I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

* * *

Eun Baekhap stared at the large screen.

Watching Episode 2 of 〈Unfair Trade〉 in the darkened living room, she tilted her head slightly.

“As expected of Director Park. He really does direct well.”

There was no choice but to acknowledge Park Jaeyoung’s directing.

Every time Han Yeoreum appeared, Director Park made the tension of the drama come alive.

It was meticulously calculated timing.

The exact moments when the protagonist was trapped in a suffocating predicament, when the sound design kept scraping against the nerves.

That was when the IQ 160 genius criminal profiler, Lee Seohae, appeared.

It was a message delivered subconsciously.

That as long as Lee Seohae was here, the case would never hit a dead end.

Lee Seohae’s crisp, rigid attitude aligned perfectly with the genius image viewers had seen countless times before.

And what followed was instinctive understanding.

Lee Seohae’s innate intelligence and observation skills, and even the progression of the case itself that supported them.

‘With Lee Seohae, people naturally start believing she’ll definitely figure it out. Exactly as Director Park intended....’

That was where the synergy with the male lead, Shin Seojin, was born.

Han Yeoreum succeeded in deduction, and Shin Seojin succeeded in arrest.

A natural expectation formed that if the two of ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) them were together, there could be no unsolved case.

On top of that, Shin Seojin supported it all with the solid acting skills he had honed through years of supporting roles, while Han Yeoreum delivered her lines with precise diction.

The reason genre dramas become especially exhausting to watch often comes down to the vocal delivery itself.

Characters whose roles require conveying precise facts to the audience—doctors, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, detectives—if even a little of their dialogue gets swallowed, the viewer’s brain becomes tangled trying to understand the case.

-What did they just say? Was it just me who missed it T_T

-F*ck if it’s gonna be like this just turn on subtitles

-Both of them are acting way too hard.. one’s frowning nonstop and the other has a ton of lines but just mumbles like a loser;

But with accuracy at that level, even if the viewer briefly looked away, the information still lodged itself into the ear.

There was no need to struggle to understand it, so there was no fatigue while watching.

“A drama like that... doesn’t lose viewers.”

There had to be an uncountable number of scripts piling up in front of Han Yeoreum by now.

At this point, Han Yeoreum was both the hottest trend in broadcasting and a rising blue-chip in Chungmuro.

“So that’s why she picked this. Fuck... she’s smart.”

The reason she had been satisfied with a supporting role even though she could easily have taken a lead role with far more screen time than Lee Seohae in 〈Unfair Trade〉.

The reason she had abandoned a safely successful romantic comedy and chosen a genre drama instead.

In just two episodes, Han Yeoreum had completely convinced Eun Baekhap.

To Eun Baekhap, a chronic over-immerser, tomorrow’s outcome was already easy to imagine.

Double-digit ratings.

It was certain.

The investigation had begun.

A suspect had been caught in connection with the arson.

“Ah, I’m really innocent! It seriously wasn’t me!”

“Mister. Why were you taking gasoline from a self-service station with your bare hands?”

“I-it’s true that I thought about it....”

“You thought about it?”

“I’m telling you, it really wasn’t me!”

“Mister! If you keep this up, it’s aggravated punishment, aggravated punishment!”

Watching the interrogation through the transparent glass window, Gam Seonghwan felt an unpleasant unease.

“Tsk....”

“Why do you keep tsking? It’s distracting, get out!”

“There’s... something.”

“What now?”

“The person who took my contact info last time. Why haven’t they called?”

Gam Seonghwan was thinking about something else entirely.

Even with the suspect right in front of them, the squad leader pressed a hand to his forehead at the sight of Gam Seonghwan obsessing over some side case.

“Hey, this habit of yours—digging into weird places—is a really bad one. Don’t you remember how badly you chased the wrong lead last time?”

“I remember. I do. But still, there’s such a thing as a detective’s feeling, you know.”

“Feeling my ass. Once you latch onto a case, you keep digging alone into the dirt. Stop it. Focus on the case you were assigned! Are you planning to solve every crime in South Korea by yourself? Huh?”

“Oh? I got a call. Uncle, wait a sec!”

Ignoring the curses behind him, Gam Seonghwan stepped out of the interrogation room.

“Yes. Violent Crimes Unit 2, Gam Seonghwan speaking.”

-Detective, um. I’m the one who came in to report the missing person last time....

“Yes, yes. I remember.”

Standing beside the vending machine, Gam Seonghwan focused on the hesitant voice on the other end.

-You said to tell you anything I remembered, no matter how small. It’s a little delicate because it concerns her private life, but since you’re a detective...

“Yes. Please, just say whatever comes to mind.”

-That friend of mine used to be stalked.

As the BGM that made people’s hearts grow tense swelled, the camera zoomed in on Gam Seonghwan’s face.

-The stalker even came all the way to her house... she said there was a physical fight once. Back then she fell down the stairs and had to get a metal pin inserted into her knee.

The moment those words landed, Gam Seonghwan’s expression changed.

His footsteps, heading back toward the interrogation room after ending the call, were captured in a sharp shot.

Emotion clung even to the heavy tips of his shoes.

Bang—!

“Hey! Hey, Detective Kim! Among the bodies they found!”

“Yes?”

Gam Seonghwan threw the door open roughly and shouted.

“There was one body with a metal pin in the knee, right?!”

It was the first moment the case finally caught hold of a clue.

* * *

Lee Seohae picked up the ringing phone.

Alone in the dark office, she received a report.

“Yes. Yes.... Understood.”

Without asking a single unnecessary question, Lee Seohae ended the call.

On the eerily spotless desk, there was only a single tablet PC.

She turned on the screen and entered the data she had just heard.

Her fingers moved across the keypad at a perfectly even speed.

Victim identity confirmed

Age: 33

Occupation: unemployed

Notable detail *Quit job after stalking incident, had been living as a shut-in

Residence: Seoul City....

Out of the six bodies from the trash house, this was the only one whose identity had been confirmed.

Knock knock—.

Lee Seohae looked away from the tablet screen.

Outside the office—

“Hey, let’s work together a bit, yeah?”

Gam Seonghwan stood there, holding black plastic bags in both hands.

Rustle—. Rustle—.

He dumped bread, sandwiches, triangle kimbap, and similar things messily across Lee Seohae’s immaculate desk.

Lee Seohae simply sat upright without moving.

“You haven’t eaten, right? The seniors said so. That once you start an investigation, you work like a machine.”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“We’re supposed to catch people, not kill ourselves doing it. Eat something.”

Chewing on a piece of bread, Gam Seonghwan pulled a notebook from inside his jacket.

“So first, you know we confirmed one victim’s identity, and the first forensic result came out. The common point is....”

“They’re all women?”

“Oh. You already know?”

“Because the majority of violent crime victims are women. Also, if the old man had been killing people indiscriminately, he would have been caught long before disposing of six bodies.”

Lee Seohae said it calmly.

“So if it was either someone they already knew, or even someone they had just met but in a situation that provoked sympathy... then there’s a high chance the women approached the perpetrator of their own accord. That’s likely why it went undetected until now.”

“You still think the old man is the killer? One hundred percent?”

“One hundred percent certainty can’t exist in any situation. But at present, he remains the strongest suspect.”

“The fire?”

“The fire was likely not set by the man currently in the interrogation room. He probably only poured the gasoline in a fit of anger.”

Bzzz.

A message arrived on Gam Seonghwan’s phone.

[Sunbae! He partially admitted it. He says it’s true he got angry and poured a little gasoline, but he came back to his senses and returned later. He insists he never actually lit the fire. He doesn’t normally smoke, so he wasn’t carrying a lighter, and there’s no record of an additional purchase. Should we keep interrogating him anyway?]

Exactly as Lee Seohae had said.

Gam Seonghwan lifted his eyes from the phone and looked at her.

Her calm profile was reflected in the dim office light.

“How did you know? That was exact.”

“You can tell from behavior patterns. Among domestic ex-convicts, the re-incarceration rate within three years of release is 22%. Looking only at violent crimes, the recidivism probability is over 46%. For juvenile delinquency, the repeat offense rate after a first crime is 90%. And that’s all within one year. That man had no prior record for the same offense, and above all—”

“Hm?”

“There were traces of gasoline on the sole of his right shoe. He must have poured it in anger, panicked, and tried to rub it away with his foot. People who truly commit arson are careful even with the tips of their shoes, in case they themselves catch fire. They make sure never to touch it.”

In the silent office, only Lee Seohae’s voice—like someone reading from a book—filled the room.

“So. What do you think we should do? I’ve got a feeling, but my head’s not working.”

Gam Seonghwan explained seriously.

“We investigated the person who stalked the victim, but the alibi is airtight. From the victim’s last SNS upload until now, they’ve been away on a business trip the whole time. They only came back the other day. They were overseas, so physically it’s impossible. Unless they snuck into the country illegally, there’s no way to enter Korea without leaving a trace. We’ve got neither motive nor physical evidence.”

“....”

“We dug up the front yard, but what if there are no heads? If the buried heads aren’t there, where the hell are we supposed to find them? I’ve been a detective for a long time, but this kind of serial murder is a first for me.... It’s driving me insane.”

Gam Seonghwan laid it out honestly.

Lee Seohae slid the tablet PC toward him.

“Now that we’ve identified one victim, we’ll focus on her. We need to start collecting evidence from her call records, the messages exchanged on her SNS accounts, and so on.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

“...Go where?”

“To the field. You’re coming with me.”

[〈Unfair Trade〉 Gallery]

[holy shit the case pacing moves so damn fast LMAO this is insanely fun]

[didn’t know Gam Seonghwan’s actor before but he’s totally my type.. insane leather jacket suits him so well and he even looks like he’d eat stuff off the floor]

[Lee Seohae’s diction is insane I thought subtitles were on at the bottom; whoa]

[what do I do I wanna squeeze romance out of this again, won’t the writer/director give us anything? I’m desperate]

[romance addicts OUT romance addicts OUT romance addicts OUT]

IP 85.152 checked the rapidly rising posts.

“Both of them are getting exactly the right response.”

Sipping mango-flavored 〈Creamy Soda〉, IP 85.152 scanned the post titles.

It seemed Shin Seojin and Han Yeoreum’s image transformations had landed successfully.

“It’s dry and brittle... but it has a completely different texture from the Na Yuna she showed recently.”

Drama addicts—especially fans of genre works—were cheering for Han Yeoreum’s expressionless acting, something she had never shown even once before.