Austin dressed in a suit that looked even darker red than usual today.
Not a hair out of place.
As if pressed with a blade heated red-hot, the sharply creased suit embodied his resolve today.
Trudge, trudge.
The sharply pointed black shoes caught the sunlight and gleamed.
Trudge, trudge.
There was a certain determination in Austin’s stride.
“Sir, are you sure about this?”
Someone was walking alongside him.
“Let’s turn back even now.”
It was Chief Manager Andrew, whose position in the company was so solid he was called Austin’s left arm.
“Does it make any sense for the CEO himself to move over a mere composer distribution contract? I’ll go alone.”
Andrew begged, trying to stop Austin’s steps somehow.
Well… Fine.
Sending the private jet was one thing, but this situation right now was impossible to accept.
Wasn’t it?
Unice Music Group wasn’t some small-time distributor; the idea that the CEO would personally go, contract in hand, to win over a composer…
“Why go this far…?”
No matter how good HS’s music was, how great, how acknowledged, this was beyond comprehension.
It would also diminish Unice Music Group’s stature.
Tap.
All at once, Austin halted.
“Andrew.”
Turning his head to meet Andrew’s eyes, he continued.
“If he’s making a proposal that everyone thinks is absurd and unreasonable, he must have something he’s confident in.”
“It could just be youthful bravado or simple bluff. He might be an empty puff pastry that looks big and hollow inside.”
“As you know, the fact that we even have a private jet is known only to top executives and a very limited number of our artists.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“And yet, instead of asking for the kind of fee or royalty terms composers usually request, he pinpointed it: ‘Send a private jet.’”
“Maybe he just threw it out there once to see.”
Austin slowly shook his head.
“No.”
Then, recalling HS’s light brown eyes that he’d faced head-on the day before, he added,
“It wasn’t something he ‘just said.’”
Austin briefly revisited his conversation with HS yesterday.
“What’s more, he seemed certain I’d agree to that condition.”
A faint smile touched his lips.
The first moment facing HS had been bewildering, but in retrospect it was intriguing.
First situation.
First type of person.
First kind of gaze.
Everything was fresh and stimulating.
How to put it…?
It felt like that sensation returning of encountering a new thing you’d never even imagined.
In an era where cultural content morphs and pours out by the day, it was a feeling hard to come by.
However, Andrew couldn’t relate to Austin’s words at all.
Maybe because he hadn’t met HS or properly listened to the track…
Even so, it was clearly a situation not easily acceptable.
Ah. Of course, he couldn’t stop Austin, who had already decided.
And even if he tried, he wouldn’t be stopped.
If he were the sort to change his mind easily based on others’ words, he’d never be sitting in the CEO’s chair.
“Come to think of it, he and Sarah have similar temperaments.”
Andrew followed behind Austin, who walked on ahead.
How many more steps did they take?
Tap.
Austin’s steps halted again.
“Perhaps that certainty is what brought me here.”
At those words, Andrew looked up and saw the “Limited Hollywood Edition,” the five-star hotel in Los Angeles famed for having the best facilities. Were they meeting in the hotel lounge?
But where Austin led them was….
Ding-dong!
Not the hotel lounge, nor a café, nor even the sauna—but in front of a suite on the very top floor.
“Why on earth… here….”
Standing a step behind Austin, Andrew felt more discomfort than anticipation about HS, and couldn’t bring himself to move.
A five-star hotel suite where he hadn’t even come with a woman… and with the company CEO….
Moreover, the person waiting inside was a male composer, wasn’t he?
“Did you book the suite, sir?”
“No.”
“Pardon? Then HS booked it himself with his own money?”
“Mm. He said he didn’t need company support.”
“He asks for a private jet and then says he doesn’t need lodging support…”
Truly a man impossible to read.
Before long, the door opened slowly, and a man in a white bathrobe, a towel wrapped around his head, poked his head through the gap.
“You’re a bit early, aren’t you?”
In that instant, Andrew, as if bewitched by the man’s face, thrust out a business card.
“Have you ever thought about becoming a star?”
You could call it a chronic occupational disease for a casting manager.
Hyunseung snorted at the business card shoved practically up to his nose.
“Hah?”
Today was supposed to be the day he received a contract brimming with sincerity.
What was with this man out of nowhere, and a business card, and what did he mean a star?
‘Did they change the plan?’
Was he trying to win him over with flattering words? The thought arose unavoidably.
“What is this?”
He hadn’t thought their play would be this shallow.
“Was I wrong?”
Just as Hyunseung’s face began to twist into a curious expression, Austin spoke sharply to the man.
“Andrew, what do you think you’re doing?”
At that, Andrew looked between his and Austin’s faces, and once he seemed to grasp the situation, he bowed somewhere between the two.
“I’m sorry. I was momentarily bewitched by his face…”
Hyunseung answered briefly that it was fine.
‘Dad Kim was like that in his chief-manager days too.’
Right. Manager Kim, who, whenever there was an opening, would ask if he’d ever thought of switching to being an entertainer came to mind, and so he could generously overlook Andrew’s sudden move.
Above all, in this industry, if you don’t even have that level of occupational quirk, you probably don’t have any professional spirit at all.
“Let’s go in first. If people see me in a bathrobe at a suite door surrounded by men, they’ll think it’s really weird.”
At that, Austin and Andrew quickly stepped inside.
They, too, didn’t want to be the protagonists in a strange picture.
“If you sit in the living room, I’ll change and come out.”
With that, leaving the two behind, Hyunseung headed into the bedroom.
Then he leisurely finished getting ready: put on face cream, chose his clothes, did his hair.
“Didn’t take long, did I?”
Hyunseung came back out to the living room where they were, a good twenty minutes later.
Well, what could you do? Whoever arrives earlier than the appointed time has to wait.
“I already took your card, so let’s skip the cumbersome pleasantries and go straight to the contract, shall we?”
No sooner had he sat down on the sofa than he said it, and Austin signaled to Andrew with his eyes.
“Yes, here it is.”
Quite unlike before, Andrew took the contract from his bag with a solemn face.
Rustle, rustle.
Hyunseung quickly scanned the contract handed to him.
To be honest, even the terms Austin proposed yesterday were enough. In his previous life, the distribution contract he’d signed with Unice had probably been about that.
But remembering the initial monkey business, even those terms felt like a joke, and he didn’t feel like signing.
It was just… a mood thing.
Rustle, rustle.
Of course, the contract now was excellent enough to be called fair compensation.
There wasn’t anything that could be called a poison clause, and of course there were no registration fees.
The distribution fee had also been lowered to an unprecedented 3%.
And not only that, it came with a conditional clause that he could distribute through Unice Music Group under the same terms for three years.
Right.
For another composer, it would be a perfect, 100-point contract that would have them drooling and signing “thank you” on the line.
“Mm.”
Hyunseung hummed briefly.
“Could you hand me that?”
He crooked his finger toward the pen set on one side of the coffee table.
“This one?”
As if it were only natural, Andrew tapped the pen again and asked.
“Here you are.”
With a gentlemanly smile, he handed it over when Hyunseung dipped his chin.
Scritch, scritch.
They were surely convinced he would immediately scrawl his signature.
But he still wasn’t in the mood.
Well…
It really was just a mood thing.
“Sorry, but…”
Tapping with his fingertip the parts he’d drawn lines through with the pen, Hyunseung added,
“Please strike these terms.”
At that, Austin and Andrew craned their necks to see what clauses were marked.
“Why would you…”
Their eyes shook hard.
And no wonder.
What Hyunseung had raked lines through was, in a way, the key point of this whole contract.
- This contract is with the original author “HS,” not with “LS Entertainment,” and therefore the party to whom the distribution terms in this contract apply is limited to “HS.”
(*The same terms will remain in effect for three years.)
Going further, Hyunseung wrote below as follows.
Change to a contract with LS Entertainment.
※ However, keep the current terms exactly as is.
In short, he was asking that not only his own works, but all tracks LS Entertainment wished to distribute be given the same terms.
It was perhaps an outrageous request.
“If you’re going to show sincerity anyway, I’d prefer you show it properly. Is that too much?”
Hyunseung knew he was making a demanding request.
But he felt like doing it that way, so he took a shot.
Right.
If he brought this news back to Dad Kim, wouldn’t the man’s shoulders go up a bit?
He himself could also score points with CEO Jeon Nam-il, who was full of anxious caution.
“Let us think it over and discuss again.”
As expected, it seemed Austin couldn’t readily accept this. He gathered up the contract, his face serious.
In the end, they would have no choice but to accept.
“Sure.”
Hyunseung answered at once with a calm face. If they accepted, he was willing to wait as long as needed.
Just then.
“Ahem, hem!”
Andrew, who had kept quiet and watched, cleared his throat and carefully spoke up.
“In return, next time please come to Unice Music Group in person. No matter what, it’s a bit… for the CEO to come himself….”
He was an employee who thought of his CEO. His professional spirit was strong.
He seemed like the kind of talent Unice Music Group needed.
Of course.
There was no reason for Hyunseung to find that endearing.
“In the East, there’s a four-character idiom, ‘samgochoryeo.’ Have you heard of it?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Literally translated, it means ‘visiting the thatched cottage three times.’”
After slowly letting his gaze pass over the two men, Hyunseung continued in a voice that sank low,
“Loosely speaking, it means that to recruit a great person, you have to do your utmost.”
Perhaps because of those words, a suffocating silence fell over the room, to the point where even breathing couldn’t be heard.
“…”
Austin and Andrew’s minds had gone blank.
But only for a moment.
Unable to bear the long silence any longer, Hyunseung clapped his hands together with a sharp “smack” and spoke.
“I’m not saying you have to do anything right away, so go back, think it over well, and get in touch.”
Presently.
“I’m not that rigid a person, so I’ll give you plenty of time.”
After adding that final line, Hyunseung gave a small smile.
Of course. Since only his mouth was smiling, it only made him look all the more wicked.
Leave a Reply