Wrinkles were bound to increase with age. She rather liked the small wrinkles at the end of her eyes that resembled snowflakes, and laugh lines were one of her charms. Wrinkles on her neck looked hideous, but she could understand as it was a result of time. Lee Miyoon touched her forehead. She could feel the crease of her forehead on her fingertips. She pushed her finger straight up. She could feel multiple wrinkles that stretched out like rivers. In her prime, she was called the ‘forehead beauty.’ When she first heard such a thing, she felt really taken aback, but she eventually took a liking to that name. The smooth forehead was her symbol. Even now that she was nearing her seventies, she did not have a single wrinkle on her forehead. After all these years, it had turned into her pride. Lee Miyoon’s forehead had to be smoother than the young ones.
“You’re here, madam.”
One of the staff members working at the TV station bowed 90 degrees and greeted her. She was a young woman. Her fingers stroking her forehead suddenly trembled. The forehead of the young one in front of her caught her eyes. She could feel her wrinkles deepen.
“Can you put away your ugly face?”
That staff member quickly made way. She tensed her stomach, pulled her chin and started walking. She gave a glance at the people watching the set before entering the hospital. She felt extremely displeased. She rolled her eyes around looking for the bathroom. When she found it, she went inside the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. A thin snake was crawling on her forehead. Miyoon took out her BB cream from her bag and applied it on her forehead. The tube of BB cream that she had bought merely days before had become thin. She applied the BB cream along her wrinkles before throwing the tube on the floor. Applying cosmetics on top of her crumpled pride was a fruitless endeavor.
“Hong Janghae that bastard.”
It was already too late by the time she became suspicious. Hong Janghae had already finished his preparations to change ship. She should not have ignored Hong Janghae’s brief smile six months ago. That was when this started. Valleys of wrinkles started forming on the pride that was her forehead. They were at odds with each other, but she thought that they were business partners who would not betray each other. She believed that they could not afford to betray each other as they held each other’s weaknesses. Oh how wrong she was in her judgment of Hong Janghae.
She washed her hands and took out her phone. She had sent dozens of text messages to Hong Janghae without a reply. It seemed that the other party decided to thoroughly ignore her. She raised her forehead. Anger fumed inside her. She could not stay still. She had to show that Lee Miyoon wasn’t such an easy woman. She was gnashing her teeth while looking at her phone before suddenly becoming extremely shocked and immediately loosening her forehead. The BB cream had clumped up into a white line along her wrinkle. Miyoon screamed at the mirror. The scream seemed to be loud enough to reach outside the bathroom as a staff member peeked inside. She seemed surprised.
“Fuck off.”
She did not want to say more than two words. The staff member paled and turned around. She was aware that the more complicated a situation was, the calmer she should be, but she was out of her mind because she had been hit too strongly on the back of her head. A week ago, when she had just found out about the change in situation, she almost passed out. It had taken a week just to get herself together and start taking action. She thoroughly felt that she had gotten old.
It was ten years ago when she started trafficking people together with Hong Janghae. Before he became the president of Soul, they only saw each other from time to time as managerial positions, but ever since he settled in Soul, they started talking deeper about their business. What consolidated their mutually beneficial relationship was when he prevented The Five’s prostitution scandal that almost got exposed to the media six years ago. He turned the public’s attention on the ‘actress prostitution scandal,’ and brought in the idol band, who had relations to high-level mistresses, effectively stopping it from becoming an issue. Seeing Hong Janghae’s way of doing business, she thought that they weren’t compatible as fellow humans but were good as business partners. Never could she imagine that the result of that would be her losing all of the powers she had.
Hong Janghae had opened up a new business route. He had attracted all the people under her management in the country behind the curtains and gave them to a new business partner he made in Japan. It was someone she knew as well. The shop owner of a famous stylist shop in Cheongdam-dong. She should have realized it when that woman flew around from people to people like a tweety bird.
The middleman that she had been working with for years had notified her of their resignation just a week ago. The hunting dog that returned with good items with some good feed had gone to a new owner who gave them better feed. She lost all her contacts overnight. It made her laugh due to the absurdity. This was way too clean of a job. The president of a small business owner that called her ‘madam’ just until a little while ago actually moved his entire business to Japan. The good-looking kids that she had under her wings had all cut contact as well. Had she known that this was going to happen beforehand, she would have gotten the numbers of all the trainees who introduced her to all of them. She never knew that having her middle man take care of the communication out of fear of getting caught would lead to such a problem.
She had lost all of her limbs. The castle that she had built while rolling around in the dirt that was the entertainment industry, dabbing her hands into all sorts of dirty business, had all collapsed overnight. The bigger problem was that she could no longer contact anyone high up, whether it was that member of the city council who preferred busty ones, that business owner who always wanted a good suck, or that politician who said that the taste of a girl around his granddaughter’s age was better than those around his daughter’s age. None of them picked up her call. It wasn’t just trainees that she had connected those men and women to. She had stacked bills of 50,000 won in drink boxes and handed some to them discreetly on multiple occasions.
Miyoon liked controlling people. She felt proud of her life when she looked at people moving as she willed. The money that she gained secondarily, as well as the sense of power that she could smell right next to them was good as well. She was fine with giving up the money since she had earned more than enough, but she could not give up on the hierarchy that she had rummaged through as she wished to until now. That was her lifeblood. She gave her body and soul in order to create that business route. What was stolen was not just people and money. She was robbed of Lee Miyoon herself. It was utterly unacceptable.
“Head prosecutor.”
She finally reached someone. She had only reached this person after several attempts. The head prosecutor coughed dryly.
-I was expecting another call. Madam Lee, I’d like you to stop calling me now.
“Head prosecutor. You can’t do this. You’ll be in trouble if you do this to me.”
-What are you on about? Trouble? What an unpleasant word. Madam Lee, no, Ms. Lee Miyoon. Do you even know who you’re talking to right now?
Miyoon fell silent. She had briefly lost her reason because of her fuming anger.
“I apologize. Excuse my rudeness. But head prosecutor, you know why I’ve called you.”
-I have nothing to say on that matter. I hope you don’t call me for personal reasons in the future. We will not be seeing each other.
“Is it because of Hong Janghae, that man?”
-Geez, you should already know what happened. Since things have reached this state, you might as well humbly accept everything. Don’t get reckless and bring yourself misfortune. I’ll help you once considering our relationship until now. Just make do with that. Now, if you’d please excuse me.
It seemed that Hong Janghae had thoroughly played his hands. One of her VIPs, the head prosecutor, had clearly drawn the line. The other customers should have similar reactions, and that was probably why they weren’t picking up her calls.
She couldn’t just let this slide. Hong Janghae was the one who would rejoice the most if she just humbly accepted everything like what the head prosecutor said. It was time to show him how tenacious she had been to climb up all the way here from her moldy semi-basement house.
Miyoon took a deep breath and neatened her hair. She had lost her first move, so she could not afford to hesitate. It was impossible to duke it out with Hong Janghae, so she had to go above that line. That was the reason for her visit to the set today. The bridge was here. The one who was connected to the chairman who sat in a place that oversaw the entirety of Korea.
She was just crossing the hospital when a detestable face caught her eyes. It was Han Gaeul. It was that pigeon-like bitch who did not know fear. Usually, she would talk to her as a refresher, but she was rather busy today.
“Not doing anything today, huh?” Han Gaeul said as soon as she tried to go past her.
The muscles around her eyes squirmed. She turned around and glared at Han Gaeul.
“Finally got something to say?”
“Just how do you never change, girlie?”
“Thanks to you, senior, I became someone who can hold my ground. But hey, you look like you’re in trouble. Your face is seriously no joke.”
She ended up showing her wrinkle to the last one she wanted to show them to. She felt like she had been stabbed. Hong Janghae, the head prosecutor, the rest of the customers, as well as all of her subordinates – the stress that she had received during the past week suddenly smashed her head all at once. She couldn’t stay still. She felt like she had to chide this girl no matter how busy she was. She might die of anger if she just let this pass by. She swung her hand with all the impulses that occurred within her body gathered in her hand. She would feel better if a crisp slap tickled her ears.
“You’re gonna hit me?”
The hand that had slapped the cheeks of dozens, if not hundreds, was caught in midair. Miyoon groaned in pain. Why was that feeble-looking arm so strong? Miyoon tried to shake her hand off with all her might, but Han Gaeul did not let her go. Her hand felt like it was going to break.
“Let me go! It hurts! I said it hurts!”
Only after she screamed did she realize that there were many eyes around. She looked so terrible right now that it was to the point that she had to mind other people’s gazes. Not only was her hand caught by a junior decades younger than her, she even whined like a little child.
“You’re quite strange today. You don’t have any power in your hand either.”
She could see the producer rushing over as though he heard the scream. Han Gaeul politely bowed to her before turning around. She gnashed her teeth to the point that her golden tooth was getting stripped.
“Madam, what brings you here?”
“You!”
She was about to chide the shocked director but decided to hold back.
“It’s nothing, so just go about your business.”
“What has Gaeul done wrong to you ag….”
“I said it’s nothing!”
“Yes, madam. I was wrong. Please calm down.”
“Forget that. Where’s Giwoo? He’s in the shoot today, right?”
“Giwoo? Yes, he’s inside. Shall I call him over?”
“I’ll go there myself.”
She glared at the staff members who were watching. Only then did they avert their gazes. Only the bold outsourced members were laughing. She engraved them into her memory so that she could later tell them that their unwitty mouths would be the downfall of their main source of income.
She looked at her wrist while walking. A handprint – red and blue – had remained on her wrist. The squished flesh did not spring back up in a short time. It meant that she had gotten old.
So without my subordinates and my guests, all my customers, only this wrinkly skin and useless acting skills are all I have? – she came to herself. It was terrifying just thinking about it.
“Madam.”
Giwoo greeted her with a smile. It was the smile of an angel. Her guide to heaven was here. Through him, she could reach the man at the apex of power who could squish a mere Hong Janghae with a finger.
“Yes, Giwoo. How is the shoot going?”
“Not bad. But what brings you here?”
“The thing is, I have something to ask of you.”
“Please speak comfortably. I’ll listen to anything you have to say.”
It was her lifeline; one that shone in gold. No matter how greedy Hong Janghae was, he would have to cough out everything he ate with one word from YM’s chairman. She was acquainted with the chairman as well. If she explained everything, he would probably give a word to Hong Janghae, his subordinate, as a token of consideration of their relationship until now.
“I have something I need to talk about urgently with the chairman.”
“Are you talking about my grandfather?”
“Yes. It’s something extremely urgent.”
She grabbed his hand. She had to get a clear answer here. Giwoo, who looked at the floor as though in hesitation, slowly turned his head around. Miyoon followed his eyes. Han Gaeul was approaching.
“That damned bitch can’t read the mood.”
She glared at Han Gaeul, who walked past, before looking at Giwoo again. Giwoo was smiling.
“Thinking about it now, you always hated our Gaeul.”
“She is one bad bitch. You should watch out as well. She’s one thieving fox. Rather than that, can you listen to my request?”
“Yes. I’ll ask grandfather about it.”
She sighed in relief. Just as she was about to thank him, Giwoo let go of her hand first. Then, he dusted his hand off as though he had got some dirt on it. She had to be mistaken. Miyoon pulled her awkward hand back to her waist.
