Around 10 a.m., inside Kang Woojin's studio apartment.
A man lay in the middle of the neatly organized room, fast asleep on the bed.
It was Kang Woojin.
He was sleeping so deeply that it looked like he wouldn't wake up even if the world ended.
The reason he was still asleep at this hour was simple.
CEO Choi Sunggeon had told him that today—Saturday the 9th—was his day off.
He had just finished the packed schedule surrounding the Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival.
Now it was finally time to rest.
Of course, he would be busy again soon anyway.
Meanwhile, at that exact moment, his agency, bw Entertainment, was still in complete chaos.
That was because The Private Investigator had taken both Best Picture and Best Actor.
From the investors' perspective, all the good news surrounding Hong Hyeyeon, Kang Woojin, and the rest had sent the stock soaring.
What they didn't know was that Director Shin Dongchun of The Private Investigator was already drowning in meetings with production companies and interviews.
Hong Hyeyeon, on top of her already packed schedule, was also being worked to the bone because of everything related to the Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival.
"...♬♪—"
As for Kang Woojin, inquiries were currently pouring in from all sorts of production companies and film studios.
Interview requests from film media outlets and magazines were flooding in as well.
His public recognition was still low, but inside the film industry, he was already being treated as a blue-chip prospect.
Everything was being routed through bw Entertainment.
But Choi Sunggeon had told Kang Woojin to wait for now.
"Woojin, we're riding a fast current right now, but let's watch the situation a little longer."
Hong Hyeyeon was already at the top, but Kang Woojin was passing through an extremely delicate phase.
The company needed to handle the flood of meetings and interview requests carefully.
Kang Woojin had simply nodded.
Anyway, even though he was finally getting to sleep in after such a long time, Kang Woojin couldn't keep sleeping for very long.
♬♪ ♬♪ ♬♪
The phone beside his bed vibrated for a long time.
It was a call.
Woojin half-opened his eyes, but didn't answer.
Why?
"...Why does she keep calling? Is she really that bored?"
The caller was his younger sister, Kang Hyuna.
Naturally, the reason she was calling was probably to pester him with a bunch of annoying questions.
'What, did she see the articles?'
Soon enough, Kang Woojin, who had casually ignored the call, got up and stretched.
"Mom, Dad, and Kang Hyuna can wait. First, I'm going into the void space."
Muttering to himself, Kang Woojin looked down at the small table.
Scripts and scenarios were piled on top of it.
Among them, he picked up the scenario for Island of the Missing.
He had already finished reading it once.
"Should I start with a smaller role?"
He still needed to read it several more times to fully understand it.
Still, since the casting was nearly finalized, he decided that from here on, he would slowly work through the cast and understand the characters by reading them—by experiencing them.
"It's been a while since I went in there for the full treatment instead of just resting."
Anyway—
Poke!
Woojin jabbed the black square attached next to the Island of the Missing scenario.
In an instant, he was sucked into the void space.
As always, the void space was endlessly empty and dark.
Kang Woojin yawned once more and turned around.
Three familiar white rectangles floated there.
[1/Scenario (Title: The Private Investigator), A-grade]
[2/Script (Title: Profiler Hanryang Part 1), S-grade]
[3/Scenario (Title: Island of the Missing), A+ grade]
Among them, Kang Woojin stared at the white rectangle labeled The Private Investigator and rubbed his chin.
"A-grade… hmm. For a short film, it really was A-grade, wasn't it? It won Best Actor, the grand prize, and Best Picture too."
That was his own guess about what an A-grade meant.
Director Shin Dongchun, Hong Hyeyeon, and Kang Woojin's good fortune was only just beginning, but because Kang Woojin still lacked experience, he simply brushed it off.
'Well, I guess that's what it means.'
Next, Kang Woojin selected Island of the Missing.
Among the listed roles, he chose the very last one: Private Kim.
It was a supporting role with a decent amount of presence, but it appeared in the very first scene and played the part of establishing the film's theme, shock, and tension.
That section lasted less than five minutes.
Still, it was important.
Right before selecting Private Kim, Kang Woojin drew a small breath.
Even if it was only a small role, what he was about to experience would be beyond imagination.
"Hoo—"
Woojin selected Private Kim with his index finger.
[Preparing script for 'P: Private Kim'...]
A moment later, the familiar female voice spoke.
[...Preparation complete. This is a very complete script or scenario. Completion rate is 100%. Beginning reading now.]
A vast grayness swallowed Kang Woojin whole.
A hot wind blew.
Saaa—
Because it was summer.
Sticky, suffocating heat.
Then Kang Woojin's blurred vision slowly began to clear.
It was afternoon, yet everything around him was dark.
The dense forest blocked the light.
All he could see were trees and rocks.
No—
there was something else too.
'Are those graves?'
In front of him were dozens of rounded graves marked with wooden plaques.
There were bizarre statues too, piles of stones stacked carelessly, and strange dolls jammed into them.
A chilling, ambiguous atmosphere hung in the air.
From that point on, everything about Private Kim began engraving itself into Kang Woojin's mind.
His thoughts.
His emotions.
His senses.
His current mental state.
Because Kang Woojin had now fully become Private Kim.
"Damn it—damn it!"
He didn't know since when, but overwhelming terror had already spread through his entire body.
His breathing was erratic.
He kept exhaling, inhaling, stopping, then gasping again like a madman.
"Huff, huff, huu—"
Kang Woojin was alone.
Abandoned in this ruined forest, he didn't even know where he was.
Everything felt damp.
When he glanced downward, he saw that he was wearing a military uniform.
Mud-caked combat boots.
Filthy pants.
And right in the center—
a dark stain.
It wasn't Private Kim.
Woojin had pissed himself.
His whole body trembled nonstop.
A chill ran down his spine, and the hair on his arms stood up beneath the rolled sleeves of his uniform.
Then—
stillness.
He was gripping a rifle in his hands.
The weapon slung over his shoulder was loaded and ready to fire at any moment.
Come out, you bastard. Come out. I'll blow you away.
Kang Woojin cursed inwardly.
But it was nothing more than a bluff to suppress the fear.
His entire body felt as heavy as a soaked towel.
It really did.
He had run and rolled around so much that every inch of him ached.
Dried mud caked his face and arms, and his thighs stung as if something had pierced them.
But none of that mattered right now.
Damn, this helmet is heavy.
Panting, Kang Woojin wiped the sweat from his forehead and pulled the helmet off.
For just a moment—
a truly brief moment—
he felt cool relief.
The helmet dropped to the ground.
Thunk!
And right then—
Snap!
A sound came from behind him.
At the same time, Kang Woojin whipped around and swung the rifle barrel everywhere in panic.
"Huk, huk—"
Something had definitely been there.
It had to be.
That was why he had run.
That was why he had hidden.
But now there was nothing in sight.
Kang Woojin kept waving the rifle around while whining under his breath.
He wanted to find his comrades.
"S-Sergeant Kim! Corporal Park!!"
"...."
There was no answer.
And the longer the silence stretched, the more desperately Private Kim shouted for them.
"Hey! Corporal Park, you're there, right? Right?? Or Corporal Jang?! You're there! If you're there, answer me!!"
The fear that had been festering inside him for so long exploded all at once.
Kang Woojin impulsively fired.
Bang bang! Bang bang! Bang!
Five shots rang out.
There was no way to know what he had aimed at.
Or where the bullets had landed.
It wasn't a warning shot.
He just wanted to crush the terror rising inside him.
"——Where the hell did they all go?"
Right then.
"Ughhh, Private Kim."
A strange voice came from directly behind Kang Woojin.
No—
was it even a voice?
Woojin sensed that something was horribly wrong, and once again, urine ran down his legs.
Swish.
Kang Woojin slowly turned around.
Someone was standing behind him.
It was none other than Corporal Park, the very man he had been searching for.
A smile instantly spread across Kang Woojin's face.
"Corporal Park...?"
That realization lasted only for an instant.
He could only see Corporal Park's upper body.
The lower half was torn away and missing.
Then that awful sound came again.
"Ughhh—"
Something was holding Corporal Park's upper body.
Kang Woojin fired.
Bang bang bang bang!!
"Damn it! Die! Die!!"
At that exact moment—
Thud!
"Guh—"
Something long pierced through Corporal Park's upper body and stabbed straight through Kang Woojin's abdomen.
Pain exploded through him.
It felt as if every organ in his body had been torn apart at once.
Kang Woojin lowered his head.
Then he lifted it again.
Slash!
For some reason, his vision had completely flipped upside down.
"...What?"
Then Woojin's head hit the ground with a heavy thud.
"Ugh!"
Because his neck had been severed from his body.
Later that afternoon, in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province.
Kang Woojin's parents, Seo Hyunmi and Kang Woocheol, were standing at the counter of the porridge shop they ran.
More precisely—
"Yes, Woojin."
—they were on the phone with their son.
It was their first call since receiving his text a few days earlier.
Kang Woocheol switched the call to speaker and set the phone down.
"What on earth happened with you?"
"That's right, that's right. Do you know how curious your mom and dad have been?"
Seo Hyunmi and Kang Woocheol could barely contain their excitement.
Their son had declared that he was becoming an actor—
and then, two months later, had already won an award.
Any parent would be curious.
Anyway, Kang Woojin calmly explained things over the phone.
"Ah, sorry. But it wasn't a huge film festival."
"What was the name of that festival again? I tried looking it up, but I couldn't figure it out."
"Hm, it's a short film festival that judges only short films, not the kind of movies you see advertised in theaters. Of course, for a rookie like me, it's a big film festival, but overall it's on the smaller side."
"But still, you won an acting award there, right?"
"Yes, I got lucky. I think my next project will probably come out soon too. It's a drama."
"That's even possible? Is it normal for actors to move along that smoothly?"
"No, not really. It's just that I seem to have a talent for acting, so things worked out like this."
"...What?"
"What?"
The call with their son continued for several minutes, but customers started coming in, so they had no choice but to hang up.
Seo Hyunmi and Kang Woocheol had heard everything, but they still didn't fully understand any of it.
Even so, they accepted one thing.
Their son had won an award.
While preparing the ordered porridge, the two kept talking about Woojin nonstop.
Seo Hyunmi started first.
"Could my son really be some kind of acting genius? Woojin was shy when he was little."
"Kids change like that all of a sudden. Woojin took after me—he was handsome from a young age."
"What are you talking about? His nose and eyes are exactly like mine."
Then Seo Hyunmi suddenly clapped her hands.
"Ah! Come to think of it, one of Woojin's friends liked acting, didn't he? Who was it again?"
"Oh, the one who looked kind of like a gorilla? Big build. Was his name Kim Daemyeong? Or Daeyoung?"
"Is he working with him too?"
Soon, as they worked on the porridge, Seo Hyunmi and Kang Woocheol began happily swaying their shoulders like they were dancing.
"Didn't Woojin say he's filming a drama?! Does that mean we might actually see our Woojin on TV, even if only for a moment?"
Meanwhile, inside a university dorm in Seoul—
Since it was Saturday, the campus itself was quiet, but the dormitory was full of students.
Among them, Kang Hyuna lay face-down on the right-side bed in a two-person room and muttered,
"Wow, this is crazy. The Private Investigator even won Best Picture."
She was seriously digging through information on her laptop.
And of course, it was all about The Private Investigator—
the film her brother Kang Woojin had appeared in.
Sadly, she couldn't watch the movie itself.
But when she typed "Kang Woojin" into the search bar, far more related articles came up than she had expected.
For the first time in her life, she was experiencing a weird kind of thrill.
The day before, Kang Hyuna had talked about Kang Woojin with her friends.
Her friends had excitedly urged her to call him, but the person at the center of it all—her brother, Kang Woojin—hadn't answered.
In the end, all Kang Hyuna could do was dig up more information about him.
"Wow, the community buzz is insane! What agency is he with?"
Right then—
♬♪
Kang Hyuna's phone rang.
The caller was the very person she had been waiting for all this time—
her brother, Kang Woojin.
She immediately pressed the phone to her ear.
"Ah!! You've got to be kidding me right now, right?!"
Woojin's sigh came through the phone.
"Ha, my ears are about to fall off. Why do you keep calling? Go study instead."
"Exactly! Why weren't you answering my calls, oppa?"
"Give me ten good reasons why I should answer."
"Because you're my oppa! And... ugh, I don't know! Are you seriously becoming a celebrity??"
"That's the plan, so focus on studying."
"Oh my god... this is insane. How is this even possible? You won an award in two months? Oppa, what agency are you with? Are you close with Hong Hyeyeon? What's your next project? Have you filmed anything else?"
Faced with the barrage of questions, Kang Woojin sighed again.
"Even if I answered all of that, you'd just ask more questions. Look, when the time is right, I'll tell you everything. For now, focus on studying. If you get good grades this time, I'll give you spending money."
"...Really? You?"
"You don't want it?"
"No, I do."
"Then focus on that. I'm hanging up."
"Ahhh, just one thing! Just one! What are you filming right now, oppa?"
"A drama."
Click.
When the call ended, Kang Hyuna slowly lowered her phone, covered her mouth with both hands, and trembled.
"Damn... a drama? That's incredible. He's probably only appearing briefly, right?"
Meanwhile, at GGO Entertainment in Nonhyeon-dong—
CEO Seo Guseob, who looked like a bulldog, was sitting in the center of the office's five-person sofa.
His stiff expression showed exactly how foul his mood was.
Beside him sat Park Junghyuk, who had skipped the short film festival, while several employees stood nearby.
At that moment, one of the employees seated on the left carefully spoke up.
"Looking back, I think it was the right call for Junghyuk not to attend the closing ceremony and awards. Right now, all the attention is on The Private Investigator, Hong Hyeyeon, and that unknown actor who won the award..."
At those words, CEO Seo Guseob pressed a hand to his forehead and answered coldly,
"As for Junghyuk—"
"There was no mention of him at all except on the day of the event. If he had attended, he probably would've just been mocked even more."
Bang!!
CEO Seo Guseob slammed his fist onto the armrest of the sofa.
"Damn it! Why is everything such a total mess?!"
The employees and Park Junghyuk, who already looked downcast, all flinched.
Barely getting hold of himself, CEO Seo Guseob glared at Park Junghyuk to his left.
"Hey. That's why I told you to pour everything into this role, didn't I?"
"...I'm sorry."
"How pathetic were you, that some nameless piece of trash completely stole your spotlight?"
In reality, Park Junghyuk hadn't attended.
But CEO Seo Guseob had been there at the short film festival's closing ceremony and awards, glaring the whole time at Kang Woojin and the rest of The Private Investigator team.
"Hong Hyeyeon, I get it. She betrayed me before, so I can understand losing to her. But to some nobody? You lost to some nobody?"
"But sir. Even Hong Hyeyeon lost to that unknown actor too. She only got Best Actress—"
"Shut up! Don't interrupt me! You should have crushed both of them!!"
His head pounding, CEO Seo Guseob took a deep breath and gave instructions to the staff on his right.
"Hoo—first, dig into that award-winning nobody's background. Kang Woojin, right? Investigate his past. His acting is insane, and the way he suddenly appeared is suspicious too. We need to find out what kind of person he's been from the beginning."
"Understood. We'll start with the domestic theater scene."
"No."
Cutting the employee off, CEO Seo Guseob shook his head.
"I don't think he's from Korea. He's probably Japanese. He spoke comfortably with Director Kyotaro, and his Japanese was as fluent as a native speaker."
With a serious face, he continued issuing orders.
"So look into his Japanese background."
CEO Seo Guseob had caught it too.