Damn Idol, Episode 3
“What? Two billion won?”
“Yes. It’s the Korean way, isn’t it? Split it amicably, half and half.”
“Why would I accept that? Besides, Mr. Han Sion, you do not have the right to manage your parents’ assets.”
“That’s right. Which is why my request to you, Counselor, is that I’d like to obtain that right.”
“……”
Han Sion held out a USB drive.
“It contains fatal flaws in the people the family court will soon designate as priority guardians.”
Choe Jiun was a capable attorney, and with just a few key words, he quickly grasped his client’s situation.
Something had happened to his parents.
And they had left behind enough wealth to make greedy relatives drool.
‘If they were dead, he would’ve used the word inheritance, so that’s not it.’
Given that the family court was appointing a guardian, they must be in a state where normal economic activity was impossible.
Post-traumatic intellectual regression, an acquired permanent disability ruling, incompetency, vegetative state, long-term missing person……
Several terms flashed through his mind.
Choe Jiun, who had been about to ask for the details, paused.
He thought he should check the USB first.
Things like this were usually nonsense.
After all, information gathered with the sensibilities of a twenty-year-old was unlikely to help in an actual legal battle.
But a moment later, Choe Jiun had no choice but to sit there dumbfounded, his mouth opening.
It was perfect.
The materials had been prepared through a thorough legal interpretation, with personal emotions completely excluded.
This wasn’t something one could gather simply by hiring people.
On top of that, the USB also contained documents proving that the figure of two billion won in assets was not a lie.
In fact, if left alone a bit longer, it would exceed two billion.
“This bond is far too valuable to liquidate right now…… Ah, my apologies.”
Belatedly coming back to his senses, Attorney Choe Jiun spoke.
“Mr. Han Sion, what on earth are you? How can a twenty-year-old have materials like this……?”
“To be honest, most of it lacks physical evidence.”
“It lacks evidence?”
“Yes. So you’ll have to set it up, Counselor. You’ll have to find some, steal some, and at times, perhaps even create some.”
“……”
In other words, earn your fee.
Whether it was legal, quasi-legal, or illegal.
‘These are the words and actions of a twenty-year-old?’
Feeling as though he had been possessed by a ghost, Choe Jiun answered.
“Let’s draft a preliminary contract. It will take effect once the contents of the USB are confirmed to be true.”
“Of course.”
* * *
“Ugh, it’s cold.”
The moment I stepped out of the law firm building, the biting cold of January swept over my entire body.
Maybe because I’d mainly been active in California in my previous life, it felt especially cold.
California was warm all year round, after all.
Anyway, Attorney Choe Jiun really was a consistent person.
Should I say he had no prejudice?
No matter how old the other person was or what their occupation was, as long as they could be of help to him, he didn’t look at them through tinted glasses.
Most people would’ve grilled me about how I gathered materials like this, but this man was only interested in whether the materials were genuine.
And since someone like that was also competent, he was the perfect person to make a deal with in my current situation.
I first met Choe Jiun during my third life.
At the time, I was facing a fairly serious legal problem.
I had achieved great success by actively using my knowledge of the future, but the way I succeeded had rubbed the vested interests of the music industry the wrong way.
Back when I was a greenhorn in my third life, I thought it was unfair, but looking back now, I had no business ethics.
In any case, while asking around for an attorney back then, I met Choe Jiun, and he used tremendous skill to resolve my crisis.
After that, we became acquainted, and once, while drinking, we had this conversation.
“Counselor, you know about my parents, right?”
“I do. The whole country knows.”
“If I had entrusted you with the case when I was twenty, would I have been able to manage my parents’ assets?”
“Which family court had jurisdiction?”
“The Seocho District Court.”
“Then, well, easy.”
“Would you accept a request from a twenty-year-old?”
“I’m not sure. If he said he’d give me half the assets, I might. Isn’t that the Korean way? Split it amicably, half and half.”
So as soon as my fourth life began, I went to see Attorney Choe Jiun, and for the first time, I was able to manage my parents’ assets.
To be honest, now I’m confident I could persuade Choe Jiun without giving him half.
No, perhaps I could even hire a few neighborhood attorneys and win the guardianship rights on my own.
But since I had decided to work in Korea, I wanted to make a good impression on Choe Jiun.
He was an extremely capable person.
Legally and illegally.
He could easily solve matters that a twenty-year-old kid couldn’t do anything about, even with a fortune.
After all, for a regressor, the amount of money didn’t matter.
Bzzzt—
Just as I was thinking that, the cell phone in my pocket vibrated.
At first, I thought it was my eldest aunt’s husband.
I’d ignored his calls for several days after being discharged, so it was about time he got angry.
But the caller wasn’t my uncle.
It was a call from the United States.
“Hello?”
—Hey, Scammer.
“……”
This was a little embarrassing.
It seemed HR Corporation had already figured it out.
Still, considering they said Scam and not Fraud or Swindle, it didn’t seem like the nuance was too serious.
“You found out really quickly.”
—What the hell? Why are you so confident?
“Sorry, I was in a bit of a hurry.”
—What were you in such a hurry for?
“I needed to become a singer, but I didn’t have any connections. Can’t you just think of it as helping someone desperate and laugh it off? This seems like a personal number.”
Before I even finished speaking, the person on the other end of the line burst into laughter.
“You laughed, right? Then you can let it slide now.”
—Was it BVB Entertainment? And keep it a secret from them too?
“I’d be more grateful than I can say. If I succeed, I’ll definitely repay you.”
—Fine. This is fun. Why are you trying to become a singer?
“Because I have to sell two hundred million physical albums.”
—What? Two hundred million? Hey, do you think it’s the ’80s? Computers these days don’t even have CD-ROM drives.
“I’m built in such a way that I can’t yield to reality.”
The other person laughed again.
—Haha. Good, that’s good. It’s completely different from the reaction I expected, but it’s delightful. If you answer one question honestly, I think I can grant your request.
I knew what he was going to ask even without hearing it.
I had the experience of a regressor, after all.
“You want to know how I tricked the people in charge and sent the emails? With various bits of internal information?”
—Exactly.
Americans are more generous than Koreans when it comes to establishing relationships.
Koreans, living in a narrow country, check someone’s age, university, and background when they first meet, searching for how that person relates to them. Americans aren’t like that.
If there’s evidence they judge to be trustworthy, they believe more readily.
That’s why someone like Anna Sorokin, who falsely pretended to be an heiress among New York’s upper class, could exist.
The real-life model for Netflix’s Inventing Anna, in other words.
—Scammer. How did you know?
I knew through regression, but I couldn’t say that.
So I tossed out a more appetizing bait.
“Your intranet. Its security’s been breached.”
—Did you hack it?
“No. If you type your intranet address into Google Translate and click the link that appears in the translation result, the admin page opens. In a non-English language.”
—What? Are you serious?
“Why would I lie about something that can be exposed in a few seconds? Try it.”
Urgent typing sounds came from the other end of the line.
This was something that would actually happen by chance about two years later.
Thanks to it, the fees of celebrities would be compared in embarrassing detail and scattered across the world.
—Oh my God!
“Confirmed it?”
—Did you see this on an internet community somewhere? Is it already widely known?
“No. I discovered it by chance.”
To be honest, the information I used went beyond what could be learned from the intranet.
That was why I had been able to fool the employees of HR Corporation, a giant of show business.
But the person on the other end of the line seemed to have been quite shocked and didn’t nitpick.
—Should I be saying thank you for this?
“What’s wrong with giving and taking? Or I could give you a little more.”
—What?
“That doesn’t only work on HR.”
The person on the other end of the line, understanding what I meant, fell silent.
I didn’t know what rank the caller held, but if he was in a high position, he’d be able to make good use of it.
“For your information, my mouth is very heavy.”
—Good. Friend with the small mouth. What’s your name?
“Sion. My surname is Han.”
—If you ever come to America, make sure you call this number. Whether you become a singer or not.
“What’s your name?”
—Andrew Bryant.
“What? The CEO?”
—What kind of nonsense is that? You think the CEO has that much free time?
“In movies, the person you have a call like this with always turns out to be the CEO.”
—Haha. That’s a movie. I work in the marketing department. I’m not at the very bottom, so don’t worry and come visit.
This was a bit confusing.
It was true that someone named Andrew Bryant would one day become the CEO of HR Corporation.
But I didn’t know if the person I was speaking to right now was that same person.
America had more people with the same names than Korea, and I had mistaken information because of that before.
—This was fun, Scammer. Make sure you succeed as a singer. I need to think about how to handle this information.
The call ended.
I began thinking of ways to trace whether Andrew Bryant was the future CEO of HR Corporation, then stopped.
If I wanted to find out, I could.
But thinking about it, there wasn’t much point.
This life was a throwaway run anyway.
If I was unlucky, I might regress again within a year or two.
I should just memorize the number, at least.
It might come in handy someday.
Still, it wasn’t as if I’d gained nothing.
Since I had obtained HR’s consent, I’d be able to visit BVB tomorrow with a bit more confidence.
The reason I was visiting BVB was simple.
I didn’t know much about the Korean idol industry, but I knew a fair amount about companies.
BVB Entertainment was quite a good company.
In about seven years, it would also produce “Prime Time,” who would become K-pop world stars.
So I planned to debut at BVB Entertainment too.
* * *
Seo Seunghyeon, the team leader of A&R Team 1 at BVB Entertainment, had heard from the division head yesterday that a guest from HR Corporation would be coming.
Along with the explanation that although the guest wasn’t coming with a business-related nuance, he was HR staff, so they should treat him well.
‘He said he was a Korean-American, right? I wonder if he speaks Korean.’
Naturally, he thought of the second-generation immigrants he had met during his time at NYU.
And then the appointment time arrived.
When Seo Seunghyeon entered the meeting room, he couldn’t help but be flustered.
The HR staff member looked far too young.
‘How old is he?’
If this hadn’t been an appointment fixed through the division head, he wouldn’t have thought the other person was a working adult.
“I’m Seo Seunghyeon, team leader of A&R Team 1.”
“I’m Han Sion. It’s an honor to meet you.”
“You speak Korean very well.”
“I’ve spent more time in Korea than in America. So you can speak comfortably.”
“Oh, I couldn’t do that.”
HR Corporation was a big name on Billboard.
No matter how much BVB Entertainment was considered a major agency in Korea, the difference in scale was too great.
Since an employee from a place like that was being so amiable, it didn’t feel bad at all.