It’s not that kind of malicious broadcast

Back at the office, about five minutes had passed. Lee Yeri, lost in her thoughts, couldn’t find the right moment to cut off the seemingly endless flood of explanations from her junior, and she listened absentmindedly to his report.

‘Was he always this eager to work so energetically? Maybe I’ve been viewing him with too much bias,’ she mused.

“So, this protest is, in the end, merely a fan meeting or event under the guise of a protest, and it would be hard to argue that it hinders Faraday’s operations. Additionally—”

“A-Atorney Yoo?”

“Oh, yes, yes!”

“Alright, I’ve got the gist of it. So, calm down a bit, okay?”

She managed to calm down the junior who was about to start his report once more. As she began reading the materials, she realized how extensive and well-organized they were — so thorough that she had no clue when he had managed to put it all together.

It detailed everything from what had happened when to why it was merely a game strategy, explaining it all in a logical fashion.

The brief email from the client — ‘A specific broadcaster has been exploiting a vulnerability in the game and continually exposing it on their broadcast to pressure the company.

Could this be considered business interference? Can we at least stop the protest?’ — paled in comparison to the wealth of information he had gathered. Naturally, she felt curious about one thing.

“Did this issue come up at lunchtime today? When did you manage to organize all of this?”

“Uh, yes. Attorney Park assigned it to me at lunch, so I started working on it right away!”

‘In just three hours? With photos and videos… and summary materials?’

Well, she had mentioned before that she played this game, “Knight of Knights.” and watched the streams. If it was a familiar area, it made sense.

As Lee Yeri convinced herself of this, she naturally flipped through the materials and found herself facing a completely different question.

“…Looking at this, it’s hard to see it as business interference. Just between us, I don’t even know why this needed to be reviewed. But… the client’s inquiry only mentioned a specific broadcaster. Why does your report name ‘CravingWarmAmericano’ and ‘GetDevoured’? Did I miss another email?”

Flinch.

The eyes that had been sparkling with an almost overwhelming enthusiasm dodged her gaze and stared into space.

“Oh, no, there wasn’t another email… but this has been quite a notorious act within the KoK community. There’s only one CravingWarmAmericano in the world. I confirmed this during the background research.”

Was it that significant of an issue? If it was well-known enough to be singled out in the research, the company’s overreaction made some sense. However, several aspects still didn’t sit right.

‘Isn’t it too soon to be considering something like business interference? After all, this would involve suing a customer. And the fact that the headquarters wasn’t copied on the email either. Maybe they just wanted to consider all possibilities?’

There were numerous possibilities to consider, indeed. Their client might have been hiding something or simply didn’t know what they wanted. Or perhaps…

“The company might not have any intention of moving forward, but some individual could be pressing the accelerator alone.”

There had been several instances where they initiated reviews while things were still unclear internally for the client, only to end up doing the work two or three times.

“Let’s give them a call and start. Attorney Yoo, if you have any questions, please join in.”

In such cases, understanding the situation first was paramount.

.

.

.

“Yes, branch Manager. I understand the situation well. However, as I mentioned, since it’s hard to say it’s at the level of criminal liability yet, unless some special circumstances emerge, it might be difficult to provide an opinion that the success likelihood is high enough to justify bearing PR and media risks. Instead, how about requesting them to stop exposing this weakness under the table first? If you provide the contact information, we can reach out on your behalf.”

“Well, that sounds good, but this person doesn’t even check emails, creating a lot of problems. If we talk about it publicly on their broadcasting platform, it might get twisted and become a mess. Can we at least stop this protest somehow?”

“… Yes, branch Manager. Given that it is a legally pre-announced assembly and there’s no expected violence, it’s challenging to intervene…”

The conversation felt stuck in an infinite loop. Can’t you just write up an opinion that a lawsuit is possible?

Difficult, it doesn’t constitute interference with business.

Then can you at least stop the protest?

It’s difficult to block the first protest attempt.

Then can you write up an opinion to give them a scare by filing a lawsuit…

The fact that clients repeated themselves wasn’t unusual, albeit rare. What felt strange to Lee Yeri wasn’t that the client was repeating their words, but rather, the repetition of needing an opinion instead of an actual lawsuit filing.

And it had to be an opinion written in English.

‘… This Branch Manager, no matter how I look at it, it seems like he’s trying to push this through without internal consensus.’

They were suing their own client. Of course, it required headquarters’ approval. But requesting a mere feasibility check could be done at the branch manager’s discretion.

‘It could be pushed through on the branch manager’s authority too.’

Lee Yeri squinted her eyes.

* * * *

This wasn’t like visiting a friend’s house for the first time.

I lightly shook my head to clear the various thoughts floating in my mind. Maybe I was overthinking. After all, it wasn’t my first visit here.

Let’s just do things the way they were usually done. As usual.

After a light deep breath, a hand reached out to press the doorbell. Before even a few seconds had passed, the door opened—

“Hello, Jinhee.”

“You’ve arrived! Come on in!”

Ark, wearing quite an uncomfortable-looking outfit, appeared. How does she do VR in such attire? Truly a professional, I suppose. I could never manage that.

It would be rude to ask.

Diverting my gaze, I handed over the shopping bag with the prepared gift.

“Yes. Here’s a gift for you.”

“A gift? You didn’t have to bring anything… Wow, it must have been difficult to get this cake! You really didn’t need to… Next time, please come empty-handed. And, um, what’s this?”

“It’s red ginseng candy.”

“…Oh, red ginseng… you like it. I see.”

Not really, I brought it because she’s not into red ginseng candies. Her reaction was a bit amusing. Anyway, I ordered a large quantity of traditional sweets online, thinking I’d try giving them to her next time, for various reasons.

I could end up eating them myself… But now that I think about it, maybe this is a good chance to see if our tastes match. After all, I haven’t completely given up on our “Fake Marriage” idea.

Why, last time it was just the way I brought it up that was problematic… Yeah.

“Anyway, come on in!”

Swallowing these thoughts, I gave a slight nod and stepped inside.

“Would you like a cup of coffee? I can make it iced too. No alcohol, so don’t even ask.”

“Sure. Just a warm cup of anything would be nice. Don’t worry, I carry my own liquor.”

Turning slightly toward the kind host, I lightly tapped the back pocket of my pants—Wasn’t her stare a bit much? Anyone could tell it was a joke.

Seriously, though.

“I’m going to frisk you. Put your hands calmly over your head.”

No way, seriously?

Where had the friendly person who was smiling just moments ago disappeared to? Ark now approached with a determination befitting a private security guard.

Surely, she hadn’t actually hidden alcohol in her pockets… Hm. No, if you were to divide it between whether I had ever done it or not, I have done it before.

But not this time. Really. I tried to pull on the eyes of an innocent citizen to convey my sincerity… but glances alone had no deterrent effect.

“Injustice, it’s injustice.”

Maybe a little angry… no, worried perhaps. Ark’s slightly distorted expression, which made it somehow difficult to restrain physically, said it all.

“Injustice, my foot. I can see your back pockets bulging. That’s a hip flask, isn’t it? What is this, the Wild West? Storing two bottles of alcohol-”

Thus, Ark freely approached and tapped both of my back pockets twice.

-Thud thud!

The pressure… there seemed to be some emotion behind it. Normally, a body search just checks for hard objects, right?

Had I wronged Ark in some way… hmm. Yeah, I guess so. I felt solemn when faced with the panoramic view of my sins flashing before my eyes, leading to a moment of silence.

“…Huh?”

Why was she more taken aback?

* * * *

“Really, really sorry. I mean, I’ve always seen you in baggy clothes, so… no, it’s not your fault, Yena. Absolutely not, but I thought you’d naturally put a soft material flask in your pocket…”

“…Please, stop apologizing. Please.”

Was she angry? Must have been, naturally. Lee Yena’s expressionless face was darker than usual. What should she call that expression?

Reading her emotions wasn’t easy.

“Momentarily, you know those thermal water bottles? I thought you had put alcohol in something like that and…”

Even as she spoke, she realized it was an excessive slander. If asked why she was so convinced at that moment, she could only say that she was always worried because she seemed to drink too much, and above all, the curve seen at that moment was simply unbelievable – blaming the victim was, of course, unacceptable.

“I’m sorry…”

Suppressing the feeling of wanting to hide somewhere, Ark once again muttered an apology, bowing her head.

“…It’s really okay. Hmm… then, since it’s come to this, how about this.”

Because of that, she couldn’t see Yena’s eyes narrowing into a gentle Ark as she let out a faint sigh.