Chapter 11
The downfall is speeding up.
It’s obvious now. Me enrolling in the school and taking first place must have altered the original timeline.
Damn it.
This is exactly why you’re not supposed to interfere with anything. I’d watched so many time travel movies. How could I ignore every single lesson they taught? Did I seriously learn nothing from them?
Wait.
I’ve been hanging around Woo Woongbae so much that I think I’m starting to pick up his way of talking.
Maybe it’s just my imagination.
It better be.
Anyway, I must have been more shaken by that ridiculous revelation than I realized.
I grabbed the cup sitting nearby and gulped it down.
It was soju.
“Hey! Hey! That’s alcohol!”
President Gam Seongbeom nearly jumped out of his seat.
I looked at him.
“Who drinks soju out of a cup?”
“I get impatient…”
Back in my previous life, I’d practically been an alcoholic.
But with the clean liver of a sixteen-year-old, half a cup of soju was enough to make my head spin.
Fortunately…
Getting drunk actually helped me regain my senses.
This was urgent.
I had to get back to school and find someone.
The person who would lead Leader Actors to ruin.
If that person really was Han Dohyeon, the youngest son of Segang Heavy Industries—the man I’d made an enemy of before my regression—then I’d only have the chance to meet him before school officially started.
Unlike ordinary high schools, Gongyeon High—especially the Acting Department—was unbelievably busy before enrollment.
There was an absurd number of videos to film.
An absurd number of reports to write and submit.
Even I, who had already watched every film and drama assigned for the coursework, was swamped.
I couldn’t imagine how everyone else was keeping up.
As for all those videos…
Woo Woongbae, who was just as busy as I was, filmed every single one of them for me.
Having a friend before school had even begun really was wonderful.
Looking back, I was pretty rude.
On top of that, I was painfully introverted.
Making friends had never come easily.
Still…
By the time school started, I’d memorized the faces of most of the seventy-eight Acting Department freshmen.
I couldn’t help it.
We saw each other constantly.
And there were already quite a few familiar faces among them.
To be honest…
That period was…
Happy.
I should admit it.
I got to binge dramas and movies to my heart’s content.
I got to spend time with people my age who loved acting and dreamed of becoming actors.
Most of the conversations had nothing to do with acting.
But no matter who it was, nobody ever minded when I suddenly steered the conversation toward it.
By the time I’d gotten fairly close with all seventy-eight students…
We were invited to watch the graduating third-years’ performance.
Only the faculty and the seventy-eight incoming Acting Department students were invited.
It was, quite literally, a welcome performance for the freshmen.
Han Dohyeon—the man I believed had orchestrated Leader Actors’ downfall in my previous life—was there.
The graduating class performed Shakespeare’s comedy The Winter’s Tale.
The story begins with Leontes, King of Sicilia, mistakenly believing that his wife Hermione has committed adultery.
Consumed by jealousy, he even abandons their daughter.
That tragedy marks the beginning of the play.
I had come today specifically to watch Han Dohyeon.
I planned to compliment him somehow.
Anything, so I wouldn’t become another target of his resentment.
But contrary to that plan…
The moment I saw the actress playing Leontes’ attendant—
My eyes locked onto her.
I knew that face.
Far too well.
The signature bob haircut.
That strangely unforgettable face.
Son Jion.
In the future, she’d star in so many of the films I loved.
And if you loved cinema, chances were…
You loved Son Jion too.
Paulina, Leontes’ loyal attendant, risks her life to rebuke the king.
The king who, blinded by jealousy, drove away his innocent wife and child…
And whose madness even led to her husband’s death.
Filled with grief.
Righteous anger.
And unwavering conviction.
Paulina stands before the king who has lost all reason and condemns him.
“…That’s strange.”
It was…
Just okay.
It was unbelievably strange.
I couldn’t believe that Son Jion was acting like this.
So I looked closer.
Her hands were trembling.
She was afraid of the stage.
Son Jion…
Had stage fright?
‘That can’t be…’
Ah.
At that moment, I remembered President Gam Seongbeom shouting at someone in my previous life.
—Which bastard made the actress cry on set?! It wasn’t one of my people, was it?!
“…”
My own sins.
I couldn’t even remember how many there were.
A hazy memory resurfaced.
Son Jion had always been the textbook definition of a slow starter.
She needed time to adapt to unfamiliar environments.
This welcome performance…
It had probably overwhelmed her.
Then I remembered the very first thing I’d ever said to her when we’d acted together.
I clamped a hand over my mouth.
—Go to the hospital, noona. Mental illness is still an illness. They’ll give you medicine and treat you. Why aren’t you going instead of holding up the shoot?
Fuck.
I’d been mistaken.
I’d assumed Han Dohyeon was the only person who might hate me.
I’d completely forgotten.
There were probably mountains of people who had every reason to resent me.
The reason I’d forgotten saying something that horrible…
Was because Son Jion had actually listened to me.
She went to the hospital.
There, she learned that the unexpected attacks of stage fright she’d been suffering were actually panic symptoms.
After that, she’d continued treatment regularly.
When she returned to the set…
She slapped me across the face.
I’d told her to.
And after hitting me, she’d said—
“Thanks a fucking lot, asshole.”
As an apology, President Gam Seongbeom brought Son Jion into Leader Actors, right when she was struggling with problems involving her agency.
In the end…
Everything had worked out.
So I’d simply forgotten.
Still…
She’d suffered quite a lot.
She’d entered the National University of Arts.
Everyone at school called her a once-in-a-generation acting genius.
Yet she kept failing auditions.
I found myself wondering…
What if Son Jion had skipped that terrible agency altogether?
What if she’d started with film and television instead of stage acting?
That was something I’d only be able to try…
If I brought her into Leader Actors.
The moment the play ended, I contacted Leader Actors and told them to take a look at Gongyeon High senior Son Jion.
After leaving that matter to the company…
I wandered around looking for Han Dohyeon so I could compliment him.
But Han Dohyeon was one of the most popular students in school.
He was completely surrounded.
I couldn’t find an opening.
I needed to build at least a neutral relationship with him before any resentment formed.
Come to think of it…
I’d been so distracted thinking about Son Jion’s performance that I hadn’t really paid attention to Han Dohyeon’s acting.
Then again…
There had to be something worth watching before there was something worth complimenting—
‘…Careful.’
I hurriedly looked around.
Had I accidentally said that out loud?
Fortunately…
Nobody was staring at me in horror.
Apparently I’d only thought it.
Just then…
Han Dohyeon walked over to me himself.
“You’re the top-ranked freshman this year, aren’t you?”
“Ah.”
He offered his hand.
I shook it.
I had to compliment him.
But my damn tongue refused to move.
There wasn’t anything to praise.
No matter how hard I searched.
Of course…
If I forced it, I could think of something.
“You’re handsome.”
“Really? Thanks. What did you think of the performance?”
Ha.
This bastard wasn’t easy…
With our senior-junior relationship reversed from my previous life, Han Dohyeon felt even harder to deal with.
If he’d at least been unpleasant…
But he was polite.
Which somehow made things worse.
Feeling like I was crying tears of blood, I answered.
“It was really good.”
“I’m glad.”
Fortunately…
I possessed enough acting skill to make any lie sound like the truth.
It seemed to work.
Then Han Dohyeon said something.
“By any chance, you…”
But strangely…
I couldn’t hear the rest.
His lips were moving.
“Sorry? What did you say?”
“By any chance, you…”
Again.
I couldn’t hear it.
Everything after the word “you” was simply…
Muted.
Like someone had turned the sound off.
Fuck.
That was terrifying.
I’m seriously a coward.
I instinctively stepped backward.
It wasn’t that I’d misheard him.
Everything after “you” simply didn’t exist.
I nodded vaguely, pretending I’d understood.
Han Dohyeon frowned slightly.
But instead of repeating himself, he simply walked away.
The moment he left…
The strength drained from my body.
I collapsed into a nearby seat.
What…
What was that?
Why did that happen?
[Huh? So you were a scaredy-cat after all?]
[Hard to believe someone this timid actually made a contract with a devil.]
The devil spoke again.
Unlike the floating text I’d seen before…
This time…
It was an actual voice.
I hurried toward where the people I knew were gathered and muttered,
“Stop talking to me. You’re creeping me out.”
[Don’t you want to know why you couldn’t hear him?]
“You’re going to ask for my lifespan again. I’ll figure it out myself this time. If I lose any more years, I won’t be able to accomplish anything.”
I had to protect my remaining thirty-two years.
There was an important promise I had to keep.
I’d promised to appear in Woo Woongbae’s debut film.
[I was even going to give you a discount.]
“How much is the discount?”
[Five years?]
“That’s not a discount. What kind of business are you running?”
[I’m a devil, sooo…]
It was pretending to be cute again.
Ridiculous.
Still…
For some reason, listening to its pathetic attempt at acting cute made me feel a little less frightened.
I walked a few more steps.
Then stopped.
Steeling myself…
I turned around and headed back toward Han Dohyeon.
He was walking toward the car that always picked him up after school, his driver already holding the door open.
I grabbed the car door before he could get inside.
The driver didn’t stop me.
We were wearing the same school uniform.
I looked at Han Dohyeon.
“Your acting.”
“Hm?”
“It wasn’t impressive.”
The moment the conversation had been muted earlier…
I’d become convinced.
This bastard had to be connected somehow to Leader Actors’ downfall.
Something was obviously wrong.
So instead…
I’d make him hate me.
If he did…
That damned devil would surely warn me again that Leader Actors’ destruction was accelerating.
I didn’t have much time left.
Han Dohyeon stared at me silently.
I continued.
“Paulina, who raised Leontes, says it herself. That he’s violent, vulgar, childish, and consumed by pointless delusions.”
“…”
“Of course, you probably had your own interpretation of the role.”
“But Shakespeare is a writer who leaves nothing unsaid.”
“I don’t need to invent interpretations. He already wrote everything.”
“At the very least, every single line should be fully expressed before you start adding your own interpretation.”
“So when I ask myself whether your performance made me think, ‘Yes, that’s exactly the kind of man he is,’ based on how the other characters described him…”
“…”
“It didn’t.”
I finished.
It was outright verbal abuse.
Yet…
No warning appeared.
Oh.
Had I misunderstood something?
[Heh.]
[Warning, warning.]
[You really picked a terrifying human to provoke.]
[He’s not the one who destroyed Leader Actors…]
[But since I got five years out of you…]
[I’ll tell you this one for free.]
[That person…]
[Is an accomplice.]
[Though whether he’ll stay one…]
[I can’t say. ^^]
Unlike when I had been the senior in my previous life…
Han Dohyeon was the senior now.
He stepped out of the car.
He was really tall.
Fuck.
Life really was nothing but an off-road trail full of potholes…
