Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Soobin blinks at the man in front of him.

“You’re… telling me I’m hired?” He asks in slight disbelief. “On the spot?” 

The man– supposedly the CEO of MEGA Entertainment– nods. He leans back on the leathery couch, crossing his arms with a bored expression. He has a lot of grey hair and there’s stains on his dress shirt, not to mention his tie was crooked. But Soobin wasn’t about to point that out– not to the man who had just hired him for a job he’d been wanting to do for so long; be an idol manager for one of the biggest entertainment companies in the industry, in the whole nation practically! However… It was a bit weird seeing how quickly he was getting hired for such a huge position. 

“I understand you might feel skeptical about how quickly we’re hiring you, but… we have a current situation on hand. Do you know Choi Beomgyu?” The CEO– Mr. Baek questions, picking at his teeth with a finger. Gross. 

Soobin nods. “He’s one of the top ranking idols in South Korea, currently, right? Under this company?”

“Do you know anything else about him?” 

“...No,” Soobin admits. “Should I have?” 

Mr. Baek shakes his head. “It’s fine. Here, take a look at both of these.” 

He slides a tablet across the coffee table, the one in between them, and Soobin takes it, peering at the screen. He blinks at it for a moment.

“What… is this?” Soobin asks after a moment. It seemed like a post from the idol Choi Beomgyu, something about not being able to release an album and changing the schedule last minute, and maybe some kind of selca as a gift to his fans in apology… but he didn’t know why this was suddenly relevant to why he’d been hired so quick. “I mean… I’m not sure why you’re showing me this right now…”

“Look at the next photo. Slide over from the one you’re on.” Mr. Baek commands.

Soobin slides a finger across the tablet screen and it goes to another photo– one of some kind of official notice from the company.

Soobin frowns. 

“Choi Beomgyu lost his manager… and now you want me to fill in for it?” He asks hesitantly. 

“Precisely,” Mr. Baek nods. “Glad you caught on quick. Beomgyu’s manager recently got fired for publicly hitting Beomgyu, so we needed to find a new manager for Beomgyu. And you came in just in the nick of time– we’re a bit desperate and out of time, you see. And looking through your resume, you’ll be the perfect fit.” 

“Oh.” Soobin says. “T-Thank you, sir?” 

Mr. Baek stands up, brushing off the imaginary dust on his shirt front. “You’ll start immediately after we draw up your contract in a few minutes. Then I’ll give you a rundown of your duties as Beomgyu’s new manager, and also send you a file of his future schedules. I also suggest you save Beomgyu’s number for contact purposes– remind me to send you his contact information later.” 

“Oh.” Soobin says once again, starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. “Okay, sir.” 

Everything passes by in some sort of blur– Soobin signing his name under this contract after reading through it; it mostly outlines what he is supposed to do as Beomgyu’s manager. He was to drive Beomgyu around to his schedules, he was to remind and make sure Beomgyu was ready and arrived on time to all his schedules, he was to manage and oversee all schedules, he was to also live with Beomgyu in his apartment to do so, he was to accompany Beomgyu to all schedules– then a bunch of confidentiality stuff, then stuff about how he was to make sure Beomgyu was in line with his public image and blah, blah, blah. 

Then Mr. Baek goes on explaining all his duties as manager as if it hadn’t all been in the contract; Soobin sits there and listens politely with gritted teeth behind a forced smile and clenched fists hidden on his lap. He then is given both Beomgyu’s contact information (which he quickly saves before he forgets), before he’s also sent Beomgyu’s schedule. 

“We’ll have you meet Beomgyu when he comes by to the company building later today. I’ll introduce you as his new manager, and you’ll continue to follow him throughout the rest of today and get a feel for things. I hope you will be able to properly replace the old manager.” Mr. Baek says, a little coldly, and Soobin swallows nervously.

“Yes sir.”  

Mr. Baek leads him down the hallway– and Soobin catches a glimpse of a man who he saw on a lot of billboard ads recently (CYJ, he thinks the idol’s name is) with freshly dyed blond hair. They exchange a brief nod of polite greeting as they pass by each other, and then Soobin’s being taken to a small office to wait for Beomgyu. 

He sits down on one of the chairs (ouch, very stiff plastic, good lord) and then begins to feel a bit bored after a few minutes. So, Soobin decides to do a little web-searching about this Choi Beomgyu because holy shit he did not know much about him other than the fact that he was a really famous idol under MEGA Entertainment.

Results pop up.

Soobin ignores the ones about Beomgyu’s album being postponed and goes straight to stalk(?) through both Choi Beomgyu’s Dotify page and his supposed wiki in hopes of gaining some more information. 

On Dotify, in which the link brings Soobin to Choi Beomgyu’s official page, is in big bolded lettering, CHOI BEOMGYU, along with the fact that he had over 100,000 monthly listeners. There were various albums in the discography section; one or two full albums, a few mini albums, and a bunch of single albums (some were for drama OSTs). 

The wiki page, seemingly made by fans, is quite interesting. (And it’s also really helpful to get Soobin up to speed with whoever this idol guy is.)

Soobin reads it, trying to absorb the information– debuted in 2021, fandom name TEDDY (which must be what it was in that Instagram post earlier) and a world tour– but this wasn’t much so far. He was about to continue scrolling down for some more information about the guy– totally not weird, right? He was just trying to get himself a bit informed-- when there’s a knock on the door.

Then before Soobin could answer, the door swings open and in walks Mr. Baek… along with Choi Beomgyu, dressed in a baggy hoodie and jeans, with a black face mask over the bottom half of his face.

“Beomgyu, this is your new manager, Choi Soobin. He starts today,” Mr. Baek introduces. Soobin bolts to his feet, swallowing nervously, before giving a polite bow to the other.

Beomgyu mirrors him, silent, his eyes seemingly stiff above the black face mask.

And thus begins Soobin’s journey as Beomgyu’s new manager.