The representative office of Flame Enter.
Seated on the sofa with her legs crossed, Heavenly Yuah sighed softly while cradling her forehead.
This wasn’t how the free pass I gave you was meant to be used.
Of all people, it had to be her.
From the start, she’s been strangely irritating, and now, it’s culminated in chaos.
“Director.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“How would it be if Moon Suyeon joins Flame Enter? Would it benefit the company?”
“Wouldn’t it be obvious it wouldn’t?”
“Hmm?”
Heavenly Yuah, pressing on her temples while asking the question.
Unable to discern the precise intent behind the question, the director decided to just honestly share his thoughts.
“For the past four years, while she has stuck to dance titles, people have forgotten, but her biggest strength lies in self-producing and her unique sensibility. Once she begins releasing her own compositions, utilizing her strengths, things would surely change.”
“Huh.”
“And as you’ve seen too, in acting…”
“Yes, she is fairly competent. Given her relatively short career, her deficiencies show up occasionally, but with the right roles, she’ll soar.”
“If that’s the case, the answer is clear, right?”
“Exactly.”
It’s like a guaranteed-winning lottery ticket that one must snatch if possible, but something still made Heavenly Yuah uneasy.
She couldn’t make a clear judgment.
Would it be an advantage or a disadvantage?
“There’s a reason why all the decent agencies are approaching her. Moon Enter is also starting to feel the pressure, it seems.”
“They seemed so sure that she would definitely renew the contract, now it looks like they’re getting nervous.”
“Even if they have something to confidently rely on, in a situation like this, worries are natural. I’ve heard that lately, she’s even forbidden from going outside.”
“Are they blocking her from contacting other companies?”
“That’s the most plausible assumption.”
What a sticky situation.
And even more pitiful is Moon Suyeon, caught up in such a messy place.
“But didn’t we already make a promise?”
“A promise… we did.”
“In that case, it would be best to prepare for the worst scenario.”
“The worst?”
Following Director Ju’s advice that if the future can’t be determined, it’s best to at least avoid the worst, Heavenly Yuah’s mind began to whirl.
Thinking about what would be the worst case scenario in this situation.
“The worst case is… when Mr. Siu leaves the company building.”
“Indeed. Since we still haven’t caught any leads related to the nightmare.”
In a way that was subtle yet apparent, White Siu’s unusual attention to Moon Suyeon was striking.
Given that he usually showed little interest in other matters, yet acted differently towards Moon Suyeon, Heavenly Yuah instinctively wanted to maintain this situation for now, but naturally felt the need to be on guard.
Even if Moon Suyeon stayed at Moon Enter or moved to another company, if she became romantically involved with White Siu, the likelihood of him not staying at the company building would increase.
An actor with a significant other wouldn’t have much reason to stay around the company building.
Since Heavenly Yuah hasn’t fully overcome her nightmares, this was the thing she absolutely had to guard against.
“Thinking about the worst possible case… it seems we should try to bring her into the company.”
Of course, whether the interest White Siu is showing towards Moon Suyeon is truly romantic is unknown, but if the aim is to avoid the worst situation, bringing her into the company first would indeed be appropriate.
“Hey, is all this really necessary? The world on the side of weakness is truly harsh.”
This feeling of injustice is overwhelming.
But compared to neglecting the situation, it seems wiser to somehow embrace it.
With that, Heavenly Yuah decided to first bring Moon Suyeon into the company and deal with the rest afterwards.
“I’d better hand over all the information we’ve uncovered so far to Mr. Siu. He might be better at persuasion than me.”
She also decided to share all the information they’d gathered on Moon Suyeon and Moon Enter with White Siu.
Considering we’d promised to do our best and regardless of the outcome, it seemed better to tie her within the confines of the company for the time being.
In truth, this company, whose actions we wanted to investigate, had not been anticipated as something we’d need to delve into so deeply.
“Is it possible, though?”
“I’m unsure. There’s clearly some entanglement on their side too. Other companies can’t even make contact, right? We can, so we’ll leave this to Mr. Siu who’s on the field.”
In reality, Heavenly Yuah was still uncertain whether bringing Moon Suyeon into the company was truly the best decision.
It was far too personal and emotional, making a rational conclusion difficult.
Giving up on calculating gains or losses, she concluded it was truly uncertain.
Not long after receiving Luna’s recruitment promise from Heavenly Yuah, a fairly substantial amount of data was handed over.
It contained information related to her and her company, Moon Enter.
Befitting of Flame Enter’s meticulous approach, it appeared they had also investigated Moon Enter.
It didn’t seem to be in preparation for future artist scouting since Luna was a singer—rather, it was more likely a precautionary measure because Moon Enter had been prickly, ensuring there were no vulnerabilities.
Considering that the rumor spread before they conducted this investigation, it reflects their incredible sense of preemptive strategy.
“Seriously…”
Originally, Luna had no blood relatives, existing alone, but she was picked up by Moon Young-Woo, the former CEO of Moon Enter, who took her in from the foster care system.
Though not adopted as a legal daughter, sharing the “Moon” surname was purely coincidental.
However, Moon Young-Woo seemed to view this as predestined.
To an extent exceeding the care a typical parent would show, he genuinely took good care of her as her guardian.
Thus, these two collaborated, and with Moon Young-Woo’s acquaintance network, Moon Enter was born.
“Moon” in Moon Enter represented both Moon Suyeon and Moon Young-Woo.
In its early days, Moon Enter was a very small company.
Both Moon Young-Woo and Moon Suyeon concentrated more on artistic integrity and self-satisfaction rather than populism, stuck in an outdated philosophy that believed good songs would eventually be recognized.
But some truly successful folks are just that—successful. Once Luna debuted, by her second year, offers slowly started coming in, and by the third year, she established conditions suitable for full-scale activities.
The troubles began after the sudden death of CEO Moon Young-Woo.
With full ownership of the company shares, his only heir—his younger brother Moon Young-Joo, now the current CEO—took charge of Moon Enter.
Dissatisfied with the company’s direction from the start, Moon Young-Joo transformed singer-songwriter Luna into dance-singer Luna, thus ushering in an unprecedented string of blockbusters from then on.
“Looks like it wasn’t fully cut off—being the brother of the former CEO, Moon Enter itself, and even the remaining old employees from those days…”
This setup was actually painfully familiar.
Her situation in Martial Forest was not so different.
Back then, there was also the Haomon organization and its disciples, used and exploited until their ultimate demise.
This woman seems like an absolute fool, both there and here.
“Strangely, everyone seems to sync well. Heavenly Yuah, Mr. Nam, and her, too.”
The huge multinational company S&M and New Religion.
Changcheon, a well-known Korean conglomerate, and Namgoong Family.
Luna’s exclusive entertainment company, Moon Enter, and Haomon.
Somehow, everything feels strangely similar.
“At least, it seems she’s started having second thoughts? After all, her contract renewal still hasn’t occurred. But ultimately, the argument will just end in her obstinacy. That’s her kind of woman.”
It’s rare for an entertainer to finish their existing contract term completely.
Negotiations often begin long before the contract is due, with renewal or re-contracting being standard procedure.
That the renewal isn’t finalized yet implies she’s being quite obstinate, though ultimately, it’s clear she’ll probably default back to Moon Enter if things stay this way.
“Always one with messy endings, maybe this time it should all be pushed through.”
A wish that this time it finally all comes to a graceful end.
Returning to the filming set.
Today, Luna, who again appeared to shoot with me, greeted me with the now very familiar smile.
After just a few days of seeing each other daily, we’ve started feeling at ease with one another.
It began on the first day with the seven-stringed lute shooting.
True to her musician nature, the lute captured her attention. She liked the melody I played, asking if she could borrow some of it for her own album.
Of course, I agreed.
From there started a conversation, and we pledged a mutual commitment with her promising I’d play the lute live for her. Our bond strengthened considerably.
“Ah, this work? When I saw the script, I instantly thought of you as my perfect fit. You might not know, but there’s a song of mine called ‘Landing Moon.'”
“Yes, I’ve heard it. It was a great song, right? Yang Writer supposedly built the character of Wolhee based on that song.”
“I’ve heard that too. That’s why I wanted to do it even more.”
Our talks weren’t solely about music.
We discussed why she was so determined to join the project.
“Yang Writer is a unique character. The moment he handed over the script to the company and got no response, he stationed himself in front of our building.”
“Really?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what happened. He met me by chance one day, and thus handed over the script. Our manager was about to faint.”
And the tales of Yang Yuli bypassing the company’s tight defenses to personally deliver the script.
We shared quite a number of stories.
I easily continued the conversation by matching Luna’s tone with the same spirit as Wolhee.
At this stage, it seemed appropriate to start sharing personal aspects of our lives.
“Mr. Siwoo feels strangely comforting. What exactly is this?”
These days, our conversations are casually mixed with a touch of informal language.
Similar to how Yoon Yi (Hao Moonzhu) from Martial Forest spoke, it felt more natural for me.
Even though she’s younger, it suits her.
I found her cuteness endearing and decided to let it be.
Watching her talk like that felt strangely nostalgic.
Despite the internet’s school bullying controversies, filming proceeded smoothly.
The manager from Moon Enter occasionally probed around, but with our side’s overwhelming numbers, they couldn’t make any significant moves.
Too overtly damaging the set was a strategy the other side couldn’t resort to.
Considering the scale of this drama, even a minor issue could land heavy responsibility, and it would also be a major setback for them.
Flame’s reputation for fearlessly taking lawsuits or going to court probably made them wary.
So they were likely plotting something covertly from behind the scenes.
Anyways, in the span of a few days, we managed to film a good number of scenes.
Our filming at the pre-modern Korea set for Wolhee’s scenes was almost wrapping up.
From the scenes of Wolhee’s relaxed dates with Eun, to the covert attack from Japanese spies against Wolhee, and the performances before dignitaries, the relatively static scenes are almost complete.
“Recently, it’s been a bit noisy, Mr. Siwoo. Is this a Flame project?”
“Um, kind of.”
Luna had focused solely on filming and hadn’t mentioned the rumors about me at all, but by bringing this up today, it seems she either suspects our side’s involvement or is curious about how we resolved the issues she’d helped hint at.
Either way, it’s a pleasant surprise for me that she’s learning about how thorough our company is, so I gave her a general explanation of how we handled it.
“What sort of approach is this?”
“Always like that. We prefer the cleanest methods. How about it? Are you not satisfied?”
“…It’s good. I’m impressed that the rumors can be dealt with like that.”
“That’s how it should be, right? You deserve this level of care, Senior.”
“…”
Luna quickly shut her mouth as soon as I subtly steered the conversation towards the company.
This naïve woman is still unawares.
“Ultimately, there’s no other choice but to use today’s shoot, which is burdensome for me too.”
In just a few days, Luna looked quite exhausted.
It was due to the fatigue accumulating from balancing album preparations with the shoot.
Once today’s shoot wraps, Wolhee’s scenes will be on hold for a while.
Before her next shooting schedule, she will dive into what is known as a hectic comeback schedule.
Today’s shoot coincidentally features Wolhee’s death scene, and with the protagonist’s internal conflict, Luna’s worn-out state fits perfectly, benefiting the field here.
But envisioning her condition after managing the comeback and coming back doesn’t paint a pretty picture.
Naturally, from my perspective, I’d desperately like to pull her out as soon as possible, shunting aside the tiresome comeback schedule.
Thus, I marked today as my D-Day to convince her.
The scene is perfectly timed for a great opportunity to sweep her away.
