บท 169: Who is His Person (2)
Son Chaeyoung?
My vision changed.
Director Park's face changed to Song Inho. The bright office that made floating dust shine disappeared, and I was once again crouching down in a corner of a dark parking lot. The damp scent of dust filled my nose.
That was it?
It just ended with a few hints about Son Chaeyoung?
Faced with the sudden sense of hopelessness, I frowned.
"… I can't?"
A nervous voice asked.
Son Inho was looking at me while biting his smooth lips. The hands holding both my arms gripped harder. I felt like I was going to get a bruise at this rate. I brushed his hands off, but he grabbed me again. He grabbed me again when I brushed him off a second time.
"Let go."
"Hyung. Hyungnim. Hyuuung."
"Don't do that. You're giving me chills."
"He said that your heart will become soft if I provoked your maternal instincts."
He mumbled with regret.
And here I was wondering why a guy who acted like some young master with a strict upbringing in front of others always acted like a child around me.
"Who said that?"
"Chief Lee Bongjoon."
That man.
Clicking his tongue, Song Inho let go of my arms and staggered back. The corners of his eyelashes drooped. Having received special care, his face shined even in this dark parking lot. However, peeling off a single layer revealed an exhausted stifled interior.
Well, it wasn't easy.
He was a rookie who just got his feet wet in the entertainment world. If he was a tadpole in a rainbow pond, the team 2 leader was a bullfrog. To endure that man's irritation while continuing to work on the independent film, most people would have given up already.
This guy was quite stubborn.
Which was also why I wanted him.
That was why I made it so he would say, 'Hyung, please bring me to your team.'
I told Song Inho, who was looking down on the concrete floor with clear eyes,
"Wait."
"Pardon?"
Song Inho immediately raised his head.
I placed my hand on his flinching shoulder and continued,
"Wait a bit."
Song Inho instantly blocked off his shouting mouth. Then he looked around the parking lot and laughed quietly this time. His eyes were surging with vitality like a sprout after rain.
"I hope that I can continue acting with hyung for a long time."
I suddenly recalled the future I had seen just now.
Son Chaeyoung retired at the peak of her career.
There were many rumors, but no one knew the truth.
I brushed away the thoughts that began to spread like mold in my mind.
I would have liked to see Son Inho's future and obtained some information.
Not this useless information.
*
"It's completely blocked here."
-Uh, se-security and personnel are on their way!
It seemed the event agency was busy too. His voice cracked for half the words he spoke.
Hanging up, I looked out the car window. People had completely surrounded the car. They shouted, asking to lower the windows and show their faces. If these people were cast as extras for Alive, the zombie scenes would have been ten times more realistic.
We arrived thirty minutes ago, but we couldn't proceed to the waiting room. Lee Kwanwoo had long since taken his hands off the wheel. Even the Neptune members behind me looked like they were struck dumb.
I was surprised as well. We had attended company and regional events, university festivals, and the like, but never have we been surrounded like this.
Im Seoyoung rigidly turned her head like a puppet.
"O-oppa, oppa, oppa, say something."
"Why?"
"My body is hot. I think I'm going to spontaneously burst into flames!"
"And it's better if you hear my voice?"
"Euaah, it feels like I'm being splashed with ice water."
Although she was always like this, she was even more out of her mind today.
She rattled on so much that LJ threatened to gag her.
Calming down by a pea-sized amount, Im Seoyoung's eyelashes trembled as she said,
"Do-don't tell me that everyone is here to see us?"
"Yeah, they aren't."
I indicated to a streetlamp. A banner with a list of guest artists was fluttering on it.
"The finale performance is by Babel."
"Ah."
"I think around half the people here came to see them. Their fandom members had arrived early in the morning to get seats at the very front."
Babel. They were a 10-member boy group who was gaining popularity nationwide. They debuted around the same time as Neptune, but the size of our fandom was incomparable to theirs. This was a university festival, yet there were more middle and high schoolers wearing their school uniforms.
Im Seoyoung seemed embarrassed for getting ahead of herself and coughed loudly.
"S-so that's it. The online reactions to Making Film were so heated that I thought our popularity went up just as much offline."
"That's true."
Im Seoyoung's eyes bulged at my words.
Smiling, I added,
"If we exclude Babel, the next largest group of people probably came to see your performance. Most of the people surrounding the car are probably here for you too."
The majority of people attending Neptune's event performances had come to see Lee Songha, but it seemed it would be different today. Making Film has been a hot topic for three episodes now, and thanks to that, Neptune's fame and positive image surged sharply.
Satellite and Pisces, which were last year's hit songs, were regaining ground and had entered the music charts again, and we received a commercial proposal for Neptune as a group rather than one for just Lee Songha. Neptune was hot right now. Enough to attract an audience.
-Im Seoyoung!
Im Seoyoung was surprised by the shout outside the car.
-I don't expect to get your autograph! Please just let me see your face up close! I really want to see you!
"Op-oppa!"
"Nope."
"Just for a moment. Can't I just for a split second? I just to say hi!"
Im Seoyoung begged yearningly.
"Nope. It's night right now so they can't even really see their own feet. There might be an accident if people get excited."
"Ah…! That can't happen."
Im Seoyoung immediately shut her mouth when I mentioned there could be an accident.
Still, she seemed a little regretful as she touched the window every time someone called her name. Someone would think that a Romeo was serenading her outside the window.
Beside her, Lee Songha pressed her ear against the window.
Since Lee Songha's name was shouted like a chant, people a hundred meters away could hear them, so I didn't know why she was acting like that. It wasn't like it was her first time experiencing this. Why was she, who is buried by crowds of people whenever she goes to China, concentrating so much?
Just then, Lee Songha said like she fished a big one,
"Someone called out your name, oppa."
"Whoever they are, their preferences are crazy."
LJ giggled in the back seat. Her gaze was fixed out the window. It was the same for Lee Taehee next to her. She had taken off her earphones, which she always wore before a performance, and was staring out the window.
The four were looking out their own windows and pouring their concentration outside.
-Lee Taehee! If you come to our bar, I'll give you Korean pancakes and chestnut rice wine for free!
-Songha! Where are you sitting? Can you hear me?
-Unni! LJ unni! You're the best!
Every time their names were called, their faces got closer to the window.
As though they were about to go out at any moment.
Seeing this, I turned my gaze. Thousands of people packed the outdoor venue so that people couldn't take a single step. I saw the stage over there, lights brightly shining down. It was the stage the girls would be going on soon.
I wanted to quickly get them up there.
So that they could feel this heated atmosphere with their entire body.
*
Only after the security and personnel came at full force and created a safety barrier and the host went up on the stage and calmed the people down could we move. We finally got the girls and the staff to the waiting room.
The people who had already arrived and were waiting quickly got up.
"Chief! Sunbae!"
"It was really noisy outside. Are you okay?"
They were the Pretty Girls goldfish and Chief Lee Taeshin.
Also, a few Making Film staff, including Producer Yoo Sooyoung.
Before Pretty Girls began their comeback activity, we invited them to indirectly experience Neptune's large-scale event performance. This was because the stages Pretty Girls had gone on were all small-scale besides music broadcasts.
The Making Film staff received permission from the university and event agency to be here.
It seemed they heard that we were caught up by the audience as the Pretty Girls members' gazes as they looked in our direction was filled with yearning and envy. A couple cameramen filmed their expressions.
"How about you? Did a lot of people surround you on your way in? Huh?"
Im Seoyoung asked expectantly.
Oh Yeondu blinked her large eyes and smiled.
"Uh, we came in right away in the chief's car, so there was no opportunity to meet anyone. I think there were a few people watching us from afar when we got off."
"It-it's because your outfits are normal, and you aren't wearing makeup for your performances!"
Im Seoyoung added with an embarrassed expression,
"If you prepare properly and go outside, there'll be tons of people who recognize you. Don't be so disappointed."
"No, no, we're not disappointed!"
Yoon Sol waved her hands as though that was a ridiculous thought. The other Pretty Girls members seemed to think the same way. Jung Jae, who was hurriedly taking out a thermos and some paper cups, smiled with curved eyes.
"We are still surprised whenever our names appear on the internet. We might get a heart attack if people recognize us and rush at us outside."
Then she handed everyone a cup of tea. It was a warm jujube ginger tea.
Oh Yeondu rubbed her cheeks, which were red from excitement, and added,
"It's our first time at such a big event, so just being in the waiting room is interesting."
It seemed another team had begun performing, as loud cheers shook the room.
The Pretty Girls members glanced at the door with faces that really showed they wanted to go check it out.
"I'll go say hi to the agency employee, so get ready."
I left Neptune with the staff, including their stylists, and left the waiting room. A cameraman followed after me. He filmed the noisy, bustling waiting room area.
I was looking around for the employee when I stopped in my steps.
I heard a familiar melody amidst the commotion.
The cameraman, who, like me, immediately recognized the melody, turned his camera. It was a young female student with short hair. Her friend, who also had a university staff sign and was moving stuff with her, asked,
"What song is that?"
The humming short-haired girl tilted her head.
"What?"
"You've been humming the same song for the past while. I've probably memorized it as well."
"Ah, this. It's Pretty Girls' new song."
The short-haired girl licked her lips as she replied.
"Pretty Girls? The girls from Making Film? Their album already came out?"
"No. The third episode showed them recording, and I heard bits and pieces."
"It seems the song is good? Seeing as you're constantly humming it?"
The short-haired girl made a complicated expression.
"At first, I just thought, 'It's good.' That was it, but it's catchy. Even though I only listened to it for a bit during the episode, I keep thinking about it. I'll probably be screwed if I heard it before my exams. Also, I don't feel sated because they haven't released the full song."
"You're making me curious."
Hearing their conversation, the corners of my lips rose.
The youngest members missing Jung Jae while a heavy burden rested on their shoulders. The scene with Chief Lee Taeshin and me comforting Jung Jae after finding her. Also, the scene of the four members reuniting.
The Pretty Girls' story was executed brilliantly in Producer Yoo Sooyoung's hands.
Then, the latter half of the third episode began showing them preparing their album.
We played their song repeatedly during scenes of them practicing their choreography and recording the song. Just the part of the song that was unanimously picked for being the catchiest part of the song.
To garner this sort of reaction.
We asked the female students, who were bewildered by my appearance, for an interview before proceeding to look once more. When we left the waiting room area, the song playing from the speakers and thousands of people's shouts pierced our ears.
An agency employee ran around shouting,
"Neptune has safely entered their waiting room and are standing by!"
"Babel! Did you check on Babel?"
"They said they left Busan with time to spare!"
"It'll be a huge deal if there's a delay so check again. Also, people are going to surround them more than they did Neptune! Dispatch the security guards ahead of time!"
Team Leader Yoon, the event agency employee I met a few weeks ago, shouted. At the same time, he rushed over after discovering me. After greeting each other, he made an astonished face.
"I was wondering why you said you were going to wait before scheduling any more events!"
"I told you. That the situation was going to change a lot."
I replied while laughing. Team Leader Yoon laughed,
"How could I have known things would change so much in two weeks. If I knew, then I would have spared no effort to fill Neptune's schedule!"
His voice was overflowing with regret.
Team Leader Yoon licked his lips and had just begun discussing pricing when a female agency employee rushed over with a pale face shouting,
"Team leader! Team leader! Babel got in a car accident on their way back to Seoul!"
"What?"
"That's why they want us to delay the final performance."
"This is crazy. How long do we have to delay for? Ten minutes? Twenty?"
"O-one hour!"
Team Leader Yoon's expression crumbled.
"How can we fill an hour?!"
"Can't we ask the other artists to do an encore?"
"Do you think that'll work? Even the team performing right now came here to perform for ten minutes because they have another event. Can't you see their manager is already waiting after starting the car? The managers repeatedly asked for no encores since it's event season!"
"Then should we ask the host to do some recreational…!"
"There are tons of fans waiting for Babel. If we get the host to do recreational activities for an hour, he's going to get stoned!"
Team Leader Yoon furiously ruffled his hair before turning his gaze.
Towards me.
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