Chapter 254 (1/2)

“I was a little early, so I decided I should go up after this.”

Maru showed him the coffee and the bun.

“Ok, let’s leave things at that. What brings you here?” Junmin then spoke to the lady wearing round glasses who was standing behind Maru. Maru also turned around and looked at the woman. It seemed that the two were acquainted.

“I’m here to invite you out to dinner, president.”

“What were you going to do if I had other plans?”

“But you don’t, do you?”

The woman approached Junmin with a smile. A weird tension seemed to form between the two, but it disappeared with Junmin’s smile.

“Fortunately, I don’t. Let’s go up for the time being. Oh, you should greet her. This is president Park Narim of NL company. This fellow is Han Maru and he’s a new actor under me.”

Narim then pushed down her glasses a little and looked at Maru. The round eyes behind the round glasses changed into a sharper expression.

“It sounds like you two haven’t entered a proper contract yet.”

Narim extended out her hand. The moment Maru shook her hand, he exclaimed slightly. Her hands were quite rough. People’s hands were a representation of the life they went through, and Maru could tell that her life wasn’t that smooth.

“My name is Han Maru.”

“I’m Park Narim. You have a good name. But I’m a little disappointed. It would have been good if you at least pretended to be surprised. I like that kind of stuff.”

“Pretend to be surprised?” Maru asked back after shaking hands. He did not know what she meant.

“Don’t you know NL Company?”

“I’ll have to apologize. I don’t know the structure of the companies around here.”

“Oh my word,” Narim chuckled. She didn’t seem to be in a bad mood.

“Looks like I’ll have to put more effort in the future. I’m a little disappointed that someone that’s about to join JA Productions doesn’t know what NL Company is. President Lee Junmin, don’t tell me he’s doing this to me on purpose?”

“This fellow probably really doesn’t know. In the first place, he didn’t start off as an aspiring entertainer. He was just a student up until a year ago. Though, he still is one right now. But hey, if you want the things you asked me for, you should try to give her a good impression.”

Junmin smiled and looked back at Maru. Maru thought about what that meant. Try to give her a good impression? The things Maru asked of Junmin were some tickets to TTO’s concert. Narim was the president of NL Company. It seemed that the president of the company behind TTO was Narim.

“Let’s go up for now.”

Junmin guided Narim. Taking the elevator, Junmin pressed the 16th floor. Maru was a little confused since he thought that they would be going to the 7th floor.

“Welcome,” a neat-looking man behind the counter greeted. It seemed that he was notified beforehand as he called for an employee as soon as he saw Junmin’s face. A lady wearing a neat uniform led their way with a smile.

The first scene they saw when they entered was the night scenery of Gangnam. The lights from the buildings and the cars made quite a spectacular scene. The tables had guests and the lady offered them to be seated at one of the closest tables to the window.

“You knew I was coming?” Narim asked in surprise.

“I was planning to have some dinner with this fellow here,” Junmin smiled back.

Maru thought that it was the right decision to not get a meal before meeting Junmin. A handsome staff appeared out of nowhere and pulled out Narim’s chair. Although only two sets of cutlery were prepared on the table originally, Narim’s set was prepared in a blink of an eye. From how the staff prepared all that without Junmin’s instructions, the amount of attention Junmin received could be seen. Well, he was the owner of the building, so it wasn’t that surprising.

Maybe power does come from money after all.

“Welcome.”

When the people clad in uniforms disappeared, a man with a well-built body appeared. He was wearing a different outfit to the servers in the hall. He seemed to be the chef here. His name was stitched on his chest.

“I wonder if I was interrupting you on your day off.”

“It’s your request, so I don’t dare ignore it. I would come even if I was resting at home.”

“You’re embarrassing me here,” the two seemed to be on close terms. Thinking back, Junmin was close to the owner of the restaurant in front of the Myungdong theater.

‘Is he interested in the cooking industry?’ Maru wondered.

Meanwhile, Junmin and the chef talked for a bit more. The topic of conversation was about the course menu.

“Well then, if you’d please excuse me,” the chef walked away after a polite remark.

“I’m envious. I’d like to receive such treatment from a restaurant like this too,” Narim smiled as she spoke.

“I think it’s about time you tell me what you came here for,” Junmin made his intentions clear and he stayed polite.

“You’re in a hurry. Can’t we leave that for later?”

Maru saw that Narim was giving glimpses to him. It seemed that it was business-related and she didn’t want an outsider here.

“I don’t have any time after the meal since I have a prior engagement with this fellow here,” Junmin did not relent.

‘A conflict?’ Maru had a look at the two CEOs in depth. JA Productions and NL Company. As he was not aware of the internals of each company so he did not know whether these two were in a symbiotic relationship or whether they were in a competitive relationship, but from Junmin’s attitude, it seemed that they weren’t as close as it seemed on the surface. The fact that he was giving her face despite that was probably because of the place they were in.

“Hm. It’ll be somewhat awkward to come back at a later date…,” Narim fiddled with her fork but eventually nodded after having made a decision.

“Since you called this fellow all the way here, it seems that he’s not the type of person to tell everyone secrets so I’ll say this here. It’s nothing special. It’s related to my kid participating in your movie this time.”

“You mean Ahn Sungjae from TTO?”

“Yes, Sungjae. From what I’ve heard, you haven’t started creating the movie poster yet….”

Narim did not finish her words and smiled. Even Maru, who was not related to this matter, realized what was going on. She probably wanted that idol from NL Company to appear on the poster.

‘Wait. She said ‘your movie’...?’

There was only one movie JA Productions was creating. Only then did Maru realize that there was an idol appearing in the same movie he was cast in.

“I’m not saying he should be at the front. You’re going to create many different versions of the poster for advertising purposes, right? I heard that each character gets their own posters with different fonts.”

“Hm, posters, you say.”

“Of course, the poster displayed in cinemas should be the ones with the main actors. However, I think it’ll be okay to create different ones for advertisement. Of course, the profit doesn’t just go to us. Once the advertisement starts after the movie is released, Sungjae’s fans will flock to the movie as well.”

“So you’re saying that you want a poster for those fans.”

“Yes. We’ll cover the expenses for that as well. It’s mostly for fan service and not for advertisement, so I don’t think the main actors will take offense from it.”

Narim stared at Junmin.