Rurin And The Song (6)

“You.”

“Hm?”

“I’ll listen to what you say. But I hate talking with humans for long. One or two words, maybe!”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right.”

Before entering the agency building, Rurin shouted with a stern expression. I tried to persuade her, kneeling right in front until I was level with her nose.

“Still, please. Lady Rurin, my dear. It’s partly to help with revenge, but mostly I’m curious how much everyone in the beautiful entertainment world will praise my dear. Maybe I want to feel superior?”

“Superior feeling?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m already superior just by being still, what superiority do I want?”

At my superiority joke, Rurin began shaking her head. It’s not working. Should I use the last resort then?

“If it goes well, I’ll make it so my dear can stay stuck right next to what she likes most for 24 hours.”

“Stuck next to you? Really?”

Rurin’s indifferent face suddenly bloomed like a freshly blossomed flower. Like when a dragon’s instinct surges at discovering a pretty jewel, eyes sparkling with a bright expression.

Sticking together 24 hours.

That is not ordinary sticking together.

If it was 24 hours together without restaurant work, we already do that now. We’ve been together the whole trip.

But it’s different from that.

The 24 hours sticking together here means the ultimate secret weapon. A finisher rarely drawn.

It’s literal. Stick with Rurin for 24 hours. Never separating. Not even when eating or going to the bathroom. Like glued with super strong adhesive, you must stick tight all the time.

Using that secret technique, we entered the building where on the first floor, Chief Manager Im who gave Rurin his card was waiting to greet us.

Here, I played Rurin’s older brother. Not a full brother but a half-brother was the story I pulled up to volunteer as proxy. Rurin’s mixed blood was the setting, and Chief Manager Im accepted it without suspicion.

Following him, we entered the Director’s office, where a man introduced himself as Park Myeonghwan and offered a handshake. Director Park, upon seeing Rurin, froze instantly.

Like he’d lost his mind?

Suddenly I wanted to ask why the hell is he spacing out seeing someone else’s wife, but I held back. We were on a mission.

My wife is so superior that there’s no helping it. Heh heh.

Rurin is a great being.

Because she’s a dragon.

Just standing still, a noble aura radiates. These days, combined with a strange sexiness after marriage, if only she wasn’t barren, anyone would fall for her.

So Director Park stared blankly at Rurin for about 30 seconds.

“Oh dear, sorry! Please come in. Welcome!”

He barely regained composure and led us to the sofa. Rurin already looked displeased but behaved quietly, probably because the 24-hour sticking together was on the line. She sat demurely and grabbed my arm.

“Well then, seems there’s no need to say more. Let’s sign now! What an honor to meet a future top star! Ha ha.”

“Shut up.”

“Shh!”

Rurin whispered quietly to me that it was noisy. Luckily she spoke so softly it probably wasn’t heard. So I whispered “shh” back.

Director Park’s eyes sparkled as he focused solely on Rurin.

“Then I’ll ask a few trivial things. These are important after debut so please be honest. First, have you had any cosmetic work done? And is the man you’re seeing now…?”

“When washing face, I touch it. Isn’t that right? You wash my face…”

Since Rurin doesn’t understand cosmetic surgery, she interpreted Director Park’s words literally and gave a silly answer, so I had to laugh exaggeratedly to smooth it over, gesturing with hands and feet.

“No, does it look like she had cosmetic work? If so, I’d be the one wanting to go to that clinic. And she’s twenty now. Of course, no boyfriend.”

“Really? Is that true? Want to say it yourself?”

“Hahaha, she went overseas following her mother, so her Korean is lacking. It might be burdensome, so instead of being so blunt, please ask me first?”

“Lack of Korean will be solved by studying. Even more reason to have lots of conversation to supplement it! We’ll provide a Korean tutor too.”

When I started explaining, Director Park just nodded happily.

So according to Lee Jinseong’s story, they deceive with sweet words about giving roles to entertainers who have lost their chance of stardom despite their pleasant looks, then run shady business behind the scenes.

If true, they’re truly the worst kind of people, two-faced.

“What are you doing? Not preparing the contract? Hurry up, Chief Manager Im!”

“Ah, yes! I’ll bring it right away!”

Chief Manager Im, who had been standing dazed, dashed out after Director Park scolded him. Director Park, after getting angry, looked at Rurin and smiled, then stood and turned on the monitor on the wall, saying:

“By the way, how is it? Should I take your coming here as a sign that you want to sign the contract…?”

A straightforward question. Well, being so direct makes the process faster, so it’s good.

“Yes, she’s very interested in the entertainment world.”

So I bit the bait eagerly.

“A good decision! Of course, we’ll sign her, but to know her skills, can we try a few things? If her Korean isn’t fluent, please communicate well on the side. Oh! It’s okay if she can’t do them. Haha.”

Director Park said that and played a drama on the monitor. A scene confessing love while crying or something like that.

It’s obviously to test acting.

I glanced at Rurin. She sat with a blank, empty expression.

She seemed to be holding something back, her eyebrows twitched slightly just now.

“Rurin, they want you to act out that scene on the screen.”

She would complain later, but for now I shamelessly encouraged her. Of course her eyebrows twitched again. She has zero interest in acting.

In the restaurant, when told not to drink beer during the day, her secret beer drinking and pretending not to have done so was robotic. She’s not even good at pretending.

“Why can’t you say it? Why can’t you say you love me!”

The line from the drama was very cringey.

Fortunately, Rurin stood up. The 24-hour sticking together she had in mind still seemed effective.

“Ugh.”

Though she looked reluctant.

“Why can’t you say it! Why can’t you say you love me! Hmm, that’s true. I think you should say you love me more!”

While acting, Rurin suddenly spoke seriously. Director Park didn’t seem to think she was talking to me and smiled brightly without fading.

“Her tone is odd, but once she learns acting it’ll improve fast, so no problem.”

He muttered that and then put another program on the monitor.

“Lastly, do you want to sing? You like girl group songs, right?”

A karaoke screen appeared on the monitor. It seemed like they planned to show MR (music recording) and lyrics.

“Song?”

Surprisingly, unlike during acting, Rurin started to show strong interest.

“Is this a place to sing? Oh, then I’ll sing that!”

Rurin immediately said the song title. I didn’t even need to jump in.

Rurin once said that the two things she likes most in this world are her phone and singing.

But though I heard her hum a few times, I’d never heard her sing properly. It was something I both looked forward to and worried about.

I didn’t want her to become a laughingstock. But since she’s good with music like playing the Regana, she shouldn’t be half-bad, right?

Music soon flowed from the speakers. This was one of the songs Rurin had been listening to lately.

“You, I want to try singing. I’m interested in this.”

She looked at me and asked, so I nodded. Rurin cleared her throat and immediately began to sing.

Rurin’s voice was naturally beautiful. But I’d never imagined how she would sound singing.

People often describe a good singing voice as “heavenly voice”. Rurin’s singing was exactly that. A heavenly voice. A tone gifted by the gods.

Unlike acting, she showed incredible talent in music. Just like with the Regana.

“She can dance too!”

Rurin even showed things she wasn’t told to do. She started dancing, even adding body waves.

The singing was fine as lyrics flowed, but it seemed she hadn’t memorized the dance fully, so after a while she started inventing new moves.

She wrapped both hands above her head, spun a few times, then stopped. A spinning dance?

It wasn’t an idol’s dance but it was cute. The wave was too provocative to make her do it in front of others again. So I pulled her arm.

Then Rurin spun and with a “kyaa?” was pulled towards me.

I glanced at Director Park. He was stunned, mouth open, trembling as if he’d hit the jackpot.

Of course, I had no intention of giving in. I seriously considered covering my ears after hearing Rurin’s singing.

“What’s this, making me do it yourself.”

When I pulled her midway, Rurin said with a sulky face. She didn’t seem pleased the performance was cut short.

“I’ll let you do it to your heart’s content later. When it’s just us.”

Mentioning karaoke, Rurin furrowed her brows and just stared at me.

“Don’t you like my singing?”

“Huh? No…that’s not it?”

“Then why….”

Rurin tried to say something, but Director Park’s fuss drowned out her voice.

“Wait, wait. The singing…you did sing it yourself, right? Well, the dance aside… This is amazing? Hahaha!”

“Of course I sang it myself. This isn’t a place with lip-sync facilities.”

I answered the odd question reasonably, and Director Park blinked several times, then pulled his phone out with a dumbfounded expression.

“Hey! Chief Manager Im. Where are you now? Okay? I’ll come over, so bring the contract and wait there.”

After the call, he scratched the back of his head and said to Rurin and me:

“I’ll leave briefly. It’s about the contract, so please wait a moment? Feel free to get comfortable on the sofa.”

“Ah, yes.”

I answered, and Director Park dashed outside. So our conversation resumed.

We were interrupted talking about the song earlier.

“You sing…”

“You have a face that doesn’t like it much…!”

“No? I was quite moved! Why didn’t you sing earlier?”

“Huh? Really?”

As if she was sulking because my reaction was strange, Rurin’s face brightened soon after.

“Hehe, there’s nothing I can’t do.”

But she’s bad at acting? Her usual and earlier acting were both awful.

I didn’t point it out. Thanks to her efforts, Director Park seemed completely taken.

Anyway, the purpose of coming here isn’t to brag about my wife to others. That was a slight part, but now it’s time to move for the real purpose.

What worries me is the computer. The computer at the Director’s desk in the office.

That computer was conveniently left unlocked.

The monitor was connected to this computer, so it made sense. Rurin had been so distracted she forgot to lock it again before leaving.

Usually, there are lots of files in places like this.

I immediately started searching the computer. I saw many ledgers. I only searched Excel files. Then I found schedule charts too.

The schedules for actors or groups were densely written, but there was one that had only a name and a circle drawn, with no description of the schedule.

It was today too, with a schedule set at night.

The name was Lee Yuseon. And a circled schedule tonight.

Other schedules had details, but this one just a circle. Because I had heard something from Lee Jinseong, I looked at last month’s schedules. Soon I found it easily. Lee Jinseong’s daughter, Lee Eunji’s name with a circle.

“Bingo.”

I nodded, and Rurin, with a “What’s bingo?” face, sat on the sofa, then fluttered over beside me and grabbed my arm.

For matters like this, the Director would accompany her directly, and then they’d talk one-on-one.

Then the story’s over. Only chaos remains.