Name
When he brought the yellow envelope home and opened it, a neatly prepared manuscript emerged.
Sketch
A scenario with a simple title.
At first Yeon-woo began reading it lying comfortably on his bed. Then, as he reached the middle section, questions rose in his mind, and before he knew it he was sitting upright to keep reading. After finishing the latter half he sank into deep thought.
"...It's good, after all."
Reading through the scenario, Yeon-woo reaffirmed the choice he had made that day.
The story begins with a man named Jay, adopted to America at the age of seven, resenting the parents and homeland that abandoned him. Raised happily in a harmonious white family, he became a complete American. Jay, who started composing in high school, receives an invitation as a composer from a Korean music label and is forced, against his will, to set foot once more on the land of his birth. After that, through various twists of fate and chance encounters, it becomes a human documentary film that views Korea through the eyes of a man born in Korea yet raised as an American—threaded throughout by a musical code and carrying a final twist that only heightens its charm.
"I don't know what the director saw when he looked at me on the screen..."
Though the form and the circumstances were entirely different, the protagonist—Lee Ji-hoon, or Jay Miller—shared several traits with Yeon-woo himself. Becoming an orphan at a young age, living long years abroad, and being abandoned by his homeland were similar. Of course, he had not been abandoned by a nation; in the story the protagonist was abandoned by his parents, while Yeon-woo himself had been discarded by some unknown organization. Origins, process, and life were all different, yet Yeon-woo felt an unmistakable pull toward the film's lead.
"Hmm. Thinking about it, this isn't a problem that gets solved just because I like it."
Bound as he was to an agency, he would need to coordinate with LN Entertainment as well. Yeon-woo immediately dialed the one person who could settle the matter.
The mid-low voice of a middle-aged gentleman came over the receiver.
"Yes, Yeon-woo. What is it?"
"CEO. I just finished a meal with Director Park Chan-hong."
He summarized the situation as concisely as he could. Kim Ju-seong answered with a hearty laugh.
"Then let's do this. Frankly I'm in a supportive position, but later the board or an audit might raise contractual issues, so the company will pay, in your name, twice the amount you were thinking of investing personally. And for the profit share relative to that film's investment stake, you take seventy percent, the company thirty."
At the unexpected proposal Yeon-woo stroked his chin.
"With those terms, for the company not to take a loss the film would need to earn at least three times the investment."
"I believe you're more than capable of that. Or are you not confident?"
Kim Ju-seong asked as if playfully needling him. Yeon-woo gave a short laugh.
"I was wondering whether I should only give you twenty percent. Of course I'm confident."
"Hahaha. I can't beat you."
At Yeon-woo's easy retort the CEO laughed even louder.
"Thank you for looking out for me in so many ways."
"As I told you last time, I truly love acting."
He finished by saying the finer points would be checked through Team Leader Yoo, who handled contracts, and hung up.
The moment the call ended, a message arrived on Yeon-woo's smartphone.
What's in Incheon? He seems to go there often.
Yeon-woo tilted his head at the message from Han Hae-un, then typed a reply.
After sending the message Yeon-woo pulled on an outer coat, grabbed his car keys, and stepped outside. Winter was approaching; the days had grown short, and already the light was fading into dusk.
Meanwhile Han Hae-un, after meeting Jeong Hae-min—his wife in the previous life—in Incheon, drove toward the columbarium parking lot where his own remains were enshrined, the place he had arranged to meet Yeon-woo.
"Is this even the right thing to do?"
He sighed, recalling the woman he had just left. After he had taken her to the columbarium they had grown somewhat close; now and then he would stop by on the pretext of work, sharing coffee or conversation. Jeong Hae-min seemed to feel an instinctive pull as well; she did not dislike him, and the closer they became the heavier Hae-un's worries grew.
"...I miss Dayoon so much too, but I don't have the courage."
Thinking of his little daughter, now old enough for daycare, he scratched his head hard in the driver's seat. He could go see her in secret if he wished, yet he kept forcing the impulse down for fear that the moment he faced his child he would simply fall apart.
When Yeon-woo drove into the parking lot, Han Hae-un was already there, smoking in a corner. Yeon-woo parked and walked over. Seeing him approach, Hae-un hurriedly dropped the cigarette and crushed it under his heel.
"Did you used to smoke?"
"I smoke in this life."
Yeon-woo considered that for a moment, then nodded.
"What's the report?"
"Yes. While investigating Plus10 Entertainment I picked up a lead from the Park Gyeong-wan incident and dug into the investor side."
Hae-un drew a white envelope of documents from the inner pocket of his suit. Yeon-woo took it and opened the papers.
"The investment companies listed inside appear to be the ones that put money into Baldur and controlled the Park Gyeong-wan affair from behind the scenes."
Yeon-woo nodded as he scanned the list.
"Then check whether these backers have any connection to actor An Jun-ho. Do you have paper and a pen?"
"Yes."
Hae-un pulled a notebook and pen from his jacket pocket and handed them over. Yeon-woo wrote down several names and affiliations.
"These are reporters who used to collude with political and business figures to manufacture scandals back when I worked the domestic desk. Dig around them and it should go faster."
"Understood."
Hae-un took the notebook back, nodded, then continued.
"Ah, Team Leader. While investigating I uncovered something interesting. About CEO Kim Ju-seong of LN Entertainment—your current agency."
"Hmm? What about him?"
Curiosity lit Yeon-woo's eyes at the name of the man he had just spoken with.
"There seem to have been countless schemes aimed at Star Beyond the River this time besides Park Gyeong-wan—things like trying to plant malicious articles based on baseless rumors. In any case, CEO Kim Ju-seong cut every one of them off in the middle. He's a more powerful figure in the entertainment industry than I expected."
"Hmm. Is that so?"
Yeon-woo stroked his chin, sorting his thoughts, then looked at Hae-un's face and tilted his head.
"But is something wrong with you? Your face is full of worry. Is the investigation wearing you down?"
"Me?"
Hae-un touched his own cheek at the question, then let out a long breath.
"...It seems to be because of past-life ties. I've been meeting my wife now and then these days."
Once he began to speak, the sighs came freely as the story spilled out. In truth, who else in this world but Ryu Yeon-woo would listen to worries premised on something as absurd as reincarnation?
Yeon-woo listened in silence, nodding, then finally spoke.
"The Baek Yu-hyeon I remember from the past life never smoked. You had to run even one second faster, last even one minute longer, just to stay alive."
"Yet in this life I do smoke."
At Yeon-woo's sudden remark Hae-un gave a short laugh, as if the memory had surfaced for him as well. Yeon-woo asked again.
"Then are you Baek Yu-hyeon right now, or Han Hae-un?"
Hae-un could not answer at once. Yeon-woo continued.
"As I told you in the underground parking lot of the National Theater when we met again—I am Ryu Yeon-woo. Jeon Su-hwan from the past life is dead. If you want to meet your wife from that life, it is not Baek Yu-hyeon who wants to see her. It is Han Hae-un. Do what the you of now wants to do. Han Hae-un."
Hae-un quietly looked at the man who was patting his shoulder. This was not the terrifying special-ops agent, empty of emotion and cold as a combat machine, he had known in the previous life. Standing before him was simply an ordinary college youth—just excessively handsome.
"...I think I am Han Hae-un. No—I am Han Hae-un."
He nodded, turning Yeon-woo's words over in his mind.
Two weeks passed quickly.
In that time the contract for Director Park Chan-hong's Sketch was formally signed. Director Park contributed three billion won; the agency paid one and a half billion in Yeon-woo's name. Together they formed a budget of four and a half billion. These days average film production costs easily topped ten billion, and commercial-film titan Park Chan-hong had mostly directed blockbusters that ran past twenty billion. Except for his earliest days he had never once fretted over money while shooting; now he racked his brains devising the cheapest yet most convincing direction possible—and far from suffering, he found it endlessly fun.
While Director Park was lost in those plans, Star Beyond the River aired for two weeks and raced toward its final sixteenth episode. The still cuts released alongside Son Jin-uk's surprise appearance spread across internet communities like wallpaper, pulling in even the younger viewers who rarely watched live broadcasts.
It began with one netizen's fantasy post that shared the still.
A single still that perfectly captured the charms of three currently hottest actors spread like a meme almost overnight. Faces of utterly different appeal, each the male lead of the biggest hit drama or film of the past three years—it was quickly crowned a legendary meme and circulated through every community. Fans began thrusting the photo at influencers and celebrities, demanding their preferences, and the fame only grew. Viewership for Star Beyond the River, live or rebroadcast, soared without pause.
The agency, reading the current, advised temporarily holding the CF contracts Yeon-woo had already selected and waiting for his market value to climb still higher. In the winter of his twentieth year, an actor with only two dramas and two films on his résumé, and still a long road ahead—yet the name "Ryu Yeon-woo" was beginning to carry real weight as an actor.
"You can come down now, Actor."
"Yes, Min-su hyung. I'll be right down."
And today Yeon-woo was attending the second wrap-up party of his life. This time he finished the drama not as a supporting lead but as the protagonist. He opened the door and stepped out of the house.