Cold City Romance Chapter 15.1

The movie ‘The Living God (Kumari: The Living God)’ is about the people of an isolated island village who worship as their god a child who was miraculously washed ashore after being abandoned on a remote island.

The young man who grew from a newborn baby into a beautiful and mysterious youth was worshiped as a living, pure and noble god, and the island villagers come to offer living humans as sacrifices according to the demands of their god.

This unconventional movie, which shows the eerie collective madness and closed-off nature of the isolated people, harshly criticizes closed-off cult religious crimes and child abuse, misguided puritanism, and the irrationalities of society by containing them in an Eastern religious hue and sensual mise-en-scène through a bizarre directorial style that shatters the framework of time and space.

Director Moon Jeongho swept all of the world’s leading overseas film festivals the following year with this movie.

The actor Cha Dokyung, who perfectly embodied in a spine-chilling way the cruel yet frail existence that was neither human nor god and was merely wretched before instinct, received the Best Actor award that winter at the age of thirty-four alongside Director Moon Jeongho, who received the directing award in Berlin.

However, along with the record-breaking box office success of the feature series <The Official: Civil Servant>, and despite the triumph of <The Living God>, which was evaluated as the peak of his career as it made his fame as an actor known to the entire world the following year, Cha Dokyung’s filmography came to a complete halt right at the peak of his acting life.

Top star Cha Dokyung vanished for nearly two years after that, and after Director Moon Jeongho’s movie, he completely disappeared from the public eye.

Cha Dokyung, who had gone into hiding, did not even shoot a single advertisement starting from the point when his contract with his agency expired, and he did not show his face in the media at all.

When Cha Dokyung, who had been called the luxury item of the advertising world for his elegant and sophisticated image, turned down even high advertising fees despite his skyrocketing price and hid his appearance from the media, people poured out countless rumors about his sudden disappearance and reclusive behavior.

However, Cha Dokyung remained completely silent without responding to any scandals, and no one knew of his whereabouts except for Director Moon Jeongho.

The time when he had been shooting his last movie with Director Moon was at the age of thirty-four, and Cha Dokyung’s age was now thirty-six.

The top star, who possessed an ambiguous physical allure at the boundary between alpha and omega and a noble and dignified aristocratic image, handed over his position to fresh twenty-something substitutes. The generational change happened quickly.

Cha Dokyung, who had originally been wrapped in a veil of mystery rather than a friendly image to the public, seemed to be slowly fading into forgetfulness after just two years. Unlike the past, consumption media and trends changed rapidly overnight, and the public easily forgot stars who disappeared from the media.

“I no longer want to renew my contract with you, Mr. Yeom Taejeong.”

When the contract with ‘YT Entertainment’ reached its expiration point, Cha Dokyung went directly to Representative Yeom and expressed his intention that he no longer wanted to renew the contract.

“I’ll let you go.”

The response that Cha Dokyung heard from Yeom Taejeong was too unexpected. It was so clear that he had to confirm it again because he could not believe it.

“……Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’ll release the shackles. It means I’ll end the contract and let you go obediently.”

“……”

“There’s no need to look at me with that expression. Even after the contract ends, I have no intention of making a messy fuss, so relax. In any case, I’m in a position where I’m the one being threatened.”

Ironically, Representative Yeom, who had seemed like he would never let him go until death, calmly expressed his intention to respect Cha Dokyung’s will.

“You know it too. I got nicely done in by Hyeon Serin. I fell for the sweet talk of the chaebol heiress who said she loved me and promised me a future, and in the end, I ended up raising a snake worse than me and getting hit in the back of the head……”

“……”

“Even if I could handle Hyeon Serin, do I have the means to withstand the schemes of old Chairman Hyeon as well?”

Over the past few years, Cha Dokyung had unintentionally watched those two people as a third party by his side. The four years had been a fierce time for both of them. From afar, they seemed like they were in love, and up close, they seemed like they were at war.

“As you know, two years ago, due to the cash shortage from the failure of the new media business joint venture with Hyeon Serin, I had to sell off part of my shares. The shares were eventually acquired by ‘HK ENM’…… And at that point, an unexpected variable grabbed me by the ankle.”

“……”

“Who would have known that the third largest shareholder, who had been an off-market investor since before YT went public and had been quietly buying up shares behind the scenes—that damned ghost shareholder—would suddenly appear one day and join hands with ‘HK ENM’ to stab me in the back?”

“……”

“It was all a strategy by Hyeon Serin, who approached me from the beginning. While I was off guard, it was a scheme to swallow up ‘YT’ and for Serin to inherit the affiliate ‘HK ENM’ from Chairman Hyeon……”

The thorough man, who had always managed himself impeccably, smiled bitterly with a face like a wreck, having even forgotten to shave.

“The unidentified paper company ghost shareholder called Le Lis started pressuring and interfering with my management rights from some point on.”

“……”

“‘HK ENM’ and that crazy bastard accepted the contract termination request you sent. They said they would respect your will and cleanly end the contract.”

Four years had changed everything.

“You’re one of them too. Why are you pretending not to know with that stunned innocent face?”

Yeom Taejeong glared with eyes like a venomous snake dripping with poison.

“Le Lis Blanc? Why on earth did that unidentified ghost shareholder suddenly appear at the time of the share sale? Dokyung-ah…… Fuck, do you think it makes sense that you didn’t know about that?”

“Calm down. I really have no idea about it.”

Yeom Taejeong smirked.

“Well, I wonder if that’s true. You absolutely couldn’t not know.”

He gave a meaningful smile with a cunning face, but he deliberately held back his words as if hiding his true intentions.

“The suspicious one is you, not me! Don’t test me and just tell me openly if you know anything.”

“Fuck, even if I know, I have to keep my mouth shut like a mute, so what can I do? Up until now, to preserve my management rights, I’ve been threatened to stay quiet in front of you……”

“……”

“But I really didn’t expect that I’d end up letting you go with my own hands like this.”

Cha Dokyung brushed back his long-grown hair and laughed coldly. Even in his mid-thirties, it was a face so unbelievably clean and neat.

“You don’t have any regrets, do you?”

“……”

“Did you forget that you already sucked all the sweet juice out of my prime? I’m already thirty-six. In the blink of an eye, I’ll be turning forty soon.”

“Even if you reach your late thirties and enter your forties, you’ll still be Cha Dokyung. Look at you now. You’re my beautiful masterpiece that doesn’t change even as time passes.”

“……”

“What’s the forties? That classy face of yours can be cleverly sold off as a charming middle-aged man when it ages. So if you’re not confident, don’t just hand it over to some other guy—renew the contract again and leave it to me.”

Yes, this was Yeom Taejeong.

“Get a grip. Nothing is eternal. It’s time for me to step down now.”

“……”

“That’s why you got done in by Hyeon Serin with your eyes wide open, being so arrogantly full of self-confidence.”

Surprisingly, in the eyes of Yeom Taejeong, who had become a wreck, there was still a confident hope remaining. He was a man more tenacious than forsythia. The most shocking thing was that he was not greatly shaken even after losing YT.

On the contrary, Yeom Taejeong believed that such a loss was nothing at all and that if he wanted, he could make a comeback and recover it all with his own abilities at any time. It was an astonishingly baseless confidence, befitting a man who had risen through the ranks solely with his own eye and abilities.

“It wasn’t that I got done in—I let myself get done in knowingly.”

“……What?”

“It’s not over yet. If Serin just comes back to me, I can recover everything. Once she realizes what I offered up as proof to show my love for her, she’ll come back to me.”

“……”

“You know that? To that greedy young lady who was born with everything from the start, the only thing I could give her was just that much.”

It was a pure heart that was truly unbefitting of a villain.

The words that he had let himself get done in knowingly sounded like he truly loved Serin, and they also sounded like he still loved her.

“For the first time, I feel sorry for you.”

In the span of a few years, Hyeon Serin, who had been an immature young fashion entrepreneur and a total slacker, had dazzlingly grown into the most known female businesswoman by the time she turned thirty-five.

Over the past four years, Hyeon Serin and Yeom Taejeong had held a top-secret wedding ceremony in defiance of Chairman Hyeon’s opposition. Through that, Hyeon Serin had built an undeniable, most perfect trust toward Yeom Taejeong.

She had received finger-pointing from those around her but had conspired to get what she wanted and obtained it thoroughly, then, as if it had all been planned, she quickly went through divorce procedures and, like a lie, brought Yeom Taejeong crashing down in one go.

From the beginning, Hyeon Serin had repeatedly said that she absolutely needed Yeom Taejeong for HK’s affiliate media business, which was her one and only inheritance asset and lifeline.

In that fierce game of eating or being eaten, the winner was ultimately Hyeon Serin, and she ascended to the position of major shareholder who acquired YT and representative director of ‘HK ENM’.

As a result, Hyeon Serin refused to become merely a tool and a means of her father’s. She gained ownership of a larger personal stake and complete independent inheritance as an independent businesswoman, which was greater than the family benefits that a political marriage could provide.

And so, Cha Dokyung was finally able to leave the side of Yeom Taejeong, the mastermind who had built a solid fake glass castle thirteen years after his debut.

Every time he firmly refused to shoot advertisements, on the contrary, the demands to shoot advertisements came at him relentlessly without end.

However, he had no intention of shooting advertisements anymore. He no longer wanted to sell himself as the product called Cha Dokyung, disguised under the wrapping paper called ‘alpha’.

Nevertheless, he could not let go of the profession of actor to the end. He had promised to work together with Director Moon, his benefactor, on the next project, whenever that might be. If a good project came his way, he still wanted to act. However, for the time being, he had no confidence in standing in front of the camera.

Cha Dokyung, who had won the Best Actor award at one of the world’s three major film festivals and obtained the title of true acting actor that he had so desired with <The Living God>, could finally realize the truth he had been turning away from only after ascending to that peak.