Siblings Working in Business (219)
A valet at a fairly popular restaurant in the neighborhood…
It was a job he barely landed thanks to a connection, his only qualification being a driver’s license.
“Hey. Long time no see, Eun-ho.”
“Who are you?”
When he met Lee Eun-ho again…
He was taken aback by Eun-ho’s pretense of not knowing him.
“Wow, you’ve really scrubbed off the dirt, haven’t you?”
He made the snide remark to put Eun-ho in his place. Just then…
“A staff member calling a customer ‘dirty’? That’s rude.”
Ji Ye-chan.
He flinched slightly when the famous celebrity took Eun-ho’s side.
But Eun-ho needed to know his place.
“Hey, you know me, Eun-ho.”
You were beneath me.
He had to be better than that beggar Eun-ho used to be.
It was a matter of pride.
So, he was more angry than surprised when Eun-ho pretended not to know him.
You dare?
Then, when Eun-ho finally reacted as if remembering him, he knew.
That bastard.
He knew him all along and was just pretending.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t recognize you.”
Eun-ho slowly approached him.
He used to be shorter than him.
He had thought Eun-ho was growing fast, but now he had to look up slightly to meet his eyes.
“You’re that kid who was obsessed with playing gangster in middle school.”
Playing gangster?
“Was your name… Jo Flounder?”
Flounder?
He scoffed, his blood boiling.
Just then…
Eun-ho looked at his name tag and finally said, “Ah, Kwang-soo,” correctly this time.
“Nice to see you, Kwang-soo.”
When he first saw Eun-ho get out of the car, he was surprised and embarrassed, but he also felt a flicker of… something akin to satisfaction.
Wow, that loser who used to be under him was doing well now.
If you asked him if he expected any handouts…
Well, maybe a little?
He hadn’t treated Eun-ho badly, so it wasn’t unreasonable to expect something in return.
‘I might have messed with him a bit when we were younger, but he should be grateful that I took him around despite him being a loser.’
Right.
He could forgive the late recognition, be the bigger person.
But then, Eun-ho looked him up and down and said,
“You look good.”
It was a familiar gesture.
The same one he used to do to Eun-ho when they were younger.
‘Is this bastard crazy?’
He snapped at Eun-ho’s next words,
“You little…!”
He was about to punch him and then stomp on him, but a large man, presumably Eun-ho’s manager, blocked his way.
Just then…
“What’s going on here?!”
He regained his composure at the familiar voice of his manager hyung.
“Oh, oh dear. I’m so sorry!”
Seeing his manager hyung bowing, he knew he was screwed.
He felt sorry for his hyung and blamed Eun-ho, that bastard.
His hyung told him to go back to work, but that evening…
He received a message.
[I’m sorry. I don’t want you to come to work anymore. Considering what you did today, if you have any conscience…]
Although it was a long message, it meant he was fired.
“Fuck!!! Because of Lee Eun-ho, that beggar!!!”
He threw his phone in anger, without even reading the rest of the message.
When he picked it up, worried about the repair costs, the screen was already cracked.
This, too, was Eun-ho’s fault.
His life being ruined like this was all because of Lee Eun-ho and Lee Eun-ji, those damn siblings.
So, wanting them to suffer, he turned on his computer, thinking of posting something online anonymously.
“What’s up with this hyung?”
Just then…
Whether they were lucky or he was…
He received a message from a hyung he knew through a gaming messenger.
He was running a website, something about Toto, and asked if he knew anyone who could help manage it.
He volunteered, thinking it was a good opportunity.
He learned how to build and manage websites from that hyung while working.
His resentment towards Eun-ho faded as things started going well for him.
Later, as his skills improved, he applied to ‘Horang,’ a small company specializing in PC and mobile website server management and development.
He got the job and moved up north.
Horang was a small company with about ten employees, but they performed well and had a good reputation in the industry.
On his first day…
He mostly just observed, trying to understand what they did.
That evening…
Whether it was a company tradition or just a coincidence, they had a company dinner on his first day.
He had expected a stiff, formal atmosphere, but it was surprisingly casual.
“My younger brother is Hwa-rang. You know that song ‘I’m’ that’s been popular lately?”
“Aigoo, here we go again, Boss.”
“I know, I know. He’s always like this when he’s drunk.”
“Seriously, Boss, aren’t you tired of bragging about your brother?”
Judging by the lighthearted atmosphere and the way they teased the drunk CEO of Horang, the company culture seemed pretty good.
“Don’t you know how amazing it is to reach number one on ‘Watermelon’ (music streaming site)?”
“For someone who bragged so much, you opposed your brother’s singing career before.”
“Ahem, w-well… that was… before he joined the same company as E-UNG!”
“Sure, sure. Whatever you say~.”
“Oh, right! Do you guys know ‘E-UNG’?”
“Of course, we do. There’s an E%, an E-UNG fan, here, isn’t there?”
“Who?”
When Ho-rang asked, a cute female employee raised her hand and shouted,
“Me! Our E-UNG sings well and are visually stunning!”
“…E-UNG?”
It seemed like she was talking about a singer, but the name E-UNG…
Haha. What a stupid, carelessly chosen name.
Just as Jo Kwang-soo was mocking the name…
“Hey, newbie!”
“Yes?”
Ho-rang called out to Jo Kwang-soo, who had been excluded from the conversation, and asked,
“Do you know any celebrities?”
“Well, I…”
He had just escaped his small town; how would he know any celebrities…
Wait, come to think of it, that bastard Lee Eun-ho was a celebrity now.
Jo Kwang-soo, after a moment of thought, spoke smugly,
“There’s this guy named Lee Eun-ho, he used to be my errand boy—”
“Lee Eun-ho?”
“Isn’t he the guy from E-UNG?”
“The Oppa, right?”
The employees’ reactions were strange.
Jo Kwang-soo wondered why the name ‘E-UNG’ was being brought up again.
His senior colleague searched for E-UNG on his phone and showed him a picture.
“Is this the guy you know, Kwang-soo?”
Ah, he wasn’t interested in guys.
Jo Kwang-soo checked the picture, grumbling inwardly.
It was a picture of Eun-ho from his “This Road” and “Hae-ga” promotions, holding flowers and looking serious.
Jo Kwang-soo was slightly surprised.
‘Did that loser always look this good?’
He didn’t look this good when they met in front of the restaurant.
“Is it him?”
His senior colleague asked impatiently.
Even the pretty female employee, the E% or whatever, the E-UNG fan, was looking at him with sparkling eyes.
“Yes, that’s him. Lee Eun-ho.”
“Oh my god, what was our Rangi like in school?”
Rangi?
The employee, excited, asked.
Jo Kwang-soo didn’t know Eun-ho’s nickname was Rangi, but he figured it was what his fans called him.
The E% employee, slightly embarrassed by her excessive excitement, quickly tried to compose herself, saying, “Sorry, I got a little carried away…”
The other employees chuckled, trying to diffuse the awkward atmosphere.
‘Wait, wait.’
Jo Kwang-soo, seeing this as an opportunity to impress the female employee, put on a smug expression.
“What was Lee Eun-ho like in school? Haha, he was a total loser—”
Jo Kwang-soo started bragging about how popular he was, putting Eun-ho down.
“So I told Lee Eun-ho to come out—”
“I think you should be the one to come out, Kwang-soo.”
Just then…
The room fell silent at CEO Ho-rang’s words.
“Excuse me?”
When the flustered Jo Kwang-soo asked, Ho-rang added firmly,
“That’s enough. It’s not a nice story.”
“No, but it’s not a bad—”
He thought the CEO didn’t understand.
Everyone else was listening intently, why was he ruining the mood?
“Wouldn’t it be better to stop there?”
But it wasn’t just the CEO’s opinion, as his senior colleague placed a hand on his shoulder, subtly pressing down.
“Being a bully in school isn’t exactly something to brag about.”
When the female E-UNG fan spoke with a stern expression, Jo Kwang-soo chuckled awkwardly.
Although he apologized, saying, “I’m sorry,” he grumbled inwardly, ‘Seriously, they’re all a bunch of fucking losers. They don’t understand.’
Jo Kwang-soo, feeling awkward, quietly drank by himself, getting drunk.
Late that night, he returned to his tiny room in a goshiwon.
He had barely managed to find this goshiwon, a cheap alternative to the exorbitant rent in Seoul.
[Me ― That fucking crazy fangirl bitch lol]
Jo Kwang-soo chatted with his friends back home.
He first brought it up while drunk.
[Me ― Should I create a fake article and spread it?]
[Mantis ― Can you even do that?]
[Me ― What’s so hard about it?]
― Just copy and paste some articles, and you can create a website in no time lol]
[Iguana ― Ooh]
Perhaps because the two who had run away from Eun-ji after their fight were also there…
The initially joking suggestion became a serious discussion.
Jo Kwang-soo and his friends, while searching for ‘E-Per’ and ‘E-UNG,’ naturally discovered the E-FAN app.
[Mantis ― Release the article and manipulate public opinion?]
[Me ― That sounds fun lol]
Jo Kwang-soo cobbled together a fake article.
Using the domain and server he had bought for gaming, he copied the code from a real news website and created a fake article that looked incredibly realistic.
[Camel Cricket ― Lol wow, it looks real.]
[Iguana ― Let’s post it on that app lol]
[Me ― Lol I wrote it, so one of you guys post it]
― I’ll provide backup lol]
Jo Kwang-soo and his friends were excited about planning it, but they were all hesitant to actually execute it.
Despite a long discussion, no one volunteered.
[Me ― Let’s go to sleep.]
[Mantis ― Are you sure it’s okay not to post that fake article?]
[Me ― It’s fine. It would be awesome if it spreads by chance lol]
A few days later…
The article posted on E% was slightly different from the one Jo Kwang-soo wrote, a few keywords missing.
Jo Kwang-soo and his friends, assuming no one else would post it, saw this as their opportunity and started spreading it.
They thought it would definitely go viral.
That they had at least ruined Lee Eun-ho and Lee Eun-ji’s image.
But the eerie silence outside E-FAN made them uneasy.
[Me ― Who the hell posted it first, anyway?]
[Mantis ― ???
― Wasn’t it you?]
[Me ― Huh? It wasn’t me.]
By the time they realized something was wrong, Jo Kwang-soo and his friends were already caught in a trap.