Min Se-ho’s current stalker, Pyo Ji-woo.
With just one obsession to get close to him, she prepared for acting for a whole year.
Not only did she successfully debut, but she also ended up on the same stage as him.
As expected of a talented rookie, she manages to blend into the team that Min Se-ho is part of in “Eyes Closed.”
But wait, there’s more! With her bold appeal, she even snags the girlfriend spot!
Truly, it’s a heartwarming success story of a stalker.
However, the problem arises afterward.
Min Se-ho’s complicated romantic entanglements come to light.
‘Min Se-ho is currently dating five women.’
Talk about being an octopus!
At this point, wouldn’t he have a girlfriend for each day of the week?
Also, it turns out he practically lived in clubs with his friends during his free time.
Pyo Ji-woo knew he went to clubs but never imagined he was juggling five relationships.
The outcome? As mentioned earlier, it ended with a Swordmaster ending.
“…Did you come?”
“Y-yeah.”
Anyway, I’m a bit perturbed right now, but it’s true that Pyo Ji-woo just threw herself at one person.
Naturally, I couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy.
I subtly scanned Pyo Ji-woo from head to toe.
I was worried she might have brought a weapon or something.
‘Fortunately, nothing suspicious here.’
Come to think of it, Pyo Ji-woo doesn’t even carry a bag.
Just jeans and a plain shirt for the most part.
In fact, that’s more of a masculine style than a feminine one.
“Why are you in a school uniform?”
“I came straight after school!”
What a silly question to ask.
Since I’m a current high school girl, wearing a uniform is a given.
‘…That aside, I guess I also have limited clothes to wear at home.’
My mom’s hobby is dressing me up.
She’s all about beauty care and takes great pains with my outfits too.
So my closet is filled with bright outfits I didn’t choose myself.
As a result, the most neutral outfit I have is my school uniform.
Joo Seo-yeon, 17, still wearing clothes picked out by her parents…
“I’ve been curious about something for a while.”
“Yeah?”
“You know… you look at me with a really uncomfortable gaze?”
“That’s your misunderstanding.”
Anyway, I kept about a meter’s distance from Pyo Ji-woo as we walked.
I was ready to react to whatever happened.
Her response made Pyo Ji-woo glance around with that unique eerie expression of hers.
“And why here of all places? I don’t see anyone like you here…”
“Well…”
I considered going into more detail but shook my head.
It’s better to show rather than tell.
If I started explaining, she might think it’s defamation and jump me.
“Let’s go first.”
Right now, we’re in an entertainment district of Gangnam.
This is a place our main actor, Min Se-ho, frequents.
*
Pyo Ji-woo squinted at Joo Seo-yeon’s back as she walked ahead.
Her long, black hair reflected the minimal expression changes, making her appearance doll-like and beautiful.
‘Coming here in a school uniform!’
Given that Seo-yeon strutted through the nightlife of Gangnam at this hour, it’s no surprise she attracted attention.
It was around ten-thirty in the evening, and a high school girl wandering in entertainment streets was bound to stand out.
She was transitioning from a girl to a woman.
The allure in her looks made the gazes of men unconsciously follow Joo Seo-yeon.
That natural aura.
Is this what they mean by innate acting talent?
Pyo Ji-woo herself wasn’t lacking in appearance either.
That’s why she’s in the acting game.
There are demands for actors with unique looks, but really, it’s always good to be somewhat attractive.
While ugliness can sometimes be covered by makeup, the opposite is usually impossible.
In that sense, Seo-yeon is someone Pyo Ji-woo would prefer to avoid.
She triggers her inferiority complex.
Seo-yeon herself seems to feel uncomfortable around her, but Pyo Ji-woo isn’t exactly easy to deal with either.
This leaves her curious as to why Seo-yeon called her here in the first place.
‘Something feels off.’
A sense of unease.
With such thoughts, Pyo Ji-woo continued to follow Seo-yeon.
“Shhh.”
Seo-yeon raised her hand for a moment, signaling to wait.
“Come this way.”
Seo-yeon led her to an alley near a certain club.
Seeing the line outside, it must be a pretty famous place.
‘Why a place like this?’
Even as doubts arose, Pyo Ji-woo waited quietly.
Feeling her heartbeat racing uncomfortably.
Then, practically confirming that unease, a group appeared.
Two men and three women.
They seemed to know the staff at the club’s entrance, greeting them with raised hands.
At first, she didn’t notice.
They weren’t dressed in the usual clothes Min Se-ho wore, and were wearing black masks.
“…!!”
But when that man lowered his mask while looking at the entrance staff,
Pyo Ji-woo covered her mouth with both hands.
It was none other than Min Se-ho!
He was grinning with an arm wrapped around a woman’s waist.
To top it off, another woman was practically glued to him.
Their appearance was definitely not that of an ordinary relationship.
Click.
The small sound of a camera jolted Pyo Ji-woo, who now had a blank mind.
Turning her head, she saw Seo-yeon taking a picture of Min Se-ho.
“You, you you… A-ah, I knew it?”
“Yep.”
“U-how?”
Pyo Ji-woo, who knows Min Se-ho’s lifestyle patterns inside and out, could hardly fathom how Seo-yeon knew of his secret life.
“Umm, by chance?”
There was no way to say it was due to her past life.
She surely couldn’t mention that this very club was where Min Se-ho often went, and Pyo Ji-woo went wild.
“W-wait!!!”
After a brief moment of shock, Pyo Ji-woo tried to dash out of the alley.
At least she would have if Seo-yeon hadn’t grabbed her waist and pulled her back.
‘What kind of strength is this?!’
I’ve felt it before, but no matter how much she shook free, she wouldn’t budge an inch.
Eventually, Pyo Ji-woo surrendered and shouted,
“W-why are you showing this to me?! Why, why are you doing this to me?!”
She wished she hadn’t known.
Tears started to flow freely.
She watched as Min Se-ho stepped into the club.
She wanted to unleash her anger toward Seo-yeon… but the grip around her waist kept her from saying anything.
At this point, if Seo-yeon threw her, she’d definitely go flying.
So Pyo Ji-woo could only protest stubbornly.
“Why, why are you doing this to me?”
Thus, Pyo Ji-woo felt the tears streaming down her cheeks again.
As her tears fell, she kept watching Min Se-ho enter the club.
Seo-yeon let out a soft sigh.
“…Wasn’t your goal Min Se-ho?”
“T-then what’s wrong with that?”
“It’s not wrong, but can you really think like that after seeing this?”
“…”
Seo-yeon was saying, even if things go well later, could she really remain calm after learning this truth?
Besides, Pyo Ji-woo had started acting because of Min Se-ho.
If she remained ignorant, she’d just continue to waste her time.
At the very least, her acting ambitions shouldn’t revolve around Min Se-ho.
‘The same goes for that incident.’
Truth is, even without the Swordmaster incident, she wouldn’t have gone this far.
This wasn’t for Min Se-ho.
It’s solely for her own sake, a talented actress named Pyo Ji-woo.
“Ughh!”
As Pyo Ji-woo sobbed and cried,
“Hey there.”
A noticeably bulky man approached them.
He looked back and forth between the crying Pyo Ji-woo and Seo-yeon, who was holding a smartphone, and said,
“Hey, student. What did you just take a picture of? I saw everything. Show me your phone.”
At those words, Seo-yeon briefly scanned the area.
No one seemed to be paying attention right now.
It seemed that such incidents were frequent enough that club guards were on standby.
“Ji-woo.”
“W-what??”
“When I give the signal, we run.”
A signal? What does that even mean?
As such thoughts crossed her mind, the club guard approached with quick strides.
He took a moment to look closely at Seo-yeon’s appearance, his eyes widening.
‘Is she an entertainer?’
That was the kind of beauty that could make someone say they’d let her in without paying if she wasn’t in a school uniform.
However, it was clear he needed to verify she had indeed taken a picture at the entrance.
“Alright, let’s do it nicely, with the phone…”
As he started to stretch out his hand toward Seo-yeon, she suddenly made a move he didn’t expect.
Seo-yeon pushed him strongly with her palm to his chest.
“Wha—?!”
Instantaneously, the scenery shifted.
The guard realized too late that he’d been launched backward.
Seo-yeon had shoved him with a surprising amount of strength.
Even on alert, that 190 cm man was sent a few meters back by a mere girl.
Although he might have been careless, he felt as if he’d been knocked back by another man of equal size.
“Now.”
And with that, Seo-yeon immediately grabbed Pyo Ji-woo’s hand and ran.
In fact, Pyo Ji-woo was more like being dragged along.
While the club guard struggled to regain his footing, Seo-yeon and Pyo Ji-woo were already far ahead.
“Phew, phew.”
After an unexpected workout from crying, Pyo Ji-woo sat on a nearby bench, panting.
She found it ridiculous that Seo-yeon was sitting there without a bead of sweat on her.
‘What the heck is she?’
Are all high school girls like this now?
No way that could be true.
After everything that had just happened, she wanted to say something, but her mind felt completely blank.
She felt dazed.
“So, what now?”
Although she had impure intentions, she had sacrificed a year for acting.
She wasn’t particularly good at anything, but she wondered if perhaps she might have a knack for it after all.
If things had gone well with Min Se-ho, she thought it’d be fine to continue this work.
But now, she had lost all motivation.
“Why did you show me something like this?”
Again, she asked why Seo-yeon revealed Min Se-ho’s truth to her.
Seo-yeon glanced at the dazed Pyo Ji-woo.
Her true intention was that she wished Pyo Ji-woo wouldn’t follow the same path again.
And why she thought this way was…
“…It would be a waste.”
“Huh?”
“You said you’ve put in a year.”
Pyo Ji-woo is a gifted actress.
The time she invested to act alongside Min Se-ho was one whole year.
Right, it’s just one year.
“I thought you had amazing talent. So…”
Surprisingly, it had taken her only a year to get cast in a movie.
She was an actress with such impressive abilities.
“I thought it’d be a waste to just end it over something like this.”
“…”
“Because it would be a shame if anything bad happened because of someone like him.”
At Seo-yeon’s words, Pyo Ji-woo silently regarded her.
There was an uneasy expression on her face.
If one looked closely, she seemed to blush at such remarks.
Because she typically showed so little emotion, it came off even more prominently.
“That’s all.”
With that concluding remark, Seo-yeon departed.
Pyo Ji-woo could only watch Seo-yeon’s back until she was out of sight.
Silently.
*
“So.”
Lee Ji-yeon asked me with an intrigued expression.
“So what happened with Min Se-ho?”
“He dropped out.”
Of course, Seo-yeon didn’t directly report him to the police.
Days later, Seo-yeon received a call saying she passed the audition.
Next, during a meeting with Jo Do-yul, she casually mentioned what had happened back then.
“…This photo. Is it real?”
“Yeah. The sister I know took it and showed it to me.”
“Ah…”
Jo Do-yul shook his head, looking troubled.
Typically, plays might assign two or three performers to the same role.
So a performance scheduled for a day usually won’t have the same actor perform all the shows.
This was the case with “Eyes Closed,” where there were three actors for the role of ‘Bae Sung-hak.’
For this audition, they were casting for the part of ‘Hong Jeong-hee,’ which Min Se-ho starred in.
The previous two teams were drawn from those who participated in the premiere.
Since one team was lacking, they were gathering the rest while keeping Min Se-ho in the lead role.
“Guess we need to find a new ‘Bae Sung-hak’…”
I sighed.
In reality, it’s not typical to intervene in an actor’s personal life, but with the opening of the play looming,
it could turn into a big problem if they stirred up unnecessary scandals.
Especially since he’s got two women involved…
‘Why did he have to get caught by this girl, too?’
Joo Seo-yeon.
Her name holds quite a weight.
Jo Do-yul could only sigh at the throbbing pressure in his head.
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