Knowing the benefits and honor she had brought to her family, she thought her position within the household was solid, and in reality, it had been. However, she hadn’t yet realized that her position had collapsed like a sandcastle in an instant.
After the official announcement from the Ability User Headquarters, Choi Hyerin had been holding out at home for several days, but as public opinion worsened day by day, she felt that if she stayed like this, she wouldn’t be able to recover her image. So she contacted a reporter she knew and conducted an interview.
She said that things had unfolded differently from her intentions, and that she had been deceived by the Center and those two people. Once she gave an interview to set the narrative, she figured she could appropriately build her image later as she continued her activities.
It was a world where a baseball player who had gambled reappeared, claiming to have reflected deeply while lying low, and went on to great success, and an actor who had made big headlines for drunk driving also resumed activities without issue after some time passed.
“…Right. The public quickly forgets most things anyway, and if I evoke a bit of sympathy, they’ll respond positively again soon enough.”
Moreover, she was a precious A-rank Guide and had many fans.
Things had flowed differently from her initial expectations and she’d suffered a setback, but it didn’t matter even if things didn’t work out well. The benefits that came with the title of S-rank Esper pair were too valuable to give up, but even she knew there was no turning back now.
This wasn’t because her plan had been wrong—it was just something close to a natural disaster. Of all times, a Guide with a high matching rate with Esper Seo Gangwoo had to manifest at that exact moment.
She planned to take this opportunity to rest, reorganize her surroundings, and then resume activities after a year or two to recover her image.
When the timing was right, she’d just tip off a few media outlets.
Esper Seo Gangwoo didn’t do interviews or external activities, so even if some bad rumors spread, it wouldn’t affect his work at all. But she still had to shoot new pictorials and show her face in public media, so her image was important.
Though they hadn’t been a particularly close pair, five years wasn’t a short period of time.
She knew that the Seo Gangwoo Esper she’d known all this time wasn’t the type to step forward and do a corrective interview just because she did something like this, so there was no problem.
After the full interview and related articles came out, the atmosphere flowed in the direction she wanted, as expected.
However, not long after she’d worn a triumphant smile.
When the recording file that Jiwon had made at the cafe was uploaded, Choi Hyerin’s brand value and image shattered completely.
‘Little brat, you stay quiet. Can’t you see I’m talking right now?’
“Ahhhhh! What is this? This can’t happen! When on earth was this recorded?!”
At the existence of a recording file she hadn’t anticipated, Choi Hyerin went into a state of panic.
Thanks to the sound quality of the top-grade speaker, Choi Hyerin’s voice from the played recording file resonated clearly throughout the room.
After stopping blankly as if broken, she tried to contact various places to somehow take down posts related to the recording file, but the results weren’t promising. Even then, there were no measures from her family, and only then did Choi Hyerin notice something was wrong.
“No way… right?”
She kept calling her family members in turns, but not a single person answered.
Unable to hide her anxiety, Choi Hyerin searched for another number with trembling hands.
—Hello?
At the finally connected call, Choi Hyerin’s face improved with relief. The person on the other end was her sister-in-law from a family that owned the nation’s largest media company. Whether she was actively working or was a parachute hire, she at least held the title of department head.
“Sister-in-law!”
Though they weren’t normally in contact and weren’t particularly close, Choi Hyerin spoke in a bright voice, happy to finally reach someone.
—Ah… Miss.
However, the voice of the person who answered the phone wasn’t very pleasant.
“Sister-in-law~! Right now, those recording file posts online, please take them down…”
—Oh, just a moment. Miss!
As if something else had come up, Choi Hyerin’s words were cut off mid-sentence as she was excitedly stating her business, and she bit her lip.
No matter how much her natal family was the nation’s largest media company family, compared to her own family, they fell far behind, so when she came to the main house, this sister-in-law had been busy putting on a sweet, fake act and watching Choi Hyerin’s mood.
And yet such a person cut her off while she was speaking… She’d been ignoring this sister-in-law all this time, but she was the one in need right now.
—Yes. Yes, I understand. Then please proceed with that matter right away.
She waited a long while for her sister-in-law to finish her business on the other end of the call. It felt like vulgar curses were about to burst out, but she couldn’t even get angry and trembled with clenched fists.
—Oh my, sorry for making you wait, Miss. There was suddenly an urgent matter.
“Ho… hoho. No problem. Are you very busy, sister-in-law?”
Though Choi Hyerin had been grinding her teeth enough to make a dentist immediately gasp and rush over, after several deep breaths she cleared her throat and continued speaking, but couldn’t completely hide her trembling voice.
—I wasn’t usually like this, but these days it keeps being like this. As for why… you know, right? I really can’t focus on anything. Oh right, Miss, why did you call again?
“Right now there’s an absurd recording file going around, so please take it all down…”
—Ah! That, you mean. We were already busy, but it’s been even more chaotic because of that.
Once again her words were cut off and she couldn’t finish, and Choi Hyerin’s tightly bitten lips turned white.
—But you know, right? Even though we can control it to some extent, it’s already spread too quickly, so it’ll take quite a long time to delete them one by one. This isn’t just any ordinary impactful matter.
“What do you mean! Is that something the daughter of the nation’s largest media company family should say? You just need to pour money and manpower into it—you can’t even do that much?”
Her indignant voice burst out.
—Oh my, why are you saying such scary things. What kind of world is it these days. If you do it wrong, it’ll be big trouble~! If you mess up media control, you’ll get backlash. For now, I’ll try to block what I can. Don’t worry too much. Miss.
It was bullshit. Though it would waste manpower and costs, it wasn’t something they couldn’t handle. It wasn’t like this had only happened once or twice—did she think Choi Hyerin wouldn’t know?
Whenever there were bad issues related to family members or the family business, they’d either block articles before they came out or make them go down instantly even if they went up, and they’d processed web or SNS content quickly so it wouldn’t come up in searches.
But now suddenly, backlash? What media control and backlash was she talking about?
“Do your job properly. Properly! And sister-in-law, is it okay for you to talk to me like this? I’m Choi Hyerin. Choi Hyerin!”
—I know. That your name is Choi Hyerin, Miss. The precious youngest daughter of the Choi family, one of the few A-rank Guides, and a wannabe celebrity! S-rank Esper pair… Ah! That’s not it anymore… Oh my, sorry. I made a mistake. A mistake.
“Ugh!”
Choi Hyerin screamed, infuriated. To be treated like this by her sister-in-law. It was utterly absurd.
—But I don’t know if I should say this…
“What?!”
—Grandfather said… to stay out of this matter, you see?
“…!!!”
Though she’d somewhat guessed, when she directly heard the fact she’d hoped against hope wasn’t true, Choi Hyerin’s whole body trembled with shock.
“…That can’t be.”
—I know, right? Why did you curse and fight in that crowded cafe? If you were going to do that, you should have at least stayed still, and why did you do an interview and make things worse?
“What, what did you say?”
—If you at least hadn’t made things bigger, after things calmed down a bit later, they might have supported you at the family level, but with the recording file exploding too, it’s over. Just obediently accept punishment, lie low while reflecting. Then who knows. Later on, he might worry about his youngest granddaughter and help somehow. We can’t all be ruined because of one Miss, can we?
“Stop talking nonsense. After everything I’ve done all this time, how can you say such things?!”
—Our Miss who grew up so preciously. I understand you’re shocked, but you need to snap out of it now. You’re not a baby, are you? You take responsibility for what you’ve caused yourself.
“You, you!!!”
—Take care. I’m too busy to see you off.
Click.
The call ended without hesitation.
“Crazy… Ahhhhh!”
Crash—!
“You said you’d handle it! Was this why?! You’re abandoning me? Me?”
She realized she’d become a discarded card, but it was already too late.
Trembling with rage, the phone she threw flew toward the display cabinet on the opposite side and shattered expensive tea sets.
Some of them fell to the marble floor, and the sound of them rolling around echoed pitifully.
To Choi Hyerin, that sound felt like it represented her current state.
“Why… why on earth is this happening to me?”
By the time her rough breathing returned to normal, her energy drained and she plopped down on the sofa.
She couldn’t believe that her family had abandoned her.
For Choi Hyerin, who had walked only on smooth silk flower paths where she wouldn’t get hurt even walking barefoot, this was the first time in her life experiencing something like this.
Choi Hyerin, who had lived as she pleased, had no immunity whatsoever to being ignored and abandoned by someone. She was flustered and had no idea what to do.
Where did it go wrong?
Was it wrong to have believed that her family would naturally resolve it as they always had?
After she manifested as an A-rank Guide, she’d contributed to her family’s prestige and honor—how could they abandon her so easily like this?
