Chapter 146

Chapter 146

Yoo Won-Dong pondered about this request for a bit. Siren was asking for a meeting all of a sudden, and he couldn’t easily decide whether he should accept this meeting or not. It was because he had a lot to think about but hadn’t organized anything inside his head yet.

‘Moreover, why do they want to see me...?’ Yoo Won-Dong felt conflicted about this whole situation. First of all, he was certain that Siren was the one who issued these articles. The timing was too perfect for it to be anyone else. And regardless of who was behind all this, he had no idea why those guys would send out an article complimenting him when he never requested them to do such a thing.

There weren’t many possibilities he could think of, and Yoo Won-Dong repressed his groan by pressing his temples.

“Tell them to come in.” In the end, he decided to meet Siren.

***

“Director Yoo says it’s possible to meet all of you. You can go in now,” the employee at the front desk told us, and we all got up from our seats.

“Then, I hope your meeting goes smoothly.” After the Next Wave employee backed away, my members and I got on the elevator and moved up to the tenth floor where the director’s office was.

Sigh. “Will we be able to do a good job?” Do-Seung asked, sounding uncharacteristically nervous.

“Don’t worry. It will be all right.” Woon comforted Do-Seung.

Dong-Jung appeared unfazed, and Yeon-Hoon looked resolute.

“No need to be worried. We just need to say our stance as artists of this company,” I said.

I didn’t have a big goal for today’s meeting. The purpose of today’s meeting was only to get closer to Yoo Won-Dong and build a friendly relationship with him. Of course, we wouldn’t really become ‘friends’; I mean, what would we do after becoming buddies with a man thirty years older than us? This was all surface-level stuff, and right now, we needed to firmly express our stance without going overboard.

‘Will we be able to not cross the line...?’

All in all, we needed to win this battle of nerves. Right now, all Yoo Won-Dong wanted to do was latch a string of achievements under his belt. He wanted the projects with his name in the headlines to achieve great success so that he could rise in the ranks of his company. It was fine that he had so much passion for his work, but...

‘He’s going in the wrong direction.’ And that direction didn’t favor us. Thus, we needed to have a good talk with him.

Ding.

It was then that the elevator stopped at the tenth floor.

“Let’s go.” My members and I got off the tenth floor and walked to the director’s room. I knocked on the door and heard Yoo Won-Dong say in a friendly voice.

“Yes~ Come in~” This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

We entered the office.

***

Yoo Won-Dong stared at the Siren members who came inside his office. He thought this whenever he saw them but they were like fetuses in his perspective. Even the oldest member among them was twenty-three, Yeon-Hoon, and the youngest was underage. It gave him a strange feeling to be interrelated with guys who were his nephew’s age with business matters.

“Wasn’t it tiring to come all the way here? Do you all want something to drink? Juice? Cola? Or water?” he asked.

“It will be difficult to bridge the wall between the Waacking genre and the holistic image of the group, Siren.”

‘Waacking...?’ Yoo Won-Dong didn’t know what that was. All he knew was that JayQueen was a famous dancer who was good at dancing.

“We thought if the company really planned our collaboration with JayQueen and spread the news, the company failed to grasp even a little bit of what our group was.”

Yoo Won-Dong silently glared at Tae-Yoon. Tae-Yoon’s way of speech was a tactic he was very familiar with.

‘He’s making snide comments...about me...’ Aware that he had lied, Tae-Yoon was insulting him right to his face. Yet, Yoo Won-Dong knew that things would turn worse if he got angry here. He forcefully repressed his anger and made it his priority to change the main topic. What was something that could change the topic and befuddle these guys at the same time?

‘Ah, I can use that.’ After being backed into a corner, Yoo Won-Dong’s options appeared limited, and he couldn’t think well. Thus, he ended up bringing out the worst card he could.

“...Besides that, in this article congratulating Siren’s birthday, there was something about me. I don’t recall telling you all to reveal the fan song on one of your birthdays...Did you request this article to be published?”

When he said these lines, he knew he had made a mistake. Yet, he couldn’t take back his words.

“Ah! You mean that?” Tae-Yoon immediately latched onto the opportunity to begin speaking.

***

Yoo Won-Dong brought out what I wanted to mention on his own, and I, of course, had no intention of letting this chance go to waste.

“We personally requested some journalists to post that for us. Truthfully, we also came here to tell you about these articles.”

Yoo Won-Dong probably hadn’t decided yet whether this article was attacking or supporting him. Though this article spoke in his favor, he was likely suspicious of what its intention was since he never gave such a command. Though he suffered no losses, it was understandable that he would also feel uncomfortable by it. Thus, I was sure that this question about the article would pop out if he felt even the slightest bit psychologically cornered.

‘So, he really asked about it.’ He asked about the article mid-conversation and thanks to it, I was able to say the lines I prepared for.

“Since the company provided our dormitory and car and cared for us in so many ways, we didn’t want to get all the credit for everything good that was happening to us,” I calmly said my lines while looking into Yoo Won-Dong’s eyes. “So, although we might have been going a bit overboard, we wanted to make the story also about how the company helped us. We will only be able to do well if the company also does well.”

As I was saying this, I knew Yoo Won-Dong would have a difficult time making sense of what I was saying. I simply sounded like I was saying we should share what was good, but someone with quick wits like Yoo Won-Dong probably caught onto another meaning behind my words and was feeling conflicted over it. Thus, I spoke my real intentions more blatantly.

“Going forward, we will continue to work hard in our work, and I will be grateful if the company continues to support us like it has been doing. Then, we will continue to say in our interviews and broadcast shows that the company takes care of us well and the director provides the utmost support to us.”

Yoo Won-Dong probably got a clear sense of what I was saying now.

“Ah...like right now?” he asked.

In other words, that meant: ‘Don’t do anything. We will take care of our matters and you guys should support us from behind accordingly. If you do that, we will make sure you can get your credits and achievements.’

Yoo Won-Dong’s face stiffened noticeably, but he immediately changed his expression again and said, “Hahaha. We didn’t even do much for you. Many fortunate events happen because we have such talented artists. Hahaha!” He laughed boisterously.

Was he really that pleased?

‘Your eyelids are almost spazzing,’ I thought. Yoo Won-Dong appeared to be so furious that the skin under his eyes was trembling.