By Zephyria As Yoon Joo-ho entered the address into the navigation, his hand slowed. His long fingers, slightly rougher than before, slowly retracted. Yoon Joo-ho lit a cigarette and drove out of the parking lot.
As he drove along Gangbyeonbuk-ro and passed the spot where he had dropped off Song Hyun-soo, his phone rang. The caller was ‘Sang-ho Hyung.’
“Finished working out. Coming in.”
Thinking it was a routine call to check his location, Yoon Joo-ho answered mechanically in an annoyed tone.
[Yeah, good job… But Joo-ho. You don’t have any other plans after this, right?]
From Director Bang’s hesitant voice, Yoon Joo-ho could sense it. Something bad had happened.
He flicked his cigarette into the ashtray, his brow furrowed.
“What is it now? Just tell me.”
[You need to stop by Lawyer Moon’s office first.]
“Why there at this hour?”
[Well… the representatives came.]
Yoon Joo-ho’s face cracked.
The representatives. The two co-CEOs of Look Planning. Yoon Joo-ho’s parents.
■■■
“Joo-ho!”
His mother, who had been sitting on the sofa, jumped up and immediately approached Yoon Joo-ho. His father also stood up and looked at Yoon Joo-ho with a wistful expression.
Standing in front of him, his mother cupped Yoon Joo-ho’s cheeks with both hands. Despite the tense standoff after so many events, she didn’t hesitate to touch Yoon Joo-ho’s face. She was confident, as if handling her own property.
“What’s with your face? Your once beautiful skin is all ruined.”
She turned to Director Bang with a look of reproach.
“Director Bang, don’t you send Actor Yoon for aesthetic treatments? How could you let him get like this?”
It was the tone one might use to scold a housekeeper for damaging an expensive piece of art.
Sighing, Yoon Joo-ho pulled down his mother’s hands that were stroking his cheeks.
“It’s for a role as a young man who spent 8 years in prison. Does an aesthetic-treated face make sense?”
“This is why you can’t do anything alone.”
You can’t do anything alone. You can’t do anything by yourself. You just need to act. Words he had heard his entire life. Yoon Joo-ho had to clench his fists to suppress the urge to run out, which arose less than three minutes after entering the law firm’s meeting room.
She touched his face again, checking various parts with a distressed expression, and added, “That’s just a movie setting. In the end, people come to see you looking beautiful on screen. Look at how dry your skin is. Why did you insist on doing the movie…”
“CEO Hwang, Joo-ho. Let’s sit down and talk instead of this. Both of you, come here.”
His father, who had been standing by the sofa, gestured and sat down first with the lawyer who had accompanied them.
Yoon Joo-ho’s lawyer, who had been waiting, approached with a grave expression.
“They will likely try to record the conversation. Of course, we will too. It would be best if you speak as little as possible and just listen to what they say.”
Director Bang, who was with them, nodded.
“Yes, Joo-ho. As you know, the representatives will probably try to provoke you in some way. Don’t fall for it and blurt things out in anger, okay?”
“Am I a child? I understand.”
“Yoon Joo-ho.”
Director Bang urgently grabbed Yoon Joo-ho’s arm as he was about to walk towards the sofa.
“Let’s try to resolve this amicably, okay?”
Ignoring Director Bang’s earnest face, Yoon Joo-ho slipped out of his grasp and walked away.
On the coffee table in front of the sofa were bottles of water, one for each person. Yoon Joo-ho twisted the cap and brought it to his lips as soon as he sat down.
“As CEO Hwang said, your face is ruined. You’ve turned your parents against you, but aren’t you hurting inside too?”
At his father’s serious words, Yoon Joo-ho almost spat out the water he was drinking.
He couldn’t retort that he was too busy being swayed by some stray cat lately to even think about them. He regretted that he couldn’t say it.
“And what’s with your attire?”
His mother frowned, scanning Yoon Joo-ho, who was wearing a black padding jumper and comfortable training pants.
“Joo-ho just came from working out,” Director Bang said, stepping in to make excuses.
His mother shot a sharp glare at Director Bang.
“Whether you’re coming from a workout or going for a walk outside. Always presenting yourself perfectly in front of people is the mark of a professional, I taught you that. Joo-ho, you’re not going out dressed like this, are you? What if some strange photo gets taken?”
His mother’s obsession with Yoon Joo-ho’s appearance was extreme.
Because of that, Yoon Joo-ho had always maintained a polished appearance, not only for casual pre-meetings and script readings but even for private appointments. He had reached a point where he felt worthless if he missed out on perfect attire, hair, or skin condition.
“No one thinks it’s strange. It’s the guy who puts wax in his hair and wears a coat and dress shoes to work out who’s strange.”
“Even so, that kind of rough, thug-like…”
“CEO Hwang, let’s postpone that kind of talk for later.”
His father, stopping his mother, adopted a serious expression and tone, setting the stage.
“I heard about Manager Cha. He’s been fired immediately. This instability is happening because the company is unstable. For the sake of Look Planning, let’s both drop our stubbornness, Joo-ho.”
“Stubbornness?”
Yoon Joo-ho, closing the lid of the water bottle, raised his eyebrows.
“You don’t seriously intend to fight your parents to the end, do you? I understand your intentions to some extent, so let’s compromise here and normalize the company.”
Yoon Joo-ho shrugged and snorted.
“If I didn’t intend to fight to the end, would I have sent a certified letter to the entire nation while being cursed at by everyone?”
He continued, twisting the water bottle in his hand as if to crush it.
“Whether it’s company funds or my personal income, just take all the money you’ve embezzled so far. I’ll overlook everything if you just leave the company. Who is being stubborn here?”
His father immediately slammed the table and stood up.
“Why would we leave that company? Do you think that company is yours? You… for a brat like you, I’ve spent my whole life, you unfilial bastard…”
“Director Yoon, let’s not get agitated.”
His mother pulled his arm, hugging him, and looked at Yoon Joo-ho with her characteristic cold eyes.
“You were young and knew nothing, so we nurtured and coaxed you, making you into a plausible actor. Your father also quit his respected PD job and dedicated himself to Look Planning.”
“Nurtured and coaxed… Why don’t I have any memory of that? All I remember is you turning your back on me if I disappointed you even a little, along with corporal punishment and threats.”
“You don’t know what it’s like to work with a child.”
“Maybe not. But I know you shouldn’t make a child feel the fear of being abandoned by their parents.”
To gain approval and love from parents who only smiled and hugged him when he acted well and received praise on set, young Yoon Joo-ho had literally struggled.
If I do well, Mom and Dad will get along, and they won’t fight loudly. If I just act well, our family can be happy.
And that thought soon turned into the idea that if our family became unhappy, it would be his fault.
“And I don’t understand why you say your father moving to Look Planning was a sacrifice.”
“What?”
“By then, Look Planning was already established. As you two always said, it was after ‘our Yoon Joo-ho became a superstar.’ Even if you left it alone, the company would run itself, and you could earn money incomparable to your salary as a PD. How is that a sacrifice?”
Although Yoon Joo-ho had been popular his whole life, he only began to receive true top-star treatment after becoming an adult. Even before that, he had been such a popular child actor that his family had accumulated considerable wealth from his activities alone, but after becoming an adult actor, the scale of the money he earned changed.
It was around that time. His parents, who had always controlled and dominated him strongly, began to obsess even more fanatically over money and fame.
As if anticipating Yoon Joo-ho’s reaction, his father crossed his arms firmly, his expression resolute.
“If you turn your back on Jung’s mother and father, we will no longer consider you our child.”
“Stop beating around the bush and just reveal your hand.”
“You threw an event for some extra at your birthday party? Everyone came to us talking about it. It seems Joo-ho really cherishes that friend.”
“He’s not an extra, he’s a junior actor I’ll be working with in
“Are you perhaps involved in a special relationship?”
“A special… relationship?”
As if displeased with the phrasing, Yoon Joo-ho furrowed his brow and the bridge of his nose.