I Spent a Night with a Top Star Actress Chapter 29 - Storm.

My eyes went to one spot.

‘Lee Ha-eun.’

The top-star actress, seen again, was still beautiful.

Sharp, haughty eyes.

Her deep, mysterious eyes looked like they held countless stories inside.

Long, black lashes showed off a bewitching charm, and her straight, high-bridged nose gave her face perfect balance.

Even the tear mole beside her eye was beautiful, actress Lee Ha-eun.

The corner of her mouth twisted.

“Crazy bitch, filthy bitch, straight-up psycho bitch.”

Just looking at her face, she could pass for an angel.

But the words pouring out of that angel’s mouth were nothing but filthy.

“It’s what our own employees say every time they badmouth me behind my back, and isn’t that funny? Talking like that about the face who pays their salary? So I don’t bother caring. Their lives only go as far as that. Can’t say a word to my face, just talk trash behind my back like the vermin they are, that’s the whole extent of their lives.”

Lee Ha-eun let out a sneer.

“But this… this is a fresh piece of backbiting I really can’t ignore.”

Lee Ha-eun jerked her chin.

“What exactly did I do with this man, Team Leader One?”

“…”

“Explain it. In detail, in that same tone you used to lecture me with.”

Astonishing.

That soul-crushing tone of hers, that look down her nose.

Seeing her again after so long, Lee Ha-eun hadn’t changed one bit.

Team Leader Kim Seong-hun, standing in front of her, was frozen with fear.

“N, no… that’s not it, Ha-eun-ssi…”

Lee Ha-eun smiled, gentle as anything.

“Stop stammering and explain.”

“It’s…”

“No, I said stop stammering and explain. You want me angry?”

“… It was a mistake, yeah. My mouth just slipped, it was a mistake.”

Lee Ha-eun covered her mouth like she was shocked.

“Oh my? You said something like that by mistake?”

“… I’m sorry, Ha-eun-ssi.”

“No, don’t apologize. It really just slipped out by mistake, is that what you’re saying?”

“…”

“Unbelievable. How is saying something like that, and not to just anyone, to the company’s own headline star, a mistake? How am I supposed to take this?”

That venomous voice kept jabbing at my heart.

It felt like a trauma I’d forgotten was surfacing again.

Meanwhile Team Leader Kim Seong-hun’s face was drowning in despair.

“H, Ha-eun-ssi. What should I do, huh?”

“Shouldn’t that be for Team Leader One to figure out?”

“No… it really was a mistake… Do you think I’m actually crazy enough to mean it? Never, absolutely never.”

Lee Ha-eun let out a hollow laugh.

“Team Leader One’s mistakes could kill somebody.”

“… What?”

“That slip of the tongue of yours. Let a reporter hear it. That’s a slip worth hundreds of millions.”

“!”

Team Leader Kim Seong-hun’s jaw jerked and trembled.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Inside that darkness, the situation raced toward its peak.

“If you make a slip like that, don’t think about being forgiven, think about taking responsibility. Isn’t it a little shameless of you?”

Lee Ha-eun snapped, shouting!

“Get out!”

Her long finger pointed at the door.

“Get out right now!”

I felt it.

‘It’s over.’

That shout brought the whole thing to a close.

But Team Leader Kim Seong-hun couldn’t bring himself to leave easily.

He seemed to sense, vaguely, that if he couldn’t fix this now, there’d be no place left for him at Baekhak.

But top-star actress Lee Ha-eun would never accept an apology.

In the end, Team Leader Kim Seong-hun had only one road left to take.

“…”

Team Leader Kim Seong-hun, looking dazed, walked out of the management office just as Lee Ha-eun had told him to.

His retreating back carried the kind of despair you’d see in someone whose world had just ended.

And with that, Team Leader Kim Seong-hun of Team 1 exited the management office.

In the empty office, only Lee Ha-eun and I were left.

“…”

A heavy silence settled over us.

Lee Ha-eun and I both.

We stared steadily at each other without opening our mouths.

In an atmosphere so strange it felt like time had stopped, we each took in the other’s face.

Naturally, the memory of that day surfaced.

Lee Ha-eun, streaked with tears.

And me, biting into those lips of hers like an animal.

The sweet smell of her skin.

Moans like screams brushing past my ear.

The courage alcohol gave, and pleasure beyond description.

In that instant, the tear-streaked Lee Ha-eun overlapped with the one glaring venomously in front of me.

Just as my heart started pounding against my own will, the top-star actress’s tightly shut mouth opened.

“Lowlifes.”

The corner of Lee Ha-eun’s mouth twisted.

“This is what happens when you run around with lowlifes.”

Ah.

The illusion shattered.

Meanwhile the biting sarcasm that had been aimed at Team Leader Kim Seong-hun swung around and landed on me.

“I told you, you should’ve come back while you had the chance. Look at the state of you, Kwon Chan.”

In the past, I would’ve kept my mouth shut.

But not anymore.

I twisted the corner of my mouth just like Lee Ha-eun.

“Even if I’m a lowlife, isn’t a peaceful mind better than the alternative?”

“What?”

“Being around you used to choke the breath right out of me. It doesn’t anymore.”

Lee Ha-eun’s eyes narrowed into blades.

“Hah…”

Properly annoyed, it seemed, she raked her raw, unstyled hair back with an irritated hand.

Lee Ha-eun gave a short click of her tongue.

“This is annoying.”

“Should I walk out like Team Leader One did?”

“Get lost. I’m the one leaving.”

Lee Ha-eun turned around.

Click, click.

The sharp click of her heels rang out in an even rhythm.

Watching her retreating back without a word, I thought.

I’d landed one on that rude, self-centered woman, so why did it feel this lousy?

I thought it over for a moment, and soon, realizing why, I muttered.

‘Whatever she was thinking, Lee Ha-eun just helped me.’

Maybe she was just angry at Team Leader Kim Seong-hun for crossing a line with his gossip, or maybe it was to protect that day’s secret.

But looking at the result, Lee Ha-eun had helped me.

And I’d turned around and given the person who helped me a piece of my mind.

By my own standard, that made me trash.

In that instant, unfiltered words spilled out of me.

“Thank you.”

I regretted it the moment I said it.

But my chest felt lighter for it instead.

“Thanks for helping me, Lee Ha-eun-ssi.”

At those words, Lee Ha-eun’s steps stopped dead.

The top-star actress Lee Ha-eun, slowly turning her head from where she stood.

Our eyes naturally met in the empty air between us.

I couldn’t tell if it was just my imagination, but there was a strange heat in Lee Ha-eun’s gaze.

My body warmed up before I noticed.

Why was she looking at me like that?

Like she was about to devour me?

I flinched…

I took a step back before I knew it.

Meanwhile, the corner of Lee Ha-eun’s mouth curled up.

“If you’re grateful, buy me a meal sometime.”

“?”

Startled, I asked back quickly.

“What?”

“You know what I like, right? Call me when you’re ready.”

Lee Ha-eun turned around again.

Click, click.

The woman who’d shown up on her own terms disappeared just as she’d come, with the click of her heels.

Left alone, I muttered belatedly.

“… A meal?”

I’d ended up setting a dinner date, out of nowhere, with the top star I’d spent one night with.

---

A stormy day had passed.

Once I was off work, I couldn’t fight off the fatigue that finally caught up with me, and fell straight to sleep.

It felt like I’d only just closed my eyes, and it was already morning.

Letting out a groan, I fumbled my way into my clothes.

Luckily my condition wasn’t bad.

Only my nerves were strangely on edge.

Like the slightest touch would set them off.

Every sense was standing sharp and alert.

I showed up to work in that state, and a strange rumor was already going around the office.

“Did you hear?”

“Wow… Team Leader One’s really in trouble.”

“They say he got caught badmouthing actress Lee Ha-eun, is that true?”

“What’d he even say to get chewed out like that by the Division Head?”

I let out an involuntary hollow laugh.

‘There’s really no such thing as a secret here.’

Word about Team Leader Kim Seong-hun and Lee Ha-eun had somehow already spread quietly through the company.

But the strange thing was… my name never came up in the rumor.

That let me stay clear of the office gossip, but I couldn’t shake how odd it was.

‘When you actually think about it, this wasn’t a problem between Lee Ha-eun and Team Leader Kim Seong-hun, it was between him and me?’

Slowly, slowly.

I scratched at the stubble on my chin and headed for PR.

“Team Leader Kim Seong-hun and actress Lee Ha-eun going at it, you mean?”

The PR team leader sipped noisily at the americano I’d brought and said.

“The rumor probably started from the Division Head’s office.”

“Team Leader Kim Seong-hun got called into the Division Head’s office this morning.”

“Word is the yelling was insane. Division Head Park Yu-hyeon, of all people, apparently shouted.”

The PR team leader who never missed a single piece of office gossip.

Thanks to that, I’d caught up on the situation and muttered.

‘So Lee Ha-eun told Division Head Park Yu-hyeon about that day.’

But…

Why hadn’t I come up in that story at all?

I let out a hollow laugh.

‘Did Lee Ha-eun cover for me again?’

I still didn’t know what that meant.

But one thing was clear.

The way Lee Ha-eun treated me had changed.

Meanwhile the PR team leader, who’d been watching my face closely, asked.

“Chief Kwon. You wouldn’t happen to be tangled up in this whole thing, would you?”

I managed my expression a beat too late and answered.

“Tangled up? Not at all.”

“Suspicious. Your face just now was really suspicious.”

“I’m heading out. Take care, Team Leader.”

I got up and headed back to the management office.

My head got a little tangled with the situation still unresolved.

Nicotine suddenly called to me, and I redirected my steps toward the rooftop smoking area instead of the office.

From the break room to the left of the office entrance, a familiar name drifted out.

“Honestly, isn’t it kind of strange? Team Leader One’s had bad luck lately, sure, but he’s not the type to lose all sense.”

My steps stopped dead.

“If you ask me, it was a hundred percent Lee Ha-eun who started it.”

“God… that crazy bitch. I wonder if she’ll ever fix that attitude.”

“What good’s a pretty face and good acting when her personality’s rotten to the core.”

“Team 1’s mood was already in the gutter, and now this on top of it, all because of Lee Ha-eun.”

The corner of my mouth twisted.

‘Should I hold back, or not?’

The debate didn’t last long.

My nerves were seriously on edge right now, and my usually round temperament had gone sharp-cornered, like a triangle.

Meaning there was no reason to hold back.

I threw the break room door open.

Management Team 1’s members, who’d been chatting away, jumped and muttered.

“… Chief Kwon?”

I kept a smiling face and said.

“Watch your mouths.”

“What?”

“You watched your own team leader get torn apart over a slip of the tongue and you still say things like that?”

“!”

Team 1’s members scrambled to explain, flustered.

“Ah, no, it’s not like that…”

“And it’s uncomfortable to listen to, isn’t it?”

“… What?”

“Lee Ha-eun is our Team 5’s charge. Hearing this kind of talk from Team 1’s managers is honestly unbelievable.”

“!”

Team 1’s managers’ eyes went wide.

Honestly, there was no need to push this far.

But maybe it was my raw nerves.

Right now, I had no brakes.

I poured out words I’d definitely regret later, without a shred of fear.

“I get it. I know Lee Ha-eun’s rude too. But at least keep a line. What’s this crazy bitch talk? Crazy bitch? Is that the kind of thing you say about the company’s headline star?”

Team 1’s road managers opened and closed their mouths, then bowed their heads.

“We’re sorry.”

I slammed the break room door shut. Crash!

I had no idea what kind of fallout the words I’d just unloaded would bring.

But I didn’t really regret it.

That’s still true even now.

I went over to Team Leader Ma Seok-du, who was hard at work sorting paperwork.

“Hm? Chief Kwon, what’s up?’

I pulled Seok-du hyung into a meeting room.

I closed the blinds and even locked the door.

Seok-du hyung asked, looking baffled.

“… What’s this. Did you screw something up? Why so dead serious?’

Instead of answering, I pulled out my phone.

Then I played the recording of yesterday’s conversation in the management office.

“!”

Seok-du hyung’s eyes went wide.

“W, what is this?”

“Team Leader Five, no, Seok-du hyung.”

My raw nerves eased, just a little.

“Let’s end Team Leader One.”

Seok-du hyung’s face drained with shock.

---

The next day.

The management department was turned upside down.

“… You hear?”

“Team Leader One got fired, they’re saying?”

“What’d he even say for the CEO to step in personally and clear out his desk?”

“Don’t tell me that crazy bitch did something…”

“Hey, hey! Watch your mouth! What’s with the crazy bitch talk, of all times right now!”

“If you ask me… this looks like Team Leader One’s own fault. If it’s bad enough to get fired, he really screwed up big.”

Everyone in the office kept it hushed, watching each other’s faces.

Not that I could tell who exactly they were watching for.

I turned my head, the corner of my mouth rising before I noticed.

“…”

Team Leader Kim Seong-hun’s desk was gone.

With my mouth still curled up, I headed for the rooftop smoking area.

I put a cigarette in my mouth and muttered.

“Seok-du hyung kept his mouth shut this time, right?”

I’d made him promise, over and over.

No matter how foolish he could be, if I’d said it this many times, he’d keep the secret.

‘The man’s got loyalty, if nothing else.’

I’d even edited the recording just enough before handing it over, so the company wouldn’t know who was really behind this whole thing.

With the situation cleaned up like that, the tightness in my chest broke open.

“…”

My nerves were still raw, but the knot that had been sitting in my chest was definitely gone.

Thanks to that, I could smoke without a single thought in my head.

About the time the long cigarette had burned down to half, my phone rang.

-[Green Pine’s Team Leader Choi: Chief Kwon. Feels like it’s about time we grabbed a meal, don’t you think?]

My eyebrows twitched.

“The screenplay’s finished.”

The five-million-admission occult script, [The Priest in Black].

Korea’s master of occult film, Director Park Jun-seo, had apparently finally finished the work.

I tapped off the ash and muttered.

“[The Priest in Black] suddenly finished, and Lee Ha-eun shows back up too…”

Wasn’t the timing a little too convenient?

A picture was starting to take shape.

At the same time, I could feel my quiet daily life starting to steepen again.

The pressure of that urgency weighed heavy on my shoulders, but…

at the same time, the thrill this situation gave me was insanely fun.

I put a fresh cigarette in my mouth and muttered.

‘Where should I start.’

[The Priest in Black]?

Or Lee Ha-eun?

Or both?

I was about to light the new cigarette to think it over carefully when.

My phone’s alert rang out again.

-[International][Sender](attached file: image)]

A text from the future had come in.