A Day Off (12)
We went straight into the LA branch of O’Connor Burger.
Jiyu blinked in surprise and asked, “How did you do that?”
“I know the manager here.”
We’d even exchanged greetings the last time I’d been here.
Besides, Continue Capital owned 70 percent of O’Connor Burger’s stake. We were still investing in it, too.
At that level, you could walk into any branch without waiting in line.
We ordered an O’Connor Burger, buttered potatoes, and orange juice.
“Ah! I’ll pay,” she said.
“It’s fine. I’m not going to let a junior treat me.”
“Thank you.”
The burgers came quickly.
Jiyu took one bite and looked genuinely stunned.
“Is it good?”
“Yes. It’s incredibly good.”
“Then eat up.”
The sight of her eating a huge burger with that tiny mouth was adorable.
She might have been a junior, but I’d never once seen her at school. In the end, we’d only attended the same university for about a year, and Korea University was huge anyway.
“Come to think of it, what about school?”
“I’m on leave of absence. I barely finished my second-year first semester.”
Well, with overseas tours and everything else, where was she supposed to find the time for classes?
“Oh! Did you see my performance?”
“Yeah. I watched it.”
“What did you think?”
I gave her my honest opinion.
“You were amazing.”
I’d never been especially interested in celebrities, and I didn’t go out of my way to watch concerts or anything like that.
But after seeing her perform in person, I finally understood why people paid such ridiculous money to go to concerts.
It was amazing that she could fill such a massive stage with such a small body.
Jiyu looked at me and suddenly laughed.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Nothing. It’s just strange meeting you like this, in another country.”
Honestly, I felt the same way.
I’d never imagined I’d run into her overseas like this.
When we’d first met, she’d just been some singer on TV; now she was a top star anyone would recognize.
“Do you have time today, senior?”
“I don’t have anything else on.”
Strictly speaking, I was on vacation right now.
“Then do you want to go sightseeing? I’ll show you around.”
“You confident?”
“Of course. I’ve been in LA for months. Just follow me.”
We finished our burgers and got up.
The temperature was low, but the sunlight was strong, so it didn’t feel all that cold.
We started with the Hollywood Walk of Fame, then moved over toward Beverly Hills.
Far off on the hill, the famous white HOLLYWOOD sign came into view.
Jiyu explained things like a tour guide.
“Did you know? That Hollywood sign was originally made by a real estate developer as an advertisement.”
“Really?”
Back when the first people put it up, had they ever imagined it would become the symbol of the American film industry?
“I might even get to shoot a movie in Hollywood,” she said.
“What? Seriously?”
“Yes. I got a call asking me to audition for a movie Director Paige is filming. I read the script, and even though it’s a supporting role, it’s pretty substantial.”
“Director Oliver Paige?”
“Yes.”
He was one of those legendary names in Hollywood, with plenty of box-office hits under his belt.
I liked movies, so I watched them fairly often. Which of Oliver Paige’s films had an Asian woman in it?
“The Impeccable?”
Jiyu’s eyes widened.
“Ah! That’s right. How did you know?”
“I think I saw it in an article.”
“That article hasn’t even come out yet….”
I brushed it off.
“I get information from a lot of places.”
Thankfully, she didn’t seem to find it strange.
“Well, I guess that makes sense for Continue Capital. I heard you invested in our agency, too.”
“I heard about that from Dong-ho senior, too.”
“Then I guess we’re working together, in a way.”
She didn’t know I was the head of Continue Capital. She probably just thought I was some high-ranking employee.
Anyway, the film was originally supposed to feature an Asian American actress in a supporting role. And now Jiyu had gotten that part?
“It’s not decided yet.”
Come to think of it, she did have real acting talent, and her English was good.
Even so, Hollywood?
Compared to the first timeline, I was curious just how far she’d grow.
“I still think about it sometimes.”
“About what?”
“What would’ve happened if I hadn’t listened to what you said that day.”
What I’d told Jiyu was not to take the featuring job for C-Lab.
In the end, Jiyu had refused, and Pink Girls’ leader, Keyna, had taken the feature instead. Then the C-Lab scandal broke, Keyna’s image hit rock bottom, and Pink Girls disbanded.
“So I’m always grateful to you, senior.”
“Come on. I was just passing along what I’d heard from a tabloid.”
It was her own decision to follow my advice.
As we wandered around, before long the sun had started to set.
“Shouldn’t we head back soon?”
“Just one more place. There’s somewhere I love, and then we can go back.”
“Where is it?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
The place Jiyu led me to was Griffith Observatory.
It was perched fairly high up in LA and famous as one of the city’s best night-view spots.
Jiyu looked around and said, “It hasn’t changed. I used to come here a lot.”
It was my first time here. And yet for some reason, it felt strangely familiar.
“Wasn’t this in a movie? The one where the male and female leads danced….”
I trailed off.
Wait. Wasn’t that movie out yet?
At my words, Jiyu brightened.
“Ah! You saw that movie too?”
At least from the way she said it, it must have already been released.
Being a regressor made things like that confusing.
We slowly walked around the observatory grounds.
“I used to come here and do unauthorized busking with a friend.”
“So you wanted to be a singer back then, huh?”
“It was my dream since I was really little.”
For some reason, I found myself wanting to see her busking, but then Jiyu asked an entirely random question.
“What did you and my sister talk about that day?”
“Just work, mostly. Whether she was doing well, how the others from our class were living, that sort of thing.”
“Hmm, I see. Did you really like my sister a lot?”
“…….”
Why was she asking that?
“Back when we were dating, yeah.”
“What about now?”
“We’re just friends.”
We’d broken up a long time ago, and from my perspective, more than ten years had passed since then. Maybe that was why I could think of her with complete ease, without a trace of emotion.
“Was my sister your first love?”
I searched my memory.
I’d fallen for her when I saw her in middle school, so I supposed she counted as my first love.
“Probably.”
“Well, she is pretty.”
Seen that way, she really did resemble Jin Se-yeon.
“Are you seeing anyone?”
At my question, Jiyu startled.
“M-me? No.”
“Idols usually date in secret, don’t they?”
According to the stockbrokers’ gossip, idols claimed they only loved their fans, but behind the scenes they were all having sweet little romances.
Honestly, if you gathered a bunch of gorgeous young men and women in their prime, there was no way romantic feelings wouldn’t spark.
They apparently sneaked out of their dorms like spies, met each other in secret, and even used hand signals or gestures on broadcasts that only the other person would understand.
Then they’d get caught by fans.
I had no idea why they bothered, but maybe even if people were dating secretly, there was a human urge to show it somehow.
“Don’t a lot of male idols contact you?”
“They do, but I’m not interested.”
Jiyu was currently the top female solo singer.
Her looks and vocals were both better than what most girl group members had to offer. Naturally, she must have been getting hit on left and right.
“Anyway, I’m definitely not dating anyone.”
Why was she denying it so hard?
“Did your agency ban dating or something?”
“No. My agency doesn’t do that. I’m not a minor or anything.”
Then she muttered under her breath, almost to herself.
“If I can’t get married later, it’s not like the agency’s going to take responsibility.”
As we were looking around the observatory, a group of women who had been sneaking glances at us came closer.
Two of them looked Korean, and the third was a Black woman.
One of them asked cautiously, “Are you Jiyu, by any chance?”
“Huh?”
Jiyu looked a little flustered, clearly not expecting to be recognized here too.
“You are, right? I’m a fan!”
“Me too. I really wanted to go to your concert this time.”
“Ah, yes.”
Just in case anyone else misunderstood, I said, “I’m her manager.”
“Could we possibly get an autograph?”
Jiyu signed for them and took photos with the fans. Then people passing by began slowing down to stare.
“Who’s that?”
“A celebrity?”
Well, if they weren’t fans who followed K-pop, they wouldn’t know.
I said to Jiyu, “Sing one song for the fans.”
“Here?”
“You said you used to busk in secret, didn’t you?”
Jiyu looked a little embarrassed.
“That was when I was little. What song do you want to hear?”
The Jiyu song I liked best was “Milky Way and Moonlight,” but… had that one even come out yet?
“Anything.”
“Then I’ll start.”
Jiyu queued up the backing track on her phone and started to sing.
“Oh, I love to see you walk into the room…….”
Beyoncé’s “Hello,” maybe?
Even without a microphone, her voice rang out across the LA night sky. Before long, people gathered from all around, and everyone lifted their phones to film her.
It was incredible that such a tiny body could produce that kind of volume.
She’d meant to sing just one song, but the crowd kept growing, so she ended up singing five.
Once the people started gathering, the security guards who came over didn’t disperse them. Instead, they folded their arms and listened to the song themselves.
I took her back to the hotel before it got too late.
When we reached the underground parking garage, Jiyu bowed her head.
“You must be busy, so thank you for today.”
“I had fun, too. Let’s meet in Seoul next time.”
At my words, Jiyu smiled brightly and answered with real energy.
“Yes!”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The CEO of Top Tier Entertainment, Yoo Hyun-mu.
The man who had raised Mukids to stardom met with President Park Jin-woong, who had returned to Korea, and received his report.
“What? He really said that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You said the employee who spoke to you was Han Miru?”
“Yes.”
Yoo Hyun-mu knew a lot of people in business circles, and he had already heard a few things about Han Miru.
Wasn’t he the one who wiped out the controlling family at the Hanjeong Group shareholder meeting?
Given everything he’d done since then, he was certainly more than just some ordinary employee.
“Tell me exactly what he said. Every word, in full detail.”
“Uh, right, so….”
President Park Jin-woong gathered his memories and relayed their conversation from that day.
Continue Capital’s core demands were twofold.
First, they wanted 70 percent of the equity. Second, they wanted the fees lowered as much as possible.
If we cut fees and secure more artists and fans, the revenue will follow?
For Top Tier Entertainment, Mukids alone accounted for an astonishing 60 percent of profits.
That was why, if something ever happened to Mukids, they were planning to grow Aniverse, their K-pop platform, into a second cash cow.
There were plenty of investors willing to put money into that.
Even so, the biggest reason they had asked Continue Capital to cooperate was Snow Crash. Both Blackwood International and Legend Games Headquarters, after collaborating with Snow Crash, had achieved enormous success.
But Han Miru’s words suggested that instead of trying to turn Aniverse into a revenue machine, they should use it to grow K-pop itself.
Which meant…
He sees far greater growth potential for K-pop in the future?
It had only been a short while since Mukids began gaining popularity in the United States and Europe.
Seeds planted steadily over several years were only now beginning to bear fruit.
But how long that popularity would last, and how much bigger it might become, even he couldn’t really predict.
If K-pop succeeded in the global market even more than he imagined, then maybe…
Maybe they could make more money from that than they ever could from simply raising fees.
After sorting through his thoughts for a long while, Yoo Hyun-mu called Han Miru.
"Hello."