I opened the banking app I’d installed in advance.
‘It should’ve been deposited by now.’
I’d been told yesterday that the settlement payment would be coming in.
Technically, our contract said settlements were supposed to be paid quarterly, but because the company had been a complete mess last year, payment had temporarily been deferred on the condition that statutory interest would be added.
So now, in April, last year’s settlement and this year’s first-quarter settlement had been deposited together.
If we’d been ordinary office workers, that would’ve been enough of a delay to sue the company over, but none of us were in immediate need of money and there was still plenty of time left on our contracts, so it had passed without much trouble.
Still, nobody dislikes money.
Which was why, on Monday, April 22, I wasn’t the only one checking the settlement amount the instant our schedule ended.
“Ghk!”
A strangled sound came from the bed next to mine.
Bae Sejin.
‘Guess it’s a big amount.’
I’d expected that.
Our results had been extremely good, and we’d even held a concert.
‘Still, it doesn’t really feel real.’
Out of habit, I swiped past the app’s main account and checked the new one.
Then I doubted my eyes.
[Daehan Comprehensive Deposit]
[1,146,193,520 won]
‘…1.1 billion?’
One point one billion won??
An amount of money I couldn’t have touched even if I’d trafficked organs was sitting there on the screen.
“…….”
I was speechless.
Was it actually possible to earn this much after working for nine months?
Sure, I’d been run ragged on too little sleep while carrying a massive amount of pressure.
And if you looked at the long term, this was also money accumulated from all the hell I’d gone through starting with <Idol Inc.>.
But if you could earn 1.1 billion won, this was a business so absurdly profitable it was frightening.
‘Even so, 1.1 billion… is way beyond what I imagined.’
I should probably check the settlement statement.
I opened the email account I’d made for receiving company correspondence.
Somehow the address had leaked, so the inbox was piled up with all kinds of bizarre spam, but after roughly filtering that out, I found the settlement statement.
I skimmed through it quickly.
“……Whew.”
It really was 1.1 billion won.
And I understood why.
‘There are no trainee costs.’
Meaning the company’s upfront investment costs hadn’t been deducted.
Thanks to that, the moment revenue was generated, my share was settled almost entirely as profit.
Albums, events, advertisements, digital music, concerts…….
And because I’d participated heavily in production, the copyright royalties were substantial too.
‘Kim Raebin probably got even more.’
Right then, a scream came from the room next door.
It sounded like Kim Raebin was on the phone.
Someone in his family had probably called in shock.
‘What a mess.’
Then again, this was the kind of amount that should cause a mess.
It still didn’t really feel like my money.
“Y-You saw it??”
Bae Sejin spoke to me with his face flushed red.
He probably meant the settlement payment.
“…Yes. Just now.”
“With this much, I can buy a house in Seoul, right?? If I take out, take out a loan…….”
Depends on what kind of house.
But apparently, now that the first step toward his plan of buying a secure home of his own had suddenly come within reach, Bae Sejin was excited.
Still, his calculation was wrong.
“That’s the amount before taxes.”
“Huh, …what?”
“It’s a high income, so the tax rate will be high. Don’t plan on spending all of it, and make sure you talk to a tax accountant before filing your comprehensive income tax in May.”
“……R-Right.”
Bae Sejin blankly agreed, then dropped back onto his bed.
Looks like reality came back to him a little.
And giving Bae Sejin advice helped me get my head on straight too.
“I thought you’d be used to settlements, hyung.”
“I’ve never seen an amount like this before…….”
Bae Sejin buried his face in the hamster body pillow.
He’s been getting a lot of use out of that thing.
“W-What’s going on…?”
Even Seon Ahyeon, who had been showering, poked his head out of the bathroom after hearing the noise.
“Checking the settlement.”
“Ah, ah-ha.”
Seon Ahyeon smiled in relief.
Apparently he wasn’t particularly curious about the amount.
“Your parents manage yours for you?”
“Y-Yeah! A-And I get an allowance too…….”
Judging by the way he’d casually handed me a department-store gift certificate for my birthday last time, even that so-called allowance was probably a pretty large amount.
‘Come to think of it, I still haven’t used that gift certificate.’
The moment awards season ended, we’d gone straight into preparing for the concert and new album, and then immediately entered promotions again, so I’d forgotten about it.
‘Actually, tomorrow morning… Hmm, we don’t have a schedule.’
For the next two weeks, including the weekends, that would be the only time we had free during the day.
Let’s confirm first.
“We really don’t have a schedule tomorrow during the day, right?”
“Y-Yeah! That’s right, why…?”
“I was thinking of going out for a bit.”
“…Shopping? The bank?”
Bae Sejin cut in.
Since I’d said I was going out immediately after getting paid, he seemed to have guessed.
I nodded.
“Yes. Shopping.”
“…Then want to go together? I need to stop by the bank too.”
“Hmm… not really.”
“What?”
I rubbed the back of my neck.
“I was planning to go to dessert shops.”
“……?”
“About… seven of them.”
“…??”
And so, the next day, Tuesday, I got to leisurely wander around Seoul on my own.
……Or at least, that had been the plan.
“M-Moondae, is that the blue sign over there?”
“Please let us off at the first alley on the right, sir.”
Once everything was said and done, I’d picked up two tails.
Seon Ahyeon and Kim Raebin had lit up and followed me.
—I-I wanted to go out too…!
—Desserts? My noona’s birthday is next week, so I believe this would be an excellent opportunity to choose one of her gifts.
…That’s what they said.
For reference, we dropped Bae Sejin off at the bank on the way.
It saved us the cost of hiring the taxi, so it was a win.
‘Not that I need to worry about taxi fares anymore.’
It felt strange to be in a situation where I didn’t have to worry about money for once in my life.
Not long afterward, the taxi driver stopped at our first destination.
“All right, we’re here~”
“Thank you.”
When I got out, the two who had been sitting in the back seat with sparkling eyes quickly followed.
“D-Do you think it’ll be good?”
“My expectations are high.”
Three men in masks with caps pulled low entering a specialty dessert shop probably wasn’t an especially common sight…
Well, whatever.
‘There aren’t many people out anyway.’
Probably because it was nine-thirty on a weekday morning.
The three of us entered the shop just as it opened, becoming its first customers.
“Welco…… Gasp.”
“Hello.”
And the instant our eyes met, she recognized us.
I’d felt this before, but masks seem useless now.
“Uh, uh… gasp, wow……. I really love your songs, haa.”
“Thank you. Please pack one of every kind of dacquoise.”
“Yes, what?”
“One of every flavor, please.”
“Ah, ah, yes!”
Sorry, but we didn’t have much time.
I traded a handshake and an autograph for the packaged dacquoise.
“Ghhhk.”
…Still, she seemed happy, so that was good.
Then I turned toward the other two, who were standing there dumbfounded.
“Aren’t you choosing anything?”
“Ah!”
The other two ended up choosing dacquoise too, along with handshakes.
I went straight to the register.
“Please ring ours up together.”
“Ah, yes!”
Both of them recoiled.
“I-It’s okay!”
“If we’re ranking by settlement amount, it would be correct for me to pay… No, I do not mean to boast, I merely mean that, um, it is all right…….”
I snorted.
“Forget it. I’m the one who asked you to come out.”
“Hyung…….”
“M-Moondae…….”
If I’d brought Cha Eugene or Big Sejin, they would’ve shamelessly mooched off me, but these two were sitting there getting touched.
They grinned as they accepted the packaged dacquoise.
“I-I’ll enjoy it!”
“Thank you.”
And the moment we stepped outside the shop, Kim Raebin finally realized something.
“Ah, I need to buy my noona’s birthday gift.”
“I think you can take your time choosing. We still have a lot of shops left.”
“Pardon?”
Both of them blinked.
“B-But since we bought some h-here, haven’t you already c-chosen?”
“I assumed you had selected many candidates in case some were not to your liking…….”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I’m buying from all seven places.”
“……!!”
And I really did.
Read only on MUGEX
So by noon, both of them were slumped limply in the taxi.
I arranged the boxes and set them down by our feet.
Seven boxes in total.
Every purchase had been successful.
We’d already tasted one of each too.
There had been one unexpected incident where someone came running over waving an album and hugged us, but overall, things went smoothly.
‘The last one was a little close.’
Someone at the register screamed at full volume the instant our eyes met, so the moment I got the macarons, I only managed to say goodbye before fleeing the store like a thief.
“I-Is it over…?”
“Yeah. It’s over.”
“Haaaaaa…….”
Seon Ahyeon slowly melted downward.
Looks like meeting so many people had worn him out.
Halfway through, I’d told him he could just go back to the dorm.
He barely ate sweets because he was always managing his condition anyway, so I didn’t know why he’d insisted on sticking with us.
‘Maybe because he didn’t want to feel left out.’
Given Seon Ahyeon’s personality, maybe he hated being the only one to leave when several people were doing something together.
Anyway, the fact that he’d gone out of his way to follow me during his free time was…
Something I appreciated regardless of how useful it was.
“Are we returning home now?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
I redirected the taxi toward the dorm.
And once we arrived, instead of going upstairs with them, I handed over only the desserts.
“Tell the people at the dorm to share these.”
“H-Huh?”
“I just remembered something I need to do.”
I sent the two of them home and got back into the taxi.
Then I entered another destination into the navigation.
“A department store?”
“Yes.”
After finishing the rest of my business, I returned to the dorm about an hour later.
Beep—
When I opened the front door, my eyes met Cha Eugene’s in the living room.
His cheeks were bulging with dacquoise.
“…….”
“They’re delicious! Thank you!”
“Well… sure.”
He didn’t gain weight and liked sweets, so you could call him the ideal person for the job.
“Which one’s the best?”
“This one.”
Strawberry macaron.
I memorized the name of the shop on the wrapper.
“Thanks for the snacks, Moondae.”
“It was nothing.”
“Moondae, you didn’t get a girlfriend and buy all of us desserts as a smokescreen, right? Hyung trusts you~”
“Are you insane?”
After greeting Ryu Chungwoo, I smacked the snickering Big Sejin on the back and went back to my room.
Past Bae Sejin, who was reading on his bed, I saw Seon Ahyeon crocheting a scrubber at the desk.
“M-Moondae. Did you finish what you needed to do?”
“Yeah. And this.”
“H-Huh?”
I held out what I was carrying.
“It’s a little early… but it’s your birthday present.”
“H-Huh!?”
Seon Ahyeon recoiled.
Bae Sejin shot upright.
“It’s Seon Ahyeon’s birthday…?!”
“N-No…?!”
The two of them panicking side by side looked like some kind of comedy sketch.
“It’s in two weeks, but we won’t have time to go out before then, so I’m giving it to you now.”
“Ah…….”
Bae Sejin relaxed and lay back down.
Seon Ahyeon nodded his head rapidly.
“I-I see, thank you…!”
“Don’t mention it.”
……There was no need to tell him that I’d used the department-store gift certificate he’d given me to buy that present.
“C-Can I open it?!”
“Of course.”
Seon Ahyeon immediately opened the wrapping.
Then froze at the coat inside.
“…! I-Isn’t this t-too expensive…….”
“No.”
Says the guy who gave me the gift certificate.
I slid another shopping bag I’d brought back from the department store under my bed.
It took a little while because the bag was large.
‘…I think I picked well, though.’
For a moment, I regretted not simply bringing Seon Ahyeon with me, but I’d already bought it, so there was nothing to be done.
Bae Sejin glanced over.
“What’s that?”
“A gift.”
And that Sunday, at the broadcasting station before dawn, where TeSTAR’s final music-show prerecording for these promotions was taking place.
The fans who arrived at the venue each received a rather large box.
[TeSTAR sings.]
[Midnight, and Loviewer♡]
“…??”