Kim Si-a Soars with Wings 2 (10)
People often say a woman's tears hold tremendous power.
Socrates himself once remarked that a woman's tears were not to be trusted — and if even an ordinary woman's tears could move mountains, what of the tears of a woman so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her?
A biochemical weapon, plain and simple…
And right now, I was staring that dizzying biochemical weapon dead in the face.
"Noona… it's been hard on you, hasn't it?"
Si-a noona kept sniffling, nose running, and still forced down bite after bite of food. Watching that reddened nose and the faint tremor in her chin, I nearly forgot we were filming and reached out to wipe her tears away.
This noona… she's completely on fire.
Her acting was at its absolute peak — an expression of pure, gutting sorrow that wrung sympathy out of anyone watching. And even through all of it, there wasn't a shred of ugliness to her. Just the devastating beauty of an actress who had gone completely off the deep end.
By the time this video went up, people wouldn't be able to help falling for her.
"Noona, I'll sue every last one of those haters myself. So please… just stop crying."
The moment I fed her the line, she lifted her head with the slow, deliberate grace of a commercial close-up. A diamond-bright tear slipped from the corner of her eye as she parted her lips.
"No. Just leave them alone."
The voice was quiet, almost matter-of-fact — and somehow that only made it more heartbreaking. Paired with that tear-streaked face, it reached down and gently scraped at something deep in the chest.
"How can I? I saw how much it hurt you…"
"I'm really okay. They all know the truth now anyway."
"Noona… people aren't as kind as you think they are."
"Don't say that. They must have been going through something hard of their own. I understand. I really do."
With those words, she offered a gentle smile.
Wow…
Her default look was cold and aloof, but when she smiled like that — bright and open — she looked so purely good it was almost unfair.
"Haa… if you don't want me to, I'll drop the lawsuits."
"If I keep acting with everything I have, someday they'll love me for it. I'm sure of that."
She said it with complete seriousness — a bold declaration that she would win people over through her craft, not through the courts.
That wasn't in the script.
The script I'd written to turn her into a saint only went as far as refusing to sue. That last line — that ambition — wasn't acting. It was the real Kim Si-a. Her resolve. Her goal.
"That's pretty cool, our actress."
"Right? Your noona's kind of amazing~"
In an instant, the tearful, pitiful face melted back into the playful one I knew so well.
"Alright, if you're done eating, I'll clear the table."
And with the shot of her back as she did the dishes, the filming wrapped.
The footage came out better than I expected…
There were three things I wanted this video to sell to the public.
First: declaring she wouldn't sue, and winning goodwill for it. In the future, people would cheer for celebrities who fought back in court — but right now, choosing not to sue was still considered the virtuous path. Around this time, one singer who made that same promise even earned a lifetime "anti-hate immunity card."
Not that I've ever actually seen anyone stop getting hated after receiving one…
Second: the T-shirt she was wearing — merch made to support the families of fallen soldiers. In the near future, plenty of celebrities would lean on that exact move whenever they wanted to look principled. For now, nobody was using it yet. Fortunately, Si-a noona was the real deal; she'd dipped into her own pocket and ordered a few hundred shirts under the pretense of a subscriber giveaway.
Whether it's instinct or just genuine kindness… this noona really knows what people respond to.
Third: the feminine image of her doing the dishes. Not just that — cooking a full meal with her own hands for a mere manager, then cleaning up afterward. The picture of a warm, domestic wife. With the early waves of feminism starting to crest, that image would land especially hard with the men in their twenties and thirties we'd marked as our main target.
The hardcore feminist crowd will foam at the mouth, but who cares about them…
Unless Si-a noona started waving feminist banners herself, that crowd was never going to embrace a young, beautiful woman like her. In short, no matter what Kim Si-a did, she was never going to win their love.
Women help women — except the pretty ones.
And then there was the bonus: her declaration. That bold challenge that she would enchant even the people who hated her with nothing but her acting.
Of all the angles I'd planned, that one confident vow was the part I liked best.
Yes. That's Kim Si-a. That's our Si-a noona!
The great actress who had clawed her way up from the most miserable depths and become a star that blazed across the sky. Today, in that unflinching resolve of hers, I felt like I'd caught a glimpse of the brilliant Kim Si-a yet to come.
A few days later, once Min-seok finished editing and the video went live, Si-a noona became a saint in every sense of the word.
The messiah of the community — the woman who had forgiven the brainless haters of the internet.
Cooking for My Hardworking Manager
A ten-minute video with an ordinary title. But the message packed into those roughly ten minutes truly saved a lot of hearts.
Barely any time ago, there hadn't been a single person who hadn't cast a stone at her — and that was exactly why she had become a saint. Even the ones with Satan riding their fingertips were singing her praises.
Just like the comments above, a few sharp-eyed viewers spotted the T-shirt she was wearing — and from there the video spread across every community without a single won spent on viral marketing.
1. Kim Si-a free pass
2. Kim Si-a T-shirt
3. Fallen soldier family support merch
4. Classy celebrity
· · ·
10.Lovely Lady air date
Just like that, she seized the real-time search charts all over again.
"Sorry for calling you in when you're busy."
"Not at all, CEO."
And thanks to Si-a noona's sudden sainthood, I found myself sitting down one-on-one with Jong-seok hyung for the first time in a while.
"Just call me hyung, man. There's only two of us here — drop the stiff titles."
"Yes, hyung-nim."
It had been about a month since I'd last seen him. On the surface he looked as cheerful as ever, but a shadow of exhaustion hung over his face.
Well… around now is when Crack's first album would have completely tanked. Even a guy like him would take a hit to the mental game.
Raising one actor and building an idol group were worlds apart — from the money poured in to every last detail you had to manage. Getting an idol team off the ground was several times harder than looking after an actor. Of course, if you actually pulled it off, there was no better cash cow…
"So. I hear you're cutting every CF and offer coming in for Kim Si-a."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"There's no need to lock in Kim Si-a's market value just yet."
If Lovely Lady succeeded, her worth would jump several times over. There was absolutely no reason to sell herself short for a quick payday right in front of her nose.
"It's still a little early to start rowing — the water isn't deep enough yet."
That was why I was shutting down every single proposal that came her way, chewing through every scrap of internal pushback the company threw at me.
"Haa. Not enough water, huh…"
"Once this project wraps, Kim Si-a's value is going to skyrocket."
"And how are you so sure it'll succeed?"
"Well…"
A long silence stretched between us.
Could I really be certain? That Lovely Lady would succeed the same way it had in my last life? This life had already been knocked off course by my interference — how could I be sure it would land the same way?
"Well…?"
CEO Lee Jong-seok locked eyes with me, his gaze sharp and bright. And my answer to that was, of course, yes.
"I've seen it with my own eyes. How brilliantly Kim Si-a shines as an actress… and how solid a project Lovely Lady really is."
Not confidence in myself — confidence in Kim Si-a. And in Writer Kim. The women I had watched, listened to, and worked beside weren't empty husks. They were the real thing.
"You certain?"
"I am."
"How certain? Percentage."
"At least fifteen. Twenty if we're lucky — and if it hits, off the charts."
Dramas and actors were still measured in ratings. In the future it would be about IP rights and OTT platforms, but for now, viewership and buzz were everything.
"I'm trusting you."
"I won't let you down, hyung-nim."
"Alright. I'll handle the internal pushback. Do whatever you want."
"Yes. But… are you alright?"
"Yaa~ Guess my face really is giving it away if even our youngest can tell."
That wasn't quite right. His face was always full of confidence and energy. It was only because I'd spent so long at his side in my previous life that I could catch the tiny difference — the bone-deep weariness hidden under that self-assured expression, something only I could sense.
Whether my one question had struck a nerve or not, the poker face he'd been holding so carefully finally cracked.
"Whew. You got a minute?"
"Yes. All the time you need."
"Then come with me for a bit."
His face was heavy with worry. Looking at how exhausted he seemed, there was no way I could just walk away.