A few days after Your Night aired.
Thinking back on the countless things that had happened, a natural smile spread across Kim Seunghun’s lips.
A comfort incomparable to a few weeks ago.
Within that comfort, he stretched wide, then got up and drew the curtains.
“Ha…”
Warm sunlight wrapped around his body, and a little humming slipped out on its own.
He skimmed the newspapers laid out in front of him.
[Exclusive! Signs uncovered that Goodness Entertainment was exploiting celebrities.]
[Former head of The Film H, Baek Jincheol, revealed as the true power behind Goodness Entertainment…]
Hwang Jesun had been indicted for assaulting contracted actors, and Baek Jincheol, who had hidden behind him, was identified as the real owner of Goodness Entertainment and taken into custody according to Go Jinhun’s plan.
The relaxed smile on Go Jinhun’s face, like a hunter who had already netted his prey, had produced a fitting result.
Ring.
At the call from his new manager, Kim Seunghun answered brightly.
“Yes, manager?”
—Mr. Seunghun, hello. You remember the commercial shoot today, right? I will arrive in front of your place within twenty minutes.
“Of course. Ha ha. I will be ready.”
At that, he hurried into the bathroom and started washing up quickly.
A flood of ad offers.
Gyeong Chanhyeon’s words had sounded like prophecy.
Confessing his scars had not ruined his image.
If anything, people praised his courage, and his public image had grown much better.
He no longer had to force the “cold city man” concept, which made everything feel easier.
He could now lay to rest the days when, even in daily life, he felt he had to keep a concept and walk around with a slight scowl.
Perhaps because he had become someone the public felt at ease with, letters he had never received before began to pour in.
“Seunghun hyung, hello! I am a middle-schooler enduring a hard time like you did…”
“Seunghun oppa, fighting! Do not even pay attention to the online haters!”
“Hello, Mr. Kim Seunghun. As a parent raising a young son…”
There were still people online who mocked him in a sneering tone, dragging up his past and posting malicious messages.
But compared to all this support, those posts were nothing.
“A day like this really came…”
A day when he did not have to fear showing people his natural self without playing someone else.
After washing his face, he smiled at his reflection in the mirror.
A few days later
Knock, knock.
“Yes, come in!”
The door opened and Go Jinhun came in wearing a bright smile.
“Oh, you’re here?”
He had called ahead to say he would bring the business plans himself and explain them, and after propping the door open he began hauling in stacks of paper piled high behind him.
Junseong and I stared with our jaws hanging as we saw the heaps of paper outside.
“Man… you must have used up a centuries-old tree for this. What on earth…”
Panting as he moved the endless business plans, Junseong sounded dazed.
“Ha ha… it looks like it will take quite a lot of money, so I wanted to walk you through it.”
He shifted the stacks onto our desks.
When he was finally done, Junseong stared at the bundles of envelopes in front of him as if he had seen a ghost.
“GO Entertainment is packed with people these days. Lots of good talent is flocking in. I think the rumor spread that we were the ones who resolved Mr. Seunghun’s situation.”
“You did not go out of your way to spread that, did you?”
At Junseong’s remark, Go Jinhun let it pass with a silent smile.
“Look at that fox pretending to be nice. Lucky for us he is on our side.”
Clicking his tongue playfully, Junseong teased him.
“There is so much here. What should we look at first?”
At my question, he picked up the thinnest envelope.
“Let’s start with the actors.”
He began outlining the businesses he had in mind.
His eyes were full of anticipation.
According to him, a great many top-tier actors had come knocking on GO Entertainment’s door.
There were people like Kim Seunghun who were tied up in slave-like contracts by thugs, and the explosion at Goodness had widely spread the word that GO was a company to be trusted.
Thanks to the inflow of good managers as well, staffing was going very smoothly, he said, adding that the corresponding working capital would need to be larger.
“Hm…”
No sooner had the actors’ part finished than he pulled out another envelope and launched into the idol-related plans.
Even talking on his own, he never seemed to tire, and his presentation overflowed with energy, while for me and for Junseong, the energy drained just as quickly.
He did explain it simply, but even a “simple” version felt like it would make our heads burst if we listened to it all. After about three hours, I nudged the guy next to me.
“Hey, Mr. Lee.”
“…”
“Are you asleep?”
His eyes were technically open, but they were the lifeless glassy eyes of a dried pollack; there was no focus at all.
His mouth hung slightly ajar as if in a few minutes he would be drooling. I tapped him with my elbow, and his focus finally returned.
“Huh? What? I am listening.”
“Good grief… never mind. Jinhun, just pull an actual budget for us.”
“Huh…?”
“We trust you. If you need anything, just tell us. If we come up short and need to hold out a hand to the KMD Group, we will do the asking then.”
“Is that really all right…?”
He looked between us, and Junseong nodded as well.
“Yeah. Do it the way you want. After you got rid of Baek Jincheol, we were reminded again you are not ordinary. I will review the budget draft when you send it.”
“Ha ha… then I definitely will. Okay. I will organize the budget and send it.”
With the weight off his shoulders, he opened the door and went out.
“That guy is a real hard-case. He barely slept while dealing with Baek Jincheol and meeting people, and when did he prepare all this…”
Clicking his tongue, Junseong flipped through the plan and set it down on the desk.
The next day.
While continually checking the proposed budget, he worked at his computer on how to implement it.
Then he suddenly asked me,
“Are you not in touch with Mr. Chester?”
“Huh? Why Chester out of the blue… ah!”
Since that heavy night of drinking at Cannes.
We had exchanged a few emails, but without a smartphone, logging in on a computer and writing emails was something I had never gotten comfortable with.
“He suddenly emailed me, of all people…”
“Huh…? What did he say?”
He skimmed the email sent to him and smirked.
“What… what is it?”
“He sent every curse under the sun telling you to read your emails already. Says if you had at least given him your phone number it would be one thing, but all you gave him was an email and then you do not even check it. How can one email contain thriller, romance, and horror all at once? I suppose that is a writer for you; even his cussing has unusual immersion.”
At that, I hurried into my inbox.
When I saw the piled-up mailbox, my mouth fell open.
[Dear Mr. Gyeong Chanhyeon,
I read your reply. As expected, your ambition for film is extraordinary. The day I met you, my own values about cinema changed a great deal. Would you perhaps come to the United States so we can talk as we did then…]
The oldest of the unread emails looked perfectly fine.
Polite and warm.
But I was afraid to open the most recent one.
[To the f***ing Mr. Gyeong Chanhyeon,
You mother*****. Why are you not contacting me. I will ***** you so you get ***** to *****. Just because you have some talent does not mean you get to ignore people like that, you ****. If you apologize, do it in person by coming to America. You ****.]
Even amid the wall of F-bombs, the thing that caught my eye was “CG.”
Introduce me to CG contacts…?
I regretted not clearly remembering my conversation with Chester.
Why was he suddenly saying he would introduce me to someone in CG? I was curious.
“Hey, do you remember what you talked about with Chester?”
“You, drunk and babbling nonsense? Revive the movie industry?”
“No, not that. Did I say anything CG-related?”
He propped his chin in his hand, thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“I do not know, you talked so much that night it was hard enough just interpreting.”
“Hm…”
“What is Mr. Chester saying?”
“He looks really mad. He also wrote that I should come to the U.S.”
“Come to the U.S.?”
He blinked.
“Yeah. Come for a while. There is a lot of harsh language in here, but he also says he will introduce me to CG contacts…”
“The U.S., huh… for how many days?”
“Well, we will not know until we are there.”
He pressed his forehead.
“I want to go too… damn workaholic Go Jinhun…”
“Is there anything I can help with?”
He looked at me, snorted, and answered.
“No. Numbers are not your thing. Looking at this will not help. Just go there, rest up properly, and bring back the right inspiration. That is what will help the company.”
I bought a large suitcase and brought it home.
My younger brother Sanghyeon saw it and his eyes went wide.
“Moving overseas? With a suitcase that big, I could fit in there too.”
“I have to go to America.”
“America?”
He stared at me, surprised by the unexpected answer.
“All of a sudden? With who?”
“Looks like I will go alone.”
“Hyung, are you not bad at English?”
“I can speak it.”
Cannes had taught me one thing for sure.
For public settings, you should take an interpreter, but if you want to build personal relationships, you need a certain level of English.
So, after coming back from Cannes, whenever I had time I practiced speaking in English.
Especially pronunciation.
I struggled to escape Konglish, but escaping that seductive accent was not something a short time could fix.
“Hyung. I can be your secretary, interpreter, and porter. Take me along, will you? I wanted to travel too.”
“What about school?”
“The semester ended ages ago. How can you have so little interest in your own brother…”
He even snatched the suitcase I was carrying upstairs.
“Were you good at English again…?”
“Of course! I went all the way to Cheonggyecheon to get a hard-to-find videotape and watched it over and over! My ears popped open!”
“I can listen too. I just cannot speak smoothly.”
He suddenly cleared his throat like he was getting ready.
“Ah, ahem.”
“…?”
“You have to hear me speak to believe me.”
He flashed a bright grin, then suddenly launched into fluent English.
His expression and pronunciation, like some Agent Mulder, were actually pretty satisfying.
“That is good enough.”
“Really? Hyung? No take-backs?”
“Do I look like a con man? A trip together could be nice for brothers.”
“You said it is for work… where in the U.S.? New York? Or Washington, D.C.?”
“Hollywood. I have someone to meet there.”
At the word “Hollywood,” his face lit up even more.
“If it is Hollywood, that is California… the weather should be similar to here.”
“Do you have a suitcase? We are going for a while, so buy a big one.”
I handed him my card.
“Wow, people really are cooler when they have some margin. Was my brother always this cool?”
“Do you not want to go?”
He kneaded my shoulders and shouted,
“No, sir! Hyung, you were born to be cool!”
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