Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols-Chapter 261: Getting to Know Each Other (1)

When I recommended a referral system to UA, I meant for them to bring in trustworthy people. People whose character was somewhat guaranteed and who were also good at their jobs.
However, the strongest advantage of a referral system actually lies elsewhere.
For the sake of their own reputation, the person who did the recommendation would take considerable care of the newly hired person.
Conversely, if the newly hired person turned out to be a mess, the recommender was put in a difficult position—that was the biggest disadvantage of a referral system.
In fact, this was why people often didn’t bring acquaintances into their company. Because there was a high chance of experiencing one of two things: losing an acquaintance because of the company, or losing one’s reputation at the company because of an acquaintance.
Now let’s say someone as established and well-respected at the company as Ms. Jukyung brought in someone she knew.
Ms. Jukyung wasn’t one to deceive people, so it was safe to assume she explained the company’s situation in full. That meant she probably wouldn’t end up losing a friend.
The problem was that I didn’t know if I could trust Ms. Jukyung’s eye for people.
Wasn’t she the one who suggested I become an idol in the first place? I trusted her abilities, but her instincts for spotting talent — not so much.
If her naturally optimistic personality led her to bring in a strange old classmate, and that person ended up causing trouble, and she, as the recommender, found herself in an awkward position and ended up quitting…
My vision went dark. It felt like I had a long tunnel ahead of me, and one of my headlights had gone out.
“When we were looking for our manager, wasn’t it decided that either you, Ms. Jukyung, or Chanyoung hyung would conduct the interview? Who ended up doing it?”
Choi Jeho asked.
“Since he’s my acquaintance, Chanyeong took the interview. He doesn’t have manager experience, but he has plenty of driving experience and no accident history.”
“By any chance, does he smoke…”
“He quit.”
To Lee Cheonghyeon’s question, Ms. Jukyung answered with a tone full of conviction. I didn’t remember they asked things like that when hiring a manager before. They must have considered various things due to the Hong Unseop incident.
Even after that, Ms. Jukyung answered every single question from Spark, who were deeply distrustful after their previous manager experience. After the long back-and-forth, Ms. Jukyung spoke.
“For now, your comeback and year-end schedules are important, so the new manager won’t be taking the lead on anything. Think of it as a handover period and just check if you get along well with him.”
The news of a new manager shook things up inside Spark for a while. Lee Cheonghyeon even yelled at Choi Jeho, ‘Just go get your license already!’ — that alone said it all.
Nevertheless, time passed steadily, and ahead of the cold winter, the new manager arrived. To the ever-tumultuous UA.
* * *
On the evening his employment at UA was confirmed, he received a call from Min Jukyung. It was a suggestion to have a meal before he officially joined. Pyeong Daeyeon gladly replied that he’d be happy to.
The two met at a nearby barbecue restaurant. Insisting she was buying, Min Jukyung unhesitatingly ordered an assorted set for two. Then, while the side dishes were being served, she suddenly bowed her head.
“Thank you so much.”
“Why are you acting like this?”
“Thanks to you, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief… Really…”
“I haven’t even done anything yet.”
The Min Jukyung he knew from school had always been bold and composed.
The current Min Jukyung looked full of worries. For a moment, Pyeong Daeyeon wondered if deciding to go to UA was the right thing to do. It was too late to back out, so he didn’t dwell on it any further.
Pyeong Daeyeon took the tongs from Min Jukyung’s hand as she tried to take the lead in grilling the meat. Min Jukyung handed him the plate of meat and said.
“Our kids are really nice. Please take good care of them. I mean it.”
“Have you been short-staffed? To the point of buying me a meal?”
“Short-staffed?”
Min Jukyung scoffed.
“It was a staffing disaster.”
“……”
“I was this close to giving up on humanity.”
Min Jukyung was serious. The sight of his old classmate muttering to herself, alternating between ‘All humans should die’, and ‘No, what did our kids do wrong?’ was a little frightening.
“Then what did you see in me to make the offer?”
Pyeong Daeyeon asked as he placed the meat on the grill. The sound of oil sizzling came from the grill.
Although they were classmates, Pyeong Daeyeon and Min Jukyung weren’t that close. They would greet each other in passing, occasionally see each other at drinking parties, and if they had overlapping lectures, they would sit apart but still share class notes for the tests.
He was curious why Min Jukyung, who was on the verge of misanthropy, had offered a job to someone like him.
Min Jukyung, who was watching Pyeong Daeyeon place bean sprouts and kimchi on the edge of the grill, propped her chin on her hand and said.
“Want me to be honest?”
“I’m scared of how deep this story is going to be.”
“To be blunt, our department was full of weirdos back in the day.”
He almost choked before even eating. Pyeong Daeyeon covered his mouth with the back of his hand and cleared his throat.
“But among them, no one said anything bad about you.”
Min Jukyung continued to speak calmly as she cut mushrooms from across the table.
“Eeveryone said you were nice. But you’re not the type to be a pushover either.”
“Am I?”
“That’s why I made the offer. If I bring in a shady person, I’ll have to write a resignation letter too. Do you think I’d just ask anyone to come? Me? I have a lot of my mortgage loan left to pay too!”
Min Jukyung burst out in frustration. Pyeong Daeyeon also thought of his own monthly rent slipping away from his account.
“You were surprisingly willing. On my way home, I thought it wouldn’t be strange if I got rejected.”
“You found me a job, so I’m grateful.”
“Thank you for seeing it that way. I really thought I was about to lose a classmate over this.”
Min Jukyung joked and swept a hand over her chest.
Pyeong Daeyeon flipped the meat. The nicely browned surface looked delicious.
While Pyeong Daeyeon took the scissors and cut the meat, Min Jukyung filled both their water glasses.
“…By any chance, have you seen the recent news articles about our company?”
“I’ve seen a few.”
A brief silence fell. Min Jukyung wiped her face with both hands.
Pyeong Daeyeon wasn’t interested in celebrities, but the story about a company PD assaulting an idol had been all over the headlines. He even remembered reading the article several times because it turned out to be the company where his old classmate worked.
“…So we ended up looking for more, well, trustworthy people.”
“What about you? Did anything happen to you?”
“As for me, there was nothing except getting frustrated while working. What I went through was nothing. Our kids are the ones who suffered.”
Our kids.
Min Jukyung was consistently calling the idols she was in charge of ‘our kids.’ He didn’t know if she was conscious of it, but that was probably the extent of the affection Min Jukyung had for the group.
“You seem to have a lot of affection for that group. I guess I’ll have to work hard too.”
At Pyeong Daeyeon’s words, Min Jukyung’s eyes widened.
“Wait, did I ever tell you which group you’d be assigned to?”
“No, but I figured it out from the onboarding email.”
When you drive people around, you start to pick up on things. What kind of people typically use the van parked in that spot, or what kind of jobs are tied to certain time slots.
“Daeyeon.”
“What is it?”
“I haven’t felt this much appreciation for someone with common sense in a long time.”
She covered her mouth like she might actually cry. Not that she did, but still.
Min Jukyung asked if it would be okay for her to drink a little. Saying that she would take the subway home.
When Pyeong Daeyeon said it was fine, Min Jukyung ordered a bottle of beer. Then she virtuously filled her beer glass only halfway.
Min Jukyung downed the beer in one shot. The empty glass was placed on the table with a thud.
“You know.”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll get a detailed explanation when you go to work tomorrow, but our kids are really nice. They’re nice, but they’ve been through a lot.”
“Yeah.”
Min Jukyung, while being sparing with her words, carefully made a request.
“They might be a little prickly at first… but that’s the company’s fault, so I’m really sorry to you. Still,  I hope you don’t judge them too harshly.”
As she said that, Min Jukyung hurriedly scooped the cooked meat onto Pyeong Daeyeon’s plate.
“Hey, hurry up and eat this. It’s all ready!”
“You eat first. I can just take it with the tongs.”
Pyeong Daeyeon picked up a few pieces of meat with the tongs and placed them on Min Jukyung’s plate.
That day, Min Jukyung really did pay for the meat. As they parted ways, Min Jukyung said with a smile.
“I’m counting on you. Really!”
It was an unusual welcome to the company. It was a night that made him look forward to what his first day at work would be like.
* * *
At UA, Pyeong Daeyeon heard the exact same story he had heard from Min Jukyung the previous evening.
Throughout the process of writing his employment contract, the conversation kept circling back to how the idol group he’d be working with had gone through numerous crises and that the company now needed to provide them with active support on an organizational level.
‘What on earth happened to the idols…’
Just as he was thinking that, Pyeong Daeyeon was assigned a senior. It was Im Chanyoung, who was currently Spark’s road manager and had been his interviewer.
Once seated, Im Chanyeong handed him a few sheets of paper—PPT printouts containing profile photos and brief notes about each member.
“Have you by any chance heard of a group called Spark? We mentioned during the interview that there was a high chance you’d be working with an idol group.”
“Yes, I’ve memorized the members’ faces and names.”
Compared to the days of transporting twenty kindergarteners, memorizing about six people was easy. Lim Chanyoung looked at Pyeong Daeyeon with an emotional expression.
“Is something wrong…”
“I’m just moved…”
Wasn’t this company’s threshold for trusting people excessively low? Just yesterday, his classmate had acted the same way.
Although Pyeong Daeyeon had done his homework beforehand, Im Chanyoung diligently provided information about the artists. He even emphasized and repeatedly explained the parts that needed attention.
“The kids are all nice. There isn’t a single member who oversleeps and needs to be woken up. Instead, if the kids go somewhere, either I or you, Daeyeon, must be with them. I’ll mainly be in charge during the adjustment period, but since it’s the end of the year, individual and group schedules might overlap, so please keep that in mind in advance.”
Pyeong Daeyeon carefully jotted down the points Im Chanyoung mentioned on a piece of paper. Then his gaze fell on Kim Iwol’s photo on the same page.
“This… Mr. Kim Iwol is the eldest, right? Along with Mr. Choi Jeho.”
“That’s right. I’ll also briefly tell you about the members’ descriptions and preferences. We still have some time before the kids finish their morning practice.”
Im Chanyoung, after checking the time, took out a new printout of the PowerPoint for himself. The two of them opened to the same page and began the ‘Full-scale! Spark Exploration Time.’