Chapter 58: What You're Doing Is Illegal
"Standard negotiation channels?" Hikaru felt completely out of the loop. "Does that just mean throwing money at them?"
"Didn't you literally just say that directly paying them off is illegal and counts as extortion?" he deadpanned.
"This is exactly why you're still showing your youth. Agencies have plenty of perfectly legal ways to handle these things," Ichigo said, a seasoned, knowing smirk spreading across his face.
Entertainment agencies typically relied on a few standard counterstrategies. First was commercial ad placement—buying high-priced advertising space in the media outlet under the guise of legitimate business cooperation. Second was trading exclusive interview content, proactively feeding them positive material with higher journalistic value. Finally, there was building long-term corporate relationships, establishing a stable, ongoing channel for information exchange. These methods were incredibly effective at killing unfavorable coverage while completely aligning with legal frameworks.
"The actual execution is simple. We just use advertising fees as a perfectly rational justification. I'll buy a high-priced ad slot in this weekly magazine under the agency's name, and that way, absolutely no one can point fingers," Ichigo said, his fingers starting to fly across his keyboard. "On top of that, custom dictates we arrange for our talent to cooperate on a positive feature story down the line. That keeps the operational initiative firmly in our own hands."
Ichigo systematically began drafting a formal response to the fax.
[To the Editorial Department:
We have successfully received your inquiry fax dated December 18. We deeply appreciate your professional approach in reaching out to our agency prior to publishing your report.
Regarding the contents your publication intends to run concerning our talent, Miss Ai Hoshino, our agency believes certain details involve highly sensitive private matters from her childhood, and running them could trigger unnecessary public speculation and misunderstandings. To that end, we kindly request your publication to handle this information with extreme caution, keeping your corporate social responsibility in mind.
Furthermore, to foster a deeper and more positive partnership moving forward, our agency is fully prepared to arrange an exclusive interview with Miss Ai Hoshino for your upcoming issue, complete with firsthand photoshoot access and behind-the-scenes material.
Additionally, our agency has finalized arrangements to purchase a full-page advertisement in your publication's 2019 New Year Special Issue, which we expect to be positioned in the prominent prime-pages segment. Our advertising agency will follow up to confirm the finer details of this cooperation.
We ask that you take the above into consideration. We look forward to collaborating with your publication to deliver high-quality content, and we thank you for understanding the profound gravity our talent and staff place on these issues.
Sincerely,
Strawberry Productions Co., Ltd.]
"Handling it like this should smooth everything over," Ichigo said after clicking the send button. "The fact that they chose to reach out on a regular business day proves this leak isn't some nuclear-grade scandal. If it were truly urgent, high-stakes dirt, they would have contacted us in the dead of night or straight up ambushed the talent right outside our office doors."
Hikaru keenly pointed out another glaring issue. "But at the end of the day, this media outlet is just the platform broadcasting the news. The real root of the problem is: who exactly fed them this information? If we don't plug the leak at the source, they can easily take this scoop to another tabloid once we successfully kill it here."
Ichigo realized the gravity of the situation as well. "Ai, can you think of anyone who might have leaked this?"
Ai pressed a single finger against her lips, racking her brain to think. "Maybe my mother... but I'm really not sure."
"Can't we just bypass the middleman and directly ask the head of this weekly magazine who their informant is?" Hikaru tossed out a seemingly straightforward suggestion.
"Why are your solutions always so dangerous?" Ichigo shook his head helplessly. "They will absolutely never cooperate with that kind of investigation. It violates the core unspoken rule of their industry. Media outlets are legally bound to strictly protect the identities of their whistleblowers. If a leak on the magazine's part exposes an informant to retaliation, the media company faces massive legal liabilities."
"If word ever got out that a magazine failed to protect its sources, absolutely no one would ever bring them inside scoops again."
"What a massive pain," Hikaru clicked his tongue. "Personally, I think human beings don't need to maintain such high moral standards all the time."
"How about we just bribe one of their employees?" he persisted, refusing to stop pitching his terrible ideas.
"Stop right there," Ichigo cut Hikaru's train of thought clean off. "Let's stick to normal, rational methods."
Hikaru swerved back to the main topic. "Aside from your mother, Ai, do you have any other suspects in mind?"
Ai stared down at the floor, falling into a deep, agonizing silence. Her brow was knitted tightly, her fingers subconsciously twisting and pulling at the hem of her coat.
"If I absolutely have to name someone... I guess there is," Ai said, lifting her head with an uneasy expression. "After all, my social circle back then was microscopic, and barely anyone actually knew me."
She paused for a beat, her voice dropping into a soft murmur. "It's highly possible that my mother's boyfriend at the time leaked it to the media."
Ichigo set his teacup down, his expression hardening. "Is there any chance she went and told someone else about your situation later on?"
"Of course that's possible," Ai gave a bitter smile, shaking her head. "Nothing she does would surprise me. It's been so long that my memories of her are incredibly fuzzy anyway."
"I just remember she had a terrible temper, and she used to hit me sometimes. It was probably because I messed up or did something wrong."
*That's heartbreaking...* Hikaru thought. But he couldn't rewrite Ai's tragic childhood; what was done was a permanent reality. The only thing left to do was compensate for it as much as humanly possible.
And how exactly could he heal those childhood scars? Perhaps by filling her future with an overwhelming amount of joy, rewriting the deficit of happiness from her early years.
*The lucky ones use their childhood to heal their whole lives; the unlucky ones spend their whole lives trying to heal their childhood.*
He couldn't help but ask himself: *Do I have what it takes to give Ai true happiness?* A second later, he reached a definitive answer.
It wasn't a question of whether he had what it takes—it was something he simply had to do.
Hikaru made his decision. "Let's run an investigation. We can head down to your hometown and look around. Personally, I think that boyfriend is our prime suspect. Ai, do you happen to know his name?"
Ai shook her head, a look of blank helplessness on her face. "I've completely forgotten."
"If you've forgotten, should we start by asking your mother directly?" Hikaru locked eyes with Ai, his tone incredibly gentle. "If you don't want to face her, Ai, I can step up and handle the meeting for you."
"Huh? Go see her?"
Ai looked completely blindsided, her eyes going wide with a sudden spike of panic. "I'm... a little terrified..."
A brief silence descended upon the office, leaving only the sound of their steady breathing echoing through the room.
Staring at the two people in the room who genuinely cared about her wellbeing, a sudden wave of self-reproach hit Ai.
They were actively burning brain cells to solve her crisis, yet here she was, dragging her feet and actively trying to run away.
She couldn't be like this.
Ai took a massive breath, systematically forcing her courage to the surface. "Fine, let's go see her."
"I am not the weak girl I used to be. I'm going! And while we're there, I'm going to get answers about everything that happened back then!" She planted her hands on her hips, her posture radiating a sudden, powerful aura as she declared loudly, "I want to ask her flat out what she actually thought of me! Why on earth didn't she ever come back to get me?!"
A trace of long-buried resentment finally broke through Ai's voice.
She had been abandoned by her own mother—how could she not harbor any grievances? It was simply that she never voiced these dark thoughts to anyone under normal circumstances.
Watching the two teenagers bounce the discussion back and forth, Ichigo threw his hands up in a helpless gesture. "So you two are just going to handle this ourselves? Am I officially dismissed from this operation?"
Hikaru shot him a sharp, unceremonious glare. "Of course you're not dismissed. Once we track down the mastermind behind the leak, we're going to need you to go and intimidate him. You didn't honestly think throwing hush money at the problem was going to fix everything forever, did you?"
Ichigo's eyes widened, his finger pointing directly at his own nose. "Me? Go intimidate someone?"
"Obviously." Hikaru evaluated Ichigo from head to toe, a mischievous grin creeping onto his face. "Don't you think that bleached blonde hair, combined with your scruffy beard and those dark sunglasses, makes you look exactly like a low-level yakuza thug?"
Ichigo gritted his teeth so hard the veins on his forehead practically popped. "You little brat... I've been meaning to say this for a while now, but try showing a shred of actual respect to your agency President!"
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