The video of Chae-eun's interview, taken by the reporter from the news channel NTN who'd come to cover the fan signing, exploded in views.
That was because, though the good-deed story itself was ordinary, Chae-eun's face as she gave the interview wasn't. Her face, with tear tracks still on it, had the power to move the hearts of those who saw it.
It was fortunate that lookism works in every era and every world.
Chae-eun's face, appearing right after the blurry, tightly cropped CCTV footage of her giving the collapsed monk rescue breaths, swept through every online community.
└ The monk just hit the jackpot. Stay healthy.
└ Fuuuuucking pretty.
└ Isn't that Ivy trooping past next to them? Whole group getting shelved
└ Ivy was there? Pixelated themselves out
└ This is real life? Thought it was a movie shoot?
└ She's the COEX goddess. Guess this is why you've got to live in Seoul T_T
Entertainment articles picking up NTN's story began to go up as well. It was thanks to Gil Sang-ik, who recognized her face from the profile of Chae-eun I'd given him.
COEX Goddess? She Was Yong Ent Newcomer Chae-eun... 'Utopia' Set for Release
As she was a rookie who hadn't debuted yet, not many articles on Chae-eun could go up, but thanks to the small amount of information, 'Utopia', her not-yet-released work, got mentioned alongside her, and if anything that worked out well.
When CEO Park and Jo Du-hwan, having checked every article on Chae-eun, raised their heads, I set down the coffee I'd been savoring. An awkward silence hung for a moment in the Yong Ent CEO's office.
"This actually works......?"
Ahem. At Jo Du-hwan's dazed reaction, CEO Park cleared his throat. He seemed quite surprised.
"Why did you go to the mall?"
"To hand over a script. Since we were meeting anyway, I called her to the mall so she could do a bit of people-watching too."
"You went to watch people and ended up saving a person's life? In front of reporters, at that? And a monk, on top of it?"
Does that make sense? Jo Du-hwan made a face that said he couldn't understand it. Of course he can't, because from start to finish, the whole thing is something I planned.
"San-woo and Chae-eun have done something big. Truly remarkable."
"I will pray that they are reborn in the Pure Land and attain Buddhahood? Then what does this mean? It sounds like something tremendous."
The Pure Land.
It's a place with no suffering at all, only happiness. If I attain Buddhahood there, something like my coming to this world now will never happen again, because I'll no longer go through the cycle of rebirth.
That matches the reason I'm running right now, to finish the race. Did the monk say it knowing something?
"They are good words. Our company's image has improved a great deal, too. Good work."
And the business cards happen to be ready. CEO Park took business cards out of the drawer beside the sofa and gave them to me.
<Yong Entertainment Manager Lee San-woo>
After gazing at the crisply printed letters, I laid the main point before CEO Park, before more of Jo Du-hwan's questions could pour out.
"Chae-eun is set to audition for Writer Son Yu-rim's work. Chae-eun is such a hard worker that she'll learn the script on her own, but I'd like her to have acting lessons before the audition."
"Writer Son Yu-rim?"
"She's the writer of 'Utopia'. It's her first full-length series, and there's no time slot yet, but the script is very good."
"All right. Our newcomers are running this hard, so I will assign her an acting teacher shortly."
Just then, the door of the CEO's office flew open and Jeon Hae-jun walked in.
At the sight of Jeon Hae-jun barging in with no warning and no knock, as if strolling in and out of the master bedroom of his own home, CEO Park shot to his feet. It was the fastest the ever-unhurried CEO Park had moved.
"Hae-jun. You came? Come in and sit."
Hello, sir. Jo Du-hwan and I bobbed a bow to Jeon Hae-jun and went out of the CEO's office.
"Du-hwan, a cup of coffee for me."
When Jeon Hae-jun said so as he sat down on the sofa, Jo Du-hwan shouted, Yes, Chairman!
Having gone to the break room with him, I asked Jo Du-hwan as he made the coffee.
"What brings Actor Jeon Hae-jun to the office?"
"He's set to stamp the contract for 'Racing Heart', you see."
So that was today. Jeon Hae-jun takes the role of the soccer club's owner. A sexy Daddy-Long-Legs. That taste everyone knows.
But along with a flat character who always seemed about to pop and never did, he ended up thoroughly humiliated by product placements like the kimchi pack and the liquid pain-relief rub that a chaebol always carries in his bag.
The work where Jeon Hae-jun, whose popularity had been soaring, first took a fall was none other than 'Racing Heart'.
"With Senior Hae-jun going into 'Racing Heart', he's trying to bring Senior Seo Yu-jin in with him. Honestly, even for us it's a bit of a waste to give Senior Seo Yu-jin away as the third lead, but Senior Hae-jun said to lay down a good actor under him. So we lay one down."
So that's what it was? The intent was worse than a package deal, where a lead actor slots in an actor from the same agency in the form of recommending a supporting actor.
With no thought for his junior's career, he meant to use her as a tool to make himself shine.
"Senior Seo Yu-jin looks like she'll do it if we push hard. Oh, I meant to ask earlier. Chae-eun really works hard, you said?"
"Yes. She works hard but would rather not let it show, a very modest type."
"I'm telling you, this is a business where it really matters whose hands you pass through."
"Sorry?"
"That kid Chae-eun got cocky and fell out of the CEO's good graces. We brought her a schedule, and she shot it down, asking why she should have to do something like this. So the CEO started in on her mental training, asking why he should have to help a kid with no manners make money."
Is this the Chae-eun I know he's talking about? Chae-eun is a kid who can't hide how overwhelmed she is by a single light compliment in passing and turns red in the face.
Her guardedness, from not wanting her shortcomings found out, may look somewhat stiff, but it's a far cry from cockiness.
So I could more or less guess. You people mean to gaslight Seo Yu-jin and use her as Jeon Hae-jun's cushion, so how much worse must you have been to a rookie like Chae-eun?
What kind of ridiculous schedule did they shove at her to make that careful kid go so far as to ask in return why she had to do the work? The odds that they'd been burned by a Chae-eun who says what she has to without holding back, and described it as being cocky, were close to ten thousand percent.
In the time you spend going around spreading false rumors, take a look at yourself, Du-hwan.
"Mental training, meaning?"
"Mental training."
Jo Du-hwan's finger pointed at me.
The tool for making Chae-eun's bleak future even bleaker had been me.
They could have just signed her and kept her tied up, but they tried to torture her with hope by attaching a greenhorn manager who knew nothing. And then, once there are signs of things working out, they open up the support again, he says.
CEO Park is one frightening man.
"In this business, the moment you float up on popularity, you're headed for the grave in an instant. The CEO's idea is to first give her the gravity that keeps her from being swept away by popularity."
Stick it on the nose and it's a nose ring, hang it on the ear and it's an earring. In its own way, it's persuasive.
But the one mistake CEO Park made is that I am not a greenhorn manager who knows nothing.
"Anyway, he says he's assigning her an acting teacher, you know. Looks like he's changed his mind and decided to invest now. Keep at it. Who knows? That kid Chae-eun might take the main spot at Yong Ent."
As long as I'm the one in charge of Chae-eun, that's what she will become. I've already drummed up the buzz. Once she's had the lessons CEO Park is arranging, too, the audition will be no problem.
And if I handed Chae-eun a part to her taste that way, this quest would be a success as well.
"Oh, right, I got promoted thanks to you. Call me Chief from now on."
What's this about now?
"Since you, an intern, are doing so well. I've moved up to chief."
There was no way I'd welcome hearing that Jo Du-hwan, who'd done nothing while I was running this way and that, had benefited thanks to me.
On top of that, the sorry sight of the business card he held out wedged between his fingers drew a sigh out of me on its own. At the sight of that familiar card, the words 'Chief Jo Du-hwan' sharp and clear on it, my mood turned endlessly foul.
But I have no time to sit around resenting the luck of Jo Du-hwan, who reaped a windfall thanks to me. If I produce results, it all comes back as bonus rewards. Since I'm doing this anyway, I intend to make a proper showing of it.
"I'm in charge of Senior Jeon Hae-jun now. I'm counting on you so I don't have to bother about the rookies."
"Yes. Congratulations."
For now, Jo Du-hwan and Jeon Hae-jun had been bound together as one body. With Jeon Hae-jun stamping his seal on the 'Racing Heart' contract today, Jo Du-hwan's crisis was beginning too.
Jo Du-hwan, promoted on the rolling talent of a stone that rolled in. Go for it.
Just then, my phone rang.
It was the hospital.
***
When I ran into the hospital room, I saw the face of Mom, who was sitting on the edge of the bed.
It had been a really long time since I'd seen Mom in everyday clothes.
"...Mom."
Mom stood up on her own, as if she'd woken from a long sleep.
Mom looked at me, but her mouth wouldn't readily open. She kept gazing endlessly at me as I gasped for breath, as if to carve me into her eyes.
I was at a loss as to what I should ask first of a mother who'd woken up. Does she even recognize me?
"It's been a long time. San-woo."
A faint smile rose on Mom's face. It was the greatest welcome one could ever hear from my blunt mother.
"Let's go home, San-woo. We've left it empty too long."
I returned Mom's smile and nodded.
Standing in front of the payment counter, I tried to stop Jo Du-hwan.
"Chief, I'll take care of the payment."
"What's a piddling intern going to do? Out of the way, will you?"
"Chief."
"The CEO gave me his card and told me to pay the hospital bill. This is what I came along for. Don't make me waste my time."
"Even so, I can't accept something like this."
I should at least make a show of refusing this much, for appearances' sake.
I knew CEO Park had given Jo Du-hwan the card. It was the reason I hadn't stopped Jo Du-hwan when he insisted on following me all the way to the hospital.
CEO Park had begun to see me differently.
I'd already taken note of how his expression changed when I reported on Chae-eun.
His handing over the keys and telling me to take a company car, since I had my mother to bring home, was a good sign too.
I have to accept CEO Park's kindness as if I couldn't hold out against it, for him to open up to me as well. If CEO Park even pays a huge hospital bill for me, he won't be able to cast me aside easily, if only out of thinking of what he's sunk in.
If the move CEO Park had tried in order to tame Chae-eun had now come around to me, I welcomed it.
There was no telling how rough the road to making Yong Ent No. 1 in the industry would be, so I needed to take out one insurance policy of my own.
"A mere intern, and you don't even know you've got a ring through your nose. Just think of yourself as tied to Yong Ent by the feet for life."
Du-hwan was swaggering with CEO Park's card in his hand.
Just as you say, I've been tied to Yong Ent by the feet for life.
Exactly what I wanted.
***
Mom looked around the house.
Isn't Mom, too, feeling something like what I felt when I faced this house again after regressing?
Mom walked over to the sofa on one side of the living room. It's the spot where she always sat. Perching carefully on the sofa, Mom slowly leaned back.
Just as I was about to step away so that Mom could take the situation in fully, my phone rang.
The caller was Writer Son.
"Yes, Writer Son."
Stepping out into the living room, I took the call quietly.
[San-woo. The audition date's been moved up.]
"Sorry?"
[The higher-ups pre-selected Noh Jeong-ah, you know. I hear Noh Jeong-ah's side changed it as they pleased.]
"To when?"
Writer Son's words came on in a rush. With curses mixed in here and there, Writer Son seemed thoroughly furious too.
Yes, I understand. My expression must have sunk as I hung up, turning over what Writer Son had told me. Mom, who at some point had come out of the room and been watching me on the phone, asked.
"Is work keeping you that busy?"
Come to think of it, this is the first time Mom is seeing me at work.
"Yeah, a little."
"Don't worry about me. Go on, and come back."
"...Okay. I'll be back."
A home with a healthy Mom in it. To come back here again, I went out to settle Chae-eun's schedule.
TL Notes:
TL Note: Daddy-Long-Legs — the title of Jean Webster's novel, which in Korea is shorthand for a wealthy older man who quietly looks after the heroine.