| Episode 137. Retaliation Within the Company (3)
“Did hyung go make an ion drink or something…?”
Lee Cheonghyeon muttered.
Twenty minutes had passed since Kim Iwol left. Considering the convenience store’s location, he should have been back by now.
“He’ll come back on his own.”
“Even so.”
At Choi Jeho’s words, Jeong Seongbin glanced toward the practice-room door.
‘He really is taking a while.’
Knowing Kim Iwol’s personality, he should have run to the convenience store and back without breaking a sweat, then said, ‘Let’s work even harder for the rest of practice, considering all the trouble I went through to venture out under the moonlight. Got it?’
It wasn’t that he was worried. How many things could possibly threaten a grown man over 180 centimeters tall?
It was simply unsettling because Kim Iwol was acting unlike himself.
“…Does he have a lot to carry? Should I go now…?”
“Is hyung the kind of person who can’t carry a few bottles of drinks because they’re heavy? It’ll be better to wait than to miss each other for no reason.”
Kang Giyeon stopped the fidgeting Park Juwoo. Even Kang Giyeon himself couldn’t bring himself to suggest that they continue practicing.
Then, from somewhere, a familiar vibration sounded.
None of the members was bold enough to bring a phone without the company’s knowledge.
So that had to be Kim Iwol’s phone. He had gone out to answer a call during practice not long ago, too.
“Did hyung borrow someone’s phone to contact us?”
“Maybe.”
Lee Cheonghyeon and Jeong Seongbin were the first to approach the direction of the sound.
The two of them found the phone without difficulty in the corner of the practice-room sofa.
“Huh?”
“Wait. Why is Producer Yoo calling at this hour?”
Just as Lee Cheonghyeon said, the words ‘Producer Yoo Hansu’ were displayed on the screen.
“Let’s answer it. It might be something urgent… We can’t let hyung get scolded for missing the call.”
Jeong Seongbin said it.
It sounded considerate at first glance, but who knew?
Normally, no one would answer someone else’s phone without permission.
Moreover, Jeong Seongbin and Kim Iwol were the two most polite members of the group. There was no way someone like him wouldn’t know such basic etiquette.
Perhaps Jeong Seongbin didn’t trust Yoo Hansu and wanted to get a proper sense of the atmosphere between the two of them while Kim Iwol was absent. That was all Choi Jeho could surmise.
“Give it to me.”
“Pardon?”
“Give me the phone. I’ll answer it.”
Considering Yoo Hansu’s character, as he had observed and heard about it until now, Choi Jeho thought it was right for him to answer.
When he picked up the call—
“Hello?”
─ Put Choi Jeho on.
“…Kim Iwol?”
…An unexpected voice came through.
“It’s me.”
─ You’re in the practice room right now, aren’t you?
“Yeah.”
─ And the others are all there?
“Yeah. Why aren’t you coming back? Aren’t we all supposed to leave soon…?”
The members were urging him on with their expressions from right in front of him.
But Kim Iwol cut him off without hesitation.
─ Don’t come out.
“What? Are you almost here?”
“If you have a lot to carry, should I go to the entrance?”
Jeong Seongbin, who had been listening silently, joined the conversation.
─ The manager will probably go. Until then, no one comes out of the practice room. Understand?
“Chanyeong hyung went home earlier.”
Since the company and dorm were close by, they had told the manager to go home early, saying they would all return together after practice.
─ Someone from the company will go. Just understand that and wait.
“Where are you, and what are you doing, anyway…?”
Choi Jeho was beginning to get annoyed.
The guy who usually handled things well without needing to be asked why was acting like this today.
Just then, Park Juwoo carefully took the phone from Choi Jeho’s hand.
“But hyung, why does your voice sound like that…?”
His voice?
It sounded the same as usual. Why was he suddenly asking that?
At the moment when Choi Jeho and the other members looked at Park Juwoo in confusion—
A strange woman’s scream rang out from the phone.
With a noise like something tearing apart, the call abruptly ended.
* * *
Just as Kim Iwol had said, the manager came to the practice room immediately after the call ended. His face was deathly pale.
The manager didn’t answer even when they asked what had happened. He was too busy getting the members into the car and leaving the company grounds.
Everyone was flustered. That was, until they saw the police lines, police cars, and crowd all mixed together.
The van descended into chaos. They were so busy restraining Choi Jeho, who was angrily demanding that they turn the car around, that they couldn’t remember exactly how they had stopped him.
After dropping the members off, the manager left the dorm again.
Only afterward were the members able to learn what was happening outside.
[Breaking News] Spark Iwol Victim of Knife Attack Near Agency… Transported to Hospital
UA Entertainment Assault Case—Culprit Revealed to Be In-House Producer
[On-Site Photos] Entertainment Industry Rocked by Tragedy, Heavy Police Presence
Producer Attacks His Agency’s Idol… Victim Identified as Spark’s Iwol
Articles poured out from every news outlet. Perhaps because of the unusual nature of the incident, news about Kim Iwol began appearing in the society section as well.
Reports that Yoo Hansu had been immediately taken into custody at the scene continued to appear without pause.
Idol Assault Case Suspect Complains of Headache of Unknown Cause… Investigation Faces Difficulties
[Exclusive] Producer Who Was Arrested at the Scene
Police Investigation Begins… Whether to Issue an Arrest Warrant Becomes Key Issue
There was nowhere that wasn’t in an uproar. Social media, fan cafés, even the dormitory phone were all buzzing.
Whether they were genuinely worried about Kim Iwol or simply enjoyed gossip,
everyone must have been waiting for a clear explanation of what had happened. A producer injuring an idol was an unprecedented incident.
≫ F*X, what the hell is going on?
≫ No, Iwol, what happened? He was filming just fine until yesterday, so why did something like this suddenly happen to him?
≫ No matter how much conflict there was, this kind of violent approach was wrong… It would have been better if they had resolved it through conversation… I hope the victim isn’t seriously hurt.
≫ So is our kid okay or not, damn it? I’m so freaking confused right now.
≫ An agency employee hit an idol with a blunt object?? Am I understanding this correctly???
└ The world’s gone completely insane…
≫ Isn’t this the kid who had that personality controversy last time?
Seeing what happened this time, maybe the insubordination really was true.
└ You bastard, can’t you read the mood?
└ But I had the same thought too… I mean, can smoke come from a chimney that wasn’t burning?
└ Someone says a person was beaten and is lying unconscious, and you still can’t stop talking. You people need to get sued before you come to your senses.
The number of likes on the post titled ‘We Want a Follow-Up Article’ reached three digits, yet UA made no announcement.
More precisely, they had to be considered unable to make one. This was the first major incident of this scale to break out at UA.
But that couldn’t be used as an excuse. Incompetence was nothing to be proud of.
Besides, hadn’t UA already gone through something similar once before? A situation in which one of its singers became the center of controversy.
Of course, UA hadn’t done anything in particular at the time.
Kim Iwol, who had handled the entire situation himself, came to Jeong Seongbin’s mind.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to leave something like this to the company?’
When Seongbin had asked him that, Kim Iwol had hesitated before answering:
‘No. I think I’ll feel better if I handle it myself.’
To be honest, Jeong Seongbin thought hyung had a tendency to worry about far too many things.
The people at UA he had seen until now weren’t the sort to ignore their artists’ difficulties. In fact, they had told Kim Iwol to leave things to the company as well.
But Kim Iwol hadn’t done so. Instead, he had single-handedly silenced every controversy.
And UA, faced with a situation like this without Kim Iwol, was struggling with something while leaving both the fans and the members helpless.
It was nighttime, so there were few people at the company and the response would be delayed. Because hyung’s safety was what mattered most.
That was what he thought with his head, yet a suffocating frustration surged inside his chest.
With no precedent for such sensational news, rumors grew like a snowball.
Even while the other members unplugged the phone lines and waited only for contact from the company, stories unknown to the people actually involved spread everywhere.
≫ I heard they’re saying it was mutual. What’s the truth?
People are saying the idol overreacted too.
└ Nothing has even been clearly reported yet, so please don’t spread false information…
└ I’m asking a question, not spreading false information. Can’t I even ask a question?
└ The fans are already anxious whenever anything comes up, so don’t make this bigger than it needs to be. Do you seriously have no social awareness?
└ The article says, ‘Producer Yoo, identified by his surname, claims that the other party also injured him and is insisting on mutual fault.’ Why are you treating only your oppa as the victim? LOL
└ So where exactly was this Yoo guy injured? LOL They say the idol whose head was split open is unconscious, so why is the supposedly injured guy the one putting on a show and shouting in front of the cameras?
≫ You UA motherf*ckers, please say something, anything. I feel like I’m going to die from anxiety… I’m seriously going insane.
≫ Nothing else matters. Just tell us whether Iwol is okay… It’s not some other injury; he was hurt in the head. Please…
└ ㅠㅠ I understand that you’re worried, but let’s wait just a little longer! We’ll hear something soon ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
And then—
≫ @NEW_Re:
Who was it that helped you after you were kicked out of the team for being unable to do your job and nearly ruined everyone else’s work?
There’s a limit to repaying kindness with hatred.
I doubt there was anyone who covered for you as much as Iwol did.
If it weren’t for him, I would’ve sued you before you could cause an accident.
I hope I never have to see you anywhere in this industry again.
And to the people who keep trying to provoke me through comments and DMs—
Let’s not say things behind someone’s back that we couldn’t say to their face.^^
Iwol is a junior who has helped me a great deal,
and someone everyone at the company adores.
Try thinking about it sensibly.
Is it normal to do something like that to a kid almost twenty years younger than you?
≫ ㄱ. Your Seongchani
[You may have seen it in the broadcast of the third evaluation meeting, but]
[Honestly, hyung Iwol took such good care of us.]
[What appears on screen isn’t even half of it ㅠ That hyung is the real deal. He’s incredibly considerate of people.]
[He’s really not the kind of person who treats anyone carelessly or anything like that.]
[You’d know if you talked to him for just three minutes, but people are so strange.]
[“Won’t the company scold you for saying this?”]
[Don’t worry. Our company likes hyung Iwol too.]
[But that hyung is on another level. He has a different kind of charm from President Moon.]
[Heirangs are talking about hyung Iwol right now too?]
[See? I told you he’s a genuinely great person.]
≫ @Pollo_q
The Iwol I knew always gave his best even for the smallest things,
was diligent in everything he did, and took meticulous care of the members.
Yet overnight, you turn him into a troublemaker who got into an incident after clashing with someone from his own company.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen or heard of something like this, but this is too much.
At the moment when unexpected people pulled the trigger,
the fandom that had been unable to relax for even a second, fearing that they might hear bad news, exploded.
≫ Summary of why the Sparklers are pissed (Long post warning)
1. Iwol is a producing member, but he handles the concept, styling, and planning too. It got to the point where a fellow member said on their own-content show that there would be no Spark without Iwol.
2. Calling themselves a self-produced idol group, the members divide up the lyrics, composition, and choreography among themselves.
3. The members also put together their own content. They often film it with camcorders, plan their individual videos themselves, and apparently get Kim Iwol’s approval.
4. The members also come up with the Awangsil concept and stage plans. You can tell just by looking at the meeting scene that aired on television.
5. Even in the middle of all this, Kim Iwol handled the aftermath of what Yoo Hansu had done while still doing his own work. (According to Nare’s testimony.)
6. The company knew all of this and still left it unattended until things blew up like this.
That’s only what has come to light so far. How much more must have happened where no one could see it?
Even when that personality controversy broke out last time, Iwol personally did a clarification broadcast.
Back then, people just said it was neat and admirable, but looking at it now, my blood runs cold.
I can’t help wondering how much the kid must have distrusted the company for things to come to that…
≫ The members plan their own content, the members do the producing—what exactly does the agency do? Is it really right to bring in an incompetent PD and then leave the artists to clean up the mess too? #UAExplainYourself
≫ Can UA not even manage its employees or write an apology without Iwol?
#UAExplainYourself
Iexpectnothingelseproperlymanageourkidsmentalhealth
#UAProtectYourArtists
Atleast sixcharacterswithoutspaces
≫ If a singer from the same agency is speaking like that, how much must Iwol have suffered…?
The implication is that whenever that bastard went around spreading his crap, Iwol cleaned it all up.
If this is true, UA’s executives should all be bowing their heads to the floor, and even that wouldn’t be enough.
≫ So, to summarize what’s happened—
A forty-year-old man did a shitty job, bullied a twenty-one-year-old kid, got fired, and took his anger out on him afterward. That’s what happened, isn’t it?
Is this right? Is this really right???
≫ We need to start by looking at why Iwol had to take on all the work in the first place.
The company’s a fucking mess, and the PD they put in charge is incompetent……
This incident shows just how structurally broken a company UA is.
If this is how it’s going to be, why does the company even exist? Why do they have employees?
≫ Please, at least do the work you’re being paid for.
You get paid to work, but my kid hasn’t even received his settlement, so why are you working him like a dog? Even while cracking his head open?
Actually, you’re the ones who should be cracking your heads and working yourselves to the bone, UA.
Stop keeping your mouths shut and do something, for fuck’s sake.
By then, UA had also realized what they had been missing.
UA, rushing frantically back and forth between the police station and the emergency room, hurriedly drafted and posted an apology.
≫ Hello, this is UA Entertainment.
This evening, an accident occurred in which one of our artists was injured by an employee.
The artist is currently receiving treatment from medical staff, while the employee has been handed over to the investigative authorities.
We ask for your understanding regarding our failure to deliver the news promptly, as we prioritized the artist’s safety.
To prevent such an incident from happening again, our company will take responsibility and do its utmost in managing our artists.
Once again, we apologize for causing concern to so many people with this unfortunate incident.
The moment Jeong Seongbin saw UA’s apology, he felt a faint headache coming on.
Why Kim Iwol had been doing the work himself.
And how wise a decision that had been.
Just as Jeong Seongbin had expected the moment he saw the apology, the fans grew even angrier at the statement, which merely listed the facts of the matter.
When an office worker wrote a report explaining an incident, it was enough to state why it had happened, what mistakes had been made and what results they had led to, how much damage had been inflicted on the company, and what measures would be taken in response and to prevent recurrence. But wasn’t the entertainment industry different?
≫ You call this an apology?
Write it again, you bastards.
≫ What an apology should contain:
Forget everything else. Write what you did wrong, then grovel and beg forgiveness.
This wasn’t an accident. It was something that had been building up and finally exploded.
Shouldn’t you be apologizing first for failing to prevent something that could have been prevented???
≫ After making everyone worry sick, this is the sorry excuse for an apology you came up with?
Thanks a fucking lot, you assholes, for not making Iwol write an apology when he was on Awangsil and instead making him do an explanatory broadcast. No wonder the kid does everything himself from start to finish.
≫ Yeah, whatever. Just shut down the entertainment business.
You’re running things with this kind of slapdash nonsense and still have the nerve to say you’re in entertainment? What the fuck?
What kind of entertainment company lets the head of its own idol get cracked open?
How shitty do you have to be at your jobs to let things get this bad?
Did the whole lot of you take drugs or something? Seriously.
In the end, UA wrote and posted a new apology.
It acknowledged the excessive workload placed on the idol, which had been the subject of ongoing suspicions, and clearly explained the circumstances that had led to Yu Hansu working alongside the artist, the conflicts that had occurred between them, and the fact that the artist was, in every sense, the victim.
It also stated that the allegations of Kim Iwol’s workplace bullying and insubordination, as well as claims of mutual fault, which had been circulating for some time, were untrue, and that legal action would be taken against anyone who did not voluntarily delete them.
The second apology concluded by stating that the company would seek damages from Yu Hansu and take legal action against him, while sparing no support necessary for Kim Iwol’s recovery.
“Haa……”
After confirming that the situation had finally quieted down, Jeong Seongbin let out a deep sigh.
“……Are you all right?”
Bak Ju-u patted Jeong Seongbin on the shoulder. His face was etched with concern.
The dorm was practically like a house in mourning. It was Choe Jeho who finally broke through the atmosphere, thin as ice.
“No, I mean, why aren’t we allowed to go?”
They could hear Choe Jeho arguing with whoever was on the phone. Beside him, Gang Giyeon was desperately trying to stop his voice from rising.
“Put bluntly, all the reporters are there, but you expect us to just sit here doing nothing? They said he’s undergoing surgery right now. Shouldn’t we at least see that our member’s operation finishes safely?”
When curses were about to burst out of him, Jeong Seongbin clamped down on them. As he took the phone, he could hear the commotion in the background behind the manager’s voice.
“Hyung, this is Seongbin.”
― Yeah, Seongbin. I know it’s hard, but could you try to persuade Jeho to……
“No, hyung.”
Jeong Seongbin’s voice had sunk low.
Partly because he could no longer trust the company, which had told them nothing while he searched through and read every single article as it came out.
“I think we should be there. Please.”
Everyone wanted to see Kim Iwol right away.