"Whoo···."

A middle-aged man wiped away the beads of sweat forming on the widened expanse of his forehead, letting out a sigh as he did.

'Why the hell did she call me here?'

He didn’t say it out loud, but the waiting room he was currently stuck in was so uncomfortable it made his skin crawl.

He was Ahn Daesu, CEO of Daewon Planning.

- The chairwoman says there’s something she wants to discuss, and she’d like to meet you as soon as possible.

Not long ago, Daesu had heard New World Group’s “invitation” through a secretary, and he’d thought, So it’s finally here.

Because one of Iam’s members, Im Yunkyung, had originally been a trainee at Daesu’s agency, Daewon Planning.

- CEO, you must be so happy these days?

Idol Ground 100—already all but guaranteed to take the title of “best variety show of the year,” even though the year wasn’t over yet.

And since Im Yunkyung—his agency’s trainee—had gotten massively popular on Agbaek, debuted as Iam, and was actively promoting, «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» the congratulations around him never stopped.

Of course, not everyone congratulated him. Some people sent jealousy and spite instead, and—

'They have no idea what it feels like!'

For Daesu, the person receiving both the congratulations and the envy, it was just suffocating.

- Yes, sir. There won’t be anything that puts pressure on Ms. Yunkyung at all!

- Don’t make it too obvious—just treat her comfortably.

- Of course!

He suddenly remembered the day Im Yunkyung entered Daewon Planning as a trainee.

A middle-aged woman had come to the CEO’s office with a group of black-suited bodyguards who looked dangerous at a glance.

That woman was Chairwoman Jeong Sunhwa of New World Group—always ranked in the top three whenever people listed Korea’s best department stores.

And Im Yunkyung was the youngest daughter she doted on.

'If she gets hurt while practicing, my company is done!'

To people who didn’t know whose kid Im Yunkyung really was, it probably looked like Daewon Planning had hit the jackpot.

But Daesu—the only one in the company who knew exactly who Im Yunkyung was—felt like he’d been walking through a minefield every second lately.

- Me! Me!!! Are you insane?! You’re sending our Yunkyung to a Marine Corps camp?!

Every time he saw Yunkyung on variety shows and in Iam’s in-house content after debut, Daesu’s heart dropped.

Either KJ Entertainment didn’t know who she was, or they knew and were doing this insane stuff anyway—but they kept making New World’s precious daughter do all kinds of absurd things.

It started with posting a photo on social media of Yunkyung wearing a necklace that said “I am a traitor.”

And then, in that Marine Corps camp special, they put her through rubber raft training and nearly gave Daesu a heart attack.

If Yunkyung got hurt filming content like that and Jeong Sunhwa got furious, how did KJ Entertainment plan to deal with the fallout?

Daesu couldn’t understand it.

Even if her current agency was KJ Entertainment, her original agency was still Daewon Planning.

So every time he watched, worried he might get caught in the splash damage too, it felt like his lifespan was shrinking.

Especially after he’d heard a few days ago that she wanted to meet him—he’d had nightmares.

"Ahn Daesu. It’s been a while."

Thud.

"Good to see you, Chairwoman!"

"Have a seat."

Daesu had been turning it over in his head—why Jeong Sunhwa was calling him in today—when the door opened and a middle-aged woman’s voice came in.

The instant he heard it, Daesu sprang up like a new recruit who’d just been assigned to a unit, posture snapping into place as he answered.

Chairwoman Jeong Sunhwa of New World Group gave him a gentle smile and told him it was fine, he could sit.

And before her words had even fully ended, Daesu sat back down again like he was being controlled.

"What do you like to drink? Coffee, or tea?"

"I’ll have coffee."

Click.

"Two coffees, please."

She asked what he wanted, and when he answered coffee, she pressed the button on the table and softly requested it.

And then the small talk began.

Jeong Sunhwa spoke casually—starting with standard greetings about whether anything was going on at his company lately, then drifting into major recent economic news like she was chatting.

Daesu was shaking inside, but he forced himself to stay sharp, doing everything he could to keep the conversation going.

- The chairwoman hates it most when people say “whatever” while talking to her.

He’d heard a few pointers from the secretary’s office before coming in, so he’d been worried he might slip up—but he managed to respond smoothly.

Once the coffee arrived, they paused briefly and each took a sip.

"I’m sure you were surprised when I asked to see you so suddenly."

"Ah··· no, not at all."

"Honestly, the reason I asked you here today is because of Yunkyung."

Only then did Jeong Sunhwa finally begin the real topic.

"When Yunkyung first said she wanted to become an idol and go to an agency, I thought about it a lot."

"Of course you did. Even if it looks nice from the outside, it’s a hard job."

"Yes. But what can you do? They say parents can’t beat their kids. It doesn’t feel right to stop her when she says she wants it."

At Jeong Sunhwa’s words, Daesu nodded in agreement.

Daesu had a daughter too. They fought all the time, but in the end, he was always the one who lost.

"So I looked into a lot of agencies. Companies that would be okay for my child to enter as a trainee."

"···."

"If I say this, I might sound too calculating, but when it’s about your kid, you can’t help it."

"I completely understand."

In the entertainment industry, aside from a small handful, there were plenty of agencies that weren’t even worth calling trash.

"But CEO Ahn’s Daewon Planning... I could trust it."

"Excuse me?"

"Do you remember, back when you had no money and you were going around trying to find investors... you just released the trainees you had under contract?"

"Ah."

- If we’re going under, do we really need to ruin the kids’ futures too? If they want to go somewhere else because we can’t support them, we should let them.

A few years ago, when the company’s finances got tangled up and running it became difficult, he’d told the trainees they were free to leave.

The employees and investors had panicked and screamed that he’d lost his mind, but Daesu stubbornly pushed it through.

As a result, more than half the trainees left—but Daewon Planning survived, clawing its way back with the ones who stayed and endured the hardship together.

"That was just··· I remembered what I was thinking when I named the company···."

"Daewon?"

"Yes. ‘Dae’ as in big, and ‘won’ as in garden. I made it because I wanted it to be a home—like a big fence that protects you."

Daesu had suffered alongside entertainers under bosses who were basically thugs.

Back then, he’d decided that if he ever started his own agency, he didn’t want it to be a coercive place like that.

He wanted to build something family-like—a company that could hold the artists under it.

Even if they didn’t become huge, shouldn’t they be people who trusted and relied on each other?

Daewon Planning was where that dream lived.

Of course, maybe because of that management philosophy, he’d struggled a lot.

And even though he’d produced some fairly successful entertainers, the company still couldn’t shake the label of “small-to-mid-sized.”

"When I heard that story, I thought I wanted Yunkyung to go to this agency."

"I’m embarrassed··· Thank you for saying that so kindly."

"But this time, I happened to hear something about KJ Entertainment."

"What? KJ Entertainment?"

The name coming out so suddenly threw Daesu off.

"It sounds like they’re trying to renew contracts with the Iam members."

"That can’t be possible···."

At Jeong Sunhwa’s words, it sounded so absurd Daesu couldn’t bring himself to believe it.

'Agencies aren’t suckers. Why would they do KJ Entertainment a favor?'

On the market, Iam’s members were basically hitting the daily upper limit over and over—rising nonstop. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Their original agencies would be desperately hoping those members would come back into their arms.

So Daesu couldn’t see how renewals would be possible.

That said, it wasn’t completely impossible.

None of Iam’s members were fully debuted celebrities yet—they were still trainees—so if KJ Entertainment came in brutally enough, they could pay penalty fees and pull them out.

But if that happened, it wasn’t just Iam—KJ Entertainment’s image would get dragged all the way down too, and they’d obviously get shunned inside the industry.

And in that situation, the brand value of “Iam,” which KJ Entertainment had built up until now, would get driven into the ground.

No one in their right mind would try it.

"If a renewal proposal comes in, what do you think, CEO Ahn?"

"What I think···."

Renewal.

From Daewon Planning’s perspective, Im Yunkyung was a painfully awkward trainee.

The girl group Daewon Planning was currently preparing leaned into a more mature, girl-crush concept, and if you put Im Yunkyung into that lineup, the balance broke.

But it also made no sense to remove someone with Im Yunkyung’s recognition and popularity.

She was a complete catch-22.

So maybe that was why—

"I hesitate to say this, but I think it’s better for Ms. Yunkyung to keep promoting as Iam."

"Do you?"

"Yes."

If KJ Entertainment offered fair conditions, then even if other agencies refused, Daewon might accept.

At Daesu’s answer, Jeong Sunhwa’s expression shifted—just slightly, in a subtle way.

But Daesu was so tense he didn’t notice it.

"Thank you for coming all the way here today."

"Not at all. Thank you for inviting me."

"I left my daughter with you, and I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have. Next time, let’s at least share a meal together."

"Yes!"

A little more conversation followed, and today’s meeting ended.

Daesu felt relieved that the meeting had wrapped up safely, but—

'Did she really call me in just to ask that?'

There wasn’t anything particularly special in what they talked about.

So he couldn’t help finding it strange that she’d gone out of her way to summon him.

***

"We’ll invest one billion won into Daewon Planning under the New World name."

"Good. Report to me again once it’s complete."

"Understood."

New World Group’s finance team lead quietly left the office, closing the door behind.

Jeong Sunhwa watched the back of that departing figure and briefly looked back on what happened today.

'Interesting.'

In an entertainment industry that was a den just as bad as the world of conglomerates, strangely pure people had gathered around her daughter.

- Investment is fine. I want to treat Ms. Yunkyung the same as the other members.

Even when she offered investment, KJ Entertainment’s CEO refused, saying he didn’t need it—and instead asked for understanding, because he wanted to treat her daughter exactly the same as the other members.

- Apparently the captain came to our department store last time!

- Did she?

Lee Sion, who had connections, but didn’t make it obvious—because she didn’t want to burden a close older figure—quietly stopped by the department store and left.

And CEO Ahn Daesu of Daewon Planning, whom she’d summoned today to probe his intentions.

To be honest, it was naive—almost too naive.

But if you put it nicely, she liked that her daughter had people like that around her.

The truth was, the reason she called Daesu in today was to ask him to terminate Yunkyung’s contract—on the condition of an investment.

- Mom! I want to keep being an idol.

She remembered what Yunkyung had said about two days ago, when she came home on leave for the first time in a while.

The daughter she hadn’t been able to take care of properly because she’d been so busy, her eyes sparkling for the first time as she said she wanted to keep being an idol—no, to be precise, she wanted to keep promoting as Iam.

'That was the first time.'

Sunhwa knew that when Yunkyung first said she wanted to become an idol trainee, it had just been temporary curiosity.

But after appearing on an idol survival program, she started changing little by little.

And once your child is looking at you seriously and talking about their dream—what mother in the world could stop that?

So Sunhwa had met with CEO Ahn Daesu so Yunkyung could contract with KJ Entertainment without any controversy.

But once she met him and realized he was willing to let Yunkyung go without any greed, Sunhwa decided she wouldn’t say anything.

'Under a CEO like that, it’s fine even if she stays with her original agency.'

If anything, if KJ Entertainment tried to rip Yunkyung away by force, Sunhwa intended to stop it.

Of course, judging by the Kim Sanghyeok she’d seen, it didn’t feel like that would happen.

Kim Sanghyeok.

If he hadn’t been her daughter’s agency CEO, he was interesting enough that she would’ve wanted to scout him.

- At KJ Media, his promotion to department head was basically confirmed, and there were rumors he was a candidate for the next executive line.

She didn’t know if he’d aimed for it from the start.

But he didn’t treat the project group Iam—where her daughter belonged—as a simple money-maker.

He’d built it with a solid future plan, like an idol group debuting from a major agency.

And he had the skill to compete with major agencies and push Iam into the top ranks.

Sure, Iam’s members deserved credit—but without proper company support, it would’ve been impossible.

'There are plenty of companies that only hold you back.'

A quiet sweep.

A few small Iam-related incidents Sunhwa had quietly ordered dealt with, without anyone knowing.

For example, something involving one member’s father—Geum Shinyu’s father.

- We handled it so he can’t come back again.

- Good work.

A father who’d gotten addicted to gambling, abandoned his daughter, vanished—and then, once his daughter succeeded, started hovering around the company and dorm, trying to leech off her.

Sunhwa had taken care of that kind of situation.

But only up to that point.

'What’s left won’t be easy... but if they can’t handle even that, it’s better to end it now.'

She’d cleared out a few obstacles that could become problems during Iam’s renewal process.

But if KJ Entertainment couldn’t handle what remained on their own, that was that.

Sunhwa couldn’t be helping every time something hard came up.

From here on out, it was up to them.