Chapter 4
They took pictures of the scars left all over my body. They weren’t very noticeable when I had clothes on, so I found it strange that they had immediately concluded I was being abused just from seeing them.
After they finished documenting everything, I sat down in a chair.
Meanwhile, Do Jaeyeon found the profile my aunt had posted for me on an online child actor casting site. Starting from there, they looked through every commercial and acting job I had done over the years.
I quietly watched the three of them digging through my past.
“Why does he keep looking at us like we’re pitiful?”
“Hyung, just stay still.”
“That’s right. The kid can’t possibly be in his right mind.”
I was staring so much that they were beginning to question my mental state.
It made sense. I was happy because I was seeing people I had thought I would never meet again, but from their perspective, I was just some kid they’d never seen before. Of course they’d think I was strange.
Trying to tear my gaze away from them, I took a small notebook out of my bag.
It had belonged to my late father.
At the front were about three pages of his diary. All three entries were mostly about me. They were filled with things like how much he loved me, how desperately he wanted to be a good father…
Lies.
On one of the pages, I had written my bucket list.
Since I was destined to die on my thirty-seventh birthday, I wanted to accomplish as many things as possible before then.
- Go on a trip.
- Make friends.
- Be complimented on my personality. (Including things like “You keep your promises.”)
And so on.
There were ten items in total.
They were all things I had wanted to do before I regressed.
Twenty years was a long time. I’d get to experience a lot.
Hopefully, I’d get to do a lot of acting too.
I had paused while writing when Vice President Gam Suhan placed a freshly printed script in front of me.
“I was thinking we could read this together. Is that okay?”
I glanced at the script, and a vague memory surfaced.
It was the script for a drama that, by next year, would be released on an OTT platform.
Come to think of it, from my current point in time, it hadn’t come out yet.
It was an ensemble drama set in an elite high school, revolving around the aftermath of a double suicide.
The role they had given me was a wealthy playboy named Shin Luca.
This scene was where he tried to probe female lead Lee Yeri’s feelings for the male lead after she had entered the school through a special admissions program for disadvantaged students.
[Scene #10. Empty Classroom / Night]
(By the window. Yeri hands Luca a drink.)
Luca: (Moving his hand.) “Cold… Ah, by the way. Have you ever ended up liking someone you used to hate?”
Yeri: (Sighing as if she knows exactly who he’s talking about.) “No. And I never will.”
(Luca smiles teasingly at her answer.)
Luca: “Yeah. That’s how everyone reacts. But… I don’t mean you or the guy you’re obviously thinking about. I mean… those people. The ones who end up falling for someone they used to hate.”
Yeri: (Pretending not to care, but listening closely.) “Let’s say people like that exist… So?”
Luca: “I was wondering why they fall in love. Since everyone’s naturally drawn to me, I’ve never had to imagine it before. But I came to my own conclusion.”
Yeri: “And what was that conclusion?”
Luca: “They hated someone without ever really getting to know them. They were someone they would’ve liked if they’d only looked a little deeper.”
Yeri: (She scoffs, but somehow it doesn’t feel unrelated to her.)
Luca: “So here’s my warning. If you want to keep hating someone, never get to know them. But if you don’t think you can do that… then just find out who they really are.”
Lee Huiyun quickly read through the script.
The character was completely different from the boy standing before them now.
His concentration is impressive.
Actors his age usually struggled to focus.
Lee Huiyun didn’t.
Acting was, in the end, just another profession.
Besides acting ability and fitting the role visually, there were plenty of practical concerns.
One of the most important was whether an actor could shorten filming time.
Production costs depended heavily on the schedule.
He focused immediately.
He read the script in one sitting.
All while sitting in a room that still smelled faintly of spicy fish stew.
As Lee Huiyun immersed himself in the script inside the small soundproof meeting room, CEO Gam Seongbeom quietly whispered to Do Jaeyeon outside.
“Doesn’t it feel like he’s staring at us way too much?”
Do Jaeyeon glared at him.
“Because you raised your voice at a kid covered in bruises, Boss.”
“I only did it because I was worried… Besides, doesn’t it feel like he wants to tell us something?”
While the two of them worried about Lee Huiyun’s mental state, Vice President Gam Suhan focused on the script, preparing to read it together with him.
Without taking his eyes off the pages for even a moment, Lee Huiyun finished reading, opened the meeting room door, and called them in.
“Let’s begin.”
“Luca: (Moving his hand.) ‘Cold… Ah, by the way. Have you ever ended up liking someone you used to hate?'”
From the very first line, CEO Gam Seongbeom was inwardly amazed.
That alone was enough.
Just as he had claimed, Lee Huiyun could act.
Exceptionally well.
Even though he simply read the script aloud, he had none of the bad habits actors often developed.
He accepted the character exactly as written.
Then brought him to life.
He had worked as a child actor for years without any proper training, yet somehow hadn’t picked up a single bad habit.
That alone was astonishing.
More importantly, Lee Huiyun gave the same weight to the casual line, “Cold…”, as he did to the dialogue that followed.
Just as the stage directions described, he moved his fingers as though genuinely startled by touching something cold.
Even if the line seemed insignificant in the current scene, he didn’t throw it away.
He made sure it lived.
A script was only an outline.
Ultimately, it represented just one piece of a much larger world.
An actor couldn’t imagine only their own scene.
They had to imagine the entire world surrounding it.
Words had to be spoken as words—not recited as dialogue.
Every emotion written in a script was preceded by an action.
Lee Huiyun was the perfect textbook example of every one of those principles.
As Gam Suhan read Yeri’s lines opposite him, he found himself growing anxious.
He kept glancing back and forth between Gam Seongbeom and Do Jaeyeon.
We have to sign this actor.
No matter what.
The desperation in Vice President Gam Suhan’s eyes was obvious.
The other two answered with equally determined looks.
Do Jaeyeon had already begun drafting the introduction for Leader Actors’ newest member.
CEO Gam Seongbeom, meanwhile, decided to play his trump card.
“Huiyun, our company may be small, but… my father is actor Gam Ihyeon. Do you know who he is?”
“I do. He’s taking a break from acting right now.”
“Yeah… He’s been resting…”
“Because he’s sick?”
Lee Huiyun asked as Gam Seongbeom trailed off with a bitter expression.
His completely matter-of-fact tone made all three adults freeze for a moment.
Gam Seongbeom eventually nodded.
“Yeah. He’s sick. Since he has nothing much to do, he gives acting advice to anyone in our company whenever they need it. He doesn’t really like people… but he’s still helpful.”
I wondered where this conversation was going.
Then Gam Seongbeom finally explained.
“So… would you like to stay at our family house?”
Oh?
“I don’t have to pay rent?”
“Right. Though don’t expect a warm family atmosphere. He’s not exactly overflowing with affection. Just chat with the old man once in a while. He’s got trouble getting around.”
“Why do you call it chatting? We’ll be talking about acting.”
“Well… that’s true, but the old man is such a—”
“Why is someone working in actor management calling conversations about acting ‘just chatting’?”
Lee Huiyun frowned.
The remark left every adult there speechless.
Then he paused before relaxing his expression.
“Anyway, I’ll stay there. You already offered, so you can’t take it back.”
“Kid, do we really look like the kind of people who’d take back an offer of a place for a child to live?”
Lee Huiyun wore a strange expression.
One that clearly said they did look like that kind of people.
But after a moment, he seemed to understand.
He nodded.
Then answered aloud.
“No. You don’t look like people who’d take back an offer… of giving someone a place to live.”
As we drove toward my uncle’s house to sign the contract, there was one thing I wanted to know more than anything else.
I knew Leader Actors had eventually gone out of business.
I also knew the giant entertainment company Mobydick Entertainment had absorbed it.
But what I couldn’t understand was this:
Had that downfall really been enough to drag these people into ruin…
To the point where they lost their lives?
It’s true that I caused them plenty of trouble.
But that didn’t change the fact that I had been a good actor.
A profitable one, too.
The money I earned allowed Leader Actors to nurture countless outstanding performers.
They even produced two remarkable award-winning projects.
They hadn’t been particularly profitable.
But they were great works nonetheless.
So I wanted to know.
Why had they met such an ending?
I wanted to know…
So that this time, I could save them.
Whenever I became truly desperate, that offer always appeared.
When I was ten years old and freezing to death.
When I was thirty-seven and no longer found life interesting.
And now, when I desperately wanted to save these three people—
These idiots who still seemed to suspect I might secretly be Gam Seongbeom’s hidden son whenever they gathered together.
I was desperate.
[A transaction is proposed.]
[You may spend 5 years of your lifespan to access information regarding (The Downfall of Leader Actors).]
[Will you accept the transaction?]
…Sigh.
Dying at thirty-two instead of thirty-seven was a bit early.
The fact that I actually had to think about it…
I guess my attachment to them wasn’t quite that deep after all.
A bitter laugh escaped me.
Along with a curse.
Vice President Gam Suhan, sitting beside me, looked over.
“You should cut back on the swearing, Huiyun.”
But Do Jaeyeon, sitting in the passenger seat, immediately raised his voice.
“Hey! Don’t swear in front of adults!”
His voice was so loud that Gam Suhan nearly jumped.
He hurriedly covered my ears with both hands.
This.
This was it.
The family I had missed.
Do Jaeyeon, who always yelled at me whenever I acted up, trying to set me straight.
Gam Suhan, who believed every problem a teenager caused could be solved with enough love, always shielding me as much as he could.
And after I started acting, CEO Gam Seongbeom, whose favorite phrase was always:
“He’s our founding contributor, so cut him some slack.”
He constantly complained that someone more than twenty years younger treated him like an equal.
Even so…
In my life, Gam Seongbeom had been the greatest adult I had ever known.
I looked around at my family—
A family only I remembered.
This time…
I thought I could finally act out the joy of seeing them again.
