Aftermath (4)

"Hmm."

Early that morning, Ara checked her filmography — and came up empty. Nothing new had been added.

When does this thing even update?

"So it only shows up once the whole series finishes airing, huh?"

Yeah, that tracks.

Anyway… what am I supposed to do now?

As of yesterday's Episode 4, Ara had exited the drama. She hadn't bothered checking the reactions. Still, her name recognition had to have gone up a fair bit, right? Up until then she'd only been popping in for three-minute cameos — but yesterday, Lee Eun-ju had been the main character.

Of course, that only mattered if people had actually been watching.

She wanted to check. She just… didn't know how. Or, more accurately, she couldn't be bothered. Turning on the computer and opening a browser would have taken all of thirty seconds, and yet somehow the mouse cursor always drifted toward the League of Legends icon instead. Next thing she knew, she'd be shutting down the game next to a wrecked keyboard.

So how else was she supposed to gauge her fame without the internet?

Simple. Go outside and see for herself.

Conveniently, she was also out of water. She'd planned a simple lunch of instant ramen — but even the ramen had run out as of yesterday.

"Might as well go out for once~"

The agency CEO had told her to stay put for a while, but not being allowed to walk to a convenience store was ridiculous. And what could possibly go wrong?

"I'm a grown adult. I can walk around by myself!"

Ara threw on clothes without much thought. Plain sweatpants. A short-sleeve shirt with a light jacket over it. Slap on a hat and she was done. Oh — and a mask, just in case.

"Alright! Let's go! Ramen run! Water run!"

Just how much has my recognition gone up, I wonder?

It was a drama rated for mature audiences only. Current time: 11:30 a.m. Everyone with a day job was already at work. If a handful of people recognized her, she'd count herself lucky.

"Hah… what if someone recognizes me and asks for an autograph?"

Ara had absolutely no idea what kind of aftershock the drama had set off. Her information literacy was, frankly, near-illiterate.

And so, Ara left the house.

By the next day, the articles were pouring out in earnest. The fallout from the director's cut, in particular, had gone far beyond anyone's imagination. And it wasn't just the news sites — YouTube was the same.

Experts from every field, noses twitching at the scent of view counts, started uploading YouTube videos with clickbait titles. And if you actually clicked play, real specialists appeared on screen, pausing Lee Eun-ju's footage frame by frame to dissect it.

"Now, look carefully at this part — pay attention to how she grips the knife. She's holding it in a reverse grip, with the thumb braced firmly underneath for support, see?"

"Yes, I see that."

"What this tells us is that Lee Eun-ju has experience injuring her own hand while stabbing someone. She learned this grip through trial and error. And this part here—"

The video froze on another frame.

"In the story her occupation is a hairdresser, but she clearly has medical knowledge as well. Watch — every stab and every cut deliberately avoids the major arteries. She has pinpointed, with surgical precision, the places that are safest for her and most agonizing for the victim."

"If I had to define Lee Eun-ju in one word, the level of detail packed into this character is genuinely perverse. The fact that they made the call ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to write her out after building that much detail is almost more impressive than the character herself. If it were me, I'd have kept her on screen for the entire run."

Thud—

Baek Yi-seo set down her phone.

No matter where she looked — here, there, everywhere — it was nothing but Gil Ara.

"Haaah…"

She was currently suffering from a severe case of aftereffects. Having barely slept, she'd hastily put in for a personal day that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠morning and skipped work entirely.

After watching every last second of the Forest of Crime director's cut the night before, Baek Yi-seo had scoured every SNS platform, community board, and news article she could find. There was an enormous amount of material — just none of what she actually wanted.

Everything was about Lee Eun-ju.

Anything about Gil Ara herself amounted to her agency affiliation and a handful of photos hanging in some hair salon. The thirst was real, but there was simply nothing more to find.

"I'm so tired…"

She'd barely slept and completely forgotten to eat.

Grrrrooowl—

Her body sent up a clear signal demanding nutrients.

"There's nothing to eat."

She always ate at the office and ordered delivery for dinner, so her apartment didn't even have a single pack of instant ramen.

"Guess I'll hit the convenience store…"

.

.

.

.

People are just like that.

Why is this so expensive?

She'd casually drop ten or twenty thousand won on delivery food without blinking — and yet a 1,800-won cup of ramen somehow felt impossible to justify.

Baek Yi-seo sank into deep deliberation.

Should I just buy it? Hmm. Or the bagged kind? Bagged ramen is cheaper, but cleaning up afterward is such a pain…

Lost in thought in front of the ramen shelf, she didn't notice someone approaching.

"Excuse me? Sorry — could I just get past you for a second?"

Come to think of it, saving a measly 800 won isn't going to make me rich… If I actually cared about saving money, I wouldn't be ordering delivery in the first place.

But Baek Yi-seo was too deep in her internal debate to hear a word.

Tap-tap—

"Excuse me?"

"Ah! Yes! I'm so sorry!"

The second call finally snapped her out of it. Realizing she'd been blocking the entire shelf, she stepped aside at once.

One step back, Baek Yi-seo looked at the woman who'd spoken to her — at her back, specifically.

Wow… her face is tiny.

The adjustment strap on her cap was cinched all the way tight, and there was still slack left over. Combined with the excess fabric of the mask flaring out beside her cheeks, it was more than enough to gauge the size of her face from behind alone.

Hmm… what is it?

A strange sense of dissonance prickled at her.

I've never seen this person before, and yet…

She looked oddly familiar. And the voice, too—

"Thank you."

The strangely unfamiliar woman picked up a pack of ramen and offered her thanks.

"Oh, no problem… Wait—?"

In that instant, Baek Yi-seo saw them.

Eyes glowing yellow.

Those eyes were the exact same color and shape as the ones she had been staring at, over and over, since yesterday.

"Gil Ara…?"

"Pardon?"

"Gil Ara…?"

It was just the convenience store near her house. And yet she'd run into someone anyway.

Deep down, she'd been hoping for it. But the idea that anyone would recognize her in that brief window of time? She'd figured the odds were slim. Turns out "slim chance" has a way of catching people.

Or rather — given how well the drama was doing — it was practically inevitable.

Uh, what do I do?

Now that it was actually happening, her brain locked up. What was the right move here?

The answer was simple. When in doubt, start with a greeting.

"Hello?"

A greeting was a conversational tool that was hard to mess up.

"Ah— ah— uh— hello! Huk!"

Jeez.

The woman who'd recognized her suddenly raised her voice. Fortunately, this was an unmanned convenience store, and there were no other customers around.

"I— I'm so sorry."

She apologized, and Ara answered evenly.

"It's fine."

…

…

And then came a suffocating silence.

Ara was flustered. Yi-seo was flustered.

Oh crap, what do I do?

Whoa…. what is even happening right now???

The shock Baek Yi-seo was feeling, in particular, defied description.

Innocent purity and a sadistic psychopathic killer. The woman who had somehow embodied that absurd gap — and in doing so, single-handedly kept Baek Yi-seo from going to work — was now standing in front of her in the absolute peak of frumpy loungewear.

I-is this a hidden camera?

No. There was no sign of anything like that nearby. More than anything, her outfit was completely free and casual — the genuine look of someone who'd just stepped out to grab something to eat. Nowhere on the entire internet had this version of her ever appeared.

What even was this gap?

Three completely contradictory images of the same person left Baek Yi-seo's mind spinning.

And while Baek Yi-seo's thoughts raced, so did Ara's.

Uh, um. Can I just leave? Probably fine, right? Or… not?

While Ara was still deliberating—

"Um, excuse me…"

"Ah, yes."

Baek Yi-seo spoke first.

"Could I maybe get an autograph…"

There it was. The autograph request.

An essential piece of fan service that any celebrity was expected to handle. The problem was—

I don't know how to do an autograph…

And just scribbling her name like a normal person felt wrong somehow.

"I'm sorry."

So Ara apologized politely.

"Ah…. Okay…"

Baek Yi-seo recognized that her sudden request had been rude, and she accepted the refusal. But feeling a little disappointed was only human.

"Well then, I'll just—"

"I don't have an official autograph yet. This isn't exactly a substitute, but… would a photo be okay instead?"

Just as Baek Yi-seo was about to slink away looking dejected, Gil Ara spoke up.

"Sorry? A photo?"

"Yes."

A photo. That was actually better. When else would she get the chance to capture the real thing fully on her own phone?

The only problem was…

"A-are you sure that's okay?"

"Sorry? What is?"

Her outfit.

"It's just so…. frumpy — I mean, you still look pretty, but…"

Wouldn't it hurt her image? Didn't she have some carefully guarded reason for staying hidden? Why else would she have never once appeared in a public setting, despite all the buzz?

There's been so much attention on her…

And from a glance, she wasn't even wearing makeup.

"Who cares. It's fine."

Whether she understood Baek Yi-seo's concern or not, Ara was completely unfazed. Fine. If she said it was fine, Baek Yi-seo decided to stop worrying about it.

"Th-then, if you wouldn't mind."

"Sure. Hand it over."

Ara took the phone and pulled down her mask.

Wow…

Click—

Click—

Two shutter sounds rang out.

"Th-thank you so much!"

"Mm."

But Ara wasn't satisfied. This was, after all, the first civilian who'd recognized her.

"Um…. I loved the drama so much. Please keep doing amazing work. I'm a fan!!"

And on top of that — a mention of the drama, and a declaration that she was a fan. It was a private encounter, but still: her first meeting with an actual fan. She couldn't just let this pass.

"Hold on a second."

"Huh?"

Baek Yi-seo reached for her phone, but Ara didn't hand it back.

"Stand right there for me."

She positioned Baek Yi-seo in front of the shelf, then set the phone far enough back to get a full-body shot. After setting the timer, Ara quickly stepped back into place.

Do celebrities normally go this far??

No idea. This was also Baek Yi-seo's first time meeting a celebrity in person.

"Okay! Squeeze in close!"

"Y-yes!"

Click—

"Please keep supporting me going forward."

Ara handed the phone back.

"Um!"

"Yes?"

"Is it okay if I post this photo online?"

Ara thought she was asking about the strangest things. Once fame hit, this was the kind of thing you just had to live with. Still — the fact that she'd asked at all said something kind about her character.

"Yeah. Sure, that's fine."

So she gave a simple, straightforward yes.

"Thank you…. I'm really a fan."

Ara flashed a brilliant smile.

"Well then — take care."

Baek Yi-seo watched Ara's back as she self-checked a pack of ramen and twelve liters of water and walked out the door.

"Wow…"

And just like that, she became a real fan.

After finishing lunch came a call from the agency and a pickup from Nam Tae-woo. And so Ara now found herself in the CEO's office at the YW building.

"Ara, we've got a problem."

"Sorry?"

Jeong Yeo-un's expression looked grave.

"Take a look at these."

He held out a thick stack of papers. Going through them one by one, Ara realized they were all scripts.

"These all came in this morning."

There was just one issue.

"So, uh…. maybe next time dial the acting down a little…?"

"…"

Every single script was for a villain role. Every one — except a single outlier.

"Right. That aside — what do you want to do about interviews? And we've gotten a ton of variety show offers too. Look through them yourself and pick whatever you want. You don't have to do any of them, but I'd recommend doing at least some."

Jeong Yeo-un moved on to introducing the rest of the work piling up.

Variety shows, huh…