How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor Chapter 35

Chapter 35

 

Click.

As soon as I opened the doorknob and stepped inside, the first thing I saw was a bed.

The sight of various medical devices connected beside the white hospital bed made it look as though an actual hospital room had been transplanted here.

And lying on that bed was ‘me.’

“……”

Before I even had time to think, my feet moved on their own.

I approached my body, lying there with a pale face and eyes closed as if dead.

‘Hah.’

At first, I had thought there was a chance my original body hadn’t died.

But as months passed after entering Yoo Seulho’s body, especially as various media outlets began mentioning the things I had done, that thought gradually faded.

‘If the real Yoo Seulho were living in my body, he would have come looking for me long ago.’

Since Yoo Seulho was a celebrity, we could have met anytime even without making arrangements. If necessary, he could have simply waited at one of my scheduled appearances.

But since nothing like that had ever happened, I eventually concluded, ‘Ah, I guess he died.’

‘I considered confirming it for sure…’

But honestly, I was afraid to.

No matter who I was, hearing that my original body had died wasn’t something I could casually brush off and continue focusing on work.

Yet now that I was standing here, face-to-face with it and unable to avoid it any longer, I found myself speechless.

‘This feels… strange.’

It felt as though my stomach were slowly turning inside out.

Too mild to call nausea, yet definitely unpleasant enough that I couldn’t say I felt nothing.

‘How should I put it…’

That was undoubtedly my original body lying there.

And yet it felt as though I were looking at a complete stranger.

I had only lived as Yoo Seulho for a few months, yet I was already trying to distance myself from my life as a loan shark.

The realization was so ridiculous that it made me laugh.

“Hah.”

After standing silently for a long time, I let out a dry chuckle.

Joo Gyeongbeom and Hwang Taejun immediately began watching my reaction.

Seeing that familiar behavior, I rubbed my face and apologized.

“Sorry. My mind’s a bit of a mess right now.”

“No, it’s understandable. You’ve known the boss for a long time, haven’t you?”

At Joo Gyeongbeom’s words, I turned my gaze back toward the bed.

“Well… we weren’t exactly acquaintances of only a year or two. Would it be alright if I asked what else the doctors said?”

“They said he suffered a severe impact to the brain from the accident. Other than a fracture in his right leg, there aren’t any major physical problems.”

Joo Gyeongbeom paused before continuing.

“From a medical standpoint, there’s no reason he shouldn’t regain consciousness immediately. Yet the doctors say the reason he hasn’t awakened is that the patient himself doesn’t want to. But that’s… impossible.”

“That’s because our boss isn’t the kind of person who’d do that.”

The youngest member, Hwang Taejun, suddenly cut into the conversation.

“I’ve never seen anyone as steadfast as the boss. No matter what hardship came his way, he always endured it without complaint. He’s the strongest person in the world. I can’t believe the doctor’s nonsense about trauma. He’ll definitely come back.”

His firm voice was filled with unwavering faith.

I appreciated the sentiment.

But it wasn’t exactly the outcome I was hoping for.

‘If Yoo Seulho regains consciousness like this…’

Considering that he had taken his own life, even if he did wake up, it seemed unlikely that he’d come to me demanding, ‘Give me back my body!’

If trauma truly was the reason he couldn’t wake up, then perhaps he simply didn’t want to continue living as someone other than Yoo Seulho.

‘More importantly, I don’t even know how to return the body.’

I didn’t know exactly why our bodies had switched in the first place, so I had no idea how to reverse it.

And even if I did know how to return everything to normal, I had no intention of doing so willingly.

‘I’m not handing over the results I earned through hellish effort for free.’

Whatever the circumstances, the body I had now belonged to me.

Even if Yoo Seulho later tried to claim ownership, I was confident I wouldn’t be manipulated by a mere twenty-five-year-old kid.

So the reason I didn’t want Yoo Seulho to wake up wasn’t that I was afraid he’d take my body away.

There was an entirely different reason.

‘Yoo Seulho can’t survive as a loan shark.’

The kid had already been driven to the edge.

His mental state must have been fragile beyond measure.

Someone like that could never adapt to the life of a loan shark, where enemies surrounded you on all sides.

‘Hoo.’

Let’s stop worrying about things that haven’t happened yet.

I cut off the increasingly tangled thoughts in my head.

‘I can worry about that after Yoo Seulho wakes up.’

After organizing my thoughts, I lifted my head.

“If the boss regains consciousness, could you contact me as well? He’ll definitely ask for me.”

“Of course. If you let us know in advance, you’re welcome to visit anytime. The doctor said that even unconscious patients sometimes react when they repeatedly hear familiar voices. It’d be great if the boss heard your voice and opened his eyes…”

Joo Gyeongbeom’s voice became increasingly emotional.

Seeing that, I couldn’t help but sigh.

‘Did I raise these guys wrong?’

Why were all these grown men so overly emotional?

The youngest one was one thing, but seeing Gyeongbeom, who had years of experience under his belt, acting like this made me feel hopeless.

“Let’s discuss the rest now. Shall we go back to the room we were using before?”

“Huh? Are you sure? You could stay and talk with the boss longer.”

“If it were the boss, he’d rather I spend my time handling other matters properly than standing here staring at him. That’s the kind of thing he’d want from the people around him. Isn’t that right?”

“Ah… yes. That’s… true. You’re right.”

Joo Gyeongbeom nodded belatedly.

Apparently realizing that he himself was included among those “people around him” I had mentioned, he no longer hesitated while leaving the room.

After taking the elevator back to the room we’d first entered, his expression had already returned to its rational state.

Thankfully.

“This is the report you requested regarding Director Shin Seungim. Please take your time looking through it.”

Reassured by his professional tone, I opened the documents.

The report was packed with exactly the kind of information I had hoped for.

Director Shin’s family background, hidden private life, financial issues, even past accidents.

Several pages were densely filled with details that could later be used as leverage if I ever became entangled with him in an unpleasant relationship.

“While investigating this time, we learned that this Director Shin is actually quite famous.”

“In what way?”

“He’s already notorious in the industry for treating his contracted celebrities like toys. Everywhere he goes, he just talks endlessly about how great he is. Some of the people we interviewed practically wanted to die because they found him so irritating.”

Ah.

‘Just as Hyun Jingae described.’

At one point, my manager had described Director Shin by saying:

“You’d think he was the celebrity himself.”

The type of person who always needed to be the center of attention wherever he went.

To someone like that, his artists weren’t people to elevate.

They were merely tools to elevate himself.

‘And now that kind of person is digging into Yoo Seulho’s recent activities.’

So far, he had only been questioning my manager about what Yoo Seulho had been doing lately.

But there was no telling how much further his behavior might escalate in the future.

More importantly, if he realized I intended to leave Star Actors and move to another agency, things would become far more troublesome.

I was mentally constructing various scenarios of how Director Shin might harass Yoo Seulho when Joo Gyeongbeom’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

“You know Director Shin personally cast Yoo Seulho, right? Ah, that’s right. You said you lost your memory. Anyway, apparently every time he goes to meetings, he brags that he personally cast Yoo Seulho and then spends the whole time badmouthing him.”

“How?”

“Uh…”

“You don’t have to soften it. Tell me exactly.”

At that, Joo Gyeongbeom spoke without hesitation.

Yoo Seulho couldn’t act and lacked manners.

The only reason they kept him was that they were generous; no other agency would consider him valuable talent.

He wasn’t just rude; he acted like he was some kind of prince.

And so on.

“He’s repeated those things so often that many people in the industry seem to believe they’re true. Since Yoo Seulho didn’t have many connections in the entertainment world, I’m not sure whether the Yoo Seulho from before losing his memory even knew about it.”

“Hm. Strange. Yoo Seulho… or rather, I… am a product he’s selling. Why would he deliberately damage the value of his own product?”

“How would we understand the way people like that think?”

Neither of us could make sense of that mentality.

Then…

“Um…”

The youngest member, who had remained silent until now, cautiously spoke up.

“Could it be because if he keeps putting him down, he can keep him under his control?”

“But that could lower his value to the point where he’s unusable. Is he really too stupid to think that far ahead?”

“If that happens, he can just throw him away. There are plenty of celebrities.”

Oh.

When our eyes met, the youngest member froze and hurriedly added:

“Ah, I don’t mean Yoo Seulho should be thrown away. What I’m saying is–”

“You’ve identified the key point. That makes sense.”

“R-Really?”

Embarrassed by the praise, he scratched the back of his head vigorously.

It was a habit I’d occasionally seen back when I was a loan shark, and it made me chuckle.

“Anyway, thank you. Thanks to that, I think I’ll be able to handle whatever happens in the future. My connection with the boss is important, but I’d also like to maintain a good relationship with your detective agency. To do that, I need to be a good client, don’t I?”

A good client, in this context, meant one who paid on time without delays.

Putting on the most shameless expression possible, I continued.

“There are endless debates about the lifespan of a celebrity’s career, but since you two work for Haru Finance, you should know better than anyone. There’s no business more profitable than being a celebrity. To put it bluntly, even male celebrities who get involved in drugs or crimes eventually get forgiven if they just endure for a few years. I want to make a lot of money in this profession for a long time.”

To do that, I needed to deal effectively with anyone who tried to interfere with me in the entertainment industry.

“I understand the power of information. And to gain that power, I need your help. Once I have that power, I believe we’ll become very good partners.”

“Are you saying… that until Yoo Seulho establishes himself, you want us to investigate people for free?”

“Think of it as an investment rather than charity. Every investment carries risk, but at worst, the detective agency only loses the manpower and time spent on an investigation. In return, the profits you’ll receive later will be several times greater than an average assignment.”

“Well…”

As soon as money entered the discussion, Joo Gyeongbeom returned to full alert.

Seeing that, I nodded inwardly.

‘Good. That’s exactly how it should be.’

If he’d immediately started giving things away just because he’d met Yoo Seulho a few times and thought we were close because of the boss, I would’ve been disappointed.

Suppressing a satisfied smile, I said:

“You don’t need to decide right now, so take your time thinking about it. In any case, our current transaction is completely settled. In exchange for today’s report, I’ve revealed my identity, and I already paid in full for the previous investigation into myself.”

Of course, the deal wasn’t truly finished yet.

There was still the second report regarding Yoo Seulho’s parents remaining.

And sure enough, as if he had been waiting for it, Joo Gyeongbeom opened his mouth to speak.