Nam Hyunho's Character Education
Nam Hyunho's character education came to a close, for now, when he passed out.
Took about thirty seconds, give or take.
It had all happened so fast that his manager never even got the chance to step in and stop it. The only real opening was when I was putting on my gloves, and even then everyone was too busy going "Huhhhh?" to react.
By the time Nam Hyunho and I actually squared up, he'd sprinted into the ring like his tail was on fire, but it was already too late by then.
And then there was our man Chul-nam...
"When an actor comes at you with murder in his eyes, insisting on it, what exactly am I supposed to do to stop him? It's not like I can beat him into calm."
Threatening to report it to the company had been his last line of defense, and when that failed, he'd shrugged—there was simply nothing to be done. His job was to prevent or monitor sudden incidents, sure, but physically restraining my movements with force was apparently not in the job description.
His logic: this was a guy who could flatten a sparring partner with a single guard break, so stopping me would inevitably require violence, and if I got hurt while he was manhandling me, that would be putting the cart before the horse. Especially now, with it turned into actor versus actor—there was absolutely no situation where Chul-nam hyung could have intervened.
"I'll need to request additional guards for the actor, it seems. On my own, it's simply impossible."
With that, he planned to formally ask for extra security. If we wanted to make sure this never happened again, it would probably take three guards hanging off me at all times.
"So that means... you're reporting this to the company?"
"Of course. That's my job."
"But it all wrapped up so neatly? Nobody got hurt."
"...Then what do you call the man lying unconscious over there?"
"Oh, come on, he just dozed off for a second. He'll wake right up. His face is fine, see?"
"That is not possible."
Damn it. I was going to catch hell from Cheon Yua over this.
As I sighed at the prospect of the story reaching her, Nam Hyunho—who'd been briefly knocked out by a solid shot to the solar plexus—came to.
"Ugh... did I just pass out?"
"Yes, hyung-nim. Cleanly."
"I didn't even get hit in the head. Why am I out? Ha, what a lunatic..."
Dreading what would happen once this got back to Cheon Yua, I sighed again—just as he started asking what on earth had gone down between me and Yooshin.
"You still here?"
"Can't leave until the cleanup's done, can I?"
"Right, sure. Then talk. What happened between you and Yooshin? Yooshin..."
Deflated as he was, the first thing out of Nam Hyunho's mouth the moment he stood up was that question.
Good. This is what you should've done from the start.
You charged in without even finding out what actually happened, and look where that got you.
From what I gathered, Jo Yooshin had fed him a load of nonsense—apparently I'd schemed behind the scenes to get him sidelined on set.
Oh, come on. He's the one who dragged company people in and turned the set upside down, and he's playing the victim?
He'd have been better off just admitting he took a punch from me. What he did was just plain low.
Too absurd to let slide, so I laid it all out in detail—exactly what Jo Yooshin had done on set, and exactly what I'd done to him in return.
"So... you beat him up?"
"Yes. Just like you got beat up just now."
"Wow. You really are insane."
"I don't think I need to hear that from you, sunbae. You're the one who dragged me to a gym out of nowhere."
"That was a bluff... ah, forget it. What does it matter now? Yooshin, that bastard, seriously..."
Nam Hyunho let out a groan of exasperation, and I offered him one final piece of advice.
"It's not my place to say, but pick your people better. There are plenty of good senior actors out there—why Jo Yooshin of all people? Talking behind people's backs isn't a good look on a man."
"Hmph."
"And that goes for you too, sunbae. If you'd just asked PD Yoo, you'd have known Jo Yooshin was the problem. Rion sunbae just joined this drama too—ask him. Find out what the real issue is."
That was enough. He'd have felt it himself, that something was off, and from here he'd handle it on his own.
Whether it was because of Jo Yooshin or because he genuinely despised scheming actors, I couldn't say, but with his reasons to hate me gone, he'd stop being a thorn in my side.
Simple and gullible as he was, Nam Hyunho didn't hold grudges—he wasn't the type to drag today's business out.
If anything, it was Jo Yooshin who should be worried.
That guy looked quietly, deeply furious about something.
Convinced I'd solved the problem the fastest and surest way possible, I made my way back to the company feeling pretty light about it all.
"Aha. So you punched Nam Hyunho."
"If you put it that way, it sounds like I just assaulted him one-sidedly. Think of it as light sparring? Or a life lesson?"
"I heard you knocked him flat without taking a single hit."
"Well, yes, that part's true. But I avoided his face. We still have to shoot."
"...Aren't you something?"
"What was I supposed to do? He called me into a ring. Between men, you see—"
A meeting with Cheon Yua was waiting for me when I got back.
I reached for every excuse I could find to dress up my actions, but her expression stayed sour throughout.
Honestly, since I was clearly in the wrong, I couldn't argue the point for long.
"Guard Kang Chul-nam has requested reinforcements. He says he can't prevent a repeat of today alone."
"...Yes, he did mention that."
"So from now on, whenever you leave for anything besides filming, Siwoo, you'll have three guards. Their mandate has changed from monitoring and prevention to strict intervention. And if three isn't enough, we'll add Seojin-unni."
"Why Seojin-sshi?"
"You can't just shake off a woman clinging to your arms and legs, can you? And Seojin-unni has great stamina. She'll hang on for dear life."
"...That's really going too far."
Normally a celebrity's security only tagged along for scheduled appearances—mine was the exact opposite. Manager only when there's a shoot, but three guards whenever there isn't one, because apparently that's when I cause accidents.
And on top of that, a coordinator would be thrown into the mix to keep my spontaneous escapades in check.
It sounded like a hassle, but given what I'd pulled, I couldn't exactly refuse.
"Then how about assigning me Sally...?"
"..."
"...I'm sorry. Please stop looking at me like that."
I'd figured that since things were already like this, I might as well squeeze out some small benefit(?), but Cheon Yua was glaring at me with the eyes of a demon.
Too far, then. Naturally.
With so few female guards available, lending one to me would have cramped her own style, after all.
"Well, the set will be quiet at least. Let's count our blessings there."
With the seeds of trouble uprooted before filming even began, nothing would go wrong during the shoot. We'd only gotten off this easy because it hadn't started yet—if this had blown up mid-production, the fallout would have been far worse.
It stung a little, this atmosphere of me being the resident troublemaker, but I decided to console myself with the thought that I'd secured a peaceful filming environment.
After that day's incident, Nam Hyunho was absent from practice for three days.
Probably because his whole body hurt. He'd look fine on the surface, but every inch of him would be throbbing.
And when he returned from those three days off, the first thing he did was come looking for me.
"Cleaned house on a few of them. Some of them were worse than I expected."
"Oh, really?"
Apparently, during his time off, he'd quietly looked into the people around him through various channels—and found more oddballs than he'd bargained for, so he'd cut loose a few who struck him as beyond the pale.
Jo Yooshin was among them.
He said he'd been genuinely shocked to discover that the man who'd seemed so harmless in front of him was an even worse piece of work than he'd thought.
So the guy is a lunatic, but not a fool after all, it seems.
"So... why do you keep hanging around me?"
"What do you mean, why? Are we not close now?"
"...There isn't much to base a relationship on, is there?"
"Aw, don't be like that. We exchanged fists as men—what more do you need?"
"Well, for one thing... you didn't land a single punch."
Whether Nam Hyunho purged his circle or not was honestly none of my business. I'd just given him some casual advice because it reminded me of the old days, that was all.
But somehow, after that day, he'd started mysteriously orbiting around me, clinging on.
No, wait. Is this how it's supposed to go?
After getting floored like that, shouldn't you be avoiding me out of sheer embarrassment?
"Not many people talk to me this straight, you know."
"...Ah."
That was his answer when I asked what he was playing at.
So... is this one of those things? Like, you're the first person who ever treats me like this and all that.
I could sort of understand it.
Stunningly handsome, youngest son of a chaebol family, and a star on top of that. Sure, he was more or less hiding the chaebol-heir part these days, but there wouldn't be many people willing to hand blunt criticism to a heartthrob star who'd made it overnight. Anyone who knew his family background would tread even more carefully.
So I got why a guy who threw punches before pleasantries might seem refreshing to him—but if this was the approach, I'd rather receive it from a woman, frankly.
He kept doing this, and it was starting to smell distinctly like something else, and that something else was scary.
"What kind of crazy talk is that? I love women. Like, insanely."
"...Did anyone say anything? Just watch out for scandals."
Well, thank goodness it wasn't that, I guess. Truly confusing, either way.
That said, his clinginess did come with its perks for me.
For all his gullibility, the man knew a startling amount of showbiz insider gossip.
"You said you're at the same agency as Cheon-sunbae, right? Are you all like you over there?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, Cheon-sunbae did something like that once too. It's been years, and the other party was such a nasty piece of work that everyone keeps it hush-hush, but it was truly something."
"...What happened?"
Old stories about Cheon Yua were prime entertainment, especially.
What he was getting at was this: back when Cheon Yua was working on her third project, she'd had some friction with a notoriously vicious actress. Things escalated until it turned physical—and the moment their bodies came into contact, Cheon Yua showed her true colors.
As staff crowded in and chaos reigned, she slipped past every watching eye and delivered three uppercuts to the woman's abdomen.
The actress went down on the spot and was carted off to the hospital, and when Cheon Yua returned to set, she filmed her scenes in silence and vanished.
"The funny part is, she moved so cleanly that nobody ever knew. Even the woman who got hit never figured out who did it. A staff member I know was the only witness, and she kept her mouth shut because that actress deserved it."
"Heh. Really? Something like that actually happened?"
"Everyone figures it out by now. In that situation, only Cheon-sunbae could have pulled it off. Around that time, I think, actresses stopped even trying to out-aura her. Word must have gotten around, quietly."
"I see..."
Of course. That's Cheon Yua for you. With that personality, there was no way she'd lose a battle of presence.
Still, come on—the Heavenly Demon Punch on an ordinary actress? Isn't that going a bit far?
I filed this story away carefully. Perfect ammunition for the day Cheon Yua decided to lecture me.
One look at the guy and I could tell he planned to stay chummy with me from here on out. If he kept doling out intel this useful, then maybe—just maybe—I'd consider being moderately friendly back.