Rookie Talent Agent Knows It All-Chapter 734: Past and Present (1)

[Everyday V13]

[Date: March 14, 2021]

-09:00 a.m. [NEW. Choi Deok-Bae]

The Omniscient Viewpoint March 13th broadcast. Online replay deletion notice.

(Emergency meeting: Fallout from tabloid article about Chae Mi-Hyun and Kang Eun-Gi.)

The Omniscient Viewpoint aired at 11 p.m. on Saturdays, and around two hours after the main broadcast ended, MBS began offering the VOD replay online. But by tomorrow morning, this episode's replay would be removed.

This episode's first segment featured Choi Deok-Bae – Talent Agent Jung Yoon-Ho Episode, while the second and third focused on Chae Mi-Hyun – Talent Agent Kang Eun-Gi Episode. Since the VOD had no commercial breaks, the file was uploaded as a single combined video. So if there was an issue with even one part, the whole file had to be taken down.

Thankfully, Deok-Bae wasn't in serious trouble, but the situation could be critically damaging for Chae Mi-Hyun and Kang Eun-Gi.

'Are they both in trouble? Or just one of them?'

In truth, both Chae Mi-Hyun and Kang Eun-Gi had vulnerabilities that could stir public backlash. Chae Mi-Hyun, though beloved as the queen of rom-coms, had hidden the existence of her brother with developmental disabilities from the public for years. As for Kang Eun-Gi, he had a criminal record as a former member of a violent gang.

In other words, depending on how the media frames the situation, both of them could face severe public condemnation. The fact that this surfaced right before the broadcast could only mean one thing—someone had deliberately leaked the tabloid.

At that moment, Kim Ae-Ryeon's warning flashed through my mind.

'Come to think of it, didn't Vice Chairman Kim Ae-Ryeon warn me to be careful of President Yoo Kang-Seok?'

Everyday schedule entries were usually updated when I encountered or heard about someone connected to the issue. This meant Yoo Kang-Seok, the president of TNT Entertainment, was highly likely to be behind the tabloid. And his ultimate target wasn't Chae Mi-Hyun or Kang Eun-Gi. It was me.

I immediately unbuckled my seatbelt and turned to Lee Mi-Ri. "Mrs. Lee, could you drop Yoo-Jin off at her place? Drive safe."

"Where are you headed?"

"Oh, I think I need to go see Eun-Gi."

"Got it, Mr. Jung."

I got out of the car and headed straight to Reverse Entertainment by taxi.

***

I arrived at Reverse Entertainment around 7 p.m. When I rushed up to the president's office, Kang Eun-Gi and Lee Soo-Chan greeted me.

"Oh? What brings you here without notice?" Kang Eun-Gi asked.

"How's the situation with the reporters being handled?"

To help create a favorable narrative for the upcoming broadcast of The Omniscient Viewpoint, Reverse Entertainment had already reached out to key reporters.

Kang Eun-Gi assured me with confidence. "Pretty good. We've taken care of most of the entertainment reporters."

Lee Soo-Chan backed him up. "Yes, hyung-nim. We've covered Baro Star, Entertainment All Times, Star Exclusive, and Starpatch—all of them."

If the tabloid still got out despite their efforts, it meant those reporters had betrayed them.

I said, "It looks like they've betrayed us."

Kang Eun-Gi tilted his head in confusion. "Betrayed us? What do you mean?"

"President Yoo of TNT Entertainment is probably trying to corner me. He must've paid them more than you did."

The reason Yoo Kang-Seok went to such lengths to leak the tabloid was obvious. He wanted to drag down Kang Eun-Gi's image to pull mine down with it. After all, the real target was me.

At that moment, Lee Soo-Chan clenched his fists and looked ready to storm out of the office. "I'll go grab that bastard Yoo Kang-Seok right now!"

"Soo-Chan. You've already cleaned your hands of that stuff. If you start throwing punches without proof, we won't be dealing with tabloids anymore. It'll be real news, and bad."

Lee Soo-Chan fumed. "So we're just supposed to sit here and take the hit?"

"Come on, you know that's not happening."

"Then what should we do?"

Kang Eun-Gi stepped in to calm the fired-up Lee Soo-Chan. "You really think Yoon-Ho came here without a plan? Just hold on, Soo-Chan."

Realizing his mistake, Lee Soo-Chan nodded. "I'm sorry."

Kang Eun-Gi looked at me. "You've got something, right?"

"Of course."

"I knew it. So what do we do now?"

"First, we need to send out the personal investigators and start digging into President Yoo Kang-Seok's movements."

"President Yoo's movements?"

"Yeah. That guy's probably going around meeting reporters non-stop. If we tail him, we'll find something."

Lee Soo-Chan said he would contact their go-to agency, The Best Detective Agency, right away.

"Got it, hyung-nim."

While he handled that, I reached out to reporters: Jang Moon-Ki from Weekly Star, Choi So-Hye from Star Exclusive, and Han Yeon-Hong from Starpatch to check if they had heard anything about a tabloid on Chae Mi-Hyun or Kang Eun-Gi. However, it seemed they were investigating under deep cover. No word came back.

Lastly, Kang Eun-Gi started digging through BM Report, a rumor tracker the company managed.

The current time was 7:10 p.m. We had 3 hours and 50 minutes until The Omniscient Viewpoint aired.

***

Around 10 p.m., Lee Soo-Chan took a call.

"Yeah? Oh, okay. Got it."

Lee Soo-Chan hung up and spoke with a grim look.

"Yoo Kang-Seok's out in Apgujeong and Sinsa with Mapo Treecreeper."

He showed us a few photos that had just come in.

Kang Eun-Gi frowned. "Yup, that's Mapo Treecreeper."

I asked, "Who is he?"

"His name is Yeo Soo-Gil. Back during the Kanghan gang days, he was a junkie who messed with drugs. I beat him out of the crew back then."

Kang Eun-Gi had never touched drugs or women during his gang days. He loathed both and had made a fortune from construction, clubs, and alcohol wholesale without them.

One day, Yeo Soo-Gil—thirty-years-old at the time—tried to get his hands on drugs being smuggled in from China. When Kang Eun-Gi found out, he kicked him out. That was how Yeo Soo-Gil became Mapo Treecreeper.

"So now Mapo Treecreeper's teamed up with President Yoo. Maybe he's planning to testify about your past in the gang?"

Kang Eun-Gi's expression was bitter. Even after serving his sentence, the past didn't just go away.

However, I reassured Kang Eun-Gi and turned to Lee Soo-Chan. "Soo-Chan, do we have any photos of him with reporters?"

"No. He's only hitting places with VIP rooms, probably for security. We've got people staking out locations in case they catch him meeting anyone."

"So we still don't know which reporters he's meeting?"

"Unfortunately, no. But just now, we got word Mapo Treecreeper and President Yoo split up. What now?"

'What else? We go after him. If we can't identify the reporters, we dig into Mapo Treecreeper. We'll find out who he met.'

"Where exactly are they now?"

"They're in Itaewon."

"Okay. Let's head straight to Mapo Treecreeper."

Now that we knew who he was and that he was the supplier, it was game on. Digging up information had just become a piece of cake.

***

In front of a small building near the Starbucks in Itaewon, five employees from The Best Detective Agency, who had been alerted in advance, greeted us.

"The office on the second floor belongs to the New World Loan Agency. Mapo Treecreeper, Yeo Soo-Gil, just went up there."

"Is it a gang office?"

"It's not under police watch yet, so not officially, but give it time. It's a loan business with five employees. It's bound to evolve into one."

Loan companies handled money, and that often made them ripe for gang activity.

"Who's the owner?"

"Someone named Kim Dae-Myung."

At that moment, I couldn't believe it and asked again. "Is he about 185 cm, always has a buzz cut, and has a scar on his left temple?"

"Yes, sir. How'd you know that much detail? That's exactly him."

Kim Dae-Myung was my sunbae from the boxing club I used to go to. I was the one who gave him that scar on his temple. Kang Eun-Gi had also met him back in our boxing days. I had no idea why a former bodyguard was now running a loan agency.

"Eun-Gi, let's just the two of us go in first."

"Yeah, that's probably best."

Right now, nearly forty people had gathered here: Lee Soo-Chan, his crew, the security team included. Because the business only had five employees and Kim Dae-Myung had history with both of us, Kang Eun-Gi and I headed in alone.

***

A sign reading The New World Loan hung by the office door on the second floor.

Knock knock.

When we knocked, the door flew open and a man built like a sumo wrestler stepped out with a scowl. "Are you here to borrow money?"

"No. Is Mr. Kim Dae-Myung here by any chance?"

"Mr. Kim Dae-Myung?" The big guy started eyeing us up and down with a serious expression. "You little punks think you can just throw our boss's name around?"

Then a loud voice rang out from inside.

-Jong-Gu, what's going on?

The brute turned his head and shouted inside. "Some guys are asking for you, hyung-nim."

-I know, you dumbass. I'm asking who the hell they are!

Finally, the man named Jong-Gu looked at us and asked. "Hey, who are you guys?"

'This business... probably won't last long.'

I said, "Please tell him Kang Eun-Gi and Jung Yoon-Ho came to see him."

The brute repeated our names inside. "Hyung-nim~ Their names are Kang Eun-Gi and Jung Yoon-Ho!"

-What? Yoon-Ho? Eun-Gi? What are they doing here? Never mind, let them in!

Jong-Gu stepped aside and pointed inside. "Go on in."

Inside the small office, desks were arranged in a circle around a central sofa. Kim Dae-Myung and Yeo Soo-Gil sat on the sofa, while two other employees were seated at their desks.

Yeo Soo-Gil's face instantly showed panic the moment he saw Kang Eun-Gi. Meanwhile, I carefully observed whether Kim Dae-Myung might have been involved in leaking the tabloid about Kang Eun-Gi.

Yet his expression said otherwise—he genuinely looked surprised to see us.

"Wow! You two are killing it on TV these days! But how'd you find me? I only opened this place a month ago."

"What are you doing here, hyung-nim? Weren't you a bodyguard?"

"Oh, that? I was with HK Electronics as their security, but they let me go. I tried getting hired elsewhere but found no luck. So I just gathered some people and started this place."

I couldn't help but feel a little guilty, because HK Electronics was the company I had destroyed.

"Don't make that face, Yoon-Ho. You didn't take down HK Electronics just to get rid of my job, did you? I know that's not the case."

Kim Dae-Myung already knew I was the one who brought down HK Electronics. In other words, I had changed the course of his life.

That's when Kang Eun-Gi spoke. "Dae-Myung hyung, was it you who told Yeo Soo-Gil to screw me over?"

"Huh? Screw you over?"

Right then, Yeo Soo-Gil bolted for the door.

Dash!

In a flash, Kang Eun-Gi grabbed Yeo Soo-Gil by the back of the neck.

Grab.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Let go! Let go of me, you bastard!"

Kim Dae-Myung frowned and shouted. "Eun-Gi! What the hell are you doing? You come into my business and lay your hands on my man?"

"Dae-Myung hyung, it's not like that..."

"Then let go before I stop asking nicely. Maybe he was once in your Kanghan gang, but now he's a sales rep at my company."

At that moment, I held out my phone to Kim Dae-Myung. On the screen was a photo of Yeo Soo-Gil with Yoo Kang-Seok.

"Take a look at this, hyung-nim."

Without even glancing, Kim Dae-Myung said, "Yoon-Ho, I'll talk to you separately later."

I lowered my voice, just like I had the day of our final sparring match. "Hyung-nim. I said take a look at this."

Kim Dae-Myung finally turned his head. His eyes were cold. We had been close, but I was also the one who left him with a scar he could never forget.

"Jung Yoon-Ho. That sparring match that day...we called it a draw because I went easy on you. Remember that?"

He was five years older, ten kilos heavier, and five centimeters taller. Kim Dae-Myung should have won easily with those advantages, but it had ended in a draw. That was when I gave him that scar on his temple. But the truth was, I had gone easy on him to protect his pride.

However, I couldn't bring that up now.

"I don't want to fight you again, hyung-nim. But please, just look at the photo."

Kim Dae-Myung looked at the screen. "What is this?"

"That man, Yeo Soo-Gil, spent the day following Eun-Gi around with President Yoo from TNT Entertainment, trying to stab him in the back."

"What?"

"If you didn't order him to bury Eun-Gi, then please, hand him over to us."

Kim Dae-Myung turned to Yeo Soo-Gil, clearly caught off guard. "Yeo Soo-Gil. What the hell did you do?"

Yeo Soo-Gil trembled, then blurted out, "J-just a minute. I'll t-talk! I'll tell you everything!"

Thanks to Kim Dae-Myung, we were about to crack this without even lifting a finger.

***

Fifteen business cards of the reporters Yeo Soo-Gil had met with were now spread out on the table. They included names from Weekly Star, Baro Star, Entertainment All Times, and Live Star.

According to Yeo Soo-Gil, the reporters planned to publish articles about Kang Eun-Gi's gang past at 12:30 a.m. right after The Omniscient Viewpoint aired.

Kim Dae-Myung scoffed dumbfoundedly. "So what you're telling me is, you ratted out Eun-Gi's past in the Kanghan gang to reporters?"

Flattened on the ground and sweating bullets, Yeo Soo-Gil answered. "Y-yes, hyung-nim."

Then Kim Dae-Myung lowered his head as he sat on the sofa. "I've got nothing to say. I'm sorry. I really didn't know."

I shook my head. "It's okay. But more importantly... what are you going to do with Yeo Soo-Gil?"

Kim Dae-Myung raised his head. "Give him a good beating, then keep him on. He's the only sales rep I've got."

'He's using a drug supplier as his loan agency sales rep?'

I stared at him, incredulous. "Wait, hyung-nim. Are you seriously saying you're in on the drug trade too?"

"What? Drugs? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You didn't know Yeo Soo-Gil's been dealing drugs?"

"What?"

Kang Eun-Gi backed me up. "He got kicked out of the Kanghan gang because I caught him supplying. That's why."

In Korea, drug charges weren't taken lightly. Just being associated with someone in the same organization could get one branded an accomplice. To avoid that, the best course of action would be to shut this loan agency down immediately and hand Yeo Soo-Gil over to the prosecutors.

Kim Dae-Myung let out a hollow laugh. "Hahaha... I guess I'm cursed whenever I get tangled up with you, Yoon-Ho."

However, there was no way I would let Kim Dae-Myung go down a second time because of me.

"No, hyung-nim. You're meant for a better life. I'll help you."

Kim Dae-Myung sighed deeply. "Alright. You're doing well these days, so I'll trust you this once."

"Sounds good."

Then Kang Eun-Gi turned to me. "Yoon-Ho. What now?"

There was only thirty minutes remaining before The Omniscient Viewpoint aired.

I answered, "Don't worry. I'm going to make every one of those reporters switch sides."

I immediately grabbed the stack of business cards on the table and dialed the first one.

"Mr. Bae Hyun-Tae from Weekly Star?"

-Well, well! Chief Jung, what brings you to call at this hour? Hahaha!

Bae Hyun-Tae sounded cheerful, but I answered coldly.

"Mr. Bae, would you like to go to prison?"

Bae Hyun-Tae's tone instantly changed.

-Wh-What? You punk, what are you even saying right now?

"I'm talking about Mr. Yeo Soo-Gil, the man you met today. Did you know he's a drug supplier?"

-W-What did you say?

"And you're seriously planning to publish a story on Eun-Gi's past based on the word of someone like that? Tsk tsk. What a shame. We'll be handing Mr. Yeo Soo-Gil over to the prosecutors soon and I'll be sure to include your contact info along with him."

-C-Chief Jung! Wait, hold on. Just give me a moment.

Bae Hyun-Tae's voice turned frantic, but I hung up without hesitation.

Click.

Kang Eun-Gi tilted his head in confusion. "Huh? Why'd you hang up?"

"Just wait."

After three seconds, my phone vibrated.

Buzz~

Bae Hyun-Tae was so desperate that his call came back almost instantly. Now, he would do anything I told him to just to save himself. And the remaining fourteen reporters would be no different.

'Alright then, President Yoo Kang-Seok... It's time to make you bleed. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'

From this moment on, I was going to make sure Yoo Kang-Seok paid dearly for coming after me.