You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 32

You’ve Been Defended – Episode 32

She wasn’t a reporter for the entertainment section, but it seemed like she’d find it quite interesting.

She could either trade the source to her company or simply create a news story on the internet newspaper affiliated with the newspaper company.

At least, wouldn’t this give her something to brag about?

– Oh, Attorney. Calling me at this late hour. What’s the matter? You’re not telling me you have complaints about the interview article now, are you? We took out everything we were supposed to, why are you like this?

“I need to talk to you.”

– Hahaha. Okay, the joke’s gone on long enough, right? I’m just glad to hear from you. What’s going on?

“I have a good case. I’d like to give you a tip.”

– A tip? You’re not using me, are you?

“Well, let’s just call it a win-win.”

– Okay, tell me about it.

“Jung Hye-jin’s is plagiarized.”

– What? I’m really enjoying that show, why?

“I’ll send you a few links with the details, so please check them out. If you think it’s newsworthy, I’d appreciate it if you could put out a few internet articles.”

Yoon Se-yeon went to the viewer 게시판 [bulletin board] we told her about and read the posts for a long time.

Seeing her reaction of surprise, it seemed she also thought it was plagiarism.

About 15 minutes later, she spoke again.

– What, it’s too similar. Is this real?

“Yes.”

– You’re handling this case, right? The writing is too clean. It feels like a professional touched it up.

“I will not answer that.”

– It won’t be easy since the other party is Jung Hye-jin and Blue Island Media. Especially since they’re married.

“You knew that, Yoon?”

– Huh? You knew too? This is pretty high-level information. You have good intel.

“Anyway. Are you going to write an article or not?”

– I’ll gather some views on the posts and put out an internet article tomorrow morning.

Na Eun-sung, who was listening to our conversation on speakerphone, breathed a sigh of relief.

I wrapped things up appropriately and hung up the phone.

“You need to be mentally prepared starting tomorrow.”

Kang Min-jae handed Na Eun-sung a teacup and said.

“Jung Hye-jin’s fans will probably send a lot of hate your way. We’ll monitor the reactions, so don’t go into the 게시판 [bulletin board], Ms. Na Eun-sung. Just look at the views if you have to.”

“…Yes.”

“In civil lawsuits, the plaintiff’s mindset is the most important. You have to be mentally strong to go all the way. If you break down, you lose. Got it?”

“Yes. I’ll try.”

“Okay. Thank you for your hard work.”

I saw her off as she left the office and returned to my seat.

Kang Min-jae was relentlessly refreshing the 게시판 [bulletin board] with a determined look, checking the rate of increase in views.

I went out to the veranda and smoked a cigarette.

It officially starts tomorrow.

* * *

The next day, I found the article titles on the portal.

[Ratings Soaring Daily, Plagiarized!]

[Hit Maker Jung Hye-jin, Plagiarizing an Amateur’s Work?]

[Who is the Real Writer of ?]

[Aspiring Writer Questions Jung Hye-jin… When Was Written?]

Reactions started to come in little by little from the broadcasting station’s drama 게시판 [bulletin board] and various site 게시판s [bulletin boards].

Starting with the article posted by Yoon Se-yeon’s Iljung Daily internet news, various minor internet newspapers also released articles.

On the drama 게시판 [bulletin board], there were some posts demanding an explanation.

In various communities, netizens were fiercely fighting over whether it was plagiarism or not.

It seems Jung Hye-jin is indeed a star writer.

Seeing the number of fans who would chase you to the end of the universe to comment that it’s not plagiarism.

“It’s going as expected.”

“I was hoping for a slightly milder reaction than this, but the response is stronger than I thought.”

Kang Min-jae pulled up a chair next to me and sat down.

We watched in real-time as the comparison document we had written together spread to blogs, cafes, and all sorts of places.

They must be sweating bullets right now.

I’m very curious whether Blue Island Media will continue to ignore it or respond that it’s groundless.

If they continue to ignore it, that wouldn’t be bad in its own way.

We could appeal to the feelings of a writer suffering day by day from a large corporation’s silence.

It would be good if they flatly denied it as groundless.

Because that statement would become a noose tightening around them.

“We need to keep an eye on the netizens’ reactions, but you said that if the reaction is too big, Blue Island Media might try to revise the script. Then the number of similarities we can secure will decrease.”

“That’s right.”

“Then shouldn’t we put out the fire appropriately?”

I shook my head.

Because another route has opened up that wasn’t there when I said that.

“Tae-shik is helping out with the printing shop work.”

“Huh? Wasn’t he just digging through the junkyard?”

“Well, it seems they’ve become friends somehow. He even helps out when they’re busy.”

I had been receiving reports over the phone every other day.

Of course, Tae-shik called, cackling to brag about it.

“Wow, really?”

“If they revise the script, the actors’ fan cafe schedules will be posted. And the printing shop will urgently print the script. In that process, Tae-shik can get the pre-revision script and the post-revision script.”

“We can find similarities, and it shows that Blue Island is feeling guilty. This is much better.”

That’s right.

If Tae-shik secures the script without making a mistake, that is.

Above all, the primary goal was always to .

We need to resolve this first, but there’s still no word on that.

My plan is to file the lawsuit on the 24th episode airing date when the drama ends.

It’s time for something to come out now.

Even though we’ve captured various pieces of evidence and circumstances, we haven’t found the most important thing.

Hiding a slight sense of unease, I looked at Kang Min-jae.

“Oh, Ms. Na Eun-sung said yesterday that she got her inspiration from Lee Yang-gu in Samcheong-dong.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I forgot and told you late. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. We have something to do today. Kang Attorney has to come with me.”

“Yes? What is it?”

“A former assistant writer who was under Jung Hye-jin. We’re meeting today.”

During the week that Na Eun-sung was refining and revising the post she would upload online, I identified the assistant writers.

The assistant director was a great help.

He had now resigned and said he would bury himself in the film industry, but he didn’t seem to mind since it was the drama department, which was unrelated to him.

Of course, I think his biggest desire was to screw over the broadcasting station.

Since the broadcasting station that 편성 [programmed] was where he had been.

“Why are you asking me to come along for once?”

“You’re good at speaking nicely.”

“…I thought you needed my abilities.”

“Speaking nicely is also an ability.”

The meeting place was a cafe near the assistant writer’s house.

Tying up her hair, which looked like she hadn’t washed it in days, she seemed very mentally and physically exhausted from the first impression.

Her dark circles reached under her chin, and her bloodshot eyes even looked painful.

“You’re buying the coffee, right?”

She showed her empty sweatpants pockets, emphasizing that she had no money.

“Ah, of course. Of course. What would you like to drink?”

“A chocolate Frappuccino. Venti [Italian for “twenty”; here, a Starbucks size]. My sugar’s low.”

“Okay. Is there anything you’d like to eat from the bakery?”

“Then please order a bread. Lots of caramel and whipped cream.”

“Okay.”

Kang Min-jae left his seat, and silence fell.

She didn’t make eye contact with me and kept looking out the window.

“You’re Seong Min-jeong, right?”

“Yes.”

“Your name was listed as an assistant writer up to Jung Hye-jin’s previous work.”

“Yes. Because I quit after that.”

“May I ask why you quit?”

“Just because it was fucking awful, everything. The broadcasting industry is fucking awful. The drama industry is fucking awful. The writers, the staff, the production company are all fucking awful. Ugh, damn it. Can we move to the smoking room? I want to smoke.”

“Do as you please.”

She puffed on her cigarette, constantly staring out the window.

I was starting to doubt if she even had the will to talk.

“Um, Ms. Seong Min-jeong?”

“Speak.”

“Can I ask you some questions?”

“Yes.”

She glanced at Kang Min-jae with a hollow face.

I started asking questions calmly.

“Earlier, you said the broadcasting industry, the drama industry, the writers, the production company, the staff. Everything was fucking awful.”

“Yes.”

“What’s the fucking reason?”

At my question, Kang Min-jae poked my side.

I think it means to speak nicely, but I just used the vocabulary she used.

“If you came with the director’s introduction, you would have heard roughly, right? The reason I came out from under Jung Hye-jin.”

“Well, I heard that Jung Hye-jin exchanges the assistant writers’ manuscripts for debut opportunities. Did you also suffer from that, Ms. Seong Min-jeong?”

“Yes. I suffered. But she didn’t give me a debut. Damn it, bitch.”

She spat in the ashtray and muttered.

“Haha, you seem to be very angry.”

Kang Min-jae tried to change her crooked attitude somehow, but only received a cold stare.

“Then how can I not be fucking angry? Among Jung Hye-jin’s dramas, there’s one with Kim Kyung-in in it, right? A drama called .”

“Ah, that drama. That was a hit too. Was it about 3 or 4 years ago? Haha.”

“That’s what I was preparing. But she asked for it, saying she’d give me a debut within 2 years, so I gave it to her, but she didn’t give it to me for 4 years, so I quit. Jung Hye-jin made a fucking lot of money with that, and I only got a little assistant writer fee. It’s my manuscript, but that bitch only touched it up a little and released it!”

When she shouted, everyone in the smoking room looked at us in surprise.

“So, are you giving up on being a drama writer altogether?”

“Ah, what else can I do? How much can I learn under a writer who can’t even create a work herself, and she doesn’t even keep her promise to give me a debut, so what kind of wealth and glory would I enjoy under her? She just throws a tantrum because her own creation is difficult. Aish, really.”

“Didn’t you think about going under another writer as an assistant?”

“No. Anyway, if I say I came from under Jung Hye-jin, other writers are reluctant to accept me. Because they have to be at odds with Blue Island Media.”

“I see. So what are your plans for the future?”

“First of all, when I said I was quitting at Blue Island, they said they would process it as me being fired, whether it was to shut me up or for the manuscript fee, I don’t know. So for now, I’m living on unemployment benefits. In the future, I’ll either jump into the film industry with the director’s introduction, or… I’ll write some romance novels on the internet. I don’t know, damn it. I don’t have any money saved up right now, so I’m thinking of looking for a part-time job.”

[Truth]

Everything she has said so far is true.

I was thinking of choosing another assistant writer if there was even one lie mixed in, but it seems I was introduced to a good case by the assistant director.

“That could be a way. Romance novels.”

In the future, the web novel industry will develop quite a bit.

I’ve even seen articles saying that a successful web novel is better than most assistant writers or failed drama writers.

If it’s , it’s one of Jung Hye-jin’s representative works.

If someone can create a story like that, they would definitely succeed.

If we can solve this crooked personality and the mindset that seems to have given up on everything.

“Then Ms. Seong Min-jeong, you must have a lot of resentment towards Jung Hye-jin right now.”

“My wish. The half of what Jung Hye-jin grabbed my hair and slapped me. I want to give it back to Jung Hye-jin in the same way. I pray every night before I go to bed. Please let Jung Hye-jin get all of this back. Amen.”

“Then, would you be willing to testify to this situation in court?”

“Testify? What testimony?”

She put out her cigarette and asked, a little nervous at the word court.

It seemed she hadn’t heard the details from the assistant director.

He just told her to talk about Jung Hye-jin, so was that really it?