AVSH 1

Chapter 1

 The Worst Scandal

“Korea’s greatest celebration! The 202X Baeho Arts Awards! The winner of the glorious grand prize is…!”

Amid the tense, majestic tremolo, the presenter opened the envelope. Smiling as they swept their eyes over the hushed audience, the presenter parted their lips—and in that instant:

“Congratulations. Do. Da. Hee!”

Bang—

Confetti burst forth with the air shots. Rising from her seat amid thunderous cheers and applause, the woman climbed onto the stage with a face overcome with emotion.

Holding the heavy golden trophy and bouquet of flowers in her arms, she stood before the central microphone, her face brimming with feeling.

” > “The reason I stand in this place is all thanks to every one of you. So that I may repay your great love, I will do my utmost anytime, anywhere. I love you.” ”

Having calmly finished her acceptance speech in a trembling voice, she took a step back. In each small movement of her bowing her head, the elegant dignity of a grand-prize actress could be felt.

She gazed out at the audience pouring congratulations upon her and smiled radiantly. In that moment, the glittering tears that traced down the corners of her eyes were as beautiful as a scene from a drama.

Do Da-hee.

Debuting as a child actress at fourteen, she achieved the feat of becoming the youngest-ever winner of the music grand prize at eighteen. She had steadily built her body of work while pursuing both singing and acting, and had grown into the most diligent image among entertainers. Every project she chose became a hot topic, and the sales of every brand she endorsed would rise dramatically.

Having finally seized the acting grand prize as well, she once again proved her true worth. Naturally, the year-end entertainment news was plastered with articles about Do Da-hee.

Flawlessly perfect. Do Da-hee—the undisputed top star acknowledged by all.

Some praised her as the greatest star born of 21st-century Korea, predicting that the “Do Da-hee Syndrome” would continue on and on.

But a few days later, the worst scandal anyone could have imagined erupted.

「SHOCK! Top star Do Da-hee revealed to be the one who drove fellow actress Yoo Min-a to her death!」

「The two faces of Hallyu star Do Da-hee, revealed through Yoo Min-a’s suicide note!」

「Top star Do Da-hee! A fall without wings!」

The reputation of top star Do Da-hee, who had held the pinnacle for years since her debut, came crashing down in less than half a day.

[According to police investigation results, top star Do Da-hee, who enjoyed the greatest popularity, is known to have driven fellow actress Yoo Min-a to her death, causing a wave of shock. Police are investigating based on the suicide note found in the residence where Ms. Yoo was found collapsed, and are expected to summon Ms. Do for questioning in the near future……-]

[Actress Yoo Min-a, who attempted an extreme choice unable to endure the workplace bullying of a fellow actress, is currently reported to be unconscious. The side of actress Do Da-hee, named as the party who committed the bullying, has strongly denied all allegations, but public criticism toward Ms. Do shows no sign of subsiding……-]

The entire nation was in an uproar over the worst scandal. Every channel turned to was broadcasting content related to Yoo Min-a’s extreme choice caused by Do Da-hee’s bullying.

“Ha, what are we supposed to do about this? How about holding a press conference right now?”

“Call reporters in this situation and get treated how? Why stir up trouble?”

“Then what are we supposed to do! We can’t just watch our Da-hee go to ruin like this!”

“I don’t know either. I’ve worked in this industry for over 20 years, but this is a first for me…….”

Agency CEO Lee Man-hae had a very positive and nice personality, but timidity was his problem. Especially when a situation this dire struck, he had no idea what to do. Watching Joo-young, who was tearing her hair out, he could only clutch his own head.

Unable to bear watching Da-hee, who had been out of it for days, he shot to his feet.

“This won’t do. I’ll go out and buy something—anything—so Manager Kim, you try to calm Da-hee down. At this rate, she’s going to destroy herself, destroy herself.”

After CEO Lee left, Joo-young, heaving deep sighs, approached Da-hee.

“Da-hee. It’s just the two of us now, so tell me honestly. Did something happen with Yoo Min-a at the awards ceremony? Hm?”

Da-hee, her eyes narrowed, recalled the day the Baeho Arts Awards were held.

Do Da-hee and Yoo Min-a. The two were rivals always mentioned as comparison targets because they were the same age and debuted around the same time.

Officially they were known as close same-age colleagues, but in truth the two had few private points of contact.

They had never met as competing works in the same time slot, nor had they ever appeared in the same production.

Of course, in terms of popularity and skill, Do Da-hee had always held the upper hand over Yoo Min-a.

When both names were listed side by side as nominees for Best Actress in the drama category this time, the majority of the public predicted Do Da-hee’s win, not Yoo Min-a’s.

The result was no upset either. Unlike Do Da-hee, who drew huge attention by winning two crowns—the popularity award and then the grand prize—Yoo Min-a, who went home empty-handed, was quietly buried.

But could that be seen as the result of bullying? That’s not it, is it?

“Nothing happened. With Min-a, all I did was exchange a brief greeting when we ran into each other in the waiting-room hallway.”

“Then what is it? The suicide note says you bullied her. Says you cursed at her badly. Says you told her to go die. Don’t tell me Yoo Min-a wrote it on purpose to screw you over?”

” > “I don’t know either. Why Min-a did that…… I really don’t know.” ”

“Wow, this is really driving me crazy.”

Regardless of the truth, just being entangled in the scandal was enough for public criticism to pierce the sky. Especially when reports emerged that Yoo Min-a’s unconscious condition was gradually worsening, all arrows turned toward Do Da-hee.

The only choice Da-hee could make here was one.

“Manager. I’ll undergo the investigation.”

“What?”

” > “No matter how I think about it, I haven’t done anything wrong, so I can’t just be cursed at like this. I’ll confidently undergo the police investigation and clear all the charges.” ”

She couldn’t keep crouching forever. Even without this, surviving over ten years without incident in this gossip-ridden, cutthroat industry was a miracle—but she couldn’t collapse in a single moment like this.

So even if she’d fallen into hell, she had to climb back out. Her resolve firm, Da-hee clenched her trembling hands tightly.

The airport, where mass cancellation notices had gone up due to two consecutive days of heavy snowfall, was quieter than usual.

The man who arrived in Korea after a long 19-hour flight frowned as the biting winter wind hit him the moment he stepped outside.

A thin shirt and jeans, with no coat.

Jang Geon-woo, standing in clothes completely unsuited to the season, let out a soft laugh. Having spent years in hot countries—and returning to Korea after nearly 20 years—he had simply forgotten how cold Korean winters were.

With no clothes to change into, he adjusted his backpack as if there was nothing to be done and climbed into a taxi waiting in front of the airport.

“Where shall I take you, sir?”

“Please take me to the Taesan Trading headquarters in Cheongdam-dong.”

Soon the taxi left the airport and turned onto the road, and outside the window a world of pure white unfolded.

The man, who had hardly any memory of seeing snow piled up this high even in childhood, gazed at the scenery outside the window with deepening eyes.

“Does it snow this much in Korea every winter?”

At the customer’s low voice—he looked intimidating to even speak to—the driver, who had been watching the road ahead, glanced at the rearview mirror. Geon-woo was still looking out the window.

“Of course it snows because it’s winter, but it’s rare for this much to fall. The news said it hit the highest snowfall in about a hundred years.”

“How fascinating.”

“Are you perhaps from abroad? Seeing how you marvel at the snow, it seems this is your first time in Korea?”

“I grew up in Korea as a child, but I don’t remember seeing much snow.”

“Ah, I see. Since you’re here, you’ll get to enjoy plenty of snow. But the traffic is really backed up. Maybe there’s an accident ahead…….”

Come to think of it, the taxi that had been creeping along had come to a dead stop. Muttering that this wasn’t a time when traffic should be backed up, the driver asked:

“Sir, I’m sorry, but may I turn on the radio for a moment? I’d like to hear the real-time traffic news.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

The radio sound rang out in the quiet car. Meanwhile, the traffic jam began to ease little by little.

[Cloudy weather will continue through Friday, and snow is expected nationwide over the weekend. To prevent snow damage in advance……-]

“It’s going to snow again. It’s coming down sickeningly much.”

[Now for entertainment news. Actress Do Da-hee, who has caused controversy over recent allegations of workplace bullying toward actress Yoo Min-a, has decided to undergo police investigation……-]

[Ms. Do, whose image has suffered a major blow from this incident, has voluntarily withdrawn from the drama she was filming, while the release of a film she had already completed has been indefinitely postponed. She also faces the risk of paying advertising penalties in the billions of won……-]

Click—

“How many days has it been now. It’s not even good news, and it’s all Do Da-hee, Do Da-hee, tsk!”

Perhaps tired of the same news repeating on every channel, the driver clicked the radio off.

“Who is Do Da-hee?”

“You don’t know celebrities? On TV they were all hyping her up as a hugely famous global star, but I guess that was all a lie.”

“Ah, I have zero interest in that sort of thing.”

“There’s a really pretty actress. She sings well too, I think? She won the acting grand prize at the end of last year, and would you believe it—they say she tormented a fellow actress to death.”

” > “She drove a colleague to death? Is this a murder case?” ”

“No, it’s not that—the fellow actress attempted suicide because of her and ended up in a vegetative state or something like that. Anyway, the top star who was on top of the world caused a huge disaster, so what are kids who like celebrities supposed to look up to? The world’s really going to hell, going to hell.”

Listening to the driver ramble on about how you see all sorts of things in life, Geon-woo turned his gaze away with an indifferent expression.