The End of Twenty
"Is that so? Who is it?"
"Jeong Chan-suk. From the look of things, she also oversaw that drug scandal involving the actor An Jun-ho you mentioned before. Still, she's nothing more than a disposable tail they can cut loose the moment she's caught. In other words, she seems to be one of Baeksol's small fry."
Yeon-woo fell silent for a moment, turning Han Hae-un's words over in his mind.
He pictured An Jun-ho as he had been during the filming of Summer's Closet — always bright, always the one keeping the set's spirits up — and shook his head.
"Jeong Chan-suk. I'm certain I've heard that name somewhere before."
"It's a common enough name. She's currently an Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Culture."
Assistant Deputy Minister — a Grade-1 civil servant. High-ranking, certainly, but nowhere near the kind of post that put a minister or vice minister in front of the cameras.
And yet the moment he heard the name, something about it had felt familiar…
"Mr. Han, if you have a photograph, could you send it over?"
"Of course, Team Leader Ryu. I'll send it right away."
"Thank you. I'll look it over and reply by text."
The moment Yeon-woo hung up, a photograph arrived through the secure messenger from Han Hae-un.
…So it was her.
The face alone was enough. He knew exactly who she was.
It wasn't simply because An Jun-ho had been a friend that Yeon-woo had ordered the investigation.
Thinking carefully back over An Jun-ho's case, one question had always nagged at him. At the time, An Jun-ho hadn't even been attached to a project. On the surface, there was nothing for a shadowy organization like Baeksol to gain by framing him in a drug scandal.
Which left two possibilities.
Either An Jun-ho had actually been using drugs — or someone had fabricated a false scandal to steer the media and bury something else entirely.
Having sorted his thoughts, Yeon-woo typed again.
Reading Hae-un's message, an odd idea struck him.
Wait… what about that?
He suddenly remembered the acting therapy Jeong Cheol-min had used the first time he visited the academy — the exercise designed to draw out buried memories. Back then, with Jeon Su-hwan as the foundation, Ryu Yeon-woo's mind had settled into a natural harmony, steadying the unstable parts of himself.
He scratched his cheek thoughtfully, then typed.
Meanwhile, in the office of an acting academy in Daejeon, Jeong Cheol-min sneezed with full force.
Achoo—!
"Ugh, is winter already giving me a cold? Why are my nose and ears itching like this all of a sudden, and why am I sneezing out of nowhere?"
December slipped by in a rush, and with the year's end came awards season for the broadcasting networks.
"Whew… I'm more nervous than you are."
Behind the wheel, manager Kim Min-su drew a deep breath. Yeon-woo watched him and smiled quietly.
"What's there to be nervous about? It's a happy day."
"You're definitely winning, right? Honestly, this year's KBC was basically carried by you, Actor."
"I don't know about that. Channel 2 had quite a few high-rated shows this year. Hard to be certain."
From the driver's seat, Min-su shook his head.
"Come on. If you don't win, I'm posting hate comments on the KBC website. It wouldn't make any sense. This year really was the Year of You."
None of the co-stars he had worked with on past projects would be at tonight's KBC Drama Awards. Son Jin-uk was shooting an SBC drama that hadn't even aired yet. Han So-hyun had done little more than commercial work this year, and Maseok Do was supposedly in the middle of a film shoot.
Hmm. If I do end up winning something, the list of people I need to thank has gotten a lot longer.
Which was simply another way of saying he had built some genuinely good relationships in this industry.
Beep—
At the radio call, Min-su's car pulled up to the entrance of KBC headquarters, where the red carpet waited. Behind them came the cars carrying Jin Yu-han and Seo Ji-eun.
A security officer opened the door. Camera flashes erupted, and a roar of cheers rose to meet them. Jin Yu-han and Seo Ji-eun stepped out right behind.
The announcer's voice carried through the speakers as Yeon-woo naturally offered Seo Ji-eun his arm and escorted her into the venue.
"Aren't you cold?"
He glanced at the deeply cut dress she was wearing. Seo Ji-eun smiled without parting her lips, answering like a ventriloquist.
"Dyin' over here."
Walking alongside them, Jin Yu-han heard her and let out a quiet snort of laughter, deliberately slowing his pace — clearly intending to put her in the photo zone first so she could get inside that much sooner.
Compared to when we first met on set, he's come an incredibly long way.
The Jin Yu-han who had once maintained nothing more and nothing less than a purely professional attitude now went out with Yeon-woo, lived the company life through musical theater, and seemed to have grown noticeably more at ease with people.
"Look this way, please!"
"Smile toward us!"
"Could the three of you do a heart pose together?"
They obliged the reporters with a variety of poses. After individual shots, Seo Ji-eun headed into the awards hall first, followed in turn by Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han as they cleared the photo zone.
Come to think of it, the lineup is exactly the same.
Two men, one woman — a love triangle. The same configuration as Summer's Closet. The only difference was that he had climbed from supporting male lead to the protagonist.
The ceremony got underway in earnest, and the Star Beyond the River team's first award came from an unexpected place.
Jin Yu-han had worn a dazed expression from the moment his name appeared among the nominees on the screen. He rose from his seat as Yeon-woo and Seo Ji-eun stood with him to offer their congratulations.
"Congratulations, Yu-han."
"Thanks. I really didn't expect to win Supporting Actor."
True, the role of Lee Ji-baek had been written as a supporting part at the planning stage. But Jin Yu-han was already a major star with a powerful screen presence, and as the drama progressed into its mid-to-late episodes, writer Kim Jin-ju had expanded the character's weight until the production team itself treated him as a co-lead alongside Yeon-woo.
The network, apparently, had still classified him as supporting.
Surprised and clearly pleased, Jin Yu-han climbed the stage, accepted the trophy, and stepped up to the microphone.
A roar of cheers filled the hall. Jin Yu-han cleared his throat and continued.
A murmur rippled through the hall at his words.
"Wait, so Jin Yu-han lost an audition to Ryu Yeon-woo?"
"That explains why he suddenly took a supporting role…"
In the press section at the edge of the venue, reporters began typing furiously, racing to file stories on the unexpected behind-the-scenes revelation.
He bowed toward the cameras, trophy in hand, and left the stage to a wave of thunderous applause.
Yeon-woo scratched the back of his head, looking faintly embarrassed, then nodded to himself.
So that's why Jin Yu-han suddenly started doing musicals.
He had thought the musical work had made Yu-han more socially open — but it was the other way around. The change in personality had come first, and the musical had followed.
In the awards that followed, Yeon-woo and Seo Ji-eun each took home Excellence Awards, bringing the Star Beyond the River team's trophy count to three.
Watching his son accept the award on television, Ryu Cheol-ung polished the empty spot beside the Rookie Award on the living room display case until it gleamed.
"Honey, we need to order a bigger display case. This one's too small."
"Oh my, you're right. Let's order one."
The case was more than large enough — with only a single Rookie Award sitting in it, it actually looked rather sparse. But in their parents' eyes, the awards their son brought home always seemed bigger than they really were.
Ryu So-hyun watched her parents fussing already and smiled quietly to herself.
"Son, did you pack the gochujang?"
"I told you, the gochujang is fine."
Yeon-woo was packing for Berlin. The year had turned, and he was twenty-one now.
Director Park Chan-hong had poured every last drop of his soul into finishing Sketch. Now it was time to take it to the world stage and let it be judged.
"I'll be off. I'll call when I have time."
"Go carefully and come back safe."
"Oppa, buy me a souvenir!"
He closed the door and headed downstairs, where Kim Min-su was waiting.
"I'll take your suitcase, Actor."
Min-su loaded the carrier into the trunk and climbed into the car. Once Yeon-woo was settled, Min-su grinned and glanced back at him.
"Job satisfaction: one hundred percent. Hawaii, Berlin — we leave the country every year."
"Now that you mention it, we do."
They chatted about this and that on the way, and by the time they reached Incheon Airport, far more reporters were waiting than expected. Min-su shook his head as he parked.
"Ugh, look at all these reporters. We didn't even announce the schedule. How did they know to show up early?"
"Someone at the airline must have leaked it."
Yeon-woo and Kim Min-su got out, collected the suitcase, and crossed the crosswalk.
"Excuse us, everyone — just passing through."
Min-su asked the surrounding reporters for understanding as he carved a path, shielding Yeon-woo.
"Mr. Ryu Yeon-woo! How would you rate your chances of winning at this film festival?"
"Could you give us a brief introduction to Sketch?"
Yeon-woo answered simply as he walked toward the terminal.
"Winning would of course be wonderful, but just being invited is an honor in itself. Sketch is a film about young people who set out through music in search of something precious, and grow along the way."
"Watch the pillars behind you, everyone — you'll hurt yourselves."
Min-su was the one looking out for the reporters, who were walking backward in a frenzy to keep the interview going. With his imposing build, he managed to protect Yeon-woo, pull the suitcase, and clear a path all at once without any apparent difficulty.
But as the reporters closed in, other travelers in the terminal spotted Yeon-woo as well. The growing crowd made every step harder.
Tweet—!
From a distance, airport security seemed to have registered the commotion. Whistles blew as officers approached, and with their help the group finally broke free of the throng.
"Wow. Next time we should tell the company to assign extra personnel."
"You're right. It wasn't like this when we left for the Summer's Closet reward trip."
Yeon-woo shook his head, feeling the weight of how much his popularity had grown in just a few years. When Team Leader Jeong had offered to assign additional security, he had declined — it wasn't an official schedule, and he hadn't wanted to look like he was making a fuss over nothing. That had been a miscalculation.
From now on, it seemed, bodyguards would be necessary.
I used to be the bodyguard. And now the day has come when someone else is protecting me.
The idle thought made him snort with quiet amusement.
Just then, Min-su checked a text and spoke up.
"The director, Actress Seo Ji-eun, and the rest of the staff are all gathered in the lounge. We should head in too."
Yeon-woo nodded and walked with Kim Min-su toward the gate.