“Rather than a company problem I don’t know, Lee Songha’s problem is much more important to me.”

“You bastard, you’re going too far! Why are you bringing up the past?!”

The past?

“It’s better for Lee Songha if we just gloss past this without digging further! She’s doing a project right now anyways! Everything’s good now, so why are you annoying me about this?!”

I clenched my fist.

If I was a more impulsive person, I might have already thrown a punch at him.

Director Park from twenty years in the future said that Lee Songha began acting past her thirties.

If I hadn’t seen that future and if, through overlapping fate, coincidences or whatever, Lee Songha didn’t begin acting, then she might have wasted ten years due to that ridiculous trauma.

The twenty-year-old Lee Songha I knew greatly enjoyed acting and put in endless effort into it to do better. How would those ten years look like for the Lee Songha I didn’t know? When I thought about that, I didn’t want to hear his bullshit any longer.

“As someone who is called a professor, you shouldn’t speak like that.”

I quit trying to maintain my expression.

I stopped thinking about what I should say.

Everything progressed naturally.

*

Shim Kyungtaek was sitting awkwardly as he gazed at the youth in front of him.

He didn’t even remember his name. If that man didn’t create such a huge accident, he wouldn’t have even talked with him for this long.

Until now, he had thought he was a dimwit that flapped his tongue around reporters. If he sent him and the one he shared the secret with to W&U, they would eventually clean up the mess themselves, and he would never have to see this idiot again.

Although he had originally thought this, he felt something was strange when the youth’s expression changed.

The guy, who had kept rolling his vacant eyes, suddenly looked back at him as if he was someone who was very experienced in this industry.

“Why did you do that to Songha? For what reason? For whom?”

The slow-talking youth took out his phone. He played a video and placed it down in front of Shim Kyungtaek. The side of someone’s face appeared on the small screen.

It was Lee Songha.

He could clearly hear the pages of the script flipping and the dialogue. It was a video taken during a script reading session.

“Wh-why are you show-“

Before he could finish his question, the youth smiled as he said,

“Isn’t she good? When I first saw Lee Songha act, I thought all actors would be like that when I saw them up close, but that wasn’t the case. The actors in the script reading session, the director and even a veteran actress with tens of years of experience. Everyone besides you said she was a natural.”

Shim Kyungtaek couldn’t take his eyes of Lee Songha’s acting on the screen. It was like discovering a doll he had crushed so that it could never stand back up then thrown away had come back completely intact. It was difficult to endure the uncomfortable feeling.

A smooth yet cold voice burrowed into his ears.

“If I were you, I’d feel a little urgent. Even right now, the reporter is probably suspicious whether your abuse was intentional or not, and if this appears in the press, it will be impossible to deal with the aftermath. As you probably know, this…”

The youth’s lips curled upwards.

“Is a story reporters will go crazy for.”

“You, you…”

Shim Kyungtaek’s eyes reddened.

He was right. There would be nothing they could do if an article was published. He had experienced this industry long enough to know this. An article about Lee Songha would be like throwing fire at a dry stack of straws. It would burn up instantly, and they couldn’t even think about dealing with that aftermath.

Both himself and his student who asked him to.

As if he read his discomposure, the youth said in a persuading manner,

“That’s why, isn’t it better to tell me the problem the company doesn’t know and persuade me? If the article explodes, I’ll just remain as an ignorant manager who caused a mess, but for you, a professor, it seems it’ll leave quite the scar.”

“You bastard, are you threatenin-!”

“Threatening you?”

The youth laughed strangely.

“I never threatened anyone before.”

He then stopped laughing.

A heavy silence hung in the air. The youth stared at him and said,

“But I think I can.”

*

It was quicker than I thought.

I meant getting Teacher Shim Kyungtaek to say Son Chaeyoung’s name. Unexpectedly, Teacher Shim Kyungtaek didn’t seem to worry much about revealing Son Chaeyoung’s name. He was thinking more about how to silence the reporter.

Well, that wasn’t hard since there never was a reporter to silence.

Teacher Shim Kyungtaek was calling someone on his phone as he said,

“I told you before, it would have been better if you just glossed over it without knowing. You’ll see what I mean by that…”

I didn’t reply and left the school.

After having obtained what I wanted, I didn’t want to see his face any longer.

After walking a while, I leaned against a tree on the street. Then I checked the audio recording of Teacher Shim Kyungtaek’s words and sent it to Kim Hyunjo.

Since I received a call right away, I briefly explained the situation.

Son Chaeyoung suffered from stress after seeing Lee Songha act and requested Teacher Shim Kyungtaek to take action. Then Teacher Shim Kyungtaek, to protect his prized star student, cut the bud known as Lee Songha so that she wouldn’t grow anymore.

At first, I heard foul language coming from the phone, but around the middle, it became silent.

We decided to meet and discuss things with the team 3 leader and Lee Songha a bit later and hung up.

I shoved my hands in my coat pockets and quickly entered the fray of people. The early winter wind scratched past my face.

Did I only need to wait for the higher ups to come to a decision now?

I had reached my original goal. To expose the awkward suspicion I had. To catch Teacher Shim Kyungtaek and drag Son Chaeyoung’s name out from him.

After slowly walking for a bit, I recalled what had happened.

I threatened someone, didn’t I?

To be honest, I felt a bit weird. It wasn’t because I threatened someone but because it didn’t seem like much.

Instead, I didn’t want to think about what might have happened next. I might have use fouler language than the ones he said to Lee Songha or even have asked Reporter Park Woojeong to expose Son Chaeyoung’s selfish actions to the press.

That was if I was in a position like CEO Baek Hansung or myself twenty years in the future, who could take these actions, and not simply a manager.

On my way back to the company, I bought a tiramisu cake the size of a head to give to Lee Songha. I wanted to give her something delicious to eat before she learned of what kind of dirty, selfish exchange occurred behind the incidents causing her trauma.

If she learned of the truth, then she would more shocked and angrier than I was.

Though, knowing her, I wasn’t sure if she would quietly bury it in her heart.

When I entered the meeting room, I saw Lee Songha, who had arrived ahead of me. It seemed she thought we were going to talk about her drama as she held the Cat Guardian Ghost script in her hands. Well, maybe not since she did bring that around with her wherever she went these days.

“You came?”

“Yeah. Eat this before the chief and team 3 leader arrive.”

When I handed her the cake, her expression brightened. Although there wasn’t much time before the appointed time, it was more than enough for Lee Songha to finish off this cake.

“Do I eat this all by myself?”

When I nodded my head, Lee Songha quickly unboxed the cake. Then she stared at the cake sprinkled with a fresh layer of cocoa powder. Some might think that she was appreciating at a work of art.

With one hand holding a cake knife and the other holding a fork, it looked like she was thinking about something before placing the knife down. Then she used the fork to dig into the center of the cake. A piece of the cake dangerously wavered on top of her fork.

It was the moment Lee Songha shoved the fork into her mouth with an expectant face.

The meeting room door abruptly opened, and two people entered in.

They weren’t Kim Hyunjo and the team 3 leader we were waiting for but Son Chaeyoung and Chief Jo.

She didn’t look like she came here to apologize.

Lee Songha, who was eating the cake, glanced at Son Chaeyoung before immediately getting in front of me. As if contemplating whether he should stop Son Chaeyoung or not, Chief Jo stood hesitantly before firmly closing the door in the end.

Son Chaeyoung asked in a tone that seemed like she would slap my cheek,

“What did you say to Teacher Shim? Who are you to threaten Teacher Shim?!”

Didn’t they call this ‘the crook accusing a law-abiding citizen of a crime’^{1}?

I was so dumbfounded that a laugh escaped my lips.

“You’re laughing?”

What happened next occurred in a few moments.

Son Chaeyoung swung her hand as if she was really trying to slap my cheek. While wondering whether she would actually go through with it, I leaned my head back to avoid it at the last instant. Lee Songha, who was more surprised than I was, threw her fork and stood up.

The usually calm Lee Songha’s eyes flared with rage.

Then, before I could stop her, of course, I didn’t want to either, she grabbed the cake with her bare hands and threw it at Son Chaeyoung’s face.

^{1} So I couldn’t think of an English equivalent so I kept it a little more literal than I would have liked.