Side Story: The Weight of Blindness
Recently, Seo Seung-hyun had a series of unpleasant experiences.
The first occurred when he visited a restaurant for a luncheon meeting.
Inside the restaurant, a lively New Age piano piece with a swing rhythm played, and the tables, set at a generous distance from each other, were almost fully occupied.
Up to this point, nothing was amiss.
There was no issue when the hall manager, recognizing Seo Seung-hyun, approached him with a warm welcome.
The reserved private room was located near the restaurant’s central indoor garden, accessible past a glass staircase and a bar. It was as Seo Seung-hyun was passing by the glass staircase, following the polite guidance of the hall manager, that someone recognized him.
More accurately, it seemed someone had been waiting for him.
“CEO Seo!”
Seo Seung-hyun, known for his ability to never forget faces and names, quickly recognized the man.
The man was a seasoned manager at QO Entertainment, and Seo Seung-hyun had encountered him a few times in connection with advertisement shoots.
In fact, it wasn’t unusual for Seo Seung-hyun to be approached by journalists, advertisement planners, salespeople, and sometimes even prosecutors or lawyers in unexpected places (indeed, there were instances where some actually came with warrants). They were all trying to pass him their business cards, get a comment on trivial matters, introduce someone to him, or get introduced to someone through him. Essentially, his surroundings were always filled with such individuals, and Seo Seung-hyun had neither complaints nor questions about it.
After exchanging some extremely business-like pleasantries like “How have you been? It’s been a while,” for a few seconds, the seasoned manager forced a consciously awkward and exaggerated smile, pulling an entertainer standing a step behind him in front of Seo Seung-hyun. The tall and sleek omega, like many other unique beings in the entertainment industry who seemed overly common due to their frequent appearances, was remarkably beautiful. Both the manager and the entertainer wore very unnatural smiles.
“By the way, this is the new talent I’m managing. A very diligent person. Has been working hard since childhood roles but hasn’t had much luck… However, there’s a lot of potential.”
“Is that so?”
It wasn’t rare for entertainment group managers or executives to introduce new talents to him. Seo Seung-hyun was famously principled about not getting involved in the entertainment industry, a stance that remained firm even three months into his marriage.
Seo Seung-hyun smiled cheerfully at him.
“I’ll be rooting for you. Do your best.”
The encounter ended there.
The second unpleasant experience occurred a week later, at a rather disagreeable gathering.
“Junior Seo, I heard you’re sponsoring these days?”
Seo Seung-hyun occasionally mingled with young entrepreneurs under the guise of gatherings for successful startup CEOs in their twenties and thirties or heirs of conglomerate families, where pride, vanity, and money overflowed. Whether it was a gathering where they sipped expensive whiskey or brandy from crystal glasses, talking about business and investments, or a golf resort outing paying absurd field fees to play with professional golfers, or even meetings where they poured obscure sake into long titanium glasses and ate slices of fish costing hundreds of dollars per plate. Seo Seung-hyun enjoyed these gatherings and sometimes even hosted them, but recent circumstances were different. In other words, he was three months into his marriage.
The question just posed was quite unpleasant in the current context.
Seo Seung-hyun smiled nonetheless.
The man who had spouted nonsense shrugged his shoulders in response to Seo Seung-hyun’s composed smile.
He was a high-ranking executive at one of the country’s leading construction companies, as brash as his flashy title suggested, lacking patience and even more so, discretion. His prestigious position was, of course, the result of internal company promotions within a family business.
Surprisingly, Seo Seung-hyun and he were university alumni. Although they were from different faculties, they had formed a reluctant connection through a scuba diving club. As is often the case with university club activities, filled with students who had too much time and money, they unintentionally became close friends by diving into the sea from rental yachts in Hawaii, Okinawa, or Guam (Seo Seung-hyun remembered this time as his ‘poor college days’), carrying 15-kilogram air tanks on their backs.
Seo Seung-hyun glanced at his watch.
For drunk babbling, it was still only eight in the evening.
They had just finished dinner, and the bottle of Scotch whiskey on their table was only half empty.
“You didn’t use to do that. Did getting married change your mind?”
The drunken nonsense continued unabated.
Seo Seung-hyun, instead of responding, looked at the glass in the man’s hand. The expensive glass, containing a large piece of ice, sparkled under the chandelier’s light. Although only a sip of whiskey remained, the ice had hardly melted.
“Or is married life not so great?”
The man leaned in close to Seo Seung-hyun, as if whispering a secret, with an expression of eager anticipation, as if expecting some juicy gossip. Of course, Seo Seung-hyun had no intention of satisfying that curiosity.
“Interesting rumor, isn’t it? So, who’s this person I’m supposedly sponsoring? A man, a woman?”
The man licked his lips and tilted his head to look at Seo Seung-hyun from a slight angle, without showing any sign of surprise at the counter-question.
“Don’t play dumb. You know the rumors about you these days are quite something.”
“I’m curious about these rumors about me that I’m unaware of.”
“Oh, come on. The omega you secretly placed is no ordinary person. Seeing our Junior Seo being so cautious is quite something.”
The fool chuckled and raised his glass.
“I heard QO Entertainment is desperate to get you to sponsor someone… Seen anyone interesting? With someone like Junior Seo, sponsoring two or three isn’t a big deal, right?”
He cozily moved closer to Seo Seung-hyun, acting as if being a semester senior in a now-meaningless temporary club gave him some pride, never missing a chance to mention the junior title with a sense of overflowing pride.
“Think of it as a service. They get their benefit, and Junior Seo gets his share of fun.”
The fool made a circle with his thumb and forefinger, poking his finger through it, and licked his lips again. Greedy desire flitted across his well-maintained features.
“I’ve got my eye on someone… Give me a break, Junior Seo. You know how it is with me; I don’t usually get involved in that sort of thing.”
He tapped Seo Seung-hyun’s shoulder. Seo Seung-hyun merely smiled quietly with his eyes.
“I do know a few people, and if you want, I could certainly make the connection.”
“Ha. That’s Junior Seo for you. Good for both sides. QO Entertainment gets their spot, and I get mine. Mutual benefit, right?”
The fool snickered and raised his glass towards Seo Seung-hyun. Seo Seung-hyun gladly clinked his glass against the other’s.
Why wouldn’t he join in such trivial matters?
He swallowed the remaining whiskey in one gulp. Nearly 50-degree alcohol burned down his esophagus, heating his insides instantly. He then put the glass back on the bar. His side profile was reflected in the moist crystal glass at dozens of angles, disappearing as soon as he turned away.
In this mire mixed with money and desire, dirty rumors were nothing new.
Seo Seung-hyun nonchalantly brushed off this rumor as well. Compared to the hundreds and thousands of malicious rumors that followed him, the one about him looking after celebrities was rather tame.
That would have been the end of it.
If not for the third incident.
A few days after the business dinner (disguised as a fool’s gossip fest),
Jang Young-hee knocked on the office door shortly after a morning meeting. At that time, Seo Seung-hyun was deeply engrossed in a presentation report filled with thousands of numbers and graphs, sitting with his legs crossed in a slender mesh chair, holding a tablet PC. Upon his invitation, Jang Young-hee entered politely, carrying a leather-bound file stuffed with documents for approval.
“CEO.”
“Yes.”
“First, this is for the investment design team’s approval. Mr. Park mentioned it yesterday.”
“Oh, right. Leave it there.”
Without taking his eyes off the tablet PC, Seo Seung-hyun gestured with his chin. Jang Young-hee respectfully placed the leather-bound file on one corner of the sleek, white desk. Then he looked up.
“Also, there was a call from Yoon Kyung-jae, a manager at QO Entertainment.”
“Hm?”
Seo Seung-hyun finally looked up.
First, because it was an unexpected call, and second, because the name QO Entertainment had brought him a subtle discomfort, hearing it for the third time in just two weeks.
“Why would QO Entertainment contact me?”
At Seo Seung-hyun’s question, Jang Young-hee frowned slightly, as if troubled.
“They said they met you briefly last week, but since I hadn’t been informed, I deferred the response.”
“They say a manager from QO Entertainment saw me?”
“Yes. They mentioned if you were satisfied with the person you met, they would like to arrange a meeting.”
Jang Young-hee, one of the few guests at the luxurious boat wedding off the coast of Bali about three months ago, cautiously gauged Seo Seung-hyun’s reaction as he continued.
“Should we adjust your schedule?”
Seo Seung-hyun’s thick eyebrows twitched upwards, the left corner of his mouth lifting simultaneously. He straightened up from the chair, placing the pad lightly on the clean desk. As soon as his fingers let go of the pad, his brain had processed the situation. Last week’s lunch meeting, the brief encounter with the road manager from QO Entertainment, and the nonsense spewed by the fool at the business dinner.
Seo Seung-hyun chuckled and tapped the edge of the desk with his fingertip.
“Young-hee. Jang Young-hee.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“Have you only been working with me for two years?”
By then, Jang Young-hee’s mind had also caught up with the situation. He bowed at a 90-degree angle. “I’m sorry.” Watching his massively broad back and shoulders inflate like a balloon, Seo Seung-hyun commanded softly.
“Make sure this kind of nonsense doesn’t reach my ears again. Deal with QO Entertainment yourself.”
“Yes.”
Seo Seung-hyun reached out for the pad again with a calm expression. Then, he casually told the still bowing Jang Young-hee.
“What are you doing? You can leave now.”
***
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