That Day, the World Collapsed
"Hey, everyone~ Food's ready!"
At the shout of Lee Yuwol—twenty-five, the eldest in the dorm—I tried to push myself up from the bed I'd been lying on just a moment before...
"Nnngh...."
I couldn't.
Every muscle in my body was screaming. I didn't even have the strength left to twitch a single finger.
Ah... is this how I die...
My eyes drifted slowly shut. Darkness crept in.
No... there's still so much I want to do. I haven't even made that much money yet...
I can't die... I don't want to die...
But my body refused to move, no matter how badly I wanted it to.
"Everyone get out here! I made pork cutlets today!"
"Pork cutlets!"
The instant those magic words hit my ears, my body shot upright off the bed.
If I was going to die, I was dying after pork cutlets. They said even a ghost looked better if it died on a full stomach.
If I died, I was dying stuffed. No—I was dying with my stomach about to burst.
"Unnie! Three bowls for me—no, four!"
"I know. I'm making yours separately. Just wait a bit."
"Yes~!"
I sat at the living room table and bounced my feet.
When's it coming out? Now? Or now?
"When's it ready?"
"You came out of your room less than five minutes ago. Wait a little longer. Or go look at your script or something."
"Ah... the script."
The moment lunch was over, I had to head to the drama set.
Two weeks had already passed since filming started. Originally, my scenes should have been wrapped by now, but thanks to various adult circumstances, the shoot had been stretched out.
Still. This was only my second drama, and I was the lead. On top of that, it was a script by Park Ja-wook, the writer who turned every drama he touched into a smash hit.
Failure wasn't a concern. The problem, if there was one, was acting.
Lately, the other actors' performances had been getting... intense. They'd never been bad to begin with, and now they'd leveled up from there. PD Oh's smile hadn't left his face. People were starting to say his face looked weird, actually.
"Okay. I'll go read my script. Make it delicious~"
"Sure~ Ah! Right! Jiwoo, you're still working out whenever you can, right?"
Gulp.
My shoulders gave a violent twitch.
It had been several days since I'd become Choi Wooseok's self-proclaimed disciple. Even on filming days and lesson days, I carved out time and ran according to his training regimen.
"You've been heading out every morning lately. What are you doing?"
"Uh... running?"
"And?"
"Running... more running... running..."
Was it just me, or were my shoulders sinking lower with every word? And why... was sweat coming out of my eyes?
"That's... that's fine, right?"
"Yes. Hoyeon unnie works out with me, and the hospital said there's nothing seriously wrong. They actually said it would be much better to bump up the intensity a bit and build more stamina..."
Come to think of it, the doctor was the real problem. Kang Ho-yeon and I had heard those words together, and the fact that the workout intensity shot up afterward was definitely not my imagination.
I'd begged her with tears streaming down my face, pleading for my life more times than I could count. Kang Ho-yeon didn't so much as change expression. She just said, firmly:
"Still making those crying noises? I'll bump the count~"
Just remembering that moment—
"AAAAAAAH!!"
"Wh-what the—why are you screaming?"
"S-sorry... there've been too many demons around me lately..."
"Yeah... I'm getting worked half to death by my manager unnie too..."
Kang Ho-yeon was my dedicated manager, nobody else's. She spent so much time on set with me that she couldn't look after the other members as well. That was what the second manager was for—road manager Choi Gayeong.
A twenty-eight-year-old manager unnie with round glasses and a pretty smile. She looked innocent enough on the outside.
"Ugh... Robot Unnie doesn't listen to a word we say. If an expert says okay, she follows that and only that. Like a machine."
The nickname came from how she executed any input she received without the slightest deviation. Robot Unnie.
"Sorry about that. Being a robot and all."
"?!!"
A woman's voice, from right behind us. Every hair on our bodies stood on end.
She absolutely should not have been here at this hour. If it had been a stranger's voice, it wouldn't have been this terrifying.
Dammit... why has God forsaken us!
I blinked rapidly, signaling Lee Yuwol.
"Unnie... what do we do?"
"Give up. It's already over."
Lee Yuwol had already surrendered. I sighed and turned around.
Standing behind us with her arms crossed was Robot Unnie. No—Manager Choi Gayeong.
"Uh, unnie... you know we love you, right?"
"Th-that's right! Would you like some pork cutlet too, unnie?"
I pointed at the finished pork cutlets. Nobody in the world hated pork cutlets...
"I don't really like pork cutlets?"
"....What?"
That day, my world collapsed.
Having barely clung to life, I climbed into the van Choi Gayeong was driving. As it turned out, Kang Ho-yeon had something important today, so Choi Gayeong was filling in as my daily manager.
So that was why she'd been at the dorm since lunch. What if I'd known that just a little earlier? Thinking about it now was already too late.
"I'll be in your care today."
"Same here. Also, Hoyeon unnie told me to squeeze in some stamina training whenever I can..."
"That's..."
Acting itself burned through a massive amount of stamina. I had a title effect, so my stamina never dropped during filming, which made shoots a joy. The other actors had to rest for a set amount of time after every single take—the kind of acting people called Method.
"Buckle up. We're heading out."
"Okay~"
The van eased out of the parking garage without incident and headed for today's set.
"Hmm... Jiwoo? Something good happen lately?"
"No? Why do you ask?"
"It's just... your form's been incredible these past few days. It was already great before, but it's gotten even better. I figured something must've happened."
Ah... I had a pretty good idea. My stamina had gone up from F+ to E.
It used to take a full day just to raise stamina by one or two points, and even then I could only get it through daily achievements, like daily quests. Lately, though, the harder I worked, the faster my stamina climbed. How could I not feel good about that?
"It's probably because my stamina went up. I've been working out hard lately."
I rolled up my sleeve to show off the fruits of my labor. A smooth arm... with not a single muscle rising to the surface.
"Ah... haha. This is... you know! Combat-compressed muscle! Anyone who takes a hit from me goes down."
"Goes down, huh..."
PD Oh Seok-ho looked from my arm to my face and back again, then nodded.
"Well, getting hit by you would take someone out, all right. Just... in a different sense."
What was that supposed to mean?
Take someone out in a different sense? The only person who'd actually been hit by me was actress Oh Hye-jung, and even that had been a light tap as part of a scene.
"I don't go around hitting people."
"Of course you don't. You absolutely cannot get caught up in any scandal involving hitting people. If you get mixed up in another incident... that's really the end."
PD Oh Seok-ho's shoulders sagged. He didn't have to say it. The higher-ups were probably breathing down his neck. I'd worked at a company in my previous life. I knew exactly how this went. Even if it wasn't your fault, once a company started hunting for someone to blame—
Ugh... just thinking about it made my teeth chatter.
"Still, building up your stamina is a good thing. Look over there."
I followed the direction he was pointing. There, extras and supporting actors lay collapsed from exhaustion.
Without the title effect, I'd be in even worse shape than them. No matter how I looked at it, the Status Window was broken. It was a god. I clasped my hands together and offered praise to the Status Window, whose origins I still didn't understand.
"Jiwoo? What are you doing?"
"Just a second. I need to pray for a moment..."
"Pray? You religious?"
I wasn't, but right now I couldn't not pray to a god. I opened the eyes I'd closed for prayer to find PD Oh Seok-ho staring at me like I was weird.
"Ah... haha. Sorry. I suddenly got a great idea for my next movie."
"A movie.... You've already decided on your next project? Isn't that a bit soon? Be careful. You'll wreck your body at this rate."
"Hehe... I know."
Then I felt something crawl up my spine from behind. Every hair on my body stood on end. I whipped around.
"Jiwoo?"
Was it just my imagination?
I'd just felt someone staring at me. When I turned, all I saw were crew members moving around for the next shot.
But I'd felt it. Clearly. A gloomy, clingy, thoroughly unpleasant gaze. Ugh... just thinking about it again and I couldn't stop shivering.
"Jiwoo?"
Worried by my strange behavior, PD Oh Seok-ho called my name again.
"Something weird over there?"
"Ah... it's nothing. I must've imagined it."
If something were actually wrong, the Status Window would have reacted first. No reaction meant no problem. So all I had to do was focus on my own job.
Alright! Let's do this!
Meanwhile.
"Heh... our eyes met... Coming out of the house today was worth it.... It's hard, but... I get to see the goddess in the flesh..."
He was happy. The man hid among the crowd and smiled.
"It won't be long now. Until I have the goddess in my hands..."
"Hey! What are you doing! Get moving!"
A jolt.
How dare he interrupt the audience with the goddess!
A look sharp enough to kill flashed in his eyes.
"Ha... give me a break. Why do all the part-timers these days have to be such idiots... Hey! We don't have time! Move it!"
"Should I kill him? Ah, no... Using my power here would only delay the time I get to meet the goddess... I'll endure it for now."
The man quickly hid the killing intent, gathered the dropped cargo from the floor, and started moving.