“Mr. Cheonghyeon, thank you so much.”
“For what?”
He was embarrassed and tried to hurry off, but when the PD held his hand tightly, he could not move. It was not the PD’s grip that held him, but the small trembling that traveled between their clasped hands.
“I really owe you this time, and I will make sure to repay you someday. And I will do a really good job on this edit too. Thank you.”
“PD.”
“Huh? Do you want something? Just say the word. I know a lot of people in the drama department, I can place you anywhere.”
“That is not it. You do not owe me anything. I am a guest, and I just worked hard at filming today. And you are just editing episode 145 as usual, working hard like you always do.”
When he put special emphasis on “as usual,” the PD quietly looked at him and then gave their joined hands one more firm squeeze.
“All right. Still, good work today. Who says otherwise? I was only trying to say I am grateful you worked hard at filming today.”
There was no one here who did not realize that the lower-than-usual voice was trying to conceal a tremor. Even so, both Cheonghyeon and the PD let it pass as if they had not noticed.
It felt like Cheonghyeon could understand, just a little, what it means to live bumping up against other people.
For someone used only to vertical relationships inside the palace, this shoot meant a lot. In this place, there is no one who is always high and no one who is always low.
As a guest he could not refuse the PD’s wishes, and the PD who bowed his head to him was also someone who could place him in a drama at any moment.
Even the advertiser, who cut the shoot as he pleased, was someone who watched viewers’ reactions. The powerful and the powerless are mixed together, creating favors and grudges, and life continues on.
The long, long shoot came to an end.
Meanwhile, Seoan had been insanely busy. There was still quite a bit of time left before the review of the doctoral dissertation he had submitted last May would conclude, but that did not mean he could spend the interim idly.
He had to take part in academic seminars diligently, and he needed to pile up research output so that he could be registered as faculty as soon as possible after passing the review.
He thought that at the doctoral stage he would not have to make any public presentations, but a paper he coauthored with a professor he had been close with during his undergraduate years abroad drew quite a bit of attention.
He was even scheduled to give a public presentation at a seminar in Germany next month on behalf of a professor who was surely busier than he was. To make matters worse, his grandfather kept shoving blind dates at him. It was enough to drive a person mad.
Ping.
“Are you doing well, our youngest?” 9:31 a.m.
Are you doing well? Ha. The moment he received his sister’s carefree text, his temper flared and he called immediately.
— Hel…
“How would I be doing well? Did you not say you would block all the blind dates and everything? Or is it that you wanted to dump the management rights on me and I am the one making a mistake right now?”
— Calm down a bit. This is me blocking it. I personally went and told every girl Grandpa had his eye on, ‘There is not a single share of Yeonggyeong in Kim Seoan’s name, my sister and I are already going through the succession procedures, and he will not get a single penny.’ I recited it line by line. But it looks like Grandpa sent them your photo. They are all head over heels and say that even if you were a debtor and a gambler they would support you for life. Wow, seriously.
“You promised that if I promised to give up the management rights, you and big sis would take care of everything. Including blocking Grandpa.”
— He believes your thinking will change once you have a wife and kids. The idea is just to get you married first. Then if you have a son, imagine. He will dote on the boy so much that at the first birthday he will lay out Yeonggyeong Electronics, Yeonggyeong Life, and the Yeonggyeong Foundation and tell him to pick whatever he wants.
“Ha… I have not slept a wink, so let us talk later. I would be even more grateful if you could nullify the blind date in the meantime.”
— All right, got it. Your sister is off to work.
Grabbing his throbbing head, he flopped onto the bed. It was a weekend that actually felt like a weekend for the first time in a while, and he did not want to think anymore.
He turned off his work phone for the first time in a while and turned on his personal phone. There was a “1” badge blinking on the café app.
Usually, the messages that came to the café were inquiries about whether a certain line from a letter could be used as lyrics or in a book. Sometimes young fans would ask for permission to use a line as a status message or profile.
He had long since announced that all commercial uses were forbidden and that status messages were allowed, so what was this?
Curiosity pricked, and he tapped it.
But the sender was a very unexpected person.
“GIDIAN?”
Hello, Mr. Hyeonbaragi. This is GIDIAN. It seemed you do not have a separate SNS account, so I am contacting you by private message like this.
This is about the upcoming “Chance Love” support. If you have not already prepared something, would you consider preparing a support together with me?
Since it is a support, please do not feel any burden about money. I plan to fully cover the gifts and the food. Along with the gifts, I am planning to give Cheonghyeon a photobook, and I was hoping you might write a short line in it, which is why I am reaching out. 🙂
You can reply here, or DM my account on Twitter or Instagram. I know you are a fan who has cherished Cheonghyeon as long as I have, so I am asking like this, but if your circumstances do not permit or you have already prepared something, please feel free to decline. I look forward to hearing from you.
— GIDIAN —
It was the first time in six years of fangirling that GIDIAN had contacted him. Come to think of it, the group called the East did not accept support, as far as he knew.
“Aha.”
Looking through the fan community, he felt he understood the situation. Supports for birthdays or anniversaries were not allowed, but it looked like they did accept lunchbox supports when appearing on a program. And fans were forcing gifts into the members’ lunchbox sets by using a bit of cunning.
At first the agency blocked everything, but even the lunchbox company owners were taking the fans’ side and turning out luxury sets.
- Short rib patties with Cartier — market price
- Rice balls wrapped in Burberry — market price
- Chanel grilled lobster — market price
Seeing the word “market price” written on the lunchbox company’s menu made him burst out laughing. People in our country are just so smart… It is not even a sushi place, so what on earth does “market price” mean here.
He could not help but laugh at how they had roughly paired foods with brands.
Even so, the world of luxury was so broad and varied that the owner, unable to keep up, had created a Cheongdam-dong set and a Hannam-dong set to sell. It seemed they simply bundled luxury gifts with the lunchboxes under the label of “set.”
The company would insist they were like toothpicks enclosed by the lunchbox shop, leaving no way to object. It looked like fans of groups that banned supports were relieving their frustration in little ways like this, and the company was tacitly letting it pass.
But how much can a journalist’s salary be anyway? Even the price of a plain lunchbox without luxury insertions was considerable. Celebrity support lunchboxes were not the kinds students usually ate but special lunchboxes stuffed with Korean beef, lobster, abalone, and seasonal fruits.
A good idea flashed through his mind. A way for GIDIAN and himself, both likely wringing their hands over household budgets, and even his older sisters, all to win.
Seoan immediately made a Twitter account and contacted GIDIAN. Then, once they had finished their conversation, he cheerfully headed to the department store.
Let us start light with Audemars Piguet.
With that, Seoan swiped his card like a madman from early morning. With the mindset of spending at least one billion won at this department store. Then, on the way back, he shared this fine idea with his sister as well.
“Hey, sis. All you have to do is meet Grandpa and tell him a simple story.”
In a certain house in Pyeongchang-dong, his paternal family home, the smell of delicious food wafted for the first time in a while. Although aside from Chief Park it was only Seogyeong and the chairman, the table had not had more than three gathered in nearly ten years anyway.
Seeing that most of the dishes on the table were meat-based, it seemed the housekeeper, Jang Heung-daek, had shown her skill for Seogyeong, who had come to visit the paternal home after some time away.
With her eyes, Seogyeong sent a thank-you to Jang Heung-daek, and once all the food was set down she began to broach the topic as if she had just remembered something amusing.
“Grandfather. Do you really have to make Seoan go on blind dates? He is probably out of his mind in love right now. That is why he is whining that he will not go on blind dates.”
“Our Seoan? With whom.”
“Well… some idol, apparently.”
“An idol? Has that brat been sponsoring entertainers all this time.”
What an old codger’s way of talking. Seogyeong sneaked a sideways glance at Chairman Kim so it would not show and answered in a bright voice.
“They are already a famous group, so it is not sponsorship. It is purely fan sentiment, I guess. It even seems like he has not been able to speak to them yet.”
“What? He has not even spoken. That weak and shy boy. Good grief. In this respect he takes after his grandmother to a T. Madam Kang was so shy when she was young…”
Shy, for Kim Seoan. Did “shy” perhaps mean “ill-mannered.” And Seoan did not look weak at all.
Thanks to his natural build his muscles were firm even without special training, and on top of that, he took such good care of his body. He worked out steadily, so when he braced his body, it felt like touching a wall, solid all over.
It was just that the pretty face hid it…
“So is the other party pretty? Well, an entertainer might be better. If it is an ordinary person, they will be busy selling off the private life of a chaebol family, and if it is another chaebol, splitting up interests this way and that is difficult. If a grandfather cannot even tell his grandson to take his pick, the name of Yeonggyeong is a joke. Whoever is paired with the heir to Yeonggyeong is always too good for him anyway.”
“Ha.”
A small laugh slipped out of Seogyeong. That heir, heir. As always, she was going to smile and let it pass, but the moment she heard the word “heir,” a surge of anger boiled up inside her and she could not hold it back.
This is why the cool-headed older sister should handle Grandfather. She knew she should not do this, but the urge to be as sarcastic as possible rose up.
T/N: Audemars Piguet watch values vary between around $25,000 for entry-level collections at retail, up to over $1,000,000 for very complicated or limited pieces.
Leave a Reply