enjoyebooks Chapter 18 | Gossip in the Break Room & Old Classmates
Chapter 18 | Gossip in the Break Room & Old Classmates
As soon as the host announced the end of the meeting, the sound of chair legs moving on the floor seemed to release the tension, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Park Ji-eun closed the folder, turned to Cao Yisen and said, "Let's go back to our workstations first. Don't rush to digest this today; wait until you've had your first sip of iced Americano."
"This week's meeting is going to be pretty exciting, huh?" he replied in a low voice.
"You're new here, you haven't seen anything more exciting yet." She sighed. "This is just a warm-up."
They followed the flow of people out, and everyone in the corridor chatted in hushed tones. On the surface, they were reviewing the project, but the real content was written in everyone's eyes—Min Hee-jin's arrival today was sudden, and Han Sung-soo clearly had no intention of backing down. With this combination sitting at the same table, there was bound to be more drama to come.
As soon as Cao Yisen and his group returned to the planning department floor and entered the tea room, they heard someone talking excitedly inside.
"Did you guys see that just now? The way Director Min and Representative Han looked at each other was like they wanted to tear each other's proposal apart and start over."
"She's always been like this," another person said, "but let me tell you, she's also very controversial."
Park Ji-eun took a cup of water, glanced at Cao Yisen sideways, as if reminding him not to be too obvious. Cao Yisen nodded, standing beside her pretending to look at the buttons on the coffee machine, but his ears were certainly listening.
The colleague inside continued, "I was chatting with a friend yesterday, and he also said he disliked her. I thought he was just taking sides, but he directly told me, 'She's the reason GFRIEND can't make a comeback.'"
"That's ruthless?" someone gasped.
"My friend explained it very clearly." The person flashed his phone, as if there was a screenshot of a long article. "The gist of it is that her current team was originally a sub-brand under Sushi, but she kept dragging her feet. The debut group had already practiced enough to go on stage, but she was still hitting the deadline and saying she wanted to start her own business."
"and then?"
"Then, my girlfriend's side suddenly canceled the trip. My friend said that it seemed like internal resources were being taken away. Employees were poached, the team was split up, and many of the people who were originally serving my girlfriend later went to do things for her."
In the break room, someone lowered their voice and chimed in, "I've heard something similar. They say she took the staff away very efficiently, and in the end, the sushi section was almost empty, with only a few people left to keep it running."
"Yes, that's it." The man nodded. "My friend went even further, saying that the company might force senior groups to shut down in order to pave the way for the new group. You know, it's common to neglect seniors for the sake of juniors, but to actually shut down a group like this is a bit too much."
Another colleague hesitated, "But it can't necessarily be entirely her fault, right? Company decisions, contract expiration, business judgments—anything is possible."
"My friend didn't say it was just her," the person said. "But he said that judging from the timing, the flow of resources, and the whereabouts of employees, she was definitely involved. He also said that Representative Fang later wanted to form a new girl group with members from the limited-time group, but Director Min scolded him terribly."
Park Ji-eun filled the cup with water, gently put the lid on, and casually remarked, "For things like this, the outside world can always piece together a complete story. The truth inside is usually more boring and cruel than any story."
The tea room fell silent for a moment. Everyone seemed to have been touched on something, chuckled, and then lowered their voices.
Cao Yisen remained silent.
As he listened to these "anecdotal versions," he felt a strange sense of familiarity.
In his past life on Red Street, he had witnessed too many similar scenarios: for a project to take off, resources had to be concentrated; with concentrated resources, someone inevitably had to be sacrificed. Outsiders only saw the results, and thus began labeling each character—who was the genius, who was the villain, who was the scapegoat. But what truly determined the outcome was often something much colder: budget, time window, power structure, and distribution of benefits.
He also knew that people like Min Hee-jin were best at turning "direction" into "faith." This ability was a nuclear weapon in the industry; used well, it could make someone a legend; used poorly, it could burn everyone around them to ashes.
Han Shengshou, on the other hand, is a different kind of person, more like someone with an abacus and a schedule, who believes in execution and results. They are destined to be uncomfortable sitting at the same table.
Seeing that his cup was still empty, Park Ji-eun handed him a disposable paper cup: "What do you want to drink? An iced Americano? A latte? Or the black coffee that international students like you drink to look mature?"
"An iced latte without ice, please." Cao Yisen snapped out of his daze and took the cup.
"Were you eavesdropping on gossip just now?" she asked in a very soft voice, her eyes slightly amused.
"It wasn't eavesdropping," he said sincerely. "I was forced to receive it."
"Welcome to the entertainment company," Park Ji-eun said. "One of the KPIs here is: you have to learn to distinguish between facts, emotions, and fan wars within ten minutes."
Cao Yisen smiled but did not refute.
—-------------------------------------------------
Back at the hotel that evening, Cao Yisen loosened his tie, tossed his coat onto the back of a chair, and slumped into the sofa. He'd barely settled in when his phone vibrated.
Caller ID: Mike.
He stared at the name for two seconds, feeling inexplicably speechless. How could this body's previous social circle be so accurately tracked down?
He answered the phone, but before he could even say "hello," the other end launched into a rapid-fire barrage of questions.
"Hey bro! Sup!"
Mike's voice was bright and warm, "Bro! Where are you? The missing person finally answered the phone!"
It was already night in South Korea, and the traffic outside the window was sparse, with the lights looking like elongated lines of water. Cao Yisen was nestled on the sofa in the hotel, but on the other end of the phone, there was a different sound—a New York morning. Mike was clearly walking, and occasionally he could hear the sound of the wind and the mixed noise of a subway entrance.
Cao Yisen held the phone to his ear and said lazily, "I'm in Korea."
"Yes, yes, I know you're in South Korea."
Mike laughed so hard it looked like he was slamming his fist on the table. "I'm asking—where did you go after graduation? Dude, I thought you'd end up on Wall Street too, but you just vanished into thin air. Tell me, Morgan Stanley? Goldman Sachs? Or did you go off to become a big shot at some private equity firm?"
Cao Yisen couldn't help but roll his eyes, but the corners of his mouth still turned up slightly.
Why do people assume that everyone's final destination after graduation is the red-light district?
"No," he said.
"No?" Mike immediately got excited. "Then where did you go? Don't tell me you went to the back office to do the accounting, bro, don't waste your financial brain."
Cao Yisen paused for a second, as if considering how to explain. In the end, he simply threw out the most basic sentence.
"I went to an entertainment company."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.
What followed was a very classic, very American, explosive reaction:
"WTF?!"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Mike's speech quickened. "What did you say? An entertainment company? You mean...Hollywood? LA? You went to make movies?"
No, it isn't.
Cao Yisen casually added, "It's K-pop."
"NO WAY—"
Mike burst out laughing. "Bro, are you kidding me? You? You're involved in K-pop in Korea? The you who used to talk so confidently about group projects?"
People change.
Cao Yisen remained calm.
"No, this is going way too far."
Mike couldn't stop laughing. "So what are you doing now? Managing trainees? Being a manager? Do you dance? Are you already counting 'one, two, three, four' in the practice room?"
"Stop messing around."
Cao Yisen immediately interrupted, "I'm not a trainee."
"Thank God."
Mike let out an exaggerated sigh of relief, then immediately perked up again. "So what exactly are you doing? You're wearing a suit to a meeting, and then you're discussing the stage and cute girls? Bro, that sounds like something out of a novel."
Cao Yisen was too lazy to argue with him and simply gave a "summary in an English accent".
"It's basically operational support, data, planning, and a bit of overseas communication."
He said, "Essentially it's still data modeling, just in a different industry."
"Damn..."
Mike drawled, "Dude, you know what? Everyone I know is flocking to Red Street. Everyone treats it like a holy place. And you, you're going in the opposite direction."
Cao Yisen couldn't help but complain, "I also want to ask, why does everyone love the red-light district so much?"
"Bro, because the red-light district is the red-light district."
Mike immediately retorted, "Do you know how many resumes I sent out to get into investment banking? I practically wore myself out just for one interview."
"Congratulations," Cao Yisen said calmly. "You won."
"I won."
Mike paused, his laughter subsiding slightly. "You could say that. It's just...sigh, I'm exhausted. Every day feels like a battle."
Cao Yisen leaned against the headboard, his gaze sweeping across the Seoul night view outside the window. He suddenly found the conversation absurd. In his past life, he had fallen and bled in the red-light district; in this life, he was being teased by his older sisters at a company in Korea and being forced to listen to project proposals at weekly meetings. Both sides were noisy, busy, and hot, but at least for now he could still treat this "busyness" as life.
Mike asked again, "So you're really okay now? You're not hiding from some enemy, are you?"
Cao Yisen paused, his tone still casual, but now more serious.
"I just want to change my way of life," he said. "So far, it's not too bad."
"bro."
Mike's voice softened slightly. "If you ever come back to New York, remember to look me up. Let's grab a drink, it's on me. If you need anything, just let me know."
Cao Yisen chuckled: "Okay. If you ever can't stand working overtime and Excel, you can come to Korea, and I'll treat you to kimchi soup."
"Oh no!!
Mike immediately objected, "That soup looks like hell, I refuse."
"Shut up."
Cao Yisen smiled even more broadly, "I've recently started to think it's not so bad."
"You've really changed."
Mike sighed dramatically, "Okay, okay, bro, take care. Don't get held hostage by K-pop fans. Also—if you see any idols, send me a picture, okay? And get me an autograph while you're at it!"
"roll."
Cao Yisen was not polite at all
"Bro! Don't get excited."
Cao Yisen placed his phone on the sofa armrest and turned on speakerphone. He took a glass of ice water from the refrigerator, stared at the ceiling for two seconds, and muttered under his breath, "Why do all finance students see Red Deer Street as their final destination?"
He laughed after saying that.