[Did you see KCN’s evening news yesterday? That was the first time I ever felt that refreshed while watching the news.]
└ [Same. It felt like I’d just chugged a whole bottle of cider.]
└ [That good-looking reporter served up some seriously amazing catharsis.]
[I didn’t think Cobaltman was like that, but he turned out to be a complete scumbag.]
└ [Guess the guy who wrote that article for Cobaltman was a trash journalist.]
[Shouldn’t all of Cobaltman’s hit songs be investigated?]
└ [If that reporter from yesterday investigates them all, I think I’d believe it.]
“Our rookie really did something big. Kuhahaha.”
Department Head Kim Mungil was grinning from ear to ear.
Not only had the reaction to last night’s news report been good, but the reputation of KCN’s News Bureau had also risen.
As if that were not enough, the real-time search rankings on portal sites were plastered with topics related to Cobaltman.
[I have a tip. I worked as an assistant writer on a drama, and my original script was…]
[I was told the lyrics I wrote weren’t to their taste and got rejected, but then a song that was released was almost exactly…]
[I’m also a victim…]
KCN News Bureau’s Culture Department had gone beyond its exclusive report exposing Cobaltman’s mask and had become the starting point of a “Me Too” movement of people saying, “I was robbed too.”
There were many tips, and it would not be an exaggeration to say it had created a major current in the culture industry, enough to become a planned feature segment.
The Me Too movement in Korea that I remembered was something that should not have happened until several years later, but it seemed the report I had done to save K had brought about a new change.
Even my colleagues, who had been bombarded with phone calls because of me, were busy giving me praise.
“Our rookie is seriously amazing.”
“Thanks to Reporter Lee, I managed to make a piece too. Thanks.”
In the warm atmosphere, Go Hakjun added a comment.
“At this rate, won’t Reporter Lee win this month’s reporter award? Wouldn’t that be the first time a rookie reporter has ever won one at our station?”
“Huh? Now that you mention it, that really could happen.”
“Department Head, then shouldn’t our team have a Korean beef dinner?”
I never imagined that what I had done to save K in the reporter’s notebook would come back like this.
I had lived thinking only that if I kept climbing higher, everyone would look up to me. But laughing while facing people like this made me so happy.
It felt better than my article being an exclusive scoop.
However, there seemed to be exactly one person who thought differently.
Tap tap tap.
Sitting at his desk and noisily pounding on his keyboard, Reporter Kim Dusik’s eyes were burning red.
‘Fine. Keep living the way you always have. The higher you climb by doing rotten things, the harder I’ll grab your ankles and drag you down.’
As I laughed with the others, I poured silent mockery toward Kim Dusik in my heart.
Click, click.
Cobaltman stood before the photo line in front of the National Police Agency with his face hidden behind a hat and mask.
“Do you admit to stealing an unknown composer’s song?”
“What happened regarding the drug allegations?”
There was nothing Cobaltman could answer immediately to the reporters’ questions.
“…”
Surrounded by the press and unable to move, Cobaltman barely opened his mouth and said one thing.
“I will cooperate sincerely with the investigation.”
I was watching Cobaltman’s police summons with Camera Reporter Ju Myeongjin in the staff lounge.
After I reported on Cobaltman’s theft of tracks from unknown composers, the Me Too movement that had spread like wildfire gradually quieted down as new drug-related allegations against Cobaltman emerged.
The serious crimes involving Cobaltman’s alleged drug use and distribution quickly gained momentum and led to a wave of follow-up reports.
“How did Senior Kim Dusik dig that up? Shouldn’t you have been the one standing there, hyung?”
After the Cobaltman report, Ju Myeongjin, K, and I came to treat one another like brothers.
Ju Myeongjin, who had joined the company a month later than me and was also one year younger, approached me first and began calling me hyung.
“I’ll treat both of you as my hyungs too.”
K, his pronunciation badly slurred from drinking, promptly joined the ranks of those calling us hyung.
It was the day we all grilled pork belly together at Ju Myeongjin’s place.
“Right. Maybe bad guys recognize other bad guys?”
“What?”
“There’s such a thing.”
I had planned to report on Cobaltman’s drug crimes later, because I could not allow K’s case to be buried.
If I handled the drug article too, his music theft would quickly become nothing in comparison.
I had planned to break it once the theft of his tracks had been sufficiently brought into public discussion and the Me Too atmosphere began to settle.
“If you hadn’t touched Cobaltman, hyung, the drug allegations would probably have come out too. Senior Kim Dusik really is…”
Watching Kim Dusik’s field report, Ju Myeongjin smacked his lips bitterly.
“That is Kim Dusik’s ability, though.”
Kim Dusik must have dug and dug into the irrational reason why a composer with so many hit songs like Cobaltman had stolen the work of unknown composers instead of making songs himself.
“Thugs never commit only one kind of wrongdoing.”
That was also a reporting tip Kim Dusik had taught me in my previous life.
Impatient because of the exclusive I had broken, Kim Dusik must have worked extremely hard to dig up Cobaltman’s other weaknesses.
In the process, he might even have done things a reporter should never do, such as threatening sources or buying them off with money.
‘I was so happy about saving K that I let my guard down around Kim Dusik.’
On the night I appeared on Song Eui-jin’s seven o’clock news, everything in my reporter’s notebook had changed.
[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. The rumor that star composer Cobaltman stole his song is revealed to be true. K regains the rights to his song. Point +1 acquired.]
At last, everything had changed the way I wanted.
There was also a note saying that one point had been acquired, but nothing in particular seemed different, so I had no idea what it meant. Still, I figured it probably was not a bad thing.
‘Was this how Jeong Eunwoo felt living as a reporter? He must have felt joy while writing articles that revealed the injustice suffered by his sources, delivered the truth to the world, and made sure bad people were properly punished.’
When I meet Eunwoo again, I would be able to show him how I had changed.
Exactly one year from now, Eunwoo would join KCN Broadcasting.
Until I met Eunwoo again, I would keep changing the wrongs I had committed in my reporter’s notebook.
When that time came, I should introduce him to Myeongjin and K too.
A few weeks later.
I was sweating bullets trying to stop K’s over-the-top fussing.
“Hyung, I registered my name with the Korea Music Copyright Association. So money came into my bank account, and the amount is…”
“That’s enough! You don’t have to tell me the amount!”
It seemed K, who had earned a large sum of money for the first time in his life, had been unable to sleep all night.
When he showed up in front of my place early on a weekend morning, dark circles hung heavily under his eyes.
“Hyung, you’re the savior of my life. I’m definitely going to repay this debt.”
“Sure. Thanks for saying that, at least.”
“I’m not just saying it. I sold a lot of the songs I’d made too.”
After K was revealed to be the true composer of Wind’s , entertainment agencies lined up so eagerly to buy songs from him that they might as well have taken numbered tickets.
Thanks to that, K was no longer looking at rooftop rooms, but searching for a fairly decent place to live.
“Hyung, you don’t have a car, right? Should I buy you one?”
K pulled car company catalogs out of his bag.
When had he even packed those? At K’s completely sincere behavior, I could not help letting out a small laugh.
‘K, I’m a regressor.’
I could not exactly tell him that while he would earn a fortune as a star composer, I could also become enormously rich. Nor could I tell him that the Kim Young-ran Act would exist in the future. Honestly.
So I answered by simply ruffling cute K’s hair.
There was another person who called me the savior of his life.
“Hyeonwook, thank you so much. You really saved me. Seriously.”
Go Hakjun, who normally would have started his day with instant coffee or orange juice, said that to me while drinking bottled water.
After we went to the hospital together and he learned about his illness, he had become noticeably more careful about his health. He was taking his medicine properly too.
“I told you that you’d end up repaying me, didn’t I?”
“I’ll definitely repay that debt! Whenever you need an extra hand for reporting, I’ll support you no matter what. You didn’t get this month’s reporter award this time, but next time, I’ll take the lead and help you make sure you get it. I mean it!”
This month’s reporter award went to another reporter who had covered defective food products that threatened public safety.
If it had been me in my previous life, I would have simply felt disappointed. But the current me felt a deep, chest-tightening happiness just from seeing Hakjun’s healthy face and knowing his life as a reporter would be longer.
“Make sure you keep that promise.”
“Yes, sir!”
After finishing my conversation with Go Hakjun, I looked over at Reporter Kim Dusik’s now-empty seat.
Kim Dusik had gone to the Social Affairs Department after his effort in reporting on Cobaltman’s drug use and distribution was recognized.
In truth, even without the Cobaltman drug report, Kim Dusik was someone who would have ended up in Social Affairs anyway.
While in the Culture Department, he broadened his network among people in politics and business, and somehow built a powerful backing for himself. Later, he even became the main anchor for the nine o’clock news.
Eventually, he would move all the way to the Political Department, become an overseas correspondent, and then enter politics, but I intended to destroy that future.
Every place his hands passed through ended up crawling with corruption.
“Is Reporter Lee Hyeonwook here?”
“…! President, what brings you here…?”
Department Head Kim Mungil bowed ninety degrees to the gentleman who entered the Culture Department with his secretary, radiating an intimidating presence, without even managing to put his slippers on properly.
“Good morning. I’m Lee Hyeonwook.”
I quickly stood from my seat and greeted him too.
“You’re much more handsome than you looked on the news.”
“You flatter me.”
It was President Ju Yeon-geun, whom I had only seen briefly in my previous life.
He had been forced to leave the company because Kim Dusik had managed to seat someone from his own line as president.
It was the result of his rational and efficient leadership being crushed by people like Kim Dusik, humans who wanted to commit corruption and keep rising triumphantly.
“I’m someone who believes proper reward for results is more important than years of service. Although he is a rookie reporter, I came to give a gift to Reporter Lee Hyeonwook, who first reported the exclusive.”
“In the Culture Department, Reporter Kim Dusik has already been promoted for reporting the drug exclusive…”
Department Head Kim Mungil trailed off, and President Ju Yeon-geun answered him.
“The drug case is big news, of course. But isn’t creating a voice unique to KCN, like with the Me Too movement, just as important an achievement as covering a major case that everyone else is reporting too?”
“Ah, yes. Of course. Absolutely.”
The employees, who had been stunned by the president’s sudden appearance, finally nodded as if they understood.
“Our broadcasting station does not yet have a promotion system for rookie reporters, so I’ll ask you directly what you want. Reporter Lee Hyeonwook, tell me if there is something you want.”
I could hear people whispering here and there.
Ask for a bonus. Ask for a raise.
I sensed it. This was a gift I had to accept.
“Please assign me to the Social Affairs Department, and I’ll work even harder on my reporting.”
“Not a bonus, not a raise, but an assignment to Social Affairs?”
“Yes.”
The reason I had to go to Social Affairs was because I needed to solve the next case in my reporter’s notebook.
[May 9, 20XX. Hanju University graduate student Jeon Yeongsu sent to the emergency room due to Professor Lee Chan’s abuse of power. Jeon Yeongsu is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Professor Lee Chan is released without charges.]
[You can’t even do proper reporting, and you call yourself a reporter….]
Jeon Yeongsu was the son of the landlady of the villa where I lived.
Having watched his tragedy from up close, I had wanted to properly report on what happened to him. But after being cursed out by Kim Dusik, I had been too busy digging into celebrity affair rumors instead.
“Reporter Lee Hyeonwook, report to the Social Affairs Department starting tomorrow.”
“Thank you, President.”
Notes: Kim Young-ran Act, aims to end the cycle of corruption by putting a cap on the price of “gifts” and by criminalizing bribery and solicitation.
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