Episode 50

“So-hyeon, Get in.”

“Oh, you climbed a mountain? Impressive.”

So-hyeon confidently got into the car as if it was her own.

“Hey, you guys, I’ll go ahead! Let’s continue our chat on KakaoTalk. Close the car, Driver Ryu.”

“What? Driver Ryu?”

Seeing Yeon-woo’s puzzled expression, So-hyeon laughed, knowing that she was playing a prank.

“Take care of So-hyeon friends, and make your way home safely.”

“Okay, Oppa.”

“Awesome.”

Yeon-woo opened the driver’s side door, got into the car, and the red sports car roared to life.

Meanwhile, the delinquent friends who were shocked by the unexpected sight in the corner of the parking lot exchanged bewildered glances and mumbled.

“Is this for real?”

Yeon-woo’s car smoothly headed home.

“Wow, Oppa, you know how to drive?”

“Yeah, I practiced.”

For about 20 years?

Yeon-woo spent two days with his family at home and then returned to Seoul, driving his car.

Upon arriving in Seoul and heading to his apartment, Yeon-woo’s smartphone rang.

– Ding. –

‘Hmm? It’s Senior Ma?’

Yeon-woo saw the name on his phone and answered the call.

“Yes, Senior Ma.”

[Oh, Yeon-woo, are you resting well?]

“Haha, yes. I just got back to Seoul after visiting my parents’ house.”

[Oh, really? By any chance, do you like camping?]

Yeon-woo was taken aback by the unexpected topic.

“Camping?”

Was digging a trench for a week in the mangrove forest to track illegal arms trading by a Burmese rebel group considered camping?

It’s somewhat similar, starting a fire, getting bitten by mosquitoes, and sleeping in the rain.

Yeon-woo pondered for a moment before responding.

“Well, I’ve done something similar a few times.”

[When I have outdoor shoots, I usually go camping the day before. I called to see if you’d like to join me. I’m not forcing you, of course.]

Ma Seok-do, who had become quite close to Yeon-woo while filming the current movie, didn’t sound like he was forcing him, but there was a hint of expectation in his voice.

“Sure, Senior. Let’s go camping and have a drink.”

[Really? Haha, great. I’ll prepare the whole set. Just send me your address.]

“If you send me the address, I’ll head to your place. Should I park there, and drive with your car?”

Yeon-woo disconnected the call and got back into his car to head to the given address. Before leaving, he called Min-soo.

“Min-soo hyung, I’m with Senior Ma today…”

[“Sure, Yeon-woo. I’ll make sure to pick you up tomorrow at the right time.]

After ending the call, Yeon-woo drove to Ma Seok-do’s house. Ma Seok-do warmly greeted him at his doorstep. Yeon-woo parked his car, and they both got into Ma Seok-do’s car.

The backseat and the trunk were piled high with camping gear.

“Wow, is all of this camping equipment?”

“I always carry it around, just in case. I love going camping whenever I have the chance.”

Ma Seok-do seemed thrilled at the idea of camping with Yeon-woo.

“Senior, you drive this car too. Jin-yuk hyung has a similar car.”

“Son Jin-yuk? It seems like many celebrities have this car.”

Ma Seok-do laughed and shifted gears as the car headed towards a camping place in Incheon.

While Ma Seok-do was driving towards Incheon, he asked Yeon-woo.

“Yeon-woo, have you ever tried live streaming on SNS?”

“Live streaming? No, I haven’t! I’ve only recently started using SNS.”

“Really? When I go camping, I sometimes do live streams to interact with fans. How about giving it a try?”

Yeon-woo had been busy with filming recently, and he realized that he hadn’t been using SNS as much as he should for fan interaction.

“Well, I’d like to. Interacting with fans is really important to me.”

They are the people who support and love what he does without any conditions.

“Then, since I haven’t done it before, so I’ll let you senior handle it naturally when we start.”

“Sure, I’ll turn it on during dinner. We’ll be grilling Galbi (Korean barbecue) in the evening.”

Yeon-woo heard Ma Seok-do, he accessed the fan cafe on his smartphone, starting to write his first post.

‘Okay, that should be enough.’

He wrote a post about going camping with Senior Ma and planning to interact with fans during the live stream in the evening. It was his first post on his official account since the fan cafe was created.

The fan cafe erupted with excitement, especially because of the SNS live broadcast announcement.

“Phew, we’ve arrived.”

“Is this the place, Senior?”

Yeon-woo and Ma Seok-do open the car doors and got out in the parking lot.

“Now, we need to move our stuff to the deck, but the luggage cart…”

“Oh, there it is.”

Yeon-woo dashed to one side of the parking lot, where he spotted a large camping trailer.

“Wow, isn’t that heavy?”

While they were tidying up the luggage in the trunk, Ma Seok-do ran over to Yeon-woo when he saw him.

“It’s okay, Senior Ma.”

Yeon-woo was trying to help, but Ma Seok-do rushed in to assist him.

“All right, how about we share the load and bring them over?”

“Which ones should we take out? We won’t use all of them, right?”

Yeon-woo looked at the packed camping equipment in the back seat and trunk and asked.

“Well, we could use it all if we wanted to. Let’s start with the essentials and take out what we need later.”

Opening the trunk, Ma Seok-do handed over the necessary items, and Yeon-woo transferred them to the cart.

“Is this enough?”

With a firm click, Ma Seok-do closed the trunk. Yeon-woo, remembering a scene from the early part of “Master Plan”, couldn’t help but chuckle and delivered a line.

“Who is this? Did you lock the trunk?”

It reminded him of a scene from his role as Pierre Choi.

“Oh, the trunk. The trunk.”

Ma Seok-do’s playful response made them both burst into laughter.

Yeon-woo had definitely become more cheerful and mischievous since taking on the role of Pierre Choi.

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***

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A man seated at a desk with a creaky voice spoke up.

“These days, the business world seems a bit lackluster.”

A man sitting in front of him bowed his head.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize all the time, it’s not good.”

The bowing man continued to lower his head in silence.

“Let’s try bringing in some new blood. These old-timers have nothing better to do than run the washing machines.”

“Yes, understood.”

The man who had been making reports stood up, opened the door, and dialed a number according to the notes in his notebook.

Meanwhile, at a building in Gangnam.

The office of Plus Ten Entertainment.

“Yes, understood. I will look into it. Yes, yes.”

The man on the other end of the call responded with a face full of frustration.

“Ugh. I should have never let them set foot here. F**k.”

After hanging up, he forcefully tossed his smartphone onto the sofa.

His nameplate read ‘Plus Ten Entertainment CEO Byun Hak-gyu’.

– Ring… Ring… –

[Sir, Jeong Soo-yeon is here.]

“Tell her to come in.”

– Creak… –

With the sound of the door, Jeong Soo-yeon entered the CEO’s office.

“Hello, Sir.”

“Ah, come on in and have a seat.”

Picking up the smartphone he had carelessly thrown onto the sofa, he gestured to Jeong Soo-yeon to sit down. As soon as Jeong Soo-yeon sat down, he immediately got to the point.

 

During the explanation, Jeong Soo-yeon’s expression turned stiff.

“So, you mean to say that you want me to entertain them?”

“No, you learned nothing. I’ve been explaining this, haven’t I? It’s not entertainment, we’re just providing a good opportunity for socializing. These are people who could help you in your acting career.”

Jeong Soo-yeon rose from the sofa with a cold, unyielding expression.

“I wil pretend that I didn’t hear anything. I’m sorry, Sir.”

“This is just the beginning, and you’re already losing it. Do you think you can succeed without me? Don’t ignore everything and ignore me too!”

CEO Byun, who had been getting angrier since receiving the call, vented his anger towards Soo-yeon.

In response, Soo-yeon gave him a sharp look. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“I never imagined you would act like this. I half expected it after hearing what my sister Joo-young said while I was a high school student two years ago.”

“What?”

CEO Byun’s eyes widened as he realized that the name of an aspiring actor he had tried to connect with a high-ranking figure was mentioned.

“…But I’ve known the company since I was a child, and you, the CEO, told me to call you uncle since I was a child.”

With tears streaming down her face, Jeong Soo-yeon stared at the CEO fiercely.

“I never expected you to act like you’ve been waiting for me since I became an adult.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Jeong Soo-yeon turned and walked towards the office door.

Seemingly weakened, she stumbled slightly.

“You, you… After raising you all this time, you come out like this? You still have over two years left in your contract. During that time, you won’t have a career. Do you understand? What’s so hard about having a drink?”

From behind, CEO Byun yelled angrily, mixed with frustration. Jeong Soo-yeon bit her lip hard in response.

“…Having a drink won’t be the end of it. If this is what a dirty career looks like, I won’t be an actor.”

– Thud… –

Soo-yeon came out of the office and encountered her startled secretary.

“Are you surprised? I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no.”

A single tear rolled down her cheek.

She left the entertainment company’s building without hesitation, leaving behind her regrets.

“Haah…”

Soo-yeon let out a sigh. She walked aimlessly because she felt that if she stood still for too long, tears would burst forth.

Kim Joo-young, her sister and the only person she could trust and rely on in the company, had said whenever Soo-yeon complained that one day such a day would come for her too.

‘When I was a minor and couldn’t meddle in company affairs, I wanted to establish a more secure position as an actress.’

Was it for that reason that her face darkened when she felt that she was going to be rejected after the ‘Summer Promise’ audition? She had shown good performances as a child actor in several movies, but apart from that, she had only a little-known web drama to her name.

Of course, not everyone in the entertainment industry is like this, but Soo-yeon believes that she made a mistake from the very beginning. Her parents would be extremely disappointed and sad, but she couldn’t complain. Moreover, since she had been living in society from a young age, she didn’t have a close friend to confide in.

“So, did Sister Joo-young hold me back for this reason?”

When she was young, she had her parents, her strong support, who would step in when someone troubled her.

However, as she started her social life, the world around her grew so vast that her parents’ protection became insufficient. She became accustomed to quietly enduring it herself.

Taking care of her wounded heart and sometimes feeling proud of her growth, she was used to comforting herself. But on days like today, she longed to confide in someone and share her worries with them. She was overwhelmed by loneliness and sorrow.

Sitting in a subway station, she endlessly scrolled through her smartphone’s contacts. There were so many ‘friends’ in her phone, yet she found it ironic that she had no one to talk to. After scrolling through the contacts for a while, her slender white finger stopped.

The world around her seemed to waver like a mirage, and she had never done this before, especially under these circumstances. But a worry had emerged in her heart.

“We’re not even that close. It’s probably ridiculous…”

She didn’t expect any solutions. She just felt that sharing her current story with someone, even a little bit, would make her feel better.

After hesitating for a while, she finally gathered the courage to press the call button.

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***

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Yeon-woo and Ma Seok-do were resting in their camping chairs, having carried all the camping equipment. As they felt the breeze, they gradually began to feel drowsy.

Ma Seok-do had already fallen into a light nap, and Yeon-woo was still awake, enjoying the gentle wind.

– Ding. –

Suddenly, Yeon-woo’s smartphone rang.

‘Hmm?’

It was an occasional exchange of messages with a friend, Jeong Soo-yeon. They had exchanged numbers but had never actually talked.

‘What’s going on?’

Curious, he answered the call.