Family Reunions and the Fifty-Episode Life
The son's role in that weekend drama was described as a young man still living in a group home, working part-time jobs. Two people who recognize each other, yet cannot call each other family — until, in the end, they are restored as one family. It was that kind of family drama.
After hearing it all out, I began packing my things for the trip back to Seoul. Seo Joongsung was heading to Seoul anyway and had suggested we leave together, and since that suited me fine, I decided to hitch a ride in his car.
Before we departed, I said my goodbyes to Park Seonyoung.
“I'll be going now.”
“Mm. You know how to get here now, right? Come again. Anytime you like.”
“If I do, I really will come at any time, you know.”
“That's right, come at absolutely any time. I'm always so glad when you do.”
I liked that last part. I'm always so glad when you do. It felt as though, after running away on a whim, I'd suddenly found somewhere to run to.
With the farewells done, I got in the car, and Seo Joongsung drove us toward Leader Actors. The moment we merged into Seoul traffic, we hit a jam, and only then did Seo Joongsung open his mouth for the first time.
“So, um.”
“About the weekend drama?”
“No, not that.”
Wondering what else there could possibly be to talk about, I glanced over at him, and he went on.
“Do you live at Wooheonjeong?”
“Yes.”
“Your parents?”
“They're gone.”
“......”
“My uncle is my legal guardian. He came to Wooheonjeong yesterday and threw a fit, so I ran off here for a little while. I have to go back eventually.”
“......I see.”
Seo Joongsung nodded slowly, then spoke again.
“I lost my father early too. I was seven. My mother passed when I was twenty.”
“I was seven too.”
“Lonely, isn't it.”
“A little.”
“In my case, I shot Black and White when I was young, and I lived thinking of Gam Seonbae-nim and Teacher Seonyoung like parents, so that became a real source of strength for me.”
“That's what I'm doing too.”
“Good.”
There was a family photo in the car — Seo Joongsung with his wife and two daughters. The eldest had just started elementary school, and the second would begin next year, he said. I asked him,
“Does having a family make it less lonely?”
“It's less lonely in a way. But it feels different. A different kind of loneliness.”
“How so?”
“It gets a little lonely when I find myself wishing I could show my granddaughters to her, just once. I'm sure she's watching from somewhere, but still.”
Talking with Seo Joongsung was strangely comfortable. Maybe he felt the same, because as we were pulling up to Wooheonjeong, he said,
“So this is what it'd feel like to have a son.”
And so, as we arrived mid-conversation, I spotted my uncle's car parked in front of the company building. Seo Joongsung stopped the car, and seeing where my eyes had drifted, he asked,
“That your uncle's car?”
“Yes.”
I got out without another word, then remembered myself and turned back.
“Thank you for the ride.”
I'd barely finished the bow and started to turn when my uncle and my cousin Lee Sunggyu came out of the building. The moment Sunggyu laid eyes on me, he snapped,
“Where the hell did you go, huh?”
“Did you sign the contract?”
“I asked where you went.”
“And I asked if you signed it.”
“This little bastard won't even answer. This is your problem, you know. Unless you're deaf, you answer when someone talks to you. This is exactly how you can tell there's no parent in the home.”
As he said it, his hand rose out of habit to smack the back of my head — and then Sunggyu froze mid-motion and backed off a step. Seo Joongsung was climbing out of the car with a face that could have buried people alive.
“Hey, you f—ing piece of—”
And he cursed, too.
Whoa. So he isn't a harmless guy after all.
With the face of a man who'd personally buried a few bodies, Seo Joongsung strode toward Sunggyu, and my uncle spoke up.
“I'm a police officer. You weren't thinking of hitting someone in front of law enforcement, were you?”
“Your nephew here was the one about to hit first. And which precinct, may I ask? I know plenty of cops myself. My father-in-law retired as Chief Superintendent General.”
Fists answer to fists, apparently.
Seo Joongsung, of all people, happened to have huge hands, formidable strength, and a family member who'd retired as a senior police executive living very nearby. Isn't it right there in the Code of Hammurabi? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth — for one's equal. Which is to say, it didn't apply if you weren't in the same league.
The moment he heard the words Chief Superintendent General, my uncle made the most frightened expression I had ever seen on him — a look that made even his reaction to the terrifying Seo Joongsung seem mild by comparison. Well, a man spends decades in the police force and he's seen plenty of gangsters......
Realizing the fight was lost no matter which way he cut it, my uncle clapped Sunggyu on the shoulder.
“Go wait in the car.”
“You get upstairs, Heeyoon.”
Seo Joongsung jerked his chin at me toward the building as well. Sunggyu retreated to the car first, and I went up to the office, where CEO Gam Seongbeom's grave expression snapped into wide-eyed surprise.
“Why are you back so soon?”
“I finished resting.”
“Did you see your uncle?”
“Yes. But I was with Seo Joongsung sunbae.”
“Huh? Joongsung-hyung?”
The instant he heard that, CEO Gam rubbed the back of his neck briskly, and his expression eased noticeably.
“Wow, I'd better go break that up. That hyung used to come by our house when I was a teenager, you know. He once turned me into a new person in thirty seconds flat.”
“What did he do?”
“Oh, you know. The thing adults do when scolding kids. Grabs both your arms like this and goes, Hyung is always watching you. So don't make me angry. That kind of thing.”
Scary just to hear about. Even the Demon was more scared of him than I was.
[You EXORCISED one, though......?]
[S-s-scary......]
While the Demon and I trembled in unison, CEO Gam headed down to the parking lot with the gleeful face of a man whose reinforcements had just arrived.
A while later, Seo Joongsung and CEO Gam came back up together, and the CEO reported,
“They chickened out and left. Jeez.”
So they did go. All the energy drained right out of me.
Seo Joongsung said nothing. He just looked back and forth between me and the CEO. Then he addressed me first.
“Don't feel pressured. As for acting, do whatever you want to do. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
Then he turned to CEO Gam.
“You should feel pressure. I'll set a date — we'll meet at the broadcasting station.”
“Could you maybe say something warm to me for once?”
“No. You're not quite human enough for that.”
Seo Joongsung cut him off flatly and reached out to ruffle my hair, then apparently decided I was too old for that and offered a handshake instead.
After the goodbyes and Seo Joongsung's departure, CEO Gam slumped bonelessly into his chair, spent in every possible way.
“Ugh. The two people in my life I least want to face, both in a single day.”
“He seemed kind, the sunbae.”
“Kind, sure. He showed our parents more filial devotion than I ever did. Though a certain amount of that devotion was me doing the legwork, mind you.”
Having said his piece, CEO Gam looked at me.
“What about you?”
“You're going to sign the contract with Sunggyu?”
“No way. Of course, imagining the tantrum he'll throw every single time a contract comes across the desk makes me tired already, but I'll get it signed one way or another. My knees are nice and light, you know.”
“Fifty episodes in one weekend drama should just about cover your whole adolescence, honestly.”
“True enough. But there's no need to choose for that reason. If Joongsung-hyung says he's going to keep an eye on someone after stepping in like that, he checks all the way to the end. Your uncle won't be making loud demands for a while either.”
Craving a cigarette but lacking the energy left to walk out of the building, CEO Gam fiddled with his lighter as he went on.
“Fine, let's call the length an advantage. But it's a weekend drama. There aren't many actors who headline a successful OTT series and then go slumming in weekend dramas.”
“Doesn't matter.”
“Hm.”
“I overheard the sunbae talking with his grandmother, and I like the story and I like the role.”
At some point CEO Gam had gotten his hands on the weekend drama proposal Seo Joongsung had mentioned, and was reading through it. He went over it carefully, then smirked.
“Damn. If you take this...... nobody in the industry will ever be able to pin down your career. Not ever.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“The way I see it, this isn't the best option. Want to wait a little longer? The industry's got its eye on you.”
“If a better opportunity comes along, I'll take it.”
Of course I would. If something better came along, I'd take anything. It would have to actually be better, of course.
With my mind made up, I finally felt the tension leave me. I'd slept well enough last night, apparently, but not deeply enough — drowsiness came crashing down all at once.
In my dream, I grew a pair of wings and flew all over the world.
In the darkened office, lit by a single small mood lamp Do Jaeyeon had switched on, the three people of Leader Actors studied Lee Heeyoon asleep on the sofa.
“Shouldn't we wake him?” CEO Gam murmured, and Vice President Gam Soohan shook his head.
“Let him sleep. How exhausted must he be to pass out like this.”
“The adults did all the worrying, like always. Ran off out of nowhere, and...... haah, damn it, do you know how terrified I was until your mother called?”
“It took less than an hour for Aunt Seonyoung to call, though. The one who suffered most was Heeyoon.”
“Ah, both of you, quiet. You'll wake him.”
At Do Jaeyeon's scolding, both of them fell silent. And so the three of them lay back on the sofa, gazing at the sleeping Lee Heeyoon with faces full of relief.
Eventually, all three moved to the monitoring room.
Two days remained until the premiere of Giyeon. Even KOBIS had no credited actor registered for the role of the creature.
“Shame, really. Lee Heeyoon's performance in this is insane. How long do we have to keep it secret?”
“Until he's a legal adult, I suppose?”
“Or we could reveal it when he starts his next film. Doubles as promotion.”
Cracking open a can of beer each, the conversation about the future that had started that way drifted further and further afield, until eventually they were pulling out dramas Heeyoon might film well into his late thirties.
“A doctor role. I'd love to see him do a medical drama.”
“Medical dramas, now that's good.”
They talked about the distant future, and the even more distant future. Not one of the three imagined a future in which Lee Heeyoon quit acting. They knew no such future existed. Lee Heeyoon was the kind of man who would build himself a role from nothing if none was offered.
“Keep his health in check, everyone. If we want to support Lee Heeyoon acting for a long, long time.”
At CEO Gam's words, Vice President Gam Soohan jabbed back at him.
“You should talk. Our family's the one with the short lifespans.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
CEO Gam grumbled under his breath.
Even as they talked, Do Jaeyeon was checking the press coverage of the Giyeon preview screening. It was such a small-scale film that the screening had been small as well, but Do Yeojin carried enough name recognition that, thankfully, the reporters had filled most of the seats. The creature's casting was a secret, so nobody from Leader Actors — Heeyoon included — had been able to attend.
They waited anxiously for the reviews, and at last the articles began to appear, one by one.
They were all centered on the lead, Do Yeojin. Do Jaeyeon was reading through them intently, hunting for any mention of the unidentified actor whose role hadn't even been announced, when she said,
“Oh — there's something about the creature.”