Life, Once Again!

Chapter 955. Crank Up 7

Lee Miyoon put down her coffee mug. Bitterness, sourness, sweetness – those were the tastes she felt in her mouth. For a while, she felt like she was drinking plain water no matter what she ate, but today’s coffee was so fragrant and tasty that she could call it the best coffee of her life.

She took a breath of the freshly baked bread and checked her phone. There were thirty missed calls and hundreds of unread messages. They were the desperate cries for help from the traitors. The middlemen who betrayed her for Hong Janghae were begging her to take them again. The ones who moved to Japan seemed to have even looked up some words in the dictionary, as they begged for forgiveness while using words that they didn’t even use usually.

Miyoon read all the texts without missing a single character. She couldn’t get tired of reading them no matter how many she read. They probably thought that the offer given to them by Hong Janghae was golden and unshakable.

Miyoon ate the mocha bun that the waiter had given her and sent them replies. She told them that there are still some good spots in Seoul station and that they should better go there with some newspapers ^[1].

She turned her phone off and put it in her bag. She was no longer going to use this phone in the future. Instead, she turned on the power of the new phone she bought. Not long later, she got a call she was waiting for. She couldn’t be happier to see the name ‘Hong Janghae.’

“My, my, dear president. You never picked up when I called, but now you’re calling me of your own accord?”

-Of course I am. Congratulations on your return.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I managed to experience the bottom rungs of life, and it was good. If not for you, when would I ever get to experience something like that? The sense of deprivation, despair, and depression. All those things made me resolve that I will never get pushed down from this position ever again. No matter what happens, no matter who it is that tries to push me.”

-I’ve been taught a lesson too. I resolved that I must never leave an opening again and that even a weed without any blade of grass will grow if not rooted out.

“I guess both of us learned a good lesson. We’re in the later years of our lives too.”

Miyoon ate the butter roll. The savoriness was enough to make her dizzy. Hong Janghae’s voice of defeat must have become a magical spice.

-I assume you’ve been notified, correct?

“What do you mean?”

-The notification to visit.

“Of course I have. It was great news that I am to make a visit with you, president. Honestly, I was a little worried too. The chairman disdains women after all. But I’m glad that things went well.”

-May I ask you something?

“About how I changed the chairman’s mind?”

Hong Janghae replied yes without hesitation. It must have damaged his pride to give in so easily, too. He was a scary man after all.

“Am I obliged to tell you that?”

-I’ll find out in a day or two anyway. I’ll make it that way. The chairman I know is not someone who will leave a job to others just because they bowed down. He’ll only call those that prove themselves. If you did something, actress Lee, it’ll soon enter my ears.

“I now know that you have ears everywhere, president, so I’ll give you this one. It’s nothing much anyway.”

-Nothing much, you say. So I just became a pathetic man who can’t even do that ‘nothing much.’

“Don’t underappreciate yourself so much. We are partners who will have to work together in the future, so if you’re dejected, it’ll put me in a bad mood.”

She planned to give him a solid stab in the back, so she was satisfied with just dealing him a blow for today. Miyoon asked the waiter for another cup of coffee before continuing with the call,

“What do you think the chairman had on his mind lately?”

-There are many things on the chairman’s mind, so I don’t dare guess.

“He’s someone who supports the economics of the country, so he has many things on his mind as you say, but there is one event that made him displeased lately. He is someone who possesses unparalleled power within this land, but he was frowning because of one event. Do you have an idea of what that might be?”

Hong Janghae did not speak. It seemed that he fell into thought. The longer his pondering became, the more interested Miyoon was. It was a really trivial matter. People might even question ‘it’s just that?’ when they heard it.

-Is it about Kang Giwoo? On the movie side?

Indeed, not just anyone could become the chairman’s close confidante. Since Hong Janghae gave the right answer, it was time to play along.

“So you know about it. The chairman seemed to find it disappointing that he was unable to push his grandson’s back. Against a business, everything might have gone smoothly with just a word from his mouth, but he was up against an individual after all. Not just anyone either. He was up against the oddball director who could directly ignore the secret request of a chaebol.”

-You managed to have Kang Giwoo cast in director Park Joongjin’s new work?

“Yes.”

-That’s not possible. The director said he would not change the lead actor no matter what I said. Just what did you….

“He did not change it. The lead character is indeed played by that young man named Han Maru. What I asked for from director Park Joongjin is to give Giwoo a role. He’s pretty stuck-up, so he would not change his decisions even if a knife was up against his throat, but he’s quite flexible when it comes to things that he hasn’t decided yet.”

She heard a vain chuckle on the other side of the phone. Miyoon decided to wait until Hong Janghae decided to speak. She found it enjoyable to wait when she imagined that he must be gnashing his teeth.

-Giwoo decided to play a supporting cast, not the main role?

“Yes.”

-What kind of magic did you cast? I simply cannot understand. When I mentioned director Park Joongjin’s new work to him, he said that he felt no need to do it if he didn’t play the lead role. He said he would rather get some rest if he had to play an insignificant role.

“I’m sure he did. There’s no way that son of a bitch would have wanted to play something small.”

Miyoon then asked that he ignored the ‘son of a bitch’ part in a small voice. Hong Janghae asked again about what she did.

“You’re shameless to ask a businessperson about their business secrets. To give you a hint as a commemoration for us working together again, the reason Giwoo decided he would participate is something trivial. It’s quite obvious too.”

The waiter brought some coffee. He left after explaining that the coffee was rather acidic. She put it against her nose and sniffed it. Hong Janghae said something, but it did not enter her ears.

“Then see you in two days.”

Hong Janghae calmed down quite soon and hung up after telling her that they should see each other next time. Seeing her phone screen, Miyoon smiled. So that was his final bit of pride, huh?

While drinking the freshly baked bread and coffee, Miyoon recalled what happened a few days ago. Ever since she found out what happened between the chairman and director Park Joongjin, Miyoon called everywhere in hopes of finding a breakthrough point. She had some ties to director Park Joongjin, so it wasn’t difficult to find out what the situation was like.

“Director, can you give a spot to Giwoo? It must not be a bad deal for you.”

“I’m sorry, but the lead character has been decided to be Mr. Maru. No matter who you bring, I do not plan to change my mind.”

That was a response she had expected. Miyoon immediately changed her tactic. In fact, she did not even expect the position of the lead character. The reason she asked was nothing more than a setup to procure a supporting character role. Director Park said that there was a role suited for Kang Giwoo. He said that he could go with someone else but would use Kang Giwoo if he so wishes.

Miyoon then immediately called Kang Giwoo. She explained the situation to him, who picked up the call in an unhappy voice. Of course, the response was a nicely put ‘fuck off.’ He especially showed a considerate amount of hostility towards Han Maru and declared that he had no intentions of participating in a film where he was the lead character.

Miyoon couldn’t give up. She had to provide the chairman with a gift outside of business matters so that she could secure her return. She had to console the heart of the grandfather who was unable to look after his grandson, and at the same time, have Kang Giwoo speak praises about her.

Just as she was wracking her brain over this, she caught wind of a precious piece of news. It was from the agency ‘Hwan’ saying that Han Gaeul had joined director Park Joongjin’s work. It was an insignificant role too. When Miyoon heard that, she cheered in joy. She finally found a key that was better than anything.

“Han Gaeul is participating in director Park Joongjin’s work, so how about it? Isn’t this an opportunity to redeem what happened during the vacation last time? You can meet officially too, so there’s no problem with that. I’m telling you this so that we can resolve the bad memories between us. Also, I feel that the two of you suit each other.”

What Giwoo showed during the vacation was not simple affection but clearly a deep obsession. As she had expected, Giwoo accepted the offer. Everything after that was smooth-sailing. She visited the chairman, bowed her head, talked to him about her business plans, and finally, gave him the small present that she had prepared. She told him that his grandson was appearing in the film that he wanted. It seemed that Kang Giwoo had notified him beforehand as he looked extremely satisfied.

“Miyoon, I didn’t know you could scratch me where it itches.”

Those words signified that everything had returned to its original place.

Miyoon drank the remaining coffee in one go. Only now did everything return to how it should be. The only thing left was to give Hong Janghae an unforgettable gift as payback for giving her a hard time. She had to prepare meticulously in order to cut out Hong Janghae with minimal damage. Once she made the bomb explode, the YM Group would shift the responsibility to a suitable person to wrap up the matter. It would be the chairman who chops Hong Janghae’s neck at the end.

If she managed to lay low when the blades of execution flew everywhere, she might be able to absorb Hong Janghae’s work as well.

“Have all the head managers gather. We need to get to work.”

It was time to get revenge.

[1] Here, she’s telling them to become beggars.