Chapter 42

Just as Gowon gave up and started to turn away—

“I’m going to make it on my own, but you’re still riding your senior’s coattails?”

He could have let anything else Kim Eumyul said roll off him, but that one sentence made his heart drop.

At the same time, he finally realized what the unpleasant feeling that had been scraping at him since he left the stage really was.

He had done nothing for Baek Hanje.

While Baek Hanje had done far too much for him.

“.......”

It might have been different if Hanje were like Division Head Kwon Taeyoung or the staff around him, people who stood to benefit from Gowon’s success.

But Baek Hanje—the man who shone alone onstage—had absolutely no reason to do anything for him.

Gowon had only just realized that all over again.

Kim Eumyul, however, interpreted his silence differently.

At last, he had managed to hurt that block of wood who never seemed affected no matter what anyone said.

That was what he thought.

He had already been irritated by people claiming they had copied Gowon over one measly concept. They had worked hard and prepared it themselves, completely independently of Gowon.

“But how long do you think those connections will last? Young Ace hasn’t promoted in years. Aren’t they practically on their way to disbanding? Honestly, thirteen years into a career, they’re basically washed up. You keep clinging to them, but once they throw you away, you’ll—”

“Kim Eumyul.”

Kim Eumyul abruptly stopped in the middle of his flowing mockery.

He had never seen that expression before.

***

“They said there was a fight!”

“They threw punches? Who? Idols fighting each other?”

Good grief, they certainly had energy to spare. They had come all the way to a foreign country just to start a fight.

“Ha....”

I had not expected one of them to be our kid.

Gowon sat with his head bowed, a bruise blooming over one cheekbone.

From what I heard, a staff member had discovered them brawling in the bathroom and pulled them apart. Then Boyholic’s manager and Gowon’s manager had rushed in and dragged their respective artists away.

“Have both of you bastards lost your minds? Since we’re overseas, you decided we should start making up the rules as we go too?!”

Even with the waiting-room door closed, the producer’s booming shouts echoed clearly through the corridor. Two voices followed, repeatedly apologizing.

Not long afterward, a manager entered the waiting room while cautiously watching everyone’s reactions.

“What did they say?”

Chief Manager Park hurriedly asked first.

“They said we should send the other singers out and talk again afterward. We’re supposed to get everything sorted out in the meantime, then the people who fought and whoever’s responsible for them need to report there on their own....”

“I’ll go alone. I’ll apologize to the producer and take responsibility for resolving this.”

The manager rubbed a hand over his face at Gowon’s words.

“The other side was... Boyholic, was it? They’re with Maybe Entertainment, right?”

“Yes.”

“Haah... We really stepped in it.”

“With Maybe Entertainment?”

“No, they’re in an emergency too. The producer is trying to get leverage over both K-Dom and Maybe Entertainment. What do you think they mean by demanding the responsible parties? They want someone senior enough to take the message back to the company.”

“Oh....”

While the managers talked among themselves, I sat on the sofa farther inside the room and observed Gowon.

The moment he heard that his actions might harm the company, even that wooden bastard finally reacted. Of course, an experienced manager would have been aiming for exactly that.

“Gowon, what on earth happened?”

“.......”

“You have to tell us so we can deal with it and clear up anything that wasn’t your fault. If a terrestrial television producer takes a dislike to you, your career as a singer will become very difficult. And... as you just heard, it’ll be even more serious if this causes trouble for the company....”

“Wow, Jonghyeok. You’ve gotten really good at talking. Back in the day, I remember you panicking and going, ‘K-kids, you can’t do this....’”

“Oh, Hanje, come on.”

“So, Gowon. Stop tormenting this fainthearted man and hurry up and talk.”

I tipped my head back against the sofa and turned fully toward him.

“Have you already forgotten what I told you before?”

“...No.”

The quest window flickered before my eyes.

The subquest had appeared some time ago.

Q Emergency. Detect HBN’s Crisis

Resolve the crisis

Success: -

Failure: Permanent ban from appearing on CBS

But quest or no quest, I simply hated Gowon’s actions and the entire situation.

He started a fight at a television station?

Sure, I had told him not to spend his life enduring everything in silence. He seemed like the sort who would keep everything buried inside until it festered.

But there had to be a limit.

I was doing everything I could to ensure Gowon’s success. It was true that the quest had forced me into it at first, but lately, I could no longer deny that I cared beyond that.

Had all that desperate effort really been built on a resolve weak enough to collapse this easily?

“Do you not want to be an idol?”

“.......”

“You’re in a position where you should be desperate for every single opportunity. If you can throw them away this easily, then I don’t expect anything from you anymore either.”

“.......”

I had not expected some incredible answer, but when he remained silent even now, I could not even force out a hollow laugh.

“I’m leaving first. Performing again after so long wore me out. Sort it out properly before you come back.”

Perhaps because Gowon was entirely at fault for this incident, there was no success reward, and the penalty did not hold my life or Young Ace’s future hostage.

Only Gowon would suffer a devastating consequence.

Right. He was the one who drove his own opportunity into the ground. There’s no reason to feel sorry for him.

“Uh... right, Hanje. There’s no need for you to stay. Go back to the hotel and rest. You worked hard today. Security and Minju’s people, follow Hanje. We’ll... do everything we can to resolve this, so let’s take our time telling Taeyoung about it. Ha ha....”

“What would I have to tell him?”

I meant that I no longer wanted anything to do with this matter.

Only then did Gowon’s face show that he had realized my waiting here at all had been an act of goodwill.

I turned the waiting-room doorknob.

Or rather, I was about to when someone grabbed my elbow.

“Brother.”

Gowon had suddenly moved right beside me.

“That’s not it.”

“What isn’t?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to do this. I....”

“.......”

“That’s not what happened....”

Then he failed to continue for a long time. But the hand gripping my arm tightened until my elbow throbbed.

Unlike his motionless lips, Gowon’s eyes shook without pause as he looked at me.

“If that’s not it, then what do you expect me to do?”

“.......”

His face was confused, as though hundreds of words were running through his mind. He seemed to be struggling desperately to choose the one that might persuade me.

Too bad. My mood was already completely ruin—

“Help me.”

“.......”

“...Please... help me....”

Of all the things he could have said here, Gowon chose those words.

Current Status.

Gowon

Current Status: ■■lp m■.

Honest bastard.

The moment Chief Manager Park noticed that I had stopped, he hurried in front of Gowon.

“Of course we’ll help you, Gowon. What on earth did that bastard do to make you that angry? You normally stay quiet even when someone deliberately picks a fight with you.”

Gowon finally opened the lips he had bitten until they had lost their color.

“...He said terrible things. He... insulted someone and provoked me with what he said....”

“What exactly did he say? We need the details.”

“He....”

His voice dropped to almost a whisper. Chief Manager Park, standing directly in front of him, seemed able to hear it. But rather than growing angry with him, his expression became baffled.

“...Washed up? Pathetically clinging on? Gowon, you may have debuted first, but it was only by two months. More importantly, aren’t you and that kid the same age?”

“No, he wasn’t talking about me.”

Gowon struggled desperately to phrase it as indirectly as possible. But in the end, Chief Manager Park’s finger pointed toward—

“Oh, me?”

He was talking about me?

At that moment, every staff member in the waiting room went deathly pale.

“Wow! Is that bastard insane? Kids these days have really lost it. Young Ace, of all groups?”

“Assistant Manager, please tell me I’m dreaming. Whose work does he think made it possible for people like them to go overseas, shout about K-pop, and make a living? Ha....”

“Gowon, you should have told us that first! Then we could’ve gone over there and secretly smacked him in the back of the head!”

The managers and stylists who had been with Young Ace since our debut reacted especially fiercely.

“Ha ha....”

“You’re dumbfounded too, aren’t you, Hanje?”

Honestly, the words themselves did not make me particularly angry.

Well... I was a long-term industry fixture approaching my second contract renewal. I could see why kids these days might view me that way. It was no more irritating than a mildly itchy hate comment.

The reason I let out a disbelieving laugh was—

“That made you so angry you hit him?”

“.......”

Well, now.

Repeating it aloud made it so absurd that another hollow laugh escaped me.

“Did it hurt my baby that much when someone insulted his brother?”