Chapter 29: Proving Innocence

That’s right, Qi Huai was thinking the same thing.

First, the person who filmed the video must have an internal employee card for Woosan. Second, that was a dedicated break room for the main cast and director; ordinary staff wouldn’t set foot in there…

He had gone there by chance to look for the protagonist shou. If the other person’s initial goal was to follow him, he would have definitely noticed in a place like a film set. Was it possible the person filming was after Park Seok-jin and Baek Soo-kyung? If so, why wasn’t Park Seok-jin’s business exposed?

Or perhaps, the target was Yoon Nam-hyuk from the very beginning? Did they know about his plan to visit the set and follow him all the way?

But what was there to follow about a set visit? The person wasn’t a prophet; they couldn’t have predicted his encounter with Yoon Nam-hyuk. Therefore, Qi Huai was more inclined to believe that the person had run into him by chance—

Wait.

Qi Huai suddenly realized that if he thought about it from Yoon Nam-hyuk’s perspective, following this line of reasoning, he himself was the most likely one to have orchestrated the whole thing for publicity.

The System was also stunned:

 【…That’s true. You and Baek Soo-kyung are both rookie actors, and you met Yoon Nam-hyuk in a drugging scenario at a hotel. If Yoon Nam-hyuk hadn’t seen Park Seok-jin and Baek Soo-kyung getting it on this afternoon, this whole thing would look like you found out his visit time, deliberately started a fight with Baek Soo-kyung on the way to attract attention, then pretended to be pitiful to get a hug, all while having someone secretly film it for a media stunt to ruin the president’s reputation… Why does it look so much like a set-up against Yoon Nam-hyuk?】

Qi Huai pinched the bridge of his nose. Although he didn’t hold out much hope, he still picked up his phone and called the assistant director to ask about the CCTV near the break room.

The assistant director told him, “Well… Assistant Yoo called and asked about that earlier, but the equipment there is broken for some reason, so…”

The System couldn’t help but exclaim in outrage: 

【No wonder Park Seok-jin chose that break room to get it on with Baek Soo-kyung! He must have known! No, maybe he’s the one who broke it!】

So, Park Seok-jin was the prime suspect?

But he had left under Qi Huai’s watch. If he had returned, Qi Huai would have noticed.

Who else could it be?

Qi Huai suddenly thought of someone.

—Choi Min-jun.

He recalled Choo Min-young’s assistant telling him that Choi Min-jun had been looking for him. But when he couldn’t find him, he hadn’t sent a message or called; instead, he had left the set without a word. When Qi Huai called to inquire, he had sounded mysteriously cheerful.

Furthermore, although Choi Min-jun had a somewhat patronizing personality, he was indeed a very professional manager when it came to work. Now that this video was going viral online, and even Choo Min-young had recognized him, it was unreasonable for his manager, Choi Min-jun, to remain silent.

With this in mind, Qi Huai immediately went out and hailed a taxi, giving the driver Choi Min-jun’s home address.

I should have kept that rented Ferrari, Qi Huai thought. It would have been faster to drive myself, just a few more speeding tickets.

The System circled around Qi Huai’s ear, confused:

 【But… Host Oppa, why would he do it? Isn’t he a senior manager at Woosan Entertainment? Why would he frame Yoon Nam-hyuk? Yoon Nam-hyuk has no relationship with Baek Soo-kyung right now, so it doesn’t make sense for him to be jealous.】

Qi Huai’s brow furrowed. “Perhaps we’ve underestimated the original plot.”

【Huh?】

 The System was still baffled. 【What do you mean?】

“The limited mission data we have tells us this is a large-scale, multi-partner relationship manhwa, and the plot begins with a clichéd drugging scenario. So we almost immediately assumed that the difficulty of this mission lies in the number of protagonist group members.”

【Is there a problem with that?】

“Don’t you find it strange?” Qi Huai asked back. “Even if the waiter at the banquet got the wrong room and led Yoon Nam-hyuk to Baek Soo-kyung’s break room, Baek Soo-kyung and Choi Min-jun had already signed a contract at that point. With Choi Min-jun’s personality, in a setting full of celebrities and directors, would he really let Baek Soo-kyung out of his sight for long?”

【Ah… from what we’ve seen, Choi Min-jun is someone who likes to maximize his benefits. He doesn’t seem like the typical perverted manager from a smutty comic. If Baek Soo-kyung’s shirt got dirty, he would probably have him change it immediately and go back to the banquet hall to greet the directors, right?】

“Also, given Yoon Nam-hyuk’s state at the time, it didn’t take long for him to go from being relatively lucid and arguing with me to being on the verge of incoherence. No matter how delicate Baek Soo-kyung seemed, he was still a man around 175cm tall. What could Yoon Nam-hyuk have forced him to do? And even if Yoon Nam-hyuk had the strength, do you think he would have forced him?”

【…Omo, although Yoon Nam-hyuk has a temper, he does seem to be quite reasonable. He even endured his dislike and went to eat seaweed soup with you!】

“…” Qi Huai glanced at the System. “And especially Baek Soo-kyung, the classic debt-ridden uke of manhwa. He looks like a pure and pitiful soul in need of salvation. Don’t you think he’s too different from his character profile?”

【That’s true! Not only did he secretly look through the passport under your bed, but he’s also a gold-digger who looks down on you for having no money!】

“So, is the character profile really complete? The plot points we can see are only the beginnings of the protagonist shou’s entanglements with each love interest. What about the endings?” Qi Huai murmured to himself. “Of the plot we know, how much of it is the truth?”

And how much of the plot don’t we know?

Qi Huai bit his lip in frustration. Fortunately, he had added Yoon Nam-hyuk on KKT today and could call him directly. The phone rang for a long time before the other end picked up, but there was no sound.

The worst-case scenario had happened.

Qi Huai sighed. “It wasn’t me. It was Choi Min-jun.”

“I only look at evidence.”

With that, Yoon Nam-hyuk hung up.

System: 

【Host Oppa, it seems you are disliked.】

“I’ve been wronged…” Qi Huai gave a bitter smile.

He hesitated for a second, then called his overseas partner, Gavin. “Help me track a phone.”

---

Gavin Jennings, founder of OpenWorld, the largest overseas NFT trading platform, was also a partner in Qi Huai’s social project, GATE.

Their partnership had just been confirmed not long ago. He hadn’t expected to need the other’s help so soon after the project began.

Tracking a phone was no difficult task for a crypto tycoon like Gavin, who frequently dealt with hackers. Soon, Qi Huai received a link. Clicking on it revealed the location of Choi Min-jun’s phone, which was moving at high speed.

Qi Huai sent the link to Yoon Nam-hyuk, then told the taxi driver to turn around and take a shortcut to pursue them.

About ten minutes later, he spotted a small van with black privacy film on its windows, weaving through traffic, seemingly in a great hurry to leave downtown Seoul.

“Mister driver, please stop that van.”

The driver, who was already suspicious of Qi Huai’s strange navigation software, perked up his ears at the familiar line. He asked uncertainly, “Are… are you a police officer, sir? Or from the prosecutor’s office…”

Qi Huai’s expression was conflicted. “Mmm… something like that. Please keep it confidential.”

“No problem!” The driver, an ajusshi,¹ gritted his teeth. “Hold on tight, sir! I’m hitting the gas!”

It wasn’t exactly a high-speed chase, but it was highly efficient. The driver, who knew the Seoul traffic network like the back of his hand, with the help of the tracking map provided by Gavin, soon forced the mysterious van to a stop on a small road near the river.

In their pursuit, they had knocked over a shelf on the other side of the road, so the van was now trapped between the shelf and the taxi, with no escape route.

Just as the driver’s adrenaline was pumping, thinking he was assisting the police in a case, the van door slid open, and several burly, tattooed men carrying steel pipes jumped out, cursing.

“Shibal-ya!”

A sturdy steel pipe, over a centimeter in diameter, no less powerful than a sledgehammer, slammed onto the hood of the taxi with a loud clang.

“Who the hell are you? Huh? Hahahaha, a taxi?” The men frantically banged on the hood. “Hey! Ajusshi! Are you blind, hmm? You wanna die! Hey! Get out of the way! You son of a bitch! Move!”

These men were clearly members of an illegal organization. The driver turned back, trembling, and looked at Qi Huai with terrified eyes, asking for instructions.

Qi Huai pulled out a cash bill and wrote his phone number on it. “I’ll cover the repair costs. Please call this number tomorrow. And could you open the door for me?”

“You… you’re not waiting for backup?” The driver swallowed hard. “Then what about…?”

Qi Huai smiled. “You can leave as soon as possible. Don’t worry about me.”

The driver thought this police officer, so handsome he could make 99.99% of the men in South Korea feel insecure, was incredibly brave. He looked at Qi Huai’s back as he got out of the car with reverence, gave a salute, and shouted, “Chungseong!²”

Then he slammed on the gas and sped away.

“Wow… looks like that, could he be some celebrity? Hahaha, you looking for the guy in the van?” The leader of the thugs circled Qi Huai, looking him up and down, his mouth making a tutting sound. His cold eyes suddenly narrowed. “Called the cops?”

“Not yet,” Qi Huai smiled.

The thug didn’t believe him. He snorted, stepped back, and waved a hand. “Knock him out. Take him with us.”

Four thugs, three steel pipes, one switchblade. Two of them had a background in Taekwondo. Even with his Alpha traits not being completely suppressed, it would be a struggle for Qi Huai to deal with all of them at once.

Logically, he shouldn’t have been so reckless. He should have at least waited for the police or Yoon Nam-hyuk to arrive before making a move. But when the van door opened, Qi Huai had caught a glimpse of the unconscious and miserable-looking Choi Min-jun inside. His face was pale. Was he dying…?

Even if there was only a one percent chance that the mission target, obscured by the system bug, was Choi Min-jun, he wasn’t willing to risk a “Mission Target Deceased” failure.

He had held the title of “Perfect Mission Record Holder” for many years.

“So… I’ll have to… trouble you!” Qi Huai savagely smashed the bloody steel pipe in his hand. The thug who had just called him a pretty boy was now slumped against the wall, collapsed on the ground.

Two thugs left out of four.

Qi Huai tore off his tie and wrapped it around his hand and the steel pipe, his eyes fierce, a slight smile on his lips. “Come on, both of you. Don’t waste time.”

These last two had Taekwondo training and were a bit more difficult to handle. Qi Huai was caught off guard and took two hard hits from the ugliest of the thugs with a steel pipe.

The System shrieked:

 【Pah! Why does he keep aiming for your face? He’s definitely jealous that you’re handsomer than him!】

It had been over ten minutes since Qi Huai had caught up to the van. The sound of approaching police sirens grew louder in the distance, making the situation even more tense. The leader’s eyes darted around. After a few seconds of thought, he turned and ran towards the river.

System: 【Ah! That guy is getting away!】

If he was going to run, he would have run earlier. Something’s not right.

Qi Huai frowned and was about to give chase, but the other thug became even more frantic in his attack, and he couldn’t break free.

In that split second, the thug who had seemingly escaped threw something into the river. A metallic arc flashed through the air, and the signal point representing Choi Min-jun’s phone on the location page completely disappeared.

Yoon Nam-hyuk arrived before the police.

Blinding high beams flooded the alley as a black Bentley drove in and stopped steadily behind Qi Huai. Two other cars perfectly blocked the alley entrance.

Qi Huai’s right hand was still entangled with the steel pipe and his tie. He turned his head to look back, his eyes narrowing against the sudden light. His handsome, deep-set profile was spattered with blood, his lips a flat line, his expression cold, like an emotionless killing machine.

Sitting in the back seat of the car, Yoon Nam-hyuk’s heart clenched.

“Open the door,” Yoon Nam-hyuk said placidly.

The driver hesitated. “President, are you getting out? These thugs haven’t been dealt with yet. Maybe we should let the men in the back cars handle it first…”

Yoon Nam-hyuk glanced at the driver.

The driver shut up and opened the door.

Three pure black Bentleys, a dozen men in total, all poured out. The thugs, already exhausted from their fight with Qi Huai, completely collapsed to the ground, with no will to resist, left with only the strength to breathe.

Yoon Nam-hyuk walked up behind Qi Huai, his obsidian eyes sweeping over Qi Huai’s blood-stained right hand and the thugs on the ground, who were in much worse shape. His voice was icy. “You chased them alone. Are you an idiot?”

Qi Huai didn’t speak. He closed his eyes, calming the adrenaline coursing through him from the fight. After a long moment, his expression softened with regret. “Choi Min-jun’s phone was thrown into the Han River.”

Yoon Nam-hyuk sneered. “Risking your life for a phone?”

Qi Huai chuckled lightly. “If you want to prove your innocence, you need some evidence, right?”

Yoon Nam-hyuk was silent for a moment. “You called Choi Min-jun this afternoon. What did you talk about?”

“The timeline of events is a bit complicated,” Qi Huai said, giving Yoon Nam-hyuk a summary of the afternoon’s events as he tossed aside the steel pipe and the bloody tie.

He slowly flexed his stiff right hand, his voice tired. Yoon Nam-hyuk just stared at his hand, and it was unclear if he was even listening.

After his brief summary, the police belatedly arrived. The four thugs were all handcuffed and taken away. Choi Min-jun, who had been knocked out, had stable vital signs and was sent to the hospital, heavily guarded by the police and three bodyguards left behind by Yoon Nam-hyuk.

Yoon Nam-hyuk gave a statement along with Qi Huai. A doctor bandaged Qi Huai’s wounds. They weren’t serious, just minor cuts on his hands and two bruises on his back from the steel pipe. He would need to change the dressings regularly, get plenty of rest, and temporarily stop working out.

Even when interrogated separately, the thugs’ stories were consistent. They stuck to their claim that they knew Choi Min-jun was a celebrity manager and had acted out of greed, hoping to find some celebrity gossip on his phone to blackmail for money, and had unexpectedly found the video of Yoon Nam-hyuk. They didn’t dare blackmail a chaebol, so they sold the video to the media. They kidnapped Choi Min-jun because they were afraid he would talk, and wanted to take him away to threaten him.

As for why they threw the phone into the Han River, the reason was even simpler: they panicked when they heard the police sirens and it slipped from their hand while they were running away. It wasn’t intentional.

Everything seemed to be just an accident.

When Choi Min-jun woke up, his story was a similar, flimsy excuse. He said he had only filmed the video of Qi Huai and Yoon Nam-hyuk because he was so shocked.

Qi Huai was his artist, a newcomer to the entertainment industry. He wanted to teach him that to become a big star, he had to be careful about his words and actions and be wary of unseen cameras. That’s why he had filmed the video—to educate Qi Huai. He would have deleted it once Qi Huai learned his lesson. Who knew he would run into those thugs?

The thugs were sentenced for assault. With Yoon Nam-hyuk’s guarantee, and since Qi Huai had acted in self-defense, the police only gave him a verbal warning.

Choi Min-jun’s case was more complicated.

Illegal filming is a serious crime in Korea, but the dissemination of the video didn’t seem to be his doing. If Yoon Nam-hyuk sued, Choi Min-jun would have to pay compensation. If he pursued it further, Woosan Entertainment could fire him.

Although both Qi Huai and Yoon Nam-hyuk knew that Choi Min-jun was involved, that he was at least a pawn for the mastermind, neither of them had any proof.

“Choi Min-jun’s financial dealings probably aren’t clean, are they?” Qi Huai asked, leaning against the police station wall with his eyes closed.

After all, he was a senior manager who had handled many international superstars and had spent years navigating the world of brands, production companies, and investors. How could he not have some grey income? It was just that the benefits outweighed the risks, so the company had turned a blind eye.

Yoon Nam-hyuk paused. “You mean…”

“Send him away for a while,” Qi Huai said flatly. “You want to investigate who’s targeting you, right? Leaving him out in the open is too unstable. It’s not good for you.”

And it’s not good for my mission either, Qi Huai thought.

Choi Min-jun and Baek Soo-kyung were currently in an “ambiguous” state. If they let Choi Min-jun stay at Woosan as Baek Soo-kyung’s manager, and even remain active in the main plot, their relationship might deepen one day. It was better to lock up Gong Dog Number Two to eat prison food for a while and completely sever their ties.

The System sighed beside him: 【Host Oppa, your methods for completing missions are truly breathtaking.】

Yoon Nam-hyuk nodded.

And so, Choi Min-jun’s prison sentence was decided.

Qi Huai opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Yoon Nam-hyuk, his gaze tracing the small mole on the tip of his nose. “Is my innocence proven now? I’m not in league with Choi Min-jun.”

Yoon Nam-hyuk looked back at him coolly. “Choi Min-jun was also loyal and reliable when he first joined Woosan.”

Although the man was overly ambitious, that was a different matter.

Qi Huai laughed, his dark green eyes sparkling. “Have you eaten dinner?”

Yoon Nam-hyuk pressed his lips together and turned his head to avoid his gaze, the tips of his ears slightly red. “No. Why?”

Qi Huai stared at his ears. “Didn’t I say I’d cook for you sometime? No time like the present, right?”

The other’s voice was too gentle. By the time Yoon Nam-hyuk realized what was happening, he was already sitting in the living room of that cramped rooftop apartment.

---

¹Ajusshi (아저씨): A Korean term for a middle-aged man.
²Chungseong (충성): A formal declaration of loyalty, often used in a military context, similar to “Hooah!” or “Oorah!” in the US military.