Team Leader Han’s prediction wasn’t wrong.
No, should we say it was wrong?
“Team Leader Han, I clearly said half a day would be enough, didn’t I?”
“Since the date rolled over, doesn’t that mean I was right too?”
“Hey, how are ‘a day’ and ‘half a day’ the same thing?”
Director Kim and Team Leader Han kept up a taut war of nerves.
“Anyway, this bet goes to our management team.”
“Eh, no way! Strictly speaking, we’re both right!”
“Keep insisting on nonsense, why don’t you! Obviously, we won.”
In the end, Team Leader Han reluctantly pulled out an envelope. He hated handing it over so much his hand trembled as he passed it.
“I’m gonna use this to eat something good till my stomach pops.”
Director Kim snatched the envelope with a cheeky grin, whistled, and strolled off the rooftop terrace.
Today, Director Kim’s condition was top-tier, his mood at its peak.
No wonder.
The moment Hyunseung’s composer album ‘UNM,’ produced in collaboration with Jayble, dropped, public attention swung hard toward it.
[ A meeting of geniuses: HS X Jayble collab album title track ‘letter’ sets new all-time record for fastest streaming tally…]
And sure enough, by midnight, barely half a day later, when the updated music charts came out, the title track was sitting proud at #1.
[ Uprising of the composers: title track ‘letter,’ with HS and Jayble themselves on vocals, tops the chart in half a day. ]
And not only that, every B-side entered within the Top 15, stacking up astonishing records with words like “all-time,” “fastest,” and “highest.”
[ All tracks from HS X Jayble’s 1st collab album ‘UNM’ enter the charts… ]
Last year, Jayble and HS had gone head-to-head in year-end chart performance. This year, they released a collab album together.
Who wouldn’t be curious enough to listen?
What’s more, it’s a personal album made by two of Korea’s top “trust-and-listen” composers teaming up.
That alone was enough to set tongues wagging everywhere.
All the more so because fan-meeting recaps for HS had such firepower on the community boards, they enjoyed a sweet halo of promo effect.
Right after the fan meeting ended, it looked like fewer recaps were going up than expected. Was the headcount just too small?
hat worry crept in for a second, but….
As if laughing at his needless anxiety, the moment the personal album dropped, fan-meeting recaps came gushing out.
[ Since HS’ album is out, here’s some hidden fan-meeting tea ]
Director Kim suddenly cracked his knuckles and began reading the recaps carefully, letter by letter.
「 Wow. my fingers have been itching these past few days. I was gonna die. As for the controversial hat.. the merch.. the clown show, there’s already a lot out there… so I’ll talk about the hidden behind-the-scenes from that day…
We already knew he’d be announcing the personal album like a showcase, but since it’s a composer’s album, I figured it’d be more like a listening session, y’know?
They asked us to refrain from filming or recording because of leak issues, so I didn’t even take out my phone, but the thing I regret even for my private stash is… then Ahn Jiho, Jung Arin, and Kim Bomi came out one after another ㅋㅋㅋat some point I couldn’t tell if I was at a fan meeting or a concert. 」
Right, for a composer’s fan meeting, that lineup was absurd.
「 And then suddenly for the last stage there were two HS’s ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ah ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ thinking about it now is killing me ㅋㅋㅋ anyway Jayble and HS wore the signature helmet and those same T-shirts they were selling at the merch booth and did ‘letter’ live (and they were crazy good on top of it)
But that foxy Etches didn’t just sing it live. At the ending, he took off the helmet and slammed our hearts with a profile reveal. No, he didn’t just hit us, he pulped us; it was bedlam for real ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 」
Ugh, when that fan collapsed, my vision went dark, but it was such a relief that Hyunseung handled it well.
「 I’m pretty calm, but even my heart was pounding like crazy; I thought I’d puke; no wonder someone fainted, right? In the middle of all that, HS took charge instantly and sorted things, which was a relief. Bottom line: HS is f—ing insanely handsome and his physique in real life is beyond words; man among men; 」
That’s right! Our Hyunseung is insanely handsome and a man’s man! Best at everything!
↳ You happy keeping it to yourself? Huh? Are you? Like, come on. As a human being you should’ve at least snapped one photo. What is this nonsense behavior;
↳ Honestly, it’s lucky only true HS fans got in. There’s not a single leaked video or frontal shot from that stage. True fans respect that HS doesn’t want his face out there.
↳ The reply above is fair, but you can only talk like that because you saw it;; for those of us who didn’t, this is actually super frustrating;
↳ Why are you so twisted about it? Then you should’ve gotten picked lolol Why come here to throw a tantrum over not getting in?
Please don’t let the fans fight. Live well and be friendly.
↳ So? Compared to Jayble, how much more handsome is he? Which spot’s the better restaurant, huh? You gotta describe it in detail so we can at least imagine T_T
↳ I also went, and if Jayble is an in-the-100s-ranked restaurant, HS is Michelin three-star fine dining.
A face that’s a “restaurant”? That’s a new turn of phrase. Gotta jot that down.
↳ omg wtf are they doing another fan meeting? Or at least a fansign for those who couldn’t go!!!!!!!
Will Hyunseung… do one again?
Anyway, if he ever does a full frontal reveal, will we get mass fainting?
“Ugh.”
Director Kim already felt a wave of vertigo, as if it were happening right now.
And so, while he was alone hunting down forum posts and nodding fiercely in sympathy…
I should buy our Geum-jjok some coffee.
… he found he’d already arrived at a café terrace.
“One iced Americano, please.”
Right now, in this very moment, Director Kim was reeling in shock.
Seriously.
If he’d flinched, he would’ve dropped the coffee he’d just bought.
“Hyunseung, did you eat something weird?”
“What I’m going to eat… I’m about to go for that.”
“You’re sure you’re not really sick?”
He placed a hand on Hyunseung’s forehead, checking for a fever.
“No fever, but….”
Then he shrugged his shoulders like it was really hard to believe.
Because Hyunseung had suddenly arranged a meal with the artists he’d worked with and was bringing them all together.
And he’d said Director Kim should come too.
“Come on.”
Hyunseung gently pushed Director Kim’s hand away and continued.
“It’s just a belated fan-meeting after-party and year-end party; why are you making me out like I’m ill?”
“I mean, I know you’re not the type who enjoys mingling with a big crowd, so it’s a bit surprising.”
At that, Hyunseung cleared his throat for no reason and said,
“Just this once. They helped with the fan meeting.”
“The artists who performed on stage, sure—but the other artists?”
“They cleared their packed schedules to come cheer me on too.”
Director Kim’s lips slowly parted, and before he knew it, he blurted, “Huh?”
“You can’t just zip your lips and pretend not to know people who carved out time to come to your fan meeting.”
Director Kim clapped his hands over his mouth as if overcome.
“Oh my? At this rate you’re going to bawl your eyes out.”
“You’re really Dong-jjok now….”
“Anyway, I made the reservation, so you have to come.”
Unable to contain the swell of emotion, Director Kim grabbed Hyunseung in a big hug and thumped his back.
Is this what it feels like to raise a child?
“I’m so proud that you thought that through and set this up yourself. Seriously, you’ve grown up. All grown up!”
“Pretty sure I’m taller than you.”
Ha.
This kid was definitely a hardcore T.
All the way to the reserved restaurant, the Director Kim who’d worried about crashing a kids’ party was nowhere to be found.
“Since the album hit #1 as soon as it dropped, we can’t even say ‘to winning #1’ for our toast—so what should our cheer be?”
Now he was the most excited one, leading the vibe.
“To a long reign?”
“To squatting on #1?”
“To an HS train ride?”
At Director Kim’s question, the weirdest toasts popped out from here and there, but only for a moment.
“Let’s just go with ‘To—.’ Everyone wants something different anyway.”
When Hyunseung said it in a dry tone, everyone glanced around and nodded awkwardly.
“G-good.”
“Let’s do that.”
“It’s meaningful in its own way.”
In the end, the toast was unified simply as “To—,” and glasses clinked in midair.
Clink!
With that crisp glass-on-glass sound, soft laughter rippled constantly around the room.
And as expected, the chattiest people here were only three: Director Kim, Jung Arin, and Choi Junhyeok.
“Composer-nim, I read the fan meeting recaps and they were wild!”
“Arin, you saw them? Seriously, at this point, it’s testimony time, right?”
“For real, I think you might be more popular than most idol groups!”
Quietly listening, Seo Jini cut her steak into a bite-sized piece, popped it into her mouth, and said,
“He’s definitely more popular than The Moon.”
“Sunbae, if you drop facts like that….”
Then hemming and hawing, Yoon Jaeyi carefully spoke up.
“Um, but why did you reveal your face? We didn’t see all of it, but, didn’t you really dislike doing that?”
Hyunseung gave a small hum and answered tersely.
“Just because.”
After deciding to hold the fan meeting, he’d agonized constantly over revealing his face. His sister had said it was fine and told him to live how he wanted, but it was never an easy choice.
In the midst of that, Jayble suggested it might be fun if they did the stage wearing helmets together, and that sparked the performance idea.
Right.
What if he turned to the side at the end and only revealed half his face? If they cut to blackout right away, nobody would see for long anyway.
Of course, because of an unexpected incident, he ended up showing a full frontal to Miso, or Somi, or whatever her name was.
“Ehh—.”
At his answer, Jung Arin shot back:
“There’s no such thing as ‘just because’! When you make that kind of decision, there’s usually a decisive trigger!”
Director Kim pretended not to be listening, but judging by how his chopsticks kept missing, he was curious.
“Wait, are you going to start full-scale activities in the entertainment scene now? In that case there’s no room left for The Moon….”
Choi Junhyeok grumbled half-serious, half-joking.
“I am curious.”
Seo Jini muttered to herself as well.
“Really ‘just because’…”
Hyunseung put down his chopsticks, weighed down by all the eyes on him.
“Because it felt unfair.”
He offered a vague answer. Everyone cocked their heads—“Unfair?”—but no one asked first.
They just assumed there must be something he couldn’t talk about.
“Let’s just eat and head out.”
“What, we’re done after round one?”
“Then what, you want more?”
“A proper year-end party should go to, like, round four….”
Hyunseung waved his chopsticks through the air, cutting off Director Kim. He just wanted to treat everyone to an expensive meal out of gratitude.
He had no intention of drinking everyone under the table, going to karaoke, and loosening ties.
“Rounds two through four… go without me.”
Hyunseung, who added that firmly, stuffed a slice of smoked duck into his mouth and thought:
Honestly, thank goodness the misunderstanding was cleared up.
I don’t have a jutting jaw or a beak nose.
Yeah, all those years feeling wronged and unable to complain anywhere—
Not a trace of burn marks, not even a single scar.
He’d finally managed to clear up the rumors about his face.
However, one newly spawned misunderstanding was still unresolved….
“By the way, why didn’t Mr. Jayble come?”
Right then, Director Kim asked about the source of that misunderstanding.
“He said he doesn’t want to be mistaken for being gay.”
“Huh?”
“I hear there’s a rumor going around that he and I are a couple.”
“What?”
“Of all things, the front shield on my signature helmet is a rainbow hologram, right? So they’re saying it’s like a symbol of homosexuality, and that Jayble and I put out a couple album, not a collab…”
“Oh, for—!”
Director Kim slammed his spoon and chopsticks down with a bang and, fuming, continued.
“What shameless punk of a reporter scribbled that nonsense? I’ll take care of it right now!”
Suddenly the room went silent as if doused with cold water.
Director Kim realized he’d raised his voice too much, glanced around, and added:
“Ah, uh… not that being gay would be weird, of course.”
“When you put it like that it really makes me sound gay.”
“N-no. That’s not what I meant.”
“I’m not uninterested in women. I’m just not gay.”
“Ah, I know! I could tell you liked women when you asked if Seo-hee was pretty.”
The more Director Kim talked, the more hopelessly awkward the vibe got.
Man…
He scratched the back of his head, sheepish.
Ding!
Just then a text came in.
[ The CEO has called an emergency meeting. It will be held in the executive conference room in one hour. All executives are requested to attend. ]
Director Kim checked the message from the secretary’s office and shot to his feet. Honestly, he was relieved to have an excuse to escape the awkwardness.
“Ah, looks like I’ve got to go. There’s a last-minute meeting with the CEO.”
“Go ahead.”
“Kinda a shame to leave without eating my fill when it’s such an expensive treat….”
Whether he’d picked up on it or what, Hyunseung smiled in a way that was hard to read and said,
“You can come back later with your mother and eat.”
“How am I supposed to come to a place this pricey, you brat.”
“If you want to eat, you come. Anyway, off you go.”
Director Kim waved to the other artists not to bother seeing him out and stepped out of the restaurant, which was made up of private rooms.
But an emergency call-out out of nowhere, what could it be?
[ The CEO has called an emergency meeting. It will be held in the executive conference room in one hour. All executives are requested to attend. ]
Director Kim checked the text again and, at the word “executives,” gave a bitter little smile.
Right.
If he made executive, he could bring his mother to places like this without a care.
“Guess I’ll get going.”
And then Director Kim started up his old, beat-up SUV.
T/N: For those who were confused like I was in the beginning, “Director” Kim Woohyun is the head of the management team, above individual managers, below corporate executives. He earns enough, but not enough to do all these fancy dinners.
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