Chapter : 01. Top Actor Who Sees Ghosts
“시아 unnie, your skin is incredibly dewy today.”
Jihyun, who was in charge of her makeup, kept exclaiming in admiration.
Her skin looked so moist that even the slightest touch seemed as though it would make droplets of water fall, making Jihyun’s hands as she touched her face even more careful.
“You’re the only person who could stay up all night for more than a week and still maintain skin like this.”
“I paid that skin clinic a ridiculous amount of money to take care of it. If I couldn’t even maintain it this well, shouldn’t I sue the clinic?”
“You really are something, unnie!”
Jihyun laughed lightly.
She always stubbornly refused to go to the skin clinic because it was too expensive, and now she was complaining about it again.
Despite being one of the top-paid celebrities in Korea, she wasn’t particularly fond of spending money.
“By the way, Jihyun.”
“Yes?”
“You said you were raised by your grandmother when you were young, right?”
“……? Yes.”
Jihyun tilted her head at Sia’s sudden question. Why was she bringing up something she had casually mentioned at a drinking gathering?
“My parents were busy, so I stayed with my grandmother until I entered middle school.”
“When was the last time you contacted your grandmother?”
“Hmm… I think it was about two months ago?”
“Two months?”
“Yes. I’ve been incredibly busy because of the recent filming. Come to think of it, it’s been way too long since I last called her.”
Jihyun’s face was still filled with confusion as she answered.
It was extremely rare for Sia to show interest in someone else’s family affairs. No matter how long she had known someone, she was a person who never crossed a certain line.
The fact that she even remembered that Jihyun had been raised by her grandmother was honestly a little surprising.
“Where’s your phone?”
“My phone? Unnie’s phone is over there—”
“Not mine. Yours.”
“Mine? Ah…….”
Jihyun hurriedly searched herself before letting out a small sigh.
“I think I left it in the car.”
“Go get it.”
“What?”
“I said go get your phone.”
“Right now?”
“Yes.”
“But we’re about to start filming…….”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It’s not like I need it right away. It’s fine. I can get it later.”
“Go now.”
“What? My makeup isn’t finished yet……”
“I’ll finish it myself.”
“But—”
“Go.”
Surprised by Sia’s unusually firm attitude, Jihyun eventually ran toward the parking lot.
“Hyunseok oppa.”
“Hm?”
Sia quietly called out to her manager, who was looking at her with an expression of curiosity no less intense than Jihyun’s.
“Find someone who can fill in for Jihyun for a few days.”
“You’re firing Jihyun?”
Manager Hyunseok’s eyes widened at her sudden statement.
“Temporarily.”
“Temporarily?”
“I don’t think Jihyun will be able to come in for a few days.”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
Instead of answering, Sia turned her gaze toward Jihyun, who was already walking away.
More precisely, she was looking at an old woman quietly following behind Jihyun.
The grandmother had been standing behind Jihyun from earlier, looking at her with pity.
She would stroke Jihyun’s hair, and whenever Jihyun smiled, she would smile warmly along with her.
It was immediately obvious who the old woman was.
‘A week should be enough, right?’
Or should she give her a little more time to gather herself?
“Prepare a funeral wreath, too.”
“A wreath? What kind of wreath?”
“A funeral wreath to send to the funeral.”
“What?”
Leaving her manager, who was startled by the mention of a funeral, behind, Sia skillfully finished her makeup.
“Grandma, you saw that I sent an expensive wreath, right?”
There was a saying in the entertainment industry.
“I made a pretty generous condolence contribution, too.”
People said that the fate of celebrities and the fate of shamans were more or less the same, and that the two were remarkably similar.
After finishing fifteen days of filming in the provinces, Sia returned home and let out a small sigh.
She had just taken a can of beer out of the refrigerator, which she had put there for a little drinking alone to relieve her fatigue after a long time, when she discovered Jihyun’s grandmother standing behind the refrigerator door.
“You had your funeral properly and were even buried in a sunny place.”
Or was that not right? Was it really appropriate to call a columbarium a sunny place?
Anyway, what she meant was: the old woman had already had her funeral and cremation completed, so why had she suddenly come looking for her?
Sia sighed inwardly and brought the opened beer can to her lips.
“If you don’t have anything to say, could you please leave? I’m tired right now.”
Normally, she would simply ignore them, but since this was the grandmother of a colleague she had worked with for more than four years, she felt slightly bad about turning her away at the door.
‘Really, only slightly.’
But perhaps it would have been better to pretend she couldn’t see her after all. Dealing with something like that while exhausted was truly……
As if trying to shake off her complicated feelings, Sia shook her head several times.
[Our Jihyun.]
Only then did the grandmother, who had been quietly staring at Sia, open her mouth.
The wrinkles covering her hands and face showed that her life had not been particularly easy, making Sia’s eyes linger on her.
[Please continue to take good care of her.]
“…….”
Were all grandmothers like this?
Watching the grandmother bow her head very politely to a woman much younger than herself, wearing the most benevolent smile imaginable, Sia took another sip of beer.
Suddenly, she remembered something her manager Hyunseok had told her a few days ago.
‘Jihyun was the only one crying at the funeral.’
Apparently, the sight of Jihyun’s parents and other siblings fighting over the grandmother’s remaining assets had been quite a spectacle.
They had been arguing over who should get more of the money they would receive from selling the house and field, along with the small amount of money left in the bank.
Even the guests who had come to the funeral had been so appalled that they had hurriedly left.
‘Ah, what a waste of money.’
If she had known those kinds of people would take it, she wouldn’t have even given a condolence contribution.
[And could you grant me one small favor?]
Sia, who had been grumbling inwardly, raised her head again at the grandmother’s next words.
Lee Sia. A twenty-five-year-old top actress whose name was known not only throughout Korea but across all of Asia.
She had begun acting at the age of fourteen, and every project she chose, regardless of genre, became a huge success, allowing her to establish an unshakable position in the industry.
I would like to confidently say, It’s because I’m pretty and I’m an amazing actress……
But……
‘I can’t say I haven’t benefited from them at all.’
The information they brought her was extremely useful.
Lee Sia. The top actress representing South Korea had one unusual trait.
‘That’s right. I……’
Could see ghosts.
“Jihyun.”
「Yes, unnie.」
Sia made a video call to Jihyun.
Jihyun seemed to have suffered greatly after her grandmother’s death. Her face had become noticeably thinner over the past few days, and Sia clicked her tongue softly to herself.
“Did I tell you before? That I’m very interested in things like saju and fortune-telling?”
「Yes. You were the first person to predict that my grandmother would pass away this time, too. Back then, I was really confused when you kept telling me to bring my phone. But then something like this happened……」
“It’s just that your fortune that day didn’t look very good.”
Of course, that was a lie.
She didn’t know the slightest thing about saju or fortune-telling.
She only pretended to be interested in those things because she needed an understandable way to tell other people the things she learned through ghosts.
“Sia, didn’t you say you go to church?”
Manager Hyunseok, who had been nearby, joined their conversation.
“Yes, I do.”
No, she used to.
“I’m a baptized woman.”
At one point, she had attended church very diligently, hoping to somehow suppress her ability to see ghosts.
She had even been baptized.
‘The day I was baptized…….’
When she saw ghosts lined up around her, clapping and congratulating her, she quietly stopped going.
After that, she also visited a cathedral and a Buddhist temple, but there was nothing different there either.
“What does fortune-telling have to do with church?”
“Still, that’s not quite—”
“Forget it.”
Sia hurriedly cut Hyunseok off as if telling him not to dig any deeper, then turned her attention back to the phone.
“Are you still at your grandmother’s house?”
Unlike the other family members, who had left immediately after the funeral procession—
Hyunseok, who was beside her, snorted and said, “Well, if they want to sell the house and land that became their share as quickly as possible, they should hurry around.”
Jihyun had remained alone in the empty house, sorting through her grandmother’s belongings.
She could have hired someone to do it, but she said she simply couldn’t bring herself to do that.
She probably didn’t want her grandmother’s precious belongings, which the old woman had used for so many years, to be thrown away like garbage by someone else.
Sia remembered Jihyun crying her eyes out while asking for just a few more days, and her heart felt heavy.
「I’m sorry. I need to come back quickly, but……」
“That’s right. Come back quickly. Don’t keep letting other people touch my face.”
「Yes!」
Rather than telling her to get plenty of rest and come back slowly, Sia’s insistence that she return quickly seemed to brighten Jihyun’s voice even more.
“Is there a persimmon tree east of your grandmother’s house?”
A moment later, Sia got straight to the real reason she had called.
「……!」
Through the speaker came the sound of Jihyun gasping.
「There is!」
Of course there was.
「I’m not sure if it’s on the east side……」
It is on the east side.
「Anyway, there is one. How did you know?」
“Your fortune today says you’ll obtain a large fortune from the persimmon tree in the east.”
「A-a fortune?」
“You have nothing to lose, so dig underneath the persimmon tree.”
「The ground……?」
“Yes.”
「Ah…… yes……」
Her response was rather lukewarm.
‘It must sound ridiculous. I would react the same way.’
It would be strange to simply believe and follow such a statement.
But that’s the thing about people. When someone tells you something like this, it’s difficult to completely ignore it. Even while thinking, Oh, come on, a person can’t help but wonder, But what if……?
‘If there really is a large fortune waiting there, what’s the big deal about digging up some dirt?’
Besides, Sia had predicted her grandmother’s death this time, too, so it would be even harder for Jihyun to completely dismiss what she said.
“Well, take care.”
「Yes, unnie.」
Having said everything she needed to say, Sia immediately ended the call.
‘That should do it, right?’
That was exactly what Jihyun’s grandmother had asked her to do the previous night.
[Please tell her to dig underneath the persimmon tree.]
Jihyun had been the one who, from a young age, had worked all kinds of part-time jobs to support her younger siblings, while her parents spent every penny they had on their business and paid no attention to their children.
Perhaps, in her grandmother’s eyes, Jihyun looked incredibly pitiful.
‘It seemed like quite a large amount of money.’
The grandmother said that she had saved every penny she had earned from farming over the years and buried it underneath the persimmon tree.
From early on, she had set aside her granddaughter’s share and carefully accumulated it inside a large earthenware jar.
As for the house and land, her greedy children would quarrel over them and divide them up after her death.
The grandmother must have guessed that Jihyun would ultimately receive nothing.
‘She even said she had written a letter in advance.’
As though she somehow knew that she would suddenly die of a heart attack, the grandmother had written a letter addressed to Jihyun long ago and placed it inside the jar.
She had written that all the money inside the jar belonged to her, and that she shouldn’t feel burdened by it and should simply spend it comfortably on herself.
‘They won’t take that money from her, too.’
Jihyun wasn’t that naïve or foolish.
‘Well, it’s not my business to worry about that, anyway.’
She had delivered everything the grandmother had asked her to deliver, so she had done everything she needed to do.
“Wow, you can even read fortunes like that? What about me? What’s my fortune today?”
Manager Hyunseok, who had been hovering nearby throughout Sia’s entire conversation with Jihyun, looked at her with an expectant expression.
“…….”
Sia stared silently at Hyunseok before slowly opening her mouth.
“I don’t know what your fortune is, Hyunseok oppa, but I do know a little about Hye-eun unnie’s fortune today.”
“Hye-eun?”
When his wife’s name came up, Hyunseok looked puzzled.
“Unnie has a fortune related to wealth today, too.”
“Really?”
Whether he believed it or not, hearing that his wife had a financial fortune brightened Hyunseok’s face.
“Should I tell her to buy a lottery ticket?” he asked with a grin.
Sia quietly swallowed the rest of what she was going to say.
‘You’re the one whose fortune says you’ll lose money today, oppa.’
Sia had also spoken with Hye-eun, whom she was normally close to, just a little while ago.
Remembering Hye-eun’s laughter as she said that she had found the emergency cash her husband had secretly hidden away, Sia looked at Hyunseok with a slightly sympathetic gaze.
