The Media's Movement
While the entertainment pages of the portal sites burned hot with news about Parabola, the social affairs section was struck by an entirely different story.
Hmm… The press coverage has begun.
Yeon-woo stroked his chin as he scanned the articles. With no detailed information released yet, none of the pieces specified how many people had been arrested or how much narcotics the investigation had seized.
Of course, Yeon-woo already knew. Han Hae-un had reported everything.
Seventeen suspects arrested, and the seized drugs and raw materials combined come to four tons…
The arrested suspects were nothing more than disposable cells Baeksol had deliberately structured as a cut-off network, so even rounding up dozens of them could hardly be called a direct blow. The seized goods, however, were another matter entirely.
Had those materials reached the domestic market, Baeksol's estimated illegal profits would have approached a staggering 190 billion won. That figure was already a conservative estimate of the loss. The damage Baeksol had taken from this bust would be difficult to recover from in the short term.
The blow to Baeksol mattered, of course, but the greater victory was that the enormous volume of illegal drugs they had smuggled into the country would never circulate at all.
They must be in full emergency mode by now.
SBC's Daytona, currently competing with Parabola, would no longer have the luxury of caring about a drama. The story already saturating every news channel around the clock would only grow louder.
Once the kindling is lit, you keep feeding the fire so it never dies out.
Even now Han Hae-un was using the reporters he had cultivated with exclusive scoops to churn out increasingly sensational articles. Baeksol had reached a point where even they could no longer easily intervene. No matter whom they had paid off, this had spun far beyond their ability to contain.
They'll be hunting for the route that exposed them with bloodshot eyes, so we'll have to freeze our own operations for a while.
Yet Baeksol itself would find free movement far more difficult from now on.
They'll start by pulling the capital they've sunk into the entertainment industry. The entertainment business isn't a market for one-off returns—you have to play the long game.
If this damage even slightly withered the tentacles Baeksol had stretched into the entertainment world, the operation would be a true success.
It had all begun with the smartphone of veteran actor Jeong Tae-seon, hacked to reveal a codename: Hwang-geum. Tracing that man's route had led them to Okinawa. Once their production facility hidden there was destroyed in the operation, Baeksol—now with its feet on fire—had frantically begun diverting the goods into the country. They had driven straight into the gap Yeon-woo's team had prepared, and reverse-engineering the entire chain of events would be a distant prospect for them.
Of course, the influence Baeksol lost would be quietly, steadily consumed by Saebyeol.
On the second floor of the large conference room, Yeon-woo watched two people sign a contract: PD Joo Hyun-seok and Executive Director Yoon Mi-yeon.
"With this, the business partnership agreement between Wisestone Studio and Saebyeol Media is officially concluded."
"I look forward to working with you."
Joo Hyun-seok extended his hand as he spoke, and Yoon Mi-yeon smiled as she clasped it.
Having felt Saebyeol's appeal while filming Saebyul Family and Summer's Table Season 2, PD Joo had been the one to propose an MOU with the studio he ran. He wanted to keep working with Saebyeol, which boasted a dense roster of actors rarely seen on variety shows, yet Saebyeol already owned the massive YouTube channel Saebyeol Tube and had little to lose. The one who needed the deal was PD Joo, so bringing him under the Saebyeol umbrella made perfect sense.
From Saebyeol's side as well, they needed to keep producing original content. All else being equal, there was no reason to refuse a named producer of Joo's caliber.
"We're the ones who should be asking for your care. So the first project we'll move forward with is the one you mentioned last time…?"
Hearing Yoon Mi-yeon's words, PD Joo nodded.
"That's right. After filming on Gaeya-do, I saw that Jin Yu-han's cooking skills are genuinely exceptional. This is guaranteed to be a hit."
Beside them, Yeon-woo, who had been watching blankly, raised a hand.
"Have you decided on a title for the content?"
"How about Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han's Chef Kitchen?"
"Excuse me? Why is my name in there…?"
"Just throwing it out there to see."
At PD Joo's words Yeon-woo broke into a light sweat and continued.
"Well, I actually have a title in mind."
Yoon Mi-yeon tensed.
"…Actor Ryu has a title?"
Yeon-woo's infamous naming sense was legendary among the Saebyeol family, so she had already resolved to oppose whatever came out of his mouth on principle.
"How about Jin Yu-han's Yori-jori Cooking Class?"
The surprisingly decent name that left Yeon-woo's lips made her tilt her head.
"Who came up with that?"
"I did, I told you."
"…Really?"
Yoon Mi-yeon eyed him with open suspicion and muttered under her breath, Has his sense improved a little?
PD Joo nodded.
"I like it. Let's go with Jin Yu-han's Yori-jori Cooking Class."
And so, without even knowing it, Jin Yu-han became the teacher of a cooking class.
Yeon-woo reviewed the documents on the table and asked Yoon Mi-yeon,
"Director, how is the filmed Summer's Table progressing?"
"Ah, we're in final coordination with JNBC. They're welcoming it with open arms, of course, but we still need to iron out the future OTT rights. It looks like JNBC will keep the rights for Season 1, while we'll take the rights for this season."
Yeon-woo nodded at her report. At a time when overseas demand for domestic content had grown enormous, OTT licensing revenue could easily surpass advertising revenue earned at home. It was not something they could afford to concede.
"If JNBC refuses to let go, we break off negotiations immediately and supply it ourselves to OTT under a different title. Something like Octopus, Spanish Mackerel, Rockfish Yum-Yum, for instance."
"Excuse me? What kind of yum-yum…?"
She had thought his naming sense might have improved, but apparently it was not a disease that healed so easily.
Thanks to the work of Han Hae-un and the other three agents, they had already identified a substantial number of the shell companies Baeksol used for money laundering. By leaving the entire case in the hands of the prosecution they had adopted a stance of watching the fire from across the river, yet they were far from idle. The more desperate Baeksol became, the more easily they left traces, so the team was quietly mapping the flow of funds without revealing themselves.
Then a variable outside their control appeared.
Hmm?
Yeon-woo picked up his phone the moment he saw the articles. If the funds of the arrested group had flowed into the entertainment industry, there was only one place they could have gone: Lake Film, the production company behind Daytona.
At Hae-un's immediate reply, Yeon-woo sank into thought. If Lake Film—into which Baeksol had poured considerable capital—self-destructed by association with a drug syndicate, nothing could be better. Yet they had deliberately left Lake Film untouched precisely because any premature move risked making Baeksol certain that someone was targeting them.
But if a reporter uncovered this on his own…?
Just as Hae-un had begun investigating the moment he saw the articles, Baeksol's people would not sit still either. By now they were almost certainly tearing through Kim Joon-kyung of Hansae Ilbo—his past, his family relations, everything.
Still, to track the funds all the way to Lake Film in such a short time… that reporter must be quite capable.
Yeon-woo and his agents were specialists in this kind of work, and they had been waiting in a prepared trap, so mapping the money trail had been relatively straightforward. This reporter, however, had started from bare ground and still dug it up. His skill in that direction seemed exceptional.
Of course, Hansae Ilbo was no small newspaper, and Baeksol well understood how fiercely the press corps closed ranks and how much influence they could wield when one of their own was attacked. The likelihood of a direct physical threat was low. Still, one never knew.
After successive hits, their venom will be fully raised. They might move on pure emotion.
Hae-un replied that he understood. Then another message arrived.
Yeon-woo slipped into black wide-leg slacks and a casual jacket and stepped out the door.
The place Kim Min-su's car delivered him to was a high-end Korean fine-dining restaurant.
Ah, so this is the spot.
It was a restaurant where Yeon-woo had shared lunch several times with Kim Ju-seong back when the man had still been CEO of LN Entertainment.
Guided by a staff member into a spacious private room deeper inside, Yeon-woo found Jin Yu-han already there, waving a hand.
"You're early, Yu-han."
"Didn't have any schedule."
"You'll be getting a cooking variety schedule soon."
At Yeon-woo's words Jin Yu-han nodded.
"I already heard from Director Yoon Mi-yeon this morning."
"If it ever feels like something you don't want to do, you can drop it anytime."
"No. If it's cooking, I'm all for it."
While they traded small talk, the others began arriving one after another. It was a dinner to celebrate having taken first place in the ratings.
"All right, no need for long speeches—let's just eat and drink."
Director Kim Han-su raised his glass high and the gathering began.
After a long stretch of eating and drinking, Yeon-woo's phone vibrated under the table.
Bzzzt—
He lifted it discreetly and found a message from Han Hae-un.
Yeon-woo's expression shifted oddly as he read the message.
Sura-chae?
He looked down at the napkin resting on the table.
Premium Korean Fine Dining — Sura-chae
So he's here right now.
Hansae Ilbo's headquarters sat on Dosan-daero, so dining here was hardly strange. The restaurant was a frequent destination for business entertaining.
Hmm. I told the agents to keep their distance and simply watch, yet somehow I've ended up infiltrating the place myself without even trying. Might as well take a look at who he came with.
The Parabola team's dinner had been reserved two weeks in advance—there could be no more perfect alibi.
Yeon-woo quietly rose from his seat.