“Park Haejun-ssi, what brings you all the way here?”
The moment he came face-to-face with the man he’d been desperately trying to avoid, Kang Hyukwoo couldn’t hide his wariness and immediately sharpened his tone.
But after glancing at Kang Hyukwoo’s tense expression, the man only let out a dry scoff. Ignoring the question entirely, and without waiting for any sort of permission, he walked right into the office. Then, with a rough motion that sent dust flying, he dropped himself onto the sofa, rested one foot—still in shoes—on the table, crossed his legs, and pulled a cigarette from his pocket to light.
He took a long drag, and as the end of the cigarette slowly burned down, he flicked the ashes directly onto the desk, where there was no ashtray. Startled by this, Kang Hyukwoo looked at him with eyes wide in disbelief, but the man remained completely unfazed. In a laid-back tone, nonchalantly ordered, “Go make me some coffee. Make it strong.”
“I-I’ll bring it right away.”
Hearing that, Kang Hyukwoo’s secretary, who had been standing nearby, hurriedly moved to leave the office. But the man raised his voice, laced with clear annoyance, and stopped him with a curt, “No, not you.”
Then, without so much as a blink, he fixed his gaze on Kang Hyukwoo, who had gone rigid in the face of the sudden turn of events, and added, “Director Kang, you make it.”
It was a blatant act of disregard toward Kang Hyukwoo, the one who technically owned this place. From the outset, it was a calculated move to break his spirit and highlight the difference in their positions. The unspoken message couldn’t have been clearer: ‘So what if you don’t like it?‘. It was a clear assertion that, in this moment, Kang Hyukwoo was now his subordinate.
”What did you say…….“
As soon as there was an opening, he immediately pointed out how Kang Hyukwoo had been completely out of contact all this time, his tone sharp. He seemed genuinely furious.
“Go make it. Don’t act like you’re too good for it.”
He was merely being treated the same way he’d always treated his subordinates, yet Kang Hyukwoo seemed deeply humiliated by it. His face turned bright red as he trudged away, his steps heavy.
And when Kang Hyukwoo returned, hesitantly placing the coffee on the table, the man gave a small nod, gesturing for him to take a seat.
“Uh-huh.”
From Kang Hyukwoo’s perspective, it was a rather insolent move coming from someone who looked like nothing more than a brat barely in his late twenties. Under normal circumstances, his temper would have already boiled over, flipping tables and raising hell. But this time, he simply clenched his fists and ground his teeth hard enough to make them creak, forcing himself to swallow his fury.
“You should be thanking me, you know? The Chairman was absolutely furious. He wanted to kill you on the spot. I was the one who barely managed to stop him. You know, it’s not at all easy to hide a corpse these days, even if it’s just one. You really ought to be more careful.”
“…….”
“Sure, I could just have my guys stage it as an accident, make it look like an accidental death, and send them off to the big house1 for a few years, but … even that’s not so simple now. You’ve basically become a full-on celebrity lately, with reporters hounding you and your face all over the news. And honestly, I don’t want my mother getting dragged into this mess. She’s sensitive, you see, and I hate seeing her suffer from unnecessary exposure.”
Because the man standing before him was the only son—the direct bloodline—of the head of the organized crime syndicate he had been working with until now. If he failed to suppress his rage, things could spiral into something irreversible. Besides, he was fully aware that trying to threaten a gangster who dealt with violence on a daily basis would only end with him being quickly overpowered.
In truth, until quite recently, the gangsters hadn’t shown such open disdain toward Kang Hyukwoo or looked down on him so blatantly. Whatever they might have thought of him privately, they had at least behaved like equal business partners on the surface, accommodating Kang Hyukwoo’s notoriously strong pride.
Underneath it all were Kang Hyukwoo’s blood, sweat, and tears. He would, for example, deliberately act even more confident—sometimes arrogantly so—when facing influential figures, flaunting the entertainment industry connections he had built through Prism and his own efforts, as if trying to pass himself off as someone truly important.
‘If only Seo Yutae weren’t here!’
But after Prism slipped from Kang Hyukwoo’s grasp and the corruption RH Entertainment had committed over the years was exposed to the world, and after Seo Yutae reappeared, everything he had worked for came crashing down.
It was because of Seo Yutae that the crimes committed on behalf of RH Entertainment had come to light, and it was because of Seo Yutae that Prism was able to escape Kang Hyukwoo’s control. If only he had realized that sooner and acted accordingly, things wouldn’t have spiraled this far out of control.
“So, what the hell happened? Director Kang wasn’t like this before. Why are you suddenly screwing things up like an amateur?”
Though he was seething inside, directing all his resentment toward Seo Yutae, he couldn’t offer any excuses in front of Park Haejun. After all, saying that a dead man had come back to life and was sabotaging everything he did would only make him sound insane.
“You’d better mentally prepare yourself. An investigation will begin soon.”
The moment he heard those words, Kang Hyukwoo felt his heart drop. His breath caught in his throat, and his shoulders gave a startled twitch.
‘…An investigation?’
He had been certain that the higher-ups would take care of things somehow, so the word ‘investigation‘ caught him completely off guard. Until now, even when there were occasional crackdowns, hadn’t they always smoothed things over by slipping a few hundred thousand won to the police?
At the sudden turn of events, all the illegal activities that had taken place inside the company flashed through his mind, and a cold sweat began to form on his palms. But since he was the very one who had brought this situation upon himself, Kang Hyukwoo forced himself to speak as if nothing was wrong.
“…A crackdown of this sort has always happened, hasn’t it? This time too…”
BANG!
‘You guys can take care of it this time too, can’t you?‘. Before he could even finish uttering such a careless remark, Park Haejun suddenly kicked the table he had his feet propped up on, sending it flying.
“Yeah, sure, those routine crackdowns were manageable. But that was only because we spent a fortune and pulled strings to keep everything under wraps. And now, Director Kang, you’ve gone and ruined everything we spent years carefully building.”
“…….”
“I clearly warned you from the start, didn’t I? Don’t cross the line.”
“We’ve already managed to block the news so far! If we just wait a little longer…….”
He couldn’t believe that after covering up actual murders without issue, they were now acting as if something this minor was too much to handle. ‘Are they really abandoning me like this just because they don’t want to spend the money?’ That thought consumed Kang Hyukwoo, filling him with a deep sense of betrayal.
But the other person remained completely unfazed, continuing to speak calmly even as Kang Hyukwoo failed to hide his anger and let it show.
“Yeah, we can block the news. Our clients certainly have that much power. But how are we supposed to stop platforms like NeoTube or social media, where we have no control? That’s where the most important information is leaking from.”
Kang Hyukwoo was well aware that fans of Pantheion and Prism were desperate to dig up every last bit of corruption he’d committed. After all, fueled by their deep affection to Seo Yutae, they hated Kang Hyukwoo, who had dragged Seo Yutae’s life through the mud, more than anyone.
“See? That’s what you get for poking around without knowing your place. You’ve been in the entertainment business for ages. How do you still not get that even the smallest mistake can blow everything up? Thanks to you, our clients are in chaos.”
Watching them claw and scramble, desperate to witness his downfall by any means, was enough to give him chills. But in the end, wasn’t it just a matter of rumors circulating behind the scenes? He couldn’t understand why they were making such a fuss when they could just discreetly resolve the matter at the police level, as they had always done until now.
Is all this just to scare him as a warning not to repeat the same mistake again?
Just as Kang Hyukwoo was still lost in denial, unable to come to his senses, Park Haejun said something that hit like a slap of reality.
“And besides, why the hell is Lee Saehwa sticking his nose in this matter?”
The moment the name ‘Lee Saehwa‘ was mentioned, Kang Hyukwoo instantly shuddered, and he looked up at Park Haejun with a pale face.
‘…Did Lee Saehwa do something?’
The fact that he was on hostile terms with Lee Saehwa was something he wanted to keep hidden from the gangsters as much as the fact that Seo Yutae was alive.
“No matter how much pressure we apply to cover this up, Lee Saehwa keeps blowing it all up. At this rate, a news outlet or TV station outside our influence might report on it, or it might even be featured on an investigative program. The situation is already escalating beyond the point of no return.”
But judging by the look on the other man’s face, it seemed it was already too late.
“Go on, try to come up with an excuse, hmm? You boasted so confidently that Prism would never be able to leave RH Entertainment, that they’d obediently do everything they were told, but you couldn’t even keep that promise. And now you’ve dragged Lee Saehwa into this too? Weren’t you the one who said he didn’t care about Prism, that once Seo Yutae disappeared, we wouldn’t have to worry about him at all? Tell me, does this look like someone we don’t need to worry about?”
“…….”
“This kind of investigation always starts with one small lead. They latch onto something minor and keep climbing the chain until they reach the head. Now that things have gotten this far, ‘perfect concealment’ is impossible. Do you get it now? This all happened because of you.”
Kang Hyukwoo, having finally grasped the gravity of the situation, began cautiously gauging Park Haejun’s expression.
‘These f*cking bastards … what the hell do they expect me to do?’
The situation was far worse than he had expected.
And they were blaming him for it.
Because if Kang Hyukwoo hadn’t done something so reckless just to go after Prism and Pantheion, if he hadn’t turned Seo Yutae into an enemy, no one would’ve had any reason to dig into his dirty dealings in the first place. And if that were the case, none of this would’ve ever escalated. At least not to the point where even their influential clients—the kind even gangsters have to tread carefully around—ended up getting caught in the crossfire.
Realizing this, Kang Hyukwoo lowered his head in submission and hastily apologized.
“…I’m sorry. I really never imagined it would come to this…….“
”No, no need to apologize.”
But Park Haejun simply cut him off with a cold, indifferent expression.
All Kang Hyukwoo could do at this point was apologize, but when even that had no effect, his body stiffened with tension as he began anxiously watching the other man’s reactions.
“You have to take responsibility. You’re the one who caused all this.”
“How could I…….”
“The public already knows that something happened. So rather than trying to escape cleanly, it’s better to cut off the tail and give the public the superficial satisfaction of having held someone accountable. Then, the core can run away unnoticed. That usually calms things down.”
Park Haejun’s vague words made Kang Hyukwoo blink nervously beneath his lowered gaze. The phrase ‘cut off the tail and run away‘ bounced around in his head as he frantically tried to decipher the meaning. Assuming it meant pinning everything on one of the low-level gang affiliates, he calmly opened his mouth to speak.
‘That’s right, that’s probably the easiest way to wrap it up.’
“Then when will the guy we’re sending to the big house be ready…….”
When Kang Hyukwoo nodded obediently and muttered those words, Park Haejun widened his eyes in surprise, as if he hadn’t expected him to take it that way, and burst into laughter. Then, wearing an exaggeratedly sympathetic expression, he lightly patted Kang Hyukwoo’s cheek in a mocking manner and said, “I told you, didn’t I? Our clients must never be linked to anything bad. All we want is for the case to be shut down before an investigation can even begin.”
”What do you mean…….“
“Lucky for us, everything that happened inside the club is all under your name.”
The moment he heard those words, Kang Hyukwoo realized he wasn’t on equal footing with them; he was nothing more than a disposable pawn. Enraged by the realization, he shot to his feet.
“F**k, are you telling me to just die right now?!”
“If we go that route, the people who were trying to expose your corruption will be satisfied and back off. There won’t be any further talk about ‘the sentence being too light’ or anything like that. Then our clients can come out of this unharmed.”
“Do you really think I’ll just sit back and accept that?!”
Park Haejun quietly stared at Kang Hyukwoo, who was now shouting at the top of his lungs and revealing his true colors, and then opened his mouth.
“I think you will?”
“…What?”
And then, he uttered a name Kang Hyukwoo had never expected to hear.
“Director Kang, the name ‘Kim Chaeyul’ … rings a bell, doesn’t it?”
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Translator’s Corner:
Eden would call what Choi Jeokhyeon did as ‘outsourcing’
Translating chapters of Kang Hyukwoo … what kind of torture is this … this is why I’m sticking to healing novels … I don’t like spending my time on villain’s POV ……….
I love how the author pointed out how they can control the news media, but they can’t control SNS. We literally saw this happening everyday in K-POP. You’d see a lot of big crimes only getting talked about in social media like Twitter, but almost never made it to the news outlet (and post in online forums also usually got deleted so quickly). Twitter is lowkey that one platform where no one has control over it (unless the US govt I guess). That’s why malicious accounts flooded that platform. You can’t just take down a post there, so people got paid to spread fake news / support fake mediaplay. (I know because I used to get offers for that kind of part-time job) (Just never accepted it because it doesn’t sit well with my moral. Like being hungry is better than spreading false information on innocent person …. I didn’t graduate from information science to commit that crime…..)
Well, whatever bad day Yutae is having, just know that the MC of Assistant Manager Kim has it worse … Like, at least Yutae did everything out of his free will (well, even if you consider the blackmail part, he still chose to go along with the blackmail) …… I seriously don’t know what problems the author of Manager Kim have. That novel is a literal angst-makjang right now. I saw someone said they don’t even know if this novel still an idol novel, but that neighbour commited worse offense …… the idol activities on that novel is too unrealistic my veteran fan soul is suffering asdfghjkl oh my god I really shouldn’t read Naver’s idol novel …. the plot hurts my head ………… I can already predict what kind of ending the author trying to reach, but I seriously just don’t like the process …… it’s like they spent everyday looking up new way to make the MC suffer
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