Chapter 9: Shadow (I)
Dan Woo woke up to a stitching of the morning rush.
The sound of running water, the echoes of rippling conversation, the making of morning fuel.
And lastly, the insistent ringing at his side.
The bed was warm and inviting, and he couldn’t help but want to slip in a few more minutes. Yet his phone was persistent.
He groggily opened his eyes to see a familiar sight.
Brown hair, bright eyes, and that familiar tone.
"Morning, handsome."
The statement was cold water on his warm comfort. He wiped his eyes again to make sure it wasn’t just his morning haze.
"Are you not going to pick that up?" the woman said, pointing to the still-ringing phone.
Dan Woo, who was still confused by the intrusion of the same woman from his first morning, turned to answer the call.
He felt awfully tired and a bit muddled, almost like he had a hangover.
"You moron, what have you done now?" a sharp voice roared from the mouthpiece, the anger palpable.
"Lee Hyun Ju? Why are you so loud..."
"Why am I so loud? Don’t you know what you’ve done? Should I remind you of it?"
"..."
"... Calm down, Lee Hyun Ju. Whatever it is, we can work it out."
"Calm down? Work it out? You really are something. Make sure you’re ready. We need to go make a public apology."
"Apology? For what?"
"You are insufferable..."
The call suddenly cut, leaving Dan Woo in a sea of confusion.
"Was that your wife?" the brunette woman asked.
"Wife? No. No. It is my manager."
"Oh, that woman, right..."
"What about your wife? Will you be reaching out to her?"
"My wife? Why would I do that?"
The woman went silent at the question, bewilderment covering her almond-shaped face.
"You are... something, alright," the woman said as she gathered her things, ready to leave. "Oh right, we have a session this afternoon. Be sure to swing by."
"Session? What session?"
"For your head, Mr. Big Actor."
"My head? Do you mean a therapy session?"
"Of course. What else would I mean?"
"... You are my therapist?"
"In many ways, yes."
"I sleep with my therapist?"
"Glad you noticed."
"Is this... ethical?"
"You never had that problem before."
"... So your name is?"
The woman just chuckled.
"You are quite the character. Just be glad you’re good at something, otherwise..." she said before walking out of the room and, soon enough, out of the house.
Dan Woo was still unsure of what was happening.
His first day here, he could have explained it away.
But this one?
He was having a hard time coming up with an answer to it.
From his perspective, he had just spent a night tinkering around with the Mist before finally opening one of the mysterious doors, only to be thrust into a situation where he had to play a god to a bunch of fanatic believers. Then he woke up with a hangover and that same woman he had seen before.
Also, why was Lee Hyun Ju screaming at him?
He tried to understand what was happening, yet he couldn’t come up with a suitable answer. He needed more information about this world. The problem was where he was going to find it.
The Anomalous Bureau? The powerful chaebol families?
His mind raced through all the different sectors he had written into his story, yet he didn’t have any connections to anyone from any of those sides.
Finding an Ascendant would be his best choice, but even that he wasn’t sure about. The only Ascendant he could think of was his sister.
But was his sister really an Ascendant?
Maybe she was just one of those humans sensitive to the Eerie Domain.
Still slightly confused and terribly hungover, he walked into the shower to clean himself up before heading down to the kitchen to make himself some hangover soup.
He definitely hadn’t drunk the night before, but the motions were familiar to him. He made the soup and drank it out of habit.
Before he could finish, however, the scene played out just as it had before, with Lee Hyun Ju walking in and taking him away.
Dan Woo found himself on the set of Eternal Knight again.
He hadn’t put on the mask of Lee Woo Je, so he was a bit confused as to why Lee Hyun Ju had proactively dragged him there.
Lee Hyun Ju led Dan by the ear like an angry older sister before stopping in front of the male lead of Eternal Knight, Park Hyun Bin.
Before he knew it, Lee Hyun Ju was forcing him into a ninety-degree bow of apology, like a mother apologizing for her son’s terrible mistakes.
"My client is truly, deeply sorry for what he did yesterday, and as such, he has prepared a token of apology."
As she spoke, Oh Se Young brought out a pile of gifts: premium noise-cancelling earbuds, gift baskets filled with various goodies, a luxury spa voucher, and even a handwritten note.
All of it was presented to Park Hyun Bin.
The actor’s face didn’t betray anything. He simply nodded and continued revising his lines.
Lee Hyun Ju wasn’t sure whether that was a sign of acceptance, but it was something at least. She had done her part.
She then went over to Eunsoo and relayed the apology before offering the entire crew a food truck as a means of making amends.
Only then did she turn back to Dan Woo.
By now, Dan Woo had the gist of it.
This was a domino effect from the beating he had handed out during yesterday’s scene.
He had been filming a part for Lee Woo Je where the second male lead felt the male lead wasn’t doing right by the female lead. The confrontation escalated into a fight, and him wearing the mask of Lee Woo Je broke through all those barriers. He accidentally hit actor Park Hyun Bin too hard, escalating things into a brawl that was quickly cut off.
His black eye was already gone, yet...
Questions about what happened between switches started to crop up.
The world seemed to translate things differently when he was wearing the mask and when he wasn’t. This was maybe leaving gaps in reality.
Maybe?
He wasn’t sure, but that could explain why he had gone to bed alone again and woken up with the same woman.
"...Don’t you have something to say to your ex-wife?"
Lee Hyun Ju’s voice cut through Dan Woo’s contemplation.
"What do you mean?"
"She must have been hurt by what you did yesterday."
"What I did?"
"As your friend, and hers, I just wish you would... make up already. But yesterday..." Lee Hyun Ju sighed. "You were acting like the biggest jerk. You need to apologize to her."
She pointed toward Baek Ha Ri.
"And take down that post. It isn’t doing any of us any favors."
"Post? What post?"
Dan Woo was confused, but he opened his social media account and found a post he didn’t remember creating.
It was the classic mask post, the kind an ex would use to jab indirectly at their former partner.
Living It Up After Being a Caged Bird.
That was the title.
The post was nothing more than a video of him drinking, singing, and going clubbing with an entourage of women.
It wasn’t that bad, but it did seem a bit immature.
The moment he saw it, he quickly deleted it.
Guess he knew now why he had a hangover.
"While you were busy living up your life, your wi— ex-wife was worrying about you," Lee Hyun Ju continued. "She called me saying she had gone to find you, only to discover you were missing from the apartment. She wanted to go home afterward, but instead she spent a good portion of the night looking for you because she was worried you weren’t in the right state of mind."
Lee Hyun Ju folded her arms.
"And after all that searching, she found you drunk and speaking nonsense. She tried to help you, yet you embarrassed her completely."
Her expression hardened.
"Insulting your wife is not a good look."
She paused before correcting herself.
"Ex-wife."
Then she shook her head.
"So much for your eternal love."
Dan Woo had no recollection of any of these events.
Were different versions of history a side effect of his abilities?
Dan Woo turned to look toward Baek Ha Ri.
He wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t know the woman.
Even if Baek Ha Ri was Dan Woo’s ex-wife, she wasn’t his ex-wife.
Yet he did owe her something.
So he made his way toward the actress.
"Hey."
But before she could answer, someone called her for a scene.
"I’ve got to go," she said, turning toward the set.
Dan Woo didn’t know how to respond and could only bow quickly.
"I am so sorry for how I’ve acted. That wasn’t me. Maybe we could get coffee after your shoot so I can clear some things up?"
The woman hesitated for a second before turning back toward him with a soft smile.
"I understand heartbreak can be hard, so I’ll accept your apology. I just hope you’re getting the help you need."
Her smile remained gentle.
"See you around."
With that, she turned and headed toward the cameras.
Dan Woo wasn’t sure what to do now.
He remained standing there like a statue.
Why was he even being forced to apologize for something he hadn’t done?
Yet he could only do it.
He was Dan Woo, and Dan Woo was the one who had done those things.