Choi Yeon-Ha stared intently at the view of the city at night outside the hotel window.

I’m supposed to heal and recharge my batteries, right? But this...

An overseas vacation was supposed to be a relaxing experience, a time to heal any mental fatigue, and a chance to recharge their energy. At least, that was the story for other people. But it seemed Choi Yeon-Ha differed from those people somewhat!

Doing absolutely nothing for the past few days was making her body itch for some reason, after all!

Is this why some people say vacationing isn’t for everyone?

She used to sing often about going on a vacation and lounging around doing nothing, but now that she had the opportunity to not worry about other things and just kick back... Well, she was suddenly itching to get back to work instead.

Even Choi Yeon-Ha had to admit she was some piece of work. But what could she do about it? This was the curse of being born with a face like hers, no?

“With so many people clinging to Mister Jin-Ho, we can’t even enjoy a proper date with just us two, either.”

Why did Kang Jin-Ho have to be so popular, anyway?

If only he was popular with women! At least Choi Yeon-Ha would be more understanding of that situation. If she was being brutally honest about this, even she had to agree that Kang Jin-Ho’s looks should have made him mega-popular with the opposite sex. But the problem was that men seemed to be excessively drawn to Kang Jin-Ho instead!

As a woman, Choi Yeon-Ha simply could not understand which part of Kang Jin-Ho’s personality was so attractive toward all these smelly old men!

She groaned loudly. “Living together with a popular dude is such a hassle, isn’t it?”

Han Eun-Sol retorted sourly. “You two are not living together yet, noona.”

Choi Yeon-Ha’s less-than-impressed glare landed on Han Eun-Sol, currently perched on the sofa to her side. But he wasn’t backing down this time. No, he stared right back at her with his own less-than-impressed gaze!

That was when Choi Yeon-Ha had a thought. Hold on? What if that idiot keeps hanging around in my living room like that even after I get married?!

Merely imagining it sent shivers down her spine.

Unfortunately, even she had to acknowledge Han Eun-Sol’s usefulness at this point. Choi Yeon-Ha’s footing in the industry had doubled since he had taken over the role of her manager, after all. And she even got to play in the international arena, too, didn’t she?

Han Eun-Sol furrowed his brow. “Why are you looking at me like that, noona?”

“Well, I was just thinking. How nice would it be if you were my real little brother?”

“Oh? So I feel like your real family now?”

“Not like that. If you were my little brother, I’d have beaten the living daylights out of you by now.”

“...”

Han Eun-Sol inwardly praised the heavens for not making him Choi Yeon-Ha’s blood relative. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“So?” Choi Yeon-Ha tutted and asked. “Did you find any auditions for me?”

“Of course! Who do you take me for?”

Han Eun-Sol slicked his bangs back while making an arrogant face. Choi Yeon-Ha nearly lost control and let some unflattering words fly out of her mouth, but her patience won in the end, and she managed to keep her voice down.

“Okay, so? When is my audition?”

“Tomorrow.”

“...? When?”

“Tomorrow, noona.”

“...”

“...?”

Choi Yeon-Ha’s brows arched up slightly. “What the... You dumbass! You think going to an audition is like getting a part-time job in a hotdog stand?! How do you expect me to ace an audition with less than a day’s preparation?!”

Choi Yeon-Ha finally lost her patience and roared at the top of her lungs, but Han Eun-Sol also had grievances to air this time.

“How is that my fault?! It’s your fault for saying you’d like to audition for roles in the middle of your vacation, okay! You should have praised me for finding auditions on such a short notice instead! Don’t you know even whales will dance when you compliment them enough?!”[1]

“Why would whales even dance, anyway!”

“...Uh? That’s because...?”

Indeed, why would whales dance?

Choi Yeon-Ha tutted sourly. “That’s exactly like you, you know?”

Han Eun-Sol innocently tilted his head. “Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Because whales dancing is totally useless to me, okay?!”

“...”

How should Han Eun-Sol describe this...? In the past, Choi Yeon-Ha tortured people by getting angry and throwing some insane tantrums, but nowadays? She seemed to have expanded her repertoire of damage-dealing attacks lately!

She grumpily asked, “Fine! Where’s the script?”

“Riiight here.”

Han Eun-Sol handed a few A4 pages over to Choi Yeon-Ha, prompting her to furrow her brow.

“Really? Is this it?”

“Yup. Besides the line-reading, they’ll ask you to improvise on the spot, as well. I think American producers prioritize improvisation and how much of a match you’re to the character rather than how good you’re at reading the lines.”

“Really?”

Choi Yeon-Ha accepted the script, then focused her attention on the contents of the pages.

“Mm...?” Choi Yeon-Ha casually shrugged. “This is all in English.”

Han Eun-Sol’s eyes powerfully quaked. “Yes, because we are in America.”

“But I don’t speak a lick of English.”

“...”

Something was boiling. Something Han Eun-Sol couldn’t describe or barely keep down was beginning to boil deep within his gut!

“What?! You can’t even speak the language, but you still wanna audition for roles?!”

Choi Yeon-Ha looked unfazed. “Yeah, I do. Aren’t there roles like that? You know, like Korean women who can’t speak English?”

“Wha?! What makes you think there would be such roles?!”

“It’s not totally implausible, you know? Besides, why are you getting angry at me for? Blowing your top so easily like that is bad for your blood pressure, okay? Relax, relax.”[2]

“Keuh-euh...!”

Han Eun-Sol groaned while doing his absolute best to suppress his boiling rage. While he panted and huffed away, a thought suddenly entered his head.

Hang on? Since when was it possible for me to get angry at noona?

Less than half a year ago, Han Eun-Sol wouldn’t dare dream of raising his voice at the one and only Choi Yeon-Ha. Then again, no director, producer, financier or even the talent agency president would dare do that, anyway. So how was Han Eun-Sol getting away with it?

Wow. She has changed a lot, hasn’t she?

If this was in the past, Han Eun-Sol raising his voice would have led to Choi Yeon-Ha utterly trashing the agency’s...

Oh, hang on. Noona’s the director of the agency now. That’s why.

For obvious reasons, she couldn’t afford to trash her own agency. Regardless of what, though, there was no doubt that Choi Yeon-Ha had gotten a lot mellower these days.

“Don’t you worry about a thing, okay!”

Choi Yeon-Ha confidently declared, as if she wanted to get a rise out of Han Eun-Sol one more time.

“I didn’t get that part in the Chinese drama because I was fluent in Chinese, okay? Don’t you remember that I couldn’t speak a lick of Chinese when we went to China for the first time? But I still managed to play my part and even get a bit of recognition on top of that, too. So, it won’t be any different this time! I’ll just start learning my lines!”

“Even though the audition is tomorrow?”

“Don’t you know you can even build the Great Wall in one night if you’re determined enough?”

Han Eun-Sol tutted. “That was already proven false, noona.”

“Is that so?” Choi Yeon-Ha smirked confidently. “I’m telling you, it’ll be fine. No need to sweat, okay? I only need one night. Besides, if those people have functioning eyes, they won’t let me slip through their fingers, even if I stutter like crazy. Right?”

Her absurd level of confidence was driving Han Eun-Sol crazy. What made him even more irritated was the fact that... He couldn’t really find anything substantial to retort with!

Hang on, will things unfold as she says?

Eiii, there’s no way.

...Right?

“O-okay, so? Are you going to learn English? Starting from now?”

“More or less. I’ll just do what I did back in China. As long as I know which lines are mine and what they are supposed to mean, I can always try to match the pronunciation and the tone.”

“But that’s only possible because we hired someone who’s good at Chinese to read the lines for us! Where would we find someone like that now? And at such short notice?!”

“But don’t we already know one?”

“Huh? What? Who?”

“You know, that English uncle tagging along with Mister Jin-Ho.”

“...! Ah, him!”

Han Eun-Sol abruptly recalled the handsome face of a Caucasian gentleman in their entourage. His name was Wiggins or something, wasn’t it?

Although his actual role in the company was unknown, Chief Lee Hyeon-Su was acting super-polite around him. Which meant Wiggins had to be someone very high up on the company’s food chain.

However, Choi Yeon-Ha wanted someone like that to help her prepare for the audition? By reading the lines with her?!

“N-noona, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Choi Yeon-Ha frowned deeply. “Why not?”

“H-how about we ask Chief Lee? He’s fluent in English, isn’t he?”

“We have an actual English speaker in the group, so why ask a Korean to help us? This is not an issue of one’s language skill, okay?”

“I... Uh-whew. Is it really okay to ask him to help you?”

Han Eun-Sol wasn’t sure about this at all. Was asking someone, who was basically a stranger, for help like this even acceptable? They hadn’t even spoken to each other before, after all.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how you’re supposed to do things, though.”

Choi Yeon-Ha tutted. “Eun-Sol? You’re not being reasonable here.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“He works under Mister Jin-Ho, right?”

“Y-yeah? I guess so...?”

Choi Yeon-Ha was Kang Jin-Ho’s girlfriend. There was no doubt about that. However, using her position to force subordinates to participate in something sounded like a typical abuse of one’s authority, didn’t it? Han Eun-Sol realized he needed to put a stop to this.

“Noona, that’s a bad id...”

“And that means that uncle is also a part of that Assembly or whatever it’s called, doesn’t it?”

“E-eh? I think so?”

“That makes him a part of the MK family.”

“Y-yeah?”

“That means! Family members must help each other out! If I do this right and make my mark in Hollywood, MK’s revenue will go through the roof, you know? This is for the good of our company.”

Han Eun-Sol’s jaw fell with a loud thud. Holy sh*t! What a leap in logic that is! I almost fell for it, didn’t I!

Choi Yeon-Ha hurriedly gathered up the pages of the script and shot up to her feet. “Okay, let’s go!”

“Go where, noona?”

“We don’t have time for this! Let’s go and ask him for help!”

“Noona, I honestly think your get-up-and-go attitude is amazing. I really do. But a person’s drive only means something if and when they find the correct...”

“Pipe down and follow me already.”

“...”

Han Eun-Sol shielded his face while watching Choi Yeon-Ha trot toward the suite’s exit.

Was it okay to do this? Seriously?

***

“A... script?”

Wiggins muttered weirdly, then sneakily glanced at Kang Jin-Ho.

However, Kang Jin-Ho was staring at something in the far-off distance through the hotel window. Which was weird, since Wiggins couldn’t remember when Kang Jin-Ho started doing that.

He shifted his attention back to Choi Yeon-Ha. “So, Miss Choi. You need my help with reading this script because your English is... poor?”

“Yes,” Choi Yeon-Ha nodded. “You can speak casually with me, though. You’re a senior, after all.”

“I... Regretfully, I don’t think I can do that.”

Wiggins was a wise man. He knew how fickle life could get.

Being casual around Choi Yeon-Ha shouldn’t lead to a problem now. However, anything could happen later, so Wiggins wanted to cultivate a relationship built more on mutual respect than anything else with her.

That meant this situation was quite dangerous. Unbelievably so!

Considering what dictators and emperors of yore did for their women... Designating Choi Yeon-Ha as the Number One Individual to Watch Out For in the Martial Assembly wouldn’t be an overreaction on Wiggins’ part!

Whatever the reason was, chatting to someone like that would always feel like he was walking on eggshells.

“I don’t mind assisting you. But there is something you need to take note of, Miss Choi. British English and American English aren’t exactly the same, and regretfully, I can only teach you British English.”

Choi Yeon-Ha tilted her head. “Really? Will that be a problem, though?”

“...Hmm. Considering all the success the British actors have found in Hollywood, I’m sure it won’t be an issue. However, what is your time frame? How soon are we supposed to finish this?”

“Until tomorrow morning.”

“...”

Wiggins’ gaze shifted back to Kang Jin-Ho. However, it seemed someone had splashed superglue on the glass, because Kang Jin-Ho’s gaze was resolutely stuck to the window! He really was refusing to even sneak a quick glance in his subordinate’s direction!

“Keuh-hum. My... lord...?”

Wiggins tried to say something, but resigned himself to his fate and turned his back to where Choi Yeon-Ha was.

“Tomorrow morning, you say... Hahaha. Haha. Tomorrow morning...”

This was clearly a dangerous situation. But hadn’t Wiggins overcome countless dangerous situations to come this far? In that case, he should be able to overcome this situation quite easily, too!

“Then, we’re running short on time, aren’t we? Miss Choi, how good is your English?”

“Well, I’ve received formal education on the subject back in school.”

“Oh? Finally, some good news, then. South Korea’s education system boasts an above-average level of quality, after all.”

“But I missed most of my classes because I was a working actor by then.”

“...”

For a moment there, Wiggins grew a little light-headed. However, he still didn’t give up and held on to the glimmer of hope.

“T-then, your English? How much can you speak?”

“Hellow?”

“...”

“Pine, shank you. Annnd...”[3]

“Stop right there.”

While smiling brightly, Wiggins wiped the streams of sweat away from his forehead.

He was sweating? To think he’d actually start sweating while talking to someone! Even though Wiggins had remained cool while visiting Area H27 and hadn’t sweated once!

“This is a very challenging and troublesome mission, but...” Wiggins muttered while staring daggers into the back of Kang Jin-Ho’s head. “In my good conscience, I can’t turn a blind eye to someone asking so earnestly for my help. I’ll do my best to...”

“Oh, hold on. Please don’t misunderstand me.”

Wiggins’ head snapped back to Choi Yeon-Ha. “I beg your pardon?”

She declared confidently. “I’m not asking you on a personal level. This is official business, you see? Yes, I’m requesting for your help in my official capacity. The money I bring in is MK Entertainment’s revenue, after all. And my request is meant to improve the company’s bottom line.”

“Oh?”

That sounded rather logical, didn’t it? Wiggins started viewing Choi Yeon-Ha in a renewed light just then.

So, she’s a proud person?

Not an egotistical person, no. The nuance here was not the same. Rather than ego, she had pride. Or confidence regarding what she did.

“In that case, allow me to assist you with the best of my abilities on your quest to improve our company’s revenue. You came to me at the perfect time, since I’ve been feeling like a freeloader for a little while now. At least I can finally start contributing in my own way.”

“Thank you! Shall we get started, then?”

“Of course. Let’s see...”

The smiling Wiggins began perusing the script. And as he leisurely began reading it...

Well, this is... Mm?

Wiggins’ eyes began to quake a little. He then alternated his gaze between the script and Choi Yeon-Ha, then at Han Eun-Sol next.

“E-excuse me? This part, isn’t it for...”

“Yes, it is,” said Han Eun-Sol, while making a slightly embarrassed face. “The character is a girl in her late teens who has fallen in love. The casting director said it might be doable since Asian faces tend to look young. What we need to focus on is getting the tenderness and anxiety of a young girl in love...”

That meant Wiggins had to read the lines of a teenage girl in love...? But...

Wiggins’ eyes powerfully quaked. He hurriedly turned his head and looked at Kang Jin-Ho.

“Keuh-hmm!” Kang Jin-Ho fake-coughed, then leisurely got up to leave. “I just remembered I had something to do. Later.”

“My lord!”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait, my lord!”

Even though Wiggins desperately called out, Kang Jin-Ho still escaped from the room with the speed of passing storm winds.

Choi Yeon-Ha urged Wiggins on. “Let’s hurry and get this started. Please remember that this is work.”

Wiggins squeezed his eyes shut and resigned himself to his fate once more.

1. In case you’re confused, this is a reference to the book called “Whale Done!” written by the author, Ken Blanchard, and published in February 2002. Its Korean title is “Compliments Can Even Make Whales Dance.” Looks like the translators took some liberty with the book title there, no? Kek. For some reason, though, this title has taken on a life of its own and has become a popular idiom in Korea. ☜

2. “Relax” was in English in the raw. ☜

3. These two lines were in Konglish in the raw. ☜