MTLNOVEL Chapter 7
Episode 7
7. First Day 5
When I got back to the filming site, Yujin’s shoot had just finished.
I took the chance to check my diary.
[Everyday V10]
[Date: December 12, 2019]
– PM 05:30
(Deleted schedule: Kang Dong Kyung Hee University Hospital funeral hall. Miso died.)
The event saying Miso would die had finally disappeared from my diary.
“Phew.”
I could finally let out a sigh of relief.
As I checked my diary, Yujin waved at me and ran toward the parking lot.
“Yunho oppa~! Miso~!”
I put my phone in my pocket and got out of the car with Miso to greet her.
“Did everything go well with filming?”
“Yes! Of course!”
Yujin made a V sign with her fingers.
She said she finished filming without a single mistake.
Good job, my actress.
“What about the coffee?”
“Oh! I gave the whole thermos to Writer Kim Solip. She really liked it! Oppa, your coffee is amazing!”
“That’s nothing. Next time, I’ll show you what real good coffee tastes like.”
“Oooh, I’m looking forward to it!”
As Yujin smiled brightly, she noticed Miso hiding behind me.
“Miso, why are you hiding behind your uncle?”
“Well… I was supposed to stay at kindergarten, but I didn’t listen. I did something wrong.”
Miso fidgeted with her fingers, looking sad.
Now that she saw Yujin, she must have remembered her mistake.
Such a sweet kid.
“Hmm. Then our Miso… needs to be scolded, right?”
“Uh… yeah.”
When Yujin pretended to be angry, Miso shrank down, waiting to be scolded.
But at that moment…
Yujin suddenly smiled and said,
“But today, auntie is in such a good mood, so I’ll forgive you! But next time, you have to listen, okay?”
Miso’s face instantly brightened.
“Really?”
“Instead, you promise not to do it again?”
“Yes! I’m sorry, auntie! I won’t do it again!”
“Now, let’s make a promise!”
“Promise!”
“Thumbprint seal too!”
“Seal! Press!”
Yujin, who was 23 years old, and Miso, who was 6 years old, were actually mother and daughter.
But outside, to keep it a secret, they always acted like aunt and niece.
Seeing the two of them so happy made me smile without realizing it.
Good job, Yunho.
You died and came back. You worked hard to save them.
And I promised that even if fate tried to interfere again, I wouldn’t give up.
As long as I could see moments like this, nothing was impossible.
Now, only one schedule was left.
After today, I would go back to my small apartment, drink a cold beer, and stretch my legs out to sleep.
A reward for coming back to life and saving them.
“Alright, shall we go visit the broadcast station?”
“Yes~!”
I took them both and drove to MBS Broadcasting Station.
* * *
Because Yujin had done well in her shoot, she was confident. The last schedule at MBS also went smoothly.
Yujin’s role was just for decoration.
She didn’t even have a microphone. She was just a guest sitting and smiling for the camera.
But thanks to her bright smile, the PD even asked her to come back next week.
And now, we were eating dinner at a restaurant called Grandma’s Original Gamjatang in front of the MBS station.
Since Miso loved Korean food, I quickly changed our reservation from Pizza Hut to this place.
I scooped some steaming hot gamjatang into bowls and placed them in front of Yujin and Miso.
“Thank you, Uncle Yunho!”
“Oppa, I’ll serve yours for you!”
Even though Yujin was an actress now, she still acted like a normal person, offering to serve me food.
“No need. Celebrities shouldn’t do things like this. Just leave it to the manager.”
Compared to the arrogant stars at Top Entertainment, Yujin was an angel.
As I served the food, I carefully brought up the gas leak accident.
“Our house had a gas leak?”
“Yeah. So, I think we should stay at a motel tonight. You don’t have any plans tomorrow anyway.”
“I didn’t even know…”
“It’s fine. The leak was small, and we stopped it quickly. The firefighter said it wasn’t serious enough to start a fire.”
Since the news would probably exaggerate things, I told her to only trust what I said.
Yujin nodded and looked at Miso.
“Miso, are you okay?”
“Yes! I’m fine. But this gamjatang is really delicious!”
Miso had already finished all the food on her plate and even drank all the soup.
“Uncle! Can I have one more bowl?”
Miso held out her empty plate with both hands.
“Of course! I’ll give you as much as you want.”
I started piling up Miso’s plate with gamjatang.
As the meat stacked higher and higher, Miso let out amazed gasps.
“Wow! Wow! Uncle Yunho is the best!”
Even at this moment, Yujin kept checking on Miso.
She only relaxed after making sure Miso was completely fine.
Then, Yujin looked at me with teary eyes.
“Oppa… thank you, really. If something had happened to Miso, I don’t know what I would have done.”
Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at her food.
Since there were a lot of people in the restaurant, I quickly changed the topic.
“It’s okay. It wasn’t a big deal. But shouldn’t you call the landlady?”
“Oh, right! I should call her.”
After finishing her call, Yujin let out a relieved sigh.
But then…
Yujin suddenly grabbed my right hand tightly and lowered her head.
“Please keep our Miso safe, and help me become successful too~.”
Wait a second.
Are you… making a wish right now?
At that moment, even Miso grabbed my left hand and started copying her mom.
“Uncle Yuno, please don’t get sick, and don’t let my aunt get sick, and don’t let me get sick either.”
At that moment, all the other customers in the restaurant turned to look at us.
“Hey, people are staring. Stop it.”
Since both of them were clinging to me and begging, it must have looked strange.
Sure enough, one of the customers slowly lifted their phone.
‘I’m not a bad person!’
I shouted that in my head and quickly spoke to them.
“Yujin, since we finished filming safely today, how about we take a picture? Miso, you too!”
“Yes~!”
Yujin and Miso smiled and came closer to me.
When the three of us smiled and took a selfie together, the people around us finally relaxed and went back to eating their gamjatang.
Click!
I let out a sigh of relief and checked the photo.
But the moment I saw it, I couldn’t help but smile.
Yujin was smiling with tears dried on her face. Miso was beaming while holding a pork bone in her right hand. I, now 26 years old again, was also smiling happily.
‘Yeah, just for today. Just for today, let’s be happy like this.’
Then—
Bzzzzzzzz!
My phone suddenly vibrated loudly, breaking my thoughts.
[Missed Calls: 12]
[Caller: Manager Kim Dogsu]
‘Why is he calling?’
But the moment I saw the flood of messages, I understood why.
[Kim Dogsu: Hey, where are you?]
[Kim Dogsu: Hey! You were in Cheonho-dong earlier, right?]
[Kim Dogsu: Are you lying to me right now?]
[Kim Dogsu: If you don’t want to get fired, get to the office right now!]
Looks like my crazy day isn’t over yet.
* * *
I drove Yujin and Miso to my studio apartment in Jamsil.
I thought about letting them stay at a motel, but after everything that happened today, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving them in an unfamiliar place.
From the backseat, Yujin asked with a worried expression.
“Oppa, are you okay? Manager Kim Dogsu seemed really angry.”
“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
I answered calmly, but it was true that things had gotten a little messy.
Just now, I got a video from my colleague, Lee Young-jin.
It was from the KBC 9 o’clock news, and my face was on it.
[KBC 9 o’clock News – (Exclusive) Cheonho-dong Gas Explosion Prevented]
(Anchor) A major gas explosion was almost triggered in Cheonho-dong this afternoon. Thanks to a brave citizen’s report, the gas leak was detected early…
They only put a thin mosaic over my eyes, so anyone from my company could recognize me.
I never expected Jang Moon-gi to send the photo to a broadcasting station instead of his own newspaper.
It feels like I just swallowed a whole bowl of shaved ice.
Just wait, Jang Moon-gi.
Yujin, who had been watching me, spoke carefully.
“Oppa, I know where your place is, so just give me the keys. Drop us off here and go straight to the company. What if you really get fired?”
Her kindness made my heart ache a little.
But as a manager who had lived this life once before, this was nothing to me.
“Don’t worry about it. But Yujin, even if you keep saying you’ll diet ‘starting tomorrow,’ you’re an actress now. Once today’s ‘Morning Has Come’ episode airs, people will recognize you on the street. You need to take care of yourself. I saw you eating too much fried rice earlier. You need to cut down on carbs.”
When I pointed out that she ate three servings of fried rice in the gamjatang broth, Yujin covered her ears with both hands.
“Ughhh! I can’t hear you! I can’t hear you!”
“I know you can hear me.”
“Tch. Nagging again. You always tell me to lose weight. And just because I show up on TV once doesn’t mean I’ll become a star. If that were true, everyone in Korea would be famous, right?”
To be honest, it’s really hard to make it big.
But Yujin, I know that you’ll do better than anyone else.
Even if you don’t want to, you’re headed straight for stardom.
At that moment, Miso, who had been watching, started digging through her pocket and pulled something out.
It was a small sticker, about the size of two 500-won coins, shining in a pink glow.
“Uncle Yunho, I really love this one. Here, put this on.”
It was a glow-in-the-dark sticker featuring a character from the famous cartoon The Powerpuff Girls.
“Thank you. But if you put it on me yourself, I think I’ll feel even stronger.”
Miso carefully placed the sticker on the back of my right hand with her tiny fingers.
“Here you go!”
Tap tap.
“Wow~! I feel so strong now!”
The bright pink glow was really noticeable, so I was a little embarrassed.
But it wasn’t a lie—I actually felt more energized.
Miso, proud of her work, stretched her right hand above her head and shouted.
“Powerpuff! Give Uncle strength!”
Oh, is that her little chant?
I joined in, copying her.
“Powerpuff!”
Not wanting to be left out, Yujin also raised her right hand.
“Powerpuff!”
After dropping them off at my apartment, I drove straight to the office.
*.*.*
[Gulreongsoe Entertainment]
Gulreongsoe Entertainment was a 10-year-old company founded by the legendary manager Kang Gamchan and Lee Ki-chul, a manager from the Seoul Arts University network.
The actual work was handled by General Director Kang Ji-young, the daughter of CEO Kang Gamchan.
At first, I thought she was just some nepotism hire, but it turns out she used to work at K-NET Entertainment and helped them climb ten ranks in the industry.
She was only 33 but had both strong business skills and personal connections—she even drank with the CEOs of Korea’s top three broadcasting stations.
Under her, the company was divided into three acting departments and two music departments.
The first acting division managed top stars.
The second acting division, where I worked, mainly handled rookies and supporting actors.
And the third acting division was created when Kim Dogsu got promoted.
The third division had ten actors.
All of them were famous, but they had terrible personalities and constant scandals.
And in about three years, Kim Dogsu would use these actors’ fame to attract investors, take over a large part of Gulreongsoe, and create Top Entertainment.
Right now, he’s probably already working on recruiting people to his side.
But this time, I’m going to stop it.
As I thought about that, I arrived at the company in Apgujeong.
Dun dun~ dun dun~ dun dun dun dun~ dun.
In the elevator, the theme song from Jaws played in the background.
Ding.
The elevator stopped on the 6th floor.
In front of the meeting room, the managers from the second and third acting divisions were glaring at each other like they were about to fight.
Na Gyu-chul, a team leader from the third division, was the first to notice me and sneered.
“Oh, it’s Star Jung.”
Star Jung?
I realized they were mocking me for appearing on TV before my actors did.
“You were too busy to follow orders, but you had time to go to Cheonho-dong? Are you crazy or just stupid?”
“Hey, Star Jung, you looked great on TV. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were a celebrity.”
“A first-year manager acting all high and mighty.”
The managers from the third division all sneered.
But I didn’t mind.
Actually, I kind of liked the nickname Star Jung.
Maybe I’ve become more tolerant since coming back in time.
“I’ll go in now, seniors.”
I gave them a polite nod and walked into the meeting room, where Kim Dogsu’s angry voice was already ringing out.
It was time to face him.