Chapter 15: Main character (II)
"Dan oppa!"
The words leapt through the earpiece, piercing the slow clutter and chatter of the café.
Dan Woo’s face remained vacant, unperturbed by the outburst of the woman on the other end of the line.
"Lee Hyun Ju," he began lazily, "if you don’t have any news for any available acting gigs, then let me find one on my own."
"Are you kidding me?" Lee Hyun Ju paused on the other end, then sighed. "If you don’t want to be on a reality TV show, just say so. Stop with this over-the-top antics."
Dan Woo remained silent, his right hand and eyes coordinating as he sifted through snippets and visions of Dan Woo’s life—well, his life before he became himself.
Hyun Ju went quiet for a second, as if considering something.
"...I heard that you were seen at the set of Eternal Knight again," she said softly. "Is there something bothering you? If there is, you know that I am here for you."
Dan Woo’s hand slowed, a soft laugh escaping him as he blinked.
"I am fine, Hyun Ju. You don’t have to worry about me," he said, before opening his eyes to stare at the results on his loading screen. "I have to go," he added, decisively cutting off the call.
His eyes now fixed on a profile—his familiar face, his familiar name—but a history that wasn’t his history. Or at least, not fully.
Yes, things like where he was born, who his parents were, even the childhood home he remembered—all of it matched. Yet his childhood friend was Lee Hyun Ju? The school he attended in high school; Hanseong Academy was a name he didn’t recognize. Even the redevelopment of his childhood home came as a surprise.
After gazing at this history, he turned to his acting achievements. After all, his purpose was to look through his previous movies—to find names, contacts, anyone he could call, maybe even secure a segment he could act out, or at least an audition clip. He had less than twelve hours before his devouring.
He scrolled through all the movies and dramas he had acted in, and they all seemed to center on romance. Did I not have range? he couldn’t help but think. Even more unsettling was the fact that, when he checked the casts of many of his dramas, a familiar name kept appearing.
If Baek Hari wasn’t in the cast, she at least had something to do with production. It was insane—like somehow he followed her everywhere. But that didn’t make sense, because he begun acting long before he even met Baek Hari.
His mind drifted back to the situation he encountered earlier—when he went to the Eternal Knight set to meet Baek Hari, to probe for more information and understand why his main character had gone off the rails. Yet when he arrived, there was another woman in her place. A woman with a similar yet different name, a different face, and a history just as complicated.
Was this due to Baek Hari’s abilities? He couldn’t fathom how this new entity, Baek Seri, had come to exist in her place. Maybe, just as he wrote out the lives of characters in his stories, he too was under the pen of someone else. He didn’t like that feeling at all. Yet he could only relent—for now, his survival was paramount. Once he grew strong enough, he would find a way back to his world.
Who cared about an actress or a K-pop star? They were all fictional in the end.
He pulled up a list of names—directors: Na Hong-sun, Kim Ki-duk, Kim So-yong, and many others.
It was a long list. He scanned through them, checking who had projects under development, planning his next move, narrowing the list of twenty down to about five. Then he reached for his phone, scrolling through the names in his contacts.
Soon enough, the ringing tone filled the earpiece as the call connected to his first contact—Kim Ki-duk.
"Hello, Director Kim Ki-duk, this is—"
Before he could finish, a sharp beep cut in. The call had been disconnected.
He was slightly disoriented by the sudden cut-off, but he continued anyway. It was to be expected. Still, every contact he reached out to either rejected the call outright or delivered a soft refusal.
Now he was left with only a single contact.
Kim So-yong—or nothing.
He sat there for a moment, contemplating what he would do if he were rejected as well. His index finger hovered over Kim So-yong’s contact, his mind hesitant. Yet when he saw the counter at the edge of his vision, he pressed it.
The call rang for a few seconds, Dan literally on the edge of his seat.
Then—
"Hello, who is this?"
"Hello, Director Kim So-yong, this is Dan Woo."
"Dan Woo? Oh, I remember you. You are a talented actor. What can I do for you?"
"I heard that you were preparing for a new project and was wondering if you have anyone in mind for the cast?"
"Well, it’s too early to say. I am still looking for a screenwriter who could help me move mediums."
"Move mediums? Are you doing an adaptation?"
"Yes... This is a drama adaptation of a popular webtoon. I am hoping to have it up and running, as I enjoyed the storytelling."
"Well, if it’s a screenwriter you’re looking for, I can help you with that."
"Oh right, your sister is a screenwriter."
"...Yes, she is."
"I appreciate the offer, but it’s not that simple. The author is very particular about how she wants the story portrayed. We haven’t even agreed on the storyline to follow yet."
"I can still help you with that. Just give me the name of the work, the author’s name, and their contact."
"That will be a bit hard to do."
"Don’t worry, Kim So-yong-nim. I don’t have any ideas for your project—I just wish to expand upon my range. Tell you what, I promise to convince this author to green-light your project, and in return I wish to get a chance to play any character in the story. It doesn’t have to be a main character."
The other side went quiet, clearly contemplating the proposition.
"Okay. You have a day to convince the author. I’m sending over the information now."
"Thank you very much, Kim So-yong-nim. If it’s okay with you, please also send over a clip of any of the characters in the work."
"Get the approval first."
The line cut off abruptly.
Dan Woo was left staring at his screen, his eyes slowly drifting to the timer counting down.
8:07:20
He barely had eight hours left to find a character to devour.
As he contemplated a way forward, two messages popped up—one from Lee Hyun Ju and the other from Kim So-yong.
His hand hovered over the two notifications.
For the people...
The message from Hyun Ju began.
Dan Woo contemplated the implications. Would For the People allow him a chance to add more time to his timer? It was, after all, a reality TV show—but would that even work? And even if it did, wouldn’t that be the same as devouring himself?
He slid past Lee Hyun Ju’s notification and pressed Kim So-yong’s instead.
His screen blinked—then there it was.
Information about the webtoon popped up. He skimmed the simple synopsis, scrolling further until he reached the author’s contact information—only to find a social media account instead.
"That’s it!" he suddenly exclaimed.
The café patrons paused mid-conversation, their chatter and private preoccupations halting as they turned to glance at him.
He quickly stood up, offered a brief bowing apology, and sat back down, trying to steady himself enough to check whether the work actually allowed him a chance to do anything.
When his eyes landed on the title, something about it felt faintly familiar.
The Great Shaman Cha Hwa Rim.
He enunciated the words slowly, trying to recall where he had heard it before, but nothing came. His gaze returned to the link. He clicked it open and settled back into his seat.
After a couple of minutes, he was left intrigued. The storytelling was superb, the art beautifully executed. It was the work of a strong storyteller, without a doubt. The webtoon followed a young girl struggling with her identity as a shaman, her supernatural abilities blending into the beats of an otherwise mundane world.
As he continued reading, he couldn’t help but smile.
What if he used this author to write his stories? He wouldn’t need to worry so much about the timer, about everything slipping out of control. He kept reading further, just to confirm the work was truly up to standard.
By Chapter twenty, any doubts he initially had about the cartoonist’s ability had disappeared.
By now, about an hour had passed.
His sense of urgency returned sharply when he saw the time. He quickly switched to the cartoonist’s social media posts—mostly updates about her work, nothing more.
He searched for any more formal channel of communication, but there was nothing. The artist posted nothing outside her work.
Dan Woo tried messaging the cartoonist, but there was no response. His message was received, but not acknowledged.
Figures, he thought. It was clear the cartoonist was a very private person.
He turned back to the webtoon.
Often, creatives borrowed from their surroundings. Maybe if he skimmed through the work, he could gather clues—intimate places like schools, workplaces, maybe even streets and stores the artist frequented.
The moment he reopened the webtoon to review possible clues, the name Hanseong Academy hit him.
Hadn’t he just discovered that, in this world, he was also an alumnus of that school? What a coincidence, he thought—though not one strong enough to give him anything concrete.
He continued scrolling through the artist’s feed, searching for more. Most posts were dedicated to the webtoon itself, but outside of that there were character designs, sketches, and occasional journal-like entries. All of them subtly referenced the artist’s life, with Hanseong Academy appearing with notable frequency.
When Dan Woo saw this, he made his decision immediately.
He would go to Hanseong Academy.
Most likely, the artist was either a student there or maybe a teacher. And right now, this was his only hope for survival.
-------
After a short drive across the city, Dan Woo stood before Hanseong Academy.
He stared at the buildings, at the surrounding grounds. A faint sense of familiarity washed over him, yet he still felt like a stranger—almost as if he were walking into a place from a dream he never actually lived in, yet somehow remembered.
He pushed the thought aside and moved forward. Time was no longer on his side.
Students of Hanseong Academy were pouring out of the gates as the school day ended, flooding the streets in waves of chatter and laughter, their conversations filling the air with the lightness of their lives.
Dan Woo walked through them, past nameplates and faces—some bright and cheerful, others exhausted from the day’s toll. His gaze lingered on each of them without reason. He didn’t even know why he was doing it. It wasn’t as if he knew the artist’s name.
And yet, he continued.
Then, suddenly, a conversation between two students caught his attention.
"Are you excited for today?" a girl began.
"Of course. I heard that Cha Hwa Rim will descend upon us tonight," her friend replied cheerfully.
"It’s just a film project by the film club. Don’t be too excited—they aren’t professionals."
"But still... don’t you want to know what gift Cha Hwa Rim promised in her post? Maybe we will get to know the secrets behind the 2,3 theory."
"Well... won’t that be something." The two girls laughed as they faded into the distance.
"2,3 theory?"
The words seemed to ignite something in his mind. Images surfaced from the morning on the set of My Eternal Knight. He remembered some of the members, excitedly talking about a webtoon, debating in depth about the mysteries behind the 2,3 theory and how the comic could tell the future.
At the time, he hadn’t given it much thought. But now, hearing the words again, the title clicked into place.
That was where he had heard it before: The Great Shaman Cha Hwa Rim.
Was he dealing with an Ascendant? The thought crossed his mind. Yet he couldn’t linger on it for too long—he was still on a time crunch.
"Cha Hwa Rim..." the words unconsciously slipped from his tongue as he immediately felt a faint tug of something.
He walked toward the school gate. After a bit of back and forth—and a timely save from a teacher he was unfamiliar with—he was let in.
But was this all worth it?
He turned his attention to the ticking timer at the edge of his vision. His lips curled upward when he remembered the conversation between the two students.
If he could get into this school project filming, wouldn’t he be safe?
But first, he had to find the owner of Cha Hwa Rim.