Chapter 162: Strong Woman (1)

Kang Ra-Eun woke up very early in the morning and got ready to go to the fitness center. She loved to break a sweat in the morning and take a warm shower after. She had an evening film shoot planned today, so she was planning on working out before then.

She headed down to the apartment parking lot with a sports bag containing her sports equipment. Lim Seok-Jun’s car entered the parking lot just in time. He stopped the car right in front of Ra-Eun, got out and opened the back seat door for her.

“I’m so sorry, Chairwoman. Did you wait long?”

“No, I just came down. That aside, you’re a bit late today. You’re usually here at least ten minutes early.”

“There was traffic in an area that I never expected on my way here. I’m terribly sorry.”

Ra-Eun did not mind it much; it was not like he was late. Since Seok-Jun had arrived right as she came down to the parking lot, there had been no time wasted. She got in the back seat and asked Seok-Jun, who had gotten back into the driver’s seat.

“Where was the traffic?”

“It was in the area passing over Yeouido.”

“Yeouido? At this time of day?”

It was not rush hour. No matter how many cars there were in Seoul, traffic wasn’t congested twenty four-seven. Her experience as a bodyguard also taught her much about the traffic patterns of Seoul. Hence, she found Seok-Jun’s words hard to believe.

“Are they doing some sort of protest this early in the morning?” Ra-Eun wondered.

“I wasn’t able to check directly, but I believe so.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I saw a large number of police cars and broadcasting station vehicles.”

“I see...”

If Seok-Jun was telling the truth, then...

‘I have an idea of what it could be.’

Ra-Eun suddenly smiled very widely.

‘If my guess is correct, I’ll be able to start the day very nicely.’

Her expectations were soaring already.

***

Ra-Eun headed to the treadmill as soon as she arrived at the fitness center. She changed the channel of the small TV on the treadmill to the news.

[Minister Kim Chi-Yeol has been charged for his numerous crimes today.]

[As the main perpetrator of the ‘Kim Chi-Yeol case’ that had recently occurred in the entertainment industry, Minister Kim has acknowledged the charges that he had been denying, and has confessed to all the injustices that he has committed until now.]

[Congressman Kim Han-Gyo has stated his view of his son’s arrest: “Even if he is my son, he must pay for the crimes that he has committed.”]

The camera captured the protesters’ rage toward Kim Chi-Yeol at the scene of the protest. Raw eggs were smeared all over the place. When Ra-Eun heard about the traffic from Seok-Jun, she had somewhat expected it to be because of this. However, one needed to see with their own eyes to be absolutely sure. She was finally able to smile in delight after seeing the news.

‘Finally, one down.’

It had taken quite a long time. Not even Ra-Eun had expected Chi-Yeol to be this tenacious. However, she decided to be satisfied since the result had been amazing.

‘But of course, there’s still the big fish.’

Ra-Eun’s final objective was none other than Kim Han-Gyo. Chi-Yeol had been nothing more than a checkpoint; Ra-Eun’s true revenge had not even begun yet.

‘I’ll make my moves with Chairman Ji as the focus for now.’

Among Ra-Eun’s current lineup of allies, Chairman Ji was by far the one who harbored the most enmity toward Han-Gyo.

‘Congresswoman Hong will bite at the smallest weakness she finds of Kim Han-Gyo, since they’re in opposing parties.’

There was absolutely no reason for Congresswoman Hong not to assist Chairman Ji, and the same went for Vice President Park Hee-Woo. TP Group would need to set up countermeasures now that they had found out Han-Gyo had been applying pressure to Do-Dam Group as well.

‘Considering Father’s personality, he would never take Kim Han-Gyo’s side.’

Ra-Eun had inherited her former father’s tendencies. Park Chan-Gil was made of pride on par with or greater than Ra-Eun. Such a person submitting to Han-Gyo was out of the question. Ra-Eun was thinking of using even her former father’s tendencies for her revenge as well.

As she was piecing together her new plan for revenge, Je-Woon, who she often met in the fitness center, got on the treadmill next to her.

“Morning, Ra-Eun.”

“Good morning, sunbae. You’re at the fitness center often lately.”

“Me? Well... I thought I’d get more toned since the group’s taking a break from making music.”

Je-Woon was known to be obsessed with working out, even among celebrities. That was how seriously he took exercise.

“Looks like you started off your morning well. I can tell from that bright expression of yours,” Je-Woon stated.

“Me?”

“Yeah. You’ve been smiling for a while now. Oh, and of course, you’re much prettier when you smile.”

Ra-Eun wondered if Je-Woon was flirting with her.

“Oh... really?”

Ra-Eun touched the area around her mouth. The reason why she was smiling was obvious; it was because of Kim Chi-Yeol’s arrest. However, Je-Woon was fascinated by how much Ra-Eun was smiling.

“Don’t you have a shoot today as well?” he asked.

“Yes, at around 10 PM.”

“Then I guess your horror tolerance increased, huh?”

Je-Woon still vividly remembered how depressed Ra-Eun had been on days of her film shoot. He was Ra-Eun’s only celebrity friend who knew about her weakness to horror. And of course, he was just as weak to it as she was.

Ra-Eun shook her head with an awkward smile.

“It’s still pretty difficult.”

Ra-Eun had two weaknesses; alcohol, and the horror genre. Although alcohol had been her strength back when she used to be a man, it had turned into a weakness after returning to the past as a high school girl. She had always been afraid of horror, so she needed a huge amount of time and effort to overcome it.

“What about you, sunbae?” she asked.

Je-Woon laughed in embarrassment. “You already know the answer, don’t you?”

There was a reason why he had said this. Although he and his group Bex was taking a break from making music, he was still appearing on shows. As a member of a globally famous boy group, he received tons of program appearance requests without even lifting a finger.

He had decided to go on a certain variety show, but he had regretted it as soon as it had become official. The episode that he had decided to appear on just happened to be a horror special, and what happened next was obvious. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Je-Woon was as much of a chicken to horror as Ra-Eun, so he had shown against his own will a myriad of reactions that the audience had wanted from him. Thanks to that special, discussions about Je-Woon had dominated the internet that day.

Although the variety program’s production team had found Je-Woon’s reactions to be an absolute gold mine, Je-Woon himself had to struggle through the entire shoot while scared to death.

Ra-Eun had also watched the broadcast, hence her question. She smiled teasingly.

“But your female fans seemed to find your reactions super cute. I have a friend named Choi Ro-Mi, and she absolutely loved that side of you.”

Je-Woon did not know whether to be happy or not, but he smiled regardless.

Seeing that, Ra-Eun thought, ‘He has good character.’

There were times when one had to abandon their pride during broadcasts. No human on Earth would be happy to show off their weak sides to the world. Despite that, Je-Woon was willing to look past it as long as his fans liked that side of him.

‘If I was put in his shoes, I would’ve done whatever it took to cancel that program appearance.’

Ra-Eun had taken the audition for the film Shuttered?since she had known beforehand that it was a horror film. The story would be very different in cases where she didn’t know in advance.

Je-Woon then said to Ra-Eun while they were running on the treadmill, “Ra-Eun. I decided to appear on an observation show. I think we’ll have a shoot at the fitness center as well, so I was wondering if you’d be willing to make an appearance on that day as well?”

“Which observation show is it?” Ra-Eun asked.

“It’s called Star-log. You know it, right?”

It would be weirder if she didn’t know. Star-log was an observation show with the highest ratings. Come to think of it, celebrities practically considered appearing on Star-log as a custom nowadays. Simply making a cameo appearance as Je-Woon’s acquaintance would allow her to let a large number of the public know what she had been up to lately. That was how popular Star-log was.

‘Well, it’s just for a moment, and I won’t be the one holding a camera all day long.’

Ra-Eun did not want to lose the chance to earn money while exercising.

“Okay, sunbae. I’ll let my agency know.”

Je-Woon looked very satisfied with her decision.

***

There was no entertainment agency that would be opposed to their talents appearing on a popular program that only famous stars appeared on lately. GNF reacted positively about Ra-Eun’s appearance on Star-log; rather, they were pressuring her to appear on it no matter what.

She went to the fitness center on the day that the shoot had been scheduled. There were cameras installed all over the fitness center.

‘Being on-camera for every single moment of your day, even in your own home...’

No matter how much a celebrity loved to be on camera, would they be okay with even their private life being filmed as well? Ra-Eun at least wouldn’t be. It was obvious, but being on camera was far more exhausting than one could imagine. She didn’t want to feel that exhaustion even in her own home.

‘I’m impressed Je-Woon sunbae agreed to something like this.’

Ra-Eun wondered if this was what it took to be a world star. While she was thinking, the Star-log program director came up to her and let her know of the scenario that he was thinking of.

“We’re thinking of having you meet Je-Woon by coincidence while you’re working out right here. You can then start talking naturally.”

“I understand.”

Ra-Eun had once thought that celebrities actually met by coincidence and went to have meals or hang out together whenever she watched observation shows. However, after working in the entertainment industry, she had come to realize it had all been a lie, and that an unscripted variety show was extremely rare.

1. Korean observation shows are reality shows that show the public the daily life of select celebrities. It is slightly different from most American reality TV shows.