NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 250

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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 250. Movie “Moon” 4/4

There was so much he had to do to save her.

Rather, that’s why he felt lost about what to do.

 

What on earth should a twenty-year-old countryside youth who just graduated from technical school do to save someone from a space exploration vessel that would crash while heading to the moon 20 years later?

 

“This is overwhelming.”

 

Cha Su-hyeon, sitting on the wooden platform in front of Yeongjin Super, let out a deep sigh.

 

Just then, the village chief who had bought makgeolli and was coming out of the supermarket approached.

 

“Oh my, the ground’s going to cave in. What’s so overwhelming that you’re sighing like that, young man?”

“Grandfather.”

“Yes.”

 

The village chief was someone who, after the Head Monk, treated Cha Su-hyeon like a son or grandson.

Cha Su-hyeon asked the village chief.

 

“Have you ever made a promise to someone you love without knowing if you could keep it?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Hmm, a promise.”

 

The village chief sat down next to Cha Su-hyeon.

He took out a bottle of makgeolli from the black plastic bag, looked at Cha Su-hyeon, then put it back in.

 

“It’s not good to drink in front of a kid.”

 

Then he fell into thought for a moment before opening his mouth.

 

“Everyone lives like that. Not knowing if I can even take care of myself, yet making empty promises to feed and pamper my wife and children – that’s exactly what it’s like. But that was my way of expressing myself. Honestly, I couldn’t give my late wife luxury, but I tried my best so she wouldn’t have regrets.”

 

Hearing the village chief’s words, Cha Su-hyeon fell into deep thought.

The village chief watched Cha Su-hyeon quietly, then got up.

 

“I’m going in. Su-hyeon, you should go home early too. Okay?”

“…Yes, Grandfather.”

 

The village chief walked away, carrying the black plastic bag with a shuffling gait.

 

Watching the retreating figure of the village chief, Cha Su-hyeon’s gaze moved to the door of the house attached right next to Yeongjin Supermarket.

 

“Ah, the computer.”

 

He remembered that Hong Yu-jeong used to come almost every day like clocking in for work to use the computer that Grandmother’s son had left behind.

 

Cha Su-hyeon immediately got up and opened the sliding door of the supermarket.

 

“Grandmother! I’m going to use the computer for a bit.”

“Computer? Sure. Go ahead.”

 

Cha Su-hyeon closed the supermarket door and entered Grandmother’s house.

 

When he turned on the computer, the desktop was filled with various games.

 

‘Yu-jeong wouldn’t have installed these, so they must have been installed by Grandmother’s son who went to Seoul.’

 

Cha Su-hyeon left the games on the desktop as they were and began searching through the folders on the computer.

 

Click click—.

 

Then he found one folder.

 

– Hong Yu-jeong

 

A folder with her name on it.

Seeing that longed-for and wistful name, Cha Su-hyeon hesitated for a moment, then clenched his teeth and opened the folder.

 

Inside the folder was a text file that listed major future events she knew about and briefly outlined plans for how to utilize them.

 

‘Su-hyeon, listen! Next year there’s going to be a subprime mortgage crisis, you know? And soon smartphones will…’

 

He recalled Hong Yu-jeong’s appearance when she was burning with determination for a while, saying she would become a successful chaebol through investment using future information she knew.

 

It would be troublesome if someone else saw this and Hong Yu-jeong’s past got twisted in an unknown direction.

Cha Su-hyeon sent that file to his email inbox and then deleted it.

 

Coming out of Grandmother’s house, Cha Su-hyeon opened the sliding door of the supermarket and went in.

 

“Grandmother.”

“Oh my. Su-hyeon, what are you buying?”

“Nothing. Just…”

 

Cha Su-hyeon stared quietly at the shelf where coffee and ramen were placed.

It was the shelf that had been blocked by a wall, in a place she couldn’t cross over to.

 

Watching Cha Su-hyeon like that, Grandmother opened her mouth.

 

“Su-hyeon, are you lonely?”

 

At Grandmother’s words, Cha Su-hyeon turned his head to look at her.

 

“Pardon?”

“Since you’re always alone, I wondered if you might be lonely. I’m always worried about you.”

 

For a moment, he felt foolish for hoping that Grandmother might remember Hong Yu-jeong.

 

“I’m fine. For now.”

 

Looking at Cha Su-hyeon like that, Grandmother continued speaking.

 

“Getting older means having fewer opportunities to meet new people in life, while the occasions of parting with those you’ve already met gradually increase.”

 

Grandmother looked beyond the sliding door.

It was toward the main road where the traffic light was.

 

‘Is she thinking about her son who went up to Seoul?’

 

He had always only heard stories about him but had no memory of actually seeing him.

 

And Grandmother continued speaking.

 

“That’s why as you age, the times of farewell when you send people away pile up layer upon layer more than moments of new encounters, and you learn to endure loneliness with patience. Do you think a young fellow like you, still green behind the ears, can understand what this old woman is saying?”

 

Grandmother smiled kindly.

Su-hyeon fell into thought for a moment, then nodded his head.

 

“I’m going to try to understand from now on. My farewells flow in reverse. I believe that by piling up layers of farewell moments I’ve sent away and enduring them with patience, someday I’ll be able to face again the meeting that will be the beginning of it all.”

“What kind of talk is that now.”

“There’s such a thing.”

 

***

 

Su-hyeon bought a large suitcase from the town center.

Since he had never left this neighborhood before, it was his first time touching a suitcase.

 

Su-hyeon returned home, opened the suitcase, and put in his few pieces of clothing.

 

He looked around the house, but since there weren’t many belongings to speak of, there wasn’t much else to pack.

 

And finally, he packed the telephone made of copper wire and the paper cup wound with red thread into a sturdy box and put it in the suitcase.

 

Su-hyeon left the house and locked the main gate.

 

He gazed quietly at the yard over the wall before taking his steps.

 

At that moment, music composed by Chrissy Monroe flowed through the theater.

 

The melody of music expressing ‘long waiting’ and ‘heartbreak’ as Yeon-woo had requested came out through the speaker’s vibrations, transmitted through the air, and touched the hearts of the audience.

 

Along with the music, Su-hyeon’s life flowed out in rapid editing.

 

Su-hyeon, who had crossed over to America with his suitcase using the money he had saved up, began investing.

 

Recalling the text file Yu-jeong had left behind and the conversations he had with her, Su-hyeon started investing with short selling positions during the Lehman Brothers crisis and quickly multiplied his wealth.

 

At the same time, he entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology and began studying.

 

Between the scenes showing Su-hyeon’s long life in brief editing, images of Su-hyeon quietly gazing at the paper cup wound with red thread were placed.

 

Reporter Jang Hyo-jeong, watching those scenes, felt her heart grow heavy for some reason.

 

‘They’re clearly showing Su-hyeon’s life briefly through rapid editing, but every time the paper cup appears in between, I can imagine Su-hyeon enduring the long years with patience…’

 

Though it was rapid editing that skipped through time, paradoxically it made that long time feel more tangible.

 

***

 

Su-hyeon, who had become a wealthy investor through overseas investments, finished his studies and returned to Korea after 6 years.

 

Using the assets he had earned overseas, Su-hyeon established an investment company and research institute in Korea and began operating them through representatives.

 

“If I come to the forefront and Yu-jeong somehow becomes aware of my existence, the past would change.”

 

By now, it would be time for her to be selected as a science prodigy and receive foundation support.

To prevent affecting Yu-jeong’s life as much as possible, he had deliberately not looked for her until now.

 

But unable to contain his curiosity about her childhood, Su-hyeon looked her up and wore an expression of incomprehension.

 

“…But why is there no foundation support?”

 

It was true that Yu-jeong had been selected as a science prodigy.

But she was only receiving formal education through national support, and there was no plan anywhere to nurture her as personnel for space development.

 

Even the lunar exploration project was established as a national plan, but it was scheduled for the mid-2030s, much later than the original 2026 when she was supposed to depart.

 

The investment support for the Aerospace Research Institute, which was just launching the Naro rocket and Arirang-3, was extremely poor.

 

“Did I do something that affected things through a butterfly effect…?”

 

Su-hyeon, who had been thinking deeply, recalled the conversation he had with Yu-jeong while looking at the scenic view together in the summer when he was twenty.

 

– Since I was selected as a science prodigy from a young age, I always grew up receiving foundation support, so I thought that no matter how long it took, I could reach my goal if I ran steadily, and that’s how I persevered.

 

Su-hyeon looked at the science prodigy development plan and lunar exploration project displayed on the monitor.

 

Suddenly, everything made sense.

 

“It’s not that I did something, but that I haven’t done it yet…”

 

Looking back, he could see the view of a high building that overlooked all of Seoul.

And he caught sight of his own face reflected in the glass.

 

“The foundation that provided steady support – that was me.”

 

***

 

After that, Su-hyeon established a foundation and began supporting Korea’s space development projects and talent development plans through representatives.

 

When an investment company, called the Midas of the investment world for succeeding in everything it touched as if it knew the future, continuously provided inexhaustible funding, Korea’s space exploration plan advanced like a ship with wind in its sails.

 

Meanwhile, scenes crossed showing Cha Su-hyeon and Hong Yu-jeong, who frequented KAIST and the Aerospace Research Institute, almost meeting but missing each other.

 

But their timelines were misaligned from the beginning.

 

Though they appeared to be missing each other while moving in the same space, they were actually moving in the same space but different time periods, separated by 10 years.

 

Cha Su-hyeon was walking ahead on every path Hong Yu-jeong would take, paving the ground evenly and creating roads.

 

 

And that day came.

 

– Danuri, South Korea’s first lunar orbital exploration vessel, was successfully launched in 2022. Now, surpassing that glory, a manned exploration vessel launched independently with our own technology is about to embark on its journey to space. International media attention is also···.

 

The news anchor’s voice could be heard.

 

It had returned to the opening scene of the movie.

After traveling a long way.

The rocket has been launched.

But this time, instead of showing Hong Yu-jeong’s perspective from inside the probe, it showed the rocket launch as viewed from the outside.

On the screen, a rocket was shown piercing through the sky and heading toward a distant place.

In almost every movie that features a rocket launch scene, both the characters in the film and the audience watching hope with the same heart that the rocket will launch safely.

But this movie was different.

‘Please… Fall. So that Suhyun can see Yujeong again.’

Crackle─.

 

At that moment, an explosion and flames erupted from the bottom of the rocket.

At that moment, flames erupted from the bottom of the rocket with an explosive sound.

And the spaceship, having lost control and spinning wildly, began to crash toward the ground.

Ironically, as the rocket crashed, the faces of the audience watching the screen brightened.

***

The government immediately convened a National Security Council (NSC) meeting.

 

“According to the last transmission from the exploration vessel to the center, the emergency landing system was definitely activated! There’s a possibility the crew members are still alive!”

“According to the last transmission from the probe to the center, the emergency landing system was definitely activated! There’s a possibility the crew members are still alive!”

Everyone was talking about different things, chattering in complete disorder.

 

The President, holding his throbbing head, opened his mouth.

 

“What happened with the search support request sent to the US 7th Fleet?”

“We’re also searching with drones and satellites in coordination with allied nations, but since there’s no sign of them, it seems they’ve likely sunk into the sea.”

 

He let out a deep sigh at the successive reports.

 

At that moment, the Chief of Staff approached with a phone.

 

“I think you should take this call.”

 

The President looked at the Chief of Staff once and then took the phone.

 

– This is Cha Su-hyeon.

“Ah, Representative Cha, I’m well aware of how much private support you provided for this project. But right now it’s an emergency situation…”

– No. That’s not why I’m calling. I will find the crashed exploration vessel. I’ve lived my life for this day.

 

– I’m Cha Suhyun.

“Ah, I’m well aware of how much private support Representative Cha has provided for this project. But right now, this is an emergency situation…”

– No. That’s not why I called. I’ll find the crashed probe myself. I’ve been living for this day.

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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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