The next day, having finished work for the day, Executive Director Park was heading somewhere.
Vrooooom!
More and more strength pressed into the foot on the accelerator…
Before he knew it, he arrived in front of the bar he’d stopped frequenting for a while.
[ Put the kids to bed for me. I’ll be right back. ]
After leaving a message to his mother, who was watching the kids at home, he walked into the bar.
Trudge, trudge.
The manager put on a faintly hurt expression, cooing about why he’d been so scarce lately.
Executive Director Park wasn’t in the mood for jokes, so he just urged him to hurry up and lead the way.
“Your party has already arrived.”
At that, Park lowered his voice and said, “What party,” then pushed open the door marked ‘VIP ROOM’ with a grim face.
Creeeeak.
As the door opened, a man’s face came into view, smiling and saying, “Oh, you’re here?”
“Why are you grinning like that? We’re not the kind of people who greet each other warmly with smiles.”
“That doesn’t mean we have to greet each other wearing scowls, does it?”
“That depends on what nonsense you spew at me today.”
At that, the man gave a leisurely laugh, drawling, “You’ve still got that sharp tongue, I see.”
Then as now, that weasel-like face was enough to make anger boil up just looking at it.
The man’s name was—
Im Sungwoon, CEO of Q& Entertainment.
“Hey, CEO Im.”
“Yes?”
“A warning: wipe that smirk off.”
“Sure, if you say so.”
Im Sungwoon slowly bobbed his head, as if to needle him.
‘What a jerk.’
The moment Park sat down in the seat across, he filled a rocks glass to the brim with whiskey and tossed it back in one go.
It was a kind of show of force.
“Wow, our Executive Director Park must be very thirsty.”
“More like: you’ve got a face that’s hard to look at without liquor.”
There were reasons why Park was baring his teeth and growling this much.
First.
Reason number one: the guy had called while he was spending happy time with his kids.
(*Also ticked off now because he can’t go put the kids to bed.)
Second: because the guy had swaggered in saying, “I happened to come by a piece of information—shall we talk face-to-face?”
Above all.
He’d always hated the man to begin with.
Born to the right parents, no real skill or ability, yet he started an entertainment company and strutted around with his shoulders squared just because he got to call himself a CEO. Park didn’t care for it at all.
Right.
In a word, he was exactly the type of person Park despised.
Even if… even if that feeling could be called an inferiority complex, he couldn’t pretend to like what he didn’t like just to humor him.
‘It’s not like he’s my CEO anyway.’
As Park and Im traded glares, Park crunched down loudly on an ice cube.
“How about HS?”
Out of Im’s mouth popped a completely unexpected name, and Park almost choked and made a fool of himself.
“Ahem, why bring that up all of a sudden?”
He tried to act like he wasn’t surprised, but Im didn’t miss it; narrowing his eyes, he asked,
“Why are you so startled?”
“Because I didn’t expect that name to come up.”
“What’s a hotter keyword these days than HS?”
When Park answered nothing and just poured drink after drink, Im’s smile turned sly as he continued.
“Did you hear? There’s a rumor in the industry that HS is pulling LS Entertainment along.”
“What?”
“They must be important talent to LS Entertainment. That’s why talk like that goes around, right?”
Then, like a kid who’d gotten his hands on a robot, he asked with a face full of excitement,
“Rumor has it they’re as good-looking as an actor. True?”
As the conversation kept spinning in circles, Park, growing impatient, narrowed his eyes and asked back,
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“I’m just dying to know why you’re guarding such talent like Fort Knox.”
“I didn’t come here to satisfy your curiosity. Get to the point.”
At that, Im swirled his glass and replied in a needling tone,
“Simply put, I’ve learned who HS really is. I want to line up the fastest reporter to spread it—could you introduce me if you know someone?”
Park couldn’t hold back and grabbed the rim of his rocks glass tight, about to shout, “You little—!”
“My, my, you’ll end up throwing the glass at this rate.”
Feigning a flinch, Im raised his guard, then promptly let that smirking face return and added,
“Judging by how you’re reacting, HS must really be LS Entertainment’s Achilles’ heel.”
Park wanted to grab him by the collar right then and there but doing that would be tantamount to admitting HS was indeed LS Entertainment’s Achilles’ heel.
More importantly, he had no idea how much the guy actually knew about HS; maybe he was just fishing.
‘Ha….’
Forcing his emotions down as much as possible, Park drew a firm line in a hard voice.
“You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“Am I?”
“The name is Min Hyunseung… right?”
“…?!”
“So HS was the initials of a name?”
The more Park pushed back, the more Im only grinned.
Tremble, tremble.
His fist, clenched tight under the table, quivered. It was hardly pleasant to be toyed with by a punk whose only qualification was wearing a CEO title.
However, since a name that should never have come out of the guy’s mouth—“Min Hyunseung”—had now been spoken, he couldn’t act rashly.
There are no eternal secrets, but at least he had to protect this one himself. Right, because he owed a debt he could never repay in money.
First.
Deciding to see what more Im would spout, Park folded his arms and kept as calm a demeanor as he could.
After a brief silence—
“I’ve actually respected you for a long time, Executive Director. You’ve got a real knack for business. And for talking people around.”
When Park didn’t respond, Im seemed to get antsy and began babbling on.
“Honestly, with sufficient capital, you’re the kind of person who could easily start an agency of your own….”
Then he personally poured whiskey into the rocks glass in front of Park and added,
“I could stake you a bit of capital. How about breaking away from LS Entertainment now?”
What kind of development was this supposed to be?
“Oh, of course I’m not saying I’d do it with no strings attached, so don’t feel burdened.”
Ah.
Of course.
“Just get me two or three songs from HS.”
So after all that preamble, this was what he’d been after.
He could’ve just said straightforwardly he wanted a song….
“And if I refuse?”
Of course, even if HS agreed, I’d stop it.
“Well then, I’ll be upset, so I’ll probably have a few drinks with some reporters and do a little grumbling, you know?”
“You sure about that?”
“Yes. Seeing how you reacted gave me confidence in the information I have.”
Deciding there was no reason to listen any further, Park brushed off his seat and stood up.
All the guy had was “Min Hyunseung,” a name.
Right.
It wasn’t a dating scandal or a drug scandal; there was no reason to dance to this guy’s tune.
Tch, what a waste of time.
Park downed the last of the whiskey in his glass.
“Seeing you run wild without knowing up from down, you must never have crawled at the very bottom….”
He scrubbed the wet corner of his mouth hard with his sleeve and added a parting shot.
“I’ll make sure you experience the bottom thoroughly, so sit tight and wait.”
That voice, weighted down with pressure, was cold enough to frost over.
“Oh, right.”
For a moment, as if something occurred to him, Park tapped his forehead.
“One piece of advice: keep a good hold of your money.”
Still smiling, he went on,
“If money’s the only thing you’ve got and you lose even that, I might feel too sorry for you and go soft.”
Then he walked out of the room without a moment’s hesitation.
Bang!
Before long.
Staring at the closed door with a forbidding expression, he muttered,
“That nothing of a guy. How dare he play word games with HS.”
A few days later.
“What are you going to do about this?”
At the gym, Hyunseung let out a sigh-laced complaint to Executive Director Park.
“And what exactly do you want me to do.”
Ignoring Hyunseung, Park lay back on the bench.
“Someone like you could get an article pulled with one word.”
“Man, what’s the problem? It’s not like your face is showing.”
“It’s just… the picture isn’t great, you know?”
Even as he held his phone screen over Park’s face, Hyunseung still didn’t miss a beat spotting him.
“Five, six, seven….”
Park tried hard to ignore the phone screen, focusing on keeping his form tight.
“Fifteen… No, but are you really not going to have it taken down?”
The article Hyunseung was practically begging to have removed was—
not a rumor-sheet blurb or a dating scandal.
[Ahn Jiho X HS X Villain Daddy—A Dangerous Date for Three.]
It was a short piece that could be written off as a tiny mishap.
“Shouldn’t we confiscate this reporter’s laptop or something? What’s ‘dangerous’ supposed to mean…”
It seemed someone had snapped a photo and tipped it off on the day they’d taken Park’s kids out to play, a few days back.
The one piece of luck was that he’d been wearing a helmet for Taemin—who, at his age, loved robots.
That aside.
No matter how you looked at it, the headline was lousy.
“Waa—.”
But Park, teasing Hyunseung, grabbed the phone and spoke in an exaggerated tone,
“What outlet is this? They nailed the headline.”
He almost burst out laughing at Hyunseung’s disgruntled expression…
‘Heh, the punk.’
But he held it in and added, needling,
“This place is a headline goldmine. A goldmine.”
Hyunseung only glared at him for a moment.
“If you won’t get it taken down, forget it.”
Sulking, he lay back on the bench, saying they should just hurry up and work out.
“Heh, heh, shouldn’t you be wearing a helmet at the gym too soon?”
“Ugh, just count the reps already.”
When Hyunseung snapped, Park said okay and started counting haphazardly.
Shff, shff—
Only, his eyes were fixed on the swarm of comments under the article.
↳ No but seriously, even from the backs alone this combo is too blessed
↳ HS, Ahn Jiho, Villain Daddy… so where is this place again?
↳ Villain Daddy—look at that physique that doesn’t lose out even among the youngsters? Truly the light and hope of Korea’s dads.
↳ Wait, so HS, that helmet isn’t just a concept? He wears it in daily life too? For real, amazing, seriously,,
Among them, the comment that caught Park’s eye was—
↳ Villain Daddy—look at that physique that doesn’t lose out even among the youngsters? Truly the light and hope of Korea’s dads.
It was a comment praising him. He’d teased Hyunseung, but since the kid hated it so much, he’d been about to make some calls to get it pulled right away.
But then….
Not bad, fitting in among the younger guys. Makes me look a bit younger too.
The proportions came out pretty good, didn’t they?
“Tsk…”
Park stared holes through the photo in the article and the comments for a moment.
Before long, he pressed and held the ‘Like ♡’ button on that comment.
T/N: That’s it for this week. <3 Next update is Monday and will follow the regular schedule.
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