Chapter 175

Chapter 175

“Ugh, my back . ”

Long distance driving was as exhausting as always, Suyeon stepped out of her car to take a look around . There was a single villa standing in the middle of nowhere, this was supposedly where Junmin was . The ground was slightly muddy below her, Suyeon frowned as she looked at her suede shoes . She actually liked these shoes, so she couldn’t bring herself to set her foot down on the ground . Just as she started looking around in hesitation…

“Ms . Suyeon?”

Someone appeared before her, it was Geunsoo holding a flashlight .

“Oh? h.e.l.lo . ”

“So it is you . I was told to step outside since you arrived . The ground is quite the mess, isn’t it? It rained a lot . ”

“Yes . I’m not sure how I should go inside . ”

“I’ll bring you some sneakers . ”

“Can you just carry me instead?”

She made it sound like a joke so as to not pressure him, Geunsoo thought for a bit before stepping towards her .

“Here, get on . ”

“Woww . ”

It was a good start . Up close, Geunsoo had an aura of playfulness about him like a child, to think that someone like this would turn into a madman on the stage . Suyeon was a fan of this aspect of Geunsoo, and even loved him, to an extent . She wanted to add him to her collection .

“Heavy, right?”

“Yes . You should consider losing weight . ”

“Wouldn’t a gentleman tell me I’m light?”

“Sorry, I’m terrible at those things . ”

Geunsoo put Suyeon down in front of the villa . She rubbed her chest against his back pretty hard on purpose during the piggyback ride, but it didn’t elicit much of a reaction from him . As she thought, he was just as difficult to manipulate as the rumors said .

“I was surprised how good Geunseok was at first when it came to acting . I understood right away when I heard your name though . ”

“My brother never learned anything from me . We just watched plays together a few times . ”

“ . . . . . . ”

A hurtful smile, Something was wrong . Did the two not get along well? She should stop talking about Geunseok in that case . Still, she decided to pry a tiny bit further .

“Looks like Geunseok wants to take after his brother . ”

“He doesn’t want to be like me . He just wants the attention I have on stage . I thought he finally found a dream of his own when he went into the acting club at school, but . . . ”

Geunsoo shrugged with a smile .

“Sorry, I shouldn’t bore you with family drama . Just teach him well, please . He’s talented, as you’ve already seen . I’m sure he can turn out to be a good actor as long as he can grasp his strengths . ”

It seemed that she picked the wrong topic to talk about, Suyeon started regretting the amount of time she poured into Geunseok . The two didn’t even get along .

“I’ll do my best . In any case, I didn’t think there’d be such a nice villa in a place like this . No wonder Mr . Junmin was so impressed . ”

She quickly changed the topic from something other than Geunseok, but Geunsoo just walked forward without responding to her . He pa.s.sed through the front gates and entered the building, the first thing Suyeon saw as she entered was a wooden staircase upstairs . Next to the staircase was the living room, which already had a few people inside .

“h.e.l.lo . ”

She didn’t know any of them, but there was nothing to be lost from saying h.e.l.lo . There were all sorts of people, ranging from ages 20 to 50 .

“h.e.l.lo . ”

“It must’ve been a difficult drive here . ”

None of them was surprised, they probably received word of her coming here a long time ago . The carpet on the floor was littered with poker cards, she could spot quite a few bottles of alcohol as well .

“Here, follow me . ”

She went up to the second floor with Geunsoo . There wasn"t anyone else inside the villa, they must’ve rented it for the day . Geunsoo knocked on one of the doors located further away from the staircase .

“May we come in?”

“Sure, come inside . ”

She could hear Junmin’s voice inside . Suyeon entered the room with a slight smile, but froze up completely when she saw who else was inside .

“You should say h.e.l.lo . ”

She finally came back to her senses after hearing Junmin’s words and greeted the other man in the room .

“h.e.l.lo, senior Yoon Moonjoong . ”

“You know me?”

“Of course . I was inspired by your performance at the Myungdong Art Theater . ”

To think someone so influential would be here… Aside from him, there was also someone else in the room, he looked to be in his late 20s . The man was looking at her with his hand on his black horn-rimmed gla.s.ses, his gaze didn’t look very kind .

‘Who is it?’

The man couldn’t be someone normal, especially if he was with Junmin and Moonjoong here . Suyeon greeted him with a bright smile .

“h.e.l.lo, I’m actress Kim Suyeon . ”

The man gave her a silent nod .

“Please understand . He just doesn’t like talking . Or maybe he’s embarra.s.sed about talking to pretty girls . ”

“That’s not the case at all . ”

The man refuted Junmin immediately . Suyeon felt her stomach twist inside at the thought of getting ignored, but she still maintained a smile .

“Do you not like me? We could at least trade names . Are you an actor?”

He’d probably be an incredible rookie if he was an actor .

“I’m not an actor . Just a writer . ”

“Writer? Then a scenario . . . ”

“I just published a single book so far . No more, no less . Is that enough?”

“ . . . Um, did I do something wrong by any chance?”

“You didn’t . I just talk like this, so please don’t take offence . Or just ignore me . It’d be better if you don’t talk to me entirely . Since I don’t like talking . ”

The man ended his sentence with the same expression he started speaking with . Wow, this one will be difficult . She didn’t even want to approach him any further, guys like this were hard to take down with just words . She would’ve just ignored him like he said if he was a normal person, but…

‘He has this vibe . ’

The man took a sip from a can of beer in front of him . Suyeon changed targets and asked Junmin a question .

“So who’s this mysterious writer right next to me?”

“The original writer of the movie we’ll be producing . Did you hear of a novel called ‘Twilight Struggles’?”

“I didn’t, unfortunately . ”

Junmin took out a book from his bag . The cover was decorated with black and grey .

“You like books, right?”

“Well, now I do . Should I read it?”

She was getting greedy to read it already, Junmin definitely didn’t call her here for nothing . Perhaps he was thinking of casting her in this film?

“Finish it by tomorrow morning . ”

“You’re too much . It’s 1am, you know?”

“So you aren’t going to read it?”

Suyeon grinned and waved the book in front of her face a little . She didn’t enjoy reading very much, but she still read during her spare time . There were no better tools for self-improvement than books, after all .

“So she’ll be taking on that role?” Moonjoong said .

“No, sir . I’m just taking her out for a test run . You’re going to have a huge say in terms of casting, sir, so please tell me if you happen to have anyone in mind for a role . ”

Suyeon smiled, making sure no one saw her doing it . A movie Moonjoong was starring in, with Junmin as the casting director… This was going to be big . It didn’t even take her a second for her to realize that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance .

“Please take care of me from now on, sir . ”

“I’d have to ask the same of you if we work together from now on, miss . ”

“Please drop the formalities . I want to be adored, too . ”

“Haha . ”

Suyeon bowed at the two teachers and nodded at the young author, the author didn’t even spare her a glance as he continued sipping on his drink . Ah well . It was a shame, but it was about time she left . She closed the door as she exited .

“That guy’s a bit sensitive around people . He’ll at least greet you if you get close with him . ”

“Are you close with that author?”

“I don’t really know . He isn’t very expressive . ”

“I see . Are you partic.i.p.ating in this project as well, by the way?”

“I’m not sure . I’ll consider it when the auditions begin . ”

“So you really came here for a leisurely drive today?”

“I told you from the start . It must’ve sounded like a lie to you, Ms . Suyeon . ”

Suyeon felt thorns coming off of Geunsoo’s voice, he clearly didn’t have a very good impression of her .

‘Maybe he heard rumors about me . ’

She knew she was being called a queen bee behind her back, she didn’t deny it, it was true . Yet the men who knew fell when she approached them, Men were all foolish like that .

“You’re not mad because of it, are you?”

“Of course not . ”

Geunsoo let it pa.s.s smoothly, he was going to be a hard one to tackle . Suyeon followed the man into an empty room .

“There’s not much that’s going to happen till 1 o’clock tomorrow, so please rest . ”

“Doesn’t look like I can even if I want to, because of this . ”

Suyeon lifted her book, garnering a nod from Geunsoo .

“It won’t be boring, at least . ”

Geunsoo slowly closed the door, Suyeon turned on the bedlight and lay down on the bed .

“Alright, let’s take a look,” she said, as she flipped open to the first page .

* * *

Daemyung looked at the clock nervously, it was almost lunch . The teacher was looking at his wrist.w.a.tch from the front of the cla.s.sroom .

“I’ll let you go five minutes early today, so don’t run . Alright?”

“Yes!”

The students in the cla.s.sroom pushed their chair back, getting ready to run . The math teacher organized his textbooks and gestured to the cla.s.s rep . The cla.s.s rep got up and shouted “stand”, which signalled for each chair in the room to sc.r.a.pe against the floor all at once . The math teacher waved at the students with a wry smile .

“Thank you . ”

“No problem . Enjoy your meals . ”

With that, the students ran out of the room . Daemyung immediately turned to look at Maru .

“Let’s go!”

Maru grabbed a large bag next to him and ran out at full speed, Daemyung had to hold his breath as he followed after the boy .

‘Why’s he so fast?!’

Maru zoomed right through the empty hallway, he was so fast that Daemyung immediately lost hope in trying to follow him . He huffed his way down the central stairs as he watched a smaller kid catch up to Maru .

“Let’s go, senior!”

The boy had a ma.s.sive voice . Maru and the small kid ran together, so Daemyung tried to follow behind as much as possible . He heard someone shout ‘don’t run!’ behind them, but Daemyung couldn’t, at least not today . Before they knew it, they were the first students in the cafeteria .

“Alright . Just an hour, Daemyung . ”

“Got it . ”

Maru took out a sign from his bag, the type that you could hang over your neck .

- Acting club . Looking for members . Please take a sheet! First years welcome!

Daemyung stepped forward after hanging it over his neck .

“Senior! My name is Ahn Bangjoo! Please take care of me!”

“Ah, yeah, sure . ”

This must be the junior Maru mentioned this morning, the boy was wearing the same sign as well . Instead of standing like Daemyung, the boy was posed as if he was running somewhere . It seemed hard to maintain balance, but Bangjoo looked confident .

“Alright, then . ”

Maru posed as well . He put the box of paper down in front and reached as if he was picking up money .

“Won’t it be hard, Maru?”

“I can just change my pose a little every once in a while . ”

“Why can’t you just stand…?”

“It’s not impactful that way . But anyway, you guys both remember your actions, right? Do them whenever someone takes one of these . Remember, this is a battle of patience . Try not to move as much as possible . ”

“Got it . ”

“Yessir!”

Daemyung sighed and looked forward, he could see the two goalposts outside the building in front of him . A few minutes later, he started hearing noises coming from his left . There were students running their way .

“They’re coming . Let’s try to get as much attention as possible . Don’t smile . ”

“Y-yeah . ”

He was nervous despite this not being a stage . Daemyung tried to cheer himself up as he told himself that stillness could be more stressful than just moving as Maru told him . Finally…

“Hey! Get my plate too!”

“Got it!”

“First place!”

The others have arrived .