Idol Hides His Military Service

"Do you like Sion that much?"

"No... it’s not even about liking her. That person is just so infuriating."

Jeong Sunhwa looked down at her daughter Yunkyung, who was clinging to her and whining in her arms.

'This kid isn’t usually like this, so she must have really liked her.'

Maybe because ever since she was young, there were always so many people approaching her with impure intentions, Yunkyung treated others politely and warmly on the surface. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

But that was only on the surface—if she felt someone was getting closer to her more than necessary, Yunkyung would cut them off without hesitation.

Yet now that Yunkyung was asking her for a favor for someone else,

"So you’re asking me to teach that reporter a lesson?"

"Yeah! That person was so bad. If it went wrong, Sion could’ve gotten a bad label stuck on her!"

"Hmm..."

It was a request to punish the reporter who wrote a malicious article about Lee Sion, who was currently appearing on the same program as her.

'She definitely was irritating, that reporter.'

Sunhwa also roughly understood why her daughter was making that request.

Because Sunhwa herself had watched the press conference that had happened this morning.

After all, a controversy had broken out related to the program her daughter was on, and when she heard they were holding a press conference to explain it, she got interested and watched.

'If they didn’t explain it properly, I’d have to pull Yunkyung out.'

Since she had an older brother and older sister who would inherit the family business anyway, Sunhwa intended to let the youngest, Yunkyung, do what she wanted—but that was only possible as long as no controversy arose.

If something went wrong, she was planning to pressure the production staff and pull her out no matter what, but fortunately, it didn’t seem like that would be necessary.

-"In my second year, I was being bullied by Jang Daeseon, the one who posted this exposé."

Thanks to the story of Jeong Sua—who said she was Lee Sion’s classmate and appeared near the end of the press conference—the atmosphere that had already been turning favorable toward Sion hit its peak.

-"When I was young, I lost my father, who had been a soldier, in an accident. So my mother raised me alone, and that became a reason for Jang Daeseon and her group to bully me."

Jeong Sua’s calm confession about what happened to her was shocking.

Jang Daeseon, who hurled grotesque verbal abuse that was hard to even put into words at Jeong Sua for being from a single-mother household.

And then,

-"Normally, Jang Daeseon bullied me where people couldn’t see, but on the day it happened, maybe she thought she didn’t have to watch herself anymore, because in the classroom she cursed at my late father and mocked him. I couldn’t say anything and just cried, and then Sion stepped in."

When Sunhwa heard that story—that Lee Sion witnessed it and ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ couldn’t stand it, so she stepped in—Sunhwa found herself really liking Sion.

'Kids like this still exist these days.'

People who would accept disadvantages and step up for a friend were rare in any era.

-"Back then, I told Sion, who got swept into that fight because of me, that I would step forward and explain why, but Sion was the one who covered for me instead, saying there was no need for other people to know."

The full story of Lee Sion’s school-violence incident, only now revealed through Jeong Sua’s disclosure.

-"Up to now, I respected Sion’s wishes, but not anymore. I can never forgive Jang Daeseon for trying to block Sion’s future with disgusting lies, so today I submitted the materials I had from back then, and I came out in front like this to speak."

-"Please don’t curse at Sion. Sion is the friend who told me my dad was the person she was most proud of in the world. She’s the friend I’m grateful to, the friend who let me keep respecting my father to the end, even through the words of Jang Daeseon and those kids who bullied me."

By the time Jeong Sua finished speaking, even Jeong Sunhwa—who was usually emotionally dull—felt something ripple in her chest.

"Secretary Kim."

"Yes, Chairwoman."

"Hot Issue Journal? Clean that place up."

Even if it hadn’t been her daughter’s request, she was planning to handle it.

If she left a reporter who dared to stir up such a malicious controversy about a program her daughter was appearing on, it could interfere with Yunkyung’s activities again in the future.

Nod.

As if he’d sensed what Sunhwa was thinking, Secretary Kim raised his brows slightly, then bowed his head without a word and left the room.

***

"This fucking—why is a friend popping out there, and what the hell is this?!"

Park Sunwoong yelled as he kicked the trash can in his office.

Maybe he still wasn’t satisfied, because he started slamming his feet into the floor and letting out shrieking noises loud enough that it wouldn’t be strange for someone to come up from the floor below.

If he didn’t do this, he felt like he was going to go insane, so he had no choice.

Because everything he’d investigated and planned so diligently over the past half month had all gone to waste today.

No—beyond going to waste, it was now tightening around Park Sunwoong’s neck instead.

-"Why the hell are you coming at me! The reporter told me to do all of this!"

After the storm of a press conference ended, the public who had been furious at Lee Sion changed their target like nothing happened and started tearing into a new piece of prey.

That prey was Jang Daeseon, the one who posted the exposé about Lee Sion’s school-violence incident.

Jang Daeseon’s personal information, exposed in an instant after the press conference.

Then, as if they’d been waiting, people swarmed Jang Daeseon’s social media and flooded it with countless malicious comments, and even posts started going up from people accusing her of school violence in the past.

In the blink of an eye, Jang Daeseon was pushed into a situation where ordinary daily life would be impossible going forward.

And then, whether she panicked, or whether she’d decided it was all or nothing and they should all die together, Jang Daeseon ended up mentioning Park Sunwoong.

-"Wow... so this bastard coaxed Jang Daeseon and tried to bury Lee Sion?"

-"Isn’t this the guy who was trying to railroad Lee Sion at the press conference, nitpicking with nonsense?"

-"Yeah. The first report was Park Sunwoong too, and he kept writing articles that subtly made it feel like Lee Sion really did school violence."

-"Crazy bastard. He worked his ass off just to bury one person."

-"Earlier there were so many worms saying this guy was the only one reporting the truth—where’d they all go now?"

Because of that, people even swarmed the Hot Issue Journal site Park Sunwoong ran and were making a mess.

'It’s fine. There’ll be losses, but it’ll pass anyway.'

For the time being, posting articles was impossible.

The moment he posted, it would be a flood of hate comments and dislike raids, and if he screwed up, not only would the problem get bigger, there was even the risk that ads—the core of an online newspaper—would get cut off.

But this wasn’t Park Sunwoong’s first time.

He’d targeted countless celebrities and idols and occasionally taken backlash, but every time, if he took about a month off and then quietly came back, the public forgot like nothing happened.

This time the scale of the mess was a bit bigger, so it might drag on longer, but it was the same kind of fire that would die down someday.

'First, I’ll say my contact with Jang Daeseon’s side was just investigation before writing an article, and the disciplinary materials got leaked through the China side anyway, so there won’t be any big issue.'

Since he’d already handled every potential problem that could tie back to him in secret just in case, Park Sunwoong judged that there was no way things would get worse from here.

But—

Ring ring.

"Soyoon, what’s going on?"

"Ah... Dad, this is bad!"

"What? Bad how?"

Feeling an unexplainable sense of dread at his daughter’s sudden call, Park Sunwoong ended up dropping the smartphone he was holding at what she said next.

"Dad! Dad! Are you listening? Do something and fix this!!!"

Even with the voice coming from the smartphone on the floor, Park Sunwoong stayed blank for a moment, then shambled toward the laptop on his desk like a zombie.

And as he entered a portal site as if possessed, what came into Park Sunwoong’s eyes was his own name and his daughter’s name occupying the top of the real-time search rankings.

***

"Are you sure you’ll be okay?"

"I’ll be okay!"

Even while I patted Shinyu’s head, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.

Shinyu said it was nothing and that it was fine, but I felt uncomfortable, like I’d dragged Shinyu into tomorrow for no reason.

"Reporter Yoon Jiwon said the tipster’s identity will absolutely be protected, so you don’t have to worry too much!"

"Shinyu, you shouldn’t trust reporters—or no, you shouldn’t trust people at all."

"I already believe everything Sion says!"

"I’m fine. I’m already a fully completed superhuman, personality-wise. But other people aren’t."

After the press conference ended, while the others were excited about that satisfying finish and were chattering noisily, Shinyu quietly slipped away alone to somewhere calm.

Shinyu’s attitude had been suspicious since earlier, so I quietly followed behind.

And then—

-"Hello, is this Reporter Yoon Jiwon? I have something I want to report."

I found Shinyu secretly calling the reporter and saying there was something to report.

So when I demanded to know what was going on, Shinyu confessed with eyes like a rain-soaked puppy.

-"I recorded the things Soyoon usually says."

Shockingly, it was something connected to Park Soyoon.

Shinyu was studying producing, so carrying around a recorder was a habit, and because there were so many ugly rumors about Park Soyoon at the agency, Shinyu said those recordings got made every time they met.

And Shinyu planned to send those audio files to the reporter named Yoon Jiwon, but I strongly tried to stop it.

Yet Shinyu, who normally followed what I said extremely well as long as it wasn’t about the Three Kingdoms, showed refusal toward my words for the first time.

I asked why it had to go that far because I couldn’t understand it, and Shinyu said that after seeing Park Sunwoong—the one who reported this incident—there was no way to endure anymore.

-"Park Soyoon’s father is Reporter Park Sunwoong! There were trainees who got pushed out after our agency, UI Entertainment, got targeted by that guy. We can’t just leave it!"

Because the Park Sunwoong who targeted me this time was Park Soyoon’s father—the same Park Soyoon who used to bully Shinyu and got caught—Shinyu said that if we didn’t rip it out by the roots now, he might keep harassing us.

'He’s infuriating, but what if this turns into a problem for Shinyu?'

After hearing Shinyu, I understood why Shinyu acted like that, but I couldn’t help worrying anyway.

"You really don’t have to worry! Reporter Yoon Jiwon is the only one who stayed neutral and wrote an objective article during this whole Sion controversy!"

"Huh?"

"They were already famous among idol fans for writing good articles, so I think it’s okay to trust them!"

In the end, I decided to trust Shinyu, who was even telling me about the reporter, like those materials hadn’t just been handed over without thinking.

And honestly, it was impressive—Shinyu had been sitting on that kind of material and stayed quiet, and now Shinyu was stepping up for me instead of for Shinyu.

"What Sion said back then when Sion taught Soyoon... no, Park Soyoon a lesson was true! I was seriously amazed watching the video that came out at the press conference!"

"Right. If I’d really wanted to, Seo Yujin and Ryu Ayeon would already be living as Professor X."

"What is Professor X?"

Ah.

Looks like kids these days don’t watch X-Men.

"That’s not what matters. What matters is that unlike amateurs who throw their strength around, I only use mine when it’s necessary."

"As expected, Sion is an idol!"

"Huh?"

"My role model!"

Shinyu, who’d always followed me especially hard, was staring at me with even brighter eyes after seeing the press conference.

'This is burdensome.'

They say you shouldn’t even swallow your spit carelessly in front of kids.

These days, starting with Shinyu who kept trailing after me, there were younger kids like Yunkyung and Suyeon too, so without realizing it, I started thinking maybe I should live a bit more properly.

Because honestly, it was kind of a stretch for me to be anyone’s role model.

Objectively, I was a very impulsive person.

Even that second-year incident Shinyu was admiring—back then, Pancake Pig—no, the name came back to me now, Jang Daeseon—mentioned Sua’s father who died in the line of duty, and that one reason alone made my vision go red and I did what I did.

And then—

-"Don’t tell anyone about today."

-"Then you’ll get punished even worse..."

-"It’s fine. You’ve never gotten a holiday gift set, right? Measure No. 3 has a bit more swagger than No. 1."

-"Lee Sion..."

Because I didn’t want to spread around the fact that Sua’s late father had been insulted, taking Measure No. 3 without resistance was just a matter of mood.

If I’d told the full story and apologized for hitting people, I could’ve gotten a much lighter punishment, but I didn’t feel like doing that.

And it seems like that wasn’t a bad choice.

Thump.

Because of my disciplinary action, Kim Sukja got called to the school, and after the disciplinary procedure ended and we were walking home together, instead of slapping my back, she pounded it.

-"You did well, my daughter."

-"I always do well."

Smack!

Of course, I added a line after that, and I did end up getting hit anyway.

"Lee Sion, Shinyu, how long are you two going to keep talking? Hurry up and come!"

"If I’m not here, nothing moves forward, right?"

"Stop talking nonsense and come lift a pillow."

"Huh?"

While I was having a deep conversation with Shinyu, Seo Yujin’s voice came over.

They told me to come lift a pillow, which sounded weird, so I wondered what was going on and headed back to Yunkyung’s room with Shinyu—and an extremely funny scene came into view.

I had no idea why there were so many pillows in the room, but the team members were already each holding one, waiting for me.

"What is this shameless behavior?"

"Hey, scrub, you’re that good at fighting?"

"No matter how I look at it, we’re going to win."

"Boss! You beat seven-to-one, so six-to-one is nothing, right?"

The way they were patting their pillows and provoking me as soon as they saw me made it seem like they were deeply moved after watching my video earlier.

I figured I should show them why my nickname was Haandong Babe Ruth.

"Come at me!"

I grabbed the pillow Gahyeon threw at me right away.

'Today is the day I pay back the grudge from the chicken-fight.'

Come to think of it, aside from Yuri and Ryu Ayeon, these were the members who’d mobbed me in that chicken-fight.

Just as I was thinking I should use this chance to fix some bad habits of certain people who’d been treating me like dirt lately—

"Hey, don’t run straight in like idiots! Spread out!"

Ryu Ayeon’s voice rang out, giving precise instructions to the kids.

It was unfortunate, but maybe because everyone had just watched the seven-to-one fight video, it didn’t look like they were planning to come at me stupidly like Jang Daeseon’s group did.

"Hit her at the same time!"

At Seo Yujin’s order, the evil horde rushed at me while surrounding me from all sides.

"Wait! That’s cheating, agh! Come one at a time! Agh! This doesn’t feel like a pillow?!"

Once again, I realized how desperately I needed more troops.

No matter who I was, avoiding all those huge white pillows coming at me at the same time wasn’t easy.

Especially Seo Yujin and Ryu Ayeon—those two swung like they meant it, and with the impact-heavy attacks coming in, I was once again staring down defeat in the Second Chicken Leg War.

"Sion! I’m on your side!"

"Shinyu!"

"This isn’t fun! I want to be on Sion’s side too!"

"Yuri!!!"

But the heavens didn’t abandon me.

Two reliable allies appearing right when I was pushed to the brink of defeat.

"Dieee!"

Thanks to Shinyu and Yuri switching to my side and each grabbing Yunkyung and Gahyeon, a chance opened up for me.

And without hesitation, I charged straight at Seo Yujin.

"Why me!!! Ryu Ayeon is right there too!"

"In war, you cut off the boss’s throat first!"

Smack!

When a sound that shouldn’t come out of a pillow rang out, a smile spread across my face without me meaning to.

'Ah, somehow, it’s fun when I’m with these guys.'

Before I knew it, the complicated thoughts that had been in my head disappeared.

Right now, I just wanted to hit Seo Yujin with a pillow.