Chapter 58

Chapter 58. The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

"Can I come inside too?"

The moment we returned to the company, I headed directly toward the conference room.

Serin followed me all the way to the door.

"Why? Ah, right. You should understand what's happening too."

"Yes."

She answered briefly.

Then added,

"You didn't ask me even once during the drive whether any of it was true. That's making me even more nervous. What do you actually think, CEO?"

Apparently, she was worried I'd become disappointed in her.

"I didn't ask because it's obviously nonsense. You're not the kind of person who'd do that."

"You can't really know that."

"You girls believed me during the Area incident too. Without proof. I'm doing the same."

Serin lowered her head.

But she still didn't move away from the conference room.

She said she was worried about what I personally thought.

But she'd finally become a star, only to suddenly get trapped in a school-bullying rumor.

Of course she was devastated.

It felt like the entire world had suddenly decided to attack her.

For Serin's mental health, it was probably better if she saw exactly how Dae-hun and I planned to solve the situation.

I led her inside.

"Serin came too? It's okay. It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong. Sit down first."

"What happened?"

"I'll explain. First, we need to talk about Turb Entertainment."

Turb Entertainment.

Even before hearing Dae-hun's explanation, the name immediately reminded me of the second 〈Homesick Girl〉 future GIF.

Maybe that GIF wasn't meant to help me turn 〈Homesick Girl〉 into a Blue Moon song.

Maybe it was actually connected to this rumor.

Dae-hun pulled over a whiteboard and began explaining.

The emergency briefing method suited my taste perfectly.

"As you know, Turb Entertainment is huge. Recently, they debuted a six-member rookie girl group called MoCube. You don't need to know much about them. One member is called Seo Bada. Two days ago, allegations surfaced that Seo Bada committed school bullying."

Someone had posted fairly detailed evidence claiming Seo Bada had bullied them.

The accusations spread rapidly.

Eventually, internet investigators began digging through the entire class from the Practical Music Department at Ara Arts High School where Seo Bada had graduated.

One of those classmates was Serin.

"Was there a Seo Bada in your class? Were you close?"

Serin shook her head.

"Seo Bada...? I don't know anyone like that. There wasn't someone with that name."

"Right. But you do know her. Seo Bada is a stage name. Her real name is Seo Hae-won."

"Hae-won?"

Serin clearly recognized that name.

Dae-hun continued.

"According to the rumors, Seo Hae-won and Serin were the two main leaders of a delinquent group that ruined the atmosphere at school. They supposedly smoked, extorted money, beat other students... and there's even a rumor that Serin started spreading false stories about Seo Hae-won because she was jealous that Hae-won debuted under a bigger agency."

The amateur internet detectives investigating Seo Hae-won's bullying probably discovered the name of the recently successful Kim Serin somewhere.

Then they kept creating new rumors because juicy gossip was entertaining.

Did all those rumors have convincing evidence?

Of course not.

People were simply attacking her.

Their strongest philosophy was:

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

Except Serin's chimney had never been lit.

Won-woo's had.

"We've been monitoring the MoCube fandom discussions. These are roughly the claims being made by people who believe Serin really was a delinquent."

Their story went like this.

Serin and Hae-won had been extremely close.

Like typical school delinquents, after class they blocked off one bathroom and smoked there every day.

An older-looking student bought cigarettes for them.

There was supposedly even a student whose job was to collect cigarette butts during breaks.

Other students were forced to collect money and deliver it to older students.

Some were beaten.

In short, every crime you could imagine from a stereotypical school bully had supposedly been committed by Serin and Hae-won.

And because Serin's family was poor, she was allegedly even more cunning and cruel.

Ara Arts High tuition was expensive.

So Serin supposedly bullied classmates and extorted money to pay it.

There were even claims that she'd stripped students naked inside mixed-gender classrooms.

Hae-won was the person currently under public criticism.

But according to the rumor, Serin had actually been the truly vicious one.

I looked at Serin.

Impossible.

"How are we responding?"

"I called Turb's CEO's office. Since both members are being attacked over the same situation, I thought it would be best to build a joint response process."

If that failed, Dae-hun said we'd release Serin's school records and begin publicly checking each factual claim.

Turb probably wouldn't cooperate.

And proving the facts would be extremely difficult.

Dae-hun had apparently researched thoroughly now that Jin-hee had taken over parts of his daily work.

Still, there was one important thing he didn't know.

Fever Music and Turb Entertainment were practically brothers.

And the suspicious smoke around Kang Ha-do's drunk-driving case.

Dae-hun said he'd already contacted Turb's CEO office.

But no response had arrived.

What were those huge bastards even doing?

Didn't they have their own Kwon Dae-hun?

I didn't wait.

Still sitting in the conference room, I called the director of Turb Entertainment's Artist Division 4.

"Yes, Turb Entertainment Artist Division 4..."

"This is Do Jun-hyeok from Universe. We called your CEO earlier, but nobody contacted us afterward."

The division director sounded annoyed.

I was annoyed too.

Because Turb's little brother company, Fever Music, and that bastard Jeong-yeol had made it difficult for us to obtain 〈Homesick Girl〉.

"What's happening on your side? What are you planning to do? Do you have any response strategy?"

"That's an internal company matter, so it's difficult to share with outsiders."

The director answered vaguely.

"I understand what you're saying. But our member Serin has been dragged into the same incident. So whatever can be shared should be shared. We need to respond together."

"There isn't much. I'm sure Kim Serin feels unfairly accused too, but our member Seo Bada also feels extremely wronged. The police are already investigating the people claiming to be victims. What more response do you want? We simply wait."

The director hung up roughly.

For a moment, I sat there stunned.

"What did they say?"

Dae-hun asked.

"What kind of disaster is this?"

Their attitude was so unexpected that I genuinely couldn't understand it.

Seo Bada was still a rookie.

Unlike Serin, she had almost no long-term public behavior to use as evidence of her character.

Wasn't Turb's side actually in greater danger?

Sure, their fandom was currently saying Serin was the real villain.

But that was fandom propaganda.

I tried placing myself in the position of Turb's Division 4 director.

Maybe imagining Nam Won-su from my Pantheon days would help.

Then I understood.

"They're planning to hide until it blows over."

"Hide?"

"They'll stop promoting MoCube or whatever they're called, use their other teams instead, and wait until the issue dies. Turb has plenty of idols."

No wonder they were close enough with Lee Jeong-yeol to call each other brothers.

Their member caused trouble.

Now our member had been dragged into the same scandal.

From their perspective, that was actually convenient.

Serin could absorb part of the beating.

"If they're openly planning to wait it out, they probably don't have much evidence to clear Hae-won."

"Right. And they have no interest in helping us clear Serin either."

"Crazy bastards."

Then again, what did a filthy dog have to fear?

I'd be grateful if they simply didn't interfere.

We could solve this ourselves.

"All right, Kwon Dae-hun. You said if Turb refuses to cooperate, we'll respond by releasing her school records. What exactly is the full plan?"

"What? I haven't thought that far yet."

"What?"

To be fair, this was probably Dae-hun's limit.

If I relied on him beyond this, that would be my own fault.

"I've watched school-bullying controversies in the news and monitored plenty of internet reactions. In situations like this, you just need to be shameless. As time passes and no direct evidence appears, people start thinking it's strange. If we gradually prove even small parts of the rumors false, eventually everyone will treat the whole thing like a stupid misunderstanding."

"That's your strategy?"

"Yes. And if Serin suffers openly through this now, then next time a similar rumor appears, people will feel guilty and hesitate to believe it. We'll basically earn permanent immunity."

Dae-hun's theory was simple.

If Serin really had bullied people, the truth would eventually appear.

If she was innocent, that innocence would eventually appear too.

It was only a matter of time.

I agreed.

Eventually, the truth would come out.

But for us, time was the most important part.

All idols had breaks before new songs.

If we simply disappeared for a while and returned later with 〈Homesick Girl〉, maybe everyone would act like nothing happened.

There was a reason companies used that strategy.

But while we hid...

Who protected the Apollo fandom?

Who protected Serin and the other members' mental health?

MoCube's fandom raiding party had already turned the Apollo fan cafe into a battlefield.

"Right. Shamelessness is probably the best strategy."

"Exactly."

Dae-hun nodded seriously, as if there were no other choice.

"Then Ms. Kim Jin-hee, investigate whether there's any immediate evidence proving Serin's innocence. I'll become shameless in my own way."

"What do you mean, become shameless in your own way?"

Victory Marine Jin-hee asked.

If my opponent existed in a virtual world, I needed to enter the virtual world too.

Infantry should be fought with infantry.

Cavalry with cavalry.

Naturally, internet users spreading baseless rumors should be fought with baseless public-opinion warfare.

After the meeting, I found messages waiting from Hong Eun-hye, Im Sori, Seo Hoe-dong, and even Reporter Shin Hyun-cheol.

Of all of them, the only bastard who asked whether the rumor was true was Reporter Shin.

Anyway, everyone understood we were being unfairly attacked.

I asked them to write something supportive on social media.

I also told them that if they owned Turb Entertainment shares, they should sell all of them.

Then I entered Practice Room A where the members were waiting.

"CEO. What did you decide? Can we solve this?"

Youngchae asked when Serin and I entered.

Of course we could.

"It's nothing serious. Don't worry. Aran, start a Nutube livestream."

"What? That's a relief. Good thing I didn't remove my makeup."

"No. This time, I'm the only one going on camera."

If terrible rumors about Serin were spreading without evidence, we didn't necessarily need evidence to bury them immediately.

We simply needed to give people equally strong confidence that she hadn't done it.

I opened the laptop Aran brought and started a Nutube livestream.

The title was:

[If the school-bullying allegations against Blue Moon member Serin are true, I will shut down the company. - CEO Do Jun-hyeok]

People might think this was a reckless all-or-nothing bet.

But if I couldn't make a powerful appeal here, Universe's survival would become uncertain anyway.

And look.

Only a few minutes after posting the title, we already had more than four thousand viewers.

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