“Hooh··· truly magnificent.”
I was currently staring at the limited-edition Romance of the Three Kingdoms merchandise sitting in front of me: the Battle of Red Cliffs humidifier.
-This merch quality is insane this time.
After reading the review posts uploaded on the Sajomo cafe, I had expected it to be no ordinary item, but I never imagined the quality would be this high.
The vapor softly rising from the humidifier like drifting mist overflowed with metaphorical beauty, recreating the smoke of burning ships during the Battle of Red Cliffs.
And that wasn’t all.
“The craftsmanship is exquisite.”
On the deck of the ship-shaped merchandise sat a Cao Cao figurine collapsed to its knees in despair.
The expression was so vivid it looked as if the Cao Cao from Red Cliffs himself had returned to life.
Looking at a humidifier merch item whose quality far exceeded expectations, I felt as though I had become Zhuge Liang himself waiting for the southeastern wind.
‘It’s a pity I left the feather fan behind.’
If only I had the Zhuge Liang white feather fan former CEO Kim Sanghyeok gifted me before, nothing could have made this scene more perfect, but it was such a precious item that I had left it back at the dorm in Korea.
“How long are you going to stare at that thing all day?”
“Is the ignorance of one who cannot appreciate art truly this ugly?”
“What?”
“A masterpiece like this never becomes tiresome even after watching it for three days and nights.”
While I continued admiring the merch, Lee Gahyeon suddenly picked a fight, apparently dissatisfied with the sight of me enjoying myself.
But honestly, that was shameless.
“Gahyeon spent all day hugging that bag yesterday too, didn’t you?”
The very same Lee Gahyeon now criticizing me for clinging to merch had spent the entire previous day clutching the luxury bag gifted by Unibex—even while sleeping.
“That’s··· different! How can a Chanel bag and weird merch like that possibly be the same?!”
“Compared to materialistic things like that, this merch filled with my pure affection is far more beautiful. The heavens know it, the earth knows it, and even Ryu Ayeon knows it.”
“Why are you dragging me into this when I’m just sitting here?”
After my barrage of facts left Lee Gahyeon speechless, Ryu Ayeon, who had been quietly fiddling with a phone nearby, reacted with a twitch.
“Ayeon, are you really that happy?”
“Not really.”
“Normally, doesn’t Ayeon jump out of the seat immediately whenever Sion even says your name?”
“···When have I ever. Shinyu, you’ve been spreading false rumors lately, haven’t you?”
Contrary to the denial, Ryu Ayeon’s face had turned bright red.
-You’re really going to let me meet Mr. Sakamoto?
-Yes, that’s correct. He’s someone who has worked with our company from time to time, so we made special arrangements. Once schedules align, we’ll invite him directly to the practice room so you can spend some time interacting together.
Sakamoto Reiji.
A legendary dancer who had won Red Bull BC One—one of the world’s five major dance competitions—twice.
-This person’s dancing is different!
Even Ryu Ayeon, whose standards regarding dance were stricter than a mother-in-law’s, had become utterly captivated the moment she watched Sakamoto’s dance videos, declaring that if she ever went to Japan she absolutely had to meet him.
But since she had no personal connection with him, and opportunities to collaborate with someone like that were extremely rare, it had almost remained nothing more than wishful thinking.
Then Unibex, guilty over the huge mistake they had committed against us this time, stepped in and arranged a meeting between Sakamoto Reiji and Ryu Ayeon.
As a result, Ryu Ayeon was currently in an excited state over the fact she would soon meet Sakamoto.
If her usual self resembled a sharp, irritable hedgehog exhausted by everything in the world, right now she looked more like a puppy sleeping belly-up.
This Happy Ryu Ayeon Mode was such a rare sight that it was the first time I had seen it since the Great Escape incident where I practically force-fed her convenience-store food.
“Still, I don’t know if it’s really okay for us to accept things like this.”
“Shinyu, those words would’ve sounded more convincing before you went shopping for music equipment yesterday.”
“But··· how was I supposed to leave after seeing those babies there?!”
Among the members who received expensive gifts, Geum Shinyu seemed to have become slightly worried a day later about whether the presents had been too extravagant.
I still didn’t know much about composition since I had never formally studied it myself, but—
-Is that an LA-2A by any chance?
-You recognized it? It’s a legendary Teletronix model. This one’s a faithful recreation of the original product. Demand was so overwhelming after release that this store only had one left.
-This child is calling out to me!
Geum Shinyu’s eyes had completely rolled back after spotting some compressor thing or another at the massive music-equipment store we visited.
Back then she accepted it immediately as a gift without hesitation, then nearly fainted later after seeing the price.
“But there’s a tone only the LA-2A can produce! If our studio just has this one thing, it’ll definitely help us make future songs too!”
“That sounds suspiciously similar to the things Lady Sukja says after buying stuff from home-shopping channels.”
“No! This absolutely wasn’t personal greed! I accepted it solely for the greater cause of our company’s development!”
Despite those words, while Lee Gahyeon had spent the entire previous night rolling around hugging her bag, Geum Shinyu had been sitting there all night fiddling lovingly with that weird-looking compressor machine.
Apparently she had already even given it the nickname Latua, treasuring it like an actual baby.
That sight was also a first for me.
“Isn’t this kind of gift pretty normal though?”
“Yunkyung, please never say things like that in front of fans.”
“Why not again?!”
“Unless you want Iam to become Marie Antoinette.”
Of course, not every member was equally excited.
-I’ll just take this one.
-···Understood.
At the department store, Im Yunkyung casually chose a simple watch from a luxury boutique.
I never heard the price, but judging from the way Haruto’s expression instantly rotted while escorting us during shopping, it clearly wasn’t an ordinary item.
‘Even if Unibex is a giant corporation, isn’t this a little excessive just to give everyone gifts?’
After yesterday’s Agaragi execution ceremony, every member—including me—received a carefully prepared gift from Unibex.
-This incident was entirely our fault. Please allow us the opportunity to apologize.
There’s an old saying that a single word can repay a thousand nyang of debt.
I was an extremely strict person when it came to calculations.
Agaragi, who tried to throw us into danger with an absurd scheme, received the gift of tofu-fracture punishment.
-And they’re just idols anyway, right? Even if the stage gets ruined, all they have to do is act cute in front of fans afterward, so why make such a huge fuss?
As for the Tokyo Reverse guitarist who shamelessly acted arrogant even after changing our stage backing from AR to MR—
well, I had no choice but to remind him exactly why I was called Haandong’s Kim Duhan.
-Tsk tsk, that guy’s hopeless. You can tell at a glance he’s trash.
-You can tell just by looking?
-I saw lots of people like him in the military··· no, at school. Guys like that always get caught doing creepy things and end up in prison.
-Is that so?
-What the hell are you saying, you Chosen bitch?! You think I won’t hit a woman?!
Even though I was speaking Korean, the bastard somehow instinctively realized I was insulting him and charged at me.
So I really just hit him once.
Not more, not less.
Just once.
Of course, the fact the location happened to be his jaw produced a somewhat unfortunate result.
Two teeth.
Like popcorn kernels flying out, two little pieces of corn launched from his mouth after a single punch knocked him flat.
-This is self-defense, honestly. And why is he so weak anyway? Back in Haandong, people usually lost at most one tooth! This is unfair! Totally unfair!!
-Please calm down, Miss Sion. We’ll handle this ourselves.
No matter how badly the guy had behaved, and even if he swung first, knocking out two of someone’s teeth was serious enough that I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous.
Yet Unibex somehow smoothed over even that as if nothing had happened.
Not only that, but the original contract terms with our company had become significantly better too, to the point where we were now receiving benefits and conditions supposedly reserved only for top-tier idols.
‘Who was it slandering Japanese people as a race incapable of apologizing?’
Apparently even that wasn’t enough, because they had prepared a special program just for us too.
“What if they ask Yuri to appear in a drama?”
“I was nervous because the last Japanese variety show was our first one, but this time they even made a separate program just for us. I’m already excited!”
“They said it’s an idol-exclusive program, so we won’t have to suffer like before, right?”
“Of course not. In Korea we only filmed weird stuff because of Lee Sion. Normally idols do things like travel content, restaurant tours, and fashion content!”
The members all seemed thrilled by the fact that a program was being made specifically for us in Japan of all places.
Everyone was already excitedly chattering about what we might film.
‘They really are happiest at times like this.’
Normally, seeing everyone cheerful like this would have made me want to stir up trouble out of spite, but I knew they had all been under a lot of stress from everything that happened after coming to Japan, so I simply watched quietly.
After all, during my days as a company commander, I saw plenty of cases where people endured future suffering by remembering moments of happiness like these.
***
“I transferred Agaragi to become branch manager of the Tohoku mountain office.”
“I apologize for causing concern, Chairman.”
“You idiot. Competition only works if it stays within reasonable limits. But trying to bring you down while damaging the company’s interests? The fool crossed the line.”
Haruto cautiously watched Chairman Yamaguchi of Unibex, who still had not calmed down even after exiling Agaragi to the Tohoku office.
“It was all my oversight.”
“I agree.”
The only other time Haruto had ever seen the chairman this furious was when one of Unibex’s artists suddenly held a press conference and announced a marriage without permission.
‘Tohoku branch manager··· how cruel.’
Tohoku, by Japanese standards, was basically the equivalent of Samcheok in Korea.
A remote mountain region where even hearing news was difficult.
An entertainment office established in a place like that functioned less as an office and more as exile.
Since the company could not arbitrarily fire him, it was effectively a transfer telling him to resign voluntarily.
For Agaragi, who had devoted his entire life to Unibex, there could hardly be a greater humiliation.
Yet despite handing down such punishment, Yamaguchi still looked dissatisfied and now seemed to be targeting Haruto instead.
“Korean idols may make money, but if problems keep happening every time, how is that acceptable?”
“···My apologies.”
In truth, none of this was Haruto’s fault.
Agaragi had orchestrated the scheme, while Haruto cleaned up the mess afterward.
And on top of that, Iam—the group Haruto had worked so hard to sign—was already generating explosive reactions despite only recently beginning activities.
If anything, he deserved praise.
However—
“Adjusting the royalty ratio like that? If you hand over conditions that generous, not only Korean singers but even Japanese artists will start acting however they please!”
The reason Yamaguchi was lashing out even at Haruto was because of the contract revisions Haruto had offered KJ Entertainment to settle the incident.
Royalty rates adjusted not for rookie idols, but for top-tier artists.
The changes successfully calmed KJ Entertainment’s dissatisfaction, but even inside Unibex there were now complaints that the company had given away far too much.
At the time, Agaragi’s mistake had been catastrophic enough that Yamaguchi had no choice but to approve it, but now that the situation had stabilized, regret seemed to be setting in and he had begun venting at Haruto instead.
“Chairman, the K-POP market continues to grow. Considering the profits we can earn in the future, winning their goodwill now is the most important thing.”
“You’re that certain?”
“Yes. And if my prediction turns out wrong, then I’ll succeed Division Head Agaragi—no, Agaragi, Branch Manager of Tohoku.”
“What···?”
Even Yamaguchi could not hide his surprise at Haruto’s words.
Agaragi, his rival, was gone.
If Haruto simply stayed quiet now, promotion to director was practically guaranteed.
Yet despite that, he had wagered his own position on Iam’s success.
‘Life is gambling.’
If one only walked safe roads, there would be fewer risks—but fewer rewards too.
Perhaps the old Haruto would have been satisfied with that.
But not anymore.
-Why did you push for Iam’s contract renewal while taking such risks, CEO?
-There’s no special reason. I just wanted to see how far the Iam members could climb.
-Is that all?
-Most important decisions in life are more emotional than people think.
Haruto had learned many things while observing KJ Entertainment’s CEO.
A puppet president sent from headquarters.
Even though he could have chosen to do nothing, he kept challenging risks, and as a result he triumphed against Korea’s giant agencies SY and TSP.
‘Iam can do it.’
And after witnessing Iam’s live performance at Tokyo Reverse’s concert, Haruto himself had begun feeling emotions similar to Sanghyeok’s.
The desire to personally see just how far Iam could go had quietly begun growing inside him.
“Whew··· fine. Then what are you planning next? You must have some kind of strategy if you’re speaking this confidently.”
“Of course.”
Perhaps because Haruto had bet even his own position, Yamaguchi’s fury vanished completely, replaced once more by the expression of a cold businessman.
Haruto carefully placed the prepared documents before him.
“A special program proposal?”
“Yes. Public interest in Iam is currently extremely hot. However, there’s still time before an official Japanese album release, and in this situation advertisements and events alone cannot satisfy public expectations.”
“I’m surprised you managed to secure a broadcasting slot. A standalone program centered around Korean idols.”
Yamaguchi’s surprise was understandable.
Even in Japan, unless the idols belonged to a massive agency like Johnny’s, obtaining a dedicated program was extraordinarily difficult.
Haruto had mobilized every connection he built over the years to barely secure the program slot.
“Wrestling?”
“Yes! This program is called ‘Idols Become Wrestlers!’”
It was wrestling.