Chapter 11: Unexpected Talent (1)

Although Park Geon-Woo was a man in his past life, he was at least aware of the fact that women suffered through a time of pain once a month. However, he only knew about it, and this was his first time experiencing it himself. It wasn’t like he had any way of experiencing it before.

“...Fuck!” Kang Ra-Eun unconsciously blurted out. She aggressively swung open her room door and headed straight to the bathroom.

‘The pads were on top of the shelf, if I remember correctly.’

She first locked the bathroom door. After cleaning herself up with the shower head, she put on a sanitary pad for the first time in her life. The feeling was inexplicable, but one thing was for sure...

‘It’s so damn uncomfortable.’

It wasn’t a good feeling in the slightest. She couldn’t care less about anything for today.

‘I’ll just lay down and rest.’

She didn’t want to do anything. As she was heading to her bed...

“Ra-Eun, what do you want to eat for lunch?” The dim-witted Kang Ra-Hyuk asked while sticking his head out toward his little sister.

“I don’t have an appetite, so stuff your face all you want by yourself,” she answered.

“What, did something bad happen? Why are you getting mad at me all of a sudden?”

“Nothing happened, so don’t talk to me if you don’t want me destroying everything.”

Ra-Hyuk finally realized as Ra-Eun was glaring angrily at him.

‘Oh, it’s the day that I shouldn’t mess with her.’

Once he realized that today was the day that he should keep his little sister happy, he said in a quieter tone, “Let me know if you need more Tylenol. I’ll stop by the convenience store to get some.”

“...”

Whatever the case, he was still her older brother.

***

Ra-Eun spent an entire day cursing inside her head.

‘At least it’s better than yesterday.’

Of course, it was only relatively better. She still felt some pain. She never could have dreamed that a woman’s body was this uncomfortable.

‘The things I have to go through just because I didn’t check off one category in the Return Application Form.’

She sighed deeply. After getting a drink of water from the kitchen, she glanced toward the master bedroom. The siblings’ father had come back late from delivering until late at night and was sleeping while snoring. She moved toward her older brother’s room as quietly as possible so as not to wake her father.

Ra-Hyuk was slightly relieved to see her little sister somewhat back to normal.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“None of your business. That aside, how much did you earn today?”

Now that Ra-Hyuk had gotten used to using the stock trading program, he immediately opened the page that Ra-Eun wanted to see. The five different stocks that they had bought recorded a profit rate of over 25%.

“But Ra-Eun, about Yo-Shin Ent., I’ve been looking at their chart for the entire day yesterday, and it’s been changing differently from what you’d told me.”

“Differently how?” she asked.

“It shot up at around 1 PM, remained flat for a while after that and shot up again.”

Like Ra-Hyuk said, it was different from the pattern that she had told him.

“Sell all of that stock right now,” Ra-Eun expressed.

“Huh? Is that okay?”

“Yeah. It’ll keep staying flat and take a nosedive.”

The two increases had jogged her memory. She needed to keep an eye on the trends since her memory wasn’t 100% clear, and a single mistake could cause a massive counteraction.

“Any other anomalies?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Nope. Oh right, can you take a look at this stock?” Ra-Hyuk had been keeping his eyes on a certain stock. “It's a stock of Mido Global. Their data’s been pretty good so far, and I think it’d be good to get on board. What do you think? It wouldn’t be a loss to buy some now, would it?”

Ra-Hyuk’s eye for stock trading had gotten better. Like he said, it wouldn’t be a loss for them even if they buy some now, since Mido Global would continue to enjoy an upward trend. However...

“Not them,” she remarked.

“Why not? It’s risk-free,” Ra-Hyuk asserted.

“I don’t like them, so don’t ever bring up Mido Global to me ever again.”

Ra-Hyuk couldn’t understand what Ra-Eun was saying at all. He didn’t know why Ra-Eun hated even the mention of Mido Global.

Mido Global is...

‘Part of Congressman Kim Han-Gyo’s politically-themed stocks.’

She unconsciously grinded her teeth even at the thought of his name.

***

Ra-Eun locked her room door and took off her pants and underwear. She tilted her head as she checked her lower body.

“Is it fine to not wear a pad now?”

The pain was gone, and nothing was flowing out. After searching through countless articles about periods, she came to a conclusion.

“I’ll wear one for one more day, just in case.”

It was unbearably uncomfortable at first, but she had gotten used to it after a few days. She sat the massive teddy bear that the previous owner of her body had bought, down to lean against the wall facing her bed. After setting it up to act as a back cushion, she got into position and reclined against it.

“I believe Chief Jung wanted to see me today.”

He had said that he had something to give Ra-Eun. He was supposed to contact her 15 minutes before he arrived. Just in time, a text came from him, asking where she wanted to meet. Ra-Eun chose to meet him at a cafe called Starlight Road, a small neighborhood cafe that she and Ra-Hyuk once went to talk about stock trading behind their father’s back, and the one that Seo Yi-Seo’s father owned.

Ra-Eun casually dressed herself.

“I’m going out for a bit,” she said.

“Where?” Ra-Hyuk asked.

“To talk about work.”

Sweltering rays of the sun beamed down upon her as soon as she went outside.

“So damn hot.” It felt even hotter because of her long hair. She decided to tie her hair into a ponytail that would expose the nape of her neck.

It took seven minutes to walk to Starlight Road. Once she arrived, Yi-Seo called out to Ra-Eun.

“Ra-Eun, Chief Jung is waiting for you.”

“Really? Thanks,” Ra-Eun said.

“Can I get you something to drink?”

“I’ll have an iced americano.”

“Okay.”

Ra-Eun headed to the table where Chief Jung was waiting after quickly ordering a drink.

“Hello,” Ra-Eun greeted.

“Oh, hey, Ra-Eun! You look completely different with your hair up.”

“I’m sure you’re not here just to see me with my hair up. Why did you want to see me?”

“As cold as always.” Chief Jung had gotten used to Ra-Eun’s coldness. He took something out from his briefcase. It was a thick bundle of papers. She had an idea of what it was.

“Is this the script for The Devil’s Touch?” she asked.

“That’s right. Open it up at where the post-it notes are,” he mentioned.

She did as Chief Jung said. There were two areas where a post-it note was placed. Scene #29 and #41-2.

“I marked only your appearances in season 1,” Chief Jung remarked.

“Season 1?” she asked.

“You didn’t know? The Devil’s Touch is already confirmed for season 2, since the views were insane.”

Ra-Eun did not know of this since she wasn’t all that interested in dramas.

“You might get lots more screen time if you do well, so let’s do our best, okay?” Chief Jung expressed excitedly.

“Oh, sure,” Ra-Eun replied soullessly. She couldn’t care less whether her character got more screen time or not. “What about your promise of setting up a private meeting between me and Ji Han-Seok sunbae?”

“Oh, that’ll be after the end of season 1. Han-Seok’s schedule is packed these days, and it’s best to meet privately once the season ends. It’d be a problem if you’re seen by reporters and scandals start popping up.”

Chief Jung was right.

“But Ra-Eun...” Chief Jung’s voice dropped considerably, as if he was highly wary of his surroundings, even when they were the only customers in the cafe. “Do you, by any chance... like Han-Seok?”

It was a reasonable misunderstanding, considering her obsession toward Han-Seok, but Ra-Eun flatly denied it.

“No, I simply admire Han-Seok sunbae’s acting style. I have no romantic feelings toward him.”

“R-Right? I knew it. It’d be a huge problem if two rookie actors with bright futures fell in love already! Phew, what a relief,” Chief Jung expressed brightly.

It wasn’t a concern for Ra-Eun, but it seemed to have concerned Chief Jung considerably. Now that the misunderstanding was resolved, they got back to talking about work.

“And here.” Chief Jung handed Ra-Eun two name cards. “One is the card of the person who will be your road manager from now on, and the other is of the acting school instructor who will be teaching you acting until you start shooting your scenes. You’ll be receiving acting lessons starting this Thursday... two days from now, so make sure you get the most out of it.”

“I have to learn as well?” Ra-Eun complained.

“You said you have no acting experience. You have to digest your lines, and it’d be a huge problem if you read them like you’re reading a textbook,” Chief Jung remarked.

He did not want to let this hard-grasped opportunity go to waste, because...

“In my opinion, you’re definitely gonna become popular. Add acting skills to what you already have, and you’ll become the greatest Korean actress of all time! So just trust me and give it a shot, okay?”

Seeing Chief Jung’s radiating eyes, Ra-Eun held in her sigh.

***

Two days later, Chief Jung reported into work, stretched and checked the time. It was 3:30 PM.

“I wonder if Ra-Eun’s doing well.”

Ra-Eun should be receiving acting lessons about now. At that moment, a call came to Chief’s Jung’s phone. It was the number of the instructor who was in charge of teaching Ra-Eun acting.

“Hello, Miss Yoon?” Chief Jung answered.

- Chief Jung! Where in the world did you find Ra-Eun?

Chief Jung thought something had gone wrong. He recalled Ra-Eun mentioning that she had no acting experience.

“I’m sorry, Miss Yoon. Ra-Eun still doesn’t know a thing about acting. I’m sure you’re having a hard time teaching her since she has no experience, but could you please somehow—”

- No! That’s not what I was trying to say!

From Miss Yoon’s excited voice, she seemed to be in high spirits.

- I’ve never seen someone with this much talent in acting! I was so shocked... That’s why I called you!