Chapter 154: Congratulations
"Signed," said Kwon.
One word. The entire group chat, in chaos, from one word.
"Sori has apparently sat very still for thirty seconds," said Olivia, reading. "Yuna is reporting this in real time. She says Sori is doing the thing where she goes completely quiet before she cries." Olivia scrolled further. "Sori has now cried." A pause. "Yuna is also now crying. They are apparently crying together in the hallway." Another pause. "The hallway that Sori just described as, and I’m quoting, the most important hallway of our lives."
"Mina from the agency front desk has somehow joined the group chat," said Olivia. "I don’t know how Mina is in this group chat. Mina has sent a gif."
"What kind of gif," said Sean.
"Fireworks," said Olivia. "Multiple fireworks. Very large fireworks." She scrolled. "My choreographer has sent a voice message that is forty-five seconds long and appears to consist entirely of one sustained sound."
Kwon took a measured sip of his water.
"He seems pleased," said Kwon.
"He’s been working with us for eighteen months," said Olivia. "He is apparently more than pleased." She put the phone face down on the table. Then immediately picked it back up. "My mother is calling."
She looked at Sean. Then at Kwon.
"I have to take this," she said.
"Go," said Kwon.
She stood and walked toward the quieter end of the restaurant near the window, her phone at her ear, and Sean watched her answer it and say one word and then stop talking because the person on the other end had started and showed no immediate signs of stopping.
Sean looked across the table at Kwon.
Kwon was looking at Olivia.
Not in the professional management way, the assessment of someone monitoring a client’s behavior. Something quieter than that. The specific look of someone watching a thing they’ve spent a long time working toward exist in the world for the first time.
After a moment Kwon looked at Sean.
"She called you first this morning," said Kwon. "Before she called me."
"Yes," said Sean.
"She called you first after the Thursday offer as well," said Kwon. "And before the showcase. And the morning she couldn’t make her legs go through the label building door." He held Sean’s gaze. "She calls you first. Every time."
Sean said nothing.
"I want to ask you something," said Kwon. "Directly."
"Go ahead," said Sean.
"Take care of her," said Kwon. Quietly. Without the professional frame he kept around most things. Just the direct version, the same way Danny had said it, the same three words carrying the same weight from a completely different kind of person. "I have watched her for two years. I know what her face looks like when she is performing happiness and what it looks like when it is real." He paused. "The way she looks at you is not something I’ve seen from her before. It’s real. All of it." He looked at Sean steadily. "Take care of her."
Sean looked back at him.
"I love her," said Sean. Simply. Without qualification or performance. Just the true thing, said directly. "I will always take care of her."
Kwon held his gaze for a long moment. His expression didn’t change dramatically. But something settled in it, the specific settling of someone who had just measured something against a standard they’d been carrying and had found it sufficient.
He nodded once.
Then he picked up his water glass, looked at it, and set it back down with the precise care he brought to everything.
"She doesn’t know I said this," said Kwon.
"She won’t," said Sean.
A silence that had nothing uncomfortable in it.
Then footsteps, and Olivia came back to the table with the expression of someone whose face was slightly more open than it usually was, the specific softness of having just spoken to someone who had been crying out of happiness on the other end of a phone.
She sat down.
Looked at Kwon.
Looked at Sean.
"What are you talking about," she said.
Kwon and Sean looked at each other.
"Nothing," said Kwon.
"Nothing," said Sean.
Olivia looked between them with the expression of someone who was absolutely certain that whatever had been discussed was not nothing and had decided to let it go for now while reserving the right to revisit it later.
"My mother cried for seven minutes," she said. "I timed it. Seven consecutive minutes."
"That’s love," said Sean.
"That’s my mother," said Olivia. "She would also cry for seven minutes if I told her I’d found a good parking spot. She’s very emotionally available." She picked up her water glass. "She asked if you were there."
Sean looked at her. "What did you tell her."
"I told her yes," said Olivia. "She said good. Then she cried for another two minutes specifically about that." She looked at her glass. "You’ve been approved by my mother without meeting her, apparently."
"Efficient," said Kwon.
"She’s very decisive," said Olivia.
The food arrived. The waiter set everything down with practiced care and disappeared. Kwon’s plate was exactly what he’d described wanting, confirmed by the specific way he looked at it before picking up his fork.
They ate.
"The year eight review option," she said, between bites. "I keep thinking about that."
"Don’t," said Kwon.
"I can’t stop," said Olivia. "If we hit the benchmarks—"
"When," said Kwon.
"When we hit the benchmarks," said Olivia, with the specific firmness of someone accepting a correction they agree with. "I get my masters back at year eight."
"That’s what it means," said Kwon.
"That’s enormous," said Olivia. "That’s not a standard thing. Artists spend careers not getting that." She looked at Sean. "You read three filings last night."
"The documents were publicly accessible," said Sean.
"Sean," said Olivia.
"Yes." Said Sean
"Thanks for everything" Said Olivia with a smile shown on her face.
"You don’t need to thank me , I will do everything in my power to always help you" said Sean with a smile shown on his face.