The Price of Trust
"Then,"
For a moment, I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t get a word out. Even last time, the way he’d laughed as if the manager were just spouting nonsense had stuck in my throat. And on top of that, Cheon Sa-yoon had answered like someone who knew everything, including things Kyeon In-woo hadn’t even been told.
"You knew this was going to happen...?"
"Wouldn't you think so?"
He answered at once, even though my question came slowly.
So he did know? I knew he was a bastard, but really?
It wasn’t exactly necessary for him to tell me, but unless he was deliberately trying to screw me over, wouldn’t a normal person—no, any sane person—say something?
The words came out of Go Young-in’s mouth before he could stop them. "Why didn’t you say anything?"
"Why would I?"
Cheon Sa-yoon looked at him with that calm, unwavering face, as if he’d just heard the most obvious thing in the world. Maybe it was because of those eyes of his—so blatantly untroubled—that Go Young-in was the one who suddenly felt strange for asking.
"You didn’t ask."
Cheon Sa-yoon spoke softly, as if patiently pointing out a fact the other man didn’t know.
"I did tell you to be careful. And you remembered, too, didn’t you?"
There was nothing in Cheon Sa-yoon’s eyes that Go Young-in could read. He couldn’t tell whether the man was saying it with bad intentions or whether he really believed it.
"If you’d asked, I would’ve told you."
The smile tugging at his lips looked perfectly natural. It was so polished it became unsettling in reverse—a smile too pretty to be real.
After a brief discussion with the agency, Go Young-in posted on Zero One’s official fan cafe.
As expected, once the sasaeng article went up, identical copycat articles sprang up everywhere. The fandom atmosphere, already uneasy from the confirmed lineup of the survival show, quickly soured into something far uglier.
Hello, IONs. It's Young-in.
First, I'm sorry I couldn’t come here right away when you must have been more shocked than anyone by the sudden news. I’m writing because I thought I should let you know as quickly as possible, thinking of the IONs who may be hurting even more than I am.
I went to the hospital and got examined. Luckily, I wasn't hurt, and nothing serious happened. So I hope the IONs won't hurt themselves any more over this, either. If this message can ease your worry even a little, then I’m grateful.
I always want to make the IONs as happy as the love you've given me. I'll work even harder so I can live up to this overwhelming gratitude that I could never repay in a lifetime.
Thank you, I'm sorry, and I love you.
So make sure you eat your meals, okay? Haha. And please don't cry where I can't see you—I can't come wipe your tears for you.
The agency notice just went up.
They said she asked for leniency, claiming that liking someone isn’t a crime.
Not your average lunatic.
Of course, given the nature of the incident, the manager had to be replaced.
"Hello. I'm Team Leader Kwon Je-won, and I'll be handling Zero One from today on."
The new manager looked vaguely familiar, like someone Go Young-in had crossed paths with a few times while coming and going from the company. He was the sort of face that stuck in your memory. And judging by his title, it didn’t seem as though the company had thrown him in carelessly, either.
In the past, they’d had a hard time finding even a halfway decent manager, so the position had changed hands often. Was this, too, part of the butterfly effect? Either way, since Go Young-in’s reset, this was easily the most helpful turn of events yet.
Ah. So there really was an incident like this, and that’s why the manager changed.
He wasn’t fired just because he was bad at his job.
So the only one who got hurt back then, besides me, was Lim Se-bin.
"Please take good care of us. Speak casually if you can."
They were older, after all, and would be sticking together constantly, so this was easier. After the brief introductions, the manager called Lim Se-bin and Go Young-in away on their own. He must have wanted to talk about the former manager. Come to think of it, what had happened after that?
Following Kwon Je-won, they entered an empty conference room. Maybe he’d reserved it in advance, because there wasn’t a soul inside.
"You know why I called you here, right?"
Kwon Je-won pulled out chairs for Go Young-in and Lim Se-bin before sitting down himself.
"So how did it go?"
Lim Se-bin seemed curious, too. The way he asked about the outcome the moment he sat down made that obvious.
As if making sure, Kwon Je-won quietly looked from one of them to the other. When he saw that both men genuinely looked fine, he gave a small nod and began.
He briefly explained the aftermath of Do Sa-jin, who was now the former manager, and the things the company had separately passed along.
As he listened, even more details came out—details Go Young-in had never known—and every single one of them was fucking disgusting.
No. He’d thought it ended with lending out the car keys, but this bastard had secretly taken photos and sold them? And the original photos the lunatic had used for the composites had actually been handed over by the manager himself?
Apparently, the former manager had collapsed like a man who’d given up on everything, then poured out some long, maudlin story about needing someone to confide in.
The motivation itself had started from something stupidly small.
He’d gotten the job in the first place through Ju Dong-yun’s recommendation. A college junior, of all things. Fucking nepotism.
He’d thought becoming Zero One’s manager was a good break, too. If he got close to the celebrities under him, he could build some standing inside the company. But he never managed to get close, and ended up in some awkward in-between position instead.
While being subtly looked down on by Ju Dong-yun, that bastard Ju Dong-yun had made a reckless move to promote his sister’s shop with his idol, and in the process got tangled up with Cheon Sa-yoon. Once Ju Dong-yun was completely shoved aside in the company politics because of Cheon Sa-yoon, he started hounding the manager like a madman, and that was how it came to this.
So this was their stupid little power game. Jesus fucking Christ.
In the end, it was a mixture of petty revenge against Ju Dong-yun and resentment over Zero One never becoming close to him that led him to do it. While he was thinking of screwing both sides over, he happened to learn that Ju Dong-yun’s younger sister was a sasaeng of Zero One.
So he cooperated with the stalking on a whim, and once he was in, the money turned out to be good enough that he opened a social media account on the side and started selling data, too. He’d used his position as a manager—someone close to the members—to his advantage.
Even that only came to light because one fan noticed, by chance, that the former manager’s data-selling account and another social media account had the same name and dug deeper from there.
- The manager who got caught secretly taking photos of his own group and selling them
I found the linked post from another site, but what the hell is this...?
Three-line summary:
1. An allegation came up that Zero One’s manager was selling the members’ data like a proxy photographer.
2. The hacked account and the manager’s private Instagram had the same nickname, so it seemed suspicious—and then a well-known Zero One sasaeng got caught tagging the manager’s account.
3. The IONs are all compiling evidence like crazy now.
This is insane. How the hell did they handle this mess?
What was funny, in a sick sort of way, was the reason there were so few photos of Lim Se-bin and so many of Go Young-in.
Apparently, the sharp-eyed Lim Se-bin noticed the unnatural pattern quickly, so the bastard couldn’t get close enough. And then, right on cue, Go Young-in—who’d been overdoing it trying to take care of the members—caught the lunatic’s eye.
At the second anniversary live, the only people who’d shown interest in the pie that lunatic had made were Go Young-in and Kyeon In-woo. But Kyeon In-woo had ruined the pie, which pissed him off, and Go Young-in had stopped him from throwing a fit... so that was what hooked him on to that...? Fucking hell. What even is that supposed to mean? I can’t make sense of it.
The manager hadn’t been in the dress room by coincidence, either. Go Young-in had wondered how he’d known about clothes they’d never posted publicly, and now the answer was obvious...
In the end, the problem was me.
Once he started butting in because of that damned status window, he’d ended up drawing the attention of the lunatic who’d been stalking Lim Se-bin. If he’d ignored it the way he used to, then nothing would’ve happened in the first place, and Lim Se-bin would have handled it on his own?
Anyway, the former manager, after admitting that all of this came from a bunch of complicated reasons, reportedly said it wasn’t intentional and cried. Who the hell was crying now? He was squeezing out tears that weren’t going to work on anybody. Had he lost his mind?
When Kwon Je-won finished the explanation, he casually brought up the hospital again. He must have thought it was only natural for this to have taken a psychological toll.
The moment the hospital came up, Lim Se-bin flatly refused, saying he was fine. Go Young-in shook his head slowly, too.
It wasn’t like they needed to go over something like this. He understood the concern, but it wasn’t exactly welcome.
Kwon Je-won seemed to be asking only out of courtesy, because he didn’t push the matter or ask again. He simply studied their faces for a moment and said he understood.
More importantly, the manager’s been fired, but...
There’s no way they’ll be able to get rid of Ju Dong-yun, right?
He hadn’t been directly involved, so even if the company disciplined him, the best they could probably do was move him to an office job or make him write some report. Firing one person wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
I’ve never actually worked in a company, so I wouldn’t know...
Fuck. Go Young-in could feel his head starting to hurt.
Unless Ju Dong-yun did something this insane again, it didn’t seem likely he’d be removed.
There probably wouldn’t be any more chances for him to get tangled up with him, anyway.
That was all Go Young-in could hope for.