Side Story Chapter 1
Inside the banquet hall, the fourth-anniversary celebration for the global OTT platform New Wave was still in full swing.
Among the groups of people chatting here and there, I spotted Gil Boyoung and quickly made my way over to her.
“Noona, there you are.”
“Ah, Kibaek. Perfect timing. I was actually just about to leave.”
“You’re leaving already?”
“Yeah. I have an ad shoot early tomorrow morning, so I think I should head out first.”
“Ah....”
After thinking for a moment, I quickly took out my phone and made a call.
“Assistant Manager Oh, I’m heading out now. Please bring the car around.”
Gil Boyoung looked at me curiously after hearing the call.
“You’re leaving too?”
“Yes. I’ve already done everything I needed to do here.”
“I’ll take you home.”
“But....”
She looked slightly worried, as if wondering whether it was really okay for me, a vice president, to leave such a major event early.
“It’s fine, so don’t worry.”
“The event isn’t going to fall apart just because I’m gone.”
Only then did Gil Boyoung let out a small laugh.
“Still, you should at least say goodbye to everyone before leaving.”
“Oh, Director Song is over there.”
“It’s fine.”
“They’re people I see all the time anyway. What’s the point of making a big deal out of saying goodbye?”
“Let’s just go together.”
“The car’s waiting outside.”
Gil Boyoung looked at me suspiciously again, but I lightly tugged her by the arm and quickly led her out of the banquet hall.
When we stepped outside the hotel, Assistant Manager Oh was waiting in front with the car.
He was the personal driver assigned to me by the secretarial office after I became vice president.
I took two fifty-thousand-won bills from my wallet and handed them to him.
“I’ll drive today.”
“Take a taxi home.”
Assistant Manager Oh stared at me in surprise.
Then he sniffed the air a few times as if checking me for alcohol.
“You haven’t been drinking, right?”
“Don’t worry.”
“I haven’t touched a drop.”
“Well, then....”
He took the money with a nod.
“Drive safely.”
After bowing, he quickly disappeared from sight.
Gil Boyoung stared at me as if asking what on earth I was doing.
I smiled and opened the passenger-side door for her.
“I told you.”
“I’m taking you home.”
“You’re acting suspicious today....”
“What’s suspicious about it?”
“I just wanted to go on a date with you for once.”
Apparently she didn’t dislike my teasing.
Gil Boyoung smiled faintly.
I got behind the wheel and quickly drove away from the hotel.
We had both been so busy that we rarely got to see each other, so once we were alone, the conversation never stopped.
“You’re going to Minseo’s first birthday party, right?”
“I have a shoot that day, so I don’t think I can make it.”
“What if Seungjoon oppa gets really upset?”
Minseo was Cha Seungjoon’s first daughter.
He had married three years ago and had been handing out invitations to her first birthday celebration to everyone he met today.
“You’re missing it because of work.”
“Seungjoon hyung will understand.”
“I’ll explain it to him.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Gil Boyoung turned her gaze toward the window.
“Time really flies, doesn’t it?”
“It feels like yesterday that I heard Minseo was born, and she’s already turning one.”
There was a strange loneliness in her expression.
“I guess we’re at an age where it feels like a waste to let time just drift by.”
“Yeah.”
“So stop using work as an excuse and call me more often.”
“What else is there to life?”
“You spend it talking about the things you love with the people you love and having fun.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
I looked ahead for a moment, then spoke calmly.
“So, noona... how about we see each other every day?”
Gil Boyoung slowly turned toward me.
“What do you mean by that?”
I turned on the hazard lights and pulled the car over near Yanghwa Bridge, where the Han River stretched out below us.
I reached into the inner pocket of my suit and took out the small box I had carried around all day.
Then I held it out to her.
Inside was a small ring.
“I mean exactly what I said.”
“I just want to see you every day.”
“And I think it’d be even better if we saw each other in the same house.”
Gil Boyoung’s eyes widened.
Then tears began to gather at the corners of her eyes.
She nodded.
“Yeah.”
“I want to see you every day too.”
“And if possible... in the same house.”
Our connection had begun in 2004, after my regression.
First as an actor and her fan.
Then as colleagues working together.
We had helped each other, relied on each other, and walked side by side for nearly twenty years.
After all that time, there weren’t many words left between us that still needed to be said.
So even our proposal was simple.
But the weight behind it was heavier than anything else.
We reached out and held each other’s hands.
Warmth spread from our joined fingers throughout my entire body.
Three months later, in April, when the flowers were in bloom, we held a quiet wedding with only those closest to us invited.
Hanshin Media President Han Taesung officiated.
Moon Hyunbin, Moon Changsoo, and Cha Seungjoon stood as groomsmen.
The following day, an article appeared.
[Hanshin Media Vice President Min Kibaek Privately Marries Actress Gil Boyoung!]
It remained on the portal-site front page for half a day before quickly being pushed down by other news.
Congratulations continued for a while, but that modest level of attention was exactly what we had wanted.
On one of the rare days when both of us were free, we visited my mother, who lived alone.
After our marriage, Gil Boyoung had suggested that we all live together.
But Mother insisted that newlyweds should enjoy living alone together and chose to stay separately.
So whenever we had time, we visited her like this.
We sat together in the living room watching television, enjoying an ordinary yet warm and peaceful day.
Mother kept cutting fruit and placing pieces into Gil Boyoung’s mouth, but her eyes never left the television.
“My goodness.”
“How can someone that handsome also act that well?”
Onscreen, actor Baek Ina was giving an intense performance.
Baek Ina was currently one of the most popular actors in Korea.
Every project he appeared in saw its ratings rise.
He was, quite literally, one of the representative faces of the Korean Wave.
“Dear, what did you say that actor’s name was again?”
“Baek Ina.”
“Right, Baek Ina.”
“He really is such a good actor, don’t you think?”
In front of Gil Boyoung, Mother deliberately avoided the Jeolla dialect she normally used and spoke in carefully polished Seoul speech instead.
Gil Boyoung seemed to find it adorable, judging by the affection in her eyes.
“Yes.”
“I know him personally too.”
“He’s very sincere and really talented.”
“Really?”
“If you’re close with him, invite him over sometime.”
“I’ll cook something delicious.”
“If someone that handsome were sitting in my house, I think I’d be in such a good mood. Hoho.”
“Oh, Mother.”
Gil Boyoung laughed.
“Then there’s no need to invite him.”
“You already have Kibaek.”
Mother immediately stared at her in disbelief.
“Dear.”
“I know he’s your husband and my son, but I think that’s going a little too far.”
“You may be newlyweds, but you still need to maintain some objectivity.”
Laughter kept blooming between Gil Boyoung and Mother.
But unlike them, I couldn’t bring myself to laugh.
The entire time I watched Baek Ina on television, something inside me felt unsettled.
In 2024, before my regression, Baek Ina had been the lead actor in the final film I worked on.
It had been a new production company with no track record.
The director was making his first feature film.
The investment had only barely come together because of one name.
Hallyu star Baek Ina.
But then....
[Actor Baek Ina Summoned by Prosecutors on Suspicion of Drug Use!]
A single article destroyed everything.
One day after the report, Baek Ina quietly admitted to using drugs.
And the fallout became ours to bear.
At the time, Ha Sangdo, who was the head of the film company, and I did everything we could to stop the investment from collapsing.
But....
[Actor Baek Ina Found Dead at Home... Suicide Note Says, “I’m Sorry to Everyone.”]
Fifteen days after admitting to drug use, Baek Ina was found dead at home.
Only after seeing that article did I finally let everything go.
What I felt back then wasn’t sadness.
It was guilt.
I hadn’t known Baek Ina for very long, but we had become close very quickly.
At the time, he had left his former agency, JNC Entertainment, and was operating through a one-man agency.
I had vaguely realized there had been trouble when he separated from JNC Entertainment.
And because this film was the first project he had chosen after leaving them, Baek Ina had something to prove.
He needed to show that he could succeed without the protection of a major agency.
That made his attitude toward the film particularly intense.
Naturally, he was proactive in building relationships with both the director and me, the producer.
Before long, we were calling each other hyung and dongsaeng.
But not long after, I began to notice that Baek Ina was still in conflict with his former agency over something.
And that the stress was crushing him.
Once, after finishing a phone call, he had even complained to me directly.
“My old agency is driving me insane.”
But back then, I did nothing.
No.
I chose not to.
My movie.
My project.
My career.
Those were the only things I thought about.
Baek Ina hadn’t explicitly asked me for help.
And I convinced myself that it wasn’t my place to interfere.
We called each other brothers on the surface, but deep down, I simply didn’t want to get dragged into something as troublesome as an agency dispute.
Only after Baek Ina died did I learn what had really happened between him and his former agency.
JNC Entertainment looked like a mid-sized management company from the outside.
But in reality, it was closer to a criminal organization.
When Baek Ina’s contract neared expiration, they tried to keep him by setting him up with a woman, taking compromising photos, and using them to blackmail him.
They were also the ones who gave drugs to Baek Ina while he was suffering from extreme stress.
Even so, Baek Ina believed that if he wanted to survive, he had to get away from them.
So despite JNC Entertainment’s extortion and threats, he eventually left and became independent.
But the result....
Only after Baek Ina’s death did word spread through the entertainment industry that the person who had reported his drug use to the prosecution was none other than his former agency, JNC Entertainment.
And it didn’t end there.
After his death, more accusations against JNC Entertainment began surfacing.
They allegedly used female aspiring actors for political lobbying.
They were said to have built a massive underground network connected to criminal organizations.
The allegations became serious enough that reports said police had launched an investigation.
But before I could ever see how that investigation ended....
I regressed to 2004.
“Kibaek, what’s wrong?”
“You don’t look good.”
Gil Boyoung’s worried voice snapped me back to reality.
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
“I was just thinking about something.”
“You look really tired.”
“Why don’t you go lie down and rest for a bit?”
She gently placed a hand on my forehead.
“I think I probably should.”
I forced a smile and looked back at the television.
Baek Ina was still smiling brightly onscreen.
Right now, he was one of the greatest actors in Korea, enjoying the height of his career.
But I knew.
One year from now....
That smile would disappear.
