Chapter 87: Japan (6)

Translator: Dreamscribe

Kang Jae-ha tilted his head slightly at Kamijo Yuu's answer and asked again.

"A Zainichi Korean?"

A faint flush on both cheeks, Kamijo Yuu nodded and spoke in Japanese.

"Yes. Third-generation Zainichi Korean."

"Then you've got a Korean name too?"

"I do. Kim Ji-yu."

Kamijo Yuu, who had been smiling with a touch of loneliness, looked at Jae-ha and tossed out a question.

"But Commander-nim. Why are you so good at Japanese?? You're not... Japanese. You said you came from Korea."

"Right, born and bred Korean. The Japanese just... happened, somehow."

"Huh?"

Kamijo Yuu tilted her head a little and gave a faint smile.

"That's amazing... Then again, there was never anything you couldn't do, Commander-nim."

Kamijo Yuu had recalled her days in the Mercenary Corps for a brief moment, and the woman who'd been speaking fluent Japanese switched to clumsy Korean.

"I can speak a little Korean too. Not good, right?"

Here Go Chun-seok cut in with a solemn tone.

"Good enough to understand."

Then Kang Jae-ha asked Yuu something. In Japanese, not Korean.

"Your parents."

"...They both passed away about a year after I became an actress. My father from illness, my mother in an accident."

A brief silence spread out. Which meant she'd been alone for quite a long time. It was Kamijo Yuu who broke the quiet first.

"Honestly, being a Zainichi Korean made things hard when I was young. I got bullied a lot. So I worked incredibly hard at acting, but right when things were taking off, my parents passed, so I never really got to show them."

Watching Kamijo Yuu smile bitterly, Kang Jae-ha murmured inwardly.

'An actress... right, she was popular in the Mercenary Corps too.'

The number-one favorite had naturally been Choi Ri-na. Ha Yeon-ji wasn't bad either, but she was also skilled with a blade, which disqualified her, leaving Kamijo Yuu somewhere around second. Her looks helped, but her gentle, easygoing nature played a part too.

'Still, her being an actress is a surprise.'

If she'd been a Korean actress he'd have recognized her at once, but since she worked in Japan, even Kang Jae-ha hadn't placed her back in the Mercenary Corps. Even top-tier Japanese actors often went unrecognized in Korea. If that was true for the top tier, then A-list and B-list Japanese actors could practically stroll around Korea on vacation without a care.

'In the Mercenary Corps it didn't really matter where anyone came from anyway, nobody cared. As long as you were good, it was fine.'

Having murmured to himself, Kang Jae-ha recalled the Kamijo Yuu from his Mercenary Corps days.

Kamijo Yuu had been the cook in the Mercenary Corps.

Jae-ha had picked her up on a certain battlefield, and he'd meant to put her on cleaning duty and the like the way he had with Choi Ri-na, but Kamijo Yuu had a talent for cooking. No, less a talent than a good touch in the kitchen, maybe? In the end, Kamijo Yuu was assigned full-time to the food section as a noncombatant.

And then she was wiped out along with Choi Ri-na.

Which meant Kamijo Yuu never witnessed Kang Jae-ha's rage. Maybe it was better that she hadn't. At any rate, Kang Jae-ha, Kamijo Yuu, and Go Chun-seok each began recalling their Mercenary Corps days in their own way.

-Swish.

Sweeping back her shoulder-length hair, Kamijo Yuu parted her red lips again.

"But Commander-nim. How did you find me?"

"Got lucky."

"...Luck? I was shocked. That you were here, Commander-nim. You too, Go Chun-seok."

Jae-ha gave Go Chun-seok, who didn't know Japanese, a rough translation. Meanwhile, Kamijo Yuu spoke up again.

"But why did you come to Japan? And that woman's voice I heard when I met you... is all of that real??"

Kamijo Yuu's curiosity kept mounting, and Kang Jae-ha, his face impassive, decided there was something he needed to know before explaining anything else. He cast his gaze toward the bathroom with its open door.

A bathtub filled with water, a knife dropped on the floor. There, Kamijo Yuu had tried to take her own life.

Noticing his gaze, Kamijo Yuu sank sharply into gloom. Slowly crossing his legs, Kang Jae-ha spoke in a low tone of Japanese.

"Kamijo Yuu. Why did you try to make a choice like that."

"......"

Yuu, who held her mouth shut for a moment, answered with difficulty.

"...I'm sorry. To meet you again, and like this."

How to put it, Kamijo Yuu looked severely worn down mentally. Her bearing, her eyes, her tone, the air around her, all of it. It was obvious enough that Kang Jae-ha didn't have to study her to see it, and Yuu, letting out a small breath, met the Commander's eyes once more.

"At first... when I came back to this world, I couldn't adjust well. Of course I couldn't, I thought I'd live out my whole life in the Other World, and then all at once I made the Return."

"......"

"But I had to live, so I tried hard to adjust. I'd crossed over into the Other World right before going into a project, and after I came back I had to dive straight into rehearsing for it. But... the acting wouldn't come."

"In what way?"

"My expressiveness and physical flexibility had actually improved a lot in the Other World, but in the end, I couldn't get the lines out."

Hearing her explanation, Kang Jae-ha thought of Choi Ri-na.

'The same sort of PTSD as Choi Ri-na, then.'

An enormous shock and terror had wrapped around Kamijo Yuu and blocked her from acting. That Yuu now covered her face with one hand.

"In the end I got cut from the role I'd taken, and I spent months trying to act again, but it wasn't easy. I could act, but it left me uneasy, and I was recovering, just not smoothly. Like... like the moment I started acting, I'd be dragged off into the dark. Oh, but meeting you, Commander-nim, my heart feels a bit lighter. It's strange."

Kang Jae-ha, who had been listening quietly, tossed out a question.

"If it was that hard, why not try being a cook, put your old Mercenary Corps job to use."

"I thought about that too... but I liked cooking as a hobby, I wasn't all that skilled. I was just a little better than the Mercenary Corps folks."

"Not a little, you were amazing."

"The Mercenary Corps people were all total klutzes, who turns meat into charcoal just trying to grill it??"

Kang Jae-ha let out a short laugh and went on.

"So, that's the reason you tried to die?"

Kamijo Yuu slowly shook her head.

"It's true the acting not working was hard, but not enough to die over. Honestly, the agency I belong to harassing me was the biggest reason... I think."

"The agency?"

"Yes. They harassed me until I couldn't stand it anymore. To the point it made me sick."

Recalling the three men who'd been standing by the front door, Kang Jae-ha asked again.

"The guys at the door?"

"Yes, that's right. So you're the one who sent them off after all, Commander-nim."

"What did the agency do."

"They watched me struggling for a bit, and when they figured it was hopeless, they started dragging me along to various functions for Corporate Entertaining, and then they proposed something else. Toward becoming an AV Actor."

"At first it was just a suggestion, but when I said no, as time went on it gradually turned into something more like coercion. Even after I paid the Breach Penalty for scrapping the role out of my own pocket..."

AV Actor. It was a common route in Japan. The mindset of squeezing one last drop out of an actress whose Clout had faded or who'd run into trouble like a scandal. Vile beyond words, but common in Japan. Especially for an A-list actress like Kamijo Yuu.

Feeling he more or less understood, Kang Jae-ha asked something else.

"And reporting them?"

"I can't. My agency's power is overwhelming, so even reporting them isn't easy, and the moment I did, my acting career would be over too. Living like this for months on end, it got so, so hard."

Jae-ha gazed steadily at Kamijo Yuu.

'Reality's shit, nowhere to lean, her mind caving in, the whole thing's been hell, so yeah, it couldn't have been easy.'

Her recovery as an actress was slow, the agency was forcing the AV Actor route on her, and even her parents were gone. For a Kamijo Yuu with nowhere to turn, there must have been nothing but darkness.

"Which agency are you with."

When Kang Jae-ha asked, Kamijo Yuu answered faintly.

"'Mirai Stage'."

'Mirai Stage' was a name even Kang Jae-ha had heard of. One of the places called Japan's mega-agencies. Its reach into the Japanese entertainment world was therefore immense, an agency lined with more top stars than one could count.

'Wasn't the CEO of 'Mirai Stage' some legendary figure in the Japanese entertainment world?'

The legendary figure's name was 'Matsuda Hideo'.

At any rate, rather than explaining this and that to Kamijo Yuu, Kang Jae-ha's first thought was getting her out of 'Mirai Stage'. As a defensive use of his 'ability', Jae-ha cast a Protective Barrier over Yuu to start. Yuu's reaction amounted to a faint "Huh?", and to her Kang Jae-ha gave a short instruction.

"First, pack your things."

The next morning, Korea.

Her outfit, a denim jacket and jeans.

It was Moon Ji-a, radiating a decadent allure thanks to the mole beneath her eye.

"......"

"Whoa- looks like another Paper Company popped up for LN Entertainment."

"That's insane. Tax Evasion, a Slush Fund, and now a Paper Company too. At this point they're just done for, aren't they??"

"They won't go under, but this time they'll probably come right up to the brink?? It really is all over in an instant."

"I mean, CEO Seo Hyun-su always had filthy rumors anyway, so it kind of feels like it was bound to blow??"

"Oh! Another article just dropped! They're saying there's even a Sponsorship allegation against LN Entertainment??!"

"That's nuts."

"If you check the forums, the LN Entertainment Tabloid Rumors are off the charts right now."

Roughly thirty seconds of it.

Soon Moon Ji-a propped up her chin and murmured softly.

"I think I'll regret it if I don't do this."

Then she gave a faint smile.

"No helping it, then. I'd hate to have regrets."

Around lunch the same day.

Inside a van running down the road. In the driver's seat sat narrow-eyed Lee Chan-hoo. He was on his way over to the film company 'Dal Pictures'. To meet the master director Yu Gil-tae. Because a meeting had been set, with his company as the sole, main investor.

For reference, director Yu Gil-tae's new film 'Mask of Murder' was about to slowly kick its Media Play into gear.

It should have started yesterday or today, but the fallout from LN Entertainment was so enormous that it got pushed back a bit. In any case, Lee Chan-hoo, who'd been stopped at the red light,

-Swish.

hit the accelerator the moment the light changed. Abruptly thinking of Kang Jae-ha, Lee Chan-hoo muttered to himself.

"Sssp- I wonder how it went, no word from him."

At the same time, a call came in on his Bluetooth-connected phone. The instant he saw who it was, Lee Chan-hoo immediately pressed the call button on the steering wheel. Because the caller was the Commander, Kang Jae-ha.

Soon Jae-ha's plain, even voice rang out through the whole van.

"Lee Chan-hoo, where are you."

Lee Chan-hoo, turning the wheel left, answered right away.

"Sir, I'm heading over to director Yu Gil-tae right now. Oh! Commander, did you meet her? Kamijo Yuu."

Ever since getting the Commander's call yesterday, Lee Chan-hoo's curiosity had been bursting the whole time. But he'd held it in. Then Kang Jae-ha's voice came through again.

"I met her."

"How did it go??"

"I'll fill you in on the details once I'm back in Korea."

Kang Jae-ha paused a beat and murmured.

"More to the point, I'm thinking of setting up an agency in Japan."

He was talking about the Japan branch of 'MEG'.

*****

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