Chapter 599
* * *
A black car sped across the road.
Upbeat music blasted from the speakers.
"Ah, what the...!"
"Lost again."
Then came the hottest new alley in town.
The camera showed the inside of a shop.
It was what people commonly called a Hold'em pub.
The rules were posted on the wall.
[This is not a place for gambling,
but a place to enjoy games in a safe and fun environment :)
If you witness excessive arguments or cash transactions during a game,
please notify a staff member by sending an SOS.]
"What am I supposed to do? I've won way too much. Beers are on me."
"Woo!"
In the middle of the hall, a man swept a mountain of chips toward himself across the massive green table and flashed a charming smile.
Stylish electronic pop music filled the pub.
True to the sign, it really was full of people casually enjoying a game.
"Munrae-dong B-21. Standing by."
A voice crackled through a radio.
Holding the handset, Detective Kwak glanced around.
—Munrae-dong B-22. Standing by.
Someone answered over the radio.
The rookie detective beside Detective Kwak opened his laptop.
Through someone's point of view, the staircase inside the establishment came into view.
"We're moving in now."
The employee at the entrance greeted the newcomer.
"Welcome. Is this your first time visiting our pub?"
An expensive suit.
An intelligent appearance.
At first glance, he looked completely out of place in a Hold'em pub.
He pulled a business card from inside his jacket.
"It is."
Beneath the card, however, was a check.
"I want to enjoy myself quietly. High stakes."
It was worth a full one million won.
The employee swallowed nervously.
Even the name embossed on the card was unusual.
[Good Easy Loan]
Anyone could tell it was a loan shark company.
The employee asked him to wait a moment before taking the card inside.
"Boss. This customer says he wants to play somewhere private..."
The man who appeared to be in charge examined the business card front and back.
Then he dialed the company number printed on it.
Ring...
Ring...
"Shh."
A phone rang inside Detective Kwak's car.
He answered it.
"Hello. You've reached Good Easy Loan, open to everyone. Shall we begin your consultation right away?"
—I'm calling because Director Yoon Hyeongseok referred me.
"Of course. So Director Yoon sent you? How much money do you need? We'll do our best to help."
Inside the Hold'em pub, the employees exchanged glances after confirming the business card wasn't fake.
—Ah, no. I'll call back another time. I should discuss the amount first.
The call ended.
Inside the car, the detectives let out relieved sighs.
"Haa... Something about this still feels fishy."
"He definitely didn't look like an ordinary guy. You can tell just by looking into someone's eyes."
"Yeah. He gives off that white-collar criminal vibe."
"The type who's smart enough to steal other people's money. Throwing around tips like that too. I'm telling you, he definitely makes his money illegally."
"Even so..."
Detective Kwak watched the laptop screen.
The tiepin camera worn by Detective Yoon captured the employees approaching once again.
"Sir, we're terribly sorry, but access to our VIP reservation area requires going through a verification process first. Only members with an official membership card are allowed inside... We sincerely apologize. Instead, we'd be happy to offer you our finest—"
"Was it not enough?"
Detective Yoon slipped a hand inside his jacket.
Then he pulled out a thick stack of checks.
Every single one was for one million won.
"Will this get me a membership card?"
"..."
Both the employee and the manager stared at him with their mouths hanging open.
"Or should I just go somewhere else?"
"No, no, no! Hyung! Please come right this way!"
Deep inside the Hold'em pub.
A door leading to the second floor slowly opened.
* * *
Beyond the tiny camera hidden in the tiepin, another room appeared.
The detectives watching the live feed on the laptop applauded.
"That's it! There had better be something inside!"
"These lunatics seriously set something like this up in the hottest place in town? If you're running an illegal gambling den, at least have the decency to hide it."
"Seriously... Took the words right out of my mouth. Didn't these idiots learn anything from the older generation?"
"I guess that's what happens with apprenticeship culture. If they never went to prison, they probably never learned."
It looked nothing like the illegal gambling dens portrayed in the media.
Which also meant that anyone who wandered in looking for harmless fun could easily end up trapped in gambling.
"I'll reveal the cards."
The dealer turned over the cards on the table.
Everyone checked their hands.
"I'm in."
"Me too."
"Alright. Let's do this!"
Clatter.
Clatter.
Enormous piles of chips continued to grow.
Ja Sokhwan watched the increasingly polished flow of , which had now firmly established its format.
Teenagers addicted to gambling.
Then Hold'em pubs, presented with a trendy, approachable image.
Influencer No. 1's trip to Macau from the trailer.
'It's obvious where the story's going.'
But it seemed the filmmakers clearly understood that, for this kind of entertainment movie, audiences wanted exactly that kind of predictability.
The civil servant of Chungmuro.
Gong Mujin hadn't earned that nickname for nothing.
At the very least, every film he directed had to perform above average if he wanted to maintain that dependable "civil servant" reputation.
'It'll definitely break even.'
And there weren't many directors left in the Korean film industry who could consistently deliver that level of reliability.
There were truckloads of directors who still didn't understand that nobody was willing to spend both time and money indulging someone else's bloated ego.
That was why Director Ja was completely confident when people claimed, "There's no way it'll even break even."
'See? It's giving people exactly what they want.'
Just as the pot reached an insane size—
Detective Kwak and the rest of the task force stormed in through the emergency staircase.
"W-What the hell?!"
"Aaaah!"
"No!"
One man grabbed a bag full of cash and bolted.
A woman panicked, desperately looking for somewhere to hide.
Employees tried everything they could to block the officers from entering.
"Yes."
And Detective Kwak casually smashed straight through every obstacle with brute force.
"Where the hell did Detective Yoon go?"
"...He's moving in real time."
After single-handedly subduing five knife-wielding employees, Detective Kwak realized Detective Yoon wasn't at the scene.
"Don't follow me! Stay the hell away!"
Detective Yoon was chasing the manager who had accepted the check earlier.
The manager sprinted frantically through the alleys of Munrae-dong, desperately trying to shake him off.
"I knew that bastard's face pissed me off from the start!!! He looked suspicious as hell!!!"
The manager shouted in frustration as he looked back over his shoulder.
"You'd be better off stopping—"
Unlike the manager, who was running as if his life depended on it, Detective Yoon jogged along at an almost leisurely pace.
Maybe it was the difference in the length of their legs.
The distance between them steadily shrank.
"Who the hell would stop?! Think about it for once, you damn coppppp!!!"
The manager suddenly disappeared from view.
"That's why I told you to stop."
A nearby sign read:
[Under Construction]
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
As if swallowed by magic, the manager fell straight into the open manhole left uncovered because of the construction work. He crashed onto the floor of the underground sewer pipe three meters below.
"Ah, fuck...!"
"Why don't you cooperate for once? Hand over the money."
Hearing Detective Yoon's calm voice, the manager lay flat on his back and raised his middle finger toward the sky.
"Money? My ass."
"You need to cough up what I gave you ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) earlier."
"Hahahaha! I've only got this one!"
...
What the manager had received was a bundle of checks.
But all he had on him now was a single one-million-won check.
Detective Yoon's expression hardened.
"You know you're supposed to share tips instead of keeping them all to yourself, right? It's called common sense, old man."
"And people with common sense live like you do?"
"Fuck. There's loyalty in this business. We even provide national insurance, weekly holiday pay, and personal leave for weddings and funerals!"
In the strangest ways, they were surprisingly reasonable.
Detective Yoon sighed.
Woo-woo—woo-woo—
Just then, Detective Kwak's car pulled up.
"Hey! Let's move it! Once we've hauled all these bastards in, we're having a pork belly dinner tonight—"
"We're eating ramen."
"What are you talking about? We finally got a huge budget this time. Pork bel—"
"We're eating ramen."
"Come on! We eat ramen every damn day! Why are we eating it even on a day like—"
"We're eating ramen."
Comedic music began to play.
The scene changed.
The location was now the airport.
'And then there was someone who always delivered more than the basics.'
Director Ja looked at Han Yeoreum, who somehow seemed to have grown tremendously.
The moment her face appeared on the screen, the atmosphere inside the theater changed.
Actors.
Idols.
Models.
Writers.
Directors.
Investors.
Reporters.
Every single person's attention became completely fixed on Han Yeoreum.
'Of course it did.'
From the moment she debuted, she had already proven herself through one project after another.
An unconscious expectation naturally followed Han Yeoreum everywhere she went.
From this point on, it was going to become truly entertaining.
The vibrant, energetic trendiness unique to .
Everyone knew it all came from Han Yeoreum.
"Yaaawn..."
Han Yeoreum woke up with a facial mask still covering her face.
Yawning, she stretched her neck a couple of times before peeling off the sheet mask and gently patting the remaining essence into her skin.
Then, still inside the airplane, she turned on the camera and started filming a Get Ready With Me video.
"Hiiiii. I'm on the plane to Macau. My face is sooo puffy today..."
The screen filled with Han Yeoreum's face as she dabbed a cushion compact onto her skin.
"But I've actually lost weight lately, so my face looks absolutely legendary right now. What if I have, like... a fateful encounter on this trip? You know what they say—after a bad car comes a Mercedes."
Han Yeoreum forced an eye-smile before drawing beneath her eyes with a puffy-eye aegyo stick.
"But what if it's not just a Mercedes? What if it's, like... a McLaren? I've been watching so many couple Intubers lately that I'm starting to develop fantasies about Southern European guys. I don't usually wear red, but I even bought a red dress so I'd stand out among the stylish girls. Honestly, nothing helps you forget your ex like shopping. The moment you see your credit card bill, boom—you snap back to reality."
After applying lipstick, Han Yeoreum puckered her lips toward the audience as if blowing them a kiss.
"Anyway, I'm putting everything behind me. I'm starting fresh, so cheer me on."
She really was Influencer No. 1.
Compared to the two consecutive crime scenes that had just played, she looked like someone with absolutely no brain cells.
The mood instantly became light and carefree.
"Day One of Manifesting Becoming a Couple Intuber with a Southern European Guy. Here we go!"
Soft laughter spread throughout the theater at her pure, completely innocent energy.
Holding her camera high while wheeling her suitcase, Influencer No. 1 walked briskly through Macau.
Gorgeous shots of Macau flashed rapidly across the screen.
It looked incredibly expensive.
Every frame practically screamed budget.
The marble floors beneath Influencer No. 1's heels sparkled brilliantly.
Every step she took felt special.
Golden decorations glittered everywhere.
It was overwhelming wealth.
From the very beginning, Director Gong knew exactly how to exploit one of humanity's most universal desires.
The longing for wealth.
The illusion that it might be within arm's reach.
The four-digit balances shown inside gambling apps.
The bundles of one-million-won checks in Detective Yoon's hands.
The dazzling scenery of Macau shown through Influencer No. 1's eyes.
Combined together, every element produced a strange excitement.
The audience's hearts pounded.
The film lingered obsessively on Influencer No. 1's shoes.
The golden streets looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.
Like the Yellow Brick Road the wizard had told someone to follow.
As though happiness absolutely awaited at the end.
"Woooooow! This is amazing!"
The moment Influencer No. 1 entered the dome-shaped hotel, she practically screamed with excitement.
She loved it so much that she turned her vlog camera—which had been filming her face the entire time—and showed the hotel instead.
Less than a day had passed since she spoke about the pain of her breakup.
Yet now it looked as though she had forgotten everything.
"Could you take a picture for me? Photo, photo. Pretty girl, click please."
Posing in front of the hotel's signature statue, Influencer No. 1 gazed around with sparkling eyes.
The scene changed again.
A tranquil artificial lake.
Gondolas floating peacefully across the water.
A perfect recreation of Venice, Italy.
Beyond the emerald-colored waves stood Influencer No. 1.
Right in the center of the tourists.
Standing in the most prominent spot while cheerful music played over the scene, as though her journey was only just beginning.
Click!
Click!
Click!
Influencer No. 1 made adorable expressions while taking selfies.
"I've finally come to ride the gondola. This place is seriously so pretty! I think I should buy one of those little tripods later so I can take full-body shots by myself. I only brought a selfie stick, so it's kinda awkward to stand it up."
She stepped onto the waiting gondola.
"Eek!"
She wobbled slightly.
The gondolier immediately reached out and caught her.
Like the heroine of a romance movie, Influencer No. 1 arched backward dramatically.
Then she gazed deeply into the employee's eyes.
"Pretty..."
The foundation of comedy is repetition.
The familiar song that always played whenever Influencer No. 1 completely misunderstood a situation throughout the first and second films had long since become the audience's laugh trigger.
The theater erupted into warm laughter.
Ma Eungyo thought about Han Yeoreum's acting range ever since .
'On one hand, she's endlessly lighthearted. On the other, she can become endlessly heavy... Though honestly, I wouldn't know. People say my writing feels the same way.'
Influencer No. 1 and Seoryeong—two of the most opposite characters in Han Yeoreum's filmography—had both appeared within her very first year after debut.
'At this point, you have to admit she instinctively knows how to control rhythm and intensity.'
She possessed the ability to command people's attention without appearing to exert much effort.
A crime comedy.
Casting Han Yeoreum as Influencer No. 1—the character who served as the key to every story in the series—had been an absolute stroke of genius.
'Finding an actor who doesn't sound awkward talking to themselves is especially difficult. Of course, I've always been excellent at casting.'
While filming her vlog, Influencer No. 1 chatted nonstop.
It was mostly meaningless rambling.
Yet Han Yeoreum's distinctive diction naturally held everyone's attention.
Without letting their minds wander.
Making them watch no one but the woman on the screen.
"I seriously think Southern European guys are more into me."
After quickly scanning the men around her, Influencer No. 1 smiled excitedly at the camera.
"I'm going to a rooftop bar tomorrow night. I'm thinking about buying new earrings for it. The tripod isn't what's important anymore. What if I have one of those fateful encounters...? If I'm traveling with that guy, I won't even need a tripod anymore, right?"
Beneath the blue artificial sky, luxury boutiques lined both sides of the lake.
Influencer No. 1, completely intoxicated by the vacation atmosphere, stared at the storefronts with shining eyes.
After getting off the gondola, she entered one of the stores to shop.
"Eeeek... So prettyyyy..."
She was traveling.
She had lost weight and looked better than ever.
The conditions couldn't have been more perfect for Influencer No. 1's shopping impulse to spiral completely out of control.
"But why is everything pretty so expensive...?"
She sighed after seeing the price tags.
Even so, after thinking it over again and again, she was finally about to choose something—
"Everything from here to there. I'll take it all."
...!
An utterly unbelievable customer had appeared.
"Would you mind waiting just a moment? We'll assist you as quickly as possible."
Every employee rushed toward the VIP customer.
So did all the surrounding shoppers.
He was clearly no ordinary rich man.
A thick gold chain around his neck.
A diamond-covered watch.
An arrogant posture.
And shopping bags piled high in the hands of the bodyguards surrounding him.
"I'm telling you, this hand has a money spirit attached to it."
"Honey. It's the Goddess of Fortune."
"Hahaha! Anyway, let's go have some fun at the casino today."
The casino.
The very first thing that came to mind whenever someone mentioned Macau.
"You never know. Maybe I'll win even more today than yesterday. There's something unbelievably lucky about this place."
The items Influencer No. 1 had been agonizing over moments earlier entered her field of vision.
Then she saw the endless stream of shopping bags.
...
Since she was already traveling...
Maybe just once.
Just for fun.
What if...
'That expression...'
Ma Eungyo studied Han Yeoreum's face closely.
It was an expression Influencer No. 1 had never shown before.
She looked completely bewitched.
Like someone who wouldn't listen no matter how desperately others tried to stop her.
Something collapsed inside Influencer No. 1's mind.
The look in her eyes changed.
Ma Eungyo suddenly felt an overwhelming pull.
The true beginning of the episode.
It was as though she could hear the gunshot that no one else could.
In that fleeting instant—
Han Yeoreum's changing expression pulled the trigger.