Rest (4)
Sena and her friends had all collapsed early after the oil massage. They’d been running around without a break, so it was only natural that they were exhausted.
I left the room alone and followed the walking path built into the resort grounds. Looking back, ever since I’d regressed I’d been moving as if something were chasing me. It had let me grab a great deal, sure, but it had worn me down just as much.
Still, after a few days here, it felt like my energy was slowly coming back. Seeing Sena laughing so happily made me want to work even harder. Maybe that was why rest and family mattered so much.
Back when I worked at the securities firm, even vacation had made me uneasy. I worried the work would fall apart without me, and I worried it would run too well without me there.
But now I was both CEO and owner, so I could finally rest without looking over my shoulder.
I kept thinking about everything that had happened and everything still ahead of me. The best thing I’d done, without question, was securing the Snow Crash acquisition. Add up every other profitable investment I’d made, and none of them came close to Snow Crash on its own. Every business in the modern world centered on the cloud, and getting that company was no exaggeration the key that opened the future.
This year was going to be busy too. Both the U.S. and Korea had presidential elections coming, along with plenty of scandals and disasters. More than a few of them were ones I planned to set in motion myself. If I wanted to dominate the cloud market and, beyond that, seize the metaverse before anyone else, there was more than enough to do.
And the more the future shifted, even by a little, the more important every decision became. Come to think of it, I must have changed a lot of lives already. I’d ruined plenty of people, sure, but I also hoped I’d helped plenty of others along the way.
As I walked, I noticed a man sitting alone on the beach, drinking by himself. He was white, with messy hair and a beard, probably in his mid-forties.
I was about to pass him by when something about him tugged at my memory.
“Oh!”
I stepped over to him. “You’re Darian Heralson, aren’t you?”
Darian Heralson was a film actor who’d debuted in Hollywood as a child star and built his career step by step from there. He’d been famous as a heartthrob in his thirties, and after entering middle age he’d traded that youthful looks for a richer, more mature presence and formidable acting chops. Among Hollywood male actors, he was easily one of the top three names.
He lifted his head and looked at me. His whole face was red from drinking, and his eyes were slightly glazed.
“So it’s you. The lucky bastard gallivanting around with four women in tow.”
“……”
Was that really how it looked to other people?
“Ah! Don’t get me wrong. It’s my little sister and her friends.”
“Not interested. Now get lost.”
He snorted and waved me away as if shooing off a fly.
I was honestly a little thrown. Wasn’t he supposed to be famous for being good with fans?
Then I remembered something important.
Right—I'd forgotten because of the regression, but he was notorious for having a nasty temper. He clashed with fellow actors and directors all the time, and there had even been times when he’d cursed someone out to their face or come to blows. That temper, combined with alcoholism, had already led to two divorces.
But then something happened that changed him completely.
The catalyst was the lawsuit with his second wife.
His second wife had been a rookie actress named Anita Vermont. But a year and a half into their marriage, she filed for divorce, and he settled by paying her $10 million in alimony.
If it had ended there, things would have been fine. The problem came after that.
According to the settlement, both of them were supposed to keep quiet about what had happened during the marriage and refrain from attacking each other any further.
But Anita broke that agreement and gave interviews to the press claiming Darian Heralson had beaten and threatened her repeatedly.
Hollywood was strange that way. You could do drugs or cheat and still keep working just fine, but domestic abusers were treated like absolute human garbage.
Darian filed a defamation suit against Anita, and Anita countersued him in return.
As the case snowballed, every movie he’d been scheduled to appear in was canceled. That included the sequel to a major franchise.
Come to think of it, this had to be right around the time he was locked in that battle with his ex-wife.
So he’d come here alone to keep out of the public eye?
Normally I would’ve just walked on and pretended not to notice, but I couldn’t do that. Because I was a fan.
I ignored his dismissive wave and said, “Could I ask you one thing?”
He frowned. “If you’re asking for a photo—”
“Don’t settle with your ex-wife. Not even try to settle. If you do it wrong, you’ll only drag the lawsuit out longer. The best thing you can do is hit back as hard as possible.”
“……”
He stared at me in surprise.
The lawsuit with his ex-wife would drag on for four years, and during that entire time his career would come to a complete standstill. He would eventually stage a glittering comeback, but the time he lost would never come back.
I kept going. “Think about it. Right now she’s built her image around being a victim of domestic violence. But if she takes another $10 million on top of the divorce settlement and gets you to pay her off again, what happens to that image? She’ll refuse the settlement and instead push the story that you offered money because you assaulted her.”
Anita had submitted video as evidence—clips of him drunk, making a scene, breaking things around the house—but she had no direct proof that he’d actually laid a hand on her.
Still, cases like this usually leaned more on circumstantial evidence and testimony than on hard proof.
And because he already had a reputation for alcoholism and violence, public opinion was definitely against him.
Even if he won in court, if he lost the battle in the media his career as an actor was finished anyway.
That was why he’d offered her a huge settlement to bring the whole mess to an end as quickly as possible. But Anita had leaked that offer to the press and used it against him.
That only made the lawsuit more one-sided—and much longer.
According to the experts, if he’d fought hard from the start, the whole thing would have been over within a year.
“Wh-who the hell are you?”
“I’m a fan.”
Darian Heralson looked at the young Asian man standing in front of him.
It felt like the alcohol in his head had suddenly cleared.
“And if I don’t settle? You really think I can win this case?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The young man answered as if it were obvious. “Because you never hit your wife.”
“How do you know that?”
“Did you?”
He shook his head. “No. I drank too much, caused scenes, wrecked the house, sure—but I never once laid a hand on her.”
“Then I’m right.”
“Even if I win in court, people won’t see it that way.”
“Don’t worry so much. You’ll have more people on your side than you think.”
“I’ll have people on my side?”
“Yes. You’re the best actor there is.”
The young man didn’t know it, but he already knew what was going to happen.
Plenty of people from the film industry connected to that marriage would end up on the witness stand. Some of them had even fought with Darian or gotten on bad terms with him—directors, staff, and other actors alike.
Far from testifying against him, every one of them would take his side. Even the witnesses requested by Anita would say they had never seen Darian hit her.
“So fight it to the end.”
“For what?”
“For me.”
At that, Darian stared at him, dumbfounded.
The young man went on. “I still remember the movies I watched when I was a kid. Detective Douglas solved every kind of case and threw the bad guys in jail. And McCain was a charming con artist, and Ray was… well, just a crazy bastard.”
Darian couldn’t help snorting.
“If this ends here, people who watched those movies will remember you as nothing more than some guy who hit women. You okay with that?”
“……”
That hit him like a bucket of cold water.
After Anita’s accusations, the tabloids had dug up every scandal he’d ever been involved in and branded him a domestic abuser.
The mainstream media did the same.
He had put out denials and explanations, but nobody believed him.
In cases like this, the victim’s testimony came first. The trial hadn’t even properly begun yet, and he was already being marked as a piece of trash who beat his wife.
Coming here hadn’t really been a vacation. It was more like running away from the public eye.
I thought the whole world was already condemning me.
And yet, in the place he’d fled to, he’d met someone who believed him.
“Maybe you should quit drinking while you’re at it. You need to show up to court looking like you’ve got your head on straight.”
At that, Darian paused with the bottle at his lips. He couldn’t keep making a fool of himself in front of a fan who still believed in him all the way to the end.
He tipped the bottle upside down and poured out the rest.
“What’s your name?”
“Han Mi-ru.”
“If you’ve got time, would you sit and talk with me a while?”
“Time is the one thing I’ve got plenty of here.”
Darian sat with him and talked while they drank water and cola instead of alcohol. I told him about the movies I’d enjoyed, and he told me all sorts of stories from when he’d filmed them.
Though we’d only just met that day, it felt like I’d known him for years.
“How long are you staying here?”
“I’m leaving today.”
“What? Didn’t you just get here?”
“I was planning to stay a while longer, but after hearing you, I don’t think there’s any point in hiding anymore. I should go back and prepare for the trial. First thing I’ll do when I get home is fire my lawyer.”
The reason was simple: the lawyer he’d hired kept insisting that settling was the only option.
Apparently the best thing he could do was settle quietly or some such nonsense.
Han Mi-ru gave him one last piece of advice.
“You should hire a female lawyer this time.”
“Why?”
“Anita will keep trying to present herself in court as a woman being attacked by a man. So it’ll be more effective to attack her through a woman instead.”
“Ha….”
That was valuable advice.
Darian nodded. “I’ll look for a capable female lawyer.”
Watching the sun rise over the horizon, we stood up.
“Give me your contact information. If I end up making a new film, I’ll invite you to the premiere first.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
The two of us shook hands and parted ways.
Watching Han Mi-ru walk away, Darian thought, Come to think of it, I didn’t even ask what he does for a living.
Anyone who came all the way out here couldn’t be ordinary.
He decided he’d ask next time they met.
For now, winning the trial came first.
What an incredibly strange experience this had been.
I’d met my favorite film actor and ended up talking with him for hours.
Honestly, coming here had been the right choice.
On the way back to the room, I got a call from Dongho.
Dongho: Are you enjoying your vacation? I heard that place is incredible.
Me: It’s great. You should definitely come sometime.
Dongho: Oh, I will. I’m going to make it happen.
Actually going there myself made me understand why Blackwood had built such an expensive resort in such a remote place. At first I’d thought it was all about the beautiful scenery, but there was a bigger reason than that: privacy. Celebrities were always being hounded by the eyes around them, after all.
So when they went on vacation, they wanted to enjoy themselves without anyone staring.
Here, private privacy was guaranteed completely. In the first place, not just anyone could come.
It cost a staggering $100,000 per night, but even if you had the money, you still couldn’t just make a reservation. You had to be a Blackwood Hotel member, or, if it was your first time, you needed a referral.
Dongho: Oh! Then I should go sometime too.
“And do you already have an girlfriend to go with?”
Dongho: Then I’ll have to start trying now.
I said with a little bit of pride, “Want to know what just happened?”
Dongho: What happened?
“I just met Darian Heralson here.”
As expected, Dongho was shocked.
Dongho: What? Seriously?
“Yes. I was shocked too.”
Dongho: But isn’t he in court right now over allegedly beating his ex-wife?
“Ah, that’s all just rumor. The truth will absolutely win in the end.”
Dongho: Did you get his autograph?
“Ah….”
I’d forgotten.
Well, I’d get it next time.
Dongho: More importantly, remember what I told you last time?
“About what?”
Dongho: There’s going to be the biggest K-pop festival in LA this time.
“Ah! So what about it?”
Dongho: The Lunatins are going too. They’ve apparently gotten insanely popular in the U.S. lately.
In the past, if a Korean idol wanted to make it in America, they had to climb from the bottom all over again, as if debuting as a rookie singer.
But times had changed.
Facenote, Linstagram, A-Tube, Netplay—all of it. Thanks to the growth of social media and streaming services, all kinds of content from around the world were now available in real time, even from the corner of your own room, as long as you had the internet.
The barriers of time and space had fallen away. The road to the world had opened.
The Lunatins had been actively uploading content to Linstagram and A-Tube, quietly gathering fans in America along the way.
And at this “LA K-pop Festival,” that momentum would finally explode, lifting them to the top of the global girl-group scene.
Dongho: That’s why I’m thinking of going too.
I stared in disbelief. “Why would you go?”
Dongho answered as if it were obvious.
Dongho: Not because I’m some private fan or anything. I’m an investor, so I need to see whether the performance is being handled properly. I also have to look around for places worth investing in.
“……”
No matter how you looked at it, that sounded exactly like private fan behavior.
“What about the vice president?”
Dongho: He needs to stay and keep the company running.
“It’s a K-pop festival. Wasn’t he invited?”
Dongho: You probably don’t know this, but he’s for the domestic market.
“……”
That wasn’t entirely wrong.
Right now the K-pop craze was centered on idols. Ballad singers were bound to get pushed to the side. It was probably too late for him to debut as an idol now.
Dongho: Ah! This time Jiyu’s coming too, and Jin Se-yeon as well.
“Why?”
Dongho: Jiyu’s attending as a singer, and Se-yeon is probably coming for broadcast work.
“They’re both doing great, huh?”
Dongho: They are. So, you’re coming too, right?
“Me?”
Dongho: Wouldn’t it be nice to come and see for yourself?
Come to think of it, I was going to have to go to LA anyway.
“I’ll think about it.”