Chapter 52
Chapter 52
The Ripple Effect
────────────────────────────────────
What should I do?
Im Hye-ju’s fingers moved quickly after returning from the wrap party for Dreaming. I’ll deal with my brother later; right now, I have to handle what’s urgent.
%%%% Wrap Party Support Recap 555 %%%%
As the operator of the Love Letter fan cafe and a popular fan account on social media, Im Hye-ju was having the time of her life as a fan these days.
‘So this is what it feels like to stan someone who’s actually good at their job.’
No matter how handsome or charming someone was, if they were truly terrible at their profession, there was a limit to how long one’s devotion could last. And that was exactly Yu Yeon-seo.
-Has anyone seen Yu Yeon-seo’s magazine spread? His face is seriously no joke.
└But his acting;;
└His face is…
-I saw Yu Yeon-seo in Gangnam. His face is tiny and he’s ridiculously handsome.
└What’s the point if he’s bad at his job lol
-His co-star is well-known but can’t act either, right? It’s a disaster.
The worst is when you search for the drama and all you find is a truckload of controversy about his acting, but barely anything about the show itself.
└This is exactly that guy.
└Isn’t it obvious who we’re talking about? It’s so transparent.
Yu Yeon-seo was known as the ultimate revolving door of fandom, where fans would repeatedly join and leave. Was his fan service any good? Not really.
You’d try to focus on the actor himself, but it was draining to constantly hear that he was bad at his job. Honestly, it was true, so you couldn’t even argue. Any attempt at rebuttal would just lead to people saying Yu Yeon-seo’s fans were being extra again.
But after his accident, Yu Yeon-seo began to change. The posts on his social media, once filled with boasts of wealth that fans had found stylish, were gone. Instead, his feed was now filled with casually taken selfies and landscape photos.
He even showed up at the fan cafe, an unprecedented event, causing a stir by deleting a post.
-Lmao, Yu Yeon-seo must be the first actor to run from a set.
-Run-seo, haha.
-Honestly, don’t you think he’s being too much? I don’t want to see him in the industry anymore.
Just when his changed behavior and acting had given them hope, the incident where he disappeared from the set of ‘Virtual Reality’ brought them to the brink of leaving the fandom once more.
But Im Hye-ju held on. She was already too accustomed to Yu Yeon-seo being at the center of incidents and accidents to be hurt by something like this. And as the situation was resolved favorably and his acting skills were re-evaluated, she had stayed with him until now.
Im Hye-ju felt as though all her efforts were being rewarded.
‘No, that’s not right. It’s strange to expect a reward for something I chose to do because I enjoy it.’
Im Hye-ju refreshed the comments.
└The actor who played Chunbaek personally gave you a signed script??
└You worked so hard, rep!! But is that the actual script he used? Wow.
└Thanks for the detailed recapㅠㅠ! Our staff worked hard!
Among the comments, a few contained unspeakable slander. Im Hye-ju ruthlessly saved a PDF of the screen and immediately sent it, along with the link, to a specific email address.
It was an email from a law firm that had been sent to a small number of fan club operators last year, not long after Yu Yeon-seo was discharged from the hospital. His agency had been silent, yet a law firm suddenly stepped in. A quick search revealed it was a massive firm.
Occasionally, posts would pop up about people being sued by Yu Yeon-seo, so it seemed they were handling things well… but it was strange for them to suddenly take action like this.
‘Could his family have gotten involved?’
She’d heard his father, Yu Geon-min, doted on his sons. Could it be?
‘Nah, as if the head of a major corporation has nothing better to do than get involved in something like this.’
Im Hye-ju opened the script she had received from Yu Yeon-seo. It was filled with scribbled notes about acting. A single glance was enough to tell how much effort he was putting in.
‘His next project… I hope he picks one soon.’
Her heart swelling with fandom pride, Im Hye-ju completely forgot about Im Seung-hyeon.
“Beta, memory synchronization…”
Having returned home early from the wrap party, Yu Yeon-seo prepared to sync his memories. His conversation with Lee Seon-ja, coupled with the growing strangeness in his body, led him to believe the original owner’s influence was significant.
<Random memory synchroniza—>
“Wait.”
Yu Yeon-seo raised a hand.
“The ability to see only the memories I want—is it still not fully learned?”
<Correct.>
He frowned. Beta had mentioned that it was extremely difficult for a machine to understand a human. Judging by the intonation in its speech, though, the learning process seemed to be going well…
“Can I see memories that have already passed?”
<That… would likely be possible once the synchronization rate is high enough.>
So it wasn’t saying it was impossible. For now, Yu Yeon-seo was satisfied with that.
After a moment of darkness, he opened his eyes to find himself in the Chairman’s residence. A small tea time was being held in the garden between the main house and the annex.
“Hui-seo.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Are you feeling better now?”
With a worried expression, Park Geum-ju inquired about Lee Hui-seo’s health.
Their mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship seemed quite good… so the rumors about her being driven to a corner by excessive mistreatment from her in-laws weren’t true. The smaller Yu Yeon-seo stretched his arms high, urging his mother on.
“I’m all better. Yeon-seo, want me to hold you?”
Lee Hui-seo lifted the young Yu Yeon-seo and nuzzled his cheek. The young Yu Yeon-seo giggled.
‘Is she smiling…?’
Lee Hui-seo’s face was still glitching as if the memory was damaged, making it impossible to see her expression.
“Yeon-seo is being quite the baby. Don’t tire out your mother.”
“It’s alright.”
“He never wants this old grandma to hold him…”
Park Geum-ju muttered softly, a hint of disappointment in her expression.
She seems to adore her grandchild at this point. So why was her attitude so different in that other memory? It must be related to Lee Hui-seo’s death.
“I heard Eun-ho has already finished the high school curriculum.”
“I wanted him to grow up like a normal child…”
“I feel the same way, but what can we do when the boy is so extraordinary?”
Though she said that, Park Geum-ju looked pleased, amazed by her eldest grandson’s achievements.
Given that Lee Hui-seo was still alive, Yu Yeon-seo must have been younger than seven… and Yu Eun-ho had already finished high school? That was his brother, alright.
“I want to let Yeon-seo do whatever he wants.”
“Really? What will you do if he says he wants to be a celebrity like you?”
“That would be fine, too.”
Lee Hui-seo answered without hesitation. With the backing of Juseong, wouldn’t he be able to have a comfortable career in entertainment?
“Yeon-seo might be good at it.”
“Indeed. If he inherited your talent, he’ll do well.”
Park Geum-ju smiled benevolently. Her affection for her daughter-in-law was evident in her actions and expression.
Yu Yeon-seo stared intently at the still-glitching face. He could feel her beaming smile… It seemed he had been incredibly fond of Lee Hui-seo.
Yu Yeon-seo returned to reality. His chest felt warm, as if he had been infected by the heartwarming atmosphere under the gentle sun.
There was no clear evidence. It was just a hunch, but maybe, just maybe… Lee Hui-seo’s death wasn’t a suicide. If that was the case…
“What should I do?”
As he reached a conclusion, his heart began to beat with a pleasant rhythm. Did the original owner want him to find the real culprit?
‘What a pain…’
Yu Yeon-seo, the one who had coughed up blood, tried to ignore the warmth of Lee Hui-seo he had felt so vividly in the past memory.
-Yu Yeon-seo is at Juseong Electronics rn
(Photo)
Soooooo handsome wtf
└I saw him too. He was having lunch in the company cafeteria.
└└No wonder that table was glowing even though it wasn’t near a window.
└Is that our Vice Chairman with the goofy expression?
└└Yup.
└└└The Vice Chairman is a total sucker for his son lol. Haven’t you seen him with the Senior Managing Director?
└└└└At this point, he’s less of a doting father and more of a son-obsessed i***t.
└The comment above is hilarious lol. The Vice Chairman is just the Vice Chairman, and the Senior Managing Director is the Senior Managing Director, lol.
When Yu Yeon-seo visited Juseong Electronics to record his lines for Chunbaek and see his father and brother, a small incident occurred where posts about his visit appeared on an anonymous corporate community site.
And these posts spread to various other communities. His grandfather somehow found out and scolded his father, but his father apparently didn’t care. His brother had relayed that he seemed to be enjoying the rumor that he was a doting father…
“Hyung!”
“You’re here.”
Yu Yeon-seo reflexively took the wine that Park Seon-woo offered him.
“I didn’t know what you’d like, so I just brought something from home.”
“Why are you giving me this?”
“My mom always said you shouldn’t go to someone’s house empty-handed.”
Yu Yeon-seo casually placed it on the dining table and sat on the sofa. Park Seon-woo’s jaw dropped as he looked around Yu Yeon-seo’s home.
“Wow, your place is amazing… Can I film this for a video?”
“Are you trying to sell my daily life?”
“Why not? You used to show off on social media all the time.”
That was me, but it wasn’t me. Yu Yeon-seo let out a small sigh.
His cousin, whom he hadn’t seen in a while, had become a successful MyTuber. Having been outed as a chaebol, he now employed a schoolmate as an editor and posted all sorts of content flaunting his wealth. His subscribers had already surpassed tens of thousands. Was this really the same timid Park Seon-woo?
“I want to move out too.”
“Sit down first.”
Park Seon-woo quickly sat on the sofa.
“You’re really going to be on my channel, right? I’m starting to run out of rich-guy content ideas.”
“Sure.”
He wouldn’t ask for anything too unreasonable, would he? Yu Yeon-seo thought lightly. That was, until he heard Park Seon-woo’s plan.
“…So you’re curious to see how the staff would react if we stayed at our eldest aunt’s hotel without paying?”
“Yeah.”
“And you want to go to a Bailey flagship store, buy out their products, and…”
“Unbox it all in front of Uncle and Eun-ho. It’d be great if Grandpa was there too.”
Yu Yeon-seo’s eldest paternal aunt, Yu Min-jeong, managed the Juseong Group’s department stores and hotels.
‘Bailey’ was a foreign electronics company considered a rival to Juseong Electronics. The latter idea didn’t seem to harm anyone, so it might be fine… but his grandfather? Wouldn’t he get a good smack for that?
“And you want to do that with me?”
His cousin, Park Seon-woo, nodded. Yu Yeon-seo let out a deep sigh.
“Why? Isn’t it a good idea?”
“Sun-woo. That kind of thing is only fun when our fathers or grandfathers do it. The hotel idea, especially, is just asking for a power-tripping controversy.”
“…You think so?”
Having gotten a taste of attention, Park Seon-woo smacked his lips in disappointment. At this rate, was he actually going to go to their grandfather?
“Why don’t you just work part-time at a cosmetics store run by our younger aunt’s affiliate? Title it something like ‘A Taste of the Commoner Life.’”
“Oh, that’s a good idea too.”
Park Seon-woo was now getting advice on content creation. Well, his channel was still new; it wouldn’t do to get into a controversy so soon.
Since coming to this era, all Yu Yeon-seo had done was take acting lessons, work, sync memories, and browse the internet in his spare time. So he could roughly predict how people would react.
‘Have I been living too bleakly? Maybe I should really take a vacation…’
He had come to a peaceful era, yet he had been rushing forward too hastily. It was all because of the secrets the original owner held.
In any case, Yu Yeon-seo would have welcomed a controversy with open arms, but Park Seon-woo was still young and lacked immunity to such reactions, so he had to be careful.
“Do you not even read the comments on your channel? Don’t the malicious ones bother you?”
“I don’t see them if I sort by popularity…”
“It’ll be on a whole different level if I’m involved, you know?”
Park Seon-woo opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. The issue-maker Yu Yeon-seo stirred up a massive reaction, whether good or bad.
“Just do some light shopping with me. That’ll be enough.”
“But that would overlap with my previous content… and since you’re making an appearance, I need to rake in the views…”
“What are you talking about?”
Did this kid still not know his influence? Yu Yeon-seo said brazenly.
“You think a video won’t get views just because I’m in it?”
Park Seon-woo couldn’t deny it.
Shopping Spree at a Rented-Out Department Store with My Chaebol Cousin (With Yu Yeon-seo)
Trending Videos #6
“You really have to acknowledge his influence.”
A man murmured in admiration as he looked at the MyTube main page.
“What do you think about casting him?”
“Yu Yeon-seo? That would be huge. Wouldn’t that guarantee viewership and production costs?”
The man who answered frowned.
“But isn’t Yu Yeon-seo famous for never doing variety shows?”
“I heard his personality has gotten better lately.”
“Just because his personality is better, does that mean he’ll do something he’s never done before?”
“Who knows.”
A producer from JSTV’s variety department said, looking down at the proposal spread before him.
“Let’s just give it a shot.”