|Weak Hero| Dawn Na

Chapter 22

"Sinma Entertainment," Orion skimmed through the information he had gathered. "They're a bunch of shady bastards. A lot of bands with them have never received transportation fees or extra pay from ticket sales, not because they refused to accept them, but because Sinma refused to give it to them,"

"They have to give it to them!" Dawn signed angrily. "It's Slam's money, not Sinma's!"

"Sinma was the one who requested it, but it's supposed to be given to Slam," Orion agreed. "They've been selfishly pocketing all that extra money for themselves," He tucked the papers back into the envelope. "Don't worry about it, Dawn. I'll have a talk with Sinma. Hyunjin's family and I hate it when people mistreat my family,"

XXX

"I heard the gist from Jinwoo," Shin said. "We're terribly sorry that you don't feel like you've been compensated for all your hard work. First of all, we completely agree that the areas where the band thinks are irrational need improvement. We should have done a better job for you guys. We'll do our best to ensure that we have a positive relationship for many years to come. I hope you'll understand and give us some time," 

"The thing is...we heard that the venue paid travel expenses for the Songdo gigs and have us a raise for weekend ticket sales," Sangman brought up. "And it's hard for us to manage our expenses with the amount that we receive right now,"

"I hear you. It's a tough time for indie bands," Shin put on an obviously fake smile. "I'm aware that artists need to be compensated appropriately to ensure top performance. But working with us, Sinma ensures fabulous advertising, so hang in there!"

"Hang in there?" The door opened and Orion entered with a pissed off expression. "What a lousy company. Instead of telling them to 'hang in there,' you should immediately fix the problem and give them the money you owe them,"

"We'd like to get our bonus pay for travel expenses and weekend ticket sales," Jinwoo agreed with Orion.

"Ah...I wish we could, but the rates are fixed in your contract—"

"Rates don't include the bonus pays," Orion interrupted him. "Rates are only the general pay from concerts. The bonuses all belong to the band,"

"If the contract's the problem, it can be changed," Jinwoo added. "It almost sounds like you don't want to,"

"Oh, that would create issues for our other bands who have a standard agreement with us. Unfortunately, the system we're working with doesn't allow us to help you out there. We're really sorry about that. I promise we'll work extra hard for you guys, though,"

"Bullshit," Orion scoffed. "You've worked with multiple bands prior to Slam, yet you made this mistake? And you're refusing to fix this mistake? The system your working with doesn't let you help? What a load of bullshit," 

"Who the fuck are you anyway?" The manager stood up and tried to intimidate Orion. "You just barged in here when you have no business with us! We should call the cops on you for trespassing!"

"Go ahead," Orion dared.

"So what you're saying," Hyunjin spoke up. "You can't improve the terms of our contract or pay us more. Or rather, you won't do those things. I'm sick of this bullshit," He stood up and headed for the door. "I tried my best, Jinwoo. I quit,"

"Hyunjin!" Orion chased after him. "Hyunjin, are you sure you really wanna quit? I thought it was your dream,"

"Sinma is a bunch of scammers," 

"Then what if Slam leaves Sinma?" Orion suggested. "There are a lot of other agencies that aren't con artists. Or you guys can perform without one like you used to do,"