Chapter 147
Seo Miyeon was out.
Her talent was mediocre to begin with, and how could we make a girl who used to give her classmates cigarette burns into an idol?
I gave a slight flick of my finger, and President Ha Yujeong nodded.
"Show us what you've prepared."
"Y-Yes!!"
Seo Miyeon sang.
The in-house producer listening to her gave a slight shake of his head.
Seo Miyeon's expression clouded.
"Thank you. That'll be all."
"Y-Yes..."
She left.
Watching her go, the producer said quietly,
"She can sing, but she's no better than someone who sings a little at a neighborhood karaoke bar."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. And if you've rejected her, Teacher, there's no reason to pick her."
Seo Miyeon was rejected unanimously.
The first audition candidate left, tears in her eyes.
But this was only the beginning.
There were still plenty of audition candidates left.
.
.
.
There sure are a lot of them.
But unfortunately, there wasn't anyone who seemed likely to pass the audition.
Putting their past issues aside, none of them had the talent to become proper idols.
How could that be?
"That's all for today's auditions. Thank you for participating."
Perhaps disappointed, even some of the people waiting in the hallway left looking dejected.
President Ha Yujeong sighed as she watched them walk away.
"Are you sure there aren't any talented people among them?"
"Yes."
Surprisingly, not a single one had a future as an idol.
A few seemed better suited to acting than being idols, so I recommended they consider that instead.
But in the end, not one person passed today's audition.
"There are still applicants left, aren't there?"
The auditions wouldn't be over in just one day.
All we had to do was wait and see.
I said with a smile, and President Ha Yujeong sighed.
"I was hoping for at least six people."
"That's a lot of people to pick."
"These days, the more idols you have, the better."
Was she going with the whole, "I don't know what you like, so I'll throw everything in" approach?
I didn't know much about the idol market, so I decided to just take her word for it.
"Anyway, I look forward to working with you again tomorrow."
"You got it."
I said goodbye to President Ha Yujeong, then rode home in Mr. Cheolhon's car.
It was already evening.
"Mr. Cheolhon, what should we do about dinner?"
"Want to order pizza?"
"Sounds good."
We ordered pizza with Mr. Cheolhon, and I looked around online.
I was looking up Go Yeong-jun.
-Wow, that Go Yeong-jun guy never gets rusty.
-There's a reason he's called a master.
-How does he manage to come up with something new every time he releases a song?
-Not every song is good, but his freshness and youthful spirit are incredible...
There was a reason for that.
The songs Go Yeong-jun released were written by fresh-faced rookie composers, then stolen and reworked by him.
Anyway, the important thing was that while Go Yeong-jun had plenty of fans, he also had quite a few enemies.
-Go Yeong-jun's a total piece of trash.
-He's so damn arrogant. He's going to get what's coming to him one day.
-I heard he got drunk and acted like a complete asshole to Mr. Yang Hyeon-sik last time.
Yang Hyeon-sik was one of Korea's veteran singers.
He was a good person who'd sung many great songs and donated part of his earnings to orphans every year.
After openly behaving so disgracefully toward someone like that, Go Yeong-jun had become Yang Hyeon-sik's enemy, and quite a few people held it against him.
"Hmm."
Was it a matter of whether a person's character was separate from their music, or whether it was right to listen to songs by trash like him?
Then I should make him a guy with neither character nor talent.
But...
How do I take him down?
Should I just talk about it on a broadcast?
That alone might deal him quite a blow...
But there was also the issue of Sekyung and its sponsorship, and with talk of him wining and dining people, it seemed he might have been using unknown singers or idol trainees for some shady scheme...
After turning it over in my head for a while, I sighed.
Tsk.
As expected, it was better to leave this sort of thing to the experts.
I picked up my phone.
-Oh, Teacher!
"Hello, Prosecutor Gu."
-I'm doing just fine, as always~!
"You say that, but you look busy."
Even at this hour, Prosecutor Gu Nam-cheol was still at the office.
Surprised by the office I could see on the video call, I asked him about it, and he chuckled.
-Busy, yes. You know those people we arrested last time? Things are a complete madhouse because of them.
"Is that so?"
-Yes. The Namhyeong Group is making a huge fuss in particular.
Among those we'd arrested this time was Lee Haru, the Namhyeong Group chairman's youngest granddaughter.
The chairman doted on her and was mobilizing the company's legal team to get Lee Haru out by any means necessary.
-Their lawyers are quite something. Some are former chief justices, and others are former chiefs of prosecutors' offices...
"So what? You can't beat them?"
-We can.
No matter how many former officials they had lined up, the evidence was clear, and this wasn't her first offense.
Prosecutor Gu Nam-cheol chuckled, saying he was going to crush them completely.
-My former boss came to see me yesterday. When I called the deputy chief prosecutor over, he didn't say a word and left.
"Hahahaha!"
-This isn't just my accomplishment, after all.
That was true.
Since the deputy chief prosecutor had practically caught them himself, even those powerful former officials wouldn't dare to pick a fight recklessly.
-Anyway, what can I do for you?
"Oh. There's something I'd like to ask you about."
I told him what was going on.
Go Yeong-jun was exploiting young, talented composers and releasing their songs under his own name.
After hearing that, Gu Nam-cheol looked troubled.
-Good grief. What a piece of trash.
"What's the best way to handle this?"
-Hmm. How about leaving this one to Won-ju?
Prosecutor Yang Won-ju, a colleague of Gu Nam-cheol's at the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office.
Gu Nam-cheol mentioned that Yang Won-ju had handled a similar case before and introduced him to me.
He asked me to wait a moment, then picked up his phone and stepped outside. A little later, Prosecutor Yang Won-ju appeared on the screen.
-Teacher. It's been a while.
"You've been working hard too, Prosecutor Yang. You're still at the office this late?"
-Haha. What can you do?
"Don't push yourself too hard."
-Is there a future where I collapse?
"Hmm. Give me a moment."
I turned over a card.
And smiled.
"Doesn't look like it."
-Then I can work overtime a little longer. Anyway, what is it you wanted to talk about...?
"Oh. Well..."
When I told him about Go Yeong-jun, he nodded seriously.
Then he spoke calmly.
-I'll take care of it, then.
"You're already busy, so I hope I'm not asking too much of you. Maybe I should come see you tomorrow and thank you in person."
-Hahaha!! You're always welcome, Teacher. There are actually quite a few things I'd like to ask you about, too.
"It's about Jang Gyubok, right?"
-Ah. As expected. You know without me having to say a word.
Jang Gyubok.
He was the suspect in the case Prosecutor Yang Won-ju was currently handling.
-Yes, that's right. He set up an illegal gambling site with its servers overseas.
The problem was that they needed to recover the proceeds from the illegal gambling, but they had no idea where he'd hidden the money.
-Could you help us with this, Teacher?
"Of course. I'll come see you tomorrow."
-Ah, thank you so much.
We should help each other out, right?
.
.
.
The next morning, I headed to the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office with Mr. Cheolhon.
Prosecutor Yang Won-ju's investigator, who'd been waiting after receiving word, took me to a waiting room. A little while later, a burly man in handcuffs was brought in.
"H-Holy... Kang Noah!!"
"Haha. Hello."
"I-I'll never turn over your card!!"
"You don't have to. You know how I do my broadcasts, don't you?"
"Grrr...!! You bastard!! You think you'll get away with it if you tell everyone?!"
"Well... I think I'll be fine, won't I?"
The only people he could get to do anything for him were probably just local punks.
Considering the protection of 'our' alliance, those guys weren't remotely capable of doing anything to me.
"Mr. Cheolhon."
"Yes, sir."
Mr. Cheolhon started a video call and filmed him.
As I watched Jang Gyubok on the video feed Mr. Cheolhon sent me, I turned over the card.
Jang Gyubok's face gradually turned pale.
"As I thought, you moved it into Bitcoin. Haha."
"No!! No!! Do you know how hard I worked to get that money?!"
"You got it through an illegal gambling scam. And this is hilarious. When people won money on your site and tried to withdraw it, you told them, 'Why would that be your money?'"
I said with a smile,
"So why is this your money, Mr. Jang Gyubok?"
"No!! You son of a bitch!! No way!! My money!! It's my money!!"
"Haha. And let's see... You hid some cash assets too, apart from the Bitcoin. You stashed them at your lover's house in Hampyeong. Good grief. Dozens of gold bars and quite a few jewels, too."
"No!! No!! Please!! Please, Teacher Kang Noah...!! That money... That money...!!"
I looked over at Prosecutor Yang Won-ju.
He was grinning from ear to ear.
"As expected, Teacher. I love how cleanly you handle things."
"Haha. This is nothing. I'll leave the rest to you, then."
I smiled at him, said goodbye, and stood up.
I was done here, but...
Since I was here anyway, maybe I should stop by and say hello to Prosecutor Gu Nam-cheol?
I headed straight to Prosecutor Gu Nam-cheol's office.
And saw...
"Huh?"
There was a man who looked like a lawyer and a young woman in Prosecutor Gu Nam-cheol's office.
Lee Haru.
The youngest granddaughter of the Namhyeong Group chairman.
I couldn't help smiling when I saw her.
What a complete bitch.
Even while she's in custody, she's preparing to get out on bail somehow and pin her crimes on someone else, isn't she?
I couldn't let that happen.