"It is truly good to see you after so long, CEO. You are looking even better."
"It does me good to see you after so long as well, Actor Kang. Thank you for coming like this."
The CEO's office at Yong Entertainment. Seated across from each other, CEO Park and Kang Cha-hyeon exchanged greetings and built up a cordial mood.
"No need for thanks. I heard from Hae-jun that you were looking for a lesson teacher, CEO, and I volunteered. Because I wanted to see you."
"Ho ho. Thanks to Hae-jun, we have been given a teacher better than we deserve."
Last time, when I asked for acting lessons for Chae-eun, Jeon Hae-jun had come into the CEO's office. Jeon Hae-jun must have heard the talk then and run his mouth.
The reason Jeon Hae-jun is called Yong Ent's chairman wasn't only that he's No. 1 in Yong Ent's revenue. Jeon Hae-jun was the type to get deeply involved in the company's affairs, large and small, as well.
Having decorously finished the pleasantries, CEO Park looked at Chae-eun and me and introduced Kang Cha-hyeon in earnest.
"Actor Kang came in as the youngest right before I left the troupe. Even then he was handsome and acted well, so I thought he would go far, and now here we are, welcoming him as a professor."
At a rough guess, it's a tie going back close to 20 years. How much does CEO Park know about Kang Cha-hyeon?
Kang Cha-hyeon looked at Chae-eun.
"Maybe because she is one of your people, CEO, Chae-eun has a very good face for the screen. I see plenty of students at the university, but ones with eyes this good are rare. Is that why she has already jumped into the field?"
"Thank you."
Chae-eun blushed at Kang Cha-hyeon's compliment and lowered her head.
"How did you come to start working right away, Chae-eun? Haven't you thought of studying acting?"
"Ah......."
Why did she work instead of studying, he asks? He comes right out with a question whose answer you'd know if you thought about it for one second.
He seems to want to play the refined professor who knows nothing of the world, but I wondered why he was acting like that right after it had been said that he, too, had once started at the bottom as the youngest in the theater scene.
This from a man who only got a share of their image as film-world nobility by marrying the actress Kwon Gyu-ri, daughter of Director Kwon Hyeok-il, a master of the film world.
It was a fact everyone knew that he, with no filmography to speak of, had positioned himself as a serious acting talent after marrying Kwon Gyu-ri, by taking one lead after another in the experimental works of Director Kwon Hyeok-il's circle.
With a grunt, CEO Park rubbed his chin and answered in her place.
"I was of the same mind as you, Actor Kang. A PD I know asked me to send Chae-eun to a corporate promotional drama, so I told her to go there and learn, you see. She kicked away that fine spot and went into a one-act drama."
This was the story of how Chae-eun had fallen out of CEO Park's good graces. The work they'd shoved at Chae-eun wasn't even a commercial drama. I'd have chosen the bit part in the one-act drama myself.
"So, how did today's audition go?"
I hadn't told them. Put out by Kang Cha-hyeon's appearance, I hadn't even thought to pass on the happy news that Chae-eun had passed the audition.
"She got it. Writer Son Yu-rim, who did that one-act drama, has taken a great liking to Chae-eun, you see. We're just back from confirming it."
CEO Park let out a laugh, a short huh, and looked from me to Chae-eun and back.
"Our new manager has excellent momentum. Chae-eun, a full-length series is the real thing. From here on, you go all the way on what you have. You would do well to learn as much as you can from Actor Kang here, since he is a very capable professor."
"Yes, CEO."
"Then how have you been practicing up to now, Chae-eun?"
Kang Cha-hyeon asked Chae-eun.
"I practiced by running lines with San-woo oppa."
"With a new manager?"
Kang Cha-hyeon looked at me. Heh. With that sort of sneer mixed into his words, Kang Cha-hyeon spoke to Chae-eun again.
"It looks like there will be a great deal for me to help with. Shall we try a lesson right away today?"
"Shall we? Actor Kang has gone to the trouble of coming, so it would be best not to waste time and to have a lesson right away."
CEO Park and Kang Cha-hyeon were driving the situation along, passing it back and forth. But Chae-eun will never, ever take Kang Cha-hyeon's lessons.
"Senior Kang Cha-hyeon. You don't need to give Chae-eun a lesson."
"......."
CEO Park and Kang Cha-hyeon, and Chae-eun too, looked at me. After a moment's silence had passed, Kang Cha-hyeon opened his mouth.
"The CEO is telling us to. It is awfully democratic in here, isn't it?"
His lesson has been refused by me, the one he'd been casually ignoring, so his pride must be hurt. It must be an effort to keep his authoritarian nature hidden.
Kang Cha-hyeon has hung a smile back on a face that had stiffened slightly, but when it comes to poker faces, I'm a move ahead.
There's no reason whatsoever to take pains over trash that's going to be thrown out. With the Quick Wits stat that had gone up a little while ago, I spat out whatever came to mind.
"Chae-eun is in terrible shape right now. She was up all night and tense on top of it, and we were just about to go to the hospital. If she really does come down with something at this rate, that's a far bigger problem with a full-length series ahead. She has to rest right now."
"......."
"I thought it was only proper to tell the CEO in person that she'd passed the audition, so we pushed ourselves a little to come in."
When Kang Cha-hyeon gazed steadily at CEO Park, CEO Park nodded and took my side.
"Managing an actor's condition is part of a manager's job, too. It is a pity, with Actor Kang having gone to the trouble of coming, but it cannot be helped. Let's just have a meal, the two of us."
"Then when shall we have the first lesson?"
"I'll be in touch."
There will be no getting in touch, because today's meeting with Kang Cha-hyeon is going to be the last in Chae-eun's life.
When we left the office, I put Chae-eun, who was asking whether she had to go to the hospital, straight into a taxi and sent her home.
Left alone, I stared hard at my phone inside the car.
I couldn't get rid of this world's Kang Cha-hyeon right away on the suspicion that Kang Cha-hyeon had sponsored Chae-eun in the previous world and might be connected to her death.
Flipping one by one through the articles in the pictures I'd captured, I began to look for articles on Kang Cha-hyeon.
Maybe because he was a middle-aged male actor who, though recognized as a top acting talent, didn't have the kind of popularity that rallies any real fan firepower, there weren't many articles.
But there will be something, for certain. Trash gives off a smell even when it stays out of sight. Kang Cha-hyeon must have given off a rotten stench wherever he was.
Swiping through the screens, I found one article.
Kang Cha-hyeon Ranks No. 1 in Course Evaluations at P University... 'The Discussion Format Worked'
'No. 1 in course evaluations?'
An article like this is a hundred percent a press release. An article in which P University, a provincial university short on name recognition, tries to promote itself using the name of Kang Cha-hyeon, a celebrity.
And with material like this in particular, the outlets often don't fact-check properly, so the inflated promotional wording sometimes goes out as is.
I went onto social media and searched 'Kang Cha-hyeon'. Posts about the films Kang Cha-hyeon had appeared in came up.
'Hmm....'
Searching by his real name won't find the information I want, because people usually use search-proofing words so that their posts don't show up when a particular keyword is searched.
'Kah Chah-hyeonh, Chah-hyeon, Chah-nyeoh....'
Swapping ng for h, or flipping the order of the consonants, I was able to find posts that caught my eye under the last search-proofed name.
└ A has-been with no schedule who cancels class every single day lol sweet as fuck, right
└ Isn't he No. 1 at calling students out?
└ Is a bastard with a known name allowed to call students out to a hotel at night?
└ Yep guess it's fine since he's washed up two or three times over
Anyone could see it was about Kang Cha-hyeon. He was doing exactly the same thing as in the last world, where he'd used his own power to push powerless people around.
I went to P University's website and clicked on the president's greeting.
The president is Kwon Hyeok-il. It was that film director Kwon Hyeok-il, Kang Cha-hyeon's father-in-law.
The reek of trash was overpowering.
I started the car.
***
"I saw something interesting. They're saying this is Kang Cha-hyeon?"
The afternoon hours before the end of the workday, when time drags the most.
When I called him out to a cafe near Daily Entertainment Issue, Sang-ik came running out in high spirits, his eyes darting behind his silver-rimmed glasses.
Sang-ik quickly read through the posts on the phone I held out, then shook his head.
"Come on. How could I write this?"
"You just report it out, don't you? One phone call to P University is all it takes. You check, and if it's wrong, drop it, and if it's right, it's huge."
"If I contact the PR office, just the checking will take ages."
"I thought you'd say that, so I got hold of the number for the president's office. Try calling right now."
When I punched the president's office number, which I'd found out in advance, into Sang-ik's phone, I could see that Sang-ik was nervous.
He's a guy who liked poking around everywhere and wrote plenty of exclusives large and small, but he can't have done any proper reporting yet, so he might well be scared.
At times like this, you have to give a push.
"Scared?"
At that one word, Sang-ik's eyes flashed. Sang-ik pressed the call button hard and put the phone to his ear.
"Go ahead and ask with confidence. Isn't that a reporter's privilege?"
When I made my eyes sparkle brightly, Sang-ik's shoulders tensed as he waited for the call to connect.
Perhaps because the other side had picked up, Sang-ik firmed up his voice and began to state his business.
"Hello. This is reporter Gil Sang-ik of Daily Entertainment Issue. Is it true, as is being said, that Mr. Kang Cha-hyeon demands private meetings with students? There is also talk that he is negligent in his classes. I would like to hear the president's answer."
Sang-ik, phone to his ear, said nothing for a long while, then put the phone down.
"What are they saying? Did you talk to the president?"
"No."
Then what did you just do?
"I did get the president's answer through the secretary. That it's a question not worth answering. They say they'll sue if a defamatory article comes out. Wow, the president here has a strong personality. Who is it?"
"Kwon Hyeok-il."
"Sorry?"
"The film director Kwon Hyeok-il."
Sang-ik made a sound like ah and went deathly pale. I swallowed a laugh.
***
The next day.
Famous Actor A Demands Private Meetings With Students He Teaches? 'Allegation'
Of course I knew it would come out. Sang-ik would have gone back to the office and reported on his meeting with me, and I'd expected that the desk, Yu Chang-hwan, on receiving the report, would fire off a tabloid-rumor article.
Yu Chang-hwan. After all, when it came to sucking up views, he was a pro at cooking up any sensational article at all while leaving himself a hole to slip out through.
I already knew his nasty habit of tossing the public something to play with while bearing no responsibility, thanks to an article fired off with the name withheld.
In the last world, he was the very one who'd attached the words 'nude show' to the article on Chae-eun.
This article, written under Sang-ik's name, spread quickly through social media, duly connected with the posts about Kang Cha-hyeon I'd first found, and even his real name rose into the real-time trends.
The other outlets, which were never going to leave a search term alone, weren't only reposting photo articles of Kang Cha-hyeon and Kwon Gyu-ri but also putting up articles like 'Kang Cha-hyeon's Latest' and 'Kang Cha-hyeon's Previous Works', feeding the public hints.
At last, properly reported articles came out.
Kang Cha-hyeon Drops Out of Kwon Hyeok-il's Retirement Film 'Confession at Dawn' "Already Decided"
'Confession at Dawn' Production Company: "Casting and Start of Filming Both Undecided"
Kang Cha-hyeon, Rumors of Discord Swirl... Already Separated?
Faster than the articles went up, Kang Cha-hyeon was being cut loose by the university and by his family.
It was obvious that Kwon Hyeok-il would have been enraged on learning, through Sang-ik's call, that his son-in-law's conduct had spread to the outside.
And the screenshots I happened to look up had an article saying Kwon Hyeok-il had begun filming 'Confession at Dawn', his 50th film, as his retirement work, so the timing was good too.
There's no way a son-in-law is more precious to Kwon Hyeok-il than the 50th work that closes out his life in film.
Kwon Hyeok-il must have resolved to cast off, just like that, a son-in-law who wasn't merely useless but in the way.
Since Kang Cha-hyeon had nothing of his own, there was no solution in going after Kang Cha-hyeon alone.
The move of sending Kwon Hyeok-il a warning message, in order to get rid of Kang Cha-hyeon, who'd lived in comfort as a parasite on other people's lives, had worked perfectly.
It was a paltry end, one that suited him.
To think that an innocent life had been lost because of a nobody like this.
Ding!
A message announcing the quest's success arrived on my phone.
[Sub-Quest Success]
[Quest Details: Save Chae-eun from Kang Cha-hyeon's temptation]
[Reward: Decisiveness +1]
Name: Lee San-woo
Occupation: Yong Entertainment Intern
Level: F-Grade (3 points left until next level-up)
Stats: Affinity 1, Quick Wits 2, Decisiveness 2, Negotiation 1, Stamina 1
"......."
I'd cleared away trash that she might have caught her foot on and tripped over.
May the road Chae-eun walks in this world be a smooth one.
Ding! Just then, yet another message arrived.