Chapter 85: Flop (1)

The drama Waitress?had gone beyond competition among those of the same time frame and had become the hottest drama of the season. Ra-Eun was told of the next event on her schedule by Yu-Bin once her afternoon shoot had finished.

“You remember you have an interview with the press, right? You’ll be together with Han-Seok, so all you need to do is to come back to the set after doing whatever you need to do.”

“Without even changing clothes?”

Ra-Eun was wearing her character’s cafe uniform. There was no way that she liked this outfit with how fluttery the skirt was.

“The reporters asked if they could have the interview with you in that outfit. Han-Seok decided to wear his uniform for it too.”

“...”

If Ji Han-Seok had already decided as such, Ra-Eun had no choice but to comply since she couldn’t embarrass her senior. Not only was he her senior, she needed to maintain a good relationship with him.

‘I’ll have to put up with it for my connection with Chairman Ji.’

That aside, Ra-Eun had gotten fairly used to going around in a skirt. She no longer unconsciously spread her legs while in one.

Ra-Eun stopped by the bathroom for a short moment. As she walked through the hallway to get back to the studio, a man who she knew was approaching from the opposite end.

‘Cha Byun-Soo...’

She had never expected to meet him here. She clicked her tongue in her head so that he would not notice. Meanwhile, Byun-Soo recognized Ra-Eun immediately and walked toward her. To Ra-Eun, Byun-Soo was in a position of a great senior.

‘It can’t be helped.’

She did not like it, but steeled herself to act like a well-mannered and sincere junior.

“Hello, sir.”

Ra-Eun used ‘sir’ instead of ‘sunbae’ due to their very large age difference.

Byun-Soo stared at Ra-Eun with a wicked grin and said while laughing, “You don’t have to be so formal. Just call me oppa.”

‘Oppa, my ass, you senile geezer.’

Ra-Eun calmly suppressed such thoughts from coming out of her mouth and let his words slip past with a smile that fully concealed her displeasure.

“How could I possibly call you something so disrespectful?” she swiftly refused.

Byun-Soo smiled awkwardly. “It looks like you’re in the middle of a shoot,” he said as his gaze shifted to Ra-Eun’s legs.

Her smooth legs could be seen under the skirt. Byun-Soo was known to be an extreme womanizer, just like Kim Chi-Yeol.

‘That’s why three of his wives divorced him.’

His private life was so filthy that Ra-Eun tried not to get involved with Byun-Soo as much as possible, but he seemed to be thinking otherwise.

“Oh, right. Do you have time this Sunday?” Byun-Soo asked.

“Sunday?”

“Yeah. I’m thinking of stopping by your agency with Minister Kim. You know who he is, right?”

There was only one Minister Kim that Byun-Soo would be referring to: Kim Chi-Yeol.

‘He wants to come to my agency with that son of a bitch?’

Her head surged with suspicions. She tried asking, “May I ask what is it for?”

“It’s for a very important project. There might be ears around us right now, so I’ll tell you when I’m there,” Byun-Soo remarked while emphasizing that Ra-Eun needed to be there on Sunday.

Ra-Eun went through the knowledge of the future that she remembered while staring daggers at the direction where Byun-Soo disappeared to.

‘Could it be... about that?’

There was one thing on her mind, but she was not yet fully certain it was about ‘that.’

‘I guess I have no choice but to go on Sunday, now that it’s come to this.’

She would rather die than to willingly meet Chi-Yeol and Byun-Soo, but she had no choice, considering she could seize an opportunity to screw both of them over at once big time.

***

Ra-Eun arrived just in time for the interview where the reporters were gathered.

“I apologize. I was tied up with something.”

There wasn’t much time, so the interview commenced right away. Ra-Eun and Han-Seok were asked basic questions such as if they were aware of the drama’s massive surge in popularity, and what sort of difficulties they faced while filming. They were able to answer them with ease since such questions were asked in almost every other interview that they had.

Among the crowd of reporters, a female reporter asked Ra-Eun a very interesting question.

“Miss Kang, the reason that your character Kang Seon-Hye came to Seoul has not been revealed yet. Is it true that not even the actors know why?”

Han-Seok and Ra-Eun answered one after the other while nodding, “Yes, that’s correct.”

“Director Hwang wouldn’t tell us even when we asked him to tell us in secret.”

Ra-Eun acted like she didn’t know despite knowing everything. She did not want Director Hwang’s efforts to keep his actors in the dark to go to waste. He could bear a grudge toward Ra-Eun if she ever spoiled the true reason.

The female reporter asked in succession.

“What do you think the reason is, Miss Kang?”

Ra-Eun almost blurted out the true reason.

‘You won’t fool me.’

It wasn’t her first time dealing with reporters. She was now a bona-fide veteran; she wouldn’t be baited by such a mediocre ploy.

“I’m not too sure. Maybe to meet her first love?”

Ra-Eun purposefully put forward an answer that couldn’t be further from the truth, but the reporters frantically jotted it down in their notepads as if it was.

As Ra-Eun was about to get up from her seat after the interview had ended, Han-Seok whispered to her, “Could we talk for a bit, Ra-Eun?”

He had a serious look on his face. Ra-Eun thought it was because she was late for the interview. They went somewhere away from the eyes of reporters. Ra-Eun was about to apologize as soon as they had changed locations, but Han-Seok spoke first.

“I heard you met Mr. Cha Byun-Soo on your way back.”

“Oh, yes. How did you know?” Ra-Eun asked.

“My manager told me that he saw you two in the hallway.”

There were many people there, so it wasn’t strange for anyone to have seen Ra-Eun being preoccupied with Byun-Soo.

“Did he say anything to you?” Han-Seok asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

Ra-Eun did not understand why he was acting this way, but she revealed everything that they talked about in the hallway.

“He said that he’s been enjoying the drama, and asked if I had time to meet him at our agency on Sunday since he might come visit.”

“Sunday, at GNF? Why?”

“I’m not sure. He wouldn’t tell me.”

“...Really?”

Han-Seok lightly sighed and asked Ra-Eun again after looking around, “Did he say anything else?”

“Like what?”

“For example... Did he say anything weird to you?”

Ra-Eun finally realized why Han-Seok was acting this way. He was worried about her. Byun-Soo was the kind of man who sexually harassed his young female juniors without qualms. His unacceptable behavior was so well-known among members of the same industry that barely anyone liked him.

Han-Seok had been worried that Byun-Soo had said something insulting to Ra-Eun. In Han-Seok’s eyes, Ra-Eun was a rookie actress who had only just become an adult, and an innocent university student who did not yet know much about the world. Of course, Ra-Eun was an old man at heart who had gone through all kinds of hardships, but there was no way for Han-Seok to have known that.

Ra-Eun felt thankful for Han-Seok caring for her well-being like this.

“You don’t have to worry, sunbae. Nothing like that happened.”

“That’s a relief. Let me know if he demands anything weird from you. I’ll do whatever I can to protect you.”

It was the first time Ra-Eun had heard that someone would protect her. She used to be a bodyguard, so she had always been the one to do the protecting. However, that was no longer the case in her new life.

“Thank you, sunbae.”

Ra-Eun appreciated the thought, but she was not a weak girl. She would not take anything lying down. She could only be satisfied if she dealt five times as much damage as her opponent dealt her. For now, she needed to wait and see what Byun-Soo would come out with on Sunday.

***

Ra-Eun received a call from Chief Jung on Friday afternoon.

- Ra-Eun. Do you have time this Sunday?

“It’s about Mr. Cha Byun-Soo and Minister Kim Chi-Yeol, right?”

- Huh? You already knew about it?

“Yes, I had a vague idea.”

From Chief Jung’s reaction, what Byun-Soo had said to Ra-Eun in the hallway must have been true.

- They said that they have something to propose to us. They want to have a meeting, and would like for you to be there. That’s why I called you, but...

Chief Jung sighed deeply.

- To be honest, I’d rather you don’t come.

Chief Jung also did not want Ra-Eun to get involved with Byun-Soo. However, Ra-Eun was willing to put up with it.

“It’s okay, Chief Jung. I know exactly what you’re worried about, so you don’t have to worry.”

She expressed her desire to attend the meeting because she was curious about their intentions. Chief Jung reluctantly accepted.

The meeting was the day after tomorrow.

‘It’d better be about something interesting.’

She could flip out if it turned out to be a waste of her time.

***

Ra-Eun, Chief Jung and Shin Yu-Bin greeted Byun-Soo and Chi-Yeol on Sunday afternoon.

Byun-Soo expressed while gesturing toward Ra-Eun, “Having a lovely lady in the room sure makes the meeting pleasant. Isn’t that right, Minister Kim?”

“Absolutely, haha!” Chi-Yeol answered.

The first sentence that came out of their mouths already made Ra-Eun feel like shit. Chief Jung proceeded to the main subject before they said anything worse.

“Why did you want to see us today?”

“Oh, you see...” Byun-Soo said as he took something out of his bag.

It was a thick bundle of paper. One could tell from a glance that it was...

‘A script?’