Managing the Korean entertainment industry: I have superpowers, but I won't say.

Chapter 16: Vinyl Flooring, Bows, and Silent Red Axles

It was getting dark in Dongdaemun. Cai Xiubin walked ahead, her ponytail swaying. Su Yu followed behind, hands in his pockets, unsure where to look, but finally his eyes landed on the back of her head.

The small patch of skin exposed on the back of her neck was almost too white, with a few stray hairs sticking to it. This girl had an air of captivating presence that made it impossible to look away.

She took out her keys and opened the door, the keychain jingling. There were three keys: one for the front door, one she said was for the refrigerator drawer, and one she said was a spare.

When she looked down to find her keys, her bangs fell down and covered half of her face. She wrinkled her nose and shook them, but they wouldn't budge, so she brushed them away with her hand.

"What's the backup?" Su Yu leaned against the door frame.

"I'll lock you out and make you sleep on the street." Without turning her head, she turned the doorknob and opened it.

She kicked off her sneakers as she entered the house and stepped barefoot onto the linoleum floor. The gray-blue edge of the linoleum was curled up; she stepped on it, flattened it, lifted her foot, and it bounced back. She squatted down, pressed it again, stood up, and it bounced back again.

"You did this on purpose, didn't you?" She squatted down and looked up at him, her face buried in her knees, only her eyes showing.

"Your company."

"your."

"Your name is on the refrigerator," Su Yu said.

She didn't reply and went upstairs barefoot. Su Yu followed, carrying the secondhand table and chairs, and the peeling gray-blue linoleum floorboards all the way from the first floor to the second.

She squatted down, tore it up, flipped it over, and laid it back down, pressing it down with her palm. This time it held, and she ran her fingers back and forth along the edge of the linoleum a couple of times.

"alright."

"I'm skipping tomorrow again."

"We'll talk about it tomorrow." She stood up, brushed the dust off her knees, plopped down in a chair, and spun around, the chair creaking. She stopped and looked up at him. "Su Yu, what keyboard does An Gaoen use?"

"I don't know. She uses whatever you use."

"You have to buy me a good one. A hacker's keyboard can't be cheap."

"You're not a real hacker."

"I play a hacker."

"As long as the acting is convincing, the keyboard doesn't need to be so particular."

“You don’t understand.” She turned to look at him. “Angon is the quiet kind of hacker. The keyboard has to be silent, but it has to have a tactile feel. Pressing the keys has to have that—” She thought for a moment, her fingers pausing in the air, “a sense of confirmation.”

Su Yu leaned against the doorframe, watching her. Her eyes lit up when she said "a sense of confirmation," as if she were talking about something extraordinary.

"You've never acted before, yet you have so many demands."

"Although I've never acted in one, I've watched American TV series." She placed her fingers on the table and tapped them twice quickly, as if she were actually typing on a keyboard. "That's how the hackers in the show type. The voice was added later, but as soon as that voice came on, the audience believed it."

She spun around in her chair again and stopped. "Su Yu, why do you think An Gaoen is helping Jin Daoqi?"

"Because Kim Do-ki helped her find out who filmed the video."

"this one?"

"That's it."

"Does she have feelings for him?" She didn't look at him, but looked down at her fingers and tapped them twice on the table, but no sound came out.

It wasn't mentioned in the outline.

"What were you thinking when you wrote it?"

Su Yu leaned against the doorframe, not moving. "I didn't think about that when I was writing it."

"So what are you thinking about?"

"Think about why she was willing to sit in the car and wait for so long. Episode after episode, until the very end. She wasn't waiting for Kim Do-ki, she was waiting for something that made her feel alive."

She looked up at him. Her hands stopped tapping and rested on the edge of the table.

"The one you're talking about—" she paused, "was it the one you wrote about, An Gaoen, or someone else?"

Su Yu didn't answer. She stared at him for a few seconds, then stood up and walked to the window. Her toes curled slightly as she stepped onto the linoleum floor.

"Su Yu".

"Um."

"That linoleum will peel up again tomorrow."

"Then we won't put it on."

"If you don't put it on, it'll be cold for me to walk barefoot on the ground."

"Put on your shoes."

"I don't want to wear it."

Su Yu looked at her leaning against the window. Barefoot, with messy hair, she stood in front of the dusty windowsill, stray hairs sticking to her face, but she didn't care.

"You can choose when we buy the keyboard next week."

"Didn't you say you'd buy it yourself?"

"I'm afraid of buying the wrong thing."

"Are you afraid sometimes?"

"This is my first time being a boss, so I'm not very familiar with it."

She turned her head and glanced at him. A slight smile played on her lips, which she couldn't suppress.

"Su Yu, I will play the role of An Gaoen well."

"I know. Otherwise, I wouldn't have written about you."

She didn't reply. She turned back to look out the window. Su Yu stood at the second-floor doorway, watching her back. Barefoot, an old chair, peeling linoleum, a broken window. He looked at her standing barefoot, her toes curled as if gripping the ground. She didn't know what she was doing. What was she doing?

She went downstairs. Her bare feet pattered on the stairs. Su Yu followed behind. By the time they reached the first floor, she had put her shoes on and was squatting by the door tying them. She tied a bow, then untied it and tied a new one.

"Why are you tying your shoelaces so meticulously?"

"I've always been careful when tying my shoelaces." She stood up and turned to look at him. "Su Yu."

"Um."

"I'm gone."

"Um."

She opened the door and went out. Her ponytail swayed behind her head. Su Yu stood on the empty first floor, sunlight streaming in through the window, dust motes floating in the beams of light. The edge of the linoleum floor mat had curled up a little more.

He took out his phone and sent a message: "I'm buying a keyboard next week, you can choose one."

She replied instantly: "Didn't you say you'd buy it yourself?"

"I'm afraid of buying the wrong thing."

"What are you afraid of? I'm not going to beat you up if you buy the wrong thing."

"You can't bear to part with it."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end, then a rolling-eyes emoji appeared. Another message followed: "Su Yu, you'll buy me something nice, right?"

"Silent red switches. The most expensive one."

"It's too expensive, I can't bear to use something that's too expensive."

"Didn't you say we shouldn't buy anything too cheap?"

"Cheap ones won't work, expensive ones won't work either. You can choose whichever you like."

Su Yu stared at the screen, his lips twitching slightly.

"Then I'll buy it myself. Don't blame me if I buy the wrong thing."

"Refund if you bought the wrong item."

"What if I can't get a refund?"

"Then I'll just make do. Anyway, I'm a newbie, and the audience only cares about my looks, not my keyboard."

Su Yu smiled and put her phone in her pocket. She picked up the broom and swept twice, but it wasn't clean enough, so she gave up. She'd let her sweep tomorrow; the other woman could come. Anyway, she was barefoot and would sweep the dust herself.