Chapter 181

Chapter 181. Hunting the Mutt

"Ahh, D-Do Jun-hyeok."

For now, I sat at the guest table in front of the secretary-general's desk, just as he guided me to.

This was him.

This was the bastard from the third video.

The one talking about whether or not they should make money from a memorial concert.

And this guy was the secretary-general in charge of supporting indie bands?

I was a little thrown off, but the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall neatly into place.

Come to think of it, things had been suspicious from the beginning.

Charity or not, did it make sense that the singers participating in these performances weren't paid a single won?

I didn't know how long this bastard had been working here, but he'd clearly abandoned everything from cleaning the venue to maintaining the sound equipment while saying the bands could use it for free.

Then he used that as a kind of so-called "gaslighting" to exploit innocent musicians.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

And what did this bastard say while visiting the funeral of someone who died at his venue?

"He's already collecting plenty of condolence money anyway."

You've met the wrong person today.

"I came because Universe would like to make a donation. Providing performance venues to indie bands who don't have money is incredibly meaningful work."

"Ahaa."

Secretary Han answered without losing his smile.

"Of course, you're free to donate, but we don't really need that much moneyyy."

"What? Why not?"

"Large sums of money are for turning things into businesses. What we're trying to do isn't simple welfare. We want to preserve indie cultureee."

...

That was actually a fair point.

"Money doesn't only have to be spent on booking venues, promotions, and sales, does it? If money itself is the issue, Universe could build a venue and support you that way. From what I saw, there aren't enough performance spaces to support that many bands."

"Aah. That might be difficult tooo. We only accept cash donationsss. I'm not the chairman of The Giving Tree, and when we report how support funds are spent to the people above us, it has to be processed as monetary expenditure. Wouldn't it be better if CEO Do Jun-hyeok started your own venue-support project instead?"

Why is he making this so frustrating?

All they had to do was accept the damn venue, slap that ugly black cherry-tree logo on it somewhere, and call it a day.

It wasn't even costing them anything.

Why was he going on about reporting expenditures to his superiors?

I'd known the moment I heard his voice.

This bastard had his own little scheme.

Didn't he call it spending money?

He was siphoning off money collected in the name of charity and using it for himself.

I had him figured out.

If a large donation suddenly came in, his embezzlement would become obvious.

That was why he was making excuses.

"Hahaha. Universe doesn't have the capability for that. ...Anyway, if that's impossible, then I guess money is our only option. How much would be appropriate for us to donate? And if we donate, how will the money be used? Do you provide living support to the musicians?"

Was I seriously being screened just to make a donation?

This might've been the first time in my life I'd had to beg someone to let me give them money.

"Ah, we can't tell donors exactly where the funds gooo. Roughly speaking, we build performance venues, and there's some of that living-expense support you mentioneddd... That's about all I can tell youuu."

All right.

I get it.

Let's stop talking.

"Understood. If you're ever short on funds while starting a large project, please contact me. I'd be happy to help."

"Yees~."

I left my business card behind and quickly escaped the unpleasant Culture and Arts Center office.

After talking to him, I realized Secretary Han wasn't just an embezzler.

He was actively getting in the way of fundraising too.

Filthy bastard.

"All right. You really should burn some mosquito coils around here. I'll visit again soon."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Do Jun-hyeok. Long time no see."

While driving from Jonggak toward Gangnam, I called Yoon Jin-seo.

"Yeah. You've been well?"

"I already know you're calling because you need something. Just say it."

Cold-hearted bastard.

Thanks.

"There's a charity organization that absolutely reeks, and I think someone there might be embezzling funds. What do you do in a case like that?"

"Embezzlement? Is there a reason you think that?"

"Nothing decisive. But even when I offered to donate, they said they didn't need it... and honestly, I have no idea where the fund money is actually going. When I asked, they said they couldn't disclose it."

Yoon Jin-seo quietly listened.

"That does sound suspicious. It could be simple negligence, or it could be embezzlement. What organization is it?"

"The Giving Tree."

"What? The Giving Tree?"

Yoon Jin-seo sounded like he'd heard something completely absurd.

To be fair, it wasn't exactly an organization that seemed compatible with the word embezzlement.

"I donate to them regularly. And that can't be right. You can see where their funds go just by checking their website."

"Right. But donations are collected with specific purposes attached, aren't they? It looked like they separated and managed the funds by field. The place I'm talking about is The Giving Tree's Culture and Arts Center."

I heard a mouse clicking through the phone.

"Well, damn. I'm on their website now, and the Culture and Arts Center only has a donation application page. There's no information at all about how those funds are used."

"It's probably well known among people in the indie-band scene."

"This smells so bad I can't stand it. Don't tell me these bastards have been using my money too...?"

Yoon Jin-seo's motivation immediately caught fire.

As expected, the best response to injustice was to report it to someone with no patience for injustice.

Yoon Jin-seo said he'd put aside everything else he was doing and look into the Culture and Arts Center first.

After ending the call, I returned to the company office.

"Dae-hun. Call the Blue Moon members into the conference room. We need to hurry and plan a stage."

"What? You said just the other day that we'd be resting for a while. Why are we planning a stage?"

This was all the will of our goddesses.

How dare a lowly Dae-hun talk back to divine revelation?

I delivered the goddesses' oracle to him.

We needed to shut down all of the Culture and Arts Center's activities under The Giving Tree.

They were probably getting most of their donations from artists who had achieved at least moderate success.

Meaning someone was being milked for money.

Worse, they only had one shared performance venue, and they weren't maintaining it at all.

It was going to catch fire eventually.

The fire extinguisher I saw there had practically rusted through.

I could force a remodel now and probably delay the accident by more than four years.

But that would still only be a temporary fix.

How was I supposed to count every pile of crap left around the neighborhood by one stray mutt wandering everywhere?

It would be better to enter the indie-band support business ourselves.

If Universe pushed The Giving Tree aside and started directly managing the Hongdae scene, everyone would benefit.

"You idiot. Do you have any idea how much our members care about their fans? You think they'll be comfortable doing nothing for two months? I suggested resting at first too, but they all said they wanted to perform."

"They did?"

"Still, we can't overwork them, so we'll have to adjust the schedule."

Blue Moon could perform, while indie bands filled the same stages.

That would distribute attention pretty well.

For the indie bands, it would be a major stage too, so plenty would want to participate.

I could ask Hee-jae to plan the stage, see what he was capable of, and at the same time establish the image that the real organization supporting indie musicians wasn't The Giving Tree.

It was Universe's Full Moon Foundation.

We needed to make such a strong impression that nobody would even look at that semi-basement venue anymore.

It wouldn't be a regional tour exclusively for Apollo members anymore.

But wasn't a charity performance meaningful in its own way?

While Dae-hun went to call the members, I called Hee-jae.

"Ah, CEO Do Jun-hyeok! But are you really sure we can use this place all week?"

"Are you practicing right now? Of course. I was worried you might monopolize the space too long, so I only paid for a week. Once the week is over, let's move to another neighborhood practice room."

"Wow... The equipment here is amazing. It honestly feels like we've become a completely different band."

The place had decent facilities, but it was still a shared practice room.

The equipment couldn't be that incredible.

Still, compared to the junk at The Giving Tree venue, it probably felt luxurious.

I should hurry and establish an indie-musician support fund under the Blue Moon Foundation and secure them a permanent practice room.

"I actually want to learn some bass right now. Could you come by our company for a little while?"

"Right now? Ah, hmm... I should! Should I head over immediately?"

He probably felt a little guilty about skipping practice, but just come over.

I had a genuinely good present for him.

I sent him taxi fare, and Hee-jae arrived at the company soon after.

He had two bass guitars slung across his back.

"Huh? Why did you bring two basses?"

"Ah, I stopped home and grabbed them just in case. CEO Do Jun-hyeok might not own a bass guitar."

That was actually a good call.

We were an idol agency.

We didn't raise bands.

Why would we own a bass guitar?

Of course, I didn't actually plan to talk about bass.

"Is it okay for you to skip practice? Won't the band members complain?"

"They didn't really say anything. I'm only going to teach you the basics today, so it'll be over in an hour or two anyway."

As we walked toward the conference room where the members, Dae-hun, and Jin-hee were waiting, Hee-jae chattered about all sorts of things.

Then suddenly, he started laughing.

"Why are you laughing?"

"No, it's just something Ji-young said earlier... Ah, Ji-young is our band's vocalist. She told me that if I go to Universe and see Blue Moon, I absolutely have to get their autographs. Seriously. Does she think idols are just sitting around with nothing to do, waiting at the company for me to show up? Her imagination is hilarious, isn't it?"

He'd seemed quiet when I first met him.

Apparently, he was actually pretty talkative.

Maybe that was why he made art.

What do I do?

Should I say that Ji-young has excellent imagination?

Because right now, our members really were sitting around with nothing to do, waiting for him.

I opened the practice-room door with Hee-jae.

He cautiously followed me inside.

The moment our goddesses saw a stranger, they immediately stood up and greeted him politely.

"Hello!"

"Ah, y-yes, hello..."

Hee-jae hurriedly bowed while making eye contact with them.

Then his entire body froze stiff.

"This is Mr. Seong Hee-jae. He'll be helping us with our regional stages. Mr. Seong Hee-jae, this is Blue Moon."

"..."

Seong Hee-jae still couldn't speak.

He must have been seriously shocked.

"Ah! Then Mr. Seong Hee-jae is going to help plan our stages? And perform with us too?"

"Probably. He's an expert on the indie-music scene. You'll have a lot to learn from him."

"Yes!"

We hadn't actually discussed him becoming the planner yet.

But I was going to persuade him anyway, and we needed to start the stage meeting now.

Serin stepped right up in front of him.

Hee-jae flinched backward.

"Uh... You're the group I, uh, respect the most..."

"Don't be afraid. Our Blue Moon members don't eat people."

I somehow managed to get the stiff-necked Hee-jae seated in a conference-room chair.

All right.

Now plan the stage.

You've never done it before, but if I tell you to do it, you're going to be good at it anyway!