One More Reason Not to Die

"You rascal. What do you take me for?"

Head shaking, CEO Hwang tapped the contract — tap, tap — as though hurrying her along.

"Sir."

When she still refused to budge, clearly resolved not to sign at all, CEO Hwang leaned back deep into the sofa and tried a different tack.

"How old is Jung Ga-yoon this year, hm?"

Why my age, all of a sudden...? It's not as if he doesn't know how old I am. The question came so out of nowhere that her head tilted. CEO Hwang arched a brow, telling her to hurry up and answer.

"Twenty-seven?"

Seemingly satisfied with the answer, CEO Hwang nodded and unleashed an affectionate torrent of nagging.

"Not yet thirty — the age when a man is meant to stand on his own two feet — and still in the flower of her youth, and here she is, stepping up to look after a man past forty, the age he's meant to be past all doubt. Go right ahead, then. Aigoo, I know exactly how much of an old fogey that makes me sound..."

And why, he asked her, did they call forty the age of no doubts in the first place? Because it was the age when a man no longer let the affairs of the world seize his mind and cloud his judgment. That was why.

"A blooming twenty-seven like you should be busy preparing for your own age of standing firm — the one where the heart takes root upon its principles and refuses to be shaken. Don't you go wasting your worry on me."

Min-ji, who had been listening quietly all this while, finally spoke up.

"Wow, that is a truly old-fogey thing to say — but this once, I couldn't agree more."

Then she pressed a fountain pen into Ga-yoon's hand and jabbed her with an elbow, nudging her to sign.

…

Hold on — is this really how this goes? I mean, I'm grateful and all, but... And in her daze, she moved to sign—

"Ah-ah. Seems I taught you for nothing. Even so, a contract is something you go through with a fine-tooth comb. Every last line."

At the stern scolding in CEO Hwang's voice, the corner of Ga-yoon's mouth twitched.

"You do know how to read a contract, don't you?"

Twenty years old. She remembered coming here all alone, with no mother beside her, and signing anyway.

"Good grief. Looks like there's a whole mountain of things left for me to teach you."

CEO Hwang had been her teacher, and her benefactor — never more so than when her widowed mother passed away.

"I'm your guardian now, you hear?"

He had volunteered for the role gladly, seen her mother's funeral through from beginning to end, and then walked her through everything, one thing at a time, watching over her himself.

Which was exactly why she had wanted to keep the damage from spreading any further.

Watching Ga-yoon read the contract with care, CEO Hwang picked the thread back up.

"And another thing. Baek Ga-yoon — she, uh... went for your throat too, didn't she? Why didn't you tell me?"

With a matter this serious, she had half expected an earful.

Perhaps it came from being raised by a widowed mother. The truth was, she was used to handling her problems on her own. Her mother had done her best never to neglect her, but keeping the household afloat kept her terribly busy — so Ga-yoon had grown up early, fiercely independent, and stingy about ever asking anyone for help.

Besides, with every trace of the choking gone — not a single mark left behind — the whole affair was too murky to bring up in the first place.

And yet. There were people willing to protect her even though she was no blood of theirs. Their sincerity was so warm, and she was so grateful for it—

"I'm sorry."

She apologized with all the sincerity she had — pocketing, this time, the excuses. The I only meant to spare you the worry sort could stay unsaid.

"That's right. I did worry, didn't I? I very nearly felt hurt. Don't you hide that sort of thing — you tell me the moment it happens. What's an agency even for, if not to move the second something does?"

"The company may not be big, but I know this industry inside out — no, better than that: I know every way there is to hand malice right back where it came from." And with that, Hwang Mu-jin thumped his chest, bang, bang, brimming with confidence.

"Now then — I'll be keeping an eye on High-Top's movements well in advance. And the two of you will prepare thoroughly for Whistle! Mm!"

"Yes, sir! Understood!"

Min-ji nodded, resolute, and thrust both clenched fists into the air.

I was not alone.

One more reason I couldn't die, then. What a comfort.

At the sight of people who, in her hardest hours, reached out their hands without a moment's hesitation, the bridge of her nose began to sting.

"Thank you."

Resolving that she would succeed and repay this kindness a hundredfold, a thousandfold, Ga-yoon pressed her name into the contract, stroke by careful stroke.

After Jung Ga-yoon and Kim Min-ji left the CEO's office, Hwang clicked his tongue under his breath as he tidied away the freshly signed contract.

"That kid, honestly."

To CEO Hwang, Jung Ga-yoon was a sore spot — an ache he could neither ignore nor bring himself to treat roughly.

He had first laid eyes on her at the audition for Director Jang Mun-seok's The Doll, and it had knocked the wind out of him.

Because she looked exactly like Baek Ga-yoon.

Wasn't there a saying that somewhere out there, every face had its double — a lookalike as uncanny as a doppelgänger? Seeing a girl so startlingly reminiscent of Baek Ga-yoon had churned something in his gut, because it dragged Geum Sa-ra to mind unbidden.

When Hwang had first set foot in the entertainment world, he had been Geum Sa-ra's manager. She was a woman overflowing with ambition. For him, it had been love; for Geum Sa-ra, he had been nothing more than a stepping-stone. And that was how it ended.

CEO Hwang exhaled a long, heavy sigh and gazed out the window.

He had not been able to simply walk past Jung Ga-yoon — a girl who resembled even Geum Sa-ra. It wasn't only the face. Her acting, too, had planted itself squarely in his chest.

"Maybe this is my fault."

It might well be that Geum Sa-ra's hackles had risen at the sight of none other than him — her former lover, of all people — taking an actress who looked just like her daughter under his wing. If High-Top had been deliberately barricading Jung Ga-yoon's path, then part of the blame was his to carry. And knowing Geum Sa-ra, a counter-viral smear campaign would without question detonate right on Whistle's premiere date — which meant he had to prepare thoroughly, starting now.

From that day on, CEO Hwang set to work beneath the surface.

Nearly thirty years in this business — the notion that he had no network to call upon was absurd. Until now, he had believed her lucky break simply hadn't arrived yet. And if that wasn't the reason — then it was his duty to sweep away every obstacle in the road ahead of her.

At a famous aesthetic clinic in Cheongdam, Baek Ga-yoon lay back at her ease, receiving a skin treatment.

"Fortunately, the scar won't show," said Director Kim, one of the most sought-after names in the industry, examining her with a delicate touch.

"Of course it won't. Do you have any idea how much money I've poured into this place?"

Director Kim's face froze for a beat — then smoothed itself carefully back into a smile. "Please do enjoy a massage and a treatment before you go."

Yeah, yeah. Just do your job. Baek Ga-yoon nodded as if bored and flapped a hand.

While the staff moved about quietly to prepare the massage, Baek Ga-yoon's manager, Lee Jeong-han, came in and spoke up.

"She got into Writer Yang Bo-hyun's drama, I hear."

He never said who, but Baek Ga-yoon couldn't have failed to know. She was the one who'd told him to report the moment Jung Ga-yoon landed her next project. And yet—

"What? Writer Yang's drama?"

After all, wasn't he the master of masters — the man who had turned everything from intimate, lyrical works like Like Petals Scattered on the Wind to spectacular genre thrillers like Illogical Thinking into runaway hits?

Shaken by the name of a heavyweight she had never seen coming, Baek Ga-yoon smacked away the hand of the masseuse rubbing her face and bolted upright. The slap cracked loudly through the room. The masseuse, stricken, clutched her stinging hand — then, at one flick of Lee Jeong-han's eyes, quietly withdrew.

With the two of them alone, Lee Jeong-han spoke in an easy tone. "Ga-yoon. Jung Ga-yoon aside, let's get your next project decided."

"It's barely been a minute since my last drama ended and you're already on about the next one? I'm not working for a while." Baek Ga-yoon toyed with the steamed towel that had been wrapped around her hands.

"So she's already been cast? Can't we get it reversed?"

"Ha... What did Jung Ga-yoon ever do to you, that you're this desperate to eat her alive?" Lee Jeong-han said, sounding thoroughly sick of it.

"What's it to you?" Baek Ga-yoon snapped, and flung the pack off her own face. The distance wasn't exactly close, so it sailed through the air and dropped in front of him. With a sigh, Lee Jeong-han bent and picked it up.

"You know how stubborn Writer Yang is about his casting, don't you?"

"Ha, damn it... Then get me the script. And find out who's producing it and where it's airing. Comb through everything — every last corner — for anything we can use against them."

That was Baek Ga-yoon for you: insolent even toward Lee Jeong-han, a man old enough to be her uncle. If anything, having had him at her side since her child-actress days had only erased whatever distance remained.

"Phew..." Dropping the gooey pack onto the trolley, Lee Jeong-han said, "Fine."

Once he found out who was producing it and where it would air, she'd order him to figure out exactly how to trip it up. Telling himself he would have to confer with CEO Geum Sa-ra, Lee Jeong-han slipped out of the massage room.

"We'll pick up where we left off." The masseuse hurried back, laid a fresh pack over the face Baek Ga-yoon had settled onto once more, slicked oil between her palms, and began the massage in slow, gentle strokes.

Baek Ga-yoon closed her eyes — and from a quiet corner of the massage room, a fist-sized shadow darted up into the air.

Rustle, rustle—

The evil spirit serving as Jung Ga-yoon's eyes went flitting about the room.

Then — a twitch—

The instant the evil spirit clamped to Baek Ga-yoon moved to heave up its colossal frame—

—and the snickering spirit that was Jung Ga-yoon's eyes melted smoothly out of sight.

When Jung Ga-yoon opened her eyes, the evil spirit she had sent to watch Baek Ga-yoon was circling around her.

"Did it notice you?"