The Calm Before the Storm (4)
"Yes?"
"That day. Were you quite certain there was a situation in which a photograph like that could have been taken...?"
I chose my words with care, and Sung Do-won's eyes wavered hard.
"Photos get distorted by the angle all the time, so I assumed this was just another stroke of bad luck, the shot coming out looking like that..."
Assumed?
"It is strange, though. I don't remember ever being that close to this woman."
Inwardly, I let out a long breath of relief. Sung Do-won stepping in had carried us over one ridge, and judging by that reaction, the odds that the photo was a fabrication had shot straight up.
"Do-won. This isn't... you drank until you couldn't remember, is it?"
"Team Leader. I never drink enough to black out. I'm too afraid I'll make a mistake..."
Sung Do-won said it through teeth worrying at his lip.
"I let myself loosen up a little more than usual that day, but my memory is clear. I know this is an emergency, but couldn't we have an expert examine it first, the way he suggested?"
Sung Do-won's words carried a weight mine never could. I couldn't tell whether those people believed him, but they were weighing the photograph's authenticity far more seriously than they had a moment before.
"Give it here."
"Yes, sir."
CEO Baek Han-sung took the photo and stroked his chin, murmuring under his breath.
"Fabricated..."
Almost at once he set it down and turned to the lawyer.
"How much time do we have?"
"Not much. They're pressing us for an answer right now on whether we'll buy the photo. Keep stalling, and they may hand it off to someone else."
Team Leader Park sighed and cut in.
"A domestic outlet would be bad enough, but if this goes to a Chinese press, we won't have a single move left. That world puts even Hollywood to shame for how filthy it gets. If the photo is real, we won't be able to clean up what comes after."
"Team Leader Park."
"Yes, sir."
"Contact a few photo experts we can trust and commission an analysis immediately. This is a matter of seconds, so ask them to hurry as much as humanly possible."
On the order, Team Leader Park took the photograph and walked straight out of the office.
"And..."
CEO Baek Han-sung started to continue, then suddenly looked at me.
"Jung Sunwoo?"
"Yes?"
"How should we handle this from here? Tell me what you think."
I had only just begun to relax, and it felt like walking into an ambush.
"Sir. What would a rookie who only just started the job know..."
"I want to hear how a young person sees it."
Cutting the bearded team leader off, CEO Baek Han-sung nodded at me. I swallowed. It felt like sitting an interview in front of the CEO himself, and I had the uneasy sense that this moment might become a turning point in my life.
"In my view... we should halt the deal and stall until the analysis comes back."
"The whole transaction could fall apart if we do that. You're willing to take that risk?"
"If this is Pure Star's handiwork, they might also leak the fact that we tried to buy someone's silence. Then, even if the photo is proven to be a fake, there will still be people who don't believe it. They'll assume we paid because we had something to hide."
What Director Park had told me in the future lay underneath it all, and on top of that I laid what I actually wanted to say. To my own surprise, it came pouring out without a hitch.
"And more than the photo itself, they'll find the attempt to cover it up even more outrageous and tear us apart for it. I thought that if we move rashly now, that may be exactly what we bring down on ourselves."
"And if the photo is real, and Pure Star has nothing to do with it?"
Then we're finished. W&U would be finished, and Sung Do-won would be finished. As for me... I decided not to dwell, just yet, on the worst case inside the worst case.
"Even so, if the possibility exists, I think we have to check. I'd rather take the risk now and buy enough time to pin this down for certain than be hit later by a typhoon—one we had every chance to brace for."
I had said everything I meant to say. A sidelong glance told me CEO Baek Han-sung's expression wasn't bad.
"Impressive."
Was that a compliment?
"Ah... thank you."
"All right. You can go."
"Sir?"
The division head pointed at the door. Dazed, I bowed and stepped out of the office.
What was that?
I had done everything I could before I left, but what happened now? I had tried to persuade them. Had any of it landed? Surely they weren't going to push the deal through as it stood. The analysis was what mattered. How long would a result take? Would it come back before a story broke?
"Hey, get over here!"
Kim Hyunjo dragged me by the arm into the elevator.
"I was eavesdropping because I was worried about you, and I thought my heart was going to drop out of my chest. Is there really something wrong with that photo? How sure are you?"
"I'm fairly confident."
"Confident enough to bet your neck?"
Even so, my neck was a bit much. When I didn't answer right away, Kim Hyunjo clapped me on the back.
"Yeah... don't worry too much."
"Right."
"If they fire you, I'll introduce you somewhere else."
Stop. That only makes it worse.
Kim Hyunjo vanished on some other errand, and I went back to the Level 4 office to wait for word. Going home to my studio in this state wouldn't have let me rest anyway. And there was something I still needed to look into.
I called the lesson instructor who had torn into Lee Songha, determined to find out what she had been after. My gut said there was something in this, too. If the instructor had some other scheme, or plain malice, and had run Songha down and belittled her acting on purpose, then telling her that might be enough to persuade her. From the way she had reacted earlier, she didn't seem to hate the act of performing itself. Then I could show her the Cat Guardian Spirit synopsis, and the audition...
"Unable to connect..."
Damn it. Where was this person, and what were they doing?
I left a text asking the instructor to call me back and sorted out Neptune's schedule for the following week, searching Sung Do-won's name on the portal whenever I had a spare moment. An article about him might surface at any time.
How long I let the hours run on like that, I couldn't have said. There was nothing left to do even if I looked for it, and when I turned my head, the moon was already up beyond the window. So this was how a golden day off slipped away.
My throat had gone dry, so I stepped out to the lounge. I was standing in front of the vending machine, debating what to drink, when the whispering of the women seated behind me cut straight into my ear.
"Hey. Isn't this Sung Do-won?"
"What is?"
"An article that just went up. Top star A, who's been selling a clean image... recently proved his box-office pull by drawing ten million and six million viewers with two films... Read this. Anyone can tell it's Sung Do-won. Does PR even know?"
I abandoned the drink clattering out of the machine and went straight back to the office. I refreshed the entertainment section already open on my screen, but nothing with Sung Do-won's name in the headline had appeared yet. The portal's trending searches, and the related searches under his name, were still fine. Search "top star A," though, the way the woman had said, and the article came up at once.
Clicking the headline brought up the site of an unfamiliar outlet called News777. There was no reporter's name in the byline, only a single line with the entertainment desk's email. I swallowed and scrolled.
Rumors are drawing the attention of entertainment insiders that A, a Hallyu star in his twenties who recently proved his box-office power by drawing ten million and six million viewers respectively across two films, held a sex party with a married woman.
Given how hard A has appealed to the public with a clean, well-mannered image, confirmation is expected to send major shockwaves through the industry.
It really was Sung Do-won, no matter who looked. The pristine image, the blatant audience figures, a Hallyu star in his twenties. There was far too much to infer from. Anyone who followed the industry would know at a glance.
One entertainment insider called A "an actor rigorous about self-management," and carefully added that "the reason he has never once been the subject of a dating rumor is that he enjoys himself quite enough in private and never lets any of it show on the outside."
Asked about the scandal, a source at the former agency that recently parted ways with A dismissed it outright. "Absurd. A story with no basis whatsoever."
But as a more concrete rumor has spread—that one outlet is holding photographic evidence and is in the middle of a deal with A's current agency—attention has locked onto whether the scandal is real.
"...My god."
This fast, and with every circumstance detonating at once. It wasn't some sloppily scribbled gossip rag, either. The details were unnervingly specific. Mentioning the evidence photo and the deal made it obvious the writer knew the whole affair inside out. And what was this—no basis whatsoever? A Pure Star source had given an interview like that? Had Pure Star planted the piece themselves?
I opened the comments. They were already stacking up in a rush.
A little more searching showed his real name already being thrown around everywhere. Another article had gone up, this one slapping the initial on outright: top star S. At this pace, a piece under his real name would be up any minute. It would race across social media and climb the portal's real-time searches, and then, just as I had heard in that fixed future, Sung Do-won's image would hit the floor. It was over.
I let out a heavy sigh and dropped my head onto the desk, choked and hollow. I had hoped my intervention might change things, even a little. Was this how it ended after all?
Once the analysis was finished and the fabrication proven, W&U would start hitting back. But what if Reporter Song had been telling the truth? If this became a massive obstacle in Sung Do-won's life as an actor, striking back too late would change nothing. The water would already be spilled.
What was he doing now? He had seen the article, surely. Everything he had built through sheer effort, and the life still ahead of him, might be torn out by the roots. His face had already been the color of ash when I saw him this afternoon. Was he even in his right mind?
Thinking of him, it gnawed at me that I had known the future and still failed to change it. Had I judged wrong? Would it have been better to push harder, or to try some other way?
"Haa. If only the photo analysis had come back sooner..."
That was what I couldn't let go of. If the result had arrived quickly, the whole thing would already have been over. The experts wouldn't have been loafing, of course. They were probably being careful, and that was why it was taking time...
"Lucky. You haven't gone home yet?"
"...!"
I spun around in surprise, and Team Leader Park was standing right behind me. Wasn't the building on fire? What was he doing here? He couldn't still not know.
"Team Leader! There's an article about Sung Do-won on the internet right now...!"
"I know. I'm the head of PR. You think I wouldn't?"
Then why was he so relaxed?
"I've been upstairs drafting a press release."
"What?"
"The pieces going up right now—other staff are already calling those outlets and threatening them. Take them down immediately if they don't want to be sued. We'll send the press release out within a few minutes. The reporters writing stories as we speak will kill what they have and rewrite them as nothing-burger pieces off our release."
I was struck dumb, my head a complete blank. So it wasn't over? He was saying it was actually being handled?
Team Leader Park gave my shoulder a gentle pat.
"We stopped a major disaster, so I came down for a minute to fill you in—and because I owed you a thank-you. You did something huge today. If it hadn't been for you, we might have believed that photo was real and already cut a deal with those bastards. Haha. We called you a Lucky Charm as a joke, but you really were one!"
Wait. Wait a second.
"Did the photo analysis...?"
"They say it was fabricated. We asked three experts. Unanimous."