Chapter 56
*
From the next day onward, Cheong-yeon became so busy that even having two bodies wouldn’t have been enough. Despite Do-heon having an expensive custom bed made for him, Cheong-yeon barely had time to properly use it.
His day began with a call from his manager before he even opened his eyes.
The manager, who had contacted him without any prior notice, was already near his home and urged him to wash up and come out right away.
When Cheong-yeon asked what was happening at this early hour in his sleep-drenched voice, the manager finally gave a brief explanation, saying they had a meeting scheduled to discuss upcoming activities.
“Huh? A meeting at this hour? With whom…?”
“I’ll explain everything in the car when you come out. I apologize for not informing you in advance, as we had to arrange the schedule urgently. Please get ready quickly and just put on some clothes before coming out.”
Following his manager’s urging, Cheong-yeon reluctantly got out of bed and ran his fingers through his disheveled hair as he entered the bathroom.
The new bed that Do-heon had bought yesterday certainly proved its worth—as soon as Cheong-yeon had lain down, he had fallen into a deep sleep until now, almost as if he’d fainted. With his eyes half-closed, Cheong-yeon brushed his teeth, showered, and then put on his clothes.
With his manager constantly calling and saying they needed to leave as soon as possible, Cheong-yeon rushed out of his home without even properly drying his hair.
“Good morning! Have a wonderful day!”
“Isn’t it too early to call it a wonderful morning? How did you suddenly show up without any notice?”
“Haha… That’s true. We have multiple meetings scheduled today, so there was no choice. Next time, I’ll definitely inform you of the schedule at least a day before. If you’re hungry, there’s a sandwich in that bag.”
Rubbing his eyes, Cheong-yeon surveyed the back seat of the van. He spotted a black bag containing convenience store sandwiches and various beverages.
But having just woken up, his stomach felt bloated. Cheong-yeon let out a long yawn and gazed out the window at the still bluish dawn.
What kind of situation was this? He wanted to ask the manager exactly how many meetings were scheduled, but the drowsiness made even that feel bothersome, so he kept his mouth shut.
Well, I’ll find out soon enough. With this carefree thought, Cheong-yeon closed his eyes and began nodding off.
Shortly after, they arrived at Pin Entertainment, Cheong-yeon’s agency office. The manager explained that he should go to the small meeting room at the end of the corridor.
Although he had expected things to change after deciding to accept the sponsorship yesterday, he hadn’t anticipated that things would progress this quickly.
As he followed closely behind his manager into the meeting room, two unfamiliar women sitting at the desk stood up.
“Nice to meet you, Cheong-yeon. I’m Kwon Hye-na, the Creative Director. You can simply call me Team Leader. This is Ha-yeon, my assistant.”
The woman with light pink-dyed hair introduced herself as the Creative Director. She appeared to be in her mid to late thirties. Her face was round with an overall smooth impression, but her voice was high-pitched and sharp.
Standing next to her, the woman introduced as her assistant was the complete opposite of Director Kwon Hye-na—black hair in a sharp bob cut, tall, with monolids and a cutting aura.
“I’m Ha-yeon.”
“I’m Yoo Cheong-yeon. Nice to meet you.”
Cheong-yeon, taken aback, bowed his head in greeting.
“By the way, as a Creative Director… may I ask what you’re in charge of?”
Seated at the meeting room table, Cheong-yeon looked back and forth between the two women sitting across from him. Despite the introductions, he still had no idea why these two women were here.
“I primarily oversee the actor’s image management, schedule and marketing planning, and comprehensive staff composition.”
“Ah, I see.”
Still not fully understanding what that meant exactly, Cheong-yeon pretended to comprehend and nodded with his puffy face.
Later, after the meeting ended, when he looked her up, he discovered that Kwon Hye-na was a renowned figure known for her competence in the agency industry.
Despite receiving an offer to transfer to Korea’s largest actor agency for an annual salary of 3 billion won plus bonuses, Kwon Hye-na had formed her own team without being affiliated with any company and only took on projects that appealed to her.
In other words, she was a difficult person to recruit. News articles unanimously praised her as a legendary figure.
“……”
“……”
Immediately after the introductions, Kwon Hye-na observed Cheong-yeon’s face intently with her characteristic round eyes, to the point of making him uncomfortable. Then she abruptly opened the notebook she had brought and began writing something.
“Cheong-yeon? Could you walk around the meeting room once?”
“…Do I just walk in one direction?”
“Yes. Naturally. As if no one is here.”
Despite the sudden request, Cheong-yeon obediently stood up and did as instructed. He then circled the meeting room in the direction Kwon Hye-na had indicated.
Kwon Hye-na and Ha-yeon examined Cheong-yeon thoroughly with intense gazes, their eyes wide as if they were bulging out.
By now, his drowsiness had completely disappeared. Feeling cold sweat running down his spine, Cheong-yeon took steps as naturally as possible, as instructed.
Kwon Hye-na once again scribbled something in her small notebook.
“His posture and basic frame are good. Pass.”
She delivered a brief assessment in a monotone voice.
“I hear that a lot. Thank you.”
Though he wasn’t sure what it meant, being told he passed felt good. She seemed to have a discerning eye, suggesting she wasn’t a fraud.
“I heard you were previously active as an idol. Your features and image suit being an actor too. Though being a Recessive Omega with such a clean appearance might limit the range of roles you can take… Hmmmm.”
Kwon Hye-na stretched out her words while staring at her assistant. Ha-yeon then spoke in a somewhat robotic, clipped tone.
“However, in the entertainment industry, a beautiful actor who can only play one type of role is much more valuable than an unattractive actor who can play a hundred different roles.”
“That’s right. If someone is just good-looking, everything else depends on how you market them.”
Kwon Hye-na nodded with satisfaction, while Cheong-yeon was completely dumbfounded. It seemed like a compliment, but the expression left him with an oddly unsettling feeling, so he could only blink, unable to find a retort.
“Cheong-yeon.”
“Y-yes?”
Cheong-yeon stuttered in response to Kwon Hye-na’s call.
“Now that I’ve seen your face in person, we’ll simply finish today with a video test using a camera and having you try on a few outfits we’ve prepared. Even if someone looks fine in person, facial structure can often appear either compressed or expanded on camera. If there are any flaws, I’ll quickly analyze how to compensate for them.”
Kwon Hye-na continued to write in her notebook, reciting her thoughts without even looking at Cheong-yeon.
As soon as she finished speaking, Ha-yeon opened her mouth.
“Team Leader. Cheong-yeon’s face won’t undergo significant distortion on camera. Though his image is too delicate to play intense leading roles in action genres, he should be able to beautifully handle most genres as long as they don’t require emphasizing strong masculinity.”
“That’s a very astute observation, Ha-yeon. Good analysis.”
“You’re too kind.”
A slight spasm appeared at the corner of Cheong-yeon’s mouth as he listened to their conversation, which excluded him despite his presence right in front of them.
…What’s with these people? Who exactly did Moon Do-heon introduce me to?
Unable to hide his incredulous expression, Cheong-yeon looked at the two women seriously consulting with each other while treating him like a sack of barley they’d borrowed.
Their relay conversation was far from over.
“What else is there?”
“His style appears somewhat lightweight for an actor. Since he has fair skin, dyeing his hair dark brown or black would be more suitable for an actor’s image.”
Kwon Hye-na nodded again, apparently agreeing.
“Make a salon appointment for the day after tomorrow.”
“Understood.”
“As I mentioned earlier, today we’ll just do a camera test, and then extract marketing points and prepare interviews to distribute to the press. We’ll conceptualize the details of his identity and concept as an actor in additional meetings with our team later.”
“I’ll set up the camera right away.”
Ha-yeon stood up abruptly. Startled by the sound of the chair scraping, Cheong-yeon flinched and looked at her.
“By the way, Cheong-yeon. Is your voice always so lacking in energy?”
“My… voice?”
“I wish you’d put more strength into it when you speak. With more power, your delivery would be much more effective.”
“Ah, yes. I’ll be mindful of that.”
Cheong-yeon answered brightly, unconsciously putting more strength into his voice.
“That’s much better.”
“It seems his visuals and vocalization match well, which is rare. This will proceed much more smoothly than you worried it would when you first received the request and called it extremely distasteful.”
Ha-yeon interjected as she was about to open the meeting room door to prepare.
It’s too much to openly say you didn’t want this job right in front of the person involved. What is wrong with these people?
When Cheong-yeon shot a “what’s going on?” look at his manager, who was sitting in the corner like a folding screen, the manager was observing everything with a flushed, pleased expression. He seemed completely oblivious to any problem.
In any case, regardless of Cheong-yeon’s thoughts, the full schedule proceeded rapidly under Kwon Hye-na’s direction.
Although Kwon Hye-na made it sound like the camera test was nothing special, she had brought no less than twenty outfits.
He had to change into each one, have them pinned to fit his body perfectly, and then complete the styling before he could stand in front of the camera. It was an exhausting process.
Even part-time shopping mall photo shoots weren’t this tiring. After finishing the final outfit fitting, Cheong-yeon collapsed into a chair, completely drained.
He couldn’t even remember what state of mind he was in during the next meeting that took place later in the afternoon.
After being dragged around all day by his manager and agency staff, Cheong-yeon had no strength left in his limbs by the time he returned home.
Having barely managed to take off his shoes and enter his room, Cheong-yeon threw himself onto the bed without even changing his clothes.
But this was just the beginning. The next day, he had to attend private lessons at a new acting academy affiliated with his agency from early dawn. After finishing the lessons, he immediately moved to a studio to take new profile photos.
As soon as one schedule ended and he tried to catch his breath, another schedule was set, and there was an endless stream of new people to meet.
Cheong-yeon was led around like a doll by his manager’s driving, hastily eating meals provided to him while sitting in the van.
His days were so chaotic that he couldn’t tell whether he was receiving sponsorship or undergoing some Spartan punishment planned by Moon Do-heon.
But he wasn’t dissatisfied with this sudden change. Despite the physical fatigue, the expectation that he could now genuinely begin acting in earnest gave Cheong-yeon strength.
Moreover, the team’s scale was much larger than Cheong-yeon had anticipated. This was evident just from the people he met daily, the clothes he tried on, and the props.
Cheong-yeon surveyed the expensive clothes hanging in the van with suspicious eyes.
No matter how I look at these clothes, they’re all Moon Do-heon’s taste. Looking at how they even made me dye my hair dark brown again, his personal preferences must be reflected to some extent.
Could it be that while pretending to sponsor me, he’s actually trying to mold me according to his own taste? Claiming to respect my style. Is this what respect looks like?
Cheong-yeon touched his now-calmed hair with dissatisfaction, inwardly criticizing Do-heon.
Although he knew that Kwon Hye-na and Ha-yeon were right, Cheong-yeon somehow felt that all of this was unfolding according to Do-heon’s intelligent scheming.
With a somewhat troubled expression, Cheong-yeon stared out the window. Since his manager had left to order lunch, he felt bored trying to kill time alone until the manager returned. It seemed he had already adapted to the relentless schedule.
After sitting quietly for a few minutes, Cheong-yeon suddenly turned his head and once again surveyed the clothes hanging in the van. The more he thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. It wouldn’t be surprising if these had been taken directly from his dressing room in Do-heon’s house.
“No way, is Moon Do-heon actually picking these out himself?”
Moreover, the brands mostly matched those hanging in that house’s closet.
I asked for sponsorship, not for styling help.
As suspicion turned to certainty, Cheong-yeon took out his phone and photographed the precious clothes hanging before him. Then he sent a text to Do-heon.
[(photo)]
[Why are you meddling with someone else’s fashion AGAIN??]
Cheong-yeon accused him questioningly with the photo. Soon, a reply came.
[Moon Do-heon: I don’t know what you’re talking about.]
“Wow. He’s denying it.”
Cheong-yeon gritted his teeth and glared at the text Do-heon had sent.
[Stop lying. The director told me to change everything from clothes to hair]
[You ordered this, didn’t you???]
[Moon Do-heon: That’s just her opinion, not mine. I don’t have the luxury to care about such trivial matters.]
Do-heon’s message, sent with perfect spelling and spacing, couldn’t have been more irritating. Although it was just text, Cheong-yeon had auditory hallucinations as if hearing his voice right in front of him.
As he was putting his phone back in his pocket, resolving to ask him properly in person later instead of continuing this conversation, a new message notification appeared.
[Moon Do-heon: Have you forgotten? I’m sincerely respecting your fashion.]
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
