Episode 54: Choi Si-eun Is Brutal
Episode 54: Choi Si-eun Is Brutal
Chapter 54 Choi Sieun Is Intense.
Park Haru couldn't believe the phone call she'd received a few days ago. No—she desperately wanted to deny reality.
Her boyfriend was the man whose aunt was Korea's eternal diva, Choi Mi-ae, and whose sister was the nationally renowned actress Lee Sieun. The story behind her using the stage name Lee Sieun—more familiar to the public—while her legal name remained Choi Sieun was already common knowledge, even without looking up articles.
Her boyfriend's family was, in a word, the insane royalty of the entertainment industry.
But what truly made Park Haru's jaw drop was the bombshell her boyfriend, Choi Sijun, had dropped just yesterday.
- Sorry for telling you so late... she's also my girlfriend.
She felt her heart plummet straight to her feet.
Yesterday, she'd forced the corners of her lips up and nodded, pretending to be calm and understanding, but of course, it was all an act.
The shock didn't fade even after she got home.
They might be step-siblings with not a single drop of shared blood, brought together by their parents' remarriage, but they were legally family—so how could they be lovers?
By Park Haru's common sense, it was a relationship she simply couldn't comprehend.
Just as her head felt like it might explode from the tangled thoughts, the door to their meeting spot opened and the very person in question walked in.
"Sorry. I'm a little late."
Park Haru shot up from her seat like a spring.
"Oh, no, not at all, sunbae-nim!"
"Why are you jumping up like that? You'll hurt yourself. Sit down."
"Yes, thank you, sunbae-nim!"
"Sunbae, huh... I heard Eunhwi just calls you 'unnie'?"
"Ah... um..."
Though the remark was tossed out lightly with a smile, Park Haru felt dizzy.
Ji Eunhwi, with whom she'd at least shared a few words in a professor-TA relationship at school, was approachable thanks to her characteristic warmth, but the person in front of her, Lee Sieun—no, Choi Sieun—was on a different level entirely.
At forty years old, she had a staggering thirty-two years of acting experience. An irreplaceable top-tier actress who had guarded the summit since her childhood days without a single moment off.
Ji Eunhwi was also a splendid actress and senior, but she was in a different league when it came to the sheer gravitas Choi Sieun exuded.
Just by sitting still and sipping water, she commanded the entire space with a suffocating, overwhelming aura. Park Haru, crushed by that force, couldn't collect her thoughts at all.
"You're too nervous."
"Huh? Ah, yes..."
"Is it okay if I speak casually? I'd like to get closer to you."
Sieun already seemed halfway into casual address, but Park Haru had frozen up so completely that she'd become not Choi Sijun's girlfriend, but rookie actress Park Haru. She didn't have the presence of mind to even register the offer.
"Yes... please, feel free to!"
"Thank you."
"Not at all!"
Choi Sieun let out a small laugh at Haru's stiff, rigid answer.
"Why are you so wound up? I don't chew out my juniors on set, you know? Are the rumors about me that weird?"
"Well... yes. I mean, no. I've always been a huge fan of yours, sunbae-nim... and also, you said you're Sijun-oppa's sister..."
"You're my fan?"
"Yes! You're my role model."
It wasn't empty flattery. Even Professor Choi Sijung, Haru's academic advisor, would play Choi Sieun's acting videos as teaching material in class whenever he got the chance, and Park Haru herself had always dreamed of becoming an actor just like her.
Just as the frozen atmosphere seemed about to thaw a little, Choi Sieun leaned her elbows on the table, propped her chin lightly in her hands, and asked in a languid voice.
"But... Sijun-oppa?"
"......!"
"Well, I guess he is an oppa. That guy."
In that instant, Haru's heart sank.
In that single short phrase, tinged with a cool, peculiar ease, she caught a sudden current—not from a senior actress, but from a girlfriend alert to another woman in her boyfriend's life.
"Yes..."
Park Haru's throat tightened, and she barely managed to squeeze out an answer that crawled out like an ant.
For a split second, as a suffocating silence settled heavily over the table, Haru's tightly clenched fingertips trembled slightly on her lap.
But as if it had never happened, Choi Sieun immediately shifted back to a relaxed demeanor and flashed an elegant smile.
"Well, let's take our time with that story over lunch a little later. You're so frozen up, Haru-ssi, you need to loosen up a bit first. What do you like? The food here is all pretty good."
When Choi Sieun smoothly turned the leather-bound menu and slid it toward her, Haru froze up again, rigid as if someone had pressed her pause button.
She didn't even register the astronomical prices of the dishes listed on the menu.
With trembling fingers, she barely managed to point at the most innocuous, least conspicuous sushi set.
"I-I'll have this one..."
"Will just that one thing fill you up?"
"Huh? Oh, yes! It's plenty!"
"Okay, then. We can order more later if you're still hungry."
Choi Sieun lightly raised a hand and pressed the button to call a server.
Not long after she pressed it, a staff member knocked and opened the door.
"We'll have this, and..."
Choi Sieun finished the order expertly, her voice soft and graceful.
The staff member quietly left the room, leaving the two of them alone again.
The only thing filling the space was the gentle hum of the air conditioner.
Choi Sieun lifted her glass, took a sip of water, and then parted her lips to speak, low and quiet.
"I enjoyed watching your acting, Haru-ssi."
At that casual remark, Park Haru's rabbit-like eyes flew wide open.
Her perfect role model, reigning high above in the clouds, had actually watched and even evaluated the acting of a rookie like her, who was just learning to stand in front of a camera.
The dizzying reality of facing her boyfriend's other girlfriend, and the overwhelming feeling of being noticed by the senior she had idolized her whole life.
Those two extreme, contradictory emotions violently tangled together, and Park Haru's mind went completely blank.
The food they ordered came out, and the meal began in earnest.
With that, the heavy air that had been weighing down the room softened considerably.
Or maybe, it was just Park Haru's own illusion.
It was because she'd gotten so absorbed in the priceless, meat-and-potatoes advice the senior actress casually tossed her way that she'd even momentarily forgotten the suffocating tension.
"Haru-ssi, I saw your drama the other day, and your emotional line is really good. But you have a habit—when the dialogue gets long, your gaze tends to drift to the right."
"Ah...!"
Park Haru, chopsticks in hand, opened her mouth like an idiot.
A subtle habit that even her teacher, Professor Choi Sijung, hadn't—or couldn't—point out.
She'd pinpointed it purely from watching a video.
"Even if you think you're out of the camera angle, that one glance can break the audience's immersion. In that case, it's better to gently close your eyes and then open them again. Like this."
Choi Sieun continued talking, demonstrating the acting directly for Park Haru.
Listening to her, Park Haru had no idea if the food was going into her mouth or her nose.
'As expected of Choi Sieun sunbae-nim...'
Haru's eyes, which had been crushed moments ago by the fear of facing her boyfriend's other girlfriend—and sister—were now sparkling with pure admiration.
"Oh, but did you understand everything I said?"
"Huh?"
"No, usually when I try to teach acting, people say they don't get it. It's a bit awkward to say myself, but they grumble that geniuses can't teach kids."
"Ah... I understood it well."
"Oh, thank you. Since you're Sijun's girlfriend and like a little sister to me, I got all excited and rambled on—this is nice. Haru-ssi—no, Haru, I'd like it if you could feel comfortable around me, too, but it'll take time, right?"
"Well... yes."
Park Haru had been about to deny it but answered honestly. At that, Choi Sieun smiled lightly, seeming to understand how she felt.
When the meal was partly finished, Choi Sieun dabbed her mouth with a napkin and subtly shifted the mood.
"Well, let's leave the acting talk here. Once this summer is over, I have to go back to the States. My schedule is packed tight."
"Ah, yes. I heard about that from Oppa yesterday."
"So, what I wanted to say is."
Choi Sieun's gaze drifted to the glass on the table. The eyes of the actress, always so sharp and aloof, softened in an instant into those of an ordinary woman—no, a smitten lover.
"Please take good care of our Sijun."
"Huh?"
"Maybe it's because I practically raised him since we were kids. On the outside, he acts all grown up and mature, but inside, he's got a lot of soft spots. He's deeply affectionate and gets lonely easily. Originally, I'd want to stick right by his side and take care of him, but he's thirty now... and while I'm in the States, Haru, you look after him for me."
At those words, Haru felt a strange sensation.
It wasn't the misery or jealousy of being acknowledged as a concubine by the primary wife, but rather because she could so transparently feel the deep love and devotion in Choi Sieun's sincerity—just how much she treasured Sijun.
It was almost hard to believe this was the same person who had been giving her sharp advice on her acting just moments ago.
It was just as Haru, with a bewildered expression, was about to nod her head involuntarily.
"But."
Choi Sieun's voice suddenly dropped a notch. The corners of her eyes, which had been soft and relaxed, sharpened again fiercely.
"The problem is, that bastard is too damn nice. He doesn't block the women who come at him, and he grins like a fool at everyone around him. Especially these days."
Choi Sieun set her green tea cup down with a soft clack.
"I smell something. I get the feeling there are a few more foxes with fluffy tails skulking around Sijun, besides you, Haru."
"Huh?"
"I'm going to handle one of them myself and meet her before I go... but there's someone else..."
At the suggestion that there could be yet another person hovering around Sijun besides the two of them, Park Haru nodded.
"The other day on set, seeing him flirt with those young idols and rookies just made my blood boil. I need to make sure he doesn't get any more girlfriends."
Park Haru could somewhat understand Choi Sieun's concern. She herself had thought that her boyfriend was too nice, and if women threw themselves at him, he'd just accept them.
"So, Haru."
Choi Sieun leaned forward slightly, taking Park Haru's hand lightly and meeting her eyes.
"While I'm in the US, you keep a decent watch over Choi Sijun."
"Watch?"
"Yeah. It's a sort of alliance. You be the first line of defense around Sijun to make sure no weird bugs swarm him. If some brazen, loose fox tries to latch on that's beyond your level to handle, just tell me or Eunhwi."
Some rather intense words had just come out of an actress's mouth, but the smile on Choi Sieun's lips was relaxed and yet entirely serious.
"How about it? It's not a bad deal for you either, right?"
Faced with this strange and irrefutable offer of alliance, extended by the senior she respected, her boyfriend's sister, and her boyfriend's girlfriend—a woman radiating a terrifying aura—Park Haru found herself nodding her head, as if spellbound.