NOVEL NEXT Chapter 11: New Start
Upon returning to the room, I noticed the blanket that Miso had been under was slightly messed up. When I straightened the blanket for her, Miso started to smack her lips in her sleep with a content expression on her face.
‘Aw. She is adorable.’
“Oppa?”
“Oh, yes? I’m sorry.”
“Isn’t Miso so cute and pretty?”
“She really is.”
After covering Miso with the blanket as she squirmed in bed, Yoo-Jin asked me for feedback on her acting.
“Oh, right. So what did you think of my acting earlier? I still have a lot to learn, don’t I?”
Seizing the opportunity, I thought I should attempt to get Acting Coach Choi Hyun-Min out of her way.
“No, it was great. It was really good! But I think it would be best if you continued practicing on your own instead of taking lessons.”“Huh? Why?”
‘Because your acting is a hundred times better than that of your coach.’
But I knew saying that would only raise unnecessary suspicions. Instead, I tried to explain myself in a way that Yoo-Jin could understand.
“I think Mr. Choi Hyun-Min’s coaching method may not be the best fit for you. Don’t you remember Ms. Lee Ji-Yeon mentioning something like that before?”
“Hmm. Now that you mention it, I think I’ve heard something along those lines…”
Yoo-Jin placed her finger on her temple as she tried to recall those memories. The exact meaning behind Lee Ji-Yeon’s words was that training lessons offered by Hoop Entertainment were subpar, but I had no intention of interpreting it correctly for her.
At that moment, Yoo-Jin spoke in a worried tone.
“But the company said I had to continue taking acting lessons for three more years.”
For a moment, I almost lost my temper. Subjecting Yoo-Jin to three more years of coaching from Choi Hyun-Min was tantamount to stifling her talent.
“Three years? No way. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll find someone else to coach you in acting. Just trust me.”
Persuading Gu Seong-Cheol would be difficult, but I already had a plan in mind.
Yoo-Jin gave me a playful wink.
“Okay. So from now on, I don’t have to worry about anything and just follow whatever you say?”
“Y-yes.”
Her unexpected reaction made my heart flutter. Despite being in the body of my twenty-six-year-old self, my thoughts and memories belonged to the thirty-six-year-old version of me. Hence, having such reactions felt strange at times.
Nonetheless, I recognized the urgency in expediting Yoo-Jin’s career development. Staying passive could result in Yoo-Jin being overshadowed and her career potentially crushed by Ju Yung-In and Kim Dong-Soo.
“Then I’ll just quietly read the script for now. I don’t think I can practice anymore since Miso is asleep.”
“Alright.”
While Yoo-Jin silently read the script, I skimmed through the planner and decided on the next drama she should star in.
‘Yes. Let’s go with this one.’
[Everyday V10]
[Date: June 18th, 2020]
-10:00 PM SBC <Blue Sky> Episode 24 monitoring. Highest viewership 22.1%
Blue Sky written by Kim Soll-Ip would be broadcast starting on April 1st next year. Blue Sky would become a hit with all the actors gaining attention and surpassing a viewership of 22%. If Yoo-Jin could get a role in Blue Sky, her name would undoubtedly be etched into the viewers’ minds.
The male actors in this drama were known to flirt with the actresses all the time, but that was common in the industry. I was confident in handling such situations and preventing Yoo-Jin from any unwanted advances.
Moreover, this drama provided a perfect excuse to turn down Lee Ji-Yeon’s offer to appear in her upcoming new drama, which would be broadcast on the same day. Considering Kim Soll-Ip was Lee Ji-Yeon’s assistant, the latter would concede at least once if she knew that Yoo-Jin was going to appear in Kim Soll-Ip’s drama.
I continued to flip through the planner and selected other dramas for Yoo-Jin to appear in.
‘Let’s go with this one after Blue Sky…’
As I was envisioning Yoo-Jin’s career development plan with a smile, I heard the sound of Miso waking up.
“Auntie~.”
Miso rubbed her eyes and looked for Yoo-Jin. Despite just waking up from a deep sleep, Miso addressed Yoo-Jin as auntie instead of mom, showing how careful she had been to hide their true relationship in front of other people.
I felt the need to address this issue of Miso not being able to call Yoo-Jin ‘mom’ promptly.
When Miso opened her eyes, Yoo-Jin smiled and closed the script.
“Miso, are you up?”
“Yeup…I fell asleep because I was too full.”
Miso stretched her arms and snuggled into Yoo-Jin’s embrace.
“Come here, Miso. How was your sleep?”
“It was good! I’m not sleepy anymore,” Miso answered cheerfully.
“Oh, Miso. You drooled in your sleep.”
“Huh? Where? Where?”
With surprised eyes, Miso wiped around her cheeks with her tiny hands.
“Haha. I’m just kidding~.”
“Ugh, auntie! I hate you!”
Miso puffed her cheeks, upset by Yoo-Jin’s jest. However, Yoo-Jin found Miso adorable and pulled her into a hug and tickled her.
“No, Miso. Don’t hate me~.”
“Hahaha. It tickles! It tickles! Stop it~. Hahaha!”
Miso’s pout disappeared as she burst into laughter. Witnessing this scene brought a smile to my face and warmed my heart.
“Alright. Let’s call it a day and go home. The landlord texted me to say that you guys can return home now.”
“Okay, oppa.”
“Okay, uncle Yoon-Ho!”
After sending Yoo-Jin and Miso home that evening, the landlord thanked me for preventing her house from being burned down due to a gas leak. She bowed her head several times to show her appreciation and treated us to an extravagant dinner.
The landlord ensured I received a basket full of fruits from her before I left, though I couldn’t understand why the fruit basket had to include a durian.
***
The first thing I did upon returning home was open the planner app.
During my first year at work, I was often scolded by my superiors, prompting me to diligently record everything in my planner, from schedules and matters to report to meeting notes, cast monitoring, and even viewership ratings.
Reading through the planner where everything was written down meticulously like a personal diary filled with all sorts of information, I burst into a laugh without realizing it.
“Hahaha. I was crazy.”
I noticed that I had written down schedules even the day after Miso passed away.
[Everyday V10]
[Date: December 13th, 2019]
[Current Time: 07:43 PM]
-06:00 PM <Deleted Schedule>
(Deleted Schedule: Pick up Ju Yung-In)
-09:50 KBC Drama <Best Doctor, Lee Pal-Ja>. Canceled due to breaking news.
“Habits are indeed scary.”
As I closely examined the diary, it brought back memories of that time. Feeling too ashamed to face Yoo-Jin after Miso’s funeral, I requested for a transfer to another department. Unfortunately, I was assigned to Actor Division 3 under Kim Dong-Soo, which was why my planner mostly contained schedules related to Actor Division 3.
“Ah, now is not the time for this…”
Regaining my focus, I spent some time exploring the features of the planner app.
***
After playing around with the app for a while, one thing became clear to me—under no circumstance would new schedules appear in the V10 app. I tried entering schedules into the current V1 version just in case, but no new schedules were added to V10.
Subsequently, I decided to observe how schedules were deleted from the app and found that there were three rules governing schedule deletion.
[Everyday V10]
[Three Rules Regarding Schedules]
One has to identify and change the exact cause of the incident for the outcome to change.
It is incredibly difficult to change fate.
Events written in the planner will inevitably happen.
After meeting Yoo-Jin and saving Miso, I thought that all schedules related to Yoo-Jin in the planner would be completely deleted. However, the only thing that changed was the viewership rating of Episode 21 of The Morning Takes Off, which Yoo-Jin appeared in, scheduled to be broadcast in ten days.
[Everyday V10]
[Date: December 23rd, 2019]
-10:00 PM <Deleted Schedule>
(Deleted Schedule: The Morning Takes Off Episode 21 Monitoring. Viewership Rating: 19.3%)
Even after scrutinizing ten years’ worth of schedules, the intermittent records related to Yoo-Jin remained unchanged. It seemed as though the hand of fate insisted that whatever was destined to happen would indeed happen, similar to the news currently being broadcast on TV.
-Breaking news. Heavy snowfall in Seoul today led to the collapse of a gymnasium ceiling during an event. Rescue workers are currently…
At 9:50 PM, KBC Reporter Park Doo-Su did an urgent special report from the collapsed site at Hansung University’s gymnasium. The rescue workers hastily retreated and shouted loudly as the structure gave way.
The situation was so urgent that they had to cancel the popular drama Best Doctor, Lee Pal-Ja.
Suddenly, the realization that I possessed knowledge of the future began to weigh heavily on me once more.
“Should I have warned them in advance…?”
The thought of whether I should have reported the accident in advance to prevent such a tragedy briefly crossed my mind. However, I soon realized that it was impossible. Saving Miso alone had proved to be incredibly difficult. Moreover, going to the scene of the accident wouldn’t allow me to do anything anyway.
‘People would think that I’m out of my mind if I shouted that there would be an accident with no evidence. I might even get arrested by the police.’
After some contemplation, I reached a simple conclusion—I would only change the future within the bounds of what I could realistically do.
‘Who knows what might happen if I interfered with other matters recklessly?’
I thought it was rather fortunate that there were no fatalities in the gymnasium collapse, and I started to examine the planner all night long.
***
It was 6 AM in the morning of December 14th.
I headed to the company earlier to attend an Actor Division 2 meeting.
Screech.
After parking my car in the underground parking lot, I ran into the four-member girl group, Cherry Blossom, who was exiting the elevator.
“Huh?”
Cherry Blossom, who debuted last fall, was receiving lots of support from the company. However, they were in a pitiful situation of being positioned between the second and third tier of girl groups due to their lack of popularity.
And soon, they were destined to fail after releasing three albums and being kicked out of the company.
Within Cherry Blossom, there were members of Faithful. They were Yoo Eun-Ah, who would become a regular winner of the Best Actress Award six years later, and Kim Sae-Ri, who would win the Grand Prize at the Golden Disk Awards for three consecutive years.
I wanted to wave hello, but I couldn’t, considering their current predicament.
“Guys, wake up. Sleep in the van because you’ll go straight to the site after visiting the salon.”
Team Lead Han Myung-Ho, the talent agent in charge of Cherry Blossom, led the girls who looked sleepy. Twenty-one year old Woo Yeon-Hee was at the front, followed by twenty year old Yang Eun-Bi.
Next was nineteen year old Yoo Eun-Ah and fifteen year old Kim Sae-Ri who were walking with their eyes closed, each with a pink U-shaped travel pillow around their necks. They looked like ducklings following their mother.
Despite being so exhausted, they responded to Han Myung-Ho.
“Okay.”
“Okay~.”
“Yawn.”
“Okay…”
They were at an age where getting sufficient sleep was crucial, but they had to start their day much earlier than others to arrive on time for regional events.
At that moment, the youngest member, Sae-Ri, veered off course. Instead of following the others around a left corner, she continued to walk straight ahead.
Tap tap tap.
With legs that were surprisingly long for her height, she was walking at a fast pace—still with her eyes closed.
“Mr. Han!”
At my exclamation, Team Lead Han Myung-Ho turned his head.
“Oh? Star Jung. Do you have a schedule today as well?”
“Oh, no. Look at Sae-Ri over there! Hey, Sae-Ri!”
“Huh? What!? Sae-Ri!”
“Sae-Ri! Wake up!”
Han Myung-Ho was startled to see Sae-Ri walk in the wrong direction and raced toward her. I also got out of the car and quickly followed him. Thankfully, Sae-Ri, who had been heading straight for a wall, was stopped just in time by Han Myung-Ho.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
I breathed heavily, my heart feeling like it was about to burst at any moment. I felt as if my lifespan had shortened from the morning’s stress.
Sae-Ri, known for her poor sense of direction, had an uncanny knack for keeping people on edge.
With her face buried in Han Myung-Ho’s soft belly, who stood in front of her to prevent the collision, Sae-Ri asked with her eyes half open.
“Ugh~ hmm. Where are we right now?”
“We are still in the parking lot. Come on, wake up already. You almost ran into the wall, you know that?”
“Sigh. I thought we arrived.”
I could even see saliva marks at the corners of her mouth.
In the meantime, the remaining three members of Cherry Blossom also followed Han Myung-Ho to where Sae-Ri was. Han Myung-Ho wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and continued to lead the sleepy members to the van.
“Phew. Kids, sleep in the van, okay? Follow me this way.”
As the mother duck moved forward, the ducklings began to follow as well. Han Myung-Ho gestured good-bye toward me, and Cherry Blossom followed him closely.
As the door of the van opened, the members found their seats with their eyes still closed and immediately fell asleep upon getting in their seats.
Han Myung-Ho made sure all the members had their seatbelts on before heading to the driver’s seat and opened his mouth.
“Goodness, I’m exhausted. I don’t know if I’m a talent agent or a kindergarten teacher. Anyway, thanks, Star Jung. I’ll see you later.”
“Yes, see you later. Have a safe drive.”
“Okay.”
Their van made a noise as it left the underground parking lot.
“See you soon, guys.”
I intended to properly support Yoo-Jin, but I also planned to support Cherry Blossom as well. If possible, I wanted to keep their group intact, as with ten years of experience, I could confidently say that they had the potential to become successful with a little help.
‘No, I can for sure make them successful. If the company can’t promote them, I’ll step in and do something myself.’
I recalled how Eun-Ah and Sae-Ri from Faithful often expressed regret that their group disbanded in my previous life. Therefore, I was determined to keep their group intact and let them enjoy the glory they deserved.
“Yikes. I’m running late for the meeting.”
Lost in thought, I had let time slip away.
***
Ding~.
-A shark has appeared!
The elevator stopped on the first floor. As the doors were about to close, someone ran from the lobby shouting.
“W-wait~. Please wait!”
I pressed the open button and waited for the person to catch up.
“Huff, huff. Thank you so much…huh? Jung Yoon-Ho?”
The man with messy hair and a sly face was Team Lead of Division 3. Since I already had an uncomfortable relationship with Division 3, seeing Kang Myung-Gil made me think I made a mistake.
‘I should have just pressed the close button.’
“Hello, Team Lead Kang.”
Kang Myung-Gil didn’t even bother to respond and only kept pressing the open button while sticking his head out toward the lobby.
There was only one person Kang Myung-Gil would frantically wait for like this.
Click-clack, click-clack.
The sound of high heels echoed as Ju Yung-In, my wife from my previous life, approached.