Ex-Idol's Role Afterwards

Chapter 6: Tired and Anxious

Taejin stared at the screen. But, it would slowly blur up and fade from view as he would occasionally shut his eyes. Yesterday, he barely slept. He even went to bed early, too antsy to do his typical routine of watching TV or playing games, he still felt anxious. With that emotion in mind, he couldn't close his eyes until much later into the night.

Although he would normally be happy that a video featuring just him had over 80,000 views, Damin stupidly worried him more. This would never be the case if she didn't ask him on a whim whether or not he liked her. He has never been more self-conscious of her opinions of him since that night. Even the thought of him singing turned him off, filling him with the bad type of anxiety. With no way to relieve this anxiety, he barely slept and arrived at work with little energy. Sitting at his computers staring at boring characters made it easy to induce him in a sleeping spell.

At that moment, he heard the clicking sound of heels. His heartbeat rose and his eyes sharpened as he looked up. He stared as someone approached and as they passed by him, he gave a smile.

"Good morning, Ms. Han!"

The woman known as Han Eunsol, with straight jet black hair pulled back behind her ears and a somber appearance with dark makeup, slowed down and stared at him for a second before nodding and then continued to walk to her office. Han Eunsol is one of the major executives of the company and six years older than him. Not dealing with the grunt work like him, she however manages the flow of the creative works. Taejin, who currently would bow down to anyone more powerful than him, didn't mind that she would be of no use when trying to get a pay raise, but rather hoped that she would see him in a good light. It didn't matter who it was, as long as everyone saw him as a dependable, kind person, he would feel secure. Especially so as she was his superior's boss, thus, a friend of his previous CEO and is aware of his secret. The last person he would ever want to know if he was doing bad or not.

He glanced at Damin's cubicle and saw the top of her hair move slightly. Already nervous, he instead tried focusing on the work on hand. He will be meeting with multiple clients to go through the current stage of the projects since they become much more receptive whenever he was there. Tagging along the project team assigned to them, he would just make sure they are heading in the right direction while appeasing the main boss. Clicking through the pages as he alternated between tapping his feet, he waited until it was time for him to leave with the team.

"Cheers!"

A group of office workers in white cheered along with the two elites in black. Taejin quickly turned his attention to Shin Moohyun, the client he met up up with multiple times to get the contract.

"Sir, it's a pleasure to see you in a casual setting. Seeing you here, I believe you must be pleased with the project." He smiled at him, lowering his shoulders slightly.

Shin Moohyun looked like a slim older gentleman, similar to those of butlers in old movies. His light gray hair was combed back and he wore thin frameless rectangular glasses. However, as the uncle of the current CEO of his company and the brother of the previous CEO who stepped down in recent years, he was quite arrogant. Although he has experience and has done some work to improve his company, he was never a driving force. Not wanting to be outdone by his own nephew, he was very meticulous in this project. However, when things weren't done his way, or were off, he got annoyed.

"Hm. It's been going well." He lifted the handle of his tea cup and brought it to his lips. "Though, I must admit that some of the employees do underperform. I do not believe I am asking for so much. We are paying a lot, so I see no problem in asking for a bit more effort."

Taejin nodded, his eyebrows lowered slightly as he let out a sound of agree,ent. "Ahh... yes, of course there's no issue in asking for more. It's our policy to work with our client as closely as possible in order to get the best results from both of our work. You know, Kim Gunwoo, the team leader, has been working really hard on project managing with the filming company to suit your needs. And our writer, Song Yulhee, is tweaking everything that we've been over in the meeting so that it fits the company's image better. The last thing the team wants to do is disappoint you, so they have wholeheartedly taken your advice and, since they're really good at their job, they're going to make the campaign even better. I've seen them improve for a few years, and I can tell that they improve every project."