Chapter 371: Broadcast Schedule (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 371: Broadcast Schedule (1)
While it didn't quite reach the level of A.Wang.Sil, Exclusive Report also boasted a whirlwind of a plot.
This was especially true now that the true motives of Cheon Yun-seong—the man who had used money and power to plunge the protagonists into crisis at every turn—were being revealed.
If people like you hadn't come poking around, none of this would have happened. Do you really need to experience firsthand how useless a paltry sense of justice is to understand?
Cheon Yun-seong had been forcibly entangled in illegal corruption under the pretext that being tied to the group's dark side was the only way to ensure he wouldn't betray them and remain loyal to the family. At one point, he had despaired, believing that an individual could never stand against such a massive conspiracy. Soon, however, he came to believe that he was the only one with enough power to solve the problem.
On the surface, Cheon Yun-seong carried out the group's orders, but beneath the surface, he plotted for a greater cause. He vowed that one day, he would bring down Cheonju Group with his own hands.
The footage to be filmed today was a sharp confrontation between the protagonists, who had lost their families while Yun-seong waited for his moment, and Yun-seong himself, who declared he would turn a blind eye to inevitable sacrifices to uproot the problem because he saw the shadows that even the protagonists didn't know existed.
While memorizing the lines, I found it much easier to empathize with the protagonists than with Cheon Yun-seong. How could anyone dare to justify the harm someone else had suffered?
It might be a cowardly choice, but if it were me, I would have distanced myself from the problem entirely. Even if that meant giving up everything.
Nevertheless, my role was Cheon Yun-seong, not Gong Ji-chan. I had a duty to understand and embody him.
I was born with everything provided for me, but none of it was truly for my sake. I knew all too well that I couldn't rely on public authority. I chewed over Yun-seong's lines—the words of a man who had never been allowed to make a choice in his life—until they were worn smooth.
I recalled my own experience of living as a deprived child in an economically stable home. I thought of the fact that violence occurring in a seemingly stable house is easily ignored, and the days when I could think of nothing but surviving from one day to the next.
Digging up old emotions was never a pleasant experience. However, it did add a layer of realism to the character of Cheon Yun-seong.
And after spending a great deal of time, I came to understand Cheon Yun-seong, who could have chosen the single option of running away but didn't.
All that remained was to convince the strangers beyond the screen of Yun-seong's actions. I closed the script, embracing the heavy responsibility.
Haneulchae.
Once a small restaurant that had shown kindness to Chairman Cheon in the past—back when he had poured his entire fortune into his business and didn't have enough money for a single meal—it had been transformed into its current state as a high-end hanjeongsik restaurant with his full support following his success.
It was a monumental location for Cheonju Group, a place Chairman Cheon visited whenever there was an occasion for celebration. At the same time, if Cheon Yun-seong was summoned to Haneulchae when the Chairman was in a foul mood, it meant that at least one person had to die.
It was to this Haneulchae that Cheon Yun-seong had invited Ham I-seo and Gong Ji-chan. Knowing the significance of the place, the two had left wills at their respective homes before coming to meet him.
Following the instructions of the secretary, Division Chief Go, they handed over their phones and entered the innermost room. Cheon Yun-seong greeted them with a smile.
"We meet again, despite neither side being particularly pleased to see the other."
"……."
"Why don't you sit?"
Yun-seong spoke with a smile. Ham I-seo and Gong Ji-chan sat side by side across from him.
The only sound in the silent room was the noise of Yun-seong sipping his tea. Steam rose from the teacup like incense.
"How is it? Searching for secrets that others don't know."
"……."
"Is it fun?"
"Fun?"
Ham I-seo flared up at Yun-seong's brazen attitude despite his misdeeds.
"After you've killed people?"
"You say such frightening things, Ms. Ham I-seo."
Neither Ham I-seo nor Gong Ji-chan could push Yun-seong using the evidence they had gathered so far. If he knew they had his weaknesses, there was no way he wouldn't take action.
With the enemy of their families living a life of luxury right in front of them, all they could do was suppress their rage.
"How can you do such things while wearing a human mask?"
"And what exactly do you mean by 'such things'?"
"Using dirty tricks to get rid of anyone or any company that gets in the way of making money, all while trading on a virtuous image."
Even if she was lumped in with 'trashy reporters' and cursed at, Ham I-seo had only ever written articles she wasn't ashamed of. To someone who had lived her whole life with her head held high, Yun-seong's behavior was utterly incomprehensible.
"You seem to value faith and loyalty quite highly, Ms. Ham I-seo."
Yun-seong remained composed even in the face of I-seo's indignation. His gaze shifted toward Gong Ji-chan.
"That's what she says. What about you, Mr. Gong Ji-chan?"
"……."
"Does Ms. Ham I-seo know that you were once a member of Cheonju Group?"
I-seo's eyes widened. Yun-seong didn't take his eyes off Ji-chan, and Ji-chan couldn't take his eyes off his own tightly clenched hands.
Yun-seong looked at I-seo with a bright smile. He then took his time savoring the expression on her face—the look of someone who felt betrayed by her most trusted colleague.
"What is this…?"
I-seo looked back and forth between Yun-seong and Ji-chan. Ji-chan's silence served as his answer.
It felt like being struck in the back of the head. A shuddering feeling of having been deceived.
As I-seo looked ready to explode, Ji-chan spoke with difficulty.
"Once we get out of here… I'll explain everything."
"You speak as if you're certain you can leave."
Yun-seong didn't miss the opening.
"Didn't you call us a company of murderers? That we use dirty tricks to get rid of anything that gets in our way."
"Are you threatening us?"
"No, I'm just curious. I wonder how you expect to walk out safely from in front of a man you suspect of murder."
Yun-seong leaned back heavily against his chair. He turned his head toward the wide-open window.
"You knew what kind of place Haneulchae was before you came, right?"
"……."
"It really is a nice place. Maybe it's because it's so old, but there are smells coming from all over."
"……."
"Especially from that pond."
"…!"
The two gasped. Yun-seong watched his guests' reactions with a smile.
"I'll have to tell them to clean it properly. This is no way to treat precious guests."
The 'cleaner' for Cheonju Group was Yun-seong himself. For a man who never left the cleaning to others to say this meant that the comment about the pond was far from a joke.
"You were bold enough to touch Cheonju Group, yet you're frightened by a mere few words? I thought your resolve was solemn since you even wrote wills, but this is disappointing. You're below my expectations."
"I did it because it's what had to be done. It's not a matter of whether I wanted to or not."
"Taking on a task you can't handle is nothing but stubbornness and arrogance."
The look in Yun-seong's eyes changed. An overbearing pressure that made one's body freeze just by facing it dominated the room.
Ham I-seo broke through this heavy pressure with her own strength.
"Is it arrogance for people like us to challenge you, but a 'greater cause' when it's something you do, Mr. Cheon Yun-seong?"
Ji-chan looked at I-seo as if asking what she was talking about. However, I-seo's eyes were fixed solely on Yun-seong and did not waver.
Yun-seong laughed as if he found it absurd.
"Ms. Ham I-seo."
"……."
"Who do you think you're threatening right now?"
"I know you have it. The list of victims."
I-seo did not back down. It was information she had discovered just before coming here, something she hadn't even shared with Ji-chan.
"For someone who says faith is important, it seems you didn't even trust your colleague."
Yun-seong spoke with a smile, but his eyes were cold and sunken.
"I suppose you were planning to release it when the time was right."
"Your deductive skills are extraordinary. But why didn't you consider that you were interfering with my work?"
"And why should I care?"
My father was murdered while you were waiting for your 'time' to come.
The veins in her neck and her trembling hands laid I-seo's emotions bare. Ji-chan, who shared the same pain, also remained silent.
"An entrepreneur and an individual are bound to differ in these aspects."
"What are you trying to say?"
"If you get worked up over a few deaths, you can't pull out the roots. As a businessman, I am willing to accept minimal sacrifice for maximum profit."
"What?"
"Ms. Ham I-seo."
Watching I-seo as she bolted upright from her seat, Yun-seong asked in a calm tone.
"Can you exert more influence than me in matters related to Cheonju Group?"
"That's…!"
"Didn't you come here having written a will because you knew you could disappear without a trace with just a word from me? What can you do with that paltry power? Do you think Cheonju Group can't even suppress a few news articles?"
The irrefutable reality crashed down on I-seo. As long as Ji-chan was a former insider, if Cheonju Group dismissed it as 'baseless rumors spread by a disgruntled former employee,' public opinion would quickly swing back to their side.
"……What is it you want to say?"
Ji-chan finally spoke. The two men's gazes collided in mid-air.
"From the moment you leave here, do nothing."
"……."
"Keep your mouths shut and live as if you're dead. I'm saying don't let yourselves get caught in my sight before you even catch the eye of Cheonju Group."
As soon as he finished speaking, the sliding door opened and Division Chief Go appeared. Two cell phones were placed on a wooden tray that Go set on the table.
"Your recorders will have been useless. You knew this place was treated with recording prevention, didn't you?"
Yun-seong pushed the tray toward the two of them.
"Take them."
With hands trembling from a surge of emotions, I-seo picked up her phone.
Ji-chan, who was checking his phone beside her, suddenly snapped his head up. Yun-seong wore a gentle smile.
"Perfect, isn't it?"
At Yun-seong's words, I-seo hurriedly checked her phone's serial number. A different set of digits from the device number she had last checked was listed.
The phone number was the same, and all the accumulated messages were there. No text message about a new activation had arrived. Not even a login alert for the messenger app.
And yet, while they were talking, everything had been transferred. In the process, the conversations I-seo and Ji-chan had shared and the data they had saved would have all vanished.
It was a moment where things like identity verification or ARS connections became laughable. Could an individual ever defeat a man like Cheon Yun-seong, who exerted influence even in such small corners just to control the two of them?
"Get home safely. I've taken care of the wills, so don't go looking for them and making things difficult."
Behind the brightly smiling Yun-seong, the black pond sparkled under the moonlight. Ham I-seo and Gong Ji-chan practically fled from Haneulchae as if they were being hunted.