The van ride back to the agency was loud.
"Did you see the fan cafe?" Hana screamed, waving her phone. "The membership numbers just doubled. We crashed the server!"
"And the memes!" Mina laughed, her face flushed with adrenaline. "Look at this one. It's a picture of the Titan Tower with the caption: 'Best Lighting Director: Titan Entertainment.'"
The girls were high on victory. They had just pulled off the greatest guerrilla debut in K-Pop history, and they thought the audio failure was just a technical glitch that Yoo-jin had heroically fixed.
Yoo-jin sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window.
In his pocket, the crushed remains of the in-ear monitor felt heavy.
He had stomped on it the moment they got off stage. He couldn't let anyone analyze it. If So-young found a signal that matched his own "soul frequency," the questions would never end.
"PD-nim," Mina leaned forward. "You were amazing. When you started clapping... I thought we were dead. But you saved it."
"We saved each other," Yoo-jin said, forcing a smile.
He checked the System notifications floating in his peripheral vision.
[Reputation: 'The Miracle Maker' (Viral)]
[Sync Rate: 42% (Stable)]
[Warning: Anomaly 'Version 1' has disconnected.]
He had disconnected. For now.
But the message was clear. The Doppelganger wasn't just watching. He could reach out and touch them. He could whisper in their ears.
"Driver," Yoo-jin said. "Don't go to the dorms. Go to the agency."
"At this hour?" Hana groaned. "We stink of sweat and champagne."
"We have work to do," Yoo-jin said. "The war isn't over just because we won a battle."
The next morning, the "Battle of the Atrium" was the only news that mattered.
Yoo-jin sat in his office, surrounded by newspapers.
[SOL & LUNA: The Queens of Noise.]
[Titan's 'Light Show' Backfires Spectacularly.]
[Who needs TV? Starforce conquers Hongdae and Gangnam in one night.]
The digital charts were a sea of red—the color of a perfect "All-Kill." Eclipse was #1. Gravity was #2. Even the instrumental track was charting at #50.
The door opened. Kim Seo-yeon walked in, looking exhausted but triumphant. She dropped a stack of papers on his desk.
"What is this?" Yoo-jin asked.
"Apology letters," she grinned.
Yoo-jin picked up the top one. It was from the Chief Producer of MBS Music Core.
Dear Starforce... due to a regrettable scheduling error... we would be honored to host Sol & Luna's debut stage next Saturday... special intro slot guaranteed...
He picked up the next one. KBS Music Bank. Then SBS Inkigayo.
They were all there. The same networks that had blocked his calls 24 hours ago were now begging for a slice of the pie.
"The ban is broken," Seo-yeon said, vibrating with excitement. "They can't ignore the numbers. If they don't have Sol & Luna on their show this week, their ratings will tank."
Yoo-jin tossed the letters back onto the desk. "Make them wait."
Seo-yeon blinked. "What?"
"Tell them we're busy," Yoo-jin said coldly. "Tell them Sol & Luna are considering 'exclusive options'. Let them sweat for 48 hours. I want better slots. I want longer interviews. I want the ending fairy for both girls."
"You're evil," Seo-yeon laughed. "I love it."
"Also," Yoo-jin added, his expression darkening. "Where is the smashed earpiece I gave you?"
Seo-yeon's smile faded. "I gave it to So-young like you asked. She's in the server room."
"Good."
Yoo-jin stood up. "Handle the networks. Squeeze them dry."
The server room was freezing. Rows of black towers hummed with the sound of cooling fans.
Kang So-young (Ghost) was sitting on the floor, surrounded by disassembled electronic components. The crushed earpiece was under a magnifying glass.
"You stepped on it pretty hard," So-young noted without looking up. "Trying to hide something?"
"Just frustration," Yoo-jin lied smoothly. "Did you find the source of the interference?"
So-young spun her chair around. Her face was serious. The playful hacker demeanor was gone.
"It wasn't interference, Yoo-jin. It wasn't a jammer."
She pulled up a waveform on her laptop screen.
"It was an Admin Override."
Yoo-jin kept his face neutral. "Meaning?"
"Meaning someone logged into our audio system using a Root Access Key," So-young said. "A key that hasn't existed since this building was built."
She pointed to a string of code.
"I traced the login ID. It's an old Starforce developer account. 'Admin_001'. It was created ten years ago and deactivated the day the original lead producer died."
Yoo-jin's heart skipped a beat. Version 1.
"So someone hacked an old account?" he suggested.
"No," So-young said softly. "The encryption on that account is biometric. Voice print and retinal scan. To use it, you would need the actual eyes and voice of the dead guy."
She looked at Yoo-jin. Her eyes narrowed.
"And here is the creepy part. I ran a comparison on the voice print."
She tapped a key.
Two audio waves appeared on the screen. One was the "Admin_001" voice. The other was a recording of Yoo-jin speaking in a meeting yesterday.
They overlapped perfectly. A 100% match.
"Yoo-jin," So-young whispered. "Why does the ghost hacker have your voice?"
The room was silent except for the hum of the servers. This was the danger. If his team started doubting him, the fortress would crumble.
"I don't know," Yoo-jin said. It was the truth. "Maybe Titan synthesized my voice to frame me. They recorded me in the studio, didn't they?"
It was a weak lie. But So-young wanted to believe him. She hated Titan too much to suspect her ally.
"Deepfake audio," So-young muttered, nodding slowly. "That makes sense. Those bastards. They tried to make the girls think you were sabotaging them."
"Exactly," Yoo-jin said, seizing the narrative. "It was a psychological attack. They wanted Hana to mistrust me."
He crouched down, looking So-young in the eye.
"Can you block it?"
"If it's a deepfake, I can encrypt the channels," So-young said, her fingers already flying across the keyboard. "I'll rewrite the audio kernel. Next time they try to inject a signal, it will bounce back and blow out their speakers."
"Do it," Yoo-jin said. "And wipe the logs. We don't want the police investigating a 'dead' account. It complicates things."
So-young nodded. "On it."
Yoo-jin walked out of the server room. His shirt was soaked with cold sweat.
That was too close. The Doppelganger wasn't just a rival; he was a systemic flaw in Yoo-jin's existence. He had the keys to the castle because he built the castle.
Yoo-jin retreated to the roof for a smoke. He didn't smoke, but he kept a pack for moments like this. He just held the unlit cigarette, staring at the Titan tower across the street.
The billboard was dark today. They had learned their lesson.
His phone rang.
He didn't recognize the number. But it wasn't "Unknown." It was a landline. A very expensive, private landline.
"Hello," Yoo-jin answered.
"Mr. Han."
The voice was deep, aged, and radiated authority. It sounded like money.
"Chairman Moon," Yoo-jin identified him instantly.
"You put on quite a show last night," the Chairman of TK Group said. "My daughter looked good. Angry. But good."
"She is a star, Chairman," Yoo-jin said respectfully. "I told you I would polish the gem you discarded."
"You did. And you used my department store to humiliate my competitor. Bold."
There was a pause. The sound of a pen scratching on paper.
"But winning the sprint is easy, Mr. Han. The marathon is starting."
"I'm ready for the marathon," Yoo-jin said.
"Are you?" The Chairman's voice dropped an octave. "Titan isn't just a music company. They are a conglomerate. You embarrassed them. They won't use dirty tricks next time. They will use the law. They will use the banks. They will use the government."
Yoo-jin tightened his grip on the railing.
"They are calling an emergency board meeting today," the Chairman continued. "To discuss the 'Sol & Luna Problem'. They are going to unseal their vault."
"Their vault?"
"Titan has a catalogue of unreleased songs. Masterpieces they've been hoarding for a decade. Songs written by their 'Golden Era' producers. They are going to give those songs to Apex. They are going to give them to Aurora. They will flood the market with SSS-Rank music until your girls drown."
Songs from the Golden Era.
Yoo-jin realized what that meant. They were songs written by Version 1.
The Doppelganger was feeding Titan his old work.
"Let them release them," Yoo-jin said, his voice hard. "Old songs are just nostalgia. I'm creating the future."
"I like your arrogance," the Chairman chuckled. "Don't disappoint me. I have a lot of money riding on your stock price."
The line went dead.
Yoo-jin looked at his phone. The stakes had just shifted.
It wasn't just about chart manipulation anymore. It was a duel of discographies. The past vs. the present.
He went back downstairs. He walked straight into the recording studio where Mina and Hana were reviewing their schedule.
"Change of plans," Yoo-jin announced.
"We just got the schedule!" Hana complained. "Music Bank on Friday, Inkigayo on Sunday..."
"Accept the shows," Yoo-jin said. "But we aren't just promoting. We're recording."
"Recording what?" Mina asked. "The album is out."
"The repackage," Yoo-jin said. "Titan is going to counter-attack with everything they have. We need more ammo."
He sat down at the piano.
He didn't open the System. He didn't ask for a melody. He closed his eyes and thought about the Doppelganger. He thought about the man standing in the balcony, mocking him.
He thought about the fear of being a "Version 2."
He hit a chord. It was dissonant, angry, and unresolved.
"We're going to write a new title track," Yoo-jin said, looking at his artists. "And it's not going to be about the Sun or the Moon."
"What's it about?" Hana asked, intrigued by the darkness in his eyes.
"It's about hunting a Ghost," Yoo-jin said.
He began to play. The melody was sharp, fast, and aggressive. It sounded like a chase scene.
For the first time in weeks, he wasn't calculating stats. He was just making art. And it felt dangerous.