Chapter 96: Chapter 96

Baekhak Entertainment has an odd fixture: the CEO, who is suspiciously often seen in the lobby on the first floor.

His name is Baek Seung-won. Nicknamed the ‘Factory Manager’ (because he produces idols as if they were manufactured in a factory), his trademark is a white suit and black sunglasses.

Other characteristics include being somewhat prickly, overly sensitive, paranoid, and a workaholic, which leads to neglecting his family.

However, only the employees who are daily nagged by CEO Baek Seung-won are aware of his being somewhat prickly and neglecting his family.

To the hitchhikers traveling through the idol scene, abbreviated as ‘Idol-verse,’ CEO Baek Seung-won is just the ‘Factory Manager’ uncle in a white suit and black sunglasses.

Thus, there is no one in the Idol-verse who doesn’t know the Factory Manager.

Even those who curse at the news of Baekhak Entertainment releasing a new idol group, saying, ‘Oh, just some kids pretending to be stylish by gathering whatever trends are in vogue, huh,’ are ready to open their wallets as if they were brainwashed slaves.

Viewers are shocked to see CEO Baek, in his white suit on an idol competition program, saying, ‘You can fix a face and teach someone to sing, but you can’t correct their character.’

He was also a playwright who wrote his own plays. The words he spoke to his recently parted terminally ill girlfriend must have been a carefully polished masterpiece after long contemplation.

And indeed, it was a masterpiece.

Eun Byeol had never encountered such a courtship in any drama, play, theatre, or film before. His second confession was logically structured with a perfect beginning, middle, and end, each word showing signs of long deliberation, and above all, it was moving.

Perhaps it was because it possessed a sincerity hard to find in any work of art.

At this moment, in a downtown cafe, a man and a woman sat across from each other. The woman was terminally ill, and the man proposed to stay by her side until her last moment.

But Eun Byeol knew the man too well.

「What if I don’t die?」

The man’s face turned pale. Being smart, he must have understood the context of her words. And Eun Byeol turned her speculation into reality.

「What are you going to do if I don’t die soon and keep living for years, even decades, and cling to you from my sickbed?」

「The title of a man who stood by his loving partner until her last breath… That would be quite beneficial for your career, wouldn’t it? That’s so like you. Always planning ahead. It’ll definitely be a plus for your future in the entertainment industry. That kind of story won’t even let the ‘divorced man’ title become a minus. Quite a decent compensation for just a few months of taking care of someone sick.」

「Byeol, that’s not fair…」

「Forget it. I have no intention of bringing cameras into my hospital room for a touching farewell scene right before I die. Sorry, but I’m going to leave now.」

With that, Eun Byeol left the cafe alone, leaving the man with a soulless expression sitting there.

Yes. Eun Byeol knew him all too well.

He was too tender-hearted to marry a girlfriend with cancer and bear the burden of widowhood for the rest of his life. He would never be able to endure it.

So, she chose to cut ties.

Until recently, Eun Byeol, who had been keen on reuniting despite their breakup, now found it all meaningless.

The cancerous mass, not visible to the eye and confusingly attached to her body, had transformed Eun Byeol into a completely different person.

Love no longer held meaning for her.

Therefore, Eun Byeol’s cold decision was right in both scenarios.

Whether ‘he’ approached Eun Byeol for calculative reasons or genuinely wanted to be by the side of his slowly dying ex-girlfriend, her response was appropriate.

For Eun Byeol, love had become a value too trivial. Death had evaporated all her values. Love, as a biological instinct to leave descendants, is a desire overly glorified by too many artists.

Eun Byeol had no intention of clinging to the remnants of that desire until the end, nor did she plan to let ‘him’ spend the rest of his life clinging to that desire.

Thus, Eun Byeol believed that removing ‘love’ from her life was the best decision.

However, the slightly faded colors of the city’s landscape brought a peculiar worry.

What else must she let go of and send away in her remaining days…?

It was a profoundly human regret.

CEO Baek Seung-won wept alone in the house his wife and children had left, his head buried in the dining table for a long while.

Only when a page of the book got damp from his tears did CEO Baek Seung-won rub his eyes and stand up.

There are times when you must let go if you love.

That was why Baek Seung-won let go of his wife who requested a divorce.

Although the love had cooled decades ago, and they had been merely acting as a couple for the sake of their children, love between people isn’t always about desire.

There’s a love that’s infinitely close to responsibility. In corporate terms, it’s unlimited liability. CEO Baek Seung-won had to bear unlimited responsibility for his wife and children.

That’s why he decided on divorce.

Although the divorce papers were initiated by his wife, Baek Seung-won didn’t fight it and stamped his agreement because he believed it was the best decision for his wife and children.

After Baek Seung-won’s death, it would be too difficult for his wife to claim the inheritance. She wasn’t born into a chaebol family. She would have been torn apart by his cruel siblings. The law is not for people.

But if they divorced while he was alive, he could transfer half of his assets to his wife. And if he bequeathed his entire estate to his children, everything would be settled neatly.

It wasn’t a normal thing to contemplate, but he had no choice. Baekhak Entertainment was everything to him. The moment it was taken from him, he could no longer be normal.

Thus, Baek Seung-won slowly and carefully prepared for his end.

And occasionally, he read the book.

Baek Seung-won’s last reading session was on the day he decided to commit suicide in the Baekhak Entertainment CEO office.

After being diagnosed with a terminal illness, Eun Byeol, who had been shedding the now seemingly trivial values of life one by one, had become one of Baek Seung-won’s closest friends.

Both Eun Byeol and Baek Seung-won were preparing for death. Both were victims of a tsunami that had suddenly taken everything they had built in life.

Humans are such vain beings.

Everything built up over a lifetime could crumble so easily due to someone’s prank, like the sudden diagnosis of lymphatic cancer or the whims of a chaebol chairman…

In the face of such transcendental matters, everything seemed meaningless.

Decades of passion, dreams, efforts, love, people…

After stripping away everything and settling his affairs, Baek Seung-won opened a book in his final moment of reluctance,

Similarly, Eun Byeol also looked back on her life only in her final moments after letting go of everything.

Was there value in such a vain life?

This book, labeled as cliché by all sorts of critics, emitted a peculiar power in a moment.

「Time is not made of lines, nor planes, but solely of memories engraved in people’s souls.」

It might have been an insight hidden between the lines written by an author who had once tasted death,

Or perhaps it was acceptable to think that CEO Baek Seung-won, facing his death, was indulging in sentimentality.

Anyway, the book spoke its words, and the reader interpreted them in his own way.

「What keeps me alive is not some grand ambition to achieve something, but the humble companionship with the precious things I enjoyed day by day within it.」

「Even if those precious things are as fleeting as feathers that vanish into thin air, I realize that embracing them dearly is what life is about.」

「It’s the process, not the fruit, that holds meaning. Thus, human life is like a play. Joy, sorrow, success, failure, laughter, tears — all are part of the play.」

「Death is no exception.」

「So, the show must not stop. It must go on.」

「Death may be the end of my play, but it is not the entirety of it.」

The novel ends with Eun Byeol’s monologue as she returns to the theater.

But Baek Seung-won continued to read something.

It was his own heart.

Baekhak Entertainment, as a corporation, was everything to CEO Baek Seung-won. His true life began with this company, and all his efforts and achievements were here.

But now he questioned,

Was this company truly everything to him?

Of course, Baekhak Entertainment contained everything of the human Baek Seung-won.

A system filled with the fierce desire to shine even if it meant creating talent where there was none.

A determined conviction to break away from the reality that those being filmed are touched, oppressed, and defiled by those holding the camera.

Economic achievements that made even the headquarters wary of a common good-for-nothing chaebol from side branch.

The power that makes even stars who are known by everyone bow their heads at the mention of his name.

The numerous colleagues who have shared life’s joys and sorrows together for decades.

All of this was encapsulated within the corporation of Baekhak Entertainment.

Of course, it all collapsed suddenly one day.

Baekhak Entertainment’s independence was destroyed, management rights were snatched away, department heads betrayed the CEO, and entertainers dreamt only of escaping the ominous atmosphere.

But regardless of the outcome, the splendid memories of Baekhak Entertainment, which once created beauty…

If those shining memories make the play of the person named Baek Seung-won beautiful…

If all these joys and sorrows are merely parts of a long play when viewed from afar…

So, if just by continuing to live, one can create another beautiful play…….

Baek Seung-won lifted his head.

“Is it okay for me to live……”

Through the window, the brilliant sunset pierced between the buildings, enveloping Baek Seung-won’s face.

Baek Seung-won, while always seeing this view, thought the scarlet of the slowly setting sun and the busy lives of the countless people below were truly beautiful.

Baek Seung-won stood at the window for a long time, admiring the world.

Until the scarlet twilight disappeared beyond the dark blue sky,

Until the brilliant lights of the forest of buildings chased away the night,

And until the sparkling of the cars flowing on the roads stretched out like the Milky Way,

He gazed at the landscape of this world for a long time.

And surprisingly, it was more beautiful than any artwork Baek Seung-won had ever seen in his life.

Of course, he knew that there was no real meaning behind those twinkles.

The warm glow of the sunset piercing through the buildings was just a ball of fire shining in the cold emptiness, and

The brilliant night view of the buildings and the cars rushing down the roads like shooting stars were just people going home after a night’s work.

But beauty wasn’t found in reality; it was found in the heart.

That beauty succeeded in healing CEO Baek Seung-won’s soul, even if just a little.

And because CEO Baek Seung-won was a strong person, he found the courage to stand up again in that moment of solace.

With a sigh that leaked out amidst a strange laugh, CEO Baek Seung-won got up from his seat.

It was already deep into the night. Time to go home. Because he had to go to work again tomorrow.

As he was packing up his things like always, he suddenly stopped and pondered something.

Then, he hung up the black suit on the hanger and picked up the white suit and sunglasses before moving on.

With steps lighter than the day before, heading towards tomorrow, just like the title of the book tucked under his arm.