Resolution
Ahn Soo-jin's words stopped me cold.
The reason she'd locked herself in her room... wasn't because of me? Then everything I'd been doing until now... had been for nothing?
"Jiwoo...? Are you okay?"
"Ah— yes. I'm fine."
"You don't look fine at all. You look like someone who just watched every last thing she'd done get thrown out as worthless."
No. How is she this sharp...!
I had a lot I wanted to say. For now, I had to swallow it.
I let out a breath and looked at her.
"Then can you tell me why? Why you've been holed up in here like a hikikomori?"
"Why... does that sound like it's got a barb in it?"
Of course not. You're imagining things.
"Well... you've come this far. Fine."
Ahn Soo-jin laid out her past in simple terms — from why the bullies had gone after her, all the way to how she'd run.
"It isn't complicated. I just... ignored a greeting from the school delinquents."
"...What? That's all it took?"
"They don't need a reason. They just can't stand being embarrassed in front of people. You know that too, don't you, Jiwoo?"
"Ah... yeah."
Faces crowded into my head. There are actors who live on nothing but pride. Even at Cheongsol High School, there are kids who swagger around on pride alone. Every last one of them hungers for attention and cannot stand being humiliated. Completely the same.
"After that they started needling me, little by little... and when I kept ignoring even that..."
"It got worse."
She nodded.
"So that's why you transferred. You ran."
"...Yeah. I'd forgotten about it until recently. Then a little while ago... I got a message."
Even thinking about it seemed to be more than she could bear. She started to tremble, bit by bit.
I pulled her into a tight hug.
"It's okay. You don't have to say any more."
I knew how hard it was for someone being bullied. In my past life, there had been a junior at the company who was being iced out. At first I'd looked the other way, afraid I'd get targeted too... and then the whole thing had blown apart.
Looking at Ahn Soo-jin, that memory came flooding back. I was suddenly terrified that a single mistake might send her plunging into the abyss.
"Give me your phone."
"Jiwoo..."
"I'll solve this— no. I'll help you."
I couldn't solve her problem for her. The only person who could was Ahn Soo-jin herself. I was just here to give a little help from the side.
She picked up the phone lying by the bed and handed it over. She hadn't touched it since the news broke, apparently — a flood of notifications blotted out the screen.
The contents were enough to make anyone's brow crease. That first one had to be the delinquent who'd tormented her.
What? It wasn't just me — a lot of people had been worried about her.
I didn't know every name, but some of them were familiar. Starting with PD Oh Seok-ho, there were the staff and actors who'd filmed The Days We Had together, and people who looked like Ahn Soo-jin's own friends.
There was nothing I could do about those.
I held out my hand.
"Come on, sunbae. Living room. Now."
"Uh... huh? Why the living room..."
"Hurry! We're going to miss it!"
She took my hand with a dazed look on her face. I pulled hard and hauled her off the bed.
One step.
Just one step. Even when we'd eaten delivery, Ahn Soo-jin hadn't moved a single foot off that mattress. It had been her own little castle.
And now I was cracking that castle, just a little.
Or was I? Not me — all of us, including me?
I entertained that slightly embarrassing thought as I sat her down in the living room.
"Jiwoo... why the living room?"
"Shh. Just a second."
I worked the remote and put on a channel.
The Day We Were
Episode 1
Letters filled the television screen.
"Huh...? That's..."
Ahn Soo-jin pointed at the TV. I didn't say a word. I just leaned back against the sofa and watched. Seeing me like that, she focused on the screen too.
The first episode ended on that last shot — me driving a fist into the delinquent Lee Bohyun's jaw.
Came out just the way I talked it through with the writer.
The problem was how Ahn Soo-jin would take it. I looked at her, praying my intention had landed.
"Jiwoo... that scene... it's different from when I acted it, isn't it?"
"Uh... yeah. It is."
"And you were the one who asked the writer to change it."
She'd already gotten that far? Well — with her instincts, of course she had. I nodded without a word.
"The reason... no. You don't have to say it. You wanted to show me, didn't you? That if all you do is run, you can't do anything."
"...Yes. I believed you could get through this, sunbae."
"Why did you think that?"
A reason? Of course I had one. I only had to think back to the day of the shoot.
Even with her trauma triggered — even terrified of me — Ahn Soo-jin had still played Kang Mirae perfectly. Nobody watching would have guessed she had a bully in her past. She had become Kang Mirae.
Seeing that, I had been sure. Ah... she's someone who can overcome this. She just hadn't had anyone beside her. If someone simply gave her a little courage... she could fall down and get back up all on her own, as many times as it took.
"I see... that's how you thought of me. Thank you. I've only been a burden to everyone."
Her phone buzzed — a low, insistent growl. I glanced over. A message from Kim Hayoon.
The sneer jumped off the screen. How could someone just say things like that without blinking?
If she was the same age as sunbae, she was over twenty — an adult. And she was still stuck in her teens? I shook my head at this Kim Hayoon I had never even seen, pitying her.
"Pfft!"
"Sunbae...?"
"Ah— no. Jiwoo, your face just now was too funny. Yeah. It's pathetic. It's pitiful. Still stuck in those teenage habits, shaking kids down for lunch money, playing delinquent in some back alley..."
Ahn Soo-jin slowly shook her head.
"To think I was still scared of people like that..."
Then she picked up the phone and dialed. I just watched from the side, wondering what she was doing.
"Hello."
The other person's voice leaked faintly through the speaker.
But it was so loud.
Like a club.
A club? So she'd seen the drama coverage while she was out clubbing and immediately called to mock her? Did she really have that little going on in her life?
"You crazy bitch! Don't contact me again! You think I've got as much free time as you?! Don't make me laugh! You worthless piece of trash!"
Ahn Soo-jin cheerfully unloaded a stream of curses on the other end and hung up with a snap. When the phone kept ringing after that, she clicked her tongue.
"Ugh... so annoying."
She powered it off completely.
"Uh... are you sure that's okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine. I'm changing my number anyway. And I'm throwing this phone away."
"Photos and stuff..."
"I've been backing everything up as I go, so it's fine."
That wasn't the problem.
"What if they post some weird tabloid trash after you cursed them out like that?"
"Ah... you had a hard time with a tabloid recently too, didn't you, Jiwoo?"
"That's... well... yeah."
Should I even call it a tabloid? I had actually hit someone, so I couldn't say it was fake. Then what — a half-tabloid? Ban-Jji?
"Ban-Jji... Jiwoo. You're secretly terrible at naming things."
Hey. I just slapped it together. If I really put my heart into it, I could come up with a name in no time... I think.
"Anyway. I don't care about that stuff either. I've already copied everything those bitches did to me — every insult they sent. If they come after me, they'll just get hit right back."
"If you've got that much, then there shouldn't be a problem... but if they have any brains, would they try something stupid first?"
"...They will."
She answered without a flicker of doubt.
"With those bitches' brains? Guaranteed."
"Ah... right."
And then, a few days later.
I was speechless. But not many people were in a hurry to take the article's side.
People didn't buy it — specifically because the piece had come from the same outfit that had written that tabloid about me. On top of that, I had already dropped a few remarks about Actress Ahn Soo-jin at the drama's press conference. Reporters who lived for a scoop had scrambled to pump out follow-ups off those comments.
The result: less than an hour after the article went up, testimony from other actors and a counterattack from Ahn Soo-jin's agency made it vanish.
"That's what you get for picking the wrong person to mess with. Idiots."
"Right...? But Jiwoo, doesn't something feel off?"
I had been smirking at the article when Lee Yuwol, who'd been prepping dinner at the dorm, said something strange.
"Off? What do you mean?"
"I mean... news outlets are famous for how high they hold their noses. And they tucked tail this easily? That's what's weird."
Was it?
"Well... if it works out, that's a good thing, right?"
"True enough. Go call everyone so we can eat. You've got your solo recording tomorrow, remember?"
"Yes~"
The call had come this morning. My solo song was finished. And tomorrow was the long-awaited recording.