NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor

“Then I’ll start by setting up the schedule for the movie, drama, and YouTube channel, all three, to proceed alternately with minimal conflicts.”

Yeon-woo nodded as he listened to CEO Jung Hyuk’s words.

Since they couldn’t just start filming right away even if they wanted to, they decided to proceed with the projects a bit more slowly for now.

As today’s meeting could go on indefinitely, he had instructed Manager Kim Min-soo to leave work first, so he planned to go home in his personal vehicle parked in the parking lot.

In the elevator, Yeon-woo looked at the 5th-floor button that was blocked from being pressed and thought of the agents.

‘Since I can’t reveal my identity to anyone except Han Hae-woon, I can’t go up to the 5th floor.’

Unless it was in the distant future when complete trust had been built, he had no intention of revealing his identity to the other agents for now.

About to press the basement button, Yeon-woo changed his mind.

Ding─.

Yeon-woo got off the elevator that stopped on the first floor and walked out of the building.

Then he looked at the only bakery that had moved into the building.

– Stern bakery

Stern Bakery.

A combination of German and English, which directly translates to “Star Bakery”.

“Hmm, it’s the only shop that moved in. Maybe I’ll buy some bread for a change.”

Yeon-woo entered the bakery wearing a hat and mask.

“Welcome!”

The young woman at the counter greeted him cheerfully.

Yeon-woo bowed his head in greeting and began selecting bread, holding a tray.

‘They said it was a young couple. The husband is German.’

Since the Mokhwa Building was essentially owned by Yeon-woo, he had naturally conducted a thorough background check on the employees of the only shop that had moved in.

The same would apply to other shops that would move in in the future.

The couple running this bakery was an international couple – a German man married to a Korean woman.

‘They came to Korea two years ago, opened a bakery, and have been barely managing to keep it going until now.’

It seemed they didn’t have many customers except for local business, as the commercial area was dead.

When Han Hae-woon visited the bakery in the guise of Terrence and offered to lower the rent, they were so grateful that they gave him an armful of bread.

‘Han Hae-woon said the bread was quite delicious.’

Perhaps because he had worked in Europe for a long time and his taste had adapted to the local palate, since his reincarnation, Korean food was overwhelmingly delicious compared to other cuisines, but he didn’t eat much Korean bread as he thought it wasn’t quite right.

Although less than Yeon-woo, Han Hae-woon had also been abroad for quite some time, so it would probably be similar.

As he was thinking about this and that while selecting a few pieces of bread, Yeon-woo’s eyes caught sight of a familiar white lump.

A white, snowball-like bread wrapped in plastic was tied with a ribbon.

“Is this perhaps Stollen?”

“Oh? You know about Stollen?”

Yeon-woo nodded as he looked at the woman at the counter who seemed slightly surprised by his unexpected question.

“Christmas has passed, but you still have Stollen?”

“Ah, actually, it’s not for sale. I asked my husband to make it for me because I like it.”

Stollen is a German bread made by baking dried fruits, nuts, and spices into bread, then coating it with butter and dusting it with powdered sugar.

It’s mainly eaten to celebrate Christmas, so while its form is quite different from what one generally thinks of as a cake, in a way, it could be called a cake rather than simply bread.

“Ah, so you’re not selling it?”

As Yeon-woo asked disappointedly, inwardly wanting to eat it after a long time as it reminded him of his time stationed in Germany, the woman at the counter spoke softly towards the back.

Then she nodded and smiled brightly at Yeon-woo.

“We can sell it. My husband says he’ll make more. It feels good to have a famous actor eat bread made by my husband.”

“How did you know?”

“Huh? I knew as soon as you came in. Anyone can see you’re Ryu Yeon-woo…”

At the bakery owner’s words, Yeon-woo smiled awkwardly and took off his hat and mask.

It seemed the hat and mask weren’t of much use after all.

At that moment, the husband who was baking in the back slightly showed his face and spoke to his wife.

“Tell the customer it tastes even better if you let it age a bit more before eating.”

Then Yeon-woo smiled and replied in fluent German.

“I know how to eat it. I really love Stollen.”

“Oh. You speak German well? Much better than my wife.”

At this, the bakery owner playfully elbowed her husband’s side.

“Alright. I’m going back to make bread.”

As her husband went back inside, Yeon-woo looked around the bakery and asked the owner.

“Would it be troublesome if the bakery does well?”

The owner tilted her head at Yeon-woo’s unexpected question.

“Huh? Of course not. The better it does, the better for us.”

“I see. But if it gets too busy, you might have to work non-stop without rest.”

“Oh, come on. If business is good and we’re baking loads of bread every day, that would be a dream come true!”

Yeon-woo nodded and brought the bread to the counter, and the owner started ringing up the purchase.

After swiping the card Yeon-woo handed over and completing the transaction, the owner smiled brightly and said goodbye.

“Enjoy your bread and please come again!”

“Yes, I’ll be back.”

As Yeon-woo left, the owner tilted her head and smiled slightly.

“I guess artists are a bit unique. Asking if it would be troublesome if the bakery does well, of course it would be great.”

As the bakery couple was the only shop that had moved into this building, they naturally knew about the new companies that had moved in.

‘I’m not sure about the company on the 5th floor, but it’s fortunate that big companies have moved into the other floors.’

The commercial area was already dead and business wasn’t good, but lately, employees from the entertainment company would occasionally come by to buy bread, so things had improved a bit.

‘It’s fortunate that the new building owner is such a kind person too.’

With sales increasing and rent decreasing, they were finally able to breathe a little easier since coming to Korea.

The bakery owner was expressing gratitude towards someone else, not knowing that the person who had just left was the building owner.

Meanwhile, as Yeon-woo was heading down to the basement with the bread, he looked at the bakery logo printed on the bread bag and fell into thought.

“Hmm, it would be nice to have a bakery with a line out the door on the first floor of the company building.”

As Yeon-woo had originally planned, the building’s interior was perfectly controlled, while having many people outside the building was best for concealing something.

By placing the entertainment company below the operations headquarters, they had a clear justification for controlling the entrance and personnel access to the building’s interior, so now they needed to attract people outside the building.

To do that, they needed to revitalize the commercial area near the building.

Returning home, Yeon-woo started eating bread with milk for the first time in a while.

Feeling the chewy texture of the bread as it broke apart, he could tell how much effort had been put into kneading the dough.

“Not bad.”

It was a taste that satisfied his palate, which had become picky after eating bread in Europe for a long time.

And that day, after a long time, an update was posted on Yeon-woo’s personal SNS.

– I found the bakery of my life on the first floor of the new company building. The baker is German, and it’s so delicious. I recommend it! Oh, this isn’t an advertisement.

As soon as he posted a picture of the appetizingly browned bread and a selfie he had taken earlier, fans started sharing it everywhere after such a long time without updates.

– Why is the “This isn’t an ad” part so cute lol. Who would think an actor who rejects all big company ads would advertise a neighborhood bakery lolol

– But where is this place? I mean, I know it’s not an ad, but why didn’t you tell us the bakery’s name

└ If you search for Ryu Yeon-woo’s agency New Star Entertainment address, there’s one bakery on the first floor

└ You can find it in 5 seconds, are you helpless?

Internet news reporters who spend all day staring at celebrities’ social media stars also started writing articles about this long-awaited big fish.

– The bakery that Ryu Yeon-woo reportedly visits daily is causing a stir online! Where is it located?

– Enjoying a German-style bakery in Seoul. The star who frequents this bakery is none other than…

He had just posted a feed about finding a delicious bakery, but instantly it was transformed into him being a regular customer, and articles started being mass-produced.

As ‘bread pilgrimages’ to find good bakeries had been trendy in recent years, articles hinting at Ryu Yeon-woo’s name value and curious information about the bakery were enough to catch people’s attention.

The next day, when the bakery couple arrived early in the morning as usual to open their shop, they tilted their heads in confusion at the line of people surrounding Mokhwa Building.

As they came up after parking their car, it seemed like the people in line were murmuring when they saw the couple.

They had recognized the German husband as one of the bakery owners.

“That must be the baker. Looks like they’re about to open.”

“They’re opening earlier than I thought. The internet said it opens at 9, so I was prepared to wait for a while.”

But the bakery couple, who hadn’t dreamed these people were waiting for them, turned the corner with puzzled expressions.

“I wonder why there’s a line? Something must be happening nearby.”

“Maybe the entertainment company upstairs is doing something? Like a fan meeting. It’s Korean culture, after all.”

“You think? They wouldn’t usually do that at the company…”

As the couple walked and talked, they approached the entrance of the bakery.

“Really, why are there so many people?”

“…Huh?”

The astounding sight of that long line leading to the bakery’s entrance came into view.

And at the same time, the conversation the wife had with actor Ryu Yeon-woo yesterday popped into her mind.

– Would it be troublesome if the bakery does well?

– Huh? Of course not. The better it does, the better for us.

Unable to distinguish if this was a dream or reality, the couple hurriedly opened the bakery door and went inside.

The husband, not understanding the situation, immediately changed clothes and went into the kitchen, while the wife opened the door and called out to the waiting customers.

Ding-a-ling─.

“Please wait a moment! It takes some time to open the bakery. We’ll open as soon as we’re ready, before our regular opening time!”

Then she came in and turned on her smartphone screen.

Yesterday, thinking that employees from the newly moved-in entertainment company might buy some bread, they had been too tired from kneading dough and letting it ferment to use their smartphones.

Just in case, she searched for the bakery on the internet, and sure enough…

“Oh, my… This isn’t the time for this. I need to bake bread quickly!”

===

**

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A few days later, Yeon-woo went up to the CEO’s office after hearing from CEO Jung Hyuk that they had come up with several plans for the YouTube channel.

Knock knock─.

When he knocked and entered, the staff members were gathered.

“Am I late?”

As Yeon-woo entered and spoke, Director Yoon Mi-yeon shook her head.

“We were just having a meeting in advance.”

As Yeon-woo sat down, Kong Min-jung, who was in charge of this project, stood up and began the briefing.

“First, I’ll explain the outline of the plan that we’ve somewhat finalized through contact with PD Joo Hyun-seok, who recently left SBC’s Entertainment Department.”

Kong Min-jung flipped through the presentation materials as she briefed.

To summarize, it was a plan to bring in an existing real variety show format where LN’s actors would participate in segments prepared by the production team at travel destinations, competing to win pocket money or late-night snacks.

“Hmm. I can clearly see what kind of concept it is. It’s certainly a popular format in domestic variety shows. But wouldn’t this lack originality?”

At Yeon-woo’s question, Kong Min-jung nodded as if she had expected it and continued.

“First of all, an entertainment company running a YouTube variety channel is still a novel field, and if we’re not careful, it could fail to gain popularity and be buried. So we used a format that’s as mainstream and proven as possible. And this plan definitely has its own originality.”

Yeon-woo tilted his head, looking at Kong Min-jung who was nodding with a confident expression as she briefed.

“What aspect makes it original?”

Then Kong Min-jung politely pointed at Yeon-woo with both hands and said,

“The fact that you, Actor Ryu Yeon-woo, will be appearing in it.”