Chapter 76
Chapter 76
Is This a Coincidence?
His room, once in the annex, had been moved to the main house. Unable to adapt to the new environment, a young Yu Yeon-seo climbed out of bed.
As he wandered blankly down the hall, he heard loud voices coming from his grandfather’s study and headed toward the sound.
“We’ve decided to close the case.”
“Father!”
Through the crack of the open door, his grandfather and father were facing off.
Yu Geon-min glared at Chairman Yu with bloodshot eyes.
“She wasn’t the type of person to go like that. You know that, Father.”
“Geon-min, let’s stop.”
“There has to be a reason!”
“How long!”
Chairman Yu, who had been holding back, roared.
“How long are you going to keep this up!”
The circumstances of the case had already led to the conclusion that Lee Hui-seo had committed suicide, but due to Yu Geon-min’s insistence on further investigation, it remained unresolved.
“We have to keep going until we catch the culprit!”
“The culprit, right. You said it. Who is the culprit?”
Yu Geon-min fell silent. He had clung to the case for a long time, but he still hadn’t found a single clue. In the first place, Yu Geon-min was the only one who believed there was a culprit.
“Just a little, if we search just a little longer...”
“Your stubbornness is wasting an absurd amount of police manpower. You’re aware of that, aren’t you?”
The rumors surrounding Lee Hui-seo’s death were already spiraling out of control, and to make matters worse, the media was crucifying them, accusing the chaebol of wasting police resources.
Due to the owner risk, the company’s stock price was plummeting. Dragging this out would do no good.
“Don’t you see what happened when you stirred up the scene again?! The boy had another seizure! Stop it!”
Besides, hadn’t Yu Yeon-seo, just discharged from the hospital, collapsed again because of the countless police officers and detectives swarming the annex for the reinvestigation?
“But...!”
“Don’t talk back! Listen to your father!”
Chairman Yu shot to his feet. Despite his age, his presence was formidable, but Yu Geon-min didn’t back down.
“I understand you’ve neglected your work at the company to focus on this case. I do! But are you going to leave Eun-ho and Yeon-seo alone like this?”
“That’s...!”
Faced with the sharp reprimand, Yu Geon-min opened his mouth to shout back but then fell silent.
“If their mother is gone, you, their father, should be doing your best so they don’t feel the emptiness of a parent’s absence!”
“...”
“After what happened to Yeon-seo, the whole family rallied together to help him. But what about Eun-ho?”
Chairman Yu was busy managing the owner risk. Park Geum-ju was suffering from depression, barely able to take care of herself.
And Yu Eun-ho, who had maturely said he was fine and told them to take care of his younger brother first, was only eleven years old. He was a child who needed protection.
“Do you even know what Eun-ho has been doing all alone this whole time?!”
Chairman Yu’s daughters, despite being busy with their own work and children, came to check on them whenever they had time. But during the moments when a parent should have been filling the void, Yu Geon-min was preoccupied with chasing a non-existent culprit.
“Uh...”
Yu Geon-min felt as if he’d been struck in the head by his father’s scolding, his mind going blank. It was true; he had neglected his children while chasing after his wife’s suicide case.
“Hui-seo, that child, it was a suicide. Let it end there!”
Chairman Yu grabbed his visibly gaunt son by both shoulders and spoke with desperation. He was concerned for his grandsons, but for the sake of his son, who was clinging to a hopeless cause, the case had to end now.
“The living must go on!”
He feared that at this rate, his son might follow his daughter-in-law and make an extreme choice himself. Chairman Yu stared into his son’s eyes with a desperate plea.
Tears streamed down Yu Geon-min’s face. In truth, he knew he was forcing the issue. But he couldn’t accept the fact that he had done so little that his wife was driven to suicide. He would rather believe someone had murdered her.
“...Alright.”
Yu Yeon-seo, watching through the crack in the door, saw his father reluctantly nod and fled as if escaping. The heavy atmosphere was suffocating.
‘It’s my fault.’
Father’s suffering, my brother being left alone to watch the house, and even grandmother pushing me away—all of it.
He returned to his room and pulled the covers over his head. The white hem of the skirt, still making its presence known in the empty air...
‘I have to be the only one who knows.’
No one else can find out.
<Random Memory Synchronization Complete. Synchronization Rate: 33.58%>
“Ah...”
In the aftermath of the memory sync, he once again found himself hunched over the toilet, coughing violently. After spitting up blood for a while, he roughly wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
‘This feels awful.’
It wasn’t because of the aftereffects. The emotions he had felt back then were transmitted so vividly that his head was spinning.
The him from 2207 was a soldier who had been through thick and thin, so he had taken the original body’s emotions lightly. But being swept away by someone else’s feelings was not a simple matter.
‘At this rate, I might really get swept away...’
The endless depression, despair, and self-blame were making it hard to think straight.
Come to think of it, hadn’t I been warned that pushing memory synchronization to its limit risked being consumed by the original body’s emotions?
‘I need to be careful.’
Yu Yeon-seo struggled to lift his aching body, every muscle throbbing with pain.
Anyway, why did the original body suspect Lee Hui-seo’s death wasn’t a suicide? Was it simply because his father had voiced suspicions? No, back then, Yu Geon-min had only insisted there was a culprit because he couldn’t bear to believe his wife had made such an extreme choice.
‘There must be something more...’
The most likely hypothesis is that the young Yu Yeon-seo saw the culprit at the time of Lee Hui-seo’s death. But a decisive memory to confirm that suspicion hasn’t surfaced yet. I’ll probably need to raise the synchronization rate to find out.
He tried to calm his complicated thoughts and went outside. The long hair that had bothered him now felt familiar after a few days.
“Young Master.”
“Mr. Im Seung-hyeon, it’s been a while.”
Im Seung-hyeon, back in the field after a long time, was standing by the van. He wasn’t in his usual suit but in comfortable casual wear, as Yu Yeon-seo had told him not to wear the stuffy formal attire.
“The tasks you assigned have been handled successfully.”
“Good work.”
Im Seung-hyeon had been working from the office on tasks assigned by Yu Yeon-seo. He had provided various forms of support while Yeon-seo was on the island and had also managed his assets.
Im Seung-hyeon paused and stared intently at Yu Yeon-seo’s face.
“...Are you unwell?”
How ironic that he’d say that right after checking my complexion.
Is it that obvious? I thought I looked fine when I checked the mirror in the elevator. Still, it wasn’t bad to have someone worry about him, so Yu Yeon-seo smiled lightly.
“Yeah, I have a bit of a headache.”
“Mr. Tae-gyeom, let’s go to the hospital.”
A secretary with a grave face suggesting a hospital visit for a mere headache and a manager nodding seriously in agreement—both were strange. Yu Yeon-seo waved his hand dismissively.
“It’s not that serious. Did you confirm the deposit?”
“Yes, but wasn’t it too much?”
“He saved a child. It’s the least I could do.”
Yu Yeon-seo patted Im Seung-hyeon’s shoulder a couple of times as he held the car door open, then slipped inside.
It was true that he stayed by his side hoping for such rewards, but now it felt burdensome. However, knowing that compensating with money was Yu Yeon-seo’s way of showing gratitude, Im Seung-hyeon gave a small smile and got into the passenger seat.
“What’s this? You’re only looking out for the secretary? What about me?”
“All the scripts you brought me this time were duds.”
“Ah, damn...”
Lee Tae-gyeom’s pout was fully visible in the rearview mirror. Was he tilting his head up on purpose for me to see? It wasn’t cute, just creepy. Yu Yeon-seo turned his head away as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have.
“Is there some trick to picking good projects? Give me a hint.”
“Well... don’t you just get a feeling?”
With the synchronization rate over 30%, he no longer needed the automatic action mode; certain synopses just naturally caught his eye. The original body’s eye for projects was the real deal, and he intended to use it to the fullest.
“Coffee.”
“Here.”
Lee Tae-gyeom quickly handed him a tumbler.
Today was the script reading for ‘People Who Lack Season 2’. Arriving a little early, Yu Yeon-seo gave a nod to the actors already waiting.
“Hello.”
He walked in as comfortably as if it were his own living room and went to take a seat.
‘Huh?’
But the face of the person sitting next to his spot was familiar. With his sudden craving for an award, he had only been looking at scripts and hadn’t checked who else was cast in People Who Lack. I’m filming with this person?
‘Well, well...’
Is this a coincidence? How did we end up meeting like this?
After briefly pondering how to use this opportunity, Yu Yeon-seo put on a smile.
“Hello, senior.”
“Oh, right.”
The actress, who had answered perfunctorily, looked up at Yu Yeon-seo. Seeing her shoulders flinch and stiffen, Yu Yeon-seo’s smile widened.
‘She really does look like her...’
The actress, Ryu Hye-gyeong, stared blankly at Yu Yeon-seo’s face before coming to her senses and shaking his outstretched hand.
“I look forward to working with you.”
“Right.”
His presence was already overwhelming, but when he did something uncharacteristically friendly, everyone’s attention was drawn to Yu Yeon-seo and Ryu Hye-gyeong.
‘What’s with him? I heard his personality got a bit better, was that true?’
Ryu Hye-gyeong herself was well aware of Yu Yeon-seo’s reputation. She was flustered but hid it with a smile.
“Sit. We’re playing mother and son in the show anyway, so feel free to be casual.”
“Should I?”
If she’s going to be this approachable, that’s great for me. Yu Yeon-seo took his seat and glanced at Ryu Hye-gyeong.
‘I should try to get close to her for now.’
Ryu Hye-gyeong was a former member of the four-member idol group ‘Twinkle,’ a colleague of Lee Hui-seo from her idol days.
The other two members had retired from the entertainment industry; Ryu Hye-gyeong was the only one who had transitioned to acting and was still active.
‘I hope this senior remembers a lot...’
Didn’t they live in a dorm together? I’ll have to find a chance to ask her what Lee Hui-seo was like during her idol days and who she associated with.
‘But who’s that guy staring daggers at me?’
An actor sitting diagonally across from him was glaring as if to burn a hole through him.
No matter how uncomfortable, most actors are masters of hiding their feelings. For him to be this obvious, there must be something to it. Yu Yeon-seo slightly raised his right hand. Lee Tae-gyeom, waiting behind him, hurried over.
“Who’s that?”
Lee Tae-gyeom, already knowing who he meant, whispered.
“Choi Jae-won. The actor you openly called trash before.”
“...I did?”
“Hey, can we please get through this one quietly?”
“We’ll see.”
The original body sure racked up a lot of bad karma. Should I set aside a day for a karma-cleansing project or something...? Yu Yeon-seo swept his hair back.
‘But he probably had his reasons.’
The real Yu Yeon-seo wouldn’t have called him trash for no reason. In his mind, the original body’s image had already been upgraded from ‘just a psycho’ to ‘a psycho with a valid reason’.
“Ah... please. Don’t provoke him.”
As he stepped back, Lee Tae-gyeom gritted his teeth and muttered like a ventriloquist at the back of Yu Yeon-seo, who was now waving at Choi Jae-won.
“Why?”
Im Seung-hyeon didn’t understand Lee Tae-gyeom’s concern. Based on their roles and status, he was an actor they wouldn’t encounter often. Not someone worth worrying about, was he?
“When he acts like a jerk like that, it all comes back to me.”
“Does it?”
The managers who had gone through the ‘Yu Yeon-seo file’ all quit because of his foul personality.
If an entertainer’s personality is so bad that it causes trouble for others, the one who has to run around frantically is the manager. They’re the ones who have to apologize and clean up the mess on behalf of the troublemaking celebrity.
It’s the same for the aggrieved party. They can’t say much to the celebrity himself, so they take it out on the manager below him.
“But Mr. Tae-gyeom, you’re the Young Master’s manager. Can’t you just ignore them to a certain extent?”
“I can’t. A manager’s job is always... to clean up messes like this.”
“I see.”
Lee Tae-gyeom let out a deep sigh. Im Seung-hyeon watched him for a moment, then smiled faintly. He wasn’t a manager; he was a secretary. He was already looking forward to seeing how Choi Jae-won would react.