The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Hearing that Tae-Yoon requested a meeting brought up unpleasant memories for Yoo Won-Dong. The scenario had been similar then—the pivotal point when he threw away all his passion for his job and became an office shut-in. It was the time when he was thoroughly slammed for his collaboration idea with JayQueen and was given the signal to shut up and do what he was told as Siren did all the work.

Siren members had come to him for a meeting then too. Yet, that had been simple, one-sided blackmail on the premise of a meeting. They just didn’t have any weapons in their hands, but they basically mugged him.

From that point on, Yoo Won-Dong had to be careful whenever he made any propositions, and his ideas were often shut down. He had to ask his subordinates multiple times whether he made the right suggestions and in the process of doing that, he gradually lost his spotlight and authority as the company’s director.

Before he realized it, he lost his say in meetings. It was common for companies to operate without the aid of higher-ups and natural for employees under management to insult their superiors.

Yet, regardless of the talk that went back and forth, it was the management’s job to brazenly lead the meetings and highlight the main issues at hand. Yet, now that everyone in Next Wave mocked Yoo Won-Dong for having no sense in this entertainment business behind closed doors, he couldn’t keep that kind of bold attitude.

The fact that he knew nothing about the entertainment business had already been exposed after the JayQueen incident. After that, rumors spread that he called his direct subordinates a hundred questions at a time to make sure his suggestions were acceptable.

And the most common phrases that his employees said were, ‘No, boss, that's not what you do…’ or ‘If you look at the resources here, you will know…’ Just by their way of talking, one could tell what the Next Wave’s employees thought about Yoo Won-Dong.

Instead of a trustworthy director who supported their work, Yoo Won-Dong’s position shifted as the final boss gate that people had to overcome to progress their business. And that was how the general mood, which was’ We can only work after persuading that fifty-something boomer who doesn’t know a thing about the entertainment business!’ was well-established inside Next Wave.

Aware and sick of this, Yoo Won-Dong soon became a processing machine that simply stamped documents for approval one after the other. He asked, “…Mr. Bong Tae-Yoon is coming for a meeting?”

“Yes, he is requesting it.”

It was just like that time. The only difference was that instead of the entire Siren group, Tae-Yoon was coming by himself. Yet, Tae-Yoon had been the one who led the conversation last time too. This seemed to mean that the situation wouldn’t be any different from before.

“Haa…” Yoo Won-Dong closed his internet tabs and thought deeply. He worried what his employees would say if he refused this meeting and also worried about what kind of blackmail he would hear this time if he accepted it. As he pondered longer about this, someone knocked on his door.

Knock, knock, knock.

Though he didn’t answer, the door opened.

Creak.

“Can I come in?” Tae-Yoon peeked his head in and openly pressured him, as if he was asking how long Yoo Won-Dong was going to make him wait.

In the end, Yoo Won-Dong had no choice but to let him come inside. “Ah, hahaha! Mr. Tae-Yoon! Please come in. I heard that you wanted to meet me. Why don’t you come and take a seat.”

***

As soon as it became 9:30 am, I walked up to the Next Wave’s company building. 9:30 am was the time that I chose after some calculations. After coming to work at 9 am, Yoo Won-Dong might take about 15 minutes to brew the coffee and organize his desk. Then, he would probably take another ten minutes surfing the internet before officially starting his work.

Thus, I thought 9:30 pm would be the time when he finished organizing his surroundings, and since he might have some morning meetings starting from 10 am, I strategically thought I had to go before then. Honestly, I knew I should've called in to arrange a meeting with him beforehand, but the situation was too urgent for me to do that.

‘In the first place, it’s strange that he didn’t call us when one of his artists got into a scandal,’ I thought. Yet, when I arrived at the place, I didn’t receive an answer even after fifteen minutes had passed. It was then that I realized.

‘…Is Yoo Won-Dong perhaps, wondering if he should have a meeting with me?’ It seemed Yoo Won-Dong was hesitating to meet me because our last meeting ended unfortunately for him. Still, I couldn’t believe he was holding back from meeting an artist under his company, which could be considered one of the most important tasks for a boss. Thinking that I would just waste time at this rate, I decided to take action.

Creak.

Only after I opened the door and pushed my head in, he welcomed me in.

“Ah, hahaha! Mr. Tae-Yoon! Please come in. I heard that you wanted to meet me. Why don’t you come and take a seat.” Based on his expression, tone, and gaze, it seemed my predictions had hit the mark.

‘He really seemed to have been hesitant.’ I read the worries remaining on Yoo Won-Dong’s face.

“Secretary Kim, you can leave while I talk to Mr. Tae-Yoon for a bit? Mr. Tae-Yoon, what would you like to drink? Coffee?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Okay, then why don’t you drink some water.” Yoo Won-Dong handed me a water bottle.

“Ah, thank you.” I took the water bottle and placed it on the corner of the table and then stared at Yoo Won-Dong.

“You must know why I came, director.” I wondered if he was even aware of the scandal that happened in our group. There was a reason for my doubts. Something about Yoo Won-Dong’s face changed. When we met him before, Yoo Won-Dong looked like a general from a period of peace. He was like a plump general exploding with confidence and enjoying the peaceful days out of war.

Yet, now, all confidence seemed to have been sucked out of him, and he looked just like any common soldier who warily looked at his surroundings while filled with useless worries. Thus, I thought he might have been too occupied by his surroundings to check up on us.

“Ah, aren’t you here because of the scandal involving Mr. Dong-Jun?”

“Yes, sir. That’s what I came here for.” Fortunately, it seemed he was aware of the current events.

“I was originally planning to call you all around here today and ask for your opinions on how to resolve this matter.”

“I see.”

“But because the situation dramatically became overturned this morning, I was planning to call you after assessing the situation first.”

“Ah…yes, sir.” I couldn’t completely believe his claim that he would’ve called us even if he finished assessing the situation.

“Anyways, it seems like that matter was resolved well…So could I ask the reason for your visit so early in the morning?”

“There’s something that I want to request, sir.”

“…A request?” Yoo Won-Dong flinched and looked surprised upon hearing this.

“Yes, a request. Am I not supposed to make one?”

“…No, no. You certainly can. My position is meant to listen to your requests.”

I searched Yoo Won-Dong’s face carefully. Though he tried to hide it, a hint of happiness bloomed on his face just from the word, ‘request’. I wondered what sort of treatment he was receiving in this company that he was reacting like this, and I got a better sense of his situation. I thought about Yoo Won-Dong’s change of expression just now, the strange atmosphere at the company, and the reason why Yoo Won-Dong had appeared hesitant to meet me right now.

‘Is Yoo Won-Dong getting…bullied in his company right now?’ I wondered if it was right to summarize Yoo Won-Dong’s situation with such middle-school terms, but there was no other way to describe it. That was probably why he hadn’t been able to hide his joy after hearing what I said. But more than the bullied kid of the school, his situation seemed closer to a director who lost his position.

‘But it’s understandable since the last time we came to see him, we warned him not to try anything funny and support us from behind.’

After screwing up in the first project he proposed as the head of this company, Yoo Won-Dong was currently under a heavy self-reflection; and this was enough of a basis for the employees to start doubting his abilities as their superior. Yoo Won-Dong not only lacked an understanding of the entertainment business but also had no practical sense, and it seemed clear that his position at the company decreased compared to even the management heads here.

Considering all that, he probably hesitated to see me since he didn’t know how he would be screwed over today.

‘I think I understand why Woon told me that it will become tiring to have Yoo Won-Dong as my enemy now.’

He wasn’t doing anything now because he was too nervous or anxious, but if this negative situation continued, he would likely become a big obstacle to our activities. I stared straight at Yoo Won-Dong.

“There’s an urgent request we need to make to you. We need your help.”

“You need my help urgently?”

I thought I should take this opportunity to really become close to Yoo Won-Dong—even if I had to suck up my pride, I needed to extend my hand out to him.

“Actually, it isn’t ‘we’ but ‘I’ who need your help.”

“What is it?” I thought I saw something that looked like passion wavering in Yoo Won-Dong’s eyes.

“I am wondering if we could…sue the people who wrote the post about Dong-Jun through the company. I don’t know what my members think, but I don’t want those people to get off completely clean,” I brought up the topic of suing.

I saw Yoo Won-Dong’s face cloud with worry after hearing me. Yoo Won-Dong’s vulnerabilities began to come up to the surface then.

“Ah…Then, let me try talking to our legal team and ask the marketing management if that sort of suing will be helpful to our company’s image before progressing. They are the professionals in these types of matters…”

Though he was the boss, he was trying to leave the decision-making to management. It was then I became a hundred percent certain that currently, Yoo Won-Dong had a smaller voice than the management under him.

“No, I would like for you to decide, sir.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Truthfully, I also know that this is quite a provocative proposal. It isn’t common for people to sue those who have already uploaded apology posts.”

“It certainly is.”

“Yes, so…I don’t want it to make it appear as Dong-Jun is the one suing but the Next Wave. The company could be on the stance that it suffered big losses because of the slanderous post and sue the original poster. I would also like this to be done in secret, so no one knows.”

“Hm…”

“Is it not possible?”

“…There’s nothing you can’t do with the law since provisions all depend on how you interpret it. It’s not difficult to make this event secretive either.” He sounded rather like a scummy lawyer, but it appeared that Yoo Won-Dong with his law background didn’t think the premise was impossible. I knew that Yoo Won-Dong had this level of strength and connections.

There was a saying that even if a rich person fell to ruins, their wealth would carry over three generations. Even if Yoo Won-Dong was being treated like an outcast here, he was still a big figure in the rest of society. He had the means to seal all the journalists’ mouths from spreading the news about the suing and bring the two who slandered Dong-Jun to court. There was a reason why he rose to such a high position in a gigantic corporation. Yoo Won-Dong looked to be deeply pondering with his lips tightly closed. Then, opened his mouth again.

“…All right. Let’s try it.”

‘What?’ Yoo Won-Dong who had looked like a lost soldier appeared hopeful again. He was the kind of person who just needed some recognition.

‘He’s so simple.’ Did people really become simpler the older they got?

“I hope we can share more conversations about personal concerns like this from now on,” Yoo Won-Dong said and smiled more brightly than ever before. That was how the mood between Yoo Won-Dong and I became much brighter than before.

“Should we eat lunch together, Sir Tae-Yoon?” He even addressed me as ‘sir’ instead of ‘Mr’ and suggested eating a meal together.

“Ah, I already made plans to eat with my members for lunch.” I thought it was going too far to have lunch with him after this but seeing that Yoo Won-Dong appeared to be in a good mood, I decided to make another request.

“Ah, and after we finish our activities for ‘Blue Summer Night’, we would like to release an album tracklist. What do you think about using around 500 million won* for our next activities? My goal is to reach Triple Crown.” [1] I thought I spoke nonchalantly, but it appeared the sum I asked for was quite big.

“…What? Excuse me, Mr. Tae-Yoon?”

But truthfully, this was the main reason I came to meet him. There was the deal about suing but the Triple Crown mission had Dong-Jun’s life on the line.

“500 million won, sir. I would like to start the next activities as fast as possible. Honestly, 500 million won is lacking, and I wanted to ask for 700 million won.” I decided to push harder seeing how flustered Yoo Won-Dong was.

“…Sorry?” Yoo Won-Dong’s face turned pale. His expression seemed to ask, ‘What is this bastard trying to do this time?’

1. around 538,205$ ☜