I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

“Hey. Look.”

“...Sir?”

On the phone he was holding out, a coin trading screen was open.

A black background. Vivid green and red graphs. Even at a glance, this wasn’t money moving in ten-million-won units—it was rising and falling in hundred-million-won chunks.

In the upper right corner, there were words that read ‘Total Assets’.

“Ugh...!”

“Yeah, you little shit! Hundred millions!”

At the number 8,577,972,138, Kwak Cheolsik collapsed weakly onto the ground.

Eighty-five billion.

That’s right.

Coin rich people didn’t exist only in the Cheongdam Fam.

“Fuck it, I can quit anytime. You think I’d starve without being a detective? Those dog bastards.... I’m going to hunt them down like rats. Every last one.”

The team leader, too, had become coin rich.

“And you, bastard. I’ll get you a decent outfit. Heard you were basically walking around naked lately? Five thousand won a piece, my ass. T-shirts.”

“Worry about your own clothes....”

“Hey. This is LouisXX.”

The ragged parka the team leader was wearing was, in fact, luxury brand merchandise. The audience had been fooled simply because the man wearing it looked so utterly broke.

“This?”

“This.”

Kwak Cheolsik pointed at it in disbelief. At the tip of his finger, the luxury logo on the parka’s chest glinted in the sunlight.

“Anyway, fuck it! Let’s go! Let’s wreck the place however we want!”

When a small, powerless citizen finds courage, the audience feels moved.

“I’ll take responsibility! Screw it!”

But when a small citizen with too much to lose decides to act, the audience feels exhilaration.

“Hey, Detective Kwak. I’ve always wanted to say this line. Ah, damn, I’m fucking cool.”

By twisting the cliché just once, the entertainment value of became even more pronounced.

* * *

At last, preparations were complete. If they caught the supplier of the here today, this would be their victory.

Yeoreum, dressed to the nines, was trembling. Detective Yoon brushed her hair aside and installed the wire.

“Relax your face.”

Holding Yeoreum’s tense jaw, Detective Yoon turned her head left, right, up, and down. His gaze, fixed on her, was deep.

As Detective Yoon carefully took in her cute face from every angle, Yeoreum asked quietly,

“Why are you....”

“So I can see you properly.”

-Pretty girl....

“So the wire doesn’t slip.”

By now, the song had become Yeoreum’s theme. Even a single line was enough to make the audience laugh. Yeoreum fiddled with her ear.

“Hey. Come here.”

Detective Kwak beckoned her over.

“It’s so cramped in here. How am I supposed to—”

“Just your head, damn it.”

Grunting as he folded his body, Detective Kwak shuffled closer to Yeoreum’s seat. Leaning in close, he spoke with a serious expression.

“If it feels wrong, get out. Got it? Don’t feel responsible for anything.”

“....”

“If I couldn’t cover you, I wouldn’t have started this operation. Even if things go wrong, you’re not responsible.”

Forcing Yeoreum into the tiger’s den clearly weighed on him. No matter what anyone said, he was a detective who protected justice and the weak.

“He’s right.”

Detective Yoon nodded as well. The other detectives nodded in sync, sharing the sentiment.

“....”

Just as Yeoreum was about to feel moved, Detective Yoon added,

“But you’re still responsible for my car repair costs, rental fees, and medical expenses.”

Crash.

The sound of her emotional moment shattering into pieces echoed loudly. Yeoreum managed her expression and took a deep breath.

“Ah!!!”

Then she let out a battle cry so loud it shook the van. The detectives froze at the sudden, deep voice.

“I’m going. I’m going.”

Whether shouting helped release her tension or not, Yeoreum no longer hesitated and stepped out of the van.

Club music pulsed in the air. Yeoreum walked confidently toward Club D.K, where lines of people were already forming for entry.

Her retreating figure looked resolute.

Like a piece of foreshadowing—promising the audience that this operation would never fail.

* * *

The detectives left in the van watched the interior ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) through the cameras attached to Yeoreum and Detective Yoon. The two had successfully infiltrated the club.

More than anything, it was thanks to Yeoreum being an influencer.

But a problem arose.

“Hey—what is this?!”

They’d assumed they’d enter the same room.

They were wrong.

Detective Yoon was grabbed by guards and forcibly dragged into a different room.

Now that he’d entered the party, he couldn’t cause a scene. Detective Yoon decided to stall for time.

The room he was taken into was packed with women already drunk off their feet.

“Aaaah! Totally my type!”

“I shouldn’t be meeting you at my age. Just say one word. Yeah? Then I’ll buy you a watch!”

It seemed the guards had been told to bring a man in a shirt and glasses—because the moment they saw Detective Yoon, handfuls of tips were thrown.

Surrounded by women he couldn’t subdue in an instant, Detective Yoon asked incredulously,

“...Are you sane?”

His attitude only made them cheer louder.

“One more time! Just one more time!”

The scene slipped into slow motion as Detective Yoon was shaken back and forth by their hands. Incongruously elegant classical music played.

When he tried to shove them away, the women tightened their grip.

Rip—!

Once again, his clothes tore. Detective Yoon raised both hands and covered his chest, expression blank.

Watching this, Detective Kwak sighed.

“What the hell is he doing? Ah. This is why I should’ve gone instead.”

The other detectives silently looked at Detective Kwak’s face.

“....”

“....”

“....”

Then all three quietly shook their heads. He wouldn’t have made it past the entrance.

“Well, yeah. If I’d gone, I’d have been caught too. Seems like they like older guys.”

“....”

“....”

“....”

They shook their heads again. Even if they liked older guys, probably not him.

“Huh? We’ve arrived!”

At last, the camera attached to Yeoreum reached its destination. Inside the massive club, after winding through a maze of corridors.

A spot with an elevator leading outside—perfect for escape.

“Is he there? Is K there?”

“It’s too dark to see clearly!”

Among all these party rooms, they had to find the supplier known as ‘K’.

He’d been an SNS attention addict, so they’d thought he’d be easy to track. But his real-time stories and posts had been decreasing.

As if mocking the detectives, he tagged past locations or uploaded old videos, deliberately complicating things.

They’d already come up empty several times because of it.

“Zoom in!”

The screen switched to the room where the supplier sat. Smile balloons floated everywhere, and the space was enormous.

It was a two-story room.

On the first floor sofa, one person clapped and laughed alone, another spun in place laughing, another banged their head against the wall while laughing.

Everyone was laughing.

The room was filled with nothing but grotesque laughter. With such a high ceiling, the shrill sounds echoed painfully.

Then—

From the second floor, someone called out to Yeoreum.

“Oh, new face—. Hi?”

Most of the men were awake.

Most of the women were asleep.

The bizarre sight made the audience tense. To be precise, Yeoreum was the only person in that space who was truly sane.

“You’re K, right?”

But Yeoreum walked in as if it were nothing. The man seated at the head couldn’t be seen clearly in the darkness, but his short nod confirmed it—he was K.

As she sat on the plush sofa, eyes rained down on her like an inspection. Yeoreum began her assigned performance.

“What? Surprised because I’m pretty?”

Deliberately avoiding eye contact with anyone, Yeoreum pulled her phone from her bag and turned on the camera, looking annoyed.

“I kinda look better in person, right?”

She tilted her head from side to side as if checking her appearance. She didn’t forget to lightly touch the wire as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

Pretending to fix her hair, Yeoreum tapped the wire.

Tap. Tap.

“K’s here! K’s definitely here!”

Hearing the two taps inside the van, the detectives grew excited. Yeoreum and the team had agreed on signals in case the darkness made the camera unreliable.

“Okay.”

Certain now that K was present, Detective Kwak raised his fist slightly.

At last—the moment the audience had been waiting for.

“Faster than the law. Let’s go.”

It was time to shatter their gaudy kingdom.

* * *

“But this is weird....”

Someone muttered while looking at Yeoreum. She’d thrown out a line carelessly in her tension. She’d assumed no one was sane enough to notice.

That was her mistake.

“I can’t really see your face. Doesn’t feel like you come here often.”

Slow, heavy gazes pinned her down. Music thick with tension began to play.

Clink....

The sound of ice melting and knocking inside a whiskey glass was unnaturally loud.

“...Ugh, this is annoying. You gonna keep nitpicking my face?”

Her tension lasted only a moment. Yeoreum snapped back casually, matching their rough tone. She was successfully buying time.

The detectives were approaching from behind the building, blocking K’s escape route via the elevator.

“What the hell?”

“Hey. What’s with that face. Your hospitality sucks.”

The guards at the back door glared threateningly at the detectives. Just as they moved to confront Detective Kwak for his casual speech—

“Urgh...!”

Bang! With a crisp sound, one guard was subdued in an instant.

“W-what?!”

The other guard was knocked out with a single hip throw from Detective Kwak. Scenes worthy of the title unfolded.

“C1, C1, this is V0....”

Choking out another guard who tried to radio in, Detective Kwak continued,

“No abnormalities.”

After dropping several guards in seconds, the detectives loosened their shoulders. These weren’t the sloppy, idiotic cops from before.

Pulling entry cards from the guards’ pockets, the detectives advanced with commanding steps. Sharp electric guitar riffs rang out.

Teasing the audience with the promise of something big.

The film was racing toward its climax.

* * *

Detective Yoon escaped the women at just the right moment. If anything, it worked in his favor.

His clothes were disheveled, lipstick smeared across him—he fit right in as someone completely wasted.

“Where did she go....”

Unlike Yeoreum, Detective Yoon couldn’t hide the wire in his ear. He had a tracker, but didn’t know Yeoreum’s exact location. He exaggerated a drunken stagger.

Ironically, the deeper rooms were less monitored. Anyone that far inside was assumed to be part of the group.

“Can’t be helped.”

Detective Yoon took a deep breath. At this point, he’d have to open doors one by one.

Clack—!

Clack—!

Clack—!

He opened and closed room doors repeatedly. No one inside was sane enough to pay him any mind.

“Wahahaha...! Heehee! Heeheehee!”

Everyone laughed like lunatics. Paired with the smile balloons, the scene was chilling.

As Detective Yoon reached for another doorknob—

Clack—!

“...Huh.”

He saw the Commissioner’s face.

He quickly shut the door. No one inside even glanced his way.

Everyone in that room—including the Commissioner—was already insane. The sound of the door turning was easily drowned out by manic laughter.

* * *

Now the tension on Yeoreum’s face was impossible to hide.

Gulp.

The sound of her swallowing echoed loudly.

Dozens of smile balloons floated around K as he watched her. Their strings were tied together, forming something like a folding screen.

“Don’t hand them out one by one. Just give me everything.”

Through the wire in her ear, she could hear the detectives’ footsteps.

They were running.

“Hahaha! Look at this little thing. No fear at all.”

They were coming fast.

“A lady’s talking~. Ah, sorry!”

Just a little longer.

“Changseok, she said give it all. Just hand it over! Don’t be stingy!”

Just a little more....

Rustle.

An envelope filled with smile stickers was tossed in front of Yeoreum. The moment she grabbed it—

BANG—!!!

They’d arrived.

“Fuck, this is complicated as hell. You assholes. If there’s a fire, how the hell are people supposed to run with the building twisted like this? Emergency exits should be plastered all over the walls!”

“Looks like illegal extensions too.”

Backlit, Detective Kwak and Detective Yoon looked like saviors. A halo of light flared behind their shoulders.

“Why are you only getting here now!!!”

Yeoreum screamed, tears in her voice.

From the second floor looking down, the two detectives stood tall—never looking small.

“Ah... damn loud. Who the hell are you old men?”

K frowned as he asked.

“Idiot! Look and tell me! Who do you think we are?!”

Now that her side had arrived, Yeoreum shouted triumphantly. Her voice was so loud everyone covered their ears. K clicked his tongue.

“Button it. Seriously.”

At that, Detective Kwak glanced at Detective Yoon.

“He says button up your clothes.”

“Shut up....”

There was zero tension left.

The comfortable laughter filling the theater came from one certainty—no matter who watched, our side was going to win.