The Villainous Member Has Returned! Episode 62
With Gao Yan tucked under my arm, I slowly began to read through the contents of those rumors.
The comments could wait.
The comments on my Outgram had to be checked at the very, very last moment.
Only then would calm judgment be possible.
“Hyung, don’t tell me you really took money in-game and didn’t hand over the items? You can be honest. Gao Yan also accidentally bought something worth 5,000 won for 50,000 won when he first came to Korea.”
Having a person tucked under my arm made staying calm a bit difficult, but still.
“No, you punk. Be quiet!”
“Mmph!”
Gao Yan, his mouth covered, squirmed for a moment, but when no words came back from me as I stared at my phone screen, he soon went quiet.
He acts like he might bolt off in any direction, but surprisingly, he reads the mood well in moments like this.…
Anyway.
[
[I got scammed by a brat on an idol survival show before… It was a game scam, lol. KCY < This is definitely him, 100 percent.]
There were plenty of others, but those two took up the biggest share.
Dating, fraud issue. To be precise, game item fraud.
To think two out of the three things an idol trainee absolutely shouldn’t do were present. My, oh my.
“It’s a complete mess…”
“A mess! Does that mean there are many dogs? How interesting.”
“That dog isn’t really a dog. Whatever… forget it.”
That wasn’t even important right now.
I tried to add a few more words to Gao Yan but ended up shutting my mouth.
It wasn’t that I was pretending not to know because I didn’t understand well; I was afraid I’d redirect my frustration about the current situation onto Gao Yan.
There was no way I was in a good mood.
And now it looked like things were going to explode because of me. Not even funny.
When my fingers checking the screen went still, Gao Yan suddenly sprang up with overflowing vigor and shouted.
“Chunyong Hyung. Since you said you didn’t scam anyone with game items, I’ll now say what I was trying to say earlier!”
“I told you, they can hear outside—”
“They can’t hear you here even if you shout! There’s soundproofing! So, what Gao Yan wants to say right now is this.”
Gao Yan, his shoulders even heaving to persuade me, soon muttered in an uncharacteristically quiet, hushed voice.
On his sharp features illuminated by the vocal room’s dim lighting, there was nothing but genuine worry rather than the confidence he usually showed.
“In this situation, the person who would commit such malicious acts is already decided. An irreconcilable enemy of Chunyong Hyung that I don’t know. If not that, then as Gao Yan said earlier, Liu Wei.”
“…….”
“But it’s hard to imagine you having such an enemy, so it must definitely be Liu Wei. Gao Yan’s thinking is correct. One hundred percent. Chunyong Hyung can’t deny it either.”
He was right.
Well, earlier I had covered Gao Yan’s mouth because I thought people outside might hear….
I didn’t think the premise that Liu Wei was the one behind this was wrong either.
He’d already contacted my former agency, Queens, trying to dig up dirt on me. It would be strange if something like this didn’t blow up.
He’s unusually impatient, and a bit quick about it, but.
“…Yeah. I think it’s Liu Wei too. No, it is. This is Liu Wei’s doing.”
“I thought you’d agree! Then Chunyong Hyung, where do we start?”
“What? Start what all of a sudden?”
“We have to clear your name and get revenge immediately. Gao Yan is already prepared. Just leave it to me!”
Ah, if I’d known he’d react like that, I shouldn’t have agreed so quickly!
Unable to hide my bewilderment amid the swirling emotions, I pressed my forehead.
An already complicated situation had become even more complicated.
With the interim rank announcement approaching and something like this blowing up, it was obvious that my ranking, which had been rising through Outgram and Witube videos, would drop.
Not to mention the surrounding gazes, the endless stream of comments, and the label that would follow me throughout the broadcast.
Of course, given my record, I myself wouldn’t be too badly hurt….
What was important lay elsewhere.
“…….”
I bit my lip tightly as I reconnected to the tabloid article portal I’d visited earlier.
[(Photo) A man presumed to be Trainee K’s father and his girlfriend. Confirmed to be already acquainted as family.]
[(Photo) Trainee K moving with his lover right after the second vacation of
The faint figure visible in that photo was none other than my sister, Kim Bomi.
To be precise, it was a photo from that day when my dad and Bomi Noona came to take me to the dorm and ran into Logan in the parking lot.
Strength naturally entered the hand holding my phone.
“They even got the vacation date wrong, these bastards….”
This was from the first vacation, and during the second vacation, I was even with Jaeha Hyung.
“Chunyong Hyung, what did you say? We’re taking revenge right now? Starting with a clarification video! As expected, your spirit is extraordinary!”
“No!”
The single most decisive difference between my villainous member days and now.
It was the fact that my family members were currently living their daily lives intact.
This was different from the other rumors cooked up just to take me down.
The decisive reason I’d made up my mind to come back.
It was atonement for my family and the Arrows members.
But.…
For my family to get caught up in something like this because of me.
Liu Wei, that son of a bitch.
But I barely swallowed down the surging indignation and spoke to Gao Yan in a calm voice.
“I heard you, Gao Yan. But… I’m not going to issue a separate clarification for this. I won’t go to the production staff either.”
“What!”
All sorts of sentences floated across Gao Yan’s face upon hearing my words.
Anger, absurdity, even thoughts like, ‘Hyung, was he a man destined to end up like that?’
“Chunyong Hyung. Was he a man destined to end up like that! To act this way even in this situation—this isn’t kindness, it’s stupidity! Chunyong Hyung, you idiot!”
Wait, that was actually something he said out loud.
“…You punk. I have something to say! Calling your hyung, who just went through something like this, an idiot?”
“I called you an idiot because you wouldn’t understand if I cursed at you in Cantonese!”
“Just listen for a moment. Huh? I’m saying I won’t clarify ‘this matter.’ Understand?”
“…What do you mean?”
I patted his shoulder to calm him down and added.
“All the rumors that have come out now have insufficient evidence; they’re nothing more than tabloid trash gossip without even a single proper verification. For things like this, clarifying would actually fan the flames.”
Some rumors blow up precisely hoping the target will clarify.
They blow up hoping for the anxiety, depression, and worry the person feels before uttering the words, “That’s not true.”
And when such clarifications come out, the majority of reactions are, “He must have really done it if he’s lying about it.”
Therefore, I had no intention of responding one by one to such garbage-like rumors.
Of course.
That didn’t mean I’d just sit still, sobbing in depression, drinking alcohol, and popping psychiatrist’s pills like candy.
“I’ll just tell you. The reason I tried to persuade Li Mingshen was because that was the most moderate way to deal with Liu Wei.”
“…Why are you telling Gao Yan that right now?”
“It means I won’t be using that method anymore.”
And I’ll be getting your help too. Haha….
Gao Yan, seeing my smile, slightly flinched his shoulders and furrowed his brow.
Ah, I must have looked a bit scary.
I touched my slightly stiffened lips and clicked my tongue.
Given my face looks like this, even when I’m angry, smiling really doesn’t help.
Yeah. I was angry.
* * *
Kim Chunyong wasn’t the only one angry at this series of events caused by Liu Wei’s high-handed actions.
“Did what I said about needing a proper reason fall on deaf ears?”
Shin Gi-ho, AG’s tiger, was no different.
The veins bulging in his tightly gripping hand and his sunken voice explained for him just how furious he was right now.
— It was necessary. If not, his rank would have kept rising above mine.
The person on the other end of the phone seemed nonchalant, however.
“Liu Wei, you arrogant little shit!”
Shin Gi-ho’s shout, finally exploding, rang through the office.
“From what point did you start ignoring me? That much, I was a fool not to know. Climbing over an adult without fearing heaven—who wouldn’t see that?”
— …….
“But this case is different. This time, you contacted your ‘sponsors’ directly without going through me. Do you even know what that means?”
— …I wouldn’t have done this if I didn’t know. This was the picture I wanted from the beginning.
“This is the picture you wanted? Yeah, Kim Chunyong’s interim rank will probably come out lower than yours because of this. You were already 4th, and he’ll drop from where he is now to 7th, maybe even 8th. Splendid.”
— Yes. The followers he needs for his mission are dropping too. And that means my thinking was right—
“No. This is temporary.”
Shin Gi-ho carefully chose his words, fiddling with the lighter on his desk with his fingertips.
“The rumors you spread have too little evidence. I’m sure I told you. Rumors that only tabloids would like last only a moment even if you spread them.”
Whether Liu Wei muttered something in Chinese over the phone or not, Shin Gi-ho’s mouth didn’t know how to stop.
“…Kim Chunyong. Will that guy himself just sit still and watch this?”
— …….
“No matter how much of a backless nobody he is, things have gone this far. Can you guarantee that the mouse won’t bite the cat?”
— …He can’t even become a mouse in the first place.
When Shin Gi-ho earnestly mentioned ‘that’ name, Liu Wei’s voice rose ever so slightly.
To the point that it wouldn’t be noticeable.
—I’m not a cat either. And if he does that, the one who should prepare for the aftermath isn’t me, it’s you.
“Your voice rose. Are you angry?”
However, having watched Liu Wei for a long time and having gone through enough social life to be thoroughly jaded, Shin Gi-ho couldn’t possibly miss that.
“Yeah. Now I definitely know why you kept mentioning Kim Chunyong. I don’t know the reason, but you found him unpleasant. You hated someone better than you.”
— …….
At Shin Gi-ho’s words, Liu Wei fell silent.
Rather than being flustered, it was closer to an attitude of wanting to hear more.
As if responding to that, Shin Gi-ho gritted out in a low voice.
“Whatever the case, you’ve made a terrible move. You’ve declared you won’t listen to me like this—do you really think I’ll keep pushing to debut you? Is that what you think?”
— …I suppose you believe the sponsors will stay still.
“It would change if a business partner says so. Until you did this, our goals were in perfect alignment. Instead of receiving capital to grow the company, I would debut you gloriously under control. ‘Under control.’”
— …….
“But now you’re not listening to me at all. And they’ve come to know that through this incident too.”
This time, Liu Wei truly fell silent.
However, Shin Gi-ho could roughly imagine the expression Liu Wei was making over the phone.
A face coldly subdued as always. Arrogant features saying you can never understand me.
At the face floating up in his mind, Shin Gi-ho lightly clicked his tongue and clacked the gun-shaped lighter.
The flame coming from the end of the lighter was blue.
Just like Liu Wei, who always pretended to be composed and calm but was boiling inside.
“Yeah. If that guy can’t even become a mouse, he can’t bite you either. You’d best hope for that. So would I. Cleaning up the mess is really, fuck, a bothersome task.”
Liu Wei, who had been listening quietly to Shin Gi-ho’s words, slowly opened his mouth over the phone.
A heavy, slightly cracked voice.
A voice that made one wonder if this might be Liu Wei’s ‘real’ voice.
— …Don’t forget. Whether I’ve escaped your control, whether you like it or not.
If I end up in the debut range in the end anyway, I must debut unconditionally.
— Unconditionally.
With those words, the call ended.
“An ill-mannered brat….”
Shin Gi-ho, who had thrown his phone onto the office sofa, chewed the inside of his cheek and tried to sort out the current situation in his head.
The malicious rumor targeting Kim Chunyong that Liu Wei had spread through his sponsors.
And Kim Chunyong, who must have realized by now that it was Liu Wei’s doing.
As Shin Gi-ho had told Liu Wei earlier, Kim Chunyong was nothing more than a powerless trainee with no backing….
‘For that guy to have persuaded a couple weathered by Wall Street. From that point on, evaluating him as just a mere trainee was a foolish thing to do.’
That was why he had tried to approach carefully, with a method that absolutely couldn’t be escaped.
“Damn it….”
At his plan that had become so tangled it was completely bound, Shin Gi-ho barely held back from screaming and pressed his forehead.
A businessman was more superstitious and sensitive to jinxes than anyone.
When things that were going well suddenly went strangely awry.
That either meant he had done something very wrong, or….
It meant a being he couldn’t handle had intervened.
In this case, both.
From the beginning, taking in a trainee to push Liu Wei—an uncontrollable subject—because of the investors.
And the appearance of Kim Chunyong, a trainee he couldn’t figure out how to handle.
“This is driving me crazy….”
The quietly muttering Shin Gi-ho looked at the photo of Kim Chunyong smiling, baring his canines, on his computer screen.
He was, after all, none other than the tiger of AG himself.
This incident too, like usual, should have been something he could handle by scolding Liu Wei severely and finding a way to break through.…
Yet for some reason, he felt as if he was the one who would get bitten.