The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 136

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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136

[Eighteen months into their debut, we sat down for an interview with The Dun, who delivered a successful year-end performance and received the Discovery of the Year award. Despite their brilliant achievements, they remained visibly bashful, offering shy smiles and repeated thanks throughout.]

“…Ugh.”

The Planning Team Lead sat in the conference room with a deeply furrowed brow, flipping through the pages of a magazine that had rushed the interview into print just days ago.
As he skimmed through the interview content focusing on each member one by one, he paused at the page where Seo Ho-yoon’s photograph dominated the entire spread.
Seo Ho-yoon, dressed in a plush navy knit that contrasted sharply with his pale complexion, cradled an oversized mug between both hands and wore a serene smile.

[Over the past year, you’ve given the impression of running nonstop without rest. What’s the secret to your success?
Ho-yoon: I’ve received tremendous help from the people around me. I can only feel gratitude toward the seniors who paved the way for us.]

At least five people had been ruined.
If you counted the male idols and various staff members he’d sent tumbling down as “help,” then Seo Ho-yoon’s words were technically accurate—their relative popularity had risen as others fell.

[The chemistry between you and the members seems genuinely wonderful.
Ho-yoon: I’m always grateful to the members. We trust and rely on each other at all times.]

It was more accurate to say they’d given up, exhausted by his unhinged madness.

[What are your goals for the new year?
Ho-yoon: To spend time with people I’m grateful for.]

Translation: he had no interest in working with incompetent fools.

[What will you be doing three years from now?
Ho-yoon: …Hopefully, I’ll have rediscovered my original intentions.
I think I could afford to be a bit more ambitious. (laughs)
Ho-yoon: I’m already ambitious enough. (laughs)]

“I wish he’d stop searching for his original intentions already…”

The Planning Team Lead muttered under his breath.
Yet the magazine’s interviewer seemed thoroughly smitten with Seo Ho-yoon’s nauseating persona, or perhaps desperate to fill the pages—the entire piece was nothing but praise.

[We met Seo Ho-yoon, who remained remarkably humble throughout the interview and never lost his gentle smile. The staff marveled at how mature and thoughtful he was—hard to believe he was only twenty-four.]

…Marvelous, indeed.
Just then, Seo Ho-yoon entered the conference room and greeted everyone.
He came to discuss the Japan concept, sat down, and flipped through the proposal once or twice before wiping his mouth.

“Seriously….”
“….”
“How the hell did this even get approved?”

Watching him sneer openly without bothering to hide it anymore, the Planning Team Lead felt his stomach churn.

“Um, Seo Ho-yoon, we’re a bit pressed for….”
“Pressed for time?”
“Well, several dramas started filming recently, and there are multiple films releasing around the same period… so most of our staff has been allocated to the actors’ side….”

The Planning Team Lead stammered through his explanation, but Seo Ho-yoon didn’t even pretend to listen. He waved the proposal dismissively with one hand and sighed heavily.
That expression and posture of his—the Planning Team Lead knew full well it was meant to crush morale.
And it worked. The Planning Team Lead’s spirit withered like drought-stricken weeds.

“Is it a money issue?”
“….”
“No, wait—our company should be making plenty.”
“It’s just… we’re a bit short on staff….”
“Should I help? If the problem is lack of manpower, I can just add planning to my schedule alongside idol activities, events, and recording sessions, right? Should I consult with the Management Team about it?”

‘Damn it.’

The Planning Team Lead quickly shoved his trembling fist beneath the desk. The guy was infuriatingly good at sarcasm.
Yet there was nothing he could say in response.
Yes, Seo Ho-yoon had a terrible personality, but the feedback he gave after glancing through a proposal once was better than most of the Planning Team staff—better than the Lead himself, even.

‘This bastard and his rotten attitude…!’

Why did this idol keep showing up not just at the Planning Team, but at the Management Team and A&R Team too, nitpicking everything?
Usually, people just received their assignments and offered minor opinions, and that was it.

“Sigh….”

Seeing the Planning Team Lead’s aggrieved expression, Seo Ho-yoon deliberately let out a long, exaggerated sigh and shook his head. The team lead, already deflated from the start, could only curse inwardly.

‘Mature? Composed??’

It would have been more believable to attach such adjectives to those afflicted with every conceivable star syndrome. Just as the team lead was grinding his teeth, insisting that such words could never exist in Seo Ho-yoon’s dictionary, the conference room door opened.
It was Lee Ji-hyun, her face blank.

“Oh, hello….”
“Hello, Lee Ji-hyun.”

Only then did Seo Ho-yoon’s expression soften slightly.
‘Finally, someone useful has arrived,’ was written so plainly across his face that the team lead shuddered, but Lee Ji-hyun simply took a seat without any reaction.

“I apologize for being late.”

Her face bore the marks of a harsh reality check.
The Planning Team Staff Members, including the team lead who had been rolling around anxiously the entire time, exhaled in relief upon seeing Lee Ji-hyun.

“Sigh… Lee Ji-hyun, why are you so late?”

‘No! Damn it, don’t!’

“Don’t you keep your commitments?”

Wanting to vent all the stress he’d accumulated from Seo Ho-yoon onto the hapless junior staff member, Lee Ji-hyun’s Senior threw a remark her way with a sneer, and the Planning Team Lead was struck with even greater alarm.

‘No!! Not in front of Seo Ho-yoon!!’

Lee Ji-hyun was the only person in the Planning Team that Seo Ho-yoon acknowledged!
Normally, she would have lit both wicks and responded with “Ah yes, indeed, I’m terribly sorry,” but with the endless overtime and exhaustion, she simply kept her mouth shut. Seo Ho-yoon observed her quietly, his eyebrows twitching slightly, and then—
Seo Ho-yoon stared at that sight intently, his eyebrows twitching slightly.

“….”

I just let it go.

“…Hmm??”

The Planning Team Lead hesitated at the sight of Seo Ho-yoon, who was different from usual—sarcastically mocking and making a fuss with a forced smile, wrapping up the message “Even if you come early, if you’re just going to fill the numbers without solving anything anyway, you might as well not come” in pretty words.

‘What’s this?’

“Anyway, please take good care of the Japan matter.”

‘…Did Seo Ho-yoon decide to just leave Lee Ji-hyun alone too?’

The Planning Team Lead nodded verbally while his mind raced through calculations.
But after that, just as always, he prowled like a demon and stormed through, thoroughly ransacking the Planning Team.

“Oh, that’s right.”
“…Yes.”
“Those self-produced videos we shot last summer. I want to do a hard drive cleanup—could you find that data for me?”

‘…Suddenly?’

But once Seo Ho-yoon brought up a matter, there was nothing to do but pretend to search for it.
The bastard with the nasty personality was like that even in front of the CEO, and for reasons unknown, the CEO himself seemed wary of Seo Ho-yoon.

“Well, it’s fine if you do it when you have time.”
“…I’ll try to find it.”
“Yes, thank you.”

Seo Ho-yoon didn’t spare a single glance at Lee Ji-hyun, just gave a slight nod and left the conference room.

“Thank you for your hard work.”
“Yes.”

The Planning Team Lead, who had been turning things over in his mind, realized it in that moment.

‘…Damn.’

And his mouth fell open.

‘He’s doing this on purpose, isn’t he?’

Covering for someone in front of everyone might feel satisfying, but after the nasty-tempered Seo Ho-yoon leaves, who knows what kind of backlash will come down on Lee Ji-hyun.
And Lee Ji-hyun, standing on the edge of a cliff right now, wouldn’t be able to withstand that retaliation.

‘Insane—a political mastermind of an idol….’

The Planning Team Lead watched Seo Ho-yoon’s retreating figure with a tired expression, yet an unease lingered.
Would Seo Ho-yoon really hold back like this?
Impossible.
The Planning Team Lead, who prided himself on his exceptional ability to read people and pick up on subtle cues, could stake his entire life on this judgment.
That bastard was an absolute reckless troublemaker who would never hold back.
This moment felt strangely like the calm before a storm, and the Planning Team Lead was deeply unsettled.

“…Lee Ji-hyun.”
“Yes?”
“Would you like to go downstairs and grab me a coffee?”

The Planning Team Lead didn’t want to lose a competent worker like Lee Ji-hyun, nor did he want to face this dangerous storm head-on, so he decided to make his best move.
Treating Lee Ji-hyun well.

.
.
.

“Lee Yeol….”

I rubbed my jaw.

“So that’s why he made it to Planning Team Lead.”

He does mediocre work while possessing an incredibly sharp sense of perception.
Standing at the railing on the Company 2nd Floor, I sipped my lemonade through a straw while observing the cafe across the way. There, the Planning Team Lead was buying coffee for Lee Ji-hyun.
Lee Ji-hyun sat with vacant eyes, her lips barely parted, simply gulping down the coffee.

‘She definitely has her resignation letter on her right now.’

A direct hit.
Even ordinary employees kept resignation letters stored in hidden folders, so if someone had that kind of expression, it wouldn’t be strange if she was keeping one close to her heart.
I’d anticipated hitting a wall of reality around this point, and sure enough, here it was.
I jabbed at the ice with my straw, watching the Planning Team Lead and Lee Ji-hyun for a moment longer, then turned away and collected my thoughts.

‘Alright, the bait has been successfully cast.’

Now the question is who will take the bait.
I recalled the Planning Team Staff Members I’d seen today.
The CEO had recently stepped back from the front lines and only approved final decisions, while Management handled their work more efficiently than expected.
The A&R Team had Kang Yi-chae, who was perceptive and stayed within bounds, communicating smoothly, and the Press and Publicity Team was decent enough with their experience managing actors, but….

‘The Planning Team is the real problem.’

I couldn’t get a read on them at all. Even if they were originally an entertainment company specializing in actors, watching them continuously stumble around just left me in awe.
I wondered how they got away with such blatant incompetence without consequences.
In any case, I had no intention of easily letting go of Lee Ji-hyun, the only gem among them, even if she wanted to resign.

‘Why would I let a windfall like this slip away?’

“Hmm.”

Originally, in a ramshackle company like this, the system operated on ad-hoc management, and capable people—whether newcomers or otherwise—were ground down without distinction.

‘I can create a position and manufacture justification.’

But now, as I was entering my second year since debut, anything I said would be seen as overstepping, met with resistance from not just the Planning Team but even the CEO, so I needed to play this carefully.

“Hyung, hyung!”
“Yeah?”
“What, you’re done early?”

Jung Da-jun, now an adult but unchanged in a single day, was his usual bright self today. I opened the door for Jung Da-jun, who was bouncing toward the recording studio.

“Watch your head, buddy.”
“…Oh, okay.”

Jung Da-jun was excitedly prancing about when he paused at the doorway, glancing at me with a curious look and muttering something under his breath.

“…What is it?”
“What?”

Inside the recording studio, I could see the other members already listening to the Japanese debut cover recording.

“Oh! You stopped by the cafe too, Ho-yoon?”
“Huh~? Where’s your consideration? Why didn’t you buy me anything?”
“Hey, what do you expect from Seo Ho-yoon?”

Kang Yi-chae, who had been sprawled across the sofa, lifted himself up and tossed his hat, speaking with exaggerated drama.
That guy’s just trying to stir things up, isn’t he….

“Want me to grab you something on the way?”

The moment I answered obediently, all the members who had been chiming in noisily fell silent.
Among them, Kim Sung-hyun blinked in disbelief before confessing something.

“…I actually can’t drink caffeine.”
“Didn’t you drink that energy drink yesterday, Sung-hyun?”
“…Mm.”

His lie was exposed in an instant.
Sung Ji-won, tilting his head as he watched Kim Sung-hyun avert his gaze, handed me a piece of paper.

“Anyway, Ho-yoon. We translated the lyrics here. I organized some of the tracks that’ll be included this time—can you take a look?”
“Let me see.”

I plopped down next to Kang Yi-chae, chewing on a straw, and scanned the paper.
Honestly, it was far better than that garbage proposal I’d seen earlier, so I gave my honest assessment.

“You wrote it beautifully.”
“….”
“Who did this? It’s clean.”

And silence fell again.

“Did you just call it beautiful garbage?”
“No, I just said you wrote it beautifully.”
“Oh….”

Regardless of their awkward reaction, I pulled the straw from my cup and crunched on the ice.
Kim Sung-hyun, watching me, covered his mouth with both hands.

“I’ve been thinking this for a while now, Seo Ho-yoon….”

What.

“Why….”
“….”
“…Why did you suddenly become so affectionate?”
“Aaahhhhh!!!”

Jung Da-jun genuinely panicked and scrambled to the corner of the recording studio.

“D-d-don’t say things out loud like that!”
“Just keep those kinds of thoughts to yourself!”

Damn it….

“An affectionate Seo Ho-yoon…? Is that even possible?”
“A word we’ve never seen before in our lives….”

What’s wrong with these bastards?
After giving Jung Da-jun a flick on the forehead as he tapped the table saying “whoever wronged Ho-yoon should confess quickly,” I buried my back deep into the sofa.

“Is this the same Seo Ho-yoon who went on about being unfilial to his parents?”
“The one who mocked us without batting an eye about treating nobodies well??”
“I kind of miss the hyung from the beginning whose personality was ruined….”
“Shut up, just do the first verse….”
“Phew, no! Stop!”

Kang Yi-chae smiled brightly and patted his chest in relief.
Don’t worry—my personality is still plenty ruined as it is.

‘They make a fuss even when I’m nice to them, seriously.’

I was just trying to treat them better before I left.

“Hyung’s sharp edge is his charm~.”
“Yeah, I know, you bastard.”

I cleanly abandoned my New Year’s resolution to be kind to my members and reverted to my old self.

“Hand over your work, Kang Yi-chae.”
“Kyaaaa~.”

Kang Yi-chae, who had been grinning despite the scolding, pushed the laptop forward.

“Brother~, give it a listen~.”

It was a new Japanese debut track.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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