"So the person who said that went into the multimedia room?"
"Yes."
"Then I think it was Raiden Park."
"Raiden Park?"
"He's a composer who's been doing pretty well lately. We put him in charge of our girls' debut song."
"By 'our girls'...... do you mean Xenora?"
"Oh, that's right. You know a lot about the Singer Division too, don't you? Why don't you take this opportunity.......?"
"I told you it wasn't happening."
"Fine. Good grief. Does she think she's the only one with a manager?"
Park Geon-ho instinctively cracked a joke, but Jena's stiff expression showed no sign of easing.
The same went for Jo So-hee.
He had expected her to suggest they leave now that their business was done, but she silently stayed put.
"So the song he gave Xenora is a Malta club track...... How do we prove that?"
"Couldn't we find the Malta club track and compare them?"
"That's easier said than done. So-hee, do you know what country Malta is in?"
"No."
"Neither do I. Going by the general impression, somewhere in the Mediterranean? Or is it next to the Maldives? We're talking about a club track from a place like that. How are we supposed to find it?"
"You can find anything with a search these days."
"It'll take forever, though. It would be one thing if we knew the title, but finding it from the melody alone is impossible. Besides, we don't even know which part he copied, do we?"
Jo So-hee and Jena held a sophisticated conversation that made anyone listening feel out of place.
So Park Geon-ho flipped through his notebook.
Not that he remembered anything in particular.
He wondered whether the notebook where he had scribbled down assorted issues involving Wooju Entertainment and the entertainment industry might contain a secret related to the plagiarism.
'Or maybe it'll spit out another encyclopedia entry like last time.'
But even after turning several pages, he found no additional information.
Just as he was about to give up.
"......!"
The corner of a page suddenly shimmered as though a highlighter had passed over it, then returned to normal.
'What was that?'
Park Geon-ho's eyes widened when he checked the writing in the corner.
The information Jena wanted was hidden among the crooked scrawl of his own personal handwriting, legible only to him.
Lucas Vella. Qalb Tiegħi.
There was a line through the middle, suggesting he had written it down without thinking.
It certainly sounded like the name of a composer who wrote songs for Malta clubs.
"Would it be easier if we knew the composer's name?"
"A little, I suppose? Did you hear something?"
"Now that I think about it carefully, I think he said something about Lucas Vella."
"Lucas Vella? Just a moment."
Jena called the engineer who had stepped out on his phone.
Then she ordered him to find the song from Malta.
"What song from Malta?"
"Oppa, you'll find this, right? Then I'll talk to the division director and get you a bonus."
"Would that cheapskate division director really give me a bonus?"
"If he says no to a bonus, I'll recommend buying that equipment you wanted, oppa. How about it?"
"Okay! Deal!"
Kim Han-sol, who was skilled at composition, arrangement, and even searching, found Lucas Vella of Malta in five minutes.
"I think this is him?"
"Are you sure?"
"He's a singer, he composes, and he DJs at clubs too."
"Isn't he practically a genius at this point?"
"But he has too many songs. When are we supposed to listen to all of these?"
They had crossed one mountain only to find another waiting for them.
That was because Lucas Vella, versatile enough for Jena to call him a genius, had composed hundreds of songs.
The tracks ranged from three minutes to ten. Dawn would break by the time they checked them all.
"Excuse me, Mr. Engineer."
"Please call me Han-sol."
"All right, Mr. Han-sol. Have you heard the song Raiden Park composed?"
"Of course! The team leader asked for my opinion too."
"Then if we know the original song's title, you can compare them, right?"
"Of course. But do you know which song is the original?"
"I think this is Maltese...... Qalb Tiegħi?"
"Qalb Tiegħi? Will it come up if we run it through a translator?"
"I'll find that!"
Jena immediately entered Qalb Tiegħi into the translation app on her phone.
The Maltese phrase Qalb Tiegħi appeared.
"Oppa! This one!"
"Oh, I saw this earlier? Hold on, hold on, hold on! Found it. This is the one, right?"
"Play it! Hurry!"
Park Geon-ho's heart trembled at that moment.
This wasn't an encyclopedia entry, and he wondered whether the information in a scrawl he might have misread could possibly be correct.
But Kim Han-sol stopped the track after listening only to the intro of Qalb Tiegħi.
"Wow, fuck. What is with this bastard?"
"Why? What is it?"
"It's identical from the intro?"
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Wait a second."
Kim Han-sol loaded both tracks into a similarity analysis program.
When he ran the program, it produced graph waveforms that were almost identical.
"What a completely lazy bastard."
"They're that similar?"
"Look. If I do this and this......."
"Whoa! They overlap perfectly?"
"Where is this bastard?"
"He's in the multimedia room. Why?"
"What do you mean, why?! I need to beat him half to death."
"Ahem! Stay out of it, Oppa."
"What?"
"The disciplinarian should handle something like this. What if only you end up bleeding again like last time, oppa?"
Park Geon-ho also thought it was better for Jena to step in than Kim Han-sol.
At least in Wooju Entertainment's Singer Division, there was no one who could ignore Jena's words.
"Sorry, but you two. Please help me."
"If this concerns the conversation we heard in the restroom, we'll cooperate, of course."
"So-hee, please back him up from the side too."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Not Geon-ho. I mean Han-sol oppa. He's really capable, you know? So......."
"Yes. I'll say that Engineer Kim Han-sol desperately searched for and found the track."
"Thank you, So-hee."
Jena abruptly clasped both of Jo So-hee's hands.
Kim Han-sol, who had kept his back turned as he stared only at the program until then, sagged the instant Park Geon-ho and Jo So-hee left.
"Huff. Huff. Huff."
"What is it, Oppa? What's wrong? Get a grip!"
"Wow....... I thought I was going to die."
"Are you okay? Are you sick?"
"You know I have trouble breathing when I see someone really beautiful."
"What are you talking about? You were perfectly fine when you were with me!"
"That's why you should put on some makeup......."
"Do you want to die? Should I beat you up again after all this time?"
"Over heeere! Somebody save me! Jena's beating someone! Top star Jena is beating someoneee~."
While Jena and Kim Han-sol had it out.
Jo So-hee questioned Park Geon-ho as well.
"But why did you come to the fifth floor?"
"I had something important to discuss with Team Leader Han."
"What did you discuss?"
"I'll be in charge of you starting tomorrow. We discussed work."
"Then why did you do it on the fifth floor?"
"Because Team Leader Han is the Team 5 leader?"
"That wasn't funny?"
"That's just how things worked out."
Jo So-hee seemed to suspect something, but he glossed over it.
Life at the company would become difficult if Jo So-hee stepped in every time things grew awkward with Deputy Division Director Jo Yeong-chan.
"But why did you use the restroom on the fifth floor?"
"It was urgent."
"Why? Did you eat something bad at lunch?"
"Yes. Someone forced me to eat a salad ordered at spice level three, and I suppose it upset my stomach."
"Spice lightweight."
"I'm not. I finished it in the end, didn't I?"
"Let's go. I'll buy you some medicine."
"We have medicine on hand, so I can take that."
"Or do you want to have dinner? I'll buy you something delicious to celebrate becoming your manager."
"Let's have dinner tomorrow. I have some work to do today."
"Don't tell me you have a date?"
"I barely have enough time to sleeeep."
When they went up to the sixth floor, a welcome face was waiting.
"Unnie! Why are you only getting here now?"
"The meeting ran late."
"Did the discussion go well?"
"More or less? Geon-ho, you should listen too."
Deputy Team Leader Ahn Hye-ju relayed the situation with the contract the moment she sat down.
Park Geon-ho had wondered where she had gone after leaving Jo So-hee behind at lunchtime, and it seemed she had visited Blue Media.
"For now, we conceded one point and got them to concede another."
"You increased her screen time and froze her appearance fee?"
"How did you know?"
"You look relieved, Deputy Team Leader. If it had been the other way around, the outcome wouldn't have been entirely good."
"Wow....... I really did choose one excellent successor."
After the meeting with Screenwriter Woo Yeon-hee yesterday.
Deputy Team Leader Ahn Hye-ju had met separately with Production Director So I-hyeon of Blue Media and heard the details.
"Make sure you hold on to Geon-ho. I've seen plenty of managers in this line of work, but I've never met anyone like him."
Deputy Team Leader Ahn Hye-ju had already been searching for a replacement, so she recommended Park Geon-ho to Division Director Kang Young-jin.
At the time, she had promised to spend at least three months handing over her duties and supporting him, but it looked as though there would be no need.
"But why did you think that? Isn't it usually the other way around?"
"First, we need to make sure this production gets made. The production budget is obvious, and if we raise the appearance fees, the casting will turn strange or it'll be plastered with unnecessary product placement. Then I don't think there would be any point in So-hee appearing in it."
"Geon-ho, did you attend some sort of academy?"
"Not an academy...... I studied in advance."
He gave Deputy Team Leader Ahn Hye-ju the same excuse he had given Jena.
He wasn't sure whether spending thirteen years at Jo So-hee's side counted as studying.
But since he had regressed in the end, perhaps he should view his previous life as a rehearsal or tutorial.
"Wow, that's impressive?"
Deputy Team Leader Ahn Hye-ju exclaimed in admiration.
Studying Jo So-hee in advance was one thing.
It was astonishing how he grasped the heart of a conversation and didn't ask unnecessary questions.
She had clearly been told he was a rookie.
Yet he seemed like someone who had spent around ten years being worked to the bone at another company.
"To finish what I was saying, the appearance fee is fifteen million won per episode."
"How much is Actress Kim Hye-rin receiving?"
"They wouldn't tell me the exact figure, but I understand she received around eighteen million won for her previous project."
"Her last project didn't do badly, so it'll probably be around twenty million."
"I think so too. This is a project she stepped forward to do herself, so she probably didn't get too greedy."
Kim Hye-rin was five years older than Jo So-hee.
She had begun acting two years earlier than Jo So-hee, who debuted in 2018 by the standards of independent films.
Her filmography alone contained twenty productions.
She was one of the few actresses who worked even more prolifically than Jo So-hee, known for her tenacity.
Taking all of that into account, the five-million-won difference seemed appropriate.
"What about her screen time? How much will it increase?"
"The writer must have taken a liking to you, So-hee. She apparently said she couldn't very well use you as the second female lead."
"Will the contract list her as a co-lead too?"
"Yes. That's why we conceded on the appearance fee. If we receive more, Kim Hye-rin will try to receive more too."
"Good work, unnie."
Jo So-hee nodded.
Judging by her reaction, she seemed satisfied with this much.
But Park Geon-ho still wasn't satisfied.
"Has her romantic counterpart been decided yet?"
"So-hee's romantic counterpart? They said they're still casting the role."
"Would it be difficult for us to choose?"
"Is there an actor you'd like to recommend?"
"Actor Han Do-hoon."
"Actor Han Do-hoon is the actor you used to manage, isn't he?"
"Yes. But I'm not recommending him out of loyalty. If So-hee's role grows, the second male lead's role needs to grow by the same amount, and to make the appearance fee work......."
"An actor from our company would be better, you mean."
"And Actor Han Do-hoon has wanted to act with So-hee for a long time."
That wasn't empty flattery. Han Do-hoon regularly heaped praise on actress Jo So-hee.
He said she was so frighteningly good at acting that it gave him goose bumps.
He had even said his wish was to play Jo So-hee's counterpart once before he retired...... yet two years later, he abruptly decided to retire.
'Maybe working on a production with her this time will change his mind.'
Fortunately, Jo So-hee's reaction was positive.
"I don't think it's a bad idea?"
"Isn't the age difference a little large?"
"Senior Han Do-hoon looks young for his age. And I'm more comfortable with an actor who can keep up with my acting."
"All right. I'll go back and bring it up tomorrow."
Deputy Team Leader Ahn Hye-ju decided to finish up the contract for <First Skin>.
He wouldn't have minded taking responsibility for the contract as well.
But it was difficult to disregard Deputy Team Leader Ahn Hye-ju's consideration when she said getting closer to Jo So-hee should come first.
"And Geon-ho. Here."
"What is this?"
"Look at it later when you're alone. It'll be a great help."
As they left the conference room, Deputy Team Leader Ahn Hye-ju handed him a thick file.
But Park Geon-ho had already seen this file before.
"1,000 Questions and 1,000 Answers for Jo So-hee's Manager. You made this in advance?"
Park Geon-ho gave a quiet laugh as he looked at the Jo So-hee management manual that only Deputy Team Leader Ahn Hye-ju could have made at this point in time.
Ordinarily, she would have passed the baton to him around the year after next.
"You've been at Jo So-hee's side even longer than I have."
It seemed all right to let her retire as Jo So-hee's manager a little early.