Chapter 156

Chapter 156. A True Jin Youngchae Fan

I got the location of the villa from Kwon Dae-hun.

Since it looked like the incident would happen right in front of Kim Hye-jin's home, I asked him for her exact address, and he gave me the details.

She really was an unusually devoted fan.

That only made me feel even more strongly that I had to save her.

Of course, I'd save her even if she weren't a fan.

I had the bodyguards hide in a nearby alley where they wouldn't stand out.

I'd deliberately arrived about an hour early, but Kim Hye-jin appeared sooner than expected.

She was walking home at a fairly quick pace.

I pulled my cap low and approached her.

"I'm here to buy the album."

I deliberately lowered my voice.

I'd pulled my cap down to keep her from recognizing my face, but Kim Hye-jin was so short that it didn't help much.

Still, it was fine.

I'd come wearing a mask too.

Kim Hye-jin looked me up and down suspiciously before speaking.

"〈Star Night〉? You're early... Please wait a moment."

She went into the villa and came back a few minutes later carrying Blue Moon's second album.

It was completely new.

The plastic wrapping hadn't even been opened.

"How much was it again?"

"15,900 won. No bargaining. You should consider yourself lucky I'm only charging the original retail price."

"You don't need to give me change."

I pulled out twenty thousand won and handed it to her.

As if she'd expected that, Kim Hye-jin immediately handed me 4,100 won back.

Then she said,

"I told you I'm only taking the original price. I don't know why you came instead of that person, but I'm only selling this because I have no choice because of him."

She had no choice but to sell it?

And why had I come instead?

I didn't understand that part.

Still, I understood that because she was being forced to sell it, she had no intention of making a profit.

"Do you not like Blue Moon anymore?"

"I told you I'm being forced to sell it!"

Kim Hye-jin suddenly snapped at me.

I asked her to explain what she meant, but the more I pressed, the angrier she became.

This strategy had worked very well on Jo Yang-hoon.

Apparently, it didn't work on Kim Hye-jin.

I took off my cap and mask.

Kim Hye-jin practically jumped out of her skin.

She looked like a burglar who'd been caught robbing an empty house.

"So someone kept threatening to kill you unless you sold your second album?"

"Yes... I really didn't want to sell it... But he knows my home address too, so I got scared..."

If that was the situation, I was more than willing to let her off completely.

Apparently, that was why she'd asked why someone else had come in his place.

The bastard had sent threatening messages to Kim Hye-jin's email repeatedly.

He had even stalked her.

And ever since I'd suddenly announced two days ago that owners of the first and second albums would receive concert-ticket priority, his harassment had intensified dramatically.

"I didn't plan that ticket event expecting something like this. Does that mean there might be similar fights happening elsewhere right now?"

"No, probably not that much... That guy is just especially weird. I got unlucky. Haa."

Kim Hye-jin nervously looked around as she spoke.

"To be honest, I was already thinking about taking a break from fandom activities for a while. I might need money soon..."

"Money? Why all of a sudden?"

If you needed money, this was the absolute worst way to sell a second album.

It was rare enough that she could probably get around three hundred thousand won for it.

Naturally, Kim Hye-jin knew that attaching a premium and reselling it would be disrespectful to the fandom.

That was why she'd intended to sell it at the original price anyway.

When I asked what was going on, Kim Hye-jin's expression suddenly twisted painfully.

"I uploaded a cross-edited video, and now they're saying I violated copyright and might have to pay damages... United Talenet Live. The one we went to."

"What? Damages? Are you sure?"

"I heard they might send a claim soon. So I should take the video down, but..."

Still reluctant to let go of it, Hye-jin had only made the video private for now.

She said she'd heard the rumor from fans who regularly visited her online-life blog.

They were saying the video had become too successful, so she'd probably be forced to pay copyright fees.

I didn't know exactly how that rumor had started.

Maybe there had been disagreement between the event planner and other United Talenet Live staff, and some of the internal noise had leaked out.

"Did that affect your decision to sell the album?"

"Yes. About... half of it."

Could the person who spread the rumor and the stalker be connected?

It was possible.

But there wasn't enough evidence to say.

"For now, don't worry about United Talenet Live. Nothing's going to happen. Put the video back up."

"Why?"

"Because I bought the rights to that footage in advance."

I explained the contract I'd made with United Talenet Live's planner in detail.

The paperwork had already been signed.

"R-Really? If the copyright belongs to Do Hyu... I mean, CEO Do Jun-hyeok, then United Talenet Live can't say anything?"

"We already own the copyright to the song itself. United Talenet Live only borrowed performance usage rights from us. So if people tried to scare you with a copyright dispute, it probably wouldn't have been a normal royalty claim. It would've been a damages claim. The right to film that stage and make money from the footage belonged only to the people who borrowed the usage rights and to us, the copyright holders."

In other words, even if Kim Hye-jin hadn't monetized her video, United Talenet Live could've claimed that her upload had stolen views from their own videos and infringed on their exclusive usage rights.

They could've demanded damages that way.

But through my contract with them, they'd given up any right to make claims over that particular footage.

So there was nothing left to worry about.

"H-How did you know and go that far... Don't tell me... you did it for me...?"

"Yeah, well. It wasn't a big deal."

Kim Hye-jin's pupils trembled in confusion.

Then she suddenly burst into tears.

"Why are you crying?"

"Because I'm so grateful..."

Kim Hye-jin sniffled.

"I didn't know any of that... And I was about to sell it for just 15,900 won... I must've lost my mind. Why did I do that?"

"You were being stalked and threatened. And people were scaring you with copyright claims too. Anyone could've done the same. I probably would've."

"No! I really did lose my mind. Selling my precious second album..."

Until now, as a fan, I'd always looked down on the second album a bit.

But between Sergeant Yeom Min-woo last time and Kim Hye-jin now...

Apparently, quite a lot of fans genuinely treasured it.

Come to think of it, I'd seen some leftover second albums stacked in the company warehouse when we moved.

Should I release those?

"If you feel that guilty, then change the protagonist of your fanfiction. Use Kwon Dae-hun instead of me."

"O-Okay. Ah, no, wait. You read my fanfiction?!"

Kim Hye-jin's tears vanished instantly.

Anyway, just as I was about to hand the second album back to her...

"Why are you selling it to someone else?!"

A man's furious scream rang through the alley.

Kim Hye-jin jolted and turned.

Judging from his clothes, he was the man from the future video.

"T-That's him! He's the one stalking me."

"Is that so?"

In the future video, I'd only seen the side and back of his head.

Now I could see his face from the front.

I'd seen him before.

"Hey. Good to see you. Been a while, hasn't it?"

"Give me my second album!"

The last time he'd seen my face, he'd immediately gone pale.

Apparently, he'd lost his mind so completely over the second album that none of that mattered anymore.

He charged at me.

For the sake of protecting myself, I quickly stepped against his momentum and kicked him in the solar plexus.

"Wow... Those legs..."

Kim Hye-jin praised my martial prowess.

The man went flying backward.

Only then did the bodyguards come rushing out.

The moment he saw them too, he finally came to his senses and turned to flee.

He wouldn't get very far.

I'd caught this guy before.

He was the bastard who had hidden a spy camera inside a teddy-bear headband at a Blue Moon fan meeting and gotten caught by me.

What was his name again?

Chasing him personally wasn't suitable for someone like me.

As a former public-service worker, the only hand-to-hand combat techniques I'd mastered were basically lethal ones.

Meaning pointless casualties would occur.

While the bodyguards chased him, I examined the phone he'd dropped.

"Ah, it's locked."

I muttered.

Kim Hye-jin leaned closer with interest.

His lock-screen wallpaper was a screenshot from one of Youngchae's fancams.

Back during the teddy-bear hidden-camera incident, he hadn't seemed particularly attached to any specific part of the fandom.

I didn't know what had changed, but now it looked like Youngchae had become his main bias.

I tried several obvious passwords for no real reason.

1q2w3e4r.

Naturally, none worked.

After four attempts, only one try remained.

If it permanently locked, who cared?

It wasn't my phone.

Still, I wanted to see what was inside.

Come to think of it, Kim Hye-jin's blog was practically a bible for Youngchae fans too.

Was this guy now a Youngchae fan?

Just in case, I entered Youngchae's six-digit birth date.

The phone unlocked as if by magic.

"How did you..."

I was surprised too.

"Private digital forensics is the best weapon against stalkers."

I opened his messenger app.

There were barely any private chats.

Most of them were random open chat rooms.

And most of those were fandom rooms.

There were two related to Blue Moon.

One was the general information-sharing room for all members, the same one I was in.

The other was called:

Youngchae Coin Holders' Room.

Apparently, it was a gathering for individual Youngchae fans.

"Ah... So he really was from YoungCoin."

Kim Hye-jin sighed.

"YoungCoin? Youngchae Coin Holders' Room? Is this place famous? I've never heard of it."

"I wouldn't call it famous. But anyone who knows that side of the fandom knows about it. It's small and exclusive. Only Youngchae unni's akgaes gather there."

Youngchae's akgaes?

An akgae was short for a malicious individual fan.

Someone who loved one member while intensely hating the others.

"My blog has a lot of Youngchae unni material, so quite a few of those people come through. I think some of the people threatening me to hand over my second album are from there too. They use fixed nicknames in the fan café, and their blog names are the same."

"How did you..."

I'd thought Kim Hye-jin lived nothing but peaceful, innocent fandom life.

And she'd been fighting people like this?

Toxic fans existed everywhere.

But if they were organized enough that anyone familiar with the fandom knew about them, that could become dangerous.

They could manipulate articles.

Deliberately stir up conflicts between members.

And if things got worse...

They could even attack members directly.

What was the point of constantly showing Blue Moon's chemistry and close friendship?

If people like this ran wild, they'd create conflicts that had never existed in the first place.

I quickly began reading the chat logs.

[Ah~ When is Youngchae finally leaving Blue Moon? She could be so much more successful, but she's stuck carrying all that dead weight...]

[Youngchae unni is just too nice ㅜㅜ]

[That trash Do only pushes disgusting Serin. I'm so pissed. Kill him, kill him.]

[Youngchae unni is so pitiful ㅜㅜ I watched the documentary and she's always practicing alone.]

[Feels like she's being bullied too... We have to protect our Youngchae no matter what.]

What the hell were these people talking about?

Was trash Do supposed to mean me?

Actually, forget trash Do.

What the hell was disgusting Serin?

Apparently, there was a Chinese character pronounced hyeom that meant "to shine."

Surely they didn't mean that one.

[We're launching a full attack to deflate 〈The Stranger〉's portal rating. Nobody goes home until we lower it by 0.5 points~]

[The Wednesday Seoul article about Maralak-Jared Big has been taken down.]

They were even carrying out coordinated operations.

They genuinely hated every single Blue Moon member except Youngchae.

I could understand loving Youngchae one hundred times over.

But even after trying a thousand times, I couldn't understand hating the other three.

So that was +100 for loving Youngchae and -3,000 for hating Serin, Anna, and Aran.

Total score:

-2,900.

At -2,900 points, this organization deserved forced dissolution.

From this moment onward...

I would begin the counterattack.