The man who said that plopped down on the sofa across from him with a snicker.
“Oh man, but you really made me wait forever. I’ve been rotting here for a whole week, and you took so long to show up I thought I was gonna die.”
“…What?”
“The hotel staff kept glaring at me. I barely managed to stop them from kicking me out.”
A dumbfounded sigh escaped Seong Jiwon’s lips. No wonder the receptionist had been stealing glances ever since this man sat down in front of him.
One strange thing, though—their gaze didn’t seem suspicious so much as… sympathetic.
“Oh, and for the record, our concept is long-lost half-brothers. Perfect for dodging annoying questions and milking sympathy.”
“….”
The lunatic who’d barged in said it like it was the most natural thing in the world. Jiwon couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.
The hat made it hard to tell, but the man looked older than Jiwon.
Still, a bit young to be someone involved with this side of things.
Whether he was a con artist or someone from D.go, Jiwon didn’t know. And he didn’t care to find out.
Everything was just tiresome. Frankly, whichever one he was, what did it have to do with him?
“My name’s not Cheolsu.”
“No? Then are you Yeonghee?”[1]
The man crossed his legs and stared at him from under the brim of his hat. Then, with a practiced motion, he slipped a hand into his inner pocket, rummaged around a few times, and clicked his tongue before stopping.
“Tsk. I don’t wanna drag this out either. Hand over the card key you’ve got.”
“….”
“Wait, does that sound like a threat? Hmm, I kinda need it though. Mind helping your hyung out here?”
Why the card key? How does he even know about it?
Jiwon tightened his grip on the card key in his hand.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Oho, dropping formalities?”
“…What are you going to do with it, sir?”
When Jiwon switched back to formal speech, the man lifted the corner of his mouth slightly, propped his chin on his hand, and slouched deeper into the sofa.
“Hmm, you wanna know?”
He was smiling, but his eyes were cold and his tone was mocking.
Like he found Jiwon pathetic.
“You’ve got all your limbs working fine, so why go down such a dirty road? The kind of people I’ll never understand are kids like you. Why go out of your way?”
His voice was light, but the content was anything but. He seemed to know exactly what Jiwon was here to do.
Every word he spoke drove into Jiwon like a spear.
What a piece of work.
“Hand over the card key and go home. Wash your feet and go to sleep.”
Jiwon wished the man in front of him would just disappear.
He needed to get upstairs before it was too late and take evidence photos.
And what on earth made this guy think he’d just hand it over willingly?
But the man held out his hand without a shred of shame.
“Why would I trust someone who showed up out of nowhere to pick a fight?”
“…Wow.”
The man let out a short laugh and ran a long finger along the tip of his eyebrow.
“Damn, you’ve got a mouth on you, huh?”
“Must take after my half-brother I just met today.”
Even though Jiwon had been dripping with sarcasm, the man only laughed harder.
If anything, he looked intrigued.
“You’re real prickly. Can’t let a single thing slide, can you?”
“Get to the point.”
“Basically, the person you were supposed to meet today—I’ve got some business with them. Some asshole caused a mess, and I’ve been busting my ass cleaning it up.”
Listening to the man’s colorful vocabulary, Jiwon kept his eyes fixed on his hands, idly tapping the card key he was holding.
The man leaned forward, trying to catch his gaze. Even so, with the hat brim blocking his view, all Jiwon could see was around the man’s chest.
“I know why you’re here. Trying to debut, right?”
“….”
“Do you seriously think you’ll get to debut just by going in there? No. Let’s say you do debut. Then what? This will hang over you for the rest of your life. You okay with that? And can you really hold your head up in front of your fans?”
The mocking tone from moments ago had shifted to something almost coaxing.
Jiwon didn’t feel much like arguing back.
I already know all that.
His reason for going upstairs wasn’t about debuting.
It was just that he didn’t have many options to choose from, and among them, he’d picked the one that could scratch D.go even a little. Gathering as much evidence as possible and exposing them. That was all.
Just then, the default ringtone blared from the man’s pocket. He pulled out the phone, checked the caller ID, and hung up without hesitation.
“Ah, damn it.”
But every time he tried to pick up the conversation again, calls kept pouring in one after another. Eventually, the man spat out a string of curses and turned off his phone entirely.
“Alright, so the card key—”
Jiwon, who’d been quietly watching all of this, took off his hat out of sheer frustration.
As he swept back his messy hair, his eyes met squarely with the man’s, who’d been shoving his phone back into his pocket.
“….”
“…Oh.”
The man stopped mid-sentence and drew in a slight breath.
As the silence stretched on and Jiwon tilted his head in confusion,
“What are you so desperate about that you’re doing this?”
“…Excuse me?”
The man spoke again.
“…Hey, how old are you? You look young.”
“Out of nowhere?”
“Just answer.”
“…Twenty-one.”
“Twenty-one? Ah, well, if he were to debut…”
The man’s eyes swept Jiwon up and down.
“Same age as that guy…”
What?
Jiwon studied the man through narrowed eyes.
He stroked his chin with one hand, seemingly lost in thought for a moment, then asked in a noticeably softer tone,
“Let hyung ask you something. Were you forced to come here?”
“Why?”
“Answer me.”
“…Even if I said yes, would you believe me? Nothing’s going to change anyway.”
The man burst out laughing.
“Who says nothing will change?”
“What?”
Then he looked Jiwon straight in the eye.
“Give me the card key, and hyung will flip this whole thing upside down.”
“What do you—”
“Seeing how tight you’re gripping that thing, you’re probably planning to do something on your own, but it won’t work. Don’t waste your energy. Leave it to me.”
“….”
“I’m good at raising hell. My team says I practically have a PhD in being a thug.”
It was an absurd claim, but the man was dead serious. And brimming with confidence.
Maybe that’s why it actually felt like he could pull it off.
“So give that to hyung and forget about it. I’ll handle everything from here.”
“….”
“Got it?”
With his eyes cast downward, all Jiwon could see were his own restless feet.
This was someone he’d never met before in his life. He didn’t know the man’s name, his job, or even his age.
There wasn’t a single reason to trust him, and yet Jiwon wanted to, like being lured in by the devil’s whisper.
“You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
As if sensing that hesitation, the man’s hand lightly tapped Jiwon’s—the one clutching the card—a few times, then slowly slid it free.
“Good boy.”
He murmured it in a low voice, gave Jiwon a light pat on the back, then stood up and vanished just like that.
Even after the man left, Jiwon sat there in a daze for a long while.
…Why did I let him take it?
He couldn’t even make sense of it himself.
Everything had flowed so naturally.
As if it had all been planned from the start.
Letting out a sigh and rubbing his face with dry hands, Jiwon suddenly realized something. If that man used the card key in any way, the fallout would land squarely on him. After all, the person who’d received the card key was Seong Jiwon himself.
He couldn’t just go back like this.
Get it together.
He didn’t want to ruin everything over something stupid before he’d even gotten the chance to expose D.go.
He needed to find that man and get the card key back. Or at the very least, find out what he’d done with it.
About thirty minutes passed as he paced around the lounge.
Just as he was debating whether to go upstairs, it finally hit him that there might be another exit.
He approached the receptionist, the one who’d been eyeing him and the man earlier, and spouted the same half-brother story, asking if there were any other doors.
Sure enough, there was a back exit leading through the parking garage to the emergency stairwell.
The moment he stepped outside, raindrops began falling one by one from the pitch-black sky.
Thinking he might have already missed his chance, his steps quickened, but the thick smell of cigarette smoke hit his nose first.
“Stop making me do this crap, for fuck’s sake.”
It was the voice from earlier.
“I don’t even know what I do for a living anymore. Did I get hired to wipe other people’s asses—what do you mean, ‘what do we do?’ The bastard’s got nothing but money, going on about ‘how much do you want?’ Thinks he’s hot shit. Everyone’s the same once they’re dead.”
From a tucked-away smoking area outside the hotel, the man’s colorful vocabulary was on full display once again.
He must have been holding back earlier, because Jiwon was learning for the first time just how many different swear words existed in the world.
“—Anyway, I’ve wrapped things up here, so don’t worry about it. Just get me that meeting you promised. And give the guys some time off.”
The man casually pulled the phone away from his ear and dug a finger into it a few times. Even from a distance, Jiwon could tell the person on the other end was screaming.
“Yep, hanging up now~.”
He cut off the other person’s endless stream of words clean and hung up.
Then he shoved the phone into his back pocket and took a deep drag on the cigarette dangling from his lips.
“If he’s got a problem with it, he can do it himself. Pain in the ass…”
As the man exhaled a cloud of white smoke and flicked off the ash, his eyes locked directly onto Jiwon, who’d been standing awkwardly by the back door.
“Cheolsu?”
“….”
He’d come here with plenty to say and plenty to verify, and yet—
“…I’d rather be Yeonghee.”
—that was the first thing out of his mouth.
The man cackled at the response, then asked casually,
“Came to see how I raised hell?”
“…How did you do it?”
“Beyond your wildest imagination.”
So he wasn’t going to tell him.
“Don’t worry. I handled it so nothing comes back on you.”
With the cigarette clamped between his teeth, the man’s words came out slightly slurred.
“Guess I’m getting old. I keep sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, even when I know I shouldn’t. Don’t do stuff like this. You’ll only regret it.”
Right in front of Jiwon, the man pulled out the card key and crushed it in his bare fist. Then he tossed it into the ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts, and for good measure, pressed the lit cigarette in his mouth against it until it sizzled.
“Once filth sticks to you, it follows you to the grave.”
It was a warning: Don’t even think about going back in there.
Rummaging through his jacket, the man added,
“…And there are people like me who jump to the wrong conclusions.”
He seemed to be referring to the way he’d mocked Jiwon earlier.
Seeing him look sheepish actually put Jiwon in a good mood.
“Is that an apology?”
“Do you really have to say it out loud? You don’t look the type, but damn, you’re pushy.”
That made Jiwon laugh a little.
The man pulled out another cigarette and held it in his mouth without lighting it. When he caught Jiwon’s laugh, he cracked open one lazy eye.
“…What do I do now?”
“Figure it out yourself, kid. It’s not like I’m gonna live your life for you.”
The man spat out the unlit cigarette he’d been chewing on.
“Your agency’s D.go, right? So… idol trainee?”
“Yes.”
“How many years have you been training?”
“Seven.”
“Seven… Seven?! Not seven months?”
Shock colored the man’s eyes as he stared at Jiwon.
“Dude, with that face, why—?”
“….”
“Is the agency blind? Are you a terrible singer? Or can’t you dance?”
He’d been pushed aside now, but he used to be the center. And he’d ranked first in this month’s evaluation too.
Apparently, having the face and the skills and putting in the effort still wasn’t enough.
Swallowing the words that had risen to the tip of his tongue, Jiwon only shrugged.
The truth was, he knew perfectly well that his luck was abysmal.
“What’s your name?”
“…Jiwon. Seong Jiwon.”
Seong Jiwon. The man rolled the name around in his mouth a few more times, his expression complicated.
“Long-term trainee with decent visuals. Stick around in this industry a bit longer.”
“…What’s it to you?”
“Playing hard to get? I can see it in your eyes. You’re still dripping with attachment.”
The man untied the shirt knotted around his waist with a faint smile.
Come to think of it, he’d been wearing that shirt earlier.
“I’m saying this because I think a good opportunity’s coming your way soon.”
The man tossed out those cryptic words as he pulled the shirt back on.
Jiwon was about to ask if he was someone in the broadcast industry, but he froze.
When the man moved, a faint, snaking scar peeked out from under his left black short sleeve—an unusual shape, like a serpent cutting across his skin.
The man couldn’t have missed where Jiwon’s gaze was directed, but he said nothing and simply opened his umbrella.
“Got an umbrella?”
“Yeah.”
Even if he’d said no, his grandmother’s compact umbrella was tucked safely inside his bag, as always.
“Sharp as you look. I just bought mine.”
The man gave a lazy wave and walked off under his umbrella. Thinking there was no way that was the end of it, Jiwon called out to his retreating back,
“What was that about earlier? About seeing each other again?”
“Jesus, kid. Already obsessed with hyung?”
“….”
Just as he was starting to regret asking, the man turned around with a snicker.
“Don’t worry, you’ll know right away when you see it.”
One corner of his mouth curled up.
“See you around.”
He left the hotel without looking back.
Jiwon stayed rooted to the spot until the man’s footsteps were drowned out by the thickening rain.
…He looks like a different person when he smiles.
In the end, he’d learned nothing and asked nothing.
Even if every word the man said turned out to be a lie and the consequences hit him by tomorrow, the feeling right now wasn’t half bad.
He started mulling over what to do next, just like the man told him, when he heard hushed voices nearby.
“Hey, did you see what happened with that nightmare guest on the 41st floor?”
Sounded like hotel staff who’d stepped out for a smoke on their break.
“Insane, right? Some random intruder barged in, and the guest starts shrieking about trespassers, hurling everything in sight. Stuff that was nailed down and stuff that wasn’t…”
“And the other guy had nerves of steel. Ashtrays and whatever else flying at him and he didn’t even flinch. Just stood there grinning. Then he said something and that asshole couldn’t even squeak.”
Jiwon knew instantly who they were talking about.
“But isn’t it weird? That’s the VIP floor. You can’t even get off the elevator without a designated card key. Where’d the intruder come from?”
“Who cares. Watching that nightmare guest run off was the most satisfying thing I’ve seen all month. Honestly, I wish that guy would show up every time we get a problem guest…”
“….”
“….”
“….”
The staff, who’d belatedly noticed Jiwon standing in the smoking area, clamped their mouths shut and scurried back inside the hotel.
A hell-raising master, huh.
Half-brother, intruder, hell-raising master.
Jiwon pictured the man’s smug face and let out a quiet laugh.
Then he pulled his umbrella out of his bag, opened it, and headed for his agency.
At this late hour, the company lobby was quiet.
Seven years of trainee life taught you a thing or two—like how to get through the entrance without swiping your card, or how to turn off the security cameras. Tricks for sneaking out for a smoke or late-night snacks had been passed down among the long-term trainees.
Once inside, he shut off the cameras and headed straight for the CEO’s office. A putting mat and golf clubs that the CEO had been obsessed with lately always occupied the corner.
He picked out the heaviest club and carried it down to the practice room.
The mirrors he’d faced every single day for seven years without missing one stared back at him.
“Hm.”
His own reflection looked unfamiliar.
Did I always look like this?
He raised one hand, touched his cheek, and slowly stepped back.
Then—
CRASH!!
He swung the golf club into the mirror.
The crunch of glass underfoot accompanied him as he moved to the next one.
CRASH, CRASH!!
Shards flew in every direction with each deafening blow.
Smashing every mirror didn’t take long at all.
He threw the golf club to the floor and looked around.
Unlike before, the practice room felt small and dark.
And just like that, he realized none of this had ever mattered.
Let’s go home.
Jiwon suddenly missed his grandmother terribly.
As he was slipping through the lobby, someone shouted from behind.
“You crazy son of a bitch!”
He turned around to see the trainee who always picked fights with him.
The guy must have been at the company. He’d probably come running after hearing the noise.
“You—are you seriously insane? Seong Jiwon, you broke the practice room mirrors, didn’t you?! I’m telling everyone!”
“Hmm….”
He’d pay for the damages if they asked, sure.
Jiwon tilted his head with deliberate innocence.
“Hyeongjo, what are you talking about?”
And flashed a bright smile.
“Got any proof?”
Leaving the other guy gaping in shock, he walked out of the company.
His sluggish steps grew faster the closer he got to home.
The moment he opened the front door, he ran straight to his grandmother.
“…Grandma.”
“My little puppy’s home?”
“Hehe, yeah.”
The warm embrace and his grandmother’s soft, familiar scent brought the tiniest prick of tears to his eyes.
Even as her grandson buried his face in her shoulder and sniffled, his grandmother only held him tighter. She didn’t ask a single question.
With that, the reckless urge to throw everything away finally settled.
Seong Jiwon knew himself well.
He would never be able to easily give up on the dream of becoming an idol that he’d held for so long.
“Grandma’s little puppy is home.”
Even in this very moment, he desperately wanted to be on stage, singing.
The next day, just as the man had said, nothing happened to Jiwon.
That same day, he left D.go for good.
[1] Cheolsu (철수) and Yeonghee (영희) are the generic placeholder names in Korea, like “John Doe” and “Jane Doe” in English. “Cheolsu” is for male while “Yeonghee” is for female.
