Of the dozen or so reporters, Park Geon-ho chose Park Jin-joo of the Hanbit Ilbo Social Affairs Desk.
She was an investigative reporter Jo So-hee had consulted years later when preparing for a reporter role.
"We've never met in person, but she isn't someone who would turn down a tip."
Park Geon-ho called the number written in his notebook.
A moment later.
-Yes. This is Park Jin-joo from the Hanbit Ilbo Social Affairs Desk.
Her voice sounded a little younger than he remembered.
"Hello. Is this Reporter Park Jin-joo?"
-May I ask who's calling?
"My name is Park Geon-ho, and I'm a manager at Wooju Entertainment. I have an important tip for you."
-Wooju Entertainment? Where are you right now? If you're available, shall we meet right away?
"Then I'll come to the Hanbit Ilbo offices."
-Understood. I'll wait, so come tell me in person.
After ending the call, Park Geon-ho reported to Team Leader Han Sang-woo.
"Hanbit Ilbo? Why? Are you planning to stab the Deputy Division Director in the back?"
"Is that what you want me to do?"
"You little punk, acting up again? Anyway, what's this about? Keep it short and clear."
"There's an organization pestering So-hee. I'm going to find out more about them."
"Got it. Go ahead."
"You aren't going to ask anything else?"
"Write me a report when you get back, punk. I'm busy taking over Actor Han Do-hoon."
So that was what he had been studying so intently. It seemed to be the ten-page handover document on Han Do-hoon that Park Geon-ho had filled the day before.
"Then I'll be back."
"Don't act like a rookie. You know reporters look down on rookies, right?"
"Of course. I'm Jo So-hee's manager now."
2
The Hanbit Ilbo headquarters, home to one of the country's seven largest daily newspapers, was three subway stops away.
"What brings you here?"
"I'm here to see Reporter Park Jin-joo from the Social Affairs Desk."
"All right. Please sign the visitor log here."
A moment later, a younger Park Jin-joo and a familiar-looking man came down to the lobby.
"Are you the manager who called me?"
"Yes. My name is Park Geon-ho."
"I'm Park Jin-joo from the Social Affairs Desk. And this is our intern reporter."
"My name is Choi Min-ho."
"Nice to meet you. For reference, I'm in charge of Actress Jo So-hee."
Park Geon-ho emphasized Jo So-hee's name for Choi Min-ho to hear.
Choi Min-ho's eyes began to shake.
"Shall we go upstairs and talk?"
"We can talk over there."
"Shall we do that, then?"
The first floor of the Hanbit Ilbo building had several tables where staff could speak comfortably with visitors.
After they sat at an empty table, Park Geon-ho showed Park Jin-joo the official letter from the Love for Children with Heart Disease Association.
Park Jin-joo looked it over several times, then gave an awkward laugh.
"So the subject you want me to investigate is......."
"Yes. This organization."
"I thought it would be about Wooju Entertainment."
"Wooju Entertainment may be a little old-fashioned, but there aren't any issues worth your investigation yet."
"You never know."
"If anything like that ever happens, I'll be the first to tell you."
"That's a promise?"
"Of course."
"All right. So what do you want to know?"
Park Geon-ho gave Reporter Park Jin-joo a rough account of the situation.
From Jo So-hee's visit to a heart disease center after appearing in <Our Year> to the pressure being applied to make her enter the marathon.
After hearing the whole story, Reporter Park Jin-joo tilted her head.
"It is strange. So she donated, and they're still pressuring her to run the marathon? Don't they have some other goal?"
"I thought the same thing. That's why I came to you."
"But how do you know me? Did someone introduce us?"
"I asked our Division Director."
"Your Division Director?"
"Yes. The Division Director recommended you. I trust and respect him completely, so I contacted you without hesitation."
"Oh. Really?"
He couldn't exactly reveal that he knew her because she had advised Jo So-hee on her acting before his regression.
At times like this, borrowing a superior's name was always best.
Reporter Park Jin-joo soon accepted the explanation.
"I'll go upstairs and look into it. I can contact you at this number as soon as I have the results, right?"
"Yes. I'd appreciate it if you contacted me directly."
Since the organization wasn't well known, Park Geon-ho had expected the investigation to take several days.
But Reporter Park Jin-joo called him the following afternoon.
"You got back to me sooner than I expected?"
"Once I started looking, I found someone who knew the organization well. There was no need to investigate it separately."
"Then in your opinion, what kind of organization is the Love for Children with Heart Disease Association?"
"Hmm....... It certainly has plenty of problems. Even organizations founded with good intentions are often taken over for private use once time passes and the founder dies, you know? The Love for Children with Heart Disease Association is exactly that kind of place."
The Love for Children with Heart Disease Association had been founded by Chairman Yoon Tae-jun.
He was a prominent businessman who had made a fortune in construction and trade.
Yoon Tae-jun had a younger sister with heart disease who died while waiting for a heart transplant.
In memory of his sister, Chairman Yoon Tae-jun had consistently supported patients with heart disease.
After stepping back from management in 2019, he contributed 10,000,000,000 won of his personal fortune and even established the Love for Children with Heart Disease Association as a foundation.
"The person Chairman Yoon Tae-jun entrusted with running the foundation back then was its current Chairman Park Sang-do."
"Was he a close associate of Chairman Yoon Tae-jun?"
"Apparently they weren't connected through business. It seems Chairman Park Sang-do helped him while he was making donations instead."
Chairman Yoon Tae-jun had met Chairman Park Sang-do in the early 2000s.
He noticed Chairman Park Sang-do, who represented a family association for patients with heart disease, after attending one of its gatherings.
After that, Yoon Tae-jun had supported patients with heart disease through Chairman Park Sang-do before eventually entrusting him with the entire foundation.
"It sounds like Chairman Park Sang-do didn't run the foundation however he pleased from the start."
"I heard Chairman Yoon Tae-jun was extremely exacting. If Park Sang-do had done that, wouldn't he have been thrown out of the foundation?"
"Then when did the situation change?"
"Chairman Park Sang-do began showing his true colors after Chairman Yoon Tae-jun died of a chronic illness five years ago."
In his will, Chairman Yoon Tae-jun had left instructions entrusting the Love for Children with Heart Disease Association to Chairman Park Sang-do.
He had made that decision because he worried his children might become blinded by money and meddle with the foundation.
But as a result, the foundation fell into Chairman Park Sang-do's hands.
Freed from Chairman Yoon Tae-jun's oversight, Chairman Park Sang-do drove out the existing staff and filled their positions with his relatives.
As if that weren't enough, he treated donations like his personal spending money and was rapidly destroying the foundation.
"So the marathon is ultimately about donations?"
"We have to assume so. Holding an event makes it easier to attract corporate sponsorships."
"And the money will end up in Chairman Park Sang-do's pockets."
"But this is where Director Yoon Ji-hyeon enters the picture."
Director Yoon Ji-hyeon was the eldest daughter of the late Chairman Yoon Tae-jun.
She had inherited the separately established Cheongwoo Foundation and currently ran a large gallery.
"Chairman Yoon Tae-jun had three sons and two daughters, but he entrusted his beloved Cheongwoo Foundation to Director Yoon Ji-hyeon."
"Director Yoon Ji-hyeon must resemble Chairman Yoon Tae-jun a great deal."
"Oh, that's a good interpretation? You're right. She's less greedy for money than his other children. Her siblings each received a sound company, so they yielded the Cheongwoo Foundation to her."
Director Yoon Ji-hyeon, who was pursuing the construction of the Cheongwoo Gallery at the time, hadn't had the bandwidth to concern herself with the Love for Children with Heart Disease Association.
By the time she looked into it, the Love for Children with Heart Disease Association had already become Chairman Park Sang-do's private possession.
"Is Director Yoon Ji-hyeon planning to take part in running the foundation herself, even at this late stage?"
"I heard it's practically impossible for her to intervene directly. Chairman Yoon Tae-jun forbade it in his will."
"Then removing the chairman must be difficult too?"
"Correct. The Cheongwoo Foundation only has auditing authority, while the power to dismiss the chairman of the Love for Children with Heart Disease Association belongs to its board. But Chairman Park Sang-do currently controls the board."
The Cheongwoo Foundation, founded by Chairman Yoon Tae-jun, held a fifty-one-percent stake in the Love for Children with Heart Disease Association.
But Chairman Yoon Tae-jun, who had wanted it to continue helping patients with heart disease after his death, had made the conditions for dismissing its chairman stringent.
More than half of the board's nine sitting members had to support removing the chairman before a motion could even be submitted.
Then at least two-thirds had to agree for the chairman to be dismissed.
"Then are they simply watching the foundation collapse?"
"I think that was their plan at first. They actually cut off their funding to the foundation for the last two years. But then Chairman Park Sang-do's side made them a counterproposal."
"On the condition that he normalize its operations?"
"Wow. You catch on right away, Geon-ho. It feels like I'm speaking with someone who works at the foundation."
On the outside, Park Geon-ho was only a third-year rookie manager.
But until recently, he had served as both a division director at SH Entertainment and a director of the Jo So-hee Foundation.
Their characters were different, but foundations were generally run in much the same way.
The Jo So-hee Foundation had also attracted controversy as its operations strayed from its original purpose.
"That's right. Chairman Park Sang-do demanded additional funding in exchange for agreeing to appoint someone to the vacant board seat. Director Yoon Ji-hyeon accepted on the condition that this marathon succeed."
"So that's how So-hee became involved?"
"I heard Director Yoon Ji-hyeon is personally a fan of So-hee. What did she say? That she was an actress whose acting itself was art?"
"That's certainly praise befitting a gallery director."
"That may be why they're even more fixated on So-hee. If So-hee enters the marathon, Director Yoon Ji-hyeon won't be able to deny its success."
Park Geon-ho nodded silently.
So they had tried to use Jo So-hee to secure the additional funding.
He had experienced similar things from time to time before, so there was nothing especially surprising about it.
"What is this? Why are you so calm?"
"Did you expect me to get worked up and report straight to the company?"
"Most people would. They tried to manipulate the actor you're responsible for however they pleased."
"Of course I'm angry. But So-hee hasn't entered the marathon yet, has she?"
"You don't see a reason to stir up trouble unnecessarily?"
"Yes. So-hee is about to start a project."
"True. This is when she needs to keep her head down. I understand."
Reporter Park Jin-joo gave a bitter smile.
She had gone to the trouble of investigating the Love for Children with Heart Disease Association, only to receive such a lukewarm response.
To be honest, she was disappointed.
But Park Geon-ho wasn't finished.
"What do you think, Reporter Park? Would it be better for So-hee to enter the event? Or would it be better for her to stay out?"
"What? Why ask that all of a sudden...... Don't tell me you're thinking of entering her in the event?"
"Originally, the company was going to turn them down tactfully? But after hearing what you told me, that doesn't seem like the right answer either. If So-hee doesn't enter the event, Chairman Park Sang-do will be in trouble, won't he?"
"That's right."
"If we keep refusing to the end, how will Chairman Park Sang-do respond? Will he back down quietly?"
"Of course not. He'll try to find some way to cover himself."
"I think so too. He'll probably shift the blame onto us. In the process, negative articles about So-hee will come pouring out. He may even seize on her earlier volunteer work."
The Love for Children with Heart Disease Association had already sent a warning through its official letter.
If they didn't cooperate willingly, the association would release its one-sided claims to the press.
If that happened, Jo So-hee's image was bound to take a hit.
"I understand what you're saying, but what does So-hee gain by entering the marathon?"
"Let me turn the question around. If So-hee enters the marathon under the current circumstances, who benefits?"
"Chairman Park Sang-do, obviously. There isn't a better actress than Jo So-hee for him to boast about."
"What if Director Yoon Ji-hyeon takes that benefit instead?"
"Then Director Yoon Ji-hyeon would gain influence. She might eventually be able to push through the chairman's removal."
"That's the plan I'd like to set in motion."
"So you're saying you want to use Director Yoon Ji-hyeon?"
"Use her...... Rather than calling it that, how about mutual assistance? I think Director Yoon Ji-hyeon and So-hee could get along well."
Park Geon-ho grinned.
Director Yoon Ji-hyeon had praised Jo So-hee's acting as art.
Meeting her in person and talking things over didn't sound like a bad idea.
'Though I'll have to persuade Jo So-hee first.'