CH 426

“...And it's not happily ever after, now is it?”

Jo Gyu-Min sighed nonstop as he pored through stacks of documents. People like Kang Jin-Ho and the children could go, 'Oh, wow. That was one hell of an event, wasn't it?' and walk away, but it was a different story for everyone else.

The entire Korean peninsula seemed to be in an uproar from all the headlines about the first-ever incident of an amusement park's near collapse. And this incident happened when the public sentiment regarding safety was at its most sensitive in years. With the news of yet another near-miss catastrophe doing the rounds, many unhappy voices among the public began criticizing the government for ignoring public safety and negligence.

Even the reporters descended on the story like a pack of ravenous vultures to report on it as if there hadn't been an incident as juicy as this one in recent times. Or maybe they were trying to turn the public's attention away from something else?

“...Urgh. I need a break...” Jo Gyu-Min massaged the bridge of his nose.

Someone must've spread the word that Jaegyeong was involved in the clean-up of this incident because phone calls of inquiry had been relentlessly hounding the Office of Secretaries for some time now.

“Do you realize what you have done, Chief Jo?!”

That loud yell from the head of the PR department still rang inside Jo Gyu-Min's head, making him even more sorrowful than before. What was up with that rebuking tone!

All Jo Gyu-Min did was do his absolute best to help during the clean-up, wasn't it!

Fortunately enough, the reporters gathering like sharks sniffing after the scent of blood in the water didn't find the amusement park's response as 'unsatisfactory'. The press had been largely positive about how fast and organized the amusement park's response was. The speediness helped minimize the number of lightly-injured, after all.

Of course, some articles were scathing about the park's inadequate safety supervision, believing that was the cause of this incident in the first place. However, most people still reacted positively to how the park management decisively evacuated the parkgoers without wasting too much time.

Jo Gyu-Min could only chuckle bitterly at the public's response, though. In his honest opinion, the amusement park's management did deserve all the flak for this incident. They might feel they were being unfairly blamed for this incident, but no excuse could possibly make up for their negligence in fixing and maintaining their rides and equipment.

Even so, the public still reacted positively because the evacuation happened as soon as possible. This was mostly because of how South Korea as a society lost so many lives due to inadequate responses to various large-scale disasters in the past. The public that had witnessed far too many lives being lost from rubbish evacuation plans began siding with the amusement park, saying its response was 'Still better than what happened in the past.'

That was why Jo Gyu-Min felt bitter. Bitter, as this response seemed to serve as yet another proof of Korea's deeply-entrenched trauma over its large-scale disasters that seemed to have become the norm of late.

“Chief Jo, sir? There's a call on the line for you.” A junior secretary peeked his head inside Jo Gyu-Min's private office.

“Please tell the caller I can't answer the phone right now,” Jo Gyu-Min dismissively waved his hand.

“But it's the chairman, sir.”

“...Chairman?”

“Not the chairman from our side, sir. Their side. The folks from the amusement park.”

“Oh...” Jo Gyu-Min nodded slowly. “Okay, let the call through.”

Jo Gyu-Min waited for his phone to ring, then picked up the receiver.

“This is Chief Secretary Jo Gyu-Min from Jaegyeong Group speaking.”

- Good day to you, Chief Jo. I'm calling you to express my sincerest gratitude for assisting us in this matter.

“Oh, no, sir. Don't mention it.”

- Thanks to you, we were able to handle this situation as speedily and efficiently as possible. If our responses had been any slower or chaotic, the press would've most likely ripped us a new one. However, they seem to have evaluated us highly for our speedy response. Again, as the representative of our group, I'd like to extend our gratitude once more.

“Not a problem, sir. I wasn't acting on my own accord, after all. As I've said before, I was requesting assistance from your side as a member of the Jaegyeong Group. We'd like you to remember that, sir.”

- Understood. We shall remember this debt and repay it sometime in the future. Well, then. Good day to you.

Jo Gyu-Min smirked a little while putting the phone down.

'I guess he must be in a real tight spot. To think a president of a company would personally call a secretary of another company like this...'

Then again, should Jo Gyu-Min be glad that the call didn't come from the other company's Chairperson? Since he'd have to speak Japanese in order to communicate with them.

One could say that the amusement park's parent company conducted itself pretty well. If people had died, not just the press but even the government would've come down like the hammer of God on the park's owner. The re-opening of the amusement park would've been greatly delayed by an endless series of safety inspections and other legal hurdles.

However, no one died from the management's speedy response, allowing them to quickly turn the incident around and repackage it as just another 'slightly larger' scale event. Of course, they must've spent an exorbitant amount of money behind the scenes to make this happen.

Still, that money should be considered well-spent since it prevented the park's permanent closure or a prolonged halt to its operations. And the speedy evacuation slightly helped with the group's public image, which had been falling steadily for a while now. That alone would have fully paid for the losses incurred from evacuating the parkgoers en masse.

“Which means this side is more or less taken care of...” Jo Gyu-Min rubbed his chin. The real problem lay elsewhere.

While dreading what he was about to read, Jo Gyu-Min logged into one of the many online forums. And he groaned loudly after checking out the most-commented thread appearing on the top of the board.

=Choi Yeon-Ha, seen hugging a man.

That thread title alone was enough to cause a bout of migraine in Jo Gyu-Min's head.

'Bloody hell... How am I supposed to handle this?'

Far too many people had witnessed that sight. And trying to brush everything aside with a ready-made excuse would only go so far. Since the 'Choi Yeon-Ha incident' was tied up in a much larger scale disaster, the ripples had been negligible... so far. However, once the ripples began spreading even further... It'd be like a humongous bombshell going off.

Jo Gyu-Min's trembling finger operated the mouse and clicked on the thread.

=I was with my GF at the park incident and definitely saw a woman who has to be Choi Yeon-Ha jumping into the arms of some dude after he evacuated from the building.

She kept saying 'no BF' in her life during all those interviews, but hell, she rushed into his arms as if they were shooting a scene from a movie!

I was so shocked, I tell ya!

I wasn't the only one, though. Everyone present at that place witnessed it. I don't understand why no one's talking about it yet.

Jo Gyu-Min groaned again and again.

'How am I supposed to fix this?'

If Jaegyeong's powers were utilized to its fullest, then... The publication of any and all articles regarding Choi Yeon-Ha could be blocked. However, that wasn't enough to sweep everything under the carpet. At least not this time.

Even if the press had been muzzled, could the same thing be done to all those witnesses? Probably not. Besides, trying too hard to shut down the reporters would only make them even more certain about the validity of this claim. In that case, it'd be nothing more than delaying the inevitable. The ticking bomb would go off sooner or later.

'What should I do?'

Jo Gyu-Min sighed weakly while scrolling down. He needed to see the replies, too. Being able to imagine the carnage didn't mean he shouldn't confirm it, so what choice did he have...?

asdf: If that's true, I'm dating Kim Seon-Gyeong.

oo: I'm being serious!

asdf: You think Choi Yeon-Ha is a bum like you? Her going to an amusement park to have fun is already unbelievable, but you're now even saying she jumped into some dude's arms in front of so many people? Stop writing a romance novel, will ya?

oo: I saw it. My GF saw it, too!

asdf: You having a GF is unbelievable, to begin with.

oo: Wha? Are you trolling me right now? I'm telling you, I really saw her! And there were lots of witnesses, too!

asdf: Sure, sure. I saw the photos. And she was wearing a mask and sunglasses. Where's the proof that that woman is Choi Yeon-Ha?

oo: Everyone who was there knows it's true. She took her mask off. She was definitely Choi Yeon-Ha!

asdf: Sure. And Michael Jackson faked his death and is hiding in my basement right now, too. He wasn't dead! Who knew! Actually, everyone in the know already knows he's alive.

oo: What the f? I'm telling you the truth! Wait, are you Choi Yeon-Ha's acquaintance or something? Why are you covering for her?

asdf: Not an acquaintance, just someone with a disease of screwing around with a moron. Stop posting random nonsense for likes, okay? You honestly think someone like Choi Yeon-Ha showing up at an amusement park full of people with just a mask makes any sort of sense? If someone had recognized her, the whole park would've been paralyzed in that instant! And she was with a man, to boot?

Since her debut, Choi Yeon-Ha has never flirted with scandal. She's so far from a sniff of a scandal that it's not even funny anymore. Yet you dare suggest she's in a scandalous relationship with some dude? You think we already forgot that recent drama with the paparazzo? When they were digging around Choi Yeon-Ha like crazy only to declare they would never follow her around after her first trip outside her home in a month was to a hair salon? Didn't she come back home straight afterward, too?! Stop writing your bullsh*t fanfiction, okay?

oo: Wah? Gimme a freaking break! I'm not lying!

asdf: Get lost.

Jo Gyu-Min's expression grew unreadable while reading this exchange.

'What... is this?'

Was this the power of Choi Yeon-Ha's fandom? As far as Jo Gyu-Min could tell, the initial response to the 'sighting' wasn't as bad as he expected. As for those sitting back and waiting for more info, they seemed to be leaning more toward 'If it had been someone else, I'd believe you. With Choi Yeon-Ha? Hell no!'

The comment with the most likes was, 'Choi Yeon-Ha stars in TV shows and movies every year with some of the sexiest men in South Korea, so why would she even be interested in some regular chump off the street?'

And the second most-liked comment was... How widespread the rumors about Choi Yeon-Ha's rotten personality was, and that's why she couldn't find a boyfriend even if she wanted to.

'Huh. Having a crappy personality can be helpful sometimes, eh?'

Under 'normal' circumstances, that comment would've been taken as an insult, but Jo Gyu-Min wasn't sure whether he should see it that way or not.

“Wait... I thought most people tend to believe all the untrue stories of actresses dating someone as real?”

When a post about dating rumors showed up on a forum, the usual responses flooding the thread should be along the lines of, 'I guess she can't hide it anymore, eh?' or 'I bloody knew it.' Or even something like, 'She said her ideal man is an ordinary and plain dude, but look at him! Plain, my ass! All celebrities are the same in the end...'

Choi Yeon-Ha's good public image and poor reputation had somehow produced a great synergy this time.

Those who only saw Choi Yeon-Ha's good public image argued that 'Someone like her who only focuses on her career would have no time to waste on useless things like romance! Besides, if South Korea's top actress like Choi Yeon-Ha is dating a man, he must be a VIP, even from the amusement park's perspective. In that case, a man like that leaving the park dead-last makes no sense!'

'Well, they aren't technically wrong there...'

Meanwhile, the Choi Yeon-Ha anti-fans mostly agreed with the opinion of, 'We still remember that famous actor confessing to Choi Yeon-Ha only to get rejected unceremoniously and going through a mental breakdown not too long ago. Someone with such a rotten personality would obviously never date a man, and even if she was, Choi Yeon-Ha would never show affection in a public place like that!'

A quick look at bit.ly/3iBfjkV will leave you more fulfilled.

“W-wait a minute. Is the situation the same in other forums, too?” Jo Gyu-Min hurriedly accessed other online forums. The more he checked, the intenser his head tilting became.

'Hmm... Something about this seems a bit... Why are all these IDs created only recently?'

Jo Gyu-Min began noticing that all the combative posters in various forums arguing about the validity of Choi Yeon-Ha's supposed romance had similar-sounding user IDs. Although those IDs weren't exact facsimiles of each other, their naming conventions were practically the same. At least, that's what it looked like to Jo Gyu-Min.

'Hmm? Did someone hire a bunch of commenters-for-hire or something?'

Jo Gyu-Min tilted his head in confusion while staring at the monitor before leaning against his chair. “It's my job to hire the pros, though.”

Since the public sentiment was heading in this direction, Jo Gyu-Min figured the deployment of professional social media commenters would be enough to turn this whole thing into a groundless rumor, a mere urban legend, in no time at all.

Jo Gyu-Min sighed while thinking that the initial part of the clean-up operation was going well. “Someone up in Heaven is looking out for us, it seems...”

***

Inside the Seongsim Orphanage boys' room...

“Jin-Seong hyung! Dinner's ready!”

“Got it. Hold your horses.”

“You better hurry, though. Otherwise, the supervisor auntie will get angry at us again.”

“I said, I got it. Wait for a sec, will ya?” Han Jin-Seong unhappily growled while rapidly typing away on his keyboard.

Dong-Su curiously peered at the monitor from the side before frowning a little in doubt. “Hyung, Isn't that a bit too... I dunno, provocative? Others might get triggered by this kinda post, you know?”

“Nah, it's all good. Our job is to create chaos, after all. If the other commenters get triggered and try to shoot us down, that's even better. Is everyone still doing a good job posting in their forums?”

“Yeah, hyung. You know how sarcastic everyone can be.”

“Good. Good. Good!” Han Jin-Seong smirked while glancing at the monitor.

asdf: What does Choi Yeon-Ha having a BF got to do with you losers, anyway? Listen, you mom's-basement-dwelling neckbeards. You better reflect on your lives first instead of cooking up celebrity gossip while wearing nothing but your panties, okay!

Han Jin-Seong's smirk deepened as he watched the hate comments pile up below his post. He leisurely pushed the chair back and got up. “Alright, let's go get our dinner. I have a feeling that it's gonna be scrumptious today!”

“Okay, hyung!”

The orphanage kids were making full use of all the brand-new PCs Choi Yeon-Ha had bought for them recently.

One should remember that good deeds were usually rewarded with good fortune later down the line.