The silence in the studio wasn't peaceful. It was the sound of a dream breaking.
Yoo-jin's phone lay on the floor where he'd dropped it, the screen glowing with Lee Hana's vicious smiley face. The spiderweb crack across the screen protector seemed to mirror the sudden, shattering blow to their last-minute hope.
Min-hyuk let out a string of curses, slamming his fist on the sound console hard enough to make the monitors jump. Eun-bi just stared at the phone, her face pale, the cynical disillusionment she had fought so hard to overcome returning to her eyes. This was the corporate poison she had tried to escape, and it had found them even in their basement sanctuary.
They all looked at Mina, bracing for the breakdown, the tears, the final collapse.
She was trembling, her hands clenched at her sides. A single, hot tear traced a path down her cheek, but her eyes, fixed on the phone's glowing screen, were not broken. They were ice-cold.
"So this is it," she whispered, her voice dangerously quiet. "She's trying to scare me off the stage."
It wasn't a question. It was a statement of fact. She finally understood. She wasn't in a competition. She was in a fight for her survival.
The weight of it all came crashing down on Yoo-jin. The impossible debt Director Park had hung over his head. The public humiliation. The complete and utter destruction of this girl whose career, whose life, he had promised to protect. A crushing wave of defeat washed over him. He had brought them this far, only to lead them to a guillotine.
He looked at Mina's terrified but strangely determined face. He had to give her an out.
"We can pull out," he said, his voice strained and hoarse. "I'll take the fall. I'll call the broadcast station, tell them you have acute laryngitis. It's better than… this."
He was offering her an escape, but it was his own gut-wrenching fear talking. He couldn't bear to watch what Hana was about to do to her.
Mina shook her head, her gaze locking with his, clear and unwavering. "And let her win? After all this?" She glanced at Eun-bi and Min-hyuk, at the masterpiece they had all bled for over the last ten days. "No. I want to sing."
Min-hyuk, who had been stewing in a black cloud of fury, slammed his hand on the table again, but this time it was with a different energy. "The kid's right," he growled, his voice a low rumble. "That corporate snake isn't going to tear down what we built in this room. Not without a fight."
Their defiance was a physical force. They weren't just looking to Yoo-jin to save them. They were a unit, a small, battered shield wall, and they were refusing to break. Mina was no longer just the person to be protected; she was standing in the front line. And she was pulling him back from the brink with her.
That small, defiant spark from Mina ignited a firestorm in Yoo-jin's mind. The fear vanished, replaced by a cold, calculating fury. He was the Scandal-Proof Producer. It was time to live up to the name.
"She wants to frame you as mentally unstable," he said, his voice dangerously quiet as he picked his phone up off the floor. "So she can dismiss your talent as a fluke and your viral fame as a pathetic cry for help."
He looked at the screenshot of the article draft again. "We can't stop the article. But we can vaccinate the public against its poison. We have to frame her as a vicious, calculating bully before her story ever drops."
His eyes landed on the reporter's name in the byline: Kim So-jin, Idol Insider. He focused on the name, activating his ability.
[Name: Kim So-jin]
[Potential: B-Rank (Gossip Journalist)]
[Weakness: Hates being used as a corporate pawn for low-level scandals.]
[Current Goal: Find a bigger, more explosive scoop to make a name for herself.]
Yoo-jin's lips twisted into a grim, dangerous smirk. He had his opening.
"Hana didn't write that article," he explained, his mind racing. "She fed the story to a reporter. She thinks that reporter is her weapon, a loyal dog on a leash. I'm going to turn that dog against its master. I'm going to turn it into a wolf."
His hands were perfectly steady as he navigated his old media contacts, finding a number for Reporter Kim So-jin. It was three in the morning, the darkest hour before the dawn. The perfect time for a back-alley deal.
Eun-bi, Min-hyuk, and Mina watched him, their expressions a mixture of terror and awe. They were all in on this insane gamble now. There was no turning back.
The phone rang twice before she picked up, her voice a groggy, impatient bark. "Who is this? Do you know what time it is?"
Yoo-jin didn't waste time on pleasantries. His voice was a blade. "My name is Han Yoo-jin. I'm calling you about the fake news story Lee Hana from Starforce is paying you to run about trainee Choi Mina."
There was a stunned, sharp silence on the other end of the line. He could almost hear the gears turning in her head, the sleepiness vanishing, replaced by a predator's alertness.
He pressed on, his voice like ice. "I have proof that the story was fed to you as part of a blackmail attempt. I also have a much, much better story for you. A real story. About the real corruption and bullying culture at a major entertainment company, with a rising star at the center of it."
He baited the hook. "You want your explosive scoop? The one that gets you a promotion and makes your career? Or do you want to be Lee Hana's puppet and publish a flimsy character assassination piece that my lawyers will tear apart by sunrise?"
He let the threat hang in the air. "Meet with me. Now. I'll give you everything."
He hung up before she could respond, leaving her with the choice. The hook was in the water.
He turned to his team, a dangerous, feral light in his eyes they had never seen before.
"Get your things. Get some rest if you can."
He looked at Mina, his voice softening for a fraction of a second. "Get ready for the show."
"The performance starts now."