## Chapter 77 – 08.LUMINA
+++
A large door opened, and a man in a neat suit bowed at a 90-degree angle.
Then, he strode into the spacious executive office and said,
“Chairman, stabilization is complete. The medical team has determined that she can be discharged without any issues.”
“Really? Bring her here.”
“Yes.”
After delivering his report and stepping back, the man returned about ten minutes later.
He led two medical professionals and a tangle of life-support equipment to Min Jia, bowing deeply.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Min Jia clicked her tongue and approached the medical bed.
Do Eun Joo, wearing a patient gown and staring blankly at the ceiling, bound to the bed, looked quite pitiful.
Jia waved her hand, dismissing the rest of the staff.
She was left alone with Do Eun Joo.
“Are you somewhat lucid now, Sister?”
Do Eun Joo glared, her eyes rolling, but much of the venom had dissipated.
Her bloodshot eyes were filled only with regret and sorrow.
Just a week.
In that short time, she had lost everything.
When loss is too great, people can’t bear the emptiness before seeking revenge.
Jia approached, crouching down to meet her gaze.
Then, in an elegant tone, she said,
“I can’t believe a chaebol heiress had so many implants. How vulgar, Sister. I told you before, people should live within their means. That’s not just a condescending remark. ‘We’ have to maintain a certain dignity. How could you put something so common on your body, something those lower sorts would do?”
After losing all her sons and being captured during her final resistance, she surprisingly had a considerable number of implants.
Had she gotten them for revenge? But the timing of the procedures suggested otherwise.
How much effort she had put into removing them over the past few days.
The procedures themselves weren’t the problem, but getting her body to adapt in a short period and returning her to a normal condition had taken quite a bit of work.
“Having such vulgar things on your body makes your life vulgar too, Sister. Do you understand?”
“!”
Do Eun Joo was furious.
But there was nothing she could do.
She could only toss and turn.
Even that was just a violent shaking, as her body was bound to the bed.
“Ugh. How pathetic. I must never become like this.”
Just then, the door to the executive office burst open, and Min Jia’s husband, Do Eun Joo’s younger brother, rushed in.
“Si, Sister?!!”
He ran to Do Eun Joo, seeing her tied to the bed.
Min Jia sighed and stood up.
“I told you to stay quietly at home, didn’t I?”
Startled by Min Jia’s cold words, he stammered,
“Wh, what are you going to do to Sister?”
“What do you think? I have to offer her to Young Master. If he wants her dead, then she dies. It would have been nice if she had a daughter.”
“…You killed our father, killed our nephews, killed our mother and all our relatives…!! And now you’re going to kill my sister too?”
“Then what, should I save her?”
“…”
“Get out if you’re going to interfere. Right now.”
Her husband was drained by her complete lack of empathy.
He should be angry, but he didn’t have the strength.
It was as if he were livestock that had been gaslighted for years.
He was starting to feel scared of himself for feeling like it was all normal.
‘No… I can’t give in… I’ve been running away all this time!!’
But he mustered his courage.
He had always been suppressed by his wife, the de facto daughter of Ko Young Man, chairman of the Koryeo Group, and had never properly voiced his own opinion.
Within the family, he was always treated as the lowest priority, more like a servant than a husband.
So he had been silent this time too.
When his father died?
They didn’t even see each other. They actually had a bad relationship.
When his mother died?
She had always been in poor health.
When his nephews died?
They weren’t his children, so he didn’t feel much.
He hid his fear with all sorts of self-rationalizations.
The truth was, he just didn’t have the courage and was trembling.
But still…
Still, this wasn’t right.
No matter what, this was really—
“Ugh. This is frustrating.”
“Si—”
Just as her husband was about to say something,
Min Jia pulled a gun from her pocket and shot him in the head.
Bang – !
A corpse collapsed lifelessly, splattering blood and brain matter.
“!!!”
Do Eun Joo’s eyes widened as she thrashed wildly.
“I should have done this sooner, but what’s with all this attachment?”
Min Jia placed the gun on the desk and posted a message in the family chat room.
– Your dad is dead.
There was no response.
Min Jia pressed a button on the desk.
“Tell Chief Lee to come in.”
Soon, the door opened, and a man in a neat suit entered.
He flinched briefly at the sight of Min Jia’s dead husband, but soon entered without concern.
“You called?”
“Clean this up and pack that one. I have to go see Young Master today.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
+++
October 17th.
Saturday had returned.
Which meant it was LUMINA’s debut today.
Well, it was a bit different, but since they were appearing on a music show for the first time, it was practically their debut.
Thanks to that, I was personally visiting the broadcasting station in Ganghwa from early in the morning.
To boost the members’ morale and to prevent any strange flies from buzzing around.
“As you ordered, all the new songs from other artists that were scheduled to be released today have been cancelled, and we’ve set things up so that no one except those affiliated with Koryeo Entertainment and Rainbow Miracle can engage in new or comeback activities for the next three months.”
“Hmm. Good.”
The truth was, LUMINA wasn’t exactly a group with overwhelming competitiveness right now.
Even though they were kids I had discovered and raised, I had to admit what was true.
In the original story, they were buried deep in the sea until they finally got the spotlight in ’78, so debuting them now in ’76 wouldn’t cause any huge shock to the market.
That is, if I just threw them into the market as is.
‘If I time it right, it’s not impossible.’
I had wiped out all other new comebacks to coincide with LUMINA’s debut.
I had only allowed songs released up to last week to be promoted, and restricted ‘new albums’ to only LUMINA for the next three months.
Well, it didn’t really take much effort.
The sex bribery scandal had blown up so big that most of the groups that were going to release new albums had naturally been affected.
Even before I intervened, there were so few groups to appear on music shows that it wasn’t difficult at all.
In addition, they were forced to have three or four songs per group to fill the broadcast time, and the broadcast screen would ‘due to recent unfortunate events, blah blah blah’ to lay the groundwork.
Then people wouldn’t think it was that strange.
They would naturally think that the reason no new songs were coming out was because of the sex bribery scandal.
‘And LUMINA’s exposure time will increase. Excellent.’
Beep.
Just then, my phone rang.
It was a text from Min Jia.
– Young Master, I have taken care of the Daejin Group family. And Do Eun Joo, the mother of Jeon Seong Hyun who bears the most responsibility, has been captured and neatly packaged.
Packaged?
What the hell does packaged mean?
I called her right away.
– Y-Yes! D-D-D-Young Master! Min Ji—
“I told you to come in person for the final report, didn’t I? What’s with the impudence of sending a text?”
– H-Huh! I’m s-sorry!! I was going to give the final report in person this evening when I met Young Master, but I thought I should at least let you know the circumstances…!!
“Ah, you’re coming today?”
I guess so.
The deadline I gave her was this week.
– Yes! I will see Young Master’s face and tell you myself!!
I chuckled at her choice of words.
Her face….
Would there ever be a nephew who received such honorifics from his aunt?
“Don’t be late.”
– Yes, I unde—
I hung up without listening to the end.
A strange pleasure welled up inside me again.
I don’t know why, but she’s a woman who’s fun to boss around.
What should I do to her when she comes today?
+++
“Aren’t you going to greet them?”
“…Yes?”
The first to find LUMINA, who were busily preparing, wasn’t Go Mu Yeol.
It was the girl group ‘Nokoonoko Girls’, who had debuted three weeks ago with ‘Jigamotetaenokoonoko’ and had been number one on the music show for two weeks in a row.
Consisting of five members, they had a somewhat shocking concept: delinquent high school girl (adult), gyaru girl, gangster, triad, and mafia. The retro elements, which seemed to have been talked about decades ago, somehow hit the mark.
True to the delinquent concept, their image, outfits, and even their songs had a rather trashy feel, but surprisingly, they were found not guilty in this sex bribery investigation.
The mother of the member in charge of the delinquent high school girl (adult) concept was the CEO of the agency, and the scale itself was so small that it wasn’t even capable of offering bribes.
“Wow. Look at these bright-eyed girls.”
“Kids these days have no manners~.”
“Back in my day, when a rookie came, they would go around each waiting room from early in the morning, bowing so low that their heads touched the ground, but how can you not even get up when your seniors come to see you?”
