Chapter 7
While Kim Deok-su was relaxing in the gay bar, a story unfolded that caught his attention. He’d casually mentioned, “My wrist is getting tied if I keep using the stage name L’Vyu.”
Someone leaned in close and replied with a knowing smirk, “That face of yours doesn’t have a girlfriend, which means it has a boyfriend. I’m tying that one too.”
“Whoa, ending with jjaeng ending bba? Tsk tsk.”
·······
When investigators at the hospital had been gathering information on Kim Deok-su, the comments beneath the posts were no longer dominated by wild haters. Another category had suddenly risen to the top. The comments weren’t saying Kim Deok-su had changed his sexual preferences, of course. The only thing the old Kim Deok-su—anyone who hated every single thing about him—would grudgingly admit was this one part. That admission was all it took to send shockwaves through the room. A girlfriend? What was happening?
Luckily the mystery was cleared up almost instantly. “Wooah, until the very end······! It’s me, Min-hye. Ryu Gang-hyeok’s little sister, Ryu Min-hye.”
Deok-su kept his expression perfectly calm, but a chill raced down his spine. Ryu Min-hye. A late-bloomer trainee at JMT Entertainment and the cousin of Ryu Gang-hyeok. In reality she was little more than a sister to him; everyone at the company already treated her like the company’s younger sibling. She was twenty-five now, still an under-age trainee at that stage of her career. Yet the “cousin” title was the only reason she hadn’t been kicked out years ago. Deok-su hid his surprise and answered with effortless ease. “I knew you’d be the first one to speak up.”
“Wooah, L’Vyu! You were waiting for me, weren’t you? How can someone be this consistent?”
Watching Ryu Min-hye’s dramatic pout, Deok-su finally felt relief. He’d been practicing the old Kim Deok-su’s exact attitude all day. Ryu Min-hye puffed out her lower lip, exhaled, and shrugged. “······Sigh. I only came to watch because you work out so hard. It’s pretty to see.”
“I’ll start managing myself now.”
“Good. Come see me often. Buy me lunch too.”
After that brief exchange, Deok-su headed straight to the parking lot where Lee Hui-yeong was waiting. It was already late at night. She glanced at him with genuine worry as she gripped the steering wheel. “Have you been working out a lot?”
“A fair amount. Not much visible change, though.”
In the beginning even a small amount produced results, but the gains had slowed dramatically. Alone, he had hit a hard ceiling. Finding a proper trainer had proved impossible. A half-hearted one was worse than none at all, and a world-class one was far too expensive. While he was still turning it over in his mind, Hui-yeong spoke up carefully. “By any chance, do you know a girl named······ ah, Ryu Min-hye?”
“Ryu Min-hye? The younger sister of Ryu Gang-hyeok?”
They had only been doing occasional private workouts together for the past few days. When Deok-su asked for details, Hui-yeong told him a shocking story. “Yes, that Min-hye. She won first place in the Muscle Physique Bikini competition last year and the year before.”
Deok-su’s eyes widened. Now that he thought about it, the other trainees always trained in ordinary clothes, but she moved like someone who knew exactly how her body worked. Still, the question lingered. “If she’s won first place two years straight, isn’t she more like an influencer than a trainee? Why is she still grinding?”
“The company wouldn’t keep a twenty-four-year-old trainee around for nothing. I thought you already knew about Min-hye, though······. Did you not?”
Deok-su felt a stab of panic. He had to keep his memory loss a secret; this exact frustration had come up more than once. “Oh. Been at the hospital so long······.”
“Ah, sorry. I was short-sighted too.”
“Let’s drop that. So, do you have any good ideas?”
“As long as it doesn’t bother you, I can talk to Min-hye about taking you on as her personal trainer.”
Someone who had won first place twice in a row was an expert on the human body. That was the best possible solution for Deok-su. The only catch was timing. “No. I’ll speak to her myself.”
Today had shown him that hearing it directly from the manager beat hearing it from the company. The next day, Deok-su walked into the fitness room and approached Ryu Min-hye while she was doing dumbbell squats. After waiting a moment, she finished her set, lowered the bar, and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “You came again today? Nice. But what’s the favor you need?”
“I need a small favor. Can you help me with my training?”
Deok-su went straight for the point. Her direct style and fiery attitude told him that beating around the bush would only waste time. Ryu Min-hye looked up at him with curious eyes. “Why would your management team not handle it?”
“You really like poking the sore spot, don’t you?”
“Ah, the management team said they haven’t been taking care of things lately. Sorry. I can create a routine for you. It might be tough······.”
“I’m not asking for free management. I can pay a decent amount.”
Hearing money mentioned, Ryu Min-hye’s face twisted in anger. “Where’s the sudden cash coming from? This feels off.”
“I’m being completely honest. No hidden agenda.”
“······. Deok-su. You’re weird.”
Ryu Min-hye’s ears were already open. Rumors had been flying around the company for weeks. After returning to work for the first time in a year, stories ranged from the company abandoning him to plans of shipping him overseas. “If Deok-su says it, I’ll help. He’s our Deok-su.”
“Thanks. The payment······.”
“Forget the payment. Deok-su’s been the one looking out for us all along. Anyway, the other trainees who kept pestering me for training ended up making a mess because of him······.”
“Want me to chase off anyone annoying you?”
Ryu Min-hye burst out laughing and grabbed Deok-su’s arm. “Decline? Ew, your arm is so thin. Disgusting······. I’ll train you until your arms are like Julian Kim’s.”
Deok-su felt a surge of joy at her bold acceptance. ‘This is the first time I’ve seen Kim Deok-su get lucky. Yeah, I’ve dumped enough poop on him······.’
Starting the next day, serious body training began. Ryu Min-hye measured Deok-su’s physique on the InBody machine in the corner of the fitness room. “Height 186, weight around 70······. Skeleton’s fine, but you have quite a bit of visceral fat.”
“Been at the hospital for so long.”
“That excuse is over. Get ready.”
Ryu Min-hye laid out a training course for him. It was a bit more intense than most beginners could handle, but surprisingly effective. The real problem was diet. Five meals a day and massive protein amounts made Deok-su want to scream. “Do I really have to eat all of this?”
“Deok-su, you’re underweight with abdominal obesity. Just follow what I say and you’ll be fine?”
The portions were huge, but the taste was terrible. Deok-su’s mouth watered at the thought of food without seasoning. If it weren’t for Jeong-mi’s home-cooked flavor, he might have given up already. “Mom, thank you.”
“No, no. Seeing my son working so hard lately, I’m happy too?”
Watching Jeong-mi hum while packing the lunchboxes, Deok-su felt a complicated mix of emotions. Jeong-mi was the first real parent he had ever met, having only known his father—someone who was more like a scoundrel than anything else. ‘······I’ll treat her even better.’
Kim Deok-su’s unexpected behavior spread through the company like wildfire. “He’s been training with a grudge lately. Why?”
“What’s the point? No one’s calling him for his ‘dumped’ image anyway.”
“Still, he’s a good-looking guy. Who knows?”
“There are only two of those in this industry?”
The male trainees kept their distance, while the female trainees eyed Deok-su with cautious wariness. For many different reasons, Kim Deok-su had become the center of everyone’s attention.
* * *
Every time Deok-su threw himself into solo acting practice, he was startled by the change. The voice was completely different from the one he had used for the previous king role. Every time he switched acting characters, that voice matched the role perfectly. ‘This voice is my secret weapon.’ At first he had feared it would be strange, but now the thought of it producing something odd felt even scarier. “Wooah······! I’ve never seen someone’s voice sound this diverse. It really is like a voice actor!”
Hui-yeong had already started suggesting voice-acting auditions to Deok-su. Over time he had thrown far more weight into acting than vocal training or dance. “In the seafood transport process, any seafood that smells of spoiled decay······.”
Acting coach Kim Hyeok-jung, who had arrived twenty minutes before the lesson, jumped straight into a pronunciation test. The script was one of those difficult sentences announcers practiced. Deok-su read it through without a single stutter, only a couple of minor hesitations. ‘He’s practiced an incredible amount.’
Kim Hyeok-jung’s lips twitched in a tiny smile. Pronunciation doesn’t change in a single day; it’s tied to speaking habits. Being able to read similar sentences smoothly was proof of hard work. “······He disappeared into the forest at thirty-three seconds.”
“······. Not bad.”
Kim Hyeok-jung hid his surprise. A person’s face doesn’t change easily. The image of a hooligan wasn’t that fragile. Deok-su stood in the center of the training room for the next test. This time it was pure acting. Last week Kim Hyeok-jung had told him to push himself as far as he could alone, and Deok-su had trained every single day. “The script?”
“I’ll perform without looking at it.”
“Confidence is good, but forgetting lines and losing immersion is worse than reading from the script, isn’t it?”
“I think I’ll focus better without looking.”
Kim Hyeok-jung stepped back with an intrigued look. After the pronunciation test, he felt a spark of hope. Something seemed different······. Maybe just a passing mood. Behind his impassive face, Kim Hyeok-jung was a storm of mixed feelings. “The bastard has lived without a single shred of shame! But you, my subordinates······.”
Kim Hyeok-jung closed his eyes and listened to Deok-su’s voice. The tone was unmistakable. The deep, commanding voice carried a power that pulled you in. The pronunciation had improved even more; it was almost pleasurable to hear. Expecting the worst, Kim Hyeok-jung opened his eyes. Now it was time to watch the eyes and body language. Deok-su paced the room, raising his voice. “······. You all should feel ashamed! My lord, you officials······.”
Hearing it with his ears was one thing, but watching it with his eyes left Kim Hyeok-jung disappointed. The voice clearly belonged to the king, yet the gestures felt off. ‘Eyes, handwork······. It really is hard to handle alone.’
Closing and opening his eyes, Kim Hyeok-jung observed Deok-su’s performance. The effort was obvious. The way he clung to the emotional line of a banished king, even the small gestures. The traces of clumsy but determined work were clear. ‘The guy who used to run around on nothing but good looks······. Some real spine appeared.’
He had investigated the old Kim Deok-su after all. Every piece of information made him more astonished. Selling a fancy villa and luxury items, even becoming an actual training bug. A complete one-hundred-eighty-degree turn from the past Kim Deok-su. Firming his heart, Kim Hyeok-jung stopped Deok-su’s performance and stood beside him. “Breathe there. The bastard has lived without a single shred of shame! But you, my subordinates······.”
“Ah······.”
“Just like that. But act like it.”
From that day on, Deok-su’s serious acting training began. Kim Hyeok-jung set up a camera in the center of the room and turned it on. “The bastard······. This feels awkward.”
The red light on the camera made Deok-su freeze. He had unconsciously become self-conscious, breaking his immersion. Kim Hyeok-jung shook his head. “Think of a camera as always being there, no matter where or when. Filming twenty-four hours is one way. Get used to it.”
“Yes, Teacher.”
“An idol being awkward around a camera······. Huh.”
Kim Hyeok-jung clicked his tongue, but Deok-su had no excuse. Back when he was a supporting actor and vanished the moment the camera angle passed him, this was on another level. Watching another version of himself trapped inside the frame was pure delight he had never experienced before. Balancing script, camera, and immersion, training time stretched far beyond the scheduled hours. After the session ended, Kim Hyeok-jung chuckled. “Kim Deok-su. What kind of idol struggles so much with a camera?”
“Sorry. I’ll work harder.”
“What······. Yeah······.”
The training was over, but Deok-su kept reading the lines with the camera still rolling. “The bastard! Ha, don’t get conscious. Conscious······.”
Deok-su’s practice continued long after class ended.
* * *
“What the hell? Hui-yeong! Still at the company?”
“Good evening, senior.”
Lee Hui-yeong had been waiting in the office for Deok-su when sudden footsteps made her stand up. A ninety-degree bow from senior Kim Chang-yoon. He waved his hand wearily. “Yeah, yeah, keep the greeting. Still not done with work? No way Kim Deok-su is still here······.”
“He’s practicing.”
Manager Kim Chang-yoon blinked. It was two in the morning. “······. People say they die when they suddenly change. Our former hooligan······.”
“Senior, Kim Deok-su is my artist. Please don’t speak of him like that.”
“What······?”
Manager Kim Chang-yoon looked stunned. He had joked, and now he was the one being scolded. “Hey, Hui-yeong. Are you crazy? What did you just say to my senior?”
“I’m sorry. As his manager, I can’t just stand by while my artist is being insulted.”
Manager Kim Chang-yoon had tried to shut her down with his authority, but he gave up. He remembered she had always been like this. The senior still didn’t seem to realize she had been forced to handle the impossible because of her talent for those kinds of situations. “Yeah, your family is thick. Bad senior is gone?”
Even after the senior left, Hui-yeong still had to wait a while longer. While she waited she wasn’t just wasting time. She was quietly monitoring Kim Deok-su’s SNS account. His page was a chaotic mix of luxury-brand photos, home boasts, and the inevitable haters replying “make less.” ‘Enough of this.’
Such SNS activity might bring noise marketing, but it also attracted real haters. Hui-yeong had deleted every photo Kim Deok-su had ever posted and replaced them with the new practice shots she had just taken. Within minutes the comments started pouring in. “No more fake act.”
“Looks like he’s really working hard in training.”
“Tsk tsk, still so handsome. 010- XXXX-XXXX······.”
“Always there when I open the app. Jj.”
·······
While Deok-su focused on his practice, Hui-yeong quietly shifted public opinion. She had done it before, and she could do it again.