The Famous Millionaire

After parting with Myunghoon, Hyunwoo met Jungah.

Jungah was in a cheerful mood in sharp contrast with Myunghoon. Though she was offered 30 million won in annual compensation, she gladly signed the contract.

“Sorry, I wish I could give you more, but our profits are not growing now. If all goes well in the days ahead, let me give you an increase in your salary.”

“Okay, Promise me 100 million won as a bonus. Hohoho,” said she, cracking a joke.

In fact, Hyunwoo wanted to.

And there was a real possibility for the rapid growth of Ani & Funny.

After having lunch with her, Hyunwoo walked with her on her campus and met with her friends at the animation club.

After spending several hours like that, he headed to Nami’s condo, timed with Dukwoo’s arrival there.

Dukwoo, who got there first, was already waiting for him at the entrance. Exchanging greetings, they waited for Nami, who soon joined them.

They walked up the stairs to her condo.

“Oh, this is your place,” said Dukwoo, looking inside here and there. Because of Taesu Ahn’s close monitoring, she wouldn’t let anybody in up to now.

Nami prepared tea for them.

Drinking tea, they discussed how to cope with Taesu.

Dukwoo expressed his opinion first, “Why don’t you break the contract first?”

Nami went berserk at that, arguing that’s nonsense. She said he could bring a lawsuit on compensation for damages, which could reach a colossal amount.

When she opposed, he came up with the next best solution.

“Okay. Let me go along with you wherever you go night and day. I can go to your shooting studio or anywhere else.”

“What about your company?” asked Nami.

“You’re more important to me. Let me take my vacation until your contract expires.”

Nami grinned at that and said, “Do you think someone threatens to kill me? You don’t have to go to the trouble of doing so. Just come to my office when I call you. That’s enough. Actually, dating someone is a breach of the contract as I have to live on my image as an entertainer.”

Nami felt Dukwoo’s idea was an excessive response, which she didn’t need.

Actually, Hyunwoo rented a good house 10 minutes away from her condo, where Raymon was supposed to stay just in case he had to serve as her bodyguard.

Though Dukwoo might not trust Raymon that much, Hyunwoo felt reassured that Raymon would defend her.

“Well, I have to go now for the shooting schedule in the afternoon.”

Nami put on her clothes and stood up.

After she left, Hyunwoo and Dukwoo went to a place near Hongik University to see Raymon and his friends.

They were performing on the street, three black people and two Korean people singing and dancing.

There was a big crowd watching their passionate performance, but the performance itself was not as good as Hyunwoo expected. There was a lack of harmony among the five performers, even though Raymon’s husky voice and the other two black guys’ high-pitched tones were impressive.

After their performance was over, Hyunwoo approached Raymon.

“Our animation production is getting delayed because of a big workload at the moment. Let me invite you to Ansan sooner or later, ” said Hyunwoo.

Waving his hand, however, Raymon said, “I’m alright. I’ve decided to stay in Korea until this fall. If I don’t make a success by then, I’m going to go back to America. If you can call me by then, let me chip in.”

“Hope Nami Yu is in your good hands,” said Hyunwoo.

“No problem. You got me a good rental house anyway. If something happens, she said she would reach me right away.”

Having dinner together with him, Hyunwoo had lots of talk about music.

After dinner, Hyunoo went to his house in Hwasung, Suwon City. It seemed as if he got all the worries off his chest for now. Though he felt regrettable about Myunghoon’s decision, that was something he couldn’t do anything about. Koh made a legitimate decision for his own interests.

“Sure, all things did go well.”

Emptying his heart, Hyunwoo lay on the floor comfortably.

The next day, Hyunwoo’s cell phone buzzed noisily.

It was a call from Dukwoo.

Hyunwoo felt his heart sank as Dukwoo called him only one day after they met.

Hyunwoo urgently took the phone.

“What should I do, brother? Taesu Ahn finally began to use the dirty trick…” said Dukwoo in an excited voice.

“What’s the matter? What happened?”

“What? Sex video about Nami?”

“It’s certainly not Nami in the video. It’s just titled that way. Everybody thinks it’s her sex video.”

Hyunwoo opened the file he sent and confirmed it. The title of that video was Nami.

The images of the video were pretty bad enough to identify the female face, but it looked like her in some respects. If someone argued it was Nami, they might think it was.

Dukwoo sent him several pictures, which showed Nami rushing to a man and being wrapped in his arms.

Dukwoo cautiously said, “In fact, these pictures are a headache. There is rumor fast-spreading that the man in the picture was the same as the guy in the video…” he paltered, which was understandable. For Nami was wrapped in someone else’s arms, not her boyfriend Dukwoo’s, and the pics were real, not imaginary as in a film.

But Hyunwoo was not shaken by that. He obviously knew where it was, when the pictures were taken, and why Nami was wrapped in the guy’s arms.

“That’s me!” said Hyunwoo.

“What? Was it you?” asked Dukwoo, surprised.

Hyunwoo told him about what happened several days ago when Nami was intimidated by Taesu. At that time, Hyunwoo first arranged for Raymon to save Nami until he arrived late at her place. When she saw Hyunwoo, she ran to him and was wrapped in his arms with a sigh of relief.

Obviously, someone secretly videotaped all that.

“I see now what happened. I might have misunderstood…” said Dukwoo reassured, but the problem was how Nami could cope with this. By now, she must have seen the sex video and photos.

“I called her but couldn’t reach her. Let me call her again.”

“As you know, this must be Taesu’s act. He wants to push Nami into a corner. So, tell her to be strong and steel her face to confront his dirty trick.”

“Got it, brother.”

A little later Nami called Hyunwoo. It looked as if she had a call from Dukwoo first.

“Hey, Nami. You must have been surprised a lot.”

Her reaction was to the contrary, though.

“Why should I be surprised by that? I was expecting that. So disappointed at Taesu. I called you so that you wouldn’t have to worry about me.”

She was very bold and calm. Actually, it was Nami who was comforting Hyunwoo.

“I feel good as you say you’re okay,” said Hyunwoo.

Hyunwoo’s anger over Taesu became more intense.

The reason Taesu used this dirty and mean trick was simple. He wanted to satisfy his lust through Nami, but when she refused, he decided to take revenge against her.

After talking with Hyunwoo and Dukwoo, Nami took a deep breath.

“Phew…”

In fact, she was scared. She was ready for that kind of stuff, but she was in a worse situation than she thought.

“Yea, I’ve got only six months to go before my contract expires.”

When the contract expired, she would have a chance to reveal everything.

At that moment, her cell phone buzzed.

She confirmed the caller, it was her manager.

Tightening her lips, she intentionally answered the phone in a cheerful tone.

“The president wants to see you now. Right now,” said the manager, hanging up the phone right away.

Nami tried to calm down.

Hummm… What can they do about me? You’re not killing me anyway. Nami, you’re fine. Just think of your tough school days. This is nothing, she murmured to herself.

Nami confidently walked into the president’s office.

Putting on airs, Taesu was sitting on the sofa. When she came in, he pointed to the opposite seat with his chin.

“Do you know you have already broken the contract?”

“Breach of contract? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the sex video about you. If you damage the image of our company because of your bad personal conduct, there is a clause in the contract that we will bring a lawsuit on the compensation for damages.”

But she didn’t budge an eye at all.

“If you have any evidence that the female in the video is me, then I breached the contract, but it was not me. I can say this clearly to you that I’ve never done any personal wrongdoing.”

Correcting his position at Nami’s confident attitude, he stared at her, raising his eyes.

“Oh, you definitely have guts. Do you think you can get anything by confronting me?”

“I don’t have the slightest intention to fight you. My point is I don’t want to have sex with you to maintain my popularity. I’m going to do my best for the interests of the company.”

She didn’t budge at all. Though she was aggressive in speaking out, she still observed good manners.

Taesu now realized that Nami was already for this the moment she signed the contract.

In other words, he was thoroughly used by her.

“Got it. You can go back now.”

Bowing to him gently, Nami left the office.

Looking at them behind, Manager Kim approached Taesu and sat on the sofa.

“What should I do? Can I drop her off all the programs she is appearing now? Or do I bury her completely in the entertainment world?”

Taesu stared at him and said, “Are you crazy? Don’t you know how much she is bringing for us?”

Though he was a womanizer, he was a businessman with a good business mindset. He wasn’t foolish enough to ruin his business because of Nami’s case.

“Leave her alone for now. We don’t have to rush. Certainly, we will have a chance.”

“Got it, President.”

***

Saturday afternoon at Incheon International Airport in Korea, while pacing up and down in front of the entrance gate at the airport, Hyunwoo raised his hand quickly, looking at the line of people waiting to go through immigration.

“Yu Zuung, I’m here!”