🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 04
“I—I’m sorry.”
The employee stepped back. The elevator began moving upward.
“You’re acting like you’re the only victim, but if we’re talking losses, mine are bigger.”
Bom knew very well how crucial brand image was for a top-tier actor.
“I know. That’s why I came to take responsibility and clean this up myself.”
“You? By yourself? What exactly do you think you can take responsibility for?”
Bom pressed her lips together and glared at him.
He really looked down on people.
No matter how much of a mere salaried worker someone was, if you stepped on them, they’d still squirm.
She was about to snap back when the elevator finally stopped on the floor Geon had selected.
This time, Bom tilted her chin.
“Go on. Get out.”
Able Entertainment’s CEO, Go Min-nam.
The youngest son of the Daehyun Group chairman, and actor Go Geon’s father.
Faced with his piercing glare, Bom hurriedly greeted him.
“Hello, I’m Lee Bom.”
“It’s unexpected that you’d come here first.”
There was nothing more. He simply stared at her.
Bom compared the faces of the father and son sitting across from her.
They don’t look alike at all? Is it all from the mother’s side? Even their height and build are totally different.
She’d heard rumors that Able planned to make her the scapegoat, but she couldn’t argue that outright to their faces.
Since nothing had actually happened, denying it would only make her seem frivolous.
So she decided to strike first.
“Actor Go Geon.”
What was she about to say?
Go Geon’s narrowed gaze shifted toward Bom.
With CEO Go Min-nam present, Bom asked him directly.
“We didn’t get back together after we broke up, did we?”
It was something that had to be made clear.
The scandal had started right there.
Go Geon looked at Bom for a moment, then parted his lips.
“If that’s the answer you want, then no. We never dated.”
“You heard him, right? We’re nothing to each other.”
She, too, was a victim in this scandal.
She had to start from that premise for her sacrifice to become their debt.
“If I’d at least groped Actor Go Geon’s butt, I wouldn’t feel this wronged.”
“Watch your mouth.”
Min-nam cut her off.
“…I came to ask what you plan to do going forward. Do you have a plan?”
“Let’s hear your side first.”
Bom took a deep breath.
This was Go Geon, a top actor in South Korea.
Bom, an ordinary person, was no match for him.
Cutting off the public’s rumor-soaked attention was actually very simple.
She could tell the press that she had deliberately approached Go Geon.
If she stepped forward first, she could downgrade herself from an SS-rank villain to maybe an E- or F-rank one.
She’d done it before.
“Yoon Myeong-jo—my actor was supposed to appear in The Men of the Young Lady, but it was canceled. Please reinstate him. And please write a memorandum guaranteeing that there will be no pressure or professional disadvantages imposed on our agency, Management One-Two-Three.”
Bom slowly knelt down on the floor.
Min-nam’s eyes widened.
“If you do that, I’ll take full responsibility for this incident.”
Silence filled the CEO’s office.
Min-nam, who had been watching Bom closely, finally spoke.
“Listen, young lady.”
“It’s Lee Bom. Lee is my surname, Bom is my given name.”
“Fine, Ms. Lee Bom. First, take a seat. Responsibility, you say…”
Min-nam took a deep breath.
It involved his son, but incidents like this happened from time to time to celebrities.
“When accidents happen between superstars, they’re not that hard to deal with. But you know who this is, right? It’s Go Geon. Go Geon—someone everyone in South Korea knows.”
The fact that the two of them had been caught together in a live stream was just a coincidence.
But unfortunately, one side was Asia’s representative, Korea’s handsome leading man, a celebrity known to the entire nation—an actor who naturally drew the eye even if you didn’t know who he was.
The other side was a former failed idol member who had quietly disappeared with a bad image.
Online, people even compared them to the sky and a single grain of sand stuck to a shoe.
“Your son is incredibly handsome. His mother must be unbelievably beautiful!”
Min-nam frowned.
He had a bad feeling this woman wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
“In the industry, he’s called the crown prince of entertainment—every drama he appears in is said to be a guaranteed overseas export.”
“Ohhh.”
“Asia’s number one handsome man, Korea’s representative, the man people ask if he’s even real—Go Geon!”
“Kyaa! Go Geon! Go Geon!”
“H-Hey, quiet!”
At Min-nam’s glare, Bom clamped her mouth shut.
He was trying to have a serious discussion. Maybe because she worked in the industry, her reactions were overly expressive.
“Anyway, after taking only intense, dark roles—murderers, psychopaths—he was finally trying to change his image with this drama. So why did he have to get tangled up with you of all people?!”
“It’s Lee Bom.”
“Ugh, Bom or Winter, whatever!”
She’d been subtly getting on his nerves this whole time.
Min-nam pressed the back of his head as his blood pressure shot up. It felt like the bangs he’d painstakingly styled were about to fall out.
“Fine. I don’t think you did it on purpose! But the result is that our Geon’s image is in the gutter, and he’s suffering damages! Do you even know how much the penalty fees are, to say you’ll take responsibility… haa.”
He grumbled, closed his eyes, and leaned back deeply into the CEO chair.
When Min-nam fell silent, Bom focused her gaze and spoke firmly.
“Father!”
“Who’s your father?! It’s ‘CEO’!”
“Ah—yes! CEO! Since I work in the industry too, I understand how shocked and flustered you must be. I sincerely apologize for causing trouble to Actor Go Geon’s image. That’s why I came to you first like this.”
Bom bit her small lips and looked at Go Min-nam with wide, earnest eyes.
For some reason, Min-nam felt uneasy.
Her small frame, slender limbs, fist-sized face, and straight black hair—she was pretty enough that even standing among female idols, she wouldn’t look out of place.
No, considering how artists usually looked barefaced, she might actually be prettier.
Out of professional habit, Min-nam scanned her, wondering how he could package and sell her—then snapped back to attention at her clear voice.
“I’m truly sorry things turned out this way. For tarnishing your son’s reputation.”
There she goes again with “your son.” It wasn’t even worth correcting anymore.
Min-nam pressed his brow and gestured for her to continue.
Bom lifted her chin and looked straight at him.
The certainty in her clear eyes created a speck of trust where none had existed before.
Could it be… did she really have a solution?
“I’ll take responsibility for your son!”
Bom swallowed dryly.
‘First, insist on my innocence, then suggest telling the press that I clung to old feelings and tried to borrow money from him—that’ll work!’
“Father, please give your son to me!”
The CEO’s office fell silent.
There’s a scene like that in the historical romantic comedy drama The Men of the Young Lady.
“Ms. Bom, about that scene—could you read the lines again? I can’t quite get the right flavor.”
“Anytime. I’ve memorized that part completely.”
The young lady picks her future husband and visits her prospective in-laws.
The remarried Minister of Justice dislikes the young lady, who is his child’s friend’s younger sister.
There were rumors, and besides, the precious son born of his flower-like wife was a child he cherished.
On top of that, the son was at the age where he’d soon be matched with a good family’s daughter to enter a critical stage of life. Any unnecessary rumors would be disastrous.
Myeong-jo, playing the Minister of Justice, spoke in a displeased voice.
“What brings you here?”
“I have had a certain affair with your son. As a woman, I believe I must take responsibility, so I have come to see you.”
Possessed by the role of the young lady, Bom shouted boldly.
“Father, please give your son to me!”
It was icy.
A chilling silence settled over the CEO’s office.
Bom startled at her own words.
“Oh—no, I didn’t mean that! I’ve been helping my actor rehearse his script lately, so the lines just came out automatically!”
What on earth had he expected from this woman?
Middle-aged Min-nam ground his teeth as his blood pressure soared.
“Anyway, I’ll take full responsibility for this incident! Please give your son to m—ah, no, that’s not it. If I tell the press that I approached your son to borrow money—”
“Get out.”
“Ah, Father—no, CEO! Please hear me out. I’ll explain that I called him because of money, and because your son is so kind-hearted, things just turned out that way. I’ll say I didn’t even touch Go Geon’s butt.”
“Throw her out immediately!!”
