Chapter 18. Whale Hunting (1)
Monday morning.
The Daehan Daily newsroom was in complete chaos.
It started immediately after the latest issue of Weekly Media, which contained an extremely detailed account of Harok's disciplinary case, was delivered to the newsroom.
Editor-in-Chief Kim Yeonghwan received the paper from his secretary and began trembling with rage.
His shouting echoed through the newsroom from early in the morning.
Harok was still officially a member of the social affairs department.
And he was still under suspension.
That meant he had to spend the entire day sitting at the very end of the social affairs desk doing miscellaneous work.
Newspaper reporters had a routine.
As soon as they came to work, they read through their own newspaper first, then checked the papers from rival companies.
Even though Harok was technically under suspension, reading newspapers was a habit his body still remembered.
So he was sitting there carefully reading Weekly Media as well.
Yubin's friend had finally caused a major incident.
After hearing the story from Yubin, she had turned it directly into an article.
[Front-Page Story Killed Under Editor-in-Chief Pressure... Reporter Punished with Three-Month Pay Cut]
It was an extremely biased article.
Biased entirely in Harok's favor.
"Who the hell is Reporter A from Daehan Daily in this article?!"
Kim Yeonghwan screamed while waving the copy of Weekly Media in his hand.
Park Mungyu quietly approached Harok.
"Did you tip them off?"
"What difference would it make if I did? The punishment's already been decided."
Just then, Yubin came into work and began unloading her things at the desk beside Harok.
"You're here?"
"Yep. But is the editor-in-chief on his period or something? He smokes that much and still has one hell of a voice."
Harok showed her the front page of Weekly Media.
It was an article written based on Yubin's tip.
Yet Yubin herself didn't seem to think it was a big deal.
"The headline's a little weak. Hyeseon has always been kind of timid."
Hyeseon was Ju Hyeseon, the reporter who had written the article.
Yubin pushed the newspaper aside as though it wasn't even worth reading.
Kim Yeonghwan screamed like a madman for a while longer before striding directly toward Harok.
Whap.
He threw the newspaper straight into Harok's face.
"You bastard. You tipped them off, didn't you?"
Yubin had been the one who did it.
But was there really any need to tell him the truth?
I'll take this one.
"Yes."
"You crazy bastard. Have you completely lost your mind? How dare you run outside and blab about company affairs?"
"Is there anything in that article that isn't true?"
Once again, Harok talked back to the editor-in-chief.
Truthfully, he didn't need to.
If he had made a vague excuse, Kim Yeonghwan probably wouldn't have gotten this furious.
But when a person became too angry, sometimes words stopped coming out.
Kim Yeonghwan was exactly at that point.
"You... You..."
His lips trembled as he pointed a finger at Harok.
What infuriated Kim Yeonghwan even more was the fact that another article on the same page reported that Harok's story had been nominated for Journalist of the Month.
The article he had personally killed was now a candidate for a journalism award.
Of course he was furious.
"Look at the article below it too. It says my story was nominated for Journalist of the Month. I raised the company's reputation, and instead of praising me..."
The Journalist of the Month award was judged from articles submitted by more than a hundred media companies belonging to the Journalists Association.
Winning it even once in a career was considered a considerable honor for a reporter.
And judging from the other nominated stories, Harok's chances of winning were high.
"You bastard. You're going before the disciplinary committee again. This time, none of your connections are going to save you."
What? Another disciplinary committee?
It wasn't some seasoning you sprinkled into every situation.
Had this man eaten something bad for breakfast?
"Do whatever you want."
"Wait!"
The moment Harok finished speaking, Yubin shot to her feet.
"Editor-in-Chief, I was the one who tipped off Weekly Media. Senior Harok lied because he was trying to cover for me."
What the hell is she doing?
I can take the fall alone. Why are you stepping in too?
"What? Is that true?"
"Yes."
Yubin answered with a single word, as if explaining the background would be too much trouble.
Kim Yeonghwan fell silent.
Huh? What's wrong with him?
Then Harok understood.
Ah.
You're scared of Yubin's father too.
As expected, Kim Yeonghwan was the perfect example of someone who bullied the weak and cowered before the strong.
"If you absolutely need to punish someone, send me to the disciplinary committee."
Yubin spoke confidently.
"..."
If Kim Yeonghwan wanted to preserve his authority as editor-in-chief, he should have done something.
Instead, he backed down.
His face flushed bright red as he spun around and marched back into his office.
After the confrontation with the editor-in-chief ended, Harok and Yubin went to the smoking room.
"You're not going to pick up your car?"
"Ah, I'm going today. The day before yesterday, I couldn't find it anywhere. Hehe."
"...If you remembered, shouldn't you have gone yesterday?"
"Yesterday, I seriously didn't want to move at all. You know those days when you don't want to do anything?"
Harok smiled faintly as he crushed his cigarette into the ashtray.
"Like... aggressively wanting to do absolutely nothing?"
"Yes. Yesterday was exactly that kind of day."
There was nothing for him to do in the office anyway.
Harok took out another cigarette and placed it between his lips.
"By the way, why did you step in earlier?"
"Why did you cover for me, Senior?"
"I'm already damaged goods. If someone stamps on the same spot again, does it even show? There was no reason for you to get on the editor-in-chief's bad side too."
Yubin looked slightly moved that Harok had tried to protect her.
"I was worried about you. If you got sent to another disciplinary committee right after this one, you'd definitely get aggravated punishment."
Harok was also grateful that Yubin was genuinely worried about him.
More and more, he became convinced that Yubin had been the one who circulated the petition in his previous life.
Actually, there wasn't even another plausible candidate.
It was you, wasn't it?
After talking for a while, Harok remembered Kwon Jaegwan.
"Oh, right. I confirmed the identity of the chaebol involved in the drug case through Chief Kim Jongcheol."
"Ah, right. Who is it?"
"Kwon Jaegwan from Handong Group."
"Oh my. Isn't he the guy you tried to write about before...?"
"Right. And..."
Harok started to say something, then stopped.
"What?"
"I wasn't going to say this because it'll sound like nagging, but I should."
Yubin knew exactly how powerful Harok's nagging could be and immediately tensed.
"What is it?"
"Don't you read your own articles after they're published?"
"..."
"A reporter bears unlimited responsibility for their own article. If a lawsuit happens, they sue the reporter, the department head, the editor-in-chief, and the company. Why do you think that is?"
Normally, once an article appeared in print, the original reporter was supposed to keep checking it every time the edition changed.
During the night shift, articles could be shortened or revised because of page space or layout issues.
When that happened, the original writer had a responsibility to confirm what had changed.
"Let's say someone inserts something seriously problematic into your article before publication. If that becomes an issue, who do you think is ultimately responsible?"
At first, Yubin had thought Harok was making too big a deal over her failing to read one final version.
