Murim Assemble, Complete
A bone-chilling cold had settled over the CEO's office at Moon Entertainment.
The company's one and only top star, 'Luna,' was locked in a war of nerves with CEO Moon.
"What exactly is it you do around here? You should have handled it before it ever got to me. Why is this landing on my desk?"
"...My apologies."
CEO Moon's target was Luna's manager, who was being absolutely torn apart for failing to properly manage his own artist.
Despite the hostile atmosphere, Luna's reaction was pure indifference.
No — if anything, she was pouring fuel on the fire.
"You're right. What do you do? Spy on your signed artists? Bleed them dry? No wonder I'm the only one left in this company. It must be suffocating for you, CEO Moon. Oh wait, you started it yourself, so maybe not."
"You really..."
Luna's head had grown far too big for anyone's good. CEO Moon let out a deep sigh and moved on to the main issue.
From his standpoint, an activity gap of several months for Luna — the company's sole source of revenue — was something to be avoided at all costs.
All the more so if the cause was nothing more than a minor supporting role in a drama.
He'd managed to stall and dodge for a while, but this time it seemed like he'd have no choice but to reach some kind of conclusion.
After all, Luna — who despised visiting the company above all else — had barged in out of nowhere and occupied the CEO's office outright.
The manager had been chewed out because, in truth, he'd failed to take a single countermeasure before Luna arrived at the building.
"You're really doing this? Why would you of all people do something like this?"
"Then what am I supposed to do instead?"
"Promote. The album's already finished."
"Ah, right. Shake my hips to another one of those god-awful songs. Keep grinding away so CEO Moon's belly gets a little rounder?"
"Why do you have to say it like that? You're a shareholder of this company too."
"My ass. Shares in a company that can't even get listed. And did those shares actually get transferred to me for real?"
"...About that."
"Whatever. Forget it. I couldn't care less about any of that. I don't need any of it. All I need to do is this."
"Ha..."
As CEO Moon exhaled, Luna pressed on.
"CEO Moon, I've only got a few months left on my contract. The way things are going, you really think you'll be able to renew with me?"
But on this point, CEO Moon had something to say as well.
No one knew better than he did that Luna could never truly escape this company.
"That's my line. You really think you'd be able to keep working properly once you leave this place?"
Normally, Luna would have let that slide. This time, she was just as hard-line.
"Honestly, even I think so. But here's the thing. If I just swallow the whole company down and drag us both under, who loses? I've got no attachment to any of it. Maybe we should go down together?"
"...You're insane."
"So let's keep it civil, then. Unless you want to rot together."
As if to say she had nothing more to discuss, Luna rose from her seat and stared at CEO Moon for a long moment.
With eyes sunk into bottomless darkness.
Her completely hollow gaze, devoid of anything at all, was so chilling that CEO Moon forced down the shiver crawling up his spine and quietly looked away.
"Anyway. I'm doing this. Block it or don't, I don't care. And you were the one who forced acting on me when I said no, remember."
After Luna swept out of the office, the sound of something shattering rang out, followed by a torrent of filthy cursing.
While I was honing my craft at the action school, our company's little peanut, Mi-joo, was officially cast as young Wol-hee.
Cheon Yua and I had been pulled out of the audition due to scheduling conflicts, but word around set was that the little one's acting had utterly demolished the competition.
Granted, child acting is all more or less the same, but a promising bud is a promising bud — they're always worth noticing.
That precocious little brat really does commit to everything she does.
She'd only had a few days of lessons, and she'd already left every industry insider in awe.
"The articles are starting to come out."
Most of the roles had found their owners, and the story was beginning to hit the press.
Cheon Yua, Nam Hyunho, Rion. Honestly, with a lineup like that, it would've been stranger if the media hadn't gone wild.
And apparently, this had the broadcasting station poking at us too.
The original combination of rookie writer + rookie actor + steampunk + Joseon had been an absolute dead-end, but with Cheon Yua, Nam Hyunho, and investors now attached, it had become a golden goose — naturally, their appetites were growing.
Cheon Yua, however, showed no intention of negotiating a broadcast slot until the production was somewhat complete.
"It's not as if we're short on production budget, so there's no need to rush. A timeslot? If we need one, one will make itself available. Rather than vaguely shouting 'steampunk' at people, footage will make the concept land far more intuitively. And drive the price up, of course."
These days, if anything, Cheon Yua seemed even more invested in this project than I was.
Maybe because so much of her own money was sunk into it?
The scheduling side wasn't my problem to worry about, so I just nodded along beside her.
"So! Today is the day 'Wol-hee' herself is coming!"
"So it worked out after all."
"Yes! It did! We secured her!"
Wol-hee, who had stayed quiet while every other role was locked in, had apparently finally found her owner.
And it was the very top star Yang Yuri had been gunning for from the start.
A genuine top star, presumably?
I had no idea who it was, so I didn't have much to say about it.
That said, judging by how hard Yang Yuri was losing her mind over it, the star clearly had serious pull.
"Who on earth could it be..."
"I'm curious too."
"Right?"
And so today, the star taking on Wol-hee was scheduled to visit our company.
No matter how much the writer loved her, you couldn't just hand over a major role without due diligence, so a simple meeting had been arranged for everyone to talk and finalize the casting.
With all the buzz this had generated, Director Bang and every stakeholder involved had gathered at our company.
Some were curious who this star Yang Yuri had been raving about was; others just wanted to talk about the production and the roles.
"...She's here."
But the person most on edge in this room was probably me.
Because the lead who'd made me uneasy the moment I first heard her name was finally making her entrance.
In truth, I'd grumbled about it with Nam Hyunho and done my best to empty my mind.
Going by how the universe loves to screw with me, it was practically guaranteed that someone with Murim ties would pop out of the woodwork — so my resolution was to not sweat it and just do my job.
With the Heavenly Demon and the Demon Brain both gathered here, ordinary karmic ties weren't going to faze me.
Heck, the Third Young Master of the Namgung clan had been noticeably cozying up to me lately.
"Not that I don't have ties of Heavenly Demon caliber..."
Still, no matter how much the universe hates me, would it really go that far?
That would be a bit much.
A commotion rose outside, and then someone entered the conference room.
"Ta-da! Presenting — the one and only Luna, who will be playing Wol-hee!"
"Oh..."
"Luna, as in..."
With a flourish from Yang Yuri, a woman with long twin tails strode into the room.
The undisputed peak of solo popularity — Luna.
The 'Wol-hee' Yang Yuri had refused to give up on until the very end was her.
"Hello, I'm Luna the singer. Ah — should I introduce myself as the actress Moon Sooyeon here, actually?"
Luna smiled lightly as she slipped off the coat she'd come in wearing.
A black dress lined in crimson.
The sheer, borderline scandalous cut left nothing of her figure to the imagination, and everyone in the room swallowed involuntarily.
"That outfit is..."
"I heard Wol-hee mostly wears qipao. So I got one made. Does it suit Wol-hee?"
"...Qipao? That's not exactly a qipao..."
"Oh, it's not? I searched qipao and most of them looked like this."
Where the hell did she search to turn up that? Devilishly seductive, that's what it was.
With a single look — her eyes, her expression, that bewitching figure — Luna had captured the entire room. She was a beauty of a completely different color from Cheon Yua.
If proud, aloof elegance was Cheon Yua's exclusive domain, Luna was sensual and decadent — a textbook femme fatale.
Luna wearing a dress like that was a weapon of mass destruction.
It made the somewhat clichéd plotline of Yi-myung falling for Wol-hee at first sight feel suddenly, desperately plausible.
"Well, if it's Luna..."
"Singing and dancing go without saying, and her acting..."
"Luna actually debuted as an actress four years ago. I watched that film myself."
"She couldn't keep acting because of her schedule, but the potential was undeniable."
"If Luna takes Wol-hee, we won't have to worry about the OST either."
Luna — a solo artist seven years into her career.
A female soloist who had climbed about as high as anyone in the music industry could climb.
Even Rion of Nuclear, the hottest boy group around, was still a fledgling chick next to her.
It wasn't as if she had no acting résumé either — word was her debut performance had directors salivating.
With credentials like that, she was certainly a prize worth Yang Yuri swallowing her pride and groveling for.
But from where I stood, all that came out was a single heavy sigh.
"...The Hao Sect Master."
Ha. Seriously. Why is my life like this.
Why did it have to be her, of all people...
The Hao Sect Master, Wol-yeon.
If anything, she was a person bound to me by an even deeper karmic thread than the Heavenly Demon herself.
Where the Heavenly Demon left a mark on me thin and long, the Hao Sect Master's was short and thick — but impossible, ever, to forget.
And how could it be otherwise? When I first read the completed script, the very first person who came to mind was this woman.
The story of Yi-myung and Wol-hee bore a striking resemblance to the Hao Sect Master's own story.
There had been a flicker of suspicion, but I'd gritted my teeth and denied it.
No matter how hard the universe screwed with me, I'd believed there was no way Wol-yeon would walk into my life through this script.
Good grief. A novelist who wrote this would get crucified.
But reality was more dynamic than my imagination, and the universe's vendetta against me knew no end.
"A singer, huh. I had no idea she'd become this famous."
Despite all my recent searching, Luna had never turned up — probably because she'd been in the middle of an overseas tour.
It's true I paid zero attention to the music scene, but you'd think a singer this famous would have surfaced somehow.
But with her touring abroad for months on end, there hadn't been much in the way of notable articles, and the ones that did exist had lousy photos.
A US tour might make the news, but an Asia tour apparently wasn't newsworthy enough to generate proper coverage.
And the photos of Luna on stage were all, for some reason, ones where her face was barely visible.
Most of them emphasized her figure, and even those had her hair covering half her face — how was I supposed to identify her from that?
If I'd known from the start, maybe it would've been different, but looking at them with zero context, anyone would just scroll past.
Not to mention that by my reckoning, the Hao Sect Master had been dead for twenty years.
"Ha..."
And so Yang Yuri had finally forged her perfect legacy.
The Murim Assemble: righteous sect (the Heavenly Demon) + orthodox clan (the Namgung) + heterodox underworld (the Hao Sect Master).
Even now, Yang Yuri is writing legend.