Chapter 50

Chae Eunbi and Kang Taehan are seen greeting each other with a smile.

The moment she saw that, Yoo Se-ah instinctively realized.

The mysterious, ominous premonition she felt while waiting for filming overseas.

That the identity of that feeling was right before her eyes.

The moment her thoughts reached that point.

She came to her senses and found herself introducing herself while lowering her sunglasses.

To be honest, it was hard to consider it a mature response.

Moreover, Chae Eunbi was a student who looked barely twenty years old, and Taehan had introduced her as his younger sister, so it might have been purely based on her misunderstanding.

But what did that matter!

Sometimes intuition is more accurate than reason, and this is even more true in relationships between people, where it’s impossible to predict what will happen in the future.

‘Besides, today was the first time we had a decent atmosphere since I met Taehan!’

The incident at the camping corner with Kang Taehan.

It might have been nothing more than a suggestion to go camping together someday, but for her, it was a big step forward in her relationship with Kang Taehan.

Someone, of all days, today, is interfering?

Unacceptable.

Recalling the role of the haughty chaebol heiress she had played before, she gave a haughty yet spiteful look.

“Uh, excuse me, are you really Miss Yoo Se-ah?”

However, Chae Eunbi’s reaction was completely different.

Truly the reaction of a young girl meeting a celebrity.

She gasped in surprise and clapped her hands.

“Yes?”

“Ah! Sorry, shhh!”

Then, belatedly covering her mouth and looking around, she confirmed that there was no one around, then put her finger to her lips in a gesture to be quiet.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have raised my voice. You’re doing that because you don’t want people to recognize you, right?”

“Ah, yes. That’s true, but.”

“Oh my, what do I do! I’m a huge fan! I enjoyed ‘Secret Professor’ and ‘Chaebol Judgment’! Especially ‘Chaebol Judgment’, I saw it twice in the theater, twice!”

The overwhelming energy of a girl who just turned twenty!

Swept away by the atmosphere, Yoo Se-ah, with the spiteful look she had been putting on just moments ago gone, could only nod with an awkward smile.

“Hey, oppa! How do you know Miss Yoo Se-ah?”

“We met by chance on the street.”

It wasn’t a lie, as they had met when he saved her life by chance on the street.

“Ah, but I need to finish shopping before the department store closes, so I’ll be going first. Have a good time, you two!”

Chae Eunbi bowed her head and took a couple of steps forward, then started to walk away with quick steps, just as she had arrived.

Se-ah followed her retreating figure with her eyes.

“She’s a lively friend.”

“She’s a kind and cute dongsaeng.”

“Yes…”

Yoo Se-ah fell into thought for a moment.

Secret Professor.

A movie she briefly appeared in as an insignificant supporting role when she was an unknown actress.

The fact that she knew about it meant she was a real fan.

‘Maybe I should’ve given her an autograph…’

Yoo Se-ah, who hadn’t yet let go of all her vigilance, felt a little awkward.

“Oppa Taehan is something else…”

Meanwhile, Chae Eunbi, who had entered a store and was looking at golf gloves, shook her head as she recalled the recent incident.

‘I thought they were at least flirting.’

Good people are bound to have someone already interested in them.

It’s a universal truth, and Chae Eunbi was well aware of it.

But even so, an actress… Isn’t the scale too big?

She was so surprised that she forced herself to raise her energy level, ended up acting like a weirdo, and hurriedly left the scene.

It was true that she was a fan of Yoo Se-ah, but that wasn’t the only reason she was so excited.

“They say having a goalkeeper doesn’t mean you won’t concede a goal… Should I have just asked him out to dinner when we first met?”

Sigh. Chae Eunbi let out a small sigh, casually putting down the golf glove she was looking at.

⟢⟢⟢⟢⟢⟢

The next day.

After all the scheduled clients had left and it was time to leave work, Kang Taehan, unlike usual, stopped by a cafe near the jimjilbang.

“Hello, I’m a little late.”

The place Kang Taehan sat down at was a table in a secluded corner where someone was already sitting.

Across from him, a man was working diligently on something with a tablet PC propped up.

It was Lee Byeongho, the author of the webtoon “Murim Hunter”, who had previously come as a client and asked Kang Taehan to “teach him the way”.

Hearing Kang Taehan’s voice, he put down his touch pen with a welcoming expression.

“Ah, you’re here, seonsaengnim.”

“Have you been waiting long?”

“Not at all. I wasn’t waiting, I was just working at the cafe.”

Since he was the one who had asked for Kang Taehan’s time, Lee Byeongho vehemently denied it, shaking his head and both hands.

“By any chance, what about drinks….”

“I was just getting them.”

“Oh my, I should be buying them for you.”

In response to Lee Byeongho’s sigh, Kang Taehan smiled and shook his head.

Although Kang Taehan had declined Lee Byeongho’s request the previous day, it was because he had an appointment with Yoo Se-ah that day, not because he didn’t want to make time for him.

Rather than disliking it, he was actually interested.

First of all, it was his first time meeting a webtoon artist…

He remembered that Choi Seonghyeon and Manager Hwang had mentioned reading Lee Byeongho’s work, “Murim Hunter”, a while back.

Of course, he couldn’t postpone his appointments, so he had said he could only meet late at night, but Lee Byeongho nodded, saying it didn’t matter.

And so they met like this.

Kang Taehan, who had brought the drinks in the meantime, took a sip of coffee to wet his throat and casually said,

“But, what kind of help can I offer? I haven’t done much in the way of drawing or writing, so I don’t think I’ll be of much help.”

“Well… Actually, I’m on a long hiatus right now, and the content of the latest chapter, that is, the one that’s currently up…”

Lee Byeongho took out a notebook and began to explain.

To summarize, the protagonist had met a strong enemy, defeated him, but was seriously injured and collapsed.

Here, he needed an event where the protagonist would recover and become even stronger as a result…

“I originally had an idea for this part… but it clashed with other settings I had established earlier, so I couldn’t use it.”

Lately, there had been a lot of negative comments saying that there were too many setting errors, and that the power of the martial arts was inconsistent.

Trying to come up with a new episode while being conscious of those comments, his mind suddenly went blank.

“Hmm… Isn’t that a very common situation in martial arts stories?”

“Yes, it is. But it’s my greed, I guess.”

After all, agonizing over the story meant that he wanted to write an interesting story.

Kang Taehan nodded, understanding his feelings.

“Then how about unfolding it like this?”

As Kang Taehan held out his hand, Lee Byeongho handed him a pen.

This time, it was Kang Taehan’s turn to explain, drawing words and pictures in the notebook.

A story of a man who was on the verge of death from an injury to his dantian, receiving great help from a reclusive master, barely surviving, gaining enlightenment, and regaining his strength.

Looking at the big picture, it was just a cliché from martial arts novels, but the details Kang Taehan laid out had a strange sense of realism.

The process of meeting the reclusive master and his eccentric personality, what kind of herbs he used to make what kind of medicine, what the place where the master stayed was like.

A vivid story as if he had experienced it himself.

Lee Byeongho listened to the story in a daze, then took out another notebook and pen from his bag and started taking notes every time Kang Taehan said a word.

‘I never thought I’d be talking about those days in the modern world.’

The reason Kang Taehan’s story was so vivid was simple.

It was because it was something he had personally experienced.

It wasn’t a long relationship, and in the end, he parted ways without even knowing the name of his benefactor, but he still cherished the memory and the kindness he received.

“As for this character… You said he exhausted his dantian and his meridians dried up in the latest chapter, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then we can change this part to a lighter depiction, and this herb…”

Of course, the situation Kang Taehan and the protagonist were in was a little different, but Kang Taehan could fine-tune those details.

Soon, a detailed plot for the next episode was laid out in the notebook.

“Seonsaengnim, you’re truly amazing.”

“I’ve just read a lot of martial arts novels.”

Lee Byeongho, who was looking at the plot again with admiration, said, and Kang Taehan lightly laughed and shook his head.

In this situation, that was a perfect excuse.

“Finally, I can move on to the next episode.”

“You seem to have prepared the next story already?”

“Yes. After rejoining his comrades, he was going to find his old enemy who betrayed him and take revenge. Actually, that guy had his own circumstances…”

As he had explained earlier, Lee Byeongho began to briefly outline the story of the next episode.

In the midst of that, Kang Taehan’s head tilted to the side.

“You’re going to let the guy who betrayed him live?”

“Yes. I’ve laid out some valid reasons beforehand, and there are some future plot points as well. He actually feels guilty towards the protagonist…”

“This protagonist seems to be a very arrogant character. He’s come back from the brink of death, and he still has the luxury to show mercy.”

At that moment, a cynical smile appeared on Kang Taehan’s lips.

As if he was looking down on someone’s ridiculousness…

It was a smile that, if you saw it, would send chills down your spine.

“Th-then should I change it to killing him?”

“If he was a young master raised in a prestigious family, maybe. But… for a martial artist who’s grown through all sorts of hardships, it’d be more natural to do that.”

Kang Taehan said with his usual smile, as if nothing had happened.

Lee Byeongho thought for a moment and then nodded, jotting down a note in his notebook.

‘Indeed, if you think about it logically, he’s right.’

It was the moment when the protagonist of “Murim Hunter”, who had been criticized for being “interesting but frustrating”, became a bit less frustrating.

⟢⟢⟢⟢⟢⟢

A taxi stand in front of Yongsan Station in Seoul.

A man, who seemed to have just gotten off the train and arrived at the station, got into a taxi stopped right in front of him, searching for directions on a map app on his smartphone.

“Welcome.”

“Hello, driver.”

“Where to?”

At the driver’s question, the man showed the taxi driver his smartphone.

The screen displayed the address and map he had just looked up.

“Can you take me here?”

“Sure, why not. Let’s see….”

The taxi driver looked at the map for a moment and then nodded, starting the car.

The man put his smartphone in his pocket and leaned his head against the window.

‘I wonder if I came here for nothing.’

The man’s identity was Song Namseop, the training coach of the Daeseong Whales.

He was the one who had caused a sea of laughter at the meeting after the game against Hanha by mentioning something he had heard from an acquaintance.

At the time, he laughed it off, saying he was talking nonsense…

But a nagging feeling lingered in his mind, bothering him.

The acquaintance who told him about it wasn’t the type to talk nonsense.

The acquaintance, who was from the Hanha staff, had only told him the name “Kang Taehan”, but Song Namseop searched for that name on social media and found a massage shop.

The problem was that they only accepted clients by appointment.

When he called, it turned out that there was one spot available due to a cancellation.

Moreover, tomorrow’s game was an away game at Jamsil Stadium, so he could join the team in Seoul without any problems.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Song Namseop made the reservation, and as soon as he finished work today, he boarded the train.

He couldn’t believe that the reason for Hanha players’ improved form was all thanks to massage, and he wasn’t even sure if he had found the right massage shop.

‘Well, it can’t hurt.’

He had to see it for himself to be satisfied with this much concern.

Even if it wasn’t true, he could just consider it as taking a half-day off and going for a massage.

Song Namseop took a deep breath and leaned back against the seat.