How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor – Chapter 135

Author: Cireng

Chapter 135

“What?”

The bewilderment in the other person’s voice was unmistakable.

Thinking she hadn’t understood, I repeated myself.

“I’m asking how much it costs to raise me. If I send you that money, then you won’t say things like what you just said anymore, right?”

Of course, I had absolutely no intention of paying.

And in the first place, I couldn’t.

‘My current bank balance wouldn’t even come close.’

Although I’d never had children of my own, I had raised quite a few that I’d picked up over the years.

Just the cost of feeding a child until adulthood, clothing them, and covering their basic education amounted to a considerable expense.

‘Director Seo did pay me quite a lot.’

Even so, it was only a reasonable amount.

It wasn’t nearly enough to cover the cost of raising a minor until adulthood.

‘Any reasonable person wouldn’t ask for that money in the first place.’

Honestly, they were the ones who wanted children and chose to have one.

It’s not like anyone asked to be born.

‘…Whenever I heard kids say things like that, I always thought they were so immature.’

Had entering the body of a twenty-five-year-old made my mind younger too?

Words that sounded exactly like something a rebellious teenager would say came out of my mouth without hesitation.

No, but what was I supposed to do when the parents themselves were this immature? I had to lower myself to their level.

“Hah.”

Lee Seulmyeong let out a scoff dripping with disbelief.

[Do you even know how much money was spent raising you? Do you think you could handle it?]

“I don’t know, which is why I’m asking. But do you not understand my question? I’m asking how much it costs.”

[Is that any way to speak to your parents? How dare you?

“‘How dare you,’ ‘how dare you.’ I’m getting tired of hearing that. Don’t you have any other lines?”

[You…!]

Her voice instantly sharpened.

‘I could probably teach a class on how to get under Lee Seulmyeong’s skin.’

It was almost funny how quickly she reacted after just a little prodding.

I still didn’t know exactly what kind of person Yoo Taeho was, but Lee Seulmyeong had become perfectly clear.

‘She’s not even that difficult to deal with.’

People like her only needed to be poked a few times without emotion.

Once they became enraged, they’d ruin themselves on their own.

The moment they decided the other person had crossed a line, they felt perfectly justified in crossing one themselves.

It had been obvious from the moment she’d casually said she was afraid I’d develop an ego.

‘Has it never occurred to her that I might be recording this call?’

She acted like nothing I did could leave so much as a scratch on her.

Of course, I didn’t think this recording would ever actually be used.

If it became public, it wouldn’t benefit Yoo Seulho either.

‘If that had been my goal, I would’ve changed the tone of my voice first.’

The public had a very specific image of what a child abused by their parents was supposed to look like.

A pure, pitiful victim who couldn’t say a word back, even while being cursed at by their parents, shrinking into themselves with tears in their eyes.

The moment you deviated from even one of those expectations, people no longer considered you a proper victim.

But during that phone call, my voice had sounded perfectly normal to anyone listening.

‘It’d be difficult just to cut out Lee Seulmyeong’s parts and upload them, too.’

I could edit the recording to make it favorable to me before exposing it publicly.

But there was no way the other side would simply stay quiet.

Once that kind of ugly public mudslinging started, it would spiral completely out of control.

As someone who had dealt exclusively with celebrity clients while working as a loan shark, I understood that better than anyone.

‘For celebrities, image is everything.’

Of course, that image could collapse overnight and recover just as quickly.

Some celebrities even managed to restore completely ruined reputations through sheer luck and talent.

But there was no reason to deliberately choose that difficult path.

‘Avoid public opinion battles whenever possible.’

Even becoming known as a pitiful victim wasn’t particularly desirable.

More importantly, Korea was still a country deeply rooted in Confucian values.

Even if Lee Seulmyeong grabbed me by the hair and slapped me across the face right now, four out of ten people would probably say,

“The parents must’ve had their reasons.”

There was no way a few cruel words like these could serve as proof of abuse.

[Enough. I shouldn’t have answered your call.]

The person who had sounded on the verge of shouting quickly regained her composure.

[I shouldn’t have expected anything from someone like you. Sentimentality… What a foolish mistake.]

“I know. You should be more careful.”

[…]

Silence filled the other end of the line, as though she’d completely lost her words.

A few seconds later, the call abruptly disconnected.

She hadn’t said another word before hanging up, yet I could practically hear her grinding her teeth.

“Was that Ms. Lee Seulmyeong?”

Choo Seomok asked from behind the steering wheel.

When I simply admitted that it was, he continued.

“So… what reason did she give for only making you play kind-hearted roles?”

I repeated every single word Lee Seulmyeong had said without changing so much as a syllable.

Choo Seomok paused for a moment, but nodded far more calmly than I’d expected.

“You expected that?”

“No. That answer never even crossed my mind.”

“You seem awfully calm.”

“Isn’t your reaction more important than mine, Mr. Seulho?”

His eyes met mine through the rearview mirror.

Those dark eyes seemed to be asking whether I was alright.

‘Well…’

If Yoo Seulho himself had heard those words, they probably would’ve genuinely hurt.

For the first time, I found myself thinking it was fortunate that I was the one inside his body.

Shrugging my shoulders, I told him I was fine.

“I already told you… I don’t think of them as family. It doesn’t matter.”

“It’s strange, though. Ms. Lee Seulmyeong is considered an actress whose elegant image is irreplaceable.”

“But judging from the little I heard over the phone, she sounded nothing like that.”

“What exactly are you expecting from an actress? She probably acts even at home.”

Yoo Taeho and Lee Seulmyeong were top stars who had meticulously maintained their public images.

Having been superstars since they were young, they were now praised as celebrities who only became more radiant with age.

The only blemish on their flawless reputations was their untalented only son, Yoo Seulho.

Of course, the very people who had given special treatment to that untalented son were those two parents themselves.

Naturally, the public wasn’t ignorant of that, and there had been comments saying,

“His parents are way too greedy.”

But Yoo Taeho and Lee Seulmyeong even had the talent to turn that criticism into material that reinforced their own image as devoted parents.

They appeared on various programs, portraying themselves as parents doing everything they could to support a son who desperately wanted to become an actor.

“Our son still has many shortcomings, but please look kindly upon him.”

Their plea always sounded humble and sincere.

As a result, public opinion gradually changed.

“What’s wrong with parents doing what they can for their child?”

“If I could give my own kid special treatment, I’d do the same lol.”

“If it weren’t for Yoo Seulho, those two would’ve never had to bow their heads in public…”

Eventually, the prevailing opinion became:

“Yoo Seulho’s the idiot for failing despite having parents like that.”

More importantly, even while his parents humbled themselves before the public, begging for understanding, Yoo Seulho himself merely stood there smiling shamelessly.

‘People couldn’t help but think that.’

Because there had never once been a time when Yoo Seulho wasn’t smiling in front of others.

“What is he smiling about all the time?”

“If I were Yoo Seulho, I’d be so ashamed of myself…ㅠㅠ”

“Being that shameless is a talent in itself lol.”

Despite all the criticism pouring down on him, he continued smiling.

Tsk.

Before entering Yoo Seulho’s body, I hadn’t understood why he always smiled like that either.

‘Because smiling was the only thing he could do.’

What else could a child like him possibly have done?

The longer I lived, the more convinced I became of one thing.

‘Being a child sucks.’

You couldn’t choose the parents you were born to.

You couldn’t change the environment you lived in whenever you wanted.

You couldn’t simply run away somewhere else.

And even after becoming an adult, the trauma you suffered as a child continued to hold you back.

Perhaps because I understood that all too well, whenever I looked at children, I didn’t think they were cute.

I only pitied them.

‘Well, maybe that’s just because the only children I ever met were pitiful ones.’

Back when I was a loan shark, I got exactly one vacation every year.

And every year, during that vacation, I’d meet countless different children.

They weren’t friendly, and they were afraid of someone as taciturn as me.

‘Would Yoo Seulho have been like that too?’

If Yoo Seulho had happened to be in one of those places I’d visited…

What would’ve happened?

I imagined a young Yoo Seulho looking up at me with frightened eyes.

Eyes filled with fear because he couldn’t tell whether I’d come to save them… or to kill them.

Could I have saved him?

‘Sigh… forget it.’

It’s all meaningless now.

No matter how much I think about it, Yoo Seulho has already left this body.

I don’t know whether I’ll ever meet him, but until then, I need to focus on what I can actually do.

And first…

“Seomok, can you help me with something?”

“Of course. What is it?”

“Are you good at writing?”

“…Pardon?”

***

I needed an acceptance speech for the upcoming award ceremony.

At first, I tried preparing it together with Choo Seomok, but he wasn’t much help, so I kicked him out of the room.

‘He talks too much like a soldier.’

Seomok’s version of an acceptance speech left no room for criticism.

It contained only the essentials, cleanly and concisely.

But it didn’t feel human.

‘This isn’t what I want.’

Team Leader Ahn had said that simply being polite would be enough.

But that wasn’t enough for me.

This acceptance speech needed to leave a much stronger impression than any of the previous ones.

Why?

‘Because I’m not going to mention my parents.’

Up until now, every single time Yoo Seulho had received an award, he’d thanked his parents without fail.

He always parroted the exact same line:

“The only reason I was able to receive this award is thanks to my parents.”

Now imagine that same person suddenly doesn’t mention them at all.

Entertainment reporters weren’t idiots.

They’d notice the change immediately.

In the first place, reporters (and plenty of other people) had already realized that Yoo Seulho’s relationship with his parents wasn’t what it used to be.

The only reason it had never become an official news story was that Yoo Taeho and Lee Seulmyeong didn’t want it to.

‘So what should I do?’

Should I mention them for now simply because I didn’t have another solution?

But after reading Yoo Seulho’s diary, I didn’t want to thank his parents… even if it was only for appearances.

Even if Yoo Seulho came back later and complained,

“Why did you act so disrespectfully toward my parents, using my body?”

…I still didn’t want to do it.

‘Right now, I’m Yoo Seulho.’

At the very least, I didn’t want to look like an easy target.

‘So what’s the answer?’

There was a simple way to reduce the attention people would pay to me, not mentioning my parents.

I just needed something else… something significant enough to overshadow it.