Free Web Novel* * *
#S 71. Night
Lee Seohae and Suspect 1 sat facing each other in the interrogation room. Their eyes were locked. Unlike Seohae, whose gaze stayed calmly fixed in place, Suspect 1’s eyes rolled around. He swept his gaze over Seohae as if thinking this was a nice way to kill his boredom.
Suspect 1: (in a cocky tone) You’re not even introducing yourself?
Lee Seohae: .... (remains silent)
Suspect 1: (tilting his head slightly to the side with a sneer) Not answering either.
Even at that, Seohae remained perfectly composed.
Suspect 1: (leaning closer as if playing a prank) Hey.
Lee Seohae: .... (remains silent)
Suspect 1: Don’t know how to talk? Fuck, now you’re showing up empty-handed too, not even pretending to give a damn.
That was the full extent of Ji Haebeom’s lines for today’s shoot.
‘It couldn’t be helped. Originally, even that much hadn’t existed.’
This scene was foreshadowing for the wave of cases that had begun crashing down on Lee Seohae.
So much work was piling up that it would be hard for one person to bear alone. Arson, human trafficking, murder, kidnapping, abduction, unlawful confinement, and more.
And yet despite a workload that would have crushed any normal person, the genius she possessed remained intact.
This was a buildup scene meant to show exactly that. A scene that would make Lee Seohae, with her exhausted face yet still memorizing every trivial detail, shine.
To fill the gap left by Shin Seojin, Lee Seohae’s amount of dialogue had been increased far beyond the original, but the final result no longer seemed like something to worry about.
If Ji Haebeom seized their eyes, and Han Yeoreum deafened them with her voice, episode 9 would still flow smoothly.
Creak—. Creak—.
Ji Haebeom, who had been silently watching Lee Seohae, shifted his center of gravity backward. The metal chair tilted with an awful squeal.
Rocking the chair back and forth as if toying around, Ji Haebeom didn’t look afraid of the interrogation room at all.
“You’re not even introducing yourself?”
Even at Ji Haebeom’s line, Lee Seohae maintained her silence. As if annoyed by his long bangs hanging in his face, Ji Haebeom pursed his lips and blew them away with a soft huff.
“Not answering either.”
When the bangs still kept pricking at his eyes, he finally tilted his head playfully to the side.
Creak— creak—. He still didn’t stop playing with the chair.
And then it happened. frёewebnoѵēl.com
Bang!
“Hey!”
With his cuffed hands, Ji Haebeom slammed the table. It happened in an instant.
His upper body lunged forward as if threatening Lee Seohae.
Even faced with the kind of sudden outbursts lowlifes casually pulled, Lee Seohae held the exact same attitude. Several staff members flinched at the sudden explosion of noise.
“Don’t know how to talk? Fuck, now you’re showing up empty-handed too, not even pretending to give a damn.”
As if her reaction had taken all the fun out of it, Ji Haebeom finally sat back down. The squealing noise of the chair subsided.
* * *
Ji Haebeom stared at Han Yeoreum across from him, half feeling that it was strangely new, half finding it fun.
This time, it was Han Yeoreum’s scene to take control.
“From April two years ago to this July. Mr. Kim Jino, 34, who attempted to smuggle narcotics from Peru to Panama, then looped through Japan into Jeju Island. This is no longer the time for my introduction. It’s time for yours.”
Han Yeoreum, who hadn’t been startled even by Ji Haebeom’s sudden outburst, as if she had truly become Lee Seohae herself, flawlessly delivered an overwhelming amount of lines.
“The currently discovered bagged narcotics were found in Hallim, Gwideok-ri, Gwakji-ri, Yongduam, Jeju Port, and Gujwa-eup. At first glance it appears to cover the northern coastline overall... but in reality, the strongest ketamine was hidden on Udo. Considering how many boats you had moving for this operation, it’s safe to assume at least 90 kilograms. Am I correct?”
Lee Seohae’s five-minute solo interrogation scene had been increasing in views every single day. People had started calling it an acting endurance showcase.
As if saying that if viewers wanted to see it, she would really show it to them, the head writer of 〈Unfair Trade〉 had mercilessly increased Lee Seohae’s lines.
“Since you have no answer, I’ll continue. There are regular records of overseas departures. The destinations were Shanghai and Tokyo. The reason you repeatedly visited those two places was port research for narcotics smuggling... and from there, you must have gone as far as Peru to avoid leaving a trace in official records. If your name got flagged even once in the DEA database, it would’ve been troublesome. Naturally, you wanted to avoid that as much as possible. After testing the method a couple of times with body packers you met abroad, you concluded that Jeju was the most stable route. Unlike airplanes, boats don’t conduct possession checks as rigorously.”
Ji Haebeom, who knew the script before revisions, listened to Han Yeoreum’s uninterrupted lines and thought:
‘She memorized this in one day?’
The revised version had come out as fast as possible, but even then it had only been yesterday, right before filming.
Han Yeoreum delivered the impossible amount of dialogue as if it had always been hers.
“In the end, the question is why Mr. Kim Jino went through all this hell to carve out a smuggling route.... Narcotics inevitably accumulate certain impurities during manufacturing. Depending on the producer, manufacturing process, country of origin, and raw # Nоvеlight # materials, the final product differs in subtle ways. Chemistry has fingerprints too. Heating temperature, catalyst ratio, the solvent used in dilution, the precursor purity.... I’ll skip the details since you’re far more of a professional in that field than I am, Mr. Kim Jino. But in the merged samples found this time on the Jeju coast, traces of T-lacaine residue unique to the Peruvian cocaine sulfate process, the Toluene dilution ratio often used by Panama line organizations, and the remnants of propylene glycol that briefly trended in Japan were all detected simultaneously. This wasn’t a product made in a single country. It’s a layered product, repeatedly overpainted with different manufacturing methods as it crossed borders, practically testifying to its own exact route.”
Every single line Han Yeoreum spoke drove straight into the ears of everyone present.
Without grand gestures. Without a dramatic voice.
Just Lee Seohae, maintaining a flat tone and a purely businesslike attitude.
She was the genius criminal profiler with an IQ of 160 itself.
“The authorities have concluded that Mr. Kim Jino was both manufacturer and distributor—in other words, the overall mastermind. You likely recruited members of elite university alliance clubs with T-gram. Most of these club members are interested in cryptocurrency, and after checking their message logs, several appear to be preparing to launch crypto exchanges. Is this really a coincidence?”
Ji Haebeom crossed both hands together. With his short nails, he scraped the back of his hand. This too had not been in the script.
Just as Han Yeoreum stayed Lee Seohae from beginning to end, Ji Haebeom also wanted to push back as Kim Jino from beginning to end.
“You still have no answer. Fine. You intended to receive narcotics payment through cryptocurrency and soon open a new currency market in Korea. The disappearance of the Peru courier, the drowning of the Panama broker, the Osaka accomplice missing without a trace.... You’ve recreated exactly what authorities commonly call ‘human evaporation.’ And several male students here in Korea were dealt with using similar methods as well.”
The pace of Ji Haebeom’s scratching against the back of his hand gradually quickened.
“After sending them to Japan under the pretext of an Osaka trip, you used a matching app to make them anticipate a romantic encounter abroad, only for their bodies to surface near the port—while redirecting the investigation manpower—”
Bang!
Ji Haebeom stood up again, toppling the metal chair.
“Ahh! Fuck, enough!”
Then he pounded against the interrogation room window as if he might shatter it. He swung the back of his hand, now marked red with nail scratches, in a threatening motion.
Lee Seohae remained seated exactly where she was.
Ji Haebeom’s cameo shoot flowed through without a single NG.
Because neither of them left even the slightest gap.
No matter what angle or shot they used, Ji Haebeom’s gaze never loosened, and Han Yeoreum never once stumbled over her lines.
* * *
‘Wow....’
It had been the first time since the ritual scene in 〈Strange Tales〉 that I had felt this drained.
‘This is insane.’
I couldn’t break the emotion, and I couldn’t miss a single line. I couldn’t let my gaze wander, and I couldn’t even breathe wrong.
Simply existing before Ji Haebeom as the machine-like Lee Seohae consumed far more stamina than I had ever imagined.
Between the strands of his long hair, I could see Ji Haebeom’s eyes fixed on me, and as the interrogation continued, the killing intent inside them visibly deepened in real time.
‘Even when his own face isn’t being filmed.’
Even when it was just footage where all he had to do was sit across from me for eyeline matching, Ji Haebeom still maintained Kim Jino’s face.
‘So that’s what the top looks like.’
The mountain rain scene from 〈The Great Garland〉 came to mind, when they had poured artificial rain down with water cannons. If Myeong Jeha was the type who loosened the other actor, Ji Haebeom was the type who pinned them in place.
Myeong Jeha made it possible for me to become Huijae.
Ji Haebeom made it impossible for me not to exist as Lee Seohae.
‘So it changes this much depending on who you act with.’
No matter how much you learn, there is always something new to learn.
Memorizing a script alone and the real thing are different.
Eyes, angle of the face, attitude toward the other person, gestures—tiny things gather together, and suddenly a character just one breath different appears before your eyes.
“I’m heading out now.”
“Ah, senior! You’re leaving already?”
When I turned around, Ji Haebeom had already changed clothes. He had loosely swept back the hair that must have kept bothering him.
“Thank you so much for today. Thanks to you, I think the scene is going to come out amazingly.”
“Mhm. I think so too.”
Ji Haebeom quietly looked down at me. It was a different gaze from the killing intent earlier.
‘How can someone change their eyes that completely....’
It was fascinating all over again. If I ever reached the top, would I be able to overwhelm my counterpart too?
“Now it’s two.”
Ji Haebeom lifted the hand still marked with nail scratches and made a V sign.
“What is?”
“The debts you owe me. One from <We Rund>, and one from now.”
He didn’t look it, but this senior was actually quite the calculating type....
“I’m saying it so you won’t forget me.”
Leaving that behind, Ji Haebeom turned and walked away.
Even after he left, the aftershock he had left on the set was enormous.
The revised script born from Shin Seojin’s injury.
Now there wasn’t a single person left who felt anxious about it.
* * *
A few days later, as drama fans were still buzzing over the news of Shin Seojin’s injury, a new piece of news arrived.
[DramaMovieActor TALK / What is this, Ji Haebeom at the 〈Unfair Trade〉 set]
[DramaMovieActor TALK / Holy shit!!! Ji Haebeom is appearing in 〈Unfair Trade〉 as a cameo TT_TT]
[DramaMovieActor TALK / The more I see it the more he’s seriously loyal, I guess Ji Haebeom really loves <We Rund>.. this makes my heart feel good]
That was because Ji Haebeom’s agency and 〈Unfair Trade〉’s publicity team had simultaneously flooded out article releases.
[Ji Haebeom moves like a true loyal man... cameo appearance in 〈Unfair Trade〉]
[The two men of 〈The Great Garland〉, Shin Seojin and Ji Haebeom, meet again in 〈Unfair Trade〉]
[Ji Haebeom gladly accepts villain role... “It’s a short scene, but I’d be grateful if you enjoy it”]
[★UpUp⎢Ji Haebeom under interrogation, once again stamping in his nickname “the man who looks better the darker it gets”]
The news of Ji Haebeom’s cameo reignited 〈Unfair Trade〉, which was already receiving attention thanks to the 2002 World Cup case.
-Ji Haebeom cameo lol he must really be close with Shin Seojin T_T
-Saying this now, but I ended up working with Ji Haebeom on set a few times before and he was genuinely so steady and kind..
˪A man who only produces good stories no matter how much you dig, my man
˪? something weird slipped in there
˪hey you
-Ah just thinking about him in a villain role is making me drool hurry up and come TT_TT
Not only the community issue boards, but every drama board was completely flooded with posts about 〈Unfair Trade〉.
Every post about 〈See You That Day〉 and 〈As Expected, Happy Ending〉 was pushed away.
Ji Haebeom’s name buried not only the dramas airing on the same day, but even Wednesday-Thursday and weekend drama news.
Ppongdang @pppongdang___e
(photo from Ji Haebeom’s SNS)
Are we really allowed to see this for free??? I want to arrest him for stealing my heart
Retits 11K likes 28K
The photos taken on set spread with incredible speed.
“Ah, fuck.... is Ji Haebeom insane?”
“What do you mean cameo?! Ji Haebeom?!”
The drama publicity teams across the broadcasting stations, including the ones for 〈See You That Day〉 and 〈As Expected, Happy Ending〉, raged at the sudden bombshell.
“Our drama airs today!”
The final-scene hook that was supposed to naturally carry attention into the next episode—Ji Haebeom devoured all of it. Drama clips and previews were all swept away by the cameo news.
[Ji Haebeom inserted after Shin Seojin injury in 〈Unfair Trade〉... will it be a “god move” or “forced nonsense”?]
[Stumbling from episode 4? 〈Unfair Trade〉 filming all-stop after Shin Seojin injury, Ji Haebeom cameo “disappointing response”]
[Will the once-surging 〈Unfair Trade〉 slow down like this... they played the “Ji Haebeom card,” but netizens say “not sure”]
But everyone knew from history what happened when a lead actor got injured.
The rival drama publicity teams threw stones first at 〈Unfair Trade〉, convinced its story would collapse before long.
“They’ve never even been number one, right?”
The Monday-Tuesday drama number one spot was still firmly held by romance queen Hong Suryeon.
Even if they had temporarily lost in buzz, the moment a proper kiss scene landed, the momentum would flip right back.
〈Unfair Trade〉, clearly forced into rushed script revisions and obviously trying to barely patch over weakened action scenes with the Ji Haebeom card, was bound to drop back into single-digit ratings.
But there was one thing they didn’t know.
[〈Unfair Trade〉 filming all-stop? Filming “nonstop”... Shin Seojin returns after recovering from a minor injury]
[Shin Seojin, “Don’t worry~” smiling V sign on set ⎢StarCutCut]
[〈Unfair Trade〉, literally “the world is so unfair~” healthy Shin Seojin selfie sends netizens cheering]
There was no place where exceptions applied as brutally as this industry.
“Seojin!”
“The actor’s here!”
After only a few days of recovery, Shin Seojin returned straight to set.
They had revised the final fifteen minutes of episode 9 where his action scenes belonged, but he could still handle filming the front half without issue.
Something like being under the weather meant nothing to Shin Seojin.
“Did you all do well while I was gone?”
Smiling, Shin Seojin asked as he hid the ankle brace beneath long pants. Han Yeoreum answered brightly.
“Of course.”
The 〈Unfair Trade〉 shoot, which had briefly faltered for a few days, once again turned green.
And carrying everyone’s expectations, Monday arrived—the day episode 5 of 〈Unfair Trade〉 would air.
