The Un(idol)istic

CHAPTER 30 Fate's game

Today, with every step I take, I have the feeling of heading towards my doom. Why, you ask? Well, the reason is quite clear. Today is my first meeting with the whole crew that would be handling the 25th anniversary even of GEN and the person walking ahead of me seems to be heading in the same direction.

I'll give you a chance to guess. Who do you think it is?

We reach the big meeting room and there are already people sitting around the large table. I greet the few familiar faces I've met in the last few days, but more than half the attendees are unknown to me.

The person who is walking in front of me fits in both categories. Xi, being my mentor for the first few days shouldn't be an unknown to me but with the conversation I had unintentionally overheard, I am surely uncomfortable with him around. Xi finds his seat close by and I have to walk all around the table to get to my mine. I take the seat beside Rita, who is the head stage designer for the event. She has been working with GEN for a few years now and has designed stages for various artists' concerts; even for Paradise.

"Why is he looking at you?" Rita whispers bending sideways to speak to me.

I match her action. "Who?" I ask cautiously looking around.

"That man with round glasses. From the moment you entered, he's been staring at you," She explains, discretely pointing to a man sitting beside Xi. He looks familiar, definitely, someone I've seen before, I just can't seem to put my finger on it.

Even after I match his stare, he doesn't look away, which startles me. Clearing my throat, I turn away from him and look at Rita saying, "I don't know him. Do you?"

Rita just shrugs, indicating she has no idea. Hmm. "Oh, Byun teamjang! Good morning!" Yoon Young Min teamjang, team lead of culture and content, greets me cheerfully taking the empty seat beside mine. As soon as he sits, Rita makes a 180-degree turn and starts talking to some lady sitting a few seats away from us.

I suppress my laughter and greet Yoon teamjang. I've known these two for half a month, yet I can't figure out their equation. They are not enemies or rivals; they support each other's ideas during work too much for that possibility. But they are not friends either; they are always arguing over the stupid things to be that.

It's almost impossible to get the two to talk together unless it's about work. Just like right now, Rita would ignore Yoon teamjang, or she would just leave.

"How is the discussion coming along with the Mumbai team? They are still stuck on covered stage?" Yoon teamjang asks as we wait for the meeting to begin.

Pursing my lips, I nod. "Yes. Still stuck. But I can understand their concern. It will be close to the monsoon when we have concerts there. The weather is known to be extremely unstable at that time of the year in Mumbai." I reply, poking Rita, who is pretending to look at the blank screen. I bet she's eavesdropping on our conversation.

She clears her throat. "Huh?" she asks innocently. Seeing Yoon teamjang's smirk; she makes a face at him, forgetting her act. Nodding to me she says, "That's true, Mumbai's monsoon is bad. And this isn't only about the stage and equipment; even the audience would be caught in the fire if there are sudden heavy rains or floods.

I massage my temple to reduce my headache. "The team there is insisting we adjust the dates or consider performing indoors, like in indoor stadiums," I tell them.

"Hmm..." Yoon Yong Min grunts. "It would have been better if we could shift concert dates and venue. You know, they have really fun music festivals in Goa in winter. Very famous," he states immediately searching on his phone and showing us the pictures.