Chapter 94

“Ah. I never thought my story could be something people would attack...”

It’s been almost ten years. I completely forgot about it.

“...That’s not what I meant. There are more strange people in the world than you’d think. No matter how strong you are, even you, Baek Hanje, would get hurt if you heard malicious things.”

“Ah, well. Haha, anyway. ...Judging by your expression, it looks like you already knew everything before you came.”

When Young Ace was starting to rise, the attempts to tear the members down grew along with the attention toward them.

Because of those malicious attacks, even this fact ended up becoming known to the public.

“There are people like me, whose adoption process was problematic when they were young.”

Back then too, the ones who got angrier than I did and ran around trying to protect me were the members.

So there was no need for him to make that apologetic face.

The Kwon Taeyoung from reality had treated his mother so well that it was hard to tell whether the son she adopted was Baek Hanje or Baek Taeyoung. The other older members were the same.

“I’ve firmly told the broadcasting side not to reveal trainees’ sensitive personal histories. ...Since it was my request, at least they won’t touch Baek Hanje and Gowon, right?”

“Mm, thank you. And I really don’t care that much, so don’t worry about it.”

“Understood.”

“More importantly, there’s something else.”

“What is it?”

“Did you vote for me after watching last week’s broadcast, or not?”

Kwon Taeyoung let out a small laugh.

“Baek Hanje.”

“Yes?”

“Make sure you take first place. I spent a lot of money.”

“Uh... Did you buy extra votes?”

“After actually trying it myself, I understand why people get so passionate about it. When my pick’s ranking dropped, I got annoyed.”

Wow, so after seeing me become second place, he probably bought a paid package and added more votes for me.

“Don’t push yourself too hard because of that, though. You’re already doing more than enough. You must be busy, so let’s leave it here.”

Kwon Taeyoung ended the meeting cleanly, as if he had finished everything he came to discuss.

“CEO Kwon, do you have any plans to start an entertainment company?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“If I could work under someone like you, I was thinking of signing a lifetime contract.”

“...A seven-year renewal cycle. A standard contract is enough.”

Kwon Taeyoung stopped walking, stared at me for a while, then covered the top of my head with his large hand.

“If I could put a team together, I’d want to put you in a group as the youngest member, with lots of older brothers who would put up with all this acting out.”

“......”

Damn.

I’m not exactly a person overflowing with emotions, but right now my nose genuinely stung.

Right after seeing Kwon Taeyoung off, Gowon returned. What perfect timing....

“......”

Ah, this guy. He really can’t hide his expression at all.

He heard everything.

***

Kwon Taeyoung finished his meeting with Baek Hanje and was about to return to the company.

“Hello, CEO Kwon Taeyoung.”

After confirming that he knew the person, he gave a small nod in greeting.

“Yes, Producer. Hello.”

“Did you have a good meeting with the trainee? I heard you came to see Hanje...”

“The two of them came out together, so I met Gowon as well. It was a personal request, but thank you for accommodating it.”

“Not at all. Since I was here, I thought I’d meet you too.”

He finished the brief greetings and was about to continue on his way, but the producer’s obvious attempt to indicate he still had something to discuss forced him to stop.

“Cough, CEO Kwon. I was very impressed by the K-Dom Five advertisement. I didn’t expect you to invest that much in filming with trainees.”

“The two of them performed so well that I became more ambitious as well.”

“In that case, would it be possible for me to recommend a few more trainees?”

“...All of a sudden?”

“You’ve been watching the trainees with genuine interest, so I wanted to introduce you to some others who could do even better. Their agencies are actively promoting them as well, so compared to individual trainees, they would be more beneficial to your company. These are the ones. Their rankings are high too...”

“No, I’m fine—”

“Ah, so that’s how it was.”

Another voice suddenly interrupted from behind the producer.

The producer flinched and turned around.

There stood judge Yunjin.

Damn it.

The producer clicked his tongue internally.

If it had only been Yunjin, who had such a gentle personality, maybe it would have been fine.

But standing behind him was another judge, Big Room, as well.

The two judges who had not been swayed even when he subtly tried to persuade them to add points to certain trainees.

The conversation with Kwon Taeyoung was something that would be rather unpleasant to have exposed to them.

In fact, Big Room looked so displeased that he seemed ready to shout, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Ah, what brings you two here...”

At that moment, Yunjin, still smiling, stretched out his hand in front of the producer’s eyes.

Snap.

His fingers clicked.

“Because the show’s results have been good.”

Snap.

“Looks like requests have started coming in more and more.”

Snap.

“That’s not how it should be. Do you know who made those ratings happen?”

“Uh...”

As if hypnotized, the focus disappeared from the producer’s eyes.

The trigger that Yunjin had planted during the hour-long conversation when the producer had personally called him aside before activated.

I scolded the youngest one and told him to do better, but I was working hard in my own way too.

At the same time as causing an abnormal phenomenon, the other two Young Ace members also froze completely.

Passing through the space between them, Yunjin suppressed his bitter feelings with difficulty.

Then he snapped his fingers once more in front of the producer.

Snap.

The area around the producer, affected by an unknown force, began to distort little by little.

“Who is currently in first place?”

I shouldn’t answer...

That thought was quickly forgotten inside the producer’s mind, and his lips opened on their own.

“Baek Hanje, but Gowon has been catching up, so it’s close...”

“What are you planning to do?”

“First, we need to bring up the trainees from Garo Entertainment and Maybe Entertainment, and place Gowon at an appropriate rank, but as for Baek Hanje, there was a complaint just now saying he would be difficult to control if he ended up on the same team...”

“So?”

“We’ll adjust the sound during the position-based performance to make it look like he ruined the song, then eliminate him in tenth place...”

“Haha. As a producer, you really have no eye for talent. If you could control him properly, Baek Hanje could put that group at the very top of the world.”

“......”

“That kid is loved by God.”

Snap.

After snapping his fingers once more, Yunjin curled and uncurled his hand.

Look at this.

Normally, creating an error severe enough to cause something in his body to tear apart would have been the price.

But because it was helping Baek Hanje, all he felt was a little dizziness.

“Yes, I heard you clearly!”

With that short shout, a sound like a thin layer of sugar glass shattering rang out.

The distortion around the producer disappeared, and the people who had been frozen began moving again.

“Uh... huh? What was I just...”

The producer looked around in confusion.

Kwon Taeyoung frowned slightly, as if he sensed something strange.

Big Room asked, “What?”

Among them, the only person who maintained the same expression and attitude was Yunjin.

The producer soon forced a stiff smile and bowed.

“Then I’ll be leaving now.”

“Ahaha, it seems you have some mysterious business keeping you busy.”

“Th-that’s right...”

The producer disappeared as if fleeing.

As a result, Kwon Taeyoung, Big Room, and Yunjin ended up facing one another in a strange arrangement.

...Ah, damn...

Yunjin pressed a hand against his forehead as intense throbbing pain surged through him.

Really, compared to what it could have been, this level of payment was barely anything.

“Hey, you. You said you were the representative of some company, right?”

At that moment, Big Room called out to Kwon Taeyoung without hiding his hostility.

“What conversation did you have with the producer? He was talking about trainees and something...”

“......”

Kwon Taeyoung did not answer. He only looked at him, as if measuring the person in front of him.

“Alright, everyone. I think that’s why we happened to meet here.”

Suppressing a pained groan and forcing his familiar smile back onto his face, Yunjin clapped his hands.

“CEO Kwon, actually, Judge Big Room and I were about to investigate because we noticed signs that the production crew was illegally pushing a specific contestant.”

“Is that so?”

“Did you notice anything suspicious as well?”

“The producer recommended other trainees from different agencies as models for our company.”

“Oh. Who were they?”

Kwon Taeyoung thought for a moment before answering.

“Even if the situation seems suspicious, I do not want to accuse young contestants who are suffering after appearing on a broadcast without definite evidence.”

“......”

“But I will do my best to investigate from outside what the adults are trying to do.”

Neither side was in a position to clearly answer the question, So are you innocent?

Kwon Taeyoung drew a line and reached the conclusion that they should each do what they could from their own positions.

“Great. If possible, please also spread the word to other investors.”

“Yes.”

Kwon Taeyoung nodded and turned away from the two judges.

He looked like he was leaving without much concern, but he would probably do everything he could to make sure those kids were not treated unfairly.

...He’s still impressive. Our oldest brother.

“Excuse me, CEO Kwon.”

Kwon Taeyoung turned around again at the voice calling him.

A brief thought crossed Yunjin’s eyes as he faced him, but he soon smiled.

“You have such a good impression.”

“......?”

“...Looks like another version of you has accumulated a lot of virtue too. Maybe you treated the people beneath you well.”

Kwon Taeyoung’s expression slowly changed into one of someone looking at a strange cult scammer.

At this point, no matter what nonsense he said, Kwon Taeyoung would probably just find him strange. His words would not carry any weight.

So Yunjin said what he had truly wanted to say.

“I’ll make sure the youngest one and the junior he cares about return safely, no matter what I have to do.”

Not ‘Young Ace Kwon Taeyoung,’ but ‘startup CEO Kwon Taeyoung’ stared intently at Yunjin.

Since he was naturally a composed person, he showed little reaction even to words that sounded like empty nonsense.

After staring at Yunjin for a long time, his lips opened.

“Yunjin.”

Then a large hand reached out.

“You’re my younger brother too.”

“......!”

Kwon Taeyoung’s hand landed directly on top of his head.

It was something the tallest member of the group, the leader, often did to everyone.

Rarely, no, perhaps for the first time, while trapped in the state of being immersed in ■■benevolent ■■, the tension he had been holding tightly finally eased.

Kwon Taeyoung looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings.

“What is this place supposed to be... and why do you and Hanje always end up getting dragged into strange things?”

“You knew?”

“As the leader, do you think I’d have no sense of it?”

“......”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but tell me about it when you come back.”

“...Brother.”

However, Kwon Taeyoung disappeared without giving him a chance to answer.

The role of ‘businessman who invested in <Debut Chart>’ was over, and since an error had occurred as well, the world chose to delete the character.

Like Kwon Taeyoung, the temporarily copied Bangwon Ahn and Big Room did not notice him disappearing right in front of their eyes.

As if nobody had ever been there from the beginning.

“You said you had something to say, but you keep going off track.”

Big Room blocked Yunjin’s path.

“Keep talking about how the judging results are strange. I had my own suspicions too...?!”

Big Room was unable to finish his sentence because Yunjin suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into a hug.

“Young Ace is forever.”

“......?”

Big Room wondered why this crazy musical actor bastard was suddenly acting like this.

But...

“......”

For some reason, he felt like he should leave him alone for a moment.

“No, you know you’re seriously weird, right?”

“...Really?”

“Th-that... sigh. Never mind. Are you sick or something? You look like you have a fever.”

“Yes. I didn’t know, but I guess I was having a hard time.”

“......”

After even hearing his trembling voice, words he normally never would have said slipped out.

“Look... if musical theater is the problem, consider standing on stage in some other way too. When I saw you giving the kids vocal lessons, you were good at K-pop as well.”

And for some reason, he had a baseless certainty that there was a job that suited him even better than being a musical actor.

“......I will. ...Thank you.”

Soon, Yunjin lifted his head.

The corners of his eyes had turned slightly red in such a short time, yet he was still smiling brightly.

“Alright! Then let’s go act like the older brothers among the younger-brother line!”

“What the hell are you...”

“We can do this!”

“Why are you acting like this?!”