Chapter 158
Chapter 158
An Actor’s Duty is Their Work
“Hello, are you Yeon-seo?”
After a moment of darkness, I opened my eyes to see a young Choi Yu-jin kneeling to meet the gaze of a young Yu Yeon-seo.
“I’m...”
“...I know.”
Yu Yeon-seo, who had been peeking out from behind Yu Geon-min, answered softly. Choi Yu-jin’s hesitant expression brightened.
“It’s nice to meet you. You see... this lady...”
“Do whatever you want.”
It was a calmness unbefitting a thirteen-year-old. Before the age of seven, Yu Yeon-seo had been so lively and sociable that he knew all the household staff.
But after the accident, he had shut himself in his room. He became withdrawn and quiet. If anyone tried to talk to him, he would snap at them to stay away, so his family had learned to keep their distance. Yet now, he was strangely subdued.
Seeing a glimmer of hope in this, Yu Geon-min knelt to meet his son’s eyes.
“Do you even know what you’re agreeing to?”
“You’re getting married. I heard the maids talking about it.”
Even though he was cooped up in his room, there were plenty of opportunities to overhear things, like when he came out after a meal or went to the bathroom. Besides, Choi Yu-jin had been visiting the house and meeting with his father often lately, so he had a feeling this was coming.
“Are you okay with it?”
Yu Yeon-seo glanced back and forth between his father and Choi Yu-jin. After his mother’s death, his father had lost all will to live while trying to catch a culprit with no evidence. He had tried to be a better father to his sons on his grandfather’s advice, but the darkness never truly left him.
But now, he looked brighter. Yu Yeon-seo gave a small nod. He could feel the two of them gasp in delight.
“Yeon-seo, how about we go out for dinner, just the three of us?”
“Get away from me!”
The thought of his mother brought on a shimmering hallucination, a sharp ringing in his ears, and a throbbing headache. He irritably slapped away the hand Choi Yu-jin had offered.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Yeon-seo.”
Startled by Choi Yu-jin’s shocked expression, Yu Yeon-seo turned and ran. The first memory synchronization ended as he fled to his room to escape them.
After the founding anniversary event, as the list of suspects narrowed, Yu Yeon-seo felt an inexplicable resistance. It was difficult for him to place Choi Yu-jin on that list.
In the fragmented memories he’d seen, Choi Yu-jin had always tried to reach out to him, even when he was irritable and rejecting. She had even supported him from behind the scenes when he began his career in entertainment. Suspecting such a person as the culprit filled him with a heavy sense of guilt.
‘Still, if she’s a suspect, I have to investigate...’
Even if I don’t want to. Her actions could have been out of pity for a child caught up in something she had caused. Just like when I first suspected my great-uncle.
And when he opened his eyes again, Lee Hui-seo was in front of him. Peeking into the memory, he held his breath.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, Yeon-seo, you’re here?”
Lee Hui-seo was writing something, but at the sound of her son’s voice, she hid it behind her back.
“Mommy was just writing in her diary.”
“Can’t I see it too?”
“Um...”
Her face was still staticky, but her voice was tinged with unease.
“Yeon-seo, how would you feel if someone stared at you all day long?”
“Um... I’d like it! I’d want to be friends!”
“Even when you go to the bathroom?”
“Well, that’s a bit...”
“It’s like that.”
Lee Hui-seo stroked her son’s hair, her touch filled with affection. Perhaps because of the original body’s influence, his heart ached with emotion.
“But why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I have something I need to study.”
“Studying! I like studying!”
As Yu Yeon-seo jumped up and down in excitement, Lee Hui-seo picked him up.
<Terminating here.>
<Random memory synchronization complete. Synchronization rate: 71.36%>
The memory ended before he could even feel the warmth of her embrace. Yu Yeon-seo habitually spit out the bile rising in his throat, lost in thought.
‘...A diary?’
It looked strange for a diary, though. More like... a file for holding documents.
After roughly composing himself, he went out to the living room and ran into Yu Eun-ho, who had just come home from work.
“What, no overtime?”
“It’s not busy lately.”
Yu Yeon-seo didn’t believe him. He knew his brother was swamped with a large-scale project. He had probably come home early because he was worried after seeing how gaunt Yeon-seo looked on the anniversary day.
‘Family is nice and all... but it can be a bit of a pain at times like this.’
He turned his head, avoiding his brother’s gaze. But he couldn’t escape his brother’s sharp eyes.
“You again...”
“No, I didn’t.”
Yu Eun-ho narrowed his eyes, studying his younger brother before opening a nearby trash can. But even if he looked, everything had already been cleaned up without a trace.
Yu Yeon-seo changed the subject.
“Hyung. About Mom’s belongings... are they still in that house? In the annex.”
“They haven’t been thrown away.”
Convinced there was someone behind the accident, Yu Geon-min had ordered that nothing be touched, and it had been left that way ever since. Even as he said this, Yu Eun-ho keenly observed his brother’s complexion.
‘Is Mother okay with this, though?’
No matter how close they were when she was alive, she probably wouldn’t feel great about it. A man who leaves his ex-wife’s traces untouched... It’s like something out of a soap opera, and objectively speaking, it’s not a good look.
‘I guess it was that hard for him to forget.’
Yu Geon-min had dropped everything to investigate his wife’s accident. Perhaps weighed down by the guilt of neglecting his sons during that time, he still couldn’t stop doting on them now.
‘Though, I think that’s just his natural personality...’
Anyway, what would happen to their father if they caught the culprit? Would he be happy that she hadn’t committed suicide after all? Or would he fall into despair again, forced to relive memories he had tried so hard to forget? He couldn’t help but worry.
As the synchronization rate increased, his attachment to his family grew stronger. He was now thinking from Yu Yeon-seo’s perspective, not Kang Jin-hu’s.
“Hyung, have you been to the annex since the accident?”
“...Briefly, after you mentioned it.”
Yu Eun-ho avoided his brother’s gaze. Ah, so even if he didn’t believe it, he went to check just in case. His heart felt a little lighter.
“Was there a diary there?”
“...Not that I know of. Did you remember something?”
“I’m not sure. I’m going to bed.”
“Hey, wait a sec...”
Ignoring him, Yu Yeon-seo entered his room, his eyes darting around.
‘It might still be in the house.’
But how could I go into that house? Just looking at it made it hard to breathe.
-HD pics of Chaebol Yu Yeon-seo are up
└So damn cool
└OMG insane ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└Wait, these are the first pics from inside the art museum, and a fansite master took them?
└└If the fansite master can get in there, they must be something else
└└└I heard one of Yu Yeon-seo’s fansite masters is famous for attending all those kinds of events lol
-Yu Yeon-seo’s been quiet lately
No news on his next project?
└He filmed Filicide at the beginning of the year
└└But that’s not coming out until next year
└Do you think an actor’s project just pops up overnight? lol
└└With Yu Yeon-seo, it’s possible
└└└Can’t deny that
└Did someone’s next project get announced today? Why is everyone suddenly talking about Yu Yeon-seo?
└└Jin Su-ho, Park Min-woo, and Lee Han-gyeol all announced theirs
-Isn’t he just going into production? An actor’s duty is their next project lol
└There’s no subject, but I feel like I know who you’re talking about lol
└Are you just jealous?
└My actor will handle it himself
‘I know that much.’
An actor’s duty is their work. Lee Tae-gyeom stared intently at Yu Yeon-seo, who was fiddling with his phone instead of looking at the synopsis in front of him.
“Not good?”
“Not feeling it.”
Finally, Yu Yeon-seo closed the synopsis and tossed it onto the table with a sigh.
“That’s a script from writer Park Yun-suk, the queen of rom-coms. You don’t like it?”
“Jumping right into another romance is premature. But why are they all romances?”
“What do you think? It’s because of ‘The Imperial Seal.’ Now that you’ve proven you can do romance, they’re just throwing them at you randomly.”
“Doing one now is premature.”
“I agree, but that’s all that’s been coming in lately.”
“Hmm...”
With ‘The Imperial Seal’ syndrome still going strong, filming another romance back-to-back would be counterproductive. The couple’s fans, dubbed the ‘Hyun-Seo couple,‘ especially the more obsessive ones, were still acting out, sending fake wedding invitations to the agency and creating over-the-top edited photos.
So, to do another romance for his next project? It would be disrespectful to the co-star. Of course, he didn’t necessarily have to worry about that. The other actress might not care either. But he wanted to avoid any potential controversy from the start.
“Is there anything without a love line? Like an action film.”
“There are plenty of those... but haven’t you already looked at them all?”
Lee Tae-gyeom pointed to a pile of synopses and scripts on one side.
“Nothing caught my eye.”
Neither ‘The Imperial Seal’ nor ‘Filicide,‘ which he had recently filmed, were action-heavy projects. Physical movement was his greatest strength. It would be a waste to let it go rusty.
‘My mind is a mess from searching for the ‘mastermind,‘ so I feel like I need to move my body to clear my head.’
“Oh, right.”
He had forgotten. Lee Tae-gyeom took a few synopses out of his bag.
“How about this, then? It came in this morning.”
“This morning?”
“It was sent directly to you.”
“Directly to me?”
It was rare for a synopsis to be sent directly to a specific actor, as projects could get tied up... He unfolded the paper Lee Tae-gyeom handed him.
Snake (Working Title)
Director: Lee Seul-gi
Screenwriter: Kim Dae-seong (White Tiger)
Synopsis
South Korea is no longer a drug-free nation.
Two detectives with special abilities chase down the drug syndicate ‘Snake.’
Yu Yeon-seo quickly scanned the plot and character summaries, raising an eyebrow with interest. It was a shame it wasn’t a solo lead role, but the confirmed co-star was Jeong Hyeon-sik, who had worked with him on ‘Demon.’
‘He was a really good actor.’
Lee Tae-gyeom let out a small sigh as he watched Yu Yeon-seo immediately open the script for the first episode.
‘Looks like he’s interested.’
CEO Han had been pestering him, asking, “Doesn’t that Yeon-seo kid have any thoughts on his next project?” but he had hesitated to hand over any synopses, knowing Yu Yeon-seo was busy searching for the culprit.
‘I wonder if this is really okay, but...’
However, he knew Yu Yeon-seo was also ambitious about his work. Besides, seeing his pale complexion lately, he thought Yeon-seo needed something else to focus on.
“But, does writer Kim Dae-seong also do dramas?”
“How should I know? He said he wanted to show it to you first.”
“Why would he do that.”
It seemed that the writer’s position in the film industry wasn’t very strong, so he had turned his attention to dramas.
Although rumors had spread that Yu Yeon-seo had recently either produced or dropped the synopses he’d been holding onto, sending a script to a specific actor was still a big risk.
‘Have any of the people who debuted thanks to me ever offered me their next project?’
As far as he knew, no production staff from before 2018 had. Writers like Jeong Da-hee and Im Ye-na would contact him regularly to ask how he was doing, but they never called him for their next projects, saying with regret that the gender of the role didn’t match.
In any case, it felt good.
“The director is making his feature debut with this project, but he was apparently famous in the advertising industry. Manager Park said his short films were quite good too.”
“Is there a video?”
If Manager Park said so... As if he’d been waiting, Lee Tae-gyeom held out a tablet. It was a commercial with a story, albeit a slightly strange one. But the direction was clean and the effort put into the action gave him a good feeling.
“Nice. It has a public service aspect too.”
“That’s why it seems likely to get a good time slot.”
“Where?”
“M Broadcasting.”
Yu Yeon-seo tilted his head. These days, with so many places to air creative video content like cable channels and OTT platforms, public broadcast dramas had a weaker standing as productions gravitated toward places with more investment.
“Aren’t they a bit lackluster these days?”
“That’s why I heard it’s a project they’re staking their survival on.”
“But with a rookie director...”
“Everyone’s going to cable or OTT. They probably couldn’t find anyone else to direct.”
Yu Yeon-seo tapped the script, lost in thought. He had a pretty good feeling about it. And these feelings had always led to good results.
“Alright. I’ll do it. Set up a meeting.”