The Paper That Sees the Future (4)
The paper with a hole punched clean through its center.
Before long, even the remaining edges vanished, like the crust of a slice of bread disappearing into nothing.
I had set the future viewpoint at roughly ten months ahead. That was also the farthest future the Future Paper could show. By then, filming for Ghost Story Company would be finished and the drama would already be airing on Netflis.
I had always thought Ghost Story Company was a guaranteed success, so I had not paid it much mind. But now that the moment to actually check had arrived, my nerves kicked in. What if it had crashed and burned spectacularly? Or what if Master had become famous to an excessive degree?
When you really think about it, the future is a fascinating and profound thing. You extract information from the future. For that to work, the events that will unfold there have to be certain. The future you saw has to actually happen for the information to mean anything and be usable.
For example, if you checked the lottery numbers and went for it, those numbers for that round would have to match exactly what you saw in the future. Only then could you hit the jackpot. And yet, if the future never changed at all, peeking at it would lose its purpose. You could not have the part where you do not win stay the same too. After all, you looked in the first place because you wanted to change the future however you liked.
To make use of future information, things had to remain unchanged — and yet, by using that information, they also had to change the way you wanted. In movies, you sometimes see a protagonist who knows the future desperately trying not to interfere with a specific situation. It was exactly like that.
The future does not change, and yet it also does. More precisely, if I did not interfere with anything connected to me, it would proceed as is. Touch it, and from some point onward it would tilt and keep going that way. The butterfly effect was a phrase that fit this situation perfectly. If I wanted to use information from the future, I had to move carefully — carefully enough for it to actually work.
...Wait, hang on. When was it going to show me the future?
I sat there staring blankly, waiting, but nothing happened. For a second I wondered if I had already arrived in the future, but that did not seem right. There was no reason I would still be staying at this hotel ten months from now.
On a pure whim, for no reason at all, I pulled out my smartphone. Wondering when I would jump to the future, I tapped the screen. Naturally, I opened an anonymous community where celebrity talk thrived. A board where dozens of posts went up every minute — and strangely enough, it was full of this:
They were talking about Ghost Story Company — a show that had not even been released yet, that had not even been finished yet. My mind snapped fully awake.
There were countless ways to show the future, and you could never predict which one it would use. And this — this was the future right now. It was showing me the future through a community board. This method was less about a time limit and more about fulfilling a quota of information. Once you had seen everything provided, it would end, so there was no need to rush.
I tapped a post right away.
Season 2 could only happen if Season 1 did well, of course. Since I had already been certain Ghost Story Company would succeed even without looking at the future, it did not particularly move me.
Still.
I swallowed hard and hunted down other posts, reading every comment carefully.
A sexy outfit that subtly showed off her cleavage and thighs. A short clip of Han Ahyoung in those clothes, moving just a little. It looked like a scene from inside the drama. She was not doing anything particularly lewd at all. You could say she was simply breathing.
Throb, throb.
And yet that alone made my breath run hot. I had fucked Han Ahyoung just yesterday, and still I could not tear my eyes away. Without realizing it, I had already grabbed my cock and started stroking.
"Noona... You're so pretty. So sexy..."
Then, as if on cue, Han Ahyoung in the video looked straight at the camera.
I flinched.
The camera drew closer. Her haughty beauty grew sharper and sharper, her pupils approaching in crisp detail. The corners of her eyes curved softly, and her lips moved in a slow, brushing motion.
Thump.
The flutter in my chest felt like an inescapable fate the moment I saw that smiling gaze. My heart throbbed at her captivating smile. At some point the screen grew luminous and began to move in slow motion — that kind of cinematic effect where the world goes soft and sluggish because you have fallen for someone. It felt like my own head had actually transformed that way.
The camera shifted and framed her delicate hands. Transparent and soft as lotus petals holding the morning mist. Those hands gently caressed a water bottle.
Gush. Spurt. Throb. Spurt-spurt.
"Ah...♡"
Cum shot out in a powerful burst. I had only been looking at her hands, and I came without even trying to hold it back.
Once I had calmed down a little, I watched the video again.
Throb.
"Haa..."
My cock swelled again. I could feel my body growing stranger by the second. I wanted to tip over right then and bury myself against her. I wanted to be stroked. I wanted those beautiful fingers to touch me. For a while I just stared at the video, panting.
There were countless other clips of Han Ahyoung, each carrying a different shade of sensuality. No heavy exposure, no explicit acts — and yet they were packed with a superior allure that truly bewitched people. Every time, my cock sprang up and my head went hazy. Lately, whenever I thought of Han Ahyoung... I felt like I was going to lose my mind.
I barely managed to tear my eyes away and moved on. There was something else I needed to check right now. I moved my hand faster, scrolling down. Page after page, and still nothing.
"Why..."
There was not a single post about Master. I rubbed my eyes and searched again, but Master's name never appeared. When I used the search function, there were a few results. A few.
A community space overflowing with nothing but talk of Ghost Story Company. And in that space, mentions of Master were almost impossible to find. Aside from that one post, maybe one or two more at most. Park Haeun died, and Master barely received any spotlight at all.
My head went cold. Why? Master's acting ability was absolutely not at this level. She was good enough to stand toe-to-toe with Han Ahyoung. And yet Master had been completely buried — by Han Ahyoung, and by Oh Jihyeon too. And once again, my tribute must have failed, because Park Haeun had gone down the path of dying.
"I see..."
I closed my eyes and smiled softly. Well, there was no need to take it too seriously, no need to feel crushed. This was a future that had not happened yet. I could prepare for it and change it whenever I wanted. Was that not why I had checked it now in the first place?
If anything, this was a chance to prove myself. A chance to surpass even a future that originally would never have taken flight. For some reason, I still was not worried about Master. She would do well. If I just paid a little more attention, she would definitely do well. She was not an actress who was meant to end up like this.
The future viewing had not ended yet, but I had already found out almost everything I wanted to know.
"Ah."
What community was this, anyway? An actors' community? It was a place I had never seen before, at least. An anonymous board my body had entered on its own. It was not that I never used communities, but this was the first time I had come into one on the entertainment side. Given that it was nothing but actor talk, maybe it was an actors' board. More precisely, it was nothing but Ghost Story Company talk, but still.
Then I found what I was looking for. The idol category. When I tapped it, posts related to idols flooded in — and they all featured familiar names.
Come to think of it, Yeon So-yul and Seon A-ri were both under Sky Music. Sky Music was unmatched on the idol side, but their actor pie was lacking. That was probably why Director Young had come in person to manage Oh Jihyeon — because they wanted to properly raise actors.
When I had looked at the future back then, Yeon So-yul had gotten a DUI. That still had not been resolved, which was why I was still keeping in contact with her. I had even sent a check-in text three days ago. I was constantly pushing for her to call me if she ever ended up in a situation where she needed to drive.
"..."
As I skimmed the titles, I wondered if there were other controversies besides the DUI. I clicked the post that pulled the strongest aggro.