The Malicious Member is Back! - Chapter 137
– Kim Chunyong: ‘Good guy syndrome’ my a*s
– Kim Chunyong: Does someone with that crawl on the ground drunk, begging to die? Pretty sure that’s not how it works. ㅡㅡ
– Kim Chunyong: Besides… do you really think that’s going to work?
– Kim Chunyong: If it was that simple, I’d have told the producers the second I overheard Liu Wei and Gao Yan talking.
– Kim Chunyong: You need a solid foundation for anything to stick. Even a problematic member like me knows that much.
– Kim Chunyong: Don’t reply. If my phone pings again, I’m dunking my head in a bowl of water.
Maybe his harsh response worked.
– X: Good for you. Pfft. [1] ㅡㅡ
No more messages from X after that. Not that it would have mattered if there were—Chunyong could just turn off his phone anyway.
“…Sigh.”
Letting out a soft sigh, Chunyong leaned against the wall, slowly folding and unfolding his fingers.
“Yeah. A lack of evidence, evidence. Concrete proof that Liu Wei’s been pulling these stunts.”
He needed irrefutable evidence that Liu Wei had been trying to push Logan out and that he was actively sabotaging him.
Since he couldn’t just outright expose it, that’s why he’d tried approaching Li Ming Shen, someone who held clear evidence of the harassment.
‘I could try to get Li Ming Shen on board, but… maybe I should just handle it myself. I can always use Outgram live.’
The rough idea that had been forming in his mind was something like this:
Engage Liu Wei in a direct conversation and secretly start an Outgram live broadcast.
Of course, going down this path would likely incur the wrath of the producers, and Chunyong himself could get swept up in controversy.
But there was no more certain way than getting the words straight from Liu Wei’s own mouth.
Maybe even more effective than what Chunyong had kept as his final trump card.
‘Liu Wei must be getting desperate too. If I push him just right, he’ll spill everything… just like I did back then.’
Chunyong thought about the time when all his personal secrets were laid bare before the public and let out a bitter smile.
“Damn it. How did that whole story about Rex’s panic meds leak to the press? Deny everything. Tell them it’s all lies. It won’t help anyone to admit an idol has mental health issues!”
“The thing is, the journalist already did an interview… It’s all over the place, using that first article as a reference.”
“What interview? Rex hasn’t done anything but drink and attend schedules. How could there be an interview?”
“…Apparently, he had drinks with that person.”
“Wait. What… what did you just say?”
“Yeah, he’s been drinking with someone regularly… turns out it was a journalist, but he didn’t know.”
“…Tell him not to leave the dorms for a while. Got it?!”
Even when Rex had been in his usual drunken mess, there’s no way he’d have shared something like that so carelessly.
‘It must have been right after the anniversary… that’s when he really wasn’t thinking straight.’
Kim Chunyong took a deep breath, trying to shake off the sinking feeling creeping in, and forced his eyes wide open.
“Things are different now.”
His family was at home, going about their daily lives, and no accidents had occurred.
His mission now was simply to debut with the Arrows members and become the greatest idol in K-pop history.
“So, if I want to get Liu Wei in a situation where we can talk…”
Bang bang—
“…Huh?”
Startled by the loud knock on the door, Chunyong’s eyes widened as he turned his head.
He still had 30 minutes left in his reservation for the vocal room.
It was rare for someone to knock, given that there were five vocal rooms available and no shortage of space. So, why now?
Cautiously, Chunyong opened the door, only to find Gao Yan standing there with a determined look on his face.
“Chunyong hyung!”
“Oh, Gao Yan? What now?”
As Gao Yan showed up yet again, despite already having a plan in place, Kim Chunyong let out a hollow laugh, thinking, “It’s you again?” He patted Gao Yan on the shoulder and led him into the vocal room.
He decided that he might as well get Gao Yan to keep quiet. His plan was to reassure him with something along the lines of, “You don’t need to worry about Liu Wei anymore, and there’s nothing Liu Wei can do right now anyway.”
But the moment the door closed behind them, Gao Yan burst out in a loud voice, before Chunyong could even say anything.
“Chunyong hyung, you’re about to be totally fucked over!” [2]
At the unexpected barrage of harsh language, Chunyong’s expression instantly froze in shock.
“…What— Who taught you to talk like that?!”
“I’ve told you before, Gao Yan learns his Korean all by himself! But that’s not important right now! Hyung, look at this!”
Gao Yan frantically pulled on Chunyong’s arm, shoving his phone screen right in front of him.
Staring at the bright screen, Chunyong’s expression slowly turned puzzled.
“…You want me to look at your Outgram post’s likes? Fifty thousand? That’s no joke. You’re number one in likes on Outgram right now?”
“That’s a given for Gao Yan, so it’s nothing to brag about! No, look at the comments, Chunyong hyung!”
The comments section of Gao Yan’s post, as well as other posts with an equally impressive number of likes, was flooded with comments.
Some of them contained strange and suspicious phrases that caught Chunyong’s eye.
“What… is this?”
“It’s not just on my post! I’m sure Liu Wei had something to—”
“Shh, quiet.”
With quick reflexes, Chunyong clamped his hand over Gao Yan’s mouth and began carefully reading the comments.
Just as Gao Yan had said, it wasn’t only his post.
The comments section of other popular Outgram posts from contestants like Son Jae Ha, Ji Hwa Sung, and Liu Wei were similarly flooded.
[Targeting Star contestant supposedly has a girlfriend? LOL try covering the sky with your palm, see if it works ;]
[⎿ What are you talking about? Jae Ha with a girlfriend? LOL the guy’s been practicing for six years straight, that’s BS; this is defamation]
[⎿⎿ It’s not fake facts ;; It’s not Jae Ha, but one of them definitely has a girlfriend. Link attached https://entertain.com/]
[Wait, what’s this link? I clicked it, and it’s showing something about Kim Chunyong’s name?]
[But it’s not about a girlfriend, it’s about him cheating in some online game]
[Holy crap, what is this?]
[Wow, this isn’t the only thing… this guy’s in for something big, LOL]
The attached link even mentioned Kim Chunyong’s family.
As he read through the comments and pieced together the situation, his eyes grew colder and sharper.
“This changes things….”
The situation had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.[3]
T/N: [1] ↩ [2] ↩ [3] ↩
