The Scandal-Proof Producer

The celebratory atmosphere that had filled Aura Management for the past few days evaporated in an instant, sucked out of the room by the frantic, panicked voice coming from Da-eun's phone. The moment the call ended, the conference room, still littered with the remnants of their victory celebration, transformed back into a war room. But this time, the attack felt different. It was messier, uglier, and aimed directly at the heart of their most defiant warrior.

Ahn Da-eun was a tempest of fury and fear. She paced the length of the room, her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists, her face a thunderous mask. "I'm going to kill him," she growled, her voice a low, dangerous rumble. "Choi Tae-hyun. I remember him. A greasy, smiling snake. My father was too generous with him, and this is how he repays him?" Her instinct was immediate and visceral: to rush home, to confront her father, to find this man and fight.

Yoo-jin, however, remained unnervingly calm, his mind already dissecting the attack with the cold precision of a bomb disposal expert. He saw past Da-eun's emotional storm to the cold, calculated strategy beneath.

"This isn't about an old business dispute, Da-eun," he said, his voice cutting through her rage, forcing her to stop pacing. "This is Nam Gyu-ri's handiwork. Think about it. She couldn't attack your artistic integrity—we made that untouchable. So she dug deeper. She found a private, family conflict and dragged it into the light. This is a classic smear tactic, designed to tie you, our symbol of righteous power, to a dirty, public lawsuit about money and betrayal. She wants to muddy the waters, to make your roar sound hypocritical."

As he spoke, Oh Min-ji was already a blur of motion at her tablet, her fingers flying across the screen. She didn't bother with search engines. She was tapping into private credit databases, corporate registration portals, and other, less savory corners of the internet she had access to.

"The former partner's name is Choi Tae-hyun," she reported, her voice flat and clinical, reading from her screen. "As Da-eun's mother said, his last registered business, a restaurant in Mapo, filed for bankruptcy three years ago. He has accumulated significant personal debt since then." She paused, her eyes narrowing as she processed a new piece of information. "Interesting. According to this banking record I've gained access to, three of his largest outstanding personal loans were settled in full last week by a single, anonymous wire transfer."

"Let me guess where it came from," Yoo-jin said, his voice grim.

"The transfer originated from a holding company registered in Panama," Min-ji confirmed, her tone icy. "A company named 'Veridian Global Assets.' A holding company I recognize from the OmniCorp blueprint. It's one of their primary shells for discretionary 'operational expenses.'"

The confirmation landed with a thud. This wasn't a bitter man acting on an old grudge. This was a funded, deliberate, corporate-sponsored attack. OmniCorp hadn't just encouraged him; they had paid him to pull the pin on this grenade.

Yoo-jin's phone was already in his hand. He dialed his lawyer, Kang Hye-rin. He explained the situation quickly and precisely, outlining the lawsuit and their discovery of OmniCorp's financial backing.

Hye-rin's voice was sharp and focused on the other end. "This is a classic SLAPP suit, Yoo-jin. Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. They don't intend to win this in court; the legal merits are probably flimsy. Their goal is the process itself. They will use the discovery phase to subpoena years of the family's financial records. They will leak select, misleading documents to friendly reporters. They will drag Mr. Ahn's name, and by extension Da-eun's, through the mud for months. The goal is to make 'Ahn Da-eun' synonymous with 'embezzlement lawsuit' in every headline, forcing you to settle for a huge sum just to make the bleeding stop."

The strategy was as brilliant as it was vile. It was designed to exhaust their resources, tarnish their reputation, and, most importantly, break their artist.

Yoo-jin hung up and turned his full attention to Da-eun. He had to manage his artist, his most powerful weapon, who was now the primary target.

"Da-eun, listen to me," he said, his voice firm but not unkind. "Your instinct right now is to fight. To charge into this battle yourself. That is exactly what Nam Gyu-ri wants."

"I can't just sit here and do nothing while they attack my family!" she shot back, her eyes blazing.

"Your job right now is not to fight this battle," Yoo-jin countered, his gaze steady. "Your job is to be an artist. In two weeks, Aura Chimera has its first major stage performance at the K-Wave Music Festival. It will be the first time the world sees you three perform live. Nam Gyu-ri wants you distracted. She wants you angry, unfocused, and stressed. She wants this to affect your performance so she can point to it and say, 'See? I told you human artists were unstable.' The single most powerful, most defiant thing you can do to fight back is to walk onto that stage and give the most incredible performance of your life. You show them that their attacks cannot touch you. You let the lawyers and me handle the mud. You handle the music."

She struggled with the command, her loyalty to her family warring with her trust in him. It felt like an act of abandonment.

It was Go Min-young who stepped forward, bridging the gap. "He's right, Unni," she said, her voice soft but strong. "We are your family too. Let us be your shield for this. So you can be our sword on that stage."

The simple, heartfelt plea from her friend finally broke through Da-eun's wall of fury. She looked around the room, at the faces of her team, all focused on her, ready to absorb the blow for her. She took a deep, shuddering breath and gave a single, sharp nod.

"Okay," she said. "What's the plan?"

Yoo-jin turned to the whiteboard, his mind clear now that his artist was back in formation. "We will not be issuing a loud, angry denial. That would only add fuel to the fire and give their story legitimacy. Publicly, we go silent on the matter. Our official stance is that this is a private, family matter that we will not be commenting on."

He looked at Min-ji. "Privately, we fight back, hard. Hye-rin's team will file a counter-suit for malicious prosecution, defamation, and abuse of process against Mr. Choi personally. We'll immediately put him on the defensive. We will use the discovery process on him. We will bleed him of the very resources OmniCorp just gave him."

It was a quiet, ruthless legal maneuver, a shiv in the dark instead of a sword in the light.

"And our public response?" Da-eun asked.

Yoo-jin smiled, a cold, dangerous glint in his eyes. "Our public response will be your performance at the festival. We will let your voice be our only press release."