The Corrupt Coach
The network wasted no time capitalizing on my popularity, rolling out a full-scale promotional blitz.
Flashy headlines, my face plastered across every article. Compared to the rest of the national team, the public had always been endlessly curious about the three of us who never showed up on variety shows or broadcasts and simply went to school — so when the news dropped that I was finally appearing on one, they lost their minds.
The comment section ignited in seconds.
It still amazed me, every single time, how overjoyed the fans were whenever I showed up on a variety show.
So this is what life as a handsome star is like.
That said, I had more or less sworn off variety shows from here on out.
Ugh. I am never going paragliding again.
The scream I'd let out had carried all the way down to the members who'd landed first, and the second my feet hit the ground they'd torn into me without mercy. As if that weren't enough, the whole thing was going to air, completely uncut.
I was trying to cultivate a tough-guy image, too...
"Tae-woo."
Ga-young called my name from the front seat. We were on our way to her company, where she was going to walk me through the contracts she'd sorted from everything that had come in so far.
"I looked into that thing you mentioned last time. And it looks pretty serious."
Right after the variety show wrapped, I had asked Ga-young to look into the coach at Poongwol Elementary.
Already? That fast?
I'd known she was good, but investigating an entire person this quickly was something else. I really had picked the right agent.
"Is it that bad?"
Ga-young was quiet for a moment before she answered.
"Let's talk about it properly at the office. It's a little too complicated to get into here."
And then we arrived.
"Whoa..."
The sound escaped me the second I stepped through the entrance. Ga-young's company building blew past anything I had pictured.
This might as well be a billboard announcing she's a third-generation conglomerate heiress...
A five-story structure of modern glass and steel rose in front of us. A sleek logo — APEX Agency — marked the facade, and a skin of windows wrapped the entire building, glittering where they caught the sun. Inside the lobby, luxurious marble floors and a sharply designed interior unfolded at a glance. Staff moved with purpose in every direction, and oversized screens mounted throughout the space poured out sports broadcasts and entertainment news.
"You use this whole building?"
I didn't even try to hide how stunned I was. There was a world of difference between reading about a place in a novel and standing in it yourself.
Ga-young smiled and nodded.
"Mm-hmm. First floor to fifth, all of it. The first floor is the lobby and meeting rooms, the second is legal, the third is marketing, the fourth is player management, and the fifth is the executive offices."
Riding the elevator up, I felt the full weight of the fact that all of this had been built by Ga-young's own hands. Being the youngest daughter of the SC Group had surely given her a head start — but running a company of this scale was proof of her ability, not her last name.
She may have had the money. Earning people's trust is another thing entirely.
"Tae-woo, this is my office."
We reached the fifth floor, and Ga-young pushed the door open. Through a wide window, downtown Seoul spilled out below us in a single glance. Sleek furniture and state-of-the-art equipment filled the room, as if the space itself had been arranged to display both her taste and her competence at once.
"All right. Shall we sit down and talk?"
I took the chair across from her.
"First of all — just as you said, the coach at Poongwol Elementary has been taking bribes."
I already knew that. That's why Seung-min emigrated to Argentina.
"But I wouldn't have called it serious if that was all."
"What else is there?"
Ga-young hesitated for a beat, then spoke.
"This coach... bribes, of course, but also assaulting players, illegal gambling, even drugs. If it's rotten, he's doing it."
Huh... the scale of this is way bigger than I expected.
Bribes and player assault I had seen coming. There would have been a gap a mile wide between the kids whose parents paid and the ones whose parents didn't.
But gambling? Drugs?
The shock settled over me in a slow, heavy wave. This had gone well past ordinary corruption. This was serious crime.
"This is really serious, isn't it?"
"It is. Poongwol Elementary isn't some no-name school — it's a well-known one. The soccer coach taking bribes and beating students would be a huge controversy on its own. But..."
"Gambling and drugs are a completely different scale."
"Exactly."
Ga-young kept going.
"He'll lose the coaching job, obviously. But if this is handled poorly, the damage could be big enough to gut the school itself."
Poongwol Elementary, Poongwol Middle School, and Poongwol High School were all private institutions run by the same foundation. If this blew open, it wouldn't stop at one school. The entire system could take the hit.
But this isn't just Seung-min's problem. How many kids have already been hurt by a coach like that...
"Ga-young, I still think it's right to bring this to light rather than leave him where he is."
She took that in, and for a moment her expression turned inward, thoughtful. I watched something complicated flicker through her eyes and pass.
"All right. I'll go to the foundation myself and raise this with them."
If it was the Ga-young I knew, she would handle even this with more than enough wisdom.
A brief silence settled between us. Then her face brightened, and she changed the subject.
"Then shall we talk about your transfer now?"
My eyes went wide. Transfer? That's right. That was why we had met in the first place. I had forgotten, briefly, in the face of how serious Seung-min's situation had turned out to be.
When the call ended, Park Sung-kwon, soccer coach at Poongwol Elementary, let out a long sigh. His face was thick with irritation and contempt.
"Tsk. Broke-ass bastards."
He could not understand it. Why would people who couldn't even pay him still try to play soccer in this country?
If you're that broke, don't have kids.
Yoo Seung-min. Compared to any of the young players Park had ever watched, the boy did have an eye-catching kind of talent. That much was true.
So what? Elementary school tournament results don't mean a damn thing to a coach anyway.
Win here and not a single notable team would even notice. His plan was simple: squeeze every last won he could out of this place, then retire.
"Maybe I'll try Kang-hoon's mother this time."
"Hey. Coach Park."
A dark night street. In a corner of an alley where a neon sign flickered on and off, a burly man called to Park Sung-kwon in a low voice.
"Aigoo, why'd you pick a hole like this for the meetup..."
"Heh heh heh. That's the point. You bring the money?"
"Relax. I squeezed it out of those suckers just fine. The goods ready?"
"Follow me."
They walked a long way down the damp alley. Footsteps were the only sound, echoing through the dark, until at last they stopped in front of a rundown building.
"So? Where's the stuff? Hand it over."
The burly man twisted a smile into the corner of his mouth.
"Money first, yeah?"
Park Sung-kwon pulled a thick envelope from his inner pocket. Under the fluorescent light, a wad of bills showed faintly through the paper.
"Here. Now give me the goods."
The burly man took the envelope, checked the contents in a quick, practiced motion, and his eyes gleamed with greed.
"Heh heh. That's Coach Park for you. Hold on."
The man vanished into the dark and came back carrying a black bag.
"Here. As promised."
The instant Park Sung-kwon reached for it—
"Freeze! Police!"
The shout ripped out of nowhere, and two undercover officers stepped from the darkness with their guns drawn. Police badges caught the fluorescent light and gleamed, cold as ice.
"Park Sung-kwon. Kim Dae-man. You're both under arrest!"
"Damn it!"
The burly man — Kim Dae-man — hurled the bag aside and lunged for the mouth of the alley. In the same breath, one of the officers swept his legs out from under him.
"Argh!"
"Don't move! Hands where I can see them!"
The other officer already had Park Sung-kwon's arms twisted behind his back, snapping the cuffs shut. Kim Dae-man, pinned face-down on the ground, turned his head and locked eyes with Park. Murder flashed in them, bright and ugly.
"It was you, wasn't it? You're the one who got made and dragged us into this?"
The words came through clenched teeth, venom in every syllable.
"You better brace yourself. Don't think this is over."
"No — you've got it all wrong! I would never—"
Park Sung-kwon shouted it desperately, but—
"SHUT UP!!!"
Kim Dae-man's roar split the darkness. The fury in his voice shook the alley walls. The two officers loaded Park Sung-kwon and Kim Dae-man into separate patrol cars, and the red emergency lights painted the night streets as they vanished into the dark.
The anchor's expression grew solemn.
Even more stunning: the tip-off in this case came from the Jinsung Foundation, which operates the Poongwol Academy. The foundation's chairman issued a hard-line statement at a press conference.
Police investigation has continued to uncover additional corruption involving Coach Park Sung-kwon. Evidence has also emerged of him demanding money during the soccer team's player selection process.
The screen cut, and an anonymized parent's interview appeared.
"If you wanted your child in the soccer club, you had to pay money under the name of 'devotion.' I was terrified that if I refused, my kid wouldn't get to play..."
Watching the news, I sat there stunned.
"Was this you?"
The Poongwol Elementary coach situation I had assumed would take a long time had been resolved overnight.
"Of course it was. I told you, Tae-woo. All you need to worry about is which team you're transferring to."
"Wow — but how did you get the foundation to report it themselves? From their side, having their school's name all over the news is the last thing they'd want."
"There's a way to handle everything."
Ga-young finished speaking, and a meaningful smile touched her lips.