Episode 42: All the CEO Cares About Is GraceOne
At CEO Jung’s demand for an apology, Kim Jung-sun tensed up.
CEO Kim Yong stepped in, switching gears.
“Jung, that’s enough. She’ll think you’re serious.”
Team Leader Jeon was dead serious, but Jung was just playing.
The instigator-in-chief finally dropped the act and filled Kim Jung-sun’s empty glass.
CEO Kim Yong raised his glass for a toast.
“Alright, with new family here, let’s start fresh and give our all. To the bright future of Free Sense and Team 2!”
“To the future!”
We echoed, clinked glasses, and dug in.
The menu: a mouthwatering trio of brisket, scallop, and aged kimchi.
Impossible to mess up.
The ingredients hit the sizzling grill.
—Tsssss!
The sound was unreal.
As the staff auntie grilled the meat and explained how to eat it, the Free Sense table erupted in excited “oohs” and “aahs.”
CEO Kim Yong looked at them with a fond smile.
“No need to worry about diets—you girls are perfect. Eat up!”
“Thank you!”
“We’ll eat well!”
“Kim Jung-sun, Hyun-jong, first time here?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“This place is a real gem.”
Once the brisket, scallop, kimchi, and wasabi combo was ready, Kim Yong personally mixed five soju-beer bombs and proposed another toast.
“Just this round together, then drink at your own pace. Order more if you need.”
Kim Yong, Jung Han-yong, Jeon Min-yong—the “Three Yongs”—downed soju-beer like water, emptying glasses every five minutes, flexing their epic drinking skills.
Kim Yong told us to pace ourselves, but as this was my first company drinking session, I felt obliged to keep up. After the group toast, I matched two more rounds.
Four soju-beers in under 20 minutes.
Kim Jung-sun, probably feeling the same, kept up with straight soju.
Jeon Min-yong looked at me, concerned.
“Hey, you’ll crash trying to match the CEOs. Slow down.”
“Yeah… they’re kinda fast…”
“Hyun-jong, what’s your limit?”
Kim Yong asked, brimming with booze pride.
“A bottle of soju gets me tipsy, one and a half, and I’m drunk.”
“Soju-beer?”
“Not sure. I usually stick to beer or soju alone. But soju-beer’s going down pretty easy.”
Even I could tell I was getting chatty.
The alcohol was hitting, and my mood was soaring.
Kim Yong’s face lit up, clearly pleased with me.
“See? It slides right down. I’ve got the golden ratio for soju-beer. Want another?”
“Yes, one more, then I’ll pace myself.”
Was it envy of the staff table’s clinking glasses?
“CEO, can’t we drink too?”
Seung-ah cautiously asked CEO Kim Yong, “Can we drink too?”
Kim Yong, startled, shot back, “Huh? You’re old enough to drink? How old are you this year, Seung-ah?”
“I’m twenty-two, CEO.”
“What?! Twenty-two?! Then Ah-hyun?”
“I’m twenty-one.”
“Wow, no way! It feels like just yesterday you two were sniffling kids with backpacks coming into the company. You’re already that old?”
“When were we sniffling…”
“Man, oh man, then the CEO’s gotta pour you a drink! Soju-beer for both?”
“Yes!”
“Sure.”
Seung-ah and Ah-hyun sipped Kim Yong’s golden-ratio soju-beer, gasping in awe. Kim Yong, still shaking his head in disbelief that they were adults, kept marveling as he watched them down their drinks.
His gaze shifted to Jin-ah. “Fourth-dimension’s still a minor, right?”
“Yes. I’ll be twenty next year.”
“Seriously? Wow, they say kids grow up fast…”
“That just proves you never paid attention to us,” Jin-ah said flatly, hitting the nail on the head.
This girl doesn’t care who you are—CEO or not.
I’d heard she even went straight to the CEO’s office to get the official maknae appointment letter for Seon-yu. Her unwavering hipster vibe in the face of power is honestly impressive.
Kim Yong seemed used to it by now. “Hey, how could I not care about you guys?”
“You didn’t. For sure. You only care about GraceOne,” Jin-ah doubled down.
Incredible.
She was dropping uncomfortable truths everyone knew but no one dared say.
Kim Yong, floored by Jin-ah’s verbal onslaught, burst into laughter. Team Leader Jeon Min-yong smirked, clearly enjoying the moment.
CEO Jung Han-yong, sensing an opening, pounced on Kim Yong like a hyena. “See? Even the kids know you play favorites.”
“What? How am I playing favorites?”
“You totally are. How upset must they have been to bring this up without even drinking?”
“Hey, hold on! You of all people can’t say that. Didn’t I do everything you asked? And who tanked the album? Me? I told you to go with a mainstream concept, didn’t I?”
This isn’t some hot-potato game… Is this really how top-tier players brawl?
But Jung Han-yong didn’t flinch at the deflected blame, shaking his head firmly. “Enough. Apologize to the kids properly.”
At this point, he’s the apology villain.
Kim Yong, sweating bullets, wiped his shiny forehead with a wet towel. Still, he owned up coolly, turning to the Free Sense girls with a sincere tone.
“Alright, I’m sorry for not giving you enough attention. If you’ve felt overlooked, let’s clear it all tonight and move forward together, okay?”
Seung-ah and Ah-hyun, too moved to speak, just nodded, their faces full of emotion. They must’ve thought Kim Yong didn’t care for them, and now a flood of feelings was probably hitting them. Hopefully, this apology washed away the built-up resentment.
Woo-ya and Seon-yu, still clueless about the company and Free Sense’s history, likely got a sense of the group’s past struggles through this moment.
Kim Jung-sun, likely briefed by Team Leader Lee Sook-young, didn’t react much to the earlier tension.
After CEO Kim Yong’s cool apology, the team dinner split neatly into two vibes: the staff table and the Free Sense table.
Our group totaled ten. Two four-person tables were pushed together with a small gap, with Kim Yong at the head of the staff table and Seung-ah leading the Free Sense table to balance the numbers.
At the staff table, the talk turned to the music industry’s state—serious shop talk.
The conversation revolved around the two CEOs, with Team Leader Jeon Min-yong and Kim Jung-sun chiming in with their field experiences.
As industry topics took over, the light mood grew heavy.
“The music charts are beyond stagnant,” Kim Yong said.
“We’ve got GraceOne, so we’re fine, but new agencies are giving up on music entirely,” Jung Han-yong added.
“YouTube’s a red ocean too, but the entry barrier’s lower than music promotion.”
“Exactly.”
Lacking the seniority to jump in, I listened quietly, soaking up the industry landscape.
Some bits were interesting, but as someone yet to experience the field firsthand, it was a tad boring.
No juicy idol gossip or GraceOne stories like I’d hoped.
Kim Jung-sun, seated across from me, turned fully to her right, engrossed in the conversation.
I was becoming air, fading into the background.
So lonely.
Meanwhile, the Free Sense table was a different universe.
Stuffed with brisket-kimchi-scallop combos, the girls were buzzing with energy.
Despite the tables being practically touching, it felt like a separate world.
I wanted to join them—especially since their topic was Woo-ya’s “Pippi toast.”
But Seung-ah, not Woo-ya, was the most hyped, her energy spiked from chugging beer after the adult members got the green light to drink.
“She cussed out Woo-ya and ended up throwing the toast on the floor. Wild, right?”
She was recounting the day we met Woo-ya in Busan, when a couple’s jealousy-fueled fight broke out at her toast shop.
Ah-hyun, sitting to my right, asked in disbelief, “Not joking—actually cussing her out?”
“Yeah, dead serious. I was so freaked, I hid behind Hyun-jong oppa.”
My name pulled me into their orbit.
Finally, their eyes landed on me—stuck in the middle like a transparent glass wall, neither part of the staff nor the girls.
‘Hey, kids, I’m right here. Been here the whole time.’
Hiding my relief, I shot Seung-ah a faux-cynical look.
Pretending I hadn’t been eavesdropping, I asked innocently, “What?”
Seung-ah, eager for backup, jumped in. “Oppa, remember that couple fighting at Woo-ya’s toast shop?”
“Oh, them? The girl got jealous ‘cause the guy was smiling at Woo-ya.”
“Totally not a joke, right?”
“Yeah, no joke.”
Phew, I could breathe again.
Sidelined from the staff table’s talk, I hopped aboard the Free Sense train like it was a long-awaited bus.
“But honestly, Woo-ya, you were a bit clueless too.”
“Huh? How?”
“The girl was already pissed, and you were acting all cute with her.”
“What’d I do? I seriously don’t remember.”
“What was it you said…?”
Racking my brain, Seung-ah launched into a full-on Woo-ya impression.
She puffed out her chest, swaying side to side, voice dripping with a nasal coo.
“‘Aww, what’s wrong, unnie~?’”
“No woman could handle that,” I said.
Ah-hyun, looking like she’d seen something scandalous, grilled Woo-ya. “Did you really do that?”
“Nooo~!”
Woo-ya, reflexively answering in her nasal tone, pouted at Seung-ah. “When did I ever do that, unnie~?”
Does this girl not realize how she comes off?
Seung-ah’s chest-swaying was exaggerated, but the mimicry was spot-on.
Like Kindaichi nailing the culprit, Seung-ah pointed at Woo-ya and shouted, “That’s it! You did exactly that! Right, oppa? Just like that, yeah?”
Guilty as charged.
I answered with a snicker, “Heh heh.”
Then Seon-yu, who’d been quietly listening with a serene expression, chimed in with a counterpoint.
“I don’t get that girl. Getting jealous over a stranger? Sounds like low self-esteem to me.”
“Right? Kinda felt like that,” Seung-ah agreed.
Ah-hyun pushed back. “No way. The guy must’ve done something shady before. Like cheating or flirting with other girls and getting caught.”
Seung-ah, as if hit by a revelation, nodded and flipped sides. “Oh, that makes sense. That’s why she snapped. The guy’s probably a habitual flirt, huh?”
“Exactly. There’s always a reason for that kind of anger. You can’t just look at that moment—you gotta consider their history.”
Seon-yu, calm as ever, countered again. “Still don’t get it. If my boyfriend cheated, I’d look at myself first.”
“Huh? Why?”
“If he’s looking at other girls, it means I’m not charming enough.”
“Whoa, you’d blame yourself like that? Wanna bet on it?”
Ah-hyun looked baffled by Seon-yu’s logic.
Seung-ah, the flip-flopping leader, shook her head, lost. “Ugh, this is hard… Boy-girl stuff is way too complicated.”
Jin-ah, the deer-beetle, joined the fray. “That’s why I’m never dating. Too much pointless emotional drama. Sigh.”
“Come on, giving up on love’s a bit much. There’s more good than bad, isn’t that why people date?”
“There’s so much good stuff besides dating.”
Okay, but… what are they even doing?
Is this seriously worth such a heated debate?
The couple In question didn’t say a word, but the girls were going full-on ‘Goongye’, banging drums and cymbals, holding a masterclass on relationship theory.
“The conclusion: you need to meet a good guy,” Ah-hyun declared, siding with the “guy’s at fault” camp.
Seon-yu, who’d blamed the girl, nodded as if it were an undeniable truth, wrapping up their debate.
But then Woo-ya tossed in a new angle, reigniting the spark.
“But unnie, what’s a ‘good guy’? Don’t you only know if someone’s good after dating them?”
My friends who bicker over pointless stuff when drunk came to mind.
Just as another round of debate was about to erupt, CEO Jung Han-yong cut in with a more constructive topic.
“Hey, kids, what kind of concept do you want for the new album’s title track?”
According to Seung-ah, the company never asked the girls for input before. They’d just follow schedules blindly.
Even the team’s core, Seung-ah and Ah-hyun, couldn’t answer right away.
Like Korean reporters frozen when given a chance to question the U.S. president, they just glanced at each other.
Jung pressed again. “Come on, you must have concepts you’ve always wanted to try. Throw out some references, no pressure. I’ll probably do what I want anyway, so don’t stress.”
He tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but the girls still couldn’t seize the opportunity.
A silence so thick even swallowing felt awkward.
In that quiet, the chorus of ‘Smile Again’ played in my head.
-“You make my heart flutter (Smile Again), you make me smile (Smile Again), the start and end of my day is You & You & You & You & You…”
“If you don’t speak up, you’ll end up with another Halloween Day,” CEO Kim Yong warned, his tone chilling.
Right then—
“I’ve been studying MIDI lately,” Jin-ah, the deer-beetle, said, lighting up her phone screen and addressing everyone.
“Listen to this. It’s called ‘Smile’…”
Huh?