As Kang Ho-Soo had guessed, it was very likely that the two people whom Woo-Jin talked about were the same person. Wish Baragi’s members proudly said that ‘Everyone has at least one alternate account online,’ and gave detailed explanations on how to manage one’s IP address when using an alternate account. As a bonus, they had also explained how to avoid and prove defamation.

However, it was a fact that actions of the Wish Baragi’s members had greatly aided Woo-Jin. The barags’ efforts had spun the negative posts about Chae Woo-Jin on the internet so that it seemed like the Blue Hole’s personal vendetta against him, and prevented these posts from spreading any further. If Woo-Jin had witnessed the entire process of how the barags rendered the infamous Blue Hole powerless and unable to fight back in real time, Woo-Jin never would have used the word ‘gentle’ to describe them.

In fact, Woo-Jin couldn’t get used to the profane language and ridicule that were used in the process, so he didn’t read the posts in detail. Furthermore, the barags had disguised themselves as Blue Fit’s anti-fans instead of Chae Woo-Jin’s fans when they were attacking Blue Hole, and acted like they were feeble victims. People who didn’t know the context easily misunderstood that it was a fight between Blue Hole and Blue Fit’s anti-fans.

“Honestly, apart from Blue Hole, nobody else has said anything bad about you – the majority of the public is rather fond of you. And as more and more evidence suggests that these keyboard warriors are members of Blue Hole, public sentiment towards them has also started declining. Since they have a bad track record, people have been thinking along the lines of, ‘They're doing it again?’.

Blue Hole’s members were only satisfied if Blue Fit shone brightly wherever they went. They couldn’t stand it when any of the Blue Fit members went on a variety show without having an important role; if a lot of their footage got edited out; and if other people received more attention than them.

When Lee Min-Soo first debuted in a drama, Blue Hole’s members had kicked up a huge fuss about how he had lesser parts than the male lead, and told him to build a connection with the female lead even though he wasn’t even the second lead. But when he got along with her, they were unhappy about it.

At that time, Blue Hole had stirred up trouble by targeting the actress who played the female lead in the drama; they left mean comments on her social media accounts, and made personal attacks on her. Back then, if Lee Min-Soo’s agency hadn’t stepped up to release a public statement stating that Lee Min-Soo had wanted to study acting from scratch, things would have remained the same. After that, the members seemed to be more restrained, but old habits die hard.

Lee Min-Soo had regarded City of Shadows to be the turning point in his acting career. He had met with Writer Yoo Soo-Min and Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk; putting the success or failure of the drama aside, he thought that they were certainly going to make a drama together, and blindly jumped at the opportunity.

However, the role that he got was not good enough for Blue Hole, and he was overshadowed by the main leads who were good at acting. One of the reasons why there was a growing hostility towards Chae Woo-Jin was because they found out that Lee Min-Soo wanted to play ‘Louie’.

“And the PD of The King of the Masked Singers had also contributed to this situation.”

“What has he got to do with it?” Woo-Jin was baffled by the sudden appearance of a new person. Kang Ho-Soo sighed.

“He’s been wanting to cast you in their program for a long time. However, CEO Jang had rejected him without any hesitation. Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem like the PD has given up on casting you yet. I think he’s the one providing the reporters with information about your connection with Blue Fit.” The production director of The King of the Masked Singers had published an article about Chae Woo-Jin’s connection to Blue Fit, and TM was trying to use it to tarnish Woo-Jin’s image.

The King of the Masked Singers' production director kept providing the reporters with sources of information in a bid to hurt Woo-Jin’s pride, so that he would appear on the King of Mask Singers. The interview in which he had showered the ‘Commander of the Universe’ with compliments was an extension of that. From his standpoint as the production director, regardless of whether Woo-Jin or Min Si-Hoo won, it would become a trending topic. Hence, he wouldn’t be making any losses.

“I can just ignore it.”

“It can go either way, and there’s a very fine line between humans’ pride and sense of inferiority; messing with either of them would create an unexpected variable. TM's CEO Kim is the best example of this.” The reason why CEO Kim Seok-Hyung couldn’t stand looking at celebrities that thrived after leaving TM was because he didn’t want others to say he didn’t have an eye for talent or compare him to the CEOs of other agencies. He was an example of how an inferiority complex could be disguised as pride.

“What will happen if I remain silent and do nothing about it?”

“Well, nobody knows until CEO Kim and the production director of The King of the Masked Singers obtains a satisfactory result.”

“If I can’t rise above that, I have to be self-conceited.” Perhaps, TM's CEO wasn’t expecting Woo-Jin to go on The King of the Masked Singers. Even though CEO Jang Soo-Hwan had become more broad-minded, it wasn’t to the point that he would send Chae Woo-Jin to a music variety program.

“Is there any way for us to screw them over?”

“Huh?” Kang Ho-Soo paused for a moment after hearing Woo-Jin use a word that he rarely used.

“If I go to the office now, will I be able to meet with CEO Jang?” Kang Ho-Soo had been at the office since the morning and had only left to drive Woo-Jin home; he responded to Woo-Jin’s question by changing lanes.

***

After hearing what Woo-Jin had to say, CEO Jang had a strange expression on his face.

“But in order to do that, you must first win. Do you have the confidence to do that?” He knew Woo-Jin could sing, but he couldn’t give a proper evaluation because he had never heard him sing live. He had fallen in love with Chae Woo-Jin’s acting – not singing. Hence, it was only natural for him not to know much about it.

Presently, Min Si-Hoo’s performance was at its peak. Even though his singing had been criticized for its lack of emotions and that he had relied too much on technique, a lot of singers couldn’t even do that. Furthermore, his vocals were definitely much better than in the past. Although he did not show as much emotion and vocal range as he did in Blue Fit’s debut album, he had grown immensely in terms of vocal techniques.

“Min Si-Hoo is really good at singing and he has improved to the point where he’s enjoying singing his favorite songs, instead of the songs he has to sing as an idol. He’s no longer the Min Si-Hoo you used to know.”

“I’m aware of that, but I can’t sit around and do nothing about it.” Woo-Jin felt that walking on eggshells around them was not the way to go. If the people they were dealing with weren’t going to remain silent even if Woo-Jin chose not to do anything about it, it was time for them to fight back in moderation. Fortunately, even though Min Si-Hoo had worked hard, Woo-Jin was not foolish enough to bury his natural talent and let it stay hidden.

“If that’s what you really want, look for Kim Joong-Sun. He will test you. If PD Kim is satisfied, I won’t be against it either.”

“Are you giving me your approval?” Woo-Jin thought it would be difficult to persuade Jang Soo-Hwan, so his reply came as a relief to him.

“I haven’t given you my approval yet. We need to get the green light from Joong-Sun before discussing it. However, I’m starting to get tired of putting up with this nonsense. It’s too bothersome to kick up a big fuss over it, so I just let it be. But people just don’t know where to stop.” Jang Soo-Hwan looked annoyed just thinking about it, so Woo-Jin apologized to him. Since he was the cause of Jang Soo-Hwan’s frustration, Woo-Jin acted carefully around him.

“These kinds of things are no big deal. It’s good that you’re determined to take them on. Since you’ve stepped into the entertainment industry, you’ll be seeing more of these in the future. On another note, how are things between your mother and maternal grandfather?” Jang Soo-Hwan quietly asked Woo-Jin about his family, as though it was the more important matter at hand.

Jang Soo-Hwan was bombarded with calls from Park Hyun-Man after midnight the other day, and he vented his stress on Choi Min-Woo the next day.

‘If he’s so worried about Woo-Jin, he should just step up and take care of Woo-Jin himself. Why is he taking out his anger on innocent parties?’

Choi Min-Woo silently listened and called Park Hyun-Man on the spot. That was how the father-in-law and son-in-law exchanged their first greetings over the phone. Choi Min-Woo was not intimidated by the great Park Hyun-Man, and made a bold request, “Thank you for worrying about our son, but we’ll take good care of Woo-Jin, so please take care of Eun-Soo first.

“CEO Jang is someone we trust and have entrusted our son to. Sir, father-in-law, I don’t think you should walk all over him just because you are acquainted with him. Woo-Jin was also at fault in this matter. I don’t want to put the blame on anyone else because of his mistake. You are currently worried about Eun-Soo, right? So much time has passed; I hope that you’re able to be a little more honest, father.”

Even though Choi Min-Woo kept calling him ‘father-in-law’ and ‘father’, Park Hyun-Man did not object to it. If he hated it, he would have said something, so it meant that he had tacitly acknowledged Choi Min-Woo as his son-in-law. After exchanging a few words with each other, Choi Min-Woo respectfully ended the call and apologized to Jang Soo-Hwan for this incident.

“You’re not the one who should be apologizing…”

“Parents are to be blamed for their children’s mistakes, but the children are at fault for making their parents worry.” Choi Min-Woo felt sad that Park Eun-Soo and Park Hyun-Man had wasted so much time not only hurting each other, but themselves as well. Hence, Jang Soo-Hwan suggested that he take this opportunity to mend the relationship between father and daughter and to have a fresh start.

“I think my mother and grandfather will eventually meet with one another after contacting each other.”

“Oh really? That’s a relief then.” Even though it wasn’t an Ojakyo [1], Jang Soo-Hwan was pleased because he seemed to have played a similar role as the bridge. It was better to have more people on their side. Jang Soo-Hwan was very happy to have recruited a strong ally.

“No, wait a second! Park Hyun-Man has already been meddling with Woo-Jin’s affairs this entire time, so after he reconciles with his daughter, there won’t be any reason for him to stop himself, right?!” Jang Soo-Hwan cried out after the belated realization hit him. However, there was no one there to hear it.

Kim Joong-Sun was DS’ composer and producer. Nobody doubted his abilities after looking at the singers he had discovered, as well as the albums he had released. Every day, countless aspiring singers dreamed of getting a chance to sing in front of him. Singers put in a lot of effort in order to sing the songs that were composed by him.

“Sing this one.” Kim Joong-Sun took out one of his unreleased songs and handed it to Woo-Jin. It was difficult to judge someone’s vocals if they sang a song that was already famous. There were singers who were born with natural talent, but there were also others who became great singers via repetitive learning. Hence, Kim Joong-Sun didn’t evaluate Woo-Jin using his version of ‘Confession’ and the drama’s theme song.

“If you don’t know how to read sheet music, do you want me to give you a guideline?” Kim Joong-Sun asked Woo-Jin kindly as the latter looked through the sheet music. He was fundamentally nice to people who weren’t professional singers.

“It’s okay. I kept looking through the sheet music because I liked the song. Should I go to the recording studio and sing it there?”

“No, we’ll be doing it here.”

Even though he was nice to people who weren’t professional singers, he didn’t let just anyone into the recording studio. Although requesting Woo-Jin to sing a song with sheet music which he had seen for the very first time without any accompaniment was an unreasonable request, it was necessary for Woo-Jin to be able to do that if he was determined to go on The King of Masked Singers.

“Recalling my time with you. I found…”

“Stop! Are you singing with your natural voice?” Kim Joong-Sun had been curious about it for a long time. He hadn’t met Chae Woo-Jin in person, so he wasn’t sure, but Woo-Jin’s singing voice was very different from his speaking voice in movies and dramas. There were singers whose voices changed every time they sang.

However, the voices of singers with a clear voice like Chae Woo-Jin wouldn’t change that much when they sang. Kim Joong-Sun had to know if it was a habit of Woo-Jin’s or if he had changed it intentionally.

1. In the Korean version of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, the heavenly king’s daughter, Jiknyeo, and a herder, Gyeonwu, could only meet once a year on the seventh day and seventh month each year, but they could not cross the Milky Way. Hence, crows and magpies worked together to form a bridge across the Milky Way, called the Ojakgyo, for the couple to meet. ☜