LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Do you know Monochrome?
A friend of mine liked them briefly when we were students, but I thought they disbanded. LOL
└Aren’t they in the same company as Iris?
└You lost interest and let a perfectly fine group disband.
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***
Crazy.
She couldn’t escape this crazy world.
She stayed inside the house all the time, afraid she wouldn’t be able to return if she went outside.
Her mom couldn’t be reached on the phone, and as time passed, she got hungry. The fruits in the fridge were fresh, and she couldn’t believe it.
She searched her home address on portal sites, checked recent incident news, and looked up her college friends’ pages on social media.
This world seemed similar to the one she had been in, but little by little, it was out of sync.
She even considered calling the damned company she used to work for.
But she hated that idea. Instead, she searched for the job posting she applied to five years ago.
It wasn’t there.
Had everything that entangled her in the past five years disappeared because she wished to forget them? Was it this extreme?
The only clue in her hand was the quest from My Enter.
For the record, the official community of My Enter had also disappeared.
Seriously. No way. It couldn’t be.
She didn’t want to admit it, so she began the last task she had postponed.
Search bar. [Monochrome] search.
“Huh.”
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**Character Information**
Monochrome – Singer
Members – Yeo Woohyung, Baek Haerang, Yoo Han-yi, Chae Yunhwan, Hyun Jun-hae
Agency – Newma Entertainment
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She had no choice but to accept it.
She had entered the game world.
It wasn’t a group with the same name. The member names she had personally chosen were the same.
Moreover, the agency Newma Entertainment. That was the name of the entertainment company she had created in the game.
Her name, Shin Joo-in.
Shin = New. Joo-in = Master. New Master. Abbreviated as Newma.
Next to the character information was a group photo of five men she didn’t know.
No, she did know them. She had just seen them in graphics until now.
“Hahaha…”
As she laughed helplessly, a notification popped up on her smartphone.
As if to reward her for acknowledging the situation.
[(Unknown): Daughter! What kind of company sends you on a business trip on New Year’s Day? Take care of yourself~ Mom is always cheering for you~]
As soon as she saw the message, the tension in her heart was relieved, and tears welled up.
She immediately called, but the signal still didn’t connect.
Instead, the message window activated.
What should she say? That she was trapped in the game world?
Yet, in the midst of this, she didn’t want to worry her mom.
[Yes. Did I tell you what kind of business trip it was?]
…she tried to type, but the words she typed disappeared on their own.
As if this method of acquiring information was not allowed.
She was thoroughly inside the game system.
Feeling devastated by the disappearance of her mom’s profile picture, she cried and typed again.
[Yes! Thank you. I’ll keep in touch often!]
***
January 1st was a Sunday.
January 2nd was a Monday.
Why was she stating the obvious? Because Monday was usually a workday.
Having fallen into the game world alone on January 1st, crying and losing her mind all day, she faced the 2nd unprepared.
She had cried out all the tears she hadn’t shed even when quitting her job in one day, and although her head was pounding, she could now think calmly.
Newma Entertainment was a real company in the game world. Was she the CEO here like in the game?
Searching, she found Newma Entertainment’s office address, but could she just go there and say, “I’m the CEO”?
Half-asleep and exhausted, she racked her brains but found no clear answers.
‘There’s too little information.’
Fortunately, a means to resolve her doubts came to her.
[Choi Dan-woo: Good morning, Director. I’m Choi Dan-woo from the secretary team, assigned to assist you from today.]
A new conversation window appeared in her messenger when she checked the smartphone notification.
It seemed he had added her first.
As soon as she saw his profile picture, she knew who he was.
The secretary character from the My Enter game.
For some reason, his profile picture was of the secretary character.
‘Is he a tutorial character?’
He was the tutorial NPC in the game, explaining the interface and functions.
He was also a very useful character, reporting achievements and peculiarities within the game.
And like a true tutorial character, he naturally provided the information she needed.
[Choi Dan-woo: I have been assisting your father, the CEO, until last week. I’ve been appointed as your dedicated secretary to ensure you’re comfortable, so please call me if you need any help.]
[Choi Dan-woo: You arrived in Korea yesterday, so I’ll prepare for you to work from home for a while to adjust to the time difference.]
So that was the setup.
She was the daughter of Newma Entertainment’s CEO, having lived abroad and appointed as a director starting today.
This way, it wouldn’t seem strange if she struggled to adapt to this world.
As in the game, the secretary organized the materials neatly for her.
He sent company information by email and provided the company ID and password, along with a login method image.
Logging in and opening the email attachments, she found Newma Entertainment’s organizational chart and contact information for all employees, as well as information about the affiliated artists.
The person she was most curious about was the CEO.
In the game, she had been the CEO, but now, a father she didn’t remember was the CEO.
Moreover, not only his title but even his name was CEO Shin. She chuckled.
Even if no one in the company knew her, meeting this supposed father would be awkward…
[Shin Joo-in: Where is my father?]
[Choi Dan-woo: He has left domestic operations to the president and is on an overseas business trip for a new label’s international expansion. The exact period is not set, but he is scheduled to tour abroad for about two years.]
Two years.
The quest had given her a two-year period.
It seemed she wouldn’t run into him anytime soon.
Although she had suddenly fallen into this world, it was solidly set up for her.
The quest seemed to urge her to focus on achieving her goals and run hard.
‘Sigh… An unexpected job.’
She recalled the struggles of memorizing her colleagues’ ranks, names, and faces as a new employee.
Holding her still-aching head, she scanned the contact list, roughly checking the teams and their members.
Seeing that it was based on last year’s data, there might be changes, so there was no need to memorize everything immediately.
Still, this was her first step back to reality…
‘Wait, this…’
She didn’t recognize most of the names, but a familiar term caught her eye at the very end of the list.
[Iris]. And seven names next to it.
‘Our Iris babies?!’
Above Iris, there was an item labeled [Monochrome] with five names written next to it.
They were definitely the names of Monochrome members.
This meant that these were really the contact details of Iris members.
‘Of course. Since Newma Entertainment has become a reality, the members of Iris affiliated with it must have become real people too!’
Now, it was a situation where she had to focus on Monochrome.
However, even in this serious moment, her gaze turned toward Iris.
When you wave a toy in front of a crying child, they forget about crying and focus on the toy.
That’s how the human mind works. It can’t be helped.
‘But since these are real names, I don’t know who’s who.’
She opened the affiliated artists’ information file.
The Monochrome members used their real names as their stage names.
Why? Because when she first started the game, she didn’t know there was a pseudonym system while creating Monochrome.
By the time she formed Iris, she had familiarized herself with most of the functions.
So, what were the stage names of the Iris members…?
[Iris (IRIS) Members – Red (Hong Soo-yeon), Orange (Joo In-ah), Yellow (Hwang So-hee), Green (Yoon Green), Blue (Lee Cheong-ah), Navy (Nam Do-yoon), Purple (Han Bo-ra)]
‘Wow! They’re so pretty!’
When she opened Iris’s page in the affiliated artists’ information, a group photo and individual member photos appeared.
One might think that names like Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Navy, and Purple seem strange, like something from a superhero show, but in fact, they were all beautiful names when seen separately.
Just imagine introducing herself as, “Hello! I’m Purple, the youngest member of Iris!” How refreshing would that be!
Since Iris existed in reality, there must be plenty of activity videos too…
‘Oh. This isn’t the time to be looking at this.’
She almost started fangirling as if hypnotized without realizing it.
Coming to her senses before searching for Iris’s video content, she opened Monochrome’s information page.
A five-member idol group she had to devote two years of her life to.
Her first impression upon seeing their faces was…
‘…They’re subtle.’
They weren’t particularly lacking, but there wasn’t anything outstanding either. Their image wasn’t memorable.
Maybe it was because she had just looked at Iris and was comparing them.
‘Why did the quest appear for Monochrome instead of Iris?’
If it were Iris, they would have been worth aiming for the top within two years.
However, Monochrome, honestly, didn’t achieve anything significant while she played the game.
So, she had no idea what to do.
‘First, let’s check if there’s any information that wasn’t in the game.’
Monochrome. A five-member boy group.
Members: Yeo Woohyung (27), Baek Haerang (26), Yoo Han-yi (25), Chae Yunhwan (24), Hyun Junhae (23).
Their first contract date was January 2nd, five years ago, and they renewed their contract today, January 2nd.
So, their renewal period started today. In a way, they started at the same point as her.
Even though she had neglected them, she still remembered the basic information since she kept playing the game.
‘It would be more reliable to see them in person than just this data.’
She closed the file and opened the messenger on her smartphone.
[Shin Joo-in: Please prepare for me to start working from tomorrow.]
[Choi Dan-woo: Understood. I will have a car ready for you at the scheduled time.]
There was no need to adjust to the time difference, as the game setting was assigned to her.
Besides, it was quite convenient. All she remembered about going to work was running to catch the subway with half-dried hair.
Having a car waiting right in front of the house… Oh.
[Shin Joo-in: Do you also know my house password? And the address.]
***
The next day, she was able to go to work with peace of mind, thanks to knowing the house password.
It wasn’t that Secretary Choi knew the password. He said, [I was informed by the CEO that it was set to the last digits of the old house phone number.]
The setting that she had come from abroad knowing nothing was quite convenient.
For the record, the house was her own. She didn’t know her salary yet, but it was fortunate that there was no rent to pay.
She enthusiastically picked out an outfit prepared for her in the dressing room, and indeed, a car was waiting for her.
‘…Is this car really here to pick me up?’
Come to think of it, she didn’t know if this was the company car or a car picking up someone else.
That worry was short-lived.
“…Are you Director Shin Joo-in?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
A man waiting by the car recognized her and approached.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you in person. I’m Choi Dan-woo from the secretary team.”
Oh. The secretary greeting her with a bow looked… quite good.
In the game, the idols and illustrations were fancy, but the tutorial characters like the secretary were simple pixelated characters. The same went for his messenger profile picture, which used that blocky character.
Since she had imagined a square-headed guy, he looked relatively more handsome. Objectively, he had a decent face. The black suit and coat he wore suited him well too.
“How old are you?”
“I’m thirty-one.”
He was three years older than her, who was twenty-eight.
‘Hmm. It seems like the game didn’t prepare everything to be completely awful.’
If she had to endure two years anyway, she might as well do it pleasantly!
With no place to retreat, she decided to enjoy what was prepared for her.
With such thoughts, feeling better, she headed to the company, receiving unprecedented hospitality.
Unaware of the rough road that lay ahead.