Chapter 38. Recycling Isn't Pretty
Oh Su regained consciousness while being transported to the hospital.
He was lying in a seat normally reserved for someone important enough to influence relations between Korea and the Philippines.
And he had covered it with blood and grime.
"...Where are you taking me?"
Oh Su asked through a groan.
"Wake up, CEO. Brave me rescued you. We're heading to the hospital."
"Ah... Hahaha. I'm alive."
Then Oh Su went back to sleep.
When two foul-smelling Korean men entered the hospital, the local nurses immediately frowned.
Oh Su was laid on an emergency-room bed.
They checked his blood pressure, then started an IV.
The nurse scrubbed the arm where she was going to insert the needle with medical gauze like she was trying to remove the skin.
Then she jabbed the needle in almost as if she were throwing it.
Judging by how quickly she found the vein, she was probably very experienced with emergencies like this.
They roughly pulled the nail from Oh Su's shoulder and practically poured antiseptic over the wound.
Something foamed and bubbled.
Oh Su simply slept peacefully through the whole thing.
I went for an X-ray.
The doctor on duty looked at the image first.
"You know there are two bones in your forearm, right?"
"Yes."
"Both are cracked."
Damn it.
No wonder it hurt like hell.
I'd been holding everything in because I thought crying out would look pathetic.
Now that I knew both bones were actually cracked, I felt cheated.
If the bones were damaged enough to crack, surely a scream or two would've been medically acceptable.
The doctor said the ligaments might also be injured.
But since the arm needed to be put in a cast anyway, there was no point worrying too much right now.
He told me to get a detailed examination after returning to Korea.
For at least two months, I needed to be careful using the arm.
After leaving with a plaster cast around it, I received a call from Serin.
I answered awkwardly with my left hand.
"Manager. When are you coming back? There's something I want to tell you in person..."
"Ah, Serin. Something you want to tell me?"
"Yes."
It was already midnight.
Korea and the Philippines didn't have a huge time difference.
Even taking that into account, it was late.
"What are you doing awake at this hour?"
"Ah, I was going to sleep, but Director Moon asked to talk to me for a bit. I just finished."
Right.
Earlier, Moon Pil-su had called Oh Su and said he wanted to switch Serin into the lead role.
At the time, my bloodstream had practically been one hundred percent adrenaline.
I'd reacted happily in a mechanical way without really processing it.
Now that I also remembered how irritating Han Seo-hyung had been that day, excitement finally began catching up with me.
"Really? What did you talk about?"
"He said I might be changed to the lead."
"Really?"
I decided to give her the happiness of breaking the news to me herself.
"Wow! Really? Your acting must have been amazing today! Great job. If you're the lead, that means you'll play Gyeong-a, right?"
"Hehe... I was scared until just now. But since you're happy, I'm happy too."
"What are you scared of? That you won't do well?"
Serin said yes.
As if.
She was probably thinking about how much Han Seo-hyung would hate her after losing the lead role.
And that part was probably true.
Seo-hyung looked like the type whose pride was strong and whose inferiority complex was even stronger.
From now on, we needed to properly prepare for Han Seo-hyung making life difficult for her.
After that, the human-factory incident left both my hands and Oh Su's.
Until then, the embassy had only watched from the sidelines.
But after my call, they had no choice but to act.
Worried about diplomatic friction with the Philippines, they gathered foreign-media reporters in the country and brought them to the scene.
They used everything.
The roughly seven hours of phone calls with me.
The gangsters firing nail guns.
The factory location I identified.
The story became major news.
The important part was proving that the factory belonged to Top Prime.
For now, every factory manager had been arrested.
If I were a Philippine police officer, I would've hidden nearby and followed whoever connected the factory to headquarters.
But the incident had become too big to ignore.
So the authorities had to at least look like they were arresting people.
That was probably why they took the simple route.
"By the way, CEO. Why were you trapped there for so long? I understand getting beaten up because I was filming everything. But what happened to you?"
I asked during the flight back to Korea.
Oh Su shook his head like he didn't even want to remember.
"I followed a boy I met at the slum cemetery and entered the factory. Then I saw a girl lying in a corner, sweating like crazy. When I asked what was wrong, she only said she felt dizzy. Her thumb had been cut off and turned completely purple. Her complexion looked exactly like septicemia, so I carried her out."
Naturally, the factory manager chased after him and started throwing things.
Oh Su desperately tried explaining that the girl was sick.
The manager wouldn't listen.
So Oh Su gave the girl money and got into a physical fight with him.
He thought he could win because the man was smaller.
Then the man suddenly pulled out a stun gun.
"The next thing I knew, I woke up in that tiny room."
Judging by the circumstances, the girl was probably Nicole.
She must have taken the money Oh Su gave her, reached a hospital, and received treatment.
"You've made me see you differently, CEO. You were getting beaten like that and still carried the girl out to save her. Are you just unusually good at taking hits? Still, just in case, visit another hospital once we land."
I made a huge effort to compliment him.
Oh Su answered shyly.
"Hahaha... Why would I need a hospital for something like this? If there's one thing I have, it's health."
"If you remove health, everyone becomes a corpse, CEO."
Oh Su probably didn't even realize he'd saved a life.
If he'd left Nicole there, nobody knew whether she would've lived or died.
Anyway, Top Prime was still standing for now.
But the factory had stopped.
It was only a matter of time before the secret was fully exposed.
They were about to learn how frightening reporters could be once they had evidence and conviction.
A company that had made money from an eco-friendly image was going to pay the full price for running a human factory.
I returned to Korea and spent an entire day resting.
Compared to that factory, even the morning traffic on Olympic-daero felt like a peaceful stroll.
Sure, the roads were clogged.
But at least nobody was chasing you with a nail gun.
When I arrived at the company, Dae-hun greeted me warmly.
"How was the cozy honeymoon with the CEO?"
"My entire body hurts."
Dae-hun had handled all the company work while Oh Su and I were gone.
I gave him a little encouragement and immediately headed to see the members.
When I entered the second floor, I heard loud voices coming from Practice Room A.
They sounded fully awake.
Apparently, they'd opened the shutters and started practicing from early morning.
"Whoa~. This is really pretty. This is an unreleased crossbody bag?"
"The seat belt really is here. But weirdly, it doesn't smell like a car at all."
The Top Prime sponsored products had apparently just arrived.
The seat-belt bags and tire-accented pants I'd only heard about were all there in different colors.
The moment I saw them, something like postwar trauma hit me.
"Youngchae. Let's not do this."
"What? Do what? ...Manager, did you hurt your arm?"
Once Youngchae noticed my cast, Anna and Aran rushed over in surprise.
"Ah, yeah. The day before yesterday in the Philippines, I planted my hand wrong and sprained my wrist."
"Ugh. You should've been more careful..."
I'd already given Serin the same explanation.
"Anyway. Let's not accept the Top Prime sponsorship. I don't think the products are very pretty."
"Ah..."
Youngchae hesitated briefly.
Then answered.
"Okay. We won't."
She didn't ask why.
She only stared at my arm.
Her expression clearly said she didn't really believe that I'd gotten a full cast over a simple sprain.
She probably didn't believe I was canceling a major sponsorship simply because the products weren't pretty either.
Still, she trusted that I had my reasons.
So she accepted my decision.
"Aww. That's disappointing. This really suits Youngchae unni."
"Everything suits Youngchae."
The other members looked doubtful too.
But they accepted my decision.
Top Prime was out.
The seat belts used in those bags had been made by desperate children with only four fingers.
They weren't products anyone should buy in the first place.
And if Youngchae became their model now, it would only come back to hurt her.
Of course, if someone truly believed brand awareness didn't matter and one tree was more important than children's human rights, I wasn't going to physically stop them from wearing the products.
I called Hong Eun-hye too.
She answered before the first ring even finished.
"Oh~ Manager Do. You're calling me yourself? What's the occasion? Ah, did the Top Prime products arrive?"
"Yes. That's right."
Hong Eun-hye sounded proud, almost like she'd personally sent us a gift.
I decided to throw cold water on that immediately.
The longer I waited, the more awkward this would become for both of us.
"But can we change the sponsor?"
"What? Why... all of a sudden?"
"Honestly, there's no big reason. I just saw the products in person, and I don't like them."
Hong Eun-hye was silent for about five seconds.
Then she clicked her tongue.
"Tch. I knew it would come to this."
"What?"
"I know everything. Han Seo-hyung is giving Serin trouble on that drama, isn't she? I already heard they're filming together. Seo-hyung calls me every day these days and throws a fit demanding that I replace Youngchae with her as Top Prime's sponsored model."
I hadn't expected the little provocation I'd used against Seo-hyung to create this kind of butterfly effect.
"Still, you can't stop making sauce just because you're afraid of maggots, right?"
Never mind.
Cancel the butterfly effect theory.
"Ah... no. It's not because of that. I just don't like Top Prime."
If I could simply tell her that Top Prime was about to explode in a child-exploitation scandal, changing sponsors would be easy.
But how?
Who would believe that such a respected eco-friendly company was abusing children and burning corpses?
Unless reporters made it a public scandal, casually revealing it would sound like nonsense.
"You just don't like it?"
"Yes. I don't know much about fashion, but honestly, I'd rather put our girls in normal clothes that younger people actually like. The opportunity you're giving us is huge, but I don't want to force them into rough-looking clothes just to chase an eco-friendly image. Recycled materials have their limits. They're not exactly the most stylish things in the world, are they?"
All that mattered was convincing her.
If the true explanation would sound unbelievable, then looking slightly shallow was better than sounding insane.
"Recycling isn't pretty... I suppose someone could think that way."
Hong Eun-hye thought for a moment.
Then agreed.
"There are definitely brands with more variety and prettier clothes than Top Prime. Hmm... all right. Youngchae is pretty enough to carry plenty of other brands. I'll look somewhere else."
Fortunately, the conversation went smoothly.
I told her I'd search for sponsors too and asked her to contact me once the magazine-shoot schedule was set.
Then I hung up.
Was that everything?
Episode 2 of the 〈Hong Eun-hye's Fashion People〉 MZ special would air tomorrow.
So by now, they had probably already asked Han Seo-hyung to become Top Prime's model.
Serin could keep focusing on her drama.
Youngchae's plan had stumbled slightly, but she would eventually shoot with Musashi anyway.
All that remained was finding opportunities for Aran and Anna.
Unfortunately, my injured arm meant I couldn't type.
I filed for workers' compensation through Oh Su and decided to spend some time lying around the practice room watching the members practice.
My main concern was what kind of opportunities to find for Anna and Aran.
Strangely, Anna was the hardest to schedule even though she already had recognition in the hip-hop scene.
While resting, I contacted the PR manager at Malcolm Korea just in case.
"Ah, you're the manager! I was actually thinking we should contact you after seeing Youngchae's social media. I wasn't sure whether it was completely personal activity, so we held back. You need sponsored products, right?"
"Ah, no. I'm not contacting you directly just because we need a sponsorship. Did you happen to watch 〈Hong Eun-hye's Fashion People〉 last week?"
I explained that Hong Eun-hye and Youngchae would be collaborating on 〈Fashion in Journal〉.
We wanted Youngchae to wear Malcolm Korea products in the magazine.
If possible, I suggested holding a three-way meeting with Hong Eun-hye.
The PR manager said they'd discuss it internally first, then contact us again.
And so another peaceful day passed in Korea.
That peace alone felt so comfortable that I couldn't ask for anything more.
Still, I couldn't pretend all the suffering in the Philippines had never happened.
As if the universe wanted to compensate us for that nightmare, the good news arrived immediately the next morning.
[Korean entertainment planners Mr. Oh and Mr. Do help bring down organized kidnapping and extortion ring.]
[The Two Faces of Top Prime: Eco-Friendly Company on the Outside, Child Abuse and Murder Behind the Scenes?]
[Top Prime responds to allegations of illegal Philippine factory: "Confirmed as misconduct by executives. Full investigation underway."]
From early morning, internet news pages were filled with my name, Oh Su's name, and Top Prime.
