The Leaked Video and Yeonjae's Day
“We had nothing to do with it.”
“The production team is the only possible channel through which that footage could have been leaked. Don't expect a vague 'we don't know' to make this go away.”
“Oh, come on. Why on earth would we leak it and then sit through this interrogation? Honestly, it's not like the video made the actor look bad—half the public is saying he deserves a commendation, not criticism. If you ask me, Wooyeon leaked it on purpose for the publicity!”
“Are you quite finished?”
The voices of the production team leader and Team Leader Woo grew louder and louder.
He had deleted every one of the files before handing over the camcorder. If he'd known a deleted file could be recovered, he would have smashed the thing to pieces on the spot.
Quietly, he took out his phone in the middle of the meeting room, which was now abuzz with raised voices.
If it were me, I'd have gone straight into panic mode, fumbled around, and barely managed to make the call
He just casually mentions a bone sticking out of his arm like it's nothing
I watched his press conference and behind-the-scenes videos and figured he was the taciturn type since he barely talks, but how can a person's voice be THAT gentle T_T
If I go to the fansign, is he gonna sign my stuff in THAT voice? T_T
“Haah….”
A sigh escaped him at the sight of the comment he'd been dreading.
That was not a thread that needed to turn toward the orphanage. What if the Director ended up taking flak because of him?
The more he turned it over in his mind, the hotter his anger at the leak burned—but figuring out a response came first.
“Let's end the pointless bickering here.”
He cut through the two shouting voices.
“Arguing about who's at fault won't change the fact that it's already out there.”
“…That's true enough.”
“Team Leader Woo, can we get a takedown request for the video that's up right now?”
“Yeah. I've already contacted headquarters, so it'll be down shortly. The problem is the copies. Once a video's been released, it has a way of circulating forever no matter what you do.”
He nodded and sank into thought.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Nothing but silence filled the room except for the sound of his fingers drumming on the desk.
“Then let's restore the original first. Uploading it officially as a complete video, with the explanation attached, will invite less gossip. Our agency will handle the editing and the upload.”
“It was supposed to go up on our drama channel—”
“Yes. That was the original plan. My judgment now is that it shouldn't be. Is that call premature?”
At his level voice, the other man opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Just picturing the conversation about the orphanage spreading even as they sat here made heat rise up his neck and sting his eyes.
The one mercy was that the angrier he got, the calmer his feelings settled.
“Any objections?”
“….”
“If not, we'll end the meeting here. Jinbae-hyung, please see our guests out to the lobby.”
“Yes, of course.”
Manager Ahn Jinbae courteously ushered out the production team, who seemed to want to say more.
The moment the door closed, he gritted his teeth.
As he shut his eyes and took a deep breath, Team Leader Woo's steady voice settled at his ear.
“Look at it coldly, and this isn't a bad thing. Your image is only going to improve.”
“Sure, if you only think about my image. There was a comment asking how an orphanage manages its kids that one comes back with a broken arm.”
“The people who think like that are such a tiny minority that it doesn't—”
“Whether they're few or many, if there's even one, it matters to me.”
As his brow furrowed, Team Leader Woo met his gaze with composure.
“Yeonjae. I understand now why you're upset. I'm sorry it took me this long to get it.”
“…No. I'm sorry for getting angry.”
“We work for you either way. There's no need to be angry alone. For now, let's contain this, like you said. What's your plan?”
Right. Damage control came first.
Together with the returned Manager Ahn Jinbae, he sought out the PR team.
He laid out the direction for the video's edit, then filmed the additional explanation segment that would go at the end.
“Ugh, this is a mess.”
That was what came out of the Fan Club President's mouth after nearly an hour of monitoring.
Naturally, she had no idea what had happened either, but the golden rule had always been to leave unlisted videos alone.
Just in case, she had already posted a notice on the fan cafe: any posts about footage not officially uploaded by the agency will be deleted without warning.
But for the threads popping up on other communities, even the president was powerless.
Keywords like gentle voice and calm emergency call kept surfacing in the posts.
Even judging only by the news articles she'd seen first, there didn't seem to be a single point on which Yeonjae could be blamed for the unlisted video.
'A gentle voice…. Damn it, I'm curious too….'
Her finger itched to click the video, but she held herself back.
Fortunately, before more than a few minutes had passed, the video sitting at #1 on the trending page was taken down.
And that evening, a single video was uploaded to Wooyeon Entertainment's official channel.
[Yeonjae's Day VLOG — Come Hike With Me!]
The Fan Club President's finger moved faster than her brain.
By the time the thought 'what is this?' had finished forming, her finger had already clicked play.
From the very first frame, it was paradise.
“Ah—sorry about that. You were startled, weren't you.”
GLRK—.
Confronted with a face-filling close-up of Yeonjae, the President clapped a hand over her mouth.
A freshly washed, dew-pale face and dark eyes filled the screen.
“This is getting edited out, right? Then the editor must have been startled too. Sorry for startling you.”
Yeonjae rolled his eyes slowly and spoke again.
Beneath it, a caption appeared: 'Couldn't be the only one who got scared, so it's unedited ^^ —From the editor.'
Long live the editor….
Before she knew it, the President's face was close enough to the laptop screen to fall inside it.
“Insane, he's so f—ing cute….”
Sugar-spouting nonsense came straight out of her mouth without passing through her brain at all.
The sight of Yeonjae chattering away with the most unbothered face in the world was so adorable she wanted to bundle him up and carry him home on the spot.
Especially memorable was the way he bickered with his manager.
“Hyung, I'm talking to the camera right now. Please stop interrupting.”
“Ah—yes, sir!”
The sly, playful grin as he teased his manager.
“Well, at this rate there really won't be enough footage.”
“…I don't think that argument is going to get you any more footage, either.”
The sideways glance he shot his manager from behind.
“It's the first time the two of us have ever come out somewhere to play like this.”
The way he looked at his manager with eyes brimming with simple joy.
'He really is close with his manager, huh.'
She'd heard the anecdotes that occasionally floated around in eyewitness accounts, so she'd known.
But she hadn't known they were this close.
She had hunted down every scrap of non-acting footage of Yeonjae—the press conferences, the behind-the-scenes clips, all of it.
His face before the camera in those moments hadn't been awkward or uncomfortable, exactly, but it was true that he hadn't looked that at ease either.
On top of that, the posts that went up on the fan cafe once a month were stiff to the point of formality.
Admittedly, the fans had detected the affection buried inside them with uncanny accuracy, but the prevailing opinion was still that Yeonjae must be a rather indifferent person at heart.
But in the video, the Yeonjae trading a few lines of banter with his manager looked utterly relaxed.
Like an ordinary little kid spending the day with his family.
'This is so good….'
There was a reason the President could never quit stanning.
That feeling you get when you realize, all over again, that the celebrity who shone so brightly inside the TV is an ordinary person not so different from yourself.
'I hope they upload a lot more videos like this.'
She'd become a fan because of Yeonjae's flawless acting, but a fan's love always deepened through the private moments.
The instant she saw Bambi flash that winning smile and declare that he trusted his editor with the rest, her hands flew into action.
Having captured dozens of screenshots in rapid succession, the President then sat back and watched the remainder of the video, mouth agape.
Yeonjae, soothing his lost manager over the phone, looked remarkably composed.
So did the moment he discovered the injured man.
“How can a human being be so….”
Perfect? Even if he was the celebrity she'd chosen, wasn't this a bit beyond enlightenment?
Yeonjae's voice as he called the paramedics and spoke with the patient was genuinely tender.
'So this is the part that was in the unlisted video.'
Perhaps because it was nighttime, the screen was pitch black. Which only made Yeonjae's voice sound all the warmer.
The footage cut to black at the moment the paramedics arrived.
And then there was Yeonjae, clean-cut and neatly dressed, as though filmed in a studio.
“Hello, this is Lee Yeonjae. To protect the privacy of the injured person, the rest of the footage will be replaced with an explanation. Fortunately, the surgery went well, and I'm told he is now recovering without any complications. He is a private citizen, and above all this is a time when rest matters most, so I would ask that you refrain from requesting interviews or causing him any difficulty.”
The voice that emerged with a soft smile was as gentle as before—and yet, somehow, it carried a peculiar weight of pressure.
“Many of you left comments about how calmly I reported the incident and handled things after finding the injured man. All I did was make a call. I believe the situation was resolved thanks to the paramedics who arrived so quickly.”
He said he was grateful for the warm words of praise, and offered a quiet smile.
“A few of you asked how I could stay so calm. When I was at the orphanage, the Director and the teachers held safety training for us every single year, without fail. I suppose it left a deep impression on me.”
He went on to say that while it was his first time in such a situation, he thought he'd been able to respond calmly thanks to that steady training.
“As you saw in the video, when I was young…. wait, am I still young? Well, anyway.”
Okay, that is genuinely adorable.
The sight of Yeonjae tilting his head in confusion was lethal.
Whether or not the President's soul departed her body, the Lee Yeonjae onscreen continued smoothly.
“I once hurt myself by falling all by myself while out playing. What I said earlier, I said while remembering how the Director comforted me back then. Thank you all for taking it so kindly.”
The video ended on the sight of Yeonjae waving goodbye, along with a warning to be careful not to wander off and get lost like his manager-hyung.
The President quietly moved her hand and dragged the cursor forward.
Only after she'd watched the fifteen-minute vlog on repeat, again and again, did she confirm it: the video had claimed the #1 spot on the trending page.