“Ow.”
Clutching her side, the blonde girl groaned in pain.
Youngbin, who had been staring blankly at her face, suddenly felt as though lightning had struck his brain.
Stella Baldwin.
An actress he immediately recognized—after all, he often watched foreign films.
But this wasn’t just any actress; this was a world-famous lead actress.
Who would ever expect such a person to be standing in their living room?
And to make matters worse, he had just elbowed her in the ribs.
Youngbin’s mind [N O V E L I G H T] went blank.
Didn’t foreign actors have insurance for every part of their bodies?
What if Stella decided to make a fuss about this?
‘I haven’t even finished paying off my car loan yet.’
Desperate, Youngbin turned to his daughter for help.
Surely, someone as capable as Seoyeon could handle a situation like this—even if it involved an insurance company CEO.
“H-Hello?”
“Ah, h-hello?”
“I’m fine, but could you stop looking at me like that?”
“D-don’t speaking English.”
“...Excuse me? I’m speaking Korean.”
Stella, ever the professional, managed to keep her composure and smiled politely.
Unfortunately, it had no effect whatsoever.
‘Is this... Ju Seoyeon’s family?’
That’s what Stella thought as she observed them.
She couldn’t quite make out their features clearly,
so she wasn’t sure if they looked alike.
Still, who else would act this casually in Seoyeon’s house but her family?
A father, mother, and younger sister—
They seemed like a close-knit household.
But...
‘Something feels off.’
For someone who gave off the same aura as her,
Stella had expected Seoyeon’s family to be similar to her own.
Yet, they felt completely different.
What was it?
As Stella subtly scanned the room to get a better look—
“....”
Her gaze froze on one particular feature.
“Honey, stop panicking. She speaks perfect Korean.”
“Wait, that was Korean?!”
“And her English is fine, too. What are you even talking about?”
“No, my English is for business meetings...”
Stella’s thoughts wandered again.
Even surrounded by other women, she could easily pick out Seoyeon’s mother.
The elegance, the posture—
and, well... other physical features.
Without meaning to, Stella glanced down at her own chest.
It wasn’t small.
But it wasn’t particularly large either—just average.
‘...Come to think of it.’
Seoyeon’s figure seemed a little... disproportionate, too.
She never thought she’d end up identifying people based on something like that.
Still, judging by Seoyeon’s appearance, her mother had to be beautiful as well.
And with a figure like that—was she an actress, too?
“What’s going on here?”
“Oh, sweetie! Y-you’re here?”
“Why is Stella holding her side? Did you hit her like you do to me?”
“...Uh.”
Youngbin’s face turned pale.
Seoyeon immediately figured out what had happened—
her dad had treated Stella like he treated her and elbowed her side.
‘Is he going to get sued for this?’
Luckily, Stella didn’t seem hurt,
which allowed Seoyeon to breathe a sigh of relief.
‘More importantly... she didn’t beat the boss.’
It was clear Stella had died repeatedly while Seoyeon was away.
That was what truly mattered.
When Seoyeon looked at Stella again,
she noticed that the actress was quietly observing her parents and younger sister as they bickered.
This was before Seoyeon realized Stella had trouble recognizing faces.
But even then, she felt like Stella’s expression revealed something—
a rare flicker of emotion.
And so, the situation settled,
leading to dinner.
“Thank you so much for having me over despite the sudden circumstances.”
Stella smiled brightly,
practically glowing with angelic charm.
Meanwhile, Seoyeon nonchalantly stuffed a piece of steak into her mouth.
‘Doesn’t she get tired from keeping up that act all the time?’
At least Stella’s presence turned dinner into steak instead of something bland and healthy.
“Did you come all the way to Japan just to see Seoyeon?”
“Yes. Her performance there was truly impressive.”
“Wouldn’t your parents be worried about you traveling alone?”
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Suah asked curiously, but Stella only smiled in response.
Youngbin, happily cutting his steak, suddenly paused.
“Why are you asking stuff like that?”
“What? It’s a normal question.”
“Maybe she just wanted to travel alone. Did we always ask for permission from our parents? We snuck off to Seoul without telling them, remember?”
“Seoul and Japan aren’t the same!”
“The travel time’s about the same, though.”
Technically, the transportation was different,
but Youngbin wasn’t wrong.
Still, Suah clearly wanted to talk about Stella’s parents—specifically, Asher Baldwin.
“Ahem. Anyway, I saw the movie.”
Youngbin changed the subject,
glancing at Stella with a reassuring smile.
“And feel free to relax a little.”
“Huh?”
“You seem tense. No need to be so formal.”
Seoyeon noticed it then—
Stella’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Oh, I’m not nervous or anything.”
For a brief moment,
her gaze carried a hint of displeasure—
not directed at Youngbin, but more like a child caught hiding something.
‘Did he see through her act?’
Seoyeon stared at her dad in surprise.
He occasionally had moments like this—
sharp insights that came out of nowhere.
And it seemed Stella had been caught off guard.
She looked flustered,
unable to flash her usual smile.
Seoyeon couldn’t help but find it funny.
The ever-composed Stella Baldwin, rattled by her dad.
‘Though I still have no idea what she’s hiding.’
Watching Stella observe her family made Seoyeon feel uneasy—
like the actress was seeing something she herself hadn’t noticed.
And then—
“What are you thinking about?”
Seoyeon snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Jo Seohui’s voice.
She had been too caught up in her memories.
Across from her, Seohui was already in light pajamas, sitting on her bed and looking at her.
“It’s nothing. I just remembered letting Stella stay over at my place in Korea.”
“Oh, her.”
Seohui’s curt reply made it clear she wasn’t a fan of Stella.
Given how easily Seohui usually got along with people,
her dislike for Stella stood out.
Throughout the shoot, she had barely spoken to Stella—
a rare occurrence for someone as sociable as her.
That only made Seoyeon more curious.
“What did you two talk about?”
She hadn’t forgotten their private conversation toward the end of filming.
Seohui seemed even colder toward Stella after that.
“Nothing important. I just asked her something that was bugging me.”
“Bugging you? About what?”
“It’s... complicated.”
Seoyeon narrowed her eyes.
Not again.
Seohui wasn’t exactly making it easy to get answers.
And Seoyeon was still upset about earlier—
“Ugh.”
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just trying to erase a memory.”
“What? Don’t creep me out like that.”
Seoyeon shot Seohui a sharp look.
She wanted to glare at her—just because.
“Hey, don’t glare at me even as a joke.”
“It’s not a joke.”
“W-what? Did I do something wrong?”
“Hmph.”
Seohui was clearly flustered by Seoyeon’s pouting.
But why was Seohui the one acting like the victim?
‘Is she upset because I didn’t tell her about Stella?’
Frankly, Seohui didn’t think Seoyeon cared that much about Stella.
She hadn’t seemed particularly interested.
And besides, no one besides Seohui herself had paid much attention to Stella.
‘Not that it matters. We probably won’t see her again anyway.’
To be honest, Seohui had been disappointed in Stella.
She had expected another star like Seoyeon—someone who shone brightly both on and off the screen.
But—
‘She doesn’t even like acting.’
For Stella, acting was just a tool.
Seohui couldn’t accept that.
Not that she couldn’t understand Stella’s reasons.
‘Still, I don’t have to like it.’
For now, the bigger problem was Seoyeon,
who was pouting for no apparent reason.
After spending some time trying to cheer her up,
Seohui finally watched Seoyeon doze off with a soft purr.
Only then did she remember—
‘Oh, right. I forgot to tell her about the call from the Japanese network.’
Seohui decided it could wait until tomorrow.
*****
“This footage shows Ju Seoyeon during her time on a survival-themed Korean variety show.”
Nanjo Katsuo, a producer at Japan’s YHJ Broadcasting Station,
spoke as he presented the video clips he had compiled.
Ever since Seoyeon’s drama shoot in Japan—and Asher Baldwin’s public interest in her—
Nanjo had been collecting footage of her.
Not just scenes of her acting—
but also glimpses of her everyday personality.
“Wait, is this exaggerated, or is it real?”
“I checked with contacts at Korean networks... and it’s real.”
“So she actually punched a hole in a coconut with her fingers?”
“Unbelievable, but yes.”
“What is she, Fist of the North Star?”
Along with the Japanese producers, Seoyeon’s manager, Park Eunha, and Seohui’s manager, Shin Yookyung, were also present.
Eunha looked mortified.
‘Seoyeon, couldn’t you tone it down a little for variety shows?’
Watching her celebrity client run wild on a deserted island was secondhand embarrassing.
“Honestly, isn’t this enough? We should just stick with what we planned.”
The screen showed Seoyeon casually knocking out a monkey that had attacked her from a tree.
The animal dangled limp, its tail wrapped around a branch.
‘Did it die?’
The entire room fell silent.
Then the camera showed Seoyeon calmly looting the monkey’s coconut and walking away.
“Is she Tarzan?”
Even Park Jungwoo’s voiceover from the Korean show echoed everyone’s thoughts.
Still, the cameraman made sure to capture the monkey waking up later—
just in case viewers were worried.
“Come on. Japanese celebrities wouldn’t last five minutes doing this. They’d cry the whole time.”
One of the Japanese producers had scoffed earlier—
but now he was glued to the screen,
watching the footage over and over, trying to spot edits.
“We should be careful not to go too far. It might be too intense for other actors.”
Eunha tried to bring the conversation back down to earth.
Seoyeon’s schedule was flexible enough for variety shows,
but Jiyeon and Seohui would need adjustments.
“Seohui? She’d probably faint if we threw her into a place like that.”
Shin Yookyung shook her head.
Seohui couldn’t even cook instant noodles.
She’d likely end up eating pretty mushrooms and dying from poisoning.
Of course, she wasn’t that clueless.
But that’s how Yookyung saw her.
“We’ll provide some tools and supplies.”
“What about Fuji Forest? Near Mount Fuji?”
“Wait... Aokigahara Forest?”
“It could make for a great horror-themed episode.”
The producers’ survival show concept was turning into something far more intense.
“Aokigahara? Isn’t that...?”
“One of the world’s top haunted locations?”
Eunha and Yookyung quickly googled it—
confirming that Aokigahara Forest was infamous as a suicide site.
“This isn’t banned?”
“Apparently, some horror specials have filmed there before.”
The Japanese team presented three location options,
with Aokigahara as the riskiest choice.
Confident Seoyeon would avoid it,
Eunha and Yookyung prepared to push for the safer camping options.
But—
“I want to go here.”
“...”
Seoyeon, of course, picked the one option that everyone had tried to avoid—
Aokigahara Forest.
A notorious suicide site in Japan,
and one of the world’s seven most haunted places.