To Kiss An Idol

133 The True Businessman

Hu Bong looked at everyone and then thought for a few minutes. “So, what do you want to do?” asked Hu Bong.

“I want Rencontre’s official handle to give out a statement regarding the same. That we have found a lot of copied scripts and further plagiarism will not be tolerated. If a person is found to do the same, all his or her scripts will be rejected no matter if it is plagiarised or original. That will lead to banning. No matter how many usernames they change, their identification card would be the same. Then I want IT to reconfigure the servers so that we can monitor if the culprit tries to submit the scripts through a new username. And I want a plagiarism checker to make our work easy,” replied Nivritti.

“Hmm… IT team?” asked Bong.

“Getting a plagiarism checker is easy. We can get you an extension,” replied Alice.

“Woah! That’s what she said,” praised Chung-Ho and pointed at Nivritti making her blush.

“Um… how will the extension work?” asked Dae.

“It will be an added function in your browser. The moment you will open your browser, the checker will automatically start. You don’t have to do anything. It will automatically read the scripts and underline the lines that it thinks are plagiarised. Once it reads the scripts, it will remember it and if the scripts get repeated, it will underline the whole script, that way you can tell which is original and which is the copy,” explained Alice.

“Regarding your request for the scanning of the Identification Card, that will take some time. We will have to add a new function to our already existing software. That will take us days to code and then add the said code to the servers. But there is a catch. They can use different ID cards. So you will have to tag their username for plagiarism and then their ID card will be tagged. You cannot anticipate the number of ID card one individual possess. They might use their guardian’s ID card too,” explained Ravi.

“Can we ask participants to use only passports? They need one to get in Korea if they are selected,” suggested Dae.

.....

“Good suggestion, Seong-ssi,” praised Chung-Ho.

“But Sir!” interrupted Nivritti. Dae saw red at that moment. It was his moment of glory, but she had to step on it. He clenched his fists tightly otherwise he would have strangled her. “That would mean that a large number of people can’t participate. Every participant has five months to get a passport. We should not deny them the chance to participate just because they don’t have a passport. They can keep writing and applying for passports at the same time,” explained Nivritti.

“She is right. Moreover, if we add this rule that only people with passports can participate, just think about how much we will lose. Now everyone is writing at least 3-4 scripts which means $20 for each script. If we add the passport clause, our daily profit will be lost. So, let them write. Everyone knows that they would need a passport to fly to Korea to receive their grand prize. That’s common knowledge, common sense. If they won’t have a passport, they will have to forfeit their prize and the next person will be announced as the winner,” said Bong.

“Spoken like a true businessman, Sir,” praised Dae. But Bong was too concerned with the expression on Nivritti’s face.

“I know what I said was almost capitalism. Trust me, I care for every fan. If not for them, K&Q would not exist. But I have a company to run too. My employees always come first. If we won’t make money, how will I pay them?” explained Bong.

Nivritti just looked at him and nodded. Dae grabbed the fabric of his trousers and crumpled it with anger.

“So, anything else you want to discuss?” asked Bong.

“Ritti?” pressured Chung-Ho. Dae clenched his fists so tight that his knuckles turned white. Everyone kept looking at her, asking her questions, as if he didn’t matter at all. Bong even ignored him. His despise for Nivritti climbed a notch up.

“No, I think we covered everything. Sorry, I didn’t think about this issue beforehand. We could have added a rule in the beginning and avoided all this drama,” apologised Nivritti.

“One learns on the job,” commented Bong with a smile. “So, IT team, get working. Choi-ssi, give a write-up to them and they will add this plagiarism rule on the server and highlight it. I will talk to the PR team to release a statement and Nivritti, good job.”

Nivritti again bowed down to him with respect.

“Then, we should leave,” signalled Bong and the IT team stood up to leave. Bong was at the door when he stopped and looked back. “In about two weeks we will complete a month of receiving scripts. I will need an update after that. We can plan another meeting then,” he commanded.

“Yes, Hu-ssi. We will have a meeting after a month,” nodded Chung-Ho.

Hu Bong and the IT team left, and the Rencontre team looked at each other in horror.

“What does he mean by an update?” asked Jae-Hwa. “I cannot speak in front of him,” she shouted with fear.

“I don’t think the meeting will only be with him,” sighed Chung-Ho.

“What?” the Rencontre team shouted.

“I think he will get everyone, the PR team, the finance team, IT, ASD, production. I think he will talk about the future, how to proceed with the scripts,” explained Chung-Ho.

“Will we have to make a summary?” asked Nivritti.

“Summary? What summary?” asked Dae.

“Um… about how many scripts we read, what were the concepts, how many Mr. Nam approved, etc. Etc,” replied Nivritti.

“Really? Now, I will have to count how many scripts I read?” shouted Dae.

“Calm down! I will ask him what kind of update he wants. In the meantime, it would be better to be prepared,” comforted Chung-Ho.

“Aishhh…” shouted Dae with frustration.

“I cannot talk in front of him,” mumbled Jae-Hwa.

“Team! Pull yourself together,” assured Chung-Ho. “That is the future you’s problem. Present you, must concentrate on reading as many scripts they can find. Go back to your seats. Fighting!”

“Fighting?” asked Nivritti.

“Oh, it’s what Koreans say to motivate,” explained Jae-Hwa.

“Oh! Then fighting!” replied Nivritti.

All three came out and started working on their laptops.