069 JYPE

JYP Entertainment, located at 205 Gangdong-daero, Gangdong-gu, Seoul (Seongnae-dong).

It seemed to be Yun Eun-hui’s first time visiting this place, which stood right opposite the Olympic Park Swimming Pool.

It was hard for Yun Eun-hui to form a definitive opinion about Park Jin-young.

His father had successively worked at the Korea Development Bank and the DB Group, functioning essentially as a high-ranking corporate employee who rose to the position of executive director.

Park Jin-young himself was undoubtedly an academic high-achiever, earning a bachelor's degree in geology from Yonsei University and a master's degree in public administration from Kyung Hee University, before crossing over into the music industry and watching JYPE flourish.

Among the famous entertainment agencies, he was the only founder who remained actively performing on stage for a long time.

If his life story had ended right there, it would have been quite spectacular and deeply admirable.

However, Park Jin-young remarried in 2013...

His second wife was the niece of Yoo Byung-eun, the former chairman of the Semo Group.

The name of that particular conglomerate did not matter; what mattered was Yoo Byung-eun himself.

Yoo Byung-eun and his father-in-law had jointly founded the 'Evangelical Baptist Church'.

Although the organization's name included words like 'Christian', 'Evangelical', and 'Baptist', it had no relation whatsoever to mainstream Protestant denominations like the Baptists.

In fact, both the Catholic Church and mainstream Protestant denominations classified this 'Evangelical Baptist Church' as a heresy.

As for whether this entity was truly evil or not, nobody knew for sure. Its internal operations were extremely closed off, and consequently, there was no evidence linking this entity to the ferry disaster.

Despite various speculations, it was impossible to pin down whether Park Jin-young himself had any tangible connection to this entity.

Religious freedom in the Peninsula was still far too unrestricted.

During those two years of participating in street movements, Yun Eun-hui discovered that the Peninsula surprisingly lacked any legislation prohibiting religious figures from running in elections.

Hah?

You're telling me such a bill would be unconstitutional?

Come on, buddy, at least propose the bill first; whether it's unconstitutional or not, we can take it to the Constitutional Court.

They weren't even trying to hide it anymore.

It was no wonder Yun Eun-hui paid extremely close attention to these matters. Many times, these messy organizations operated under the guise of charity, making it difficult to distinguish the genuine from the fraudulent.

Take, for instance, the so-called Mahayana Charity Dance Troupe run by裴秀智’s mother; their slogan even featured phrases like 'Life Sharing', which was genuinely terrifying.

Only after investigating later did Yun Eun-hui discover that the so-called 'Life Sharing' referred to body or organ donation...

The good news was that the charitable organization裴秀智’s mother belonged to collaborated with the Ministry of Health and Welfare; the bad news... well, there was no bad news for now.

There was definitely something fishy about JYPE.

Yun Eun-hui believed in neither coincidences nor conspiracy theories, and 'Gangnam leftists' naturally possessed an 'elitist streak'.

Therefore, when he arrived, he specifically swapped the silver crucifix he usually wore close to his skin for an antique rosary.

?

So you actually believe in metaphysics.

A rosary typically consisted of a loop of neck beads, with a crucifix hanging downward from a centerpiece bearing an image of the Virgin Mary.

Yun Eun-hui’s rosary had been inherited from his grandfather and was exceptionally exquisite. The beads were made of pearls, the image of the Virgin Mary was carved from mother-of-pearl, and the crucifix was made of gold.

It was said to be a gift given to his grandfather by an Italian bishop, so it should possess quite a bit of spiritual potency, right?

"I'm telling you, Eun-hui hyung, is it convenient to practice dancing while wearing that thing?"

Upon arriving at the destination, Manager Kim, his assistant, finally couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark. The rosary was far too conspicuous, but Yun Eun-hui offered a glib defense:

"You don't understand!"

"Fine, fine, I don't understand, I don't understand."

Manager Kim was gradually getting used to Yun Eun-hui’s occasional eccentric moods, and besides, it wasn't her place to manage him.

She didn't understand why Yun Eun-hui needed to wear this necklace when visiting JYPE. There were no cameras following them around, so there was no need to style himself.

In Assistant Manager Kim’s eyes, JYPE was a large entertainment agency in extremely sound financial condition.

Yun Eun-hui agreed with this assessment entirely.

After going through several management crises, Park Jin-young had simply thrown his hands up and given up on micromanaging. What was the point of struggling so hard? Regardless of this or that, he directly activated the capitalist model, where making money was the primary objective.

What was the most profitable venture for an entertainment agency? Concert tours, of course.

Is the group popular? Tour! Is the group flopping? Tour!

As for Park Jin-young himself, as the major shareholder with ultimate decision-making power at JYPE, since he no longer needed to worry about day-to-day operations, he could simply pursue his own art.

Because of the incident involving his second wife, Park Jin-young was much better behaved now; at least he no longer openly dabbled in that stuff.

From a capitalist perspective, JYPE's current state was thoroughly ideal, and anyone could praise it to the skies.

Coincidentally, Yun Eun-hui ran into Park Jin-young and his 'prize pupil', Rain.

It seemed that after releasing a collaborative single with Sunmi in August, Park Jin-young had also collaborated on a single with Rain, which had not yet been released.

It was a reasonable guess that Park Jin-young had also sent an invitation to Bae Suzy.

"Hello, sunbaenim."

Yun Eun-hui offered a polite greeting. He had bumped into Park Jin-young and Rain in the hallway, and he couldn't simply pretend not to see them.

"You are..."

Looking at the unfamiliar yet somewhat familiar young man before him, Park Jin-young couldn't immediately recall who he was.

"Yun Eun-hui, rookie actor, soon to be hosting *Inkigayo* alongside ITZY's Yuna-ssi."

Three tall guys standing over 180 centimeters directly blocked the hallway.

JYPE's headquarters was an ordinary building with 10 floors above ground and 3 below. It housed 9 dance practice rooms, 18 vocal practice rooms, over twenty production-related offices, and more than six hundred employees, making it extremely crowded.

There was no help for it; when this building was renovated, public spaces like hallways had simply been sacrificed.

Without greeting each other, it was completely impossible to pass through.

Hearing Yun Eun-hui state his name, Park Jin-young seemed to remember:

"Oh~ Welcome."

"Thank you."

...

Why wasn't this person stepping aside yet?

Yun Eun-hui muttered inwardly. He had already delivered his greetings, shouldn't he be allowed to pass now? Was he supposed to wait for him to move aside first? But you have to actually start walking then.

Park Jin-young did not move. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the rosary hanging across Yun Eun-hui’s chest, wondering what was going on in his mind.

Yun...

Could he be from *that* Yun family?

"PD-nim!"

"Yuna."

Park Jin-young turned his head to see Shin Yuna running over. Spotting Rain as well, she quickly greeted him:

"Rain sunbaenim!"

Rain merely smiled. He didn't even know this so-called junior—who on earth were you?

"You guys go ahead with your work."

The passageway was too crowded. Park Jin-young took the initiative to press himself against the wall, while Yun Eun-hui nodded in acknowledgment.

The two groups walked off in opposite directions.

Park Jin-young couldn't help but look back once more at Yun Eun-hui, who was leaving while chatting and laughing with Shin Yuna.

"What is it, hyung?"

"He seems to be from that Yun clan. Have you ever heard your wife mention them—the Haepyeong Yun clan?"

Park Jin-young had learned to behave himself over the past two years. Whoever was in power had nothing to do with him; he only wanted to make money and pursue his art. He practically never cultivated personal connections—if he received an invitation he would attend, but he never actively cozied up to anyone.

With TWICE in its roster, JYPE was currently 'invincible', not to mention that DAY6 performed consistently and Stray Kids was also on the rise.

It was arguably the best-performing entertainment agency among the so-called Big Three and One.

"Nope. Is this Haepyeong Yun clan a big deal?"

Rain shook his head. Seeing this, Park Jin-young patted his 'prize pupil' on the shoulder:

"Pay more attention to society. You and your wife have plenty of places where you'll need money. Have you earned enough yet?"

"As if."

Rain flashed a grin. Who would ever complain about earning too much money?

He hadn't fully capitalized on his peak popularity when it was at its height, and after completing his mandatory military service, he failed to adapt to the new environment. After getting married, his career had essentially collapsed, which was why he was trying to find a way to salvage it now.

Earlier this year, Rain had first milked his past glory hard alongside Yoo Jae-suk and Lee Hyori, and now he had come crawling back to his 'beloved teacher', Park Jin-young.

"Don't worry, hyung, I know what I'm doing."