If I Don’t Earn 1 Trillion Won, My Regression Ends - Chapter 90
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 90
“….”
Haemun stopped speaking right there.
When the director closed his mouth, the living room became quiet again. However, Geum Ju-ran seemed to understand his unfinished words.
“…So you’re saying you think Sing-a has the potential for that breakthrough?”
“Well… yeah. I’d have to say so.”
“But you’re upset because it’s not coming out?”
“Yeah!”
With a deeply troubled expression, Haemun ruffled his hair.
“It definitely seems like it should work, but it doesn’t. I need to figure out if this is my problem or her problem. But what kind of direction can I give? When I don’t even know what the problem is myself.”
Was it because of his pride as a master? He actually didn’t like talking about these things.
Because it made him look lacking in ability.
Because it made him feel like he was inadequate.
But just as actors move according to his commands, directors also develop a sense of responsibility toward their actors.
Haemun had discovered Seosing-a, and so he wanted to nurture her well.
He wanted to dig up everything the actor possessed, down to the very roots, and make it bloom and flourish on the vast silver screen.
An actor is an element and tool for a director to complete the art called film, but at the same time, they are also art itself.
“It’s difficult.”
“It is difficult. So today was just a warm-up, and from tomorrow both she and I need to really focus… But wait, why hasn’t Ssing-ssing-i come in yet-!”
“D-Director!! CEO!!”
As soon as he spoke, the assistant director rushed in with an urgent expression.
His complexion and rough breathing clearly indicated something was seriously wrong.
Something’s happened!
CEO Noh Man-yeong, sensing an unfortunate fate, anxiously jumped to his feet.
“What is it! What happened! Did someone get drunk and start a fight?!”
“Huff, the child, Sing-a’s younger brother is missing! A child has disappeared!”
“What?!”
‘This is terrible!’
‘We’re screwed!’
‘Damn it, shit, I’m screwed!!!’
The three adults – actor, director, and production company CEO – turned pale in that order and prepared to rush out immediately.
“Where! Where should we start looking!”
“What were the adults doing to lose a child! Are we all going to die together or what?!”
Comrades bound together by one film, sailing in the same boat.
CEO Noh Man-yeong, who was in the most urgent situation, ran out the door faster than anyone else, not even noticing that one of his shoes had come off.
But right at that moment.
– Rampa hyung. I’m sleepy~.
– We’re almost there. Hold on.
– Carry me too. Men get tired too, so why do you only carry girls?
– You seem to want to paint me as a sexist, but no way, kid. I’m a pioneer of reverse discrimination.
Creak… thud.
“Hmm? This should be the right address.”
A low voice resonated softly. It was very pleasant to hear.
Noh Man-yeong stared blankly at the man entering through the wide-open metal gate as if it were his own bedroom.
A very handsome young boy? Adult?
It was hard to gauge his age, and his nationality was also unclear.
Noh Man-yeong often thought when watching Seosing-a on camera that she had a face that blurred nationality, but this person was even more so.
The relaxed-looking man was easily carrying a young girl on his back with one arm, while holding a child’s hand with his other arm.
It was the siblings Seosing-a and Seo Cheong-song.
“Are you going somewhere? Sing-a fell asleep. I’ll go in first.”
“Ah, yes, please do….”
“Cheong-song. Where’s your sister’s room?”
No. Wait a minute!
Noh Man-yeong, who had stepped aside in bewilderment, suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu and hurriedly ran back into the living room.
“CEO Noh?”
“Hey, Noh! Come to think of it, one of us should stay by the phone-“
“Come out! Quickly!”
Noh Man-yeong pushed Haemun aside like moving luggage.
Frantically sweeping the miscellaneous items off the table to grab the newspaper, he found exactly that face on the front page.
“!”
“Excuse me~.”
Just then, the young man entered the house.
Noh Man-yeong held onto his dizzy mind tightly, ran over, and held the newspaper next to that face with trembling hands.
As expected, he hadn’t seen wrong!
“Ra, Ra, Ra, Rampa Lim!!”
It really is Rampa Lim! Mamma mia!!!
♧
The 8th day since arriving in Italy. It would soon be ten days.
No matter how much of an outsider he had been in Korea, there was no way he couldn’t recognize a face that was plastered everywhere – news, newspapers, magazines – almost every day.
Rather, since they were relatively less tense than the directors and actors who were busy immersed in film work all day, the production team including Noh Man-yeong would chat about Rampa Lim in detail whenever they were bored.
After all, doesn’t the Formula machine stimulate people’s dreams?
If there was Top Gun in the sky, there was Formula 1 on the ground.
If they didn’t know of its existence, that would be one thing, but there was no man who wouldn’t be captivated by the world of machines that crushed the ground with 1,000 horsepower output, exceeding 350 km/h.
“Wow. He’s really successful. If it’s Lim, is that the Im surname? Must be his father’s surname, right? He clearly looks mixed-race, but I can’t tell what bloodlines are mixed.”
“Chinese? Taiwanese? Maybe overseas Chinese?”
“Could he possibly be from the Naju Im clan?”
“Come on. If he were Korean, they would have covered him already. He’s that famous.”
“They don’t even broadcast F1 in Korea, so what coverage?”
But that secret weapon that Ferrari was supposedly cherishing and nurturing was really Korean?
The staff who flocked to the dormitory upon hearing the news that Seo Cheong-song was found and that Rampa Lim had come were bewildered by this unexpected patriotic gift.
Golf’s Park Se-ri. Baseball’s Lee Seung-yeop. Even the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup.
During the harsh IMF period, only sports comforted them. It was a time when the status of sports stars was higher than ever for Koreans.
“P-Player Rampa Lim, it’s an honor!”
“You speak Korean really well! Have you ever been to Korea?”
“I’ve seen you so much here! I heard you’re moving up to F3 soon. They say it’s the shortest record in history, the successor to the emperor!”
“If you sign with Ferrari, do they really give you a Ferrari for free?”
Rampa Lim, who was in the middle of signing autographs, chuckled.
“I don’t even have a license yet.”
“What? No, then didn’t you drive here? How did you get here at this hour….”
“Same as everyone else. Train and boat. It took over 7 hours.”
“Eek! 7 hours?!”
One staff member, whose mouth had been itching to ask, brushed away the restraining hands around him and asked with overflowing curiosity.
“Excuse me, but what’s your relationship with our actor…? I heard you calling him oppa earlier, are you relatives?”
Rampa Lim, who had been skillfully and calmly signing all sorts of things thrust at him – paper, t-shirts, bags, boxes, and so on – glanced toward the stairs.
Seosing-a, awakened by the surrounding commotion, had hurriedly gone to shower.
Rampa Lim remained silent for a moment before speaking.
“That’s not something I can reveal on my own.”
Girls are delicate, so one must act tactfully in all matters.
Moreover, since Sing-a was about to debut as an actor.
Rampa Lim naturally thought that any exposure should go through proper consultation.
As a professional athlete, he too was currently under the management of Ferrari and PR, namely a Publicist (reputation strategist) for all public-facing matters.
And when the excited commotion had somewhat subsided.
“Cheong-song!!!”
Seo Shin-hyeon returned, shouting with a hoarse voice.
Drenched in sweat all over, he had just heard the news that the child was found and came running.
Seo Shin-hyeon looked around the dormitory and immediately headed straight toward Rampa Lim.
“Uncle Shin-hyeon. Cheong-song is already sleeping upstairs…”
“…”
“…Even after all this time, you haven’t changed.”
Rampa Lim laughed with a troubled sigh.
Seo Shin-hyeon embraced the young man tightly and spoke with a trembling voice.
“I heard from the police. They said you found Cheong-song and even asked them to radio us. Thank you. Thank you, Rampa.”
“It’s nothing. For something like this-“
“Seven years ago, and now too, everything, I’m grateful for everything. Really.”
“…”
Rampa Lim fell silent.
He should deny it. He should say that wasn’t the case.
While it was true that he had saved Seosing-a’s life in the mountain forest back then, ultimately that kidnapping had stemmed from resentment originating from his own family, making the Seo family pure victims.
But he couldn’t bring himself to speak.
In the end, he was a coward. He didn’t want to be hated by this family in the slightest.
‘There isn’t much time left anyway.’
Less than seven years remained until death.
Having organized his thoughts, Rampa Lim patted Seo Shin-hyeon’s back with a bitter smile. But then.
“—Good heavens, Rampa Lim!!!”
A shocked outcry burst from behind.
That sharp, metallic sound was quite familiar to his ears.
Like the harsh rejection at the door from a disinherited son, belonging to a certain noble lady who should have already departed for Belgium by now…
“What are you doing here right now?!”
It wasn’t a hallucination but real?
Rampa Lim froze, which was rare for him. Good Lord.
Calling upon God’s name inwardly, when he turned around, there really stood Jeon An-min—his mother.
With eyes mixing disbelief, shock, and anger.
“Crazy, you, why, why are you here, what about training, no, how did you even get here—!”
Mrs. Pierce had no mental capacity to find her manners.
To reunite with her son after months in the territory of an old enemy (Bae Seo-nyeok), what absurd situation was this!
Jeon An-min, breathless with shock, couldn’t even continue speaking.
Thinking to immediately drag her precious son away from this old, smelly, cramped place full of prying eyes, she roughly grabbed him.
“Auntie!”
Seosing-a, who had quickly finished showering and come down, witnessed exactly that scene.
Seeing Rampa Lim’s neck and arms scratched and reddened, Seosing-a was so shocked she nearly fainted.
Even the trembling from receiving a natural enemy alert was forgotten in that moment. Filled only with loyalty and indignation toward Rampa Lim, she rushed over and pulled Jeon An-min away from him.
In Seosing-a’s 70-degree carrot temperature life, this was her first time seeing such an unreasonable person!
“Why are you suddenly getting physical? This won’t make any deal work, you know?! Absolutely not! Go learn some common sense first!”
Why hit people? This overseas Korean auntie with only poison and money must be crazy!
“Sing-a?”
“Hey! Are you okay, Rampa?”
“This person is my mother…”
…
…
“…What I mean is!”
Was she cold because her hair wasn’t fully dry, or because she was horrified?
Seosing-a cried out tearfully.
“Lo-logically speaking, wouldn’t your precious hands hurt, so you should use tools… Mother!”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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