The Third-Gen Chaebol Becomes a Genius Actor

Chapter 127 <Who’s Son Is He?>

“Son.”

The young Yoo Yeon Seo lifted his head. He hated the sound of being called son, as if a worm was crawling in his ear.

‘Now is not the time to worry about that.’

And as he looked back at his memory, he began to take in the features of this man, how his face and eyes were shaped. He couldn’t see his face clearly because of the backlight.

<Memory replay, finished.>

“Again.”

So when the memory ended and he returned to reality, he opened his mouth without hesitation. His vision turned black. And when he opened his eyes again, it was the same environment as before.

“Son.”

After observing his face closely, he persistently observed things like his gait, habits, and how he breathed. But the time he faced the man was too short.

<Do you want to do it again?>

“Again.”

His head was hot and blood dripped from his nose, but he didn’t bother to wipe it off and plunged back into his memory.

“Ugh…”

He repeated it several times, and then Yoo Yeon Seo vomited blood on the floor.

<Master, I advise you to stop.>

“That’s enough.”

He didn’t need to see any more.

The man’s face in the backlight was bland. It was a common face that he could encounter several times on the street. But after persistent observation, he was able to catch the man’s characteristics.

The man had a habit of clenching his jaw. And as he followed his jaw, he saw a faint scar on his right earlobe. As if someone had cut him.

And he had a habit of twitching his left middle finger like a spasm. And when he walked, his right shoulder was slightly drooping, which he couldn’t find at first glance. He found it after replaying his memory several times.

‘That’s enough.’

It was better to focus on his habits rather than his appearance. His appearance would change as he aged… Yoo Yeon Seo staggered and connected the external hard drive he received from Baek Seojoon.

<Do you want to check it right away?>

“I’ll finish it today.”

He pulled out a tissue and covered his mouth. And he spat out the blood that welled up and focused on the CCTV footage.

It was a fortnight’s worth of footage. And there were many places to watch, such as the front and back doors, the lobby, and the entrance to the agency office. But he didn’t give up.

<Master, I recommend you to rest.>

“I’m not there yet.”

He continued to look for the owner of the letter until dawn. Yoo Yeon Seo felt the aftereffects of replaying his memory, but he endured it with his willpower. As he concentrated, he heard the sound of Yoo Eunho coming to work.

He lost his focus for a moment and let out a painful groan. His whole body felt like screaming. But he didn’t stop.

<Master.>

Beta tried to stop him, but Yoo Yeon Seo didn’t stop. He felt more and more disgusted with the man as he replayed his memory. He might not be the one who sent the letter, but he had an inexplicable conviction.

He stared at the monitor for a long time and pressed pause.

‘I found him.’

The man who entered through the front door walked slowly to the lobby and stood in front of the elevator. And he got off at the floor where Halo Media was. The twitching of his left finger and the crooked gait. He had seen them several times. He felt his vision tilt to the side.

‘Ah…’

Did he overdo it?

“Where are you going?”

“Schedule.”

“Call me when you’re done.”

He dodged his brother’s sharp gaze. The one who found Yoo Yeon Seo collapsed that day was Yoo Eunho again.

***

He didn’t panic like before. He knew that if the news of him going to the emergency room again while he was gaining popularity with ‘National Bird’ got out, he would attract the attention of all kinds of people, not to mention his family. He called a doctor he knew well and managed to fix the situation.

‘He couldn’t stand it and watched the video.’

Yoo Eun-ho’s furrowed brow didn’t relax.

“Stay quiet for a while. Seo-joon and I will take care of the person you found.”

“Okay.”

He still only had half of his memory synchronized, but he instinctively felt that he shouldn’t mess with his brother in this state. The reason he scheduled the interview was not because he listened to Yoo Eun-ho’s advice, but because he wanted to avoid the eyes of the person who was watching him. What kind of vacation did he take… He wasn’t even busy.

“I’m going.”

Yoo Yeon Seo opened the front door and ran away.

“Sigh…”

Yoo Eun-ho stared at the closed front door for a long time and sighed. Then he called Baek Seo-joon.

“Hey, did you find him?”

Yoo Yeon Seo sighed quietly as he saw Lim Seung-hyun, who was keenly observing his movements.

“What did he say?”

“He told me to keep an eye on the lord.”

The rumor of him collapsing spread. He would have been annoyed if it was before, but now he just let it go. He had more things to worry about.

‘How far can Baek Seo-joon investigate?’

His gait was like another fingerprint. The man in the video matched the man in his memory exactly. But there was still a question that hadn’t been answered.

‘Why now?’

It was because ‘National Bird’ exploded, but his previous works were also very popular. Besides, he was popular enough to make headlines even when he wasn’t working. But why did he send the letter now?

‘It seems like there’s another reason besides me…’

Lost in thought, Yoo Yeon Seo arrived at the interview site.

“Hello!”

“Your name sounds familiar.”

The reporter who introduced himself as Park Cheong-ah stared blankly at Yoo Yeon Seo’s face and spoke a beat late.

“I did an interview with writer Jeong Da-hee before, do you remember…?”

“Oh, it’s you.”

The reporter who wrote an article that wrapped up saving the poor writer as a favor. Jeong Da-hee had hit a home run with another drama after ‘Dreaming’ and established herself as a drama writer.

“You’re really handsome.”

“Thank you. Let’s start the interview right away. I’m not feeling well.”

He was a bit grumpy, unlike what he had heard. Well, people can’t be in a good mood all the time. Thinking that, Park Cheong-ah turned on the recorder.

-Do you feel the popularity?

Popularity… Well, he hadn’t left the house since ‘National Bird’ because he was looking at his memory again. The internet was always full of mentions… Oh, he heard that his SNS followers were the most in Korea. But what’s the big deal?

“I don’t know yet. I’ve always been popular, right? For better or worse.”

There was a lot of meaning in his answer, and Park Cheong-ah silently looked at the laptop screen.

“But looking at your filmography, you didn’t have a work that exploded like this, did you?”

“That’s right. Not yet.”

He answered with confidence that he could make another hit with any work after ‘National Bird’.

“I think you’ll feel it when you start working.”

“Right. A lot of people were curious about your whereabouts after the drama ended.”

He had only rested for two weeks after the drama ended. But he didn’t respond when he should have been busy with interviews, photo shoots, and commercials, and he even cut off his SNS, which he was good at, so everyone was eagerly waiting for his news.

“Are you going to start your next work right away?”

“I’m going to take a reward vacation and enjoy the popularity of ‘National Bird’ for a while.”

“That’s good news.”

He decided to do some activities after listening to Yoo Eun-ho’s advice. When he said he wouldn’t rest, the representative cried for real… He was sorry he missed that funny scene.

“Oh, right. I should have asked you this question first.”

Park Cheong-ah asked urgently.

-What made you do ‘Guk-sae’?

“I heard you bet your life on JSENM.”

“Min, the writer, told me that he had me in mind as the male lead. I was interested in the synopsis because it was a genre I hadn’t done much before.”

“Rom-com is almost new to you, right?”

“Yes, and I also have a place in the company, so I couldn’t just play around.”

“I heard that JSENM’s stock price went up a lot after ‘Guk-sae’.”

“Yes, that’s what they said.”

Park Cheong-ah wanted to ask if he would continue to do only JSENM’s works, but she skipped it because it was a question that was not discussed beforehand.

-How was your chemistry with Shin Ye-won?

“Sister, I’m sorry.”

Park Cheong-ah raised her palm to say it was okay. She clenched her mouth and looked like she was holding something back, but she was actually one of the people who strongly supported the Hyun-seo couple of ‘Guk-sae’. Sister, sister. She was crazy.

“She was very considerate of me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I had a lot of difficulties while filming ‘Guk-sae’. It was awkward to catch the romantic emotions, and I wasn’t feeling well.”

The last one was an unconscious remark. Park Cheong-ah remembered the incident when he went to the emergency room, but she didn’t ask any further questions.

-In the scene where Hyun-woo suppresses Shim Naekwan and points a gun at him, it gives me goosebumps, and many people say that he looks like he’s going to kill someone. Is there a background to this realistic acting? What were you thinking when you filmed that scene?

“I thought of someone I wanted to kill.”

“Excuse me?”

Park Cheong-ah looked at him, lifting her eyes from the monitor. Yu Yeon Seo smiled softly.

Did I hear it wrong? She thought she should correct it to ‘someone I hate’, and asked who it was.

“Well, a hater?”

***

It was a weather that was too awkward to use an umbrella, but too annoying not to. The middle-aged man put on a baseball cap and entered the traditional market.

“Hello.”

“Oh, you’re here? Take this.”

“I don’t need this… Thank you.”

The man bowed his head as he received the plastic bag from the merchant. He moved on. Everyone who saw him greeted him warmly.

“Haven’t you eaten yet? Eat this.”

“Thank you.”

He seemed to have a good reputation in the area, as his two hands were full.

The man left the market and walked across the bridge over the river. He called someone.

“Teacher, long time no see.”

(Who is this?)

The other person seemed to think it was a prank call and tried to hang up without answering. But the man added something as if he expected it.

“May 12th, 1999.”

(What, what did you say?)

“Don’t hang up. We used to be good, didn’t we?”

(We were never good. What do you want?)

“Why are you like this? We’re family.”

A horrified gasp came from the other side of the phone. The man leaned against the railing and smiled faintly. His left middle finger holding the phone twitched.

“I didn’t want to contact you like this either. I wanted to live quietly as you wished.”

(Then why…)

“I want to ask you, why did you kill him?”

(Who did I kill?)

Are you playing dumb? The man chuckled. He felt the other person’s breathing roughen at his unpleasant and sinister laughter.

“Do you think I don’t know?”

(…)

“Mr. President.”

The man smiled slyly. He looked like he had a warm smile, but he was threatening the other person.

“Do you really think ‘that’ is the original?”

The other person did not answer, but the man waited patiently.

(…What do you want. Money? Or, a car? I’ll do whatever you want.)

“What do I want? Nothing. I just called to say hello.”

(What? You call that saying hello…)

“I’ll see you soon.”

It was a low-class move to say what he wanted right away. He wanted the other person to wait anxiously until he contacted him again.

The man hung up the phone and threw it into the river without hesitation. The water was swollen by the rain and it would have been swept away somewhere.

He moved on. He walked a long distance without showing any signs of fatigue. The man stopped at a large billboard on the wall of a department store and smiled proudly.

“Who’s son is he? He’s so handsome.”

The picture was of Yoo Yeon Seo.