Life, Once Again!

Lee Miyoon opened the back of her vibrating phone and took out the battery before throwing the battery on the ground. There was no way this was happening. This couldn’t be happening. The only one going down should be Hong Janghae. Even if there were rumors about her, it should’ve ended with just rumors. She didn’t expect concrete evidence to be floating around the internet, taking up search term rankings.

She looked for Kim Dongwook on her phone which she only used to call those she was close to. This was clearly a breach of contract. If he managed to oust Hong Janghae with the info she gave her, he should have stopped there. Why did he get someone unrelated involved in it? As soon as the first signal went through, Dongwook picked up the call.

“Journalist Kim!”

She was flabbergasted. She barely held her jaws from shaking and calmed her breathing.

-Actress Lee.

“What is happening? Why am I being talked about on the internet?”

-What a pity. I was going to just sneak by, but since it’s like this, well, good luck.

“Hey, journalist Kim! You can’t just say that to me!”

-I know. I can tell from how someone who likes face is screeching at me over the phone. But what can I do? The arrow has already left the bowstring.

“Why are you doing this to me? The one you wanted was just Hong Janghae. So why?”

-That’s where you misunderstood, actress Lee. Hong Janghae, as the one pulling all the strings, is someone I can’t stand, true. He stopped at nothing. But you see, in my eyes, you are no different from him.

“What did I ever do!”

Journalist Kim raised his voice just like she did.

-It’s you who set up a trap for my junior in the first place. I acted oblivious and ignorant in order to get information out of you, but you won’t know how terribly I resented you. Of course, if I can only put one of you in court, then I’ll choose Hong Janghae without hesitation, but I can take both of you there. So why wouldn’t I?

Miyoon had a jolt. She recalled that her doctor had told her to watch out for high blood pressure. She had to calm down and lead this conversation. If things fell apart here, everything would be truly over.

“Journalist Kim. Don’t you know that evidence acquired through illegal means is useless in court? A word from me and that evidence of yours will all become tampered evidence that you can’t use in court. I’m saying that I can save that very Hong Janghae you tried to remove!”

-Yes, I’m sure you can. If we were the ones who fought with the evidence we gathered, then we would’ve gotten into such a problem, or so I heard from a very competent lawyer. But what can you do? It’s not us who swung the sword; it’s YM. They directly acknowledged the case and put Hong Janghae on the guillotine. I see you didn’t check the articles properly because you were busy, huh?

Miyoon didn’t even have the energy to snap out when she heard the mocking tone. She hurriedly turned on the laptop. She clicked on the articles she only read the titles of in the morning. It was just as he said. YM was the ‘doer’. In other words, it meant that it was the chairman’s will to cut Hong Janghae out.

-You’re good at lining up in front of the right people. You should try your best this time too. But it won’t be easy. We’re going to leak all sorts of information we gathered for Hong Janghae. According to our competent lawyer, YM will supposedly use you very proactively in order to cover up the articles mentioning Hong Janghae. This is the last tip I’m telling you in consideration of our relationship until now, so use it wisely.

“Journalist Kim. Journalist Kim!”

The phone then went silent. Miyoon couldn’t see anything as though a black curtain fell in front of her eyes. Her eyes also became quiet as though she got on a really fast cable car. Her body swayed as though she could no longer discern directions anymore. Miyoon collapsed to the ground. She couldn’t feel anything below her left thigh as though her leg had disappeared. She grabbed the phone from the ground and pressed 119.

* * *

One leg, nay, at least two legs; Giwoo felt that he needed to crush at least both of that guy’s legs to feel satisfied. Killing that guy was too easy. There was no way the dead could feel any pain. If he wanted to make him feel the pain that eats away at his soul until his natural death, he first had to rob that guy of his occupation. In that sense, crushing his two legs was a rather suitable and efficient method.

He wondered what kind of method he should take. The obvious solution was a traffic accident, but that guy may end up dying. If he wanted to remove that guy’s two legs without killing him, then breaking his waist was the right method. He felt like stabbing him in the back, at the spine under the guise of a bump on the street was the best.

Giwoo had a look at the clock. It was morning, and he didn’t have a wink of sleep. He didn’t even realize how much time had passed because he was killing Han Maru dozens and hundreds of times in his head. Originally, he was planning to look for an opportunity while staying low, but he could no longer hold back. He decided that he would be able to endure even if he was included in the net of investigation as long as he could erase Han Maru immediately.

Now that he had devised a plan, it was time to put it into action. Giwoo knew the best man for this kind of job. That man said he should call him quietly if there ever came a day Giwoo needed him, and now was that time. Giwoo called his president.

-This is Hong Janghae speaking.

His voice was as powerful as it always was. Giwoo asked for help from the man he had the hardest time dealing with after his grandfather.

-Young master, no, Giwoo. Don’t think about it and stay low.

“Don’t think about it? You told me back then that I should reach out to you if I needed your help, didn’t you? Now is that time. If you can do this well, I’ll tell grandfather about….”

There was laughter over the phone. It was one hearty laugh. Hong Janghae, who always laughed calmly, sounded unimaginably vulgar today.

-I see you haven’t heard the news. You’ll probably get contacted soon. It’ll be best for you if you stay still without doing anything funny, so keep that in mind.

“President.”

-I’ll hang up now. I’m required to attend soon.

“We have to screw over that guy Han Maru!”

-Han Maru? Han Maru, you say. There’s no way a coincidence happens twice. I see that he aimed for this. I don’t know what exactly is happening, but don’t touch him. It looks like he’s not someone you can handle. Also, if you have the time, have a look at the internet.

The phone call ended there. Giwoo looked at his phone in a daze for a while before looking up some news. There was one thing that came to his mind when he heard Hong Janghae say that he was required to attend.

The headlines were all about the shameful crimes committed by the president of Soul Entertainment. Following that were rumors about Lee Miyoon being the procuress. Giwoo realized that Lee Miyoon was the scapegoat as soon as he saw the articles.

He instinctively cursed. That man was useless at the most crucial time. Giwoo bit on his nails before leaving behind a message in the group chat saying that he needed some help. He didn’t want to resort to using gangs, but he couldn’t stay still and do nothing. A friend of his that led a gang posted that he shouldn’t do anything funny and should stay still. Even the others who always caused trouble said the same thing. They told him that he should stay low until things died down.

Did all of them go crazy at the same time? — Giwoo immediately made a call. Then, he found out the reason he had to stay low.

-I also got a call from head manager Kim telling me that we shouldn’t cause any trouble for a while. It seems like your grandfather’s men have called everyone and said the same thing. Since it’s your grandfather who told us to stay still, then we should stay still.

Normally, he would’ve understood then and endured. His grandfather’s words were absolute after all. The situation was grave to the point that they had to cut out president Hong, so his grandfather made a natural choice. However, today, he could not keep his head down. He wanted to erase the man next to Han Gaeul as soon as possible. It was only then would his time next to her come.

“Grandfather.”

He made the call.

-I wonder why my grandson called this early in the morning.

“Help me out a little.”

-Help?

“Yes. Please remove a man from my eyes. You know I’ve never asked you to do something like this before, right?”

-Giwoo, a general should not act petty. I don’t know what it is, but now is the time to wait.

“Grandfather, I can’t wait right now. I’m going to go crazy if I don’t do something about that guy.”

-Sometimes, people like that appear in our lives. But Giwoo, it’s just a passing rain. You just have to wait under the tree and it’ll go past, so you should stay….

“If you won’t help me, then I’ll do it myself. It might become a little noisy, but the YM family can calm down a commotion like that. The YM you created is the best in South Korea after all.”

He spoke fearlessly. Even if he got caught by the police, he would not get a real sentence as long as he had the YM name. Perhaps it might even be turned into an accident instead. That was the power of YM after all.

-Giwoo.

“Yes?”

-This is my company, and my YM. It’s not a company I created for the likes of you to do however you wish. I’ll take naïvety any day of the week. You’re my cute grandson after all. But if you plan to taint the name of the company, then you better be prepared for it. At that time, I’ll personally put you behind bars. YM, who is not overprotective of the descendants of Chaebol. That’s not a bad scenario.

A chill flashed down his back. Only then did Giwoo realize what he said to who. He tried to apologize, but the call had already ended. Giwoo put down his phone and stuffed his head into the bed.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Everything was that guy Han Maru’s fault. That guy was the root of all problems and the root of all evil. Giwoo put his thumb in his mouth and bit strongly.