Top Actor Hired Me and Said Teach Me novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Hanbit

Ma Gyeong-su poured the tea himself.

He was fifty-two, with silver in his hair and rimless glasses.

He handed Ye-won the cup with both hands, the way you hand something to an elder.

His office took up half of the top floor of Hanbit Entertainment.

One wall was windows.

The other wall was framed posters, every one with Tae-oh's face.

"Ms. Rho." He smiled. "You were wonderful last night. Four million views before breakfast."

"Thank you."

"We aren't lying to anyone, you understand. We are editing."

"That sounds like lying with a good haircut."

Jang Dae-sik, in the chair beside her, made a small noise into his coffee.

Ma's smile didn't move.

"Tae-oh needs a story," he said. "A man who lost the public's trust finds a good woman. It's very old. People love it."

"And the film?"

"Salt Season opens in five months. Eight weeks of shooting starts Monday."

He slid a contract across the desk.

It was twelve pages.

Ye-won read every one while he watched her read.

It offered ninety million won in three payments.

It required public appearances twice a week.

It set a penalty of two hundred million won for breaking confidentiality, payable by her.

And on the ninth page, there was a clause in clean black type.

*The Coach shall form no romantic or personal attachment to the Actor. Any attachment shall constitute breach.*

Somebody had drawn a line through it in blue ink.

Next to the line were two letters, in a handwriting she knew from the script margins.

*G.T.*

Ye-won looked up.

Ma was looking at his own tea.

"Mr. Gu was particular about that one," he said lightly.

"I can see."

"It's a standard clause."

"Then it was standard of him to cross it out."

Jang coughed.

Ye-won signed on the last page, below the blue line, and made them both initial the change.

On the way out, Jang walked her to the elevator.

"He won't say it, so I will," he said, very low. "He read every word of that contract himself. Nobody has ever made him do that."

"Why would he?"

"He doesn't say."

The doors opened.

"Be kind to him, Ms. Rho. He doesn't know how it's done."

That night at eleven, there was a knock on Ye-won's roof door.

Her building in Mangwon has five flights of stairs and a rusted door at the top.

Over the last step hangs a low steel beam that has bruised the forehead of every guest she has ever had.

Tae-oh came through the door and ducked under the beam without looking up.

Ye-won stared at him.

"How did you know about the beam?"

"What beam?"

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