“‘Rising Star’ Gang Yeeun has been taken into emergency custody on charges of drug possession at Incheon Airport. Gang Yeeun was arrested on the spot on drug possession charges while entering the country from Macau, and it has been revealed that she was carrying a significant quantity of narcotics.
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Next news. Recently, through a weekend drama, actress Gang Yeeun—who has received much love for her outstanding acting skills and appearance—has been taken into emergency custody on charges of drug smuggling. We will connect with reporter Sim Jinha at Incheon Airport for more details.
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Gang Yeeun is also under investigation on suspicion of overseas gambling in Macau. Police are known to be intensively investigating not only drug use and possession but also suspicions of violating the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act during the overseas gambling and fund procurement process.
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The weekend drama production has issued a termination notice to Gang Yeeun, who was recently arrested for drug use. The producing director stated, “We cannot use an actor who took and smuggled drugs. Reshoots will be inevitable, but we will discuss matters thoroughly with the writer.” In addition, advertisers who had used Gang Yeeun as a model announced that they would claim damages, stating that Gang Yeeun had damaged the brand’s value.
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Actor Gang Yeeun, who is under suspicion for drugs and drug smuggling—as well as overseas gambling—is expected to be permanently expelled from the entertainment industry. According to officials, upon hearing the news of Gang Yeeun’s drug charges, dramas and films she had been discussing appearances in all withdrew their casting offers. Her agency, too…
The TV had been plastered with news about Gang Yeeun all day.
Even when changing channels, only reports about Gang Yeeun kept coming out.
Gang Yeeun immediately acknowledged the drug use charges
and announced she would enter a period of self-reflection.
A man sitting quietly on the sofa watching TV
pressed the remote and turned off the TV.
Beep.
The moment the TV went off, silence descended instantly.
The man stood up and trudged away,
then swung his arm with all his might.
Slap!!
With the sound, the face of Han Minsu, who had been standing in one corner, turned to the side.
Han Minsu was bewildered by the pain he was experiencing for the first time in his life,
and the man who had slapped Han Minsu’s cheek—
Han Minsu’s father, Han Changgi—likewise could not contain his rage and did not know what to do with himself.
“Did I tell you to study? Did I tell you to do business well? I told you not to cause accidents. Not to cause accidents!!!!!”
Unable to contain his anger any longer, Han Changgi struck Han Minsu’s cheek once more.
Slap!!
Perhaps the inside of his mouth had burst; red blood trickled from his lips.
But Han Minsu could not even say it hurt,
and could only force down saliva mixed with blood.
“At such a sensitive time, you went to Macau and did drugs? And you brought drugs back in? Are you a sane bastard or not? Even if you’re a crazy bastard who can’t tell right from wrong, you should distinguish between what you should and shouldn’t do.”
“Father, there’s a bit of a misunderstanding.”
“It was in your bag without you knowing? You call that an excuse? Did you think that would work? Then there’s a problem with your intelligence.”
“It… it’s true.”
“Huh? It’s true? So you’re innocent. Then let me make some money that way too. I’ll bring in drugs by the container load and say I didn’t know they were in there. Someone must have put them in. Then the police and customs will just say, ‘Oh, is that so?’ and let me pass. I’m innocent. Huh?? Say something, you bastard.”
“........”
“The shares I was going to give you are now null and void. Even if I give you group shares, you’d probably sell them to buy drugs. I can’t ruin my own son with my own hands.”
“You’re also dismissed from your position as division head.”
“All assets in your name are frozen.”
“Do you know how much money I spent to pull you out? Do you even know how much I spent to bury the news using someone like Gang Yeeun as the focus!!”
“You got caught at the airport. On the spot. The airport police, prosecutors, police, customs, aviation security—I shut their mouths, along with the broadcast stations, the press, and internet news.”
“Why the hell are there so many witnesses? Fucking seriously.”
“Honestly, I don’t care if a bastard like you dies from doing drugs, but if you die, our LK gets dragged through the mud. That’s why I’m keeping you alive. Go to a hospital and stay breathing for three years.”
“Father!!”
“I’ve given you all the chances I’m going to give. I watched you act like a crazy bastard, thinking you’d come to your senses someday. But you’re beyond rehabilitation. So just live like you’re dead. When you get out of the hospital, don’t do a single thing else. Eat the three meals they serve you, shit, and fucking sleep. That’s all you have to do. Don’t do anything else, don’t think about anything else, don’t even move.”
“Father!!”
“As a father, I’ve done everything I can. Even if you didn’t fulfill your duties as a child, I believe my role has been more than sufficient.”
At Han Changgi’s words,
Han Minsu’s expression—always bright and without a care in the world—changed.
Worry arose, anxiety arose, fear arose, terror arose.
The thought of being cut off from everything he had enjoyed until now was terrifying.
He hated even the idea of being hospitalized.
And for three years, at that.
But who on earth had put the drugs in?
Wasn’t it that bitch Gang Yeeun?
Still failing to grasp the situation at large,
Han Minsu was interested only in who had put the drugs in the bag.
Han Minsu believed his false accusation would be cleared if he just found the culprit.
********
After returning from Macau,
having rested for two days, I was preparing to go to work at the training center in Paju.
The next project had not yet been decided, but
I had received instructions to report to the training center rather than headquarters to review what had been lacking in this past project and
to practice new close protection tactics.
Assembly time was 10 a.m.
Trying to get to Paju by 10 was quite far.
I considered going the night before but decided to leave early in the morning instead.
I left the company dorm at seven, ate a bowl of hangover soup at a 24-hour hangover soup spot,
took the subway part of the way, got off, and caught a taxi.
I had tried to go by public transportation,
but gave up because I would have had to transfer buses too many times.
So I took the subway to a reasonable point and then switched to a taxi.
Even that wasn’t a good solution,
because the training center was near Unaksan, far from the subway even in Pocheon, so after getting off the subway I still had to take a taxi for quite a while.
If I had known, I would have taken a taxi straight from the dorm;
I made a mistake.
Previously, the company had always transported us by car,
so I had never imagined public transportation could be this inconvenient.
Even so, perhaps because I had rushed since early morning,
I was not late for the appointed time of 10 o’clock.
I arrived thirty minutes early, in fact.
Briefly wondering what to do,
I walked to a nearby cafe to get a cup of coffee.
I had drunk coffee and eaten meals here during training, so I knew the nearby restaurants and cafes well.
On the way to the cafe, I saw a familiar car.
It was the team leader.
I waved.
“Team Leader.”
“Deputy Team Leader. Why did you come all the way down here?”
It seemed he had met me on the road leading into the training center.
“I was going to grab some coffee. Would you like some too, Team Leader? A hot latte?”
“Don’t bother; let’s go together. Get in.”
“Shall we?”
I got into the team leader’s car.
“But what are the team members doing that the deputy team leader came down to buy coffee?”
“The team members? They’re not here. I’m alone.”
“What? Alone?”
The team leader seemed slightly surprised.
“Then how did you get all the way here? The deputy team leader doesn’t have a car, right?”
“I took a taxi.”
“A taxi?”
“Yes.”
The cafe was nearby.
I ordered a hot americano, and the team leader ordered a latte.
I wondered if I should order for the team members too,
but they were people who didn’t even eat the chocolate I had offered.
I figured they wouldn’t drink the coffee either, so I didn’t order.
It would be a waste to throw it away.
The team leader likewise did not order coffee for the team members.
Having returned to the training center, we were drinking coffee when an SUV pulled in.
It was Deputy Jeong Donghyeon’s car.
I had seen it a few times during commutes.
Memorizing vehicles and plate numbers had become a long-standing habit.
The car stopped, and Deputy Jeong Donghyeon got out of the driver’s seat, while Manager An Jibin exited the passenger seat.
Hwang Jeongjin and Park Munyong got out of the back seat.
They were giggling and laughing all the way until they stepped out, as if something was terribly amusing.
Each of them held a cup of coffee in hand.
It would have been a waste if I had bought coffee.
The team had six members;
the team leader came separately,
I came by taxi,
and the remaining four came in one car.
The moment they got out of the car and saw us, they greeted only the team leader.
“Good morning, Team Leader.”
“Did you rest well?”
The team leader spoke with a stiff face.
“Be punctual. It’s past ten.”
The team leader’s mind seemed to be filled with complicated thoughts as he spoke.
********
Team Leader Bae Hyeonseok’s mind was complicated.
That petty and childish behavior shown by team members who had long gotten along without the slightest trouble.
Bae Hyeonseok felt ashamed instead.
He knew.
Why they were doing it, and what they were thinking.
How could he not know when they had been showing it so openly since the very first introduction of Deputy Team Leader Gong Inbae?
Glaring at the deputy team leader when he greeted them,
rushing out in a swarm the moment the meeting ended,
deliberately crossing paths during training to cause mistakes,
even sending him on unnecessary pharmacy runs.
He knew it all.
The reason he pretended not to know was because this, too, was part of Deputy Team Leader Gong Inbae’s test.
Getting along well with team members was also one of the abilities required of a team leader.
But Deputy Team Leader Gong Inbae had shown a tendency to focus on operations rather than mingling with the team.
Even when Bae Hyeonseok told him to briefly go out and look around in Macau, he had thought Gong Inbae would refuse and say he would wait with the team,
but Gong Inbae went out before Bae Hyeonseok even finished speaking.
It was merely something said out of courtesy.
Had it been that difficult for him?
Had he wanted to be alone?
Bae Hyeonseok felt sorry.
Especially seeing how Gong Inbae had come all this way alone by taxi today, that feeling of guilt took precedence.
Conversely, his disappointment in Manager An Jibin also grew.
Manager An Jibin must hate this situation.
He must have thought the vacant Alpha Team deputy team leader position was his.
But then a 24-year-old brat had come in as deputy team leader.
Naturally, from Manager An Jibin’s perspective, it was bound to be uncomfortable.
But he should have endured it.
He should have swallowed it without showing it.
Even if those below him—Deputy Jeong Donghyeon, Hwang Jeongjin, and Park Munyong—spouted nonsense saying it made no sense and Manager An Jibin should be deputy team leader,
Manager An Jibin should have stepped up first to soothe them,
and taken care of Deputy Team Leader Gong Inbae instead.
That was what a team was.
You foolish punks.
Do you think if you all stick together like that, the deputy team leader will cling to you asking to hang out?
Or that he’ll hand over the deputy team leader title to Manager An Jibin?
If he did yield it, would the company say, “Oh, so you switched it among yourselves. Okay, I’ll process that for you”?
If Gong Inbae cannot endure the ostracism and ends up quitting,
would the deputy team leader position then go to An Jibin?
It was decided through this incident.
Even if Deputy Team Leader Gong Inbae leaves, Manager An Jibin cannot become deputy team leader.
The deputy team leader acts on behalf of the team leader in the team leader’s absence.
He must check the details the team leader is too overwhelmed to notice.
But Manager An Jibin is unqualified.
If Manager An Jibin had wanted to become deputy team leader,
rather than rejecting Deputy Team Leader Gong Inbae, he should have embraced him into the fold.
Even if there were somewhat bothersome aspects, since they were a team, he should have pulled him in and kept him close.
But Manager An Jibin ordered the team members around like underlings,
and ostracized Deputy Team Leader Gong Inbae, whom he disliked.
He clearly knew Gong Inbae lived in the company dorm
and that he didn’t have a car, yet never said a word about going together.
Even though they themselves had met up and come drinking coffee.
You’re one team—if you like someone you take them along, if you don’t you cast them out?
And you’d promote a guy like that to deputy team leader?
At least in Alpha Team, where Bae Hyeonseok was team leader, such a thing was impossible.
It was the same as a seven-year-old brat refusing to eat because he didn’t like the side dishes.
As time passed, it would be the kid who went hungry.
Bae Hyeonseok had no intention of making new side dishes for a kid throwing a tantrum over his food.
He’d sooner clear the table entirely.
“Today, we will conduct close protection training for the first time in a while. We will focus more on individual training than tactical training today. In particular, we will proceed mainly with combat training to subdue opponents. Ready?”
“Yes.”
At the words “combat training,” it was Manager An Jibin whose eyes sparkled with unusual brightness.