Sujin had to admit, she was feeling a little out of place in the meeting.

She, in her short entry-level-manager career, had been part of some meetings—where they were just briefed on the general arrangement of some concerts and stuff—after the decisions were already taken by the bigwigs. She had never attended this kind of meeting.

Well, there was a first time for everything. Also, it was not like she was suddenly thrusted to a board of trust meeting or something. Just a meeting for the president, maybe one or two board directors (she noticed that bastard Kim Hantae to be present as well) , most of the team leaders and some experienced senior managers.

Kim Hantae glared at Sung Jinwoo for once, then he noticed her, and looked at Jinwoo again. Then he smirked and looked away.

‘...Okay, I am not liking whatever went inside that guy’s head.’

‘Let’s just hope he did not assume you to be Sung Jinwoo’s lover or something and will not try to cause trouble for us in the future.’

‘If he does, I am definitely going to kick him in the nuts, consequences be damned.’

Fortunately, he was the only one who they would have to watch out for. Most of the others did not show any emotion beyond little intrigue, and maybe one or two looked at Jinwoo teasingly. Sujin hoped that it would not lead to some serious misunderstanding. She did not want the other office ladies, maybe a few celebrities and even Seoyoung hunting her down with a knife. The horror… the scandal...

There were a few who actually looked at her smilingly, President Kim Jooah and PR division leader Park Sangha being two of them.

“Miss Sujin. We did not really get the chance to talk since you returned. How is your health now?”

“Well, I was kinda shifted to desk duty, so I did not really get the chance to meet you, Team Leader Park. I am completely fine now, by the way.”

“That’s good to hear. I am glad to see you again,” the lady continued with hints of relief in her voice, “I was… worried that the phone conversation I had with you that night might be the last one. I am glad that you are alright.”

“T-Thank you.”

 

Wow, that was probably the first time she had ever heard that much kindness in her voice. The lady was cold and domineering enough to be known as ‘Ironheart.’ But she guessed that she had to steel herself because of the job she did.

There was also another old lady in Jason’s memory that had a similar demeanor. It was the custodian of the dorm he was in when he was just a student. Sujin felt a shiver travelling through her spine when the old lady’s grim face flashed in her mind. It was not even her memory!

Once that lady single handedly beat almost every male student in that dorm with her stick. Jason was not spared either. Sujin was in no way a supporter of corporal punishment (and it was also probably banned at that time, but the guys did not want the incident to be known at any cost, so they kept their mouths shut), but she totally supported the old lady. Those disgusting brats caused a water-clog in the bathroom. How did they do it? They all regularly jerked off to porn magazines in the bathrooms, and the pipes were not wide enough to handle all that gloop.

Sujin shut off the memory stream as she had a horrible vision of young Jason jerking off to Bo Derek’s playboy photo in the first person. That was… she did not need to see that!

‘Well, I guess as the head of the PR division, the poor lady also had to go through shits that were in no way better than those in the bathroom clogs.’

‘Please do not make me remember that anymore, or I’ll get sick.’

‘...Sorry. But she probably has to deal with all the dirt of the agency celebrities, right? All those scandals about drugs and sex and all.’

‘Yeah. You know that once she and her team had to go through three sleepless nights because a paparazzi leaked some clips of one of our actresses attending some secret orgy party of some rich douchebags.’

‘Yeah, I know. I guess nothing disillusions you more than working in the entertainment industry management itself, huh.’

 

“...Miss Lee Sujin?”

“Huh?”

She came back to her senses as Team Leader Park called her with a worried look on her face. Did she blank out?

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Ah! Yes! I am fine! I was just thinking about some stuff and… I’m sorry.”

Team Leader Park smiled again. It was quite bizarre for Sujin to see her smile kindly, or to see her smile in any way. But hey, it was definitely a good thing to be on the old lady’s good book.

“It’s alright. Well, then let me repeat myself. Congratulations on getting on the top 20 trending list.”

“...I’m sorry?”

Sujin didn’t understand. She was… trending? Why?

Maybe a younger version of her, or maybe the one in some alternate timeline where she successfully debuted, she would have been overwhelmed with joy. Any publicity was good publicity, right?

But she was long past the raging hormones, and she still had more than enough time before she went through a midlife crisis. Not to mention Jason’s own memories…

If she was not a celebrity and still became trending, there was a high chance that she did something stupid and now people were making memes about her. Or someone was targeting her and wanted to defame her—but why? It can’t be that, right?

Fuck, she should have never agreed to work with Team Leader Sung! Now all those jealous bitches are causing trouble for her!

‘Stop getting paranoid. It might also be you petting some random dog or cat on the street as usual and someone finding it cute and taking a picture. Hear out the old lady first.’

The old lady said nothing and played a video clip on her laptop.

She saw a video playing on youtube, which was uploaded by some CockTailGal… wait, isn’t that Jiyeon’s channel where she uploads clips of her mixing cocktails?

The video that was being played was not of her mixing cocktails, though.

Sujin stared dumbfoundedly as she saw herself in pajamas. She also saw Chunja who was wearing tanktop and yoga pants. Jiyeon was missing, but Sujin could hear her. She was the one who was holding the camera.

Did she record everything during the sleepover?!

She saw herself chug a whole can of beer (it was Jason actually) and then pick up the guitar.

Then she started singing Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ on the guitar. (Something like this), while the other two started to dance crazily.

Jason started to panic a little.

‘Oh no. Oh fuck.’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘The song! Is Cyndi Lauper even a thing in your world?! Have you ever heard that name?!’

‘...No, although I’m not exa—’

‘Fuck, we just ripped off a classic! What if someone asks where we heard that song?!’

‘Like I said, I’m not exactly knowledgeable on old Western so—’

‘Do we have to claim it as our own song? But… it’s a classic! We cannot rip it off like this! Also, how are we going to explain a Korean girl singing a song that sounds like it’s straight outta 80’s—’

‘Jason! Calm the fuck down! You’re giving me a headache!’

‘What are we gonna do—oh. Sorry.’

‘Who’s the one getting paranoid this time?! What did you say to me a few minutes ago? Hear out the old lady first!’

 

Sujin started laughing like a fool and said, “ah, we kinda had a sleepover and um… I guess Nam Jiyeon recorded it? You do remember her, right?”

“Yes, I do, her boss is my old acquaintance,” Park Sangha replied while smiling, “I go to drink there sometimes. She was also your batchmate, right?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Hmm…” Sujin got startled as she saw her new boss peeking from behind her shoulder.

“Eeek! T-Team Leader Sung! You scared me!”

“Ah sorry. I was just curious. You are… surprisingly skilled with Guitar, it seems.”

“O-Oh. I am flattered, haha—”

“Although I did not expect you to hear 80’s western songs, not to mention Cyndi Lauper.”

“...You know her?”

“Oh, I really like old school Western songs. Well, her ‘Time after Time’ is my most favorite one though. But ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ is the perfect one for a pajama party, right?”

“That’s right!”

Sujin could feel relief wash over Jason. They were about to rip off a whole game, and he was worried about a song? Classic or not.

“Looks like we have more in common than just coffee.”

“Haha…”

Sujin felt more stares on her back, as the drama hungry people sensed something they totally shouldn’t. Was this guy doing it on purpose, or was he just one of those dense idiots? Like hell, there was no way someone this dense would have ever been able to navigate such a cutthroat industry like it’s a child’s play. And her woman’s intuition told her that the man had zero romantic interest in her. What was he playing at? Trying to use her to deter others? Or was it something else? She would have to watch her steps around her. For now, she decided to steer the topic in a different direction.

“Uh… Team Leader Park, you said that I got on top 20 right?”

“Yep, you and your friends.”

“So… what was our position?”

“20.”

“...Fair.”

She just kept watching the video, where she skillfully played the guitar, skill that only came after continuously playing it for a long time. Sujin was not in any way a talented guitarist, but neither was Jason. He had played it for more than 15 years, that is all. She had seen a few monsters in the industry who were even younger than her but could play far better than even the experienced Jason, but she was not one of them.

Well, she got 57/100 scores according to Sung Jinwoo’s system, which was quite strict on its evaluation. Not that she will ever know.

After every member arrived, the meeting finally started. Both Sujin and Jason managed to pay attention for the first five minutes.

 

---

 

Sujin took a sip of her beer after she managed to calm down a fuming Kim Chunja, who was really angry at Nam Jiyeon, who was rather elated.

“I got 40k views and 4k likes in the last 3 days, Sujin! I also got 500 new subscribers! Now I need 7k more to reach 10k! And some of them are even foreigners!”

“And you got that by uploading a video that was completely different from the core concepts of your channel,” Chunja glared at her, “not to mention those foreign subscribers mainly came because Sujin sang an English song and someone clipped and shared it.”

Jiyeon’s smile faltered a bit. “W-Well, some of them also watched my other videos, and they liked them…”

“And those only got you 500 subscribers, instead of 40k,” Chunja said in an unamused tone.

“Y-You did not have to say it like that,” Jiyeon pouted, “I mean, it’s true, but still… I even said sorry to you for uploading it even without your consent. But your armpit hair was not even that much visible! And I even cut out those frames specially!”

“And that makes everything ok?!”

“Girls, calm down. What has happened has happened,” Sujin stopped them again from starting another round of quarrel, “it’s pointless to think about that anymore. Jiyeon, what you did was not completely right, that you already realize right? Chunja at least knew that you wanted to upload it on the internet. I, on the other hand, was completely blind about it. I was in that video too, you know.”

“B-But Sujin, you got famous…”

Sujin almost snorted, but she controlled herself. 40k views on a video could hardly be called viral. There was no way she was going to be remembered for more than a week. And she was not really angry about the video uploading. Jason was already trying to analyze if they could keep this publicity somehow till they released their game. But it seemed fun to mess with her friends, so she continued.

“And what am I going to do with that fame? I have an ordinary job now, Nam Jiyeon. My actions might impact the reputation of my company in a bad way, you know? I might even get fired. Even Team Leader Park did not let it go.”

Both Jiyeon and Chunja paled as they heard the name of lady Ironheart. Was she really angry at Sujin because of the video?

“I got scolded a lot, you know? My spirit is completely broken now,” she kept lying through her teeth, “ah, I could use some quality alcohol…”

“W-Well, just say what you want and it’s yours! I-It’s on the house, really!” She pleaded to the bossman and he sighed, but agreed nonetheless.

“Hey, was she really angry?” Even Chunja forgot her anger for a while and worried for Sujin. Okay, now it was grating on her conscience a little…

“She played the video in front of everyone in an important meeting.” That was not technically a lie.

Both Jiyeon and Chunja felt sorry for the poor girl who got ‘shamed’ in front of the meeting. They both patted her shoulder.

“...I’m sorry, Sujin. I did not think things would escalate that far,” Jiyeon almost started to cry.

“...I thought I had it bad, but holy hell, poor girl…” Chunja, who was sitting on Sujin’s side hugged her.

Sujin felt pangs in her heart. She took the things a bit too far. But oh well. It would be alright as long as they do not find out anything.

“Let’s talk about something else! What was that meeting about anyway? ...Is it confidential?” Chunja asked.

“Well… it is, kinda. I’ll just say that I will be temporarily returning to the field, and will take care of a singer—from a different agency, by the way. That’s all I can tell you.”

“Aw. Some kind of collab then? Can’t you at least tell us their name?”

“Nope, that’s a secret for now. Just wait, you will be surprised.”

 

---

 

“Welcome to LME, miss Park Sarang.”

“H-Hello.”

Sujin stood behind her boss in his office room as he shook her hands with an above average looking girl, who seemed quite shy. Even Sujin was astonished for a moment.

To think the woman was now reduced to this…

Park Sarang used to be quite a big name in the music industry—until four years ago, when the currently 32 year old lady got in a serious car accident and got her throat crushed. The lady who was famous for her sweet melodious voice, that felt like bells chiming in a calm rainy day, lost her biggest asset.

It seemed like her windpipes have healed either naturally or thanks to surgery—neither Sujin nor Jason knew whether it was possible—but she could feel little hints of harshness in her voice occasionally. It was possible that she would not be able to sing melodiously like before. Or she would have to start anew and change her singing style. Slightly husky voices were not that unwelcome, some singers even made names for that kind of voice. Sujin’s own voice was like that, and she lasted as a trainee for so long.

But that was one unknown territory—it was not something the agencies were exactly happy to venture into. In the modern entertainment industry, there were an abundance of celebrities, and even fans tended to forget about their adored celebrities and jump onto the next one quite easily. It was extremely hard to make a comeback after four years of invisibility, even harder when you would not be able to sing your previously famous songs the same way. And... she was 32 now.

Even the others at the meeting were surprised when Sung Jinwoo, the Midas Fucking Hand himself asked for the direct supervision of the comeback concert of Park Sarang. Some thought he was being arrogant and foolish, and some believed in his capability.

Sujin looked around and found no managers. Was the girl really that neglected? No wonder she was selected to become the temporary manager of the lady.

“Miss Sarang. I was told that you tried to compose some songs for your return concert. May I hear them, if you do not mind?”

“Eh? Y-Yes, of course! S-Should I play them here?”

“Yes, please go ahead.”

“O-Okay,” Sarang anxiously sat down and took out a laptop from her bag.

Both Sujin and Jason stared at the slightly old MacBook the lady was using.

 

...Did some of the lucky boi’s luck rub on to them somehow?