You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 31

“Director, you must have been very busy, yet you made time to come. Thank you.”

As Kang Min-jae bowed deeply, the assistant director gave a bitter smile.

“I’m not busy at all.”

“Pardon?”

“I stood up to the director and quit.”

I remember the director’s verbal abuse being so extreme it could mess with a person’s mind.

But he endured it, saying that’s just how things are in the broadcasting industry.

To hear this news is quite sudden, even though I’m not particularly close to him.

“You know how the lawyer mentioned defamation and insult charges before? I’ve been dealing with that kind of fucked up shit for years, enough to get you legally in trouble. I figured, what glory would I get if I kept enduring it? So, I quit.”

“…I see. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“No need to be sorry. I woke up thanks to you. I’m planning to join a film company run by a senior colleague. It’ll be tougher than here, but they say they pay more. The film industry is better for gaining experience anyway. Call it a blessing in disguise. Haha.”

“That’s a relief.”

Perhaps I’ve changed another person’s life like this.

I felt a bit bitter for a moment, but as he said, the assistant director might lead a better life.

Wouldn’t that be a good thing?

I tried to comfort myself.

“But what brings you here? Isn’t the Kim Yeon-jun case over?”

“It is, but this is about another case.”

The assistant director’s eyes widened in surprise.

Kang Min-jae took the opportunity to gulp down a cup of coffee, then lowered his voice and said,

“I was wondering if I could ask you about rumors circulating in the broadcasting station.”

“Ah, sure. Anything I can tell you, I will.”

“You know writer Jung Hye-jin? The drama writer.”

“Yes, I know her.”

“Is there any talk about her?”

Rather than steering the conversation towards plagiarism from the start, it’s better to gradually gather any bad rumors about Jung Hye-jin.

You never know when or how it might be used in court, and if you get straight to the point, the person speaking might get nervous.

“Hmm. She’s such a hit writer that the broadcasting station hangs on her every word. Even veteran actors will play dead or do anything she tells them to.”

“I see. But does she ask veteran actors to do things they can’t do?”

“Yes. For example, casting a veteran actress with a refined image and then suddenly changing the setting to her family being ruined, turning her into a tough grandmother. Without even consulting the actress.”

“That’s considered rude in the broadcasting world, isn’t it?”

“Of course. There are CFs [commercial films], and the image they’ve built up over a lifetime.”

“Hmm, anything else?”

“She started at the broadcasting station, but now she’s with Blue Island Media. I think she’s married to the CEO of Blue Island Media. That’s what I’ve heard.”

“That’s not a well-known fact. I’m hearing that for the first time.”

“Yeah. I don’t know if they don’t want to reveal it, but they’re keeping it quiet. Everyone just kind of knows it. The writer herself doesn’t appear at official events like other writers. Maybe it’s a mystique strategy.”

Married to the CEO of Blue Island Media.

A married couple becoming co-defendants is an interesting turn of events.

“And, there’s also talk that Jung Hye-jin fell into a slump after her first big hit and became afraid of viewership ratings, so she can’t create anything new. So, she asks her assistant writers to submit scripts they’ve been preparing personally, uses them, and tells the assistant writers that she’ll help them debut. I heard this directly from the assistant writers when I was in the drama department. The ones who desperately want to debut and put out a drama under their own name reluctantly give her their scripts.”

It’s a different case from Na Eun-sung, but it’s similar in that she’s using someone else’s work.

“Oh, and there’s the contest that Blue Island Media runs. Writer Jung is a judge every year, and there are works that aren’t great overall but have good ideas. She apparently steals those ideas. She deliberately picks out the rough ones and uses them.”

“Deliberately?”

“Yes. Because she can’t write without ideas, but if she has the ideas, she can cover it all with her writing skills. There’s no comparison to the original, so the original creator just feels a bit uneasy and that’s it.”

This is the story we wanted.

But the question is, why did Jung Hye-jin, who had been subtly plagiarizing, suddenly resort to such blatant plagiarism this time?

As I expected, has she become bolder as her plagiarized works continue to be popular without getting caught?

“Thank you for your time.”

“It wasn’t much. I don’t know if I was of any help.”

“No, you’ve been a great help.”

“That’s a relief. Oh, and I’m taking a break until the end of this year, and then I’m joining a film production company next year. So, if you need a witness during the trial, please call me by then.”

“If that happens, I’ll definitely contact you!”

Kang Min-jae smiled affably and shook his hand.

I turned off the recorder.

As expected, people in the broadcasting industry know the inside scoop.

The decision to meet the assistant director was right.

“Let’s contact the assistant writers. Not the ones who debuted with Jung Hye-jin’s backing, but the ones who were under her and then got dropped.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Now, the necessary materials are slowly being gathered.

* * *

“Tae-shik!”

Tae-shik, who was sitting in front of the print shop with his cronies as usual, jumped up at the sound of someone calling him.

The owner of the print shop was standing in front of the door.

“Yes?”

“Have you guys had lunch? Should we order jajangmyeon [black bean noodles] together?”

He seemed to feel sorry for the three people who had been wandering around the print shop for ten days, calling ‘Kitty, kitty~’.

Now that they met every day, they had become close enough that he would make them coffee and sometimes ask them to help out when he was busy.

There was even a day like this.

The owner said he wanted to help find the cat and offered to print posters for free if they made one.

Tae-shik searched around the neighborhood of the detective agency for stray cats to create a non-existent cat.

Because he had explained the cat’s appearance to the owner, he had a hard time finding one that resembled it.

In the end, he barely found one and even outsourced the poster creation.

So, all the walls and utility poles in this alley were covered with cat posters.

‘I have to get the money for this from that scumbag lawyer.’

Tae-shik gritted his teeth, seething.

The cost of finding a cat that didn’t even exist, and the cost of outsourcing the poster!

“Oh, thank you so much. We were just about to look for Jjokko,”

“Nabi, Nabi! Hyung!”

“…Nabi, because we were looking for Nabi and couldn’t eat.”

“Okay, then. All three of you want jajangmyeon?”

“I want jjamp[jjampong – spicy seafood noodle soup],”

Thwack!

Tae-shik hit Dae-cheol on the head for trying to change the menu.

“Shut up, you bastard. Three jajangmyeon, please, boss! Thank you!”

“No need to thank me. You guys help out sometimes, so I’m more grateful.”

The reason they nodded at the offer to help was to get inside the print shop and look for Na Eun-sung’s script scraps.

They mainly searched the bookshelf where the print shop kept the things they had printed for portfolio purposes, and there were Blue Island Media scripts lined up there.

Seeing the scripts of several famous dramas neatly displayed, they couldn’t help but think that Na Eun-sung’s script might be there as well.

Even luckily, the script for the currently airing was also placed there by episode.

“Ah, how the hell am I supposed to find that script?”

Tae-shik, who had eaten jajangmyeon and was standing outside with a cup of instant coffee, lit a cigarette.

“If I can’t find this, that scumbag lawyer will split my head in half and suck the ink out of my eyeballs.”

“You can find it, Hyung!”

“Cheer up, Hyung!”

Tae-shik, who had been feeling good from the encouragement, suddenly hardened his face as if he had realized something.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Am I the only one looking? Am I the only one? You guys have to look too, you bastards. I can’t even kill you.”

As Tae-shik raised his hand, the two cronies cowered, raising their guards.

“Do you want to die? Did you think I’d be like, ‘Oh, cheer up,’ if you told me to cheer up, you bastards?”

“Sorry, Hyung! We were just trying to cheer you up…”

“Shut your mouths and go see if they’re busy or not. That’s the only way we can pretend to help and look at the bookshelf again!”

“Yes, Hyung!”

Hyung-shik bowed his head and ran into the print shop, and Tae-shik shook his head.

“Ah, damn it~ What am I doing with these stupid bastards? Ah, this is my fate.”

* * *

“L, let’s read it one more time!”

It was when they were gathered in the office, refining the article to be posted on the internet.

Na Eun-sung had come with coffee from the afternoon and had been reviewing the article until this evening.

Episode 20 should have finished filming by now.

It had to be uploaded today.

So, before the end of the series, they had to announce that they had filed a lawsuit, riding the wave of public opinion.

Na Eun-sung, who had been urging them, seemed a little scared now that they were about to start, and kept revising the article.

“…I think it’s okay. This is enough.”

The comparison article that Na Eun-sung had written alone before coming to them became the first draft.

Then, after adding several similarities that they had additionally found, they changed the sentences and added comments to avoid legal problems.

It was quite a long article, so they also made a summary because they thought netizens would get tired of reading it.

In my previous life, I had seen countless netizens who didn’t read the articles, saying they were too long, no matter how detailed I wrote about Woo-shin’s corruption.

So, taking that as a lesson, they composed the comparison article with short, stimulating phrases that matched the characteristics of netizens, but with content that was no different from the truth.

“Post it on the broadcasting station’s drama bulletin board, Na Eun-sung’s blog, and large portal bulletin boards.”

Kang Min-jae pressed the register button instead because Na Eun-sung seemed to be struggling to press it.

The upload was instantaneous.

The views started to rise quickly.

Because I had told Tae-shik to manipulate the views in the office.

“W, what do we do now?”

“We have to wait.”

“Until when?”

“Well, until the appropriate signal comes. At least we need to look at the reactions of the netizens. If the majority of public opinion judges it as plagiarism, we will file for an injunction to ban broadcasting when the evidence is gathered. After that, we’ll file a lawsuit. We can file them at the same time.”

“B, broadcasting ban injunction? Will that be accepted?”

“It won’t be accepted.”

“Then why…?”

“Just to scare them.”

They wouldn’t dare think that a mere aspiring writer would go this far.

We opened several internet windows and looked at the reactions in various places for about three hours.

It didn’t receive explosive attention, but the reaction was much greater than when Na Eun-sung had posted the article alone.

There were quite a few comments, and public opinion wasn’t bad.

Although there were some people who were fiercely arguing for and against it.

“Episode 18 will be broadcast tomorrow, so they must have finished filming episodes 19 and 20 by now.”

In episode 20, the whole story of the incident where the male and female protagonists met in the past is revealed.

If they are scared of the lawsuit and revise the script, they will go into reshoots [re-shooting scenes].

There are also live-script dramas, and there are cases where they film until the day of the broadcast, so even if they revise it, there is enough time.

They can do that as much as they want, and Jung Hye-jin is the kind of woman who would make that choice.

“If we go into the fan cafes of the lead actors tomorrow or the day after and look at the schedule, we can get an estimate.”

“Fan cafes? Are you a member?”

“The lawyer has been joining since he started taking on cases to get the actors’ schedules. But I’m the one who kept writing posts and comments to meet the level-up criteria…”

Kang Byun said in a faint voice.

He must have hated writing comments that much.

He seemed to be having fun doing it.

He even chuckled while writing comments sometimes.

“I’ll make a phone call for a moment.”

I called reporter Yoon Se-yeon.