TRGCF 14

Chapter 14

Ha Min-jun didn’t turn himself in.
As soon as her mother died, Min-seo was sent to an orphanage, and Go Soo-hyuk, who had tried to do something—anything—was summoned by his biological father and suffered for it.

“I’ll make sure the kid gets all the support she needs. Don’t meddle in matters that don’t concern you. Just let this pass quietly.”

President Ha Nam-chul said that as if he were graciously overlooking Ha Min-jun’s crime—even though he wasn’t the one who had any right to forgive it.

Blaming his own incompetence, Go Soo-hyuk went to see Min-seo.
If doing nothing was a sin, then he was guilty too.

But Min-seo didn’t blame him.

“I was the one who stayed quiet. I decided to do that.”

“When an adult scares a child, the child has no choice but to obey. That wasn’t truly your decision.”

“Still… I abandoned my mom too. Just like him.”

Min-seo sat on the swing in the park near the orphanage, her head bowed the entire time.

“You know, when Mom left me, she covered her face. I wondered why… but I guess she was ashamed.”

Go Soo-hyuk thought he would never forget the sight of that small back, too ashamed to lift her head.

“If only she’d been someone who didn’t know shame… maybe she wouldn’t have died like that.”

Back at the hospital, Go Soo-hyuk moved busily through the ward. Over that, Min-seo’s narration overlapped.

“It would’ve been nice if she’d never been in a position where she had to feel ashamed in the first place.”

When a drunken patient tried to strike a nurse, Go Soo-hyuk stopped him—his eyes clouded with complicated emotions.

The scene shifted.
Now, Ha Min-jun stood in a high-rise apartment, looking out over the night skyline.
In his hand was a glass filled only with ice.

“Did Mom regret abandoning me? Or did she regret being ashamed?”

As though he’d actually heard Min-seo’s words, Ha Min-jun’s face twisted, and he hurled the glass onto the floor.

The faces of the two brothers filled the screen side by side—and Episode 16 ended there.

That day, the drama hit its highest viewer rating ever.

* * *

On the day they went to the broadcasting station for post-recording, PD Gu Su-min asked my mom,

“You haven’t signed with an agency yet, right? And no next project decided either.”

“No, not yet. I think we’ll choose her next project after she gets some rest. I’m still thinking about agencies.”

“You should take your time choosing.”

“Take my time? Why’s that?”

Mom didn’t know much about the industry, so she looked puzzled.
But I already guessed what Gu Su-min was about to say.

“Once the ‘Min-seo’ episode airs, you’ll get flooded with exclusive contract offers and project proposals. You’ll want to pick the best one.”

And just as she’d said, that’s exactly what happened.

[‘Dr. Go’s Medical Records’ hits 30% peak viewership! The biggest drama success of early 2030!]
[“Was she ashamed?”—The lonely child’s question brings viewers to tears.]
[Who’s the girl in Do Je-hyun’s SNS post? “My little teacher!”]

In the OTT era, a public network drama hitting 30% ratings was a miracle—especially for a Friday–Saturday drama, not even a weekend one.

PD Gu Su-min, riding the wave of success, released a behind-the-scenes video for the ‘Min-seo’ episode.
The title was something else entirely.

[Behind the Scenes] A Genius Little Teacher Appears! Do Je-hyun’s Reaction to Seeing ‘Min-seo’ for the First Time (feat. Detective Yang☆) | Episodes 12–14 Behind-the-Scenes

…And of course, this was all Do Je-hyun’s fault.
He kept calling me that—“little teacher”—so PD Gu used it for promotion.
Or maybe that was the making-film director’s doing?

When Mom opened YouTube and saw the video sitting right at the top of the feed, she grinned from ear to ear.

“You’ve already seen that one so many times. Still that funny?”

“Oh, it’s different! The editing’s so good this time.”

“Watching it again?”

“I just wanted to check how many likes it got.”

She made a halfhearted excuse and began watching it in earnest.
To be fair, it was edited well—and the reactions were great too.

Top comments:

• LMAO “Little teacher”?? Is Do Je-hyun really like this?? 😂
  └ That clingy concept again… yawn.
  └└ Who calls a rookie child actor “teacher” as a concept? lol He’s totally serious!

• Wow, he’s like a completely different person when acting. That range gave me chills (in a good way).

• Love seeing senior and junior actors learning from each other. They’re both amazing.

• At 5:07, that acting was insane—and there was another version?? Unreal.
  └ And every version was amazing.
  └ I swear, I’m laughing like Gi Sung-hee possessed me. Where does a genius like this even come from?

Since the drama was doing so well, even the behind-the-scenes video comments were overwhelmingly positive.
Mom hit “like” on every one she liked.

It was strange—before my regression, she’d never looked up online comments when I was around.

‘Well, I was just a little kid back then. My acting wasn’t anywhere near as good as now.’

So of course, the reactions were better this time.

Satisfied after scrolling through the comments, Mom set her phone down—
Ding! A new message popped up.

[Hello, this is Park Myung-woo from BS Entertainment. I’d like to speak with actress Lee Soo-ah about…]

“Oh my, how did they even get my number? Still, I should reply…”

Since I didn’t have my own phone yet, every kind of contact poured into Mom’s—
from writers and PDs to messages from Do Je-hyun, Jo Yong-jin, and Gi Sung-hee congratulating us.

Gu Su-min PD had suggested we make a separate business email since neither of us had agency representation, but messages still sometimes came through text.

As a result, Mom had been swamped for days replying to everything.

“Just say thank you and that we were lucky,” I told her when she started drafting another long reply.

Mom shot me a look.

“How can you call that luck? You practiced so hard for this. And everyone worked together to make it great. Don’t downplay it as luck.”

She wasn’t wrong.
Even though effort doesn’t always guarantee success in this industry, I just nodded quietly.

“Oh! Look at this! Actor Do Je-hyun mentioned your name on his InBreeze account! Soo-ah, you really need to make one soon.”

Since Mom didn’t have the app, she checked the post on the web—her eyes widened as they scanned the page.

Unlike her own small YouTube channel, which had about fifty thousand subscribers, Do Je-hyun’s InBreeze account had over ten million followers, including a sizable international fanbase.
And now, my face and name were featured there.

There were already thousands of comments.
Mom started scrolling, and when the page prompted her to download the app to see more, she was about to hit Download—but I snatched the phone away.

“There’s probably nothing about me. It’s Do Je-hyun’s account, so all the comments will be from his fans.”

“Hey, you should call him senior.”

“Fine. I’ll text Do Je-hyun senior to thank him properly. But I think it’s better to wait until I find an agency before I make any social media accounts.”

I closed the InBreeze tab and opened Mom’s email instead.

We hadn’t made the address public, but we’d told the broadcasting station to forward any inquiries there, so it was bound to be overflowing.

Sure enough—

[Unread emails: 341]

Good thing I’d turned off notifications right away when I set it up.
Just skimming the titles, about 80% were from reporters, and the rest were from agencies offering exclusive contracts or new project proposals.

“There are this many emails we have to reply to…!”

“You don’t have to answer every single one. It’s safer to wait for an agency before doing interviews. We’ll just archive those for now, and focus on the agency offers—and maybe look at the new project inquiries…”

“Wait—what are you doing? Where did you even learn this?”

“We have computer classes at school now! The teacher said I’m good at it. Look!”

I created folders labeled Reporters, Agencies, and Projects, then sorted the emails.
For reporters and agencies, I even made subfolders for high-profile ones.

There were more than I expected.

‘Even Do Je-hyun’s, Gi Sung-hee’s, and Jo Yong-jin’s agencies reached out. And quite a few idol agencies too? I’m not planning to be an idol though.’

The interview requests included all three major broadcasting networks and even some large cable channels.
I flagged those separately.

Then I tapped away diligently, archiving about 250 emails I didn’t plan to read.

“Are you sure that’s okay…?”

“Most of them probably sent it on a whim—like, ‘It’d be nice if she replies, but oh well if she doesn’t.’”

“And how do you know that?”

“PD Gu Su-min and Senior Gi Sung-hee told me.”

Well, not exactly like that, but close enough.
Even if Mom asked later, it wouldn’t cause trouble.

Still, since she looked so worried, I drafted polite replies to a few of them.

Lying side by side on the floor, typing away, Mom suddenly realized something and asked:

“Are you planning to turn all of them down? You still need to find an agency.”