Not Letting Someone Else's Past Hold You Back (2)
"Yes, President Shin."
— Professor Im Su-chan's confirmation hearing—have you heard the news?
"Yes. I was watching the live broadcast. The confirmation report was just adopted. I suppose I can call him Minister Im now."
— This is all thanks to you, young master. I also heard that you arranged for the research contract between Minister Im and QS Electronics to be redirected to QS Telecom. I truly don't know how to express my gratitude.
"You've been keeping your end of our agreement as well, President Shin, so I'm the one who should be thanking you. Any new developments on Seong-gyun hyung's side?"
Shin Ho-jung's voice, which had been buoyant with gratitude, dropped slightly, as if he were about to deliver unwelcome news.
— Yes, well…
"I'm prepared. Speak freely."
— It seems an agreement has already been reached between Seong-gyun and the Hanbit Ilbo desk. They told me to push the article about you to the main page of Diver around lunchtime tomorrow.
"Lunchtime tomorrow. Understood. Please give me the exact time the article will go up."
Perhaps because my reaction was far too nonchalant, Shin Ho-jung grew urgent, his words tumbling out faster.
— Young master, I caught a glimpse of the article's contents. If this runs, it's going to be disastrous. Assault, property damage—those are bad enough, but the reporter seems to have a personal grudge. The framing is vicious. The conclusion is that you should be removed from the audit team leader position.
I nodded to myself.
"Exactly what I expected."
— If you already anticipated this, you must have countermeasures in place, but should I still try to block it from the portal main page? Or prepare a rebuttal article through another outlet?
"No need. Let it run on the main page exactly as Seong-gyun hyung wants. I still need you to bring me plenty of information on my brothers, so we can't have them growing suspicious of you yet."
— …Phew. Understood. I'll confirm the exact upload time and contact you again.
"Thank you. I'll be waiting."
A short while later, my phone buzzed again with a message from Shin Ho-jung.
* * *
Perfect. The stage is set. All that remains is to step onto it and dance. Time to begin the warm-up.
First, I searched through my contacts for reporters and sent out a group message.
I deliberately scheduled the conference for right after the Hanbit Ilbo article dropped. Two hours. Enough time for people to have seen the news, but not enough for them to form their own interpretations—let alone share them with one another. That “interpretation” was exactly what I was after.
The news itself meant nothing. Viewed from a distance, it was merely an arrangement of letters. Depending on how people interpreted those letters, Kwon Ho-gyun could become either the scum of the earth or the guardian of social justice.
As I prepared to move on to the next step, I couldn’t help but smile. The reporters were responding quickly.
Whether from the vibration or the frantic electronic activity inside, my phone was heating up to the point I could barely touch it. Even though only a few minutes had passed, word had clearly spread—Hanbit Ilbo, the very outlet I hadn’t contacted directly, reached out.
How shameless. Why would I give these people—who conspired with Seong-gyun to ruin me—information ahead of the other reporters? My phone was on the verge of dying from the constant alerts, so I sent another group message.
Even after being told not to contact me, my phone kept ringing. The shameless Hanbit Ilbo desk even tried calling. I considered answering and tearing into them, but I held back for tomorrow’s sake and moved on to the next task.
This time the recipients were different: the QS Electronics franchise owners I had contacted after receiving Kwon Byung-do’s surgical consent form. Several of them had already expressed willingness to appear at the press conference exposing QS Electronics’ exploitation. Some had even asked when they could come, eager to get started.
The stage was set. The warm-up was complete. Time flowed steadily until the day of reckoning dawned.
* * *
11:30 a.m.
I was sitting in front of the computer in the audit team office, coffee in hand, when the article Hanbit Ilbo had published—exactly as Shin Ho-jung had reported—appeared, exposing Kwon Ho-gyun’s past misdeeds.
Wow. The malice in the writing was so thick I wondered if the reporter had once been swindled out of a large sum by me.
The moment I clicked the title, my face filled the screen in an enormous photograph. Scrolling down, I saw they had even dared to print my real name.
— There is one third-generation chaebol heir who has recently captured the public’s attention. Kwon Ho-gyun, revealed to be the third son of the previously veiled QS Group. He passed the bar exam at the top of his class and has spoken of justice in front of the courthouse.
— (……) But would you believe that this same Kwon Ho-gyun has another face? Hanbit Ilbo has been investigating the fact that almost nothing was known about Kwon Ho-gyun’s activities before he passed the bar exam. Then, not long ago, we received an unbelievable tip. (……)
Interviews followed with people who claimed to have been assaulted by Kwon Ho-gyun and the owner of a bar where he had caused a disturbance.
— That is not all. Kwon Ho-gyun is believed to have maintained close ties with the Bukdu Chilseongpa, a criminal organization whose members were once indicted on charges of drug trafficking. While the QS Group has clearly worked hard to conceal these facts, it is this reporter’s duty to write the truth. (……)
— Even more shocking is the recent appointment of Kwon Ho-gyun as the head of the QS Group’s audit team. With tens of thousands of employees and indirect influence over society at large, such a person should not be entrusted with maintaining order within the QS Group. (……)
The article continued to attack my character and qualifications before ending with the reporter’s name. Song A-reum. A name worth remembering. So she was the one who called me yesterday after publishing this?
Ten minutes after the article went live, at 11:40 a.m., Song A-reum’s lengthy piece appeared on the portal main page, and reactions began to surface.
This was the reaction Seong-gyun had wanted. A few comments, however, were still favorable toward me.
Hah. That last comment hit exactly the point I was aiming for.
People love stories. A tale of a good person staying good is boring. But the story of a troublemaker suspected of drunken rampages and drug involvement dramatically reforming to become a defender of justice—that was irresistibly compelling.
At today’s press conference, I would not refute the article or the suspicions it raised. Instead, like a rubber ball slammed violently to the floor only to soar back into the sky 0.1 seconds later, people would witness, in just two hours, a worm transforming into a dragon.
And Seong-gyun would have the misfortune of becoming the sacrifice for my ascension.
1:30 p.m.
The lobby of the QS Group headquarters was packed with reporters. Among them, speculation clashed—some believed this was a rebuttal conference against the morning article, while others wondered how I had known about today’s article in advance and scheduled the conference yesterday. I let them stew in their curiosity a little longer by deliberately staying out of the conference room. After all, the protagonist always makes a late entrance. In English, they even have the phrase “fashionably late.”
1:40 p.m.
When I finally appeared before the reporters, camera flashes erupted endlessly.
* * *
Ding-dong. Ding-dong—
Ding-dong. Ding-dong—
Inside the president’s office at QS Electronics, the internal messenger alarm was ringing like mad. Seong-gyun, who had returned from lunch and was leisurely sipping hot coffee, was startled into checking the incoming messages. They all carried the same content.
Seong-gyun smirked. Even then, he remained perfectly at ease. So the brat was holding a rebuttal conference to avoid being crushed by the article he had pushed through Hanbit Ilbo this morning.
“Clever little bastard.”
Curious to see how he would try to wriggle out of it, Seong-gyun opened YouTube and searched for “QS Group.” The live broadcast of Ho-gyun’s press conference appeared at the very top.
Click—
“Hot, hot—!”
As he pressed play and casually took a sip of coffee, Ho-gyun’s unexpected move made him burn the roof of his mouth.