Under normal circumstances he wouldn’t have paid it any mind, but Moon Heesung caught the name whispered urgently as someone brushed past him.
“What? Sinju’s been drinking?”
A man who looked to be of considerable age raised his voice, then immediately glanced around in alarm, as if afraid someone might hear.
“You just let him? Are you insane? Do you know what day it is today?”
Sinju. Yoo Sinju. The actor everyone’s talking about right now.
Yoo Sinju — blessed with looks that seemed divinely given and a natural genius for acting — had been sitting comfortably at the top of the industry for quite some time now. But it wasn’t his popularity or his price tag that made him the hottest topic. It was the incidents and scandals that surrounded him. His attitude and behavior were steadily eating away at the reputation and recognition he’d built up, and he was currently regarded as the biggest problem child in the entertainment industry.
“This is going to drive me insane.”
The man ended his call with a look of complete exasperation and moved quickly. At the two syllables of that name — Sinju — Heesung quietly fell into step behind him. Yoo Sinju had been nominated for Best Actor at today’s film awards. The man rushed to the underground parking garage of the building next door. Moon Heesung followed carefully, making sure not to make a sound.
Once inside the parking garage, the man looked around frantically. It was an unfinished building, so foot traffic was sparse — it seemed he’d come here deliberately. There were only a handful of cars parked. Having taken stock of the situation, the man dropped any pretense of keeping his voice down and erupted.
“Hey, Yoo Sinju! Have you lost your mind?!”
Moon Heesung pressed himself against the corner and peered at the scene while listening to the man’s raised voice.
“Sir, the thing is…”
A younger man who appeared to be a manager stepped forward urgently to hold the older man back. Flushed all the way up to his face, the older man shouted again at someone sitting in the open back seat of a car.
“You — do you have any idea what day today is?!”
“Keep it down…”
“Keep it down? Keep it DOWN? Ha. I can’t believe this.”
“I’m here, aren’t I? If I’m here, isn’t that enough? Hic.”
Moon Heesung’s eyes jolted the moment he spotted the figure crawling lazily out of the back seat. It was only a view from behind, but something about it gave Heesung an eerie sense of familiarity — a tingling that ran all the way to his fingertips.
“Enough nothing — you’re going to the awards ceremony drunk, is that what’s happening right now?!”
“God… a person can have a drink.”
“You’re genuinely going to be the death of me… Why are you like this, Yoo Sinju?!”
“It’s fine. I brushed my teeth. Can’t smell it. Hey — can you smell anything?”
Yoo Sinju swayed on his feet and shoved his open mouth toward the younger man’s face. The man who appeared to be his manager forced his expression into something neutral and smiled awkwardly.
“Ah, no, no… I don’t think so… maybe…”
He said it uncomfortably, sneaking a glance at his superior at the same time.
“See? He says he can’t smell anything—”
“Enough, get in the car. I’ll tell the press and the staff that you’re not feeling well… God. You know you’re getting blacklisted by the film people because of this attitude, right? Best Actor tonight is yours. You understand that? You committed to showing up — that was the arrangement! I’m losing my mind, I really am!”
“I’m going, I said I’m going, didn’t I? Obviously it’s mine. There’s no one in that lineup who can act like me.”
Yoo Sinju swayed and sneered. The director, rubbing his forehead at the sorry sight, shot an urgent look at the manager. Get him in the car and disappear. The manager nodded immediately and moved to support the swaying Sinju and push him back into the car — but Sinju shook his hand off with an irritated flick.
“Ugh — let go! I need to go get my award.”
Heesung exhaled a heavy sigh at the sight of him — glassy-eyed and clearly past the point of drunk. Just as Sinju turned to try to leave, a new set of voices filtered in.
“I’m telling you, there’s a ton of empty units here so parking’s free.”
A group of young men appeared from the direction of the entrance. Heesung instinctively looked toward Sinju. The director had noticed them too — he gestured at the manager with even more urgency. But Sinju, completely drunk and oblivious to everything around him, only shook the manager off more roughly.
“I said let go!”
His shout rang through the empty parking garage. It was more than enough to draw the group’s attention.
“Wait, isn’t that Yoo Sinju?”
And naturally, no ordinary person would fail to recognize an actor who’d been nominated for Best Actor.
“Oh wow, you’re right, it’s Yoo Sinju!”
“No way — hey, let’s get a photo.”
The men who’d recognized his face descended on them with the energy of fish hitting water. Sensing the murmuring, the director hurried to push Sinju and the manager away — but the man in question refused to budge.
“Hurry up and get in the car.”
“Ah, what the f—. I said let go.”
“Please, sir…”
Completely indifferent to the panic of his staff, Sinju kept insisting on going to the awards ceremony. Meanwhile, the uninvited guests closed in like hyenas that had caught a scent.
“Are you… Yoo Sinju, the actor?”
“Could you take a photo with us?”
“You’re even better-looking in person.”
The director, well-versed in these requests, smoothly stepped in front of Sinju and bowed his head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Aw, just one.”
“I’m sorry.”
He declined again, this time with a polite smile.
“Come on, just one shot. It’s not like we’re asking for an autograph.”
“…You know that’s not something we can do.”
“Is he drunk right now?”
One of the men pointed at Sinju — who was swaying and rambling — and asked with an almost innocent curiosity. The director’s face went cold.
“Excuse me, please don’t come any closer…”
As the director gently pushed the men back, one of them muttered under his breath, apparently annoyed.
“…God, so full of themselves.”
“Hey, hey, he can hear you.”
“So what, it’s true. What kind of big deal request was that.”
There was no attempt to hide it — the comments were cutting, and the director’s face grew progressively stonier, though from experience he kept his composure and made to push Sinju back into the car. And then:
“It is a big deal, yeah?”
Sinju, who’d been squabbling with the manager, blinked his bleary, alcohol-glazed eyes and fixed a steady gaze on the man.
“Sorry?”
“I said, I’m a big deal.”
With that pointed, unwavering stare, Sinju made to lunge straight at the man — and the director cried out.
“Hey — stop him—!”
Sinju shoved the manager aside and got right up in the man’s face. The man recoiled at the wave of alcohol hitting him.
“What do you think you’re—, ugh, the smell.”
“Yeah, a very big deal.”
“What?”
“One photo of me going up online alone is worth hundreds of millions. Think you can handle that?”
“Ha, wow — look at this attitude.”
“Hey, hey. Cut it out!”
As the man turned increasingly aggressive, his friends scrambled to intervene. Watching the situation spiral, Moon Heesung trained a troubled gaze on Yoo Sinju. The face is the same as the one I knew — but the face is all I know. The sight of him drunk and making a mess of himself felt like looking at a stranger entirely.
“Would you just stop it already—!”
The group tried to pull their friend back, but he’d had a drink of his own and was using the liquid courage to throw caution to the wind.
“No, let me go. They started it. Damn, just because you’re a celebrity doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want?”
“You were the ones who came running the second you spotted a celebrity.”
Even with his words slurring from the alcohol, Sinju was saying everything he wanted to say. Completely unbefitting of a public figure. The director threw himself into trying to drag Sinju away, but he was nowhere near strong enough to move someone who stood nearly 190 cm.
“Ah, damn it — hey. Hey, film this. I’ll post the whole thing online.”
The man gave a hollow laugh and deliberately opened his phone camera. He turned the flash on and moved to take a photo — and in that moment, Moon Heesung moved.
“I’d put that away.”
The director, squinting against the flash, shouted as he stepped in front of Sinju and shot the manager a look — stop him. But the manager had to keep holding Sinju back, who looked ready to throw a punch at any second. Just then, a pair of sneakers stepped between the two groups, cutting into the director’s frantic line of sight. The director instinctively looked up at Moon Heesung, who had inserted himself between them.
“That’s enough.”
Everyone except Sinju looked up at the unexpected intruder. He was about the same height as Sinju, with long hair falling over his eyes, a cold energy about him, and ugly scarring visible along his bare arms. The atmosphere was unmistakably off — everyone tensed for a moment.
“And who are you, just jumping in out of—”
“Let’s stop this.”
Without any further explanation, Moon Heesung grabbed the man’s hand and squeezed.
“Ugh.”
The man winced and shrank back at the crushing grip. The bluster drained out of him quickly, and he continued with obvious flustered confusion.
“H-hey, they started it first. …Right?”
“Even so.”
“……”
“Let’s stop.”
The man had nothing to say. Moon Heesung’s presence projected a sense of threat without even needing many words. And for starters, just the sight of someone out in this cold wearing nothing but a tight short-sleeved shirt was unsettling enough. Add to that the ugly scarring on those bare arms, and the kind of dense, solid muscle that one man can recognize in another —
The unmistakable air he gave off had the group quietly dragging their friend away.
“Let’s just go—!”
“Ah, damn it… seriously.”
Reluctantly taking his leave, the man shot alternating glares at Sinju and Moon Heesung. Heesung kept his gaze fixed on the group as they disappeared and didn’t turn around once. From behind him came the sound of Sinju shouting after them — hey, where do you think you’re going — but he held firm and kept his head forward.
This wasn’t how he’d planned to run into him.
