Chapter 25
***
Joanna couldn't hide her excitement.
She liked the occult.
Ghosts, spirits, Halloween.
And the mystique of the East.
All of it made her happy and delighted.
So naturally, when she first learned about a person named Kang Noah on the internet, she let out a cheer.
Goodness.
Fortune-telling.
And not just fortune-telling, but perfect fortune-telling.
A mysterious person who solved people's problems one by one just by turning over a single card.
Joanna couldn't help but take an interest.
"Hey, Joanna. Even so, going to Korea is a bit much, isn't it?"
The boss of the company she'd worked with for a long time.
Alice, a woman in her fifties, let out a sigh.
She didn't like Joanna taking an interest in things like this.
Or collecting power stones and the like.
Or having her fortune told by an Indian shaman.
"Oh, Alice. It's just a hobby."
"Sigh. Fine. Then what about the contract?"
She'd first scouted Joanna and signed her after falling for her guitar playing and singing.
And that contract was almost up now.
Alice was sure.
That Joanna would remain with her company.
"Sorry. I got a call from Swimmel.."
Swimmel.
A much bigger company than Alice's.
"Why?!"
"Why, you say..."
Joanna was flustered.
Of course, it was true that Alice was the boss of the company she'd been with since the early days.
But that didn't mean she had to stay with her forever.
"W-would you at least hear the terms?"
"Hm. Okay."
Alice felt relieved.
As with outstanding artists, Joanna was stubborn and had a strong ego.
Just her agreeing to hear them was half the battle won.
So Alice handed over a new contract.
"Eh. This one's not great."
"...Why? Compared to a contract Swimmel would offer, these aren't bad terms."
"But there are clauses here that let the company interfere with the music I want to do."
That wasn't all.
She'd also have to wear clothes designated by the company.
"At this rate, I can't pursue the freedom I want."
"Then if these terms change, will you sign with me?"
"Add one more thing on top of that."
"What?"
"For overseas tours, let me choose the countries I want to go to."
Alice felt the back of her neck stiffen.
This was a headache.
How much money does it cost to do one overseas tour, and the singer gets to decide that?
"Joanna. It's true you're getting popular lately, but you're not there yet."
"Swimmel said they'd do that for me."
"What?!"
Swimmel was a company.
One recognized even in the United States.
For a company like that to back her this much.
'Are they thinking of making Joanna even bigger...!?'
She admitted it.
Joanna had talent.
Maybe Swimmel had noticed that.
'I lose.'
From company size, to facilities, to signed artists, to support.
In every way, her own company was inferior to Swimmel.
So it was only natural that Joanna would leave.
But still, she couldn't stand it.
"Damn it!"
Alice stormed out.
Joanna, who had been staring at the door she left through, turned back to her phone.
-Corabi, don't go by car tomorrow. The brakes are broken.
[Corabi gifted 100 gold!]
[Damn!! We got it inspected a week ago, and now the brakes are broken?! You bastards!!]
There were countless chat messages flooding in.
Joanna blinked and, with anticipation, tried posting a message.
[STarLight1 gifted 1000 gold!]
[What do you think will happen to next quarter's Billboard chart? I like Joanna!]
But.
No reply.
Joanna pouted.
.
.
.
"Fuck! Fuck!"
Alice kicked the trash can and fumed.
The terms Swimmel had offered were real.
That meant Joanna was leaving.
"To think you'd betray me!! You bitch!!"
It was perfectly normal for a singer whose contract had ended to leave according to the terms.
Much less Joanna, who could be called a pop star, not just an idol.
There were plenty of places that wanted her.
But to Alice, this was betrayal.
'I...!! Just how hard did I work for you, you little bitch!!'
From when Joanna was just an ignorant youngster, how much had she led her?
From TV stations to a nationwide tour across the United States.
There wasn't a single place she hadn't touched.
'I made her... I did!'
She was the one who made her.
It was thanks to her that Joanna could leave her name on the Billboard charts.
And yet.
And yet she betrayed her like this?!
'If I tell you to do it, you'd just go without a word...!!'
She couldn't think rationally because of her anger.
But Alice couldn't see that.
A mere singer, a lousy entertainer.
That damned Eastern monkey half-breed.
To dare defy a white person's orders.
Of course, everyone knew that Joanna's overwhelming talent contributed far more to her success than Alice's efforts did.
But to the Alice of now, none of that mattered.
She thought she was right.
Rage.
Endless rage toward Joanna.
It completely wrecked Alice's reason.
Because of that.
"...I won't forgive you."
She.
It was only natural that she would put her hands on the notebook where Joanna had scribbled songs from time to time.
***
"W-What do you mean... There's no way Alice would..."
"Not believing me?"
Joanna's blue eyes were trembling.
Well, it's understandable.
"You made a contract with Alice when you were 17, right?"
"Y-yeah! There's no way Alice would do that! We've been together for almost ten years...!!"
"But she did. Here, it's trash, right?"
"....."
"Will you let me meet her later?"
"Got it."
It wasn't the time to mention a re-contract.
Since the boss had come along with Joanna, the company's treasure, let's meet Alice.
We needed to figure out what kind of person she was.
.
.
.
"I'm Alice Twinstar."
"I'm Kang Noah."
I shook hands with a neat white woman in her mid-fifties who was fluent in Korean.
On the surface, she didn't look like someone who would steal other people's songs.
But.
It was obvious.
This woman.
She embezzled from the company and even took sexual favors from its male singers.
And when receiving investments, she'd boasted very confidently
that Joanna was practically her puppet.
that she did whatever she was told.
She planned to use the fact that she'd raised Joanna and would re-sign her to bring in investment, then grow the company and buy a house and a car.
So it was no surprise she pulled something like that when Joanna tried to sign with another company.
"I've heard a lot about you from Joanna. I hear you're a great fortune teller."
"Haha. It's nothing much."
"Could you read my fortune too?"
I handed her a card, and she looked at me with eyes full of anticipation.
Slowly, she turned over the card and looked at me, her excitement still there.
I didn't want to tell the future even to someone like her, so I just gave her a vague answer.
.
.
.
The next day.
Joanna complained to me, saying Alice told her not to meet me.
"Alice really hates you, huh?"
"Well. I guess that's possible. Anyway, let's think about how to deal with Alice. First: just stay with Alice."
"I hate that. Alice's terms are way too unfavorable for me."
"Okay. Then second: register copyright for every song you've already written."
Whether it was practice songs scribbled in a notebook or whatever.
"...So? Which way do you think is better?"
"You're the one who chooses."
I held out a card to Joanna.
Her trembling hand touched the card.
"If you use the second method, you'll be shot."
If that worked, we wouldn't have a way to deal with Joanna.
"No, then you're saying the only options are for me to die or become a slave?"
That doesn't sound like a slave contract...
"There's a third option."
"Wha... is it?"
"Sue her for an astronomical sum."
"A lawsuit?"
Isn't America the country of lawsuits?
The older brothers at the orphanage had told me so.
"You can't file a lawsuit unless there's wrongdoing. But Alice hasn't done anything wrong yet, has she?"
"Why wouldn't she have done anything wrong?"
"Huh?"
"Alice embezzled quite a bit of money that was supposed to go to you."
"...What?!"
She looked shocked.
But it was true.
When I looked into Alice's past yesterday, there were quite a few things she'd done.
"On top of that, she was secretly selling drugs."
She was also involved in prostitution and breach of trust.
Not to mention firearms violations and tax evasion.
"N-No... Why would Alice..."
"She must like money. If we hit her there, wouldn't that work?"
At that moment, Joanna's future changed.
From a future where her songs were stolen and she sobbed miserably, to a future where she was starting over at a new company.
So that was the answer after all.
"Anyway, when you get back, tell a lawyer and secretly report it to the National Tax Service. You have a lawyer friend, right?"
"You even saw that?"
"If you investigate starting with the embezzlement case, the rest will come out."
If you're going to cut something off, shouldn't you cut it off quickly and cleanly?
"Uh. Uhh..."
"There. I think that's all I can tell you."
Joanna lowered her head in silence.
It seemed she was quite shocked to learn the true nature of Alice, the colleague she had trusted.
"...Then can I ask just one more thing?"
"Of course."
"If I do all that and move to another company, how do you think my next album will do?"
"It'll do well."
It was true.
It would sit at number one on the Billboard charts for a full three months.
"...Really?"
"Yeah."
"Haa. I thought this was just a fan meeting, but so many things are happening."
She scratched her head and grinned.
"Anyway, that's why. Hyung, do you want to come to America?"
"No."
I answered flatly.
.
.
.
Joanna, having finished her short vacation, left.
And after a while.
A gift arrived, said to be my consultation fee.
"......"
A convertible Porsche.
A car worth nearly 300 million won in cash.
I turned my head.
Next to the Porsche was a Mercedes sports car.
It was a car Han Yu-na had once given me as a gift.
I had refused it, but she'd already taken care of the taxes and basically left it here by dumping it on me.
I ended up with two cars with awful ride comfort.
No, I don't even have a driver's license...
What am I supposed to do with these?
I can't even sell something I got as a gift.
"...Do I need to get a license?"
Yeah.
Let's get one.
I immediately looked for a driving school.
And when I went to sign up,
"Mr. Kang Noah... driver's license..."
I saw it.
The future in which the driving school exploded and people died in droves.