Since When Did You Know?
"Since when have you known?"
"How does it feel, standing in front of the camera?"
"Am I supposed to leave a review too?"
Yoon Jae, whose color had returned the moment the flashbulbs started popping, kept his face a perfect mask. Even a slightly bristling answer didn't faze Cho Youkyeong in the least. She was already off building her own little world, one the production company staff couldn't touch.
"He photographs incredibly well."
"Great voice, too."
"Have you ever thought about acting?"
"Seeing him trailing around after Vice Chairwoman Cho, I'd bet he's about to debut any day now."
It was no accident that Lee Young-chang had once sent him a warning — that senior of mine can be downright relentless, so watch yourself. She was all too obviously laying the groundwork to push him into the entertainment industry.
Does no one see that I'm here to do a job?
Watching people guzzle the soup before the rice had even been offered, Yoon Jae turned his head away. Better not to look at all.
"If you're ever interested, give me a call."
Kim Joo-hwan slid up beside him and held out his business card.
"I'm on duty. I can't accept it."
"It's fine if you take it."
Even with Cho Youkyeong's blessing, Yoon Jae shook his head. He didn't need to accept one anyway — he already had the managing director's card.
Oh, for God's sake.
He could feel the eyes of the actors who'd been hovering nearby, angling for Cho Youkyeong's attention.
So the CEO who came here to promote his own people had spent all this time latched onto the wrong person... wasn't he even a little embarrassed in front of his own talent?
When Yoon Jae finally relented and took Kim Joo-hwan's card, Park Chul-woo clapped him on the shoulder with a knowing look. Yeah, she's always been like that. Doesn't even notice when she's putting people on the spot.
"Looks like they're about to start filming, so I should get going."
"Sunbae-nim, my kids—"
"Yeah, they were lovely."
Kim Joo-hwan belatedly came to his senses and pushed his actors forward again, but Cho Youkyeong gave them only a cursory reply and slipped away.
Following behind her, Yoon Jae stole a glance at the filming camera.
Is it the atmosphere of the set?
The thing was far less frightening than he'd expected. If anything...
What is it?
What exactly had changed in me?
Behind the scenes, the Wings Company operatives kept watch over Cho Youkyeong's safety.
Once she was safely returned to her high-security residence, the team didn't clock out — they headed back to the Wings Company office, worked out, and ordered in a late-night feast.
"What are we gonna do about Yoon Jae? At this rate, he's getting force-debuted."
"Me?"
"It's written all over her face — she's using you to make the rounds through the industry. How could it end any other way?"
His teammates stared at the man bringing sweet-and-spicy chicken — not the fiery kind — to his mouth. Choi Tae-yang snickered and slung an arm around Yoon Jae's shoulder.
"Why not just debut already?"
"You think that's easy?"
"You'd blow up fast, no? Word is there's a real drought of actors who can actually carry a mask role these days."
"Drop it."
His heart still lurched at the mere sight of a camera — a debut was out of the question. Yoon Jae gently peeled Choi Tae-yang's arm off his shoulder.
During the days he'd guarded Cho Youkyeong, Yoon Jae had been dragged into one awkward situation after another.
It really was blatant.
Being reduced to a party favor stung a little, but it was work — nothing to be done about it. He'd simply grit his teeth and bear it. After all, Cho Youkyeong had said she'd fly out once she saw the Child rerelease through...
"Hey, you think this'll be okay?"
"What will?"
"Word travels fast in this industry. That's what I heard, anyway."
As it turned out, Jung Seung-woo had once appeared on a military survival variety show and still kept ties with people on that side. With a heavyweight like Cho Youkyeong parading him around, anyone who watched the two of them could easily have spread the story on their own. Jung Seung-woo studied Yoon Jae's face carefully.
"I mean, obviously it wouldn't bother you, hyung-nim, but..."
"Ask your brother about it. It's probably already out there."
Could it really be? Yoon Jae started to text the twins, then stopped himself. What would confirming the rumor accomplish, when he had no intention of going back to that world?
"You all done eating?"
"Yes, sir."
"Let's go. Vice Chairwoman Cho is calling."
At this hour? The question didn't stop Yoon Jae from springing up and grabbing his jacket.
"Sorry for the sudden call. Something came up."
"Not at all."
The place Cho Youkyeong had chosen was an upscale restaurant. Not a single customer in sight, and the staff stood waiting with visibly strained expressions — she had, apparently, booked the entire establishment.
"Sunbae."
"Oh, you came?"
When Lee Young-chang arrived at the restaurant, he walked straight past Yoon Jae, who was waiting outside the private room, and went in.
The two were close enough that they often drank together at this hour, trading talk about the industry.
These days their topic of choice was The Child. With Cho Youkyeong personally stepping in, theater schedules had shifted dramatically and the rerelease was imminent; the promotional calendar had come together almost overnight. Plenty of people at rival companies must have been grinding their teeth over it.
"I never expected the rerelease date to be locked in this quickly."
"Doesn't exactly look like goodwill, does it?"
Voices of protest had risen across the industry, but this was Cho Youkyeong personally at the helm — and in the end, the consensus seemed to be, well, if it's for Lee Young-chang, we'll allow it.
"Of course I'm pleased. Very. It's just..."
Lee Young-chang was conscious of Yoon Jae waiting outside the door. As it happened, he had something he needed to say.
"Sunbae."
"What is it?"
"Stop making it so obvious."
"Obvious about what?"
He knows perfectly well and he's still going to play dumb. Lee Young-chang let out a sigh.
"The bodyguard outside."
"Yoon Jae-ssi? What about him?"
Why is a rumor called a rumor? Because a true fact, passed from mouth to mouth, swells as it travels — and somewhere along the way, facts that never existed are invented to fill it out.
Cho Youkyeong, with the industry in the palm of her hand. Trailing behind her, a bodyguard who looked for all the world like a celebrity himself. An escort who had already made quite a stir in the online communities. It was only natural that people talked.
What if this just makes the boy hate it all the more?
The truth was, Lee Young-chang had been quietly rooting for Cho Youkyeong, too.
He'd wanted Yoon Jae to make a dazzling return and be repaid for everything he'd suffered as a child. He'd harbored his own ambition, too — to see that brilliant talent finally bloom.
But not like this.
At the grave look on his face, Cho Youkyeong set her chopsticks down with a clack.
"Why did you hide it — that the boy is Jae-hee?"
"So you did know all along."
Meaning you knew, and you let the rumors spread anyway. Lee Young-chang sighed.
"I'm a vice chairwoman of a major conglomerate. One flick of my finger and a background check is child's play."
"Sunbae."
Cho Youkyeong hadn't always been like this. There had been whispers of a silver spoon, but she'd been warm and generous, looking after everyone around her, and people genuinely liked her.
Then the vice chairmanship landed on her shoulders, and bit by bit she'd changed — sliding into that executive's way of thinking, the if I will it, it happens mindset.
While she bulldozed ahead, the people around her quietly paid the price, and she never even noticed. Did she truly need it spelled out before she understood?
"The rumor's already everywhere."
"So?"
"You know why that boy left this world in the first place."
Have you seen the bodyguard she's been dragging around lately? He'd been famous even before this. Good-looking, sure. Then it turns out he's slated to debut as a rookie actor, and this bodyguard business is just a smokescreen. Lucky him, landing a rich sponsor. And then there were the uglier rumors, the kind Yoon Jae couldn't even bear to repeat to himself.
He hadn't stepped into the light of his own accord. He'd been shoved out.
Lee Young-chang filled Cho Youkyeong's empty glass to the brim. Soon enough, she would drink it all in one go.
"...Ah."
"I know you were thrilled to have found Jae-hee. But what you did was wrong."
"Oh no."
Only then did it land. Cho Youkyeong downed the glass in a single swallow and clawed at her bangs. Her throat burned — and Lee Young-chang's burned in sympathy.
"Haa... he hasn't even made up his mind, and you just barrel ahead and introduce him to the whole industry? How does that make sense?"
"Oh, what do I do?"
"What do you do? It's already blown up, that's what you do."
The once-lively drinking table sank into silence. The two of them quietly refilled each other's glasses and drained them, again and again. They needed the drink.
After swallowing his liquor in silence for a while, Cho Youkyeong left early, not even staying a few hours.
"You're relieved for the night."
At her word, the bodyguards withdrew. Yoon Jae was following them out when he stopped short.
Cho Youkyeong's frequent visits to film sets, her rounds of meetings with everyone connected to The Child — it didn't seem to be about a simple rerelease at all.
"How does it feel, standing in front of the camera?"
"I take it you have no interest in acting, Jae-ssi?"
"Why not give it a try?"
She'd bragged about how much better set conditions had gotten these days, dropped loaded little remarks about an entertainment debut, and kept nudging — again and again — why not just try it once?
Yoon Jae paused mid-step and spoke.
"Since when have you known?"
Cho Youkyeong turned around.
Cho Youkyeong had gone straight to Lee Young-chang's studio the moment she returned from the States.
"In any case, leave Jae-hee alone. If his heart isn't in it, what's the point of stirring things up for nothing?"
"Even the smallest gesture from you can set off enormous consequences, sunbae."
She had flatly ignored his final words and gone looking for Yoon Jae-hee anyway.
So what happened recently?
In truth, she hadn't even needed a background check.
The death of Yoon Su-heon, managing director of a major production company and a well-known close friend of Lee Young-chang. And then, before the grief of losing his dearest friend had even settled, the offer to rerelease The Child came flying in.
Director Yoon always did have a phenomenal eye for material.
Yoon Su-heon had been something of an acquaintance to her as well. Only belatedly did she realize she'd failed to attend the funeral because of her schedule — and when she traced things back a little, she found an unfamiliar name on the register of mourners.
Yoon Jae?
Same name as that bodyguard. Then again, it wasn't exactly a common name, was it?
Come to think of it, Director Yoon's face...
Cho Youkyeong pictured Yoon Su-heon as a young man.
There was a resemblance. To Yoon Jae-hee. And to that absurdly handsome bodyguard of hers.
"I'm sorry. My careless antics seem to have put you in an awkward spot."
"It's fine."
A few days of guarding her had taught him that much: the woman had that peculiar innocence of the high and mighty. The rumors would die down soon enough anyway.
So she figured it out on day one...
What Yoon Jae couldn't understand was the question underneath it all: had 'Yoon Jae-hee' really been someone that important?
"No, no. You were truly gifted."
Then there was the look of pure, blazing joy in Lee Young-chang's eyes at the funeral... Honestly — if someone were a true genius, wouldn't he be obliged to survive every last hardship and trial thrown at him, all the way to the end? I was too weak, so I ran.
"I'm not worth that much."
"Worth is judged by others."
Not by the man himself. Cho Youkyeong wanted to say more, but she pressed her lips shut. Now that she'd finally noticed, she could see she'd caused him harm for the sake of her own selfishness.
"Thank you for putting up with my stubbornness all this time. But I want you to understand — you matter far more than you give yourself credit for."
With that, Cho Youkyeong went inside her home.
After that incident, her close-protection detail was switched from Yoon Jae to Choi Tae-yang.
He was spared any more awkward situations at her side, and within days the rumor had been buried under some other celebrity's affair scandal.
"Vice Chairwoman Cho gave us tickets so we could see it too. Take them."
"Wait — is this that movie?"
"What on earth is this film, that it's been running all of our lives ragged?"
His teammates tossed jokes back and forth as they claimed their tickets. Among them, The Child had simply become that movie — the one that hadn't gone a single day unmentioned while they guarded Cho Youkyeong.
"Jae, how many do you want?"
"Three..."
Yoon Jae didn't think much about it. These tickets were meant for the twins and their mother.
"Wait."
Back when Cho Youkyeong had strong-armed him in front of that camera, he'd felt something different from before. Not quite the same sick dread the fire department used to give him.
Yes, his heart hammered and his stomach churned with fear. But if he turned the feeling over and looked at it from another angle — wasn't some of that boiling in his veins something closer to exhilaration?
I'll have to find out.
Yoon Jae caught Choi Tae-yang's shoulder.
"Give me one more."