WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Genius Writer Who Will Never Fall Again ◈
Chapter 17: Human Scum (3)
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A beast does not need to strive to display its majesty.
Its mere existence radiates enough authority.
Just as a tiger pays no mind to a barking dog.
Just as a lion does not fear a hyena.
Such was the vast gulf in sheer presence between Go Young-chan and Jo Du-ho.
Du-ho’s face went white in an instant.
The more it did, the redder Young-chan’s became.
The room fell quieter than it had been moments ago.
Even those who had been watching with interest held their breath.
Young-chan was generally strict, but he was also famous for never punishing subordinates over personal feelings.
He had endured the brutal entertainment world of the 1990s and 2000s through sheer grit and determination, all while vowing never to pass its rotten practices on to others.
How absurd must this situation have seemed to someone like him?
No one had ever seen Young-chan angry like this.
Not even the peers and executives who had worked alongside him for over a decade.
Today was the first time.
The first time Young-chan had been angry in such a cold, simmering way.
“Jo Du-ho.”
“Ugh, uh...”
“Answer.”
“Yes! Yes!!!”
“How am I supposed to take this situation? Answer me.”
Young-chan did not raise his voice, which made him even more intimidating.
The low resonance in their voice sounded like a growl, like a tiger’s roar. The moment people heard it, their bodies stiffened on instinct.
Du-ho could not answer.
Du-ho had been tormenting Byeong-gi, then lost their temper and started shouting. Du-ho became angry at Jae-kyung for intervening and slapped Jae-kyung.
That was the undeniable truth, and there were too many witnesses.
How could they possibly dress this up?
Their teeth clacked together as their eyes darted around, desperately trying to form an excuse. It was useless.
Of course, Young-chan knew that better than anyone.
“You’d better choose your answer carefully. If it isn’t a convincing reason, I’ll add insolence to the charge.”
“W-well...”
“Don’t think I’ve been quiet because I don’t know how you normally speak and behave. Turning a blind eye and looking away are very different things.”
That left Du-ho completely speechless.
Their legs shook as they lowered their head, looking exactly like a pig about to be slaughtered.
Young-chan knew that attitude itself was proof of their wrongdoing.
He let out a long breath and turned away.
“Writer Han. Is where they hit you all right?”
“It stings.”
“I’m sorry. This is all my failure.”
“It’s not something the chief producer needs to apologize for...”
“No. It’s my fault for failing to keep my bastard subordinate in line.”
Then Young-chan raised a fist the size of a pot lid.
Smack!
He struck his own cheek with all his strength.
“...!”
Someone sucked in a breath.
It was that shocking a sight.
Young-chan grimaced, their cheek already swelling red, then bowed to Jae-kyung.
“I’m not shameless enough to say this makes up for what happened. I’m not going to ask Writer Han to forgive them, either. So can I ask one thing of you?”
“Chief Producer, please raise your head first...”
“Let us handle this bastard according to our internal rules.”
“...Chief Producer.”
“This won’t be bad news for you, Writer Han. I intend to make sure they’re properly fucked. I think that’s the surest way.”
Young-chan knew better than anyone that he was making an unpleasant request.
Still, as the person in charge, they had to contain this before it became an even bigger incident.
And by asking Jae-kyung for this favor, one thing became certain.
“Please raise your head, Chief Producer. Of course this is something I should leave to you. Anything I did would be overstepping.”
Jae-kyung had gained a blade he could hold over the broadcasting station whenever he wished.
As long as Jae-kyung did not cross the line in the future, WBS would have no choice but to accommodate him.
Even with that relationship now established, Jae-kyung did not put on airs.
“It’s fine. Getting hit isn’t fine, but I have no intention of taking that anger out on anyone else.”
Young-chan was deeply grateful for that.
If this was not genuine decency, then what was?
There was no denying that, on top of his physical debt, Young-chan now owed Jae-kyung an emotional one as well.
“...This is why I like Writer Han so much. Where else in this industry could I find another writer like you?”
Young-chan raised his head and looked at Jae-kyung with warm, fond eyes.
This was the Young-chan everyone knew.
“I can’t attend the meeting with you today. I’m sorry. I’ll clean this up, so go on ahead. Make sure you ice that cheek. If anything urgent comes up, discuss it with Byeong-gi. I’ll get a separate report from them.”
“Yes. I’m sorry for disrupting the atmosphere too.”
“No, how can Writer Han apologize right now? That would make me someone who slapped my own cheek and started crying.”
Young-chan patted Jae-kyung’s shoulder, then nodded toward Byeong-gi to tell him to leave.
Jae-kyung and Byeong-gi left the room.
Young-chan’s expression froze over immediately afterward.
“Jo Du-ho.”
“Y-yes...!”
“Do you know why I hit my own cheek instead of yours?”
A chill ran through Du-ho.
One thing was certain.
“If I hit you here, I would have to bury this incident. If I acted on emotion, I would be no better.”
Until yesterday, Du-ho had wielded tremendous authority in WBS’s drama department, a place obsessed with results, regardless of personal prestige or loss of face.
But that authority existed only because their superiors recognized their performance.
That was what Young-chan meant.
“Whatever happens from now on, you no longer have the right to defy orders. We’ll be strictly following the rules.”
Their superiors had turned away from Du-ho.
The authority that had made them so arrogant would soon become nothing.
* * *
Byeong-gi followed Jae-kyung out in a daze.
He did not say a word while walking down the hall, nor while Jae-kyung went to the break room, took out an ice pack, and pressed it to his cheek.
Everything had happened too quickly.
What should have ended with Byeong-gi getting chewed out as usual and swallowing his anger alone had suddenly turned into this. His mind could not keep up.
Then reality finally sank in.
Jae-kyung had been slapped because of him, and that had become the fuse that got Du-ho thoroughly fucked over.
He would no longer have to endure harassment.
His tightly clenched fist trembled.
Before joy could come, pent-up resentment burst out.
‘Idiot. I couldn’t say a single thing...!’
He felt unbearably small.
What if he had at least been able to answer back point by point like Jae-kyung?
What if he were someone who could intimidate others without raising his voice, like Young-chan?
His normally bloated ego shriveled, and self-loathing flooded in.
He had never hated himself as much as he did today.
That was when Jae-kyung spoke.
“Are you okay?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m asking whether you’re okay, Director. You seemed to be getting it pretty badly earlier.”
Jae-kyung rubbed his swollen cheek with the ice pack, his expression unchanged.
That calm attitude left Byeong-gi even more stunned.
“I-I’m more worried about you, Writer...”
“I took one slap and got that bastard fucked over. I’d call that a win. That bastard won’t be able to harass you anymore.”
Byeong-gi’s eyes widened at the meaning behind those words.
“Y-you stepped in because of me...?”
“Then why else would I step in there? It only made things troublesome for me.”
“W-why...?”
Jae-kyung was a rookie writer too.
Things could have gone wrong. His reputation in the industry could have suffered, and it might have become impossible for him to get more work.
Jae-kyung was not stupid enough to ignore those risks.
So why?
For someone like Byeong-gi?
The moment he thought that...
“Why else? You’re one of my people, Director.”
Those words pierced Byeong-gi like an awl.
“I don’t let anyone touch my people. How fucking infuriating is it when the most valuable people I’ve chosen get tormented by people worth less than them?”
The words did not enter through Byeong-gi’s ears and seep into their head.
They went straight into their heart.
One of my people.
The most valuable.
How grateful he was to have such affirming words directed at him.
How special it was that someone believed in a person who had accomplished nothing and only complained whenever they had the chance.
No one in this industry had ever said anything like that to Byeong-gi.
Everyone called him unusual.
Even when nobody said it aloud, Byeong-gi knew better than anyone that people looked down on him.
Yet what could this person possibly see in him to say such things?
Why would Jae-kyung risk his own career to step in?
The thought overwhelmed him.
Byeong-gi felt as though he might cry.
No, his eyes were already welling up.
“W-Writer...!”
“What kind of expression is that? It’s gross for two men to get weepy together.”
“I-I... Hngh...!”
In the end, Byeong-gi’s eyes grew wet.
He wiped at them with his sleeve, but the tears would not stop. A groan-like sob slipped out.
Then, in a trembling voice, they blurted out:
“I-I’ll work really hard! I’ll grind myself to the bone and do my absolute best...!”
What does a man live for?
For the one person who recognizes his worth.
So those choked words were not meant for Jae-kyung.
They were words Byeong-gi said to himself.
A sincere promise that he would no longer be a burden to this person.
Jae-kyung gave an incredulous little laugh.
“Yes, please work hard. Grind those bones down.”
It was a resolution made in a modest corner of the break room.
But precisely because it was made in such a place, it was all the more sincere.
So it was better that Byeong-gi did not know.
Not long ago, Cheong-a had said the exact same thing to Jae-kyung, and Jae-kyung’s answer had been, “Work hard, but do not overdo it. If you collapse, it’ll mess up the filming schedule.”
It was something Byeong-gi should never know for the rest of their life.
* * *
Authority was no different from a drug.
It was deeply addictive and pleasurable. If someone enjoyed it carelessly, they could eventually lose their sense of where the line was, and it could tighten around their throat before they even realized it.
Authority should always belong to people who understood the weight of its responsibility.
This was the end of someone who did not.
‘They really fucked them up.’
A few days later, an exuberant Min Byeong-gi told me how Jo Du-ho had been disciplined.
A three-month suspension, followed by a personnel reassignment.
They had effectively been barred from ever working as a producer-director again.
Even if they quit on their own, rumors would have already spread throughout the industry. All they would be able to do was dwell on their humiliation and yearn for what they had lost.
From the station’s perspective, throwing out one bastard was better than risking trouble with an outsider.
After all, one thing was internal conflict, but they had laid hands on someone from outside.
‘They were too intoxicated. That bastard.’
They got angry and slapped a writer.
Did that not show how little hesitation they had felt while doing it?
They had probably been walking that line dangerously for a long time.
And that was before considering the sexual favors scandal that had yet to come to light.
Anyway, I had gotten something out of this. Should I leave it at that?
‘Like hell I will.’
I was not noble enough to write off what had happened to me over something this minor.
More importantly, I still had use for Jo Du-ho.
‘I’ll expose the scandal next year. Probably after the broadcast.’
I would make the most of them one final time then.
With that thought, I shook it off.
At this point, the rails I needed to lay ahead of me mattered more than the poisonous toad being removed from my path.
‘Filming has started, and progress is faster than expected.’
It was October, late autumn, and everything was settling into place in good weather and good spirits.
The only concern was Ryu Cheong-a.
Ding!
[Ryu Cheong-a: Writer, are you okay? Did you put ice on it today? T_T]
For now, her mental state seemed strong enough to worry about someone else’s body.
Separately, seeing the text made me sigh.
‘That Min Byeong-gi keeps spreading unnecessary stories around.’
Some of the filming crew had found out what happened at the broadcasting station.
Since then, Ryu Cheong-a had begun contacting me privately.
‘Does she know she is the person I’m most worried about?’
I did not know why she was worried about my health.
It was not as though I would die from getting slapped.
[Han Jae-kyung: I’m fine. The swelling has all gone down.]
[Ryu Cheong-a: That’s a relief! Please tell me when you’re completely better! Then, to celebrate your full recovery, maybe I could get you a gift...]
‘There’s no need for that.’
I put my phone down.
Then I placed my hands on the keyboard.
‘I’ll stay shut in until the final episode.’
Finishing the scripts was not the end.
Scripts could always need revisions depending on production conditions. Taking that into account, I needed to finish the first draft before winter was over.
‘This time.’
No matter what.
I wanted to show my writing to the world in its complete form.
I refused to let it wither away without ever seeing the light because of people again.
‘I’ve cleared out everything that could be dangerous during this period.’
Whenever I felt that the summit was truly close, learned anxiety whipped me onward.
I could not stop, because I felt as though the moment I relaxed, something barely holding me together would collapse.
Pressure and anxiety.
As I moved my fingers in a struggle to shake them off, the sound of typing finally filled the room.
Tap! Tap!
The rhythm blurred my sense of time.
It devoured and digested my moments beyond my control.
And so, the autumn when it all began...
[Haha, Writer Han! It’s Byeong-gi! The fall portion of filming has wrapped up! Hahaha!]
Autumn passed, and winter came.
[Ryu Cheong-a: Merry Christmas, Writer! Are you very busy? The filming team is thinking of having a Christmas party together! I know you’re busy, but if you might possibly be free, perhaps you could come and talk about the characters...]
Winter passed, and spring returned once more.
[Ryu Cheong-a: (Photo) Hello, Writer! It’s spring filming, and the flowers are so pretty that I wanted to send you a photo! Haha. Also, do you like looking at flowers by any chance!? It might not be a bad idea to visit the set and clear your head! Of course, I’m absolutely not trying to pressure you! You always work so hard writing our scripts...]
When I spent every day focused only on production, time passed in an instant.
And before I knew it, we were here.
[Hehe, Writer Han! Your professional debut is finally next quarter. How does it feel?]
When I came to my senses, it was the second quarter of 2014.
The final countdown to broadcast had begun.
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