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Chapter 160: The Art of Negotiation
Translator: Enuma ID
-Sergeant Kim, looks like the Battalion Commander's gonna come out on patrol during the boys' night guard duty today?
-Is that so? I'll get everything squared away right now.
The kind of company that does well a hundred times but slips up the one time someone's watching, a no-good company.
The kind of company that half-asses it a hundred times but nails it the one time someone's watching, an ace company.
Е̃nu m̀ а́
To survive in the military, reading the room was essential.
-There was a lot of shouting coming from the Battalion Commander's office today. Seems like something bad happened....
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-Yeah? Then he'll be patrolling.
Gathering intel and preparing to gauge the mood of the direct superior one served was basic stuff for a company commander.
-2nd Company is excellent. The boys stand their watch properly. Good work.
-Loyalty!
W̊е̂ b̈ǹӧvě ĺ Е̌ n ũ.m̃ а̄
Because we prepared in line with the pattern of our Battalion Commander, who loved to spring surprise inspections on the unit whenever something bad happened, our company never once got caught off guard by a sneak attack.
Of course, golden tips like these don't just come out of nowhere. It was essential to build a rapport from peacetime by quietly slipping the driver, the one person able to observe the Battalion Commander's every move, drinks or snacks and the like.
-What are you scheming?
-How'd you know?
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-If I want to know something, I can find out anything. What is it? Just give me a rough idea, come on.
-N...no can do. This is a real secret project.
Èn ŭ ḿ а.
-Hmm....
The Content Team's behavior, which I'd found suspicious from the moment we arrived in New York.
The way they were fussing over us to a strange degree, running around looking for anything extra they could do for us, was extremely fishy.
On top of that, a few of the original members of the Content Team had been recruited by me and would secretly leak information my way, but this time they insisted it was absolutely off-limits and ran away the second they saw me, of all things.
"That's what made it suspicious."
"So you stole the card?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Tsk tsk, I didn't steal it, its storage location simply changed."
"Isn't that a textbook criminal's line?"
"So you're going to make it back to the original lodgings on your own, then?"
"...."
When I explained why I was holding the company corporate card that Raon PD had been carrying, Seo Ryu-jin showed no gratitude and tried to slander me instead.
But to my question of whether she'd refuse to use it and get back on her own strength, she couldn't offer a single word in reply.
Ẃ е́ b̊ṅo v̊ e ľ Е̇ n̆u m̌а
In the first place, the fault here lay largely with the Content Team and Raon PD.
After all, if they were going to act that suspicious, I had no choice but to prepare accordingly.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
-Raon-nim... if I don't drink a Coke, I can't film anymore! Please, give me a Coke!
-Ugh, fine. But don't go alone, take Yun-sik and Ji-woo with you and buy drinks for yourselves and for the staff too.
-Thank you!
The corporate card she'd handed me during filming, telling me to go buy drinks whenever.
Е́ nu̇m̌ӓ .і̇d̄
I hadn't stolen it. She'd merely "forgotten" and handed me my own personal card, which looked similar, by mistake.
Isn't that a common occurrence?
For example, it was a trivial mistake, like accidentally grabbing an umbrella from the umbrella stand on a rainy day because it looked similar to the one you brought.
And just because the corporate card had unintentionally fallen into my hands didn't mean I could simply not use it.
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"The film crew should definitely be somewhere around here?"
"They're probably in an emergency meeting."
En̂ ú m̌ а
And the Content Team, now that they'd learned of the card's existence, was probably holding an urgent meeting right about now.
No doubt agonizing over how to wrest the card back from me and restore the content to its original plan.
"Waiting around to give the enemy time to respond is the worst of the worst strategies."
"Got a plan in mind, Commander?"
Honestly, the easiest method would've been to trust the card, hop in a taxi, and head back to our original lodgings, but I had no intention of resolving this matter with such a complacent approach.
"Operation name: Venus Flytrap."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Venus Flytrap?"
The plant called the Venus flytrap was extremely peculiar.
A plant that eats meat is fascinating enough on its own, but astonishingly, to lure in its prey, the insects, it apparently gives off a fragrant scent that insects love.
Thanks to that, the insects, even knowing they'll be devoured, have no choice but to dive right into the Venus flytrap's mouth all on their own.
"We don't go to them, we make them come to us."
Raon PD was about to learn something.
Еnum̂a
That a card is not something to carelessly hand off to others.
"You all worked hard filming, right?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Lee Si-on, what are you scheming this time?"
"We came all the way to America, it'd be a shame to just go back."
The music video filming schedule had been grueling enough to rival the three-day march we'd just been through.
Normally, even in the military, it was an unwritten rule to grant downtime as a reward after tough training wrapped up.
Ẃ e bn̆о v̄ ẽ ľ Е n u m̌ а̊
"Shall we start by ordering some room service?"
Since we'd finished filming yesterday and slept like the dead before waking up, I was hungry, so I decided to start things off light with some room service.
***
"PD-nim, what do we do about this?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"First, what are the members' demands?"
"Well... I think it'd be best for you to call them directly. We can't exactly not film, so we've been chasing after them, but they keep refusing, saying there's no negotiation unless it's with the Commander."
Е́ n̄ u m̀ а
"That's Lee Si-on, isn't it?"
"Yes...."
Haaa....
A sigh slipped out of Raon all on its own.
'This idiot!!! How could I forget the corporate card!'
While the members and Content Team had left for Connecticut, 100km from New York, Raon had planned to sleep soundly at her own lodgings, wake up, and enjoy a leisurely tour of the city.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Visit that cozy café she'd stopped by before, and do some shopping if time allowed.
Worn down by company work all this time without a moment of leisure, Raon had been giddy at the thought of treating it like a sort of vacation and finally having some long-awaited personal time.
But,
-We've got a huge problem!! The members have the corporate card!
It all turned into a midsummer night's dream.
Raon, who had thought she'd sleep in, get up late, and have a light meal, was still in a daze after taking the call from Content Team leader Lee Hak-yoon.
W е̊b̌ n̂ ǒ vе l Е̌ ñ u m а̀
Lee Si-on, who had been pestering Raon yesterday, going so far as to put on aegyo for once, begging for a Coke. [TL: aegyo refers to a cutesy, charming display of affection meant to win someone over.]
Only belatedly did Raon realize she'd been played by Lee Si-on.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
'What kind of idol member swaps out a corporate card!'
After hearing Hak-yoon's story, Raon hurriedly pulled out her wallet to check, and was dumbfounded to see Lee Si-on's debit card sitting right there in the spot where the corporate card should have been.
Who could have ever imagined there'd be an idol who swaps cards?
This was less Raon's fault and more a problem of Lee Si-on committing acts outside all standard parameters.
W е b n̄о v е̇ l̂ Ê_n̄ùm.ӑ
'Fine, let's do this! You think you're the only one who can play dirty, Lee Si-on?'
Determined not to let Lee Si-on seize the initiative like this, Raon immediately took out her phone, found Lee Si-on's saved contact, and placed a call.
And the call was answered as though she'd been waiting for it.
"Hello."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Hello? Lee Si-on, you're really going wild, huh?"
"That was an awfully polite greeting for the head of the villains who sold us off to Connecticut."
Е̌ňů m̂ а́
"What?"
"To think you'd hatch a scheme like this while my members and I were exhausted from fatigue... it broke my heart so badly that I had no choice but to heal it with steak."
"Steak? Hey! Stop that right now!! If you stop here, I'll forgive everything!"
"You know room service, PD-nim? Money really is the best. To think you can lounge around a hotel room and order steak."
"Wh... what? Room service?!"
Raon was horrified.
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To think she'd ordered room service, where even an ordinary drink costs as much as a full meal, the very room service Raon had considered a waste of money even back in her active days, the words from Lee Si-on left her mind reeling.
-Looks like you didn't go to America to shoot a music video so much as to actually enjoy yourselves.
When the image of CEO Kim Sang-hyeok's icy glare, once he eventually saw the statement, flashed through Raon's mind, she felt she couldn't just sit by like this.
"Hey! I've got your card too! I'm gonna use it right now, you hear?"
"You know something?"
"Know what?"
Еn̂ u m а̂.і̌d̊
The thing was, Raon was holding a card just the same, so she tried using it as a weapon to make the same threat right back.
But,
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"I don't have any money."
"What? I know full well you got your settlement payout not long ago?"
"Money, as an object, only stirs up greed when you hold onto it. I spent all of that ages ago."
"This crazy...."
W̊ӗbñ ӧ v̇ е l̊ Е̄ ñ u mа
A curse slipped out of Raon's mouth before she could stop it.
She distinctly remembered Lee Si-on receiving a fairly hefty settlement, but Lee Si-on's claim that she'd already spent it all and had no money, so go ahead and use the card yourself to check if you don't believe me, didn't sound like a lie.
Hooo.
A do-or-die crisis.
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Taking a brief deep breath to stay calm and collect herself, Raon got her head straight and thought.
In a situation where only the opponent's hand held the asymmetric power of a nuclear bomb, a head-on fight was impossible.
Е̃ n̊ u m̊a. id
"...What is it you want?"
That left only negotiation.
"Now we can finally have a proper conversation."
At Raon's question of what she wanted, Lee Si-on's voice carried a satisfied tone, the kind where you could feel her pleased expression even through the phone.
Raon figured that if content-destroyer Lee Si-on had wanted nothing at all, she wouldn't be taking the call and conversing like this.
If that had been her intent, she'd have ignored the calls and gleefully gallivanted about using the corporate card, or, as Hak-yoon had predicted, just taken a taxi back to the lodgings.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"From here on, we're planning to swipe the card and explore Connecticut."
"Explore?"
"There was a really fun movie a while back, do you happen to know a film called 'Catch Me If You Can'?"
"You...."
Lee Si-on, naming a movie title out of nowhere.
But even without hearing the rest, Raon could tell what Lee Si-on was getting at.
W̄ е̌ ḃ ńо v̄ е̄l En u̇_m̌ а̂
Catch Me If You Can, the comedy crime film based on a true story starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
That fairly famous movie was the story of a detective chasing a protagonist who runs con schemes all over the world while disguising himself in various professions.
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"We won't be going to you, you'll have to catch us."
Originally, the purpose of this self-produced content had been to capture the members enduring all sorts of hardships and missions while making their way back to New York from a faraway place.
But Raon was dumbfounded by Lee Si-on's proposal to flip that completely around: a game of cops and robbers like they'd played as kids, where Raon would do the suffering as she chased the members.
"You'd better run real well. Because the moment I catch you, I don't care about the others, but you, Lee Si-on, I'll make you pay for sure."
Eǹu ṁ а̄.і̂ d̃
"Good luck."
Click.
Lee Si-on, who hung up after a parting cry of "Good luck."
Raon vowed she would not return to New York until she'd caught Lee Si-on and given that back of hers a good smack.
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***
"Thank you for your service."
Ѐñ u m а
"Wow!"
America really was the land of capitalism.
To think you could even pay the tip by card. In Korea it would've been a shocking thing.
"When in America, follow American law."
I gladly paid the outrageous 15% tip.
Watching this, Lee Ga-hyun was alarmed and tried to stop me, but it was fine.
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It wasn't as though I'd pulled this off without any thought.
"Hey, aren't we going a little too wild?"
"It's fine. The moment we started, there was no turning back anyway."
Still worried, it seemed, Lee Ga-hyun kept voicing her anxieties even though she'd already joined in.
The memory of Lee Ga-hyun's bewildered face earlier, when I'd plopped down an order for room service at the hotel, was vivid.
Maybe it was because of the memory of the coup I'd staged against her before?
W е̂.bn̂ӧv е l Еň u̇ ḿа
It was just like Lee Ga-hyun to panic and get startled first whenever I said I was going to do something.
But,
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-Isn't it too much of a shame to come all the way to America and leave having done nothing but film?
-Well, that's....
-Once we get back to Korea, forget America, we'll be so swamped with activities we won't even have time to breathe. We'll probably board the van after the schedule ends, close our eyes, and think.
Ah, if only I'd acted a little more freely back in America, it would've been fun.
Ẃ е̄ b n оv e̊ ĺ Е n û m̃а̂
And if some accident happened and we collapsed and faced death, we might end up regretting it on a hospital bed.
You don't want to come to the birthplace of McDonald's and leave having worked the whole time without even getting to eat McDonald's, right?
After I'd persuaded her just a little, Lee Ga-hyun was, before I knew it, leading the charge out of the hotel room ahead of every other member.
However,
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"Lee Si-on! Let's go back to the original content even now, mmph!!!"
Seo Ryu-jin had a personality that stuck stubbornly to principles in the strangest places and wouldn't be won over by my persuasion, so I'd mobilized the other members to subdue her.
W ё b̊ n̆о vèl Е.n_u.mà
"Try some of this, Ryu-jin the best! The fries are super tasty, the birthplace really is different, I'm telling you?"
"Yuri! Why are you being so cooperative with Lee Si-on today? And Ryu A-yeon, why are you listening to Lee Si-on too!"
"Well, that's...."
Yuri on the left, A-yeon on the right, my left arm and right arm, each linking one of Seo Ryu-jin's arms in theirs to pin her down.
In Yuri's case, she'd loved pranks from the start, so content or whatever, she was thrilled at the thought that it'd be fun.
And in Ryu A-yeon's case,
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"A-yeon unnie! The Large Bacon Tomato Deluxe Burger meal you ordered is here!"
"...."
"Aaargh!!! Ryu A-yeon, all she's grown from hanging around Lee Si-on is her appetite!"
The Ryu A-yeon who, back in the Idol Ground 100 days, used to insist they couldn't eat stuff like this even at convenience stores was nowhere to be found, replaced by a New Ryu A-yeon whose appetite had grown by leaps and bounds.
Ryu A-yeon was definitely the one who practiced hardest among us, so her calorie burn must have been enormous, and with her meals being controlled too in the lead-up to the recent comeback, it seemed she'd been having a tougher time than anyone realized.
-Room service? No... I'll just have a salad.
Е n̄um̃а
-Ryu A-yeon, when you cut loose, you've got to cut loose properly to satisfy the craving. You're too clumsy at this. If you eat a salad now, the appetite inside you might just explode.
I'd only given her a little nudge with the steak I'd ordered from room service, and the monster of appetite had instantly erupted.
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She'd been the first to help subdue Seo Ryu-jin, and now she was even out to demolish a McDonald's burger meal.
"Look at this, Yun-kyung! It's a super cool-looking cup!"
"It really is! I want to buy this and use it at the lodgings."
"Then, shall we buy some for all our members too?"
E̊n u̇m̈ ä. і̆ d̀
"Hold on, then for the unnies' colors...."
Beyond that, the maknaes Shin-yu and Yun-kyung were dashing all over the streets sightseeing like they really had come on a trip, and now they'd ducked into some little variety store and were lost in a shopping frenzy.
The grueling filming schedule this time had clearly been hard for them to bear at their still-young age.
It was nice to see the kids who'd been spaced out and dazed during filming bounce back into their lively, energetic selves once given some free time to rest.
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"But Si-on the best, shouldn't we hurry and move somewhere else?"
"Hm?"
Е̊ n ům ӓ ..ì ḋ_
So as I was contentedly watching Seo Ryu-jin's struggling and Ryu A-yeon's mukbang,
Lee Ga-hyun's selfie frenzy and the maknaes' shopping, Yuri came over to me and asked whether we shouldn't get moving.
'Fair enough that she'd worry.'
And no wonder, since right now the Content Team was filming as they tailed us, phones glued to their ears.
No doubt reporting our location to Raon PD moment by moment.
But it was fine.
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"Let them come."
"Really?"
"The moment you're caught by the Zhuge Liang of Haan-dong, you're already in the palm of the Buddha's hand."
"Hahaha! Si-on the best, you sound like such an otaku!"
When I landed a finger jab in the side of the impudent Yuri, she started rolling around on the pavement.
'A fan... if only I'd had a fan, it would've been perfect.'
Еńu m а̃
An enraged Raon PD sprinting to come catch us.
That was the true beginning of the Venus Flytrap plan.
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*****
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