Chapter 73
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Hwang Su-ah's Story
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There once was a couple of theater actors.
Extra actors who couldn't make a name for themselves, performing on some obscure stage in a forgotten corner of the world.
The poor pair of theater actors got married and had a daughter.
Her name was Hwang Su-ah.
Hwang Su-ah's parents wanted to raise their daughter as an actress.
Like any parents, they forced their unfulfilled dreams onto their child.
Fortunately, Su-ah had talent.
In this industry, cute faces were a dime a dozen like grains of sand in the desert, but a child actress with real patience and emotional range was rarer than a gem.
Her angelic cuteness paired with tears that could make anyone watching break down sobbing.
Every actor who worked with her on set showered her with praise.
Su-ah became the very image that came to mind when people thought of "child actress" in the broadcasting world.
Her parents grew greedy.
Like they were venting their own frustrations, they pushed Su-ah relentlessly with work.
Her father acted like her manager, her mother like the head of an agency.
They stuck to her side, piling on jobs nonstop and making her earn money without end.
Su-ah's parents even set up a one-person agency in her name.
As if sharing profits with an agency was too much to bear.
Young Su-ah knew nothing of it.
She just acted as her parents told her, posed for photos, appeared on shows.
Mom handled the scheduling calls, Dad did the driving.
To Su-ah, it all felt perfectly natural.
That was how she'd lived since birth.
After she came of age.
Hwang Su-ah grew into a true actress with her angelic childhood looks intact and real acting chops to match.
With her face unchanged from her kid days, she topped lists as the female celebrity least suspected of plastic surgery.
Thanks to her parents' strict oversight, not even a whiff of scandal touched her career.
Hwang Su-ah, the actress so flawless she was almost scary.
She'd become untouchable—no dirt to dig up even if critics tried.
Even as an adult, Su-ah lived under her parents' management, took their pocket money, kept a frugal life, with no real hobbies or deviations.
To Hwang Su-ah, that was just how things were.
But then someone came along to hurl a stone into her "normal" routine.
"Wow, Su-ah, you're really something. Heard you own a whole building now?"
A building?
The actor who'd struck up the conversation had a bad rep—her parents had warned her to steer clear—but his words piqued her interest anyway.
"You're a chaebol now, a total chaebol. A 100-billion-won building at your age? You could retire right now, no sweat. Looking for investment spots? I know some good ones."
100 billion won.
Even Su-ah, with no real grasp of money, knew that was huge.
"What, you didn't even know? Oh right, your parents handle all your finances, huh?"
With that, the man pulled up entertainment news on his smartphone and showed it to her.
The article announced actress Hwang Su-ah as the owner of a 100-billion-won building, laced with criticism of celebrities dabbling in real estate speculation.
It was all news to Su-ah.
"Su-ah, you can't even trust your own parents with money stuff. Better talk to a lawyer now and secure what you can. Want me to hook you up with one I know well?"
Su-ah's mind went blank.
She'd seen news about famous idols' families exploiting them for cash, but never dreamed she'd be the victim.
"Tsk tsk. Worked you like an ox since you were a kid, and look what they did with it all."
The man's mocking words echoed in her head.
She'd always consulted her parents on issues like this, but they were the problem now.
She had no idea what to do.
For now, she confronted them head-on.
"It was all for you, Su-ah."
Their rote excuse filled her with disgust.
"So you exploited me to build that building? How much have you made off me all these years?"
Betrayal from the parents she'd trusted her whole life.
It felt like the sky was crashing down on Hwang Su-ah.
She lashed out with hurtful words, not thinking twice.
Her father slapped her, and Su-ah stormed out.
She ditched her phone and vanished for a full day.
That was the biggest rebellion Hwang Su-ah could muster.
...
The ugly parent-child feud ended in absurd fashion.
Overspeeding and drowsy driving from overwork.
That was the cause of her parents' death.
They'd been chasing after Su-ah, who wouldn't answer her phone.
Then they heard she was staying at a hotel and rushed off in a hurry—straight into the accident.
Lawyers showed up for the stunned Hwang Su-ah amid the ridiculous tragedy.
The attorneys hired by her late parents explained her assets.
The new building, the apartment they were set to move into, her father's car, the stocks, the land, even the agency building.
It had all been in Su-ah's name from the start.
Even the life insurance payouts.
Excluding the insurance money, there was next to nothing coming from her parents.
They'd never siphoned a single won from her to begin with.
It wasn't just Su-ah who'd lived frugally.
Her parents were thrifty by nature too.
"It was all for you, Su-ah."
They'd scrimped and saved, built up assets and that building—for the daughter who knew nothing of it.
They didn't want her to suffer the poverty they'd endured.
But Su-ah, clueless as ever, hadn't understood her parents' hearts either.
"So you exploited me to build that building? How much have you made off me all these years?"
To think those were her last words to them.
The emptiness left no room for tears.
She didn't need the building or the money.
She just wished they'd stayed by her side.
But regrets changed nothing now.
"Wow, Su-ah, don't take it too hard. Okay? They say fortune favors the bold. How about switching to my agency? I'll make the terms sweet."
The man was like a hyena feeding on others' misery.
She'd gotten into this mess after listening to him.
No, it wasn't his fault.
It was her own ignorance.
And her mistake in flying off the handle without checking facts.
If only she'd listened properly to her parents.
If only she'd consulted someone else first.
It never would've happened.
She'd failed to trust the parents who'd guided her life, choosing to believe this guy instead.
Blaming him would be barking up the wrong tree.
Hwang Su-ah stopped resenting him altogether.
"Su-ah, snap out of it. You've gotta toughen up."
Hwang Su-ah, orphaned overnight.
The one who looked after her was senior actress Im Shin-hye.
During the three days of funeral rites, with Su-ah lost in a daze, Im Shin-hye stepped in as chief mourner.
Truth be told, she had no obligation to go that far.
They'd worked a drama together recently, but no blood ties.
Just one of countless senior-junior pairs in the industry.
Yet no one else dared butt in when a top senior took charge of a junior's crisis.
Greeting guests, bowing, praying for the departed.
To her junior who looked ready to drop dead any second, Im Shin-hye offered endless comfort.
"Cry if you're sad. Let it all out. Bottling it up will make you sick."
Su-ah couldn't cry.
Hwang Su-ah, the actress hailed as the queen of tears.
She shed not a drop at her own parents' funeral.
The thought that even those tears would feel like acting stopped her.
The funeral ended, and daily life resumed.
But it wasn't the life Su-ah knew.
Her parents were gone from it.
She tried to push through the jobs they'd pre-arranged.
Taking calls herself, driving herself.
No proper agency, no manager.
Some offered a hand, but Su-ah refused.
She'd fallen into distrust of everyone.
Couldn't reach the actress reliably, couldn't focus on acting.
Sympathy covered for her at first, but it didn't last.
No one keeps hiring a has-been out of pity.
Gigs dried up, her rates plummeted.
People said Hwang Su-ah's era was over.
Su-ah was fine with that.
She had a house, assets galore.
Enough to last lifetimes.
Then a call from the real estate agent.
The apartment her parents had contracted was vacant—ready for move-in.
She saw it as a chance.
She wanted out of this house full of depressing thoughts.
The new place was too big for one person, but no reason not to go.
Yet while packing, Hwang Su-ah couldn't toss a thing.
More like there was nothing to toss.
Her parents owned next to nothing.
They'd kept even her baby blanket from childhood.
But their own stuff? Barely anything.
Such thrifty parents.
"Su-ah's gonna be the top actress, so we keep stuff like this as mementos."
That was them.
And to those parents, I...
"Mom dreams of you becoming the greatest actress in her place."
Seeing the blanket she'd slept under as a kid brought back Mom's bedtime whispers.
Su-ah hugged it and sobbed through the night.
Like a dam bursting, she wept till dawn.
She did move.
But left the boxes unpacked, untouched, abandoned in the new place.
Pulled out only that childhood blanket and slept in it.
If that person hadn't unpacked for her, she'd have stayed stuck forever.
Unable to move forward or back.
Sun-hu's simple breakfast made her think of Dad's home cooking.
Even when rushed, he'd insist she eat—handing her instant food in the car.
The taste brought back a father's worry for his daughter.
Su-ah forgot her shame and bawled in front of Sun-hu.
And she thought:
I can't keep living like this.
For the parents who'd entrusted her with their dreams, at least.
When Su-ah woke, she knew Sun-hu had already left.
His warmth seemed to linger beside her still.
In this lonely house, it was the first human touch she'd felt in ages.
On the table in front of the sofa sat the pair of cacti Sun-hu had brought.
"Hee hee."
They were so cute, she poked at them.
"Sun-hu."
One cactus was already named Sun-hu.
The other, of course, was Su-ah.
Gazing at the pair warmed her heart without fail.
Su-ah felt a debt to Im Shin-hye and her son Sun-hu that words couldn't repay.
How could she ever make it up to them?
Money or gifts wouldn't cut it.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Su-ah spotted something on the spot where Sun-hu had sat.
"What's this?"
She picked up a small black plastic packet.
"..."
0.01mm, XXL.
A condom.
Sun-hu must've dropped it when his mom, Im Shin-hye, forced it into his pocket as he rushed out.
Of all places, at Su-ah's house.
"..."
Su-ah's mind swirled in confusion.
Sun-hu was a guy, after all.
He wouldn't visit a single woman's home without those thoughts.
If anything, Su-ah was the naive one for not considering it.
She felt embarrassed yet thrilled that Sun-hu saw her that way.
But to sleep soundly with him right there...
An unbearable wave of shame hit her.
And then.
She felt like she'd found a way to repay his kindness.