Episode 58
“Team Leader Seon and Manager Seok’s conversation, as well as that deal, Yeoreum knew all about it.”
In an instant, I was left speechless by her words.
The first thought that popped into my head, after being hit with this shocking information, was that I had to deny it. If not, I should play dumb.
I needed to say, “I have no idea. That never happened. I was actually going to recruit her.”
That’s what I had to say.
That’s what I was about to say.
The ugly lies that had been stringing along since I decided to lie to Jin Yeoreum.
“….”
Yoon Haneul looked at me with a calm, indifferent gaze.
From that look, I realized those words were not just a casual poke.
It seemed Jin Yeoreum truly knew that I deceived her, just as Yoon Haneul said.
I accepted my defeat.
All that remained was a pure question.
“…How did you know?”
Yoon Haneul leaned against the wall, hands slightly clasped behind her back, and replied,
“Didn’t it strike you as odd that the only person around Yeoreum was Manager Seok? After all, she’s the precious daughter of Jinkang.”
I understood the cause right away from those words.
“So, you knew from the beginning that Manager Seok approached me to set up a deal.”
“Exactly. There are always people monitoring Manager Seok. Well, their main job is to keep an eye on Yeoreum, but they do report any special matters back to her.”
“Both Manager Seok and I overlooked that Yeoreum had such personnel.”
To be fair, it did seem a bit unnatural that Jin Baek-ho, who appeared to dote on his daughter so much, would keep just one person like Manager Seok by her side.
It was a realization that came a bit too late, though.
Yoon Haneul shook her head as she looked at me and said,
“What those people are thinking isn’t some noble idea to prevent Yeoreum from getting deceived. They see Manager Seok as a dog trying to deceive its owner. You could say he’s a loyal subject, but that loyalty is towards Chairman Jin Baek-ho, not Yeoreum.”
I felt like I had jumped into a complex situation with a way too light heart.
I needed to grasp the current situation and prepare accordingly now.
About the potential blade that Jin Yeoreum might swing at me for deceiving her.
“I have something I want to ask.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Then why do you leave me, the one who deceived Ms. Yeoreum, alone? And why does the conclusion come to her leaving the orphanage?”
“Are you just going to leave it at that? And why does the story conclude with her leaving the orphanage?”
The only variable was me.
Yet, I couldn’t understand why my involvement led to Yeoreum leaving the orphanage and heading off to study abroad.
“If someone tried to recruit her under false pretenses, shouldn’t they be punished? Not just the letter about studying abroad.”
That thought crossed my mind while I was speaking. Perhaps Yoon Haneul was bringing this up to hint at that ‘punishment.’
“…or are you trying to talk about that punishment right now?”
Yoon Haneul tilted her head at my words, then broke into her signature refreshing smile and said.
“Hehe, Team Leader Seon. Why so scary? Yeoreum wouldn’t do that, right? …Even though she’s fragile and timid, she carries this self-awareness and guilt, trying to shoulder everything herself, she wouldn’t do that!”
I felt the same during the time I spent observing Jin Yeoreum. She was nowhere near the arrogant image of a conglomerate third-generation heir, trying to evade wrongdoing that I had vaguely imagined.
“Still, she can get angry. Yeoreum is a person too. But that would be based on a wrong assumption. That scenario applies when your and Manager Seok’s lies made her uncomfortable.”
“She was uncomfortable?”
Yoon Haneul extended her hand to form a V sign, then folded one finger and said.
“First of all, Manager Seok’s lie was for Yeoreum’s sake. Who would feel bad about someone willing to spend their own money to lift Yeoreum’s spirits?”
“There are some who hate such unilateral actions.”
From the owner’s perspective, a tool having a self-awareness wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Even if it was favorable to them.
“Sure, there might be someone like that, but Yeoreum isn’t the kind of twisted person. Plus, Manager Seok’s cringe-worthy confession of seeing her as a daughter is a bonus. How could anyone hate someone like that?”
“What about me?”
Yoon Haneul folded her remaining finger and said.
“That’s where everything starts. The reason Yeoreum received the recruitment offer was because of Team Leader Seon. And also because of Yeoreum’s playfulness.”
“Playfulness? Yeoreum didn’t seem the playful type to me, if anything, she seemed rather serious.”
“In certain situations, Yeoreum does act that way.”
“Yeoreum acts that way too.”
“What does that mean?”
“The moment she’s being swept away.”
Yoon Haneul straightened from the wall, locking eyes with me.
“I understand Manager Seok’s feelings, and I know Team Leader Seon is doing what’s necessary for Gyeoul and Gaeul, but it seems like Yeoreum wanted to poke a bit of fun at the situation. She doesn’t like being dragged along like that, you see. So, even though she had no intention of being an idol, she still agreed.”
Listening to her, it seemed I had been toyed with from the very start by Jin Yeoreum. Just a brief moment of amusement, that’s all it was.
“The real story starts from that point. Team Leader Seon actually considered making Yeoreum an idol.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“You heard about the ordeal Manager Seok went through, right? Apparently, she said that story reached Team Leader Seon. She genuinely decided to make Yeoreum an idol.”
“…”
It was a misunderstanding. That was merely a makeshift excuse to fool Seok Hyun-woo. There was no sincerity in that statement. I only made up a reason to snap a photo of Jin Yeoreum. Yet, it seemed Jin Yeoreum didn’t take it that way.
“Yeoreum was really flustered. She thought, surely, after about a day or right then, she would apologize for that rude comment and act like it never happened. But then Team Leader Seon really made the decision to recruit Yeoreum, and the whole situation got tangled up.”
I tried to deceive Jin Yeoreum. She, in turn, was trying to deceive me. As a result, the two of us were just fooling each other. Lies upon lies twisted our understanding of each other.
“The reason I asked Team Leader Seon to date me stemmed from wanting to act at this moment. After hearing this, I offered to check if Team Leader Seon’s intentions were sincere… Honestly, it also seemed fun. Hehe.”
So it turned out, it wasn’t a pure confession. Now I finally understood Yoon Haneul.
“…And even though we didn’t date, I believed Team Leader Seon was serious about recruiting Yeoreum. The Team Leader I saw was someone who didn’t say things lightly.”
“That’s an excessive evaluation.”
It really was an exaggerated assessment. I had only been repeating lies to use them all along.
I’ve been repeating this.
Yoon Haneul shook her head and said, “This wasn’t just my judgment. Yeoreum also started to believe that the scout was sincere after talking with Team Leader Seon. And I think she really considered it seriously recently. The future of becoming an idol.”
The outcome of that thought was painfully obvious.
Her debut as an idol was a gamble.
With very low odds.
Although the grounds for judgment and the gaps weren’t fully understood yet, it seemed that the current situation led to studying abroad.
She had given up being an idol.
“After sorting out her thoughts, Yeoreum told me she didn’t want to be an idol. Even if she debuted, it would only bring cold gazes and slander, she said, self-deprecatingly calling herself a national dislike.”
That was the right judgment.
Even if there was a possibility of success, she would have to endure the gaze of humans like purgatory.
There was no reason to endure such pain.
Jin Yeoreum had given up on becoming an idol.
She had been deceived falsely, but she hadn’t yet earned any resentment, and it seemed that she avoided the unfortunate incident of being forcefully recruited.
I had taken a picture, so when the gate opens later, I could stir up some controversy.
Of course, I’d need to manipulate it so that it didn’t seem like I leaked the photo for the sake of controversy…
Anyway, while it wasn’t perfect, considering the ongoing variables, the result wasn’t bad.
Yeah, it was a good outcome for me. I no longer needed to focus on Jin Yeoreum.
As I gathered my thoughts, Yoon Haneul spoke with her unique freshness, yet it felt like she might shatter, “But I don’t think so. After all, Yeoreum is with Team Leader Seon…”
Yoon Haneul’s mouth opened, and a single word divided the space between her and me.
That distance of less than a meter felt incredibly far.
And her words crossing that distance felt distant as well.
As if she had finished her final words, Yoon Haneul vanished.
Yet, I couldn’t leave that spot.
Her last words echoed in my mind.
I opened the quest reward window.
The ‘Message Receiving Anywhere’ I received two days ago announced it was available for use.
“Use.”
I activated it.
Hoping that it wasn’t too late.
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