Chapter 69 - Chapter 69: A Huge Obstacle

I arrived at the 8th floor.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

I opened the door and found myself walking into the biggest office I’ve ever seen. Damn. What kind of manager needed an office this big? Is it because he’s the Head Manager? What does he do exactly? This was a far cry from what Manager Lee gets. I felt a little bad for him.

“Hi.”

“Sian! Thank you for coming. Please, take a seat.”

Mr. Lee gestured towards a chair and I sat down. He moved the coffee table to the side and sat opposite me.

“I’m glad that you came. You’ve made the right choice.”

“Uh-huh,” I said, taking this opportunity to take a good look at him. Early 30’s with a charming face. Unfortunately, his sunken cheeks make him look really shady.

“So Yoo-jin tried to run away, right? And you were able to stop her?”

“Yes, I did. It’s impressive.”

“So now you believe me,” Mr. Lee said with a satisfied smile.

“Well, actually, I’m still not sure.”

“Really? Well, I plan to tell you more so hopefully, you’ll believe me then.”

“Hey, do you have any tea?”

“Oh, of course,” Mr. Lee said. Suddenly, a young woman appeared at the door and placed a cup of coffee in front of me. Then she strutted back out, swaying her hips the whole way.

“Pretty.”

“I wouldn’t have hired her if she wasn’t.”

I was talking about her butt. To be honest, her face wasn’t really to my taste. I bet he picked her for her curves as well.

“So is being a manager a prestigious position at this company?” I asked, looking around the huge office. Seriously, what kind of manager needed an office like this?

“Here, yes. As I’ve said before, I can predict the future, so I’m able to take good care of my artists. And I enjoy doing it too, since I can predict and prevent any obstacles that will happen. That’s why I have a great amount of power in the company.”

“Ah, I see,” I replied. Now that I think about it, I couldn’t think of any idol who had tried to run away or cause a scandal in Han Entertainment. At the time, I thought that it was incredible luck, but now I see that it was because of this man. Since he can see the future, he can prevent certain events from happening. No wonder he wields so much power here.

“I guess you can say that the company’s success is mostly due to me,” he said with a lift of his shoulders.

“Including Ladies’ Generation?”

“Of course. I took care of all of them. The stuff I see is 100% confirmed so I never suffer any losses.”

“Oh wow,” I said, trying to sound impressed. Though, to be honest, I felt that it was kind of unfair. Others have to struggle to climb the corporate ladder and he just flew straight to the top with his ability to see the future. I couldn’t help but feel put off by him a little bit.

“It’s cool that you can confirm 100%.”

I suddenly wanted to change that. After all, I myself don’t believe the future is 100% set in stone.

“Oh, but I have failed once before.”

Really?”

“There was one time when the future I saw ended up changing,” Mr. Lee said, looking resentful.

“What was it?” I asked curiously.

“You know when you guys did the audition show?”

“Oh yeah.”

How could I forget?

“You guys had that concert, remember?”

“Right.”

That was the one Hye-jeong came to see. She made all that commotion and then they say she’s still reflecting for her actions.

“To be honest, it was me who sent her there. Her popularity was supposed to increase after her appearance. At least, that’s what the future said.”

“Oh, really?”

Wow, what a prick. I had wondered why Hye-jeong had showed up all of the sudden and it turns out, it’s because of this guy. If I hadn’t thrown those buttons at her, then she would’ve gained more attention than us. These bastards.

“But then, Hye-jeong went and said all those things. I never saw it coming. And I can’t help but doubt my skills whenever I think of that.”

“I see.”

So that means the one who changed the future was me. After all, I was the one who made her say those things.

“But who threw that button? That’s what I want to know. I heard that it really hurt,” Mr. Lee said, looking devastatingly confused.

“Yeah. I wonder who,” I said with a small smile. Then, we both took a sip of our coffee.

“Alright, well...” Mr. Lee finally said, “I think that’s enough here.”

“Don’t you have more to tell me?”

Didn’t this guy say he had friends? Could they see the future too?

“I can’t tell you everything at once. I need to do it slowly. Little by little. That way, you won’t be so overwhelmed. Now, since I’ve told you my secret, it’s your turn. Who are you? What sort of powers do you have?”

“My name is Sian Lee and my power is to change the future.”

“What?” Mr. Lee said. “What do you mean…”

“I can change the future,” I said with a smile. I mean, I am the one who changed Hye-jeong’s future. So that means I can change any future, right? Now that I think about it, it will be fun to try.

“You can change the future…”

“We can test it out, if you’d like,” I suggested, my smile becoming wider.

“How?”

“What do you see in my future?”

At that, the man looked into my eyes. His mouth dropped open.

“I see it. You’re going to hit me in a second…”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Slap!

“Ah!”

I slapped him so hard that he fell onto the couch. Hard.

“Oh, sorry. I was just trying to prove a point. But you see? That wasn’t one second. It’s 2 milliseconds.”

“….”

That man had no response. He simply sat there, covering his reddened cheek.

“Fuck…”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing.”

He sat up as his face reddened. He gave me a serious look, but then he smiled.

“You have strong hands.”

“Yeah, they are.”

“I’ve never been hit by a girl before.”

‘Hopefully, it did you some good.”

“Hahah.” He laughed.

“I guess you can change the future,” he added. “Fine, then. But it wasn’t what I was expecting, so I’m a little disappointed.”

“What were you expecting?” I asked.

“You know, something along the lines of you being immortal or something. Since you jumped down from that platform without a scratch.”

“I’m sorry that it’s not that special,” I said with a smile.

Maybe I really can change the future. Then again, if I were to be honest, my real power would be distinguishing myself in a battle zone. Though where I’m from, this is true for pretty much everyone.

“It’s fine. So you can change the future. That’s a good power to have. If there’s someone in a rival company who can see the future like me, you’d be of great help.”

The man was already speaking as if I was on his side.

“Hey, Mr. Lee,” I asked, suddenly all serious.

“Yes? What is it?”

“How did you get that power?”

***

Upon hearing my question, Mr. Lee smirked.

He answered, “I think you know more than anyone how I came to have these powers.”

“What do you mean?”

“Reincarnation.”

“What?”

“I’m talking about rebirth. I was reborn into another body, just like you were.”

“Oh…”

He was reincarnated, just like I was? My heart began to pound in my chest. This person has gone through the same fate as me. That made me jittery. Would he know how to fix it? I want to become a man too!

“This body isn’t actually mine. My soul simply entered another body and was reborn as another person. And in the process, I gained the power to see the future. That’s what happened to you, right?”

“Yes.”

There was no point in denying it, since he already knew the answer.

“I died, and then I was reborn into this body.”

I didn’t tell him about me originally being a guy. I decided it’d be best to keep that tidbit to myself.

“I figured. And that’s how you gained the ability to change the future. To be honest, there are many people like us at Han Entertainment. And we are currently trying to gather them all.”

“You are? Why?”

“Firstly, we plan to turn Han Entertainment into a top global company. Our plan after that is a secret though,” Mr. Lee said with a shrug. But judging by the look on his face, those plans were big.

He added, “We’re going to surpass every other agency in the country. We need to help and support these celebrities, so that they can help us with our final plan. We will do whatever it takes to make it happen.”

“You do that,” I told him.

“You’re talking as if you won’t be a part of it. You should join us, Sian. You’re just like us.”

“Bullshit.”

I smirked. I just didn’t like the guy. It was history all over again. The powerful guys gain power and try to put the little, weaker guys down. Whether it was for good or bad intentions, it always became rotten in the end and became evil. That’s why I didn’t like their plan. This plan to help all of the celebrities. Not to mention their secret plan afterwards. I don’t know what it is, but I didn’t like it. My senses were pulling up all sorts of red flags.

“I don’t really like you guys, so I don’t want to join.”

With that, I stood up.

“Then we have no choice but to interfere with your work at YH Entertainment. Will you be okay with that?” the man cut in. “As you know, I can see the future. I can use my powers to end you and your members’ careers.”

Was he threatening me?

“And as you know, I can change the future.” Then I left immediately.

Only to come back.

“By the way, have you ever heard of someone being reborn as a different gender?”

“No,” Mr. Lee said, looking perplexed at the thought. Well then, he was of no use to me if that’s the case. I guess the only one who could truly help me was the one who put me in this predicament in the first place.

“What about my food? You said you’d buy me lobster.”

“Are you agreeing to join us?”

“That’s not related to this. You promised.”

Mr. Lee furrowed his eyebrows, but in the end, he stood up.

“Well I did promise, so sure.”

“Great.”