Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols-Chapter 233: Trouble Maker (1)

Mr. Jeong Seongjun pulled out a chair from the dining table.
“What can I get you? I have filtered water, coffee, some unidentified flower tea, and what looks like barley tea but is actually anchovy fish sauce.”
“Hyung doesn’t drink coffee. I’ll make it, so just go sit down.”
Jeong Seongbin roughly pushed Jeong Seongjun away from the fridge where he had been standing guard and then proceeded to boil water in the kettle and retrieve tea bags from the cupboard.
Unfazed, Jeong Seongjun sat down next to me. He was remarkably friendly.
“You don’t like coffee? You seem like someone who would enjoy espresso.”
“It’s not that I dislike it. I just can’t drink it. My body doesn’t handle caffeine well.”
Thanks to that, I’d never even tried Americano, the lifeblood of office workers. Even chocolate upset my stomach, so I avoided caffeine altogether. Jeong Seongbin added from the kitchen,
“That’s why hyung only drinks yogurt smoothies and stuff.”
“So you can’t have caffeine at all? Then is it okay if I drink coffee next to you? I could just get something else.”
“Oh, I don’t mind. It’s fine as long as I’m not the one drinking it.”
“Then, Seongbin, coffee for me!”
“Strong?”
“As expected of my brother. You know me so well.”
Jeong Seongjun winked at Jeong Seongbin. He truly had a remarkable personality.
“Iwol hyung, would you like tea? Or do you prefer water?”
“Water is fine.”
Jeong Seongbin took out a mug like it was second nature. At that, Jeong Seongjun suddenly jumped up from his seat.
“Mom brought some magnolia tea recently; you should try it. She specifically told me to treat the guests well before she left for work this morning. Magnolia tea is caffeine-free, right?”
He rushed back to the kitchen and checked his phone to confirm the caffeine content of magnolia tea.
“You should have said that earlier.”
“I just remembered. But isn’t it great that I remembered before you pouring the water? Please praise your remarkable dongsaeng.”
The two bickered in the kitchen until the water boiled. Exactly five minutes later, three steaming mugs were placed on the table.
“I even prepared some fruit for our guest.”
Jeong Seongjun forced Jeong Seongbin to sit down and opened the refrigerator.
I appreciated the gesture, but who cut fruit in advance like that? Did his mother specifically instruct him to do so?
I was starting to feel less like a welcome guest and more like a burden.
Just as guilt began to creep in, Jeong Seongjun took something out of the refrigerator. It was a whole cantaloupe, carved into the shape of a cute cat’s face.
I was speechless.  Is this… food art? But who keeps that in a regular home fridge?
The cat’s head was filled with melon balls. It really felt like I was eating melon out of a cat-shaped bowl.
“Wow… do they sell fruit like this?”
“No, I carved it myself.”
“Excuse me?”
Stunned, I looked at Jeong Seongjun.
“Hyungnim, you’ve been compared to a panda, an eagle, and a cat. It felt rude to use a panda for melon, and I’m not skilled enough to make an eagle—so I went with a cat.”
He even provided a thoughtful explanation.
So this was a custom-made snack just for me.
These brothers really had a way of making people feel overwhelmed. Jeong Seongbin rubbed his forehead, seemingly getting a headache.
“What’s wrong, are you disappointed I didn’t make one for you?”
“Not at all.”
Jeong Seongbin’s voice was laced with exhaustion.
But his true feelings didn’t reach Jeong Seongjun, who continued to switch between calling his brother ‘hyung’ and ‘you’.
“I knew you’d say that, so I prepared one for you too.”
“I said I’m not disappointed!”
Jeong Seongbin exclaimed in exasperation. Ignoring him, Jeong Seongjun opened the refrigerator again.
This time, with a flourish, he presented a small dog made of grapes.
“I made it with toothpicks. Isn’t it great?”
He then placed the grape dog between the melon cat’s ears.
“Welcome to our home! Enjoy!”
Lee Cheonghyeon’s words echoed in my mind: ‘Seongjun hyung is truly unique’.
Siblings could be so different. What a learning experience.
* * *
Jeong Seongbin and I returned back utterly drained. If Spark’s introverts had visited the cheerful twin household, they might not have made it out alive.
Only Park Joowoo and Kang Kiyeon were at the practice room. Since they only had to deliver the lunch boxes to their trainers at the company, it made sense.
But two members were missing.
“Where are Choi Jeho and Cheonghyeon? They’re not back yet?”
The action school was closer than Jeong Seongbin’s house; it was strange that they weren’t here yet.
“Yeah… Maybe they’re stuck in traffic…?”
“It’s not even rush hour.”
I glanced at the clock, then at the practice room entrance.
‘Maybe they’re doing some kind of activity at the action school.’
If it were just Choi Jeho alone, maybe not—but with Lee Cheonghyeon there too, it was a perfectly plausible theory. I figured they’d show up soon enough and just started warming up.
The two people I thought would arrive any minute didn’t show up until much later. They finally appeared looking completely worn out—a full two hours later.
“What happened?”
If they’d been just a little late, the first question would’ve been, ‘What took you so long?’
But considering how much time had passed—and more than that, the looks on their faces—I couldn’t help but ask if they were okay first.
They didn’t just look bad, they looked terrible. Choi Jeho’s face was flushed and blotchy, while Lee Cheonghyeon’s was dark and stormy.
“Ha…”
Choi Jeho let out a deep sigh without answering. The frustration in that sigh was palpable.
“What is it? Did they call Cheonghyeon a prodigy at the action school and ask him to join them?”
“I wish it were something like that.”
Lee Cheonghyeon’s face was devoid of any humor. Sensing the gravity of the situation, the other members sat down on the practice room floor. Lee Cheonghyeon looked down and called me.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“You said it’s difficult to fire someone from the company, right?”
Silence filled the room. Everyone looked at Choi Jeho and Lee Cheonghyeon.
“Why? Did something happen with Manager Unseop?”
Lee Cheonghyeon’s eyes widened. He seemed surprised that I had specifically named someone.
Understandable. I’d always told them not to gossip about others.
But on the flip side, for them to bring this up knowing I might react defensively meant they had a serious reason. And that meant I had no choice but to hear them out.
“It wasn’t just a ‘something.’ It was a full-on blow-up.”
“With who? You and Manager Unseop?”
“Does it seem like it would be me?”
At Lee Cheonghyeon’s words, all eyes turned to Choi Jeho.
“Why did you fight? Let’s hear it.”
Back when Choi Jeho almost got into trouble on the reality show for crossing a line about someone’s family, I had clearly stated that the speaker’s attitude influenced the listener’s response.
Since then, I hadn’t seen Choi Jeho lash out recklessly. Aside from raising his voice when I had my head injury, he’d been relatively calm.
So if the guy who’d been keeping himself in check had lost his grip like this, something serious must have happened.
While I didn’t want them to think firing someone was easy, I had to hear him out this time.
Choi Jeho ran his hands through his hair in frustration, his face contorted in annoyance, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
“There were a lot of things that pissed me off, but forget all that.”
“Yeah?”
“F**k, he kept looking at his phone while driving.”
…What?
***
‘Hyung, where do you want to sit?’
Lee Cheonghyeon asked. Following Kim Iwol’s principle that leaving the passenger seat empty was impolite to the driver, Spark always made sure to fill the passenger seat, even if only two people were in the car.
And as the older member, Choi Jeho was expected to be even more considerate.
‘Don’t make the kids feel like they have to walk on eggshells—just handle it properly, got it?’
‘If I can.’
Choi Jeho didn’t always grasp every nuance of Kim Iwol’s ‘universal social etiquette’, but he’d at least promised to do his best in situations he could reasonably understand.
‘I’ll ride shotgun.’
Thus, Choi Jeho became the designated driver’s companion for the day. Whether this was a good or bad choice—he still wasn’t sure.
‘You should make a right turn here.’
‘This way is faster.’
This was the fourth time the manager had taken a different route than the one Choi Jeho suggested.
When riding with Chanyeong, he didn’t need to play human GPS. But the current manager, Unseop, was new and unfamiliar with the roads. Choi Jeho was only giving directions because Chanyeong had asked him to help.
‘I said there’s construction there…’
‘It should be finished by now.’
Unseop completely ignored Choi Jeho. He briefly wondered if his tone had been too harsh or if his directions sounded like he was criticizing the driver.
But Choi Jeho hadn’t been wrong. The road was still under construction. As Unseop clicked his tongue and made a sharp turn to avoid the blocked road, Choi Jeho’s frustration grew.
You should have listened to me the first time.
He barely managed to control his temper. Kim Iwol’s words echoed in his mind: You don’t have to be friendly to everyone, but you must never be rude.
They arrived at the action school later than scheduled. Punctuality was deeply ingrained in both of them,  so they bowed in apology at a perfect 90-degree angle while handing over the lunch boxes. At this rate, the action school staff were going to look like the bad guys—receiving food and enforcing discipline all at once.
While Choi Jeho and Lee Cheonghyeon expressed their gratitude and filmed the self-cam footage, Unseop was nowhere to be seen.
Some managers usually observed filming, but this wasn’t a particularly important shoot, so Choi Jeho didn’t think much of it. He just attributed it to his own dislike of the man.
As they finished greeting the action school staff and headed back to the car, they saw a car window roll down. A wisp of smoke seemed to escape from inside.
Choi Jeho opened the passenger door, and the smell of smoke hit him in the face. He wasn’t the type to beat around the bush.
‘Were you smoking in the car?’
The reply was absurd.
‘Oh, it’s a vape.’
Is a vape not a cigarette? Choi Jeho couldn’t understand.
The manager added, with an air of defiance,
‘Everywhere around here is a no-smoking zone.’
That means you shouldn’t smoke, you f*cker.  Not that you should smoke in the car.
Lee Cheonghyeon, sitting in the back, coughed. Choi Jeho suddenly remembered Kim Iwol frantically rushing over with masks whenever the younger members were near the gas stove, worried they might inhale the fumes.