Chapter 30

Chapter 30. Kwon Jaegwan Goes Berserk (3)

The thing that had ultimately pushed Kwon Jaegwan into the hospital was the television coverage.

Handong Group's PR office had done a good job stopping Daehan Daily's exclusive from spreading.

But then the terrestrial broadcasters made the police briefing one of their main news stories, and the atmosphere changed completely.

The PR team couldn't control the major broadcasters too.

Once the television reports aired, the newspapers could no longer stay silent.

They belatedly began covering Kwon Jaegwan in depth.

Once a dam collapsed, there was no stopping the flood.

The hyena-like media rushed in all at once and began tearing Kwon Jaegwan apart.

Things only calmed down a little after he was hospitalized.

Paramedic Jo Yongbok contacted Yubin with his tip a few days after the drug scandal broke.

Harok went to Mapo Police Station, where Yubin was stationed, to discuss the Kwon Jaegwan case.

"Ah, nostalgic Mapo Police Station."

"Now that you're in Culture, don't you miss places like this?"

"What are you talking about? I'm scared I'll see this place in my dreams."

"Yeah, right. I know you want to come back to Social Affairs."

"Stop talking nonsense. I'm busy, so let's get this over with."

Yubin's eyes widened.

"Oh my. The culture department has things to keep you busy too?"

Truthfully, Harok wasn't very busy at all.

Unlike a police beat reporter, he didn't have a clearly assigned institution he visited every day, so building relationships with sources was difficult.

He had been visiting broadcaster PR offices to hand out business cards and contacting the PR teams of major entertainment agencies.

For K-pop in particular, broadcasters were major sources, so he often needed to deal with their PR departments.

A lot of broadcaster PR teams were staffed by former reporters.

They had once met in the field as seniors and juniors, which made communication easier.

The problem was that their faces came to mind whenever he had to write something critical about the broadcaster.

Maybe that's exactly why they deliberately put former reporters in PR.

"Fine. I'm sitting around doing absolutely nothing. Happy?"

"Whenever you act like this, you remind me of someone."

"Who?"

"My younger cousin when he was going through his middle-school syndrome phase."

Harok stared at her in disbelief.

Now she was comparing him to a kid with middle-school syndrome?

So this was why even relationships between reporters and sources had to follow the rule of not too close, not too distant.

Reporters used that phrase to describe how they shouldn't become too close to a source, but shouldn't stay too distant either.

"Is that really something you should be saying to your senior?"

"Hehe. Sorry."

"Let's talk about work."

"Okay."

Yubin opened her laptop and brought up everything she had gathered on Kwon Jaegwan.

"We even secured photos proving Kwon Jaegwan used an ambulance to slip out and visit a club in Cheongdam-dong."

"Where'd you get the photos?"

Yubin opened Facebook and clicked through several pages.

"What are you doing?"

"You don't use Facebook?"

Harok hated social media.

In his previous life, the only reason he ever used it was to search for article ideas.

"Why would I do something that leaks my personal information?"

Yubin looked at him as if she were staring at a primitive man from the Stone Age.

"Reporters these days find plenty of stories on Facebook too."

"They're all just lazy."

Of course Harok knew that well.

In his previous life, he had spent every day combing through social media until his eyes were bloodshot, looking for anything he could turn into an article.

"Look at this person's Facebook. The date matches the exact day Paramedic Jo Yongbok told us about."

It was a personal Facebook account.

There were dozens of photos showing the user partying at Pebble Beach in Cheongdam-dong.

And one person stood out among them.

No matter how hard he tried to dress young, there was no hiding the fact that he was in his mid-forties.

"That's definitely Kwon Jaegwan."

"Right?"

Harok stared at the photos for a while, then pulled out a cigarette in frustration.

Click, click.

Phewww.

"Will the editor-in-chief even let this article run?"

A few more stories about Kwon Jaegwan had been published because of the momentum of the scandal.

But Kim Yeonghwan's basic stance remained the same.

Hold any Kwon Jaegwan article.

And now the public attention around Kwon Jaegwan had already started cooling down a little.

"That's what I'm worried about too."

Harok picked up the newspaper beside Yubin and skimmed through it.

Then one article caught his eye.

[K&P Steel President Kang Munseon Accused of Abusing Driver]

"What's this?"

"Oh, this one? A third-generation chaebol heir abused his driver."

"Really?"

"You may have left Social Affairs, but shouldn't you at least know about major social issues like this?"

Harok had nothing to say.

After leaving the social affairs department, he had deliberately ignored its articles.

He had been focusing only on culture stories so he could adapt to his new department as quickly as possible.

He carefully read the article.

Kang Munseon, president of K&P Steel and a third-generation member of one of Korea's major H Group families, had created a roughly hundred-page A4 "manual" governing every detail of his driver's duties.

The manual specified everything from what time the driver should give him a wake-up call to exactly when and how the doorbell should be pressed.

If the driver failed to follow the manual exactly, Kang Munseon cursed them as "fucking idiots" and regularly assaulted them.

He even forced drivers to write statements explaining their mistakes, assigned penalty points, and deducted money from their wages.

As Harok read, Kwon Jaegwan's face kept appearing in his mind.

Why do second- and third-generation chaebol heirs all behave so similarly?

Then Harok had an idea.

"This article made it past the industry department's interference?"

"It was too big on television. They couldn't avoid writing about it."

Of course.

They had probably only allowed the article because everyone else was already covering it.

Then...

"I should call the driver's son myself."

"What? I already called him."

Harok realized that with the idea that had just come to him, they might be able to publish Kwon Jaegwan's "hospital escape show."

He immediately searched his phone for Ahn Yonghyeon and called him.

"Hello?"

"Hello. This is Baek Harok from Daehan Daily."

"Ah, yes. I spoke with Reporter Seol Yubin yesterday. What's this about?"

Three years earlier, Harok had confidently promised that the article would be published.

Then Kim Yeonghwan had worked his magic and made it vanish from the article editor.

Back then, Handong Group had offered incentives to every media outlet and completely smothered the story.

Harok persuaded Ahn Yonghyeon that this was a good opportunity to finally settle the resentment from that time.

"I'm serious."

"I can't really trust that. It's already been three years..."

"Even if it were ten years ago, the media would still write it if people would read it."

"I see."

"So can you trust me and do what I'm asking?"

"What do you want me to do?"

Harok already knew Daehan Daily itself probably couldn't publish the story again.

So he planned to hand the source over to Gyeongyang Daily, an independent newspaper known for criticizing chaebol without hesitation.

"If it's Gyeongyang Daily, they'll definitely write it."

"Gyeongyang?"

"Yes. If they break it first, there's a good chance everyone else will follow."

His plan was to use the recent driver-abuse scandal involving K&P Steel President Kang Munseon as leverage and revive the similar abuse case involving Kwon Jaegwan.

After ending the call with Ahn Yonghyeon, Harok contacted Yu Sunhan, a junior reporter he knew well at Gyeongyang Daily.

"You doing well?"

"Senior? What brings you to call?"

"I've got a story to throw your way."

"You moved to Culture, but you're still getting tips?"

"Something like that."

"But shouldn't you use it yourself? Why give it to a junior at another paper?"

"There's a story behind it."

Harok briefly explained what had happened three years ago.

"I see."

"What do you think? Can you use it?"

"Kwon Jaegwan is already cornered because of the recent drug scandal. Wouldn't this be beating a corpse?"

"Absolutely not. Once you hear what he did, you'll want to beat him to death yourself."

"Really?"

"He regularly kicked a driver old enough to be his youngest uncle in the shins. He'd punch him in the head twenty or thirty times at a time. And when the driver's son protested, Kwon Jaegwan beat him with a baseball bat from the trunk. He's genuine human trash."

"Send it over. I'll pitch it immediately."

Despite his name, Yu Sunhan was a stubborn reporter who couldn't tolerate injustice and was known for speaking his mind.

That was one reason he and Harok had remained close despite working at different companies.

Yubin had watched the entire call and couldn't understand.

"You worked hard to investigate that. Why are you giving it to Gyeongyang Daily?"

"Who cares who writes it? As long as Kwon Jaegwan gets buried for good."

Yubin thought Harok's obsession with Kwon Jaegwan seemed a little excessive, even considering his anger at injustice.

It looked almost as though there were some personal grudge involved.

"But why are you so obsessed with Kwon Jaegwan? Even considering what happened three years ago, this feels like too much."

"Does it?"

"You're treating him like your mortal enemy."

Did it really look that way?

Harok reflected on himself after hearing Yubin's criticism.

He still had a long way to go.

A reporter naturally needed to feel anger at injustice.

But approaching a story with personal emotion was something that absolutely had to be avoided.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

It was a phrase reporters loved to repeat.

One might think a single article couldn't change much.

But sometimes one article really could change the world.

The famous Watergate scandal in the United States, which ultimately led to President Nixon's resignation, had begun with reporting by Washington Post journalists.

The pen could have a positive influence.

But if used carelessly, it became a dagger.

Why had celebrities taken their own lives after enduring malicious comments?

Words could kill people.

Harok had believed his anger toward Kwon Jaegwan was rooted in the public interest.

But if even Yubin, who worked beside him, saw it as personal emotion...

Baek Harok, you still have a long way to go.

"I guess I went too far. A reporter shouldn't swing his pen based on personal feelings. Sorry."

"Sorry? I only said it because you seemed a little worked up."

"Either way, Kwon Jaegwan is still too awful to leave alone. Let's clean him up quickly and build a just society."

"Yes, sir."

The end was slowly coming into sight.

In truth, coincidence had played a major role in this entire case.

Handong Group's PR office had reacted too quickly, and that had only made the situation worse.

Yubin's original article had focused on celebrities.

There had been just one line mentioning that second- and third-generation chaebol heirs were also involved.

Handong Group had panicked like a guilty thief and tried to erase that one line.

That was what had ultimately triggered everything.

Maybe justice really is alive after all.

Two days later, Gyeongyang Daily's social affairs page prominently published the story of Kwon Jaegwan's abuse from three years earlier.

Because the case was similar to the recent driver-abuse scandal involving K&P Steel President Kang Munseon, and because Kwon Jaegwan had even assaulted the driver's son, public opinion became even more hostile.

The Kwon Jaegwan story, which had briefly started fading, showed signs of flaring up again.

After Gyeongyang Daily's report, Kim Seongjun summoned the entire satsumari team for a meeting about Kwon Jaegwan.

"...You all read the morning papers, right? Looks like we may have to bury Kwon Jaegwan permanently."

"The editor-in-chief said we can write about him now?"

"Our department head is pissed."

"Why?"

The younger reporters didn't know the story of how Harok's article had been unfairly buried three years earlier.

"That Gyeongyang Daily article was originally Senior Harok's exclusive."

Yubin spoke up.

Only then did a chorus of "Ahhh" spread through the meeting room.

"It was supposed to be the lead social affairs story, but someone sold the article to Handong Group."

Murmur, murmur.

The meeting room immediately became noisy.

Bang, bang.

"Focus. Focus."

Kim Seongjun tapped the table.

"Enough. Yubin, stop saying unnecessary things."

Yubin pouted.

"Anyway, the department head ordered us to bring him anything we can find on Kwon Jaegwan."

"Is there really anything left?"

Several reporters complained.

"You little shits. Did you even look before saying that?"

The moment Kim Seongjun's expression darkened, everyone lowered their heads.

"What about this?"

While everyone else was staring down at the wood grain of the table, Yubin pulled out her tablet and slid it in front of Kim Seongjun.

"What's this?"

"I bought one. Reporting is all about having the right gear, isn't it?"

"Who asked about your tablet?"

Yubin grinned and finally revealed what she had.

"Kwon Jaegwan couldn't stand being trapped in a hospital room, so he staged a late-night escape and went drinking at Pebble Beach, the famous club in Cheongdam-dong."

Kim Seongjun's ears practically perked up.

"And he didn't leave Handong Medical Center in his own car. He used an ambulance so nobody would notice him."

He practically had hearts shooting from his eyes.

The rest of the team looked the same.

If no decent story idea came out, there was no telling how long this meeting would continue.

Yet the youngest reporter had walked in carrying an excellent story.

Everyone's faces immediately brightened.

"You fact-checked everything, right?"

"Of course. I already interviewed the paramedic."

Kim Seongjun couldn't believe it.

Normally, crime-team meetings were full of raw ingredients.

The reporters still had to prepare and cook them into something worth serving.

But Yubin had walked into the meeting room carrying a fully prepared dish.