Chapter 80: What do you want to know?
The filming of ‘The Deprived People’ continued.
Yoo Yeon Seo, who showed an impressive performance in his first appearance as Itaewo, could not avoid the director’s call.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
He had done a good job in interpreting his character. But did he act perfectly? That was debatable. Yoo Yeon Seo followed the director’s call to the monitor.
‘It’s good as it is, but…’
Director Son Janghoon stroked his chin as he pondered. He had to restrain his own vision for the sake of the original work. He tried to quench his thirst with directing the actors.
He had cast the actors of ‘The Deprived People’ based on how well they matched the original characters, rather than their acting skills. After all, he could improve their acting with his directing, but he couldn’t change their faces and vibes.
But the acting of An Hyunsung, who was still a rookie, had its limits even with his directing. He didn’t have much time to hold him back, so he had let it slide. But Yoo Yeon Seo was different. He was eager to see more from him.
“Yeon Seo, can you make it more unhinged? Like you’re on the edge of a cliff and barely hanging on.”
“…I’ll try.”
“Good. You can rest for now. We have a long way to go until the next scene.”
He also liked how he nodded without a word. An Hyunsung, the lead actor, was acting stiff for some reason.
‘Anyone would think they switched places.’
The notorious jerk of the entertainment industry had suddenly become meek and mild, and the rookie actor had caught the star disease and was nowhere to be seen on the set… The director sighed as he saw An Hyunsung arriving late to the filming site from the van.
Yoo Yeon Seo slumped into his chair with his name on it. He tilted his head back and almost lay down, covering his face with the script.
‘Ad-libs have their limits.’
The director had praised his unpredictable actions. But he had to be different in his usual speech and minor behaviors. He had to be crazy, but not look like he had a disability.
‘Itaewo and I have something in common.’
A person who went crazy from being deprived of sleep, and a person who went crazy from seeing hallucinations.
They also shared a complicated feeling towards their mothers. The reason why Itaewo was deprived of sleep in ‘The Deprived People’ was closely related to Ryu Hyekyung and Yoon Jiyoung, who played the roles of his mother in the drama.
Yoon Jiyoung, who turned out to be the final villain of the drama, had used Itaewo as a sacrifice for her experiment. Itaewo, who failed to obtain the ability that the protagonist had, was abandoned and hated his mother who made him like this.
What about the real Yoo Yeon Seo? Didn’t he resent Lee Heeseo, who remained as a hallucination and tormented him?
‘How did the original body live all this time?’
Wasn’t the real Yoo Yeon Seo similar to Itaewo, who suffered from anger management disorder?
(He suddenly threw things and yelled. He told me to get lost, so I decided to leave him alone forever. He really quit.)
(He went berserk on the set for interrupting his thoughts. I had a hard time cleaning up after him. Director Shin Hyowon likes whiskey, so keep that in mind if the actor causes trouble again.)
The anger and tyranny that came out of the ‘Yoo Yeon Seo file’, and his dirty personality that was well-known to the public.
He thought that it was probably a personality disorder caused by the hallucination, and that it led to his bad reputation in the entertainment industry.
In that case…
‘Should I push the synchronization to the limit again?’
<It is not recommended.>
Beta intervened.
Yoo Yeon Seo was tempted for a moment, but quickly dismissed it. It was not good to rely on memory synchronization. Besides, the side effects of pushing it to the limit were too severe.
He was lucky that Lim Seunghyun and Itaegyeom had picked him up and taken him home when he was on the ‘Baekhoham’. But he couldn’t be sure that it would happen again.
“Yeon Seo, do you want to practice the lines later?”
“Yes, auntie.”
Yoo Yeon Seo answered dryly, lost in his thoughts. Ryu Hyekyung’s eyes twitched slightly, but he didn’t care. He treated her as nothing more than a fellow actor in the same work, as if he wasn’t interested in Lee Heeseo’s idol days.
‘Yeah, you won’t show yourself easily, will you?’
The cunning snake of the entertainment industry, Ryu Hyekyung, noticed Yoo Yeon Seo’s intention and glared at him.
‘You’d better spit it out first.’
Yoo Yeon Seo sensed her inner thoughts and replied with a smile.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Yoo Yeon Seo changed his clothes and headed out of the set after finishing his filming for the day.
“Yeon Seo, do you have some time?”
Ryu Hyekyung had finished her filming 30 minutes ago. But she was still there, which meant she was waiting for Yoo Yeon Seo’s filming to end.
‘Did she change her mind?’
Yoo Yeon Seo looked at his wristwatch and said.
“Yes, about 20 minutes.”
“That’s enough.”
“Itaegyeom, you go to the car and start the engine.”
Itaegyeom looked back and forth between Yoo Yeon Seo and Ryu Hyekyung, and then headed to the car without a word. Lim Seunghyun followed Yoo Yeon Seo, since he wasn’t told to leave.
“Are you just leaving your manager behind?”
“Manager? Oh, no… He’s not my manager.”
“What?”
Yoo Yeon Seo shrugged his shoulders.
“My secretary, from Juseong’s Strategic Planning Department.”
Ryu Hyekyung’s eyes widened. Juseong’s Secretariat was famous, but the Strategic Planning Department was even more so. It was headed by Yu’s friend and secretary, who was his right-hand man. There were all kinds of rumors about it.
‘Juseong’s Strategic Planning Department has all the information in Korea.’ ‘There’s nothing Juseong’s information network can’t do. Finding people’s weaknesses is a piece of cake.’ Such rumors were abundant. Naturally, being part of the Strategic Planning Department gave an image of an elite.
‘There’s some exaggeration, but it’s not entirely false.’
It was important that Ryu Hyekyung believed it. That’s why he revealed Lim Seunghyun’s affiliation.
“If you’re from the Strategic Planning Department…”
“Then you must know a lot, so it’ll be easier to talk.”
He had dated many chaebols, so he must have heard a lot about Juseong. He stared at Ryu Hyekyung’s face, which looked like her soul had left her body.
“You must have done some background check on me.”
“Yes.”
He was confident about his background check. After all, the one who had to bow down was Ryu Hyekyung, not him.
It wasn’t a superficial background check. She probably had some weaknesses that could force her to retire.
Ryu Hyekyung, who had her mouth open blankly, let out a small sigh. She shouldn’t have calculated. She should have just given him what he wanted and added a debt to her conscience.
‘I didn’t want to do this either.’
It wasn’t his nature to shake people’s weaknesses. But he was in a hurry. The frequency of seeing Lee Heeseo’s hallucination was increasing.
“So, what do you want to know?”
“You know what. Stop pretending you don’t.”
She raised her hands as if to signal her surrender and spoke with a tired face.
“Fine, about Heeseo… What can you offer me? I can’t just tell you with my mouth.”
He was still looking for his own benefit in this situation, which was impressive in a way. He turned on his phone and handed it to her. He had already prepared a tempting bait through Lim Seunghyun.
“Kang Geuncheol, the president of Sanbo Group, is a distant relative of mine. And he’s single, since he divorced not long ago.”
Sanbo Group was a conglomerate ranked eighth in the business world, and Kang Geuncheol was a big shot who would become the next chairman. He was a different level from the people Ryu Hyekyung had met.
“I’ll set you up with him. Make it look like a coincidence.”
“…”
“That should meet your high standards, right? And whether you can seduce him or not depends on your skills, auntie.”
He was implying that the only thing she was good for was a coincidental meeting.
“Fine. I get it.”
She leaned her back against the wall, exhausted. He smiled leisurely.
‘Actually, I can’t do more than that.’
He couldn’t let his grandfather hear about it. All he had to do was find out where Kang Geuncheol was going and tell her the place.
She might have misunderstood him too much, but he had deliberately made it sound more impressive.
“So, where should I start? What happened to Heeseo when she was in the entertainment industry?”
He raised his hand to cut her off.
“Just tell me the main points. I have a schedule too.”
“The main points?”
He was curious about what happened to her, but it wasn’t unimaginable.
The entertainment industry in the 80s, the young Lee Heeseo who was praised as the beauty of the century. Of course, not everything was good for her. He suppressed the hot feeling that rose near his temple.
“Isn’t there anything that would interest me?”
“That’s…”
He acted differently from what she expected, and Ryu Hyekyung spoke smugly. He wouldn’t know this, would he?
“Did you know that Heeseo was stalked from her debut until she got married?”
“Stalked?”
That was an important clue. He had never heard of it before, but he pretended to be calm. She had something to hold and shake, and there was no point in showing his interest.
He crossed his arms as if he wasn’t satisfied with her information. She was flustered by his arrogant attitude.
“And then?”
“What?”
“Is that all?”
***
After finishing the filming and getting an important clue from Ryu Hyekyung, Yoo Yeon Seo headed to the cafe on the first floor of the JSTV building. It was the wrap-up party for ‘Welcome to the Guest House’.
‘Why do I feel more excited from talking to Ryu Hyekyung than from filming the kiss scene?’
He turned his neck tiredly. Ryu Hyekyung didn’t notice his bluffing, and promised to tell him whenever she remembered something.
“Mr. Lim Seunghyun.”
“Yes.”
“Can you investigate the stalker that Ryu Hyekyung mentioned?”
Lim Seunghyun stopped walking and looked at Yoo Yeon Seo. He couldn’t say yes easily.
‘Why does he want to investigate her…’
It was a taboo for Juseong’s head family to talk about Lee Heeseo. Only the family members knew that Yoo Yeon Seo had a seizure whenever he thought of Lee Heeseo before the accident.
But he felt something bad, and he wasn’t sure if this was really for Yoo Yeon Seo’s sake.
“I know you’re curious, but later.”
“Okay.”
Yoo Yeon Seo opened the door to the cafe. It wasn’t a casual party. There was a brief recording in the form of a postscript, since the program did better than expected.
“You’re here?”
“Uncle! Yeon Seo is here!”
With the help of the staff, Yoo Yeon Seo fixed the pin microphone on his clothes and frowned as he saw the cast members greeting him too enthusiastically.
“What?”
They all had strange expressions. He looked at his wristwatch. He was late because of talking to Ryu Hyekyung, but not that late…
“Hey, what did you do without telling us?”
“We were shocked by the news. Do you have to do everything by yourself?”
“Look, look at him pretending he doesn’t know.”
He wasn’t pretending, he really didn’t know. Yoo Yeon Seo sat down in an empty seat.
“What is it?”
“Didn’t you see the internet? News articles and stuff. Everyone’s talking about you.”
“I didn’t have time to look at it because of filming.”
“Wow, he really didn’t know.”
Kim Ijun put his arm around Yoo Yeon Seo’s shoulder and showed him his phone.
“Look at this.”
On the screen he showed him, there was the SNS of the local guide they had seen on the island, and a picture of him sitting next to Raul with a bright smile.
He hadn’t seen him since he went to the hospital, so he was a bit glad. Yoo Yeon Seo smiled slightly.
“He looks healthy.”
“No, not the picture, look at the text below.”
Kim Ijun tapped the screen. Yoo Yeon Seo read the text quickly and snorted.
“…What a useless thing to write.”
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