Chapter 206
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 206
Chapter Title: Fan Pride and a Shared Purpose
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“Seojun!”
“Dajin nuna!”
Lee Dajin ran over with a bright smile, took Seojun's hands, and spun around with him. Seojun, smiling brightly, spun along with her. The staff smiled warmly at the sight of the two actors laughing and twirling in the middle of the parking lot. Everyone knew about their connection from the children's play, *Spring*.
“Alright. Let's continue over there. The parking lot is dangerous.”
Lee Dajin's manager gently pushed Seojun and Lee Dajin inward. The manager knew well that there was no stopping the high-spirited Lee Dajin. It was better in many ways to just let her enjoy the moment.
Sensing that strange resignation, Seojun laughed.
“The Hollywood special effects makeup team and our Korean team are really amazing. I watched a ton of zombie movies to prepare myself, but I was still shocked when I saw the zombie makeup.”
“Me too. Didn't the wounds look real?”
“Yeah, yeah. Seeing the bone was a bit gruesome.”
Seojun was also impressed, thinking it was so good it could rival the real zombies in his memory. As they chattered away, Seojun spoke up.
“Nuna, my fans sent a coffee truck. Do you want some coffee? There are cookies and bread too.”
There was plenty for the minor actors as well.
“A coffee truck!”
Lee Dajin's face lit up.
She had eaten breakfast, but everyone knows there are separate stomachs for meals, bread, and dessert.
“I wonder what they have? I bet there's orange juice.”
“Ahahaha.”
Seojun's favorite juice.
It was the drink Seojun's fans paid the most attention to whenever they sent a coffee or food truck.
Seojun led Lee Dajin to the coffee truck. As if proving it came from the truck, every person passing by was holding a cup of bright orange juice.
“The orange juice is popular. I guess they put extra care into it compared to other drinks, so it must be delicious.”
“They make it fresh here.”
“…Orange juice?”
“Yes. Daho hyung told me. He said there's even a juicer.”
Seojun showed Lee Dajin a picture of the coffee truck An Daho had sent him. In the most visible spot were three juicers. Lee Dajin tilted her head. The three juicers were all from different brands.
“Why are the brands all different?”
“Well…”
In response to Lee Dajin's question, Seojun explained with a smile.
An announcement for coffee truck donations went up on [From the Sprouts], and someone suggested serving freshly squeezed orange juice, Seojun's favorite. It was unanimously approved. They decided to buy high-sugar content oranges and to purchase or rent juicers for the coffee truck, which didn't have any.
Several juicer companies somehow heard the news and offered to sponsor them, but the fans declined the offer.
-If pictures are taken, it becomes an advertisement.
-Yeah. They might use Seojun's name and picture for advertising.
They didn't know when 'the juicer from the coffee truck sent by Lee Seojun's fan cafe' might turn into 'the juicer Lee Seojun uses'. But they still needed to buy juicers, so they chose the three companies with the best reviews.
Lee Dajin let out a hearty laugh. As expected of a superstar and his fans, they were on another level.
“To think they'd turn that down. You and your fans are really amazing, Seojun.”
“Right? They're all so cool.”
Seojun beamed triumphantly.
“Well, my fans are even more amazing, though.”
At Lee Dajin's remark, Seojun stared intently at her. Lee Dajin didn't back down. It was as if sparks were flying between them.
Soon, a fan-bragging contest began between the two actors who loved their fans, Seojun and Lee Dajin.
“They even make donations on my birthday. Aren't my fans so kind?”
“Mine too! They donate and do volunteer work on my birthday.”
“They also watch my movies a lot. I like that they write detailed reviews.”
“They watch my movies a ton, you know? Lots of reviews get posted!”
“They send me lots of letters too! I have this many piled up at the company and at home!”
“Mine send handwritten ones too!”
“Mine come from all over the world!”
“That…!”
Lee Dajin was rendered speechless by Seojun's words.
“-That's not fair! You have to exclude the number of people, that's just basic decency!”
“Every single fan is precious. How can I exclude them?”
It was true, so Lee Dajin was at a loss for words again.
“You, you!”
Kim Jongho, who had just arrived, tilted his head as he watched the smug Seojun and the fuming Lee Dajin.
A moment later.
After hearing the story from his two junior actors, Kim Jongho laughed and joined the fan-bragging battle.
“My fans have been active for over 20 years.”
At that, Lee Dajin immediately threw in the towel, while Seojun thought for a moment. *Since the mukbang? Or since the fan cafe was created?* But Seojun was only 14 years old. There was no way he could surpass 20 years.
‘Bringing in fans from my first life… that wouldn't work, would it.’
Setting aside whether he even had fans then, it was something he couldn't explain, so Seojun also surrendered.
“Hahaha.”
The winner of the fan-bragging contest was Kim Jongho.
* * *
“Ready, action!”
Inside an office filled with paper.
Perhaps it was used as a conference room; a large table and papers were strewn about.
The three, who had decided to take a short break, were talking while filling their stomachs with fruit and bread brought from the cafe kitchen.
The man and the boy discussed whether to go back or look around more, while also reading the papers piled on the table and searching the drawers and the room for weapons or anything else that might be useful.
The woman, who had somehow ended up joining their team, sat in a chair, trying to calm her fiercely pounding heart.
Yeon Jaehee.
A graduate student, she had been coming to work at her part-time job for two months.
Today, her work start time had been pushed back due to an important experiment, and she had been enjoying the sunlight with coffee and cake at the third-floor garden cafe.
Finding nothing useful, Im Jangwoo and Go Joowon also sat down. As they talked about this and that, Yeon Jaehee offered her speculation.
Hearing her story, Im Jangwoo scratched his head vigorously.
“So, you're saying these things are zombies.”
Yeon Jaehee and Go Joowon nodded repeatedly.
“And the lab researching this zombie virus is the one back there? Life extension research?”
This time, only Yeon Jaehee nodded.
Im Jangwoo crossed his arms. His whole body screamed, 'I don't believe it.'
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“What are you going to do if you don't? Detective, have you ever seen a disease where you get bitten by 'that' and become 'that'?”
“No.”
But to call them zombies… Im Jangwoo let out a sigh.
“That's too much like a movie.”
“Sometimes, reality is stranger than fiction.”
At Go Joowon's words, Yeon Jaehee blinked. Those weren't words she expected to hear from a middle schooler.
Im Jangwoo didn't know Go Joowon's circumstances, but he knew the boy had a lot bottled up inside. After looking at Go Joowon with a pang of sympathy, Im Jangwoo turned his head to look at Yeon Jaehee.
“So, you want to go to the lab?”
“Yes. I think the solution might be at the lab.”
Yeon Jaehee searched her memory. She wasn't in a related department, so she didn't know the details, but she had been sorting and reading documents for two months. She was confident in her English.
She had thought she'd misinterpreted the words, which seemed straight out of a movie, but given the situation, everything pointed to one conclusion.
Life extension research using 'those things' that were dead but moving.
And Professor Maria had been researching a cure to stop it.
“I think the professor was researching a cure for the zombies. And there were several prototypes of that drug. Don't you think one of them could help with this situation?”
“What if it doesn't help?”
“Then there's nothing we can do. But… if we can at least bring back the professor's research data, it would be a great help. We could give it to the people outside the hospital.”
Im Jangwoo didn't know a thing about science, but he liked Yeon Jaehee's idea. If they just brought the data, the smart folks would take care of it.
“Alright. Where's the lab with the prototypes and data?”
Hearing Im Jangwoo, who seemed to be planning to go alone, Yeon Jaehee quickly spoke up.
“I'll go too. It'll be easier for you if you have a guide, Detective.”
Yeon Jaehee was scared.
But the lack of any response from O.W.C., who should have been aware of the situation, was even more frightening. Perhaps she was truly the only one who held a clue to this crisis.
Without a solution, the zombie outbreak would only spread, and her family and friends could be in danger. She had to stop it as soon as possible.
“Besides, it wasn't my intention, but I think I've become involved in this incident. If I bring the documents, they might take that into consideration.”
Yeon Jaehee said with a forced smile.
Im Jangwoo nodded grimly in response.
“I'll go too.”
At the young voice, Im Jangwoo and Yeon Jaehee turned their heads. Im Jangwoo, who had expected Go Joowon to say this, had a stern face, determined not to give in this time.
“You…!”
Im Jangwoo, about to say no, swallowed his words.
Go Joowon was crying. Unable to even make a sound, he cried, wiping his tear-streaked face with his blood-stained clothes and the palm of his hand, which was wounded from hastily shooting arrows.
If he could have let it all out, Go Joowon would have been wailing. *Hic, hic,* he choked back his sobs, but the tears flowed ceaselessly, like a broken faucet.
He had found the cause of what happened to his friends. There seemed to be a solution, too. He already felt deep down that his friends could never go back to how they were. But, but…….
“…My friends …I can't just leave them like that.”
He had looked back several times while going down the stairs.
He had hesitated among the people evacuating in the opposite direction.
His steps had slowed on their own, his shoulders tensing up.
Those brief moments of hesitation had added up to a long time.
The time it took to get to his friends hadn't been that long… but it hadn't been that fast, either. In the end, it was only after seeing his friends turned into zombies that Go Joowon resented himself for hesitating. A heavy guilt felt like it was strangling him, pressing down on his chest.
‘Stupid Go Joowon. Cowardly Go Joowon.’
So this was a small act of atonement.
*His friends… turned into zombies?*
A shadow fell over Im Jangwoo and Yeon Jaehee's faces. They hadn't known about his circumstances.
They couldn't fully comprehend what Go Joowon was feeling, but Im Jangwoo and Yeon Jaehee knew it wasn't an ordinary pain. After all, the two of them were also acting for the sake of their families and acquaintances outside the hospital.
Their minds grew complicated.
‘That kid is going to follow us.’
‘I think so too.’
‘…It might be better to take him with us.’
While Go Joowon was overcome with emotion and crying, Im Jangwoo and Yeon Jaehee communicated by mouthing words. If he were useless, they would have just tied him up where the other people were gathered.
‘To me, there are twelve cell phones!’
The image of Go Joowon proudly laying out the cell phones came to mind.
The strength to strike down a zombie with his longbow. Senses sharper than anyone else's. And his archery skills were beyond question.
The two adults gave an answer they wouldn't have given if it weren't for this emergency situation.
“Alright. I understand.”
“Let's go together, Joowon.”
At their words, Go Joowon struggled to swallow his tears and nodded repeatedly.
Im Jangwoo patted Go Joowon's head, and Yeon Jaehee gently patted his back.
Detective Im Jangwoo, archery club member Go Joowon, and graduate student Yeon Jaehee.
The destination for these three people of different ages and professions was set.
It was the O.W.C. lab, the presumed origin of this crisis.
“Cut, OK!”
Director Choi Daeman shouted.
An Daho handed a wet towel to Seojun, who had been crying his eyes out. The cool towel on his face, hot from crying, soothed the area around his eyes. They took a short break until the puffiness around Seojun's eyes subsided.
Lee Dajin, who had a lump in her throat from Seojun's acting, was chugging a 100% organic orange juice when she seemed to remember something and spoke up.
“Oh. I heard your school is having a year-end performance, Seojun?”
Kim Jongho, who was drinking a warm coffee, asked with an interested expression.
“Seojun's school, you mean Yeoul Arts Middle School?”
“Yes. Next Friday.”
Seojun replied, his eyes still covered by the towel.
Oho.
Lee Dajin and Kim Jongho's eyes sparkled.
“Are you performing too, Seojun?”
Seojun answered Lee Dajin's hopeful question.
“No. Only the second and third years are performing. The first years just assist, but I can't because of the *Escape* filming.”
“That's a shame.”
“It is.”
Kim Jongho and Lee Dajin said, looking genuinely disappointed.
“But the year-end performance is only for family and school officials, so Jongho samchon and Dajin nuna wouldn't be able to come, right?”
Lee Dajin and Kim Jongho grinned, but Seojun couldn't see them with the towel over his eyes.
“There are ways.”
“That's right. So if you ever plan on performing, Seojun, make sure to tell your samchon in advance.”
“And be sure to tell me too, okay? Got it?”
“Yes.”
At Lee Dajin and Kim Jongho's urging, Seojun nodded without giving it much thought.