Chapter 547 The instigators-2
He waited years for any opportunity; the only problem was that he couldn't do anything in the open. With his father still at the company's helm, he had to skirt under his radar to not upset him.
He also had a younger brother trained in the family business. His brother was gifted from childhood and was considered a genius by many, which led to his father favoring him quite a bit.
If he openly sabotages a good employee's career, he would have to suffer the consequences with his father. Just as he was panicking due to the recent success of Kim's concert, one of the people under him showed him the actual stage performance.
It was the team leader of Equinox, Seo-jin, one of the top bands under him. He was Jung's one confidant that he trusted the most. His coming to him with any information meant he was particular about it.
That's because Seo-jin was a methodical person; he maintained a clean image in public, but behind the scenes, he was a sly individual backstabbing and harassing celebrity girls just for the fun of it. Jung had covered up a lot for him over the years that he had him in his grasp and knew he couldn't betray him.
Grace Generation members were consistently praised for their beauty; every one of them was considered a national treasure, which was one of the reasons why every drama they appeared in was a massive success.
It didn't go unnoticed by Seo-jin; he always had a thing for them and would often interact with them, trying to show off. After all, he was considered a heartthrob of the industry; any girl would be happy to be with him, right? That wasn't the case; being in the same agency, the girls knew about his personality and tended to avoid him at all costs.
It was especially the case with Soo-jin, considered the most beautiful among them. She was tall with the natural curves to make the crowd go wild whenever she did a live performance. Not to mention, her face and specific expression had become a cultural phenomenon; even their haters commended her for her quirky and spontaneous personality.
It was something about her that made her highly pleasing to the eye. Naturally, Seo-jin pursued her relentlessly since she joined the band. She would always ignore him and give subtle hints that she was not interested, but that didn't matter to him.
He would always try to get along with her just to create more opportunities, but other girls often blocked him because they knew what he was up to. After chasing after her for years, he set his sights on other girls, but it was the same.
When they started getting popular, he turned green with envy. He didn't want others to learn about them, but he couldn't do anything to stop it. Ultimately, he tried to win them by mentioning them in his interviews and talking about Soo-jin, especially how close they were, just trying to rouse the public for a reaction.
Fans would often see him as a jokester because no one believed him; because they could visit whenever they were on camera together, she would completely turn ice cold.
With constant rejection, his lust for her turned into hatred. With a poisoned mind, he was determined to take his revenge even if it was not justifiable. With his connections, he started investigating all of the band members.
There was bound to be something hidden in the dark, a past secret, a dirty love affair; he looked into everything. He knew how the public would react, even if it was non-consequential; he had seen many celebrities fall after their secret got out.
A few weeks ago, someone was condemned for being a bully in their teenage years. It was pure allegations without much proof, but seeing the public sentiment turn in their favor was glorious. He wanted something like that before they became more popular than him.
A few days ago, he was doing his routine check-up on her. It was more like he was stalking her, surveilling her every move, when he happened to come upon their on-stage music video. After watching it from start to finish, he smiled ear to ear because he had finally found something!
Samuel's dance with Yoona looked harmless at first, but in Korean society, fans worshiped the idols as gods, and with enough push, he could turn it into a scandal. First, he shared it on social media, hoping haters would notice it too.
It was a second clip where Samuel was swinging her around. After the end of it, they hugged in excitement. If one watched the full video, they wouldn't think anything of it, but if the short clip was taken out of context, it could spark public outcry!
After all, who was the mask-wearing man daring to touch their goddess? He immediately went to look for Jung to see if they could do something about it. Jung readily agreed to his suggestion; he was already frustrated because, at first, he thought the concert would be canceled as Siwon was injured, but somehow they turned it into a success?
He scolded Kim over the phone for bringing an unknown artist to perform with them, but when the crowd liked it, he didn't have anything else to criticize him. The music video was also going viral, which gave him a headache!
" We should hire some people to fan the flame. I have waited long enough for such an opportunity!"
" What will happen to them?"
" If we can make it a big issue, they probably would never see the stage again! I will also have an excuse to fire Kim, my final hindrance to the chairman's seat!"
" What about your father?"
" I will convince them, don't worry. They are generating some revenue but not so much that we couldn't eliminate them. My father values reputation above all; with the media coming after us, he would surely listen to me this time!"
Thus, the plan was set. And as Jung envisioned, everything came to fruition. Behind the scenes, he convinced the board of directors to cave into public sentiment; letting them go before the fire got bigger was better.
He recalled Manager Kim in his office with everyone's permission and gave him the ultimatum. A two-week notice to clear his desk. Naturally, Kim didn't like his attitude, but first and foremost, he wanted to hear what the company prepared to deal with Yoona's ongoing scandal.
To his dismay, Jung proudly told him they would do nothing. It was in their best interest to not back some band that was shameless enough to do unspeakable acts on stage. Kim almost fainted hearing him say heinous things about his bands.
Jung was just repeating what people were conspiring in the media. Ninety percent of things said were not true, but who cared? It was something for people to get behind; sometimes, they just liked to make others suffer to dull their inner pain.
After this, he told him about SK's intention of letting Yoona go; she was the group's youngest member and could be easily replaced by a sea of talent already in their agency. Kim objected to it, but Jung was firm on his decision.
He didn't get angry at Kim for yelling because he knew it was over. With their tight-knit bond, the only option for their band was disbandment. He for sure knew Mi Sun and Soo-jin would surely leave. But he didn't think the boy band also had the same reaction.
Leeteuk especially was ready to leave the agency because Kim was fired. Jung didn't have anything against them; with Kim going, they would transfer to another manager and could continue their career, but in the end, he thought of them as collateral damage.
During the downfall, he gathered everything and ran it by his father. He was not happy, but in the end, he begrudgingly agreed to it. They knew about the financial situation of everyone, and it was hard for them to leave with one year left on their contract.
Most members had to sell everything just to make up for the penalty fee, which meant they had to stay in the agency for a while even if they were not satisfied. In that way, they could retain quite a few of them, which meant more opportunities to milk their fame.
With everything set, Jung set up the game plan; it was the same as Samuel had anticipated. A big rumor began floating around about the disbandment, resulting in loyal fans spending more money to keep a memento of their favorite band.
He waited with glee for them to make a move. He was ninety percent sure how everything would play out. It was only a formality, but he had eliminated his worst enemy and got a leg up on his younger brother because he 'skillfully' handled the situation. It was a picture-perfect example of killing two birds with one stone!
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