MHD - 8

Chapter 8: Heesoo’s Situation

“Heesoo?”

When Jaehyuk called my name and our eyes met, I thought I might stop breathing. The sharp look in his eyes seemed to pierce my heart.

So, when Jaehyuk, ignoring my predicament, stood up and walked away, I actually felt relief. I wouldn’t have to show him how pathetic I had become anymore.

“Son of a bitch, there’s a time and place for this.”

Jaehyuk’s words, as he swung his fist toward Dong-hwan, made me deeply sad. It seemed he still hadn’t forgotten about me.

I tried to pretend not to notice. Hiding my feelings wasn’t difficult. I could just act.

So I acted in front of Jaehyuk. Pretended like it didn’t matter, acted shamelessly.

I wanted Jaehyuk to curse and hate me, then turn his back on me.

Yet, even though I was acting cruelly, even though I was pushing him away…

Jaehyuk’s eyes, filled with anger, turned to resentment, and that resentment turned into a painful plea. Watching him, I wanted to cry.

It would have been easier if he had just been a bad guy.

“Stay with me until morning. If you have even the slightest bit of regret, then do that.”

After everything ended, Jaehyuk whispered.

“Mm? Heesoo, answer me.”

I almost blurted out, “Okay, I will.”

After all, Jaehyuk’s embrace felt so comforting after such a long time, and I liked the way his eyebrows slightly twitched when he looked at me. His sweet, pleading voice was so lovable.

“…Answer me…”

Jaehyuk, who had come straight from the airport after returning from Europe, closed his eyes as he urged me to respond, but soon fell asleep.

I waited by his side, hoping Jaehyuk would sleep even more soundly. Even though I could tell he was quickly slipping into a deep sleep from exhaustion, I couldn’t bring myself to leave.

I felt reluctant. After this night, we might never meet again.

The boy who had once hesitated, constantly trying to read my mood, had turned into a man. That unfamiliar feeling made Jaehyuk seem like a different person.

It was a night of reunion so intense it felt like my whole body was on fire.

My body, which only knew Jaehyuk, was reigniting sensations it had long forgotten, and time seemed to stretch as I burned with desire, following his touch.

So the feeling of longing kept scratching at me, urging me to stay a little longer in his arms.

“It’s not your business.”

As Heesoo picked up the clothes that had fallen on the floor, her hand suddenly trembled.

She recalled the expression on Jaehyuk’s face when he said those words. The moment his helpless smile pierced her heart.

Even though he would surely resent me, how could I not understand that he couldn’t hate me completely?

Maybe I should have spoken more gently. But no, I couldn’t have.

I knew where all these mixed emotions were headed. I would likely, without realizing it, dredge up past memories and resent Jaehyuk.

The things he didn’t even know—things I had buried alone in my heart.

Heesoo let out a short sigh and hurriedly gathered her things. If Jaehyuk woke up, it would be disastrous. He wouldn’t let me go easily.

“…….”

Heesoo, having gathered all her clothes, stopped as she was about to leave the bedroom. She glanced back at Jaehyuk’s face. He had always been a heavy sleeper, and that hadn’t changed.

Heesoo, hesitating in her steps, turned her body and headed towards the desk beside the bed. There, she tore a hotel notepad and quickly wrote a short message.

“Thank you.”

If Jaehyuk hadn’t saved me yesterday, I would certainly be lying in a hospital bed right now. That was what I had hoped for.

Even though Jaehyuk must have felt more resentment than relief, he didn’t act according to his emotions. His desire to protect me was perhaps instinctive.

That was just the way he was.

Heesoo knew very well what Jaehyuk thought of her. He would probably never understand why I had rejected him so vehemently, not until the day he died.

‘Jaehyuk, oppa.’

Heesoo struggled to look away from Jaehyuk, who kept drawing her in.

‘I’m glad I got to see you, even just like this.’

She whispered these words to herself, as if to comfort her own heart, and quietly left the hotel room.

When Heesoo returned home, she buried herself in bed, exhausted. After staying up all night, the soft blankets pulled her in, and she quickly fell asleep.

She curled up, clutching the blanket tightly, but when she opened her eyes again, the room was already dark. The entire day had slipped away in an instant.

Buzz buzz.

As her drowsy mind started to wake, the sound of a vibrating phone echoed in the room.

Heesoo, her eyes scanning the room in search of the sound, turned toward the vanity. Her phone was ringing incessantly inside her bag.

She didn’t need to check the screen to know. Only one person would call that persistently—President Cha.

“…Yes.”

Her voice, hoarse and thick, cracked as it passed through her throat. Her whole body felt heavy, as if soaked in water.

[Hey!]

As soon as she answered the call, President Cha yelled, forcing Heesoo to momentarily pull the phone away from her ear. She sighed deeply and switched the phone to speaker mode.

[What the hell are you doing?]

“…”

[Heesoo, do you have some grudge against me? Are you trying to screw me over?]

“…”

[Do I really have to get a call at the crack of dawn asking me to pay you off?]

President Cha’s voice grew louder as Heesoo’s manager, Yoon Seok, tried to intervene.

[No, President! Heesoo didn’t hit him…]

[Either way, she caused the whole thing, didn’t she?]

Poor Yoon Seok probably didn’t know that I had slapped Baek Dong-hwan twice.

Having seen Jaehyuk pull me away, he was probably just assuming a fight had broken out over a woman inside.

‘Maybe I should’ve just let him grab my hair first…’

If I had stuck to my original plan and gotten beaten up by Baek Dong-hwan, maybe I wouldn’t have had to deal with calls from President Cha.

If I had been beaten to a pulp and sent to the hospital, Cha Joo-won would have turned around and gone after Baek Dong-hwan, tearing him apart. He would have likely drained as much money as possible under the guise of a settlement.

President Cha was a skilled businessman, and I had planned to use that to my advantage.

‘What a waste. If I had been hospitalized, I wouldn’t have to take this call.’

But at this point, the damage was already done.

While President Cha was shouting loudly, Heesoo placed her phone on the bed and covered it with a pillow. She couldn’t stop the flood of his words, but she couldn’t keep listening to them either.

President Cha, who had been ranting without realizing the pillow was pressed under him, seemed to have exhausted himself after a while and lowered his tone. Exactly 23 minutes after making the call.

[Heesoo. I’ve set up the next appointment, so just follow along. Got it?]

“Next... appointment?”

Heesoo felt deflated by President Cha’s words, especially after all the commotion.

[He came to apologize in person and promised that if you did the same, you’d get to audition.]

“President!”

[Are you really raising your voice now? Do you not know how much I bent over backward to cover the cost of the ads canceled because of you? You said you’d take responsibility for it.]

“That’s already been paid off with my own money.”

Cha Joo-won had spread the word that the company was on the brink of collapsing because Heesoo had cleaned up after her mess, but in reality, the penalty fees worth billions had been covered by Heesoo’s entire fortune.

The problem, however, lay elsewhere.

[...Aside from that, what are you going to do about the damage you’ve done to our agency’s image? Do you not realize that other actors in our agency were affected because of you? If you keep this up, I won’t have a choice. I’ll have to file a compensation claim.]

“...”

[And what about your parents’ debt? I won’t ask you to pay it back right away, but at least show some dignity, alright?]

Heesoo bit her lip as she listened to President Cha’s words. Her eyes were trembling.

The business her mother had invested in was a ghost company with no factory. It was a fraudulent venture that tricked people into investing large sums of money by promising a big payoff, only for the owner, who had been sitting as a frontman, to run off with the investment once everything collapsed.

And the person who had convinced her mother to invest in that business was Cha Joo-won.

Cha Joo-won had raged that he had also lost his investment, but Heesoo instinctively knew that was a lie.

But there was no concrete evidence.

It was only after a while that the company’s president, who had claimed he was merely lending his name, was caught, but no one suspected or punished the actual mastermind. What remained was the mountain of debt piling up under Heesoo’s name.

[Don’t you think it’s about time you realized your situation? If you continue down this path and get dragged into another compensation lawsuit, the actress Seo Heesoo will be finished. I’ve put up with it until now because I didn’t want to be the one to ruin you.]

Heesoo felt like she had stepped into a trap.

How could she express the feeling of being aware of someone’s fraud but still falling victim to it?

If Cha Joo-won were standing in front of her now, she might have slapped him without even thinking. At the very least, she would have grabbed him by the collar and demanded to know if he thought she didn’t know what he had orchestrated. But that was just her imagination.

Heesoo sighed deeply and pleaded with President Cha with all the sincerity she could muster.

“President, I’m trying. My symptoms of panic disorder have nearly disappeared. Please help me recover in a legitimate way. I’ll try my best.”

[Are you trying to paint me as a malicious person? What’s strange about asking you to go to the producer and audition for a role?]

“But why do I have to audition at a drinking party...?”

[Hah...]

A deep, frustrated sigh came through the phone, carrying a tone of irritation.

“I haven’t even received any new scripts lately...”

As Heesoo tried to calm President Cha down and express herself more clearly, Cha Joo-won cut her off in a low, chilling voice.

[...Do you really think I’m going to keep your secret forever?]

Heesoo’s hands grew damp as she listened.

That vile bastard—anger surged in her throat.

“Is this your way of threatening me now?”

[If you feel threatened, then that’s fortunate. I thought you’d lost your mind with the way you’ve been acting like a crazy woman, but it seems you still have some sense left, huh?]

“...What is it that you want?”

[Just do as I say. That’s all.]

“President, that’s...”

Click.

Heesoo stared at the phone screen for a long time after the call was abruptly disconnected.