The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 75

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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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75

[So CEO Wi-su fabricated consent from a legal guardian and entered into an exclusive contract with Jung Da-jun, a minor. Is that correct?]
[Yes… that’s correct.]

As the recording played through the CEO’s Office, the CEO’s mouth fell open. He clearly hadn’t expected me to resolve everything in just three days—or rather, two days.

“This… you really did all this?”
“Yes.”

I nodded and produced the original termination notice.

“This should settle everything.”
“Where on earth did you…!”
“He gave it to me.”

The CEO stared back and forth between the termination notice and me, stunned that I’d obtained it so readily.
The moment I stepped into the Lobby, Jung Da-jun was waiting as if he’d been anticipating my arrival—standing up abruptly, tears streaming down his face in exaggerated fashion. I’d deliberately left him outside. If he were here, I wouldn’t be able to say what needed to be said.

“I’ve done my part. The rest is up to you to handle.”
“….”
“I hope for better judgment next time.”
=I cleaned up this mess, so next time you clean up your own.

The roles of employer and employee had completely reversed. Still, some shred of conscience must have remained somewhere in that murky depths, because he acknowledged what I’d said.

But I wasn’t finished.

“Is the renewal prepared?”
“That’s….”

‘He hasn’t prepared it.’

I genuinely didn’t know how to resolve it.
My expression hardened completely.
If I had failed and Jung Da-jun’s contract had resulted in a penalty payment, it was obvious they wouldn’t have settled accounts with us either.
They might have even used it as a pretext to invalidate this renewal and backed us into a corner.

‘What a world.’

I deliberately said nothing. When you stare at someone in silence, they naturally scramble to find excuses.

“It’s just that Da-jun’s situation isn’t quite settled yet….”
“CEO.”

I weighed my options for a moment. Should I really endure the hassle and go searching for another agency, or should I skillfully manipulate the CEO into becoming more useful?

“What I mean is….”

I preferred the latter approach.
In that sense, this current agency with its hands-off approach wasn’t actually so bad. It was easy to pull the strings myself.

“While discussing things with Wisoo Entertainment and carefully reviewing the contract… something occurred to me.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“When I first renewed, we created that penalty clause in the contract, remember?”

‘Make me pay back double the investment money that’s gone into The Dun so far.’
‘Fine. The penalty will be double the investment amount.’

The clause stipulating that the penalty would be repaid as double the investment.
It had become a useless clause long ago after wrapping up the previous activities, but it still remained a valid card I could play.

“I remember.”
“I was thinking about it, and it occurred to me that it might look like an unfair contract to other people’s eyes….”

At those words, the CEO’s eyes wavered. That look of ‘surely not, surely not.’ I smiled slightly.
Exactly.

‘It was a trap from the very beginning.’

The CEO probably accepted it without hesitation, thinking I was just some rookie idol with big ambitions. But he miscalculated.
If these clauses leaked to the outside world, the company would be branded as one that imposed unreasonable conditions on idols, and the CEO would be caught up in accusations of unfair contracts.
If he wanted to avoid that, the CEO had no choice but to listen to my demands, even if it meant being blackmailed.

‘Time to apply some pressure.’

The CEO probably never imagined this. A twenty-three-year-old rookie idol with no experience in society would brazenly escalate things to this point—he never saw it coming.
Any other normal, reasonable person would have avoided getting their hands dirty by bringing up such clauses.
But the person he was dealing with was me.
Seo Ho-yoon, specialist in mud-slinging brawls. I don’t go down alone—I drag everyone with me.

I leaned back leisurely against the sofa. While feigning internal anxiety about external leaks and letting my voice grow uncertain, I subtly emphasized certain words to pressure him.

“I’d like to make sure this doesn’t leak outside. You can manage that properly, right, CEO?”
“….”
“I want to stay with Dae Pa-sung Planning for as long as possible. With a Dae Pa-sung Planning that can truly protect its artists.”

The CEO wasn’t stupid enough to miss the implication. Beneath my words lay a clear message: behave yourself if you don’t want to be ruined. Understanding perfectly, he pressed his forehead with his hand before nodding obediently.

“Seo Ho-yoon….”
“Yes.”
“…Never mind.”

The CEO let out a heavy sigh. I could hear him muttering, “I really miscalculated.”

‘What, now?’

I pretended not to hear and stood up.

“Thank you. I’ll be going now.”

As I opened the CEO’s office door, Jung Da-jun was standing outside, visibly tense and still waiting for news. He stammered nervously and bowed to the CEO. The CEO, who had been lost in thought, suddenly brightened and jumped to his feet with a smile.

“Da-jun.”
“Y-yes?”
“Thanks to Ho-yoon, everything’s been handled well. And….”

The CEO hesitated and glanced at me cautiously.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t trust you.”
“C-CEO?”
“You didn’t lie, but I was impatient and failed to see the bigger picture. If an entertainment agency CEO doesn’t trust their artists, who will protect them first?”

‘A complete reversal of position….’

I watched the CEO carefully selecting only flattering words, and inwardly clicked my tongue. I understood that such things were necessary to survive, but seeing it in action was truly repulsive and sordid.

‘…Never mind. It’s not my place to judge.’

“I’m truly sorry.”
“…N-no, it’s fine.”

In moments like this, it would be better to brazenly accept the apology with an “understood,” but Jung Da-jun, still soft-hearted, vehemently denied it. Well, that wasn’t my concern anyway.

“Work hard.”
“Yes, thank you. But we have our limits when it’s just the three of us working alone.”
=Cough up more money.

“…If there’s anything you lack, I’ll provide whatever support is needed.”

The CEO would simply watch us without saying another word. People really do become easier to handle when you throw a tantrum at regular intervals. Satisfied with that sight, I grinned widely.

[Choice Options
-CEO! Hang in there~ We’re~ you know~
-Then Ho-yoon and Da-jun will go work hard on our activities>.<
-Ay, yo- man! Thank you for all of that!]

Even so, the System Window continued to irritate me at every opportunity.

"Then~ Ho-yoon and Da-jun will go work hard on our activities!"
"…That's right! The rising stars of our agency, The Dun, fighting!"
"Fighting!"

The snakes laughed and then turned to leave.
One wore a face like he'd eaten shit, while the other bore the smile of a victor.
The victor was, naturally, me.

***

"To celebrate Jung Da-jun's case ending safely~."
"And to congratulate the contract renewal!"
"Congratulations~!!"

To celebrate Jung Da-jun's dual contract incident wrapping up without a hitch, we spread newspaper across the middle of the dormitory and laid out the chicken we'd ordered. We'd snuck in some alcohol, but naturally, Jung Da-jun only got cola.

"You guys did well on B Live yesterday."
"Was it decent?"

Sung Ji-won laughed with his eyes closed. Kang Yi-chae chimed in from beside him.

"We said let's do it with energy~ with energy, but Hyun-sung was so worried. So we hastily switched to a mukbang with ramen instead, you know? When you're eating, you don't have to talk anyway."
"Good job. Thanks for your hard work."
"Should only Seo Ho-yoon do it?"

Fortunately, no one had caught wind of this incident. No rumors spread, no external articles broke.
There had been so much controversy this year that fans were already getting tired. Times like these called for showing only the good side.

'It's better to slip through quietly.'

Truth be told, if I could, I'd want to live my entire life like that—present yet absent.
I hummed quietly to myself and picked up a piece of chicken, when Kim Sung-hyun, curious, asked casually.

"How exactly did you pull it off? I heard even the CEO couldn't manage it…."

'I had Paparazzi Kim Jae-yeon casually leak that Seo Ho-yoon was interested in the contract, borrowed luxury items from Joo Woo-sung to build an irresponsible idol image, purchased a truth-telling tea leaf from the Item Shop, and secretly mixed it into his drink to make him spill all his secrets.'
'Wow!'

Actually saying it out loud, I sound like a complete lunatic!
I couldn't tell him the truth, so I just brushed it off vaguely.

"I just got lucky, that's all."
"Da-jun said you suddenly acted like a different person when you went."
"Well… something came up."

At Sung Ji-won's words, I just shrugged and changed the subject.

"Did you renew the contract successfully?"
"Yeah. We all signed it."
"Good thing the percentage went up."

Right, yeah. I'm satisfied.
Since I'd already renewed mine, I didn't go when all the members gathered to sign. The Manager had vaguely mentioned that I'd already signed the renewed contract after meeting with the CEO regarding Jung Da-jun's matter. That was the story he'd spread.
No matter how much I'd adjusted things, if I'd renewed alone first, they would've felt betrayed. Besides, I'd originally planned to maintain that ratio for myself alone anyway.
The reason my thinking changed was….

'Well, just because.'

I was organizing my complicated thoughts and just chewing on chicken when Sung Ji-won suddenly spoke up.

"You could've done it alone. I'm really grateful."
"…Huh?"
"Oh, right. Brother, you'd already renewed yours, hadn't you? It must've been such a hassle going to see the CEO again and negotiating, but I'm seriously so grateful!!"
"…What?"

What was he talking about?
I finished swallowing what I was chewing and looked around at the other members. Noticing my confused expression, they'd been acting casual but now turned to face me with question marks written all over their faces.

"Ho-yoon, what's wrong?"
"…You guys already knew?"
"Knew what?"
"That I'd already changed the contract…."

Feeling slightly embarrassed, I trailed off. The members' faces lit up with even more question marks.

"Huh?"
"Of course we knew…?"
"Was that supposed to be a secret?!"

What was this about…?
Kim Sung-hyun tilted his head and asked.

"Did you think we didn't know?"
"…Of course I did."
"Ha ha ha, what's going on here?"

While everyone else sat in stunned silence, only Kang Yi-chae clutched his stomach, laughing.

"What? You're all serious? Genuinely? When exactly did you find out?"
"About five months ago…? We kind of figured it out when we saw you going up alone, hyung? The manager was also acting all anxious…"
"But why didn't you say anything?!"
"Well, what was there to… say?"

Normally, when just one member of a group renews their contract, doesn't everyone get upset?
I would've been furious if I were them.

"Aren't you angry?"
"Angry~?"

As I stammered in confusion at this increasingly bewildering conversation, Kang Yi-chae, still giggling beside me, wiped away tears and grabbed my shoulder.

"Ho-yoon hyung, we all knew, but we didn't mind… Actually, we thought it was only natural."
"What are you talking about?"
"We all know how hard you've worked. Over the past six months, how many things have you solved for us?"

Everyone nodded vigorously at Kang Yi-chae's words. It was emphatic agreement. Sung Ji-won cautiously added his opinion.

"Honestly, Ho-yoon, you deserve more. You should get a better settlement ratio than us. We're actually the ones who should be sorry…"

Ding!

[Shock! The Buddha Truly Exists!]

I'd never heard anything like this before in my life.
I stood there like an idiot, my mouth hanging open.

"Oh, that's right!"

As if remembering something, Kang Yi-chae suddenly snapped his finger with a sharp flick while pouring cola. Then he came toward me, laughing loudly.

"Wait, hyung! When you brought up the settlement issue last time and looked hesitant—was it because of this?"
"…"
"Haha, it really was!"

Kang Yi-chae, who once said he was tired of people who became ugly over money, giggled and waved his hand in front of my face.

"Why are you suddenly being so cautious~! I'm not tired of you, hyung~."
"Please just shut up."

He teased me relentlessly. This bastard, seriously. The rest of the members asked with curious expressions on their faces.

"Seo Ho-yoon was being cautious?"
"He did that?"
"Ho-yoon… why did you act so well-behaved?"
"He's got a soft heart underneath."

'These crazy bastards….'

Watching the members burst into laughter, I felt completely deflated. These guys—their standards for what counts as being a good person had gotten way too low lately.

"Hyung, hyung, hyung."

Feeling defeated, I was sprawled out alone on the sofa when Jung Da-jun came over and started messing around. Embarrassed for no reason, I grabbed the drawstring of his hoodie and pulled.

"Hey, come here."
"What is it?"
"This soft-hearted hyung will listen to all your worries."

The major incident had been resolved. Now all that remained was to progress through Jung Da-jun's scenario. Jung Da-jun's eyes widened, and he sat perched on the edge of the sofa, thinking.

"Hmm… there is one thing."
"Yeah! Tell me!"

Putting on a serious expression, I sat up straight. Jung Da-jun scratched his nose awkwardly.

"I've been really into hamsters lately. But since I'm busy with activities, I probably won't be able to take care of one properly, right? …I guess I'll just have to settle for YouTube. Yeah, that's right. That seems like the way to go."
"Get out."
"Huh, but you said you'd listen!"
"Just get out. Don't come home."
"That's too harsh!"

Jung Da-jun whined and clung to me.
No, I didn't need Jung Da-jun—I needed the main scenario to be completed.
I was about to tell him to just keep an imaginary hamster like Kang Yi-chae, but I was too lazy, so I just pushed his forehead away. Suddenly, his eyes sparkled with an uneasy glint.

"Huh, your home?"
"…."
"I'm serious!! Please!!"
"…What."
"I really want to visit your place!!"

I shot Jung Da-jun a cold look, but the members chattering beside me caught this exchange with uncanny precision, their eyes gleaming like hyenas who'd spotted fresh prey.

"I want to go too!"
"Me too!!"

'These bastards….'

Their faces made it abundantly clear they were hunting for fresh ammunition to tease me with.

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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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