The Hit Song of This Life Is Revenge - Chapter 58

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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My Hit Song in This Life Is Revenge
58
The live broadcast had ended.
Yet there was no closing scene, no final remarks.
Across the blank screen, only the opening credits of a drama scheduled for the next time slot repeated mechanically.
No one reached for the remote.
As viewers watched the same footage again and again, they voiced their complaints from every corner of the country.
Before the drama could begin, the screen went black.
[Broadcast Notice — The winner announcement for I’m Your Singer Season 3, which aired earlier, has been postponed to next week due to production scheduling constraints. We appreciate your understanding.]
The moment people looked away from their screens, they opened community forums as if by prior agreement.
Anger poured out unfiltered.
└Fuck, we lost. The nerve of these guys is incredible. Are they insane for ratings?
└No one asked me to understand shit.
└The producer basically submitted his resignation live on air. Doesn’t give a damn what happens after this.
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ This PD was so thrilled to go home without a care in the worldㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Feels like being stuck on day N of constipation and finally seeing an exit before it blocks again.
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋ I feel it and now it’s even worse.
└What kind of variety show is worse than a debate, for fuck’s sake!!!!
What infuriated them was being robbed of the sense of closure itself.
Yet though they used the same words, what Hwang Seong-su felt was something far different—a loss of an entirely different kind.
The moment he entered the Meeting Room, the scene from mere days ago overlapped with this one.
Same space. Same table.
The instant the door opened, what had filled his vision was unmistakably the future itself.
So vivid it seemed just a hand’s reach away.
‘Then why….’
More than emptiness, he felt unreal disorientation.
“Hey! Say something!”
At CP’s tearing shout, Hwang Seong-su finally lifted his head.
“How are we supposed to fix this! What do we do about the winner announcement! Postponing it isn’t the end, you idiot!”
The merciless rebuke landed, and Hwang Seong-su drew a quiet breath.
What was there even to explain.
Unable to form the first word, he kept his mouth shut, so CP roughly turned the laptop screen toward him.
“You can at least see this, right?”
A voting window displayed on the Broadcasting Station’s main page.
The number beneath Lee Jae-i’s name was overwhelming.
“That’s not all. The forum servers are on the verge of crashing.”
As CP dragged the cursor to the boards, sensationalist posts poured out in torrents.
The cursor moved roughly.
Then—click.
A single click unleashed the overheated fervor that seemed to burst through the monitor itself.
Hwang Seong-su’s eyes found the exposed text.
Unspeakable curses and accusations directed at him filled the screen.
He tried to offer a defense, but not a single word would come.
Because all of it had been done at his own instruction.
Because every mistake was one he had made.
To explain the situation, he would have had to speak his own incompetence aloud.
So his mouth simply wouldn’t open.
Bang!
As Hwang Seong-su remained silent, CP slammed the palm of his hand against the table.
“Does silence fix this?”
“I apologize.”
“I apologize—”
The words trailed off.
Instead, CP clenched his jaw and lowered his head.
His trembling breath was transmitted whole, and Hwang Seong-su swallowed hard.
CP’s breathing erupted like volcanic ash.
Then, pressing his eye sockets, he spoke.
“Seong-su. Tell me everything—leave nothing out. Then I can figure out how we’re getting out of this.”
It seemed as though patience had run dry.
If he stalled any longer, CP looked ready to explode, so he barely managed to part his lips.
“The thing is… it’s like this.”
There was too much to confess.
From the most basic oversights to irreversible decisions.
With each sentence that left his mouth, he felt himself diminishing.
As the timeline took shape, CP’s expression transformed through a spectrum of reactions.
Each shift made his words catch.
So Hwang Seong-su kept speaking, his eyes fixed only on the edge of the table.
Once all the sentences had spilled out, a heavy silence pressed down on his shoulders.
…….
CP stared at the ceiling, his eyes moving slowly.
Hwang Seong-su followed their arc with his gaze before their eyes met.
“When you edited the lodging footage—was there any scene showing who copied from whom?”
He had no memory of seeing such footage.
If he had, he would have changed the direction entirely.
Hwang Seong-su shook his head slightly as he spoke.
“There was no scene of Lee Jae-i and Baek Song-ha facing each other at least.”
“There’s no camera in the Restroom. No audio recordings either?”
His breathing slowed at that question.
“I only checked the video footage. I’m not sure about the audio files.”
“…Fine. Lee Jae-i copied, and she replaced the Music Recorded in the earlier slot to cover it up. That’s the story we’re going with.”
“What?!”
Hwang Seong-su’s pupils dilated sharply.
This was the same as handing down a sentence.
Nothing had been confirmed yet, but if Lee Jae-i turned out not to be the culprit, the situation would obviously spiral out of control.
Hwang Seong-su steadied his breathing and met CP’s eyes.
“But if Star Entertainment requests the original files—”
“Then we delete them first.”
All the words circling in his mouth dropped to the ground.
A resonant hum as if struck in the temple by a hammer.
Hwang Seong-su’s throat moved visibly as he opened his mouth.
“You mean…”
“We’ve already taken a hit from the technical failure. One more system issue won’t add much shame. I’ll handle the cleanup however I can.”
This was exactly the same as deliberately fabricating the situation.
An outright crime.
‘Cleanup.’
That single word created a ringing in his ears and grew louder.
Hwang Seong-su’s eyes changed entirely.
‘Right. What does he have to lose? He has nothing. I have no choice. This is the only way I survive.’
What he had wanted was one thing alone.
Success.
Then there was no more room for doubt.
“I’ll go to the Editing Room now.”
The moment he finished speaking, Hwang Seong-su shoved his chair back roughly.
Less a declaration of resolve than the movement of someone who had to act right now.
That was when it happened.
Ding.
A short, sharp electronic alert.
CP’s laptop screen flashed first.
Almost simultaneously, the Cell Phone in Hwang Seong-su’s hand buzzed with the same alarm.
“Huh?”
A single syllable from CP, whose eyes had already shot to the laptop.
His body moved faster than thought.
After all, danger is what humans sense fastest.
Hwang Seong-su hurriedly checked the message on his Cell Phone.
[Request for Preservation of I’m Your Singer Season 3 Original Footage and Related Materials.
From: Legal Team.]
For a moment, his vision blurred.
The white was the screen and the black was text, but the context wouldn’t parse.
Among the lengthy items, only the sentences bolded in emphasis came barely into focus.
[
3. Preservation Method and Precautions.
Any arbitrary deletion, modification, overwriting, or re-editing of the aforementioned materials is immediately prohibited.]
‘Ha….’
The strength drained from his fingers.
The moment the Preservation Notice arrived, the files were no longer something he could touch.
The second he touched them, they would become evidence of his guilt.
* * *
Kang Ki-baek’s CEO’s Office.
A laptop sat with the broadcast still displayed on screen.
He was already on his fifth or sixth call to the same number.
With each ring, his grip tightened.
Call failed.
Call failed again.
Unable to sit any longer, he grabbed his car keys.
Beep. Beep.
He expected the familiar automated voice message to begin again.
His jaw clenched tight once more.
Just as he was about to jerk the phone from his ear, thinking this too would be futile—
– Yes, sir.
A woman’s voice responded from the other end.
Kang Ki-baek’s teeth clenched silently.
“Do you know how many times I’ve called?”
His voice came out higher than he intended.
After a brief pause, the woman answered calmly.
– …Yes. I noticed.
That composure only grated on him more.
Deliberately measured words.
Kang Ki-baek pressed his fingers to his forehead and exhaled downward.
He knew this wasn’t the time for anger.
But his worry had reached its limit.
He moved his chest slowly, then opened his mouth.
“What exactly has happened?”
– …Something that was bound to happen. I’ll explain the details later.
His brow reacted immediately.
The woman’s voice had already lost its vitality, as if drained of spirit.
Yet why did it infuriate him that she was gritting her teeth and pretending to be composed.
Kang Ki-baek fell silent for a moment.
Then he cut straight to the point.
“Fine.”
Without hesitation, he strode from the CEO’s Office.
“Let’s hear it in person. I’m coming to you. Where are you right now.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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