‘I’ll save him no matter what!’
As I moved out of the office with only that thought in mind, I felt Reporter Kim Dusik’s stinging gaze on me.
“To you, this probably just looks like an exclusive. Even though someone’s life is on the line.”
I felt like killing the version of myself from before my regression, the one who had followed Reporter Kim Dusik and felt pleased to have gotten into his line.
As I rode in the reporting vehicle, I opened my laptop and checked the article I had written.
[Composer K Hopes to Spark a Blaze in the Music Industry with His Passion for Music]
To the left of the headline was a thumbnail of the photo I had received from K.
At the end of the headline, there was a red [NEW] mark showing that this was one of today’s latest articles, along with the number “500+.”
It meant that more than five hundred comments had been posted on this article.
Click.
I clicked the article and scrolled down on the trackpad to look through the comments.
[I am Composer K, the person who made Wind’s <With Me>, which is currently number one on the music chart. After reading my interview article, I simply could not keep my mouth shut any longer, so I want to reveal the truth.]
The content of K’s comment was simple.
Cobaltman had stolen his sound source, had not paid him proper compensation, and had threatened him, saying he would not let him off if K told anyone about it.
[Why would Cobaltman need to do that?]
└ [Physiognomy is science.]
└ [What are you talking about? Do you even have a mirror at home?]
[Is it real that some nobody composer is trying to smear our unnie right now?]
└ [I saw this while trying to push our unnie up the trending searches. Am I supposed to believe it?]
└ [Ugh, this is so annoying. Our fan club isn’t going to stay quiet!]
[If this is true, Cobaltman needs to be kicked out of the music industry.]
└ [No wonder his eyes have looked off lately.]
[I was actually victimized too.]
└ [Do you have proof?]
└ [And who are you supposed to be?]
All sorts of comments were pouring in.
The reason the interview article about an unknown composer had spread this far was because of Wind’s fan club and their efforts on the real-time search rankings.
While searching to push “Wind – With Me” up the real-time search terms, they had seen K’s comment.
People still did not believe it, but it looked as if an additional victim had appeared.
“Isn’t Cobaltman a mega-hit composer? I heard his monthly copyright royalties are no joke. Why would someone like that steal a song from an unknown composer?”
“…I think he really did steal it.”
“You sound certain, Reporter.”
Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin tilted his head as he checked the camera battery.
I could not tell him that I had seen everything in the future.
I also could not tell him that the rumor had been buried because K died, but that Cobaltman’s habit of stealing songs from unknown composers would later be revealed as true, and that he would be permanently expelled from the music industry after committing even worse crimes.
Rrrrring.
I kept calling K throughout the ride, but he did not answer.
“Please…”
I intended to keep trying without giving up until K picked up.
But soon, even those unanswered calls had no choice but to stop.
“The customer’s phone is turned off, so you will be connected to voicemail…”
“Reporter Lee, where should we go?”
“Driver, please park at Café Sweetid in Hongdae for now and wait there.”
In response to the reporting vehicle driver’s question, I told him the place where I had met K the day before.
During the interview yesterday, K had mentioned that he lived in a rooftop room near the café, and the photo K had provided also showed the scenery around his rooftop room, so finding his home would not be too difficult.
But since other reporters had obviously already swarmed there, securing his safety took priority over getting additional reporting.
“Reporter Ju Myeongjin, leave the camera behind for now and come with me.”
“Yes? Without the camera?”
While the reporting vehicle driver parked, I shared my plan with Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin.
We found K’s home sooner than expected.
As soon as we entered an alley packed with multi-family houses near Café Sweetid, a group of reporters was already shouting noisily.
“Mr. K, are you inside?”
“We have questions about the comment you wrote today.”
“Is it true that Cobaltman threatened you?”
“Did Wind know it was your song when she sang it?”
The reporters kept banging on the front door of the flimsy rooftop room, which looked like it could barely keep out the wind, and shouting.
“Hey, can you keep it down?”
“Waaah, waaah!”
“You woke up our baby!”
Even the neighborhood residents were shouting at the reporters’ thoughtless reporting frenzy.
It was such a spectacle that even passersby had no choice but to stop and stare.
The reporters who had made it all the way to the front of the rooftop room were excited at the thought of getting an exclusive, while the reporters lined up on the narrow stairs with no way to do anything looked miserable.
“They’re all too much. Seriously.”
I did not want to believe that had once been me.
No wonder Jeong Eunwoo had despised me so much.
Standing at the first-floor entrance of the multi-family building, I signaled to Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin.
“Just trust me.”
Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin pulled the hood of his hoodie over his head, put on sunglasses, and mouthed the words.
Now that he had taken off his reporting uniform, the hoodie and the sunglasses borrowed from the reporting vehicle driver made excellent disguise items for Reporter Ju Myeongjin.
“Mr. K? Aren’t you Mr. K? You are Mr. K, right? I’m Reporter Lee Hyeonwook from KCN Broadcasting, the one who interviewed you yesterday.”
I shouted loudly, as if making sure every reporter whose attention was focused on the rooftop room could hear me.
“What?”
“K?”
“Where? Where?”
“Is that really K?”
The group of reporters murmured loudly and quickly moved down to the first floor, where my voice had come from.
“You have the wrong person.”
Ju Myeongjin pretended to be K and quickly ran into another alley.
As expected of someone who seemed to have experience chasing fleeing interview subjects, his back looked like that of a fairly convincing fugitive.
The reporters, who had been ready to stake out the place until the rooftop room door opened, instinctively began running after the suspicious man.
Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin became the Pied Piper, leading every last reporter away into the alley.
“…….”
At last, a quiet silence settled over K’s rooftop room.
Standing in front of it, I carefully opened my mouth.
“Mr. K. It’s me, Lee Hyeonwook.”
“…….”
There was no answer.
Surely not. It couldn’t be, right?
A scene I did not even want to imagine flashed through my mind, and goosebumps rose all over my arms.
“I’m not here to report on you. I came to save you, Mr. K. It’s dangerous if you stay here. Other reporters might come again, and Cobaltman’s side might also…”
And that was true.
Cobaltman often gave interviews with a pleasant expression and frequently appeared in behind-the-scenes footage from girl group album recording sites, packaging his image in a positive light.
But he associated with shady people in room salons and even got involved with drugs.
The public reason he would be permanently expelled from the music industry was the theft of sound sources, but the reason his agency, SOME Entertainment, cut him off was drugs.
“This is more dangerous than you think, Mr. K. I’m just going to come in. I’m sorry.”
I stepped back as far from the rooftop room’s front door as I could.
Then I ran at full speed and threw my whole body at it.
Crash!
The aluminum front door, which looked like it was no help at all in terms of security, buckled. I forced it back and forth with a rattling sound, and the door opened easily.
The moment I stepped inside, I could not help but be shocked.
Because I saw K collapsed on the floor, with unidentified white pills scattered beside him.
Huff, huff. Breathing roughly, Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin opened the passenger-side door of the reporting vehicle and collapsed into the seat.
Instead of the hoodie he had been wearing when we split up, he was now dressed in a white short-sleeved shirt.
“The reporters, huff, were really persistent. Huff, huff.”
“Here. Wet your throat.”
When Ju Myeongjin saw the bottled water the driver handed him, color returned to his face.
Gulp, gulp.
“Ah, now I can live. I hid for a little while, threw away the hoodie and the sunglasses, and came out. They didn’t recognize me.”
“You threw away the sunglasses?”
“Ah, well…”
“Do you know what kind of sunglasses those were? My daughter bought them for me with the money she earned from her part-time job!”
“Driver, I’ll buy you a new pair.”
I quickly cut in and spoke to the driver.
“Those sunglasses, you see. My daughter told me to use them when I’m working……”
“I’ll get you designer ones.”
“…Really?”
“Yes.”
We had all made it out safely. What was buying him a pair of designer sunglasses compared to that?
“Gasp!”
Just then, Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin saw K beside me and inhaled in surprise.
“You’re seeing him for the first time, right, Reporter Ju? This is Composer K.”
K, who was still trembling with anxiety, silently bowed his head.
“H-Hello?”
The driver, whose mood had improved because of the designer sunglasses, explained things to the startled Ju Myeongjin.
“I really thought we were going to be handling a corpse today. Our Reporter Lee carried this man on his back and opened the car door, and this fellow’s eyes had rolled back……”
When I had barely managed to carry K to the reporting vehicle, K blinked and regained consciousness.
K had not collapsed because he had taken the pills.
The white pills were sedatives, but he had fainted before even putting them in his mouth.
It seemed the combination of reporters suddenly swarming his home and the threatening text from Cobaltman had landed like a counterpunch.
“Reporter Lee, what should we do now?”
“We should pay them back for what they did.”
At Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin’s question, now that he had finally caught his breath, I grinned and answered.
“I don’t know if it’s all right for me to impose on you like this…”
After dropping us off at Ju Myeongjin’s place, the reporting vehicle driver returned to the station.
K looked extremely apologetic as he entered Ju Myeongjin’s home.
Unlike the stale semi-basement villa I lived in, his place was a clean and comfortable newly built apartment in the twenty-pyeong range.
“Ju Myeongjin is the broadcasting station president’s nephew, so a place like this isn’t exactly surprising.”
He had been born with a silver spoon. When he first joined the station, he had hidden that fact, and I still remembered how betrayed I felt when it was revealed later.
A guy who got hired thanks to his uncle. I had thought that if I had that kind of background too, I could live as righteously as he did.
But now I knew.
I knew that he had joined fair and square through his own ability, and I knew what kind of character it took to pursue justice from a position like that.
That was why I had specifically asked Department Head Kim Mungil for Ju Myeongjin.
“The article went out under my name, so my place is in danger too.”
I added that to reassure K.
I also wanted to tell him that I would protect him to the end, but I held it back in case K found it strange.
For now, simply seeing K’s unharmed face was enough.
Rrrrrrring.
A call came from Department Head Kim Mungil.
“Report.”
“I’m at Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin’s house with K right now. Today and tomorrow, I’ll do additional reporting and make an article.”
“Are you confident?”
He was asking whether I could land an exclusive scoop.
Honestly, I was not confident.
Not confident that I would be able to avoid sending Cobaltman straight to ruin.
“Please schedule a studio appearance on tomorrow evening’s news. I’ll break something big.”
“Let’s look at the article first and then talk.”
The cautious Reporter Kim Mungil was not the kind of person who answered based on his mood.
But by tomorrow, things would go the way I said.
After all, KCN Broadcasting would not miss the true face of Cobaltman, a star composer under SOME Entertainment, one of the top three agencies in the country.
[March 7, 20XX. Interview with Composer K. Canceled because of a reporting errand for Senior Kim Dusik. Committed suicide not long after due to financial hardship.]
After ending the phone call with Department Head Kim Mungil, I checked the reporter’s notebook and saw that the part about K’s suicide had been crossed out too.
Feeling much more at ease, I calmly explained to K and Ju Myeongjin the detailed plan for where we would go today and tomorrow, and what kind of reporting we would do.
Because it was time to report Cobaltman’s rumor to the world as fact.
Leave a Reply