Top Management - Chapter 182

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Chapter 182

Chapter 182: Those who stab you in the back (1)

TL: emptycube / ED: Isleidir

My steps abruptly halted .

A few steps away, Lee Songha was staring up at me and Jung Jae . Our eyes met . I unconsciously put more strength into my toes . I felt like I was walking down a long, dark tunnel alone .

“Are you okay?”

I quickly went down the stairs when Lee Songha raised her hand .

“Don’t come over here . ”

“What?”

“I broke a glass . Stay there because there are glass shards . ”

She said in her normal voice before scrubbing the marble step with her left high hell . The sound of shattering glass was unpleasant . Lee Songha brushed her hair to the side . Her nicely arranged hair became untidy .

“I’ll clean it up before someone gets hurt . ”

“Wait . Jae, go tell Kwanwoo about this . ”

Taken aback, Jung Jae, who was on her way down, quickly ran up to the fifth floor .

I looked back at Lee Songha and asked,

“Are you hurt anywhere? If it broke, you should have avoided it . Why did you step on it?”

“I was lost in my thoughts for a second . I’m fine . ”

Lee Songha bent her knees a few times as if to prove it . I examined her leg that extended out from her skirt . Fortunately, I didn’t see any blood… Or so I thought . Her stocking ripped and a strand sprung off . Lee Songha stealthily moved her leg back .

“I’m not hurt . ”

“Not hurt? First…”

I trailed off . I heard someone make a fuss downstairs and people began to gather . They were busy trying to get in an extra word to Lee Songha, asking her if she was fine or if she was hurt . Lee Songha pressed her cheeks .

“I think I had too much champagne . I slipped . ”

“Oh my! It’s good that you didn’t fall!”

“Ah, if I did, I would have rolled and gracefully gotten up . ”

“What? Roll?”

“I learned gymnastics while filming Alive . ”

There was no need for me to intervene . She skillfully settled the crowd by explaining the situation and playing it off with a laugh . As expected, she felt unfamiliar . Even though CEO Baek Hansung wasn’t here, she seemed so unfamiliar to me .

“Songha . ”

I acted before more people gathered .

“Glass pieces might have gotten into your stockings . Go downstairs and have a closer look . ”

“Yes . ”

Leaving her in Neptune’s care, I cleaned up the broken glass and calmed down the worrying people . I then went down to the second-floor basement . I heard voices in the practice room in the basement, which was dark because people had left early for the party .

Lee Songha was sitting on the floor, and Im Seoyoung was touching her leg .

“Hey, you’re lucky you weren’t hurt! How can you throw a glass just because you had nothing else to throw?”

“I told you . I didn’t throw it, it dropped . ”

Lee Taehee held Lee Songha’s face, who was in denial .

“Let’s see . Are you drunk?”

“I guess . ”

Lee Songha pressed her cheek against Lee Taehee’s hand . Im Seoyoung snorted,

“As if! You, the same girl who drank wild ginseng wine with unni, drunk after a couple glasses of champagne?”

“The alcohol today is different . You get drunk more easily on days like this . ”

“Don’t you try to sell snake oil! Did your trauma reappear after seeing Son Chaeyoung?”

“Trauma?”

Lee Songha slowly rolled the word in her mouth . Then she mumbled,

“I don’t feel anything when I see Son Chaeyoung anymore . Rather…”

“Rather? What?”

Lee Songha shook her head and changed the subject .

“Ah, I’m drunk . I want to see oppa . ”

“Look . ”

I said while entering the room . At least shoulders flinched .

“Let me talk with Songha . ”

“Uhh, then should we stand on guard?”

Im Seoyoung got up .

“Why would I need you to stand guard?”

“B-because something might occur that shouldn’t be discovered by others?”

“Nothing like that’ll happen . We’re just going to talk . Just close the door . Also…”

“We’ll have a drink from the vending machine . ”

LJ said instead . Her smiling eyes had an impertinent air .

“There could be people whose imaginations will run wild if we appear by ourselves . Like her . ”

“What about me?!”

Im Seoyoung and LJ left first, and Lee Taehee closed the door behind her . The practice room became quiet . I examined her leg, devoid of any scratches, and opened my mouth to speak .

“To be honest, I’m a bit confused . ”

Lee Songha spoke first .

“I might have thrown it . Since I wanted to . ”

“Because I asked Jae if she wanted acting lessons?”

“Yes . ”

She frankly replied as her gaze fell to the floor .

“It made me think of the past . When you asked me if I had any thoughts on acting . Right here, in this practice room . That memory was always vivid like it only happened yesterday, but it suddenly felt like it was such a long time ago . And I thought about Son Chaeyoung . ”

Son Chaeyoung?

After taking a breath, Lee Songha continued,

“Because of that… I can understand why Son Chaeyoung hated me . ”

“What?”

“Do you think she’ll be better than me at acting?”

She asked in a crumbling voice . Like someone enduring a chill, Lee Songha wrapped her arms around herself . Her fingers holding onto her forearms were white . Tears hung on the corners of her lowered eyelashes .

My mouth tasted bitter . So much that it was difficult to swallow .

It was simply a casual suggestion . Just because I happened to remember that people called Jung Jae ‘the Second Lee Songha’ in the future vision I saw in the past . Reporters might have exaggerated because she was the center of a rising girl group, but I was curious if she really had talent in acting .

If she showed talent after a few lessons, I would foster it, but if not, I would have made her focus on her singing career . I only brought it up to figure that out . Did that sound like a death sentence to Lee Songha?

“I know I’m weird . ”

Lee Songha whispered like she was making a confession .

“I’m trying to become normal . Because I can’t become like Son Chaeyoung . ”

Another voice overlapped with hers in my mind .

CEO Baek Hansung’s voice, which was embedded deep in my mind .

‘… That’s why most of them depend on something . That could be drugs, alcohol, or the like… Or someone . Make her depend on you . So that she doesn’t turn her gaze to something else . ’

I knew how Lee Songha felt about me . I also knew that it was so complicated and tangled that it would be difficult to explore every aspect of that emotion . Because I played a part in it . Even though I knew she was excessively unconditional and had an obsessive side to her .

To make her depend and lean on me above all else .

I licked my dry lips and said,

“You are different from Son Chaeyoung . ”

“… I wish that was true . ”

Lee Songha raised her head .

“Oppa, I’ll handle my schedule with another chief from now . ”

The words I was about to say to her were all pushed aside .

“I know that you are barely managing my schedule . I know, but I keep thinking, ‘only a bit more,’ and it has come this far . You’ll be much busier from now, so you don’t need to take care of my schedule . I’ll stand on my own . ”

Stand on your own?

“Also, if, from another team… If there’s a chief from Team 2 who wants to work with me, that’s fine too . That’s something I’ll have to experience anyways . ”

She’s fine with me handing her over to another team’s chief?

Anger suddenly surged . It was so severe that the unpleasantness I had felt until was almost cute . My emotions were so turbulent that I felt sick . I swallowed dryly and rubbed the corner of my lips .

I was in no position to think Lee Songha’s situation was unique . If I had a champagne flute in my hand right now, it might have shattered into more pieces that Lee Songha’s .

The suspicions and caution that had accumulated over the past few days finally burst .

“Did the CEO tell you to do that?”

“Huh?”

“Son Chaeyoung’s matter . And now you . Did the CEO order you?”

My mind was a mess, but the words coming out of my mouth flowed so smoothly that it was surprising .

Lee Songha blinked her eyes, taken aback .

“Order?”

“Or threatened . ”

Threatened .

Finally spitting out that word, which was dwelling in my mind all this time, my suspicions seemed to grow even larger .

What kind of person was CEO Baek Hansung? Was he a good person or a bad one?

My future self said that he became disenchanted with CEO Baek Hansung’s methods and left W&U . He then corrected himself, saying that it would have been better to stay under CEO Baek Hansung . That, in a world full of black-hearted people, a man like him was still grey .

CEO Baek Hansung, who I had observed until now, was talented and even reliable at times . Also, Son Chaeyoung described him to be someone who tied celebrities under his company by finding their weakness .

If I became disenchanted with CEO Baek Hansung’s methods, then I…

“Why do you think that?”

Lee Songha asked with a strange expression .

“What did you hear? What I told you last time was really all . What I said to you were purely my own thoughts . There weren’t any threats or anything . Why would the CEO do something so extreme?”

Why?

Because Lee Songha grew big enough that people referred to a walking one-person company . Because she grew big enough that CEO Baek Hansung called her W&U’s poster star . There were only three years left on her seven-year exclusive contract, and the CEO and his executives were probably thinking and preparing for the future .

Also, because CEO Baek Hansung might be someone who was more comfortable with threatening someone than persuading them .

Like me .

“You, that photo . The one that was taken with me . ”

“That… photo?”

Lee Songha abruptly looked shocked like someone who had just been hit . Her torso staggered backwards .

“If that photo is something that’s holding you down, I can-“

“No! That photo is ju-just an embarrassing past . It’s not something that can hold me down . It’s something I can simply close my eyes and handle if it ever got released . ”

“Really?”

“Yes, why are you suddenly worried about that?”

I repeatedly confirmed it while nodding my head . She didn’t look like she was acting . Was Lee Songha someone who could fool someone, me, like it was nothing? Was I suffering from obsession? Were there really no secret threats I didn’t know?

Even if that was true, would it continue to be the case?

My head ached . I was a walking mental ward .

I sighed and told her,

“Songha, if something like that ever happens, you need to tell…”

“Oppa . ”

Lee Songha came closer . In a worried voice, she said,

“I’m not as good of a person as you think . ”

“What?”

“Rather than being threatened, I think about threatening others, no, I’m worried that I will . Also, you don’t need to worry about the CEO anymore . I’m not really scared of him anymore . ”

Lee Songha smiled .

“The only one I’m scared of is you . ”

The moment I heard that, the thread that had been pulled tight for a long while finally snapped .

It really did seem like we entered summer . It was early in the morning, yet the sun was already out . Lying down and staring at the curtain’s fluttering shadow, I grabbed my phone .

Reporters, producers, and writers, who didn’t distinguish between night and day, had filled my call history with missed called . I would have checked each one normally, but I pushed them all aside today and called someone . Immediately, I heard a noisy background and a voice .

-What with the busiest person in the world calling me this early in the morning? Are you getting off work now?

“No, it’s my day off . ”

-You get days off? (Dad, what is it? Is it his day off? Hasn’t it been a million years since his last one? Let’s tell him to come over if it’s his day off!) You hear them, right? Even the kids are surprised .

That wasn’t surprising to hear since I had worked hard without taking a breath for a while . I didn’t even know when the last time I rested an entire day without thinking about work was . My friends were talking about how I’ve completely disappeared after telling them to think I went back to mandatory military service .

-I heard it’ll get easier if you went from a road manager to a chief, but why is it that you get busier by the day? It’s been a while since you’ve gone home too . Do you even have a life? Thirty is just around the corner, yet I haven’t heard that you’re seeing someone . (Dad! I-I also want to say something!)

Soon, I heard a serious voice from the other side .

-Uncle! On TV, it said that youth is from your teens to your twenties! You won’t be young next year!

“Now that you’re all past your ‘cute’ age, you’re gross . Be respectful when talking to me . ”

-Uncle called us gross!

I heard my brother laugh amidst the quadruplets’ shouts .

-They are acting like that because they miss you .

“I’m on my way now . ”

I said while grabbing onto my bed and pulling myself up .

-You’re coming? You can?

“Since the project is over, I can take a breather . I need to organize a few things too . About that . ”