40. Gift (1)
"I'm sorry for calling you at such a late hour."
"Oh, no~ It's urgent, what can I do? Just sit down, sit down."
Lime's rookie development headquarters meeting room. It's been a while since I've been here.
I sat down on the chair without any awkwardness.
Team Leader Lee Ki-ho handed me a paper cup of yulmu tea and sat down across from me.
The other guys were left behind, and Ji Young-heon had returned to the dorm after taking me to the company, so I was the only one facing Team Leader Lee Ki-ho.
"So... what are you going to say?"
"Do you know about the trainee 'Lee A-ram'?"
"Lee A-ram? The guy in your group?"
"Yes."
Team Leader Lee Ki-ho crossed his arms and stared into space. In the meantime, I clenched and unclenched my fists under the desk.
'This guy, why are you asking me now? He's calculating what he can gain from it.'
Still, if you look at it broadly, we're in the same company, but there's no room for it. If you let your guard down, he'll eat you up inside.
He doesn't seem like the type to act for the company, and it seems like a habit since he's always looking for an opportunity.
Finally, Team Leader Lee Ki-ho uncrossed his arms and picked up his pen. His tired-looking eyes slightly widened.
"I know, I know. There was a separate person in charge, but I casted him too."
"Then you probably don't know much about his trainee days."
I followed suit and closed my eyes and laughed.
He responded by saying, "I know the information, but I will decide whether to let you know or not," and added, "Then you can look for someone else. Let's not waste our energy on each other."
Sigh, it's a search battle.
'If you're pushed by the momentum here, you'll give more in return even if you get the information.'
My idea is to minimize the damage if I'm going to suffer.
Team Leader Lee Ki-ho's pen turns in his hand.
"Hmm~ Well. I don't know. After all, when you get to the position of team leader, you end up gathering a lot of information regardless of your job."
"Is that so? Well, team leader Lee is an outside worker."
"Haha, Young-i, you really talk funny~"
If we translate this briefly, it means 'There's no one better than me' and 'What should I do, this isn't your specialty.'
Team Leader Lee Ki-ho taps his pen on the desk. It looks like he's done calculating.
"But wouldn't it be faster to ask me? Aram's person in charge is a bit... how should I put it, not interested in others."
The information that was being spit out as if it was a favor was largely intentional. The line was so delicate that it almost made me feel bad.
However, I was satisfied because I had achieved my initial goal. Before I knew it, I was no longer in the position of begging for information, but rather the other side was the one who was offering to give me the information first.
I straightened my posture and adjusted my gestures. The first step was the most important in this conversation.
"Yes, I thought so. Considering that you just stood by and watched as a vicious sasaeng got attached to a trainee."
Team Leader Lee Ki-ho's mouth closed. With just one word, he realized everything I wanted and began to slowly change the flow.
"Yeah, well~ I won't deny it. It doesn't seem like you're trying to make an issue of it now."
"Yeah, because he was a trainee back then."
"Back then...."
Team Leader Lee Ki-ho laughed briefly. Then he put his pen on the desk.
"What you want and what you pay for. Do you want to tell me?"
"All information related to Lee Aram's trainee days and Sasaengs. The price is not to release that information. Let's keep it clean."
"Ugh~ The price is too high."
"Really?"
Even though you knew, you made me say what I wanted and what I would give. You make me unable to let my guard down until the very end.
I said calmly as if I knew and pretended not to know.
"Information that trainee protection is not being done properly. Do you think the media will find it so unpleasant? Even if you just season it a little, our seniors won't be happy. If you just give me the information, I will use it so that it doesn't hurt you."
Before being re-employed at Lime, Lee A-ram was in the debut group. Since the provision that debut groups must share the same dorms unconditionally means that others could not have been unaware of Lee A-ram's damage.
So even if you exaggerate it a little and throw it to the media, you can eat up Lime's rookie who debuted last year... who was in the debut group with Lee A-ram.
'Currently, Lime is in a position where they have to be careful even about falling leaves.'
Why did they debut a rookie with a safe concept? They didn't want even a little mud on their collars. Team leader Lee Ki-ho waved his hand exaggeratedly.
"If I don't tell you the information, it's a risk that can't be taken in the first place."
"That's too bad. Then let's ask the person directly."
I said this, meaning that there was no need to protect the information unless it was obtained through a transaction. Team Leader Lee Ki-ho's smile deepened.
"You didn't come to me because you couldn't ask the person in question?"
That's right. If I could have asked Aram directly, I wouldn't have asked Team Leader Lee Ki-ho for a deal.
Team Leader Lee Ki-ho pointed that out, but I didn't care. In any case, I didn't know exactly what Aram's current situation was.
"There's nothing I can't do if I put my mind to it. I came here just to take care of Aram."
In that case, I'll just bluff. If Aram gets hurt, I won't care if my goal is more important, and the meeting room becomes quiet.
"If you said that to Aram earlier, you'd get a lot of hate. Your name is also three characters."
"I'm not here as a younger brother of the same group now."
"....anyone else would think it's bluffing, but I feel bad because you really do. What if I don't care if Lee Aram is hurt or not?"
"I know you won't."
When that assumption was firmly rejected, Team Leader Lee Ki-ho's expression mysteriously changed. If he really didn't care, he wouldn't have said something like that.
'No, and if you include Han A-won, I'm older than Lee A-ram.'
It was a little unfair, but what can I do?
He pushed through the remaining opinions without giving us any more time to think.
"And haven't the other price been paid? Wouldn't you be satisfied with that?"
The very act of having this conversation signals to us that something is wrong.
There is no way that Team Leader Lee Ki-ho, who had been extracting information from even the brief conversation on the stairs, could not have missed this.
"Haha, you're actually quite the harbinger, aren't you?"
In the end, Team Leader Lee Ki-ho sighed deeply as if he had lost. He was seen shrugging his shoulders and laughing in vain.
"Okay, then let's do that. Where should I start?"
Team leader Lee Ki-ho, who had been reflecting on the past for a moment, picked up his pen again. The story began when Lee A-ram joined the debut group.
***
Lee Aram was originally not very shy. He wasn't timid, but he was sensitive and easily hurt, so he was defensive.
Looking back, you can realize that wasn't the case, but that's what the Rookie Development Headquarters staff thought at the time.
When he entered the debut group, all he brought to the dorm were a few clothes and basic daily necessities.
For a while, the days of peaceful competition continued. As Lee Aram gradually adapted to Lime, the first incident occurred a week after Lee Aram joined the debut group.
"Aram! Your package has arrived!"
"...What? I didn't order any delivery?"
The small box placed in front of the entrance to the accommodation had the name written on it, proving that it was delivered to Lee Aram by Geoon Express.
The recipient's name is Lee Aram, and the sender's name is Lee Aram's parents' names.
No one suspected it until they opened the box.
"Hey, isn't this blood?"
"It looks like a woman's hair......."
Silence came to the room. Lee Aram closed the lid of the box with a pale face. The names of his parents written there stood out particularly.
They immediately reported it to their agency and the police. But the response they got from the police was unexpected.
"It's just paint. It looks like someone was messing with it... Tsk. Do you have any girl problems?"
"No, nothing."
"Does anyone come to mind who might have played the prank?"
"No, nothing."
At the police station, Lee Aram kept repeating that he didn't know. In fact, he didn't know who sent this package.
In the end, Lee Aram returned to the dorm without taking any action, and from that day on, the hell began.
"What? You say things seem to be missing?"
"Yes, when I come home after practice, things like clothes and underwear are missing."
"You didn't take good care of your stuff, did you? Or are you trying to say that other friends stole it?"
"No. I just... take care of the dorm security..."
"Hey, hey. If you keep bugging me, get out of the debut group. There are many talented kids besides you."
As I said before, the employee in charge of Lee Aram didn't care much about others. To be exact, he didn't want to care about anything other than the work assigned to him.
When he threatened him with a dreamy debut, Lee Aram had no choice, and the company didn't know about this because they didn't receive any reports from the employee. (Team Leader Lee Ki-ho said)
Lee Aram, who claimed that strange deliveries would come and that items would disappear, became a target of avoidance for the other trainees. This was because there were no kids who would care about others in an already fiercely competitive environment. He wasn't an outcast, but he wasn't someone you could get close to either. That was exactly Lee Aram's position.
"Aram....... Isn't there anyone you really expect? Do you know that Jin-hyung almost got hurt because of you right now, don't you?"
That warm relationship soon broke down. A mysterious person had somehow attached a cutter blade to the doorknob of the dorm.
"I'm sorry. I really don't know."
"Haa, really. I don't know how someone like you got into the debut group."
"...I'm sorry."
After that incident, Aram was eliminated from the debut group due to protests from other trainees and the evaluations from the staff in charge. It wasn't because of his skills, but because of a person who was harassing him. Team leader Lee Kiho said that it was around this time that he realized this. He said that it was strange that someone with good skills and an attractive voice was suddenly eliminated from the debut group.
"So, I noticed the situation and reported it to the company~ Thanks to that, the dorm security got better and the person who was harassing Aram disappeared. He went into training right away. But once he was eliminated, he couldn't return to the debut group."
"....."
"The company probably decided that there was no need to put a risky person in the debut group. They never know when they'll get caught. You know it's hard to get rid of sasaengs."
I really didn't know that Lime would roll like this without any answers. Although I had shares of the company under Han A-won's name, I didn't touch the company's management outside of producing. It was right for me not to get involved.
I looked at Team Leader Lee Ki-ho and avoided eye contact. The voice sounded unusually empty.
"Don't look at it like that~ Strictly speaking, I'm part of the casting team. The field work you mentioned. It's not like we can file a lawsuit on behalf of the trainee, and the best we can do is block them from approaching."
"Is that the end of the damage?"
"Um....... That's all I know, but there might be more that the person in question remembers?"
I held back a sigh. It was a mess. As I got up from my seat, Team Leader Lee Ki-ho added.
"Don't forget what you promised in return."
"Yes, don't worry. I'll visit you again soon."
"No, you'll be busy, so you don't have to come."
"I'll see you next time."
"...Director Kwak, I wondered how that Byukchangho accepted you."
I took a sip of the cooled yulmu tea. The smooth texture of the paper cup lingered on my lips.
I politely greeted Team Leader Lee Ki-ho and asked him one of the things I had ignored while listening to his stories before leaving the new building.
"But what happened to the staff member after that?"
He just smiled as if I was asking why something so obvious.
I felt...... dirty for the first time in a long time.
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