Junseong clenched his fists, as if he couldn’t comprehend my choice.
“You have to think about the money. What would investors think before putting their money in?”
After talking about money, Junseong let out a deep sigh and continued.
“And who knows if he’s just a piece of trash pretending to be repentant? How do we know he isn’t still hiding in the shadows doing drugs!”
I placed Robert Penn’s hair on the desk.
“If drugs are detected in this hair, just as you say, I’ll wash my hands of it. You said it yourself, that Robert Penn could never quit.”
“…….”
Junseong looked at the three strands of hair in front of him.
“This is Robert Penn’s?”
“Freshly plucked today.”
“Is this produce? Good grief….”
“And we’ll do irregular urine tests during filming. How about that? Even if he wants to do drugs, he won’t be able to. I’m putting all of this into Robert Penn’s contract.”
At my words, Junseong shook his head and pressed the intercom.
Beep.
—Yes, CEO.
“Mr. Smith. I want to run a drug test. Could you take these hairs?”
—Yes. Understood.
The secretary came in, collected the hair, and left.
Junseong was still frowning, as if there were still many things bothering him.
“Why are you so serious about this? This is way worse than when you cast Gwak Yeonji. It’s practically obsessive. Just what happened to make you….”
It wasn’t that something had happened. It was that something that should have happened and hadn’t.
“Let’s make one reliable ally on our side.”
“Not a reliable ally, more like a crazy ally.”
“Trust me. He’s an actor who can be an immense help to us.”
Robert returned home holding the script Gyeong Chanhyeon had given him.
The feeling he had on the days he met Gyeong Chanhyeon was strange.
With a feeling not much different from when they first met, he cautiously opened the door to his house, and Susan’s voice drifted toward him.
“You’re back? Did you clear your head a bit?”
Susan asked Robert, pausing the movie she was watching on TV.
“Did you finally soften up? Did he talk to you first?”
“No. Not at all.”
At Robert’s response, Susan suddenly crossed her arms and stared at him.
Robert let out a small chuckle.
“You can stop now.”
“Huh?”
Seeing Susan’s wide eyes, Robert replied with a faint smile.
“I think it’s going to happen, just like you said.”
“What?”
“That movie by Director Gyeong Chanhyeon. I’m starting to get greedy for it too.”
Upon hearing this, Susan lunged at Robert.
She hugged him tightly and said, “Well done.”
“I didn’t do anything. Director Gyeong Chanhyeon did. He gave me this.”
“Detective Graser? Is it a police procedural?”
Susan asked, looking at the script Robert handed her.
“Director Gyeong Chanhyeon gave it to me as a gift today. That man is a bit strange.”
“He’s not ordinary. His career is proof… a normal person wouldn’t even think of making something like Space Vagabond. Would an ordinary person even try to touch the space opera genre?”
“No, not that. I mean the person himself is just strange.”
Susan tilted her head and asked, “Why?”
“It feels like he’s been inside my head.”
“What? Pfft. You said he was a fan. Did he do some kind of investigation on you?”
“No. If it were that level, he’d be no different from a paparazzi. But it’s not that….”
Robert seemed to think about something for a moment, then shook his head.
“Never mind. Forget it. Just look at the script. I want to know what you think from a producer’s perspective.”
Susan slowly looked through the screenplay, and Robert watched her lovingly while eating his oatmeal.
“This is interesting. It’s not finished yet, right?”
“Yeah. I think he hasn’t decided on the ending yet.”
“But he really knows you. Every single line is just you. The sarcasm, the narcissism. It’s exactly how you used to be. It’s so detailed I can picture it perfectly in my head.” Susan said as she closed the script.
“He told me to find that version of myself. To stop pretending to be mature.”
“Pretending to be mature?”
“He told me that being an arrogant jerk is more charming. Can you believe that…”
“He’s not wrong. You were more charming before. Back when you were filming movies and hitting on me, before you started the burger place in earnest.”
Robert chuckled at Susan’s words and looked at her.
“Am I not great now?”
“I like you now too. But this is about charm. For someone who sees you every day like me, a mature Robert is fine, but to stick in the minds of the audience, wouldn’t ‘Actor Robert’ be better than ‘Husband Robert’?”
Robert nodded at Susan’s wise answer to a silly question.
“Ha, hmm. Yeah. You’re right…”
Robert stopped eating his oatmeal, stood up, and headed to the attic.
He rummaged through the piles of junk, searching for the old movies he had appeared in.
Movies and dramas that captured his raw, unfiltered self.
“Whew….”
He blew dust off the DVDs and videotapes.
A chuckle escaped him as he saw his image from ten years ago.
The confident gaze, the sharp jawline.
A youthful star brimming with ambition, as if he feared nothing.
‘I used to be like this…’
It was a stark contrast to the reflection in the old mirror in the attic.
The wrinkles etched into his face and the blunted jawline.
He looked far older than he had even three years ago.
“I wonder if I can get it back…”
Deciding he needed to start exercising first, Robert snapped back to reality and headed down from the attic with the DVDs and tapes.
A few days later.
“See? Look at this. I told you I was right, didn’t I?”
Lee Junseong stared at the drug test results with hollow eyes.
Gyeong Chanhyeon’s words didn’t even register.
Only the word ‘Negative’ entered his vision.
“Sigh…”
“He said he quit, right? Like you said, this isn’t an easy thing. It’s not something that happens just because you make up your mind to be strong.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon spoke from the front, unable to hide his smile, seemingly thrilled.
“Ugh… are you happy? Are you that happy?”
“Of course. I am.”
“How did you know?”
“What?”
Lee Junseong looked at the smiling Gyeong Chanhyeon and asked, “That he quit drugs. How did you know? You know Robert’s been cast out by everyone around him, right? Even people who’ve known him for a long time don’t believe him, and you’ve only met him once in person.”
It was definitely suspicious.
Being this definitively optimistic about someone didn’t suit Gyeong Chanhyeon.
Furthermore, it was strange for a man who had never touched drugs to know the moment he saw a drug addict that they had recovered.
“His eyes are clear. They aren’t glazed over.”
“You can tell from that?”
“Of course.”
Lee Junseong shook his head at Gyeong Chanhyeon’s words.
“The DEA would hire you on the spot. With what kind of eyeballs….”
He felt like he was being played, but that wasn’t the priority right now.
If they used Robert Penn as Gyeong Chanhyeon suggested, the things that would unfold afterward already gave him a headache.
“Should we talk about the next plan?”
At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s question, Lee Junseong let out a deep sigh.
“Are you still against it?”
“Do you think I’m for it?”
“Even though he quit drugs?”
“I told you, the drugs aren’t the only problem! What are we going to do about that image?”
Gyeong Chanhyeon gave a faint smile at Lee Junseong’s question.
“An actor’s image is important for a movie. Yes, very important.”
“A guy who knows that brings in Robert Penn?”
“I brought him in because we can utilize that image properly.”
As Gyeong Chanhyeon’s eyes gleamed, Lee Junseong wondered what would come out of that mouth next, but he tried not to show it.
“What image comes to mind when you think of Robert Penn?”
“Drug addict. Troublemaker. Womanizer. Trash. Nuisance.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon nodded at Lee Junseong’s answer.
“Similar to me, but slightly different.”
“What?”
“A former addict who quit, a womanizer who became a true romantic, a troublemaker who’s more mature than before.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Lee Junseong tapped the table irritably with his finger.
“We can change that image entirely. The Robert of now is different from the Robert of before. Definitely different. And if we use that, we can succeed.”
“Sigh…”
Lee Junseong clutched his throbbing forehead.
“Are you really sure? That Robert is that kind of person?”
“Have you ever lost out by trusting me? Can’t you see he quit drugs?”
“I can.”
“I’m telling you, this is like a miracle. He’s the sole counterexample to the saying that you can’t change a person! Now, imagine him succeeding as a movie star again. That completes the hero’s journey!”
Seeing Gyeong Chanhyeon go as far as calling it a ‘hero’s journey,’ Lee Junseong let out a hollow laugh of disbelief.
Seeing that laugh, Gyeong Chanhyeon continued with a face full of conviction.
“People actually prefer stories like this. Not a story where a successful person just keeps succeeding. A story where someone falls from the peak to the bottom and then wakes up. If the lead actor is someone who actually possesses that story, it’s an incredible weapon for us.”
“Hmm….”
As Lee Junseong sighed deeply, Gyeong Chanhyeon continued excitedly.
“He’s someone who can become an icon of the era. And we’re going to make him one.”
“To that extent…?”
Lee Junseong had researched further to understand why Gyeong Chanhyeon was so obsessed with Robert Penn.
Robert Penn was a youth star. He was one of the youth stars of the 80s, but after that, he had spiraled downward, causing accidents like a degenerate.
Contrary to Gyeong Chanhyeon’s words, he seemed like an actor far removed from being an ‘icon of the era.’
“Yeah. To become an icon of the era, you need a massive downfall like that.”
“Isn’t the downfall too big and too long? If it’s a downward slope for ten whole years… it might just be a downward slope. Trying to go back up might be an overreach.”
“He’ll go up with us. We are taking our first step into Hollywood. Robert is taking his first step back up the hill.”
Lee Junseong sighed, looking at Gyeong Chanhyeon, who seemed filled with an inexplicable faith.
“Ugh, fine. Enough. My ears are ringing. Stop it.”
“So, we’re good then?”
“Sigh… yeah. Ha… damn it.”
Lee Junseong’s face flushed as he remembered his first meeting with Robert.
He had gone in rudely, putting on a thick skin with the intention of cutting him off entirely….
He never imagined it would turn out like this.
“Oh, and Robert praised you.”
“What?”
As Lee Junseong asked, tilting his head, Gyeong Chanhyeon said with a satisfied smile, “He said he’s envious that I have such a good friend.”
“A good friend?”
“Yeah.”
“Good friend my ass. More like an enemy. Bringing in nothing but headaches….”
“Still, hasn’t it been more than once or twice that those headaches turned into success?”
At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s words, Lee Junseong sighed but let out a small, incredulous laugh.
“Yeah. True. Haha. Seriously… if this succeeds too, it’ll be absolutely ridiculous.”
“It will succeed. I’m going to go make the storyboards. I’ll contact Robert myself! Leave it to me!”
“Ugh, just get out of here. My ears are ringing.”
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