Chapter 50. Finishing Blow (6)
Harok chuckled and ended the call.
“Who was it?”
“Who do you think? She’ll call you before today is over.”
“So Senior Chu Jiyeong really was the culprit.”
“She must be desperate if she’s asking me to mediate.”
“I heard she was your first-line senior when you were a trainee. You don’t seem very close.”
Harok took a sip of instant coffee and smiled faintly.
She had to be seriously worried.
They barely even spoke these days, yet she had personally called him to ask for help.
“We were like oil and water. That was the first time I learned how terrifying a woman’s hysteria could be.”
“Another sexist remark.”
Harok hurriedly waved both hands.
“No, no. That’s not sexist. I deal with my little sister’s hysterics at home all the time. Senior Chu was on a completely different level.”
“Hehe. I know. I heard the stories too.”
“From who?”
“Senior Hyejin.”
Park Hyejin.
She had joined Daehan Daily in the same recruitment class as Harok, though she was two years younger.
When she worked as the second-line reporter under Chu Jiyeong during training, she had literally cried every day.
“I heard she made Senior Hyejin cry every day. Was it really that bad?”
“All of us in the same recruitment class were exhausted from comforting Hyejin every night.”
“Hahaha.”
“Hehehe.”
Harok and Yubin chatted away in front of the vending machines outside the newsroom, losing track of time.
Then—
“Why is a Social Affairs reporter always hanging around with a Culture reporter?”
An unpleasant voice came from somewhere nearby.
Harok turned.
It was Yoon Taeyeong from Political Affairs, a member of Harok’s recruitment class.
Usually, when they passed each other, they barely exchanged a glance.
And now he was going out of his way to talk?
Then Harok remembered Yubin was standing beside him.
Something Choi Sujeong had once said at a class gathering suddenly came back to him.
Yoon Taeyeong had a crush on Yubin.
Got you, bastard.
Otherwise, why would he bother talking to Harok?
“Oh, hello.”
Yubin gave Yoon Taeyeong a small smile.
“Yeah. Hi.”
The moment she greeted him, Yoon Taeyeong’s face brightened noticeably.
“Don’t hang around him too much. What are you going to learn from Baek Harok besides how to cause trouble?”
He pretended it was a joke while taking a shot at Harok.
This bastard is unbelievable.
If he wanted to flirt with her, he should show off his own charm.
Why drag Harok into it?
“Confucius said there’s something to learn even from a thief. That’s better than learning nothing from someone who lives a bland life.”
A perfect answer to a stupid question.
And someone who lives a bland life?
That almost sounded like a direct shot at Yoon Taeyeong.
Yoon Taeyeong had once been a reporter whose performance rivaled Harok’s.
But after spending so long in Political Affairs, he had become increasingly entangled with politicians.
At some point, he turned into the kind of entrenched old political reporter he used to hate.
His articles had lost their old sharpness because he was too busy reflecting politicians’ needs.
He still produced exclusives from time to time.
But behind them, it was always painfully obvious that politicians were using Daehan Daily for their own interests.
Harok couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Pfft. Hahaha.”
Yoon Taeyeong only realized a moment later that Yubin had been talking about him.
His face turned red.
“Bland life? Are you talking about me?”
“What? Senior, do you live a bland life? I was just giving an example.”
What could he possibly say when she denied it that shamelessly?
“R-Right.”
An awkward silence followed.
Harok deliberately refused to break it.
He wanted to watch what happened next.
Yoon Taeyeong’s brain seemed to be running at full speed, desperately searching for another way to continue the conversation with Yubin.
Harok could almost hear the gears turning.
“Oh, right. Yubin, you were college classmates with Kim Huiyeon from Daea Daily, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“She said she wanted to have a meal with you sometime. Are you free?”
At the name Kim Huiyeon, Yubin’s expression twisted strangely.
“Kim Huiyeon said she wants to eat with me?”
Anyone could tell Yoon Taeyeong had just improvised that on the spot.
A desperate attempt to keep talking to Yubin.
Yubin tilted her head.
“If we’re talking about the Kim Huiyeon I know, I don’t think she’d ever ask to eat with me.”
Yoon Taeyeong’s face instantly went pale.
Kekeke.
This is better than popcorn.
Harok relaxed into spectator mode, enjoying the live comedy.
“W-What do you mean? Weren’t you in the same department?”
“Are you close with every classmate from your department?”
“Well, no.”
“Kim Huiyeon and I aren’t just not close. We actively dislike each other. A lot.”
Yoon Taeyeong’s face went red, then pale.
Embarrassment and panic alternated across it.
At this point, most people would have known when to retreat.
Apparently, Yoon Taeyeong really wanted to keep his connection to Yubin alive.
Seeing him speechless, Harok’s mischievous side emerged.
“Maybe she wants to make up with you. That could be why she wants to have dinner.”
As if unwilling to let the sitcom end, Harok ordered another episode.
“I doubt it. She cursed me out back then, and we haven’t spoken since.”
“Why did you fight?”
Yubin shook her head as if she didn’t even want to remember it.
Apparently grateful that Harok had kept the conversation going, Yoon Taeyeong tried again.
“Like Harok said, maybe she wants to reconcile.”
Kekeke.
A person needed to know when to give up.
He was acting exactly like he looked.
Clingy as hell.
“Really? Then ask her something for me, Senior. Ask whether she plans to apologize for what happened.”
“What happened?”
This was getting more interesting by the second.
“There was a senior in our department she had a crush on. He kept chasing after me. So she spread rumors that I was ‘a slut who opened her legs to seduce men.’”
That was about as vicious an insult as one woman could throw at another.
Yet Yubin repeated it with complete calm.
“M-Maybe you misunderstood? That’s a pretty extreme thing to say...”
“She said it while drinking. There were more than five witnesses.”
Tsk, tsk.
Yoon Taeyeong, today isn’t your day.
Try again next time.
Bzzzt. Bzzzt.
Just then, Yubin’s phone vibrated.
The call saved Yoon Taeyeong, who had been desperately searching for an exit.
“You’ve got a call. You should take it.”
He waved quickly, seized the opportunity, and practically fled back into the newsroom.
Chu Jiyeong.
Her name appeared on Yubin’s screen.
She must have been desperate.
She couldn’t even wait a little longer before calling.
“Senior Jiyeong is already calling.”
“She must be losing sleep over this.”
Yubin answered.
“Yes, Senior... Yes, yes... But this is a very serious issue... I already told the editor-in-chief clearly that disciplinary procedures need to begin... What? You want me to let it go just once?... Yes, yes... Senior, don’t cry... If you come at me emotionally like that... Yes, yes. I’ll think about it for now... Yes.”
The call went on for around ten minutes.
Harok wasn’t trying to listen, but even he could hear Chu Jiyeong crying through the phone.
She was sobbing as though someone had died.
“Do a woman’s tears work on another woman too?”
“I don’t care about them.”
“You sounded pretty sympathetic.”
“She’s still my senior. What am I supposed to do? I have to listen seriously.”
Harok had underestimated Yubin.
She wasn’t weak enough to be swayed by tears that cheap.
“What are you going to do?”
“Like you said, I’ll use this as leverage and win my ‘reporting independence.’”
Yubin smiled as if she had come up with an entertaining plan.
“You’re really going to do what I suggested?”
“I’m basically your avatar, Senior Harok. I’ll actively take your advice and negotiate for reporting independence when I face the editor-in-chief tomorrow.”
“Good idea.”
“Hehe.”
Yubin kept smiling as though she found the whole thing amusing.
“One piece of advice. No matter how angry you get during the conversation, don’t corner the editor-in-chief.”
“You cornered him.”
Harok sighed deeply.
“And look where that got me.”
“You’re spending your days happily chasing pretty female idols around.”
“What did you say?”
“Hehe. Don’t worry. It’s not like I’m going to hit the editor-in-chief.”
My head hurts.
“Still, weren’t you a little too harsh on Yoon Taeyeong earlier?”
“If he wants to court someone, he should do it properly.”
“Court you? You noticed?”
Yubin snorted.
“He’s approached me like that more than once. How could I not know?”
“Ah. I see.”
“I don’t think you realize this, Senior, but back in college, there was practically a truckload of guys chasing after me. Even now, there are plenty of people flirting with me here and there.”
There was a certain ease in Yubin when it came to men.
The ease of someone who had always been surrounded by attention.
A queen bee.
“Ah, yes, Your Majesty. So what do you think of Yoon Taeyeong?”
The smile disappeared from Yubin’s face.
She became serious.
“I don’t dislike people just because they like me. It only becomes a problem if they start annoying me.”
“Does Yoon Taeyeong annoy you?”
“More and more.”
“Scary.”
“You don’t need to worry about that, Senior.”
Yubin lightly tapped Harok’s arm and smiled brightly.
“What?”
“We’re comrades brought together by reporting.”
“Thanks. I’m touched.”
“I’m going back inside to write the offshore slush-fund article. I’ll send it to you tonight, so please desk-edit it.”
“...”
Yubin waved cheerfully and walked back toward the newsroom.
[“If They Die, Just Pay Compensation” Kwon Jaegwan Identified as Man Behind Safety-Budget Cuts]
[Handong Construction Vice President Kwon Jaegwan has been confirmed as the person who ordered reductions in the company’s safety-management budget. According to K, who handled working-level duties for the Safety Management TF, Kwon said the TF existed only to divert the authorities’ attention and that if workers died, the company could simply bow and apologize again.]
Daehan Daily’s exclusive article containing Kwon Jaegwan’s recorded remarks devastated Handong Group’s PR office.
Mun Byeonggeol had gone to the newsroom the previous day and practically begged on his knees, but it had done no good.
If anything, the article leak had pushed him into an even worse corner.
At that point, even Editor-in-Chief Kim Yeonghwan had no room to intervene.
The moment the article appeared in the street edition, reporters flooded Handong Group’s PR office with calls.
As soon as Daehan Daily uploaded the article online, broadcasters moved quickly.
The networks played the whistleblower’s actual recording during their main evening news programs.
Most reports said that Kwon Jaegwan’s decision to cut the safety budget had ultimately laid the groundwork for the apartment construction collapse that killed six workers.
The KBC news anchor even closed by calling on the relevant authorities to thoroughly investigate the matter and punish those responsible.
Mun Byeonggeol was completely exhausted from dealing with the media until late at night.
But it wasn’t as though he could come in late the next morning.
He returned before dawn and checked all the broadcasts and morning papers again.
All three terrestrial networks had covered the story in their main news programs.
So had four general programming cable channels and two dedicated news channels.
Every morning newspaper treated it as a major story.
Some outlets reported that the Ministry of Employment and Labor would soon launch a large-scale safety inspection.
Others reported that police had begun an investigation.
There were even reports that prosecutors had started reviewing the case.
Handong Group was completely surrounded.
“Executive Director, Chief Secretary Park is calling.”
Mun Byeonggeol answered Park Gukjong’s call and got thoroughly chewed out first thing in the morning.
After ending the call, he put down the receiver and calmly tried to organize the situation.
The issue had grown completely out of control.
At this rate, the time might really come when he had to decide his own future.
But he couldn’t see any path to recovery.
Was this how the dinosaurs felt while waiting for the meteor?
A wave of anxiety hit Mun Byeonggeol.
He might not survive the year-end personnel reshuffle.
He had given this company his entire youth.
Mun Byeonggeol felt wronged, yet at the same time he calmly began preparing himself for the possibility.
He had seen it countless times over the years.
Executives taking responsibility and leaving over things that weren’t even their fault.
He deeply regretted what they had done to Executive Director Ahn Changwan.
If things were going to end like this anyway, there had been no need to treat Ahn so cruelly.
But at the time, there was no choice.
He quickly justified himself again.
In the end, weren’t employees and executives all just parts of the company machine?
Mun Byeonggeol felt bitter.
Even so, he resolved to keep doing his best until the very end.
