Chapter 27
Having finished everything he wanted to say, CEO Myung had the bill brought over. Looking down at the dishes that had gone cold without even a third being consumed, I asked as if something had suddenly occurred to me.
“Has Hongseo been confirmed for Director Kang’s film?”
“What’s gotten into you, asking about all that?”
CEO Myung glanced at me sideways and chuckled, then changed his expression to a serious face and nodded.
“Thanks to that, it looks like things will go well. Hongseo’s casting was almost certain, and it was all set up to go straight into production once the investment was secured… mm, I think it’ll work out well.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Hongseo is someone who’s desperate for success… It would be nice if I could mix half of you and half of Hongseo together.”
Having drunk wine, CEO Myung called the company to summon someone to drive. I declined his offer to drop me off at the company on the way to Gangbuk and left the restaurant first. I wanted to walk a little.
■
My mother was a ‘star of yesteryear.’
Born as the youngest in the owner family of a comprehensive food manufacturing company that held more than half the market share in snacks, beverages, and frozen foods, my mother debuted at age five in a snack advertisement for a group subsidiary. That advertisement gained national popularity, and my mother continued to work as a child actor.
The transition to adult acting, which many child actors fail at, also went smoothly for her. She walked a smooth path as an actor until she announced her retirement in her late twenties.
Being from a chaebol family, she received more attention and more hostility than other actors, and everything from the clothes and bags she wore, where she lived, her vacation destinations, even the snack bars she had visited became topics of interest.
However, it took less than two years for the life of the beloved actress ‘Jung Yoon (real name Jung Yoonhwa)’ to be completely pushed out of public interest after retirement.
Unless she deliberately tried to publicize it herself, the life of a retired actress who had even moved abroad couldn’t become as much of a topic as before.
Of course, there were exceptions.
When it came to news about misfortune, that was a different story.
My mother’s name came up in people’s conversations again only once during about 30 years after retirement. Even that didn’t last long. A retired actress’s amicable divorce wasn’t stimulating news for people either. Rather, the reaction was that something that was bound to happen had happened. Moreover, since our family was in Paeli, we could hardly feel what the actual reaction in Korea was like.
Soon after, when the shocking past of a rookie male actor who was rapidly rising in popularity at the time—that he had gotten his girlfriend, who was two years younger than him, pregnant during his teenage years, and his parents had moved to another region to avoid responsibility when they found out—was exposed by his girlfriend from that time, my mother’s article quickly faded from people’s interest.
I want to go to Korea and become an actor. That’s what I had told my mother.
I did have a vague plan to become a drama actor, but I didn’t yearn for it. It was just an excuse I came up with after pondering reasons to leave home without worrying my mother.
‘You must never trust anyone. Even when you’re struggling and lonely and want to trust and depend on someone, you must never break down there. People change, Jiin. Even someone who was your friend when you opened up to them can turn on you anytime if they think they can exchange your weakness for something else. Never let others know your weak points.’
Before coming to Korea, my mother had emphasized and advised me repeatedly. There was no reason not to listen to the advice of my mother, who was experienced in the entertainment industry.
The company and the actor should be a community of shared destiny that shares and reveals everything, even trivial matters—that’s what CEO Myung had said even during the contract signing. If there was anything in my background that could damage my image if exposed by the media, I absolutely had to tell them in advance.
I had only answered that there were no such special circumstances. Except for the fact that my residence was in Italy, we were an extremely ordinary family with no special features, and I too had lived an ordinary life.
But from the history of being adopted by a chaebol family’s actress and her American husband, I was already far from ordinary.
No matter how much the standard of ordinary can differ from person to person, my case would not fall within the range that everyone could agree was an ‘ordinary upbringing.’
Even Jaewoo, who spent time with me almost daily, knew hardly any more about me than CEO Myung did. Taeyoon and Gayoon, who had interactions with our family in Paeli, knew a bit more than that though.
The twin younger siblings had distinctly mixed-race features that anyone could see, while I was completely Asian. So at minimum, they couldn’t help but notice that the siblings and I didn’t share the same biological father. Occasionally there were Westerners who mistook me for mixed-race with faint Western blood, but Taeyoon and Gayoon, being fellow Asians, were certain from the beginning that the blood in me was purely Korean.
Having spent our adolescent years together, Taeyoon and I had shared many stories with each other. Since he was someone who already knew I was adopted, I could talk about family matters relatively comfortably even after we reunited in Korea.
Even so, Taeyoon didn’t know everything either.
For example… what I had done last night when I privately visited Knox Hotel, which I had so avoided, and what happened in that suite…
As I was walking frantically toward the company building, I slowly slowed my pace. When I casually turned my head, I found myself in front of a mobile phone store. The smartphone that ARA Electronics had released this spring was gorgeously displayed beyond the spotless showcase window. ARA Electronics was one of Hanseo Group’s subsidiaries, just like Knox Hotel.
Blankly observing my own reflection dimly reflected in the showcase window, I suddenly grasped my wrist again. Without rhyme or reason, I wanted to talk to that man. I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I felt like contacting someone other than family.
With the hand that had been massaging my wrist, I now fidgeted with the mobile phone in my pants pocket. My mother’s voice echoed in my ears.
‘Even when you’re struggling and lonely and want to trust and depend on someone, you must never break down there.’
■
An interior where one of Mozart’s divertimentos played at low volume.
A distinctly masculine, husky, thin high-pitched voice created tension in the air with its unique rhythm.
“Now, we’re rolling up from the buttocks. Please bend your knees. Push your buttocks up more… there! Straighten your knees… there! Now, keeping your knees like that, stretch out more and slowly open your chest, directing your gaze toward the floor.”
With both feet hooked on the vertical sliding bar of the Cadillac and gripping the wool straps fixed to the upper bar to support my body, I slowly arched my back following the instructor’s guidance. A groan mixed with admiration naturally escaped as I felt the refreshing sensation accompanied by pain in my muscles.
“Beau-tiful, beautiful. It’s beautiful. Good.”
Seohae hyung, the Pilates instructor, moved from my feet toward my head while lightly clapping a few times. Though exaggerated, his gentle and distinctively accented tone that never raised his voice had a strange addictive quality.
“I’ll take one photo in this position. Maintain your breathing, maintain your breathing…”
Click. The mechanical sound of a phone imitating a camera was heard.
“Good. Now slowly bend your left leg… toward the ceiling… hook your ankle, maintain balance… stretch it out, beautifully. I’m not struggling at all right now… I’m as comfortable as floating on a tube on water right now… Now, I’ll take one more photo.”
Acting comfortable while both legs were spread at about a 100-degree angle in mid-air. I first caught my breath. Even though my expression wouldn’t show in the photo due to backlighting anyway, I was conscious of my jaw and neck line while thinking of it as a pictorial shoot.
Click, click, click. This time the shutter sounds continued several more times.
“Good, good. We got one done today too.”
With hyung’s satisfied voice, I was able to put my feet on the floor.
While finishing the workout with about two cooldown movements, hyung sent the photos he had taken to Jaewoo. It was for the company to update SNS.
Since the last update was a photo standing at the photo wall at the Knox Hotel event, it meant there had been no new posts for about two weeks already. This was in contrast to Hongseo, who personally managed SNS and sometimes posted three or four photos a day.
When I looked around Hongseo’s account with over 3 million followers and an average of 100,000 hearts per post, rather than feeling envious or proud, the scale would make my neck tingle with unease. If the favorable comments that sometimes reached up to 3,000 were to all turn into arrows of attack in an instant…
Even now, a considerable number of malicious comments were mixed in, and Hongseo wasn’t the type to brush them off casually but would suffer and agonize over them. So I couldn’t help but worry about her confronting the weight of those 3 million.
Hongseo craved success, higher places, enough to somehow bear and carry that weight and burden. Could I do that…
Standing in front of the dressing room mirror at the bathroom entrance, I shook my head. Not just 3,000 comments, but 3 million followers could all become enemies in an instant. And from what I had observed around me so far, that wasn’t a particularly rare occurrence either.
My workout clothes were completely soaked, making them difficult to take off. I struggled to remove my clothes as if forcibly tearing off a shell, then washed off the sweat with a shower.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
