Shivers ran down their spines as soon as Zeno said those words. But then, they were pulled back to reality when he spoke again.
“The new TV is great,” he chimed. “It’s a smart one.”
With that, he turned it on, and like fate, the news was playing. Not just any news, though. It was the arrest of J-Slick.
They all turned silent once more, watching intently. Zeno watched with a smirk on his lips.
J-Slick appeared to be intoxicated, speaking in a slight slur as the police dragged him away and the paparazzi flashed their cameras.
“Mr. Slick, what can you say about the arrest?”
“Tell us the reason behind your gambling.”
“You lost everything you had in a span of a day! What can you say about that?”
J-Slick stopped in his tracks, removing his sunglasses and revealing his bloodshot eyes. Some of the interviewers grimaced as he began to speak, the stench of alcohol and smoke emanating from his rotting mouth.
“I didn’t lose everything!” he exclaimed. “I will come back, stronger than ever.”
The media knew these were empty words. J-Slick couldn’t recover from this.
“It’s unfair that someone as stupid as Dreamy will get the bounty in the end. Who cares if I used their CEO’s money for my own benefit?”
Gasps were heard from the reporters and more flashes erupted. Zeno shook his head as he watched. He was digging his own grave.
“And I’m not alone on this!” J-Slick continued to rant. “Oska Baek put me up to this because he doesn’t want someone to become successful. He used me. I am also a victim! All of you are monsters!”
With the mention of a famous name, everything turned into a frenzy.
“Let’s go,” the police officer said, cutting his public confession short. They entered the police car and J-Slick couldn’t help but chuckle.
He knew he was fucked.
At this moment, he still didn’t understand why. How could it go downhill so fast?
But then, he suddenly remembered the conversation he had one 3 AM night.
“I’ll make an example of you.”
J-Slick felt his blood run cold. He grabbed the phone inside his underwear.
He searched through the files of the CCTV that were embedded in his phone, scrolling to that very night. However, it wasn’t there anymore.
“No, no,” he whispered. “It can’t be.”
Zeno Han wouldn’t be capable of doing something as big of a scale as that. He was a rookie actor with minimal connections.
There was no way.
However, as he glanced outside the tinted window of the police car, he feared he was proven wrong.
On one of the biggest billboards in the heart of Seoul, where every car passed through when they traversed the city, was the logo of his past parent company, Mirae Axis.
It was their new product—dog food.
And the person on the large billboard, his good looks being illuminated, was none other than Zeno Han.
Horror filled his veins. What kind of enemy did he stumble upon?
J-Slick closed his eyes for a moment. This must be a dream—no, a nightmare. With that, he searched for his safe space.
Cynthia.
Yes, Cynthia makes everything better.
But then, the latest post by Cynthia was once again Zeno, saying she loved the new product from Mirae Axis and how her dogs loved it, too.
J-Slick felt it. The utter defeat.
The phone fell from his hand, and the police officer noticed it, confiscating it completely.
“Were you trying to sneak this in?” he asked, clicking his tongue. “Don’t even think about it.”
Meanwhile, J-Slick was still out of it. He needed to wake up from this nightmare, but at that moment, he knew he couldn’t.
This was reality.
And the reality was—his life was completely over. Everything he had done in the past had bitten him in the ass.
***
Sigmoid was going crazy for two different things.
One, was because of Zeno’s new dog food ad. All of the photos had been revealed by Mirae Axis, and each post garnered over a hundred thousand likes each.
– I never knew I needed this collaboration until now.
– My dog ate this shit up when I came home with it. She must know that the person endorsing it is handsome.
– The dog is so cute!
– I want to be the dog on Zeno’s lap. I can bark too, if he wants.
– Will my dog get mad if I eat this alongside with him? It just seems so appetizing.
– At first, I couldn’t believe that Zeno had an ad. Then, it was even more unbelievable that it was a dog food ad.
– Who trends at first with only a dog food ad?
– I know right. He even beat Oska Baek, who has been mentioned by J-Slick, in the trends. Is that how irrelevant Oska had become?
Oska didn’t know what to do. J-Slick had promised to keep it under the radar, but he betrayed him.
He shouldn’t have sided with J-Slick in the first place if he knew he was this incompetent.
As he scrolled through Sigmoid, it made him upset that everyone was calling him an untalented bloke who got everything he wanted because of his privilege.
However, as strange as it sounded, what made him more upset was that this topic didn’t even trend higher than Zeno’s brand deal.
He was sitting in the artists’ lounge when he felt a harsh slap on his cheek. His eyes widened, and he could already taste the blood in his mouth.
He stood and was about to scream at the culprit when he saw that it was none other than his cousin, Mr. Kim.
“What did I tell you?” Mr. Kim exclaimed. “Don’t go around making plans on your own because you can’t do anything right!”
Oska frowned but didn’t say anything. How could he? He felt ashamed. The others glanced at him but didn’t bat an eye.
At the end of the day, despite his privilege, they were nothing in his eyes. In Daebak, he wasn’t considered anything if it wasn’t for his cousin and father.
“Just continue becoming the obedient lackey that you are. That’s all you need to do since you’ve been handed everything on a silver platter since you were young.”
Oska pursed his lips but glared at his cousin. He felt like his entire being was being trampled on but he had no choice but to take it.
“You’re fucking lucky I’m even keeping you in Daebak,” Mr. Kim spat before leaving, Assistant Byun trailing behind him with a cold, unreadable expression.
Oska’s chest ached, but he couldn’t find it within him to cry. However, out of desperation to get rid of such ache, he called a number hidden within the depths of his heart.
It rang once… twice… and multiple times.
But no one answered. He didn’t try again because he knew it would lead to the same fate.
His dad wouldn’t answer.
In the end, Oska was alone. How could he forget about that?