Chapter 294

Chapter 294

This was the most important part.

I need to hit him fast, and not give him any time to think. I took out my phone from my pocket and put it on the desk so it was easy to see. And just like he’d done last time, I played a recording.

“You’re after the daesang, aren’t you?”

“Aren’t we all?”

The audio quality was much cleaner than in Seodam’s.

“…!”

I’d recorded it myself, after all.

“You’re not the only one who can make a recording.” I hit pause and grinned at him. “Did you think I’d get on my knees and beg just because I’d spoken a little informally to him? I can simply go on a variety show and give evidence of how close we are, and that will be that.”

Seodam seemed to be trying to wrap his head around what was going on. He was acting on instinct, trying to find something to say to deny the current situation—not that it would help much.

Maybe I’ll wait for him to finish thinking.

Words tumbled out of his mouth a few seconds later. “The new song! How it got popular! You said it was all planned—”

Oh, that.

“Well, did I? I was just trying to move on from the subject… It’s all a matter of context, and how you explain that context.”

I picked up my phone again without another word. Accessing my contacts, I called someone.

[VTIC Cheongryeo]

An acoustic version of VTIC’s new song played for a moment… then stopped. There was a click.

“Hello, Moondae.”

“Hello, Cheongryeo. About that conversation we had in the waiting room. Do you mind if I mention it on a variety show?”

I could hear him laugh over the phone, which ticked me off a little. But Cheongryeo responded as we’d agreed. “Of course. You do that. I’m the one who suggested you drop the formalities.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

I hung up.

“You heard him.”

Now, that’s both points that you thought were my weaknesses gone. The idiot in front of me had grown suddenly docile, the malicious look in his eyes gone entirely.

I guess his temper tantrums don’t last very long. He had very strong self-preservation instincts. I knew that now was the right time to pile on the pressure, so I quickly changed the subject.

“That should answer your questions… Now. About the school bullying thing that I wanted to talk about.”

Now that I’ve gotten rid of my weaknesses, let’s talk about yours.

I said casually, “It would be quick and clean to just let the victim talk to a reporter, would it not?”

“…!”

“Making it public will probably send a positive message, socially speaking. And there’s plenty of evidence. People will believe what they hear.”

Evidence. I was willing to bet that this bastard was going over the conversation he’d had with Ahyeon right now. I reached my conclusion.

“Even now, you’re trying to record my voice. That shows that you’re still trying to find other people to threaten. That’ll be the icing on the cake. I think we’ll go ahead with it. That’ll be all.”

I picked up my phone and stood to leave, showing him that I was done with the conversation.

“Uh, wait!” Seodam jerked to his feet as if someone had prodded him with a needle. “W-wait. Why… why would you…”

Okay. So you’re asking why I would give you all these details? Well, thanks for asking.

I smiled faintly at him. “I’m telling you to give up. We’re going to release everything. The least I could do was give you a heads-up. Now all you have to do is wait.”

I was simply notifying him of what was to come. He froze—an ordinary reaction. Most people would be overwhelmed at this point. I obviously had no interest in negotiating, his preparations had just been proven to be useless, and now he’d been told that his own flaw would be attacked without mercy.

At the moment, he would feel cornered, with no way to escape. Regret and distrust would fill his mind, and with his over-inflated ego, he would come to a conclusion different from the one most people would come to.

“Why are you doing this to me?” He was turning to blaming others. “What did I ever do to you? So I didn’t get along with Ahyeon in school… And because of that, you’re doing this to me? I don’t… why would you?”

He began to ramble. “You can’t do this to me, only based on Ahyeon’s claims! You’re trying to end my career before it even begins!”

“Is that right?” I asked indifferently. “So you’re saying that what you did to Ahyeon was something anyone would have done under the circumstances, and you can’t bear to be the victim? You knew what you were doing to Ahyeon. Just as you knew what you were doing when you recorded my conversation.”

He looked like I’d slapped him in the face. Bastards like him only began to regret their actions when they bit them in the ass.

“You know, if I were you, I would be too embarrassed to say something like that. Isn’t it better to just accept what’s happening?”

I was saying this with the full knowledge that he wasn’t the sort of guy to do so, of course.

“But if this gets out, Ahyeon will also lose out—”

We wouldn’t have gotten this far if he was the sort to feel remorse so quickly. I shrugged.

“It’s what he wants to do. It’s not my place to worry about that. What do I care?”

“…!”

“Hey, I’m not the one whose reputation will be affected.”

He clammed up. Now he had to be thinking that I was well and truly out of my mind. It would sink in that I was planning to do anything and everything in my power to crush him, with no thought for what it might do to my own group.

What was more, his imagination would run wild about how far I was willing to go. He’d already be picturing a hellish experience.

I’ll never recover from this! he was likely thinking.

Hmm. I was bluffing, of course. I wasn’t an idiot. I would have to be one to actually make all this public. It’s just a threat.

“The person who should be taking responsibility for their own actions is you, don’t you agree? He has proof, as you heard.”

“B-but…”

The same was true here. Ahyeon had revealed to us in the course of our discussions that he had recordings of the guy, but the files were very low quality, and any claims we made that they contained Seodam’s voice would not hold up. The only thing that remained was the therapy records Ahyeon had mentioned, but those would also likely lead to some contention if made public. And besides, our group’s career had been far too eventful for me to even think about dragging up a personal matter that didn’t have to do with our activities.

But Seodam didn’t know that. He had fallen for my bluff, hook, line, and sinker. Not only had he lost the will to fight, but he was panicking so badly that he couldn’t even cry or be angry.

I’d like to leave him in this state for a week or two, but… That could lead to more unforeseen circumstances, so I decided it was time to start dangling hope in front of him.

I touched my phone under the table. The final player in this game was about to show up. A few seconds later, there was a hurried knock, and the door flew open.

“G-guys.”

“…!”

It was Goldie #2, and he had the look of someone with something urgent to talk about.

“Kwon Heeseung.”

Seodam spun around and stared at him. Apparently, his brain was still churning, despite everything. The mood changed as soon as Goldie #2 said his next words.

“I heard… at a meeting. Moondae, could you please reconsider making an official statement?”

“Hmm…” I said no more, but this was on purpose. I made it seem like I was conflicted.

“…!”

A light flashed in Seodam’s eyes—the light of hope.

“I’m sure Seodam is very sorry about what he’s done. I-isn’t that right?”

Seodam nodded, seemingly genuine. He said urgently, “I-I’m sorry.”

He’s realized he might have a chance.

“Uh-huh.”

“For recording your voice… and trying to do something with that. I did the wrong thing. I misunderstood, you see…”

“Hmm…” I waited for a while before replying. “I don’t think you’d have apologized if you weren’t in the current situation. But that’s beside the point,” I said.

“The situation has allowed Seodam to see what he did wrong. S-Seodam, please tell him what you realized,” Goldie #2 said. I could almost see his brain going into overdrive.

In the end, he all but repeated what I’d told him before. “I… realized I shouldn’t try to hurt others to succeed… That it’s wrong… Yes.”

Good.

He’d said the words, in the end. I wasn’t sure how genuine he was being, since he’d been lying for the better part of his life, but what mattered was that he’d said it with his own lips while in a state of shock. Later, when he had calmed, he would have to factor in his admission when he tried to justify his own actions in his own mind.

The silence stretched on, and Goldie #2 fanned the flames. “Th-think about it, Moondae! If Seodam is forced out of the group like this… Things might get out of hand… And our activities for this year might be ruined…”

I stared at Goldie #2 without speaking. He looked like he was about to break out into a sweat, and was gasping for air.

I finally shrugged. “Well… I don’t want to do any harm to the agency.”

“…!”

I glanced at Seodam, pretending to repress a sigh, then nodded. “But I’m only letting it go this once.”

***

Things were simple after that. A relieved Seodam, with the encouragement of Goldie #2, immediately wrote up a contract and extricated himself from the team voluntarily.

The nuance of the contract was important, too. Seodam wasn’t the one keeping our conversation a secret. We made it clear that we were the ones who were covering up his weakness. In return for not mentioning his attempt to spread rumors and his past bullying ways, he would quietly leave the team and do them no further harm. That was the contract.

The articles and announcements were made quickly.

[Chae Seodam, #10 on the new season of Idol Inc., won’t be debuting… “Health issues” cited]

The debut team’s fandom hadn’t liked him much to begin with, and with the reason being “health issues,” the incident was largely ignored without any big issues or controversy.

And Goldie #2, who’d joined the conversation at the last moment and had his fun, was grinning from ear to ear. It might have been an obvious ploy, but Big Sejin had gotten him to play the nice cop, so to speak, in all of this.

“Yes, Moondae, you’ll be the bad cop! Heeseung will show up at the end and hand him an offer he can’t refuse!”

I couldn’t deny that the casting had been wise.

“Your acting was on point,” I said.

“Me? Oh, I wasn’t acting. I was dead serious.”

Seodam moved out immediately, and Goldie #2 sighed deeply in relief.

“Phew… I mean, how did he get so close again to— Oh, whatever! It feels so good to be rid of him before our debut!”

I didn’t blame him. He was like a ticking time bomb, and nobody wanted someone like that on their team. I laughed.

“Thanks again for being so generous, Moondae!”

“No need to thank me.”

“Don’t say that. I think you’re amazing! I’ll always think of you as my savior!”

Goldie #2 began to text me more often after that.

Not long after that, a different kind of text arrived, through the manager of the debut team. It was a long text from Seodam, and interestingly enough, it was addressed to Ahyeon.

[I saw everything as a competition. I guess I hurt you more than I intended, and I’m sorry. You see, I’ve really learned my lesson. I can see now that there might be a problem with the way I approach things…]

It was very long. To summarize, he was saying he had been too hard on Ahyeon during their school years. More than half of it was him trying to justify his actions, though.

“‘More than intended?’ You call that an apology? That son of a—” Bae Sejin said, angry.

“I-it’s okay!” Ahyeon assured him. “I didn’t expect an apology from him… I told myself I didn’t want one, but I guess I did…”

“Ahyeon…”

“Th-thank you.” He bowed to the others, then locked eyes with me. “A-and thank you, Moondae. I-I try to help, but it seems I’m always the one who’s on the receiving end.”

“…?”

You’re the one who laid the foundations, you know.

I knew that if I said this out loud, there would be an endless series of compliments bandied back and forth, so I simply said, “I was just cooperating. Thank you as well.”

“Yeah…!”

He smiled brightly, then exited out of the screen capture of Seodam’s text.

“Yeah!”

The members applauded as if it was some kind of ceremony, and Ahyeon seemed to grow a little shy.

“Hmm.”

I considered as I watched him flick the image away.

The bastard will forget this happened soon enough. But we’d taken that into account as well.

He has a knack for avoiding bringing any harm to himself. He’ll keep his mouth shut. And coming this close to being crushed generally made people feel accepting and respectful, rather than vengeful. He’d simply tell himself that he’d dealt with the situation wisely.

As such, Seodam would never talk about anything that had to do with this incident ever again, and Ahyeon would simply forget about him.

I guess we won’t be seeing him again anytime soon. We’d taken him off the playing board.

“Hmm…”

After a moment of thought, I sent off a text that night.

[It turned out well. Thanks]

I supposed thanks were in order, since it was true that he’d helped. A photo of a familiar dog holding up a paw arrived soon enough.

Is that supposed to be a greeting?

“Hmm…”

I rubbed my chin. He wasn’t being sarcastic, which was a surprise.

Perhaps the bastard is finally being reasonable—

[VTIC Cheongryeo: Is that right? I’d like a song in return, then.]

Has he lost his mind?

[VTIC Cheongryeo: I’m joking :)]

I locked my phone without answering. And that was the full extent of the aftermath of Seodam’s send-off.

The very next day, it was revealed at a meeting that if we hadn’t chosen to do this, we’d have been forced to work with him.

“We have some more specific dates regarding the agency concert…”

The meeting was about holding a concert wherein all the artists from the agency would perform—a symbol of success for any agency worth their salt.