Chapter 102. Do Jun-hyeok Will Do Anything
"Ohoho! That's right, that's right. Ms. Maralak. If something good happens, you've got to send burgers around the school too, right? I'll enjoy the drink~!"
"Yes. Please take good care of me."
Universe had sent a coffee setup to the 〈K-Hip-Hop Star〉 filming site.
Technically, it wasn't even a truck.
They had basically set up a temporary café inside the studio.
It was one of the rewards we'd won by beating PD Na Young-hwan in that quiz competition.
PD Kim Gyu-sam saw the café and started joking around with Anna, acting friendly.
Among everyone on set, aside from a few genuinely skilled idol rappers, Kim Gyu-sam was practically the only person who treated Anna kindly.
Anna kept pretending she was fine, but honestly, it bothered her a lot.
They were all appearing on the same program.
Would it really kill them to get along?
At first, the underground rappers had only laughed at her for being an idol.
But ever since that one-on-one diss battle against Kaiser, some of them had become openly hostile.
"Unnis, aren't you getting coffee? They brought a ton of it."
Anna asked while sipping an Americano.
No one answered.
Everyone was watching Kaiser instead.
Kaiser herself wasn't even paying attention.
She was sitting quietly, looking over the script in her hands.
"It's just coffee. I'm not going to brag because I gave you one or two cups. If you go somewhere cheap, a cup doesn't even cost three thousand won."
They acted so tough when they rapped.
But looking at them now, they were so timid that their memo apps probably had about ten terabytes of material stored up.
In the end, Kaiser was the boss.
Anna made up her mind and walked over to her.
"Unni, aren't you drinking coffee?"
"No."
Anna hadn't noticed because Kaiser's hair covered her ears, but she was wearing wireless earbuds.
At Anna's question, Kaiser glanced toward the café before replying.
"If you bring me one, I'll drink it."
"Okay, wait."
Anna went to get a coffee and brought it back to Kaiser.
But despite saying she'd drink it, Kaiser only accepted the cup and silently set it down beside her.
"Unni, you're not mad because I called your rap old, right?"
Kaiser was about to put her earbud back in, so Anna hit her with the question directly.
Kaiser let out a long sigh.
"I wasn't. Not until you just said that."
"Really?"
"My rap isn't old. Do you think I actually believe you're Do Jun-hyeok's daughter? If you're going to diss someone and then worry about their feelings afterward, quit hip-hop."
The point was that diss battles were supposed to be fun.
Exactly what Anna thought too.
And yet Kaiser was somehow turning it around and accusing Anna of caring too much.
Trying to smooth things over with a few words had been a mistake.
Kaiser wasn't the kind of person whose mood improved because someone flattered her or brought her a gift.
Apparently, she only cared about people with real skill.
Still, Anna thought she'd done pretty well during the diss battle.
Maybe it still wasn't enough to earn Kaiser's recognition.
Then there was nothing she could do.
She'd been planning to win anyway.
Now, because of Kaiser, she could strengthen that determination one more time.
Did coffee beans have an expiration date?
Anna searched for coffee bean shelf life on her phone.
For her next lyrics.
No Ji-hye.
She had fallen into Jeongseon Casino Land and gambled away every bit of money she'd earned from rapping.
Eventually, she'd voluntarily banned herself from entering.
Even after that, she couldn't quit gambling, so for three years she'd wandered through illegal gambling dens and similar places.
Maybe she wanted to give herself a Christmas present.
The moment the three-year minimum period ended, she crawled back into Gangwon Province and applied to lift the ban.
This was troublesome.
Very troublesome.
They might be rivals right now, but what if she suddenly dropped out of the program because of a gambling scandal?
Anna was finally starting to gain mainstream popularity as a rapper.
And in the end, she needed to beat No Ji-hye with skill to truly be acknowledged.
If Kaiser left, they'd probably recruit another rapper.
But the current Kaiser-versus-Maralak rivalry had formed too perfectly.
They'd already produced plenty of good tracks from it too.
So if you want to gamble, do it later.
December 4 was still during the broadcast period.
After the spam upgraded, there had been a phone number listed under the label [Free Opt-Out].
When the upgrade happened, it had said sender information would be displayed.
Then could this number belong to No Ji-hye?
I thought it over for several days before finally calling.
"Hello?"
The call connected immediately.
"Hello?"
"Yes. Hello."
What a beautiful way of speaking.
It was clearly a man's voice, full of suspicion.
Definitely not No Ji-hye.
This guy probably wasn't the god sending the spam, or some even greater being.
So my brain automatically started assuming he was somehow connected to the spam.
"Who is this?"
"Haah... Hello?"
His sigh sounded deep enough to make the ground collapse.
If I delayed introducing myself even one more beat, he sounded ready to start cursing.
"Um, this is Universe..."
"Yeah, okay. Universe. What do you want?"
What an absolute punk.
"No, that's not what I meant. I'm calling from Universe."
"And who are you to call me? Hoo... The girls aren't here today. They're in Masan. They'll be back next week, so call again then."
"Wait, wait!"
At least one thing was certain.
This wasn't No Ji-hye's number.
He sounded ready to hang up, so I hurriedly stopped him.
Hearing some random thug snap at me was starting to make me irritated too.
I decided to press him based on my first instinct.
"What do you mean, the girls aren't there? Who went to Masan?"
"Blue Moon. Blue Moon. Do you understand now? Blue. Moon. Did you understand Masan too? Ma as in..."
"Yes, yes. I understand."
I decided not to get angry at every single thing.
One last test.
"I'm Do Hoe-dong from KBN's variety department. You called us before, right? About casting. But Blue Moon is in Masan?"
"Ah, shit..."
The call ended.
That short conversation, especially his final reaction, made it obvious who he was.
An entertainment company for imitation singers.
He was claiming his performers were Universe's Blue Moon.
Then when someone from a broadcasting station called asking for the real Blue Moon, he panicked and hung up.
That one call alone had probably given him plenty of stress.
He couldn't change the number easily.
But if he didn't, it now felt like the number had been exposed somewhere bizarre.
I had no idea what connection he had to No Ji-hye.
But first, I'd deal with him.
He said they were in Masan.
Blue Moon had really made it big.
They even had imitation singers now.
If they were imitation singers, they were probably performing at some nightclub in Masan.
I grabbed the proud key to our Volkswagon and immediately left the office.
After driving all over Masan, I eventually found a poster in Sanho-dong for Masan Star Adult Night.
This week, the lineup included MC Yoo Jun-seok, singers Kim Soo-bong and Jo Gwang-jo, and the girl group Blue Moon.
The directions were helpfully included, so I found the place quickly.
A waiter guided me inside.
The venue was packed.
It was the middle of winter, yet it was hot enough to make me sweat.
When I entered, a middle-aged woman who I assumed was supposed to be Kim Soo-bong was singing.
When her song ended, a man walked onto the stage.
The MC.
He looked vaguely similar to Yoo Jun-seok, but it was obvious he wasn't the real one.
Nobody seemed to care.
The MC clearly knew that too, because every so often he'd deliberately switch between his "real self" and his Yoo Jun-seok persona to get laughs.
"All right, everyone. They're one of the hottest groups in the country these days. Blue Moon! This time, they're the real deal. Youngchae's hometown is Masan, so they came specially to visit. Please welcome them with a huge round of applause!"
The MC called out Blue Moon after opening with a ridiculous lie.
Four women walked onto the stage.
"Hahahaha! Ah~ They don't look alike at all! How are those supposed to be Blue Moon?"
"Really? Let's see. Two eyes, one nose. Perfect match."
The customers erupted into noisy laughter.
The lighting was flashy, so I couldn't see their faces clearly.
But they definitely weren't our members.
Apparently expecting people not to recognize them, they each wore name tags.
Except for Serena, all of them were foreigners.
They looked to be in their late twenties.
Serena, the only Korean among them, looked more like she was in her early-to-mid thirties.
She was quite pretty.
Seeing them in person was a little shocking.
But also kind of entertaining.
Still, why had a number connected to these people been sent to me?
Was the spam telling me to respond to the existence of imitation singers?
On the way to Masan, I'd briefly worried that maybe we'd been neglecting regional events too much.
But thinking about it calmly, imitation singers existed for any sufficiently famous celebrity.
I'd heard performers like these earned around a hundred thousand won per gig.
Consuming Blue Moon and consuming them were clearly different things.
It was definitely illegal, and I'd deal with it eventually.
But it didn't seem urgent enough for the spam to specifically point me here.
The Blue Moon members(?) began singing.
Everything was live.
Their vocal imitation was surprisingly decent too.
They performed 〈N.Dolphin〉 and 〈Homesick Girl〉.
Then the audience demanded an encore, so they even sang 〈Love Hill〉 from Blue Moon's first album.
"Ooh~ This is a Blue Moon song too? I thought they only had Endorphin and Homesick Girl."
Of course we had the earlier songs too.
Especially the first album.
That one was at least listenable.
A lot of people seemed to be hearing it for the first time.
I found myself watching their reactions like I was doing promotions.
Then suddenly snapped back to my senses.
This wasn't the time for that.
I needed to ask the people in charge to stop these activities and quickly figure out what connection these imitation singers had to No Ji-hye.
I waited quietly until Blue Moon's stage ended, then left the nightclub.
I was curious how good the fake Jo Gwang-jo coming up next would be.
But if I really wanted to know, I could come back when I had free time.
Outside, I looked around.
They probably wouldn't leave through the front entrance.
I circled the building and reached the parking lot behind the nightclub.
There, I saw the Blue Moon members piling into a Starex.
For moving around as a group, nothing beat a Starex.
Watching them made me glad we'd finally upgraded ours, even if it had taken us far too long.
I checked which direction the Starex left in, returned to my car, and started the engine.
Then Dae-hun called.
"I'm busy."
"Hyung, where are you right now? Serin and Min-jun have their auditions tomorrow. You can come, right?"
"Yeah. Tomorrow's fine."
I started driving and barely managed to catch up to the Starex.
"Then when are we calling in the 〈Rebooting〉 members? You told me to move the date forward last time... By the way, where are you right now?"
"I'm in Masan. As for 〈Rebooting〉... just call them sometime next week whenever your schedule works. I'll have the new song secured by then."
"Got it. But why are you in Masan? Meeting Prosecutor Lee Ho-seong?"
I'd considered asking Lee Ho-seong to help.
But that would probably make the whole thing unnecessarily large, so I dropped the idea.
"I'm here because the Blue Moon members have a Star Night schedule. Anyway, this is urgent. I'm hanging up."
"What Star Night schedule...?"
The Starex eventually stopped in front of a shabby office building on the outskirts.
The members followed the driver up a metal staircase.
Old stickers on the glass said things like:
[International Marriage]
[Employment Placement]
[Loans]
It looked like the kind of private investigation office that would do absolutely anything.
I immediately followed them upstairs and threw open the office door.
A man was handing white envelopes to the members.
Behind the counter to the left of the entrance, a huge guy with an impressive dragon tattoo looked over at me.
The huge guy reached toward a golf club leaning beside the counter and asked,
"What brings you here? We're closed for business."
"Why are you grabbing that? The golf course should be closed too."
His attitude was openly hostile.
I tried answering with a joke.
The big guy didn't seem interested in becoming less hostile.
Sweat was already running down my back.
Should I call Ho-seong after all?
No use.
A golf club moved faster than the law.
Even if it were Yoon Jin-seo instead of Lee Ho-seong, one hit from that thing would leave him half-dead.
This guy looked about twice Yoon Jin-seo's size.
"...It's my golf club. Am I not allowed to touch my own property?"
Fine.
Let's push hard.
"I'm Prosecutor Do Ho-seong from the... Changwon District Prosecutors' Office... copyright investigation division. Universe Entertainment filed a complaint about fake Blue Moon activities. You do know this is a crime, right?"
The big guy snorted.
"Heh... Pretending to be a prosecutor isn't a crime, then?"
Damn.
I had nothing to push him with.
But there was definitely something here.
At a glance, this looked exactly like the base of operations for the imitation Blue Moon act.
And since they seemed to handle all kinds of jobs, it meant No Ji-hye was probably either a client or connected to someone here.
"You're not going to tell me you don't know Ms. No Ji-hye, are you?"
"No Ji-hye? Don't know her."
"You don't know No Ji-hye, the rapper who goes by Kaiser? I came alone because I wanted to settle this peacefully. Do I really have to come back with a warrant and make a scene before you'll cooperate?"
When I pushed a little harder, the golf club in his hand started trembling slightly.
"Tell him to come in."
Then someone spoke from the room marked [President's Office].
There was basically no soundproofing.
That voice was familiar.
The exact voice I'd heard when I called the free opt-out number.
Just to make sure, I called the same number again.
A phone started vibrating inside that room.
"He says to come in."
At my words, the big guy gently lowered the golf club.
