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Chapter 13. Bright
A few days later.
With no reason left to hide the fact that he had quit the company, Chang-su spent the entire day stuck to Myeongin. It was not only for Myeongin’s sake, but also because there was something he needed to discuss.
“Take a look at this. I really thought hard about it, you know?”
“Are these all names?”
“I was going to just come up with something roughly, but then I remembered Teacher saying there’s nothing as important as a name, so I thought about it until my head felt like it would burst.”
“Wow, there are so many. There are a lot of really cool names. Is this your company name, Mister?”
It was because of the name of the company Chang-su was going to establish.
Since Myeongin had found out, there was no need to hide it anymore, and if he was going to take him around in the future, having an affiliation would help, so he was thinking of starting the company quickly.
“Yeah. Do any of them look good?”
“Myeongin… Myeongin Entertainment is a bit much, though?”
“Why? It’s your name.”
“That’s exactly why. I like it, but I’m not going to be the only one at the company.”
“Even if it’s only you, well.”
“I don’t even know when I’ll be cast, so that’s too much of a gamble. Then you’d be taking a loss, Mister.”
“You’ll do well!”
“It’s not certain that people will recognize me once I turn 20, is it?”
Chang-su was startled and waved his hand through the air as if Myeongin had jinxed it.
“You can’t take Teacher’s words lightly!”
“That’s not what I’m doing. Mom said so. What Mom said was only that things could flow that way, not that it was certain. She said it could change through will and action.”
“Hey! You brat! Why are you making me anxious?”
“I hope it turns out that way too, but just in case, I’m worried I might cause you harm, Mister.”
Seeing him being considerate even about this, Chang-su let out a hollow laugh.
“Live a little selfishly, man.”
“I’m already selfish enough. I’m holding on to you because it’s good for me, Mister.”
“I’m the one who came!”
Chang-su kept thinking that if this was the kind of child he was, quitting the company had been a good choice.
“Ridiculous. Anyway, I like one of these three. Myeongin, Myeong-se, Myeong-pum.”
“Myeong-pum sounds like expensive products and stuff. And Myeong-se sounds like an itemized bill.”
“‘Pum’ means an object in Chinese characters, but there are words like ‘character’ too. I’m trying to say something like ‘bright character.’ ‘Myeongin’ means ‘bright person’ too, and ‘Myeong-se’ means ‘bright world.’”
“Then what do these mean? Magic and… Wizard…?”
“Because you seem like a magical existence. Wizard means magician too! And I saw that wizard can also mean master, things like that. So it also connects with ‘master’ too.”
“They’re all related to me.”
All the countless names were connected to him.
Because of that, truthfully, it did make him feel good.
“Does it burden you? Then how about this? ‘Bright Person’ Entertainment. Bright world, bright character. I think those sound good. Bright… What else could there be?”
Just then, Chang-su’s phone rang. It was a number he had never seen before.
“Yes, th… this is Park Chang-su.”
—This is President Park’s phone, right?
“Yes. Excuse me, but who is this?”
—Um. I’m Kim Min-ji. I mean, ‘Ha-ryeong’!
“What? Ah! Ah! Ha-ryeong?”
Chang-su had a bewildered expression, but still straightened his posture.
“Ah! It’s nice to hear from you. Is filming going well?”
Even though it was their first call, Chang-su led the conversation in a way that made the other person feel comfortable.
After they had been talking for quite a while, Ha-ryeong brought up her reason for calling.
—It’s nothing else, I wanted to know a little about your company, Director…
“My company?”
—What is the name of your company, by any chance?
“Bright… Ah.”
—Bright! It’s Bright Entertainment! It’s an agency specializing in actors, right?
Since it had not been decided, he had failed to finish the sentence, but she had misunderstood that as the company name.
But now that he heard it, it sounded pretty good.
“But why are you asking about the company?”
—I’m looking into companies right now.
“What? You already have a company.”
—My contract is ending soon. So I wanted to hear about the company you’re at, Director… Would that be possible?
“Ah! Could I contact you again as soon as possible?”
—Yes! You can contact me at this number.
After ending the call, Chang-su blinked.
He had not expected someone to show interest when the company did not even exist yet.
“Was that Ha-ryeong?”
“Yeah.”
“She really contacted you.”
Chang-su stared at Myeongin with a dazed expression.
“You knew?”
“I thought she would. From what I heard when she was talking back then, she seemed to really want to act well.”
“Whoa… You’re not actually possessed by some spirit or anything, right?”
“I’m not.”
“Then how did you know she was trying to move companies?”
“I searched while listening to her cry in the bathroom. Then articles about the idol seven-year jinx came up, and ‘Love Day,’ which Ha-ryeong is in, was there too.”
“How did you know just from that?”
“Usually, if contract renewal is certain, activity plans come out before then too, but there wasn’t any talk like that. So I thought there was a possibility.”
“You… What exactly are you…”
Chang-su looked at Myeongin with a dumbfounded expression, then suddenly remembered something.
“Was this the good thing you mentioned?”
“Yes! I thought Ha-ryeong would be helpful to you, Mister. It didn’t seem like you could just wait vaguely until I get cast… Actors’ unknown periods can be as long as 10 years, 15 years, and so on.”
“Ah…”
Chang-su was dumbfounded for a moment, then smiled at the sight of Myeongin, who still seemed to have some immature sides.
“I’m grateful, but honestly, it’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“We can’t just bring her over. She’s not unknown, and for someone at Ha-ryeong’s level, we’d have to give her a signing bonus, but there’s no room for that. I don’t think I’ll even be able to take good care of you.”
“You’re going to pay me too?”
“Of course! Even if it’s not much, I have to pay you. You need to receive what you should receive and do things properly.”
Myeongin grinned, then suddenly stood up from his seat.
“Where are you going?”
“There’s something Mom wrote down.”
“Teacher did?”
“Yes. It’s a keepsake she gave me before she passed away. A diary.”
He went into his room and came out carrying one large notebook.
“What are you looking at?”
“She left it because she was worried about me. How I should live from now on, things like that. It’s like a guidebook?”
“Not a guidebook… Isn’t it a book of prophecies?”
“Aha! She did say she wrote it before changing my name.”
“Then it really is a book of prophecies!”
“But there’s nothing like, this will happen, or anything like that.”
“What does it say? Is there anything about me too?”
Myeongin opened the notebook and began looking for the part he remembered.
“Here it is. It says when you try to do something, I should do it together with you. It’s number 2.”
“Number 2? Did she even assign an order to the prophecies? But when I do what?”
“To be exact, it says when you face difficulty, if I solve that matter together with you, we’ll keep winning and rising.”
“Ah…”
Honestly, things were difficult right now.
The funding issue was one thing, and the future plans were not easy either.
If he had only had enough room, he would not have given up on Ha-ryeong, who was showing interest.
But he did not want to show that side of himself to Myeongin.
“Ahem, difficult? I don’t think she was talking about the current situation.”
“It looks that way to me too. Truthfully, she wrote it vaguely. So I thought about it.”
Myeongin closed the notebook and looked at Chang-su.
“Since we don’t know what kind of difficulty it is, how about we just keep doing things together?”
“Huh?”
“If we keep solving things together, won’t we eventually run into the difficulty Mom talked about?”
“Ah… Uh?”
“Then we can keep winning and rising together.”
“Well… Does what you’re saying right now mean… you’ll help with the funds?”
Because it was something Muwol had left behind, it was true that he was tempted, but he did not want to ask Myeongin for money.
If things went wrong, it could look like he was exploiting an inheritance while acting in place of a guardian.
Just then, Myeongin showed him his phone screen.
“Whoa… 1.2 billion? You had this much money?”
“It’s not my money, it’s something Mom gave me.”
“Whoa… Come to think of it, Teacher had a building too!”
“That’s something I would have had to manage every month, but I can’t do that. So she sold it.”
“Whoa! She sold all of them?”
Myeongin answered with a smile. Truthfully, there were still things left.
There was also a large chestnut orchard in the countryside being leased out, and since the contract period was long, there were several things left behind because he would only need to pay attention to them after becoming an adult.
Other than that, she had divided the money across several bank accounts and left it for him.
Even the account he had just shown was only a part of it.
Originally, she had told him not to tell anyone because there was no person without greed for money, but right now, this had his mother’s permission. Because the number 2 she had mentioned to Chang-su meant the second bank account.
“Ah…”
Chang-su scratched his forehead with a shocked face.
He seemed to have many thoughts.
“Honestly… Whew.”
“Please speak comfortably.”
“Okay. Myeongin. From now on, you must never show things like this bank account to people. Got it?”
“I showed you because it’s you, Mister.”
“Not even me! And I’ll pretend I never saw this!”
Seeing this, it seemed Mom, Muwol, had judged people properly.
Myeongin must have been pleased by Chang-su’s consideration for him, because he grinned so widely that all his white teeth showed.
“I just wanted us to keep winning and rising together.”
“I’ll make that happen for you!”
“It’d be nice if we did it together. I’m not just giving it to you, it’s an investment.”
“Investment? Ah…”
Chang-su seemed to think of something, then carefully spoke, as if he was slightly conflicted.
“Then it would be better to do it as an equity investment… No, Myeongin. No matter how you invest it, if it fails, you lose money. Do you know that and still say this?”
“Of course. And if we don’t want it to fail, we have to work hard.”
“That’s true…”
“How much capital do you have, Mister? I’ll match it. Then let’s sign Ha-ryeong too.”
Chang-su hesitated, then soon turned his head.
“It’s not much. I didn’t earn that much…”
Looking embarrassed, Chang-su spread out five fingers.
“Wow, 500 million? You saved that much while working for a company? That’s amazing.”
“No… Take off one zero… Still, it’s my entire fortune.”
“Ah! I see. But you still saved a lot, didn’t you? Let’s do it together and make it grow.”
Because the words were so positive, it really felt like it would turn out that way.
And if only Myeongin’s presence was revealed, it was certain that it would turn out that way.
“Then… you be the CEO. I’ll keep being the director…”
“What?”
“You invest a little more! I’ll definitely grow it for you! Aaaagh! You shouldn’t trust people who say things like this!”
Myeongin laughed so hard that even his nose wrinkled.
Chang-su was walking a tightrope between consideration for him and a little bit of greed.
* * *
In the end, they registered an entertainment agency under the name ‘Bright Entertainment.’
Popular Culture and Arts Planning Business Registration Certificate.
Representative: Joint, Park Chang-su, Mu Myeongin.
Trade name: Bright Entertainment.
The office was listed as Myeongin’s house.
Myeongin’s house was much larger than Chang-su’s, and since it was better for Chang-su to come and go than for Myeongin to come and go, they had done it that way.
“Let’s not spend money needlessly on an office and move gradually.”
“Yes!”
“Whew. Now it’s a fresh start again. Then shall we go meet our second actor!”
Since things had come to this, they decided to meet Ha-ryeong right away. Because of Ha-ryeong’s schedule, it was difficult to make separate time, and because she wanted to meet secretly, they went to the filming set where she was.
When they arrived, the filming set was an animal hospital that was actually operating in Cheonan. It seemed they had arranged the location to film a scene at the animal hospital run by the male lead. It was a somewhat remote place, the kind of place where old multifamily houses were gathered.
“They’re filming. Myeongin, watch for a bit. I’m going to go hand out some business cards.”
“Yes!”
Even being alone, there was no problem at all with watching. Rather, he could watch more comfortably.
‘So they film at real existing shops too, not just sets.’
Perhaps because of that, there were plenty of people watching. Seeing it receive so much attention from people, Myeongin was becoming motivated as well.
He looked forward to the thought that a day might come when he, too, would receive the attention of so many people like that.
Just then, a commotion suddenly broke out among the people who were watching.
“Why the hell are you blocking the road!”
A drunken old man was pushing through the people and stepping forward.
However, Myeongin’s expression as he looked at the old man was unusual.
The smile he always wore had disappeared somewhere, and he stared at the old man with displeased eyes.
Without even knowing why he felt displeased.
