New People
The five-story Mokhwa Building housed a small privately run bakery on the first floor; the remaining commercial spaces still stood vacant.
A double set of security doors sealed the entrance into the building proper, making it difficult for outsiders to slip inside.
Each first-floor shop had its own separate entrance, so the only people who used the interior access corridor were the three companies already occupying the upper floors.
They planned to fill the remaining ground-floor units soon, dangling rents far cheaper than the surrounding commercial district to lure in cafés or brunch restaurants.
The more it becomes a tourist spot where people gather, the safer it actually gets. The darkest place is always right under the lamp.
That was why, even on foreign operations, safe houses were never set up in remote corners but near bustling markets or busy thoroughfares—while still keeping security airtight.
Frequent outsider traffic through the building itself would have been a problem.
In that sense, an entertainment company is the perfect cover for maintaining security.
The second floor now belonged to Saebyeol Media, the company handling content production and planning that LN Media had once overseen; Executive Director Yoon Mi-yeon would take overall charge. The fourth floor was the entertainment agency under Representative Jeong Hyeok.
Actor agencies rarely saw sasaeng fans camping outside, and their signed talent seldom needed to visit the office, so security was usually lax.
Yeon-woo, however, wanted something closer to an idol agency—where the actors came in regularly and a real community formed.
That was why he had created the third floor.
Yeon-woo rode the elevator down to the third floor.
Inside a luxurious cafeteria styled like a VIP lounge, a middle-aged man with impeccably pomaded hair stood behind the bar.
"Yeon-woo. Care for a latte?"
It was Representative Kim Ju-seong.
Yeon-woo smiled and nodded.
"I can never say no to your coffee, sir."
He had never intended to put Kim Ju-seong in charge of the cafeteria, of course.
But the moment Kim Ju-seong laid eyes on the space, he had volunteered to run it himself.
After everything that had happened, the man who had grown thoroughly sick of company management and the entertainment industry sensed that operating this place would become his rest and his healing.
Only then did Yeon-woo learn that Kim Ju-seong was a coffee enthusiast who even held a barista certification.
Come to think of it, he was always drinking coffee whenever I met him in the CEO's office.
It was hardly a waste of high-caliber talent.
Once he was seated behind that bar, no one else could have been more perfectly suited to the role.
The whole reason I designed the third floor this way was for that "spark of on-set creativity."
It was the point Director Park Chan-hong hammered home every time he shot a film.
Great actors who had already perfected their craft were experts and maestros in their own right; masterpieces were born when their creativity was allowed to ignite on set.
The second floor would see heavy traffic from people involved in drama and film production—directors, writers, producers, distributors.
The fourth floor, aside from staff, would be accessible only to the signed actors.
By placing a gathering space right in the middle on the third floor, Yeon-woo wanted producers and actors to meet naturally, so that lively, sparkling ideas could leap out of those chance encounters.
Having spent most of his previous life stationed across Europe and infiltrating every kind of company and social stratum, Yeon-woo found this kind of flexible working environment far more familiar.
While he was lost in those thoughts, Kim Ju-seong finished the latte and held it out.
"Wow. You can do latte art too?"
"Just doodling."
The smiling Kim Ju-seong offered a cup with a cute cat face drawn in milk foam.
"The cat is adorable."
"…I drew a bear."
"Ah…"
Yeon-woo quietly sipped his coffee.
Kim Ju-seong was a legendary figure who had built LN Media and LN Entertainment from nothing with his bare hands.
His eye for projects was as sharp as anyone's in the industry; he would be able to give better advice than almost anyone to the countless actors and production staff who would pass through this place.
And the one who'll come asking for advice most often will probably be Representative Jeong Hyeok.
Yeon-woo could already picture Jeong Hyeok trotting downstairs, calling "Representative!" and seeking guidance on every little thing.
A few days later, Gong Min-jeong—having passed the document screening—stood outside the Mokhwa Building, looking up at it while trying to calm her racing heart before the interview.
"I have to get this! Fighting!"
She clapped her hands twice and approached the entrance, where a staff member was waiting to guide applicants.
"Are you here for the interview today?"
"Yes! Yes, I am!"
The staff member smiled, opened the security door, and led her inside.
"Please take the elevator to the third floor."
"Thank you!"
Gong Min-jeong stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for three.
Ding—
The doors opened onto a café whose interior looked for all the world like a luxury hotel lounge.
"Huh…? Was this not the third floor?"
A casually dressed staff member approached and spoke to Gong Min-jeong, who still hadn't stepped out of the elevator.
"Are you Gong Min-jeong, here for the interview today?"
"Yes? Yes! That's me."
He smiled gently and gestured inward.
"Ms. Gong Min-jeong, why don't we head inside and talk?"
She had expected to be summoned into a room where two or three interviewers sat waiting like a delinquent being dragged to the teachers' office. Following the staff member into the café left her thoroughly flustered.
"I'm telling you, Unnie Ji-eun, right then the director suddenly appeared and told us…"
As Gong Min-jeong walked past, she saw two women laughing as if sharing some hilarious story.
"Huh…?"
At first she thought she must be mistaken.
Seo Ji-eun and Han Byeol…?
There was no way she could fail to recognize Seo Ji-eun, the actress currently conquering variety shows left and right, or Han Byeol, the child actress who had rocketed to stardom with White Blood.
Are those really Seo Ji-eun and Han Byeol…?
Her mind was still spinning when the staff member ahead of her spoke again.
"Ms. Gong Min-jeong, how about we talk here? Our company interviews are just simple conversations."
"Ah—ah, yes!"
Behind the table the staff member indicated, she spotted Son Jin-uk sitting there.
Uwaah… What even is this place?
The café atmosphere was incomparably more comfortable than any interview room, yet the famous faces all around left Gong Min-jeong frozen stiff as she took her seat.
Then the man sitting across from Son Jin-uk turned around.
"Oh? You're YeonwooBabyUjuju, right? Senior Min-jeong!"
It was Ryu Yeon-woo.
Confronted by her ultimate bias on top of everything else, Gong Min-jeong glanced around wildly, half-convinced she was being pranked for the YouTube channel "Find the Fan" all over again.
"Wh-what is this place… It's scary…"
Joining Saebyeol Entertainment was not limited to open recruitment.
Im Jae-uk was out at the day-labor market before dawn, wrapping his cold body and hunting for work.
In winter most construction sites went into hibernation because the ground froze, making jobs even harder to come by.
When he had managed the drug-arrested Jeon Gi-hun, the daily abuse and crushing mental stress had been constant, yet at least he had been able to pay his mother's hospital bills on time and considered that a blessing.
The dead-fish look in his eyes had come back to life, but every time he thought of his sick mother, a matching corner of his heart felt like it was rotting away again.
"Hoo… It's cold."
The weather, his heart, society itself—everything was cold.
Yesterday he had barely scraped together a job, spent the whole day doing hard labor, then dragged his exhausted body home and fallen straight asleep. Several texts had arrived in the meantime.
Bound to be more overdue notices…
He felt like he was living pretty hard, yet most of the money vanished into his mother's medical bills and their circumstances never improved.
While checking his phone he spotted one unexpected message.
…Manager Kim Min-su? Isn't that Actor Ryu Yeon-woo's manager?
Suddenly Im Jae-uk thought the text itself was glowing.
Of course the phone screen was emitting light, so it was glowing, but it seemed to sparkle with special intensity.
"…Should I call?"
It hadn't been by choice, but after quitting as Jeon Gi-hun's manager he had sworn never to do this job again.
Yet remembering the brief conversation he had once shared with Ryu Yeon-woo in the parking lot made him think that not every actor could be like Jeon Gi-hun.
Im Jae-uk pressed the call button.
After that, Im Jae-uk sailed through the subsequent interview in a single day and joined the management team.
The celebrity assigned to him was Jeong Cheol-min.
Jeong Cheol-min had spent his entire life without a manager, handling everything alone, so having a younger friend look after him felt awkward.
"Aigoo, I told you it's fine. I can just drive myself home. Just go clock out already…"
"No, sir. This is my job."
"What's with the 'sir'? Just call me Uncle Cheol-min."
"Pardon?"
Jeong Cheol-min, sitting in the back seat, laughed easily.
"Uncle feels a bit much? But calling me hyung would be shameless. Call me Teacher Cheol-min."
"Ah—yes, Teacher."
They finally arrived at the Seoul apartment Jeong Cheol-min kept for schedule reasons. He climbed out of the car.
"Jae-uk, there are a bunch of gift sets people gave me all over the place in the back seat. I don't know what to do with them, so take every last one home when you leave. Share them with your family. Got it? You have to take them all."
Jeong Cheol-min grinned and disappeared into the building.
"What? Teacher! Teacher Jeong Cheol-min!"
Im Jae-uk called after him urgently, but the man never looked back—just waved a hand over his head and slipped inside. The glass door of the officetel closed.
Im Jae-uk checked the back seat and found luxurious gift sets wrapped in fine cloth that clearly contained premium hanwoo beef sets, plus every kind of fruit.
A handwritten note was stuck to them.
You really have to take every single one.
If even one is left behind, you're in trouble.
Got it?
Im Jae-uk scratched the bridge of his nose, which had suddenly gone tingly, and took the wheel again.
When he arrived at the hospital where his mother was staying, he carried a fruit set into the ward for the first time in a long while.
In the center of the ward someone finished speaking with a nurse and then walked toward him.
Someone from the administration office…?
He assumed they were coming to hound him about unpaid bills, but the staff member who approached said something unexpected.
"You're Im Jae-uk, guardian of patient Kim Su-yeong, correct?"
"Y-yes…"
"Someone came this morning and paid the entire hospital bill, but we couldn't process it yet because we didn't have the guardian's separate consent."
The staff member held out a document.
"We'll need your signature here to complete the process."
Payer Name: Ryu Yeon-woo
Im Jae-uk's eyes went round as he stared at the form the staff member had handed him.
"What? Who on earth…?"
"If you look at the second page of the documents, the name of the person who paid is written there. Please check it and sign quickly. We need to process this today."
Im Jae-uk flipped to the second page and scanned it. The name of the person covering the medical expenses was written clearly.
— Ryu Yeon-woo
The moment he saw those three syllables, tears suddenly welled in Im Jae-uk's eyes.
He sank to the floor right there and broke into sobs.
For the first time in a life that had been nothing but cold and hard, it felt as though someone's warm hand of salvation had finally reached him.