Chapter 18 : Small Agency, Big Dreams

“Hey! You made it!” 

“Wanna die?” 

The ones who dragged me here were none other than Jiwon’s crew, and I was promptly delivered to the villa like a well-behaved package. 

“Life as a jobless bum must be pretty dull, huh?”

“What kind of cold-hearted jab is that? I’ve barely been back in Korea for a hot minute.” 

Despite his claim of being offended, Jiwon’s face was practically glowing, polished to perfection. 

“I heard some big news, and there’s no way I could just sit still.” 

Half-reclining, Jiwon shot up, his eyes sparkling as they locked onto mine. 

“Big news?” 

“You’re gonna be an actor, aren’t you?” 

How the hell does this creepy guy know that?

Every now and then, he pulls something like this, and it’s honestly terrifying. 

“Am I not getting goosebumps right now? Look at this!” 

“That’s just the air conditioning cranked up too high.” 

“Dude, I only thought of it less than an hour ago!” 

“Who cares about that? The point is, I know.” 

Jiwon flashed a playful grin, throwing up a peace sign beside his face. 

“Are you my stalker or what?” 

Last time, he tracked me down with just one text—something about that felt off. 

“Not me. My brother’s probably your stalker.” 

Oh, that guy. 

Jiwon’s older brother was the polar opposite of him. Stoic, cold, the epitome of those insufferable male leads you see on TV.

Exactly that vibe. 

“Your brother’s scary.” 

“My brother? Why? He’s just got a poker face, that’s all.” 

Sure, maybe to you, since he indulges your every whim.

Jiwon was the textbook spoiled youngest son of a chaebol family, practically raised with a silver spoon and endless cooing of “Oh, our precious baby!” 

“People like him would ship someone they don’t like off to a shrimp boat.” 

And don’t get me started on how many “tests” I had to endure from that brother of his when Jiwon and I first became friends.

Jiwon was the one who latched onto me, so why was I the one getting grilled?

For a while, I was fuming with injustice. 

“Oh, was it like that?” 

“Like that? When I first met you, I thought you were some weird gangster!” 

I couldn’t help but recall the first time we met. 

It was the dead of night, everyone fast asleep, when a loud banging on the door jolted me awake. 

“Who’s that at this hour?” 

“An emergency?” 

Rubbing my barely-open eyes, I stumbled outside with Kyungho, only to find a man in a pitch-black suit standing there. 

“What’s the matter…?” 

“Oxygen! You have oxygen, right?” 

His frantic search for oxygen made me think it was an emergency, so I hurriedly opened the door. 

“Where’s the animal? Hurry, Kyungho, light up the clinic and prep the oxygen!” 

“Yes, sir!” 

Out here in the countryside, emergencies were rare, but not unheard of, so we rushed to prepare. 

“Uh, a person?” 

We got everything ready, expecting an animal, but a human walked in. 

“Huff—huff!” 

Carried on the back of the man in the suit, he was gasping for air, his breaths ragged. 

“Look, if he’s in this state, you need a big hospital, not a place like this!” 

Kyungho was visibly rattled by the sight of someone who looked like they were about to pass out. 

“The doctor’s on the way, but we ran out of oxygen, so we came here in a hurry.” 

Despite the chaotic situation, Kyungho, though flustered, managed to fit an animal oxygen mask onto the patient, trying to soothe him. 

“Breathe slowly.” 

“Haa—huff!” 

I told him to breathe slowly, but he clutched his chest, struggling with every breath. 

“We’re just a small animal clinic. The best we can do is an X-ray. He looks seriously ill—you shouldn’t wait for the doctor; get him to a hospital now!” 

To me, it was obvious he needed to be rushed to a proper facility, but they didn’t budge. 

“No, there’s no problem with any other place.” 

“What?” 

They acted like they knew exactly what was wrong with him, moving with calm precision. 

“We can’t explain in detail. Just keep the oxygen coming until the doctor arrives.” 

He’s struggling like that, and you want us to just stand here and watch? 

“Huff—haa—”

“Hey, are you okay?” 

Seeing someone who looked barely my age teetering on the edge of life and death made my heart sink. 

“Try breathing slowly, deeply.” 

I grabbed his hand, purely out of a desire to offer some encouragement. 

“You’ve got this.”

“Haaa—haaa—” 

Thankfully, the oxygen seemed to help.

Soon, his color returned, and his breathing stabilized. 

“Are you feeling a bit better?”

“A little calmer now?” 

“I’m… haa… okay.” 

The man who brought him, hearing he was okay, stepped aside to make a call. 

“Young master, right now—” 

Young master? 

Wasn’t “young master” a term women used for their husband’s younger brother?

Since when do men use it? 

“This hand…” 

The so-called “young master,” now regaining his senses, pointed to the hand I was holding with his other hand. 

“Oh, sorry! You just looked like you were struggling.” 

I’d learned guys don’t usually like physical contact, so I quickly let go. 

“Young master, the doctor’s here. Let’s go.”

“We’re an animal clinic, so insurance doesn’t cover—” 

Before Kyungho could finish, the man in the suit handed over a thick stack of 50,000-won bills. 

“Please keep this quiet.”

“Uh… this is way too much.” 

“No, it’s our sincerity.” 

“This isn’t tied to some crime, is it?” 

At this hour, with a sharply dressed man in a black suit calling someone “young master,” Kyungho couldn’t help but suspect something shady. 

“Crime? Nothing like that. You can take it with peace of mind.” 

The man was adamant it was fine, and after some back-and-forth, Kyungho reluctantly accepted the stack, only to split it in half and hand half back. 

“This is enough. And as medical professionals, we can’t disclose patient info anyway, so don’t worry.” 

Satisfied with Kyungho’s words, the man left with the young master without another word. 

“Wow, how much is all this?” 

In my short human life, I’d never seen this much cash before. 

“Yeah, I took half because I thought refusing might make them suspicious, but… is it okay to accept this?” 

And so, I chalked it up to a bizarre one-off incident. 

But then— 

“You do know this is an animal clinic, right?” 

Why does this guy keep coming back? 

“Well, our young master keeps insisting on coming here…” 

“Haa—haa—hand.”

“This is insane.” 

Now, he was practically a regular.

Whenever his breathing acted up, he’d show up here for oxygen and ask me to hold his hand. 

Is this kid some kind of weirdo? 

At first, I was suspicious of him.

But once I learned about the condition he was battling, the misunderstanding cleared up, and we grew close. 

He says I remind him of the dog he had as a kid or something… 

In a place like this, where I could barely find anyone my age, Jiwon became a big help.

Well, except for when he spouts nonsense… like right now. 

“I’ll start an agency for you.” 

What’s he blabbering about now? 

“You’re talking about starting a company like it’s as easy as buying me dinner.” 

I was dumbfounded.

Even with my mere two years of human life, I knew starting a company wasn’t some simple task. 

“What’s your angle?” 

I crossed my arms, narrowing my eyes at Jiwon. 

“Angle? How could you say something so harsh?”

“Look at you, getting all defensive. Spit it out—what’s up?” 

Kyungho taught me something: kindness beyond a good cut of beef is never just kindness.

This was way past beef, so there was no way it was pure. 

“When my one and only friend finds a dream, of course I’ve gotta help.” 

“Oh, please. They’ve been nagging you to stop slacking and do something, so you’re just using me, aren’t you?” 

I threw it out half-jokingly, but Jiwon’s sudden silence and inability to respond caught me off guard. 

“What, for real?” 

“You’re like a ghost. They told me to study or learn a trade, anything.” 

Guess now that he’s mostly recovered, they’re ready to put the youngest son to work. 

“Good for you. How long were you planning to loaf around using recovery as an excuse? Humans need to work.” 

“Ugh, boomer vibes.” 

Jiwon pouted at my nagging. 

“Boomer? I’ve been studying up on MZ culture—” 

“Ughhh! I don’t wanna do it!” 

Jiwon buried his face in a cushion, letting out a scream that bordered on a wail. 

“What are you, a kid? You’ve gotta do what you don’t want to sometimes.” 

Tch, still such a baby. 

“So, I thought it over, and studying isn’t my thing. I’m gonna start a business!” 

“What?” 

“You be the actor, I’ll be the CEO. How perfect is that?” 

Just hearing it, I could smell the impending disaster. 

“Sounds like a recipe for failure. A rookie actor and a rookie CEO?”

“I’ll get some investment from my brother, have Dad put in a word for some company ads, and boom—we’ll hit it big! I’ll push you to the top.” 

Listening to this is making my head spin.

What do I do with this naive kid? 

Who else but the spoiled youngest son of a chaebol? 

“So it’s not your business—it’s a family business.” 

“Huh, is it?” 

“Yes, it is. Stop with the nonsense and go study.” 

I plopped down beside Jiwon, closing my eyes and shaking my head at the absurdity of it all. 

“Anyway, enough about me. How’re you gonna become an actor? Do you even know how to act?”

“I’ll learn from now on.”

“Where?” 

“Uh… an academy?” 

I’ve heard people learn acting at academies these days. 

“Ha! In your little town that doesn’t even have a piano academy, let alone an acting one?” 

“Oh…” 

I hadn’t thought that far. 

“Who’s lecturing who now?” 

Jiwon clicked his tongue, mimicking my earlier head-shake. 

“I told you, I decided this less than an hour ago. I was just about to start planning.” 

“Want me to hook you up? One of the guys I used to hang with, his family runs an entertainment agency. Where was it…” 

If Jiwon’s recommending it, it’s gotta be some massive agency. 

“Nah, I’m good. I wanna start at a small agency if I can.”

“Huh?” 

Jiwon tilted his head, baffled by my choice to go with a small agency. 

He hates people who climb up from the bottom. 

That reason alone was enough.

Even if it meant rolling in the dirt, if it was something Han Jungwoo despised, I was ready to dive in headfirst. 

Not that it’ll come to that, of course. 

I trusted my eyes. 

My eye for picking projects. 

My master had acknowledged it, and that ability had been proven once again through Han Jungwoo. 

“It’s more dramatic that way, don’t you think?” 

Hearing me, Jiwon quietly raised a hand to his temple, drawing a circle with his finger. 

“Dramatic? Have you lost it? One weird encounter and you’re off the deep end?” 

“Lost it? Pfft! Remember that guy Jinseok we saw?” 

I had an excuse to justify this madness. 

“He was at a big agency, got neglected, and ended up there. Big agencies aren’t always the best, you know.” 

Jinseok, a victim of DreamN, was proof of that. 

Come to think of it, I’d heard big agencies only push certain celebrities. 

“Exactly!” 

“So, which small agency?” 

“Huh?” 

“Where are you going?”