When the Puzzle Pieces Are Missing (4)
Had I just browbeaten him with nothing in my hand?
I rubbed my jaw and shook my head. That wasn't the feeling I'd gotten at all.
My tone, my voice—they'd been the same as when I threatened Professor Shim Kyung-taek. Not a man shoved to the edge of a cliff and barking because he had nowhere left to stand, but someone who clearly had a grip on something that could actually threaten the other side.
Then what the hell was it?
Even while I turned it over, the comments under Lee Joohwan's post kept climbing.
What was that lunatic doing after he'd squatted down and left a steaming pile like that? Had he posted it wobbling drunk and then passed out cold? Or was he stone sober, cackling at the internet's reaction?
Just picturing that slick face sent something hot climbing my throat. If Lee Joohwan were standing in front of me right now, I'd have had him by the collar with my fist already in his face.
The phone rang again. Team Leader Park.
"Is that bastard out of his mind? What the hell kind of stunt is this?!"
The curses started pouring the second I picked up. She was furious to the top of her head. Then again, the miracle was that she hadn't had a full meltdown. Even I, who'd half expected something to blow up, felt a prickle crawling the back of my skull. For everyone else this was lightning out of a clear sky.
"Jagi, did you know anything? Was there any sign from that punk?"
"No. I only just found out when another reporter called. After he came on to Songha at the last recording, he'd been quiet the whole time."
Team Leader Park snapped, nerves shot.
"That psycho Lee Joohwan won't even pick up—God knows what he's doing flat on his back. His company's manager won't answer. Their team leader won't answer. And it isn't just my calls. Hyunjo's getting ignored too. A pack of thugs."
"Are you with the manager? His line's been busy this whole time."
"We're meeting at the company. I'm on my way. Hyunjo's probably losing his mind too. Not one quiet day all last year, and now we're paying for it in blood from the first week of the new year. Honestly!"
"I'll get ready and head over."
I pinned the phone against my shoulder and changed clothes while she went on.
"We're holding the press off as hard as we can, but it won't last. So you call Songha, confirm there's really nothing between her and Lee Joohwan, and get her braced for what's coming."
"Okay."
"No matter what statement we put out, plenty of netizens are going to have a field day writing novels that tie Songha to Lee Joohwan. Tell her absolutely not to go online. Punchline's fanbase is full of elementary and middle schoolers—the hate comments are going to be brutal."
"Yes. And, Team Leader."
I caught her before she could hang up in a rush.
"Could you send me Lee Joohwan's personal number?"
"I told you, that brat isn't picking up. He'll chew up a text and swallow it too."
"We've met, so you never know. I'll at least try."
"...Fine. You never know. Let's do everything we can. I'll text it."
While I waited for Team Leader Park's message, I called Lee Songha first.
Late as it was, the ringing stopped almost at once.
"Oppa?"
She didn't know yet. The voice that found me was only puzzled.
I offered a few words as if nothing were wrong, then went straight to it.
"Songha. I'm only asking just in case—nothing happened between you and Lee Joohwan, right?"
"Who's that?"
I hadn't doubted her to begin with, and it was exactly the answer I'd wanted to hear.
"The guy who raps in Punchline. The one who talked to you last time. Nothing after that, right?"
"Ah... No. You told me not to have anything to do with him."
"Good. That lunatic just posted a bunch of nonsense on social media tying you to him, so things are about to get loud. From here on, stay off the internet."
It hadn't been long since the bundling controversy and the acting-skill controversy had dragged her through every kind of abuse there was. She had every reason to go anxious remembering that—but Lee Songha didn't even ask what had happened.
"Okay."
That was all.
Worry hadn't touched that voice. Neither had panic. The only thing in it was solid trust.
I stepped out into a dark without a scrap of moonlight and said,
"Right. Don't worry. Just wait."
The moment I climbed into the minivan, Team Leader Park's text arrived. Lee Joohwan's personal number.
I let out a stale breath and hit call. A color ring of someone rattling off rap drilled into my ear.
I swallowed dry. I'd sworn, over and over, not to lean too hard on the future visions. A power that had appeared out of nowhere might vanish the same way, and I'd told myself I couldn't hang everything on it.
And yet I was already hoping the noise would bloom in front of my eyes.
But by the time the automated voice announced it was transferring me to voicemail, the precognition showed no sign of kicking in.
I sent that, then called again. Twice. Three times. Just as Team Leader Park had said, Lee Joohwan stayed silent.
After a moment's thought, I called Reporter Park Woo-jung instead.
I thanked her first for tipping me off, then asked.
"Reporter. Is there any tabloid dirt going around on Lee Joohwan?"
"Tabloid dirt?"
"Yeah. Bad rumors. Anything he'd rather keep buried. That kind of thing."
In other words, something I could hold over him.
"He's a member people talk about, sure. Hang on—I'll ask my seniors."
A little later, Reporter Park Woo-jung laid out what she'd gathered. He'd been notorious for his unhinged streak even before debut. He did whatever he felt like, and the company was sick to death of him. A few more items followed. Nothing that made my ears prick up.
At the end, she said it carefully.
"And I heard Lee Joohwan said he was dating someone, not long ago."
"Dating?"
"Yes. About two weeks ago, they said. The senior who told me keeps digging—asking if the date wasn't Miss Songha..."
I'm not religious, but right then I wanted to thank God.
Reporter Park Woo-jung's voice receded, and in an instant the world in front of me went black.
I had never been so glad to see a field of vision that full of noise.
Praying it was a future tied to Lee Joohwan, I focused harder than I ever had.
Inside a bar. Lighting settled low and soft. On the solid-wood counter in front of me sat a beer glass and a glass bowl of bar snacks. Unfamiliar hip-hop drifted in from somewhere.
My future self moved a hand and lifted the cold glass. Cool beer slid down a throat that had been dry as a wasteland.
Ears pricked, I caught two women behind the bar talking.
"Lee Joohwan hit the jackpot, I'm telling you. He's been the topic for days. Trending searches bouncing up and down. Scooped up the sympathy votes, flipped his image, and his fandom blew up. Meanwhile Lee Songha, who got dragged into the scandal with him, had her image stomped flat."
"Right."
My future self pretended to drink and studied the woman who had answered in a single word.
A pretty face. A slim, willowy body. A bob.
"You don't think Lee Joohwan's done even giving us the time of day?"
Her coworker asked the bob-cut woman, probing.
"But Hyeseong. Didn't you say not long ago that you were seeing Lee Joohwan?"
The second I snapped back to the present, I hung up on Reporter Park Woo-jung.
It felt like I'd been stuffed in a cramped cave and had finally drawn outside air. My head spun hard, fitting together everything I'd seen and heard in that future.
So Lee Joohwan might have a woman he was seeing on the side. If that was true, it was the perfect leverage to threaten him with. The guy who'd sniped at Lee Songha on social media—playing the wounded pure-hearted boy, claiming something had happened between them, that her eyes had changed—had in fact been out dating a completely different woman and enjoying himself.
I thought for a beat, then turned the phone back on.
And, like casting a line, I threw Lee Joohwan a single text.
The Punchline dorm.
Lee Joohwan lay sprawled across the living-room sofa, checking the social media reaction on a tablet. He whistled as he read.
"Man, our fans are putting in work even before dawn. Hyung, any articles up yet?"
"Not yet."
From the end of the sofa, the manager shook his head. He had a tablet in his hand too.
Lee Joohwan frowned, displeased.
"Did every hack reporter drop dead? I tossed them bait this big, so why's it this quiet?"
"Looks like W&U is working the phones. So what. The second one article drops, the clickbait copies will line up right behind it."
Then the phone he'd tossed on the table buzzed again. Lee Joohwan glanced at the screen and sneered.
"If I'm not picking up, give up already. Persistent as hell. At this rate I'll have every W&U employee's number memorized. How come yours got quiet, hyung?"
"I turned it off. Gonna say the battery died."
"This is annoying. Should I kill mine too?"
"Leave it. We're already covering our eyes and playing peekaboo, but if we both shut our phones off and go dark, it'll be way too obvious."
Behind the sofa, the main vocalist—who'd been rummaging through the fridge—cut into their conversation.
"Even if it's noise marketing, aren't you going way too hard? How are you planning to clean this up tomorrow?"
"Too hard? I didn't even spell out Lee Songha's name and curse her. And I'm telling you, something definitely happened between us."
Lee Joohwan hiked his shoulders and went on.
"If she hadn't blown up out of nowhere, it might even have worked out. I'm the person involved, and that's what I think—what are they gonna do? Sue me?"
He cackled, as if the very idea were funny.
The manager clicked his tongue.
"You just keep your mouth shut. I'll clean it up in the morning."
"What are you gonna say?"
"It's no secret you can't be handled. We'll take a fat helping of insults and go begging to W&U. I'll tell them we'll pull the post down right away, so you take it down the second the timing's right."
"Fine. By tomorrow morning the screenshots'll be everywhere anyway. Whatever."
Sneering, Lee Joohwan picked the phone up again. This vibration was short. A text. He figured it would be more of the same already overflowing his inbox—then he shot upright off the sofa.
"What the hell is this?!"
"What's wrong? Who is it?"
The manager got up with him.
But Lee Joohwan didn't answer. He put the phone to his ear. His face had already gone hard, and the steps pacing the living room were restless.
Soon the ringing cut off.
"Yes, this is Jung Sunwoo."
"What's with that text? What kind of bullshit is that?!"
Lee Joohwan demanded it, right on top of him.
A brief silence, and then a voice edged with laughter came from the other end.
"The bullshit is on your social media. Then again, you understood it well enough to call, so maybe it isn't bullshit after all."
"What?!"
"Busy flirting all by yourself on the recording set, and dating some other woman on the side. Oh—is that just how this industry works? Filthy, and it sure does hurt."
"Dating? Who the hell is dating who—!"
He wet his lower lip, ready to deny it—
Lee Joohwan stopped dead. In a blink, his face curdled.
The manager, eavesdropping beside him, hurriedly powered his phone back on.
"Wouldn't it be better to take the post down first and clean this up with a clarification, fast? Your fans were making quite a fuss about how pitiful you are. You go on about someone's eyes changing, about being depressed—and if it gets out that you were off dating another woman and having a good time in that same stretch, I think your young fans are going to be disappointed."
The tone was calm. What it carried, without a doubt, was a threat.
Lee Joohwan clawed a hand through his hair and looked at the manager. As if there were no other choice, the manager sighed and nodded. Lee Joohwan kicked the sofa, swallowed a curse, and opened his mouth.
"Hey—I'll, I'll take it down right now. The post. I messed up because I was drinking."
Having made his excuse, he hid the agitation and asked,
"...But that Hyeseong. How did you know about her? Are you the only one who knows?"
A short pause from the other side, then an answer.
"No. I heard it from someone too."
In the end, Lee Joohwan spat out a string of curses.
He must have been in a real hurry. The moment the call ended, the post vanished from Lee Joohwan's social media. Once I'd confirmed it, I called Reporter Park Woo-jung again.
The voice that came back was still grave.
"Sunwoo, I really think this is about to hit the articles...!"
"I think it's going to work out. Thanks to you, Reporter."
"...What?"
I told the baffled Reporter Park Woo-jung,
"As a thank-you, I'll give you a story."
"A story?"
"Yes. Lee Joohwan's scandal."