While Ellie was on the phone, Yoo Jin-wook continued to shout curses.
"I told you, I just talked to her! How can you accuse someone of sexual harassment without any evidence like this?"
In truth, there was evidence—the CCTV—but GJ Media would never submit it to the police.
Ellie nodded. "You're right. You shouldn't accuse someone of sexual harassment without evidence."
"If you know that..."
Ellie held up the phone she had just finished talking on. "That's why I started recording the moment you sat next to me earlier. This should be enough evidence, right?"
Yoo Jin-wook was startled. "What? Who said you could record me? Isn't this illegal eavesdropping?"
"It's legal for a party to the conversation to record it."
Ellie took off the zip-up jacket she was wearing. Underneath, she wore a close-fitting bra top, revealing her stunning waistline and abdomen.
Even in this situation, Yoo Jin-wook's eyes darted towards her figure.
"Since you claim you never touched my body, if your fingerprints show up on this clothing, it should prove the sexual harassment occurred, wouldn't it?"
Ellie handed the jacket to a wardrobe staff member. "Please cover this in plastic and submit it to the police."
"Ah, yes, understood."
Though flustered, the staff member carefully took the jacket, trying not to leave any additional fingerprints.
The jacket was made of polyester. Whether fingerprints could actually be lifted from it was uncertain, but Yoo Jin-wook panicked.
Combined, the recording and the potential fingerprints on the clothing would constitute substantial circumstantial evidence. Yet, he couldn't exactly lunge forward and snatch the phone and jacket with the police present.
Yoo Jin-wook shot a look at Manager Jung Woo-young, urging him to do something. Jung Woo-young quickly racked his brain.
'It would be best to settle this before the problem gets bigger. Or maybe find some way to handle it before we go to the station.'
Fortunately, he didn't have to agonize over what move to make.
The boyfriend Ellie had called had arrived.
"Over here! You got here early."
"I was already on my way after hearing you were finished. But did something happen? Why are the police here?"
Yoo Jin-wook turned his head. He had taken off his glasses while holding his nose, so his vision was blurry. He squinted and saw a Korean man who looked to be in his mid-twenties.
He sneered. "What? This punk is her boyfriend? Does tattling to her boyfriend change anything?"
But something about the reactions of the others seemed strange.
Everyone was staring, eyes wide and mouths agape. This included Manager Jung Woo-young beside him, as well as the police officers.
"What's wrong? Do you know him?"
He focused his eyes on the man. He looked somewhat familiar. No, he was actually familiar!
Probably the entire nation... no, the entire world knew this man's face.
He was so shocked that he momentarily forgot the throbbing pain in his nose.
'This can't possibly be real...?'
It was utterly unbelievable. But blinking hard changed nothing.
In that instant, only one thought flooded his mind.
'I'm fucked.'
***
Chairman Yoo Byung-moon of GJ Group.
In his youth, following his parents' wishes for him to enter the media sector, he married the daughter of the president of KG Vision. This marriage led to the merger of GJ Media and KG Vision, enabling its growth into the media giant it was today.
From the group's perspective, it was a successful marriage, but not from a personal one. The loveless marriage was merely an obligation, and through that obligation, he fathered three sons.
Then, around his forties, he met a female employee and fell in love with her. While leading this double life, they had a son, whom he named Jin-wook.
Fifteen years ago, after his wife died from illness, Yoo Byung-moon remarried the woman and officially added Yoo Jin-wook to his family register.
Since he had already fully inherited GJ Group and established his position in the business world, there were no major issues. However, his three older sons were extremely wary of their new stepmother and half-brother.
Yoo Byung-moon declared that Yoo Jin-wook would absolutely not inherit management rights, and only then did the sons accept Yoo Jin-wook and the stepmother into the family.
For Yoo Byung-moon, Yoo Jin-wook was a constant source of worry. He always felt guilty for not being able to properly care for him during his childhood due to his illegitimate status.
Furthermore, while his other children each received an affiliate company as their share, all he could give Yoo Jin-wook was some wealth. This made him feel even more apologetic, and he granted Jin-wook whatever he wanted.
While resting after finishing some work, Lee Myung-jae, the Head of the Corporate Strategy Office, came in and reported, "Team Leader Yoo Jin-wook apparently sexually harassed a model at the studio."
People are usually surprised by unexpected situations. But having experienced similar incidents multiple times, Chairman Yoo Byung-moon was hardly shocked anymore.
He sighed and said, "Just when I thought things had been quiet for a while, he causes trouble again."
Even for the chairman of a powerful conglomerate, children don't always turn out as intended.
"Send Lawyer Kim to handle it properly."
"There's a bit of a problem, sir."
"What problem? Did it already get posted on social media or something?"
These days, incidents blew up on social media almost instantly. While the press could be silenced, controlling overseas social media platforms was difficult.
"The woman is reportedly Kang Jin-hoo's girlfriend."
Chairman Yoo Byung-moon asked, unable to comprehend, "Kang Jin-hoo? Surely not that Kang Jin-hoo?"
"It is that Kang Jin-hoo, sir. The CEO of OTK Company."
"..."
Kang Jin-hoo? It was only recently that the Japanese stock market crashed and the Diet was dissolved because of him.
'And Jin-wook harassed his girlfriend?'
"Kang Jin-hoo's girlfriend should be a female employee at Golden Gate."
This was a well-known fact among those in the business world who needed to know, especially since he had brought her to the Ceylon Hotel opening party.
Chief Secretary Lee Myung-jae explained the situation. "That's why Kang Jin-hoo himself went directly to the scene."
Chairman Yoo Byung-moon urgently asked, "Where is that punk now?"
"I just contacted him. He said he's on his way to a plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam."
"What? Why a plastic surgery clinic?"
"He said since he needs treatment anyway, he might as well get a nose job..."
"..."
A nose job in this situation? Was this kid out of his mind?
Chairman Yoo Byung-moon immediately called his youngest son. "Get your ass over to the company, now!"
About 20 minutes later, Yoo Jin-wook entered the Chairman's office.
"What is it, Father?"
His nose was bandaged. Normally, the Chairman might have comforted him, asking if it hurt, but this was not the time.
"Is it true you caused trouble at the studio?"
Yoo Jin-wook said defensively, "It wasn't that big of a deal. Ah! As you can see, I'm the one who got hit."
Judging by his words, he seemed utterly oblivious to the gravity of his actions.
Chairman Yoo Byung-moon roared, "That woman is Kang Jin-hoo's girlfriend! Don't you know who Kang Jin-hoo is?"
Yoo Jin-wook's voice shrank. "W-well, she's probably just one of his many girlfriends, right?"
"..."
Chairman Yoo Byung-moon was speechless.
'Does this kid think everyone in the world is like him?'
As far as he knew, Yoo Jin-wook was currently dating five or six women simultaneously. Birds of a feather flock together, and the friends he associated with also dated multiple women. So, it wasn't entirely unreasonable for him to think that way. In fact, by Yoo Jin-wook's standards, a rich man dating only one woman was abnormal.
Chairman Yoo Byung-moon himself had been similar, so he couldn't really criticize. But Kang Jin-hoo was different. If he were like that, rumors would have spread throughout the business world long ago.
"If you talk to him nicely, Father, won't he let it slide somewhat, just to save face?"
The Yoo Byung-moon that Jin-wook knew was an absolute authority figure, the king of the vast GJ Group kingdom, whose word was law. Indeed, whenever Jin-wook had caused trouble, big or small, Yoo Byung-moon had easily resolved it. So, he vaguely assumed his father would somehow handle this too.
If he had harassed the girlfriend of another chaebol heir, perhaps things could have been smoothed over out of consideration for the relationship with GJ Group. But Kang Jin-hoo had absolutely no reason to do so.
Even the chairmen of the top 5 conglomerates bowed their heads to Kang Jin-hoo. Who in Korea could possibly control him?
'What on earth should I do?'
As he pondered, Chief Secretary Lee Myung-jae entered again. "We received a call from Seosung Electronics' marketing department."
"What about?"
"They said they're canceling all contracts and pulling all their advertisements."
"Wh-what?"
Seosung Electronics was the nation's largest corporation. With massive revenues came the largest advertising budgets. If they pulled ads from all channels, GJ Media would plunge into deficit. It wouldn't matter if other companies filled the void, but...
"It's the same for other Seosung Group affiliates. And Eunsung Motor Group, CL Group, and SSK Group also called to say they're pulling all ads and terminating contracts."
It didn't end there. Reports kept flooding in.
Beyond advertising, companies involved in food supplies, logistics, and more were stating they would sever all ties with GJ Group affiliates as soon as existing contracts expired.
Chairman Yoo Byung-moon's expression hardened progressively. For now, only groups connected to OTK Company had acted, but once rumors spread, other groups wouldn't likely stay idle.
GJ Group was centered on services, not manufacturing. With a large portion being B2B, if the major conglomerate groups turned their backs simultaneously, the entire group could collapse.
At this point, Yoo Jin-wook finally grasped the severity of the situation. "Wh-what do we do, Father?"
Chairman Yoo Byung-moon let out a hollow laugh. 'I spoiled him too much, and he turned into an idiot.'
***
It was decided the investigation would happen later, and the police left. Yoo Jin-wook fled the scene as if escaping, and afterward, I heard the detailed account of what happened.
That bastard sexually harassed Ellie!
And that wasn't all. According to the staff from Vester headquarters, he had rained down insults like "this bitch," "that bitch," "crazy bitch," along with all sorts of foul and sexual curses.
Just hearing about it made my blood boil. Yet, Ellie herself seemed unfazed.
"It's okay. I gave him a proper taste of his own medicine. First, let's go eat with the staff who worked hard on the shoot. I'm starving. How about beef?"
"No, forget the beef, first that bastard..."
Ellie spoke to the staff. "My boyfriend says he's buying beef. Please give him a round of applause."
The staff, though surprised, applauded in unison, and I was swept away to a company dinner. Ellie greeted everyone individually, from the photographer to the crew members. "You all worked hard."
Unlike me, who couldn't swallow anything, beef or otherwise, Ellie must have been truly hungry, as she ate three servings by herself right there.
The other staff members also ate heartily, and the bill came out to several million won. I still don't know why I was the one paying, but after settling the bill, we headed straight to Hyun-joo noona's place.
I called Taek-gyu, who was lounging at home. He rushed over and immediately said upon seeing us, "What's that smell? Did you guys eat beef without me?"
"That's not important right now."
"Is there anything more important than beef?"
Surprisingly, yes.
Ellie recounted what happened at the studio. Taek-gyu was furious, and Hyun-joo noona gave a wry smile. "It's been a while since something like this happened again."
"Huh? Again?"
"Do you think things like this didn't happen at the company? Ever since Ellie joined Golden Gate, there were quite a few guys who hit on her internally."
"Ah..."
People desperate to wield even the smallest bit of power exist everywhere.
Instead of passively enduring it, Ellie had thoroughly gathered evidence and took down a rising executive. After that, Golden Gate reportedly implemented strong punishments for internal sexual offenses and measures to prevent recurrence.
"I'd heard rumors that Chairman Yoo Byung-moon's youngest son was like a predator on the prowl, but I never thought he'd target Ellie."
A little later, Sang-yeop sunbae came over. In the meantime, he had contacted Edm Entertainment to find out about Yoo Jin-wook.
"This guy is utter trash. He's notorious for forcing himself on any girl he finds even remotely pretty. He's been sued multiple times, but got all the cases dropped using money and pressure."
Taek-gyu asked, "But why wasn't it ever in the news?"
"Seems he wasn't completely brainless; he targeted trainees or aspiring entertainers rather than established celebrities. He didn't touch anyone from major agencies, focusing on girls from small, struggling agencies. Those places have no choice but to be extremely wary of GJ Media. When problems arose, he'd smooth things over by giving them minor roles or pushing them a bit."
Unsurprisingly, this wasn't a case of a normally decent person having a single bad thought upon seeing Ellie. He was just inherently that kind of person.
If Ellie had been just an ordinary model, there's no telling if something worse might have happened. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became.
"What should we do about this bastard?"
Taek-gyu said, "What do you mean? We crush him thoroughly."
My thoughts exactly.
As we were talking, Chairman Lim Jin-yong called.
[I heard there was an unpleasant incident involving GJ Group.]
"News travels really fast."
Where on earth did he hear that?
Chairman Lim chuckled. [I knew Chairman Yoo Byung-moon doted excessively on his youngest son, but I guess he finally caused a major incident. This is why ignorant brats running wild are dangerous.]
Truthfully, it wasn't uncommon for chaebol offspring to cause trouble. The reported incidents alone could fill a truck, and the unreported ones were likely tens or hundreds of times more numerous.
"It's not exactly a problem with the group itself, just that the Chairman's son wronged Ellie significantly."
[As soon as I heard, I ordered all our group companies to pull their ads.]
I was quite surprised by his words. "It's my personal matter, is there really a need to go that far?"
[Other groups are doing the same. By now, Eunsung Motor Group and SSK Group have probably contacted them to pull their ads too.]
"Is that really okay?"
GJ Media is the absolute powerhouse in the broadcasting industry. Pulling all ads from them would also negatively impact the companies placing the ads.
[It's fine. When something like this happens and we boycott collectively, we can negotiate much lower rates when we renegotiate later. It saves advertising costs, so it's good.]
I let out a small laugh. "Spoken like a true businessman, never making a losing deal."
[Well, that's only if things are resolved well with you, Hoobae-nim. Otherwise, GJ Group might just disintegrate.]
"..."
So, I had somehow reached a position where I could potentially destroy a conglomerate group.
[What do you intend to do?]
I replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "What is there to decide? If you commit a crime, you pay the price."