And I already know why I’m wearing a sweatsuit, of all things. First of all, we were filming on a grassy field, and there would be plenty of activity during the shoot. The ad would go something like this.

“Here comes!” said the director.

Cheongryeo and I were standing in the field waiting as a group of four-legged animals were set loose on us—it was a pile of golden retriever puppies, all three months old. I pet each of them as the script had directed me to, and one of them even jumped up to headbutt my nose.

Aren’t you excited? Three or four more of them followed the first’s example.

Don’t lick my face. I picked up the furry creatures with both hands.

I guess they’re pretty cute if nothing else. One of them sneezed in my face, and I nearly fell over as I tried to adjust my grip on it. I tried not to balk as my face was covered in saliva, my arms full of four or five puppies.

“And cut! That was pretty good!”

“Thank you...”

A staff member rushed over and redid my makeup. It was hard work for everyone involved, really.

“Please pick up the puppies with more confidence! And be sure to smile!”

Yes. Confidence was important since this was an insurance ad. A large insurance corporation was promoting its work supporting abandoned dogs and training guide dogs in this brand advertisement.

Ads like this usually hire people who are much more well-known to the public, though. The actor who was supposed to be hired in my place had been engulfed in a sexual harassment controversy, so they seemed to have hired me instead. My popularity with older audiences, formed recently thanks to Bespoke Singer, probably had some impact on the decision.

“Who’s a good boy?”

What I didn’t enjoy, however, was that my public acquaintance with Cheongryeo had probably had some impact on the decision. Cheongryeo was deftly keeping the horde of puppies in check, even though the cameras weren’t currently rolling. I could see some of them tumbling over onto their backs, begging for tummy rubs.

They’re so photogenic, huh? I want to take a photo. I didn’t want to go and retrieve my phone for the purpose, though.

It probably won’t look professional.

Cheongryeo spoke. “Do you like puppies?”

“I don’t hate them.”

The staff weren’t nearby at the moment, and because the narration would be done by someone else, we weren’t wearing microphones. This meant it was the perfect time for him to say something absurd again. My prediction turned out to be wrong, however.

“I know, right? They’re such great animals. Good-natured, too. They’re easy to handle, all you have to do is praise them when they do good things and scold them for the bad.” Cheongryeo kept on rambling about the puppies as he petted the animals.

I remembered a piece of information I’d picked up.

“He donates half his pay to animal rescue centers and stuff.”

Had that been for real? But no—it doesn’t matter whether it was or not.

“You must like dogs,” I said, trying to fill the time until filming resumed.

He cocked his head, however, seeming... puzzled. “Do I? I’m not sure. It’s more convenient not to have one.”

I’d assumed that he meant they were too much trouble to keep around until he continued speaking.

“I used to keep a dog whenever I started over. But after some time passed... people began accusing me of chronically abandoning animals… I’d have been suspicious, too, if I were them. The way I talked was strange since I kept a different breed of dog every single time. After they were able to prove I’d never owned any of the dogs I talked about, people accused me of having schizophrenia... Haha, that attempt was a nightmare!” Cheongryeo laughed out loud, and I felt a chill run through me.

“You kept a different type of dog each time?”

“What? Haha. I didn’t want to raise the same dog over and over. It was bad enough that I was doing the same things over and over.” Cheongryeo stopped laughing. “Anyway, I tried it, and it wasn’t a good idea in the end. It makes it hard if something goes wrong along the way and you can’t adopt the same dog after all.”

I didn’t know what to say. The problem was, I was starting to understand why he’d lost his mind. I tried to remain calm.

“You probably won’t be restarting anytime soon. You should adopt another dog.”

This was my way of telling him to give up on getting me to reset things.

“You sure seem confident. Don’t tell me you’re on your final mission. Is that what you concluded, from what I told you?” No response was the best response in this situation. However, the bastard interpreted my silence as a yes. “Congratulations. I didn’t think you’d believe me, though. Haha! Just kidding. I’m probably right. I wouldn’t lie about such things.”

I pictured myself bashing his face in with a daesang trophy, and it was of some consolation to me.

“Hmm... Does that mean things are... really over?” All emotion instantly drained from his face, and he moved his hand away from one puppy’s belly.

Wait a second... Surely he wouldn’t suggest something absurd like I should try just one more time before everything ended, or that this was my last chance to go back, would he? I decided to nip it in the bud before he got the chance.

“You have no match in terms of popularity. All you have to do is maintain the status quo, don’t you? Things couldn’t be better for you.”

“Well... They’re all right,” Cheongryeo said, unimpressed. He grabbed one of the puppies by the scruff of its neck. “I’m not perfectly happy with it... but yeah. I should try to get used to it.”

He’d admitted surrender.

F*cking finally. I felt like I’d just shaved years off my life, and wondered if there was sweat on my forehead.

Cheongryeo wasn’t done, however. “But Moondae, I would caution you against letting your guard down.”

I didn’t want to listen to any more of his nonsense. Without my realizing it, I’d started petting the dogs, too. The happy-go-lucky balls of fur did make me feel better. Thankfully, Cheongryeo had no intention of talking nonsense this time—his words were cold and sensible.

“In this line of work, popularity is a limited resource. If another group is raking in that resource, it means there’s less of it for you. That’s the way it’s always been, especially when you take only the domestic market into account.”

Surely he’s not talking about VTIC and TeSTAR? He name-dropped a group I hadn’t been expecting, however.

“The group produced by Traveler this year seems to be doing pretty well. You should keep an eye on them.”

Traveler was Goldie #1’s agency. He was advising me to keep the group, which was doing fairly well as new groups went, in check.

Why bother? They weren’t popular enough to warrant doing so, and if things went wrong in the process of trying to keep them down, I would only be setting myself up for a fall. They’d debuted after the period that Cheongryeo had lived so far, which meant he hadn’t seen their future. Not feeling the need to cross him without good reason, I simply nodded.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Don’t just say that. Let me tell you something... their songs are good. As it turns out, the people who wrote them aren’t employed within the agency.” Cheongryeo laughed. “Buying them out is a good option. It’s easy and simple. All they need to do is put out bad music and they’re over.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“So decisive. All right. But don’t forget my advice.”

Why has this guy gotten so talkative? Maybe all these puppies were having a therapeutic effect on him. The words didn’t seem to stop coming from his mouth.

“We’re almost ready for the next scene! Standby for three minutes!”

Thankfully, they announced that filming was about to continue. People were running busily about.

So I guess this is it, then. The next take would be the last one I filmed with the bastard. I repressed a sigh. Right as we were about to get back into it, I heard a small voice.

He seemed slightly hesitant. “The problem you mentioned... did you manage to handle it?”

I responded very slowly. “Well, somewhat.”

“All right. Get in touch if you... change your mind, or need some advice.”

“Sounds good.”

He wasn’t acting as creepy as before, at least.

The pups barked and whined. Filming ended without any hiccups, and Cheongryeo left first since he had somewhere to be. I was handed the fur-covered sweatsuit and a few more sets of the same outfit as a gift and then returned to the dorm.

Everyone seemed to be at choreography practice, and only one person had finished early—Cha Eugene.

“Here,” I said, holding out a sweatsuit.

“A gift?”

“Yes. You can have it.”

“Wow!”

Watching Eugene, who seemed overly excited about the sweatsuit I’d given him, I felt a strange sense of deja vu.

Doesn’t he resemble a puppy more than I do? Though I’d been eager to take on the puppy persona, nicknames remained a puzzling affair to me.

***

A few days later, the choreography for the title track was finally completed.

“Phew. That’s the choreography video done!”

“Great!”

We even finished filming the choreography video a little early, leaving us with a bit of extra time. All of us lay down on the floor and took a break.

“Eugene, you’re wearing that again?”

“It’s comfy!”

“I-is it okay for the... logo to b-be in the video?”

“Oh, I asked. They said it was fine. Don’t worry.”

“Wow you’re so speedy, leader!” Big Sejin exclaimed.

It seemed the sweatsuit that I’d gotten as a gift for my recent ad had become Eugene’s new favorite outfit.

At this rate, he’ll replace me the next time they want to film an ad. I smirked and unlocked my phone. The album preorders were live, and the cover design had been revealed as well. I planned to check out the fans’ reactions.

“M-Moondae, would you like an ice pack?” Ahyeon asked.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Though the air conditioning was on, we’d all been moving around a lot and were very hot. I took the ice pack Ahyeon offered me and used it as a pillow as I scrolled through my phone.

That’s not bad. The album cover had two versions—one was black and white with an ink wash painting concept, and the other was in color in the style of a traditional painting.

- They must really be going with a traditional concept. I love it T_T

- I’ve been waiting forever for them to wear hanbok

- I’m going nuts over here, I’m so excited for the photo cards

The agency had suggested seven different color variations with an eighth for the group, and it had been tough dissuading them from the absurd notion.

Good thing they accepted my suggestion that we just make eight different designs for the stickers in the album and include them at random. If we’d agreed to do eight variations, the director would have given the go-ahead without question.

Come to think of it, the director’s on his way out, isn’t he? I’d had plenty of opportunities to chat with agency staff, what with the new album and preparing a variety show performance, and I’d heard a lot of rumors that hinted at this. According to them, the director would soon be leaving his post.

I guess I’ll have to get him to approve a bunch of projects while he’s still around. Since our future was unclear, guaranteed approvals could go a long way. Going over my plan to deal with my next status abnormality, I searched for a new keyword on my phone.

“W-water?” Ahyeon asked.

“Yeah... thanks.”

Ahyeon was giving me things again. I took the water, slightly reluctant. I was grateful to him, but now I felt like I was taking advantage of his kindness.

Maybe I’ll keep an eye on things online for him. I input his name on social media casually, and a popular keyword appeared thanks to autocomplete.

[Seon Ahyeon dating]

“...?”

“Moondae, what are you up to—” Big Sejin said, coming over. He froze when he saw my phone.

I was taken aback as well.

Seon Ahyeon, dating? He was the last person I’d have expected something like this to come out about.