The Gunshot That Ruined Everything

Yoo Hyun heard the distinct gunshot.

He was running away alone, leaving behind the alcohol, drugs, the gun, and the ability user with the bizarre leash.

That was the moment he realized someone had died in his place.

Without any reward for his escape, he circled the building as if his feet were bound, desperately waiting for police cars to arrive.

In that cold dawn, without a coat or proper shoes, thinking back now, he must have looked a frightful mess, terrified of being discovered by anyone.

“I never said someone died.

Because I didn’t see it.

On the contrary, I asked the police if someone had died, heard they had, and I just gave my statement based on what I saw and heard.”

Since he had seen Choi Jong-ik being taken away with his own two eyes, Yoo Hyun didn’t even dare entertain the thought of connecting that incident to his misfortune.

At first, he simply thought things weren’t working out.

Broadcasting schedules were canceled for unknown reasons, and variety show appearances were scrapped one after another, days apart.

Baseless rumors of unknown origin kept circulating online, those rumors were turned into articles without any filtering, and because of that, all his scheduled ads, dramas, and movies were dropped.

Even then, like a hiker preparing to descend a mountain, he humbly accepted that it was time for things to cool down since they had been inexplicably good for so long.

He couldn’t stay at the top forever.

That was, until he received the suspicious messages from an unknown number, which he initially brushed off as sasaeng fan messages.

In other words, until that point, he never dreamed that someone’s deliberate intent could be involved.

[Hyung is really angry]

[So you better be reflecting]

[I’ll check how much you’ve reflected next time]

[If I feel your sincerity, hyung will get you one or two ads back]

After learning the full story, just thinking of Choi Jong-ik’s name made his skin crawl.

Yet, Yoo Hyun did nothing.

He simply ignored it.

While blaming his past self, who, despite occasionally being made uncomfortable, had mingled with him now and then under the guise of being an acquaintance.

Yoo Hyun-ah.

Choi Jong-ik acted friendly, stepping right up to Yoo Hyun’s face.

“Shall hyung and I make a bet?

How long you can last without me.”

“…….”

“My friends who were there that day are also really mad at you.

They’re holding quite a grudge.”

“…….”

“Hyung is still on the kinder side, but hyung’s friends are all scary, right?

Guys who enjoy ruining people for fun, and now they hold a grudge against our Yoo Hyun-ah, so it won’t be easy, right?

They’ll take everything and then take more.

When there’s nothing left to take, they’ll make you spit it out, and if there’s nothing to spit, they’ll make you vomit it.

That’s their specialty.

They were born not knowing satisfaction.”

“…….”

“You saw it that day, right?

Selling your body doesn’t discriminate by background?

Even those supposedly great ability users sell their bodies when the money runs out.

That’s the world, Yoo Hyun-ah.”

You did the right thing.

It was the right thing to do.

How hard he had struggled every night not to regret it.

Even if it hadn’t been that day, it could have happened at any time, and if he hadn’t reported it, some death would have quietly been erased within that vicious circle of complicity.

But moments of regret did come sometimes.

Like now.

‘I shouldn’t have acted on that shallow sense of justice.

I should have pretended not to see, pretended not to hear, and run away from the spot right then,’ he thought.

“Yoo Hyun-ah.

If someone really died and the police saw it, why do you think I’m walking around perfectly fine like this?

Huh?”

“…….”

“More than anything, if it were possible for me to make a murder disappear as if it never happened, as you think… then shouldn’t you, Yoo Hyun-ah, not do this to me?”

It was clearly a murder case, yet the world remained eerily quiet.

The image of a man kneeling helplessly on the floor flashed before his eyes like an afterimage.

No one who was there was punished, and the incident concluded without a sound.

Yoo Hyun clenched his teeth and fists to hide his fear, and Choi Jong-ik squinted his eyes at him.

“Don’t overthink it.

The fact is just one thing: you achieved nothing by your own power.

In other words, there’s nothing you can do.

Hyung’s words, not that hard to understand, right?”

“…….”

“Yoo Hyun-ah, hyung is all you have.

Even though you put on that ridiculous act of being clean and made things difficult for me… Look.

I’m giving you this chance.”

Someone was unlucky and died, someone was lucky and escaped alive, and the incident of someone who survived reporting a tragic death was, to Choi Jong-ik, nothing more than a ‘ridiculous act of being clean.’

He was such a despicable human being that Yoo Hyun wanted to carve out every moment of the time they had spent together.

“…Get lost.

Now.”

“Alright, alright.

I’ll leave.

Contact me when you’ve finished reflecting.”

Choi Jong-ik turned away with a cheerful laugh, his face confident that Yoo Hyun would definitely contact him.

****

The reviewed script, its first page closed, returned to its owner’s hand.

Ji-ho pointed carefully at the script he had just bitten and spoke cautiously.

“Hyun-soo-ya.

I think that one… might be hard to get on air.”

“Why?

Is it so terrible you can’t even pass the message?”

‘Pass the message’—it was a blatant request that seemed unlikely to come from Baek Hyun-soo, a man who was a corpse without his pride.

It made the moment Taehwa had snapped in anger, saying the purpose of Hyun-soo insisting on joining their drinking session was obvious, seem pointless.

Feeling awkward, Ji-ho glanced at Taehwa and scratched his chin with his index finger.

“Well, rather than terrible… Honestly, judging by the script alone, it’s not bad.

It’s fresh…”

“If it’s not bad, then?”

As Ji-ho sighed in difficulty, Hyun-soo pressed again.

“If it’s not bad, what’s the problem?”

The broadcasting industry was a ruthless world.

A place that moves strictly following money.

While one might ask what industry in a capitalist society isn’t like that, the difference lies in how it appears, at first glance, to be a realm that respects creative freedom.

In reality, everything moves by the power of money.

Looking at it not as a friend but from the perspective of someone from a production company, there was no difficulty.

There was no need to discuss whether this script was bad or not.

This drama would never air.

Simply put, it was a work that wouldn’t make money.

“The production style has changed from before, so more film directors are turning their eyes to dramas… but for popular directors like our Director Baek here, even focusing on just one medium takes a lifetime and isn’t enough.”

“Yoon Ji-ho.

Do you think just because I’ve only made films, I can’t direct a drama?”

“No, that’s not what I meant…”

Taehwa, who had been disinterestedly drinking his alcohol in the corner, slightly furrowed his brows.

It was the expected outcome since Hyun-soo barged in without consideration at the place the two had chosen for a quiet drink.

As feared, talk of business emerged, and Ji-ho, who was always soft-hearted toward acquaintances, was at a loss.

Even considering that Hyun-soo and Ji-ho were close friends, it was a sight too pitiful to watch.

Unable to stand it, Taehwa interjected.

“You’re not asking because you genuinely don’t know why, are you?…

Isn’t it an unspoken rule in the broadcasting industry not to use Espers as content material?”

At the voice suddenly cutting in, Ji-ho felt awkward and cleared his throat.

Hyun-soo’s gaze moved powerlessly to Taehwa.

“Using the Center as subject matter makes it impossible from the programming stage.

Baek Hyun-soo, I don’t think you don’t know such a basic thing… You’re not asking because you don’t know, are you?

If it were out of ignorance, it’d be more fortunate for Yoon Ji-ho.”

At the blunt gaze that didn’t even deny it, Taehwa clicked his tongue softly and continued in an annoyed tone.

“You seem to think that since Yoon Ji-ho is rumored to be overseeing a production company, it would be easy for him to grant you one request.

But making a drama about the Center is nothing but a suicide pact.”

“Yeah, it’s unexplored subject matter.

I admit there’s risk.

But if it gets programmed, it’s a work with sufficient commercial value.

Isn’t that right, Yoon Ji-ho?”

“Huh?

Uh, yeah.

It is interesting.”

And there he was, backing him up again.

Annoyed, Taehwa shot a glare at Ji-ho and swallowed the alcohol he had been holding in his mouth.

Silence hung in the room for a while.

Even after hearing words close to a rebuke, Hyun-soo showed no intention of leaving.

He clearly had another purpose.

Suspicious, Taehwa finished his drink and asked bluntly.

“You’ve won awards at international film festivals a few times.

Wouldn’t it be easier to remain the young genius director of art films, as you have been, rather than forcing your way into the commercial drama scene, cutting into your own flesh?”

“…They said they needed a work to take the first step.”

As curious gazes turned to him, Hyun-soo hesitated and added.

“If this succeeds, stories about the Center will flood the media after mine.

So, I was told I need talent as much as will.”

“By who?”

Ji-ho asked who had mentioned this necessity, but Hyun-soo pressed his lips shut as if he didn’t want to say.

Ah, if it’s Center business, even more reason to avoid getting involved… Ji-ho drank with a troubled expression.

“You want to bring the Center to the surface?”

On the contrary, Taehwa, who had been indifferent the whole time, showed interest and sat up straighter.

“Isn’t it strange?

The Center is just a national institution, yet it holds omnipotent power.”

Uncontained anger seethed in the short suspicion Hyun-soo voiced.

Taehwa smiled faintly.

He had grasped why Hyun-soo decided to take on this project.

Baek Hyun-soo was the maternal grandson of the former Center Director.

It was a nationwide scandal when G Construction, after consecutive setbacks over decades, was finally sold off, and the affiliate companies that had recklessly tried to prevent its collapse went bankrupt one after another.

It was shocking how an influential group in the financial world disintegrated overnight.

For Hyun-soo, it must have been a catastrophe beyond description as merely a ‘decline in family fortunes.’

There were rumors back then, weren’t there?

That the G Group fell because it incurred the current Center Director’s displeasure.

Hyun-soo must suspect that very circumstance.

He intended to stir up a hornet’s nest by putting forward someone with a past grudge instead of stepping out himself—whoever it was, they were not just slightly cunning but seriously so.

Taehwa gave sincere advice to Hyun-soo, who seemed prepared to strike a rock with an egg.

“Currently, there’s no means to control the Center Director.

He’s a person with no fear of money or power.”

“Right.

So someone needs to expose…”

“Do you think it’ll work out as you imagine?

With just one drama?”

Hyun-soo scoffed at Taehwa’s skeptical retort.

“Joo Taehwa.

Did you say ‘just one drama’?

Someone like you, living comfortably, knows nothing!”

“…….”

“Have you ever thought about how to expose to the world the injustice that even the press colludes to cover up?

Probably not.

‘Just one drama’?

Do you even know what will be in that drama?

Do you even know what those bastards are hiding in the first place?”

“…….”

“Do you think Yusang Pharmaceuticals’ success with guiding drugs was really a coincidence?

The Center Director’s wife is the eldest daughter of Yusang Pharmaceuticals—could that be a coincidence?”