Free Web NovelFrom the darkness, an aggressive hand suddenly shot out.
It felt like some unknown existence that had been living there from the very beginning, waiting in that exact spot.
And then the leather belt coiling around the man’s ankle, the merciless yank that dragged him down in one brutal motion to bring him crashing to the ground.
“Ugh—!”
The man’s palm scraped harshly against the rough asphalt, and his pathetic attempt to resist was almost laughably captured on screen.
As the man was dragged beneath the truck like prey being devoured, a long smear of dark red blood streaked across the gray pavement.
[Fuck, actual chills. The notification from my watch, this psycho genius LMAO]
[Holy shit!!!!!!! I got goosebumps all over, I literally screamed out loud]
[This is insane, feels like I got hit in the head]
[My brain is buzzing, how did they even do this 😶😶😶😶]
The shot zoomed in on Lee Seohae’s wrist inside the truck.
On the smartwatch screen, Lee Seohae had already set the notification trigger.
At this very moment, who exactly was the one holding the leash?
The man was no longer the embodiment of fear.
Now, he was nothing more than prey caught by the predator named Lee Seohae.
“So this is where you were hiding.”
The moment Lee Seohae’s voice sliced calmly through the night air and landed with perfect precision, IP 85.152 felt a thrill unlike anything before.
It was as if an indescribable shiver had raced from head to toe.
When Lee Seohae dragged the belt that had bound his ankle and kicked straight at his shin—
-Lee Seohae! Lee Seohae! Lee Seohae! Lee Seohae!
-Fuck, God Seohae TT__TT
-This is EXACTLY what I wanted, Jaeyoung you genius thank you so much
-Lee Seohae! Lee Seohae! Lee Seoh— Lee Seohae!
-She really is a genius, she planned this from the start LMAO
A heat that had never existed before filled the scene.
The sight of Lee Seohae’s face in the darkness, blood dripping from her nose, felt like it was gripping the heart in a ruthless fist. The pounding in the chest felt hot.
The sound of Lee Seohae taking handcuffs from her bag and snapping them shut was exceptionally crisp.
* * *
At that same time, Yun Hyeonjo was also watching 〈Unfair Trade〉 live.
“...”
Resting his chin on one hand as he stared at the screen, Yun Hyeonjo was momentarily left speechless.
This was something he had never once seen in 〈Faster Than the Law〉.
No—even across Han Yeoreum’s entire filmography until now, there had never been a side of her like this.
And yet, strangely enough, it didn’t feel alien at all.
Lee Seohae of 〈Unfair Trade〉 had only appeared for five episodes so far.
For viewers to completely perceive the actor as that character, it was far too little time.
“What? Investigator Lee committed assault? She got assaulted? Wait—not got assaulted, she did it?”
After getting the call, Gam Seonghwan hurried to where Lee Seohae was.
Detained inside the holding cell, Lee Seohae lightly touched the bars with her index finger and frowned.
Even in the middle of all this, she was gauging the level of cleanliness.
Every tiny gesture like that simply made Han Yeoreum look like Lee Seohae.
A Lee Seohae who stood strangely outside the bounds of common sense, was obsessively neat, and was used to being alone.
“What exactly did you do?”
“There was a slight bit of friction.”
“Can you explain that in more detail? You said you had a personal question. You said it’d be more efficient...”
Gam Seonghwan’s face looked stifled as he whispered while gripping the bars, worried another officer might overhear.
But Lee Seohae brushed herself off and walked over to him.
Separated by only a single set of iron bars, the two stood close.
“First, my personal question was whether the first crime scene felt familiar to the culprit because it was near his home, or whether it was Gyeonggi Province where he’s been doing volunteer work lately. The volunteer site was slightly more likely, but if that were the case, we would’ve had to dramatically expand patrol routes and even request cooperation from another jurisdiction, so I attached myself directly.”
Lee Seohae lifted her chin and looked straight at Gam Seonghwan.
“After reviewing the previous match of the country Korea faced today, I concluded that Korea’s probability of winning was higher than the others, and that reaching the Asian Games semifinals would be no problem. Which means there would be one more match after today. Which means one more victim. But DNA collection is only possible once someone moves from suspect to accused status. If we rely only on victim statements and scene circumstances, it takes too much time. So we needed to catch the moment the crime was certain in order to obtain DNA.”
Gam Seonghwan understood what Lee Seohae meant.
His tightly shut mouth slowly parted.
Lee Seohae raised her right hand.
The wrist wearing the smartwatch came into view.
It seemed she had seen the message Gam Seonghwan sent while she was being chased in the alley.
Not for even a single moment had she ever been frightened by that pathetic man.
She truly was a cold, composed genius with an IQ of 160.
“He was only a prime suspect without concrete evidence, so we’d have to go through confrontation, procedure, waiting. Why bother going in circles when there was already a way to collect DNA?”
“...So that’s why you scraped up his entire palm?”
“Yes. If you collect the DNA from the ground and compare it with the 2002 World Cup case, it should confirm whether it’s the same person.”
“Right now all the suspect did was follow you. There’s no way you didn’t know this method had disadvantages.”
Yun Hyeonjo still watched Han Yeoreum with his chin resting on his hand.
“I know. But even if I receive the maximum disciplinary action, it’ll probably just be a pay cut.”
“...”
The amount of time required for an actor to stop looking like a specific person and instead feel like the very force driving the drama differs from actor to actor.
The top actors people always talk about possess the power to make viewers mistake them for the character from the very moment they appear.
A drama persuades its audience over sixteen hours.
That’s why film, with only two hours, is so much harder.
The overwhelming difference in time.
Immersion changes depending on how much life the actor can make the character breathe with.
“Wow.... People have called me an idiot before, but this is my first time saying it to someone else.”
The grinning Shin Seojin wore Gam Seonghwan’s face.
From episode 1 to 5, Yun Hyeonjo roughly estimated how much screentime Gam Seonghwan had. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
‘A little over three hours...’
Rolling around crime scenes, joking with the people around him, getting angry, talking with victims, empathizing with them.
Shin Seojin had been given enough time to become Gam Seonghwan.
‘But Lee Seohae...’
In episode 1, she had spoken only a single line in the ending scene.
Even afterward, the only real conversations she had were in the interrogation room.
And even those scenes weren’t about illuminating what kind of person Lee Seohae was, but merely explaining how the case would unfold.
Lee Seohae did not rage, did not bond, did not emotionally connect.
She simply existed as an investigator.
Without a case, Lee Seohae never appeared on screen.
It was the complete opposite of how every moment of Gam Seonghwan was shown.
Even the camera, whenever the two appeared together, usually kept its ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ focus on Gam Seonghwan.
When they rode in the same car.
When they investigated together.
‘Come to think of it, Lee Seohae’s back was shown unusually often.... It must’ve been Director Park’s calculation.’
Even if all the scenes up to episode 5 where Lee Seohae’s face had actually been shown were gathered together, it would barely reach thirty minutes.
The screen shifted back to Gam Seonghwan.
He met the accused, collected the DNA left on the ground at the scene, and finally succeeded in cuffing his wrist.
“Hey. Idiot investigator. Congratulations.”
As Lee Seohae stepped out of the holding cell, Gam Seonghwan grinned and held out tofu.
She didn’t take it, only stared blankly.
“We still haven’t contacted the victim you met.”
“Yes.”
“You caught him while bleeding from the nose, so tell her yourself.”
“That’s not under my jurisdiction.”
“Come on. Don’t dodge it!”
Gam Seonghwan directly pulled out his phone and made the call.
Then he forcibly held it to Lee Seohae’s ear.
-Hel... lo?
A trembling woman’s voice came through.
“...This is Lee Seohae, investigator from the National Forensic Service, whom you met previously. Based on the victim testimony, we launched the investigation, and as a result...”
Lee Seohae had no choice but to relay the information.
“The culprit has been caught.”
A sharp intake of breath sounded from the other end.
-Excuse me... I’m, really, sorry... I don’t know if this is something I can ask, but...
Breathing raggedly, she asked,
-Was there... anything... the victims had in common?
At those words, Lee Seohae answered.
“There is no commonality among the victims. Some knew him, some did not. Other than the fact that the culprit happened to be there at that time.”
All this time, countless question marks must have tormented her.
Because her hair was long.
Because she walked weakly.
Because she hadn’t been careful on dark roads.
Because she dressed like that.
Because she didn’t carry self-defense tools.
Because she didn’t resist harder.
Among all the reasons the world tried to assign, she must have asked herself over and over which part had been her fault.
-...Thank you.... Thank you so much....
Lee Seohae, who stood outside the world’s common sense, did not comfort her by saying it wasn’t her fault.
She simply delivered the facts.
There was only one essential condition for the incident.
The existence of the perpetrator.
Only that one thing.
-Thank you, truly thank you....
To the woman crying on the other end, Lee Seohae had no particular words to offer.
She only looked at Gam Seonghwan with a gaze that said her work here was done.
“Yeees, then we still have some remaining procedures, so we’ll end the call here. Thank you for your cooperation. Please take care—!”
Gam Seonghwan wrapped it up with practiced ease.
Lee Seohae was closer to a line than to goodness.
[Han Yeoreum finally delivers cathartic action... “That was so satisfying” support pours in as 〈Unfair Trade〉 successfully transforms her image]
[The nation’s first love throwing punches? Han Yeoreum’s dizzying scene direction in 〈Unfair Trade〉 proves an IQ 160 genius really is different~]
[★UP UP⎢Why was Han Yeoreum bleeding from the nose? The other side ended with a “fractured leg”]
[〈Unfair Trade〉, the moment we stop demanding more caution from victims]
Yun Hyeonjo knew the original work of 〈Unfair Trade〉.
He also knew the story that would follow.
At its core, this was still close to a single male-lead story.
The adaptation would not stray too far from that.
“Still...”
But even without showing her face on screen, everyone would remember Lee Seohae.
And that—
“We’ll be seeing her in films later.”
—that was what people called iconic.
* * *
“Director, we got a call from the Football Association....”
“Did you?”
“Yes. They’re saying this episode of 〈Unfair Trade〉 has unpleasantly brought the 2002 World Cup back into the spotlight, and they’re demanding an explanation and apology.... They said you keep refusing their calls....”
“I see.”
After episode 5 of 〈Unfair Trade〉 aired, the SBC director who had once prioritized safety above all else and tried to minimize friction as much as possible had seemingly vanished without a trace.
In his place stood only a new director who had adopted a firm do I look like I care? attitude.
“That’s not what matters right now, so ignore it.”
“They still haven’t hung up yet.”
Profanities were pouring out from the phone receiver in the employee’s hand.
But the SBC director didn’t care in the slightest.
“The third-run ratings for 〈Unfair Trade〉 came out, right? What was it?”
“The third-run rating is 2.3%.”
Just as the KBC director had been dragged before the Broadcasting Association and torn apart with curses right after episode 1 of 〈The Great Garland〉, the SBC director would probably be hauled in soon enough too.
But as an elite among elites who valued face above all, the SBC director focused only on the drop in third-run ratings.
-Hey, you crazy bastards! Are you listening to me or not?!
Even now, the enraged shouting from the Football Association could still be heard through the phone, but the SBC director cared only about the report on 〈Unfair Trade〉.
“So the rerun and even the third run are both dropping....”
〈Unfair Trade〉, which had been maintaining unusually high ratings, was now seeing its rerun and third-run numbers decrease after the 2002 World Cup case episode.
[Drama/Movie/Actor TALK / Hong Suryeon is seriously the queen of kiss scenes TT_TT]
[Drama/Movie/Actor TALK / (long post) broke down the 〈Unfair Trade〉 Lee Seohae action scene frame by frame.jpg]
[Drama/Movie/Actor TALK / Han Yeoreum seriously fits this drama insanely well, you can really hear how strong her projection is]
[Drama/Movie/Actor TALK / random thought but the director of 〈As Expected, Happy Ending〉 always looks like he’s about to cry T_T]
[Drama/Movie/Actor TALK / picking Hong Suryeon for Byeon Juhwa’s role was such a smart move LOL]
[Drama/Movie/Actor TALK / who do you think the culprit in the next 〈Unfair Trade〉 episode is? I’m so hyped]
Han Yeoreum’s action scene had generated buzz on par with Hong Suryeon’s kiss scene in the simultaneously airing 〈See You That Day〉.
A rising actress making her first real attempt at a genre piece going toe-to-toe with a top actress who was unrivaled in romance filmography—that alone should have been impossible.
Viewers who had expected the story to follow the usual cliché route had their hearts blown apart by Lee Seohae’s perfectly executed character identity.
INTUBE
[Ep5. Han Yeoreum walking alone down a dark night street, and a mysterious shadow following behind her...? ( •́ㅿ•̀ )⎢〈Unfair Trade〉] 06:27
Views 927,221
-Fuck YES this is it LMAO so damn satisfying, honestly I wish she’d beaten him even more, Seohae
-Same, she should’ve just cracked his skull open T_T what a shame
-How is her sociopath acting THIS perfect, I was genuinely shocked.. how is this the same person as Huijae T_T LOL
-While watching live I was so nervous wondering if our Huijae would be in danger T_T;; but what a twist! Totally shocked haha... the final phone call scene was amazing too, feels like it’s been forever since we had such a refreshing genius character
-I’m trapped in this clip and can’t leave
-Me too, I’m on my 937,172nd rewatch
-He was grinning while stalking her all step step, so watching him get absolutely wrecked in reverse is SO good LMAO
It hadn’t even been a full week since the episode aired, yet the clip of Han Yeoreum’s action scene was already approaching one million views.
But not yet.
It still wasn’t enough to overtake the number-one ratings slot.
Still, the SBC director already knew.
“How many articles were uploaded on the day of broadcast?”
“〈See You That Day〉 had 42, 〈Unfair Trade〉 had 68. Since it overlapped with the World Cup case controversy, the article count increased.”
“Hoo....”
He knew the reason the rerun and third-run ratings had dropped.
“What about the rerun rating for 〈See You That Day〉?”
“It’s currently up from last week to 6.4%.”
That meant the number of people watching the original live broadcast of 〈Unfair Trade〉 was increasing.
“So the live broadcast belongs to 〈Unfair Trade〉.”
Since people had already watched it live, it was natural that more and more viewers were skipping the rerun and third run.
On the other hand, romance dramas like 〈See You That Day〉 and 〈As Expected, Happy Ending〉—genres where spoilers didn’t really matter—were seeing their rerun and third-run ratings rise.
“First place in Q3....”
So by episode 9, the one featuring Ji Haebeom, and episode 16, the finale of 〈See You That Day〉—
“This is it!”
〈Unfair Trade〉 was certain to claim the number-one ratings spot.
