chapter_0049

49 – Ah! What Good is Going to Work More!

49 – Ah! What Good is Going to Work More!

The Boss smiled brightly and stroked my hair.

“No. You don’t need to come.”

For a moment, I wondered if we were even talking about the same thing.

Don’t come? On the day of the broadcast?

“Are you telling me to rest after preparing everything?”

“The doctor clearly said you need absolute rest this week, so I absolutely won’t approve any weekend work. Stay home and rest.”

Come to think of it, the broadcast was on Saturday.

But, what does that matter?

I always worked regardless of the weekend.

The reason Team Leader in the Finance Team told me to reduce my working hours or he’d get caught was because I pretended to work from home while actually working as usual and submitting reports to the Boss’s email, with the Team Leader in copy.

I had informed Seungyeon of this fact, and she nodded, saying it was the right thing to do.

Since broadcasters are naturally busier on weekends, it’s only right that those of us who support them are also busy on weekends.

I folded the blanket I had been using and placed it on one side of the sofa, grumbling.

“I know I should rest, but I prepared for this for a whole week. It’s such a waste to just rest! I could come in and work for at least a day…”

The Boss didn’t answer, just stared at me.

She was being completely stubborn, and it didn’t seem like I could get through to her.

I said one thing and ran away.

“Down with dictator Momo!”

I thought she would follow me and flick my forehead, but the Boss didn’t even bother to get up.

Only I looked like a fool, having rushed back to my seat.

She really had an unusually dictatorial aura today.

Kang Team Leader saw me returning, panting, and asked.

“Jia, are you okay? Don’t run around too much, or you’ll collapse again.”

“I’m really okay now.”

“Still…”

First, I received a brief report on the progress of the work from Seungyeon.

Even if I had to leave early due to my health, it was only natural to check on the status of my junior who was staying behind in my place.

However.

“Is that all?”

“Yes. There were only one-hour broadcasts for each member for the past few days, so there’s not much to report!”

Surprisingly, nothing had happened.

Well, it was normal for nothing to happen in the report.

Everyone was worried about what would happen during the first 3D broadcast.

The showcase broadcast relay, which I watched while lying on the sofa in the Boss’s office, was very stable.

The RP was satisfactory, and the movements and camera work were clean, as if the kids had practiced a lot.

The reactions on cafes and communities after the broadcast were also decent.

Seungyeon was as addicted to online communities as I was, so she would have looked everything up without me having to tell her where to look.

“I’ll come in and take care of the pre-show monitoring tomorrow! I’ve been leaving on time all week, so I have plenty of overtime hours left.”

The online concert was being held at a large Motion capture studio that we rented anyway, and the first-generation members were taking care of the proceedings, so there was nothing for us to do.

In other words. There was really nothing to do.

Except for the pre-show tomorrow.

What was this bittersweet feeling?

“…No. It’s not bittersweet.”

If they’ve been broadcasting for about a year, they should be able to overcome mistakes and crises on their own. Yes, the first-generation members have all grown up wonderfully now.

Isn’t the result of that effort evident in the 3D showcase?

Or not.

As I packed my bag and put on my coat, the Team Leader asked.

“Are you leaving work now? The Boss told me to take you home today.”

“Ah, thank you. Team Leader, have you had dinner? What about Seungyeon?”

“We’ve all eaten. Are you hungry? Should we grab something on the way?”

The Team Leader has a family, so I felt bad taking up too much of his time.

But if I said I was going to eat alone, he would definitely stop me.

I should eat something simple and then order something else when I get home.

“Let’s just have some oden and garaetteok from the street vendor in front of the company.”

We took the elevator down and opened the heavy front door of the building, and whoosh.

It was mid-November, and there were many buildings around, so a sharp, cold wind was blowing.

In that situation, the broth with a hint of Cheongyang chili and the chewy oden were truly a match made in heaven.

Taking a bite of garaetteok soaked in oden broth, even though the wind blowing between my neck and legs was cold, this place was paradise.

My stomach felt better, my heart felt better, and my tension was relieved.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s really too much to tell me not to do something after preparing everything.”

“Ah… you mean the pre-show preparation?”

So, I poured out everything I had been holding back, unlike usual.

“Yes. We prepared for a whole week. And it’s not like we just prepared. We did it by squeezing in time when we both didn’t have any. I abandoned everything I was handing over to Seungyeon, and the Boss postponed all her meetings. But to tell us not to do it. Isn’t it such a waste? I don’t understand the Boss, who’s now trying to take the hard road when there’s an obviously good path.”

As I chattered on for a while, the Team Leader, who was listening, sipped the oden broth and smiled gently.

“Don’t take it too much to heart. Honestly, if I were the Boss, I would have been too worried to let you do it. Right now, I’m expecting about eighteen thousand people to watch the pre-show. You don’t have any experience hosting a broadcast. I’m worried you’ll be stressed and nervous. You already collapsed not too long ago.”

Even after hearing the Team Leader’s kind words, I still couldn’t understand.

I’ve been eating well and resting whenever I had the chance for the past three days. Surely I haven’t recovered yet?

I’ve already fully recharged, and I’m in a state where I can easily do anything if you just give me the task.

The Team Leader seemed to have noticed my dissatisfied expression.

“Should I mention it to her? To the Boss.”

“Oh. Really?”

The Team Leader said after a short groan.

“But I think you’ll have to offer something in return.”

“Offer…?”

“Well, you know she’s not someone you can persuade with emotions, right?”

“Ah.”

I agree.

As I’ve emphasized many times, she never lets anyone who doesn’t meet her standards go on air under the Parallel name.

During the interview?

There were really many people who talked about their family circumstances, their unfortunate situations, or their difficult environments and begged.

But the Boss didn’t budge.

She only looked at whether they had the talent, whether their mentality was strong, and whether they had the ability to continue broadcasting for a long time—in this regard, persuasion relying on emotions was actually a negative point for the Boss.

In other words, you must persuade her rationally, based entirely on logic.

What the Team Leader was asking for was the basis for that persuasion.

The reason why the Boss should allow me to appear on the broadcast even though I’m not in good health.

‘It’s definitely right for the two of us to do the pre-show together.’

The Boss suggested broadcasting together for the first time in her life.

She herself rationally judged that it would be more fun that way.

It would definitely help Parallel grow even bigger.

It’s too wasteful to give up after preparing everything.

But Lee Yura. Nothing comes to mind right now.

“Do you have any good ideas, Team Leader? I can’t think of anything right now.”

Kang Ji-ho Team Leader raised his eyebrows.

“If any method is okay, will you leave it to me? But I also need one conviction.”

“Conviction?”

“Yes, that’s the only way I can mobilize all the means I have to persuade the Boss.”

The Team Leader asked me something that was too obvious.

“Do you really want to do the pre-show with the Boss?”

It was needless to say.

“Yes.”

* * *

About an hour later.

Cheon Do-hee was about to leave work, having saved the script she had checked for the last time.

“Boss~.”

Cheon Do-hee was puzzled to see Kang Ji-ho Team Leader return.

“I thought you were going to be late. Why are you back…”

“I have something to talk about with the Boss.”

Kang Team Leader handed Cheon Do-hee the iced Americano with an extra shot that he had just bought.

Dohee cooled her forehead, which was hot from worrying, with the cold cup and muttered.

“Is Jia okay? Did she get home safe?”

“Yes.”

“The Team Leader was persuaded by Jia.”

“Oh my.”

Kang Team Leader widened his eyes, covering his mouth with his hand.

“Why are you so surprised? It’s obvious when I see you come back.”

“Well, I can’t lie. Hehe.”

“So? What did she say? Does she definitely have to go on air tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

Cheon Do-hee’s reaction that followed was beyond resolute, it was like steel.

“Tell her absolutely not. I was tempted by her desire to broadcast and unknowingly dragged Jia in, but now I’m regretting that I shouldn’t have dragged her in.”

“Hmm.”

“Everyone has their own area of expertise. I made a mistake because she’s so good at everything I ask her to do. It’s better to just keep Jia in her current position.”

Majiya was originally like that.

It started with the offer to meet in person because she had something to say.

The offer to become a manager, set standards, and clean up the malicious commenters.

The offer to quit being a manager and join the company I was starting.

The offer to manage the first-generation members’ chat rooms, just like when she was a manager.

The offer to monitor the first-generation members’ broadcasts and write broadcast reports.

The offer to take care of the broadcasting equipment and settings instead of the former team leader, who had caused a lot of problems and resigned after three months.

The offer to recommend some interesting content.

The offer to tell me about anything she knew because I was busy with work and broadcasting and lacked industry insights.

She granted them all.

She really couldn’t refuse.

It was as if she had a disease that would kill her if she refused.

And, the problem was that she didn’t just do what Dohee told her to do.

If the personnel manager asked her to help with interviews, she would help.

If another team was short-handed, she would go and help.

Then she collapsed from malnutrition and had already been to the emergency room once. That was last year.

At that time, Dohee went to each team leader and said.

Don’t keep asking her to do other things, let her focus on her own work.

She was originally a direct subordinate of the Boss in the operations team, but she became a real island after that day last year.

Anyway, after isolating her like that and making her focus on her own work…

This time, Dohee, the Boss, ended up collapsing Majiya herself.

Because of her own greed.

That’s why Cheon Do-hee can’t grant Majiya’s request.

If Jia collapses again, I’m afraid I really won’t be able to concentrate on broadcasting or work.

“Anyway, that’s the end of the story. Let’s go home.”

“Just a moment.”

However, Kang Team Leader came to this place to persuade Cheon Do-hee.

“What kind of existence is Jia to the Boss?”

“A gray area specialist, and a Virtual Youtuber alarm clock.”

Kang Team Leader burst out laughing.

“Puhuhu, I think I know what you mean.”

It would be nice if all the company’s tasks were perfectly distributed and everyone worked happily and went home.

In fact, that’s not easy even for fairly large corporations.

Every company has a gray area of work.

Tasks that busy people who are busy dealing with urgent tasks miss, but that someone has to take on, are piling up.

It’s fortunate if you notice that in advance and assign it to someone, but if you don’t, it often leads to a major disaster.

Majiya was the person who eliminated that gray area.

Majiya was the person who temporarily filled the position when someone suddenly resigned.

There were many tasks that she ended up doing continuously because they suited her.

Not only that.

After the kids debuted, she nagged Dohee like a real alarm clock.

Are you preparing the kids’ New Outfit?

Do you have a New Year’s event? What about Valentine’s Day? April Fool’s Day?

What about birthday events and merchandise? Are regular merchandise sales ready?

What about a large content for the vacation? Collaborations? Servers?

Komari is doing too much Naore these days, so we should start reducing it…….

Of course, about half of these were unfounded worries.

If we were missing all of this, the planning team would be fired immediately.

But the planning team is also made up of people, and there are so many things they have to deal with that they sometimes miss things.

Every time, Majiya’s alarm played a big role.

In fact, even though there were comments like ‘there are too many broadcasting issues’ in Parallel’s evaluations. It was hard to find comments saying that the merchandise was bad, the content was bad, or that the sense was completely gone.

Even if everyone was too busy to notice, the Parallel operations team’s monitoring manager, who was always a disgruntled viewer, would file a complaint several months in advance.

Anyway, Majiya is that kind of existence in Parallel.

Even if all the work doesn’t completely paralyze the moment she disappears, Parallel’s rapid advance will be temporarily stopped.

Unless you park it in a safe place and properly check whether there are any gaps in the work, the sails will break, the keel will break, or a hole will be made in the bottom of the ship before long.

“But, Jia is also a person, and she has desires.”

“…Keep talking.”

“What I mean is, Jia also has ambitions. Even though she seems content to just do what people tell her to do and support them. There’s definitely something she wants to do in Parallel.”

“That’s, this pre-show?”

“Yes. Jia seems to want to show people what she prepared with the Boss no matter what.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

The weight on Jia’s rest is usually so heavy that Dohee’s scale doesn’t seem like it will tilt back the other way.

But Kang Team Leader came here today with the intention of breaking not the weight, but the axis of the scale itself.

Well, she’s a pro who survived the many gaslighting incidents in the entertainment agency.

It wasn’t difficult to persuade the other party by exploiting logical loopholes.

“If Jia told the Boss to stop broadcasting because she collapsed once and she’s worried, what would you think?”

“….That’s not Majiya.”

Kang Team Leader smiled.

You’ve been caught, she said.

“That’s what the Boss is pushing on Jia right now.”

“Yes?”

“That’s right. If the Boss, who has been making Jia work comfortably because she collapsed once, suddenly stops giving her work. Wouldn’t Jia feel like the Boss has changed?”

“Uh. Um…. Uh?”

Cheon Do-hee(is) in confusion!

Kang Team Leader, who had been waiting for this moment, sighed as if she was in trouble and muttered.

“More than anything, how big is the sense of loss if you overturn a project that you worked so hard on? And look. You’ve already found a replacement. You’re telling her to reduce her working hours. You’re telling her not to even think about participating in the pre-show…. This looks like you’re trying to exclude her from work and then force her to resign——.”

“No, no, wait a minute. What are you talking about? I’m just worried about Jia’s health? More than that, I recently gave her a raise, so why are you talking about that?!”

“Well, it might sound like you’re saying, ‘I’ll give you a little more severance pay before you retire because I feel sorry for you,’ wouldn’t it? I think that’s what a typical office worker would think.”

“No—?! Oh, I’m going crazy, really.”

* * *

How long did I giggle while watching Cutouts after arriving home, washing my face briefly, and lying on the bed?

Before long, my phone started vibrating like crazy.

It was the Team Leader.

[Team Leader: The Boss has come over]

[Team Leader: If you get a call, answer in a weak voice, okay?]

[Team Leader: If the Boss tells you to do the pre-show together, answer enthusiastically]

[Team Leader: Okay?]

It seemed like things were going well, but the situation seemed urgent for some reason.

What, what’s going on?

Author’s note

The next chapter will be uploaded at 11 o’clock~