“I’d like a proper apology.”

Do Wook’s cold tone made Gu Chul Min, who was driving, glance at Do Wook through the rear view mirror. It was the first time he heard Do Wook have such a tone.

Gu Chul Min asked Do Wook, who had gotten off the phone,

“…who’s on the phone that you’re answering like that?”

“Reporter.”

“Reporter?”

“Yes. Reporter Choi Sung Jun. The one who published that interview…”

“What? What’d that jerk want now?! He contacted you directly?”

Gu Chul Min was furious. The fact that a reporter contacted Do Wook directly instead of going through his manager was enough for him, as a manager, to feel bad, but the reporter was ‘Reporter Choi Sung Jun’ so of course Gu Chul Min would blow his top.

Working under Oh Baek Ho, Gu Chul Min had a friendly and nice image, but now that he was mad, he was pretty fierce.

“What’d that guy say?”

“He said he’ll apologize.”

“What? It’s not something he can just apologize and wash his hands of.”

Gu Chul Min huffed and puffed. Do Wook calmed Gu Chul Min down.

“So I told him that I’d like a proper apology too.”

“Good! But…how?”

“I plan on meeting up with him.”

“What? What if meeting up only…”

Gu Chul Min gazed at Do Wook and expressed his concern.

“I wanted to meet up and formally apologize to you anyways. There’s also something I want to tell you…”

That’s how Reporter Choi Sung Jun replied to Do Wook suggesting to meet up.

‘Something he wants to tell me…’

Do Wook planned to meet with Reporter Choi Sung Jun and make sure he got an apology for the recent incident. Also, he planned on using him in bringing down Seo Kang Jun.

“Don’t worry. Baek Ho will be there too this time.”

“Ah, Manager Oh? Then I’m not worried, but…anyways, when I think about that jerk writing the article maliciously for no reason….”

The car driven by a worked up Gu Chul Min already arrived at the square in front of City Hall.

There were about 5 teams of singers in today’s festival. Do Wook was scheduled to do the ending performance, singing two songs.

“A lot of your fans came today too…”

“You’re right.”

After parking, as they entered the simple tent that was prepared as a waiting room, Do Wook scoped out the situation outside. There were a lot of fans with Key Ring cheering tools. The place was filled with more fans than at the usual events.

It was the first event since the controversy on the internet over the interview. The fans were concerned that Do Wook may be feeling dejected over the bogus controversy.

Thankfully, the controversy disappeared due to the article that was posted today and more people ended up realizing Do Wook’s great personality, but the fans were still worried.

So, they gathered one by one with the mindset of ‘We absolutely have to go today and cheer loudly’, which resulted in a bigger attendance than usual.

“Uh….”

Do Wook, who had entered the tent, stopped as he saw people exchanging greetings. There were a lot of people in black suits, and the atmosphere was very busy.

Gu Chul Min, who was trying to see why Do Wook stopped, said,

“I think the handsome celebrity over there is Seo Jun, who is the MC today…whoever is next to him looks like someone high up.”

Do Wook, who was a little surprised by the fact that the MC for today’s event was Seo Jun, soon nodded his head.

After < Sun and Moon Lovers >, Seo Kang Jun focused on his actor image more than his singer image through individual activities.

The occasional entertainment programs he appeared in were mainly liberal arts programs and, always maintaining a sharp and tidy appearance, created a luxurious image.

Seo Kang Jun’s fans followed him, calling him ‘the benevolent Emperor’.

Currently, his next drama project had also been confirmed, so although M2M was losing ground to KK, Seo Kang Jun himself seemed to still be doing well.

Do Wook turned his gaze to the person who was exchanging greetings with Seo Kang Jun.

“Oh…that must be the mayor of Seoul…”

Since it was an event hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the mayor seemed to have personally attended and exchanged greetings with the major attendees.

Originally there was no time allotted for this, but it came to be because the Seoul major, who had arrived early to the event, suddenly said he wanted to meet with the attendees in the waiting room.

Politicians have one of two opinions on celebrities.

There are many politicians who ignore them, thinking they are far beneath them. But at the same time, politicians are more thirsty for popularity than anyone else. In this regard, there are many who want to be close with popular celebrities.

Maintaining friendships with celebrities is also a symbol of power. They don’t invite celebrities to drinking parties and make them drink as if they are drinking buddies for no reason.

Above all, Do Wook was well aware that politicians and celebrities were intertwined through things like sponsorships and doing dirty things.

Although it was not done directly at Q Entertainment, which he worked at during his days as Kim Bo Myung, he often heard stories of female celebrities from other small and medium-sized companies getting involved.

For that reason, Do Wook didn’t have a good feeling when he saw a politician trying to get close to a celebrity.

Furthermore, Mayor Ko Kyeong Hoon went to college with Ara Entertainment’s Director Seo Joong Won and were members at the same golf resort, so Do Wook could not look at Mayor Ko in a positive light.

‘Director Seo Joong Won’s reach…just how far does it go…?’

Do Wook looked at Seoul’s mayor, who had finished greeting Seo Kang Jun and was heading towards him, with a dead expression.

“Hoho, I’m Ko Kyung Hoon.”

“Hello.”

Putting away his dead expression, Do Wook politely greeted Mayor Ko Kyung Hoon.

“Thank you for coming out. Have a good performance today.”

“Yes.”

Shaking hands, Mayor Ko Kyung Hoon wrapped his hands around Do Wook’s and said to have a good performance again.

He felt a stinging gaze from behind him while he was shaking hands.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you in a while.”

“That’s true, sunbae.”

Straightening out the suit he wore as his MC outfit, Seo Kang Jun casually stood next to Do Wook.

Once Mayor Ko Kyung Hoon and his army of people in suits who assisted him left the tent, there was much more room in the tent. Noticing that others were looking towards him and Do Wook, Seo Kang Jun grinned.

“I hear you’ve been doing well for yourself lately.”

When he laughed and sarcastically said that, Do Wook looked at Seo Kang Jun with an expression conveying he was being ridiculous.

Now he and Seo Kang Jun didn’t hide their malice towards each other. Do Wook had a clear reason for doing so, but it was safe to say that there was only one reason Seo Kang Jun felt malicious toward Do Wook.

Do Wook was better than him and dared to mess with him. To Seo Kang Jun, who had an immature personality, it was reason enough to be malicious.

When Do Wook didn’t say much in return, Seo Kang Jun smirked and provoked Do Wook.

“How long do you think your success will last?”

“That’s true.”

“What?”

“I was returning your question how long you think your success will last, sunbae.”

Seo Kang Jun raised his eyebrows and distorted his face at Do Wook’s words. Then, being aware of his surroundings, he relaxed his expression.

Do Wook found Seo Kang Jun’s pretentiousness laughable.

“Then if you’ll excuse me. I’m busy being successful.”

Do Wook headed to the side where Gu Chul Min had reserved a seat in front of the table where his name was written.

Seo Kang Jun glared at Do Wook’s back.

“That bastard…”

Seo Kang Jun cussed under his breath and suppressed his rising anger. From Seo Kang Jun’s point of view, Do Wook was really like a thorn in his side.

If it weren’t for Do Wook, Seo Kang Jun would have been the only idol-turned-actor with outstanding acting skills and popularity.

It was already unbelievable that M2M lost to KK, but having to share the spotlight as an actor with Do Wook was difficult to bear for Seo Kang Jun.

Director Seo Joong Won, his father, of course was unhappy about Do Wook too.

‘This was a good opportunity to ruin that bastard’s image…but he slipped away like a damn loach…’

Seo Kang Jun walked out of the tent, biting his lower lip.

News Patch had a good symbiotic relationship with Ara Entertainment. In exchange for not getting paparazzi shots of Ara Entertainment celebrities, Ara Entertainment released big stories to News Patch first.

Of course, there was a lot of money behind the scenes. Ara Entertainment regularly paid News Patch to keep quiet.

Director Seo Joong Won stealthily shared his negative feelings about KK and Kang Do Wook while drinking with the News Patch Director.

The Director of News Patch was already fully aware of the two groups’ rivalry.

He also knew that Ara Entertainment was suffering these days because M2M was not doing as well as they thought it would.

“I’d be so grateful if you’d take care of it for us, Director Chae.”

“Ah…even we can’t put words in people’s mouths. And nothing good will come out of turning our back on Do Wook, who’s very popular these days.”

“Is Do Wook the only star? Are you scared of a ‘no-name store’ like HIT Entertainment? I didn’t think you were that kind of person, Director Chae, but I guess you’re a smaller man than I thought.”

“Do I get anything in return if I buy my things at a ‘supermarket’?”

“This isn’t your first day on the job, why are you being like that?”

“Well…we’ll check from time to time if there’s an opportunity.”

Publishing one ‘click-bait’ article wasn’t going to cause a big issue anyways.

Rather, all the clicks would lead to increased ad revenue, and if they gave some kind of apology, a small company like HIT obviously would not be able to do much about it.

***

A few days later, Reporter Choi Sung Jun was waiting for Do Wook at the agreed location.

He was going to apologize, but there were also things he had to explain. Actually, the article Choi Sung Jun wanted to publish wasn’t that kind of content.

The article that was published as a redaction was the article Choi Sung Jun originally wrote.

It was true that he had animosity towards idols, and that because of it he conducted the interview with a perverse attitude just because Do Wook was part of the ‘idol’ category, but he did not intend to release the article like that.

As the interview progressed, Choi Sung Jun had to rethink his opinion on Do Wook even if he didn’t want to admit it.

No matter how he asked a question in a crooked way, each and every answer he received back was straight. Even his preconceived notions about idols inevitably broke down in front of ‘the real deal’.

It was the manager who stole Choi Sung Jun’s article.

“You think you can get clicks like this? Reporter Choi, are you a Kang Do Wook stan?”

Choi Sung Jun, who had submitted the article to the manager for review but was handed it back, couldn’t help but feel bewildered.

“If we release it like this….”

“What?! You might not know because you come from local news, but this is how it’ll sell, we have to do it like this.”

It was as the manager said.

When the article was published as edited by the manager, the article received a huge number of clicks. At the same time, controversy over Kang Do Wook’s personality spread rapidly.

Choi Sung Jun felt rather fortunate to be able to publish a redaction.

However, Choi Sung Jun thought he was also responsible for conducting the interview with such questions. He wanted to at least apologize properly for that.

Just as Do Wook remembered, he was the older brother of a victim of school violence by Seo Kang Jun.

Choi Sung Jun’s younger brother suffered from school violence by Seo Kang Jun in clever ways, leaving his body and mind devastated.

Choi Sung Jun’s younger brother, who was already weak, couldn’t stand Seo Kang Jun’s bullying and attempted suicide.

Thankfully, he stopped after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, but normal social activities were impossible. After dropping out of school, the younger brother was living holed up in his room.

Watching his youngest sibling go through that, Choi Sung Jun and other family members had to live in shock and disappointment.

However, because Seo Kang Jun harassed him in such a clever way, they couldn’t even proceed with the lawsuit. It was a fight they were clearly going to lose.

In the meantime, Seo Kang Jun had debuted as an idol.

Choi Sung Jun, who was working as a local reporter, was as shocked as when his brother attempted suicide. The one who trampled on his brother’s life was on television, smiling brightly.

—

Next chapter: Do Wook and Reporter Choi learn more about each other

Translator’s comments: I approve of Do Woo’s sass!!

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