Payback - Chapter 43

“Taemin, what on earth was that about?”

As soon as Director Yoon disappeared into the room at the end of the hallway with Chief Park, the manager next to me rushed to ask. But his voice was mixed with the voices of someone else.

“I don’t know by what means you managed to get away with it, but as long as the evidence is solid, your lies will be exposed soon.”

It is probably not my misunderstanding that Myungshin’s sneering voice had a low level of anxiety. I turned away from the manager and looked back at him. Myungshin, who made eye contact with me, spoke with a cold expression.

“Three days? Okay. Take a good look at your lives, which you barely extended for three days. It must have been a very insignificant number.”

“Yeah, take a good look. Because I want it too.”

Retorting, I looked at Myungshin and the employee with a stiff expression next to him . Myungshin’s face did not change much at Director Yoon’s words, but the staff was noticeably pale. And when I smiled, the employee’s expression got worse.

“It would be better to prepare well for three days while you watch.”

“Prepare what?”

“What you’ve missed out on.”

I added, confirming that Myungshin’s eyes were frozen like the employee.

“Find it well. I wonder what you have left out like a fool from the evidence you planted.”

Tap.

The staff swallowed their saliva and stepped back. Then, muttering something to Myungshin, they grabbed his arm and started dragging him away. Whispering hastily, the two hurriedly disappeared through the security door. As soon as I saw the two of them disappearing into the elevator hall, I cheered them on inside.

Yes, search hard. So that it doesn’t disturb us for three days to get distracted. There are no perfect lies in the world. Every plan has small loopholes. So they’ll find something trivial and panic.

“Are there any problems with the evidence? Did you find it?”

I shook my head at the manager when I heard the half-startled and excited question.

“No.”

“Uh? But you said to those two…”

“I was just saying it.”

Disappointment quickly spread across the manager’s face at this answer. Perhaps he also thought that, as Myungshin said, I just got three days to delay.

“Well then… What did you say to Director Yoon? Did you have any way to prove it?”

“Manager.”

As soon as I called him with anxious eyes, the older man nodded like a child.

“Yes, Taemin.”

“There is a way. I even got permission.”

“Permission?” I ignored his question and continued my speech.

“The manager just has to prove it.”

“What is it? I’ll do anything. I can do it.”

Forgetting where this place was, the manager raised his voice and it echoed down the hallway.

“Really. If I can get rid of my bad name, I’ll do it all. I didn’t do this. Really. Myungshin and his words are all lies…”

“I know.”

I stopped talking bluntly, grabbed his arm and walked towards the door. And I asked as if passing by.

“By the way, what will happen to Cha Jungwoo in the future?”

“Uh? That’s…”

As if surprised by the sudden change of topic, he frowned.

“It all depends on how he responds. He’ll have to go to the military anyway, but the problem is that if you don’t respond well, you may not be able to recover even after several years. As you know, Cha Jungwoo is a star who gained popularity for his handsome looks and manly image rather than an actor, so his value decreases as he gets older.”

There was no further explanation, but it meant that if his image was not restored, even the period of popularity that remained within a few years would completely disappear. Then it’s a complete downfall.

“Is there no way at all?”

When I opened the glass door, the manager tilted his head, “Way?”

“Yeah, if you fall like that, you won’t be able to get up. It would be a huge loss for the company as well.”

I stopped in the empty elevator hall and looked at him.

“Doesn’t the manager have a way too?”

“Well, if it were me.”

He paused for a moment and let out a smirk.

“Restoring my image is my top priority, so I would do this…”

He said a few things, but then shook his head.

“However, neither the company nor Cha Jungwoo will ever use my method. If you ask the company to suggest this…”

“It may be Cha Jungwoo’s manager, the culprit who spread it on the Internet.”

“… What?!”

“Nonsense!” I asked him calmly who was astonished.

“Ktf yluufra nlmalw bo atlr klii yf Jtj Aecukbb, gluta?”

“Yo mbegrf.”

“Ktfc la’r fjrs ab qgbnf atf wjcjufg’r lccbmfcmf.”

P fzqijlcfv ilutais ab tlw, ktb yilcxfv tlr fsfr, cba xcbklcu ktja P kjr ajixlcu jybea.

“Jtj Aecukbb lr atf nlmalw, tlr wjcjufg lr atf meiqgla, jcv atf wjcjufg tjr j kjs ab rbinf atf ojiifc lwjuf bo Jtj. Vb atf qgbbo lr…”

I stopped talking and stared at him, his eyes wide open in surprise.

“Cut off Cha Jungwoo’s manager and you become his manager. Is there a more effective proof than having the biggest victim himself admit?”

It’s also the most fun way to hit Myungshin in the back of the head.

I left the manager sitting in the meeting room on the 3rd floor that I always go to. I’ve been doing this for two hours already, but I’ve only been looking at the wall to the point where I didn’t know if I just couldn’t make up my mind or dozing off. During that time, I went to the common room with the vending machine to freshen up after memorizing the lines of my remaining scene from PD Jung’s movie.

There were only two scenes left. The scene where there was a line that I tried out when I first met PD Jung and the scene where I committed suicide. There was no need for lines in the suicide scene, so there was only one thing to memorize. However, the feeling of putting the lines in my head was completely different from when I first encountered it. It was obviously the line I saw a month ago, but it was like seeing it for the first time.

Every word was new and unfamiliar. When I read this without knowing anything, I didn’t have any worries, but now my mind is all cloudy. It’s just a normal arrangement of words, and it would be fine to act just like that, but that wasn’t enough. It’s subtle, but there was a dryness that I couldn’t put my finger on. Repeatedly repeating the lines in my mind, I drew out the red ginseng beverage the manager enjoyed. I bent down and pulled out the can when I heard a familiar voice from a distant place.

“I’m saying, Cha Jungwoo is completely done for.”

I took the cold can in my hand and naturally moved to the side of the vending machine. I checked the owner of the excited voice from the entrance while covering behind the vending machine. The yellow haired guy I haven’t seen in a long time was talking to a young man with sophisticated attire and well-groomed hair that I’ve seen for the first time.

“This time, he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. The middleman has already been caught, and the police have already been summoned and are investigating as of today. If he comes out of the investigation, will he be taken to the army within a month? Think about it now, the company is blocking the press, so nothing comes out, but Cha Jungwoo has already swung a golf club at his manager. He said he was almost locked up in the house because he already couldn’t get over his temper and set up a plan to kill them all.”

It’s a side profile, so I can’t see it in detail, but the yellow-haired asked with an innocent expression and wide eyes.

“Is Cha Jungwoo’s personality that bad?”

“It’s no joke. Because he doesn’t appear in the media, the general public thinks he’s a gentleman, but in the industry, he’s known as an idiot who only reveals money. Didn’t you hear that Cha Jungwoo’s stylist couldn’t last two months? He is very greedy for accessories, so his specialty is to pretend that he forgot to return the watches and sunglasses that were sponsored to him. So it’s not the first time the stylist was asked about it. He can buy hundreds of those things with his own money, but it’s messy. Besides, he has high eyes, so he only looks for luxury goods.”

The yellow-haired man shook his head and slyly added to the young man.

“Because of that temperament, he’s already forsaken by the company, so it’s over now. All the executives have been in a meeting since dawn right now. The contract has only half a year left, so the company…”

He lowered his voice and so I couldn’t hear his next words, but I could guess from his hand gestures. Scissors with his fingers. ‘The company will cut him off’. And he spit it out in an arrogant tone to the surprised opponent.

“Do you know how many CFs Cha Jungwoo did? In order to reduce the loss, the company has no choice but to promote celebrities with a similar image to replace Cha Jungwoo within the same company. Words are already coming and going from the higher-ups. Who do you think it is?”

“Oh, perhaps…?!”

The young man exclaimed and called out someone’s name. The yellow haired smiled, putting his arm on his shoulder, turned around and disappeared into the hallway. From their back appearance, they looked like best friends, but to my eyes, they were seen as prey caught in a spider’s web. Now, the yellow hair was regarded as a ‘Myungshin of the rookies’ that I did not know. So, he will soon be the same as Myungshin.

Perhaps he thought of his future in the name of ‘Song Yoohan’, which the young man gave as an answer. But what I was concerned about wasn’t that Myungshin was on the topic or the yellow-haired’s words about Cha Jungwoo. I have one question. Who’s the good-looking guy?

***

When he approached the conference room where the manager was, he found Hansoo running down the hallway.

“Huff, huff, what’s going on?”

As soon as he woke up, he heard my message and came right away. His head was stretched out and his face was puffy.

“I’m sorry. I fell asleep at dawn last night, so I didn’t see the message right away.”

He came closer, apologized, and opened the door to see if I was in a good mood and continued chatting.

“Yes, yes, I practiced in front of the camera as soon as I got home yesterday… Ah, manager!!”

Hansoo, who ran excitedly to the manager, grabbed him with a still blank expression and spit on him and explained.

“Ugh~ Manager, I practiced acting in front of the camera last night! Actually, I was still very nervous and my voice was stiff, so it couldn’t come out properly, but still…”

“…”

“Still, I’m still doing all the lines… Manager?”

Hansoo then noticed that the manager was weird and looked back at me.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

Instead of answering the slightly terrified voice, I sat down in front of the manager.

Bang!

When I put the red ginseng can down on the table aloud, the manager flinched and noticed me.

“Cha Jungwoo is being summoned and investigated by the police today.”

The manager gulped aloud and nodded his head. I kept leaking the information I got from the yellow hair to him, who still couldn’t open his mouth.

“He will be enlisted in the military within a month. The company is in the middle of a meeting because it might be beneficial to just throw him away as he is, who only has half a year left on his contract.”

The manager barely spoke his words with his seriously changed eyes.

“If there is only that much left on the contract and it completely collapses due to lack of action now… it would be beneficial to throw it away.”

As soon as he spoke, he asked curiously.

“But Director Yoon gave you permission…”

“Yes. There are conditions.”

“C-Conditions?”

You didn’t say that! He turned to the crying eyes and answered casually.

“He told me to finish it in three days. Maybe he wants to give him three days and decide based on the manager’s response. Either we just leave it to the end of the six months, or we go against everyone’s expectations and extend the contract as it is if the manager manages Cha Jungwoo’s crisis well.”

“… three days is too little.”

“Absolutely. The company didn’t give you this opportunity because the manager’s abilities are highly appreciated.”

“…”

“Still, I got the information from Director Yoon, so the job is easy.”

“Information?”

“He told me that the traitor was Cha Jungwoo’s manager.”

Watching the manager blink his eyes as if confused, evoked the subject.

“Even so, if Cha Jungwoo doesn’t like you and doesn’t take you on as manager, it’s all in vain.”

Hansoo, who was licking his lips curiously as to what I was talking about, responded to this.

“Oh! Do you think the manager should be Cha Jungwoo’s manager? Why? What’s going on?”

To silence him, I felt I had to say something, so I had no choice but to give him a troublesome explanation.

“I’m going to use a false charge and hit Song Myungshin in the back of his head.”

“…Yes?”

Hansoo asked again with the same blank expression as the manager a while ago, but I turned my head. Well, I can’t explain it any more.

“I don’t think it would be difficult to tell Cha Jungwoo that his manager betrayed him. He might know something, seeing that that asshole has already swung a golf club at his manager.”

“Golf… club?”

“I think it would be easy to meet him as he was confined in his home because he threw a temper tantrum saying he was going to kill them all.”

“Threw a temper tantrum… Confinement?”

“Shall we go to Cha Jungwoo’s house and wait?”

“N-now?”

“…”

“… is he going to hit me?”

Hearing his words, I unknowingly let go of my clenched fists. Instead, I turned to Hansoo. Then he stammered and asked if he understood my proper explanation.

“Look, the manager was framed for Cha Jungwoo’s case, and that was… Yoohan, I mean, Myungshin hyung did it? So, in order to take Myungshin hyung down and clear the false charge, the manager has to be Cha Jungwoo’s manager.”

“Yes. I told you so.”

“…”

I asked Hansoo, who had a wronged expression on his face for some reason, to change the topic.

“Can you get me some material on the internet about what I’m talking about?”

“Oh, yes. Of course I will. Anything. But did Myungshin really frame our manager?”

He clenched his teeth, belatedly getting angry, and he looked back at the manager.

“Manager. I’ll do whatever Taemin said. Let’s kick his ass too. Damn it, the manager isn’t even a punching bag, so why does he have to touch people who want to live a quiet life?! I’m so angry! Arghh!!”

When Hansoo got agitated and cursed Song Myungshin, the manager nodded his head with subdued eyes as if he had made up his mind.

“Okay. Let’s do it.”

Then he got up and called me.

“Taemin.”

“Yes.”

“You are right. This is what I have to do. Even if I manage to get over the hurdle in another way now, Myungshin will put something dirty on me again. To end it… Yeah, I have to be Cha Jungwoo’s manager so that guy can’t touch me. Of course, it would have to be Cha Jungwoo, who will get the contract extended with the company. Haha… I see.”

He smiled sadly and stared into space.

“This is a huge opportunity for me. If it wasn’t for Myungshin, he would have kept raising only new recruits who had to die at the bottom of the company, but thanks to him, my fate will bloom.”

He was still smiling, but his face looked rather sad. He swallowed his small sigh and looked back at me.

“And come to think of it, the fact that I have nothing to fear is that working as a manager is what I do best.”

As I replied with a smile, he quickly looked at his watch.

“The police summon comes first but it was postponed for today, so I can go see him now.”

“I will go with you.”

He looked at me for a moment and then emphasized one thing.

“Yeah, but I’ll do all the persuasion, so just stay by my side.”

“Ah, then I’ll also…”

Hansoo quickly stood up and intervened, but the manager shook his head.

“Nope. You can find what Taemin asked for here.”

And as their eyes turned to me, I asked Hansoo for some things to find and left the room with the manager. I saw Hansoo, who was left behind, rushing to the laptop right away and closed the door, but the manager asked as if wondering.

“But why do you suddenly want to know about luxury goods?”

“Just because.”

I wondered what the manager meant, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure yet, so I couldn’t answer. It was just a feeling. It seems like we could use the accusation of stealing luxury accessories that he had been sponsored by. And while the manager went up to the office to find out Cha Jungwoo’s house or phone number, I first went to the underground parking lot.

Leaning against the manager’s old car parked in the corner, I stared into the car’s interior. The lights are on brightly, but they cannot dominate the darkness unique to the basement. Once I got used to the invisible black, it felt like I was going to blend into that color and melt away. The silence that blocks the sounds of the ground covers it, erasing the traces. But the delusion did not continue.

Squeak, squeak, squeak.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the basement. Besides, I could hear conversations with footsteps getting louder as if they were coming towards me. Mostly, the voice of a middle-aged man was spoken by one person, but occasionally a short answer was heard. Were they coming this way? Immediately upon suspicion, the group of people appeared next to the pillars that had obscured the sight of me.

A man in his mid-50s and a man who appears to be his secretary walking after him, Chief Park and Director Yoon. I suddenly regretted that I forgot and didn’t get the car key from the manager. The man in his fifties didn’t notice me because he was talking, but it wasn’t the same for the madman.

“It’s uncomfortable. Reporters are encamped outside, so you have to come down to the parking lot on purpose. By the way, did you bring your car today?”

When he called out a name as if he was friendly, the madman, who looked only at me with his eyes, turned indifferently and nodded his head. At that time, a man who appeared to be a secretary said ‘President’ and approached the parked luxury car. Oh, that person was the President. A man in his fifties with half gray hair, probably not dyed, had a sad impression, but his eyes were sharp.

Anyway, their casual conversation didn’t look very serious. Rather, the President seemed more inconvenienced to have to come down to the parking lot to get in the car. Was it really like that because Cha Jungwoo’s issue was put on hold until three days later? Then the secretary got into the luxury car and slowly pulled the car out of the lot.

Chief Park hurried forward and opened the car door, and the President approached. However, the madman behind him called him, stopped him, told him to wait for a while, and then suddenly turned around. Exactly towards me. At his gaze, my feeling of leisurely watching suddenly changed to tension. All he had to do was call me by my name.

“Lee Taemin.”

At the sound of his low voice echoing in the basement, not only the President who was about to get into the car, but also the chief Park, who didn’t notice me, looked around. I pulled myself off the car that I had been leaning on for a while at the sudden gaze of people. Why was he calling me? I returned his gaze, but the guy raised one eyebrow. It’s like saying, ‘If I called you, you should come, why won’t you?’ Damn it.

Of course, normally, I would have retorted, but it was difficult for me to say such a thing as I received the attention of four people at once. In particular, the President stared at me with a particularly interested look. I moved slowly in the burdened gaze. The President, who scanned me from head to toe like he was checking a product, and Chief Park, who is still wary of the fact that I am a former courier, and the President’s secretary with eyes full of curiosity from the steering wheel. It felt like I had walked a few dozen kilometers on a short street, I barely arrived and stood in front of him.

“Do you have anything to say?”

I asked a bit sternly, and he held out something from his pocket with a polite smile. When I looked down, it was a small card and an electronic key on a luxurious key chain. It felt like I had seen it somewhere. I immediately recalled from memory. It was something that guy picked up from the table when I left the house at dawn. Why this? As soon as I raised my eyes, he extended his hand further.

“I saw you drop it in the morning.”

“Me?”

When I asked the question, he laughed out loud.

“Yes. Lee Taemin.”

“It’s not mine.”

“It’s true. Would I have been mistaken?”

Fucking bullshit. I was going to respond with that but paused because of the three people who faithfully acted like 300 people spectating. Like they didn’t want to miss even a single line because they’re so curious about it. The secretary was already leaning halfway over the passenger seat, and Chief Park pulled out his head like a duck. Of course, the most burdensome was the President who stood next to him and watched with sharp eyes.

“Yes, you are wrong. It’s not mine.”

As soon as I took a half step back and shook my head, the madman took a step closer. The President also followed.

“I didn’t see it wrong. It’s Lee Taemin’s.”

Then, as he held out his hands again, everyone’s heads turned to me. I tried to answer no again, but the madman added with a smile.

“If you don’t have this, how are you going to get home tonight?”

Home? It was then that I realized that this was the key to his house.The intention to refuse became more certain. This bastard was just giving me the key…

“How are you going to get into the house like that?”

When I turned to the President who had suddenly interrupted me, he said, “Hmm,” and looked at the key and me alternately, urging me.

“Take it, hurry.”

“This is not mine…”

“Ah, are you shy?”

… What? I snapped my neck back to look at the madman who was speaking utter bullshit. The guy smiled languidly.

“Is it because you’re embarrassed that you drooled and dozed off when we met in the subway in the morning? Or is it because you were ashamed of sleeping with your mouth half open and shaking while you were sleeping? I thought you were hurt somewhere again, and then I was a little surprised when you went back to sleep right away.”

Of course, this is nonsense. I couldn’t sleep in the subway because I was staring at the guy who wanted to sit next to me even though the seat was spacious. When did I sleep? Then I suddenly remembered last night. The moment he saw me sleeping. When I closed my mouth, the President intervened again.

“Subway? Jay. Did you take the subway this morning?”

“Yes.” He answered the boss only with his mouth, but he did not take his eyes off me.

“There’s more, but I’ll keep it a secret, so don’t be shy and just take it.”

There’s more? Did you write an observation diary after watching me sleep? The conversation became so annoying that I snatched the key from his hand.

“Thank you for keeping my ugly appearance a secret and taking care of my key. I don’t know how to thank you.”

I deliberately gave a sarcastic greeting with a sharp voice.

“What, protecting the actors in the company is of course my job.”

He brazely replied. The President stared intently into my face once again after finding out I was an actor.

“Hmm, so he was an actor.”

Then he glanced back at Chief Park behind him. Standing calmly with his hands together in front of him, he came to the side and explained quietly as soon as he received the President’s gaze.

“The manager, Choi Deukpal, casted him and he came in two months ago.”

The boss nodded his head, ‘Ah~ CEO Choi,’ and looked closely at me again. Contrary to the uncle-like impression, the uncomfortable gaze ended with the interruption of the madman.

“President, let’s go.”

When the madman grabbed his arm and turned, the President seemed to have something to say, but he obeyed. Then he asked the madman before he got into the car.

“Oh, I heard that you came to work before 7 o’clock. Does the train run then?”

The madman, who was holding the car door and waiting for the President to get on, answered arrogantly.

“Absolutely. Even the President should know about the time of the first train ride.”

Bam.

Soon the car door slammed shut, and the car that had waited for a long time slowly pulled out of the parking lot. The car disappeared completely out of sight, but I couldn’t move.

… There was something upsetting.