See Me After We Wrap Today

You fucking bastard. Just wait till I catch you.

Gyeon Seongcheol arrived on set and swept his eyes across the surroundings.

Hunting that guy down wasn't a one-off job anymore. The moment he showed up, his eyes never got a second's rest — searching every direction, every corner, for that one man. And yet he'd come up empty every single time. Why?

Because he couldn't find him?

That son of a bitch I'd chew up and still not feel satisfied. What the hell is he doing now, glued to people like that?

No. Even a mouse hiding in a corner wouldn't stand a chance with this much effort. The target was a person, and this was a film set — there was no way he couldn't find him.

It was just that, ever since the coffee incident that day, the man had changed overnight. He'd started chatting with the crew as if he'd been doing it his whole life.

"Ah… I see."

"How does a manager not know that? No — I mean, fair enough if you don't, but why are you asking so many questions? You looking to get hired onto a set?"

"If I said I wanted the job, would you take me on?"

"Huh… damn, I can't even say no right off the bat. At first all the questions were annoying as hell. But you remember everything, don't you? If we drilled you for a few months you'd be better than our own kids."

"You're too kind. I'm just memorizing things by rote. If I actually had to do the work I'd be a complete mess. You'd hire me and regret it."

Hearty laughter all around.

He was adapting so well it made Gyeon wonder whether the man had always had that kind of easy, thick-skinned charm.

Hiding in the crowd, is that it?

Truth be told, Gyeon had tried several times to wedge himself in and put the guy in his place. He'd even tried to peel him away from Ha Eun-yul. But the man would catch on with uncanny timing and throw out a lead-in like this:

"I enjoyed the coffee last time."

"Huh? Ah, yeah. But you know, isn't it your turn to return the favor?"

"Ah… I'm just a road manager, so I don't have a company card yet…"

"…What?"

"I'll just pay out of pocket. I haven't received my salary yet, but… um… haha…"

And then everyone around them would look at Gyeon as if he were human garbage.

"Come on, Manager Gyeon. Jaewook hasn't even gotten his paycheck yet."

"Paying out of his own pocket is too much. We don't need to drink. It's fine."

It wasn't just one or two people taking the guy's side.

"Forget it, forget it. Aigoo, I'll buy, I'll buy. Assistant Manager Lee can treat us later when he gets a company card."

Even the main PD — the one man Gyeon needed to impress more than anyone — had said it. Swept along by the mood, Gyeon had been forced to grin and bear it and head for the coffee shop yet again.

They should've seen that bastard's eyes that day.

He couldn't forget them. Those eyes, full of mockery. As if he were watching a subordinate put on a little song-and-dance… the eyes of that fucking son of a bitch.

Mix in a few conversations, and like a man possessed he'd find himself running out to buy coffee. It had happened more times than he could count.

Gyeon Seongcheol opened his phone and checked the message from accounting.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Gyeon Seongcheol jammed his phone roughly into his pocket.

The set was more crowded than he'd expected. More crowded, even, than Gyeon Seongcheol himself had thought — and he'd considered himself someone who knew a set reasonably well. On-set staff, leads and supporting leads, bit players, all their managers, people from every affiliated company. Then the location support team, the styling team, the art department… Jesus. Why were there so many staff swarming around like cockroaches?

And that fuuuucking bastard had the nerve to keep count with surgical precision.

"Last time you bought coffee, I noticed about twenty people didn't get any. There are eighty-five of us."

After that, Gyeon had given up on going after him anywhere there were people.

"Fuck. Come to think of it, what the hell am I even doing right now?"

Ha Eun-yul wasn't even on his radar anymore. All he could see was that bastard ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he'd chew up and still not feel satisfied.

"Lee Jaewook, you son of a bitch. Just wait till there are no people around."

He didn't even forget the name anymore. The name of some other company's road manager, of all things.

Ha Eun-yul's waiting room.

The comfort and ease she felt here now, and the luxury of not having to put on a performance for anyone — Ha Eun-yul basked in the sense of release and let her real self show, unfiltered.

"Unni, unni."

"Ugh, my ears. And keep it down. They'll hear you outside."

At Lee Yujeong's scolding, Ha Eun-yul dropped her voice and asked,

"How did he do ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it?"

"Do what now?"

"Manager Gyeon Seongcheol. What did he do to him? He hasn't come looking for me once since that day. A man who wouldn't shake off no matter how hard I pushed him away?"

"Probably beat the hell out of him."

"Ehh… no way."

Ha Eun-yul sank deeper into the sofa.

"Is he really standing guard right outside the door?"

"Doesn't look like it? He comes and goes now and then, but most of the time he's hanging out with the crew. Helping out with work, that kind of thing."

"Really? That's weird. At first he seemed like he had no game at all, right?"

At Ha Eun-yul's continued chatter, Lee Yujeong's eyes flew wide.

"Ha Eun-yul."

"Why are you saying my name like that? It's scary."

"I told you, didn't I? That Lee Jaewook is a menace."

"A menace? He just seems like a nice person…"

"That's exactly why I called him a menace, you puppy. What manager in the world just melts in like that, soaking through like a fine drizzle before you even notice? And a rookie, at that? I've never seen anything like it. At some point the crew started greeting him like it was the most natural thing in the world. And it's not like he's overdoing it, either. It's not as if he's going around bent at the waist like the old-school managers."

Lee Yujeong paused to catch her breath, then pressed on with the force of a serious warning.

"Sure, his business card says Assistant Manager, but everyone who matters knows he's a road manager. And he doesn't even hide it. But you know what people call him? Not 'Hey, Jaewook.' Not 'Yo, roadie.' It's 'Jaewook.' 'Assistant Manager Lee.' Do you have any idea how absurd that is?"

"Why? He's a little older, isn't he? Isn't that why?"

Lee Yujeong let out a short, incredulous laugh.

"His age? The guy's got a baby face. How does that look like a man in his thirties? People should be talking down to him even more, if anything. 'Hey, you.' 'Excuse me.' That kind of thing. But it's just… natural. Absurdly natural. At some point he just seeped in, and now it's 'Jaewook,' 'Assistant Manager Lee,' even 'Manager Lee.'"

"Wow. When you put it like that, it really is kind of amazing."

"Get a grip. That's exactly why you need to be more careful. He's not your average menace."

Just then—

Knock, knock.

At the two knocks on the door, Ha Eun-yul raised her voice.

"I'll be right out. I… no, you can come in… Manager."

"Hey… you remember what I said. Just watch. He's going to give you candy again? Candy every time he sees you — what is he, training a dog?"

Lee Yujeong said it quietly, and urgently, to Ha Eun-yul. It wasn't some cheap attempt to drive a wedge between them. She was genuinely worried, and that made her press harder. Bad people are bad. But good people are worse. They give you affection, and then they take it away. In this business, expecting eternal friendship or eternal bonds only multiplies your wounds.

And yet.

The door opened. Ha Eun-yul stood up, gathered her script, and even lingered a little on her way out, and still—

Why isn't he giving me candy today?

That thought must have shown on her face, because she found herself looking at Lee Jaewook without meaning to.

"Do you need anything? I've prepared some warm water."

"…No. I'm fine. Thank you."

It wasn't a big deal. So why did it sting a little, not getting one?

Ha Eun-yul swallowed the feeling and headed out to the set.

The set. From a fair distance, watching the actors perform and the crew film them, the Ghost opened his mouth.

"I'm actually quite good at this sort of thing."

Better than I expected. That was a prejudice.

Being an aide didn't mean you had no social skills. And just because I tend to be the rational type didn't mean I couldn't get along with people, either.

The job of an aide, by its nature, meant dealing with a great many people — and an enormous variety of them. If you treated people like a dry mineral inside that world, you wouldn't even get the information that was supposed to come out. All kinds of stories travel through the space that intimacy creates.

Learned sociability, more than anything… but as you can see, I'm rather good at it.

Once filming started, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠managers got a little breathing room. Of course, if your actor was in front of the camera, the proper thing was to stay and monitor with them. But there was still a gap.

It was like an exam hall. In an exam hall, no one interferes except the students taking the test. Same principle here. Aside from the people directly involved in the shoot — the actors, the camera team, lighting, sound, the directing department, and a handful of others — everyone else went perfectly silent.

I stepped a little farther from the set and checked my phone.

The other person I'd asked him to find along with Moon Cheol-sik. Still no information.

The reason for finding them was simple. I needed that person to get to the truth of Ha Eun-yul's scandal.

The Ghost, reading the message over my shoulder, wore a rather grave expression.

"I don't know. Not yet."

"It might not be. It might be. Being emotional is more or less the same thing as carrying a prejudice."

I said it quite coldly. Politics or entertainment — any field that runs on people tends to be like this.

It's completed by people, and dismantled by people. There are times when you have to trust someone for the work to move forward, and times when that trust is exactly what shatters the work. Both happen often.

If Representative Choi Giseok was the type who wanted to believe in people and act on that belief, I had been the perfect complement — the role of reason. Back then, there was no need to pile on extra suspicion.

You simply set emotion aside and focus on the act, the result, the intent, and the truth.

The other insider whose name had spilled out of Moon Cheol-sik's statement that day.

Team Leader Baek Sungwook…

"No. The only thing we have is Moon Cheol-sik's testimony. You can barely even call that evidence."

That didn't mean Team Leader Baek Sungwook was trustworthy. When you go after a person, you have to block the exits. Like a rabbit drive. The thing that blocks the path is evidence — and right now we have none. So we don't even know the intent. We can only speculate.

Press him now and the only answer you'll get is no. I'm not the impatient type who places an obvious bet on an obvious outcome.

That's why I'd moved quickly to tie it off as Moon Cheol-sik acting alone, bundled together with his connection to an entertainment reporter. If we'd started asking whether there was more behind it, whether Baek Sungwook was involved — it would have dragged into an endless he-said-she-said over the truth, and gone on forever.

Either he was trying to go independent with Ha Eun-yul, or he was trying to jump ship with her. Broadly speaking, it's one of those two. If it's the former, he's probably acting alone. If it's the latter, there may be someone behind him.

"We need to know whether there's someone behind him or not. Even if Team Leader Baek Sungwook really is the one who planned Actress Ha Eun-yul's scandal, finding that out completely comes first. Going after Team Leader Baek Sungwook comes after that."

"Never mind that. Help me go through some synopses."

The Ghost's eyes lit up—

Bzzzz— bzzzzzz—

The phone I'd been about to pocket started vibrating.

I'd saved the number a while ago, but this was the first time he'd actually called. Why?

"This is Lee Jaewook."

I pulled the phone away from my face for a moment and checked the contact again.

Is this guy… an idiot? I'm a little weak against people like this.

"We're on the same team. Don't we share the schedule? That's a rather odd question. I'm at Actress Ha Eun-yul's set."

"Today? I'm afraid that won't be possible."

And then he hung up first.

Hm…

He was definitely the type I was weak against.

I was about to pocket the phone when, as if it had been waiting in line with a ticket, Representative Choi Giseok's call came in.