Yuri's Desperate Gamble
Oh Yuri’s red eyes gleamed as she spoke, her breath quick with excitement.
“Isn’t it incredible? Do you understand how I felt when I first realized Team Leader Sun’s achievements? My whole body just… tingled.”
I flushed and tried to calm her down. “All right, settle down. We still have things to discuss.”
“…I’m sorry.”
She took a deep breath, tension returning to her face, and continued with a cautious glance.
“I got a little sidetracked, but this is why I decided to bring it up with you, Team Leader Sun.”
She held up her fingers and folded them one by one as she spoke.
“Making the offer itself carries risk, so the opportunities are limited. I needed the smallest possible number of collaborators. They also had to be people I could actually reach while trapped in the Girl 100 dorms. So I chose the best card that satisfied all those conditions.”
“In other words, you picked me purely for my abilities?”
Oh Yuri straightened her clothes, looking almost embarrassed. “Actually, it wasn’t just your abilities. It felt like you made that deal not for your own success, but for the trainees—for Winter unni.”
Huh? How does she know what I was thinking?
“I can understand your assessment of my abilities, but how did you deduce my motives? I don’t recall ever showing you any particular kindness or favor.”
“It’s impossible not to notice when you see how Winter unni acts.”
Her expression softened slightly as she asked plainly, “Do you know what Winter unni talks about when she speaks with me?”
“I don’t know. Girl 100? The judges? Or maybe dancing and singing?”
“She does talk about those things sometimes, but only occasionally. There’s really only one topic she brings up most of the time.”
What could it be? Is it about those half-naked female characters Eunbyul likes?
“What is it?”
“Winter unni always talks about Team Leader Sun.”
An indescribable feeling welled up inside me.
“‘This mapo tofu tastes just like the one we had at Taeyang’s place,’ ‘I wonder if Taeyang would like the cat pajamas or the penguin ones more,’ ‘Taeyang called today even though he was so busy, and we talked for fifty-two minutes.’ Things like that.”
“…”
“Whenever she says those things, unni always smiles. Like just mentioning you brings her so much joy. And I thought that the only kind of person someone could treat that way was someone who genuinely cared for them. That’s why.”
It was more than I deserved. The thought that I could never fully repay that kindness crossed my mind.
So I asked a slightly mischievous question. “What if it was all just an act?”
“There’s no way it could be an act,” Oh Yuri said matter-of-factly. “If all of Winter unni’s trust in you came from deception, then I’d rather be deceived. Because this world is full of people who don’t even bother to show that kind of deception.”
So no one had ever shown even that much deception to this child.
…That must have been an incredibly lonely life.
“To summarize, the reason I targeted you and no one else was because I highly valued both your abilities and your character. If I was going to bring in even one collaborator, I wanted someone like you. I couldn’t do it alone.”
She finally showed a bright, middle-schooler’s smile.
“Does that answer your question, Team Leader Sun?”
“…It does.”
As I looked at her, lost in thought, she seemed uncomfortable under my gaze and carefully avoided my eyes.
“…Then, if it’s not too much to ask, please take pity on me and go easy on the punishment. Like telling Kim Seonye PD instead of Flower Entertainment about the recording… I’ll really be ruined.”
She bowed her head like a condemned prisoner awaiting execution.
“…”
I had originally planned to expose the Girl 100 vote-rigging controversy at the end of the broadcast. That was why I had negotiated with Kim Seonye and secured the recording. Since our goals aligned, there was no reason I couldn’t work with Oh Yuri. She might seem a bit clumsy, but her judgment and reasoning were sharp. She would be useful. She was also the insider most deeply embedded in Girl 100.
Furthermore, if Ban Seongcheol’s suspicions turned out to be true, I had my own reasons to move.
But something still made me hesitate to cooperate with her.
Her story lacked credibility. There were contradictions in what she said. The biggest one was her claim that Ban Seongcheol was still demanding she provide “entertainment.”
It wasn’t because I believed he had enough moral conscience left to spare minors. It was simply a matter of risk. Oh Yuri was the flagship product Flower Entertainment—and Ban Seongcheol—were pushing right now. Given the performance she had shown on Girl 100, she already possessed that level of talent. There was no reason to burden such a valuable asset with the excessive risk of demanding entertainment services. A middle-schooler like her would obviously refuse outright.
…Unless the person making the demand was completely insane.
If they needed entertainment from someone with entertainment industry experience, it would be far simpler and less risky to just bring in a trainee who was too old to debut. The gap in logic made me hesitate to accept her offer.
Maybe Oh Yuri was framing Ban Seongcheol.
At that moment, a quest window appeared before my eyes.
Expose Ban Seongcheol
📍 Location: Flower Entertainment
🎁 Reward: Deep-Rooted Transaction Records
The system had given me a quest, as if to push me past my hesitation. Along with the confirmation that Ban Seongcheol had committed crimes, it offered an extremely powerful reward—Tier 1, in my estimation—as proof.
…No reason to hesitate now.
I spoke to her with certainty.
“Let’s do it. Let’s bring down Girl 100.”
Oh Yuri, who had been waiting with her head bowed, looked up in surprise.
“Really?”
“Yes, really. I already knew there were problems with Girl 100. And your goal doesn’t seem like it would harm me or Eunbyul either. Let’s do it.”
“Wow… Thank you so much. I really thought I was finished. Thank you, thank you.”
She beamed as she thanked me, then suddenly paused as if remembering something and looked at me.
“Then… what do you want as payment? Money? Or me?”
“I don’t need either. Please don’t say things like that.”
“…I’m sorry.”
After we roughly outlined our future plans, I was about to leave the waiting room when Oh Yuri called out to stop me.
“…Team Leader Sun.”
“Yes, Miss Oh Yuri. Is there something else?”
She pulled back the hood of her flying squirrel pajamas, fully revealing her pink hair and red eyes. Then, with those red eyes glowing softly, she asked,
“Do you remember me?”
…It was a difficult question to understand.
“I’m not sure what context you’re asking in. Could you explain a little more?”
“…No, I’m sorry for saying something strange.”
She smiled weakly.
“It was nothing.”
***
“Ah, I left my tie behind.”
On my way out after finishing the discussion with her, I remembered I had taken off my tie and left it behind. I returned to the waiting room where we had talked.
And there, in the corner of the empty hallway, crouched beside the fire extinguisher, I found a trembling figure.
“Haa, haa.”
It was Oh Yuri.
Smack!
She slapped her own cheek hard and muttered to herself like a vow.
“…Don’t get weak just because you met that person after so long. Don’t even think about having expectations. It has to be you, not someone else. If you can’t do it, Eunbyul unni’s future will end right here. There’s no one else who can help.”
She looked fragile, yet desperate.
Watching her by chance, I stayed silent and made no sound.
Everyone had their own circumstances. And Oh Yuri’s seemed deeper and darker than I had thought.
I opened the status window I had viewed earlier once more.
Her potential was still incredible, no matter how many times I looked.
Acting talent S-rank, huh… Maybe she would be better off as an actress?
Unlike her singing, dancing, and rapping stats, acting talent would shine even in daily life. And there was no reason it wouldn’t shine in front of me as well.
Tears, trembling, tension, fear—those could all become tools to showcase her talent.
Even if I had gained knowledge about acting in previous regressions, I couldn’t confidently say I could distinguish all of her techniques. Because the acting talent she possessed was truly S-rank.
Perhaps the attitude she had shown during the blackmail earlier was partially—or entirely—an act.
And maybe that small mutter while slapping her own cheek was her only genuine moment.
Or perhaps I was overthinking because of my obsession with her acting talent, and everything about her had been sincere all along.
Either way, if I was going to work closely with her in the future, figuring it out would be helpful to me.
Even so, I pretended not to hear her words and quietly slipped away from that spot.
“…”
I just… didn’t want to find out.