Camping and Friends (2)
"Yeah, Su-yeon? What's up? Have you had lunch yet?"
Yeon-woo answered the phone as naturally as he could, careful not to make her feel awkward.
But Su-yeon's reply never came. A few seconds of silence stretched between them.
Jeong Su-yeon sat on a bench on the subway platform.
The call connected after only a few rings, and Ryu Yeon-woo's voice came through.
"Yeah, Su-yeon? What's up? Have you had lunch yet?"
That warm voice over the line.
She had walked out of the company building strangely numb, but the moment she heard her friend's voice, something inside her cracked.
For reasons she couldn't name, the sound of that gentle voice made her feel like she was about to burst into tears.
She pressed the feeling down hard, took a steadying breath, and opened her mouth.
"…Yeon-woo, are you filming right now?"
"Something's wrong, isn't it. Where are you?"
The immediate answer left her speechless.
"No, I just… called."
"Hang on a second."
Yeon-woo caught the faint tremor in Su-yeon's voice and knew at once that she was crying.
Calling him—not family—out of nowhere in a moment like this meant whatever she was carrying was more than she could handle alone.
"Hang on a second."
He muted the call and gave Maseok Do a quick, condensed version of the situation.
"Yeah? I like having people around. Brought a ton of meat today, too."
Yeon-woo bowed his head in thanks, then lifted the phone again.
"Su-yeon, where are you?"
"…Yeongdeungpo Station."
"You don't have any other schedule today, right?"
He told her to wait there a little while, ended the call, and walked toward a quieter corner of the campsite.
"Min-su hyung. I'm really sorry, but I have a personal favor to ask."
"That's literally a manager's job. What is it?"
Kim Min-su had been stuck doing office work at the LN Entertainment building and was practically bouncing in his seat, desperate to get outside.
Yeon-woo sketched out the situation.
"Yeongdeungpo Station? That's right in front of me. Got it. Send me the campsite address."
Min-su left at once, picked up Su-yeon where she stood alone at Yeongdeungpo Station, and drove her out to Incheon.
In less than an hour, Maseok Do and Ryu Yeon-woo came out to the parking lot to meet the car.
"Actor Ma, good to see you."
"Oh, Min-su! You have to head back to the office? Stick around and eat some meat first. I packed a ridiculous amount."
Maseok Do genuinely loved having people around; the empty campsite filling up clearly delighted him.
"Well then, I'll call the company and stay a bit. Looking after the actor is a manager's real job, isn't it? Hahaha."
A manager who didn't want to go back to the office and a star who thrived on noise—they clicked instantly.
"You made it, Su-yeon."
"Sorry for barging in like this."
On the drive over, Jeong Su-yeon had sorted through a lot of her thoughts; the raw edge of her emotions had eased.
She gave a sheepish little laugh, embarrassed that she'd called him in tears.
It had felt like the world was collapsing, but the whole ride here she'd kept turning it over in her mind until she could step back and look at herself from a distance. Little by little, she was calming down.
She bowed politely to Maseok Do.
"Hello, sunbaenim. I'm Jeong Su-yeon—I played a child role in Sunshine."
"Huh? Seriously? Wow, you're that little kid? You've grown so much."
Maseok Do shook her hand.
Su-yeon launched into the old story of the rural shoot, how he'd bought her ice cream from the village store every single day.
The film hadn't been a hit, but he'd spent an entire summer playing a detective investigating a country town, and the hard work had stuck with him even after all these years.
Being out here away from the city, seeing familiar faces, made the filthy things that had happened that morning feel like they were washing clean off her.
"Alright, let's get moving. We still haven't put the tents up—better knock that out fast."
The four of them chatted easily as they walked into the camping area.
"Whoa. Where the hell did you practice pitching tents?"
"Hahaha. Just did."
Yeon-woo finished the tents at blistering speed, leaving Maseok Do and Min-su with their mouths hanging open.
A guy who could slap together a massive military cold-weather tent in no time? A regular camping tent was child's play.
"I'm a camper myself—can't just sit here watching."
Maseok Do rolled up his sleeves and started lighting the fire pit.
"Anything I can help with, Actor Ma?"
"Nah, Yeon-woo and I will handle it today. Su-yeon, Min-su—you two just relax."
Even so, neither of them could sit completely still; they pulled meat and various ingredients out of the cooler and started organizing everything.
Before long Yeon-woo had two tents standing and walked over. Su-yeon, feeling a little better already, spoke up.
"I've never done anything like this. It's exciting."
"Like what—camping?"
She nodded.
"Camping, yeah. But also just… spontaneous stuff. And hanging out with a friend. All of it."
"We'll do it a lot more from now on. That's what college is for, right?"
Yeon-woo grinned at her.
"Later, if we get the chance, let's drag my friends out somewhere in the countryside too."
"Yeah. I'd like that."
Yeon-woo thought it would be fun if Kim Jun-su, Woo Seong-sik, and even Hong Yu-ri came along.
"Aigoo, I forgot the soju."
At Maseok Do's words, Kim Min-su started to rise, but Yeon-woo smiled and stopped him.
"Min-su hyung, you rest. Su-yeon and I will grab some from the store just up the road."
"Ohhh, so now that you're both adults you can actually buy the booze yourselves, huh?"
"Haha. Exactly. Gotta put the ID to use sometime."
Maseok Do pointed with a finger.
"Yeon-woo, head out of the campsite and about two hundred meters that way—there's a little market."
"Got it. I don't drink much, so three bottles okay?"
That sounded perfect; Maseok Do nodded.
Yeon-woo gestured for Su-yeon to follow and they walked toward the entrance.
Outside the campsite the sky was already darkening; streetlights began to flicker on.
They walked in silence for a while.
Then Jeong Su-yeon spoke first.
"I went to the company today."
Yeon-woo simply listened. Su-yeon recounted what had happened that morning in a flat, almost detached voice, as if it had happened to someone else.
He listened without interrupting, anger and pity twisting together inside him.
A kid who just turned twenty… No. I don't get to say that.
He wasn't ignorant of the entertainment industry's uglier habits.
And as an operative he had seen, countless times, just how far human filth could go—war zones, slums, cities under rebel control.
He had walked through hell after hell, yet this ordinary, predictable story still made him furious. Maybe it was because, unlike the numbed past, something like affection had taken root in him now. Because he finally understood what a friend was.
Right now the only thing he could offer was to curse along with her, so he did, then asked quietly,
"That thing you said last time—about wanting to be an announcer. Still true?"
"Mmm… I think so."
She had acted since she was a child, but because it had started under her mother's pushy ambition, she had never felt real passion for it.
Still, she liked standing in front of a camera, and she had always been interested in current affairs; even as an actress she had quietly admired announcers.
Before they knew it they had reached the little supermarket right ahead.
Then Su-yeon suddenly stopped.
"Hm? What is it?"
Yeon-woo looked at her.
"Yeon-woo, look at that."
She pointed across the street. There, inside an ST Telecom store, stood a full-body panel of Yeon-woo, and posters covered the glass wall.
"Ah. Yeah, that's me."
Su-yeon read the line printed on the poster.
Even if the direction changes, as long as you don't stop, it's okay.
She looked back at Yeon-woo.
"…That goes for me too, right?"
Yeon-woo smiled at her.
"Of course it does."
They bought three bottles of soju from the grandmother who ran the market and started back.
"Why didn't she even check our IDs? Do we look that old?"
"Guess so. Haha."
Jeong Su-yeon's steps felt lighter on the way back to the campsite.
At the entrance Yeon-woo handed her the bag.
"I've got a quick call to make. You go on ahead."
Once she was out of earshot he pulled out his phone.
The dial tone rang only a few times before the line connected.
"Yeon-woo. Something wrong?"
Kim Ju-seong's voice came through the speaker.
"CEO, I didn't expect to be calling you this soon, but I wanted to check something just in case."
He gave a concise summary of what Jeong Su-yeon had gone through that day.
"Jeong Su-yeon—the girl from Spring's Lover, right? Hmm. Plus10's CEO is Byeon Hak-gyu…"
Kim Ju-seong gave a short, cold laugh.
"He's gotten big, hasn't he—the nobody who used to crawl around the bottom. I was already planning to step on him for something else. Might as well move the schedule up."
He promised to handle the rest of Su-yeon's contract termination himself, said he respected her wish to become an announcer, and added that he would still try to offer her an acting contract later if she was open to it.
"Thank you so much for the help, CEO."
"Don't mention it. I genuinely despise that kind of scum down to the bone."
Yeon-woo thanked him again and ended the call, then walked back into the campsite.
Meanwhile, in the CEO's office at LN Entertainment, Kim Ju-seong set the phone down, opened a desk drawer, and stared for a long time.
Inside lay a photograph of a woman.
His face softened with something tender and painful at once before he closed the drawer again.
Kim Ju-seong was a legend in the industry—a man who had started as a manager and built an entertainment company from nothing.
Almost no one knew the story anymore, but back when he was still a manager he had fallen in love with the actress he was assigned to.
She had been forced into entertainment and sponsorship deals as a rookie, then blackmailed over them for years, until she finally made a terrible choice and left this world first.
After that, Kim Ju-seong had fought to build a clean, transparent company, growing it steadily into the LN Entertainment of today.
He closed his eyes for a long moment, steadying himself, then opened them with a hard, cold light.
"That insect… needs to be crushed properly."
"Hey, hurry up! We're about to go live."
While Ryu Yeon-woo and Jeong Su-yeon had been on their errand, Maseok Do had gotten the fire going and already started grilling meat.
Out of consideration for Su-yeon and Min-su, he adjusted the tripod so only he and Yeon-woo would appear on screen, then set it down.
Yeon-woo sat across from him and eyed the grill.
"Whoa. Seok-do hyung, that looks incredible."
"I've got a reputation for grilling meat, you know. Haha."
Maseok Do set the tongs aside and reached for the phone mounted on the tripod.