Chapter 91

Chapter 91

Raise Three Idols Well And They’ll Launch a Confession Attack.

Episode 91: Catching The Eye Of A Genius.

Oh Yoori, looking at my face, couldn’t hide her nervousness as she spoke.

“His goal is to put me into the debut team of 11 in Girl 100. If the votes are being manipulated, he thinks it might be possible to insert me into the lineup.”

That wasn’t something Ban Seongcheol could accomplish just by deciding to do so.

Kim Seon-ye, MNet, and the 11 agencies involved were too tightly connected for that.

“I don’t agree with your theory that Girl 100 is rigged, but even if we assume it’s true, there seems to be a contradiction.”

“A contradiction?”

“Yes, a contradiction. According to you, the debut team of 11 has already been decided, right? In that case, even if Ban Seongcheol tries to bribe his way in, it wouldn’t be easy. If the voting is being manipulated, it means that not just PD Kim but MNet itself is involved, and MNet wouldn’t be sloppy enough to let money change the outcome so easily.”

She nodded at my words and replied.

“You’re right; it wouldn’t be easy to interfere in a game set up by the broadcast network. But if a vacancy is created, it could be possible.”

Oh Yoori, on tiptoe, circled the name in 7th place with her board marker and spoke.

“Manager Ban plans to get rid of Lee Bom, who placed 7th in the 5th round of voting.”

As I recall, Lee Bom was one of the trainees selected for the debut team of 11, who had to end her celebrity career abruptly due to the manipulated voting controversy. I don’t know what happened later, but I don’t remember her having any criminal record severe enough to warrant dropping out of the show.

“What do you mean by getting rid of Lee Bom? I remember her as a trainee without any particular issues in her background.”

“He seems to think that if there isn’t a problem, he’ll just create one… like a school violence record. All it takes is preparing one whistleblower and silencing a few others to easily create a controversy.”

I sighed deeply and said.

“So, it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.”

“That’s right.”

A picture formed in my mind.

“Even if Lee Bom refutes the claims or files a defamation lawsuit, by that time, Girl 100 would have already responded.”

“It doesn’t matter if she’s re-evaluated later; the goal is just to prevent her from making the debut team.”

“So, is the bribery you mentioned meant to create that vacancy? Or is it to secure a spot in the vacancy?”

“Both, I believe. It seems Ban Seongcheol is also involved with some dangerous people.”

“Dangerous people? As far as I know, Ban Seongcheol is just a rich kid whose parents run a business.”

Oh Yoori shuddered as if she had goosebumps and said.

“…That business is something like a room salon.”

“…”

In my previous life, despite his boastful and prideful nature, Ban Seongcheol avoided directly mentioning the business his parents ran.

The fact that his parents ran a company only came out when a particularly unruly senior at the company drunkenly blurted out, ‘That bastard’s a rich kid!’

Hearing Oh Yoori’s words made that past seem quite suspicious.

…I really didn’t know anything about Ban Seongcheol.

And the past, where I had trusted him, now felt utterly foolish.

Rubbing my freshly shaved chin as I finished reflecting and regretting, I asked her.

“Then, what is your goal, Yoori?”

“My goal?”

“Is it to punish Ban Seongcheol for his illegal activities like sponsorships? Or do you want to transfer to another, safer agency?”

If it was one of those two, I was willing to help. I felt a certain sense of responsibility in this situation.

But Oh Yoori’s answer was something I hadn’t expected at all.

“I’m going to bring down Girl 100. I hope you’ll cooperate with me.”

…What about Ban Seongcheol?

I scratched my head in confusion and asked.

“If your goal is to avoid unsavory demands like bribery, you don’t need to go that far, do you? Gathering evidence, reporting him, and moving to a legitimate agency should be enough.”

Considering how deep Ban Seongcheol’s involvement with Flower Entertainment might go, simply exposing his crimes might not be enough to ensure Oh Yoori’s safety. A powerful move to cut things off at the root might be necessary. But bringing down a show like Girl 100 was beyond the scope of a powerful move.

…It’s like using a napalm strike to kill a cockroach—it’s overkill.

I didn’t hide my doubts.

“Even if all of your assumptions are correct, you know it’s not going to be easy, right? I’m also a stakeholder in Girl 100 and a manager who needs to promote Gyeoul, so I’m inclined to stop your risky actions. That’s also why I recorded our conversation and plan to hand the data over to PD Kim. And in this situation, bringing down Girl 100? I don’t know.”

At my half-threat, Oh Yoori trembled as she spoke.

“C-could you cooperate, thinking of it as saving a life? Or… I’ll give you money!”

“I’m not someone who’d be satisfied with pocket change from a middle schooler. Even if it’s a large sum, I wouldn’t make a choice that harms TwoBear and Gyeoul. And right now, leaving you alone when you’re a threat to Girl 100 would be harmful.”

“…I guess I’m really screwed.”

Oh Yoori looked down at the floor as if she had nothing more to say.

I heard her sniffle, and then tears started falling onto the floor.

I let out a small sigh and asked her.

“Why are you trying to go this far?”

She wiped away her tears, hesitating to answer as she glanced around, then gave a crooked smile and said.

“…I just don’t want to let it go.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think Manager Ban Seongcheol, the rigged broadcast, and everyone involved in bribery should all be punished. My grandmother taught me that if I can do something about it, I should… That’s all.”

“So you threatened me for the sake of that sense of justice?”

“Actually, even if I threatened you, I had no intention of asking you to do anything that would harm you, Team Leader Seon… But I’m sorry anyway.”

“…Sigh.“

I wondered if a middle schooler taking on all this risk with a sense of duty, justice, and revenge wasn’t a strange motivation.

But still, it wasn’t something to question too deeply. It wasn’t impossible to understand.

“…”

From our conversation so far, I had a rough idea of the situation.

If what she said was true, it wasn’t impossible for Oh Yoori to make it into the debut team of 11.

But the doubts hadn’t disappeared.

“Why, of all people, did you choose to tell me this, Yoori?”

“Tell you what?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to tell someone more capable and influential than me about this?”

In fact, there was no one more suited to uncovering this than me.

I had the perfect combination of regression, a status window, and a clear purpose.

But that was only from my perspective; from Oh Yoori’s point of view, it was different.

From her perspective, I was just another ordinary manager.

I was curious why she would resort to threats to ask for my cooperation.

“Because you made a deal with PD Kim Seon-ye.”

“I told you, I didn’t make any deal with PD Kim…”

“It’s just a hypothetical, a hypothetical! I’m not trying to threaten you again now that my life is ruined, so please just go along with it! Otherwise, the story can’t move forward.”

“…Fine, whatever.”

Even though she called it hypothetical, Oh Yoori seemed certain that I had made a deal with Kim Seon-ye. Since I was the only one recording this conversation, I figured it was okay to play along to some extent.

I could always edit out the parts that might be disadvantageous to me later.

“To elaborate, it’s because you made a deal later than the others that I started thinking this way.”

“What do you mean?”

Nodding at me, Oh Yoori pulled out her board marker again and began drawing a simple diagram as she explained.

“Making a deal in the middle of the broadcast means your starting point was entirely different from the agencies already established. In fact, you were probably treated worse.”

“How can you be so sure?”

She began grouping the trainees by skill on the board as she spoke.

“The attitude of the other writers during the first recording and the number of cameras assigned to accompany the three top-skilled members of Counter can be seen as evidence. That kind of staffing setup is suitable for propping up an entertainment character. It means that Gyeoul unnie was considered a very low-priority talent within the network.”

While Oh Yoori had been showing off her middle-school-level cuteness and making playful greetings during the first recording, it seemed she had been collecting and analyzing such information internally.

Who would expect a middle schooler to display such initiative and deductive reasoning? She truly was an impressive kid.

“But when the actual recording started, the picture completely changed.”

Oh Yoori underlined the first and second round voting results she had written earlier.

There, Gyeoul’s miraculous rise from 94th place in the pre-broadcast vote, which was conducted with just the existing fan base, to 17th place after just one episode had aired, was evident.

“This means that you, Team Leader Seon, and Gyeoul unnie deviated from the role assigned to you on the show. And PD Kim Seon-ye might have seen that as betrayal… No, I’m sure she did. From what I saw, PD Kim seemed like the type who wants to control every aspect of the broadcast.”

Oh Yoori drew an arrow between the name “Han Gyeoul” written in the first vote and “Han Gyeoul” written in the second vote, then crossed it out with an X.

“She would have drawn her sword. She would have made an example out of the chess pieces that slipped out of her control, as well as others. Malicious editing, pressure, suggestions to drop out, blacklisting—PD Kim has so many cards she can play. And even just one of those cards would be enough to bring down you and Gyeoul unnie.”

Then, Oh Yoori faintly smiled and erased the X with a single stroke.

“But you, Team Leader Seon, completely overturned that structure in one stroke. You went from being a victim of penalties to a beneficiary of manipulated votes in an instant. With what I suspect was a single deal… This… This is truly incredible.”

Oh Yoori rubbed her arms with both hands, as if she had goosebumps.

“Just now, you asked, ‘Wouldn’t it be better to tell someone more capable and influential than me?’”

“…I did.”

“I’ll be blunt. Among all the people involved in Girl 100, I don’t know about influence, but in terms of ability, there is absolutely no one more capable than you, Team Leader Seon. Because no one else could have done something like this.”

Oh Yoori looked at me with a strange intensity in her red-tinged eyes as she spoke.

“Even if no one else knows, I know that.”