Extra 2: Baek Soo-kyung & The Prison Duo

“They’re already married…”

In a small convenience store at the end of an alley, a clerk wearing a baseball cap sat in the cashier area.

There were few customers in the dead of night. As a night shift employee who was crashing in the convenience store’s stockroom, Baek Soo-kyung had plenty of time to scroll through his phone.

#GATEQiHuaiWooanYoonNamHyuk#
#QiHuaiYoonNamHyukSecretMarriage#

The hashtags related to these two had been trending on social media for over a week. It was impossible not to see them. Was this also part of his punishment?

Heh, people born in Rome, born rich. I really don’t know if I’ll have that kind of luck in my next life.

That guy Eun Chul-woo was an even bigger idiot. He had clearly gotten everything, yet he didn’t know how to cherish it.

He deserved to die.

Ding-dong—

Welcome!

It was rare to have customers at this hour. Baek Soo-kyung was startled at first, then skillfully put on a face mask, covering the face that had “gone viral overnight, famous all over the internet.”

The customers were two girls, both in their teens, clearly just back from some event, their faces alight with excited smiles.

“Omo! Is what unni said true? We can get their signed photos? But… how is that possible?”

Qi Huai was no longer an actor, and President Yoon was never an artist to begin with. How could there be such a perk?

The other girl stomped her foot excitedly. “I thought it was fake at first too, but she showed me the screenshot! I heard she persistently made a wish on Qi Huai-oppa’s IG and he saw it.”

“Daebak… so lucky. If only they would hold a fan meeting, I would definitely go!”

“Aigoo, what are you thinking? Other people hold fan meetings to make money. For those two, holding a fan meeting would be a waste of time, right? People who can make hundreds of millions of won in minutes, how could they hold an event to meet us?”

“Sigh, that’s true… but the events organized by the fans themselves are also great. Unni, look, the photo I just took is pretty good, right?”

“Oh! It’s great!”

The two of them chattered for a while, each picking out a drink and some gummy candies before heading to the checkout counter. “Checkout, please.”

Baek Soo-kyung, who had been in a daze, snapped back to reality and quickly lowered his voice. “Ne! Please wait a moment, I’ll ring you up right away!”

A person whose photo was all over the internet would look familiar even with a baseball cap and a mask. The two girls subconsciously looked at each other. One of them couldn’t help but ask, “Excuse me… are you Kim Ji-woo?”

The girl next to her nudged her. “He looks more like Pyo Tae-wook, right?”

“You’ve got the wrong person,” Baek Soo-kyung said, his voice strained, as he bagged their items as quickly as possible. “I’m just a poor student with no parents, trying to earn a little extra money by working the night shift. An unlucky person from birth. How could I be a celebrity? You think too highly of me.”

The kind-hearted girls were speechless. Realizing they had touched a sore spot, they apologized repeatedly, grabbed their bag, and ran out.

The convenience store returned to silence.

Baek Soo-kyung slumped back into his chair with a thud.

To be honest, he didn’t know how much longer he had to live like this. This was the third time this week. Some people would directly ask if he was Baek Soo-kyung; others would mistake him for other idols.

If one day he was truly recognized, those people who were constantly reposting and discussing him online would probably come directly to the store to gawk, right?

As for the reason for all of this… heh, it was just to divert the public’s attention for the big shots.

After some of the Heaven videos were broadcast by reporters, the public outcry for the release of the list of people involved grew louder and louder. To create an equally eye-catching public event, the videos and audios of him, Park Seok-jin, and Choi Min-jun were mercilessly exposed to the entire internet overnight.

Gone viral overnight, famous all over the internet.

The wish he had been muttering a few months ago had actually come true in this bizarre way.

As expected, someone like him, with no power, no influence, and no money, could only be cannon fodder for those big shots.

First it was Choi Min-jun, then Park Seok-jin, and finally Eun Chul-woo. Now there were those mysterious top-level people who were worried about the nightclub videos being exposed. It seemed he was always at the bottom of the food chain.

Even the methods he had once used to imitate Choi Min-jun for personal gain had now become knives stabbing into his own body.

The love triangle between the three men, the perverted sexual fetishes, the self-serving deals, and even their confessions at the police station where they threw mud at each other—it was all like a laughable clown show, posted online by the media with a tone of mockery and contempt.

During this time, whenever Baek Soo-kyung closed his eyes, he could recall those online comments. Every word was like a thorn.

「Ya… what good luck. He owed 600 million won before signing with Woosan, right? And he paid it all off in half a year? Are artists who haven’t even played any major roles making this much money these days? It’s so unfair…」
「The person above didn’t look closely. Of course, it’s fast when it’s not money you earned through hard work.」
「Aigoo, Baek Soo-kyung is young but his acting is very good. He said before that he was forced, that he was living in a nightmare. He cried so pitifully, I actually believed him. But judging from the audio, he seemed to be enjoying it too, right?」
「More than that. He actively asked Park Seok-jin for money and resources. And he’s pretty good at cosplay, too.」
「That’s right. Now the resources are all over the internet. What a great philanthropist.」

Now, the name Baek Soo-kyung was on the blacklist of every TV station. Let alone being an idol or an artist, even small brands wouldn’t hire him for faceless modeling gigs, afraid of being associated with trouble.

Ding!

The microwave beeped, signaling that the heating was finished. Baek Soo-kyung used a paper towel to take out his dinner: a cup of ramen and a tuna onigiri.

“So hot!” He sucked in a breath of cold air. Even so, he held the ball of rice in his mouth, rolling it back and forth, unwilling to spit it out.

At twenty years old, he cherished every grain of rice, carefully drank the last drop of soup from the ramen bowl, then rubbed his rumbling stomach, preparing to return to the stockroom to sleep.

The familiar convenience store, the familiar makeshift bed in the stockroom, the familiar ramen and onigiri—the two foods he had once most wanted to abandon. But after all the twists and turns, he still had to rely on them to fill his stomach.

The convenience store owner was a kind old man. Even though he had resigned for more than half a year, he was still willing to take him back to work. The upside-down schedule he had once found unbearable had now become the best time for him to stay away from the crowd and find some peace.

“Some people are just suited to live like rats,” Baek Soo-kyung said faintly.

---

In prison.

Choi Min-jun was practicing his smile in front of a mirror. The boss of his cell had said his smile was too fake, very ugly, and that he could only go to bed after he had practiced it well.

“Don’t give me that hypocritical look, understand? I’m not some easily fooled little artist,” the other said viciously. “Pah, I feel like throwing up just looking at you.”

Throwing up?

Choi Min-jun curled his lip. I’m the one who wants to throw up.

If there were an annual award for “Complete and Utter Failure,” our Manager Choi should at least win a gold medal.

He had worked hard to become Mu-san’s gold-medal manager, producing many famous artists. If he had learned to be content, he could have lived a very good life in Seoul no matter what.

But some people are characterized by their eternal dissatisfaction.

Driving a Mercedes and dreaming of a yacht, living in an apartment and dreaming of a villa. A person who worked his blood and sweat to earn 200 million won a year was already living like an emperor in the eyes of others. But he could only see the gods who were living even more extravagantly than him.

At first, he had collaborated with Yoon Nam-woo, hoping for a meteoric rise, to live a life where he could earn 500 million won a year.

Later, he felt that Yoon Nam-woo was unreliable, so he had the crooked idea of blackmail. Blackmailing once for two billion won, twice would save him decades of struggle. It seemed faster and more cost-effective than the former.

However, the good luck of the first half of his life seemed to have run out. First, Yoon Nam-woo had almost had him killed. Then Qi Huai had saved his life, but hadn’t let him off the hook either.

He had intended to start over after finishing his sentence, but plans couldn’t keep up with changes. Yoon Nam-hyuk and Eun Chul-woo had actually bought off his cellmates to “interrogate” him one after another…

Choi Min-jun couldn’t take it anymore and made a deal with Eun Chul-woo. As long as he could get him out, he would tell him everything.

Eun Chul-woo acted quickly. Not only did he help reduce his sentence, but he also promised to send him abroad. Choi Min-jun was just sighing about his good luck when, not long after, Eun Chul-woo died!

Go Eun-bin’s death, the Heaven videos, the sexually coerced stars… in short, all of this had angered the public.

But Yoon Tae-min was dead, Eun Chul-woo was dead, Kim Min-kyung was dead. The public was holding in their anger with nowhere to release it. Just one Kim Joo-hwan was not enough for everyone to curse at. He and the likes of Park Seok-jin and Tae Sang-won naturally became one of the targets to attract the public’s attention.

But, Choi Min-jun thought to himself, thinking about it now, he was still lucky. With that guy Eun Chul-woo’s personality, forget sending him abroad, sending him to hell was probably the real plan.

He smiled in the mirror for a while longer. He was exhausted. Suddenly, a police officer outside shouted, “Dinner!”

The inmates joyfully filed out. Choi Min-jun couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief and limped after them.

Oh right, his leg was injured. The permanent kind. He didn’t know who did it, because there were just too many people who had beaten him up.

---

Choi Min-jun limped to the cafeteria, holding his tray and queuing for food. He looked up and saw Park Seok-jin not far away.

Haha, black and blue.

Choi Min-jun laughed inwardly. Park Seok-jin is even unluckier than me, he thought. His sentence is not short. I wonder when this guy will become a cripple.

Park Seok-jin glanced at him and said nothing. Although they disliked each other and argued whenever they met, as the only two people with a past connection who wouldn’t physically fight, they could perhaps call each other “friends” in a place like this?

It was good to have someone to argue with.

So he wouldn’t go crazy.

Park Seok-jin stood in front of him, brazenly cutting in line. Choi Min-jun sneered, “Yo, it’s rare for Actor Park to be so enthusiastic about eating carbs. Today it’s rice and kimchi soup, a red-light diet that will make you fat and bloated.”

“Shut up, cripple,” Park Seok-jin said coldly.

Choi Min-jun laughed. “Isn’t our Actor Park a perfect man? So his temper is this bad. Oh, right, what happened to that handsome face? A new project from the dermatology clinic?”

Park Seok-jin stared at his leg. “Instead of paying so much attention to my face, Manager Choi should go see an orthopedist first. Oh, maybe I misunderstood. It’s not that you have a problem with your leg, but that you were fucked until you were lame. I heard you practice your smile in the mirror every day to seduce people? Picking up your old trade, are you?”

“Shibal, you—”

A police officer shouted, “Quiet!”

The two of them shut up and turned their heads.

Lunch included rice, pork and kimchi soup, pickled radish, and three fried dumplings. The dumplings were vegetarian. There were only two pieces of pork, and they were mostly fat, but having meat was good enough.

They took their trays and looked for a seat. Because they were ostracized by the others, they had no choice but to sit together.

As soon as Park Seok-jin sat down, he picked up his chopsticks to grab the meat.

He had to be quick.

“Ya! Park Seok-jin!” a swaggering, tattooed criminal suddenly shouted at him.

Shibal—

Here we go again!

The criminal tapped his plate with his chopsticks, urging, “It’s lunchtime. How can there be no music? Big star, sing us a song. What was that drama called… oh! The Witch’s Rule. You were the lead, right? You sang the theme song too. You sang it well. Sing one for us, hmm? How about it?”

He asked “how about it,” but there was no room for negotiation. A few days ago at lunchtime, he had been called out to sing. He had refused, which was why he was now black and blue!

Park Seok-jin put down his chopsticks and took a deep breath. But before he could open his mouth, the other said, “Aigoo, can you sing while sitting? I see on TV that stars all sing while standing. That way, their voice can spread far and wide, right everyone?”

The others laughed. “Ne.”

“Then stand up and sing, big star,” the other said.

Park Seok-jin’s face turned from green to red. He stood up and began to sing.

The entire cafeteria echoed with his voice. And it had to be said, his singing skills were not bad. Even a cappella, it sounded good. Choi Min-jun listened to the music and tapped his leg, then reached over and snatched the pork from Park Seok-jin’s soup bowl, stuffing it into his mouth and chewing.

If Park Seok-jin sings at every meal, then I’ll have four pieces of pork at every meal. Scold me if you want, I don’t care.

The singing Park Seok-jin’s face turned green.

Those two pieces of pork, eight parts fat and two parts lean. In the past, he would have sneered at them. Now, he wished he could just snatch them out of Choi Min-jun’s mouth!

But it didn’t matter, he thought.

You just wait. We’ve got a long time ahead of us.