Chapter 4
“F-Fuck! I’m not letting go!”
Even with his arm twisted behind him, the bastard continued to struggle.
I twisted his wrist harder.
He screamed.
“I’ll hold him down!”
The man who was holding the bastard’s legs shouted through gritted teeth.
Four men besides me were restraining him.
“I called the police. They said they’ll be here soon.”
The woman I had saved earlier spoke while holding up her smartphone.
Before long, the sound of sirens could be heard.
This should be enough.
“Hold his arm down firmly.”
I told the man pressing down on his shoulder to grab his arm as well.
“Don’t let go until the police put handcuffs on him.”
The man nodded with a serious expression and did as I said.
I slowly stood up.
Then I quickly walked away.
I left the alley, turned two corners, and headed toward the subway while keeping the CCTV cameras in mind.
Only after entering a restroom did I take off the helmet I had been wearing.
“Hopefully, nobody noticed me.”
“Stay still!”
After putting handcuffs on him, the police put the bastard into their car.
“I’m Chief Inspector Han Seojin. That must have been a dangerous situation. Thank you for restraining him until the police arrived.”
A police officer with short hair bowed his head to the men who had been holding the attacker down.
He looked over the broken soju bottle and the other traces left on the ground.
Han Seojin let out a short breath and spoke to the men.
“Is anyone injured?”
The men checked each other and shook their heads.
“We’re fine.”
“We were startled, but nobody got hurt.”
Han Seojin nodded slightly.
“That’s a relief. May I ask you a few questions to confirm the details of the incident? It won’t take long.”
One of the men carefully began to speak.
“At first, we thought he was just a drunk person. But then he suddenly smashed the soju bottle and tried to attack people.”
He took a breath as if remembering what had just happened.
“That’s when someone wearing a helmet appeared.”
“A helmet?”
“Yes. He opened the door, came out, and knocked that man down. Then he restrained him in an instant.”
Han Seojin looked once again at the broken soju bottle and the traces on the ground.
The spot was definitely close to where the door had opened.
It doesn’t seem like he just happened to open the door at the exact moment the attacker was there. He probably came out to save the woman who had fallen.
“We were only able to hold him down because that person had already subdued him.”
“Where is that person?”
“Ah, now that you mention it… He disappeared sometime around when the police car arrived.”
“Disappeared?”
“Yes.”
He had hidden himself when the police arrived.
Why?
“Did anyone see his face?”
“No. He was wearing a helmet.”
Han Seojin let out a short sigh.
“We’ll have to check the CCTV footage first.”
[Here is our next story. Earlier this morning, an incident occurred in an alley in Seoul when a drunken man went on a rampage.]
After dinner, I watched the news with my father.
[A citizen who happened to be at the scene risked himself to subdue the attacker, preventing a much more serious incident. Let’s take a look at the footage from the scene.]
CCTV footage appeared on the TV.
The bastard staggered around while holding a soju bottle and threatening people.
At that moment, someone wearing a helmet burst through a door, knocked him down, and subdued him.
[The police are working to identify the citizen while investigating the incident in detail based on witness statements.]
“People like that still exist these days.”
My father spoke.
The ‘person like that’ sitting beside him on the sofa pretended not to know anything.
It was a good thing I had worn the helmet.
Otherwise, my face would probably be all over the news by now.
Having my face become known wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for an actor, but I didn’t want to become famous this way.
My father would obviously have worried about me.
After the news ended, several videos were uploaded to NewTube as well.
[Drunk Man Swings Soju Bottle… Helmet-Wearing Citizen Stops Him.]
[Mysterious Helmet Man Caught on CCTV]
There were several videos like that.
Considering how many cameras had recorded me and the police still hadn’t contacted me, they probably hadn’t identified me yet.
All those hours I had spent checking the CCTV locations and planning my operation had paid off.
I had taken care of the biggest danger.
Now, I only had to worry about my life as an actor.
“Gijun, are you preparing well for your exam?”
“Yes, Father.”
It had taken quite a lot of time to plan and carry out how I would deal with that bastard.
But I had also been practicing for the second round of the entrance exam whenever I had time.
“The first-round results aren’t out yet, but I think I’ll pass.”
They said they would select five times the number of students they needed, so I should easily make it through.
After all, I had spent years practicing acting.
“It would be good if you got into university, but I think gaining experience in the field right away would be important too.”
“I agree. That’s why I plan to work on at least one project before entering university.”
“Is there anything you need?”
My father was probably asking what he could support me with, but there wasn’t much he could do for me.
“I do need an agency.”
“Ah, right.”
New actors often couldn’t even get their profiles looked at without an agency.
However, large agencies rarely recruited complete newcomers.
Besides, I didn’t have two or three years to spend as a trainee.
Debuting someone with no experience directly as an actor was something only smaller agencies could really do.
Fortunately, I had information about the future.
All I had to do was find a company that was small now but would become successful later.
And there happened to be exactly one company like that.
“I was actually planning to visit them tomorrow.”
A few days after the incident.
I searched for an entertainment agency on my smartphone.
—Nabi Actors
Only its location appeared on the map.
And when I checked the street view, there wasn’t even a sign on the third floor.
It was strange to think that an agency that looked this shabby would eventually become a company representing some of the greatest actors in the future.
In just a few years, it would grow into Nabi Entertainment, an agency representing not only famous movie actors but also major variety-show stars and K-pop idol groups.
“I should meet the CEO first.”
I recalled something that had happened before I returned to the past.
—Hey, you know that bastard Kim Hyeondeok from Nabi Entertainment? I heard he’s been volunteering every Friday at the orphanage up ahead for fifteen years!
It was something an older man at the construction site had said during lunch.
He was a man who had divorced, spent his days doing odd construction jobs, and watched nothing but TV. After learning that I was an actor, he had constantly lectured me like some old-fashioned know-it-all.
—But you, you bastard! You come to the site every day, work, and then just collapse and sleep?
I couldn’t quit because I needed the money, and it was difficult to find another place that paid as well as a construction site.
So no matter what he said, I endured it.
That day, too, I had planned to let his words go in one ear and out the other.
But after hearing him every day, I had finally reached my limit.
Just as I was about to stand up and say something—
—Not fifteen years. Twenty years.
A low voice came from behind me.
I turned around.
A huge man over 190 centimeters tall was looking down at the older man while wearing black sunglasses.
I had seen him on TV so often that I immediately recognized him as CEO Kim Hyeondeok.
The old man who had been talking like a know-it-all recognized him too.
—…That Kim Hyeondeok?
The old man’s small eyes widened to nearly twice their size.
CEO Kim Hyeondeok looked down at him and spoke coldly.
—Yes. The bastard you were just talking about.
The old man’s expression immediately stiffened.
—…Well, I might have expressed myself a little too strongly.
—I’m glad you realize that.
The old man shut his mouth with a nervous gulp.
—And I don’t go to the orphanage on Fridays. I go on Saturdays. How could a working person go on a weekday?
CEO Kim Hyeondeok patted me on the shoulder before leaving the restaurant.
Later, when I left the restaurant, I found out that he had even paid for my meal.
The whole situation had been so dramatic that I remembered it clearly.
Besides, to get to the construction site where I had worked, I had to pass the orphanage that Kim Hyeondeok supposedly visited every week.
I had worked at that site for several months, so I remembered the location perfectly.
I had already signed up to volunteer at the orphanage.
I would meet CEO Kim Hyeondeok there and leave a good impression on him.
That was my plan.
“If I’m getting another chance at life, I might as well do some good things too.”
I decided that I would regularly visit the orphanage from then on.
With determined steps, I entered the orphanage.
“Waaaaah!!”
I had expected volunteering at the orphanage to be difficult, but I hadn’t expected it to be this exhausting.
While I was changing a baby’s diaper, several elementary school children gathered around me.
“Big brother! Big brother! If a tiger and a lion fought, who would win?”
“Tigers and lions live in different habitats, so they wouldn’t normally meet.”
“Oh, but if they did! What if they escaped from a zoo and fought?”
“The zookeepers would probably put them to sleep with tranquilizer guns.”
“Ah, come on! Don’t give me an answer like that!”
Raising children really was hard.
“Then, big brother, could you beat a tiger in a fight?”
“No human can beat a tiger.”
Another elementary school student stood up, tossing his pen onto the worksheet he had been working on.
“No way! The nun said she could beat a tiger in a fight!”
With the kind of stamina that nun had from playing with you guys all day, she probably wouldn’t lose to a tiger.
“Take my sword!”
I blocked the sword strike of an elementary school student who looked like he was about to be possessed by a martial-arts world with my foot.
Since I had regressed, there was no guarantee this kid wouldn’t end up possessed either.
I did my best to play with the children, but even more difficult was dealing with the kindergarteners who had just woken up from their naps.
I looked around, picked up a stuffed tiger, and looked at the elementary school student I’d spoken to earlier.
“You said you were curious about whether a tiger or a lion was stronger, right?”
“Yes! Which one is stronger?”
Hearing that, I dragged over a desk.
“Big brother will show you. Come sit here.”
I took off the black coat I was wearing and placed it over the desk.
Then I turned off all the fluorescent lights and left only a single flashlight shining on the desk.
The result looked almost exactly like a stage.
He’ll probably be arriving soon, so I should get started.
“Alright! From now on, the puppet show will begin!”
