Chapter 292
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 292
Chapter Title: The Boy with the Yellow Umbrella
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[‘Shadowman Series’ Figures Scheduled for May Release!]
[William & Jin Natra! Figures from the Entire Series!]
[Marine Company × Monster Inc. × Mirror Team, A Perfect Synergy!]
- This is insane. I want to buy them all lol
- You can feel the vibe just from the photos. Mirror Team seems to have done a great job.
= Monster Inc. too. How did they make them with such high quality.
- I wish they'd make figures of Seojun's other works with this quality.
= +1 Now that Shadowman 1 is out, I really want to collect them all in order.
- What's with May? The figures, Seojun's fan meeting.
= In May, he'll still be filming Spring Has Returned... Seriously, what's going on.
= I'm not even a kid, but it feels like I got a Children's Day present lol
- ㅠㅠ I already have so many expenses in May... Oh well. I have no choice but to start saving money now!
= +++ If I don't buy it now, I'll regret it later lol
- As a fan of Seojun, I have to buy the figure from his first work.
= And William from 3 is so moving, you have to buy it. And Jin Natra before his corruption, seeing him grow up so righteously in that situation brings tears to my eyes, so I can't not buy it. And Jin Natra after his corruption has such an overwhelming presence, you have to buy it lol
= lol So you're saying you're buying all of them lol
* * *
Today was the day for filming the modern-day scenes of *Spring Has Returned*.
As usual, Seojun and Jeong Boram showed up at the set.
"When it comes to buzz, no one can beat Seojun."
At Park Dohun's words, Seojun smiled shyly.
It had already been a week since the news about the fan meeting and figures was released, but the internet was still buzzing.
"I think it's because of the unboxing video I posted on N-tube a few days ago. I didn't know so many people liked figures."
The high-quality figures, which weren't for sale and perfectly recreated scenes from the movie, ignited the desire of *Shadowman* fans to own them.
"I want them too...!"
Kang Taeyoung, who had been groaning over the figure pictures Seojun sent him, spoke up.
"...Seojun. Are they really not for sale?"
At Kang Taeyoung's question, Seojun scratched his cheek.
After the gift unboxing video was released, the number of calls and inquiries to Monster Inc. was so high that Uncle Huisang and his father were having a tough time. Daho hyung had told him that Marine Company was dealing with a similar frenzy.
"If they do sell them, the quantity will probably be small because they're hard to make. I think they'll probably sell them as a limited pre-order."
"...I have bad luck, so I won't get one."
"Still, they said they'll sell other versions later, so cheer up, Taeyoung hyung."
"Seojun."
"Yes?"
"Can I come over to your house to see them?"
To Kang Taeyoung's cautious question, Seojun replied with a bright smile.
"Of course. Come over anytime."
At Seojun's words, Kang Taeyoung, now more than just re-energized but ecstatic, beamed.
"Then should I come next week? Let's watch the premiere together!"
"You idiot. His parents will be there. Are you planning to stay late into the night?"
At Yoon Hyein's comment, Kang Taeyoung realized his mistake.
"Besides, Producer Gong already booked a restaurant for the premiere."
"I didn't hear about that!"
Kang Taeyoung's gaze shifted to his manager, Joo Yongjin. Joo Yongjin shook his head from side to side. He had definitely told him. It was Kang Taeyoung who, excited about the figures and fan meeting, had let it go in one ear and out the other.
* * *
The first Monday of April.
The MBS special four-part drama, *Tomorrow*, was aired.
[MBS Special Drama, 'Tomorrow,' Reaches 10% Viewership!]
[A Strong Start! Highest Ratings Among Four-Part Dramas!]
[A Ripple Effect from 'Spring Has Returned'?!]
[An Exciting Plot! Will 'Tomorrow' Come Next Week?]
- It was fun lol
- Everyone acted well, and it was entertaining.
= +1 The casting was perfect too. The directing was also good.
[Tonight at 10 PM, MBS 'Spring Has Returned' Premieres!]
[Lee Seojun's First Drama in 7 Years! What Will the Ratings Be?]
[Who is the Real First Love? Park Dohun? Or Kang Taeyoung?]
['Spring Has Returned' Trailer, When Will We See What's After the Yellow Umbrella Scene?]
- Ugh. It's finally here.
= I've been waiting for this since the articles in February!
- His first drama in 7 years... It's already been that long.
= He's done a lot of movies. This is his second drama.
- Oh. It's 8 o'clock!
- It's 9 PM!
- Wow. So many commercials.
= They probably all sold out. To major companies, too.
= 1,000% sold out. It was like this during *Naeuiwon* too lol
- Do you think they'll show the scene after the trailer today?
= Nah, I doubt it. They'll probably save it for the last episode to build hype.
= I think everyone will watch it even without that lol
- The commercials are finally over!
= It's starting!
* * *
The office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
The team leader of Planning Team 3 was yelling, and a woman stood before him with her head bowed.
"How many times is this now!"
The team leader shouted something at Kim Seoyeon, who simply kept her head down without a word.
*That ad concept is outdated.*
*It's not suitable for online advertising.*
*That celebrity is just expensive and doesn't match the target audience at all.*
There was so much she wanted to say, but what was the point?
Kim Seoyeon wondered if the rejected proposal was even hers to begin with.
*This is better than that. This is the client's taste. You call this a proposal?* From the font to the content, hadn't the team leader fuming before her meddled in all of it?
It wasn't the first or second time he had a knack for inserting himself into projects that seemed promising, only to bail the moment they started to fail.
Even when her team leader told her to come in tomorrow, a weekend, Kim Seoyeon could only nod obediently.
"Get out!"
"Yes. I'm sorry..."
She didn't even know why she had to apologize.
She was just so used to it that she didn't even think about it anymore.
Kim Seoyeon bowed her head again and returned to her desk. Many of her colleagues looked at her with pity, but she didn't notice a single one.
Just as her team leader had ordered, Kim Seoyeon came to work on the weekend, finished tasks that could have easily been done on a weekday, and left. Aboard the bus home, she wasn't even angry at herself for working on a weekend; it had become her new normal.
It was just.
It was just that she wondered how long she had to live like this.
Kim Seoyeon stared out the bus window with a blank expression.
*I wish... I'd get into an accident or something. Then I wouldn't have to go to work...*
The bus heading home stopped at a bus stop. A light drizzle began to fall. A female student got on the bus, and a male student outside watched her, smiling.
The contrast between the happy couple and the lifeless Kim Seoyeon was stark.
A gust of wind blew. The male student's umbrella tilted.
Kim Seoyeon's vision was filled with yellow. The OST for *Spring Has Returned* began to play. A yellow umbrella slowly lifted.
A smooth jawline. Softly upturned lips.
Flushed cheeks. A sharp nose.
And eyes warmer than sunlight.
Under the yellow umbrella.
A boy in love was smiling as brightly as a freshly bloomed flower.
Kim Seoyeon stared blankly at the boy.
- Wow...
- ...Oh my god.
The viewers also stared blankly at the boy.
Everyone was at a loss for words as the boy's smile filled the screen.
After blinking a few times, she realized the bus was moving.
Kim Seoyeon quickly pressed her face against the window and looked outside. She saw a male student with a yellow umbrella waiting for the bus. But it wasn't him.
"...Who was that?"
Kim Seoyeon tried to remember who that boy was. She searched through her memories as if looking for a needle in a haystack, but nothing came to mind.
"...Is he a celebrity? He has the perfect visuals for an ad model."
The fact that she was still thinking about ads at a time like this seemed so crazy that Kim Seoyeon couldn't help but laugh. An empty laugh was still a laugh, and her mood lifted slightly. Perhaps it was because of the boy she had just imagined.
But the good mood that had lasted for a week hit rock bottom again.
Feeling hopeless, Kim Seoyeon arrived at work only to hear that her team leader had been replaced.
"So suddenly?"
"The reason wasn't disclosed, but maybe it's because there were too many reasons."
Kim Seoyeon and her coworkers nodded in unison.
He was the kind of team leader who would clock out immediately after an outside meeting, take credit for others' proposals, and steal their achievements. Someone must have finally had enough and reported him.
Just then, the head of the HR team walked in with someone. Kim Seoyeon and her coworkers' eyes widened at the sight of the unfamiliar man. The HR team leader introduced him.
"This is Lee Hyeonseong, who will be the new team leader of Planning Team 3 starting today."
"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Lee Hyeonseong."
His cold voice and stiff demeanor made Kim Seoyeon inexplicably, and quite suddenly, recall a certain memory.
It was a memory of a classroom, a place that now felt so foreign.
She was chatting with her friends when the homeroom teacher walked in with a transfer student. The transfer student, with a stern face, briefly scanned the classroom before speaking.
"Hello. I'm Yoo Seongjin. I'm from America."
*Whoa. No way.*
Whispers erupted from all around. They knew he was a transfer student, but they never imagined he was from America. The students' eyes sparkled. Being handsome and from America was enough to capture everyone's attention at once.
"Alright, Seongjin will be... Seoyeon."
"Yes."
At the teacher's call, the class president, Kim Seoyeon, raised her hand.
The transfer student, Yoo Seongjin, who had been looking around the classroom as if unfamiliar with his new surroundings, turned his gaze toward Kim Seoyeon, who was sitting by the window.
The eyes of the transfer student from America, Yoo Seongjin, and the class president, Kim Seoyeon, met.
The eyes of the new team leader, Lee Hyeonseong, and Kim Seoyeon met.
Only then did Kim Seoyeon realize who the dreamlike boy from the bus was.
He wasn't a celebrity she had glimpsed, nor was he an illusion conjured from exhaustion.
*Yoo Seongjin.*
He was Kim Seoyeon's first love.
* * *
Her deskmate, who had heard the story from a friend in HR, rattled off information about Team Leader Lee Hyeonseong.
"Team Leader Lee came from America. He was headhunted. The company was planning to create a new planning team for overseas advertising, but he's going to acclimate in our team first, then pick employees for the new team. No wonder... I was thinking it was strange to replace him so suddenly even with the whistleblowing, but it seems it's because they already had a new team leader lined up. He's 32... Huh? He's the same age as you, Assistant Manager Kim."
Hearing they were the same age, Kim Seoyeon found herself thinking of the team leader again.
Team Leader Lee Hyeonseong, who resembled the boy from her first love. The fact that he was from America somehow made her even more conscious of it.
"...But his name is different."
* * *
After the new team leader arrived, a new advertising proposal came in.
It was from a competitor of the company that had recently rejected their proposal. As Kim Seoyeon sighed inwardly at the photos of a similar product, Team Leader Lee Hyeonseong spoke to her.
"This project. Would you like to take the lead, Assistant Manager Kim?"
"...What? Ah, yes. I will."
Kim Seoyeon looked down at the project she had been unexpectedly assigned. She couldn't reuse the proposal that her former team leader had ruined, so she had to start from scratch.
"Why did he give this to me?"
"I know, right? Team Leader Lee must know our ad for their competitor was rejected..."
"He knows?"
"The old team leader left without any time for a handover, so he's reviewing all the recent ad proposals. Your proposal must have been in there."
"You're right. I don't get why he'd give it to me after seeing my proposal."
Was this his way of making her fail twice?
A shadow fell over Kim Seoyeon's face.
* * *
"May I sit here?"
"Ah. Yes."
In the company cafeteria.
Team Leader Lee Hyeonseong sat down across from Kim Seoyeon.
As Kim Seoyeon ate her lunch awkwardly across from him, her eyes fell on his fingers holding his chopsticks.
*He has pretty fingers,* she thought, and another old memory surfaced.
* * *
"But this one's good, so try it."
At Kim Seoyeon's gesture toward the spicy stir-fried pork, Yoo Seongjin stared at it silently for a moment before picking up his chopsticks.
She thought he wouldn't know how to use them since he was from America, but he held them perfectly parallel, looking quite adept.
*He has pretty fingers, too.*
For some reason, her eyes were drawn to his hands. Glancing at her own, Kim Seoyeon held her breath as Yoo Seongjin put the stir-fried pork in his mouth. Maybe it was because she'd been watching him all morning, but she felt like she could read his expressionless face a little.
As Yoo Seongjin's face brightened, albeit slightly, Kim Seoyeon broke into a wide grin.
* * *
*I thought his fingers were eye-catching.*
Whenever she saw Team Leader Lee Hyeonseong, she was reminded of Yoo Seongjin.
"Because I thought you'd do well."
"...Pardon?"
At the sound of his voice, Kim Seoyeon's gaze shifted to Team Leader Lee Hyeonseong. With a stoic expression, he continued.
"I figured you'd be curious why I chose you, Assistant Manager Kim. I heard that you recently received an ad proposal from a competitor of the product we just got an offer for. The proposals were still there. Among them, I saw the pre-revision proposal you created."
Kim Seoyeon stared blankly at him.
The pre-revision proposal.
That was the proposal that contained her undiluted ideas, before her former team leader had touched it.
"It was good. Of course, since it's a different company, you'll have to create a new proposal, but I had a feeling that Assistant Manager Kim would do a great job."
For some reason, Kim Seoyeon felt as though Lee Hyeonseong's expressionless face was smiling.
* * *
The proposal she had prepared with an anxious heart was well-received by the client. Letting out a sigh of relief, Kim Seoyeon went to meet the commercial director who would be in charge of the shoot.
"Hello. I'm Choi Yuwon, the director for this shoot."
At Director Choi Yuwon's gentle smile, Kim Seoyeon smiled back and shook his hand.
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