Then one day.
“Let’s start recording Naeun’s part.”
“Huh? Where’s Naeun?”
“She said she was tired and would rest for a bit. I’ll go get her.”
It was time for a song recording.
Naeun, one of the members, was next.
Sua went to get Naeun, and moments later, something happened.
“PD-nim… PD-nim…!”
Sua came rushing back, alone.
Her face was pale, and she was shaking.
From her trembling lips, Jeyoung barely managed to hear that Naeun had jumped out of the window.
-!@#@!#$#@$#@%%$@#!%#&$%!$
There was chaos below the building.
An idol member who had suddenly fallen from the sky.
Naeun’s head had exploded and scattered on the ground.
Jeyoung rushed out of the building, but he couldn’t even think of calling 119.
Naeun’s remains were already gone.
Her beautiful body was grotesquely twisted and shattered.
People from TM had come out of the building and were controlling the area.
Jeyoung stood there dazed for a long time before finally standing up.
He couldn’t bear to watch the scene anymore. It felt like there was something he needed to do.
Naeun had been the smartest of the members.
But she was also the most delicate, which made her the one who suffered the most.
Jeyoung instinctively felt that Naeun hadn’t simply thrown everything away and given up on herself.
She must have left something behind.
He rushed straight to the break room on the floor where Naeun had jumped.
And there, holding a piece of paper, was Lee Taeman.
“Oh, Jeyoung. Why are you sweating so much? You came running up the stairs like someone in a hurry.”
“What’s that? Give it to me.”
“This? It’s nothing. Take it easy.”
“Give it to me..! Representative!”
“Shit, you bastard!”
Jeyoung charged at Lee Taeman.
For once, Lee Taeman resisted in a pathetic way, trying desperately not to let go of the paper.
From a glance, it was clearly Naeun’s will.
It was likely to contain all the pain Naeun had endured and the accusations she had made.
“Hey! Hey! What are you doing? There’s no one around!”
At Lee Taeman’s shout, the security guards arrived and restrained Jeyoung.
Lee Taeman, barely keeping Naeun’s will in his possession, dusted himself off and smirked.
“Looks like Jeyoung PD has lost his mind. I’m struggling too, Jeyoung PD. Let’s just get through this, huh? Heh.”
“Stop! Give me that paper…! Lee Taeman! You bastard, Lee Taeman!!!”
Jeyoung screamed desperately, but there was nothing he could do.
Lee Taeman moved further away, and Jeyoung was held back and struggled helplessly.
As time passed, the “SweetBlack Naeun Suicide Incident” was exposed to the public.
TM couldn’t stop it, not this time.
An idol had fallen in the middle of the day.
Instead, TM chose to pin everything on one person.
Lee Taeman quickly secured Naeun’s will and disposed of her personal items.
Then, he manipulated the evidence to make it seem like Jeyoung was the mastermind.
Jeyoung, the responsible PD, was portrayed as a villain who exploited the members for his own selfish desires.
He manipulated the will and bribed the media to manipulate public opinion.
Jeyoung became a notorious villain. He was ridiculed, no, stoned by the entire nation.
“PD-nim…”
“Hu… huff… hhhhh…”
“It’s okay. Don’t cry, everyone. I’m really okay.”
Naturally, Jeyoung had to leave TM. He had to prepare for a trial.
The remaining SweetBlack members couldn’t do anything for him.
Even if they gathered the courage to expose everything, the media was already on TM’s side.
TM had already bound him with fraudulent contracts, and even if he risked everything to reveal the truth, the many weaknesses of the idols in TM’s possession were overwhelming.
The videos of the members engaging in sexual services, for example.
Even if he managed to defeat that enormous darkness somehow, the girls’ pornographic videos would circulate, and they would never be able to continue their idol careers, becoming porn stars with their faces exposed. The future was all too clear.
Idols had to be flawless.
A tainted idol couldn’t enjoy the same popularity as before.
The public could be even more brutal than TM in some respects.
“It’s okay. I said I’m okay, everyone. Don’t cry.”
Knowing that, Jeyoung didn’t ask for help from the SweetBlack members.
In fact, he even asked them to stay quiet.
Because that was the best thing for the kids.
Though he couldn’t save them.
Leaving the kids behind and carrying the burden alone was the only option that seemed best.
Jeyoung was so miserable that he wanted to die.
He wanted to say that he would fix everything, but he couldn’t.
To the crying kids, all he could say was that it would be okay.
If he left, those kids would suffer again.
Knowing that, still, leaving was the only option.
Leaving them behind, alone, was so agonizing that he couldn’t bring himself to leave.
After leaving, Jeyoung painfully continued the trial.
He was with Naeun’s parents. They knew who Jeyoung really was, and they knew TM’s atrocities.
They tried together to reveal the truth, but with the media thoroughly on TM’s side, they couldn’t do anything.
Years later, Jeyoung was acquitted.
But Naeun’s parents were still in a lawsuit against TM.
Of course, none of this process was revealed to the media.
It was unimaginable how much money and sexual services TM controlled the media with.
“Mother. I will definitely clear Naeun’s name.”
“Thank you. Just having you by our side means so much to us…”
Afterward, Jeyoung withdrew from the trial and began preparing for the next steps.
It broke his heart that he couldn’t fight alongside Naeun’s parents.
But there was nothing more Jeyoung could do in the courtroom.
Instead, he focused on growing his strength.
He planned to become strong enough to confront TM.
It would be a painful and difficult road, but he had to take it.
With this small body, he would grow big enough to face the enormous darkness.
Thus, Jeyoung founded AS (Assassin) Entertainment, filled with the desire to destroy TM.
From the ground up. He was determined to climb up by any means.
He had to do it for the kids who were still suffering.
At first, it seemed hopeless.
Hiding his true identity while recruiting artists wasn’t easy.
Moreover, no one wanted to join this small company as a trainee. There were no employees either.
Then Siyeon appeared.
It was like destiny. She seemed to have come to help Jeyoung.
The girl who seemed born to be a star quickly rose to fame, and for a moment, Jeyoung thought it might actually be possible.
But that was a brief, vain dream.
TM soon discovered Jeyoung again and tried to crush him.
Siyeon eventually left.
Though Jeyoung wanted to keep her, he couldn’t this time.
He couldn’t bear to make his artist suffer again.
Even after Siyeon left, Jeyoung sat in the office day and night, consumed by self-blame.
Whenever he heard news that Siyeon was in contact with TM, it became even more painful.
Outside, the crowds that cursed him gathered every day, yelling.
Was it really impossible?
Could this weak dwarf ever defeat that giant?
He wanted to give up.
He wanted to let go of everything.
Everything had become too painful.
After Siyeon left, Jeyoung sank deeper into misery, day after day.
Then, after Jeyoung’s identity was exposed and Siyeon left, one day…
On a day when Jeyoung was again miserably pulling at his hair, locked in his office, something unusual happened.
“…Why is it so quiet now?”
The people who used to scream every day, calling him a murderer, were nowhere to be seen today.
It had been weeks since they’d caused trouble every day.
Looking out the window, the janitor was oddly cleaning everything up.
“Why aren’t they here today?”
Did something happen in the country?
Jeyoung, too anguished to notice before, now checked the portal sites and news.
And there, he saw stories he never could have imagined.
“How… how is this happening?”
How could this be?
Things he had tried and failed at were now happening.
Upon closer inspection, it seemed that JTAC had been the first to report it.
The three major networks, which had been bribed to do evil, were now hesitating.
Low-level journalists on portal sites were carrying JTAC’s news.
JTAC, the cable channel established during Jeyoung’s trial.
He hadn’t realized it before, but maybe there was hope here after all.
But even so, it wouldn’t have been easy for them to reveal this.
Was someone inside helping…?
How could this have happened?
Jeyoung was stunned.
Before he could even make sense of this, the office window suddenly burst open.
“I told you not to come to the office when I’m not here. Why are you moping here alone, boss?”
“Siyeon…”
“And please shave, for heaven’s sake.”
Siyeon was laughing while hanging outside the window.