Chapter 45: The Unwanted Road Manager

“Do you think I don’t know what a road manager does? You have a dedicated manager assigned by your company, don’t you? Just call them. Why are you asking me to be your road manager?”

“I don’t make my manager come and go when I’m not on schedule. They’re not my personal servant.”

It was truly a logical and exemplary statement, yet it was ironic coming from Tae-young’s lips. Furthermore, his logic was inconsistent: a manager couldn’t be treated like a servant, but a road manager apparently could.

It was clear he was just spouting whatever came to mind to exploit me.

“I’m not doing it. Find someone else.”

“You’re off today, aren’t you? Don’t you have plenty of time?”

Tae-young raised an eyebrow, as if utterly bewildered by the refusal.

“Who said I have plenty of time? Even if I’m not working, I have many personal things to do.”

Even with a clear schedule, I absolutely did not want to be Tae-young’s road manager. He was the kind of person who would complain about cheap underwear after I bought it from a convenience store.

If I became his daily road manager, it was obvious he would torment me even more severely. Why should I willingly walk into a fiery pit of hell when the outcome was so clear?

“No. Postpone your personal plans. If you made me drunk, you have to take responsibility until the end.”

“I didn’t force you to drink. Why are you asking me to take responsibility for something you drank of your own free will?”

“We even spent a night together; don’t be so heartless.”

A droplet of water trickled down Tae-young’s chest. Yeon-ho, conscious of his gaze following the drop, hastily lifted his head.

“Don’t say strange things. W-we didn’t spend a night together!”

“Can’t I even make a joke? Don’t you know that getting so flustered makes you look more suspicious? Only a queer would overreact to talk of two men spending a night together.”

Yeon-ho flinched. His heart pounded erratically, wondering if Tae-young was trying to gauge his sexual orientation.

“I’ll pay you separately, apart from the money I gave you earlier.”

Fortunately, it seemed he wasn’t trying to probe, as Tae-young returned to the original topic.

“…This time, even with money, I won’t do it.”

Yeon-ho felt a surge of displeasure. He disliked Tae-young’s presumption that he could solve everything with money again, simply because Yeon-ho had been swayed by the offer earlier.

Of course, more money was always better, but with a comfortable bank balance now, he wanted to prioritize his pride over cash.

Ding.

An alert chimed on his phone. Yeon-ho, already eager to end the conversation, quickly pulled his phone from his pocket. He intended to pretend to reply to the message and then leave the room.

However, the moment he checked the message, Yeon-ho froze.

[Han Tae-young has transferred 4,000,000 won.]

[Receive]

“What is this?”

Just as he was about to ask why Tae-young had sent money without permission, Tae-young forcibly moved Yeon-ho’s thumb to press the ‘Receive’ button.

“Hey!”

“Ah, I told you not to shout. If my hangover gets worse because of you, will you take responsibility?”

Tae-young plugged his ears with his index finger, feigning innocence. Yeon-ho wanted to punch him, but he held back, focusing instead on finding a ‘cancel’ button.

However, no ‘cancel’ button appeared anywhere on the app. Even searching online for how to cancel a transfer yielded no results.

‘I’m screwed.’

Despair spread across Yeon-ho’s face. Tae-young then gripped Yeon-ho’s shoulder, leaning in close and whispering like a demon who had secured a s*ave contract.

“Congratulations on becoming my daily manager.”

****

After retrieving the car from Owner Yang’s cafe, Yeon-ho sent a message to Tae-young.

 [I’m here. Come down.]

The ‘1’ next to the message vanished instantly. Yet, only the ‘read’ notification appeared; there was no reply.

‘Is he coming down or not? Why just read it and not answer?’

‘No, did he even really read it?’

All sorts of thoughts swirled in Yeon-ho’s mind. If the ‘1’ hadn’t disappeared, he could have just assumed Tae-young hadn’t seen the message yet. But being ‘read-zoned’ forced him to rack his brain, trying to guess what Tae-young was doing upstairs.

‘It feels like I’ve been cursed yesterday and today.’

Yeon-ho bowed his head, gripping the steering wheel with both hands. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact problem, but instinctively, he knew something was wrong. His daily life felt increasingly tangled, like a protagonist in an indie film.

Even taking the steering wheel on his day off because of money felt like the introductory sequence to a string of misfortunes. The most absurd and ridiculous part was how he became Tae-young’s daily servant—no, road manager.

Yeon-ho had no intention whatsoever of becoming Tae-young’s road manager. However, Tae-young had simply shoved money into his account, effectively trapping him. It was, quite literally, an unwanted ‘pocket-stuffing.’

There wasn’t absolutely no way to escape Tae-young’s clutches. Just as Tae-young had unilaterally sent money to Yeon-ho, Yeon-ho could return it to resolve the situation. But Yeon-ho couldn’t bring himself to do it.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to return the money to Tae-young.

[Balance: 6,421,780 won]

However, after opening the app and seeing the balance, he hesitated to press the ‘transfer’ button. Even though he knew exactly how the money had entered his account, the thought of returning it to Tae-young felt like being ripped off of hard-earned cash.

‘Right. What’s the point of clinging to pride? All that matters is money.’

Yeon-ho had rarely upheld his pride in his life. For him, pride was a luxury in a disaster situation, completely useless for survival. Yet, now he felt a sudden pang of self-reproach for abandoning it? It was a sentiment beyond contradictory; it was deceptive.

Click.

A sound of the door not opening due to the lock came from the passenger seat. Thinking it might be a parking enforcement officer from the district office, he quickly looked up. However, beyond the darkly tinted window, it wasn’t a public service worker, but Tae-young.

Click, click.

“Open the door.”

Tae-young kept tugging at the passenger door handle, growing impatient. Deep lines creased his brow; he seemed even more irritable than when he had just woken up.

“I’m opening it now.”

‘Is he starting with the power trip already? If you’re coming down, at least say something.’

Yeon-ho swallowed a sigh and pressed the unlock button. He had anticipated that serving Tae-young wouldn’t be easy, but seeing his current behavior, Yeon-ho had a premonition that this journey might be several times more hardcore than he’d imagined.

“Are you messing with me? You said you’d open the door, so why isn’t it open?”

While waiting for Tae-young to get in the car, Tae-young tapped on the passenger window.

“Huh? I opened it.”

Yeon-ho, flustered, pressed the button again. This time, the rear door lock engaged.

“Who told you to open that one? Open this door, not the back seat.”

“…I thought you’d get in the back seat.”

“Don’t make excuses. When did I ever say I’d get in the back seat?”

Yeon-ho bit back the urge to retort, ‘You never said you’d get in the passenger seat either.’ On second thought, if Tae-young had intended to sit in the back, he would have pulled the back door handle, not the passenger one. So, presuming he’d sit in the back was clearly Yeon-ho’s mistake.

However, Yeon-ho also felt unfairly treated. It wasn’t as if there was no room in the car, and what celebrity sits in the passenger seat when there’s a back seat available?

Of course, if the person in the driver’s seat were a friend, a lover, someone he was ‘testing the waters’ with, or a family member, the story would be different. But Yeon-ho fit none of those categories.

“Did you cover your tattoo?”

‘That’s the first thing he checks after getting in?’

“Yeah.”

Yeon-ho casually lifted his arm. Flesh-toned tape was haphazardly plastered on the inside of his forearm.

“Show me properly.”

Tae-young leaned over towards the driver’s side and pulled Yeon-ho’s arm.

“Good job. Looks nice.”

Tae-young meticulously rotated Yeon-ho’s arm, checking if any part of the tattoo peeked out, before finally wearing a satisfied expression.

‘Looks nice, my foot.’

Yeon-ho grimaced, chewing the inside of his cheek.

“Buckle up.”

Yeon-ho had covered his tattoo because of Tae-young’s demand. He apparently couldn’t stand the sight of his road manager sporting tattoos.

Honestly, he wanted to challenge him, ‘Who are you to order me to cover my tattoo or not?’ However, for today, he resolved to endure whatever power trip Tae-young pulled. After all, Tae-young wouldn’t have given him 4 million won for nothing. There was no such thing as easy money in the world.

“Where’s the filming location?”

“I want to get rid of this hangover first.”

Tae-young, still feeling the effects of his hangover despite drinking honey water, typed a restaurant address into the navigation system. It was almost lunchtime anyway, so he needed to feed him.

‘The car is too big, even for a large one.’

Yeon-ho drove through the narrow alleyways of the villa complex, tense like a novice driver. While being in the same space as an uncomfortable person contributed to his anxiety, it had also been a very long time since he had driven a car. Moreover, the vehicle’s body was higher than a regular sedan, making it difficult to adjust to the new field of vision. Tae-young’s SUV was as large and heavy as an average truck.

He finally managed to navigate out of the villa alleys and onto the main road. Just as Yeon-ho, who had been sweating profusely to avoid scratching the car, let out a sigh of relief, Tae-young asked,

“Is the air conditioner temperature comfortable?”

“…Huh? Why? Is it too low? Should I raise it?”

Yeon-ho thought, ‘I didn’t touch the AC settings,’ and reached for the panel. He was ready to raise the temperature immediately if Tae-young asked.

“No, I’m asking if the temperature is comfortable for *you*.”

“Me?”

“I don’t like being hot… No, never mind.”

Tae-young grabbed Yeon-ho’s hand, which was hovering in front of the touch panel, pushed it aside, and lowered the temperature by two degrees.

Yeon-ho was so startled when Tae-young grabbed his hand that his mind went blank. However, it seemed there was no ulterior motive behind the action, as Yeon-ho’s hand was released quickly. Perhaps Tae-young had grabbed his hand simply to move it out of the way, as it was obstructing the panel.

‘I got nervous for nothing.’

Yeon-ho tried his best to act natural, focusing on the road ahead. But as he shifted gears and swallowed hard, he felt his face flush with heat. Tae-young, noticing Yeon-ho’s reddened face, complimented his own judgment from the side.

“See? The temperature *was* too high. If you’re hot, just say so and lower the temperature. Why endure the heat foolishly?”

Yeon-ho was about to say that he wasn’t hot, but had just flushed, but he simply kept his mouth shut. If Tae-young asked why he had flushed, he would have no answer.