Do You Know This Too?
The meeting that Lee Seo-won, Cho Youkyeong, and Director Lee Young-chang had agreed upon had to be pushed back a day. All three were simply too busy to gather on short notice.
"Director, I'm truly disappointed in you."
The moment Lee Seo-won laid eyes on Lee Young-chang, he skipped the greetings entirely — he had been waiting for this day with barely contained anticipation.
Lee Young-chang wore a troubled expression. Yoon Jay had given him a heads-up through a message, warning him that the truth would come out, but he hadn't expected this kind of reception.
"The kid didn't want it revealed. What am I supposed to do about that?"
"I know, I understand, but still..."
Lee Seo-won let out a long sigh. Pressing them further wouldn't change anything. Cho Youkyeong glanced at her still-dazed cousin and shook her head with a dismissive flick. Good grief.
"Well, at least your dream came true. Raising Yoon Jae-hee, just like you always said you would."
"Would've been nice to find out a little sooner."
"Look on the bright side — you met him, and you even signed the contract. Jay and you were clearly meant to cross paths."
Framing it that way, his mood lifted again. Lee Seo-won apologized to the two of them for his earlier loss of composure.
"Haah... if I'd known it would come to this, I would have treated him even better..."
"You're doing fine, Seo-won."
Yoon Jay had absorbed far more than anyone anticipated, but it was Lee Seo-won, after all, who had given him the opportunities in the first place.
His brief appearance in The Garden of Evil, and the attention it garnered — that was where it started.
And the vacancy in Along Along that let Jay make his name? That, too, had come together through Lee Seo-won's connections and investment.
Beyond that, he hadn't spared a single penny on other projects either. Who does that for a newcomer? Especially someone like Lee Seo-won, who already had an abundance of proven actors to work with.
"Well... that was before I knew he was Yoon Jae-hee..."
"You don't need to push him so hard anymore. Jay isn't the type to want that, either."
As Lee Young-chang said this, he shot a sidelong glance at Cho Youkyeong.
After all, her overeager meddling had already sparked whispers of sponsorship rumors and other unsavory speculation.
"What did I do?"
"Nothing at all. Senior."
Sensing the look, Cho Youkyeong struck first out of sheer nerves, and Lee Young-chang reluctantly looked away.
With the backing of these two, Jay would be untouchable — at least within the film industry.
Still, he worried, just a little, that their overzealousness — neither of them knowing when to stop — might end up hurting the boy instead.
"By the way, Director, did you see the article about your next film? This dedication film — it's about Jay, isn't it?"
"Nothing concrete has been planned yet."
"Incredible. A meeting between Yoon Jae-hee and you, Director? It already sounds fantastic. Is the screenplay done?"
Ever since their first encounter, Lee Seo-won had waxed enthusiastic about The Child to a frankly overwhelming degree.
Lee Young-chang smiled awkwardly, though deep down he was glad that a man this passionate was the head of Yoon Jay's agency.
"Hold on a moment. What's gotten into this man?"
Mid-conversation about Yoon Jae-hee, Yoon Jay, and their shared history, Lee Seo-won suddenly rose from his seat to take a phone call.
"Oh, Reporter Nam. What's going on?"
(Mr. Lee, is this true?)
"Is what true? What are you talking about?"
(Yoon Jay. You haven't heard yet? Quick — look at the photos I sent you.)
Why is this man in such a rush? Lee Seo-won pulled the phone away from his ear and fiddled with the screen.
There was Yoon Jay in a black suit at a solemnly conducted funeral, photographed like a scene lifted straight from a film.
Wait, is this from the States?
At first he thought nothing of it. He'd known the man was a former soldier. Attending a funeral that even the President took part in... well, if you stretched your imagination, it made sense.
But as he swiped to the next photo, he saw Yoon Jay receiving a salute from the Old Guard.
And in that photo, a medal on a pale blue ribbon hung around his neck. Even to Lee Seo-won, who knew nothing of military decorations, it looked anything but ordinary.
"Hmm, I'll have to call you back."
(What? Wait, just a moment, Mr. Lee—!)
Lee Seo-won hung up in a hurry and scrambled into social media.
What on earth is this now?
His brain was already overloaded from learning that Yoon Jay was Yoon Jae-hee, and now here was yet another piece of news he knew nothing about.
Since LIS had carried out terror attacks on South Korean soil as well, there was considerable public interest in the funeral.
The photo post that had gone up first was quickly taken down, but there was no reining in images that had already spread.
When Lee Seo-won returned to his seat, he showed his screen to Lee Young-chang and Cho Youkyeong.
"You two... do you know about this as well?"
"Huh?"
Both of their eyes went wide.
"...Now what is this?"
Yoon Jay followed Jayden's group to a pub tucked away in a quiet corner of town, and took the one open seat that happened to be free.
"Oh, no way — are you the one who got the medal this time...?"
"Could we get a photo with you?"
Years of the war on terror and the threat of LIS had left plenty of things stagnant and worn down. In a time when international affairs were in disarray, people needed a hero.
Jayden Knight, who had eliminated the enemy's supreme leader and received the Medal of Honor, was young for the almost mythical accomplishments stacked to his name — a blue-eyed, blond-haired white man besides. To the public, he was a national hero who seemed practically drawn from a comic book.
That was why the crowd had swarmed him at the pub too, but Jayden politely declined them all and took his seat last.
"You look like a celebrity. Bet you're more popular than I am."
"You could have this too, if you wanted. Planning to reveal your identity now?"
"I'll pass on that..."
Yoon Jay waved his hand dismissively.
Truthfully, judged on merit alone, Yoon Jay could have been celebrated as a national hero every bit as much as Jayden. But the war against LIS had still been raging at the time, and his medal ceremony had been conducted perfunctorily, behind closed doors.
Not that Yoon Jay particularly minded. He had never wanted fame. Fame was what had planted the trauma of his childhood, and even now, as a working actor, he felt the same way.
He hated that his past overshadowed him rather than his acting and his work.
Though at this point, that's probably a lost cause anyway.
Being a former firefighter was the kind of profession people warmed to easily. On top of that, his surprising past — a military survival show alumnus, a bartender, a carpenter — had drawn attention too.
A free spirit with a suspiciously colorful résumé — that image had won people over. He'd even heard that plenty of fans were eagerly waiting to see what chapter of his past would surface next.
Speaking of which... something's off here.
Yoon Jay eyed the salad that had just arrived and remarked, in the most offhand tone he could manage:
"Tomatoes are fresh today. The farmers must have raised them with real care."
A nonsensical statement on its face, but everyone at the table understood exactly what he meant. Jayden snorted.
"Sharp as ever, I see."
Yoon Jay cast a casual glance around the room. Every single customer filling the pub was an agent — including, without exception, the ones who had asked Jayden for photos earlier. Farmers was their private slang for operatives.
Knowing full well that he'd already caught on, they were still playing the part of ordinary citizens out for a drink, flawless in their execution.
They might honestly be better at this than I am. Yoon Jay brushed off their surveillance without a second thought.
"Things that bad, huh?"
"Not that bad. Just standard procedure."
"I see."
With their supreme leader gunned down, the surviving remnants of LIS must be thrashing in a frenzy. He'd heard Europe was a bit noisy but had the situation fully contained, though who really knew from news articles alone.
Well, I'm an outsider now. No reason to brief me on anything.
What was unusual was John.
Either way, even here, so far removed from it all, security was clearly on everyone's mind. If word got out that a national hero had been attacked on home soil, the political landscape would flip and public anxiety would spike all over again.
"So, what's everyone been up to? I heard you and a few of the others stayed in the military."
"I joined a private military company. AGS... actually, they mentioned you. Ten."
"I did a short stint there as an advisor, as it happens."
Yoon Jay asked after everyone's circumstances first. These were men who had crossed the line between life and death with him — practically family — so he kept the conversation easy, lacing it with jokes.
"And the others?"
"I heard Isaac and Stefan died."
"...I see."
He caught something odd in the way Jayden said died.
Not an ordinary death, then...
Frankly, it wasn't shocking news. Hadn't Yoon Jay himself heard stories of comrades he'd saved back in the Navy? It was one of the things that had set his recovery back just as his body was finally starting to heal.
"That's why we were a little worried when you didn't show up."
"I was at the very back. I don't like drawing attention."
"Your personality hasn't changed a bit."
Their glasses clinked together — who knew how many rounds it had been by now.
"By the way, I hear there's been an uproar — people writing books about us, trying to make a movie."
"Could that actually happen?"
"It's being pushed forward surprisingly aggressively. The powers that be probably have interests tangled up in it."
He supposed so. Among their former superiors had been a sitting senator. Administrations, the next presidential election — a whole mess of complicated threads were probably woven into it.
"Honestly, it feels a bit like being made into a clown show."
"So — are you planning to get out?"
"No. I'm staying in for now."
Jayden downed his beer in one swallow and fixed Yoon Jay with a steady stare.
"Alright. So explain why you suddenly became a rock star."
"Right. And what's this about filming?"
"And you've cleaned up nicely, I notice?"
Yoon Jay had told them everything they were curious about — now it was his turn. He let a light smile cross his face.
"Mm... I've been working as an actor in Korea."
"Seriously?"
Most of them went into work that leveraged their service experience. And Yoon Jay, of all people, who had hated being in the spotlight — becoming an actor was genuinely the last thing anyone expected.
"You, an actor... surprising, I'll admit. Though it's not like it doesn't suit you at all."
It made sense, actually. Yoon Jay was handsome by any ethnicity's standards, and he'd never once been made during an undercover infiltration. The man simply had a natural baseline of acting ability.
"When did you start?"
"Not long ago. It's been about a year."
"I know Korean idols and dramas are trendy these days."
"Are you famous? What do I search to find you?"
Yoon Jay tossed out a brief joke.
"You don't know me? I got pretty well known on Cookietok earlier this year."
"Did you?"
"Let's see here."
There had been incidents before — military photos and information leaked onto social media. But these men never had time for such things. When they pulled up the Mangnani dance that had briefly taken Cookietok by storm, their eyes went wide.
"That was YOU?"
"Yep. I'm in it."
"Let's check MyTube."
The dance itself had gone viral, but apparently Yoon Jay's face had never become widely known alongside it.
"Whoa, hello there, stranger."
"Quite sensual, isn't it?"
"Don't watch that one."
Delighted, the men dug up a compilation of Yoon Jay's acting on MyTube and gleefully ribbed him about it. The clip that happened to come up was Yoo Sihyeon from Crown, and Yoon Jay buried his head in his hands.
"Anyway, let's keep in touch."
"Yeah. Come to Korea and it's a must."
"You'll be our guide?"
"There's a saying in Busan — when people from other regions come to visit, you treat them to the full course."
"The full course, huh... now I'm looking forward to it?"
Having caught up with his old comrades, Yoon Jay slept in for the first time in ages.
He was dead to the world until Han Jin-woo's call rang through. Feeling around the nightstand, he fumbled for his phone.
"Oh, Jin-woo."
"Hyung! Did you see the article?"
"Hm?"
What article is he talking about? Still half-submerged in sleep, Yoon Jay blinked blearily. Eventually, he opened the link Han Jin-woo had sent him.
Yoon Jay Spotted at Arlington National Cemetery in the U.S.
Yoon Jay Appears at the Funeral of Chief Warrant Officer Brian Reed... Making Waves in America Too
"Haah..."
Having confirmed the article, he let out a groan and buried his face in the pillow. The medal had passed through inspection and been shoved carelessly into his pocket, but a photo had been taken before that.
I slipped out early precisely because I didn't want attention.
It had been the final send-off for a comrade who had shared life and death with him. Of course a photo would be taken; of course his identity would come out — where had all those tangled thoughts even come from? All he'd wanted was to see Brian off on his last journey.
Besides, the funeral itself had been under airtight control.
Only pre-invited press had been admitted, and the faces of the Numbers squad members — Jayden included — had been released obscured.
But there was no stopping photos taken privately on someone's phone. And honestly, he'd assumed no one would recognize him.
I'm not exactly a household name over there...
This is already becoming a headache.