The Third-Gen Chaebol Becomes a Genius Actor

Chapter 118 < There’s Another Accomplice >

“Who’s that? He’s handsome.”

“Where’s he going? To the director’s office?”

A man in a suit with an extraordinary presence knocked on the director’s office door. The trainees’ eyes followed Lim Seung-hyun’s back. A weak voice from inside told him to come in.

“Are you the one who called me?”

“Yes.”

“Uh… just clear a spot and sit down. We’re a small company… do you want some coffee?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Lim Seung-hyun cleared a seat and sat down, then handed over his business card. It wasn’t a business card from Jusung Entertainment, but a plain white one with only a simple contact number.

“So, what did you want to ask me that you came all the way here?”

The man across from him fiddled with his beard. He seemed to live here, as there was a makeshift bed in the corner.

Lim Seung-hyun asked him the question that his boss wanted to know.

“Twinkle… what a nostalgic name…”

The man was briefly lost in his memories, then cleared his throat under Lim Seung-hyun’s scary gaze.

“It’s been almost 20 years, so I don’t remember much.”

“Any clue would be helpful. Or any memorable incident.”

“Hmm…”

The man rocked his chair back and forth, deep in thought. Then he suddenly stopped and looked at Lim Seung-hyun.

“Oh, there was one guy who was insanely crazy.”

“A stalker?”

“Yes, they’re finally making a law to punish stalkers, but… back then, there was nothing like that, and entertainers were expected to endure it, and anyway, the stalker was no joke.”

Lim Seung-hyun didn’t interrupt the man’s rambling and quietly watched him.

“All kinds of people were twisted. They somehow found out where the kids lived and tried to break in through the security bars, or they waited outside the dorm and ran after them when they got out of the car.”

“That’s serious.”

“Yes, and there was one guy who was the worst of them.”

The man scrunched up his face, trying to remember.

“That… Hee-seo, he said he was dating her and told the company not to make my wife work, and he sent a marriage certificate written in his own blood and stuff like that.”

“Huh…”

“At first, I thought he was just a typical delusional patient. He only terrorized the company. But then…”

Lim Seung-hyun loosened his crossed arms and focused on the man’s words.

“I think it was when they did ‘Under the Persimmon Tree’. He got in as an extra actor and approached Hee-seo.”

“What did he do?”

“He seemed to want to harass her, but if it wasn’t for the manager at the time, it would have been a big mess.”

It was a close call. That was lucky.

A delusional patient who believed he was married to Hee-seo. Lim Seung-hyun guessed that this was the person Yoo Yeon Seo suspected. He wasn’t sure yet, though…

“Did you report him to the police?”

“We tried to, but… I think the PD smoothed it over, saying it would interfere with the filming.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Actually, even if we reported him, the awareness of stalkers back then… they probably just gave him a warning.”

“Then he must have gone crazy when he heard about the deceased’s marriage.”

“Oh, don’t even mention it.”

The man waved his hand and sighed, as if he didn’t want to recall it. As soon as Hee-seo and Yoo Geon-min’s marriage news came out, the stalker went to the company and Twinkle’s dorm and caused a ruckus. He even shed blood in the process.

After they got married, Yoo Geon-min secretly took care of the stalker and the industry people who harassed Hee-seo, or so they said, but who knows.

“Do you know his name, by any chance?”

“I don’t know… but he was a pretty important extra, so maybe you can find him in the credits?”

“Thank you. Do you remember anything else?”

***

“Thank you, you did well.”

Yoo Yeon Seo hung up the phone with Lim Seung-hyun and let out a small sigh. ‘Under the Persimmon Tree’… he thought of Lee Seon-ja, who had appeared in ‘Dreaming’ with him. She played Hee-seo’s mother in ‘Under the Persimmon Tree’, so she might remember the stalker’s existence.

“Oh, hello.”

He felt someone greet him cheerfully and turned around. He showed his face in the media often, so even people he didn’t know greeted him like they were neighbors.

Yoo Yeon Seo narrowed his eyes and looked at the person, then widened them.

“Hello, writer. Nice to see you here.”

Min Joo-kyung’s eyes sparkled with admiration. She was the writer of ‘Nation’s Bird’, and she had run into Yoo Yeon Seo while buying coffee before the reading.

“Oh, you recognize me?”

“Of course I do. I’m going to be working on your work soon.”

She gave him a lip service, and Min Joo-kyung giggled and bounced on her feet.

‘She likes me too much…’

As it turned out, the writer had written the script with Yoo Yeon Seo and Shin Ye-won in mind from the beginning. 

And JSTV had taken ‘Guk-sae’ on the condition that they bring the lead actors that the writer wanted.

‘Did he say that I don’t have to do this if I don’t want to?’

Or did he just say it because he thought I could do it? Anyway, Choi Yoo-jin was a scary person.

“What would you like to have?”

“Can you buy me something too?”

Yoo Yeon Seo nodded. He had nothing to do anyway, and he was curious about what the writer thought of the characters in the script, so he joined Min Joo-kyung at the table.

“There’s still more than an hour left until the reading, but you came early.”

“I like to come out early and have coffee. How about you, Yeon Seo?”

“Me too.”

Actually, it was a bit suffocating to be at home. It was quiet, but it felt like he could hear hallucinations. Maybe that’s why the original Yoo Yeon Seo had made a fuss and thrown money around in the downtown area.

“How did you like the script?”

“It was fun. It reminded me of someone.”

“Who?”

“My brother.”

The male lead of ‘Guk-sae’ that he was going to play, Seong Hyun-woo, was born as the second son of a chaebol family, but he was handsome and good at his work, so he was a celebrity and a chaebol third generation with a high national popularity.

Yoo Eun-ho was also famous for being a genius since he was young, and he was good at his work and handsome, so he had a popularity that rivaled that of any entertainer.

When Yoo Yeon Seo answered with a smile, Min Joo-kyung, the writer, smiled awkwardly.

“Actually, I wrote Hyun-woo with him as a motif.”

“Oh, I see.”

Yoo Yeon Seo answered like that and flipped through the script in his hand. He had no problem with interpreting the character since he was living with his brother. But the romantic emotional line was still difficult.

“I also used you as a reference for Seo-eun.”

“Me?”

He didn’t expect that.

The female lead, Lee Seo-eun, was the only princess of the Korean Empire, and she was a person who had the ability and the effort to become the next emperor. 

She also had a high public interest, but she became an issue maker by accident because of her cousin’s younger brother, who was a scoundrel.

“Now that you mention it, it does seem like that… But I’m different from her, I did whatever I wanted.”

Min Joo-kyung, who took it as a joke, chuckled.

“Actually, there are many writers who write with you two as models. It’s a good source. The two brothers of a chaebol family, the capable older brother and the issue maker younger brother. If you put them as the male lead and the sub-male, and squeeze the female lead in between, it’s perfect!”

Min Joo-kyung spoke fast with excitement. Yoo Yeon Seo laughed at her. He wondered if he should get some royalties for this.

“How do you feel about coming to romance after doing crime stories for a while?”

“Well, what can I say?”

She even tried to interview him now. She was an interesting person. He didn’t think all writers were like this… Yoo Yeon Seo looked at her with a curious look.

“This time, I went with the male lead only, and it was easier for me to write.”

Actually, he didn’t remember, but he had never done a romance genre drama. He was pushed by the sub in ‘Our Moments’, which was a romance genre. He actually couldn’t watch it until the end. The original body was so bad at acting…

“If you have any questions after reading the script, feel free to ask.”

In the play, Seong Hyun-woo proposes a contract marriage to Lee Seo-eun to take over the Cheon-o Group by pushing his incompetent brother. The Korean Empire in ‘Guk-sae’ had a setting that it had powerful resources and power.

Lee Seo-eun tries to use Seong Hyun-woo, who has a high national popularity, to raise her own fallen support rate. And according to the contract, they date and feel romantic feelings for each other in the process, which was the charm of ‘Guk-sae’.

“Is there a story from when they were young?”

“Oh, I was going to tell you that after the reading…”

It turned out that the two main characters had met when they were young, and Seong Hyun-woo, the male lead, did not forget and devoted himself to Lee Seo-eun. 

The key point of the drama, ‘I’ll make you the emperor. You don’t have to know.’ also came from here. But Lee Seo-eun had lost her memory and didn’t remember Seong Hyun-woo.

‘She lost her memory? Huh, how exquisite.’

Anyway, it was an attractive character. He thought he would get a lot of attention when the drama aired. But…

‘How do I immerse myself 100%?’

It was also a limit to empathize with Shin Ye-won as a child actor, as he did in the photo shoot. He needed to study how to make the viewers flutter.

***

After finishing the reading of ‘Guk-sae’, Yoo Yeon Seo returned home and opened his eyes wide as he saw the empty house.

‘No one’s here?’

He got a message from Yoo Eun-ho.

(Bro) I’m late.

That meant he finally had some free time. Yoo Yeon Seo smiled.

‘My body is getting better, should I start again?’

He was worried about the shooting the day after tomorrow, but he was used to the pain by now. He had to endure and try.

‘Beta, let’s start,’

<You can continue the memory you synced before with the effect of ‘Memory Replay’ perk.>

‘Okay.’

That was good for him. He had a headache from deducing the situation from the scattered memories. It would be a burden on his body, but.

‘I hope there’s something to harvest this time.’

<Let’s begin.>

After a brief blackout, he opened his eyes to find himself in a film set.

“Cut! Yeon Seo, hold on a second…”

The director called him with a sigh in his voice.

“Your voice is too stiff. Can you please soften it a bit?”

How do you expect me to act well when I see that?

Yeon Seo frowned as he felt a surge of resentment. It was a silent protest against having to act well while seeing that shape hovering above the other actor.

“I’ll do my best.”

“Sigh…”

The director shook his head at his objection. And then the shooting resumed. Yeon Seo elicited many sighs from the staff with his poor acting, similar to before.

‘So that’s why he can’t act.’

As he watched his memory, Yeon Seo began to understand his original self. He should be grateful that he could say his lines normally while seeing that shape.

Oh, I hope that thing doesn’t bother me when I’m ‘doing it’. He thought carelessly in between the blackouts of his memory.

And when he opened his eyes again, he saw the childhood memory he had longed for.

‘That’s strange.’

Everyone is treating me cautiously, but that man is different.

The young Yeon Seo thought as he headed back to where his family was gathered. It was right after he had encountered a suspicious person.

“Yeon Seok, where did you go?”

“It’s boring to be with grandpa.”

Yeon Seo ran away again after hearing his grandfather’s nagging. He went to the annex where Heeseo was.

The memory didn’t continue, but he probably found Heeseo’s corpse.

When he returned to reality, Yeon Seo scowled.

‘That’s too short.’

The young Yeon Seo met a suspicious person and got scolded by his grandfather. And then he went to where Heeseo was in a matter of minutes.

No matter how light Heeseo was, he couldn’t hang an adult woman without a trace in such a short time. Not by himself. Then…

‘There’s more than one accomplice.’

At least two. Or maybe more. Why did I think there was only one? The security of the mansion was so strict.

Yeon Seo ran his fingers through his hair nervously and bowed his head over the sink.

‘This is a headache.’