Siblings Working in Business (223)
In front of a small, nondescript building tucked away in a back alley…
“Is this the place?”
A man with an ordinary face adjusted his square glasses, which were sliding down his nose.
The sign he was looking at bore the NRY Entertainment logo, a sleek, minimalist design.
The man chuckled, thinking the logo was too stylish for such an ordinary building.
“It’s… shabbier than I expected.”
His voice was laced with disappointment.
The building itself was ordinary, but compared to the recent hype surrounding NRY Entertainment in the news, ‘shabby’ wasn’t entirely inaccurate.
Just as the man reached for the doorknob…
“…Ta ta-dan ddan-ddan…!”
A loud, female voice singing “ddan-ddan” could be heard from inside.
Startled, the man hesitated, then reached for the doorknob again. Just then…
“Hahahaha.”
A chorus of laughter erupted from inside.
Having been interrupted twice, the man took a deep breath, visibly more nervous than before.
Then, with a determined look, he flung open the door and shouted,
“Hello!”
“…!”
“I’m Jeon Do-jin, here for an interview with NRY!”
The office fell silent at Do-jin’s sudden, energetic entrance.
“…!”
Just as Seul-gi’s answer sent the employees into a fit of laughter…
“Hello!”
The office door burst open, and a familiar face greeted them energetically.
Eun-ho, as usual, turned towards the door more calmly than the others.
That was, until he heard the familiar name.
“I’m Jeon Do-jin, here for an interview with NRY!”
Eun-ho’s eyes widened.
Do-jin, his manager before the regression, whose personality was similar to Eun-ji’s.
“Manager…”
“Ah, yes, that’s right. I’m Jeon Do-jin, here for the manager interview.”
H-hyung, what are you doing here?
While Eun-ho was stunned…
Do-jin, seemingly mistaking Eun-ho’s mumbled “Manager” for a question about the interview, replied energetically, unlike his usual laid-back demeanor.
His eyes sparkled, perhaps because he was meeting unfamiliar celebrities.
“Eun-ho?”
Was it because Eun-ho, whose social circle was extremely small, was so surprised?
Chang-seok, who had just come out of his office, drawn by the laughter, looked even more surprised than Eun-ho.
“Do you know him?”
Do-jin, in turn, looked at Eun-ho in surprise at Chang-seok’s question.
‘Does he know me?’
Do-jin didn’t say it out loud.
But Eun-ho, having spent so much time with Do-jin before the regression, could practically hear his voice.
And he had only seen Do-jin’s brazen face for years.
Seeing this fresh-faced Do-jin was like watching Eun-ji act out of character.
It was unsettling.
He wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Eun-ho glanced at Eun-ji, whose face was a mask of displeasure.
‘Is this… like… uncanny valley?’
Or a mirror image?
To Eun-ho, Do-jin seemed even more similar to Eun-ji in personality and temperament than he himself was.
Although Do-jin was the closest hyung to him besides Eun-ji, he couldn’t say ‘I know him,’ because in this timeline, they had never met.
“No. I thought I recognized you from somewhere.”
“Ah, I guess I have one of those faces. Haha.”
Do-jin chuckled smoothly, diffusing the situation, when Eun-ho apologized.
Meanwhile, Eun-ji nudged Eun-ho, sending him a message with her eyes.
‘Right? That manager Oppa I used to hate.’
‘Yeah. Do-jin hyung.’
‘We should pretend we don’t know him, right?’
‘Definitely.’
Eun-ho and Eun-ji communicated silently, nodding and exchanging glances, and then nodded in unison, as if they had reached a conclusion.
‘Hmm.’
Chang-seok, watching their silent exchange, knew Eun-ho was lying.
But he decided to let it go, assuming there was a reason.
Eun-ho and Eun-ji would also be participating in the interview anyway.
If there was a problem, they would reject him.
「“Please come to the office around 11:00.”」
Chang-seok had deliberately scheduled Do-jin’s interview for around lunchtime, when Eun-ho and Eun-ji would be at the company.
“Come in, both of you.”
“Why?”
“For a meeting.”
“Am I included too?”
Do-jin asked, and Chang-seok looked around, as if searching for someone.
“There you are. Hyun-woo.”
“Yes.”
“Stay with Do-jin for a bit. It won’t take long. Bring him in when I call you.”
“Yes.”
Hyun-woo, who had been following Eun-ho and Eun-ji like a shadow, replied calmly.
Eun-ho and Eun-ji followed Chang-seok, and Hyun-woo led Do-jin to a seat.
“Please have a seat here.”
“Ah, yes!”
Do-jin sat down on the guest chair as instructed.
Hyun-woo sat down on a chair a bit further away.
Watching Hyun-woo silently waiting for CEO Park’s call, Do-jin, who couldn’t stay quiet for more than a minute, felt like Hyun-woo, with his quiet demeanor, was a completely different species.
‘Wow, he’s so cool.’
He also envied Hyun-woo for being trusted by CEO Park.
Do-jin, who didn’t know Hyun-woo well, thought that, but Seul-gi, who knew him best within NRY, thought differently.
‘He seems…’
…unusually happy today.
Although he didn’t look much different than usual, Seul-gi sensed a subtle excitement about him.
Seul-gi’s intuition was right. Although he didn’t show it outwardly, Hyun-woo was slightly excited at the prospect of having an assistant.
About 10 minutes passed…
Just as Do-jin, reaching his boredom limit, started fidgeting…
Hyun-woo’s phone vibrated, signaling the end of the meeting.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes?”
Hyun-woo, seemingly having received a message, turned off his phone screen and spoke to Do-jin.
Do-jin, startled, asked again, but he followed Hyun-woo as he stood up.
Hyun-woo led the way to the meeting room CEO Park had entered, and Do-jin followed like a chick following its mother hen.
Inside the meeting room…
The lighthearted atmosphere from when he first entered the building was gone, replaced by a heavy silence.
Do-jin gulped and looked at Eun-ho, Eun-ji, and CEO Park.
“H-hello! I’m Jeon Do-jin, I’m here for the manager position. I was born in—”
Eun-ho was slightly, no…
…very flustered.
He had never seen Do-jin’s interview before the regression, but one of Do-jin’s favorite stories was about his interview when he was hired.
「“The moment I introduced myself! CEO Park’s expression was priceless!”」
Eun-ho looked at Chang-seok.
‘Priceless…?’
In a way, it wasn’t wrong.
It was priceless.
Chang-seok’s gaze was so cold that even Eun-ho flinched.
With his large build and that expression, it was instinctively intimidating, like a herbivore facing a predator.
Do-jin also seemed to feel the same way, his rambling self-introduction turning into a panicked mess.
“My hobby is watching movies, and—”
He was lying.
It was watching anime.
“I often read books on weekends, and—”
Right.
Manga was also reading.
“I built up my stamina by hiking, and—”
Hiking, my ass.
He hated even driving near mountains.
Eun-ho silently refuted each of Do-jin’s lies in his head.
Eun-ji was nodding off.
It was a talent to be able to make someone sleepy within a minute.
“You graduated from college, and your previous company, Turn Up Entertainment, wasn’t a bad agency…”
“Ah…”
Turn Up Media Entertainment.
Although not on the level of DI Music, it was a more successful agency than NRY Entertainment.
NRY Entertainment was still in its growth phase, while Turn Up was already established.
But he had quit and decided to apply here.
“Were there any problems at your previous company?”
“No. No! There were no problems.”
“Then why are you moving here?”
Chang-seok, looking at his resume with a puzzled expression, asked.
“With your experience, Do-jin, you could easily apply to much better agencies than ours.”
“Th-that’s true.”
Chang-seok’s eyebrow twitched at his somewhat brazen reply.
“Then is there a reason for you to join our company?”
Do-jin’s eyes, previously panicked, focused at Chang-seok’s question.
“Th-that’s because… this is CEO Park Chang-seok’s company.”
“Me?”
Although he still stammered slightly due to his nervousness, it was better…
…than rambling about his hometown, his past, and his fictional hobbies for an entire minute.
“I… I want to be like you, CEO Park. I started as a manager because that’s what I could do back then…”
Then, Do-jin launched into a chronicle of Chang-seok’s achievements.
The story of how he saved Toxin.
“And seeing NRY Entertainment’s recent activities, I was inspired by the fact that you haven’t changed, and that’s why I decided to apply here.”
Eun-ho couldn’t suppress his smile.
The previously unfamiliar Jeon Do-jin suddenly felt familiar.
The Do-jin from Eun-ho’s memories before the regression was like this.
A CEO Park fanboy.
Chang-seok, initially flustered, listened intently to Do-jin’s answer and then asked,
“Do-jin, whose manager do you want to be if you join our company?”
“I…”
Do-jin glanced at Eun-ho and Eun-ji awkwardly, then looked back at Chang-seok and replied,
“I think it would be an honor to be the manager of Toxin, since they’re the reason I learned about you, CEO Park.”
“I understand. Please go home for today, and we’ll contact you with the results after our meeting, by 6:00 PM.”
“Ah, i-is that all?”
“Yes. You can leave now.”
“Okay…”
Do-jin seemed confused.
He looked like he had more to say, but he left the NRY Entertainment office at CEO Park’s dismissal.
As he walked out into the alley, Do-jin sighed dejectedly, as if his soul had left his body.
“…I screwed up.”
After Do-jin left, Eun-ho and Eun-ji smirked simultaneously.
“I was going to reject him if he kept lying.”
“Haha.”
Eun-ho, touching his forehead, chuckled when CEO Park pointed out the problem.
Chang-seok had originally intended to hire Do-jin immediately after seeing his resume, but he conducted the interview to get a sense of his character.
However, Do-jin’s obviously fake self-introduction almost changed his mind.
“I think he was just nervous. He seems like a capable person with a clear goal.”
Eun-ho put in a good word for Do-jin, partly out of gratitude for his help before the regression.
Chang-seok, giving Eun-ho a skeptical look, then nodded.
“Yeah, I asked around at Turn Up, and they said he’s a kind and capable person.”