The Malicious Member is Back! - Chapter 159
“So now you’re going to message these people? Gao Yan’s doing it personally? I mean… I can trust your flirting skills, sure.”
“What are you saying? A trainee DMing the general public? That’s insane. You’ll get in serious trouble if you do that.”
“Then what are we supposed to do! You’re too cautious, Chunyong hyung. In this kind of thing, you just go for it first!”
“I am going for it. But…”
“We’re not doing it through our official Targeting Star Outgram accounts.”
Influencers—those who love being seen, pour time into social media, and obsess over likes and followers—There’s one thing they absolutely need.
That is…
[Hello ( ˃ᴗ˂ )
We’re a Korean beauty brand called ‘Kaoyongyong,’ currently preparing to launch in China!
We feel that your Outgram feed image aligns perfectly with our brand, so we’re reaching out to carefully propose a product sponsorship ४‘ٮ‘४]
Sponsorship.
Of course, it’s been a long time since sponsorships were exclusive to celebrities.
In fact, it’s the norm now for Outgram stars to get way more offers than lesser-known idols.
Take me—an infamous problematic member, “Trash Rex”—no brand’s ever asked me for anything.
But for Gao Yan, with his 15 million followers?
[Gao Yan @GaoYeeen_
(photo) (photo)
Today, another company amazed by Gao Yan’s dazzling face sent over gifts.
A face pack won’t make you look like Gao Yan, but hey—better than nothing.
Use Gao Yan’s name as a referral and get a 5,000 won coupon.
Though it’s already sold over 3 million units… is advertising even necessary? Gao Yan has no clue. #ad]
The offers poured in to the point of being selective. Even the Targeting Star Outgram account Gao Yan used was flooded with inquiries about post-show sponsorships.
“Oh my god, Chunyong hyung. Seriously… you’re not secretly with the public security bureau, right?!”
“I’m telling you, no.”
I’d just spent way too long as a problematic member crawling through the industry, picking up scraps of knowledge from all over.
Gao Yan, stunned by my suggestion, clapped his knees like he’d had a breakthrough.
“Chunyong hyung! My older brother started a cosmetic brand in Korea and almost failed—but I think we can use that!”
“Almost failed…? Ahem, well. If it’s a real company, it’ll be easier to approach them. So can we use that brand’s Outgram to message these people?”
“If we couldn’t, I wouldn’t even bring it up. Gao Yan doesn’t lie. My brother can definitely sponsor them!”
Then, we wait and see what happens next.
Since Targeting Star staff strictly banned trainees from creating private accounts, we had to be careful with how we operated.
But since I did it using an already-existing company account? That wasn’t a problem.
And in the end, we got replies.
“Chunyong hyung, I’m sure you saw it too. They all said they’d love to participate. Except for one.”
“Yeah, I saw. One of them sent back kind of a weird… response.”
Lying under the blanket with Gao Yan, I scrolled through my phone and tapped on the final DM we received.
The person was one Gao Yan and I had pegged as the most likely candidate— ‘高秀敏’ (Gao Xiumin).
[高秀敏: Thank you for the sponsorship offer!]
[高秀敏: But I have a question.]
[高秀敏: Is showing my face absolutely required?]
“If showing my face isn’t mandatory… I’d like to accept.”
“I really thought this person was the most likely one, but something’s off. They’ve posted a lot of content that makes them seem really close with Liu Wei, but not a single photo actually shows their face.”
Gao Yan, lit by the glow of his phone, rubbed his chin with an unusually serious expression.
“It might be a lie. Just pretending to be close, but they’re actually not. That would explain the faceless posts.”
“……”
Uncharacteristically for Gao Yan, he made a good point.
It would definitely be easier to approach the others who responded and extract info from them.
Assuming we set aside the ethics of that process, of course.
“But…”
Something was gnawing at me, creeping up from the back of my mind.
“…Wait. Let me try messaging them myself.”
“Hm? Got it. Go ahead. But hurry up, Chunyong hyung. I don’t want to be crammed in bed next to a guy this long!”
“Yeah, yeah. Just scoot over already.”
I shoved Gao Yan more than 30 cm away and sat there for a moment, thinking.
The fact that Liu Wei—who was always so meticulous—took a long time to break off the engagement meant that his fiancée wasn’t just some ordinary person either.
Which meant, in this kind of situation…
Someone who’s trying that hard to hide themselves is more suspicious.
Especially one particular post that had raised both of our alarms.
[高秀敏 @Gaosuusuu
Seeing LiuLiu doing well makes me happy ♡
I miss you so much
I hope you come back to China soon (prayer)(prayer)]
Unlike the other posts packed with hashtags, this one was just a childhood photo taken with Liu Wei— and the use of his nickname.
If we were going to ignore something like this, we never should’ve tried this method in the first place.
[Kaoyongyong: Seems like you’re hesitant to show your face ㅠㅠ]
[Kaoyongyong: If you don’t mind me asking—may I know the reason? Of course, we still plan to go forward with the sponsorship! No pressure at all (^▽^)]
I sent the message based on the sample script Gao Yan’s brother had prepped for us, translated and all.
And soon enough, the “online” indicator lit up under 高秀敏—Gao Xiumin.
A response began to appear, slowly.
[高秀敏: The reason is…]
“…We really found her.”
“What?!”
“Look—check out this message.”
“…On Gao Yan’s name, no way.”
Smack—
Gao Yan’s eyes widened at my hushed voice, and the two of us high-fived under the blanket.
See?
The person hiding themselves too much is almost always the real one.
Of course, despite saying they didn’t want their face shown…
[高秀敏: It’s because I’m engaged to someone who’s about to become famous in Korea ㅠㅠ]
[高秀敏: I mean LiuLiu (laugh)(laugh)]
I didn’t expect her to out them this blatantly.
