How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor Chapter 47

Chapter 47 

 

The words I had just spoken were apparently so unexpected that both of them opened their mouths at the same time.

“You…”

The first to speak was Lee Seulmyeong.

“Hah!”

She let out a disbelieving laugh and pressed a hand to her forehead.

“Stop meddling? Is that really something you say to the parents who raised you for decades?”

“It is something an unfilial son would say. I won’t deny that. Still, I think I’ve done enough filial duty up until now, so please consider that. From now on, I’m going to live for myself.”

“You’ve been filial? How? What exactly have you done? Do you even have a conscience?”

“Dear.”

The one who stopped Lee Seulmyeong as she became increasingly emotional was Yoo Taeho.

Instead of his wife, he looked at me expressionlessly and spoke.

“You’re going to live for yourself… Fine. I understand what you’re trying to say. But it seems you’ve forgotten who gave you that life in the first place.”

Yoo Taeho then launched into exactly the kind of speech I had expected.

Without us, you wouldn’t even exist where you are now. Do you think the world is easy? Without us, you can’t do anything. You’ve always been like that. You act stupid and selfish, get hurt by the world, and then come crawling back to us. Every single time, we took you in. And so on, and so on.

‘My ears hurt.’

‘When is he going to stop talking? Though I guess an actor is an actor. Even now, his diction is incredible.’

After spacing out internally for quite a while, his tiresome lecture finally seemed to be reaching its end.

“You’re legally an adult, so we have nothing more to say. Do whatever you want. Live your life. But remember this. We did our best for you. You’ll never find parents who gave as much to you as we did.”

“I read something recently.”

At my sudden interruption, he frowned.

Regardless, I spoke with deliberate rhythm, like an actor reciting lines on stage.

“It was an article about narcissistic parents. While reading it, I kept thinking, ‘What is this?’ But then I realized something.”

I smiled.

‘Ah! It was talking about my parents!’

“…”

“It was strange that I hadn’t realized it sooner. It described my family perfectly. Here, let me tell you about it too. Let’s see whether it sounds like you or not.”

I exaggerated my gestures as if I were performing in a play.

Then I recited the contents I had memorized without pause.

“First, they emotionally neglect and dismiss their child from a young age! Second, they believe their child’s successes are entirely their own achievement! Third, they manipulate their child through guilt! Fourth, they actively interfere with their child’s independence and, once the child finally becomes independent, they torment them or–”

“Stop!”

The one who cut me off was Lee Seulmyeong.

Her body trembling, she shouted like thunder.

“Is that really how you’ve thought about us all this time? After everything we’ve done for you, how can you say something like that?!”

“Oh? That’s actually one of the classic narcissistic-parent lines.”

“YOO SEULHO!!!”

A scream loud enough to tear through the house echoed around us.

This time, Yoo Taeho didn’t intervene.

I merely smiled and shrugged.

“I’m not saying this because I expect you to reflect on yourselves. I know you won’t. And of course, you won’t regret anything either.”

“What kind of attitude is that? Have you lost your mind?”

“Then what about you, Mom? Why do you speak to your son that way?”

“…Who are you?”

Lee Seulmyeong’s eyes shook with confusion.

Until now, she had been acting like a parent shocked by her son’s madness.

But at this moment, she was looking at me as though I were a complete stranger.

“What’s wrong?”

“I raised you for twenty-five years… but I can count on one hand the number of times you’ve called me ‘Mom.’ The last time was before you started elementary school. After that, not even by accident. So why are you suddenly…?”

“Does it really matter whether I say ‘Mom’ or ‘Mother’ right now?”

“Showing respect to your parents is always important. Is this really how I raised you?”

‘Ha.’

I felt frustrated talking to someone who simply couldn’t understand.

Suppressing the frown that naturally wanted to form, I forced myself to continue.

“Do you really not understand the point of what I just said? I’m telling you that I’ve been hurt all this time.”

“I’ve been hurt because of you too! We suffered because of you!”

‘This is driving me insane.’

‘She’s not listening at all.’

Ah, I was tired of this.

I had been inside this house for less than an hour, yet it already felt suffocating.

‘How did Yoo Seulho endure this for twenty-five years?’

‘Yeah… I give up.’

I had considered fighting on his behalf a little longer. Maybe trying to work things out.

But it was obviously a waste of time.

Parents who had effectively killed their own son weren’t worth dealing with.

“I really don’t understand. How could we raise you all these years only to hear something like this…?”

“Well, apparently this is how you raised me.”

I looked at them as if to ask, ‘So what now?’

Now that I had reached my conclusion, there was no need to keep acting.

“You… you…!!”

Lee Seulmyeong trembled as if she were about to collapse.

Yoo Taeho quickly caught his wife and glared at me as though he wanted to kill me.

‘Is he going to hit me?’

No matter how fit Yoo Taeho was, I had the advantage when it came to fighting.

So I wasn’t worried.

Still, a thought crossed my mind.

‘Did Yoo Taeho ever hit Yoo Seulho?’

Of course, the verbal abuse alone was already abuse.

But had there also been physical abuse?

Because that would change things.

‘Physical violence leaves marks on the victim’s body.’

I wasn’t talking about bruises.

Even when nothing visible remains, the scars left inside a person can torment them endlessly.

That was why the male lead of ‘Our Space’ couldn’t easily defy his older brother, even after growing strong enough physically.

The accumulated continuity of violence conditioned him.

Without realizing it, victims instinctively flinch in front of their abusers.

I tensed my body deliberately, worried that I might feel some of that lingering influence while wearing Yoo Seulho’s shell.

But…

“I’m sick of looking at you, so get out.”

After taking a moment to steady his breathing, Yoo Taeho spoke through clenched teeth.

“Think whatever you want. If you want to believe we’re terrible parents, then go ahead. It doesn’t change the facts.”

“Sounds good. Then since you’re not terrible parents, you won’t ask me to repay you for raising me, right? You already have far more money than I do anyway.”

I swept my gaze around the enormous house as I said it.

There was no response.

I looked directly into the eyes of the man who seemed ready to curse me out at any moment.

‘Hmm.’

After a brief moment of consideration, I spoke.

“A dog that doesn’t recognize its owner is better off not existing, don’t you think?”

“…”

At that instant, Yoo Taeho’s pupils shook violently.

I had repeated a line straight out of the private investigator’s report, yet his reaction was stronger than I expected.

“Stop interfering with me through the agency, reporters, or anything else. Wouldn’t that make things easier for everyone? That way all three of us can continue being celebrities.”

I paused.

“All three of us.”

I knew perfectly well that this warning wouldn’t actually work.

But I said it anyway because I wanted to carve one fact firmly into their minds.

Their obedient son was gone.

The possession they had always taken for granted would no longer move according to their wishes.

“Well then, goodbye.”

I turned around and left the house.

The conversation had been frustratingly pointless, but at least I had said everything I wanted to say.

I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

I was striding toward the gate when…

‘…?’

In one corner of the otherwise immaculate yard sat an old doghouse.

It was obvious the yard was carefully maintained.

Yet the doghouse looked as though it hadn’t been used in over ten years.

It was empty.

‘What the…?’

‘Did they used to have a dog?’

Then why hadn’t they thrown it away?

The structure stood out strangely amidst the perfectly groomed yard.

I found it odd, but I had no desire to think about it any longer.

I quickly left.

‘Ugh.’

I should never come back here again.

 

***

 

The moment I returned to the hotel, I stretched.

Ugh.

‘My whole body aches.’

I had only been out for about three hours, yet it felt like three days had passed.

‘Still, I did it.’

I was exhausted, but refreshed.

It was something that had to be done eventually.

Warning Yoo Seulho’s parents.

And finding ‘this’.

“Whew.”

I pulled out the bundle of notebooks I had hidden inside my shirt the entire time.

Honestly, I hadn’t expected them to exist.

But now that I had found them, my heart was beating strangely fast.

‘Thank goodness you were the type to keep a diary, Yoo Seulho.’

That’s right.

The notebooks I had stolen from the family home were Yoo Seulho’s diaries.

Earlier I hadn’t had time to read them properly, but it was obvious at a glance.

‘Not many people keep diaries these days.’

Especially men.

They were practically an endangered species.

Even so, I had been half-convinced that a diary existed because Yoo Seulho had never used social media.

In modern society, everyone hides their true feelings.

When the pressure becomes unbearable, people look for ways to release it.

They call friends.

They vent on social media, mixing truth with lies.

Things like that.

But Yoo Seulho had neither close contacts he regularly called nor a secret SNS account.

‘Of course, I already had a rough understanding of his past through the private investigator’s report.’

But I had never heard his genuine inner thoughts.

Thinking that I was finally about to meet the real him made me feel oddly excited.

‘At least I should understand how you really felt.’

Whenever I felt this way, I wondered if I was getting old.

I knew perfectly well that unnecessary sympathy could ruin things.

But I couldn’t help it.

“Whew.”

Taking a deep breath, I opened the first page of the notebook.

Just as I had expected from something hidden so carefully, the diary contained Yoo Seulho’s deepest feelings.

And the very first sentence that caught my eye was:

[If someone other than me had been Yoo Seulho, would my parents have been proud of them?]