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Chapter 259: A Harbinger of a Storm (1)

Ju Ho-Sung tilted his head. "So you only need to meet 20 more?"

"That\'s right. Here\'s the list of people to meet. Check it out yourself."

With a skill that would make a card shark envious, Nalsae handed over the list of names which excluded Jung Yoon-Ho and Kang Eun-Gi\'s.

"Hmm..."

Ju Ho-Sung looked at the list and asked, "So you can finish this by the end of the week, right?"

Nalsae scoffed. "By the end of the week? No way. Why don\'t you try it yourself? It\'s not that easy."

Ju Ho-Sung smirked. "We\'re paying you to do this. Can\'t you handle it?"

Nalsae let out a deep sigh.

"Listen, Team Lead Ju. All these people on the list are orphans and it\'s hard to know where they live or work. The registered addresses turn out to be uninhabited most of the time. Some people travel around for work in the countryside, you know? And you want me to find all of them by the end of the week? This is just too much."

Hearing Nalsae\'s logical argument, Ju Ho-Sung backed off slightly.

"Fine. I\'ll give you one month. Is that enough? If you fail, I\'ll send you back to jail immediately."

Nalsae swallowed hard upon realizing he only had one month of freedom left.

"Alright. Let\'s do it that way. I\'ll find them somehow, so stop pressing me."

Nalsae suddenly craved a cold beer and chicken. After all, those were foods he couldn\'t have in prison. However, he quickly shook his head as he thought hard.

\'No, I need to stop thinking about eating my fill before going back to prison. Instead, I must find a way to avoid going back!\'

For someone like Nalsae, going to prison meant being a servant to the strong gangsters there.

At that moment, Ju Ho-Sung looked at Nalsae intently and asked, "By the way, we have an employee named Jung Yoon-Ho at our company. Is there any chance he\'s somehow related to this? He\'s an orphan from Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do, and also about the right age."

Nalsae\'s heart almost jumped out of his chest for a moment.

Kim Dong-Soo also looked suspicious. "Yeah, that makes sense. Come to think of it, Jung Yoon-Ho was an orphan too, right?"

Nalsae cursed Ju Ho-Sung silently but managed to keep a poker face—a skill he had honed since his paparazzi days.

"Actually, he was the first one I checked," Nalsae replied.

Kim Dong-Soo tilted his head. "Really? Then why didn\'t you mention it earlier?"

"Well, it had to be at least somewhat plausible to tell you. It was too far-fetched and I found no connection after looking into it. Besides, there\'s a record of his father visiting the orphanage when he was in elementary school," Nalsae lied.

His calm demeanor managed to fool them.

Kim Dong-Soo chuckled hollowly. "You\'re right... it doesn\'t make sense that Team Lead Jung would be President Choi\'s son... Oh, and isn\'t Kang Eun-Gi also from that orphanage as well?"

"Same with him. He also had a father."

Only then did Ju Ho-Sung smile and speak up. "I was just asking out of curiosity."

Nalsae gritted his teeth upon realizing that Ho-Sung was testing him. He started to see how Ju Ho-Sung was becoming someone who could kill with a few words.

Kim Dong-Soo took the list and stood up. "Remember, you have one month. If you can\'t find them, just turn yourself in to the police before I do."

Ju Ho-Sung also stood up and told Nalsae to call him from now on.

Nalsae bowed his head humbly and saw the two of them off. As soon as they left, curses burst out of his mouth.

"Ugh, damn those fucking bastards."

Although Nalsae was no saint himself, he simply couldn\'t stay still and let them push him around. Since he had already lied to them, he needed to find someone who could save him from them.

At that moment, a brilliant idea flashed through Nalsae\'s mind.

"I should go see Kang Eun-Gi," he muttered.

Nalsae thought Kang Eun-Gi, who had swallowed up the powerful Kanghan faction in the Gyeonggi region, might protect him.

And if that didn\'t work out, he planned to turn himself in and go to prison. He didn\'t want to die because of this, after all.

Nalsae immediately got up and headed to Kanghan Entertainment\'s office.

***

[Jung Yoo-Jin\'s designer fashion showcased consecutively in In the Name of God!]

[Haru to participate in a cooking audition for celebrities, Table of Mukbang, following Master of Mukbang!]

[Director Choi Sung-Moon\'s Beyond the Boundary scheduled for release at the end of September!]

The celebrities under my management were thriving.

Yoo-Jin was successful with her drama In the Name of God, and Haru with Master of Mukbang. Kang Ha-Na achieved 200,000 subscribers on MeTube, and Lee Tae-Poong was smoothly filming for a movie that would be released at the end of September.

As I was looking at my phone, I heard grunting sounds next to me.

Yoo-Jin, now on her seventh plank set, was sweating profusely.

"Oppa, how many seconds have I done? Ugh!" Yoo-Jin groaned in pain.

"Thirty seconds!"

"W-what? You\'re lying! I just counted to fifty! I can\'t hold this plank position any longer!"

Yoo-Jin collapsed onto the yoga mat. She had eaten a lot of tteokbokki and fried food, so her face was swollen and she was trying to reduce the swelling with planks.

At that moment, Miso ran over and fanned her. "Mom, hang in there! Uncle Yoon-Ho said you have to do ten sets to lose weight!"

Yoo-Jin struggled to get up. "Miso, can you tell Uncle Yoon-Ho to just stop here?"

However, Miso shook her head sternly. "No, Mom. You have to keep your promise!"

I had promised Yoo-Jin that she wouldn\'t have to drink detox juice the next morning if she did ten sets of one-minute planks.

Unfortunately, Yoo-Jin was unable to do more and simply lay flat on the floor.

I looked at Miso and smiled. "Miso, you\'ll have to drink the detox juice with Mom."

The startled Miso shook her head. "Mom, Mom! Hurry! I\'ll do it with you!"

Every time Yoo-Jin drank detox juice, Miso would join her willingly. Despite not being a picky eater, Miso struggled with the awful-tasting detox juice.

As Miso quickly got into plank position, Yoo-Jin glared at me. "Then you do it too, oppa!"

"Huh? Me too?"

"Of course! Talent agents and actors are one! Don\'t you know that?"

"I didn\'t know... something like that..."

I had no choice but to join them in the plank position begrudgingly.

At that moment, Miso glanced back and said, "I\'ll count to sixty."

"Okay."

Miso started the count. "One~two~."

We waited for time to pass as Miso counted. However, by the time she counted to twenty, I was already drenched in sweat and feeling dizzy.

I used to endure ten minutes of planks during my prime, but I hadn\'t exercised lately due to my busy schedule and my body was screaming.

\'I need to work out more,\' I thought to myself.

Unlike Yoo-Jin and me, Miso held the plank position effortlessly while counting.

"Uncle Yoon-Ho, it\'s thirty now! Just a little more!"

I was amazed to see that she even had the energy to look around.

"Thirty-one~!"

However, Miso was counting a bit slowly. It felt like it had been a minute already, but she was only at thirty.

"Thirty-twooo~!"

As Miso began to count slower and slower, Yoo-Jin and I felt blood rush to our faces. I glanced over and saw that Yoo-Jin\'s face was so red, it was as if she had eaten spicy noodles.

\'Oppa! I feel like I\'m going to die!\'

\'Tell Miso you can\'t do it!\'

\'How can I say that in front of my child? You tell her!\'

\'I can\'t say that as a former athlete! I can\'t do it either!\'

Yoo-Jin and I exchanged words with our eyes—at least it felt like we did.

At that moment, Miso collapsed to the floor with a laugh. "Sixty! Done!"

"Phew, that was tough."

At the same time, Yoo-Jin and I also fell to the floor. I glanced at the time and saw that two minutes and twenty seconds had passed.

\'No wonder it was so hard...\'

My arms were trembling and my abs felt like they were tearing apart.

Yet, Miso was looking refreshed as she said, "Just two more sets to go now!"

\'What? But we have only rested for thirty seconds now!\' I screamed internally.

Yoo-Jin\'s eyes darted back and forth quickly. She looked at me to stop Miso, but I had no intention of doing so.

\'No, you tell her!\'

\'I can\'t.\'

Miso was excited and I didn\'t want to dampen her spirits. So I said, "Miso, do as you wish."

Yoo-Jin looked exasperated, but Miso beamed. "Really? Then let\'s do five more sets! Mom! Doing this is good for your body and makes you pretty! Even the kindergarten principal does it every day!"

I was momentarily shocked. \'Principal?! Why would the principal do planks in front of the kids!\'

There was no time to complain as Miso got back into position.

"Let\'s start~!!"

Suddenly, we found ourselves doing five more sets under Miso\'s command.

"Fifty~~nine~~ Whew. Si~~xty! Done!"

After finishing five sets, Miso lay flat on the floor. "Phew, that was hard!"

Unlike Miso, Yoo-Jin and I could only gasp for breath, unable to speak.

Seeing Yoo-Jin lying on the floor exhausted, Miso jumped up. "Mom, I\'ll go get some water for you."

"C-could you?"

While Miso ran to the kitchen like a bullet with energy to spare, Yoo-Jin and I barely caught our breath and leaned against the sofa.

"How\'s the filming going these days?" I asked Yoo-Jin while still panting.

The filming of In the Name of God was past the midpoint with increasingly intense action and emotional scenes.

Moreover, it was strange that Ju Yung-In was keeping quiet when it was a physically tough time. Considering she was losing popularity to Yoo-Jin, I had expected some conflicts by now.

Yoo-Jin also tilted her head. "Hm, you\'re right. Come to think of it, Yung-In has been pretty quiet lately."

"Be careful. She has a hysterical side and could explode anytime."

"She\'s been pretty docile lately. Anyway, if she tries to bully me, I\'ll just give it back to her."

As always, Yoo-Jin wouldn\'t take it lying down.

"Alright. You handle it as you wish. Oh, and you know you\'ll be playing dual roles for the 15th episode, right?"

In the upcoming 15th episode of In the Name of God, Yoo-Jin would be performing a scene where both Manshin Wol-Ah and Cheongmyung appear on screen together.

We had prepared thoroughly for that shoot, yet I couldn\'t help but worry.

Kim Sung-Woon would be filming the scene personally to conceal the identity of Manshin Wol-Ah, with Jung Sang-Bong holding the reflector and me handling the audio boom.

I was most concerned about Yoo-Jin as she had to act in front of an empty space.

However, Yoo-Jin answered with a smile. "Everyone practices acting alone in front of the void anyway. It might be different from usual, but I\'m confident I can pull it off."

She was reassuring as always—except when she said things like this.

"Oppa. But the plank time went way~ over because we did it with Miso. So how about jokbal[1] tonight? I heard it has a lot of collagen... and it\'s supposed to be great for beauty."

"What about the calories?"

"It\'s zero calories if it tastes good, right?" Yoo-Jin replied playfully.

"The only thing with no calories is air. Where did you hear such nonsense?"

Seeing Yoo-Jin\'s sulky face, I thought I should compromise a bit.

"Alright. Alright. You can have one piece for each plank set."

Yoo-Jin stared at me for a moment.

I thought she\'d give up and call me a devil. But I was wrong.

"Okay. But you have to do it with me."

"W-what? Why me?"

"A celebrity and talent agent are one. In that sense... let\'s go!"

"I don\'t want to go anywhere."

At that moment, Miso brought cups of water for us and shouted, "Mom! More exercise? Should I count for you again?"

I was startled. \'Wait a minute. That\'s not right!\'

Miso began to count excitedly. "Ready~ go~! One~ two~."

Miso\'s counting was much slower than before.

After three sets, Yoo-Jin sprawled across the floor and shouted, "O-oppa. Order jokbal...order it now..."

"Huff, huff. O-okay," I replied, barely catching my breath.

I called The Best Jokbal in the Universe restaurant and ordered a mini jokbal instead of a set.

***

Day by day, the number of broadcast program appearances and advertisements contacting our team increased.

We became so short-handed that we had to take turns for meals.

"Mr. Jung. Miss Yoo-Jin got a coffee ad offer."

"Coffee again?"

People seemed to think Yoo-Jin\'s image suited coffee as every coffee company in Korea contacted us.

"What amount did they offer?" I asked.

"100 million won per year."

"Nope. Cut all offers under at least 200 million."

The number of advertisers who wanted Yoo-Jin was increasing, but there was only one of her. We would have gladly taken the ad before, but now we had to raise her value. After all, other actors needed to get ads to generate revenue and Yoo-Jin couldn\'t take everything.

At that moment, I got a call from Lee Soo-Chan who managed the remaining members of the Kanghan faction in place of Kang Eun-Gi.

\'What\'s this about?\' I wondered.

Currently, Kang Eun-Gi was in detention and awaiting trial. I answered, thinking maybe the trial date was set.

"Hey, Soo-Chan. What\'s up?"

-Hyung-nim, can you drop by our company for a bit?

"I\'m a bit busy today... what is it?"

-It\'s just... a guy named Nalsae requested protection from us.

"Nalsae? You mean Lee Beom-Jun? When did that trash get out of prison?"

-It\'s been a while, it seems. But this guy has an interesting story.

As Lee Soo-Chan explained, my heartbeat started to quicken.

1. Pig feet dish ☜