Chapter 661

This was a confectionery company in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

“I told you when we were talking about Meloni’s record sales!”

They wished they could turn back time to the meeting they had held not long ago to decide who would be the most suitable advertising model.

Back then, more than a few people had thought Han Yeoreum was already at her peak.

They definitely had.

“I’m telling you, I think that really was the last chance to buy at the bottom!”

After that, Han Yeoreum scored a triple ten-million-viewer streak with <Faster Than the Law>, went to America, appeared at New York Fashion Week, earned the title of T-fany’s Princess, and had a photo of herself with Erno uploaded to SNS.

Thanks to appearing on a live broadcast with Selena and other teenage stars at the Fashion Week after-party, she had caught a viral wave in America as well.

Among NetHolics users who had only just started dipping their toes into K-Drama, following Han Yeoreum had become something of a cool thing to do.

“....”

As a result, Han Yeoreum’s asking price had skyrocketed to an absurd degree.

“No... We still don’t know. We still don’t know what’ll happen....”

And these people had not hired Han Yeoreum as their advertising model.

They had expected to write a new buy-the-dip success story with someone whose image suited the product fairly well and whose price was cheap.

“Maybe Heo Haena can win!”

Heo Haena became the model for Chewy Kiss.

* * *

“Hahahahak!”

“Wahahahahak!”

At the same time, an ice cream company located in Jongno-gu, Seoul, was laughing its head off.

“This is so great!”

They celebrated by high-fiving one another.

Albasa had once been the number one smooth, milk-flavored carbonated drink. But before long, it was pushed aside by Milkisa thanks to the latter’s superior marketing.

Dear Water, the number one transparent, fruit-flavored juice drink, had been forced to surrender its position to 2% When It’s Sweet, while Butter Honey Chips had once turned the entire country upside down but had since faded in popularity. Instead, Butter Honey-flavored Cone Chips had taken the top spot.

“And now it’s the age of Smile Dairy!”

After hiring Baby Melon Bread Han Yeoreum as its model, Smile Dairy had sent not only Meloni but one product after another—Meloni-flavored milk and even melon cream bread—straight to the top of the sales rankings. Then it had swiftly created a new item and brought Han Yeoreum aboard once again.

[Sweetly,

Fruity Kiss]

The pictorial of Han Yeoreum wearing a fruit-patterned frilly dress and carrying a rattan basket was practically Smile Dairy’s spiritual pillar.

Just looking at it, they could almost hear both sales and consumer preference rising.

The product was ‘Fruity Kiss,’ a challenger to Chewy Kiss, and together with melon flavor, which had now grown popular with the public, it was preparing to charge straight at Chewy Kiss as its new rival.

860 million units sold per year.

Korea’s representative fruit caramel, generating annual sales in the range of 30 to 50 billion won.

An amount that would require every kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school student in the country to eat more than approximately 120 pieces per year.

If an entire year’s sales were laid out in a single straight line, they would stretch approximately 107,000 kilometers.

In other words, about two and a half times around the Earth.

It was admittedly a rather daunting opponent for a latecomer to expect to defeat.

But the Smile Dairy employees believed in Han Yeoreum.

More precisely, they believed in Han Yeoreum’s star power.

“Latecomer or not, if consumers love it, that’s the end of the story!”

The Smile Dairy marketing team employees smiled wickedly.

It seemed the day when Han Yeoreum took Chewy Kiss's head was not far off.

* * *

The office worker hesitated for a moment.

“Han Yeoreum’s dramas have been fun so far, but....”

For starters, she wasn’t particularly devoted to any one actress, and if she had to pick her favorite work from Han Yeoreum’s filmography, her tastes leaned toward <I Don’t Care At All>.

For people who preferred works that didn’t make their heads hurt, weren’t complicated, and weren’t depressing or deep, <Code Name: Time Seven> had a fairly high barrier to watching it live every week.

“<Dongdaemun Romance> was just right.”

It couldn’t be helped. As you got older and life wore you down, you naturally became reluctant to spend your emotions episode after episode.

Of course, <The Great Garand>, terrestrial television’s final blaze of glory, was an exception.

“Hmm....”

After rewatching episode 3 of yesterday’s <Assistant Manager Kim’s Survival Guide> on her way home from work, the office worker found herself hesitating five minutes before the drama began.

[DramaMovieActor TALK/ It’s not quite the Holy Grail War, but this battle is pretty damn good too lol]

all three are pretty damn solid in terms of quality

-Anonymous 1: Assistant Manager Kim is way more fun than I expected lol should I say the editing kinda feels like a webtoon

Anonymous 4: fr it’s really good at just pushing forward without dragging shit out

-Anonymous 5: I’m not even the type to obsess over college admissions but the early-admissions consulting stuff in 11 is so freaking fun lol TT__TT

-Anonymous 8: CoSeTa’s mise-en-scène is seriously so good there isn’t a single wasted shot

The viewers had split into three camps as well.

The office worker seriously considered it.

Should she switch or not?

“I’ll watch about ten minutes of today’s episode and decide.”

The sooner you cut your losses, the better.

They would rerun it over the weekend anyway, and given its genre, <Code Name: Time Seven> seemed like it would work perfectly well as a binge-watch.

[<Code Name: Time Seven> Episode 2 Live Thread you psychos everybody here? pull down the hospital shutters]

-ah fck starr?t

-finally TT__TT

-been waiting for this ever since yesterday ended

A dim screen appeared.

The feet of a child running desperately came into view.

“You’re keeping up, right?”

But only one person’s footsteps could be heard.

“Why aren’t you answ—”

Young Taeo, who had been sprinting madly along the mountain path, turned around.

There was no one behind him.

Bang—!

A gunshot rang out in the distance, and the orphanage building was engulfed in flames.

At the same time, a massive explosion thundered.

Taeo stared toward it and called the names of the siblings who must have failed to escape.

“Ria...! Samuel! Hannah! David!”

Young Taeo was powerless.

His feet refused to move, and all he could do was cry as he stared at the burning building.

The crimson inferno filled his tear-brimmed eyes.

Taeo, lying alone on a bed, suddenly bolted upright.

His upper body was drenched in cold sweat.

“Ha....”

Taeo covered his face with both palms.

He seemed incapable even of thinking about wiping away the sweat running down his forehead.

Still breathing heavily, Taeo left the bedroom and walked into the bathroom.

He turned the lever and let cold water pour over him.

Water streamed down the side of Taeo’s face as he stood there with his eyes closed.

Running over his smooth forehead and down the bridge of his nose, the water looked almost like cold sweat.

Or tears.

The clear water ran from his straight neck to his broad shoulders, then down his scar-covered back.

-fuck TT___TT

-ah so that’s when he got hurt

-why are his back muscles like THAT though Han Yohan is seriously making me wanna marry him;;

-I shouldn’t say ngh... right probably not

Every time he inhaled and exhaled, his precisely shifting shoulder blades glistened with water.

Taeo raised one hand and swept back his hair.

His well-defined lats rippled with the movement.

Held hostage by the shower scene, the office worker did not change the channel.

* * *

“Oh, the shower scene came out well.”

I admired Han Yohan’s back.

Nothing worked quite like a provocative scene when it came to pulling in ratings early on.

I’d noticed it during the hugging scene last time too, but Han Yohan really had an excellent natural frame.

That wasn’t the kind of body you could build through exercise alone.

“I wish that scene would hurry up and come out.”

And Baby Melon Bread shines even brighter beside a man with a body like that.

After all, the most important thing in a romance is the two-shot.

When the two of them appear in the same frame, they can make viewers’ hearts flutter without any explanation at all.

The story continued from the scene shown at the end of episode 1.

Taeo, who had been training alone in the ICC shooting range at dawn, entered a project meeting on orders from his superiors.

“They’ve moved to the dark web and crypto now. Damn it. They certainly know how to keep up with the trends.”

A program utilizing cutting-edge technology was displayed on the screen.

The blue-eyed foreigner who had rescued Taeo when he was a young boy seemed to have risen quite high in the organization by now.

At his signal, two photographs appeared on the screen.

“Sergei. Former senior official in the Weapons and Narcotics Directorate of Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, and the man responsible for an Eastern European organ distribution network. And beside him is Natalie. A former French military doctor and, likewise, an organ broker.”

The foreigner placed his interlaced hands on the table.

“Recently, these two have been planning a secret meeting to convert the proceeds from the sale of organs harvested from children at Eden’s orphanages and synthetic drugs into cryptocurrency. Eden... Damn it, I just can’t get used to that name. Anyway, that insane cult.”

-please rip out your own organs and sell them

-you psychos just fucking die TT_TT

-isn’t it supposed to be a religion; just run a talent market or something smh

“Based on intelligence that they will be trading a secure USB that leads to the cult’s highest-ranking leadership, our ICC has received authorization for a kill-and-retrieve operation.”

“How many people are going into the field?”

“Two will be enough.”

The foreigner’s answer seemed so unconventional that everyone stirred.

“One waitress to plant a transmitter at the scene. And one sniper.”

All the agents looked at Taeo.

As though accustomed to such attention, Taeo didn’t so much as twitch.

“Time. You’re going.”

* * *

-Wow, Russia looks fucking amazing lololol

-It was seriously worth going all the way there TT_TT Han Yohan looks cool as fuck

-HOLY SHIT Director Galdaeguk is seriously so fucking good with drones, this looks like a movie

-when do we get lots and lots of Pretty Country’s gorgeous face I’m waiting here

?Me too... waiting.

Director Galdaeguk’s signature camera direction, plunging down from high in the air, sent the viewers into a frenzy. It was enough to create the illusion that they could actually feel the air of bleak, wintry Moscow.

Pedestrians near the State Historical Museum by Red Square appeared through the scope.

After adjusting the angle a few times, Taeo found his target. His calm, sharp left profile filled the screen. A shadow fell beneath the upturned corner of his eye.

“Target acquired. Eleven o’clock.”

Han Yohan’s uniquely soft and gentle voice had a completely different feel when heard in English.

And just as Han Yohan, alone on the rooftop of an abandoned building, was concentrating on his target—

-Holy shit

-Han Yeoreum is here TT_TT

-so fucking gorgeous

-what the hell is with that face

-Ang TT__TT Yeoreum TT__TT

I finally appeared.

My face came clearly into view beyond the scope.

At that exact moment, sunlight broke through the gray cityscape.

Since this was Lia as seen from Taeo’s perspective, the footage shifted into slow motion.

Once again, I couldn’t help but admire Galdaeguk’s direction.

Clatter.

Eunnyangi had been so intensely stimulated by Han Yohan’s shower scene earlier that—yes, unquestionably, it had to be the DNA of a woman obsessed with men—she dropped the spoon she was holding.

Eunnyangi was watching <Code Name: Time Seven> while eating a cup of Meloni.

And right then, Han Yeoreum appeared.

Han Yeoreum’s face, seemingly the only thing shining on the entire screen, drifted slowly past.

Taeo’s right profile came into view.

The eyes of Taeo, whose expression had not changed in the slightest until then, shifted.

His eyelashes trembled.

The direction made it feel as though he had suddenly been dragged back into reality.

The footage returned to normal speed.

The instant Lia disappeared from view, Taeo hurriedly followed her with his scope.

The light turned green and Lia disappeared into the crowd, but even from behind she stood out.

Her fluttering black hair lingered like an afterimage.

“Time! Time!”

The team leader’s shout of his codename snapped Taeo back to his senses.

At least, that was how it looked.

Inside, he still seemed shaken.

Taeo was wearing a pitch-black turtleneck, and his Adam’s apple trembled.

There was no doubt she was the woman he had spent his entire life regretting losing and longing for ever since they parted.

And yet....

“Now!”

Bang!

Taeo’s finger twitched ever so slightly from guilt and shock.

That was when it happened.

His aim shifted by the tiniest fraction from the point he had calibrated.

-Ah fuck

- TT__TT holy shit no

-if a sniper misses even once doesn’t that basically mean you’re dead?

-there’ll be agents nearby covering him Taeo please

As a result, the shot went completely wide.

Instead of Sergei’s skull, the bullet merely grazed his hair, making both of them scream.

Their bodyguards, who had been hidden all around the area, rushed out.

“Time! What are you doing?!”

The scene descended into chaos.

Red rose petals scattered from the table, and a coffee cup toppled over.

The ICC’s unofficial operations control room erupted into chaos as well.

“Kill failed. Target is fleeing.”

Feeds from the square’s CCTV cameras were synchronized across the wall of monitors.

Wearing a headset, the foreign team leader ordered Plan B.

“Time. Pursue.”

“Team Leader! But he’s alone in the field...!”

The team leader put his index finger to his lips and continued giving orders.

“Standby vehicle, move.”

Taeo threw himself toward the ventilation structure on the rooftop of the abandoned building.

Then he leaped down as though running along the wall.

The wire attached to his body tightened around his upper torso, controlling his fall and bringing him safely downward.

Rapid cross-cutting between Taeo and the ICC operations control room carried the operation forward at a breathless pace.

Just before hitting the ground, Taeo used the tension in the wire to land safely, then immediately mounted the bike waiting nearby.

“They’re following the Kremlin wall and entering the underground roadway beneath Manezhnaya Square. Injection into the Moscow traffic signal server complete. Traffic light immediately before the underground roadway.”

“Stopped.”

Taeo’s bike tore down the road.

The narrowing entrance leading into the underground roadway appeared ahead.

“Do it.”

Large newspaper delivery trucks carrying ICC agents slammed into Sergei’s vehicle from both sides.

Screeeech—!

The deafening noise of vehicles scraping and crushing against one another filled the tunnel.

But newspaper delivery trucks alone weren’t enough to stop an armored vehicle.

Bang—!

And then Taeo appeared.

Taeo was an elite agent capable of sniping a target from dozens of meters away.

Keeping the bike steady with his right hand, he raised a .45-caliber handgun in his left and fired three consecutive rounds at the exact same point.

One of the vehicle’s tires blew out.

“Goddammit!”

Panicking inside the vehicle, Sergei screamed at his bodyguards.

“What are you doing?! Turn him into Swiss cheese!”

“If we open the window now....”

“Don’t fucking worry about that!”

The window of Sergei’s vehicle cracked open slightly, and just as they were about to start shooting—

-??

-oh fuck

-Mr. Han Yohan you really ARE going to succeed this time

-COOL AS FUCK

-husband.....TT__TT

A bullet flew straight through that tiny opening.

Like a wild beast, Taeo had caught the precise instant the window opened.

“Target eliminated. ICC is withdrawing.”

One bullet.

Without wasting a single shot, Taeo planted the bullet squarely in the center of Sergei’s forehead and calmly reported the kill.

“Good!”

Even in the ICC’s unofficial operations control room, some of the agents could hardly believe what they had just witnessed.

The trucks boxing Sergei’s vehicle in from both sides gradually slowed down, then disappeared as soon as they emerged from the tunnel.

Taeo likewise withdrew on his bike.

The eternal dream of action directors.

This was the moment when the title attached to Han Yohan truly shone.

Shim Juhwan was flustered.

“....”

Han Yohan and Han Yeoreum hadn’t even appeared in a two-shot yet.

They hadn’t exchanged a single word, and yet Shim Juhwan already felt his heart tightening.

“What the hell is with this direction?”

The best actor for portraying good and evil.

That was how genre directors described Han Yohan.

It was thanks to the stark contrast between the left side of his face, with its upturned eye and monolid, and the completely different impression given by the right.

“But if you use that here....”

When Taeo listened to the operation briefing, Galdaeguk showed his left profile.

When he discovered Lia, Galdaeguk used his right.

It made him look like a completely different person.

Shim Juhwan felt dizzy.

For just one moment.

Watching Taeo come face-to-face with Lia again, he felt an overwhelming sense of immersion, helplessly dragging him in.

Just like the opening of the plague sequence in <The Great Garand>.