Why Isn't She Wearing One?

Every gaze converged on Sua.

"…."

PD Choi Heewon and the CG team were staring out of sheer shock, but the actors had a whole scatter of reasons for looking. Some had simply followed Choi Heewon's eyes without thinking. Others seized the moment as an excuse to take in Sua's body. The curves were far too dizzying to leave unlooked-at.

There was that, and something else Sua herself had no idea about. The arms she'd locked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tight across her chest were doing a magnificent job as a shelf, and because of them her bust looked twice as large.

In the meantime the rest of the staff crowded in around PD Choi Heewon, and every one of them went slack in the face. Even by their measure, this was no ordinary matter.

"Director Kim Jungi…."

"This isn't just somebody with the same name, right?"

"No. It's the director who was prepping Life is All About Money."

Only a few days ago, the internet had been perfectly peaceful. Search Kim Jungi and all that poured out was people looking forward to his next film. Not anymore. Every outlet that spoke his name was in the middle of burying him.

"He went this far? That's not something a human being does."

"Dug his own grave, didn't he."

"Something this big only coming out now is a comedy in itself."

It didn't take long for the staff's confusion to infect the actors. Just as a question mark was rising over every face—

"Huh? A group chat! I just got added!"

One of the actors shouted.

The chat they'd been dragged into by force was chaos itself. The member count read 999+, so there was no guessing how many people were actually in there, and one particular message was being plastered across the screen without a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠single breath between copies.

"Huh? I got invited too."

"Me too!"

"This is… what is this…?"

Show business is a wide world, and a narrow one. Day after day everyone is too busy with their own work to breathe, and yet go a few introductions out and you are bound to know one another. It was only natural that the actors here were being added one after another. A good share of the Special Task Force 808 production team began getting pulled into the group chat as well, and those who hadn't been invited yet crowded around the phones beside them to read what was tiling the screen without end.

"Kim Jungi? Director Kim Jungi?"

"I feel like there were rumors. Those were real?"

"Even among crimes, this is rotten past the point of decent…."

The news was so shocking that the actors started talking almost at once, and before anyone could stop it the set had grown uncontrollably loud.

And then—

There is a kind of sentence like that. Even in the middle of a roar, even tangled up with every other voice, it arrives with unnatural clarity.

"Wait. Isn't this the director Sua said she turned down?"

One short line.

"…!"

It was more than enough to strike every person there.

Led by PD Choi Heewon and the CG staff, the gaze of every actor swung back to Sua.

"Don't tell me…."

"She knew?"

"Come on. Even so, that's a bit much, isn't it…?"

For Sua, of course, the whole situation was simply a disaster.

…Absolutely not. The second even a sliver shows, it's over.

She desperately put more strength into the arms folded across her chest. Well, of course she did. She could hardly unveil those pale-pink tips in front of everyone, as if she were putting them on display. Sua had been growing shameless lately, but she did not have the head to survive that.

And besides, it didn't match the image she dreamed of in the first place!

She was trying to be a cold, dazzling actor. Exposure—what exposure?!

"…."

Meanwhile, the shock PD Choi Heewon was feeling was twice as large. Which was only natural. Unlike the others, he had been watching Sua from the very beginning: the way she had picked Writer Lee Geumsuk's script alone out of a heap of many, that particular eye of hers. It was far too difficult to wave off with everyone else's it must just be a coincidence.

…She screened him out? Somehow, if it's Sua, I feel like she actually could.

But quite apart from what PD Choi Heewon was thinking, the actors soon drifted off the subject of Lee Sua and started talking about Kim Jungi alone. After all, the one who had blown up was Director Kim Jungi.

"That director was already famous for having trash for a personality."

"Plenty of directors are nasty and still live inside the law. The problem is he committed crimes. How many victims are there, exactly?"

"I mean it. Every video, the victim they're interviewing is somebody different…."

"I hope he spends the rest of his life buried in debt. Piece of shit."

"I feel awful for the people tied to him. They boarded the wrong ship once, and now they're burning with it. They can't even take other work until this gets settled."

But exactly two people were the exception.

"…."

Seo Yeon-ju and Kim Seonil of Mystic traded a look. For this one moment, a face was enough to read a mind.

Lee Sua, what on earth are you? Is this even real?

Kim Seonil and Seo Yeon-ju were thinking the same thing. Both of them turned their heads at once, and Sua's expression was nothing but grave.

And what kind of reaction is that, in a situation like this? Is she even human? She isn't a ghost, is she?

Seo Yeon-ju went over to Sua and carefully set a hand on her shoulder. She knew it was a ridiculous thought, and still some part of her wondered whether Sua might actually be a ghost. Fortunately, her hand met something solid. Human. Confirmed.

And inwardly, Sua flinched.

Good thing she caught the outer edge of my shoulder. If she'd gone any farther in, she would have noticed.

That had been dangerous. A little deeper, and the absence of a strap would have given her away.

A job was still a job. After that, the teaser shoot got properly underway.

"All right! Director Kim Jungi is Director Kim Jungi's problem! We finish the work we were doing! Special Task Force 808, I want energy! Focus!"

Everyone threw themselves into it, so the shoot went without a snag, and afterward the leads gathered for interviews. Pre-interview footage carried something of a premiere's effect, so it mattered. They also didn't forget to match people by theme. Kim Seonil and Sua, whose chemistry was Lee Kang-cheol and Kim Yu-han, went together; the reporter roles paired with other reporter roles; the rest of the supporting cast did the same. Details like that had a way of quietly becoming part of a show's popularity.

And all the while, the internet was in an uproar. It wasn't only Mutube, or the group chats on messenger. Official reporters who had caught the smell of blood came swarming in like piranhas.

Video, print, all of it. Every medium was in the process of executing Kim Jungi, so a resurrection was out of the question. It had gotten so bad that people merely connected to him were being dragged out as well.

Around then, Sua and Kim Seonil—the Kim Yu-han and Lee Kang-cheol pairing—finished their pre-interview. For the record, Sua still had not uncrossed her arms.

Done with the shoot, she was hurrying back toward the van when a tall figure fell in beside her. None other than Kim Seonil.

"I've known for a while that your eye is excellent."

"Hm?"

"But to think you could screen out something like this, too."

Sua blinked, quiet.

Something I screened out? Don't tell me—the bra?

She whipped her head around to look at him.

"Director Kim Jungi. I wondered if you knew how to screen people, too."

"Ah."

Thank goodness. It wasn't about the bra.

Sua thought it over. Looking at him now, Kim Seonil seemed, all over again, like a man insane for acting. The other men had been stealing pretty blatant glances at her body, but even now Kim Seonil was looking only at her eyes.

Anyway. She did understand what he was talking about. People had been running their mouths so loudly that she couldn't help catching on. It was about Director Kim Jungi doing something terribly wrong and crashing, wasn't it?

Kim Seonil went on.

"Did you sense that Kim Jungi would end up like this?"

"Mm…."

For one thing, she could hardly come straight out with I turned it down because the script was Grade 6. She needed some other answer. Honestly, Sua was startled by the situation herself.

So this is what Grade 6 means. Unreal.

She had thought it only told her whether a story was fun, or what its ratings might be, or how it would sell. Once again, the Special Privilege had gone past anything she could imagine. It had weighed the trouble waiting for the director when it assigned the grade.

…It's nice that the Special Privilege performs beyond imagination, but answering the question is a little difficult. Come to think of it, Kim Seonil has been there every single time I've used it.

Even Sua had to admit he had every reason to be shocked. At this rate, wouldn't he start feeling as if she were a shaman, or a ghost…?

While she was turning that over, Kim Seonil asked again.

"You said you didn't receive any passion from the script. Did you mean you'd read what the director was made of? That you knew filming with him would simply be unpleasant."

"…."

She was genuinely grateful he thought that highly of her. It was not that at all.

Sua considered it for a moment.

Should I bluff my way through this part, too?

She quickly decided against it. Too much was as bad as too little. Anything in excess did no one any good. All she had done, in the first place, was look at the script for Life is All About Money. Claiming she had judged the director from that alone left a rather large hole in the logic, didn't it…?

Sua shook her head.

"This was just luck."

"Luck?"

"Yeah. I was purely lucky."

"Luck, huh…."

Kim Seonil considered something with complete seriousness.

"So you mean the script really was something you turned down on your own, and Director Kim Jungi falling into hell was the lucky part?"

"Mm-hm. That's right."

"…."

Sua didn't know it, but the hypothesis that her eye for a script, at the very least, was absolutely perfect had just been confirmed in full. That alone was more than enough reason for Kim Seonil to be astonished.

"And there's one more peculiar thing."

"Peculiar?"

Every time Kim Seonil said something loaded, Sua's eyes flicked, for no good reason, toward the general vicinity of her own chest. You're going to stop my heart, you jerk.

"Lee Sua. People who feel their own luck has been good don't usually react the way you do. They jump for joy, or they look dumbfounded."

"Personalities differ from person to person."

Once one person starts a conversation, the rest usually find their nerve. Maybe it was thanks to Kim Seonil. The people who had only been circling Sua began to come closer, one by one.

"Sua! Sua!"

That was also when Kim Iseo, who had been waiting in the van, appeared, out of breath. She had run with everything her small frame had, and she reached Sua's side in an instant.

"Sua, did you see what happened? No—of course you did. Did you know from the start? How on earth…."

In the end, Sua brought out her hidden card. A cramp was setting into her arms. She was truly at her limit.

At once, everyone who had crowded in took a single step back. To them, at least, Sua's desperate plea had sounded like a solemn warning.

She's saying not to make a fuss over something even this small?

Did a spirit come down and possess her?

She's gone past having an eye for things. Her instincts are just insane.

Wow, her chest is seriously huge. With her arms propping it up, it looks even bigger.

Separate thoughts began to tangle in the empty air, but every current runs to the same sea. Their misunderstandings soon converged on a single idea.

Anyway. That means we passed, as far as Sua's concerned?

Luck, instinct, an eye, skill—whatever the reason, Sua, who screened things out one after another with effortless precision, had cheerfully signed on to Special Task Force 808. Their motivation had nowhere to go but up.

( ! )

And a notification window rose in front of Sua.

After that, the ones who hadn't managed to reach Sua clustered together and started chattering, while Sua walked quickly for the van. The only one who followed was Seo Yeon-ju.

"Sua! Let's go together!"

Half smile and half astonishment, Seo Yeon-ju set her palm against Sua's back, her voice a little too bright.

"What, did some spirit come down on you? I want a bit of that energy too. Share some of your luck with me, won't you? A lot of it."

And then, suddenly—

"…."

Seo Yeon-ju's palm fidgeted against her back.

"…?"

She rubbed Sua's sweat-soaked back as if she were working oil into it, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then tilted her head. The feel of the H-shaped strap that any woman ought to have found across another woman's back was entirely absent.

…Why isn't she wearing a bra?

She was curious for a moment, then promptly forgot it. If it was Sua, she probably had her reasons. Well. Maybe she simply hadn't had one that fit. What was certain was that, set beside Sua having avoided Director Kim Jungi, this was nothing at all.

Seo Yeon-ju let it pass without much thought. She only kept her hand there a little longer because Sua felt nice under it.

Kim Iseo, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠CEO of Mystic, muttered as if she couldn't believe it.

"…What is this? Seriously, what?"

Director Kim Jungi had gone off a cliff. From Mystic's perspective there was no better outcome, but for the moment bewilderment was larger. How was she even supposed to name this feeling? It was as if Sua had walked off to gamble with the deed to the house in her hands, and Kim Iseo had fallen into despair—only for Sua to come back having turned that one deed into three.

The trouble was that the result refused to feel like simple luck.

…What is she? A monster? Don't tell me she was brought here by actual skill?

Sticking close to Sua, she had seen far too many uncanny things to write off as mere good fortune. Even Sua herself was like that, wearing the face of someone for whom none of it was anything special.

Just as Kim Iseo's speculation was running wild—

A phone rang. Not hers. It was Sua's phone, the one Sua had left in her keeping. Kim Iseo answered in her place.

Kim Iseo's brow drew in first. The caller's manner was exceedingly rude. A courteous word was owed a courteous word; she answered in a voice gone cold.

Kim Iseo blinked.

A drink commercial?

Understanding the situation itself wasn't difficult. Sua had applied for this commercial, and she was supposed to interview today, but the time had overlapped with the Special Task Force 808 teaser shoot, so she hadn't been able to go. That was all it was.

For a moment, Kim Iseo had far too many thoughts. First, the other party was definitely a small company. Not being able to simply fail an interviewee who never showed her face, and waiting endlessly instead, meant every single person was precious to them.

In truth, what she meant to say was already decided. Principal photography for Special Task Force 808 began tomorrow, so they ought to throw this away. There was no reason to shoot a commercial right now. Something along those lines.

But.

If it's Sua, wouldn't there be a reason?

The thought rose whether she wanted it or not. Having just lived through the Kim Jungi affair, Kim Iseo couldn't think any other way. This was a commercial Sua had applied for herself, and by now Sua's instincts were a factor she could not ignore.

So she changed her mind, and spoke.

The sound of the other person jolting carried all the way down the line.

From the other side of the receiver came a breath thick with disbelief, as if the sheer nerve of it had stolen the air.

A silence.

The silence ran rather long, and then—

And the next day.

At last.

Principal photography for Special Task Force 808 began.