Ten Million
“Who is it?”
“Just leave it at the door.”
It was Choi Tae-yang who took the delivery. That, too, was part of a bodyguard's job — anything unusual coming through the door needed to be filtered out in advance.
Choi Tae-yang ran his eyes over the enormous bouquet in the box and the message card, then smirked as he set them down on the dining table.
“What's that?”
Yoon Jay was holding a wooden spatula. He had even put on an apron, and it suited him surprisingly well.
The reason he was making breakfast was the two men occupying the guest room.
[You both know my weak points — this side of my ribs, and my shoulders.]
[Don't just charge in blindly.]
[You two have to beat me.]
The two of them were there to subdue Yoon Jay should the worst happen. Half measures wouldn't do. So while they were living together, he had trained them intensively.
Teaching was a generous word for it — it was closer to getting beaten to a pulp.
The reason the two of them had managed, even briefly, to pin Yoon Jay down on Soldiers K was precisely because of all this.
[Hah... haaah... Do you ever get tired?]
[Hyung, I think this might actually be too much.]
Feeling a little guilty seeing them sprawled on the floor, utterly wrecked, he had started cooking them the occasional meal — and it had carried on ever since.
[Holy crap, this is delicious?]
[Wow, hyung, you can COOK too?!]
Besides, the two of them reacted so enthusiastically that it motivated whoever was doing the cooking.
The sly glances they traded made it obvious they were scheming to trap him in a prison of praise and keep him in the kitchen forever, but cooking wasn't exactly a burden, so he decided to let it slide.
Come to think of it, the house has gotten pretty loud lately.
Back in his wandering days, he had kept no one at his side for fear of hurting another person. But these two weren't exactly easy prey, so the tension had eased.
After a few months living with them, Yoon Jay had come to realize, somewhat to his own surprise, that he was actually the type who got lonely easily.
Anyway — checking the card tucked into the bouquet's wrapping, he found a message from Yoon Do-hwa congratulating him on ten million admissions. He snapped a photo and sent it to his sister to let her know it had arrived safely.
Even at this very moment, his messenger was flooding with congratulations from acquaintances celebrating the ten million mark.
“Hey, congrats.”
“You didn't even send the flowers, and you're taking credit.”
“I can still congratulate you, can't I?”
“Fair enough. Thanks.”
Yoon Jay knew why Choi Tae-yang looked so smug — he was proud of his brilliant friend.
Jung Seung-woo, who had slept in late, came stomping into the kitchen with exaggerated thuds and added his own boisterous congratulations.
It wasn't a blockbuster, nor the kind of action flick where the hero smashes criminals into paste. A film rooted in music had just crossed ten million admissions.
Intermission Praised for Tight Script, Grounded Characters, and the Cast's Acting
“Buying Agitato Merch Here~” — the Character Fandom Craze Sweeps the Film Industry Too
Intermission Dominates Both the Box Office and the Music Charts
What's more, a sizable crowd had fallen for the characters in the film itself. Much like the alter-ego craze that had swept the broadcasting world, fans stanned Agitato as if the band actually existed.
[Any thought of making stage appearances as Agitato?]
[Promotion for Intermission is over, though...]
Requests for Agitato to keep performing together poured in. Even Yoon Jay's agency, Astra, found itself at a loss for how to respond — they were a talent agency for actors, not singers.
Of course, people who looked askance at Agitato's success existed everywhere. It could have been someone whose inferiority complex toward Yoon Jay had finally burst, someone who simply couldn't stand watching others do well, or even a reverse viral campaign from a rival agency.
“Jay! Congrats on ten million!”
“Oppa, I came too.”
What had started as a casual suggestion — a few schedules happened to be free, so why not grab a meal with people who got along — had turned into something else entirely. The faces gathering around the table were dazzling: a famous idol member, red-hot actors, plus a writer and a director.
“...How did this even happen?”
By the time he came to his senses, the crowd had only grown. It wasn't that Yoon Jay had joined the Cola Club — it was more that Lee Seo-won's Cola Club had simply picked itself up and relocated.
Yoon Jay had a magnetism that drew people in. Crowds formed around him without him ever attending gatherings like this, and a loose circle had quietly taken shape around him — the only person unaware of it was Yoon Jay himself.
“Never thought we'd hit it big again this year...”
Kwak Do-hyun, the managing director, chuckled low in his throat. And that wasn't all — Yoon Jay had signed a running guarantee contract. The man was sitting on a gold mine.
On top of that, the appearance fees being offered from every direction had shot up dramatically.
“By the way, Agitato's popularity is no joke. At this rate, your image might get locked into the character. Are you okay with that?”
“I'm fine. Attention is attention, whatever form it takes.”
“Really?”
Yoon Jay had selling points to spare beyond Agitato, and Permafrost was on the verge of release anyway.
If anyone needed worrying about, it was Kang Ha-jun, Baek Do-kyung, and Nam Chan-hee. For the three rookies, it would take time to shed the shadow of Agitato.
“It'll fade once they take on other projects.”
“Which reminds me... have you thought about your next work?”
Some actors stockpiled their next projects and shot them one at a time, methodically. Yoon Jay was different.
Astra had Lee Seo-won's connections, and with its recent mass recruitment of top actors, the supply of incoming scripts never ran dry.
So his habit was simply to decide whenever a good script happened to come along.
What's more, Astra handled Yoon Jay the way you'd handle an A-list star — if a good script came in, they'd put it on hold and wait for an even better one before committing.
Handled carelessly, this approach could breed accusations of a diva actor throwing his weight around. But Kwak Do-hyun managed it with practiced finesse, so no such talk ever surfaced.
“Or how about variety? We've been getting a flood of travel-and-healing show offers lately.”
It wasn't just film and drama offers — variety proposals had piled up too. PD Kwon Seok-hyun, who had struck gold with the show that went to America, kept sending steady love calls Yoon Jay's way.
Just as the stream of congratulations and catching-up was winding down, Yoon Do-hwa sidled up close.
“Oppa, did you fight with Do-jun?”
“Do-jun?”
“He seemed sulky.”
Yoon Jay glanced over at Yoon Do-jun. Since being told not to come to the apartment anymore, Do-jun had seemed perfectly normal. Well — with a small residue of something left behind.
“We didn't fight... something just happened, that's all.”
Even amid their usual bickering, the fact that Yoon Do-hwa could pick up on her brother's subtle shift said everything about her.
“What happened? I'm sure it was Do-jun's fault.”
“Mm... no, it wasn't.”
Yoon Jay hesitated over whether this was something he should say out loud.
[The more you act like that, the more I'm reminded of everything I couldn't give you...]
His mother, Maria Jenkins, came to mind.
She hadn't felt hurt by a son who kept his secrets and refused to lean on her — she had felt guilty. Because she wasn't his biological mother. Had she, without realizing it, neglected him? She had blamed herself, he knew.
But siblings were different from parents. Yoon Jay didn't believe his siblings needed to know about wounds like his.
“Don't worry about it. It's nothing.”
Intermission was still burning hot, and while Yoon Jay was carefully weighing his next move, an utterly unexpected article dropped.
The Film Industry's Box Office Engine Yoon Jay — Next Project with Director Lee Young-chang?
Yoon Jay's Close Friendship with Director Lee Young-chang Becomes a Hot Topic
The Meeting of Chungmuro's Rising Star and a Master Director... Next Collaboration Rumored?
Kang Chang-hoon, the reporter who had been doggedly tailing Yoon Jay, had photographed him together with Lee Young-chang and published the shots.
Of course, none of this qualified as much of an exclusive.
The film industry was small, and even fans knew Yoon Jay had built connections good enough to earn the nickname "human magnet." It could easily have been a simple introduction through mutual acquaintances.
No — there's something between those two. Something.
Only Kang Chang-hoon, who had been covering Yoon Jay from mere steps away, felt the frustration of it.
“Kang, you've been chasing Yoon Jay lately, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Getting anything out of it?”
Kang Chang-hoon shook his head. Frankly, Yoon Jay was a man without a single flaw to pick at. He worked out religiously at the gym, and clubs or shady entertainment establishments were, of course, out of the question.
“Drinking? Doesn't touch it?”
“He'll have a few glasses for the atmosphere, but he doesn't seem to enjoy it. Doesn't even own a car, so his manager used to bring the company vehicle. These days that bodyguard he seems to live with takes the wheel.”
And once, Kang Chang-hoon's heart had leapt when he saw Yoon Jay walking with a woman — only for it to turn out to be Yoon Do-hwa. Another time he'd raised his camera outside a restaurant where Yoon Jay was meeting Baek Da-eun, only to realize Kwon Min-jae was sitting right beside them. He'd deflated on the spot.
“Boring way to live.”
“Man's that successful and doesn't have a single girlfriend? Come on.”
“I tail the guy myself — it's true.”
“If I had that face, I'd be running through women left and right. Or is he gay? He doesn't hit the clubs for that crowd, does he?”
“If he did, would I be sitting here whining to you?”
The colleague who'd tossed out the crude joke chuckled and clapped Kang Chang-hoon on the shoulder.
“Man, zero results. Maybe go stalk someone else.”
Yoon Jay seemed to have some innate talent for shaking off tails — Kang Chang-hoon had lost him more times than he cared to count. Hearing his lament, the colleague grinned wide.
“Then dig somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else?”
“His family.”
Family, family... why didn't I think of that? Kang Chang-hoon dropped his pursuit of Yoon Jay and turned his head in a new direction.
After relentless digging, he tracked down the family and relatives of Yoon Su-heon — Yoon Jay's biological father.
“Excuse me, sir, could I have a word?”
“Yes?”
“I'm with...”
A reporter? The man's brow furrowed on its own.
“You're the late Yoon Su-heon's older brother, aren't you?”
“I am not.”
“I know you are. I did my homework before coming here. You only need to answer one question. Just one!”
Being blocked on his way somewhere was irritating. The man hated reporters.
Do you have any idea how much my first nephew suffered at the hands of people like you? Because of them, we couldn't even share a proper goodbye.
“I have questions regarding Yoon Jay — the eldest son of the late Yoon Su-heon.”
“Jae... what do you want with that boy?”
The word Jae-hee rose to the man's throat, and he barely swallowed it down. He remembered what his nephew had said at his brother's funeral — that he didn't want it known that he was Yoon Jae-hee.
“Like, what his childhood was like, or...”
“Planning to torment that boy again? Not happening.”
SLAM! The door shut. Kang Chang-hoon clicked his tongue, disappointed.
'Torment him AGAIN?'
Had Yoon Jay really been through that kind of beating? Sure, as a blockbuster rookie hearing "rising star" whispers, plenty of jealous hit pieces must have come out — but nothing that severe, surely?
And when people dug up his old photos to scrape at him, it had only made him more famous. He should be thanking them, honestly.
Had any of Yoon Jay's fans overheard, they'd have clutched the backs of their necks in disbelief.
'Is there something I don't know?'
The man's overreaction had snagged on Kang Chang-hoon like a hook. As if there were a secret that had to be buried... something was there. He was certain of it.
'Dead end here, for now.'
Kang Chang-hoon's feelings weren't hurt in the slightest. There were plenty more people to dig into. Surely, among that many relatives, not every last one would keep their mouth shut to the end?