30 – How Gangsters Deal with School Bullying (1)
1.
After grilling the beef to perfection and enjoying a delicious meal, Han and I sat on the sofa, savoring the afterglow of the meal.
“hehehehe.”
Well, to be precise, only Han was feeling the post-meal happiness, giggling blissfully.
“What’s so good? I mean, really?”
“Yes. Because Manager-nim doesn’t have to be so formal anymore.”
Sheena, who spoke without hiding the smile on her lips, was incredibly cute and beautiful, but, how should I put it, a bit awkward.
Is this the same Sheena I knew, cold and chic? Even if she has opened up to me, isn’t this a bit too wide open?
Getting closer to Sheena is a delightful and happy thing for me too.
The relationship between the main idol and the manager getting closer is just a good thing as a manager, you know.
But it hasn’t even been a week since I met Sheena, and getting this close is not something I, who has the duty as a manager to be close to the main idol, can easily accept.
“Sheena, but why did you say you don’t want to be like a family with the president yesterday, but with me…”
So, based on yesterday’s incident, I tried to slow down Sheena’s approach even a little, but what came back was a momentary death gaze and a chilling voice.
“Sheena? To me?”
“Oh, that’s, um.”
I quickly corrected my words in response to Sheena’s expression, which seemed like she might explode at any moment.
“Sheena. But why did you say yesterday that you don’t want to be like a family with the president, but with me…”
“hehehehe.”
As I addressed her with informal language and used her name without hesitation, her expression immediately brightened and softened. What’s this? Why did it suddenly become so easy?
No, looking at how she immediately becomes serious when I use formal language, it’s not that it became easy, but rather it became simpler.
“Oh, that? Well…”
The simplified Sheena smiled as she approached me with a light smile.
Then, leaning close to my ear, even though there was no one else around but us, she whispered in a small voice, as if someone might be listening.
“Think about it yourself.”
“What?”
“Why you can be a manager, but not the president. Think about it yourself.”
No, what’s that?
Seizing the moment when disbelief left her momentarily speechless, Ha-an swiftly fled to her room, leaving behind a deadly smirk.
“Huh…”
Watching Ha-an’s disappearing figure, a specialist in escape like mist, I couldn’t help but burst into a bitter laughter.
※※※
Choi Ha-an was happy.
To be precise, she was so comfortable that it made her happy.
Until now, her life had been a thorny path of constant tension, where she couldn’t let her guard down at any moment and couldn’t trust any adversary.
But meeting Kang Jin-hyuk and solving all the problems she had endured in an instant allowed her to rediscover the sensation of comfort that she had forgotten until now.
No longer needing to be tense, not having to distrust, a natural sense of leisure emerged, allowing her to feel happiness.
However, all this comfort and happiness were only possible because Kang Jin-hyuk was currently by Choi Ha-an’s side.
Choi Ha-an subtly believed that if he were to disappear, all the peace and happiness he had created would revert to the dreadful past.
Even if Kang Jin-hyuk were not there, she wouldn’t return to the cruel life she had before. But as long as Choi Ha-an herself thought so, it was an undeniable fact.
As a result, Choi Ha-an concluded, albeit unconsciously, that she could be happy only when Kang Jin-hyuk was by her side.
“Never, never let go. Never.”
In the tightly closed room, even the windows shut, Choi Ha-an whispered earnestly.
As long as her heart remained unchanged, it was a firm determination inappropriate for an idol manager to hold onto.
2.
“What? Where did you go?”
Responding to the news of the trainer’s arrival, Choi Ha-an, who had come to the first-floor practice room, sent a cold, dead-eyed gaze towards the soon-to-enter Jungbaro.
He lived a somewhat challenging life, but even so, the gaze of Jung Baro, a common man, was so cold and heavy that one could hardly guess what kind of life he had led.
However, as a veteran in the ups and downs of life, having experienced the sweetness, bitterness, and even the taste of crap, Jung Baro could answer the lowest question while sweating profusely.
“Oh, no. I went for street casting.”
“Why?”
“Is it because of Kang Jinho?”
“Why would you, when I’m here?”
In Choi Ha-an’s voice, confidently stating, there was a sincere question.
Why? Why choose another woman when I’m here? Despite pleading so desperately to become the best idol, insisting on becoming an idol, why?
With a sharp gaze cooled by the grindstone of doubt, Jung Baro swallowed dry saliva and responded to Choi Ha-an’s forced question with a reasoned answer.
“Well, we’re trying to create a girl group… There can’t be a girl group with only one member.”
If a girl group has only one member, then it’s just a girl.
“Is that so?”
“·······.”
At Jung Baro’s answer, Choi Ha-an was left speechless.
And until the vocal trainer, who had a past connection with Jung Baro, arrived, the two faced each other in a dreadful silence.
Precisely, it was a dreadful silence only for Jung Baro.
※※※
“The weather is really nice. Even though it’s January and winter, it feels surprisingly warm.”
Today’s weather was clear, and despite the temperature being typical for early January, it lingered between 0 and minus 1 degree Celsius, making it a warm winter day.
Compared to the day he met Ha-an, where the cold wind was blowing fiercely and even the sun was absent, today could be almost considered spring weather.
On such a beautiful day like this, many people will probably come out, right? It’s cold, but for winter, it’s a warm day, and the sunlight is so good.
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When people come out and wander the streets, the chances of successfully street casting also naturally increase.
Of course, it won’t be easy to find someone with a dazzling charm comparable to Haan’s.
Meeting Miss Haan was truly a stroke of luck, to say the least.
Originally, it wasn’t me who found Haan; it was Haan who found me. It was as if a meteorite fell from the sky and landed in my arms.
Knowing that wishing for such luck again is an unconscionable act more than anyone else, I decided this time to find the gemstone with my efforts alone.
“But where on earth do you find that gemstone?”
Having already encountered the possessor of tremendous talent like Haan, the situation for street casting had become incredibly challenging.
To find someone so remarkable that even Haan’s brilliance wouldn’t be overshadowed.
But searching for such an extraordinary person while roaming the streets is almost impossible, as I experienced in my previous street casting.
So, I need to go to a place where sparkling people gather, a place where it’s possible to be more efficient in finding the gemstone.
“How am I supposed to know where that place is?”
I was a former convict isolated from society for seven years.
I, with only a distant connection to the broadcasting industry – an overseas lady, and a manager with no celebrity clients or experience. That was me.
For someone like me to know, let alone be able to go to a place where people shine as much as the lady and Haan, is impossible.
Therefore, in the end, I have to tirelessly wander the streets to find the gemstone.
It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.
But I had confidence in this kind of physical effort. I’ve done similar things before.
Although the location was a snowy mountain, not a desert, anyway.
“All right. Let’s give it a shot. Fighting, let’s do this.”
I clenched my fists tightly and raised them up, encouraging myself in a moderate voice that would be enough to be heard in the crowd outside, so as not to be buried in the crowd. Then, I took a step towards the street where countless people were bustling.
3.
“Hey, how can you still have such a stiff neck? Haven’t you been slapped? Is it because you’re a woman?”
“Yeah, oppa. Let’s teach that jerk what manners are today.”
“Hey you son of a b*tch, if you keep acting like that, when did I ever say you won’t get f*cked? How does it feel like you might actually get f*cked?”
“It’ll start hurting and won’t stop. It’s really the last time. How about you bow your head and come in here right now?”
Inside the office, abandoned without a new tenant coming in and not fulfilling its purpose. In this office that has become a den of thugs because it hasn’t fulfilled its purpose of being a space for work, the gaze of eighteen thugs in school uniforms was focused on one female student.
There were also male students holding aluminum baseball bats and lead pipes, and there were even some who had a build that was unimaginable for a student.
And among them, surrounded by two female students on either side, the leader of all these thugs was so rugged that he resembled an athlete rather than a student.
“I’ll ask one last time. Do you want to get beaten up and become mine? Or do you want to become mine obediently?”
The female student who was facing all of them, even with adult men lowering their eyes and slightly bowing their heads, opened her mouth for the first time, flicking her middle finger.
“Screw you, you bastards! Eat sh*t, you motherf*ckers!”
I like her already