Chapter 745

“Thank you for the interview. I had an easy time because you were so good at talking.”

“No, the interview was easy thanks to your fluent words, journalist Kim.”

“I’m glad that’s was the case. Oh, I heard that you’re starting another film soon.”

“I just signed the contract two days ago. News sure does travel fast.”

“Well, I come across a lot of gossip. Someone of your caliber, actor Choi, will always be on my radar. Who knows? Maybe you’re going to be a character in a 10 million seller again.”

“I’m only a support character; how much influence could I possibly have? It’s thanks to the other actors that it was possible.”

“But I still hear rumors in Chungmuro that casting you guarantees at least 5 million views. You’re a guaranteed check in the support actor industry, apparently. Anyway, I hope you do well in this one too.”

“Will I be able to meet you again if I do well?”

“For me, I’ll go wherever and whenever you call me, so call me when you have time.”

Kim Dongwook asked for a handshake first. Actor Choi slightly shook his hands before standing up. See you next time - actor Choi left after leaving those words.

Dongwook sat down and organized the contents of the interview. He played back the voice recorder and transcribed it into his notes. There were many actors who refused interviews with voice recorders these days, but this middle-aged actor accepted it with a smile. He seemed pretty confident, as expected of an actor known for his good deeds.

“I guess that’s about done.”

After clearing up his interview notes, he opened his laptop. Due to the nature of interviews, the impression he had during the interview would often become faint with time, so he wrote up the interview article on the spot if it was possible. He would probably go home and fix a few mistakes, but the majority would be completed here.

He ordered another cup of coffee. As the cup of coffee started to show its bottom and his fingers started feeling heavy, Dongwook took his hands off the laptop. He looked at the title ‘The Hidden Guarantee’ before nodding. This was enough. He could finish it up at home.

He rotated his right wrist round and round because it was sore as he took out his phone from his pocket with his left hand. After seeing that there were no texts, he checked the schedule. It was time to write that.

Dongwook opened up a document file. It was an article that was uploaded on the internet not too long ago. It was rather bland as an article, so it had a low view count and wasn’t even monetized. Usually, he wouldn’t give a second glance at such an article. Young film-people who have made the Seoul Youth Film Festival shine - that was the title.

He put his hand on his trackpad and opened up a new document to the side. He also opened up some email attachments he got in the morning. It was the data about the mini-series drama on YBS, ‘Pojang-macha’, as well as community reactions.

“It has an especially good review from people in their 20s.”

People in their twenties, especially the ladies, had a big reaction. The fact that it was ladies in their 20s and 30s, who were loved by advertisers, was great news. Dongwook also watched Pojang-macha. He watched it in a comfortable position on the sofa after taking a shower, but he could only remember the opening and the ending. He ended up dozing off midway.

The large communities where men made up the majority didn’t mention the drama that much. The cafés where young people were active sometimes mentioned the drama along with the word ‘fresh’, but it didn’t become much of a topic in the upper age group communities, like car clubs and hiking clubs. Although it was mentioned from time to time, the majority of the opinion was negative, like boring or ordinary.

If he wrote down what he felt in his article, it would probably be something along the lines of ‘extremely ordinary pojang-macha’, but since he was being paid to write, there was a need for him to add some spices.

Dongwook’s eyes moved. He scanned his materials and old articles before fixing his eyes on the new document. He clenched his fist hard enough that he could hear a cracking sound before putting his hands on the keyboard.

“Pojang-macha, the drama that stimulated the hearts of women.”

President Lee Junmin told him to watch out for some things while writing articles. One, a provoking, stimulating title was no good. Two, write based on facts. These ‘facts’ that the president spoke of were usually materials sent to him by the company. The community response data was also included. Dongwook knew that there was a shady truth behind these ‘facts’. The Youth Film Festival article he wrote before also had a truth that could not be revealed to the public. The revealed fact was that the judges agreed to give Maru and his school the prize, and the truth that three of the six judges were related to JA was something that could not be revealed. The president asked him to write facts that would hide the truth, and Dongwook accepted that. The compensation was an office-tel and a much higher salary. His cheap journalism was sold at an expensive price.

He wrote about half of the article and started putting line breaks. He read it out loud in a small voice before reading it in a small voice again. He checked if it was fluid when reading from the first sentence to the last before stretching his arms out.

“Well, that should do.”

He wrote some things about Maru while introducing the drama. The paragraph that began with ‘the boy that won the Youth Film Festival that occurred last month’, would now be read by people who have searched the word ‘pojang-macha’.

As he was a young actor who had to build up his foundation, the president looked like he was in no hurry. He was probably aiming for a steady build up of image rather than a strong punch from the beginning. As for the article about Yang Ganghwan, he had already finished it and sent it to the company. Once the president read through it and gave it the okay, it would be distributed through various channels, and the internet news agencies that received money from JA would copy the article and edit it a little before redistributing the article. In two days, an article of unknown origins about an actor would be scattered throughout the various corners of the internet.

Just as he turned off his laptop and was about to stand up, his phone started ringing. The ringtone was the same for every one of his contacts, but that bell sounded ominous to him for some reason. Dongwook narrowed one eye and opened the phone. Choi Miyeon, Sharon. That was a call he didn’t want to pick up. He knew what this foolish junior was going to say without having to think about it. Journalism, which he had sold for cheap, was something she still possessed.

After he kept staring at it for a long time, the bell stopped. Did she tire herself out? - he wondered as he stood up with a sigh.

“You should pick up your call, shouldn’t you?”

Choi Miyeon was right in front of him. Dongwook flinched. He almost dropped his expensive laptop.

“Why are you here?”

“This is a famous café isn’t it? It’s where a lot of interviews happen.”

“Huh? I didn’t know that.”

“That’s not what’s important. What is, is Lee Hyuk.”

“I’m having none of this.”

Dongwook blocked his ears. For the past year, he had helped Miyeon out. He pitied the junior who wanted to walk into a pit of lava covered in fuel, so he reached out to her, but that only lasted until October.

“Why don’t you give up now? If you can’t find out after all that effort, it’s heaven’s decree telling you not to dig further into it. Or maybe, it never happened in the first place. You were chasing nothing.”

“How can you say it’s nothing after seeing all that evidence?”

“Let’s be straight here. It’s not ‘all that evidence’, it’s very little. You should be ashamed.”

Dongwook tried to stand up with his laptop in hand.

“I see a tail now.”

“Miyeon.”

“I mean it.”

“Choi Miyeon. That tail is in the end, a lizard’s tail. If you grab it, it’ll fall off. You should start looking into articles that suit your magazine. It’s been a year, no wait, it’s been two years already, hasn’t it? You did enough. Unless you want the Journalist Award or something, you should stop here. You need to make a living, don’t you? Aren’t you past 30? You should think about marriage.”

He wondered how he should convince this stubborn junior. Miyeon’s persistence was incredible. Ever since she became a blind believer of Capaism, this junior kept digging into Lee Miyoon without resting like she was something like a perpetual motion machine. What started it off was an actress’ unjust framing. Miyeon felt sympathy for that person and kept chasing down the culprits in secret in order to find out the truth. She spent the past 2 years like that. Dongwook did not know whether what moved her was a sense of justice, the public good, or journalism. How she was able to give up her reality for the sake of her dogma was beyond his comprehension.

“I did it for 2 years, so I might as well do another. Middle school lasts 3 years and high school also lasts 3 years, don’t they?”

“What kind of nonsensical logic is that?”

“We’re not in a field where logic plays a role, you know?”

Dongwook clutched his hair.

“So what? What did Lee Hyuk do? Before that, we are talking about the actor Lee Hyuk, right?”

“Yes, the actor Lee Hyuk.”

“Weren’t you digging Lee Miyoon?”

“She leaks absolutely nothing. There are only rumors about her and nothing concrete. I think she’s been cautious ever since The Five became an issue. I tailed her for about a week three months ago, but I got nothing from her.”

“You tailed her? Why don’t you switch your job to a private detective instead? You know, those people who take photos of husbands who are cheating on their wives.”

“I actually looked into that, but there’s the possibility of backlash there, so I stopped.”

“You, girl, stop at nothing, don’t you? Did you not contact me for a while because you were doing those things?”

“If I want to catch people who mock the law, I should avoid the law too. I didn’t break any laws though, I promise.”

“Good for you. I should have stopped you back then in that pojang-macha. My deepest regret in life is agreeing to help you. Gosh, I was crazy back then.”

“You can’t take back what you already started. Anyway, back to Lee Hyuk.”

“Fine, let’s hear it. What about him?”

“I was digging into Lee Miyoon, and I found out something interesting.”

“What is it?”

“Rich young masters partying with ladies.”

“That’s really something for the social department to handle. Since you quit the TV station and entered a magazine company, you should learn how to take care.”

“Have you ever seen public TV attacking chaebols? It’s the ones that decide to attack them that leave.”

“That for political journalists, while you’re a women’s magazine journalist.”

“Still, I’m a journalist.”

He couldn’t get through to this junior of his. Dongwook took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth before frowning when he was reminded of the fact that they were inside a café. He snapped the cigarette in half and wrapped it in some napkins.

“So what? Rich young masters are partying. How’s that a problem? Did they do drugs or something?”

“Who knows? They might have.”

“That sounds like the most useless thing I’ve heard. So, what did you actually find out? Did Lee Hyuk play with the ladies along with those rich young masters? And that’s somehow related to Lee Miyoon?”

“No, there was nothing like that. From what I’ve looked into until now, Lee Miyoon and Lee Hyuk don’t have any relations. There might be a connection, though, and it might be that I just don’t know anything about it.”

“Then what? Where does Lee Hyuk appear in all this?”

“Where does Lee Hyuk belong to now?”

“Soul, of course.”

“Do you remember that Soul’s president, Hong Janghae, had a behind-the-curtains deal with Lee Miyoon when he brought The Five?”

“That’s just an assumption though. Do you have any evidence? You don’t, do you? Then that’s just gossip.”

“But it’s true, circumstantially.”

“You should know that circumstantial evidence means nothing.”

“Alright. Then I’ll only talk about the facts now. Lee Hyuk entered Soul, who might or might not have done a shady deal. Although he was kinda part of nowhere since his contract with JA didn’t go through, he wasn’t someone who would enter a new company, especially not under Hong Janghae, who never worked in the entertainment industry before.”

“Maybe the contract terms were good.”

“You know who Soul’s parent company is, right?”

“Who doesn’t? It’s YM, isn’t it?”

“Do you know who the grandson of the leader of YM is?”

“Why would I? I don’t see the need to know since I’m not related to such a person.”

“Kang Giwoo.”

“Kang Giwoo?”

“You know that there’s a big disaster movie that’s starting soon, right?”

Dongwook probed his memories.

“Ah, right. Kang Giwoo. I finally remember him. You’re talking about the kid who plays the lead male in New Semester, right?”

“Yes.”

“He’s the grandson of YM’s chairman?”

“That’s right. Also, that boy’s relationship with Lee Hyuk is kinda interesting.”

“What is it?”

“Master-slave relationship.”

“What?”

“What I discovered is not the relationship between Lee Miyoon and Lee Hyuk; I discovered the relationship between Lee Hyuk and Kang Giwoo. Furthermore, one of the women partying with Kang Giwoo is related to Lee Miyoon.”

“So you’re basing things on gossip again.”

“I can be sure of my source.”

“Your source is a rotten one.”

“If I dig into Kang Giwoo and Lee Hyuk and get in touch with that woman, who’s the source of the money, I might be able to grab Lee Miyoon’s tail. That would explain the reason why she can sweep something as big as sexual service under the rug.”

“So YM is behind all this? The chairman’s grandson and perhaps Lee Miyoon herself is mixed in this?”

“Hong Janghae might be the core. You’ve seen what he’s like. He’s like a snake.”

Dongwook smiled and put his laptop inside his bag. He then took out a 10,000 won note from his wallet and handed it to Miyeon.

“Seonbae?”

“Okay, that’s enough. I’ll pretend I never heard it. I’m already not sure about digging into Lee Miyoon the individual, but now you’re also bringing YM into this? I have enough money to buy a house now. Life is long. I don’t want to suck on my thumb for my entire life.”

“But you should bring justice!”

“Give it to a dog for all I care.”

“Where’s your journalism?”

“Outside Earth’s atmosphere.”

“What about the things you said in the pojang-macha that day?”

“I’ve long since sold my soul.”

“Senior!”

“Stop calling me. I’m really not going to do it this time. Absolutely not.”

Dongwook shook his head and left.