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Chapter 29
“I just ran away.”
Joo-young clenched his teeth as he explained what had happened that day.
After hearing him, Eun-young whipped her head around.
“She hit someone so hard it caused a brain hemorrhage, and then she just ran away? Does she have no conscience?”
“If she had even the tiniest bit of conscience, would she have done that? At the time, I was too flustered to worry about Kim Se-yeon, but the more I thought about it afterward, the angrier I got.”
“Angry? That’s putting it too nicely. At least ‘shameless’ sounds almost cute. No sane person would behave like that.”
Mi-rae added coldly,
“Sara. Don’t let this slide. No matter what the CEO says, tell him you absolutely won’t forgive her.”
“That’s right! Even if everything falls apart and I have to leave the agency, I’ll follow you, noona!”
Both of them spoke with fierce determination.
Sara had only just woken up, and the flood of information gave her a headache.
She frowned and pressed her fingers to her temples. Seeing that, Mi-rae immediately panicked and rushed off to call a doctor.
Since Sara was staying in a VIP hospital room, it wasn’t long before a whole team of doctors came in.
The elderly neurosurgeon carefully examined her before letting out a relieved sigh.
“Hm. Fortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any serious external damage. We should still do an MRI to be sure. Once we have the results, I’ll let you know.”
“Our Sara is going to be okay, right, Professor?”
“I can’t give you a definite answer yet, but even when you first arrived at the emergency room, your injuries didn’t appear severe. There’s no need to worry too much.”
“Thank you so much.”
Mi-rae bowed almost ninety degrees in gratitude.
After the doctors and nurses left, Eun-young quietly stood up.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go. Sara… I got an urgent call from home.”
“Of course. Please go. Thank you so much for coming. Joo-young, drive Director Choi home.”
“Oh, no, that’s really not necessary.”
Eun-young politely declined, but in the end, she couldn’t overcome Mi-rae’s insistence and left for the parking lot with Joo-young.
Soon, only Sara and Mi-rae remained in the hospital room.
As Mi-rae straightened Sara’s pillow and blanket, she spoke.
“The news will break tomorrow. It won’t take long before everyone finds out you’re in the hospital.”
“Under what excuse?”
“We’ll probably say you collapsed from overwork. We can’t exactly let the papers report that a lead actress got drunk in a parking lot, shoved a supporting actress, and injured her.”
“If that article comes out, Se-yeon will become a rising star overnight.”
Sara let out a cold, sarcastic laugh.
Mi-rae hesitated for a moment before asking,
“What do you want to do? I’ll handle this however you want.”
“The way I want?”
“Yeah.”
Mi-rae looked tense, unsure what Sara was going to ask for.
Sara tapped the bedsheet a few times with her fingers before answering.
“For now… leave it alone.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’ll meet her privately later and talk to her.”
She smiled as if it were no big deal.
First, she needed to find out exactly what had happened.
Punishing Kim Se-yeon could come afterward.
“You haven’t eaten yet, have you? Should I go buy you something?”
“I’m not really hungry.”
“Even if you’re not, you need to eat. You haven’t had anything for almost two days. Oh! Should I get you some egg porridge? It’s your favorite.”
“You really don’t have to…”
Mi-rae’s intense stare made Sara sigh.
“…Fine.”
Satisfied, Mi-rae grabbed her coat and wallet before leaving.
With no one else around, the hospital room suddenly felt far too spacious.
Her thoughts drifted back to something Eun-young had casually mentioned earlier about Se-yeon.
More than anger, she felt puzzled.
How had Kim Se-yeon known Sara was meeting with Dorea Pictures that day and told Eun-young about it?
Even the way they had handed her the script as if they had been waiting for her now felt strangely unnatural.
Something about it bothered her instinctively.
It almost felt like a carefully constructed trap someone had laid.
Her thoughts didn’t last long.
A soft knock sounded, and the door opened.
She naturally assumed it was a doctor or nurse.
Instead, someone she had never expected was standing there.
“Mr. Yoon Seung-tae…? How did you know I was here?”
“I just asked for Ms. Seo Sara’s room number. They told me.”
Dressed in a long black coat, he walked over as naturally as if he were a close friend paying a casual visit.
“How are you feeling?”
“How did you even know I was hospitalized?”
“We both seem to have a lot of questions. How about we answer them one at a time?”
Seung-tae smiled pleasantly as he placed a shopping bag on the table.
It looked surprisingly heavy.
“Most of the hospital visits I make are to elderly people on their deathbeds. I wasn’t sure what you’d need, so I just bought a bunch of food.”
“Thanks for the gift, but I’d really like an answer first.”
Sara’s voice rose slightly.
She had never told anyone she was in the hospital, so she needed to know exactly how he’d found out.
Recognizing the irritation in her tone, Seung-tae answered without resistance.
“I heard it from Director Kwak.”
“You know Director Kwak?”
“We’re… not exactly strangers.”
He answered vaguely before suddenly reaching out and gently brushing the area around her injury.
“That must’ve hurt. How are you feeling now?”
The faint fragrance lingering on his fingertips surrounded her.
Sara flinched and instinctively leaned back.
“I’m fine. It wasn’t really that serious.”
“Not serious? They said you had a brain hemorrhage.”
He looked genuinely worried.
Naturally, he didn’t explain how he knew that detail.
“What did the doctor say?”
“He said I shouldn’t worry too much.”
“That’s a relief. By the way, want some fruit?”
“No, I’m not really—”
She automatically started to refuse, but Seung-tae ignored it completely.
“Oh, right. I found the investor I mentioned before.”
“Really?”
Sara, who had been reclining against the hospital bed, shot upright like a spring.
For the first time since he’d arrived, her eyes sparkled.
Seung-tae rummaged through the shopping bag and took out a neatly packed container of sliced strawberries.
He speared one with a fork and held it out to her.
“Here.”
“Mmm… Strawberries. I love strawberries.”
“That’s good.”
Without much hesitation, Sara accepted the strawberry and chewed happily.
“Who is the investor? Is it a company I know? But I’ve already approached just about every major investor. Since it’s a thriller, we need a decent-sized budget. If the company is too small…”
“You don’t have to worry about the budget. The parent company will provide the funding. Here, have another.”
“So it’s a pretty big company?”
Her eyes shone with anticipation as she popped another strawberry into her mouth.
Watching her chew with puffed-out cheeks, Seung-tae chuckled softly before handing her a business card.
“Give them a call. They said they’re willing to consider it favorably.”
“Thank you so much, Seung-tae. It hasn’t even been that long since I asked.”
Sara accepted the card with a bright smile.
Then she examined it as intently as a hawk spotting its prey.
The company name was unfamiliar, but just knowing she’d have another chance to pitch the project made her heart soar.
“No need to thank me. But they do have a few conditions.”
“Conditions? What kind?”
“First, you have to play the lead role.”
“Oh, that’s obvious. If I were planning to cast someone else as the lead, I wouldn’t have worked this hard. Even if they hadn’t made that a condition, I was going to do that anyway.”
She confidently waved the business card.
“Second, you’ll have to star in another project they propose.”
“Ah… Hmm. I guess they have another film they’re backing? Who’s the director? What’s the genre? When does filming start?”
The second condition complicated things a little, but it wasn’t unreasonable.
As long as it wasn’t some ridiculous adult film, she’d even accept a bizarre B-grade horror movie without hesitation.
As her questions poured out one after another, Seung-tae calmly speared another strawberry with his fork and held it toward her.
“There isn’t a director. As for the genre… romance? Maybe melodrama?”
“Oh, so the director hasn’t been chosen yet. Are there any bed scenes? What about nudity? Well… maybe you wouldn’t know those details.”
“Hm. Bed scenes… no. You don’t have to worry.”
“Have you read the script?”
“Since it’ll be improvised, we don’t really need a detailed script. Here, eat.”
At that point, Sara finally realized something was off.
When she didn’t move, Seung-tae simply pressed the fork into her hand.
Holding it, Sara looked him straight in the eyes.
“So… what’s the title of the movie?”
“Well… we haven’t decided yet. Hmm… Modern Cinderella? What do you think? Too cheesy?”
“Mr. Yoon Seung-tae.”
“I’m not joking.”
She almost wished he had been.
