Chapter 58
“Are you all ready?”
“Ah. Yes!”
Tiger.
No. They say even a wildcat comes when you mention one.
Park Joo-yong hurried into the conference room and immediately put his subordinates in their place.
‘Damn. That’s basically his passive skill. A passive.’
Whatever the matter,
he’d toss out some curt remark and make you feel like you’d done something wrong.
That was the sort of thing that could really drive a person insane.
It might not matter to his superiors,
but if you worked under that bastard, you’d probably have to carry stomach medicine around every day.
“……”
In fact, I could see the two female employees who’d arrived before anyone else to set up the room letting out silent sighs.
[One of them is planning to work through today and then quit.]
[She says she just can’t work under a piece of shit like that.]
Sigh.
Poor things. Really.
‘The more I see him, the more I wonder how I ever worked under that bastard.’
I was muttering that to myself when I met Park Joo-yong’s eyes and let out a hollow laugh.
“Hey.”
“Yes.”
I knew he wouldn’t let that slide.
Even so, I stayed relaxed in my seat, one arm resting on the table as I looked at Park Joo-yong with an arrogant air.
“What’s so funny? Huh? And I told you before, didn’t I? Just because we have the same title, Team Leader, do you think we’re actually equals?”
“No. It’s not like you’re wrong. We’re both called team leaders, after all.”
“You little—!”
“More importantly, Team Leader Park. Here.”
Tap, tap. I pointed it out while rubbing my left jaw.
“Here. What, do you think I’d fall for a trick from a bastard like you?”
“You’ve got shaving cream on your face. Seriously, I tell you something and you still have to complain.”
“You call that telling me?”
Even though I’d only told him the truth, Park Joo-yong was so annoyed he could barely contain himself. He felt along his jaw with a hand, then flinched.
Because there really was shaving cream left on his face.
It looked like he’d hurriedly shaved before the meeting.
He didn’t seem to have washed it off properly in the restroom.
“H-Here, Team Leader. Would you like a wet wipe?”
“Give it to me!”
I watched Park Joo-yong snap at the female employee who’d offered him a wet wipe.
And it wasn’t just the shaving cream on his face.
He looked even more worn down than before.
Anyone would think he’d gone off alone on some survival trip in the wilderness.
“I wonder if work’s going well. Oh, I’m not particularly curious. I’ll find out at the meeting anyway, won’t I?”
“Grit. You bastard. Let’s see if you can still say that later.”
“We’re in the same company, so I think saying it like that could be open to misunderstanding.”
It was then.
Click-clack—.
The sound of shoes came from far away.
Those were unmistakably the footsteps of the CEO and the Budget Team.
They were making sure we heard them.
That meant...
They’d arrived, so we should stop bickering and get ready.
“……”
I quickly straightened my clothes and stood up, too.
“You’re here, CEO.”
“Yes. It’s been a while, Team Leader Kim. Team Leader Park.”
They naturally started by shaking hands.
In that brief moment, my hand started to sweat.
‘Whew. I still can’t get used to that person.’
Park Joo-yong didn’t scare me at all anymore.
Like I’d told Nobel, I only avoided him because he wasn’t worth the trouble.
But...
CEO Cheon Tae-o was different.
Even now, whenever I stood in front of him, tension seized my whole body.
‘I guess I still haven’t reached his level.’
After spending a few months working as a team leader, I’d come to realize something.
You really couldn’t ignore your rank or the standing of the company you worked for.
Unless you had such an unusual personality
that you didn’t care in the slightest about other people’s attention or opinions.
“Then, team leaders. Are you ready?”
Who would come to the conference room unprepared?
Still, when he asked like that once more, it put unnecessary pressure on you.
If I answered yes and then gave a terrible progress report, I’d have no excuse when I got chewed out.
“Yes.”
“Yes!”
I answered quietly, as if it were no big deal,
while Park Joo-yong shouted his answer with confidence.
‘Why the hell is he so confident?’
Unable to understand, I could only quietly shake my head.
“Who would like to speak first?”
They say it’s better to get the beating over with first.
“Team Leader Park will go first.”
“I’ll go first.”
I put Park Joo-yong up first,
and it seemed he’d planned to present first from the start.
And so began the greatest shitshow of all time.
As I watched, I was so flabbergasted I could barely believe it.
Honestly, I was scared.
“First, I’d like to explain the current trends. If we had to pick the hottest topic in K-pop right now, it would be the one that’s been holding on to first place...”
Huh?
“Following that example, we’re also pursuing a concept that fits the current trend. And Composer Nampo-dong Nuclear Fist is a composer with the skill to pull it off.”
I felt like I’d come to some shitty business presentation.
What the hell was he doing?
‘He’s lost it. Park Joo-yong. Does he really think this is going to work?’
Cheon Tae-o was something else, listening to all of that without a word.
“Recently, Composer Nampo-dong Nuclear Fist seems to have hit a slump. He kept failing to finish the song and was having trouble making progress, but after I personally visited and kept encouraging him, I finally got the title track today.”
At last, Park Joo-yong said something that could be called actual content.
I’m not even exaggerating.
Everything that bastard had just said, along with the pictures in the PowerPoint he’d dressed up to look plausible, had been nothing but verbal garbage.
Garbage he couldn’t even dress up plausibly.
Even a college student wouldn’t do it like that. Fuck.
“For now, let’s listen. It’s a very good song.”
Cheon Tae-o only nodded without saying anything.
But...
Why did that scare me?
‘Should I call it the calm before the storm?’
-♪♬♪♬
The intro to the music Park Joo-yong played began, and
“Huh?”
Right from the start, I couldn’t help but doubt my ears.
It wasn’t even the one-minute song we’d heard before.
A completely different song.
But...
Even though it was a completely different song, it sounded so familiar.
‘Could this be...’
I looked around. Everyone else had a strange expression, too.
Even Park Joo-yong’s own employees looked aghast and were carefully lowering their heads.
Seriously. Only...
Park Joo-yong alone had no idea what was wrong.
“What do you think, CEO? It’s a very good song. Now all we have to do is add suitable lyrics, have the girls record it, and put together the choreography...”
“Team Leader Park.”
“Yes?”
Even now, this wasn’t enough to make him snap?
Honestly, that was what I was thinking.
Even now, CEO Cheon Tae-o was as soft-spoken as ever.
“Have you ever heard the song ‘Travel’ by Dion Herndon?”
“Yes. It even reached number one on the Billboard chart, so of course I know it. I work in entertainment, after all.”
“Would someone mind playing the song I just mentioned?”
The moment Cheon Tae-o finished speaking, I was already playing it.
-♬♪♬♪
Only then did Park Joo-yong realize what was wrong. His face turned bright red, then blue.
He wasn’t some kind of transformation slime.
Could a person’s face really change color that quickly?
The reason he was so shocked was simple.
Plagiarism?
No.
This was a little hard to call plagiarism.
The song had been changed just enough to make the resemblance obvious, then handed to Park Joo-yong.
‘Wow. Nampo-dong Nuclear Fist. That bastard’s not normal either.’
Park Joo-yong was at fault for not realizing it,
but the bastard who’d set things up so he’d play it here was crazy, too.
[What do you think?]
[The things I show you never lie.]
Seriously.
Seeing the way Nampo-dong Nuclear Fist behaved made our composer seem like a gentleman.
No. What am I saying? A gentleman?
A god. A god.
“I-I, CEO. This is... I mean, that composer was trying to screw me over—”
Heh heh.
I was just about to laugh to myself and think, Serves you right, when...
“What the hell do you think you’re doing!!”
“……!”
“Eek!”
Whoa. That scared me.
At first, I’d thought, He still won’t get angry? He still won’t raise his voice? Wow. CEO Cheon Tae-o really is amazing.
That was what I’d thought, but
his voice kept rising in stages, until a literal lion’s roar burst out at the end.
It was so bad that one of the female employees screamed.
To exaggerate a little,
I wondered if the windows in the conference room had just shattered from that shout.
That was how tremendous his roar had been.
“……”
“……”
The silence lasted for almost a full minute.
Everyone looked cautiously at CEO Cheon Tae-o without even daring to breathe.
The only thing you could hear in the conference room was Cheon Tae-o’s long, drawn-out breathing.
Hoo. Hoo.
The CEO’s breathing had grown quite rough.
“Hoooo.”
Then Cheon Tae-o let out a genuine sigh. Unable to hold back, he tapped the table with his index finger and began speaking again.
“I doubt you did it on purpose, but I felt like a complete fool.”
Scary.
The person who’d just yelled was speaking softly again? No. It seemed like he was still angry, to some extent.
Gently.
The way he questioned him so calmly, like an interrogation, was frightening.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know? I know Composer Nampo-dong Nuclear Fist still hasn’t given you a song.”
“……”
“Did you really think I’d hold a progress report meeting with the team leaders because I didn’t know?”
“N-No, sir. I’m sorry. I haven’t been sleeping properly these past few days.”
“……”
He was making excuses even now?
Seeing that, Cheon Tae-o let out another deep sigh.
“Team Leader Park, I’m truly disappointed in you this time.”
Oh, dear.
‘Well, even if the CEO of a failing company tries to act like everything’s fine, they must be panicking inside. If the person who’s supposed to be the company’s hope acts like this, it’d be enough to drive anyone crazy.’
[Wow. Did you see that lion’s roar earlier? Anyone would think he’d put internal energy into his voice.]
I thought so, too.
Someone with a weak heart might’ve had a heart attack from that.
He’d stayed quiet through the opening, about what he was doing...
then the final words hit like a sudden blast.
Cheon Tae-o must have been unable to hold back his anger in the middle of speaking.
“For now, let’s wait a little longer. If he still can’t give us a song after that, we may have to sue Composer Nampo-dong. Team Leader Park, please look for a new composer. I’ll try to help, too.”
“Understood.”
“As for the budget, we’ll discuss it after we receive a proper song.”
“Yes……”
Park Joo-yong had shriveled up so much that he couldn’t even ask if he could leave.
All he could do was sit quietly, watching the CEO’s expression and praying for this awful meeting to end.
And then.
“I’d like to apologize for raising my voice just now.”
“Not at all!”
“Then, Team Leader Kim. Please go ahead.”
Now it was my turn.
Needless to say, our team was doing well.
We’d received songs,
another title track was coming along smoothly,
and the choreography was great.
“……”
When we showed them the choreography performance video we’d filmed in advance and played the finished song, everyone seemed impressed.
Cheon Tae-o seemed pleased, too, and asked me,
“Now you’ll need to shoot a music video. What kind of budget are you looking for?”
I heard the Budget Team whispering beside me, “I think about 50 million won should be enough,” and decided to go big.
“I’d like you to set aside 200 million won.”