The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 6

< Intro. A Once-in-a-Lifetime >

A wind carrying the mingled scents of spring and summer drifted through the dimly lit night.

“I really need a cigarette right now.”

Even though his body was new and had never been exposed to nicotine, he felt an intense craving, as if proving the theory that the mind truly controls the body.

Sanghyun fought the urge and walked toward the main gate of Jeonnam National University.

He’d received a call that she had passed the tollbooth, and after waiting on the stone steps at the main gate for about ten minutes, a red foreign car appeared.

‘That’s an expensive car.’

He couldn’t pinpoint the model, but it was likely a new import from 2005, suggesting she wasn’t just a typical office worker.

The car door opened, and a slender woman stepped out.

She was much younger than he’d anticipated from her voice.

“Are you Lee Sanghyun?”

“Yes, hello.”

“Nice to meet you. My name is Oh Yeonju. Let’s get in the car first. We can go to a coffee shop or something to talk.”

Oh Yeonju’s face wasn’t clearly visible in the darkness, but she appeared to be in her early twenties. Even being generous with her age, she’d be in her mid-twenties at most.

“Is there a tea room or coffee shop around here?”

“Well, I think there used to be a tea room near Gwangju Station.”

Back in 2005, coffee shops and traditional tea rooms were about equally common. Sanghyun got into Yeonju’s car, and they drove to a tea room near Gwangju Station.

Now that he thought about it, this was the first time he’d ever set foot in a tea room.

Yeonju ordered coffee and then fixed Sanghyun with an intense stare as soon as she sat down.

“Did you cry?”

“Pardon?”

“Your eyes are swollen. Did you cry?”

Sanghyun hesitated.

Even though he was in a younger body, Sanghyun still felt like he was 38 years old. Admitting to crying to a woman more than a decade younger felt like a blow to his pride.

“No. I think it’s just because I dozed off after dinner.”

“Hmm… Is that so.”

It was clear she didn’t believe him, but there was no way to prove it. He felt like she had immediately taken control of the situation.

‘Wait, is it because I *did* cry that I can’t prove it?’

Yeonju scrutinized Sanghyun, and Sanghyun, in turn, examined Yeonju. Her makeup was a bit dated and unfamiliar, but she was undeniably pretty.

“Anyway, why did you want to see me? I had 18 missed calls.”

“Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“I wasn’t in the right state of mind. Why did you call? You said you were an employee of Ohkyung Group, but are you contacting me in your official capacity?”

Just then, the server brought their coffee.

Yeonju took her coffee and pulled a business card from her handbag.

“I’m Oh Yeonju, a section chief [a mid-level manager] in the Strategic Planning Office of Ohkyung Group.”

“Section chief? Excuse me, how old are you?”

“Twenty-six.”

She was older than he’d initially thought, but still remarkably young to be a section chief. She was clearly from a wealthy family, judging by her car and her position.

“So, why did you come to see me?”

“Does Sanghyun know why his parents died?”

“……!”

Sanghyun barely managed to suppress the urge to jump out of his seat at the unexpected question.

“I know it was an accident. Caused by a vehicle mobilized for an Ohkyung Group event crossing the center line.”

“Do you also know that the accident was caused by drunk driving?”

“Drunk… driving?”

This was the first he’d heard of it. Drunk driving?

Even if his past self had been naive, there was no way he wouldn’t remember something like that.

Was there a perpetrator?

Anger surged, but suspicion arose simultaneously.

‘Why is this woman telling me this?’

Section Chief Oh Yeonju’s eyes didn’t convey goodwill or sympathy, but rather the calculating gaze of someone with an agenda.

“Please tell me more.”

Oh Yeonju slowly began to recount the story.

Recently, Ohkyung Group had been considering reorganizing the strategic planning offices of its headquarters and its various subsidiaries. As part of this initiative, employees from the strategic planning offices of the subsidiaries who met specific criteria were sent on an educational retreat. Oh Yeonju was among them.

The days consisted of educational sessions in the morning, team-building activities in the afternoon, and drinking parties in the evening, continuing for several days.

The incident occurred three days before the end of the training.

Mr. Ko, a director from the distribution subsidiary, had an urgent matter at home and forced the driver to start the company car in the early morning.

The problem was that the driver had been drinking heavily the night before. He was still severely intoxicated when he woke up, and everyone tried to dissuade Director Ko, but he insisted on driving.

As Sanghyun listened to Yeonju’s account, he began to piece together a rough understanding of the situation.

He felt a surge of anger.

“And it just so happened that some employees were returning to Seoul due to urgent business at the headquarters. I had a bad cold, so I joined them to go to a hospital in Seoul. Most of us, including me, didn’t know that the driver was drunk. Everyone was drowsy and passed out in the car.”

“…Continue.”

“And then the accident happened.”

Yeonju hadn’t been feeling well the day before the accident, so she had taken medicine and gone to bed early. However, she ended up oversleeping, so she couldn’t fall asleep on the bus to Seoul despite her poor condition.

She was sitting right behind the driver’s seat, looking out the window, when she noticed that the bus was being driven erratically.

“I realized that the smell of alcohol I had attributed to my colleagues was actually coming from the driver, and then the accident occurred.”

Yeonju lost consciousness in the accident. When she came to, the bus driver had been replaced.

“Replaced with someone else?”

“A sober employee who hadn’t been drinking wrote the official statement, and the actual driver was nowhere to be seen. I believe he was taken to the hospital before I was.”

“You think Director Ko orchestrated this cover-up?”

“Probably. It’s much easier to manage a simple accident than one caused by drunk driving, especially for someone who forcibly insisted on driving while drunk.”

“Is this an objective account?”

“If you review the speed detection CCTV footage from the highway entrance, you’ll see that the driver at the time of the accident and the person who signed the statement are different. We’ve already secured the CCTV footage.”

Sanghyun was reeling from these previously unknown facts. The headache that had been subsiding slowly returned.

Then, a sudden thought struck him.

“Is the reason you kept calling me to tell me all of this?”

“Yes. I was panicking because you weren’t answering your phone. Director Ko is trying to bury the incident as quickly as possible.”

Originally, he would have been aimlessly wandering around at this time, ignoring everyone’s calls. He didn’t want to receive insincere words of sympathy, nor did he want to hear about trivial matters from people who couldn’t possibly understand his pain.

However, Sanghyun, having awakened after the regression, had already processed his grief and was capable of answering the phone.

“Why are you telling me this?”

His head throbbed.

The phantom pain, as if every joint in his body was aching, returned with renewed intensity.

“File a strong objection with the police, who are trying to frame the investigation as a simple accident, and refuse to let them close the case. Also, the lawyer I’ve hired will sue Director Ko in consultation with Sanghyun. Sanghyun will be the plaintiff.”

“Why?”

“Why? Director Ko is no different from a murderer.”

“Is Section Chief Oh a detective hunting down murderers? Even if the subsidiaries are different, isn’t this a blemish on the same group? Director Ko must have connections, and if those connections cause trouble, Section Chief Oh will be in trouble too, won’t she?”

Oh Yeonju calmly took a sip of her coffee.

She had assumed that revealing the truth about his parents’ death would be enough to motivate him to file a lawsuit, but she was surprised by his hesitation.

But in a way, Sanghyun’s reaction was understandable.

Sanghyun had spent ten years building and running his own company, giving him a keen understanding of corporate politics.

“I am a member of the Ohkyung Group family and hold a relatively high position in the line of succession. I won’t inherit the headquarters because I’m a woman, but I still have a sense of ownership and responsibility. Do you understand what I mean? I can’t simply ignore the flaws within Ohkyung Group.”

Oh Yeonju spoke with conviction.

While her motives weren’t purely altruistic, she genuinely believed that Director Ko’s actions were reprehensible. If possible, she wanted him to face appropriate legal consequences.

‘Is this enough?’

Oh Yeonju glanced at Sanghyun.

At that moment, she felt as if she had been doused with a bucket of ice-cold water in the dead of winter.

< Intro. A Once-in-a-Lifetime > End

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