Become a Star - Chapter 151

“Then, is there any other person you think might have edited the voice recording that Journalist Kang Il-Ro had released?”

It was possible that Journalist Kang Il-Ro might have edited the voice recording himself, or someone else with a different intention might have edited it before reporting it on purpose. It was somehow most likely the latter, and it was somewhat predictable. However, he couldn’t recklessly mention who they were. It was a very sensitive issue. If he were to point fingers at another person without clear evidence, it could cause a backlash. Thus, the journalist who asked the question did not necessarily want a direct answer either. Instead, it was a question aimed at eliciting a response that suggested there was someone Chae Woo-Jin was suspicious of. That alone was enough material for them to write a long story.

“I don’t even know who the informant is, so how would I know that?”

“Did Journalist Kang Il-Ro not say anything about the informant?”

When an article got published, the subject in question would normally confront the journalist and ask for the facts first, so everyone had assumed that would have been the same for Chae Woo-Jin. However, the journalists felt that Chae Woo-Jin was conveying his uneasy feelings about Kang Il-Ro when he expressed his dissatisfaction about not knowing the informant’s true identity.

“Why should I ask him when he didn’t bother asking me if the information he had received was true when writing the article? I have no intention of engaging in any conversations with him in the future. The only person he will be talking to from now on will be my lawyer.”

Even if Kang Il-Ro knew who the informant or the person who edited the voice recording was, Woo-Jin didn’t want to hear anything directly from him. He made it clear he had no intention of meeting him at all and didn’t want to waste any time dealing with him.

That was when it finally hit everyone present that none of the journalists from Best Day had been invited to the press conference. All kinds of people from the media were gathered here, and Best Day was rather well-known, so by not inviting any of their journalists, Chae Woo-Jin and DS were implicitly showing how they would be treating them from here on. So it wasn’t a matter of dealing with Kang Il-Ro alone.

The journalists were instantly terrified. Even though Kang Il-Ro was the one who started it, most of the people in this room had spent all of the previous day chiming in and writing articles about Chae Woo-Jin as well. They had written those articles to their hearts’ content without holding themselves back because they were aware of CEO Jang Soo-Hwan’s hatred and intolerance towards any issues pertaining to sponsorships. Aside from the journalists who had inquired with DS first and waited for a response, everyone else had assumed Jang Soo-Hwan would have abandoned Chae Woo-Jin. After being abandoned by DS, Chae Woo-Jin would just be a celebrity whom people could treat badly. However, now that things had gone in this direction, they were the ones in the doghouse for acting recklessly instead.

“Nevertheless, I too am a human, so I want to know who edited the voice recording. That’s more important to me than finding out who the informant is.”

The important thing at this point wasn’t finding out who the informant was but rather what their intentions were. And it was imperative to find out the person behind the edited voice recording at all costs. Imagination knew no bounds, but the thing that always stood in the way of truth was the evidence. Without evidence, the truth would be nothing more than an imaginary rumor. That was why Chae Woo-Jin had to be cautious with every word he spoke.

“That is why I called the CEO of TM, Kim Seok-Hyung, right before the press conference started.”

As soon as Chae Woo-Jin mentioned the name of the person in today’s voice recording, as well as the owner of the other piece of evidence, a commotion ensued in the conference room. Today’s biggest finding was that the CEO of TM had introduced a sponsor to his own agency’s artiste and forced him to accept the sponsorship rather than the fact that Chae Woo-Jin had been framed.

The pervasive and hidden existence of sponsors within the entertainment industry had always been a problem. However, this was the first time evidence proving that a CEO of an agency had directly mentioned and forced his artiste into accepting a sponsorship had actually surfaced. This incident had made the rumors about Chae Woo-Jin having a sponsor pale in comparison.

The concrete evidence ensuring that an unprecedented incident was about to occur was finally being broadcast live nationwide. There was no way anybody could cover it up. It was no longer an incident about Chae Woo-Jin; it had now turned into a huge matter involving TM Entertainment, CEO Kim Seok-Hyung, and all the other artistes belonging to that agency.

Clearly, CEO Kim Seok-Hyung wouldn’t have known the situation would develop in such a manner, so it would be interesting to see how he would respond to Chae Woo-Jin. To a certain extent, everyone present had an inkling who the culprit behind the voice recording in question and Journalist Kang Il-Ro’s informant was.

The journalists didn’t dare imagine the look on CEO Kim Seok-Hyung’s face at this very moment as he watched the broadcast. Feeling regretful, they thought about how they should have been at TM’s CEO’s office instead of being here in this conference room and waited for Chae Woo-Jin’s next words.

“As you have heard the voice recording earlier, CEO Kim Seok-Hyung would have had no reason to refute the article published yesterday. Nonetheless, he was the only person who knew the truth, so I had no choice but to call him. As I was once a TM artiste, I didn’t feel inclined to release the voice recording that could cause damage to the people from that agency. Hence, I was willing to compromise with CEO Kim Seok-Hyung.”

Woo-Jin implied that he was willing to make an excuse and go with his fans’ claim that it was a voice recording of an acting practice session. Not all TM artistes had sponsors. In fact, it could be argued that there were more people without sponsors. However, today’s incident had implicated TM’s artistes as a whole. There was no reason for Woo-Jin to make any sacrifices to save all of them, and he had no intention of doing so.

But by saying this, Woo-Jin had shifted the blame that could fall on him to Kim Seok-Hyung. It was necessary for Woo-Jin to strongly emphasize that the release of the voice recording was entirely a misfortune caused by Kim Seok-Hyung’s obstinacy and poor judgment.

“However, CEO Kim Seok-Hyung had insisted that the information written in the article was accurate and just as he remembered. He also said that the phone and voice recording had not been tampered with and exactly matched the article. On the contrary, he was angry with me. There was nothing I could do. Based on what he said, it could be said that the informant had handed the materials over to the journalist without editing them. Naturally, this does not mean that the informant was completely guilt-free. It is a known fact that the act of spreading false information about me has damaged my honor and the image of the products and services I have advertised and also negatively impacted my movie currently running in the theaters, so I will not be making any compromises.”

The journalists had been busy moving around; upon hearing Chae Woo-Jin’s words, they paused for a moment. What he had just said could be interpreted in many ways. It seemed as though he was suggesting that the person who edited the voice recording was CEO Kim Seok-Hyung.

“I think you should be very careful with what you say about CEO Kim Seok-Hyung.”

A journalist who had always been on good terms with DS and Chae Woo-Jin cautiously pointed it out. They had given Chae Woo-Jin the opportunity to correct himself, on the off chance it was a slip of the tongue. That was because, judging from Kim Seok-Hyung’s personality, he would definitely go all out and take him down if he were to find any weakness.

“CEO Kim Seok-Hyung has already confirmed it. He even said that he remains unrepentant and has given me a definite answer that he has no intention of refuting the article. He insisted that the information in the article was exactly the same as the materials he had on his desk. Naturally, he never explicitly revealed who edited the voice recording. I merely interpreted CEO Kim Seok-Hyung’s words.”

Woo-Jin also added that the two voice recordings had different contents, so they would be verified in court at a later date.

“Setting the voice recordings aside, what about the text messages on your previous phones?”

At this point, nobody thought Chae Woo-Jin’s voice recording had been fabricated, but the text messages on Chae Woo-Jin’s phone still had to be addressed. That question was aimed to give Chae Woo-Jin a chance to explain to the people who didn’t understand or still had questions after watching the broadcast.

“Thankfully, Journalist Kang Il-Ro had taken a screenshot of the texts on my phone and posted it in the article. You must have noticed that the date in the screenshot says February 11th, 10.25 p.m., but unfortunately, my contract with TM had been terminated on February 11th itself.”

Woo-Jin answered the question and showed the other document he had prepared to the journalists. It was the termination agreement Woo-Jin had signed when he left TM. The year and date, February 11th, were clearly indicated in the agreement.

“If I am not mistaken, I remember this agreement had been written at approximately 5 p.m. that day. I am very curious about the meaning behind this exchange of text messages that occurred after that.”

The contract had been terminated, so he wondered why he would even argue with the agency’s CEO in the evening over the sponsorship matter and why the latter would even be persuading him. Looking at the text messages, Chae Woo-Jin was still clearly texting as though he was still an artiste of TM.

It was hard to argue that Chae Woo-Jin had terminated his contract with TM after the exchange of texts had taken place because of time constraints. If Chae Woo-Jin and Kim Seok-Hyung had only met with one another after exchanging those text messages and had the conversation in the voice recording before terminating his contract, it would have already been February 12th that day. More importantly, Woo-Jin’s voice recording included the part where they had summoned a lawyer, and the termination agreement had the lawyer’s signature on it. It didn’t make sense for Kim Seok-Hyung to call a lawyer and fill out the paperwork at approximately midnight, and the timeline didn’t make sense in more ways than one.

All things considered, all the evidence pointed to CEO Kim Seok-Hyung’s guilt.

“A while ago, you mentioned that this incident has damaged the image of the products and services you have advertised for. So, I would like to ask how you plan to deal with it.”

The journalist who asked this question had been curious about the Taeyang Food beverages placed in front of them since before the press conference began. With such overwhelming evidence, it seemed like DS would have done some damage control and stopped all advertising, especially since CEO Jang Soo-Hwan personally knew the companies, so he would’ve acted swiftly.

Generally, whenever such a situation arose, it was within reason for companies to cut off their models because their image would be significantly damaged, making them uneasy, even though the truth was important. This was because the image of their company’s products mattered more to them than the truth.

These companies normally responded by quietly replacing their models rather than getting involved in the scandal. It was difficult to find a highly sought-after model, but that didn’t mean it was impossible. In the eyes of these companies, models had always been akin to consumer goods that could be replaced. None of them would choose to go through the trouble of taking part in a lawsuit for the sake of their model. That said, it was unclear what Jang Soo-Hwan had done as a middleman in this situation.

“That will be answered by my lawyer, sitting next to me.”

Woo-Jin pointed to the middle-aged man sitting next to him from the beginning of the press conference. The journalists had been curious about the mysterious man; they shifted their gazes towards him with gleaming eyes.

“I am Lee Young-Hwan from Rome Law Firm. I will be representing Mr. Chae Woo-Jin. There are a few more things we have to discuss with the companies pertaining to this issue, but they are well aware that this incident has damaged the image of their products and services, as well as their company. We plan to claim compensation for damages from Journalist Kang Il-Ro and the informant. There will be no settlement in this process, and I would like to clarify that everything will be done in accordance with the legal process.”

After hearing what the lawyer said, the journalists were initially surprised by the unusual decision made by the companies. As such, they could clearly sense how much these companies trusted CEO Jang Soo-Hwan’s abilities and Chae Woo-Jin, as well as how confident they were in both of them.

And then, they were also flustered in a different way by the fact that the lawyer Chae Woo-Jin had hired was from Rome Law Firm because they came to a realization belatedly that Rome had never represented any celebrities. They had always been preoccupied with major cases pertaining to estate and social issues, so their manpower was scarce.

In the past, several celebrities had tried to seek Rome’s legal services when they were involved in scandals, but they had turned all of them down, saying they didn’t have the luxury of taking on such a small case. It was the first time Rome had ever represented a celebrity.