Chapter 87
"Hey, you'd better steer clear of a certain unnie for a while."
I was spending my free period as productively as ever, sprawled on the couch in Dokgo Min's studio—she was on a leave of absence from school—when she clicked her mouse a few times and, as if the thought had just struck her, delivered this pearl of wisdom.
"Why are you suddenly speaking in third person…? And that sounds vaguely like a threat from a school bully."
"I'm obviously one of your unnies, but I don't mean me. The other unnie."
The other unnie? I pondered for a moment before landing on Dokgo Gyeol, who was away on an overseas business trip. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen her in a while.
"Things got pretty frosty when you gave your acceptance speech and only mentioned So Ye-sol and the staff—no word about her at all."
"Ah…."
I had reached out to her separately after the award ceremony, but apparently that hadn't been enough. Summoning an actress's quick wits, I responded.
"Please pass along the following message: a mere Best Newcomer mention doesn't begin to cover the amount of real estate Dokgo Gyeol occupies in my heart."
"Mm-hmm. I'll get to it whenever it comes to mind."
"And why aren't you upset, unnie? She left your name out too."
"That's fine. I'm still a tiny, infinitesimal bit behind So Ye-sol, so it can't be helped. Mm-hmm. The winner's podium belongs to one person only. My time simply hasn't come yet…. Who is there to blame but fate itself."
Still lying on the couch, I applauded Dokgo Min's heroic resolve. She may have been small in stature, but the woman's fighting spirit was second to none.
Yes, good. Let everyone fight over me.
Dokgo Gyeol, Dokgo Min, So Ye-sol, and now Ryu Risa too…. The corners of my mouth curled upward as I realized I was steadily collecting everything Do Gyeo-ul had owned in my previous life.
"I'm entering a Do Gyeo-ul project soon. Sharing references and doing this and that pushed things back a bit, but it's going into Leel as a collaboration. In the magazine, with an interview."
…Corners of my mouth, come back down. Now was not the time to rise.
"And is Ryu Risa styling Do Gyeo-ul too?"
"How would you know that, unnie?"
"People who chase beautiful things all know one another, naturally. She and Gyeol unnie know each other too."
It was, frankly, a bit of a shock. Ryu Risa did handle my styling, but since she wasn't perpetually booked with me, she naturally juggled multiple celebrities at once.
And Do Gyeo-ul had always worked with Ryu Risa to begin with.
Oh well. It couldn't be helped—except it really, really could….
"She stole my styling last time, and you're still willing to work with Team Leader Ryu?"
A childish urge to draw lines—you're on my team or you're against me—welled up inside me. Everyone was supposed to fight over me, their muse. Did she have to two-time like that? My brain was seized by the conviction that if I ever strayed, she must never stray in return.
"Mm-hmm. I did hear about it. But you have to separate being annoyed from doing business. And honestly, was it even that big a deal? At the end of the day, Risa unnie's styling got validated, didn't it?"
"If Team Leader Ryu hadn't done that reform, it would've been the exact same dress. How is that not a big deal?"
"Give it a few years. Once you've heard every horror story secondhand, even Do Gyeo-ul will start looking cute to you."
As if determined to make me understand, Dokgo Min rattled off, one after another, the abuses celebrities could heap upon their stylists.
"Some never return sponsored pieces. Some throw tantrums demanding free clothes just because they deign to wear them now and then. Some hate everything and force the stylist to redo a costume over and over while keeping her up for three straight nights without sleep…."
At a glance, they sounded like episodes from one of those chaebol-takedown dramas—except, terrifyingly, every one of them was apparently true.
By comparison, Do Gyeo-ul's misdeeds were nothing more than a toddler throwing a brief tantrum.
So that incident where she muscled So Da-mi aside a while back… it was the same genre all along….
The brain of someone who had clawed her way to the top in that kind of world was bound to be wired differently from an ordinary person's. Of course it was.
"But if Do Gyeo-ul goes around saying, 'Team Leader Ryu's clothes were just too gorgeous, I couldn't help it,' what can you do? It'd be awkward to refuse on those grounds. And if you think about it, weren't you the one who walked off the mint carpet with Best Dressed? Mm-hmm. Hard to fault Do Gyeo-ul when the results keep landing in your favor."
Still, unnie, there's a difference between accepting something with your head and making peace with it in your heart….
Swallowing the protest whole, I stared up at the ceiling.
"Besides, drawing sides means nothing in this industry. One way or another, none of us can work alone."
Pausing her work, Dokgo Min turned around and looked at me, saying it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"That's why everyone works so hard to make a name for themselves. In the end, your name is all that stays with you."
She turned back to her monitor. The clicking resumed.
"Ryu Risa, Dokgo Gyeol, Dokgo Min. Whoever you work with, grind away so that the public's verdict is always, 'The better result belongs to Han Yeo-reum.' Mm-hmm. And naturally, the one and only winner here is destined to be Dokgo Min…. That's…."
In other words: don't lose heart. Dokgo Min had never been great at expressing herself, but the sincerity came through loud and clear in the end.
The Dokgo Min who'd seemed so childlike suddenly felt as if she'd shot up overnight.
"Honestly, the real battle should be over who goes into the same timeslot drama first—who Dokgo Min photographs, whose styling Ryu Risa takes. That's how it ought to be settled."
"…Huh, you're right?"
A surge of determination to work even harder welled up out of nowhere. Yes. Cowering in intimidation would only cost me.
Who am I, that I have anything to feel small about?
Seoul Drama Awards Jury Special Newcomer Prize, Han Yeo-reum. One day, for real, I'd face Do Gyeo-ul head-on in the same timeslot—fair and square—
Ziiing—.
—which was precisely the future I was picturing when my phone buzzed.
"Whoa, that scared me…."
Somehow, merely glimpsing Myeong Je-ha's name on a notification preview put me on my best behavior. With both hands, I gingerly opened the message.
"…What is this?"
The photo Myeong Je-ha had sent was someone's profile picture. It looked vaguely familiar….
And when, exactly, is this "soon"? I was just typing out my reply—determined to wring an answer out of him—when my phone buzzed again.
It was my manager—and the identical photo from Myeong Je-ha. And then, a little while later, the articles began pouring in.
The source web novel of Strange Tales shot back to the top of the charts, and the ASMR video that had been uploaded to InTube saw a fresh wave of traffic.
The strategy was elegant: shine a spotlight on Strange Tales, then naturally roll Kwon Jun-hyeok's name and mine into the same articles. And wherever Han Yeo-reum's name appeared, one thing was guaranteed to follow.
Namely: where I would be showing my face next.
And so the news of the Pachehi spin-off's script reading went out ahead of time.
JC ENM had spoken to the public in the most natural way possible. From Kwon Jun-hyeok to Strange Tales, from Strange Tales to Han Yeo-reum, from Han Yeo-reum to Pachehi—each link caught the next by the tail.
The bottom line, of course, was a polite request: please show plenty of interest in Strange Tales and the Pachehi spin-off, both starring Han Yeo-reum.
This was the new JC ENM headquarters in Cheongdam-dong, where the Pachehi spin-off script reading was to be held.
I quietly opened the door to the waiting room.