* * *
“…to drink?”
Seongpil was startled.
The scene before him suddenly changed.
It was no longer a room with soft lighting.
Bright fluorescent lights were installed on the ceiling, and calming music played in the background.
“What… are you drinking?”
A man’s unfamiliar voice came from right in front of him.
Seongpil turned his wandering gaze straight ahead.
‘Wow, what’s this? He looks like an actor. Judging by his seated height, his proportions seem great. And those eyes, they look so innocent. He’d do well as the lead in a youth drama. I should get him in front of a camera…’
But first, Seongpil tried to grasp the situation.
They were in a cafe.
But he had no idea who the person in front of him was.
The man awkwardly laughed as Seongpil didn’t respond.
Just as the man was about to speak again, Seongpil suddenly stood up.
“I need to go to the restroom for a moment.”
Could he be seeing the future again?
But it felt completely different.
He went to the restroom and looked in the mirror.
“What?”
His face had changed.
To be precise, he looked 10 years younger.
Startled, he checked the date on his phone.
“Damn.”
He had gone back about 10 years.
‘Gone back to the past?’
Is that even possible?
‘Well, if I can see the future, so going back to the past is not that surprising.’
When Seongpil realized he had the power to see a regrettable future, he immersed himself in dramas, movies, and novels with similar themes.
So he had some knowledge about returning to the past.
As a result, he became more open to supernatural phenomena.
Ghosts? They might exist.
Superpowers? Of course they do!
“Seeing how vivid this is, it must be real.”
Having another ability besides seeing the future was an interesting research topic.
But now wasn’t the time for deep thoughts.
After washing his face, Seongpil returned to his seat.
With a somewhat clearer mind, he identified the man in front of him.
“Ah.”
He understood.
Why he had returned to 10 years ago.
Seongpil’s ability was to see a regrettable future.
At the very end, he saw a scene where he felt near-total despair and regret.
And the condition for this ability to activate was being at a ‘turning point’ where such a future could unfold.
If there was an ability to return to the past, it was likely at a turning point that Seongpil would regret.
A moment he would deeply regret if he made the wrong choice.
“I understand this sudden discussion might be confusing.”
The man continued in a gentle tone.
“But we really need you, Mr. Seongpil. Please come to Garo Entertainment as our head manager.”
Seongpil thought of the future.
‘The answer I gave here was probably…’
No.
‘I’ve been with Success Entertainment since it started, and I can’t betray Taehoon hyung.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Was it like that?’
Seongpil let out a hollow laugh.
The fact that he had returned to this very moment meant it was a turning point.
Seongpil kept the anguish he felt at the last moment deep in his heart.
And then…
“I’ll think about it positively.”
He changed the future.
***
Seongpil went back 10 years.
This is no ordinary matter.
It could change his entire life.
‘Unfortunately, I didn’t remember any lottery numbers, so I did what I could.’
“Yes, your loan has been approved.”
Seongpil took out a loan using the money in his housing deposit account as collateral. And he invested it all in stocks.
Seongpil wasn’t particularly interested in the stock market, but he remembered reading an article about a stock that increased 200 times over 10 years.
The company name was unique, so it wasn’t hard to find.
“An electric car company, huh? Now that I think about it, electric cars were quite the trend in the future. The stock increased 200 times over 10 years, and the graph I saw in that article…”
Seongpil remembered numbers and images better than sentences.
Especially if they were in the form of a graph.
Before long, he recalled the time on the horizontal axis and the price on the vertical axis.
“The current price is $4. I bought 24,000 shares.” (The stock here is from the USA so it uses USD)
A year later, this stock would increase 15 times.
The most dramatic rise would be a fivefold jump in nine years.
The $100 stock would exceed $500 in less than a year.
But even the current $4 price would increase 15 times, which was a substantial amount.
“Approximately 1.5 billion won (1 million USD).”
He invested all the money he had saved up for 10 years into the stock market.
And that would become 1.5 billion won in a year.
“With 1.5 billion won, I could start an entertainment agency, but if I fail, there’s no going back. And it’s just not enough to create an idol group. After the stock jumps 15 times, it stagnates, so waiting for more than 1.5 billion won would be difficult.”
But the fact that 1.5 billion won would soon be in his hands was enough to make him feel good.
It wasn’t just the money that made him feel good.
Having lived with the body of a 40-year-old, he suddenly found himself 30 again. Walking around with a younger body made the world look different.
“It would’ve been better if I were in my 20s instead of 30.”
If that were the case, he might have considered working like a dog and investing all his earnings into stocks.
A few years of hard work could lead to a lifetime of leisure.
“…No.”
Seongpil stood in front of the Success Entertainment building.
They only occupied two floors of a low-rise building, but the future headquarters would be a high-rise with dozens of floors.
He still couldn’t forget the thrill he felt back then.
“Even if I went back to my 20s, I would still have done this job.”
As soon as he entered the building, he looked for CEO Kim Taehoon.
He was watering the plants.
“Oh, Seongpil, what brings you here?”
He smiled brightly as usual.
There’s a saying that you can’t spit on a smiling face, but right now, Seongpil felt like he could.
‘My ability to foresee the future is 100% accurate.’
Even though Kim Taehoon cherished him now, future Kim Taehoon would abandon him.
Seongpil etched the regret, resentment, and despair he felt from that future into his heart.
‘Say it. Say it, Park Seongpil.’
Tell him you’re quitting the company.
‘…I was just checking if everything was okay.’
It was difficult.
At this time, Kim Taehoon and Seongpil were like brothers.
Even though he had returned to the past, the present was still the present.
It was hard to suddenly show up and hand in his resignation.
“Is something wrong? Oh! Our trainees secretly ordered delivery food yesterday. Sangyeol is really upset.”
“…”
Yoon Sangyeol had also joined Success Entertainment at this point.
Hearing his name made Seongpil’s anger boil again.
‘Yeah. Seeing that guy will reignite my determination. …Or maybe I can create a different future from now on?’
Ultimately, what prevented Seongpil from getting into producing was his lack of assertiveness.
Kim Taehoon wanted Seongpil to handle management, and Seongpil found it hard to refuse his older brother’s request.
So he kept postponing producing, telling himself, “Once the company stabilizes.”
‘Maybe if I start changing things now, it’ll be different?’
It’s a hopeful thought, but there’s no harm in testing it out. The only problem is that the experiment would take years.
At that moment, Seongpil’s phone rang.
[Producer Yoon Sangyeol]
It was a politely saved contact name.
Seongpil answered the call.
“Yes, hyung.”
[Seongpil, come to the practice room for a moment.]
The call ended abruptly.
Seongpil gripped his phone tightly.
It was as if he was being treated like a servant, being summoned out of nowhere.
“Oh, I remember. It’s the day Yoon Sangyeol screwed me over again.”
“Hyung, I’m going to the practice room.”
“Did Sangyeol call you? Alright, go ahead. It’s more effective for you to be with him than him scolding the kids alone.”
Kim Taehoon’s tone was filled with consideration.
But now, it felt a bit different.
Like hiding a knife in his mouth.
“…Okay, I’ll go.”
Seongpil went to the practice room downstairs.
As he entered, he saw a dozen trainees with their eyes fixed on the floor.
It felt like a punishment atmosphere.
Yoon Sangyeol stood in front of them.
“This guy’s style was like this. As soon as he got the producing authority, he treated the trainees like pests.”
Seongpil walked up to him.
“You’re here? Did you hear about it?”
“About the kids eating delivery food?”
“You’re well-informed.”
Yoon Sangyeol looked at Seongpil intently. Seongpil met his gaze firmly.
Then Yoon Sangyeol sneered.
As if to say, “Who do you think you are, looking me in the eye?”
“Managing the kids is your job, right?”
Success Entertainment was still a small company.
Even though they had successful groups and singers, they weren’t big enough to have a separate trainee development department like the major agencies.
So Seongpil was in charge of managing the trainees.
Even though “in charge” meant he just gave orders to the people below him.
“I decide how to train the kids, and you manage them to make sure they follow through. That’s our agreement, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you so calm about this situation?”
Seongpil sighed.
If he stayed at Success Entertainment, this was the kind of treatment he would endure for 10 years.
Instead of directly scolding the person who made a mistake, they would scold the person in charge. And most of the time, that person was Seongpil.
“I’ll scold the kids.”
Not everything can be monitored by Seongpil, but the final responsibility lies with him on the management side.
Naturally, Yoon Sangyeol can say something to Seongpil.
However, in this situation, Yoon’s lowly intentions were too obvious.
“How?”
“I’ll handle it.”
* * *
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