Chapter 211: To Reach for the Stars, or to Become One (3)
TL: emptycube / ED: Isleidir
The elevator went up from the basement.
As we passed the third floor, I heard people gulp around me. I thought that we would go directly to the CEO’s office, but the elevator stopped on the fourth floor. And people poured in.
“Water! Someone get me some ice!”
“Dokyung, get it together!”
That moment, I wondered if I was in an ambulance instead of an elevator. Two managers held both arms of a woman who had collapsed like a corpse. They were pretty much dragging her in. Her disheveled, curly, red hair shook.
“Let go of the bottle! Get it together!”
“I’ll only be able to get it together once I drink some!”
Lee Dokyung shouted while holding the neck of a bottle. It was vodka.
They definitely looked fine at the airport.
It wasn’t only Lee Dokyung. The other actors were wrecks as well. Yoon Sangah was wailing while tears and snot ran down her face. Jang Yohan was puffing smoke with a pale face. Managers and staff were doing their best to comfort them.
It was a mess. If someone saw this, they would this they were at a rehab center than an entertainment agency.
Lee Dokyung, who finally lost her bottle of vodka, flailed about.
“Give it back! Give it back!”
She fell on the floor and ended up just lying on it. She wasn’t an actress. She was completely wasted.
“Move.”
A man in his early forties wearing a suit with no tie pushed others out the way as he approached.
He was the Team 1 Leader, whom I had greeted only on occasion. He received the bottle of vodka from a manager and downed it instantly. Then he filled with ice water an employee brought over and handed it to Lee Dokyung.
“Here. Now bring them up.”
Lee Dokyung was dragged off by the managers.
Soon, the Team 1 Leader snatched the cigarettes from Jang Yohan’s lips and gestured with his chin. Another manager took Jang Yohan away. The only one left was Yoon Sangah. He approached the now sobbing Yoon Sangah. Taking a drag, he said,
“Stop crying. It’s not like we didn’t expect the press’s reactions.”
“Team leader, I-I can’t breathe. Let me go to the washroom and calm down.”
“Okay.”
Yoon Sangah was brought downstairs by her manager. The lounge finally became quiet. Belatedly coming to their senses, employee rushed to greet the Team 1 Leader. He nodded while walking towards me. No, not to me, but the trashcan behind me.
After throwing the cigarette butt in the trash, he said to the Team 3 Leader,
“How have you been?”
“It’s been fine here.”
The Team 3 Leader evasively replied. The Team 1 Leader suddenly smiled before turning to me.
“I heard about your news of your success, but I couldn’t congratulate you. Shall we have drinks some time?”
“That’d be great.”
Nodding, the Team 1 Leader went upstairs.
The lounge was chaotic after the storm had passed. Everyone was busy trying to predict what was going on in the CEO’s office. I went up to the fifth floor. The PR Team was on the battlefield. Team Leader Park and her employees were shouting into their phones.
I went into my office and turned on my computer. The actors’ names were all over the real-time search rankings. Especially Lee Dokyung. She was an actor who stood at the peak in the country before going to the US, so people’s reactions were more heated.
It looked like it’ll be noisy for the next few days.
While I was reading articles, my door suddenly burst open. This time, it was Chief Lee Bongjoon.
“Uh, I think you should go downstairs.”
“Did Team 1 go down?”
“Only the actors. But Lee Dokyung, right now…”
“Did she flop on the floor again?”
“No, she got in a fight.”
In a fight?”
“With who?”
“With Son Chaeyoung.”
… What the heck was this all of a sudden?
She should be busy with drama shoots these days.
“They are downstairs?”
“Lee Dokyung and her don’t get along.”
“Is there anyone Son Chaeyoung gets along with?”
“Like very bad. Lee Dokyung flaunted a ton about how she was going to Hollywood.”
I tried to imagine Lee Dokyung, who caused a fuss while holding a bottle of vodka, and Son Chaeyoung together.
Then I gave up. It lowered my blood sugar.