Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols

“Hyung, it’s your turn for the interview.”

 

“Really?”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon, who had just entered the practice room, called out to me.

 

It had been 30 minutes since he was called for his interview.

 

Starting the day after the monthly evaluation ended, the company began conducting one-on-one interviews, starting with Jeong Seongbin.

 

Considering that the last time we had interviews was at the beginning of the following month after evaluation results came out, it seemed they were seriously narrowing down the debut group this time.

 

‘Well… I’ve done everything I can.’

 

Now I had to think about what I should do during the interview.

 

For example, how to cling to the CEO’s leg if I heard something like, ‘Rather than debuting with the current team with such a large skill gap, let’s aim for the next chance.’

 

Once again strengthening my resolve to repay my sister with compound interest, I headed to the conference room.

 

After knocking and entering, I found the CEO, the manager, and Min Jukyung inside.

 

The atmosphere in the conference room was quite different from what I had expected.

 

“Oh, Iwol is here? Sit down, sit down.”

 

“What would you like to drink?”

 

How should I put it, they were surprisingly friendly.

 

Why? Usually, when trying to persuade someone like me, who both lacked skills and was older than the other kids, they should come prepared to criticize everything about me.

 

‘Assistant Manager Kim, are you not afraid of your performance review with your work like this? If it were me, I’d be so ashamed I’d give up my position first.’

 

‘You’re not thinking of changing jobs, are you? Get real. Assistant Manager Kim, aren’t you almost thirty? Do you think you can compete with kids in their 20s?’

 

…Like that.

 

Recalling memories of Manager Nam made my mood three times worse. Thanks to that, I had to do my best to manage my expression.

 

With me seated, the interview officially began.

 

But something was a bit unexpected.

 

“How did you get along with the other members?”

 

“I heard you all gathered in the practice room to talk recently? Wasn’t that difficult?”

 

“Iwol, in your opinion, who do you think would be suitable as the team leader?”

 

All the questions directed at me were more about personality.

 

For a moment, I wondered if someone had reported, ‘Kim Iwol seems to have a problematic personality.’

 

Of course, it wouldn’t be strange if someone had said that.

 

I tried to be as sociable as possible, using the social skills I honed at Hanpyeong Industry, but I never initiated small talk with Spark first.

 

So, I emphasized that I really enjoyed living with the members and I felt satisfied that we had become closer recently.

 

I also calmly talked about how diligent and improving the trainees were, and how great their personalities were.

 

Since my KPI was to debut as part of a six-member boy group, there couldn’t be any dropouts.

 

Especially when asked who I thought was suitable as the group leader, I reluctantly pointed to Jeong Seongbin. Without him, the team would fall apart.

 

After a lengthy conversation, the CEO spoke up.

 

“Actually, the company was considering you as the leader of the next group.”

 

It wasn’t an unexpected proposal. Even I wouldn’t want to put a novice on a well-prepared table.

 

Being offered the role of leader was unexpected, though.

 

If that was how it was, I had no choice.

 

I had to show my secret weapon of kneeling down, which I’d honed for years to gain momentum when resigning…

 

“But you have such good chemistry with the existing trainees.”

 

Huh?

 

This was a completely unexpected development.

 

I almost wondered if the CEO misunderstood the meaning of the word ‘chemistry’.

 

Usually, you wouldn’t call it good chemistry when you saw someone push the maknae around for two hours in the middle of the practice room pretending to be a judge, or whipping the other maknae to write songs.

 

“Teamwork is really important in idol groups. The word ‘relationship’ comes up for a reason.”

 

I knew that well. I’d seen how much those Spark guys act individually in the past that I got fed up with it.

 

Except for the start of fan signs, I had a hard time making a series called ‘Spark Relationship Analysis Compilation’ by forcibly cutting and pasting the scenes of the members that scattered all at once or maintained a distance.

 

I even thought it might be better for their future if the stick function had some compulsory power to pair those guys up.

 

Ignoring my confusion, the CEO, who definitely seemed not to know the meaning of chemistry, continued talking.

 

“The kids aren’t very affectionate, but they seemed to become friends with you quickly. Your skills are also improving daily.”

 

“Yes, thank you.”

 

“In the interviews, there wasn’t a single kid who didn’t mention you.”

 

I felt uneasy.

 

It seemed these people hadn’t seen the expression on Kang Kiyeon’s face when he looked at me dancing.

 

The CEO mentioned considering Jeong Seongbin, the all-rounder, as the leader and then asked me.

 

“So, Iwol, can you help Seongbin as the hyung and coordinate with the members?”

 

“…Yes?”

 

I had never lost my composure in a conversation with someone before.

 

But now, I felt like I was losing my grip.

 

‘What does that mean?’

 

While I was contemplating, the manager patted me lightly on the back.

 

“You’re debuting with the kids! Congratulations!”

 

Oh.

 

So that was what he meant?

 

Compared to Manager Nam’s direct verbal abuse, the CEO’s words were almost like classical poetry. His skill in speaking in a roundabout yet sophisticated way was top-notch.

 

“You’ve always acted so decisively, but you didn’t even think you’d be in the debut group?”

 

Min Jukyung said, looking proud of me. Well, I was thinking I might have to kneel if it didn’t work out.

 

As I wondered if all the officials were collectively deceiving me, the system appeared with a flash in the air.

 

+

 

[SYSTEM] ‘Task’ completed.

 

▷ Reward: Exp (20)

 

▷ Total exp: 55

 

▷ Total point: 0

 

+

 

The words felt touching. They were so dazzling it hurt my eyes.

 

Noona, cheer for me.

 

I’m going to debut as an idol.

 

* * *

 

A few days later, we were congratulated on being confirmed as a debut group with a small whole cake. But everyone only got to taste it because of the upcoming weight check.

 

There were only two good things about having the debut group finalized.

 

The monthly evaluations were gone, and the practice room was available until 2 am.

 

And the downsides were…

 

The company started to seriously manage our weight, the phone usage monitoring became a bit stricter limiting us to one hour a day, we had to develop individual specialties, foreign language study was added… and so on.

 

Amidst all this, the system also brought a new task.

 

+

 

[SYSTEM] Work instructions from your ‘superior’ have arrived.

 

▶ Assistant Manager Kim, plan the team-building event this time. Use your youthful insight. Oh, and don’t make it too innovative since the executives will attend. Something retro yet fresh, I am counting on you!

 

[SYSTEM] ‘New task’ has been assigned.

 

▷ Decide on the debut album concept

 

▷ Reward: Exp (10)

 

+

 

Bring it on. I was waiting for this.

 

The album concept was something I had been preparing in advance.

 

Though it was my first time planning an idol album, having the documents made it less daunting.

 

With the template available, I could understand the components, so filling in the content was no big deal.

 

The problem was that I couldn’t use these documents provided by the system as they were.

 

‘What would I say if they asked where I got this planning document?’

 

I thought about saying I downloaded it from a universal form site, but when I checked, no such format existed there.

 

I couldn’t accuse an innocent person of leaking internal documents either.

 

In other words, I had to pretend not to have the documents even though I did.

 

Instead of focusing on the concept, I had to worry about how to conceal Schrödinger’s documents.

 

I also had to think about how to disguise myself as a trainee with unusually good intuition.

 

Being a K-pop trainee really wasn’t easy.

 

‘Come to think of it, I haven’t even opened those documents yet.’

 

I pulled out the three planning documents that had been gathering virtual dust since I received them.

 

And as soon as I saw the forms, I had a gut feeling.

 

This form would be discarded once the debut album planning was over.

 

That was what happened when a document lacked fundamentals. If even a non-expert in planning could tell it wasn’t right, this fellow was beyond salvaging.

 

I scanned the outline with a heavy heart.

 

‘The overall concept and message are one set, and there are three areas, including the costumes and music videos.’

 

I had just resolved to take care of my dark circles, but I already felt them doubling in intensity.

 

‘At least office workers get paid for working…’

 

I had a materialistic thought for a moment, then I remembered that the Hanpyeong Industry didn’t pay overtime either. I quickly returned to my trainee mindset. Once I achieved my KPI, I’d make sure to find a job that didn’t have a comprehensive wage system.

 

* * *

 

After overcoming the big mountain called evaluation, a relatively peaceful daily life followed.

 

It was days filled with scheduled practices and wrestling with planning documents.

 

I thought this routine would continue for a while. Unfortunately, the peace didn’t last long.

 

This morning, while preparing for school, Jeong Seongbin left a message without telling the others…

 

‘Can you spare some time this afternoon?’

 

…It was because of this one line.

 

‘I can spare time. Do you have something to talk about?’

 

‘Yes. And… Jeho hyung too.’

 

‘Choi Jeho?’

 

The selection alone was ominous.

 

It was only natural. The moment Choi Jeho was involved, the likelihood of a smooth conversation dropped to zero.

 

Choi Jeho’s reaction when I relayed Jeong Seongbin’s request to him wasn’t much different.

 

‘Me?’

 

‘Yeah.’

 

‘Why?’

 

‘I don’t know either.’

 

And back to the present. The only two adult members among the trainees were trembling in fear.

 

I wanted to ask Park Joowoo, Jeong Seongbin’s roommate, if he had sensed anything strange, but it seemed Jeong Seongbin didn’t want others to know yet, so I couldn’t even ask him.

 

“I honestly can’t think of anything. Did you do something wrong to Seongbin?”

 

While waiting in the lobby for Jeong Sengbin to return, I probed Choi Jeho.

 

Choi Jeho answered seriously.

 

“I’ve been thinking about it too.”

 

“I see…”

 

At least he was considering it now. It was a huge improvement compared to last month when he confronted Kang Kiyeon with just face-reading him.

 

After waiting for about 30 minutes, Jeong Seongbin came through the main entrance in his school uniform.

 

Jeong Seongbin must have informed Kang Kiyeon in advance, as he just greeted us and went down to the basement practice room without saying much.

 

Jeong Seongbin looked at us, took off his bag, and bowed deeply.

 

“Thank you for making time for me.”

 

“It’s no big deal. Nothing unusual at school?”

 

I waved my hand dismissively and asked about Seongbin’s well-being. Seongbin nodded a couple of times.

 

“No. Nothing unusual with you, hyungs?”

 

“Except for Jeho almost swearing at me, nothing much happened.”

 

While making light conversation, I subtly observed Jeong Seongbin’s expression.

 

He didn’t look unwell but appeared slightly anxious.

 

A reason too awkward to openly tell others from a guy who usually behaved well and had recently gotten his mind together.

 

The group he called out, consisting of Choi Jeho who looked like he could bring frost in midsummer, and the worn-out me.

 

Considering various factors, no matter how much I racked my brain, there was only one answer that came to mind.

 

I carefully asked, hoping Seongbin would say no.

 

“Um… Does this request involve burying someone?”