Chapter 307

“I’ll take full responsibility, so come out right away.”

The moment he heard that voice, Jo Inchan moved his legs without even realizing it. Forcing his unsteady legs to move, he staggered and ran down the long hallway.

“…F**k, are you crazy?”

He could hear Kang Hyukwoo, who was on a hectic call with his subordinates, cursing behind him, but Jo Inchan didn’t look back and made it to the front door. Just as he placed his hand on the doorknob, he faltered for a moment at Kang Hyukwoo’s warning.

“Go ahead and walk out that door. I’ll kill you all.”

“…….”

“I told you. If we die, we die together. If we live, we live together. You will never go alone.”

‘Is it really okay if I go like this?’

The feeling of anxiety seemed to swell, spreading through his body.

‘Should I go back now?’

‘If you disobey Kang Hyukwoo’s orders, something bad will happen ‘. This was the line of thinking Kang Hyukwoo had ingrained in Jo Inchan’s mind over time, through manipulation and violence, to the point of bordering on brainwashing.

‘…I don’t want to.’

But the moment he heard Seo Yutae’s voice, that line of thinking was shattered so effortlessly, it felt almost like a joke.

The situation was similar to when, confronting a tiger with just a single rock to buy his comrades time to escape by any means possible, someone capable of protecting him suddenly appeared.

As soon as Jo Inchan heard the voice of his only hope, he let go of the extreme tension and near-desperation that had kept him standing before a hopeless, losing battle. It was as if he threw away the stone he had been holding and ran away in sheer panic.

‘Hurry, I have to run away, run!’

As the hope of survival grew within him like a spreading fire, his instincts for survival and fear returned to their original place. ‘ Seo Yutae is always the one who saves us ‘. The hope that had taken root in their lives, a result of Seo Yutae desperately protecting the Prism members for so many years, had shaped him into that figure of salvation.

Jo Inchan, under the firm belief that ‘ he has to run away from Kang Hyukwoo, following Seo Yutae’s order’ and ‘ that was the only way to survive ‘, opened the door.

Bam!

“…….”

With his eyes swirling in turmoil, he looked back at Kang Hyukwoo and then fled through the door before there was even a chance to be stopped.

“Hey!”

Even after the door slammed shut, Kang Hyukwoo’s sharp shout still rang in his ears, as if it were stabbing his eardrums, but Jo Inchan didn’t look back. He knew that if he stopped for even a moment, Kang Hyukwoo would immediately chase after him, either to strike him or throw something at him.

Fortunately, the timing was right now. Although, that timing was intentionally created by Seo Yutae and Choi Jeokhyeon to help Jo Inchan.

Beep, beep. Beep.

For just a moment, as his eyes moved to the back of Jo Inchan’s head, Kang Hyukwoo anxiously ran his fingers through his hair at the flood of incoming messages. Cursing under his breath, he turned his attention back to his phone, then paused and murmured as an unsettling feeling suddenly struck him.

“…It’s strange.”

There was something strange about Jo Inchan’s reaction.

Just moments ago, he had been pale as a corpse, so terrified that any trace of defiance was nowhere to be found. But the instant he answered that call, life returned to his face. Then, like a dog chasing after its owner, he suddenly sprang to his feet and ran out.

‘Who the hell called him?’

Jo Inchan had devoted his entire youth to Prism, leaving him with hardly any friends, and the grandparents who raised him had already passed away. So, aside from Prism, there was no one left who could make him feel safe like that.

However, all of Prism were currently tied up with their schedules and not in a situation where they could frequently check their phones.

‘…Did they make a quick call during the break time? I need to check if any of the Prism members were on a phone at that time.’

On top of that, Jo Inchan was the kind of person who would shrink back in fear if the other members tried to get involved when he was in danger. Ever since the video incident at the club, the conviction that his existence only brought misfortune to them had taken firm root within him.

If there were anyone Jo Inchan could at least comfortably lean on, it would be…….

‘But Seo Yutae is already gone. He’s dead.’

It wasn’t difficult to think of the name of the only person who seemed like a plausible candidate. After all, wasn’t the reason he had tried to sow discord between the Prism members and Seo Yutae precisely because Seo Yutae was so steadfast in protecting them, making it harder and harder to control them?

Jo Inchan had clearly answered the call, yet he hadn’t spoken a word, only glancing around anxiously. Even so, the person on the other end seemed to grasp his situation right away, and there was only one person in the world who could do that.

Kang Hyukwoo naturally recalled Seo Yutae’s face, but then shook his head.

‘I watched the funeral with my own eyes. It makes no sense.’

He had to prioritize handling the immediate situation over worrying about the approach of some unknown third party. With that thought, he looked down at his phone screen and saw a pile of messages.

[Director-nim, since this incident is heavily linked to coma-1, we’ve canceled all of their schedules for now. The public reaction on SNS is extremely negative. I think it would be best for you to come to the company right away.]

[Director Kang, is what the media is saying right now really true?]

[Hello, my name is Kim Minji, a reporter from Daily ○○. I believe we met previously. I wanted to ask if an exclusive interview regarding the recent incident might be possible. I can promise to write the article with utmost consideration for RH Entertainment’s position.]

They were from agency employees who looked completely lost, the big shots who were clearly planning to abandon RH Entertainmen, and those who saw this as their opportunity to swoop in and take advantage for their own gain.

Kang Hyukwoo frowned deeply as he opened NeoTube. He saw that videos containing his private information, along with all sorts of unverified rumors, had been uploaded on the Cyber Wrecker channel and other channels, presented as though they were true.

[RH Creepy Mediaplay Evidence Compilation – Watch at Your Own Risk]

[The Entertainment Industry’s Biggest Villain: Kang Hyukwoo (Wiki)]

[Who Is KANG HYUKWOO?]

[RH’s Evil Deeds, Revealed by 10-year Sera]

[(The person under current controversy) Saju 1 reading by Shaman-nim 2 ! Naturally evil and incompetent, just living by sucking the marrow out of others?]

— Wow, even during their debut, they kept dragging Pantheion through the mud in articles. I honestly just thought Lee Danbi was genuinely terrible at the time haha Sorry for badmouthing you, turns out I was fooled too ㅠ

└ Are you sure it’s not just because you have no backbone, no brains, and like to feel superior by putting down people who are more successful than you? ㅠㅠ

└ Did you leave your brain with Kang Hyukwoo or something? I’d rather entrust mine to an amoeba, *****

— This is exactly what I’ve been saying. Go watch the challenge where they danced together, please. The coma-1 kids don’t even compare to Pantheion, seriously. There isn’t a single dance hole in Pantheion, foolish people!!! Watching them get caught up in this mediaplay makes me feel so wronged

— Seriously, do you really want to make money that badly? How insecure must you have been about your own producing skills or the coma-1 kids to resort to something like this? LOLOL, you’re really something, Ugly 3 Hyukwoo-ya

— There’s a rumor that he can’t talk without swearing, is that true?

— Ugh, I’m gonna puke, for real. Those bastards who are suddenly acting like they saw this coming from the start and are jumping on the bandwagon are just as disgusting , and Hyukwoo can just die

“F**k! These a**holes…….”

Kang Hyukwoo had already seen this scene several times before. Whether it was when he exposed the scandal about Seo Yutae’s father or when he deliberately fabricated and posted articles belittling Jo Inchan to break his mentality, it was all done to provoke severe public backlash.

Kang Hyukwoo, every time a scandal broke, would see the Prism members stressed out, but honestly, he thought they were being overly dramatic. He used to think, how could guys who earn money as celebrities fall apart over something so trivial? He thought they could just ignore it and move on.

‘No.’

But when he actually experienced it himself, he felt his heart drop. For the first time, he felt cornered, and in that panic, Kang Hyukwoo lost his composure and lashed out at his secretary on the phone.

“What are you doing? Why aren’t the articles being taken down already?”

“…Director-nim, it’s already spread too widely to be taken down now.”

“Ah, enough, just resolve it by any means!”

“…….”

In fact, once a story like this went to the press, any attempt to fix it would be useless. Apologizing and trying to clarify would only add fuel to the fire.

The quickest way to put out a situation like this was either to bury it with an even bigger gossip or to remain completely unresponsiveand wait for the moment when all the fuel turned to ash and the fire died out. However, a bigger scandal than this was beyond what Kang Hyukwoo could manage, and it wasn’t something he could recklessly release.

‘If it’s that person, then maybe…….’

Even when Seo Yutae was suspected of murdering his father, Choi Jeokhyeon had only managed to divert the public’s attention by exposing a series of celebrity dating rumors and political corruption scandals. Kang Hyukwoo knew he could never orchestrate something on that scale.

Besides, even after going to such lengths, people still kept cursing him. It was clear that once something like this blew up, a perfect resolution was impossible from the start.

In this world, there were wrongdoings that were forgiven by the public even if the victims didn’t forgive them, and then there were wrongdoings that could never gain public support no matter what. This incident was definitely the latter.

‘Those Prism bastards are already talking about leaving. I absolutely can’t let COMA-1 get ruined too!’

It costs a lot more money than people think to create a boy group. Despite getting pushed around in the early days, they’d managed to build a solid enough reputation to even appear on a program like Legendary Singer , but once the group got branded as one that only rose to fame through shady behind-the-scenes manipulation, everything turned to dust.

“Ha, shit … I shouldn’t have let it blow up in the first place!”

As he was venting his frustration over how things were turning out, his phone rang once again. The calls had been coming nonstop since earlier, but this time, it was different. It rang with a different ringtone than the one he had set as his default.

“…….”

Kang Hyukwoo, who had ignored the other calls without even glancing at them, hesitated for a moment before firmly tapping the screen to answer the phone. He then began speaking in a slightly softer tone, as if telling a fairytale.

.

.

.

“Ahhhhh! F**k!”

After a lengthy conversation, he ended the call and immediately lost control, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then, he grabbed the flowerpot from the living room table and hurled it toward the TV.

Clang!

After throwing a few more objects and turning the house into a complete mess, Kang Hyukwoo finally collapsed to the floor. He lay there, resting on his knees and elbows, trying to calm his boiling anger as he gasped for air.

“Ha, huu, hu … huff.”

‘How the hell did things end up like this?’

Desperate to find the root cause of all this, he started racking his brain. If he hadn’t committed any wrongdoings, there would be no reason for him to face such consequences, so the answer he was desperately searching for was himself. But if he had been a great enough person capable of such self-reflection, he wouldn’t have ended up in this situation in the first place.

In the end, Kang Hyukwoo gritted his teeth so hard they ground audibly, his bloodshot eyes gleaming with fury as he moved. Then, he spoke the name of the person who had driven him to this point, cursing them with all the hatred in his being.

“Han Seungbeom!”

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Translator’s Corner:

In Korea, shamanism, known as musok, is a native belief system that involves connecting with spirits and deities through rituals like gut . It’s considered a folk religion and is distinct from Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. If I remember correctly, they’re even recognized and protected as cultural heritage. The old government kinda tried to destroy them before for the sake advancing as modern nation, but somehow even to this day, it’s still so popular? You can’t really erase a culture I guess. ↩︎

Ugh I feel like I’m wasting my time spending a chapter just to see Kang Hyukwoo….

Anyway, yesterday I read Assistant Manager Kim up until … idk, chapter 490? and I have so much to rant, so if you guys don’t want spoiler, skip and stop reading this. Don’t scroll. I just want to write my piece of mind but I don’t want to leave NU review before I saw the “The end”

No … but ??? you guys felt when it was finally confirmed Seo Yuseong is death, you all feel scammed, right? But Manager Kim is just ??? another level of scam ??? and not just a heartbreaking level of scam that makes you cry, BUT A SCAM THAT MAKES YOU UPSET ANGRY I WANT TO KILL THEM ALL?

Like, I felt like I suffered so much reading that. Earlier chapters are fun. Like, it’s so fresh. MC is a corporate worker who knew a lot of things about corporation life. Honestly, a lot of people call Yutae frustrating, but the MC here is more, more making me feel I want to throw something. Of course people are shaped by environment, experience, and trauma affected them much, but if you drag that thing for 400 chapters, you just feel ??? DRAINED ? I honestly got bored for most of the time after chapter 200 until chapter 340-ish I think. Things like reality show and drama are fun, but personally, I found the personal content and group comeback so boring …. and there are a lot of them, reading it almost felt like a labor. The story only got better after MC met his parents, I like the angst and development after that, but then after that … oh my god, this is like 1001 ways how to make MC and readers suffer, in a bad way. If we borrow korean slangs, I feel like the author is forcing me to eat a ton of sweet potatoes but only give me a glass of cider. But probably that’s just me. I like the group members character, but not at the level of “I’m fond of them”, and honestly I don’t feel any attachment to the group when reading it … and who the f thought writing a group going to survival show TWICE is a good thing. If this happened in real life, you would see protest trucks camping in front of the agency.

[MAJOR SPOILER] My guess is the system probably following the cliche; appearing to fullfil the wish of his sibling in exchange for her good deeds, and I think we already knew her at this point, but it’s so shitty. Like I don’t care if the system is trying to make MC feel motivated to live and heal his trauma, IT’S JUST SO SHITTY. LIKE EXCUSE ME, IF I READ A NOVEL WITH TURN-BACK-TIME PREMISE, I JUST WANT TO READ THEM LIVING A BETTER LIFE, NOT STRESSING OVER “the past couldn’t be changed” “if you changed the fate, you would be punished”. IF YOU’RE GOING TO DO THAT, JUST LET HIM DIE AND MEET HIS NOONA IN AFTERLIFE???? WHY DRAGGING HIM BACK TO LIFE JUST TO SUFFER LIKE THIS? LIKE DO YOU THINK IT’S FUNNY TO ASK MC TO CHOOSE BETWEEN SAVING HIS NOONA’S LIFE AND HIS GROUPMATE’S? And no, if you want to know, they haven’t meet even though it’s already 490 chapters. People who said the amount of angst is healthy in this novel are lying … they literally kept shoving MC into traumatic events again and again.

Oh my god just talking about it makes me want to write a long complaint to the author. I guess this is just the matter of writing skills. Insincere Blank State has similiar depression background things, you know, similiar cause of death, and I already read that until 606 ? chapters, but during those 600+ chapters, I never got bored … the newest chapter also got more interesting and more interesting … and I still reread it too …. the kind of novel that I read as soon as new chapter updated. For Manager Kim, I will let it pile up I guess …. someone tell me when the author finally stopped dragging MC’s suffering just for the plot

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