Could he have awakened a sleeping monster?
Those clear eyes, yet glittering with madness, somehow did not look ordinary.
‘I don’t know who they’ll cast, but for some reason, I’m sorry.’
A strange sense of guilt surged up in him, but Rowoon quietly looked away.
No, how was he supposed to know that PD Han would feel exhilaration from that?
He did not know who would end up appearing in the next season, but he silently offered a sincere apology in advance to that person.
All while unaware that the clear-eyed madman was looking at him with sparkling eyes.
“I’m glad it looks like everyone has been doing well! Now then, we’ll begin the screening. Come on, applause!”
After they shared a bit of talk about how they had been doing, they went straight into the main topic.
It was a kind of behind-the-scenes follow-up format, where the cast personally watched the aired footage and told behind-the-scenes stories.
The main focus was a collection of unaired clips produced as a special episode.
“Is it okay to put things like this on broadcast?”
“Ah, of course it is. It absolutely is. Do you know how many people are curious about this? So, speaking of which, there’s also talk about Season 2, you know?”
Somehow, before they knew it, they had ended up moving to the underground cooking studio.
“Wow, Mr. Bonggeun, your skills really haven’t changed!”
It felt like things were being pushed along in a slapdash way, but Forest Restaurant had always run slapdash to begin with.
It was filming he had thought would end quickly, so he wondered if this was really all right, but well.
‘It was already a broadcast that wasn’t in its right mind from the start…’
So it was not exactly impossible to understand how a studio broadcast had suddenly turned into a cooking class.
“Since we’ve gathered for the first time in a while, shall we at least have a company dinner? The reaction to Forest Restaurant has been very good, so I think it would be nice to have more constructive discussion about that…”
PD Han subtly brought it up, but…
“It’s all right.”
“Oh, PD. Let’s stop here for today.”
“Today is a little…”
She was blocked by the iron wall of the three main cast members.
“Tsk. That’s a shame.”
Her gaze was like someone looking at plump, well-fed livestock, so the hearts of the three people came together as one.
They had to escape from this place quickly.
“It would be nice if we could at least eat something among ourselves, but if PD Han finds out, she’ll definitely chase after us with a camera, so let’s set a date next time.”
Kim Bonggeun, who had received a threat to his life, no, a threat to his contract, made the suggestion, and the others agreed.
Before they got off the elevator,
“We split into three directions. Got it?”
Kim Bonggeun spoke with a resolute expression.
“Do we really have to go that far?”
“Yeah. We have to go that far.”
“Rowoon, trust us. PD Han is a good person, but sometimes she feels like she’s not in her right mind.”
It was a measure prepared in case PD Han followed after them.
And then.
“No, everyone! Are you really doing this?”
At some point, PD Han and the camera directors had followed them down, and the sound of them clicking their tongues could be heard.
It seemed they had not expected the three of them to split off in three different directions.
‘This actually works?’
At the same time, chills ran down his spine.
They had almost really gotten caught here by the ankles of Season 2.
For the special, today’s filming footage was scheduled to be divided and aired across two parts.
The remaining footage would apparently be filled with each cast member’s vlog filmed for the special episode, along with additional unaired clips that they had not monitored today.
If they had been caught here, a Season 2 preview would probably have gone out as well, but fortunately, that horrific misfortune did not come to pass.
If he safely left the company building like this, today’s schedule would be over.
‘I heard TVX has been doing better than terrestrial channels these days.’
He had already guessed it from the moment he saw that there was a cooking studio underground, but the size of the place was truly enormous.
As Rowoon was thinking that and hurrying along with quick little steps.
“…?”
All of a sudden, his eyes met those of a person walking toward him.
This was a broadcasting station, and it was a place where many people came and went.
So there was nothing strange about making eye contact with someone.
But.
“You.”
“You.”
The fact that the person was heaving his shoulders and gasping for breath, as though he had been chasing Rowoon.
And the fact that he was approaching while glaring at him as if he wanted to kill him.
Those were definitely strange.
“…Me?”
“Yeah. You.”
On top of that, the fact that he was openly pointing a finger at Rowoon as he approached was absolutely strange!
Just in case, Rowoon quickly looked around, but there was no one else.
“Phew. Do you know how hard I searched all over to find you? Where in the world have you been scurrying around like that? You, follow me for now.”
“Y-yes?”
In the meantime, the other person strode closer and grabbed Rowoon’s wrist in a firm grip.
Before Rowoon could even react, he was suddenly yanked forward.
“Um, I’m sorry, but I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else…?”
“Mistaken? Me? You? As if that could happen.”
The other person snorted.
He showed a confidence that said there was absolutely no way he could be wrong.
Rowoon grew uneasy.
‘No way. This isn’t the original body’s karma again, is it?’
Seriously, this guy’s karma…
How far was it going to go?
Just what had this guy’s original body done for no one to even care when he was grabbed by the collar, no, by the arm, and dragged away in the middle of a broadcasting station?
‘No, but still, I did lower the karma score quite a lot in my own way…!’
Of course, it was still floundering in the negatives.
“Excuse me, wait a second. Could you at least tell me who you are…”
First, he had to figure out who this person was.
But the answer that came back was prickly.
“Be quiet for a bit.”
“I need to know who you are first before I can say anything to you, don’t you think?”
The strange thing happened after that.
“Shh. Quiet.”
Just as the other person’s pupils seemed to suddenly shine a vivid yellow.
“…?”
All of a sudden, his mouth was sealed shut as if it had been glued closed.
“Now it’ll finally be quiet.”
The other person, who looked even more haggard than before, sighed and pulled Rowoon along.
‘Good grief.’
Only then was Rowoon finally able to notice the strange sense of wrongness he had been feeling from the other person.
Now that he thought about it, there were more than one or two strange things.
‘It was already a little strange that there are this many people, but no one is paying attention to us.’
No matter how deep and endless the original body’s karma was, there was no way the level of public safety in South Korea had fallen that far.
Even the fact that there was no one taking pictures as if a spectacle had broken out was definitely strange.
But to think the other person was actually not a human being.
‘Anyway, what exactly is he?’
Now Rowoon became worried in a different sense.
No matter how full his surroundings were of mysterious beings, the other person was a type he was seeing for the first time.
‘He’s definitely not human, but if he looks like a person… a ghost?’
Could it be that he was possessed by a ghost who had died holding a grudge?
Just then, someone called Rowoon.
“Lee Rowoon?”
It was then that Rowoon’s footsteps, which had seemed to be passing through the crowd like he had become a transparent being, stopped.
It was thanks to Kang Chaheon, who had approached at some point and grabbed Rowoon’s other arm.
They were supposed to have split off into three directions, so when he had arrived was anyone’s guess.
“What is this? Why aren’t you answering? And who is that person?”
“What is this now…”
The interrupted person turned around in an extremely irritated manner.
“…What, Kang Chaheon? Why is Kang Chaheon showing up here?”
“Do you know me?”
Wouldn’t it be stranger not to know him?
Rowoon thought that, but he could not speak.
His mouth was sealed.
“Ah, this is driving me insane. It’s already hard enough.”
For an instant, the other person’s pupils seemed to turn vivid yellow.
Then Kang Chaheon’s pupils went hazy and unfocused.
Even the strength in the hand gripping Rowoon’s arm weakened.
“Don’t worry about that human. He’ll come to his senses on his own in a few minutes.”
In the meantime, the other person started dragging Rowoon along again.
He looked much more strained than before.
No, more importantly.
“Um, you’re coughing up blood right now…? Hm? I can talk again?”
“Don’t worry about this. A restriction was triggered because I interfered more than necessary, that’s all.”
For him to say that, the bright-red blood flowing down his jaw looked far from ordinary.
As if the important thing right now was not that, the other person casually wiped his chin, dragged Rowoon along, and finally entered a deserted conference room, locking the door behind them.
Only then did Rowoon’s body become free.
“Ah, I’m dying here.”
The other person pulled out a chair and dropped into it as if collapsing, then coughed and coughed like he was about to die.
“Are you, uh, sure you’re all right?”
“I’m at least well enough to stop one person like you from leaving, so you’d better not get any ideas about opening the door. Let’s not waste each other’s strength for nothing.”
It was a line that could certainly have sounded like a threat, but since the other person’s condition itself looked so utterly haggard, it was not very threatening.
The sight of him wiping away the blood that had burst out from his coughing just now was pitiful instead.
“You’re sure nothing will happen to Kang Chaheon, right?”
“…That’s the first thing you’re curious about?”
Unexpectedly, the other person muttered that.
“I figured you wouldn’t tell me even if I asked anything else.”
Rowoon did not know how Kang Chaheon had been able to see them when the other people could not even perceive them at all.
But the important thing was that Kang Chaheon had tried to help Rowoon.
“Yeah. Nothing will happen to Kang Chaheon. He probably won’t even remember talking to me.”
“Then that’s fine.”
“You’re not curious why I brought you all the way here?”
“First, you should do something about that blood……”
Rowoon clicked his tongue and took off his outerwear, holding it out.
This was not some episode of Hometown of Legends.
There was no need to have a conversation with someone whose mouth was stained bright red.
“Ah, seriously… This is so uncool, what even is this…”
As if aware of the state he was in, the other person obediently accepted the outerwear.
He calmly wiped his mouth, carefully cleaned even his blotchy hands, and then let out a deep sigh.
“First, I’ll apologize. I brought you here in a rather inelegant way, didn’t I? This isn’t how I usually do things, but it was urgent, so I couldn’t help it.”
No wonder his threats had seemed so weak and feeble.
The other person began smoothly explaining things Rowoon had not even asked about.
“As you’ve probably noticed, I’m not human.”
Anyone who had not noticed that from the moment his eyes turned yellow would have been an idiot.
“And as you know, beings like us can’t use our power carelessly on humans. Whether it’s in a good direction or a bad one. Interference itself is strictly forbidden.”
Apparently, the blood he had coughed up so spectacularly just now was also a kind of that restriction.
If he had tried to force things with even greater power, an even greater restriction would have been imposed on him.
“To be honest, I’ve been searching for you for months. I didn’t have any exact clues, but the movements of those old geezers weren’t ordinary. The rumors I heard were the same.”
Old geezers.
It was a familiar choice of words.
“But those petty old geezers had hidden your information tightly away so they could keep you all to themselves, you see? So what choice did I have? I had no option but to go looking with my own two feet.”
The problem was that he had far too few clues.
From the sound of it, the other person’s efforts had been so tearful that Rowoon’s resentment over being forcibly invited here completely vanished.
“But then, all of a sudden today, the watch I’d placed a tracking spell on started moving. It normally didn’t so much as twitch. So how could I not go mad? I had no choice but to throw aside even the broadcast and run over.”
At this point, Rowoon became curious.
“Why were you looking for me that desperately?”
Why had a non-human being become so desperate to find him?
The other person’s eyes looked straight at Rowoon.
“There’s something I want to ask of you.”
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