The Uncrowned King of the Peninsula

Chapter 1 Under the Lens
October 2017, 10, KBS, Music Bank program pre-recording, audience seats.

The music paused, and the popular girl group Twice ended their performance on the stage, and the audience burst into cheers.

As an entertainment reporter, Bae Yong-jun was not that excited.

He glanced at the camera next to him. The Nikon's large aperture telephoto lens faithfully recorded every inch of detail.

The nine members of Twice were breathing heavily and striking the ending pose. Lin Nayeon, who was in the center, had a bright and beautiful smile on her face in the camera. Her cool stage clothes exposed large areas of delicate skin, and the vitality of her youthful body was about to burst through the camera.

"Mashiro..." An intoxicated murmur came from beside me.

Pei Yongjun turned his head and looked at the new intern reporter Jin Zhicheng next to him. He was clapping along with the fans next to him, staring at the thighs on the stage with his eyes fixed on them.

"How white?" he asked.

"To be frank, it's just..." Jin Zhicheng was halfway through his words when he suddenly realized what was happening and looked at Pei Yongjun, "Team Leader, um, I, actually, I..."

"Like Twice? Are you a fan?" Bae Yong-jun narrowed his eyes and looked at Kim Ji-sung's somewhat childish face.

"I am, I am a fan of the flesh, really." Jin Zhicheng shook his head rapidly, "Chasing stars? Even dogs wouldn't chase them!"

"Really? Then I have good news for you." Pei Yongjun smiled and waved at him, "Come here."

Jin Zhicheng hurried over to listen.

"Do you know? Lin Nayeon..." Bae Yongjun paused, waiting for Kim Ji-sung's reaction.

"What's wrong?" Jin Zhicheng couldn't help but ask.

"In love, still passionately in love."

"Ah!" Jin Zhicheng's eyes widened suddenly and he almost jumped up. "What! Nayeon is so ambitious after only debuting for a few years. How could it be possible..."

"You won't even chase a dog?" Pei Yongjun's expression gradually darkened.

Jin Zhicheng's voice became smaller and smaller as he spoke, and finally he laughed awkwardly, "I, I really like Twice, just relax for a while, team leader."

"Relax? Then starting tomorrow, go join the boy band," Bae Yongjun said, putting away his smile, "Relax."

"what?"

Pei Yongjun stood up and walked straight towards the staff passage without paying any attention to Jin Zhicheng whose smile suddenly froze on his face.

"Hello." The guard at the entrance of the passage took a look at the exquisite bright blue high-level pass on his chest, remembered that this was the guest the director had instructed, and quickly opened the door for him.

As I walked out of the studio, bright lights came into view.

"...Unnie, do you want to hang out together this weekend?"

"What time did you get up this morning? Look at the dark circles under your eyes..."

This place is connected to the backstage of the music center. People are coming and going in the corridor, and young male and female idols are everywhere. Everywhere you look, you can see delicate skin, and your nose is filled with the sweet scent of cosmetics, like orchid and musk, which makes people unable to help but feel distracted.

Pei Yongjun scanned the crowd in the corridor while walking towards the staff restroom in the distance.

The man in the black suit walked through the crowd, and the originally noisy corridor gradually became silent.

"Reporters? Why are reporters here?" Some sharp-eyed idols saw the two lines of words on the tag on his chest and their faces changed instantly.

【Bae Young-jun Han River Sports Newspaper】

【Editor-in-Chief of Social News Group 2】

"Ouni, isn't Bae Yongjun the one who exposed our senior for gambling last time?"

"The seniors were forced to kneel down and apologize. This is horrible..."

"He's quite handsome, how could he do such a cruel thing?"

"Keep your voice down! Stop talking."

Pei Yongjun looked over and saw only faces that showed disgust and fear.

His expression remained calm as he walked forward, as if he was already familiar with such a look.

In the entertainment industry, from big stars to small fans, everyone hates paparazzi, but everyone is also afraid of them. And he, Bae Young-joon, is such a person.

Two years ago, he started working as an entertainment reporter at the Hanjiang Sports News. With his experienced methods, sharp nose, ruthlessness and cold-bloodedness, he dug up the darkest privacy and secrets of celebrities. His notoriety in the circle soared, and in just two years he became the mainstay of the newspaper, in charge of one of the two most important social news groups.

Now he suddenly appeared in the backstage, like a wolf pouncing on a flock of sheep, making these young idols silent, fearing that they would be targeted by him.

"Team leader! Team leader! Wait for me." Kim Ji-sung's voice came from behind Pei Yongjun. He had just packed his camera hanging on his chest and was following in a hurry.

The two of them walked together in the corridor, and no one dared to make a sound.

After finishing his work in the bathroom, Pei Yongjun walked back with Jin Zhicheng and asked, "How are the clicks on the group news now?"

"That story a few days ago about the Woolim president assaulting a male trainee has already garnered 12 hits," Jin Zhicheng said, pulling out his phone and checking the midday statistics posted to the newspaper's work group chat. "But there are a ton of comments and reposts, too. Some fans are even gathering to protest by petitioning at the Blue House."

"That's not bad, we can keep digging." Pei Yongjun nodded and took out his mobile phone to search for the news.

This piece of news was obtained by Pei Yongjun and his men after many days of digging.

The news was reported by an informant and several eyewitnesses, and was written vividly. In particular, the last sentence of the report, "The trainee victim may have reportedly debuted," was an ambiguous statement that doubled the popularity of the news.

Sure enough, fans of all the boy groups under the agency Woolim were forwarding the post crazily, cursing the agency for being inhumane and wondering if their own oppa had also been beaten.

"Okay, I understand." Pei Yongjun's expression remained unchanged. "How are the clicks on Group 1's news?"

"Their recent news has received more clicks than ours, but most of the content is fabricated. Who would read it seriously? Really..." Jin Zhicheng couldn't stand the behavior of Group 1.

“I asked how many hits there were?”

"The lowest is 7 or 8 yuan, and the highest is almost 20 yuan."

"Yeah." Pei Yongjun didn't ask any more questions and continued walking forward.

As Jin Zhicheng followed him, he complained about his competitor's news team's unscrupulous operations, fabricating informants, and even using photoshopped pictures in news.

"Why be a journalist? Just write novels!" He was a little indignant.

Pei Yongjun didn't say anything, just listened to him talking about various news inside and outside the newspaper, thinking about what news should be published tomorrow.

Suddenly, his ears moved, and two excited female voices came from the other side of the corridor corner, as if they were arguing about something.

"Shh!" Pei Yongjun stretched out his arm to stop Jin Zhicheng, stopped in the corner and listened attentively.

"...You have to be careful when you return to the stage this time. You have finally won this opportunity. Don't let people misunderstand you anymore!" A voice was trying to persuade.

"What misunderstanding? Go ahead and scold me if you want. I'll stick with you till the end!" Another voice sounded sweet, yet a little anxious.

"Yeah, you..."

"Let's not talk about this for now! What about Ernie's matter?"

"Don't get excited! I'll talk to him again, don't worry about it."

"What are you talking about? What's there to talk about?"

"Stop talking, let's first..."

The quarrel showed signs of stopping. Jin Zhicheng slowly unscrewed the lens cap of the camera hanging on his chest with both hands and cast an inquiring look at him.

Pei Yongjun thought for a moment and nodded.

Jin Zhicheng jumped out suddenly, raised his camera and started taking pictures.

Pei Yongjun also followed him out and happened to meet Cui Xueli's eyes when she turned her head.

The shutter clicked wildly, capturing the scene of her and Goo Hara arguing.

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①KBS: Korean Broadcasting Corporation, one of the three largest television stations in South Korea.

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(End of this chapter)