Chapter 293

Chapter 293

The debut team of season five of Idol Inc.—whose group name was yet to be decided—had quite a packed schedule. They had to prepare for their debut while also doing all the things that an audition show winner was supposed to do, such as ads and interviews, and whatnot.

They weren’t getting nearly as much buzz as TeSTAR, the previous male group to debut from the show, but it was enough to get the members of the new group excited. And one of them was feeling a sense of triumph for a different reason as well.

You don’t even have the guts to contact me? That’s f*cking hilarious. Seodam glanced at a phone number saved on his phone. The owner of said number had yet to get in touch.

[Park Moondae]

He’d gotten the number by sucking up to a manager that had previously been with TeSTAR. He was a loser, and it had been an easy task to make him feel like he was somebody and wheedle it out of him.

That’s just the kind of person he is. No amount of strutting about is going to change that. Seodam guessed that Moondae was cut from a similar cloth. Moondae had no doubt hardly dared talk back to anyone during school, but now that he was a popular idol, he thought he was somebody. It made Seodam embarrassed to watch.

He’s just a lucky bastard. Who does he think he is? He’d sounded like he was being generous or something, but it had all been nothing but hot air. Even now, Seodam was subtly mentioning Moondae in interviews and filming sessions and whatnot whenever he got the chance, but the guy hadn’t reacted in any way. It was obvious he was running scared.

I thought he’d get angry and do something. But he’s too scared to do even that. It was easy to picture the guy painting himself to be the protagonist in some comic book in his stupid little head. There were losers like that in every class.

He owes everything he has to luck. Son of a b*tch, you didn’t realize you were describing yourself, did you? It was hilarious to him that Moondae, whose success was the result of good timing and perhaps some talent in singing, would dare go on a power trip against the likes of Seodam, who had always been a fighter.

Seodam had practiced until his feet felt like they would fall off, and he had been smart with every obstacle he faced. He respected himself for all that he’d accomplished. He’d let his guard down for a moment and slipped, but that would not happen again.

I’m not going to let it. He would take advantage of Moondae to the maximum, using the guy’s popularity and reputation to his benefit, and then… he had something even more exciting in store. The moment he met Moondae again, he would egg the guy on until he exploded—Seodam was good at riling people up.

It would be good if he went running to the agency for help, too. If the agency tried to cover it up, all the better. He would gather the evidence they’d done so and use that against Moondae, too.

If necessary, I can even use that as proof that I was bullied. It’ll be my get-out-of-jail-free card. He would get a boost in reputation, in addition to everything else.

An established idol continually bullies a rookie over a recording that was deleted on the spot!

“Oh. I love it.”

The way the tables would turn. The mere thought of it filled Seodam with gratification. He also thought about Cheongryeo, who’d been present at the encounter. He’d been too excited at the time to think much about the older idol. At this point, of course, he was telling himself that not thinking about Cheongryeo had actually been part of his plans all along. He wouldn’t do anything. Seodam was sure of it.

Everybody is the same. Seodam’s plan wouldn’t hurt Cheongryeo, so he would welcome the pickle that Park Moondae was in. They might seem to get along well, but they were competitors, in the end. He had looked into Cheongryeo. The guy had been successful since his debut, and it was easy to assume that he was very childish in character.

In fact, he might even get in touch with me to arrange some kind of deal. Seodam had been perfectly polite during the encounter, so there could be no hard feelings. Perhaps Cheongryeo had even been waiting for Moondae to expose some kind of weakness.

Seodam hummed, allowing himself to become immersed in his snowballing expectations and ridding himself of the anxiety he’d felt over the past few days.

I’m doing things just right. Bold moves, baby. The arrogance that had always tripped him up in life was returning.

His complacent calm was shattered when, after a few days, he encountered someone in the company building’s corridor. It was Seon Ahyeon, with whom he now shared an agency.

“Hello, Seon Ahyeon!”

“Hello…!”

Ahyeon, who was approaching from the opposite direction, had his head held high, unlike how he’d behaved at school back in the day. In fact, he was looking right at Seodam.

To think I have to treat this guy as my senior! Seodam suddenly felt offended.

He wouldn’t even have been able to land a proper job if he hadn’t lucked out with Idol Inc. The way people like Ahyeon acted like they were more successful than Seodam always made him think about how unfair life was.

But what are you going to do about it? Even if Ahyeon had seniority, all he could do was talk big, considering he probably wanted to maintain the little social status he’d managed to scrape together. And Seodam was not impressed by Ahyeon’s high-handedness in the least.

“Uh, I have something to say to Seodam, if that’s okay,” Ahyeon said.

“Oh, okay! Seodam! Go on ahead!” one of the members of Seodam’s group said.

The way Ahyeon was trying so hard not to stutter disgusted Seodam, but he repressed the urge to scoff at the way he’d singled him out. The recorder was still running.

Looks like I’ll have another weakness to play around with soon.

Seodam, however, was hit with a curveball as soon as they entered a meeting room tucked away in the corner of the building.

“I’ve been thinking… about whether to tell the truth about you bullying me.”

“…!”

Tell the truth? Seodam took stock of his surroundings, wondering for a moment if this was really happening.

Ahyeon wasn’t done, however. “Seodam, I have a recording.”

“…!”

“I was so… so scared of you… I wondered if it was something I was doing, so I recorded us talking… That way I could listen to it again and try to understand, you know? I did that for a while. And I still have them.”

Seodam felt a chill race down his spine. His survival instincts were blaring a warning. He was in danger.

No. This can’t be happening. Seodam denied reality with great effort, trying to force himself to believe he was being logical. He was doing what he’d always done, but more stubbornly than ever before.

He might threaten me, but he wouldn’t dare actually go through with it. If he did, he also stood to lose a lot. He was such a popular idol, after all. Seodam had ruined Ahyeon’s practical tests a little because he’d been pissed, but that didn’t really constitute school bullying—or so Seodam thought, at least.

And what recording? The way he saw it, he had never used violent language or hit the guy—nothing that could come back and bite him in the ass. Ahyeon was just trying to scare him.

But then… There was always the slim chance that he actually had something.

Fine. I’m doing this just in case.

After having justified his behavior mentally to himself, Seodam adopted a pitiful-sounding voice and said, “Ahyeon… Do you hate me that much?”

Ahyeon was silent.

“Listen, we didn’t exactly get along in school… but it wasn’t bad enough to warrant this. Is this because I was named the top student, and you were only in second place? Gosh. I don’t know what to say.”

If Ahyeon had expected Seodam to be confused and start making excuses, he was sorely mistaken.

“You know, I’m starting to think that you’re just amused by the way my reputation has taken a hit, and you’re trying to poke fun at me…”

Hyper-aware of his voice recorder, he did his best to fabricate evidence.

“Seodam.” Ahyeon, however, didn’t seem shaken in the least. “That sort of thing isn’t going to work anymore.”

“…!”

“I’m really considering taking it public. And telling you… is the last step toward freeing myself. So, I thought I’d let you know. See you.” Ahyeon gave him a short nod and left the meeting room with a hard look on his face.

Seodam found that his mind had gone utterly blank.

***

He can’t possibly do it. Seodam was lying in his dorm bed, thinking. The guy was just getting off on his popularity and trying to threaten Seodam.

That loser wants to feel like he’s somebody, huh? But on the other hand, he couldn’t stop himself from imagining what might happen should Ahyeon really release the recordings. In time, he even began to wonder if it wasn’t too late to apologize.

No! An apology will be an admission that he’s right! He couldn’t apologize, no matter what he did. He hadn’t actually done anything deserving of an apology in the first place. Ahyeon had been a weakling, and all Seodam had done was nudge him a little further toward a breakdown. That was all. The guy’s victim mentality was sickening.

“F*ck…”

He couldn’t predict how things would turn out. The moment he did something, however, it would seem as though he was guilty.

Should I just ignore him? That didn’t seem like a particularly good idea, either. His mind was constantly going in circles…

The next few days were ridden with worry and far too long for Seodam’s liking. Then the other shoe finally dropped.

“Seodam, uh… The head of the Management Office wants to see you. From the agency.”

“Right…”

F*ck! F*ck! Seodam felt it in his gut. From the look on the manager’s face, this couldn’t be good. Ahyeon, that bastard, had gone through with his threat.

“…!”

Right! An incredible idea suddenly came to Seodam. If he could acquire proof that Moondae had bullied him before Ahyeon made his recordings public, perhaps he could use that to strike a deal with the agency even if things came to the worst. He continued to make calculation after calculation as he followed the manager to the Management Office.

I could even text him now and try to piss him off… He was checked for voice recording devices before being allowed into a meeting room that the Management Office used for consultations, and the person that Seodam found sitting in the room was not who he’d been expecting.

It was Moondae.

“There you are.”

“…!”

What on earth? Moondae was seated where the head of the office should have been. He glanced at Seodam carelessly, then gestured with his chin.

“Sit down. Oh, and I’m standing in for the head of the Management Office, by the way,” Moondae said casually, though the claim itself was rather absurd. He glanced at the door that the manager had just closed and grinned. “Why don’t we have a little chat?”

Seodam finally recalled the initial suspicions he’d had about Moondae, but had promptly forgotten as he underestimated the guy. It was the same reason that he’d tried to find something incriminating on Moondae—a perceived desire for revenge.

Lucky little bastard.

He’d suspected that maybe, just maybe, everything that had happened to him ever since Moondae had mouthed those words might have been arranged by none other than Moondae himself.

***

I raised my head, looking at the guy that had come in. Seodam looked like he’d seen a ghost.

Good. The more disoriented he was, the easier he would be to fool. He was already easy to manipulate as it was, but now it would be even less of a challenge.

He was still just standing there, so I said to him, “Aren’t you going to sit down?”

He said nothing.

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter… Should I start talking, then?” I continued nonchalantly, “I’ve gotten a report about school bullying—”

“It was all you, wasn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

Seodam didn’t respond. Instead, he looked like he’d just had a revelation. Then, he finally pulled out a chair and sat.

Ooh.

His eyes flashed as he said, “You seem to be mistaken about something… I don’t care if some controversy erupts, and I’m forced to quit. I’ve already suffered plenty of criticism… and it’s not like being an idol is the only way I can put food on the table, right?”

I stared at him.

“That’s right. I’m going to quit. So I’m going to say my piece before I leave. You hear? I’ll tell everyone that TeSTAR conspired against me, with the company in tow, to stir up rumors against me.”

Hmm. Typical response. He’s cornered, so he doesn’t want to go down alone. He’s threatening to take us down with him. No doubt he’s considering returning to the field he has a major in. The bastard had a brain, so he could surmise that regardless of whether it was TeSTAR or Ahyeon who released something incriminating, it wouldn’t be good for them, either.

And I’ve been so careful all this time precisely so I could avoid that situation. He seemed to think that talking like this would dissuade me from any further threats and cause me to start negotiating.

“Is that right?”

Too bad. You’re wasting your time. I’m not negotiating sh*t with you.

“But if you’re quitting the group, do you plan to study overseas?”

“What is that supposed to—”

“I don’t think you’ll find any opportunities in Korea for the time being.” I cupped my chin, speaking without even looking at him. “Because I’ll do everything in my power to expose you, and the rumors will be so rampant that nobody in the entire country will think twice about turning you away.”

“…!”

“I don’t care, either, if we go public with any of this. It’s not like it’ll be the end of the world for TeSTAR.” I shrugged. “I discussed everything with the relevant people the moment you made that silly threat about the recording, you idiot.”

The way to drive a bastard like him to the brink of perceived ruin was to bluff—with a generous helping of heartfelt hatred on the side.