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Chapter 01
When she tapped her employee card, the lock released.
Bom leaned against the office door and lifted her chin.
“Hello! The talk of the town, Lee Bom, reporting for work! Now that I’m here, roll out the red carpet already!”
The employees who had arrived earlier burst out laughing.
Management 123 was a small, close-knit company of fifteen people, so everyone knew one another well. They all knew that the CEO, Ilju, had been the former leader of Pink Pop, and that Bom had promoted together with her as an idol.
Still, since the person setting social media on fire was the superstar Go Geon, no one believed the speculation, even though posts guessing that the woman trending on the popular posts list was Bom were everywhere.
They just assumed it was someone who looked like her.
“Ms. Bom, congratulations! When are you bringing Mr. Go Geon to our company?”
“Assistant Manager, congrats on your entertainment debut!”
“Boram, she already debuted once before.”
“Oh—ah, that’s not what I meant.”
Since everyone knew about Bom’s past, the atmosphere was about to turn awkward for a moment, but Bom spoke casually while doing a model walk.
“From today on, please call me Go Geon’s woman!”
“Lee Bom. You’ve really grown. To think you’d dare end up in a scandal with Mr. Go Geon.”
Among those laughing was CEO Ilju.
“Good morning, CEO!”
“Shouldn’t you release an official statement? Did Go Geon’s agency contact you?”
“It’ll either be a statement saying ‘we’re not that kind of relationship,’ or they’ll just stay quiet and let it die down.”
“I suppose. Able’s never really handled anything about Go Geon properly before, have they? Hm?”
Ilju looked toward the PR team, and an answer came back.
“He’s the son of Able’s CEO and the grandson of the Daehyun Group’s chairman. They won’t move rashly.”
“Even when that woman came forward saying she was pregnant with Go Geon’s child, there was just one article and then it disappeared quietly. People said the group stepped in.”
“Wow, really? As expected—on a different level.”
“We’d better make sure our Bom doesn’t get kidnapped. What if the Daehyun Group drags you off and threatens you?”
“Then please give us bodyguards as employee welfare. Protect our precious manager.”
“Ah, it’s not that serious.”
Laughter rang out from all sides.
Only after exchanging all that noisy banter did Bom sit down at her desk.
Ilju didn’t ask her for the details either.
Because she assumed it wasn’t true anyway.
By tomorrow, it would be forgotten under some other issue.
This was a world where issues poured out every hour, every minute—enough to make yesterday feel like a month ago.
Bom opened her laptop and replied to her work emails.
Even though she was the management team leader, it was a small company, so she handled everything related to her assigned actors. She checked not only her own actors’ schedules but also others’, then searched names on social media to see if there were any issues.
Lately, Bom had mainly been in charge of actor Yoon Myeongjo, who was very active. After appearing on a comedy skit program, he’d landed one or two commercials, and people said he’d finally caught his break.
Ironically, he himself missed serious drama and continued to practice acting.
He had just been cast as a scene-stealing supporting character in a romantic-comedy historical drama, with filming set to start soon.
It was a short role, which was a shame.
If he could just land one big hit, he’d really break out.
“Any auditions?”
She skimmed sites posting audition notices and opened her contacts to call drama writers and assistant directors who were preparing new projects.
“But really, wasn’t the person in that photo Team Leader Lee?”
Boram from PR asked. No one else had asked directly before, but apparently they were curious—several people peeked over their partitions.
Bom answered breezily.
“That was me.”
“What?!”
They’d thought only a few people were listening, but everyone in the office lifted their heads. The air buzzed.
“It was just a coincidence. Se-u brought a script to show Myeongjo and left it there, you see.”
Se-u was Management 123’s most popular actor. He was greedy for scripts and would skim anything he could get his hands on, even if it wasn’t officially sent to him.
“So I went to pick it up. Thanks to that, I got a nice photo taken. At this rate, I might even end up on the 9 o’clock news. Should I get a massage?”
Seeing her laugh while holding her cheeks, Boram forgot the question she’d been about to ask.
Assistant Manager Jung from PR chuckled softly.
“Team Leader, your skin is still amazing. How do you take care of it?”
“Care? I just use basic skincare and that’s it.”
“That’s like the top scorer saying they only studied the textbook. Come on, seriously.”
“Why would I lie? When I get home, I’m too busy sleeping. I’m too lazy to even remove my makeup properly, so I barely manage the basics.”
“Wow, I heard Go Geon was born with his looks and background, but turns out there’s another one here. For women, skin is half of beauty and thick hair is the other half—and you were born with both. I’m jealous.”
“What, not my face? I’m confident about my face too.”
If anyone else said that, it might sound obnoxious, but coming from Bom, it didn’t.
That was her charm.
She really was pretty, too.
“If I say that myself, it’ll just make people sad, so I won’t.”
“Hehe, so you admit it? I’m in a great mood! Coffee’s on me!”
When Bom flashed her card, the staff cheered and chanted her name.
“Kyaa! Lee Bom! Milky-white Lee Bom!”
“Thanks, we’ll enjoy it!”
“I’ll go get it!”
Boram snatched the card and headed out.
As she waited for the elevator, something she’d forgotten came to mind.
“Ah, I was going to ask if she really had something going on with actor Go Geon. But then again, if she’d even seen his face, do you think she’d have stayed quiet? She’d have come forward and spilled all the tea herself.”
Ding.
[Web Message]
[Jungwon Card {2**5}]
– Café OOO
Approved Amount: 124,000 won
“Ugh, what on earth did they order…?”
She’d handed over the card to treat them, but she hadn’t meant this much.
“I shouldn’t have given the card to Boram.”
Bom glanced over the staff working diligently, then checked her phone again.
There was nothing new on social media regarding Go Geon’s scandal.
Instead, old rumors resurfaced: why Pink Pop had disbanded, claims that Bom from Pink Pop had ties to gangsters, that she’d been a notorious troublemaker back in school.
After skimming through the familiar insults she’d seen enough of in the past, Bom slowly let out a deep breath.
“Alright. This will die down as it is.”
There was no more fuel to add, and the parties involved were staying quiet.
Anything problematic would be suitably covered up by Go Geon’s agency or his group.
Having experienced firsthand how ruthlessly the media could chew people up, Bom felt reassured and called Myeongjo.
“Yes, Myeongjo. Did you read the script I brought yesterday? Right? The role is charming, isn’t it? Even Se-u has his eye on that character. So, would you like to audition? The date is—”
However, both Able Entertainment, Go Geon’s agency, and Bom—who had worked in this industry for years—had forgotten one thing.
Fuel generates itself.
A post appeared on Go Geon’s fan café, Jerona.
“Jerona” was short for “Please appear in a romance.”
[[I found a photo—what do you guys think?]]
You know Pink Pop’s old agency SNS account is still active, right?
I clicked a link by chance and was looking through old posts when I found this photo.
Looks like a trainee facility photo from before debut.
Go Geon is on the male trainee side. They say he was a trainee at a small company before enlisting—maybe it was here.
Predebut_PinkPop_LeeBom_Photo.jpg
But look at this photo. It clearly shows Lee Bom from Pink Pop before debut.
The ring on her left index finger—doesn’t it look familiar?
If you can’t remember, you don’t deserve to be a fan.
You know that ring necklace Go Geon used to wear sometimes.
GoGeon_RingNecklace_Photo.jpg
GoGeon_Ring_CloseUp.jpg
Is it just me, or does this feel off?
└ That’s a couple ring!
└ Were they really dating? Noooo! Why that kind of woman!!
└ They dated as trainees? So there really was something between them?
└ They’re not still dating, right?
└ This is betrayal! He said he didn’t have a girlfriend!
└ You believed that?
└ That woman has a history of school violence, was a delinquent, even assaulted the CEO—why would Go Geon date someone like that! It must’ve just been a brief thing when they were young!
└ Deleted comment.
└ Deleted comment.
└ Jerona promotes proper language. Please refrain from swearing.
Posts digging up Pink Pop’s past kept coming, until one post shifted the mood.
[[I don’t want to think this, but…]]
This is insane.
I just did the timeline math.
Around the time our Geon stopped wearing that ring necklace, Pink Pop blew up with assault allegations.
Is this really just a coincidence?
What if they dated for a long time, then broke up, and Geon’s group ruined one side afterward?
└ Cut it out.
└ This person isn’t a fan. Ban them. How dare you doubt Go Geon!
└ The timing is crazy. It lines up too perfectly.
└ Stop the delusions. I can’t believe someone like this is in Jerona.
└ Go Geon’s family is a chaebol. If not Go Geon himself, doesn’t it make sense that the family would do something like that? For the future, to avoid any loose ends.
The fire spread—from Pink Pop’s past to the Daehyun Group, and to Go Geon himself.
