Chapter 5
Meanwhile, Jung Ki-hoon, who had been calling around nonstop, shouted in relief.
“Noona, the girls from Camellia said they have spare outfits they can lend us!”
“Idol clothes?”
Park Hee-young didn’t look thrilled, so I said,
“Ah, they’ll be pretty. Definitely pretty.”
“You just focus on driving.”
“Seriously, nobody say anything to me today.”
Even after I said that, no one in the car could answer.
Even Park Hee-young, who looked embarrassed and pretended to sniffle, soon switched to acting cute and said,
“Manager Jung, you really saved us today. Didn’t you just lie down in bed for the first time in almost forty hours? How did you wake up?”
“I just suddenly felt something ominous and woke up.”
“What is that, scary. Does your family have a shaman or something? No, don’t answer. Just drive!”
I was so tense it felt like my hair was standing on end.
There was no way I could fall asleep anymore.
Park Hee-young’s hair looked rough, but manageable.
Yoo Sun-ah, in extreme concentration, somehow finished her makeup too.
Jung Ki-hoon kept making calls, then grabbed his hair.
“Ah, how is there no size 230 heels anywhere?”
“I was in such a rush I came wearing slippers. I must be insane.”
Park Hee-young sounded like she was about to cry.
No matter what chaos was happening in the back seat…
I drove across Seoul like my life was on the line.
And I’d only gotten my license three months ago.
When we arrived at Olympic Park, there were rows of tents behind temporary stage walls where singers waited.
Everyone else was busy preparing there.
Our singer looked like she’d have to go straight into camera rehearsal the second she arrived.
While Park Hee-young changed clothes, I kept hearing complaints about shoes.
Without thinking, I started checking people’s footwear.
Then I spotted heels that looked about size 230.
They belonged to Lee Ye-young, one of the stylists from The Idol Chosen by the Nation.
I ran at her in a panic.
“Noona! Ye-young noona!”
“Huh? W-What? Hae-won, why are you here?”
Apparently she had heard I’d become a shut-in.
She looked at me like she’d seen a dead person.
I didn’t have time to explain.
“What size are your shoes?”
“Shoes? 230. Why?”
“I’m sorry, but can I borrow them?”
At that moment Park Hee-young arrived behind me and pointed at the sliders she was wearing.
“Trade for these!”
“What? But these are 55,000 won shoes…”
“Ah, good. Very good.”
Park Hee-young slipped off her luxury-brand logo sliders and took the 55,000 won shoes.
They were plain pale pink heels.
Yoo Sun-ah rubbed some oil on them and sprinkled glitter she had on hand.
It stuck to the shoes.
Then Jung Ki-hoon attached artificial flowers he had somehow found to the straps.
They worked so well together.
Probably from years of working side by side.
While they were making the shoes match the outfit, Lee Ye-young carefully said to me,
“Hae-won… the members of First Light are here too. Should you… say hello? Or… maybe not?”
First Light was the group re-formed from the surviving members of the audition show after the manipulated members were removed.
In my prophetic dream, First Light didn’t do very well.
After two or three years, I barely remembered them releasing albums.
If they just held out about one more year, I probably wouldn’t see much of those members in the industry.
I didn’t answer.
But Lee Ye-young nodded as if she understood.
That was enough.
Then Park Hee-young took a breath and called me.
“Cheol-soon, give us a fighting cheer.”
I looked around wondering who Cheol-soon was.
Yoo Sun-ah laughed and smacked my arm.
“That’s you, Hae-won.”
“Me?”
“Yesterday while drinking, Hee-young unnie said your real name was too pretty for you and renamed you. Cheol-soon.”
“My parents carefully gave me that name…”
Whether I felt wronged or not, Jung Ki-hoon joined in and they all burst out laughing.
Being the youngest was apparently my crime.
I sighed and reluctantly struck a fighting pose.
Maybe because they laughed so much after renaming me, Park Hee-young looked brighter.
Luckily, the previous stage ran three minutes over.
While I checked the stage, Park Hee-young quickly spoke with the sound director.
Then she walked up and shouted,
“To everyone who came to see Park Hee-young! I Love You, Darling!”
Since the festival was mostly idols, she was clearly trying to grab idol fans’ attention with her opening remarks.
And even in that chaos, she adjusted her opening lines.
She was truly born for the stage.
And her stage command…
That was simply natural talent.
After checking the restroom locations, pathways, and buying snacks, I had truly burned through the very last of my stamina.
I told Yoo Sun-ah and Jung Ki-hoon,
“The shoes… you know Ye-young noona, right? Return them to her. I’m going to sleep in the car.”
“But Cheol… I don’t have a license yet…”
“And I only have a paper license…”
Didn’t matter.
I waved both arms, signaling don’t even talk to me, went to the car, sat in the passenger seat, and reclined fully.
Just as I was about to sleep—
A status window appeared.
[(Crisis Overcome) Reward: 3 Silver Tickets granted.]
[You have obtained Silver Tickets.]
[×3]
[Can obtain D to B-rank potions.]
“Later. Later.”
Forget roulette.
I needed sleep.
* * *
I woke up because I felt my life was in danger.
I turned and saw Park Hee-young driving.
She had been driving ten years longer than me, so skill wasn’t the problem.
The problem was…
Her eyes were half asleep.
And I was asleep beside her.
This wouldn’t do.
I quietly muttered,
“Roulette.”
Park Hee-young reacted.
“Hm? What?”
“Huh? Ah… I was dreaming about a game.”
I answered instantly and spun the roulette twice.
[D-Rank Stamina Increase Potion]
[Current fatigue reduced by 5%.]
[C-Rank Stamina Increase Potion]
[Current fatigue reduced by 10%.]
Thankfully, the two potions I needed most appeared.
I chugged both and said,
“I’ll drive now.”
“No. Rest. We’re almost at the company.”
“No. Feels like we’ll crash. If Park Hee-young gets into an accident in central Seoul, it’ll be chaos.”
At that, she reluctantly pulled over.
I stretched and took the wheel.
Maybe feeling guilty about sleeping, she sat in the passenger seat facing me and said,
“Yong-gyu is still missing. Ah, how can he have so little responsibility?”
She kept muttering apologetically, and I laughed without meaning to.
“I’m not tired, so sleep.”
“Our Cheol-soon really has insane stamina. Well, you’re young enough to chew rebar.”
She leaned her head back, reassured…
And instantly fell asleep.
Honestly, the most exhausted person here was obviously Park Hee-young.
I told the other two in the back, who were struggling to stay awake,
“You two sleep too.”
“How could we?”
“Yeah. The youngest is suffering this much. We can stay up.”
“You really can sleep.”
Even so…
They stayed awake until the end.
Though they didn’t have the energy to talk.
The car grew quiet.
Driving toward Yeouido, I felt strangely exhilarated.
Getting through one crisis gave me confidence.
* * *
Just as I thought this nerve-wracking day was over…
Company CEO Park Jong-ryeol, impressed by what happened, summoned me to join a drinking session.
And so I got dragged into drinks again.
Park Hee-young excitedly said,
“When an accident wants to happen, it’ll happen somehow. If it weren’t for Cheol-soon, I would’ve missed the event. Imagine missing a gig like that.”
This agency wouldn’t be surprising if everyone died young from alcohol.
Especially the CEO himself.
The company had many trot singers.
And maybe because the seniors and juniors were so close, they held company drinking gatherings often despite being absurdly busy.
Park Jong-ryeol handed me a drink.
“Cheol-soon, I only mix drinks for people I really care about.”
“Thank you.”
I downed it in one shot.
He smacked my back hard.
“The main character should give a toast.”
“Me?”
I stood up because my back had already been pushed.
If told to do it, I do it.
“Then if I say ‘I love you,’ please answer ‘darling.’”
The drunk crowd laughed at me using Park Hee-young’s hit song for a toast.
Park Hee-young and the CEO looked at me like they were looking at their kid.
I shouted,
“I love you!”
And the trot singers and staff roared back,
“Darling!”
Then everyone drank.
We drank mindlessly.
When my alarm rang in the morning, I woke up in the practice room.
Beside me were the defeated survivors who had kept drinking until the end.
Anyone who had to work in the morning had followed CEO Park’s logic:
Go back to the practice room, watch the rising sun, and infuse yourself with alcohol for a fresh start.
Fairly enough, even Park Jong-ryeol himself was collapsed.
I quietly pretended I saw nothing and left.
“Ah, damn, my liver’s gonna burst.”
I walked down the company hallway checking my schedule.
This weekend there was a major overseas award show shoot.
Hosted by the same network that aired The Idol Chosen by the Nation.
Just thinking about avoiding people who knew me there made me dizzy.
Since I had to go anyway, I wanted the least stress possible.
So I went to the smoking area and lit a cigarette with trembling hands.
Only when nicotine hit did I start sobering up.
Come to think of it…
I felt like some huge shocking accident happened at this event.
I tried to remember.
But it wouldn’t come.
* * *
We flew to Bangkok for the award show in business class, on a plane without first class.
Not just Park Hee-young.
All three of us staff too.
The company policy was:
How can the company treasure sit apart from her team?
So really, all of this existed because Park Hee-young earned the money.
“Cheol, keep track of things. This is the plane ticket, and this is noona’s passport.”
“You’re really letting me go? My English is just ‘Good morning, I’m fine, thank you.’”
“It’s okay. Local staff will handle everything.”
The only time I’d been abroad before was once in middle school to see my sister’s exhibition in England.
Good thing I had at least done that.
When I said that was my only overseas trip, Park Hee-young looked serious and teased me.
“Cheol-soon, you remember where to take your shoes off on the plane, right?”
“Ah, I’ve been on planes before.”
“From business class onward, you really have to take your shoes off.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Honestly.
Did she enjoy messing with people that much?
It was childish.
But strangely, whenever Park Hee-young teased me to her heart’s content, she stayed in a good mood all day.
So helplessly…
Like entertaining a child…
I had no choice but to react enthusiastically.
