MDQ Ch 24

Park Saebit’s face was frighteningly calm.

It was truly an unexpected expression. Honestly, I thought Park Saebit would be trembling like a thief caught red-handed.

Since he often acted spoiled around me, I thought his temperament was fragile, but it seemed I was mistaken.

In this suffocating space where it felt hard to breathe, the only one trembling was me.

The irony was that only I, the most blameless one, was afraid of this situation.

“Chief Lee. Explain yourself. What on earth is going on here?”

The CEO’s face, glaring at me with a frown, was full of wrath. He looked ready to explode at any moment.

I cleared my throat as best as I could so my voice wouldn’t tremble.

“Everything I told you over the phone is the whole truth. I did confirm Saebit’s lyrics, but I never gave him any lyrics that I wrote myself.”

“…”

“You know very well I wouldn’t do something like that, sir. I am innocent.”

The CEO looked at Park Saebit.

“Saebit, this time you tell me. Whose words are true?”

Only then did Park Saebit finally open the lips he had kept tightly shut.

“CEO, I’m sorry, but can I talk with hyung alone for a moment? There’s something I want to say to him personally.”

“I can’t give you too much time. Even now, speculative articles are about to flood the media.”

“I understand, sir.”

Answering calmly, Park Saebit signaled at me and left the CEO’s office first. I followed him into an empty conference room across the hall.

As soon as the door closed and we were alone, I lashed out at him.

“Are you crazy? How could you tell such a lie? I told you countless times not to use those lyrics.”

But even when we were alone, instead of admitting his fault, Park Saebit argued back at me.

“What are you talking about? Those were lyrics you directly guided me through. I never thought you’d actually do something like that…”

Mumbling, Park Saebit even put on a pitiful expression. If a stranger saw it, they would think I had done something terrible to him.

Was Park Saebit always this good at acting?

I was so dumbfounded and angry that I was left speechless.

“Hyung, just come clean now.”

I steadied my breathing again and again before I managed to answer.

“Why are you really doing this? Is it because you’re afraid your career will collapse?”

“…”

“Saebit, I still have the conversations we had saved. I also have proof you sent me those lyrics. The more you keep this up, the worse it’ll be for you.”

“Oh, that?”

Park Saebit looked as if he hadn’t overlooked that point. How could he be so bold, even with clear evidence left behind?

Then he tilted his head and whispered softly, just loud enough for only me to hear.

“Hyung, the world doesn’t run on truth alone. Conversations like that can be twisted into different interpretations.”

“…”

“You’re just a manager. But I’m Park Saebit.”

He wasn’t speaking without grounds.

Though not to the level of Jung Yohan, Park Saebit’s parents were also well-known. His father was in politics, and if I remembered correctly, his mother owned a famous gallery.

Using his fame and wealth, Park Saebit could very well bury me.

Meanwhile, I was just a powerless commoner with a rotten father. Someone with no one to rely on. Helpless, utterly helpless.

It wasn’t a baseless thought. Working in the industry for a long time, I had seen several cases like mine.

Some people were forced to take the blame for others’ sins, while others fought alone to claim their innocence—yet in the end, the powerless were always the ones who lost to the exhausting fight.

I had always pitied such stories. Never imagining I might become one of them.

While I was drowning in this sense of helplessness, Park Saebit’s whisper continued.

“And do you really think the CEO only trusts me and criticizes you? Think again.”

I considered what Park Saebit meant.

The CEO, like any businessman, was the type who calculated profit thoroughly.

If…even while suspecting my innocence, he sided with Park Saebit—the card too valuable to discard—

Then perhaps it wasn’t that he trusted Saebit’s words more than mine, but that even if Saebit had done wrong, he wanted to pin the blame on me instead.

“…”

I clenched my fist tight. I was convinced that between Park Saebit and me, the CEO would, of course, choose to discard me.

The injustice was maddening. All I could hope was that I wouldn’t look pathetic enough to cry.

“But if you ask me… I’ll help you, hyung.”

“What do you mean? Help?”

I looked up at Park Saebit with a sharp gaze. My eyes, forced wide to hold back tears, trembled faintly.

“I want you to like me.”

“What?”

“If you like me more than Leader hyung, then I’ll help you.”

If I liked him more than Jung Yohan, he would clean up this mess? Even hearing it directly, it was hard to believe.

“You didn’t cause this whole incident just for that, did you?”

“What are you saying? It doesn’t change the fact you made me write those lyrics. I’m just offering to help, that’s all,” No longer whispering, Park Saebit replied shamelessly.

I turned his proposal over in my mind. To like him more than Jung Yohan.

But how could I possibly? It was absurd to love Park Saebit even more when I had already been on the verge of giving up on loving Jung Yohan.

It was far from an attractive offer.

Without hesitation, I answered, “Forget it. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. You stick to claiming your innocence. I’ll stick to claiming mine.”

Even if I gave in to him now, who knew what else he might use as an excuse to corner me later.

He would find another pretext to toy with me. I refused to be dragged around endlessly by him.

Even if it meant I became the loser of this long fight.

“You won’t be able to work as a lyricist ever again, hyung. And maybe you won’t even be able to work as our manager anymore.”

But Park Saebit looked like he couldn’t believe my decision.

“Even if I accept your help, the outcome won’t change much.”

“…”

“And I’m quitting as your manager anyway.”

At that, Park Saebit looked genuinely shocked.

He gripped my shoulders tightly and questioned me.

“Didn’t you have some kind of reason you had to stay as our manager? Isn’t that why no matter how much we tormented you, you still stuck around?”

Of course, he didn’t know my personal circumstances, but it seemed he had long since guessed I had some reason preventing me from quitting.

With his quick wit and sharp instincts, it was stranger if he hadn’t noticed.

So you knew that, and still tormented me like that…? The words scratched at the back of my throat, but I couldn’t bring myself to say them aloud.

“Think what you want. I don’t want to tell my reasons to someone who made a fool out of me.”

“…”

The pitiful mask Park Saebit had worn like a great actor finally cracked.

He hadn’t expected me to respond this way.

He must have assumed that since I couldn’t quit being their manager, I’d eventually yield to him.

It was a threat exploiting how serious I was about both the manager job and lyric writing.

But now that I knew my father’s true heart, I no longer had a reason to cling to being a manager.

Until coming here, I thought I would at least hold on to lyric writing somehow…… but even that, I no longer wanted to hope for.

Fine. Let’s quit everything.

This is the chance to quit being a manager, and to quit lyric writing too. If I clung to lyric writing, I might end up tied to Given again.

Perhaps none of this would have happened if I hadn’t reviewed Park Saebit’s lyrics in the first place.

Even though I found him bothersome, maybe deep down I had been intoxicated with my success as a lyricist and reviewed his lyrics with confidence.

All of it had finally come back as a terrible consequence.

“Hyung.”

Park Saebit called to me as if wanting to coax me, but having settled my mind, I turned away and ignored him.

There was nothing more to discuss with him. All that remained was to resolve things with the CEO.

Before he could grab me again, I returned to the CEO’s office. Then I spoke the unchanging truth.

“Sir, those are lyrics written by Park Saebit. I also have proof that he wrote them.”