Was it because I was alone in this three-story building?
An old movie suddenly came to mind, and I couldn't fall asleep.
It was the terrifying story of a little boy left home alone on Christmas who had to defend his house from burglars.
My situation was a little different, but even a grown man like me had burglars coming after him.
They hadn't stolen anything yet.
But sooner or later, they definitely would.
So don't feel too wronged about what I'm about to do.
Crime prevention comes first, after all.
Five in the morning.
Like the little boy in that movie, I sat in front of my computer with my eyes wide open.
Assistant Manager Oh Ilman had sent me documents before dawn.
Among them was a cadastral map of the old district hidden behind the Gaon Charcoal Grill Balsan branch.
[Out of the twenty lots, twelve are registered under Daeseong Agricultural Products Co., Ltd. The company is wholly owned by Jo Gapsu's eldest son. I've attached the detailed records, Team Leader.]
They had purchased twelve out of roughly twenty plots in an area classified as a dead commercial district.
The scale was far larger than I had expected.
As I went through the attached files, several unusual points stood out.
The first was that most of the purchases had taken place eight years ago.
That was exactly when Han Myeongjin's local newspaper and printing business had collapsed.
The second was that they had stopped accepting new tenants two years ago.
The Balsan branch was the only property where an existing lease still remained.
The picture was becoming clearer.
They had deliberately ruined a specific area, then planned to appear as the people who came to save it.
And the two men who would benefit most from the whole process were obvious.
While I carefully reviewed the files, another email arrived.
This time, it was from Jongil.
This guy, seriously...
I couldn't take it anymore and immediately called him.
"Where are you right now? I told you not to do anything dangerous."
-Shh. I'll answer the details by text.
The call ended after his whispered reply.
There was no doubt about it.
Jongil was hiding somewhere near Myeongjin Printing.
A moment later, a message arrived.
[I saw your email, Team Leader. I met Reporter Moon Daegi yesterday and came here afterward. Don't worry. I'm just watching from a safe place.]
I put down my phone and opened Jongil's email again.
[I found something unusual while observing Han Myeongjin. The address is 297-16, Balsan-dong. It's directly across from Myeongjin Printing. Someone is watching the place. He's drunk and asleep right now.]
The address looked strangely familiar.
I reopened the documents Ilman had sent me.
Beginning with eldest son Jo Minho, there were names belonging to Jo Gapsu's second son, son-in-law, brother-in-law, and several other people who seemed to be holding assets on his behalf.
The last name on the list was Jo Taeyoon.
Jo Gapsu's youngest son.
Unlike the others, he had no business or home registered under his name.
Not even a car.
There was only one unusual detail.
His name appeared on the payroll of Daeseong Agricultural Products.
He had been receiving a monthly salary.
And it had started exactly eight years ago.
297-16, Balsan-dong.
The building Jongil said the watcher was staying in.
One of the red future diary entries flashed through my mind.
It said that the day after I received documents from Myeongjin Printing, a special inspection team from city hall came rushing in.
They planted the youngest son there as a watcher?
Unlike the others, he received only enough money to live on?
Good.
I think I had found a way to enter Myeongjin Printing.
After giving Jongil another instruction, I slowly closed my eyes.
It was strange.
Recently, things around me had been developing in such a way that whatever I needed seemed to appear exactly when I wanted it.
[Team Leader. I've arrived!]
I had expected her around lunchtime at the earliest, but the message arrived far sooner.
The moment I opened the front door, my hand automatically went to my forehead.
A woman stood there wearing enormous sunglasses with a scarf covering half her face.
It was the youngest member of our team, Assistant Manager Choi Iseul.
"What is this place? A safe house disguised as an ordinary residence?"
Iseul looked around with an expression serious enough for a spy movie.
There was a reason I had decided to ask for her help.
"...Just come inside first."
According to my original plan, I wasn't going to involve Iseul in this matter at all.
At least, not until I decided to use the Yuksakkang channel.
While wondering who I could trust with the smartphone footage, I suddenly remembered something from Iseul's résumé.
She had studied strategic design at Parsons School of Design.
And considering everything she'd shown us so far, it wouldn't be strange if she also knew how to edit video.
More importantly, she was someone I could trust to keep a secret.
High production quality wasn't the priority.
Confidentiality was.
But then...
What is this?
The moment she handed me the tablet, I couldn't close my mouth.
"You made this, Assistant Manager Choi?"
"Yes. I tried to preserve the parts you specifically mentioned as much as possible."
The words Are you insane? nearly slipped out of my mouth because the result was far beyond what I'd expected.
I'd actually felt a little guilty when I sent her the raw files.
Some clips were horizontal, others vertical.
Some were too short, while others dragged on far too long.
I hadn't thought about lighting positions or camera composition at all.
And yet my embarrassingly amateur footage had been transformed into something that looked as if it had been filmed by professionals.
"What's wrong? You don't like it?"
"No. It's perfect. I'm wondering whether this is really footage I shot..."
The quality of the video wasn't the only impressive part.
The editing cuts were perfectly timed, and there were all kinds of tasteful effects.
What pleased me most was the scene containing the restaurant owner's declaration.
It had been presented exactly the way I wanted.
"I'm going to stay right here. So please, come and visit us, even if it's just once."
The presentation wasn't excessive.
Nor was it lacking.
It was exactly right.
"You deliberately kept this part restrained, didn't you?"
"Yes. I decided it wouldn't be good to try to make people feel sorry for him. Customers who come out of pity might unconsciously value the restaurant less. I thought it would be better to make them respect the owner's effort instead. Then even the same food might taste better to them."
She's good.
Even putting aside the actual editing skills, the intention behind the edit alone made it an excellent video.
A thought I'd had when I first looked at her job application surfaced again.
"Assistant Manager Choi?"
"Yes?"
"Why do you even work at a company?"
"...What? Why? Did I do something you don't like?"
"No. I'm saying that with skills like these, you could probably make a fortune working freelance. Why are you putting yourself through corporate life?"
Iseul blinked her large eyes, then waved both hands.
"Oh! This? I didn't do all of it myself. An unni I know helped with the editing."
"...An unni you know?"
"Yes. Don't worry about secrecy. She can't even speak Korean. Is there anything else you'd like changed?"
An unni who can't speak Korean?
I was curious who she was, but I held back.
For all I knew, there might be some painful family story behind it.
What surprised me even more was that Iseul was asking whether there was anything left to fix.
I was confident that even a professional in the industry would call it flawless.
What I didn't know was the profession of the unni who couldn't speak Korean.
She was an editor for an OTT platform so famous that almost everyone knew its name.
"You worked hard. I was surprised you finished this quickly, but the video itself is even more impressive."
"Hehe. I'm glad I could help. Is there anything else I can do?"
Her enthusiastic attitude immediately got my brain moving again.
The Meat Gangster had only just started his channel.
No matter what video we uploaded, it would be difficult to gain exposure.
That wasn't necessarily a problem.
The original purpose had simply been to permanently record the Balsan branch owner's declaration.
But for some reason...
Looking at such a well-made video made me greedy.
"Watching this makes me want a little more. Is there any way to spread it faster and more widely?"
"Hmm... To be honest, it'll take a few days before the algorithm starts picking it up."
She was thinking the same thing.
I put the tablet down and looked out the window.
Then another idea came to me.
"Assistant Manager Choi."
"Yes!"
"These days, YouTubers have agencies too, don't they? Do you happen to know anyone in that industry?"
Her eyes immediately lit up.
"You mean an MCN agency?"
"...What?"
"Multi-channel networks. They're companies that support individual creators. They help with everything from filming and copyright management to advertising and general channel operations. Isn't that what you mean?"
"...Uh? Y-Yeah. Right. So that's what they're called."
"Yes. But what exactly do you want to ask them?"
Since she understood immediately, I shared the idea that had just occurred to me.
"A company dinner. I want to encourage them to hold a company dinner. We could even use the Mutual Growth Support Fund to offer a fifty-percent discount."
"A company dinner?"
Iseul repeated the words as though she had no idea what I meant.
"If people who make food-related content or investigative current-affairs programs gathered at the Balsan branch, I think it could help the restaurant. We can't step forward ourselves in this situation."
What Jo Gapsu and Councilman Bae Dongcheol wanted least was for the old district to become a topic of conversation before the redevelopment announcement.
That was exactly what I wanted to attack.
Iseul looked upward with her pretty eyes, deep in thought.
Maybe it wasn't as easy as I imagined.
"It would be difficult to gather people like that in one place, wouldn't it?"
Of course it would.
Even persuading a single YouTuber would probably take plenty of preparation.
A large group dinner was probably ridiculous.
Perhaps spending so much time with Iseul had made my own ideas a little strange...
Or not.
Iseul suddenly shot to her feet.
"Oh! That's amazing! That's seriously amazing!"
"Huh? Amazing?"
"Yes! Why didn't I think of that? Should I look into it right now?"
"Look into it? With who?"
"My cousin works in that industry. I think he runs at least three MCN agencies. If I ask him, forget giving them a fifty-percent discount. Even if we charged twice the normal price, they wouldn't dare refuse."
My jaw gradually dropped.
First there was an unni who couldn't speak Korean but happened to be an incredible video editor.
Now she had a cousin who personally operated three MCN agencies?
What kind of absurd network of connections is this?
It felt like I had a goblin holding a magical club standing in front of me.
If she swung it once, I half expected even Chairman Choi himself to pop out.
And just like that, she casually arranged a group dinner for a bunch of content creators.
For that very evening.
