“I thought you were closed.”

“I’m only seeing patients in the morning. Want coffee?”

“Yeah. Add sugar to the coffee mix.”

“Not Americano?”

Kang Jigyu took out a coffee capsule, put it back, and switched on the coffee pot. Then he dumped coffee mix into a mug and looked over at me.

“Jung Inhyuk came by before clinic hours started. His face was blooming like a flower.”

“He can bloom or not for all I care.”

I answered in a flat voice and sat on the sofa, picking up a medical journal from the table. On the cover were recently married former idol actor Go Yuwon and his spouse Seo Junseo, smiling brightly with a full-term belly on display. Even if I got pregnant, I probably wouldn’t be able to make such a happy smile. My mouth tasted bitter for some reason.

“Hey! Your wrist.”

Kang Jigyu frowned when he noticed my swollen wrist. He immediately sat me down in a chair and checked the condition. Letting out a long sigh, he fetched the first-aid kit and finally gave my head a little knock.

“Ow!”

“You went through your heat cycle just fine with this wrist?”

I pouted and turned my head away. As before, he scolded me nonstop while wrapping a bandage around my wrist. After finishing, he put the first-aid kit back and started making coffee again.

“Oh right. That phone you gave me.”

“…Huh? Oh, yeah.”

“I plugged in the charger in case I had to use it urgently. But it seems it turned on automatically. When I looked to shut it off, there was a message inside.”

“A message?”

Kang Jigyu set down the mug and crossed the office quickly. Bending over, he rummaged around for something and found the phone, then handed it to me. I took it and looked it over before pressing the power button. Once the loading finished, I opened the message inbox, and the contents immediately jumped out at me.

“If you need help, please contact me.”

I chewed over the word help in my mouth and ran straight out of the hospital. Without looking left or right, I crossed the road recklessly. The sounds of cars braking and blaring horns rang out loudly. Some people even rolled down their windows and shouted curses. But I heard none of it.

I stretched my neck and looked around, searching for that man. The one I only knew by face, with no phone number and no name, Magnet. As I hesitated over whether I should head to the underground parking lot, a man in a neat black suit approached me and asked,

“What seems to be the matter?”

He looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He had a short buzz cut, and a circular tattoo of unknown meaning was etched behind his ear. I instinctively pulled back and guarded against him.

The man seemed to understand my reaction. He glanced around and pointed to the side opposite the taxi stand. There, a familiar car was parked. It was the mid-size sedan Magnet always rode in. I immediately ran toward the car. Or tried to. But the man caught my forearm and stopped me.

“It’s dangerous.”

“Let go.”

“I’ve been newly hired by Executive Director Jung Inhyuk.”

“…Newly?”

I blinked rapidly, looking from the car to the man and back again. Newly hired? Jung Inhyuk didn’t hire or replace people carelessly. He was extremely picky and careful when selecting staff. He had replaced Magnet? I couldn’t make sense of it. I covered my jaw with my palm and rubbed it, trying to sort out the chaotic thoughts in my head.

“Are you perhaps looking for the person who used to be here?”

“…Yes.”

“The previous person died recently in a hit-and-run traffic accident.”

My eyes flew wide open. It felt as if someone had struck the back of my head hard. I couldn’t hear the surrounding noise anymore. All I heard was the word died, and my legs went weak. I forced strength into my legs and held on, but then they gave out and my body lurched hard. The man caught and supported me skillfully.

I felt disgusted by the stranger’s body heat touching my arm and pushed his hand away.

“…I, I understand.”

“If you need anything,”

“If you work like that, you’ll be fired soon. You should stay out of my sight as much as possible.”

I turned and walked back toward the hospital. My head was a mess. The sudden news of Magnet’s death swept over me like violent waves. I couldn’t even get on the escalator right away and stopped with one hand on the wall. No matter how I thought about it, Magnet dying in a hit-and-run accident felt suspicious. My thoughts kept spiraling in a bad direction.

What if something happened because the phone he had secretly given me became a problem? In my mind, I pictured Magnet bleeding out and dying right before me.

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head hard. It was just a coincidence, I told myself, only a matter of timing. I tried hard to soothe the runaway panic inside me.

When I opened the door to Kang Jigyu’s office, the room was empty, as if he had stepped out for a moment. I staggered over to the sofa and sat down. On the table were a cold cup of coffee and the phone Magnet had handed me. I clutched the phone, which might have been the source of all this.

Who had Magnet received the phone from? I pressed the phone button to bring up the message screen and read through the text. My fingernail tapped lightly against the screen. I wanted to press call right away and check who it was, but I couldn’t bring myself to move my hand because I wasn’t sure what voice would come through this receiver.

“Hey, where did you go?”

The door suddenly burst open and Kang Jigyu came into the office. He had takeout coffee cups in both hands. He must have gone out to buy coffee.

“Looks like the coffee machine broke. Since I was going to request a repair anyway, I grabbed coffee with extra syrup too.”

Kang Jigyu set the cups down and pushed the cold mug aside. I bit my lip quietly for a moment before finally speaking.

“Hyung, the person who gave me this phone died recently in a hit-and-run traffic accident.”

“…What?”

“I want to call this number, but I can’t work up the nerve.”

Though I hadn’t meant to, my voice shook thinly. At least I had Kang Jigyu beside me, so that was a relief. He seemed shocked too, just staring at me in a daze.

“When?”

“…I don’t know. I was too rattled to even ask.”

He covered his face with both hands and scrubbed over it, then half-stood and snatched the old phone from my hand as if taking it by force. Then he took out his own phone from his pocket. I quickly reached out to stop him.

“What are you doing?”

“What else? I’m checking for you.”

“What if it’s a trap Jung Inhyuk set?”

“On the other hand, it could be a lifeline.”

Kang Jigyu pressed call without hesitation and lifted the phone to his ear. I thought I should stop him, but curiosity won out. Soon enough, the other side answered, and Kang Jigyu asked in a polite voice, “Who is this?”

✿ • ✿ • ✿

“Wow, that’s insane.”

“……”

“The scale of the executive director is amazing.”

Even though I hadn’t said where the car came from, Changseok guessed it had been bought by Jung Inhyuk. Thinking there was no need to deny or confirm it, I said nothing.

Changseok kept exclaiming while looking at the large Sprinter. After walking around the vehicle to inspect it, he opened the back seat door. Looking inside, Changseok suddenly broke into a bright smile and clapped his hands. I awkwardly tried to stop him.

“I was already a little worried because the car I’ve been driving has a lot of mileage on it. This is really great.”

“When I start filming, you should rest here a little too, Changseok.”

“Oh, thank you just for saying that.”

I got into the car with the script covered in index tabs tucked against my chest. The first filming location was a prison set on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province. I took water from the door pocket and drank, then took a deep breath. It had been a while since I’d filmed, so I was a little nervous. During the drive, I kept flipping through the script and memorizing the lines.

The car that had been running smoothly suddenly turned on its hazard lights and stopped on the shoulder. I looked up at Changseok with a puzzled face.

“Uh…”

Before I could even process what was happening, the car door opened and Park Suwon appeared. Behind him stood Jung Inhyuk, looking utterly exhausted. It had been a full three days since I’d seen his face. He said that because he was on rut leave, he was too busy to even come home.

Startled, I closed the script and unbuckled my seatbelt. As Park Suwon got Changseok out of the car, Jung Inhyuk immediately got in. His familiar pheromones flooded in fresh and green. He rubbed the tie knot with a tired look and loosened it.

“Answer me properly when I ask you something.”

“…Yes?”

“Why did you run out like a madman looking for Magnet?”

The abrupt question the moment he saw my face blanked out my mind. At the same time, I was reminded of the news that Magnet had died, which I’d briefly forgotten.

“Answer me.”

I bit my lip hard and hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.

“That day, when we had the minor collision, I wanted to thank him for helping…”

“Ha, what kind of excuse is that? You must be involved in Goh Junho’s accident. Those bastards not only figured out his route, they even knew the CCTV in that district was down.”

So Magnet’s name was Goh Junho. I’d known of his existence for years, and yet only learned his name after he died, which felt strangely bitter. For some reason, the back of my throat stung. Jung Inhyuk didn’t hide his irritation and roughly swept his hair back.

“No, forget that. If there’s anything you know, say it. The next one could become the target.”

Jung Inhyuk pointed to Park Suwon standing outside the car window. My heart dropped at once. But I truly knew nothing about Magnet’s accident. Still, the existence of that phone that had ended up in my hands kept poking at me.

“…That’s really all it was.”

“Don’t regret it after someone else dies. Tell me now.”

Unlike usual, Jung Inhyuk was suppressing his emotions and trying to persuade me. But I had no intention of telling him about the phone.

Once I finished carrying out the contract with Jung Inhyuk and tore up the loan note, I intended to escape through “that person” to a place Jung Inhyuk couldn’t reach. I wanted to let go of both the life of actor Lee Shinjae and the Lee Shinjae whose life had been mortgaged to Jung Inhyuk, and just live a normal life.

I bit my lip and slowly shook my head. Suddenly, Jung Inhyuk grabbed the back of my head and pulled my face closer. It was close enough for me to feel his breath. I swallowed hard and lowered my eyes. Carefully studying my face, he lifted one corner of his mouth and gave a faint smile.

“An actor and you can’t even hide one expression properly.”

“……”

“I don’t know what deal you made with Magnet, or how someone behind Magnet lured you in, but I’m warning you,”

“……”

“As long as I don’t let go, you’ll never escape my grasp. That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it’ll stay. Stop twisting that rotten head of yours and making things blow up beyond repair, then crying and making a scene afterward. Tell me now, while it can still be fixed.”