Chapter 94: 94

<Blue Fit’s Min Si-Hoo admits to all the allegations.>

<TM's CEO Kim Seok-Hyung acknowledges that Min Si-Hoo’s part in ‘Shining Star’ was indeed sung by Chae Woo-Jin and that it was an act of voice theft. However, Kim Seok-Hyung denied the allegations and all related charges made against him and claimed that it was all an arbitrary act on Seol Moon-Young’s part.>

<Seol Moon-Young (TM's board member and producer) revealed the truth behind what happened: After Chae Woo-Jin left due to his feud with Blue Fit, Min Si-Hoo became the main vocalist. However, Min Si-Hoo was unable to record an album to his satisfaction with his own skills. As soon as revisions were made to the song, cutting down the number of high notes from five to three, the quality of the song was significantly compromised. Seol Moon-Young knew it was a terrible thing to do, but he couldn’t bring himself to let Chae Woo-Jin’s voice go to waste…>

At 3 p.m. on Monday, Blue Fit held a press conference and acknowledged all the things that they had done to Chae Woo-Jin collectively as a group, and made a public apology. Following the press conference, TM's CEO Kim Seok-Hyung and Seol Moon-Young’s interview was uploaded immediately afterward. Watching it get uploaded one after another, Hyun-Min read it to Woo-Jin.

“Putting Blue Fit aside, it seems like Seol Moon-Young is trying to shoulder the blame for the whole voice theft issue.”

“He must have cut a deal with the CEO.” The Seol Moon-Young that Woo-Jin knew would never sacrifice himself. He would never do anything that results in a loss for himself.

“It says that if they’ll refund the album if that’s what the buyer wants and instead of halting sales for ‘Shining Star,’ they’ll be releasing the songs you sang back then for free. Of course, they’re planning to give you reasonable compensation for it.”

“Who says I’m going to take the money?” Seeing Woo-Jin’s annoyed reaction, Hyun-Min quickly did some mental calculations and calculated the fees incurred by Min Si-Hoo’s infringement of copyright, along with other damages that Woo-Jin suffered. Hyun-Min’s eyes trembled wildly because the amount of compensation offered would be too great a sum to reject.

“‘Shining Star’ was such a popular song. No, it’s still very popular. Are you really not going to accept the money? Hey, now is not the time for you to be prideful.”

“Of course, I’ll have to accept it. Just that the money won’t be going into my pocket.” Although DS’ legal team had already entered negotiations with TM with regards to the compensation, Chae Woo-Jin informed his agency that he would be donating the money to the Youth Victims of Violence Foundation. Chae Woo-Jin could guess that they would shamelessly request DS to stop digging up their horrible deeds by telling the entire world that they were exonerated by paying a hefty sum of money, hence the donation.

Woo-Jin knew better than anyone else how great and scary money was. The amount of compensation offered by TM would be a rather significant amount since they had to close the negotiations to let the world know that they had done their best. However, Woo-Jin would not take a sum of money that made him feel anxious and suffocated instead of feeling happy.

“I’m shooting a commercial tomorrow. I’ll be earning a lot of money in the future.” Woo-Jin could finally shoot the commercial by the telecommunication company which he had been putting off for a long time due to various circumstances. Woo-Jin thought that perhaps he would not be able to earn as much as the amount of compensation if he were to take baby steps like that.

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“Yeah, good for you. But I don’t think I can’t earn that much.” Hyun-Min was checking something on his phone before locking it nervously.

“What are you doing?”

“I was planning to buy some of TM's stocks this time around when its prices get cut in half, but they’re not going down like what I predicted.”

TM's CEO Kim Seok-Hyung held a press conference just in time, right after the stock market closed. As a result, the stock prices didn’t go down today. Despite TV Star’s episode being aired last Thursday and the chaos that ensued from Friday up until today, TM's shares did not fall in line with Hyun-Min’s predictions.

“Clearly, there has been a lot of trading going on. As soon as the stocks were released, people snatched them up. Thus, the stock prices didn’t fall as I predicted.” As soon as Woo-Jin glared at his friend after hearing his confession, Hyun-Min turned his head around and played innocent.

Regardless of what anybody said, TM was still one of the biggest entertainment agencies in Korea. Nobody thought that it would collapse despite being shaken by this scandal. Even if Blue Fit was done for, they could be replaced by other people, and TM still had many other celebrities and idol groups. There were numerous people in Korea who shared the sentiment that it wouldn’t take long for TM to recover from this setback. Hyun-Min’s desire of taking advantage of this opportunity to dabble in stocks seemed to be nothing more than an empty dream.

“What a great friendship, huh?”

“I was trying to make use of the company that my friend thinks of as hell to make some money off of them. Don’t misinterpret my intentions.” Hyun-Min gulped down the canned coffee like it was alcohol. He finished it after barely taking a couple of mouthfuls.

He shook the empty can wistfully and muttered under his breath, “Everyone shares the same thought. But I heard those people are using this opportunity to discipline themselves instead of disbanding? The stock prices aren’t going down because they didn’t say that they were disbanding?!”

Naturally, Blue Fit knew that they had to follow the procedure of disbanding their group. They announced that they would be ceasing all activities and disciplinary actions would be taken. Be it due to the stocks or his personal resentment towards them, Hyun-Min was very unhappy about this.

“CEO Jang forbade it.”

“Why?”

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“He said if Blue Fit disbanded, their fans might become my anti-fans.” As long as Blue Fit acknowledged their mistakes, their fans were not in a position to say anything to Chae Woo-Jin. If they were to attack Chae Woo-Jin during the current circumstances, even fools would know that the media and public would condemn them. As long as Blue Fit didn’t get disbanded, the fans would have no choice but to walk on eggshells and live in fear.

On the other hand, if Blue Fit were to get disbanded under the current circumstances, Blue Hole would make Chae Woo-Jin their common enemy. It might be a different story if they naturally disbanded in the future, it was imperative that Chae Woo-Jin must not be the cause behind their disbandment.

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“What if they make a comeback? To be honest, it’s not like they don’t have the talent. I think they might just keep a low profile for a few years and surface once they get a good song to perform.” All this while, Hyun-Min had been getting upset and enraged whenever he saw Blue Fit on TV. Now, he was starting to feel relieved, but leaving it to chance made him feel uneasy.

“It would be hard for them to do that.”

“Your CEO said that he would prevent that from happening?”

“No, my maternal grandfather…” One day, Woo-Jin had sat his mother down and came clean about everything that had happened to him. Witnessing his mother’s pain before his eyes made Woo-Jin feel sorry, but at the same time, he also felt a sense of liberation. He felt guilty for putting his mother through such pain, but the sense of relief from knowing that there was someone else who felt more angry and sad for him made Woo-Jin feel rather liberated.

That day, Woo-Jin’s mother called his maternal grandfather while crying. Her reason for calling him was similar to Woo-Jin’s desire for his mother’s help and understanding. Listening to his mother crying next to him already caused Woo-Jin to feel heartbroken, so it wasn’t hard for him to guess how his grandfather must have felt while listening to his beloved daughter speak as she cried.

“Perhaps it would be hard for them to continue staying in the entertainment industry in the future.”

“Don’t tell me you feel sorry for them. You don’t, right?” Hyun-Min looked at Woo-Jin’s somewhat bitter expression and rolled his eyes. He even shuddered and said that Woo-Jin wasn’t like that in the past and that it felt as though Woo-Jin was gradually reaching enlightenment.

“Do you think I’m a man of virtue? They are people who hit you for sticking up for me. However, I'm still an adult after all. There’s no honor or dignity in getting help from others. I wonder when I will finally be able to stand tall and fight for myself.”

“Is your maternal grandfather an outsider? And why do you have an agency in the first place? They said they would take care of matters like this for you.” Hyun-Min grabbed an untouched can of coffee and lifted the tab. Since they were sitting on a bench in the park during late December, the hot canned coffee had already cooled down. When Hyun-Min shook the can and asked Woo-Jin if he wanted to drink it, the latter shook his head.

“Speaking of the agency, why did their faces look as though they were glowing when they were apologizing? They read the apology letter without any hint of emotions just like a robot. They didn’t look like they were trying to apologize; it seemed like they were grumbling after being dragged out. Did TM not teach them proper etiquette before the press conference?”

Even though they were decked in black suits, their makeup wasn’t as toned down as most celebrities’ when they did such interviews. Usually, their faces would be darkened with the help of makeup, and there would be dark circles beneath their eyes to show how depressed and distressed they were. But that was not the case for Blue Fit. Their makeup artist didn’t even redden the rims of their eyes so that it looked like they were on the verge of tears. Instead, they appeared with a light-toned base and complementary colors on their faces.

Min Si-Hoo curtly read the apology on behalf of the group in an emotionless voice before leaving. Even though Min Si-Hoo wasn’t sincere, he didn’t even try to look like he was going to cry or tear up to put on an act for the public. On the contrary, Min Si-Hoo had a mean look in his eyes, and it was obvious that he was trying hard to hold back his anger, making people wonder what kind of apology he was trying to give.

“CEO Jang told them to do that.”

“Is CEO Jang the mediator behind the scenes? What else did he instruct them to do?”

“Both the CEO and I don’t believe that they are being sincere just because they apologized. However, there will be many people who only look at things at face value.”

Regardless of the truth, the people who liked Blue Fit would believe them if they had acted sincerely. Had he sincerely apologized, they would likely forgive everything he had done and support him in hopes that he would quickly recover from this setback. Thus, CEO Jang Soo-Hwan gave detailed instructions to TM's CEO, Kim Seok-Hyung, with regards to the clothes that Blue Fit would wear, as well as their makeup. That was the reason behind their look when they stepped forward to apologize. Furthermore, CEO Jang Soo-Hwan warned them that if Min Si-Hoo were to shed any tears or make any facial expressions that suggested he was remorseful, he would not consider it as an apology.

“Those people did as CEO Jang instructed?”

“We have video evidence. CEO Jang threatened to spread it and sue them for assault if they didn’t do as instructed.”

“You’re not going to release the video?”

Hyun-Min was rather bewildered; he had expected them to release it unconditionally. He looked at Woo-Jin with a look on his face that seemed to say ‘You have something so powerful in your hands, I don’t understand why you won’t use it.'

Woo-Jin smiled and responded, “Right now, people just have an image of me getting bullied. If they watched the video, they would be able to see everything explicitly, so the images would be engraved in their minds. People might question if I acted like a loser and deliberately got hit in order to capture it on camera. The image of a victim is also not good for an actor. It would also be a disadvantage if I want to take on the role of a strong character in the future. Also, I don’t want my parents to see me getting beaten up.”

Fortunately, CEO Jang Soo-Hwan shared the same opinion as Woo-Jin to not release the video. Woo-Jin had nothing to gain as an actor by showing such an explicit scene. Instead, he would let the public guess and leave it up to their imagination. Even though Chae Woo-Jin was now a victim, many people thought that he was able to overpower his bullies with force because of the action scenes in his drama. The scene in City of Shadows where he escaped by leaping across buildings was particularly helpful in this instance. It didn’t matter if Chae Woo-Jin had been a victim back then, people had already seen how strong he was when he jumped off the building without any fear.

Hence, releasing the video would not do Actor Chae Woo-Jin any good. Nonetheless, it was a great weapon to use against Blue Fit. If they hoped to recover from this incident and make a comeback in the future, they had to do whatever it took and follow all of CEO Jang’s instructions in order to prevent this video from being circulated. Blue Fit also had to stop the circulation of the stories about the feud that happened after Min Si-Hoo lost the position as the main vocalist to Chae Woo-Jin. There was also the story of how the other members participated in the bullying because they found it hard to oppose their senior Min SI-Hoo because of his family background. In order to do all of that, Min Si-Hoo had to read the apology written by CEO Jang Soo-Hwan as it is.

It must have been hard for Blue Fit to follow CEO Jang’s instructions to not show a shred of remorse during the apology. Even though they weren’t truly sorry, they had no choice but to tense up their eyes and lips to hold back their angry tears. Naturally, they showed absolutely zero sincerity in their apology, causing the viewers to frown. Since there wasn’t a genuine reconciliation or forgiveness, CEO Jang Soo-Hwan had gotten what he wanted - the assailants would remain as assailants forever.

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