Season 3: Chapter 265. Spring (3)
"Yes, see you next time, Manager Koo."
Click.
Ju-Hyeok ended the call and briefly reminisced about the past. An incident involving Manager Koo came to mind about four years ago. When Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon were still fresh newcomers, all the employees craved praise from their superiors and did whatever they could to catch someone's eye when the passion of being a new employee could still support their slumped shoulders.
"Hey, you did almost half of it, didn't you? Why is he getting the praise? You should complain."
"Do you live for compliments?"
"It's not just about the compliments... It all gets reflected in the evaluations."
Ju-Hyeok was trying to persuade Sang-Hyeon, who kept shaking his head in the long office hallway. This commonly happened among new recruits divided into informal cliques and factions. They offered advice or sometimes took credit for each other’s work.
"I know it gets reflected."
"Then why are you doing this?"
"Because if I push further, the situation will only get worse."
"What?"
Ju-Hyeok couldn't understand the situation back then. Since his department was also involved in the issue that Sang-Hyeon was caught up in, he found it hard just to stand by.
'Gosh, this frustrating guy.'
Ju-Hyeok felt anger welling up inside him. Just as he was about to step toward the people laughing ahead of them, Sang-Hyeon doused his anger with cold water.
"... I just lost."
"What?"
Lost? What did he mean lost? In this project, Sang-Hyeon played a decisive role.
"How did you lose?"
"Just... everything."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm a high school graduate, a nepo recruit, not good at work, lacking social skills, and it doesn't get reflected even when I do well. I've never really won."
Sang-Hyeon seemed completely indifferent. He thoroughly accepted defeat no matter the nature of the contest, even if it was internal office politics.
"Ha."
Back then, Ju-Hyeok thought Sang-Hyeon was just a burnout. Someone who had given up.
"Do as you like."
However, he was wrong. Sang-Hyeon was sincere about competition. Even when the situation was reversed, he remained consistent. Time passed and they ended up working in the same team.
"Why should we?"
Sang-Hyeon spun his chair around, looking puzzled when asked to vouch for another team.
"Well... the marketing team took some losses because of us. You know Manager Koo, right?"
"I never learned to do that from Manager Koo."
"... What?"
"Manager Koo lost to our manager. He'll understand soon enough."
"..."
Click.
Ju-Hyeok recalled their previous long corridor conversation as Sang-Hyeon lightly organized his documents and left work.
'Back then...'
The silhouette of a subordinate walked ahead. That person was Manager Koo, then Assistant Manager Jin-Mo.
"Got it."
Ju-Hyeok understood. After transferring to the marketing team, Ju-Hyeok didn't initially think highly of Manager Koo.
'Did he teach him that?'
No matter how much he tried to see it negatively, Manager Koo was a good person.
'Huh? Is he actually... decent?'
Firstly, Manager Koo had no flaws in his character. Secondly, Ju-Hyeok was always a winner, whether it was his social skills or competence. He never had any issues with Manager Koo.
Regardless, Sang-Hyeon never cared for losers since meeting Manager Koo. He was cold as ice even to himself when it mattered. That was Sang-Hyeon at Ah-Sung. Perhaps he was even more so like that before.
He made many enemies with that attitude, but one day at a drinking party Sang-Hyeon said, "If I didn't do that, everyone would've looked down on me."
By doing that, he received less hate. Ju-Hyeok's eyes were fixed on the phone number of his former department. He had just spoken to Manager Koo.
‘Koo Jin-Mo...'
What kind of person was he when he was a newcomer?
***
When Sang-Hyeon woke up, Pang was still snoring beside him. His pillow was soaked with sweat despite it being winter.
"Did I have a dream...?"
It was always like this after dreaming about her. He couldn't remember after such a deep sleep. Sang-Hyeon got up and checked the time. It was 10 A.M. Normally, he would have been alarmed, but saw the announcement in the group chat.
[Chi-Seung: Today is a holiday]
They had no training today and could rest freely. He was about to get out of bed, but lay back down to check his other messages.
[Ju-Hyeok: Are you okay? I came by, but you were sleeping. Make sure to see the doctor tomorrow.]
[Ju-Hyeok: Hey, when are you waking up?]
[Ju-Hyeok: Message me when you wake up.]
Ju-Hyeok had sent three messages indicating he had something to discuss. Sang-Hyeon replied, [Why?] before checking other messages.
[Hyeon-Ju: Your game was crazy!! Everyone in our class is going wild!]
[Dong-Su: The pride of Hugye! Yu Sang-Hyeon!]
[Soo-Hyun: Yu Sang-Hyeon has made it~]
The archery club members messaged him too. The Korea-Japan match had garnered nationwide attention, so almost everyone knew about it. Even people from his old workplace sent messages.
'Huh?'
One message made Sang-Hyeon's eyes tremble.
'So-Yeon?'
He shook his head and looked again.
[Soo-Hyun: Yu Sang-Hyeon has made it~]
It was Soo-Hyun, one of the archery club members, not the deceased Han So-Yeon.
"... Ah."
Had anyone ever experienced that? Looking at the clock in a half-asleep state only to realize later that they had completely misread the time? Or dreaming repeatedly until they could no longer distinguish dreams from reality?
Some people would try to fall back asleep to continue a pleasant dream. In childhood, Sang-Hyeon had done that too, trying to go back to sleep just to keep dreaming. After a certain point, he never did it again. The pain of waking up and realizing it had been just a dream became too much.
'Time to get up.'
As always, he immediately got up once awake. He moved to the window. Staying in bed longer would mean falling back asleep and possibly dreaming again. The cool air would wake him up.
Clunk.
He opened the window and the cool air brushed against his cheek. It felt different than expected.
"... Oh."
Perhaps because it was Japan, the bitter winter air was gone. The air felt cool instead of cold. It felt slightly humid and soft. A tiny dandelion seed landed on his nose. Spring had arrived. This would probably prevent him from fully waking up from the dream. He stood there and felt uncertain, but suddenly shook his head vigorously.
"Blublublublu..."
A ridiculous sound escaped his lips as he desperately tried to wake himself up.
***
As seasons changed, many things changed too. Civil Empire undeniably became a popular game. Even if its popularity was fleeting this year, this was still significant. Embul announced server expansions to accommodate the influx of community members and the Korean branch of Civil Empire was rumored to be holding a performance bonus party. These were major changes worthy of social news coverage.
"What's up?"
Ju-Hyeok, seeing the half-asleep Sang-Hyeon, grew excited and showed him something.
"Look at this."
The screen showed Almond’s YouTube channel.
[Subscribers: 1.049 million]
Their views skyrocketed ever since the Fake National Team content and their subscribers now surpassed one million.
"We’re trending like crazy. Even international viewers are watching."
Each channel had its own characteristics. Some channels gained subscribers quickly while the views caught up slowly. Others saw rising views, but few new subscribers. Almond's channel was the latter. Usually, channels with fatigue-inducing, sensational content showed such patterns. Ju-Hyeok interpreted this as consistency.
Both Almond and Ji-Ah lacked the experience to establish a clear direction, resulting in various editing styles. Reactions varied, but Almond's reputation and incidents kept the view count steadily rising. Regular viewers mostly comprised of his livestream fans while casual viewers didn't significantly increase subscriptions. They had struggled to reach 500,000 subscribers.
However, the Fake National Team series changed everything. It was consistent and well-produced, enticing viewers to subscribe for the next episode. With the rising national team’s performance, the Fake National Team came out with a new episode for every match. With growing popularity and increasing subscription rates, Almond’s channel finally crossed one million subscribers after the Korea-Japan match.
"We might reach 1.3 million after the national team matches end."
Ju-Hyeok felt thrilled looking at the graph.
"Every channel is sending emails trying to book you in advance."
Major channels often featured popular celebrities in large project-based content. While such programs featured traditional celebrities over the past decade, around 50% of these programs included influencers from social media or minor channels. Almond would be treated like a star if he appeared on such shows because of his nationwide hero status.
"Even The Brilliant contacted us. Are they crazy? Hahaha," Ju-Hyeok laughed.
"What's that?"
"Don't you know The Brilliant?"
"No."
"It's the show where smart celebrities engage in brain battles."
It featured a format where participants got eliminated in each stage. Only the winners of the brain battles survived to compete in challenging games.
"... Oh?"
Sang-Hyeon felt intrigued and watched the video, which made Ju-Hyeok feel uneasy.
'No way. Is he considering it?'
Sang-Hyeon strangely trusted his brainpower.
Click.
"Hey? Why did you turn it off?"
"Nothing."
"... Why turn it off?"
"I said it's nothing."
"Tsk..."
Sang-Hyeon looked somewhat dejected.
"Ahem."
To change the mood, Ju-Hyeok showed him the next thing.
"Forget about The Brilliant. Look at this."
The spreadsheet displayed their sales Ju-Hyeok had been wanting to boast about since the previous evening.
"Ten, hundred, thousand... What?"
Sang-Hyeon felt shocked.
"Is this really from merchandise sales?"
"It's just from your merchandise. We get 100% of this!"
Ju-Hyeok grew excited about the money and stood up with his hand raised.
Clap!
Sang-Hyeon high-fived him without thinking. The amount made it impossible not to. They looked at each other and began fantasizing.
"Where should we go? Book every real estate appointment along the Han River. Grandma always said men should live with a river view."
"I'm heading to meet Elon Musk. Dad always said to meet famous people first."
Their eyes sparkled with hope even though they couldn't afford a decent place along the Han River without taking on debt and meeting Elon Musk would be more feasible by luck. However, they dreamed of a future.
"This is just from my merchandise? How much is it all together?"
Despite not reaching the wealth of true billionaires, the amount allowed them to dream. Sang-Hyeon's smile faded a bit.
'Is it about 1.5 times more?'
Almond's merchandise accounted for 75% of the national team’s total merchandise sales.
'I expected it to be about four times more.'
Although he didn't have high expectations, he didn't think the difference would be this stark.
"Well, the recognition is still lower. We need to work on that. Anyway, it's not like we're splitting it."
"Yeah, right."
For Sang-Hyeon, it wasn't about the money but rather the focus on him in the national team. The best player would naturally be in the spotlight. He also learned this from his archery days, but Civil Empire was a team sport.
"..."
Sang-Hyeon remained silent as he thought of their collective hard work.