I Returned as a High School Girl

Chapter 140: Collaborator (4)

Kang Ra-Eun’s eyes sparkled as Kim Tae-Seon mentioned that she had brought the evidence that Ra-Eun had been looking for.

“Really? What is it?”

Tae-Seon took out something small from her bag.

Ra-Eun asked once she saw it, “Is that a voice recorder?”

“Yes. I’ve recorded the entire conversation that Ji Kang-Hye and Kim Chi-Yeol had in the restaurant.”

“It’s illegal to record people without permission, you know.”

It was admirable that Tae-Seon had secured an audio file, but Ra-Eun lightly criticized her actions.

Ma Yeong-Jun slightly shrugged. “Had you been hiring us to do legal things? You hadn’t, as far as I know.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Yeong-Jun was right, at least this one time. Ra-Eun also had not been serious in criticizing Tae-Seon’s actions; it had simply been a joke. Yeong-Jun and his subordinates had never done anything legal in the first place. If they had stayed within the confines of the legal system until now, they wouldn’t have thought to kill Park Seol-Hun who hadn’t been able to pay his debts.

“Right then, let’s have a listen.”

Just as she was about to open Pandora’s box, her room door suddenly opened.

“I got you and your guests some fruit, Ra-Eun.”

Seo Yi-Seo had entered her room with a tray full of apple and pear slices. Ra-Eun hid the recorder under her bed as naturally as possible.

“Thanks, Yi-Seo.”

“Let me know if you need anything else.”

“I will.”

As soon as Yi-Seo closed the door, Ra-Eun whispered to Yeong-Jun who was closest to the door, “Lock the door.”

Yeong-Jun did as Ra-Eun ordered without a word.

Click.

Ra-Eun pulled back out the recorder that she had hidden under the bed. As soon as she pressed the play button, she could hear the voice of Kim Chi-Yeol, the man whom she hated the most after Kim Han-Gyo.

- Like I’d said during the Film Awards, I have no excuse regarding what happened. I wanted to have you win the Grand Prize, but...

Ra-Eun’s ears perked up. She recalled the moments of last year’s Film Awards. Right before the awarding of the Grand Prize, Kang-Hye had said during her interview that Yoon Dae-Bin would win the Grand Prize. Her voice filled with absolute certainty had bothered Ra-Eun.

And like Kang-Hye had said, Yoon Dae-Bin had really won the Grand Prize. Of course, it could simply be because his achievements of last year had been so outstanding, but Kang-Hye’s attitude had been far too firm despite that.

Not just that, the Film Awards did not decide on a winner of the Grand Prize simply from objective numbers. It took everything into account from the film’s popularity, total audience attendance, the message that the film tried to convey, and many more.

Ra-Eun had suspected Kang-Hye to have been somewhat involved in the awarding process of the Film Awards, but she had no evidence. Tae-Seon had brought her that very evidence.

However, the fixing of the Film Awards had been nothing compared to what Ra-Eun would hear next.

- The ministry will be opening several aid projects for entertainment businesses soon. We did say that we would be selecting businesses to aid through a very strict screening process, but the result is already decided. I will be sending all the big ones to you, so all you need to do is to secure celebrities who will sign with your agency.

- Thank you, Minister Kim. I’ll be able to take it easy thanks to you.

- We should all help each other at times like this, no?

Chi-Yeol was not wrong. People should indeed help each other, but the help was meaningless if it was illegal.

‘This is the definition of a sweetheart deal.’

What would Chi-Yeol get out of helping Kang-Hye? It was obvious with just a little thought.

‘You seriously think I wouldn't be able to tell your scheme is just to satisfy your filthy, lustful desires?’

Ra-Eun brought an apple slice to her mouth after going through the entire contents of the recording.

Crunch!

Ra-Eun chewed down the apple slice.

Yeong-Jun then asked, “What are you going to do with this?”

“It’s simple, isn’t it?”

She had the evidence, so she had no need to wait for Chi-Yeol’s next move.

“The entertainment industry’s been pretty boring lately. It’s time to spice things up a little,” Ra-Eun stated.

She wanted to see how many of the people involved would come out of the shadows, and whether or not this would be enough to completely end Chi-Yeol’s career. But to do that, she needed a collaborator who would light the fuse of this massive bomb. Ra-Eun could think of just the right person.

Vrrr—!

As Ra-Eun was about to call ‘her,’ her phone vibrated. The corners of her mouth rose after checking the short text.

“She saved me the trouble of contacting her first.”

***

Reporter Ahn Su-Jin drove to get to the GNF building early in the morning to prepare for her interview with Ra-Eun. She narrowed her eyes on her sunbae sitting next to her.

“You should’ve requested Miss Kang yourself if you wanted an interview with her. Why did you ask me to do it?” she asked.

“Because you and Miss Kang looked rather close. And you have a lot of interest in her too, don’t you? I saw you going through news about her last time when you’re not even part of the entertainment division.”

“Well...”

Su-Jin couldn’t not take an interest. She was still certain that Ra-Eun was the masked woman. However, Ra-Eun continued to conceal her identity. Su-Jin had thrown Ra-Eun a few bait questions before, but the latter did not take the bait. However, Su-Jin couldn’t abandon her attachment to Ra-Eun.

‘I’m sure Miss Kang is the masked woman.’

However, she had no evidence. She had come to GNF because of her sunbae’s request, but...

‘I won’t be able to have a one-on-one with her like I had last time.’

It was for the best to not bring up the masked woman in front of others. The masked woman had provided her with all sorts of scoops while going out of her way to hide her identity; would she be happy if the person who she had confided in talked about her in front of others?

Absolutely not. Su-Jin was sure that the masked woman would throw her away as soon as she tried anything funny. Su-Jin also did not want that to happen either.

‘Whatever the case, it doesn’t change the fact that the masked woman is a very important informant of mine.’

She could see the GNF building from a distance as her head was in jumbles. She parked the car at the underground parking lot.

“She wants to have the interview at the cafe in front of the building,” Su-Jin’s sunbae stated.

“Really?” Su-Jin responded.

She honestly didn’t really care where the interview was held, since her objective was only to meet Ra-Eun. Ra-Eun and her manager, who had been waiting for them in the cafe, greeted the two reporters.

“Good morning. It’s been a while, Reporter Ahn,” Ra-Eun greeted with a radiant smile.

Su-Jin also greeted Ra-Eun with a forced smile. It had been half a year since she had met Ra-Eun, but she was dumbfounded by how much she had changed during that short time.

When Su-Jin first met Ra-Eun in person, she thought that while Ra-Eun had reached the pinnacle of beauty on the outside, she was far from being ladylike. However, the awkward words and actions that Ra-Eun used to show from time to time had mostly disappeared. Her charming smile, her primly closed legs, and her hand motion of stroking her hair down... they all exuded womanly energy.

“You’ve become very ladylike, Miss Kang,” Su-Jin remarked.

Her sunbae chuckled in exasperation while preparing for the interview next to her.

“Is calling a woman ladylike even a compliment?”

“Oh, right. I’m sorry, Miss Kang.”

Even Su-Jin thought it was a backwards compliment after thinking about it. Ra-Eun simply giggled in response.

The interview progressed quickly as consideration for the busy Ra-Eun.

“May I go to the bathroom for a moment? I think I’m a bit nervous since I haven’t had an interview in a while,” Ra-Eun said.

The reporters nodded and allowed her to. Ra-Eun got up from her seat. As Su-Jin stared at her walking to the bathroom from behind, she also got up from her seat.

“I also have to go to the bathroom, sunbae.”

“Is it a number 2?” he asked.

“Please don’t ask a woman something like that.”

The senior reporter apologized to the angry Su-Jin. She quickened her steps to the bathroom. She was round-eyed with shock as soon as she opened the bathroom door.

“Huh...?”

There was no one in the bathroom.

“Where did she go?”

She was sure that Ra-Eun had said she was going to the bathroom.

“Excuse me, ma’am.”

As Su-Jin was about to go back to her table, a young woman wearing the cafe’s uniform struck a conversation with her.

“You left this in the bathroom.”

“Pardon? Me?” Su-Jin asked.

There was no way. She had come back out of the bathroom right after checking whether or not Ra-Eun was in there. There hadn’t even been any time for her to leave anything behind.

The female employee had handed her...

“A USB? I didn’t leave anything like this in there,” Su-Jin stated.

Her eyes shifted to the woman’s name tag on her right chest.

[Kim Tae-Seon]

The woman smiled meaningfully.

***

Su-Jin was shocked to the core once she checked the contents of the USB after coming back from the interview. It had been an audio file of a conversation between Ji Kang-Hye and Kim Chi-Yeol, and its contents were enormous.

Su-Jin immediately uploaded an article regarding the partnership between the two. The readers were half in doubt, which was an obvious response. Hence, Su-Jin went to the director to get permission to publish an even more detailed article.

“Director. Is it okay if I refer to some contents of the audio file to let people know of the relationship between the two in more detail?”

However, contrary to her expectations, the director’s face was very serious. Just yesterday, when she had posted her first article of this massive Kim Chi-Yeol scoop, the director had been giving her his full support. Not only was this a huge case, it was also something exclusive only to them that they could push out for a while.

However, the situation had changed.

“Reporter Ahn,” the director said.

“Yes, director?”

He sighed deeply. “It’s best if you just bury this case.”