SDM 17

“Your company is in construction, hyung.”

“So what? Or do you want to be a model for our company’s ads?”

That was a bit tempting… Ads for branded apartments would be huge. Seong-woon’s eyes widened for a moment, but then, he shook his head. Jin Seong-woon’s self almost completely popped out for a second there.

“Um, I can… produce movie music for you!”

Ho-yoon, who majored in piano and had a hit with his hobby composition, even participating in Hollywood movie soundtracks, chimed in saying he could do something too.

“……”

Ha-yoon, who majored in pure Oriental art, fumed, unable to join in.

Seeing even the eldest brother, the most taciturn in the family, about to say something, Seong-woon turned his head towards the dining room and uttered the magic sentence that extinguished all topics.

“I’m hungry.”

“!… Let’s eat!”

* * *

Is there nothing for our Zombie God?

No upcoming project announced?

9 comments

Zombie God lol

They just did one minor role, what upcoming project?

But I wonder why he started with that. Wouldn’t it be normal for someone like Ryu to debut as a lead on a major network?

➥Not everyone can be a lead on major networks

➥➥Ryu Chae-yoon isn’t just anyone. These days even people who can’t act and aren’t good-looking are leads in web dramas

➥➥Apparently he was Kim Hye-sung’s replacement

If he wants to be popular, he should be drenched in blood, sweat, and tears.

➥Oh, you seem to know something?

➥➥Among those, tears would be best

Rumor has it RCY went to Phoenix

Is Phoenix producing anything these days?

8 comments

Phoenix… rise…

➥It’s a phoenix, not a vermilion bird

➥➥lol lol lol

Damn, there’s rumor he auditioned for a gangster film

➥It’s noir, noir

➥➥That’s the same thing

Crazy noir

➥Isn’t his face too pretty for noir?

But Ryu Chae-yoon is just good-looking

He hasn’t shown any acting skills, why the fuss?

55 comments

His line delivery was good. To be that camera-friendly in his first acting gig, seems like natural talent

➥That’s just good directing

➥➥There’s a limit to what a director can do. His  diction was clear too. I heard he didn’t even do post-recording

You guys are obsessing over one minor role, for real

➥Why isn’t your actor even mentioned?

➥➥Savage burn lol

If his face is that good-looking, I think it’s broken some kind of stat limit

➥For real

➥His face is seriously insane hahaha

Not everyone can do zombie acting, they were really good. If anything, Ryu Chae-yoon was so good at first that the rest seemed lacking

➥That’s not true, teacher

➥Wasn’t it a different vibe? The zombies that came later seemed to have some reason left, but Zombie God seemed like a real zombie

Causing this much fuss over 3 minutes, Ryu Chae-yoon is definitely a rising star haha His SNS followers will soon reach 5 million

➥From ordinary person to 5 million followers in 2 weeks, that’s insane

Seong-woon, who had been chuckling for a while looking at what Hyeong-seok brought, packed his bag. He didn’t really grasp things like “Human Justice” ranking first in several countries on Webflix and its viewing hours… but these kinds of posts made him laugh just by looking at them.

“They’re all cute.”

Though they were not fans… being called ‘Zombie God’ felt somewhat affectionate. Even such a tiny emotion was quite sweet, so Seong-woon spent a while reading and re-reading the posts.

Flipping to the next photo, there was a post with a slightly different tone.

Hye-sung must have been looking forward to it a lot. He said he was really nervous about acting with Baek Sang-hyun. He seemed fine until the day before, I wonder what happened for things to change.

22 comments

That’s what I’m saying

Seriously, why did it suddenly change?

Hye-sung really likes Baek Sang-hyun… He always talks about him as a respected senior on his live streams

Aren’t both Kim Hye-sung and RCY from RBS? I don’t get why they suddenly switched

➥There must have been some reason

I heard he cancelled due to illness (link to the previous post about replacement) It says here he cancelled because he was sick?

➥You believe this? There’s no proof

➥➥Even without proof, seeing that RCY really was the replacement, it doesn’t seem like a baseless claim

Even for a small role, seeing how an unknown took the spot, who knows what might have happened behind the scenes

➥It’s not even a lead role, what kind of backdoor dealings would there be for this lil Come on, be reasonable. It’s because RCY did it that people are now talking about his face and acting. If KHS had done it, only his fans would have posted a few things and it would have been buried lol

Kim Hye-sung was an actor Seong-woon had met a few times. Wasn’t he the idol trainee who switched to acting because he was so bad at dancing? With quite a good appearance, he had steadily shown his face on screen in middle and high school student roles.

As for his acting… it was hard to say he was good. Even without seeing his dance, he could understand why he was evaluated as being really bad at it. He was very awkward even with simple hand gestures or running scenes because he couldn’t control his body language well.

Though small in number, Kim Hye-sung had a steady fandom from his idol trainee days. Seong-woon knew better than anyone that fans don’t just come from skill alone… but why was it that when he was Jin Seong-woon, he had no fans at all and only so many anti-fans?

After pondering uselessly on a problem with no answer, Seong-woon put on his backpack. Though Ryu Chae-yoon’s closet had everything, there wasn’t really a suitable bag, so the manager had bought this in a hurry.

“Young Master, did you see this too?”

“Ah, yes. It was at the back.”

Hyeong-seok took a sharp breath as he glanced at the tablet screen that was on. It seemed this wasn’t a post he had meant to show.

“Why? Should I not have seen it?”

“Well… I captured that to file a lawsuit.”

“…A lawsuit? There didn’t seem to be anything worth suing over.”

“They called you a nobody! And they’re spreading rumours as if you used your connections to appear in ‘Human Justice’!”

“Well, I am a nobody. And while I didn’t do anything specific, I did get in through connections.”

“Hah… It’s not a connection.”

“Then I’ll say I was lucky.”

It was indeed fortunate that an actor happened to get gastroenteritis that day, creating an opening for him to appear in such a good project… Surely this ‘coincidence’ wasn’t created by the Reincarnation Management Committee?

After making a plausible guess, Seong-woon shook his head to clear it and left the house.

“The security guards will be around you at school.”

“Okay.”

Accepting that this wasn’t a situation to complain about, Seong-woon answered obediently.

“I’ll wait in the parking lot. Come there when classes are over.”

“Got it.”

He had naturally planned to use public transportation since he didn’t have a license, but it’s still difficult to perfectly play the role of a sickly young master (chaebol) from a wealthy family. Seong-woon got in the car and glanced over the lectures he needed to attend today.

Just from the name, I have no idea what is supposed to be taught. Seong-woon, who entered the entertainment industry through diaper commercials when he had barely started walking, spent more time on film sets than at school. He went through an arts middle school, arts high school, and arts college, so he had hardly ever followed the curriculum of a regular school.

“Um… Young Master attended school for about a week in the first semester last year, but then had to take a leave of absence due to some issues.”

“I see.”

“Please be careful. Absolutely no coffee or alcohol!”

Seong-woon just nodded at the expression full of nagging and worry. Suppressing a strangely elevated feeling, he got out of the car.

It’s a campus he visited just once, about 7 years ago for a shoot. Back then it was the beginning of winter… This time it’s September, still close to summer, with warm sunshine.

Squinting slightly, Seong-woon looked around, checked the campus map, and slowly started walking. As it was the start of a new semester, there were quite a lot of people. Everyone who passed by was either startled and ran away upon seeing Seong-woon’s face, or made way for him, and some even started following behind.

Feeling the stares, he suddenly turned around, causing the group walking behind him to squeal and hide their faces behind their hands. The gap was quickly filled by some rather large men.

“……”

It was evident that they were bodyguards. Although they were dressed casually enough to not look out of place at a university, their face value was so different that it created an even greater sense of incongruity.

“Is he a celebrity?”

“It’s Ryu Chae-yoon, Ryu Chae-yoon!”

“Who’s that?”

“Wow, he’s so handsome…”

Those who knew Ryu Chae-yoon were even more excited, and even those who didn’t know him were making a fuss. Seong-woon concluded that coming to school without his face was a mistake. He should have worn the hat and mask like Hyeong-seok told him.

As he climbed the stairs to the Business School, Seong-woon let out a quiet sigh and turned around. Perhaps because they were somewhat intellectuals attending university, not as many people crowded around as he expected – though there were quite a lot of glances from further back – and no one was pushing. Of course, this was also because bodyguards were surrounding him.

“I watched your drama!”

“Oppa!”

“What do you mean oppa? He’s four years younger than you!”

“Do you attend our school? Wow. You must be smart too.”

Is that even a compliment for yourself? Hearing an interesting comment, he looked in that direction with a slight smile, causing the person whose eyes he met to clutch their heart. The slightly exaggerated reaction was quite amusing.

“Um…”

As soon as he opened his mouth, everything went quiet. Seong-woon, who hadn’t expected such a reaction, was momentarily taken aback but quickly regained his composure.

“I’m sorry for causing a disturbance. I’ll just attend class and leave.”

After bowing his head in apology, Seong-woon used what little stamina he had built up to quickly climb the Business School stairs and enter the building. Fortunately, people didn’t follow him inside.

With his head lowered, Seong-woon rummaged in his bag and put on a hat and mask. It was fortunate that he hadn’t completely refused to take them. As he was pulling up the mask that was hanging on his chin, he made eye contact with a female student.

Seeing her eyes widen in surprise, Seong-woon put his index finger to his lips. The girl covered her mouth and nodded repeatedly. Seong-woon smiled at her with crinkled eyes, then looked for classroom 203. Meanwhile, screams of surprise and joy could be heard from behind.

“…Shall we check?”

A bodyguard whispered. Thinking it didn’t concern him as much, Seong-woon shook his head.

“What? No. There’s no need to go that far.”

Something good must have happened. With only his eyes visible, Seong-woon took a seat at the back of the classroom. Not all the bodyguards could enter; only one came in and sat a couple of seats away from Seong-woon.

I’ve been in the entertainment industry for 30 years yet it’s my first time attending college. He wondered if a 3-minute appearance in a record-breaking hit web series really had such an enormous impact, or if it was a reaction fueled by Ryu Chae-yoon’s SNS fame.

Lee Hyeong-seok (Manager): Young Master, please contact me as soon as the lecture ends and only come out after everyone has left.

The manager seemed extremely worried since it was a large lecture hall. After reading the caring message once, Seong-woon flipped his phone over and looked around, moving only his eyes.

They said the Business Department had a lot of people, and indeed, people started filling up the enormous lecture hall. However, while everyone kept glancing at the seat next to Seong-woon, it remained empty.

Just as people stopped coming in and out and the professor took the podium, a man slipped into the seat next to Seong-woon.

Seong-woon, who had been looking straight ahead without much interest, realized that the scar on the back of the man’s hand resting on the desk looked quite familiar. It was a long cut that looked as if a knife had slashed across his palm and extended to the back of his hand.

After staring at it for a while, Seong-woon looked to the side and unconsciously gasped.

Why on earth was Baek Sang-hyun here again!