By Zephyria As if entranced, Choi Hong-seo, who had lifted his head, crumbled once more before his indifferent expression.
“Ah, yes… I’m sorry…”
Meanwhile, inside the room behind him, criticism of Yoon Hye-an’s acting continued. But it didn’t matter. Choi Hong-seo’s consciousness was entirely focused on the man before him.
If not now, he felt he would never have another chance to speak to him today. The thought flashed through his mind, and courage surged.
“Excuse me, Vice President!”
He called out to him as he reached for the doorknob. Turning, he simply stood there, not even asking what was wrong.
“I was wondering, when we met in Hanam… if it was you, Vice President, who called the ambulance.”
“……”
Lee Hae-sung, looking down at the visibly nervous ‘Yoon Hye-an’ before him, spoke calmly in a level voice.
“When someone collapses right in front of you, you can’t just leave them. I would have done the same for anyone, not just Yoon Hye-an.”
“……”
“Were you going to thank me for that?”
“…Yes.”
“I see. Well, I’ll accept your thanks then.”
There was no particular sense of caution or sharpness in his tone. It was simply businesslike and dry.
I would have done the same for anyone else… He wanted to emphasize that. It felt like a thorough drawing of a line, leaving no room for doubt, saying, Don’t think of trying to get involved with me any further because of that.
What elicited a stronger reaction from him were the voices coming from inside the room.
“But casting an idol-turned-actor again for the role of Hwang Ji-woo is a bit much.”
Behind the voice of the male actor playing the doctor among the residents of ‘Cream Mansion,’ Jo Won-tae’s voice followed.
“It’s not about being an idol-turned-actor. Hmm… First Choi Hong-seo, and now Yoon Hye-an… I wonder if there’s a need to cast actors with messy private lives.”
The phrase ‘again an idol’ included Choi Hong-seo, who had been cast for the role of Hwang Ji-woo previously. Lee Hae-sung’s expression, which had begun to harden, contorted more and more fiercely. As if the ‘Yoon Hye-an’ standing before him was no longer in his sight, he focused on the voices coming from inside the room.
“Yoon Hye-an is one thing, but Choi Hong-seo was even more incredible. What if the X-Boy Scandal or whatever broke out in the middle of filming? It’s chilling to imagine.”
“They say he’s from a host bar? Then he must have been doing second dates and such from the start. Well, they said he was blackmailed or something… but if he hadn’t sold his body in the first place, he wouldn’t have been blackmailed. He knew that himself, so why did he jump? If he truly thought he was 100% the victim, why would he have jumped?”
His jaw muscles tensed, and his lips hardened. A vein throbbed at his temple. His shoulders heaved as he suppressed his rage, and a spark flew from his eyes as he looked down at the doorknob.
In that moment, all Choi Hong-seo could think was that he had to stop him.
Without thinking, Choi Hong-seo reached out towards his shoulder. It wasn’t a deliberate action. Almost instinctively, he roughly slapped Choi Hong-seo’s wrist away. As if something dirty and ominous had touched him. Then, he didn’t even look back this way. His entire attention had already been consumed by the conversation inside the room.
The mental shock of being directly rejected by him was greater than the pain in his outstretched wrist.
Choi Hong-seo, staring blankly at his stinging hand, slowly raised his head. Lee Hae-sung’s retreating back, heading into the room, was moving further away from him.
“You’re all having quite an interesting conversation.”
“Ah… Vice President, you’re here…”
With his arrival, the room fell silent for a moment, and the actors, as well as the production staff, hesitantly rose from their seats.
Though his voice wasn’t raised or agitated, he was expressing his displeasure with his entire being. It was palpable even to Choi Hong-seo, who was only watching his back.
“Choi Hong-seo was not criticized for his past of selling his body, but the very first instance of sex work that the perpetrator claims was a crime committed through unwanted violence. Seo Jun-yeong.”
Stepping forward towards the male actor who had assumed that being from a host bar meant he was doing second dates and more, Lee Hae-sung tilted his head.
“Even though he was the victim, that violence became grounds for blackmail, forcing him into further entertainment, and that entertainment further fueled the blackmail… The court recognized Choi Hong-seo as a victim, trapped in the horrific, vicious cycle unique to sexual assault and thoroughly exploited. So, what exactly are the things I just heard?”
After speaking, Lee Hae-sung swept his gaze over the actors. Like students being scolded by a teacher, they all lowered their heads, unable to utter a word.
“Oh, are you all not watching the news? Only good at spreading rumors?”
“……”
“Or do you believe that you, who are neither the party involved nor even a witness, understand the essence of the case better and can discern the truth more clearly?”
“……”
“Are you that arrogantly foolish?”
From outside the door, like an audience watching a play, Choi Hong-seo was swept up in complex emotions as he observed the entire situation from a distance.
Lee Hae-sung was clearly angry for Choi Hong-seo’s honor. He was the one who said he got angry when Choi Hong-seo was bullied. He was the one who couldn’t let it slide when Choi Hong-seo was in trouble.
But then why is it so hard for me to watch this situation?
He is clearly getting angry for my sake.
Even though he doesn’t know I’m standing just a few steps away, even though he pushes my hand away as if I were some disgusting bug, even though he cherishes me like this now, simply because my outward appearance is Yoon Hye-an…
He approached the actor Seo Jun-yeong once more. When he placed a hand on his shoulder, Seo Jun-yeong flinched as if he were having a seizure.
“You asked why Choi Hong-seo would have jumped if he thought of himself as a victim, Seo Jun-yeong?”
“Ah, no, Vice President, I, that was…”
“Wasn’t it because of people like you, Seo Jun-yeong?”
“……”
At his words, Seo Jun-yeong closed his mouth, which had been about to make excuses. Pressing down on Seo Jun-yeong’s shoulder before releasing his hand, he scanned the crowd again.
“Do you know that you are repeating the perpetrator’s claims?”
“……”
“If you want to badmouth someone, you must be extremely careful. In this day and age, even speaking out of ignorance can become a crime for which you pay a price.”
“……”
“You should be careful, actors.”
Without raising his voice even once, he was efficiently conveying his anger. Just as he had done to Chairman Jo in Director Kang’s drawing room and in the living room downstairs.
“I’m saying this as an investor. If you get kicked off the movie midway due to unnecessary trouble… it’s a huge loss for me, isn’t it? It’s chilling to imagine.”
“……”
“Right, Oh In-kyung?”
He said, pinpointing the actress who had said it was chilling to imagine what would have happened if the X-Boy Scandal had broken out during filming.
Choi Hong-seo knew that everyone was silent now not because he was Lee Hae-sung. At least, not solely for that reason. They all knew his words were right. They were silent because they had nothing to say.
The heavy silence was broken by Jo Won-tae’s earnest voice.
“My remarks were rash in front of my juniors. Listening to the Vice President, I feel ashamed. I stubbornly clung to my personal prejudice regarding a matter whose truth has been revealed.”
Even after Jo Won-tae’s admission and apology, Lee Hae-sung didn’t seem much better. However, he didn’t seem to have anything more to say. He looked tired, like someone who had resigned himself to the frustration that no matter how much he raged, nothing would change in the end.
With one hand on his hip, stroking his lower jaw broadly, he now looked lonely to Choi Hong-seo’s eyes.
He wanted to approach. To approach, stroke his arm and shoulder, cup his face in his hands, and meet his eyes. He wanted to hug him and comfort him.
But he couldn’t lay a finger on him. Being wary of him, and only being able to watch his loneliness and sorrow, was the role permitted to him as Yoon Hye-an.
The rectangular open door was like a frame capturing Lee Hae-sung. With the bowed figures in the background, he, speaking, moving, and expressing emotions within that frame, was like an actor. ‘Yoon Hye-an’ outside the door was like an audience, like a completely unrelated outsider, existing entirely outside his attention. He had to feel, once again, the pain of being Yoon Hye-an, not Choi Hong-seo, and the pain of his own death, because of him.
He wouldn’t be able to adapt smoothly to waking up as Yoon Hye-an and live as if he had been given another chance. Lee Hae-sung’s back, not looking this way, seemed to say so.
No one felt at ease, no one felt liberated. For what reason did I make such a choice?
“Vice President, I think everyone has understood by now. Come on in.”
It was Director Kang Woo-hyun who stepped forward to ease the atmosphere, coaxing Lee Hae-sung.
“Now, everyone, please understand. Although I only worked with Choi Hong-seo up to the pre-production stage, we grew fond of each other while preparing the project. And the Vice President decided to invest after seeing Hong-seo’s acting… so, he has a certain affection for him. Please keep that in mind…”
Lee Hae-sung, turning his back to the actors, walked towards Director Kang’s seat of honor. Choi Hong-seo walked into the room, searching for him, who had disappeared from the frame.
Pre-production: The preparation phase before filming begins.