Children love songs.
Kang Jiwoo is a child.
Therefore, Kang Jiwoo loves my songs!
“If I can just get her to listen to my song, that’s enough. It needs to be so catchy that she ends up humming it absentmindedly in front of the camera.”
That was why Heo Kyungyeon bombarded the office with calls.
Making himself stand out was just a bonus.
In the past, he had to personally teach each follower, but now it was convenient with just a tap on an app.
Of course, it was an illegal app.
But he didn’t care about things like that.
After all, for someone whose job is scamming others, what’s a little illegality?
“Hello! I am Heo Kyungyeon ,” he said, smiling as he entered the office.
He extended his hand for a handshake with Han Seoyoung, but she glared at him and ignored it.
“Get out,” she said coldly.
Her eyes burned with a fiery intensity, as if sparks might fly at any moment.
Quite an impressive spirit.
However…
“For a human, that’s not bad.”
He believed himself to be an alien.
Since he firmly believed that, he wasn’t scared at all.
“Hey! When a guest arrives, shouldn’t you invite him in and at least offer tea? How dare you, a young girl, slam the door in my face?! Move aside!”
Heo Kyungyeon barked, trying to push Han Seoyoung aside.
However, she didn’t budge.
“Whoa!”
Instead, he lost his balance and staggered, needing the suited men accompanying him to quickly steady him.
“Ahem… I-I’m fine. Now, get rid of that woman’s boulder immediately!”
“Yes, sir!”
It looked like a scuffle was about to break out: five men against one woman.
At first glance, it seemed like a hopeless fight.
However…
Han Seoyoung thought differently.
“Secretary Songyeon, call 119.”
“119? Not 112?”
“Yes. Because we’ll need to send these people to the hospital.”
“……?”
Han Seoyoung cracked her fingers, her movements emanating an icy chill.
Han Seoyoung was a powerhouse.
From a young age, she had trained in taekwondo, judo, kendo, hapkido, and various martial arts.
On top of that, she had excelled in her studies and been admitted to Korea University.
I still remember being startled when, as a freshman, she said her dream was to become a special forces commander.
She originally planned to join ROTC and become a female officer…
Although her dreams had shifted for various reasons,
“Ahhh! I-It hurts!”
“That’s why I told you to leave while you could.”
Her physical prowess and deadly skills had hardly faded.
The men couldn’t even put up a fight and collapsed.
The office staff, wide-eyed, clapped in awe.
“Did Manager Han practice martial arts?”
“That was amazing… taking down five men alone…”
“Siljangping is incredibly strong!”
But the opponents didn’t seem ready to give up just yet.
“This way! Over here!”
It turned out there were more lackeys waiting.
“Push! Just push your way in!”
“Aaaah!”
At Heo Kyungyeon ’s command, the men tried to barge in with sheer force.
We couldn’t just sit back and watch.
“Block them!”
“Let’s help out too!”
Employees, regardless of gender, joined forces to block their advance.
Even Tanker Park Seokji and Supporter Songyeon threw themselves into the fray.
“Block them, everyone!”
I, too, joined in from the back, pushing with my small hands.
Meanwhile, at the forefront, Big Brother Seokji showed his might.
“I survived the zoo parliament! If you want to push me out of the way, you’d better bring a sledgehammer!”
The zoo parliament.
A chaotic time when lawmakers resorted to physical fights armed with baseball bats, crowbars, and sledgehammers.
Parliament broadcasts were more entertaining than MMA back then, so Big Brother’s boasts weren’t entirely baseless.
“Hyaaaargh!”
“Ugh!”
“Someone’s getting crushed!”
In the end, Heo Kyungyeon failed to breach the office threshold.
Pathetically, he poked his head in from the doorway, desperately trying to make eye contact with me.
“Kang Jiwoo, candidate! You are not a human! You are a special being from the same home as me—an alien! You must realize this!”
“An alien???”
Bong Soohee plugged my ear with her finger.
Heo Kyungyeon’s voice, fading into the distance, echoed faintly.
“Look into my eyes! Call out Heo Kyungyeon…!”
What kind of absurdity is this in broad daylight?
At least it was a relief that no one seemed to be injured.
“Sigh. Should I have declined participating in the minor candidate debate…?”
“It’s not because of the minor candidate debate. It’s natural for peddlers to flock to a prominent presidential candidate.”
The fact that scammers flock to me is proof of my popularity.
The world is full of people who go wild trying to take a picture with the next president.
What do they do with the photo?
They’ll use it later to commit fraud.
Look at this!
I even took a photo with the president!
The president endorses me, so you can trust and invest!
That’s roughly how it goes.
Heo Kyungyeon probably intended to promote himself by flaunting his connection with me.
The reason he kept singing must have been…
“Look into my eyes and… mmph…!”
I quickly covered his mouth with my hand.
Damn it.
Has the song already imprinted itself on me?
Trying to exploit the innocence of children for scams—how despicable!
This world’s worst fraudster…!
“Candidate, you must never, ever sing that song.”
“Yes, I made a mistake…”
“Mistakes are not allowed either.”
Han Seoyoung was firm in her stance.
She seemed worried I might hum it somewhere.
Honestly, I was quite flustered too.
I expected scammers to appear, but to think they’d use a song to lure people.
“I-I’m so sorry….”
Jiwoo-ping looked dejected.
Her shoulders drooped, and she hung her head, fidgeting with her fingers.
Han Seoyoung crouched down to meet my eye level.
“We should have prevented it beforehand, but we didn’t. I’m sorry. But, candidate, you must be mindful and guard against that song.
You understand, right?”
“Yes… But, is that grandpa a bad person?”
“Yes. He’s a very bad person. He lies to people, scams them, breaks the law, and makes the people suffer.”
“Wow… He’s really awful….”
The truly terrible fraudster, Heo Kyung-yeon.
He seemed likely to become the biggest villain of this debate.
One bad piece of news and one good piece of news.
First, the bad news…
Beep-beep-beep-beep!
It’s me, Heo Kyung-yeon!
Look into my eyes!
Heo Kyungyeon.
His flashy entrance and song wouldn’t leave my head.
Shaking my head, I muttered,
“Don’t think about the fraudster….”
Don’t think about an elephant! Absolutely don’t imagine an elephant!!!
But when you try not to, all you can think of is the elephant.
Ultimately, I decided to take drastic measures.
‘If you can’t avoid it, study it.’
And here’s the good news.
Jiwoo-ping, out of sheer curiosity, began studying “cults” without needing my help to focus her mind!
On her own impulse, she was learning about cults.
How commendable, Jiwoo-ping!
“Wow… this is really long….”
She started reading a lengthy passage.
Normally, she would’ve yawned and fallen asleep after reading a little.
But now, she was reading with patience.
She even took notes in her notebook about what she read.
“Cults are bad religions…”
Cults (似而非)
Similar but not genuine.
They appear real on the surface but are fundamentally different, meaning they’re fake.
Cults outwardly present themselves as healthy religions.
However, their core is distorted.
They propagate doctrines and beliefs distorted for the benefit of a specific group or individual (the cult leader).
“The people are suffering…”
She read cases of harm caused by cults.
Although there were many unfamiliar words, she seemed to grasp the meaning through context.
“We need to scold Heo-chu-ping together….”
I could feel Jiwoo-ping’s heartbreak.
The victims were pitiful, and she was so upset that she even cried.
Even though it was from a child’s perspective, Jiwoo-ping was genuinely thinking about the people.
So-jin, who couldn’t buy toys,
Grandma Park Malja, who was misunderstood,
And even war veteran Dongmyo Tom Cruise…
I hope everyone lives well.
Hearing that cults are threatening the people, she couldn’t hold back her tears.
Swipe, swipe.
She wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
She also blew her nose loudly into a tissue.
“That person is really bad… They even tried to fight with the Party Members…”
A resolution formed in Jiwoo Ping’s heart.
“I… I have to stop them…!”
Now, my willpower only serves to support Jiwoo Ping’s determination.
Know your enemy, know yourself, and you’ll win every battle!
“Ugh….”
She gripped her pencil as if she were about to snap it in half.
And so, Jiwoo Ping’s Cult X-Files were created.
The office was unusually quiet.
Suspiciously so.
‘There’s no sound of Jiwoo Ping playing…?’
Bong Soohee sprang up from the sofa.
When she looked behind her, Kang Jiwoo was sprawled out on the play mat.
‘A notebook?’
It seemed she had been diligently writing something in the notebook before falling asleep.
Was she writing a diary?
‘I shouldn’t read it carelessly.’
Even as she thought that, her hand reached out.
‘I’ll just take a quick peek.’
Bong Soohee wasn’t the type to pass up on such an amusing event.
When she opened the notebook, she saw letters written meticulously, one by one.
Cult Observation Diary
Cult Observation Diary?
Recalling what had happened today, Bong Soohee could roughly guess.
Perhaps Jiwoo wanted to scold the cult members.
‘She was silently focused this whole time—she was training.’
The content was the most entertaining part.
Cults are bad religions.
They control the people and steal their money.
Jiwoo Ping must punish them.
At that moment, Kang Jiwoo woke up.
She mumbled groggily in a sleepy voice.
“Yawn… Supervisor Ping, Supervisor Ping…”
“Huh?”
“Do you know… what a cult is…?”
“A cult? I’m not sure, Ping.”
“It’s something bad… that hurts people.”
“Jiwoo Ping is so smart.”
“……”
Jiwoo looked slightly pleased at the compliment from Bong Soohee.
But she didn’t let it show by smiling.
She seemed to suppress her emotions, worried it might seem insincere.
With her small lips, she said,
“I… I want to beat that Mr. Heo Kyungyeon….”
“…..!”
Bong Soohee was quite surprised.
And it was understandable since this was the first time Kang Jiwoo had ever expressed wanting to “beat” someone.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. Because he’s bad, Ping… I want to get revenge for the Party Members he hurt, and for the people he hurt too….”
Bong Suhee took off her glasses and spoke.
The atmosphere grew noticeably serious.
“Then can you study hard?”
Jiwoo nodded.
With words, she could promise anything.
To prove her determination, Kang Jiwoo jumped off the sofa and began tidying up the scattered toys.
She also turned off the tablet where HeoChu Ping had been playing.
Even her beloved recorder, which she always kept nearby, was carefully disassembled into three parts and put neatly into her bag.
“Yes! I’ll train hard and definitely win…!”
At the minor candidates’ debate, many candidates would likely underestimate Kang Jiwoo.
But things wouldn’t go as they thought.
Jiwoo Ping was growing stronger…!