TL: KSD

    Kim Byul doesn’t have many friends.

    Considering she’s the ‘Nation’s Little Sister’ (from 10 years ago), a veteran child actor, and holds the title of the Ice Queen of the Theater and Film Department, it might seem strange that she doesn’t have friends. But reaching the pinnacle is inherently a lonely journey.

    At least, that’s what she says.

    But from my perspective, the reason Kim Byul doesn’t have friends is because she’s in a different age group.

    Physically, she might be the same age as her peers, but mentally, she’s much older.

    After all, isn’t she someone who entered society 10 years ago?

    Kim Byul stood in front of cameras at an age when her peers were running around giggling and chattering nonsense with sauce smeared on their faces at tteokbokki shops.

    And she wasn’t smiling because she was having fun, but because that’s how she would look the prettiest on camera. She wasn’t saying what she wanted to say, but rather what wouldn’t get her in trouble.

    How could a kid who lived in a world where she’d get scolded for not using the proper honorific, ‘sunbae-nim’, possibly blend in with kids gossiping about how ‘Bae Seong-won is so freaking handsome’?

    She became too mature, too early, to hang out with kids her own age.

    In a way, you could say she’s similar to me—someone whose body has shrunk, but whose mind has remained the same.

    But unlike me, who actually possessed a real Resident Registration Card and was a true adult, Kim Byul is a pseudo-adult.

    It means she still has some childish aspects.

    For instance, she blabs everything, down to the last detail, to her few friends—things she should or shouldn’t talk about. It’s a sign she hasn’t tasted the bitterness of life yet.

    And I happened to be one of those few, perhaps even her only friend.

    That’s why I knew a little bit about Kim Byul’s manager, Team Leader Kim Sung-geun.

    “Hello, Team Leader. I’ve heard a lot about you from Kim sunbae.”

    “Oh, really? Byul has been talking about me?”

    “Yes, she always says how she trusts and relies on you...”

    I casually brushed off the greeting from Team Leader Kim, who acts like a jerk to her but sucks up to her mom.

    Team Leader Kim, who wants to ask the CEO for a replacement as soon as she gets a few hits under her belt, showed an unusually submissive attitude towards me.

    Suspicious of this, I asked about the intentions of Team Leader Kim, who is really annoying for eating snacks next to someone on a diet.

    “So, what exactly brings you here?”

    “Before we talk, please follow me over here for a moment...”

    I followed the dubious Team Leader Kim into some office.

    And inside that office, a strange group of people was gathered.

    “Hey. Author Moon. Long time no see.”

    “CEO?”

    CEO Baek Seung-won, Kim Byul’s mother, and... Gu Yu-na.

    What kind of combination is this?

    EP 9 – Sound

    Death.

    The end of everything.

    But is it truly the end of everything?

    From a cognitive perspective, death is the end of everything. The world only exists through the observation of the self, and the absence of the observer means the extinction of phenomena.

    But humans can infer others, contexts, and the world. If someone continues my will after I die, it might be not an end, but a beginning.

    Whether or not it’s true doesn’t matter.

    Because that alone can be the dying person’s final hope...

    “Vice-priest nim...”

    ‘My’ final words should be for the world.

    “Peace...”

    “......”

    “Peace... for these poor people...”

    And now, today’s living point!

    At the moment of death, do not close your eyes and throw your head back.

    Doing so could get you branded as overacting, leading to be ridiculed for decades.

    Now we live in an era where even dying beautifully is important.

    So, with a wistful gaze, look into the void, show a faint smile-

    Then slowly relax your facial muscles, transition into a wistful expression, and let your head drop limply at the perfect angle for a face shot.

    Since she had already mastered tearful acting, tears trickled down her cheek at the exact moment her head fell.

    However, at this point, you must not close your eyes.

    It’s more dramatic if you die with your eyes open, letting the other person close them for you.

    As expected, even though the open-eyed death was an ad-lib, the other person played along perfectly.

    “Ah... Ahh...!”

    Trembling hands swept across her face. They didn’t actually close her eyes, but she closed them on cue.

    “Yes, yes.”

    “Don’t you guys have anything better to do? Shouldn’t you be at school? What are you doing here...?”

    “Yes, yes.”

    Kim Byul, with her lips pursed, didn’t stop grumbling until the very end.

    It was especially annoying how she pretended not to like it while clearly unable to suppress her smile.

    I wanted to flick her duck-like pout with a pen, but I decided to hold back just this once.

    Because today was a good day.

    It was both Kim Byul’s birthday, the day she wrapped up her role in the drama, and the 10th anniversary of her contract with Baekhak Entertainment.

    Of course, if you count from her debut date, it’s a bit more than 10 years, but her contract with Baekhak Entertainment was separate.

    Now, Kim Byul was no longer an actress who had been under contract with Baekhak Entertainment for ‘almost 10 years’—she was an actress who had been with them for ‘exactly 10 years’.

    So, Baek Seung-won, the man who might be distant with his family but is warm to his actors, planned this surprise event to commemorate the occasion.

    As for me, I had received a birthday celebration from her not too long ago, so this was my way of reciprocating—or perhaps even getting back at her—by making Kim Byul cry once.

    Fortunately, it seemed Kim Byul liked the surprise.

    Suddenly, Kim Byul tightened her grip on Gu Yuna, who she had been hugging.

    Gu Yuna silently screamed and struggled to break free, but there was no way she could overcome Kim Byul’s strength, which could even handle horseback gun action on the vast plains of Manchuria.

    Kim Byul couldn’t see Gu Yuna’s expression, so she simply basked in the warmth, smiling gently.

    “Ha... Hugging Yuna again after so long feels so recharging.”

    “Right. Yuna looks like she’s dying of happiness right now.”

    “You guys are going to Baekhak Arts High School next year, right? I guess we’ll be able to see each other at school again then?”

    Though Gu Yuna finally managed to escape from Kim Byul’s embrace like a cat drenched by a shower hose, Kim Byul kept chatting cheerfully, talking about how she was looking forward to next year with a big smile.

    As I watched that innocent smile, I briefly had another thought.

    The adult world is ruthless. The world of capitalism is even colder.

    None of those adults moved just to celebrate a child’s birthday.

    Just a moment ago, CEO Baek Seung-won and Kim Byul’s mother had arrived with a camera crew in tow.

    It was a team owned by Baekhak Entertainment.

    That team was planning to commit the cruel and terrible act of turning Kim Byul’s birthday celebration reaction into a company YouTube variety show.

    What a terrifying idea to eternally preserve a girl’s tears just for views!

    It was a monstrous idea that only demons obsessed with ratings would think of.

    And yet, even this was just a step in a much more wicked scheme...

    In the context of the entertainment industry’s logic, such a YouTube variety show was actually a form of ‘promotion’.

    In other words, it was a ‘benefit’ provided by the company to the actress.

    Because it would increase her recognition.

    So, why was Baekhak Entertainment trying to boost Kim Byul’s recognition?

    The answer was simple.

    It was because word had spread that So Tae-woong, A maestro of Korean cinema and the recipient of the Berlin Golden Bear, was preparing a new film.

    And the lead role in that film was for a ‘teenager’.

    As soon as the rumor spread, entertainment agencies with child actors all turned their eyes, and Baekhak Entertainment was no exception.

    And Kim Byul was the strongest card Baekhak Entertainment held among their ‘teenage child actors’.

    So, Baekhak Entertainment was essentially bulking up the actor who would participate in the casting competition on behalf of the company.

    The timing was perfect. The filming for the drama Rosarium had wrapped up at just the right time, and thanks to the show’s success, Kim Byul’s recognition had also increased.

    If the company gave her a push right now? The chances wouldn’t be low at all.

    Baekhak Entertainment was probably already seeing visions of the future.

    A future where they ride the wave of Director So Tae-woong’s new film, which would take the world by storm, and rake in piles of money...

    But the reason my thoughts were complicated wasn’t just because Kim Byul’s birthday party was planned with such impure intentions.

    To explain further, I would need to go back a bit in time.

    ***

    Not too long ago.

    That is, before I was invited to Kim Byul’s surprise birthday party operation.

    I was just lazing around at home, having roughly finished writing the novel Dark Adaptation.

    “How did you manage to find me when I’ve just moved my office?”

    “Haha, I have my ways.”

    Director So Tae-woong had come to see me.

    *****

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