Damn Idol, Chapter 143
* * *
[News Ranking]
1. Three Months and a Hundred Days’ Han Sion releases handwritten statement
2. Seocho District Family Court releases ruling, stating guardian appointment was justified
3. Legal representative for Three Months and a Hundred Days: “We plan to sue malicious commenters as soon as possible”……
I nodded as I looked at the news rankings on the portal site.
It was over.
From now on, issues related to my parents would no longer act as a risk factor.
I could tell just by looking at public opinion in the internet comments.
-Wow, Han Sion’s relatives are total bastards. If it were me, I wouldn’t want to leave my inheritance to people like that either.
-Seems like he did well leaving it to OO Law Firm.
-Choi Jiwoon? That guy’s romantic as hell too. He listened to a twenty-year-old kid.
-Isn’t that because he’s a celebrity?
-What are you talking about; it says he went right after getting discharged. That means it was before Coming Up Next was filmed too. He was literally a total civilian.
-Wow, true. Didn’t think of that.
-I heard the fee was only set as a success fee too. Pretty amazing.
-Where’d you see that?
-There’s a phone interview with Lawyer Choi Jiwoon up.
-It’s a little too much money to call it 100% romance...?
-Lolol true, but it’s one of the top one or two law firms in Korea.
-Let’s call it 70% romance, 30% profit!
-Sigh, how could something like this happenㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Let’s just think of it as bad luck getting out of the way before Three Months and a Hundred Days’ album comes outㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-I heard Three Months and a Hundred Days is on a music show today. What time is it?
-It starts at 5:45, but I don’t know when Three Months and a Hundred Days will come out! Still, I think they’ll be pretty late in the order!
-OK, I’ll stand by and watch.
That was the thing about issues.
People’s judgment was scarier than facts.
Once an issue began to spread from mouth to mouth among the public, judgment existed at the end of it.
That guy’s a bad person.
What’s there to feel wronged about? He should’ve done things properly from the start.
Conclusions like that really almost never changed.
Even if you gave a legitimate explanation.
Because humans were animals that hated admitting, “I was wrong.”
So I didn’t give the public time to make a judgment.
I kept throwing out new issues at intervals as short as ten minutes and as long as twenty.
Since information kept being added, people deferred judgment.
At the same time, they traced the issue along the same line of thought as the article titles.
At the end of it, I placed my innocence and legitimacy, and laid down evidence through the news outlet revising its articles.
When that happened, people thought they had made the judgment of their own volition.
That Han Sion, a victim of an accident, had been criticized due to groundless speculation.
But shall I be honest?
The asset details were fabricated.
I merely matched the balance from the point when the administrative order came down from the family court with the current balance.
There had been countless financial transactions in between, but I had erased them cleanly.
Lawyer Choi Jiwoon’s success fee was the same.
In my scenario, Lawyer Choi Jiwoon was a righteous man who had helped a pitiful child.
But a righteous man like that couldn’t take 50% of the assets.
So we set an appropriate amount as a success fee, and lied that he had received it.
In any case, this was something only Choi Jiwoon and I knew, so it didn’t matter.
Since we had to prepare suitable documents for the National Tax Service, a few employees at the law firm might come to know about it, but……
It was a major law firm, a hotbed of preferential treatment for former officials and corruption.
It would absolutely never leak.
I could guarantee it.
But the public would never know these facts until the end, and their judgment would not change.
“You worked hard, Sion.”
As I was thinking that, Lee Ion patted me on the back.
“Worked hard? Not at all. You can look at the internet now.”
“No. We should focus on the music show.”
I had told the members in advance a few days ago.
That something like this would begin on the day of the music show, that it would proceed in this way, and that they shouldn’t let their mental state be shaken.
So I told them not to look at the internet that day if possible.
The members seemed curious as to why it had to be the day of the music show of all days, but I didn’t tell them.
There was no benefit in them knowing that today had originally been the day Choi Daeho planned to put his plan into action.
To be honest, I found Choi Daeho laughable.
How many times had I gone through things like this, and how many times had I resolved them……
Would I fall for such an obvious trick?
If he wanted to put me in a difficult position, he would have to be more creative.
In a way I had never experienced even once in my long, long life.
But that was only my thought, and the members might feel pressure.
That was why I didn’t tell them.
“The fans were really worried, so shouldn’t we at least take a waiting room photo and post it like other teams do?”
At Choi Jaeseong’s words, Gu Taehwan shook his head.
“Everyone must have been worried for hours. Wouldn’t it be bad if we acted like it was nothing?”
Personally, I thought both of them were right.
Considering our fandom, Choi Jaeseong was a little more right, and considering general public opinion, Gu Taehwan was a little more right.
But right now, there were too many eyes on us.
Regardless of the fact that I had proven my legitimacy, the issue that my parents were in a vegetative state had only spread today.
There was no way posting a photo of us smiling here would be received positively.
From my perspective, it was an accident from several months ago, but the public would judge me by their own standards.
Still, there must have been a lot of fans who had been on edge, so just letting it pass like this felt a bit wrong.
I was preparing a grand piece of fan service.
Though I didn’t know if it would go according to plan.
“I’m going to go meet the music show CP for a moment.”
“Sion.”
“Yes?”
“You should call him CP-nim.”
Lee Ion really was consistent.
“But why the CP-nim?”
“There was a noisy issue before the broadcast. It looks like a lot of social affairs reporters have come too, so we should ask for their understanding.”
“Ah, right. Should I go with you?”
“No. I’ll go by myself.”
Saying that, I got up from my seat.
* * *
The CP of SBN’s Music Taste had been out of his mind since morning.
The pre-recordings that began at dawn would be handled by the on-site PDs, so that was fine.
What had drained his soul was the issue related to Three Months and a Hundred Days—no, to Han Sion.
At first, he thought it was a good thing.
The shocking news that Han Sion’s parents had been declared to be in a vegetative state had poured out, and public sympathy had spread.
With this, he could ignore the complaints from junior PDs asking if there was really a need to cast Three Months and a Hundred Days as the first act and get into a power struggle with Choi Daeho.
Then he thought they were doomed.
Public sympathy began spreading into suspicion, and the direction of that suspicion was ominous.
In Korean society, being an unfilial monster was the kind of crime that could not be forgiven.
But there were even stories coming out that Han Sion had intended the accident in order to target his parents’ assets.
‘Ah, shit. Of all days, on the day of the broadcast…….’
If the article had come out a few days after the music show, they could have gotten away with saying they hadn’t known anything, but of all days, it was the day of the broadcast.
The situation had been so serious that even the president had called him.
But the situation changed in truly dramatic fashion.
The entire public turned to Han Sion’s side.
By that point, the higher-ups who knew the structure of the press had roughly caught on to the situation.
‘This is scripted, isn’t it?’
He didn’t know where the script began and ended, but from a certain point onward, the news had clearly been coordinated.
The development of the issue wasn’t natural.
Perhaps that lawyer named Choi Jiwoon had exerted his influence.
But no one thought that was wrong.
This was show business, after all.
Han Sion’s side had put on a good show and done good business.
If anything, it deserved applause, not criticism.
‘Anyway, we’re safe too.’
Just as the CP let out a sigh of relief, he heard from a PD that Han Sion wanted to come greet him.
He felt pleased.
Yes, this was the proper thing to do.
Whatever the case, if you made a program noisy, you had to ask for understanding.
And Han Sion, whom he met like that……
Was very strange.
The start of the conversation was ordinary.
He was sorry things had gotten noisy because of his personal issue, and he would apologize if he had caused any damage to the broadcast.
There were a lot of reporters outside, so would it be all right if he responded to their coverage, and so on.
In a calm tone, he brought up obvious matters.
If the conversation had ended there, the CP of Music Taste would have only gotten the impression that Han Sion was a calm and wise young man.
But as they talked, the topic had changed before he knew it.
“I’m sorry. Because of us, even articles like this have come out.”
[Three Months and a Hundred Days’ State Of Mind running away with an overwhelming No. 1 on the charts. Possibility of winning first place on a music show?]
[SBN’s Music Taste, featuring Three Months and a Hundred Days, to break its highest viewership rating?]
[“What time does Three Months and a Hundred Days perform?” How much public interest is pouring into Music Taste?]
[Three Months and a Hundred Days’ first music show appearance. What kind of stage will they present?]
Sympathetic opinion, critical opinion, supportive opinion.
At the end of the developments in public opinion surrounding Han Sion, people’s attention was pouring onto Music Taste.
Of course, the production team was aware of this too.
So overall, they were thinking they had to put on a stage without mistakes.
But something was strange.
It was as if Han Sion thought……
That it was only natural for them to change “the framework of the broadcast.”
It was so natural that the CP nearly failed to notice it, but that was the logic.
“Wait a moment, Mr. Han Sion.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“Are you asking us to put you among the first-place nominees?”
It was ridiculous.
He knew that Three Months and a Hundred Days’ State Of Mind was doing well.
But as far as he knew, they had no broadcast appearance score at all, and their album sales score hadn’t been tallied yet either.
The CP thought Han Sion would wave his hands at his question.
That he had never even considered such a thing.
But he didn’t.
Han Sion smiled bashfully and scratched his head.
“Since the broadcasting station will want to carry the incoming viewers all the way to the end……”
He was so bold that it was bewildering.
But it wasn’t wrong.
It had been a long time since music show ratings fell below 1%.
He didn’t know how many people would watch the music show because of today’s issue, but wouldn’t they at least get a 3% rating?
But what if Three Months and a Hundred Days came out at the end as a first-place nominee?
It would indeed mean holding on to all those viewers.
“And there’s viewer text voting too……”
But what Han Sion didn’t know was that if Three Months and a Hundred Days were placed as first-place nominees, they absolutely had to take first place.
If Three Months and a Hundred Days became music show first-place nominees, that would be the period at the end of today’s narrative.
Someone who had suffered an unfortunate accident, who had then suffered unjust criticism, overcame it and succeeded.
That was the structure of the narrative.
Then what would overcoming it be?
Naturally, first place.
If they were only put up as nominees here and failed to take first place, it could actually feel hollow.
‘No, wait. Then does that mean we just have to complete the narrative?’
The CP’s mind was growing chaotic.
“The other groups will probably understand the circumstances too……”
At Han Sion’s words, lightning flashed through his head.
Yes, this was right.
If Three Months and a Hundred Days went up as first-place nominees, their agencies would call.
What idol agencies feared most was useless controversy and criticism.
In a situation like this, there was a high chance they would voluntarily concede first place.
Moreover, the group scheduled to win first place today was Ocean, a unit of Tension, who had already won first place for the previous two weeks.
It was about time for their momentum to naturally drop off.
“I was fantasizing that maybe the possibility isn’t zero……. I’m sorry. I said something far too absurd, didn’t I?”
The CP of Music Taste grew confused.
Looking at Han Sion’s face, it didn’t seem like an act at all……
‘Is he just naive?’
But something was too strange for that.
In the end, the CP couldn’t come to a conclusion.
This wasn’t a conclusion he should make alone, nor one he should make with the PDs.
He had to discuss it with the higher-ups.
Before that, there was something he had to confirm.
“Um, Mr. Han Sion.”
“Yes?”
“You started album pre-orders this time, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. We haven’t received the physical albums yet, so once they come out, we’ll immediately……”
“That’s not what I mean. How many have you sold?”
“It’s only been two days, so it isn’t much.”
“How many?”
The answer that followed was simple.
“Around 130,000 copies, I believe.”
Insane.
They didn’t have a company, didn’t have fan-sign cutoffs, and didn’t have merchandise marketing?
In just two days?
“F-for now, I understand. Go back to your waiting room.”
“Thank you.”
After hesitating briefly, the CP picked up his smartphone.
And three hours later.
The broadcast of Music Taste began.