Godsent Top Star [EN]: Chapter 27

027. Why Don’t You Give It a Try? (1)

2021.11.27.

The Child Spirit, peeking out from my chest, eagerly took the lead. “A talisman?”
“Yes…”
[Writer Min asked me to get it for her son!]
“…You’ve known me longer than Kwon Seong-hyeon, haven’t you?”
[People’s hearts are like reeds!]
“I know you’ve forgotten, but you’re not even human, are you?” Before I could explain, I was interrupted again. “Writer Min’s son… Ah.” In the meantime, Kwon Seong-hyeon nodded as if he understood something. The sharp look he had while smiling disappeared.
“If it’s about that, I’m relieved.”
“…?” Why are you relieved…? ‘Both Min Ye-rin and Kwon Seong-hyeon, are all top actors not normal?’ I originally thought only Kwon Seong-hyeon was strange, but seeing Min Ye-rin makes me waver. I guess it wouldn’t make sense for the top class in any field to be ordinary and normal.
Has about an hour passed over a cup of tea?
“Yeon-woo, thank you so much.” Writer Min, with red eyes, came to Yeon-woo and bowed politely. “Huh? Writer Min, what’s wrong? Did you cry?”
“I really wouldn’t have known if it weren’t for Yeon-woo. Really, thank you so much.”
“Huh? Why Yeon-woo again?”
“Director Heo. Go away. Quickly.”
“No, why me again…” Writer Min, sternly chasing away Director Heo, bowed politely again. “I’ll keep the secret, I promise. I won’t tell anyone, so don’t worry.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like I’m hiding it.”
“Really…? You’re a bit different from my son. I thought hiding it was always the best thing to do. I guess that was wrong too.”
“He’ll understand.”
“Do you know what? Actually, I used to write typical rom-coms [romantic comedies]. But I switched to this genre after my child left. I wanted to understand him better.”
For Writer Min, her child must have been a truly incomprehensible being. Existing in different worlds. Narrowing that gap isn’t easy.
“Thank you for the talisman. I’ll always carry it around, just like ‘Strong Hyung’ gave it to me, as my child said.” After finishing her thanks, Writer Min called Director Heo, who had been pushed into a corner. “What did you two talk about? Did you scout him? What did he say? Is he in?”
“Ah, it’s nothing like that.”
“Don’t keep it to yourself, let’s share. Writer Min, how many times have we worked together? You can’t monopolize a good gem. I want to film that gem turning into a jewel with my own hands!”
“Why is Director Lee like this? Do you think I don’t want to?!”
“So, if you scouted him, share with me…!”
“It’s not that, so stop whining!” The moment Director Heo, with his sharp and keen eye, was reduced to a whiner. Writer Min relentlessly dragged away Director Heo, who kept glancing back at Yeon-woo with a regretful look. The briefly delayed filming resumed. But that was only for a moment.
“Um… Director…? I think you need to check this…”
After successfully finishing the afternoon shoot and before going into the evening shoot. A staff member, looking pale, approached with a phone. “What is it?”
Min Ye-rin’s acting and Kwon Seong-hyeon’s acting are both flawless. At this rate, it seemed like they could aim for a maximum viewership rating of 20 percent. But there was news that poured cold water on the director’s sweet dream.
“This… What is this…? A scandal?”

It was Lee Deok-chun, who played the role of the Grim Reaper, who had been causing concern by disappearing, that was involved in a scandal.
***
The set, which had been lively, turned into a funeral home atmosphere. “No, if that bastard was going to disappear, he should have disappeared completely. Why did he bother crawling out and causing a scandal?!” The most furious was the director, who had been lost in his sweet dream.
[Idol Lee, early this morning, drove under the influence and sped. After hitting the central divider, collided with a pedestrian]
[Idol Lee, “I drank, but I didn’t drive under the influence” statement]
[Idol Lee, who tried to bribe to cover up drunk driving. Denies “That never happened”]
The accident was not at a level that the agency could cover up by using its power. No matter how large the management company Lee Deok-chun belonged to, it would be impossible to erase all the eyewitness accounts that spread instantly online.
“Why did he have to cause such a big accident? Aigoo… My head is throbbing.” The accident itself was a problem, but what made it even more problematic was Lee Deok-chun’s actions immediately afterward.
[Famous idol Lee, urges victim to settle. When refused, “Are you a self-harming extortionist?” controversy]
[Idol Lee throws money in the face of the victim. Later revealed, “Take it and get lost.”]
[“People who pass by there at that time are not normal,” “Definitely a self-harming extortionist”… Lee’s outrageous remarks]
[Lee’s drunk driving victim revealed to be an environmental worker…]
“It’s like he’s closing the coffin and lying down [making things worse for himself]?”
[Even if Yeon-woo hadn’t taken care of him, he would have self-destructed anyway. I didn’t know he would fail so spectacularly on his own.]
Lee Deok-chun, a self-proclaimed trash among those who knew him. But even those people didn’t know Lee Deok-chun was that extreme. When it was additionally revealed that he had made terrible verbal abuse and personal insults to an innocent victim, public opinion of Lee Deok-chun worsened even further.
“Isn’t this… going to harm our drama too?” As Lee Deok-chun’s story was not missing from entertainment programs, news, or general programming, the drama staff seemed subtly worried. “If he disappears and the public opinion turns bad, what will happen to our viewership ratings? No matter how much we have Kwon Seong-hyeon and Min Ye-rin, it’s us who will be in trouble if we get caught up in gossip, right?”
“First, don’t rashly spread it anywhere and stay still. It’s best if it calms down like this, so don’t add fuel to the fire.” Director Heo reassured the staff. The broadcast date was set, so they couldn’t stop filming. The atmosphere inside the drama filming team was a bit chaotic due to Lee Deok-chun’s incident, but it was somewhat patched up by Director Heo’s reassurance. No. It seemed to be patched up.
If it weren’t for the article that came out the next day.
***
-No, then what were all the articles that came out until now? He caused an accident while driving under the influence? He threw money at the injured person to settle because he was drunk?? But the truth is he wasn’t drunk???
ㄴSo it doesn’t make sense; Even if you only listen to the eyewitness accounts, he seemed like a drunkard;
ㄴ222 Did you see the CCTV footage that came out? The car is completely swerving while driving, how can that be normal?
-Diyoong? Deok-chun was in his right mind at that time??? He couldn’t have been???
ㄴAnyone can see that his blood alcohol concentration is 1 percent, right?
ㄴHey, 1 percent will kill you. Is that a 0.1 percent typo?
ㄴThat’s how much Deok-chun looked like he was risking his lifeㅋㅋㅋ
-Deok-chun kept talking nonsense, right? What about the articles that said he was hallucinating because he was so drunk and caused the accident?
ㄴRight; No matter how you look at it, his actions and words didn’t seem normal;
ㄴㅇㅇ There’s footage reported by Entertainment X Jung X of Deok-chun saying nonsense about ghosts following him
ㄴI remember. It looked exactly like someone who had lost their mind, but he wasn’t drunk??
ㄴIsn’t he actually doing drugs? The public opinion, which seemed to be subsiding a bit with the newly revealed facts, became even hotter. The comments on the articles, as well as various online communities, were buzzing with various opinions and speculations about Lee Deok-chun.
“I’m going crazy. No, just when it’s about to calm down, they’re fueling the fire again.” The filming set atmosphere, which had been gradually stabilizing, became a mess. Min Ye-rin lowered her head at the sound of Director Heo muttering in disbelief. “…I’m sorry.”
“No… It’s not Min Ye-rin’s fault. I heard the agency is completely fed up too?” If you were to pick the person who is most uncomfortable in this place, it would definitely be Min Ye-rin.
[To think he would bring such trash with him… She just seems like someone with strange taste, but she seemed nicer than I thought. Too bad. Tsk tsk.]
“That sounds like there’s some personal feelings mixed in, what is it?”
[What, what? It’s definitely not because Min Ye-rin screamed and was disgusted by my cute appearance, so I’m a little dissatisfied.]
That’s right. Yeon-woo pretended not to know and turned his head towards Min Ye-rin. “I heard that he ran away from his manager and caused an accident, disobeying the instructions to self-reflect [stay out of the public eye], so the agency said they can no longer care for him. They said they’re going through contract termination procedures and claiming damages.”
“Haigu [Oh my]… So that’s why CEO Gu contacted me. He should have thought better from the beginning… Why did he have to splash mud on Ye-rin of all people.”
“It’s not a complete loss. Thanks to that, the CEO can’t say anything to me anymore.” Min Ye-rin smiled softly. But her eyes were sharper than ever. Director Heo seemed to notice it too, and said with a sigh, “CEO Gu won’t be able to interfere with the works Ye-rin is in anymore.”
***
As the days went by, the aftermath of the accident caused by Lee Deok-chun grew larger and larger.
-씨X! [Cursing] The ghost followed me! How can I not turn the steering wheel when it suddenly appears in front of the car?! It’s not my fault! The ghost followed me! 씹 [Cursing]. I couldn’t sleep properly for days because of that! It doesn’t seem to be following me here… Please let me sleep. Can’t you let me sleep? Can’t I go in there and sleep?
Lee Deok-chun’s video of testifying at the police station. He was talking nonsense about seeing ghosts and hallucinations, and even going into the detention center himself, begging to be allowed to sleep.
-Yeah. It’s right to just let that kind of guy go in there.
-Look at him surrendering himself; Isn’t that a complete confession?
-I think he’s trying to claim insanity. Rather than alcohol, mental illness…
ㄴThat’s also true, but in my opinion, drug use is more credible than a disease like schizophrenia.
An opinion from an online community soon became a holy grail.
[Lee Deok-chun, suspected of drug use… Request for pre-trial detention warrant]
[‘Drug positive’ Lee Deok-chun indicted]
The staff on set shuddered all at once when they heard the news. “Wow… I’m starting to be grateful that he disappeared.”
“If the drug case had broken out after the drama aired, our drama would have been ruined too, but the timing is really perfect.”
“I cursed him for disappearing, but now I have to bow to where he is.” It’s a fact that if a cast member is involved in a scandal, the work they appear in is also caught up and the image is tarnished. However, there was a big difference between drunk driving and drug use charges. Drunk driving is a problem of the actor’s personal misconduct, but drug use is structured in a way that can never be done alone.
“If something had happened to Kwon Seong-hyeon because of that bastard… I don’t even want to think about it.” If things went wrong, all the actors appearing in the drama could be subjected to the public’s cold gaze.
“Things are turning out very strangely…” Yeon-woo muttered. ‘All I did was make him pay for his sins.’ I didn’t know the scale of the crimes Lee Deok-chun committed would be this big. I didn’t know that a small lesson to clean up the set would return such a huge result.
‘…I don’t think even Director Kang expected this?’ It’s like a butterfly’s wings flapping and creating a tornado-level typhoon in the Pacific. Well, it’s not like I’m worried or anything. Rather, Yeon-woo was very satisfied. There’s no way he wouldn’t be satisfied to see a human trash being certified as nuclear waste trash and crawling into the swamp on his own.
‘But it’s still not enough…’ Is it because 100 percent of him hasn’t been revealed yet? Yeon-woo still felt regret. As if to meet Yeon-woo’s expectations, new news broke again.