Chapter 287 - Reward (2)

Ji Han-Seok had a short conversation with Kang Ra-Eun in the hallway. After sending her on her way to the bathroom, he packed his things that were in his waiting room and was getting ready to leave when...

“...Hm?”

He happened to witness two unfamiliar men walking along the end of the hallway.

‘I don't think I’ve ever seen them before.’

This was a film set; it was not a place that anyone could just enter as they liked, so it was no wonder that Han-Seok would be wary of people whom he had never seen before.

“Excuse me,” he called out to them.

There was a chance that they had entered without knowing that it was a film set, so Han-Seok tried to explain to them that they couldn’t be in here before they got into trouble.

“...”

“...”

But before Han-Seok even had a chance to properly talk to them, they quickly headed somewhere.

‘It kind of feels like they’re moving quickly to not be noticed.’

They were obviously suspicious from just a glance.

“What are you doing, Han-Seok?”

As Han-Seok was about to chase after them, his manager called out to him while looking at him weirdly. He had said that he would come back after getting his things from his waiting room, so it would obviously look weird for the manager that he was just standing around in the hallway.

“Hyung. I’m sorry, but I’ll be right back.”

“Are you going to meet someone?”

“Something like that,” Han-Seok answered and quickly headed to where the men had disappeared to.

His manager shrugged and said to himself, “I can’t get a read on that guy sometimes.”

***

“Where did they go?”

Han-Seok, who had been chasing after the two men, witnessed a strange scene. The two men who he had been chasing and some more men were surrounding a woman with a familiar face.

“Ra-Eun!”

The men showed displeasure at Han-Seok’s shout. Han-Seok sensed that something was very wrong and approached Ra-Eun while pushing his way past the men.

“Who in the world are you people? What do you want with Ra-Eun?”

“...”

The men silently looked at one man among them. It was the tall, short-haired man who had been in one of the women’s bathroom stalls. As Ra-Eun observed the men, she assumed that he was their leader.

“Are you the boss?”

She acted in a completely different way from what Han-Seok knew of her.

The man said while looking down at her, “There is someone who would like to see you. You will come with us.”

Ra-Eun did not bother asking who that person was since she already knew.

“And if I refuse?”

“We have been told to bring you by force if necessary.”

Ra-Eun snorted. She had only one answer for them.

“You can suck a dick, motherfucker,” Ra-Eun cursed.

They were not acting. Han-Seok could not hide his surprise at seeing Ra-Eun’s true self for the very first time. Meanwhile, the tall man nodded to signal the other men to close the distance on her. Han-Seok did not know what was going on, but he instinctively knew that he needed to protect Ra-Eun.

However, Ra-Eun reacted first. She raised her right leg vertically, smashing the groin of the man on her left. The man sharply groaned. The men were shocked as Ra-Eun attacked in the most terrifying way for men. However, they did not falter and charged toward her.

“Grab her before anyone else comes!”

“Yes, sir!”

They only had one goal, and it was to kidnap Ra-Eun.

“Stay back here, sunbae.”

Ra-Eun dashed forward before Han-Seok had the chance to say anything. She tripped one man with her leg, and struck another man in the solar plexus with her sharp elbow. The tall man swallowed his saliva from seeing how Ra-Eun had neutralized three men instantly.

Park Eun-Soo had advised him to take as many people as possible since it would be difficult for him to do by himself. However, the man simply thought that Eun-Soo was worrying too much, and practically ignored his advice. He felt like there was no reason nor need to mobilize a large number of people just to kidnap one actress. However, the situation had completely changed. He should have brought more people just like Eun-Soo had advised.

“Tch!”

The tall man also charged at Ra-Eun with his subordinates, but Ra-Eun ducked and instantly escaped from their encircling net.

“How do you expect to kidnap a girl like me with that?”

She was relaxed enough to mock them as well. She dealt a devastating kick to the tall man’s back.

Smash—!

The man staggered greatly from the strike. No matter how lacking a woman’s physical strength was compared to a man’s, it would be more than strong enough as long as she transferred enough weight to her kicks. The man struggled back into position while ignoring the stabbing pain shooting from his back.

‘Who the hell is this woman?’

While Ra-Eun was fully focused on the tall man, one of the men that had collapsed on the ground charged at Ra-Eun. This time, Han-Seok reacted before Ra-Eun could; he grabbed the man’s arm and twisted it. He then used the torque generated to smash him back down on the ground.

“I don’t know who you are, but don’t even think about laying a hand on Ra-Eun in front of me.”

Just like how Han-Seok had seen a new side of Ra-Eun, she also saw a new side of him. Although he was nowhere near Ra-Eun’s level, he had also learned a fair amount of martial arts. It had been to raise the quality of his action performances, but he had never imagined for it to be useful in a situation like this.

“Thank you for your help, sunbae.”

Han-Seok smiled. Ra-Eun and Han-Seok’s fighting skills aside, time was not on the side of the men. People began to notice the commotion.

“What’s going on? Did something happen over there? Why is it so noisy?”

“Shall I go take a look?”

“Yeah, go check it out.”

“Okay, sunbae.”

The tall man clicked his tongue. It would only be bad for them if they wasted any more time. If word got out to the public that Kim Han-Gyo had ordered them to kidnap Ra-Eun, it would be a complete disaster.

“Let’s retreat.”

The other men strenuously nodded. Han-Seok was dumbfounded as the men quickly disappeared.

“Who the hell were they...?”

Ra-Eun knew that they had been sent by Han-Gyo, but not Han-Seok since he had no idea about the relationship between Ra-Eun and Han-Gyo.

‘It’s good that I managed to not get kidnapped, but how should I explain this to sunbae...?’

She still had more to do.

***

Ra-Eun could not give Han-Seok a detailed explanation about what was going on between her and Han-Gyo. She didn’t mind Ma Yeong-Jun, Park Seol-Hun and So Ha-Jin knowing since they were her closest associates, but Han-Seok’s position couldn’t be further away from theirs. Hence, she needed to wrap up this incident without mentioning Han-Gyo in any way.

First, Ra-Eun and Han-Seok decided to move to somewhere else. Even while moving, Han-Seok was only worried for Ra-Eun.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“I should have been the one protecting you, but I couldn’t do a thing.”

Ra-Eun shook her head and denied his statement.

“You helped me when I was in danger, didn’t you? That was more than enough help you could’ve given me.”

“Really? That’s a relief.”

Since the situation had been resolved, Han-Seok asked about what he still had not received an answer to.

“Who in the world were those men, and why did they try to kidnap you? Do you have any idea?”

After much thought about what excuse to give, Ra-Eun came up with...

“It’s a stalker.”

“A stalker...?”

“Yes. There has been a stalker following me around since the past few days. I knew he was vicious, but to think he even hired people to kidnap me this time.”

“Jesus Christ. Shouldn’t you request protection from the police, then?”

“I’m thinking of hiring the security company that took care of me last time. They’re more reliable than the police.”

The same thing would never have happened if Yeong-Jun and Ha-Jin had been with her. Ra-Eun had momentarily let her guard down after thinking that she had won against Han-Gyo. It was time to tighten her guard back up.

“Okay. Let me know if there’s anything that I can do. I might be lacking, but I will do anything to protect you.”

“Thank you very much, sunbae.”

Ra-Eun had watched over Han-Seok for a very long time, and her thought that he was a great man grew stronger as time passed.

***

“You idiots! You couldn’t even handle such a simple task?!”

Han-Gyo threw the ashtray on his desk. The faces of the tall man and his subordinates hardened as they witnessed Han-Gyo livid with rage. Eun-Soo sighed as he could hear Han-Gyo cursing at them from inside the study, as if he had expected this to happen. He stared at the tall man whose head was bowed down deeply.

‘I knew this would happen from the moment my advice fell on deaf ears.’

Eun-Soo had directly confronted the masked woman before. Although it was only a short bout, he had realized how skilled of a fighter she was.

‘Maybe I should’ve gone myself,’ Eun-Soo thought.

However, he shook his head soon after. His face was very well known as the leader of Han-Gyo’s security detail. If it were to be revealed that he had somehow been involved in this incident, Han-Gyo’s reputation would for sure be unable to recover. Eun-Soo was only worried about the possibility that Ra-Eun had somehow realized that the kidnapping incident had been Han-Gyo’s doing.

***

Ra-Eun saw Han-Seok again on the film set. She fixed her gaze on him, who was having a script reading session with Yoo Ji-Hyun, her body double. Ra-Eun was bothered for some reason as she watched the two of them discussing their positions during the kiss scene.

“Like this, sunbae?” Ji-Hyun asked as she assertively got closer to Han-Seok.

Han-Seok, who was slightly bewildered, distanced himself from her a little.

“Y-Yeah. I think that’s perfect, but we’re not filming right now, so...”

“We should practice like it’s the real thing, shouldn’t we?”

Han-Seok showed reluctance to her daring remark. Just then, Ra-Eun turned away from Han-Seok and went to find Director Yoon Tae-Yoon.

“Director.”

Director Yoon, who had been talking to some staff members, replied, “Yes, Ra-Eun?”

“I have a request.”

“A request?’

Ra-Eun laid out a shocking statement with a face full of determination.

“Please let me do the kiss scene in Ji-Hyun’s place.”