Chapter 88: Trip to Japan (1)
After arriving in Japan, Kim Si-woo headed toward the hotel he had booked, relying heavily on a translation app.
His bank account was overflowing anyway, so he had no worries.
“Sigh… What should I do starting tomorrow?”
The hotel he chose was an ultra–luxury hotel right in the center of Tokyo.
As expected of a high-end hotel, one of the staff members spoke Korean and guided him through check-in and to his room.
His first day was spent entirely inside the hotel, as if releasing all the fatigue he’d built up. Only in the evening did he step out to explore nearby streets, saving real sightseeing for day two.
When he finally tried to enjoy himself, he had no idea where to start. So he searched his phone and visited well-known tourist spots in order of proximity.
But the end of every day was the same—
Sitting at the hotel desk, typing.
“Back to writing again, huh?”
He didn’t write as much as usual, but he still jotted down ideas that popped into his head.
And just like that, a full week passed.
After giving a large tip to the hotel staffer who had taken particularly good care of him, Si-woo rolled his suitcase out of the hotel.
“Maybe I’ll write a bit on the way to Osaka.”
His next destination after Tokyo was Osaka.
Once aboard the high-speed train to Osaka, Si-woo pulled out his laptop.
He hadn’t actually planned to write—
But as they say, inspiration strikes at the worst times.
He wasn’t writing because he wanted to,
But because the idea was too good to ignore.
The train departed, and Si-woo began typing furiously.
Then he felt a gaze.
Not from behind—from beside him.
When he turned his head, the woman next to him flinched in surprise and apologized with her hands clasped together.
“Ah! Gomennasai.”
“Oh—no, it’s fine.”
Si-woo answered her in Korean and immediately found it ridiculous himself.
Even afterward, the woman kept glancing at his screen, clearly curious about what he was writing.
He tried to ignore it, but the constant gaze became impossible to endure. When he turned again, the woman who had apologized earlier looked like she wanted to say something.
“Um….”
“Yes? Wait—Korean?”
Hearing Korean come out of the woman he assumed was Japanese made Si-woo’s fingers freeze mid-typing.
“Ah… I didn’t mean to earlier—”
“Are you Korean?”
“Not exactly… I’m half Korean, half Japanese.”
Looking closely, Si-woo finally realized something odd.
Her face was distractingly beautiful—
So much so he almost mistook her for a celebrity.
Had he not already built up immunity to beauty thanks to people like Jung Se-yeon and Hong Soo-yeon, he definitely would’ve stuttered.
“So, what is it you wanted?”
“Ah! Um… are you a writer?”
“Yes… well, technically.”
“I saw you writing a script, so I peeked a little. It was interesting.”
“Thank you.”
“Um… where are you getting off?”
When Si-woo said Osaka, the woman said she was getting off there too, then asked if he’d like to chat at a nearby café.
“Hm…”
After a moment of hesitation, Si-woo thought,
Well, fate is fate,
And nodded.
“Sure, why not.”
A little later, they arrived in Osaka and stepped off the train together.
The funny part was that Si-woo had no idea how to navigate Osaka—
Yet the woman was following him.
“Um… where exactly are we going right now?”
“Huh? Ah!”
Realizing something was off, she spoke again.
“I know a café nearby. Would you like to go there?”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
After ordering their drinks and sitting down, the woman tapped on her phone for a moment, then handed it to Si-woo.
“First, this is who I am.”
Instead of handing over a business card, the woman simply searched herself online and offered her phone to him.
“Huh?”
Her photo appeared on the screen along with her name, occupation, and—of course—her age.
She was an actress in Japan.
Her name was Arimura Noa,
29 years old—
The same age as Kim Si-woo.
I knew it… she really was an actress.
With that face, it’d be stranger if she wasn’t in the entertainment industry.
But what surprised him more was the detailed profile underneath.
Her father was the president of a major video production company in Japan,
She had even directed a film herself,
And she currently operated a fashion brand.
There were several other details, too, but he could always look them up later. For now, Si-woo politely returned her phone.
“Ah… I’m Kim Si-woo.”
This time, Si-woo pulled out his wallet and handed her his business card.
Noa accepted it with a smile.
Si-woo was grateful she didn’t immediately search him online.
Noa then began explaining why she wanted to talk with him in the first place—
Because of the script he had been typing on the train.
She praised the script for quite a while before finally getting to the point.
“Mr. Kim Si-woo, are you currently signed with any agency?”
“No. I’m not.”
Hearing that he had no agency, Arimura Noa flashed such a quick smile it was almost invisible before continuing.
“As you saw earlier, I’m an actress. And… the script you were writing on the train really caught my eye. So I wanted to ask you directly—”
“But it’s not finished yet.”
“That’s exactly why I’d like to secure the rights early. If you’re willing, would you consider signing with my company?”
Her earlier clumsy, shy image disappeared.
Now she looked completely professional—sharp, confident, calculating.
“Well… I’m not sure.”
Seeing his lack of enthusiasm, Noa hurriedly played her next card.
“As I mentioned, my father’s company ranks among the top three in Japan’s production industry. You wouldn’t have to worry about budget or quality.”
“Hmm…”
Most writers would have jumped at the offer.
But Si-woo wasn’t particularly drawn to it.
There were too many unknowns—He’d have to examine contracts carefully,
He didn’t fully understand the Japanese media industry,
And he had no guarantee his work would succeed there.
If it failed, he felt like everything he’d built so far could collapse.
He couldn’t run away forever, though.
Eventually, he’d need to release a new project.
That was his dream, after all.
The old him—before success—might’ve stopped writing altogether and lived on the money he’d earned.
But the current him, though afraid, wasn’t going to flee.
He would write again someday… Just not now.
“That said, isn’t it strange for someone as famous as you to offer a contract after reading only a portion of a script?”
“Ah… that…”
Even Noa realized it sounded absurd.
But she couldn’t help it.
The moment she read that short excerpt, she desperately wanted to play the female lead.
“Of course, you may find it suspicious, but I really—”
“I’d like to rest now. My email’s on the business card, so please contact me there. Excuse me.”
Si-woo stood to leave, but Noa urgently reached for him.
“W-wait, please.”
“Yes?”
“For that script… I’m first in line, right?”
“Well… for now, yes.”
“I understand. Then I’ll contact you formally soon. Thank you for your time today.”
With Noa’s polite farewell, their first meeting came to an end.
Returning to his hotel, Si-woo immediately searched for more information about Arimura Noa.
He watched clips from her films, dramas, and commercials;
Looked into the production company run by her father, Arimura Ryosuke;
And scratched his head.
“Yeah… that really is a big-name company…”
Some of the films produced by Arimura Ryosuke’s company, OnlyOne Film were so famous that even someone like Kim Si-woo—who hadn’t cared about movies back then—knew about them.
“Sigh… I came here to relax, but now it looks like I’ll end up working again. I guess I should at least finish the script before discussing anything.”
It felt wasteful to throw away an opportunity like this.
But taking it felt equally scary.
Meanwhile, at the café after Si-woo left, Arimura Noa sat alone—more shaken than she expected.
A man who looked like someone from Tokyo who found everything tedious.
At first, when she saw him typing on his laptop, she assumed he was a company employee.
But when she realized he was writing a script in Korean, her eyes locked onto the screen.
As she secretly read what he was writing, she was quickly drawn in.
She knew it was impolite to peek at someone else’s work,
But she couldn’t help it.
She was an actress—
And the script she glanced at kept pulling her in, begging to be read.
Eventually, he caught her.
She apologized, turned away…
But her eyes naturally drifted back again.
The script hooked her so completely that she asked to speak with him just to get closer to it—to hopefully secure it.
He hesitated at first but agreed.
Talking with him at the café, she felt even more like she was facing a rookie writer—awkward and unsure.
So she had been certain this would be easy.
All she had to do was mention OnlyOne Film, the company owned by her father, Arimura Ryosuke.
She was sure he would accept immediately.
And yet—
He reacted almost coldly, practically rejecting her.
Worse, the moment he refused, the feeling he gave off wasn’t that of an inexperienced newcomer.
Instead, for a moment, she felt the presence of a well-known writer she had once seen in the past—
Calm, unreadable, and not easily swayed.
“Did I make a mistake? No… first I should tell Father.”
After sorting her thoughts, Noa hurried to OnlyOne Film’s office.
When she arrived, she went straight into the president’s office.
“Dad!”
“Hey! Noa, this is the office. You need to call me President here—”
“No, that’s not important. Dad, let me sign a script!”
“A script? Did an interesting one get submitted?”
“No, not submitted… I found it myself.”
Noa then explained everything that had happened with Kim Si-woo and insisted she wanted to secure his script no matter what.
“Are you sure about this?”
“I’m sure!”
“Then go to the Planning Team and prepare the paperwork.”
“Thanks, Dad! See you tonight!”
“Alright, my girl.”
After receiving permission, Noa rushed to the Planning Team.
Left alone, Arimura Ryosuke smiled.
His daughter had experience both as an actress and as a director.
Her eye for films and drama was exceptionally sharp.
If a script could make her move like this…
Then there was no need to worry.
Not that the quality of the script mattered to him anyway.
Even if it turned out mediocre—How could he refuse such a pretty daughter’s request?
Arimura Ryosuke.
He was a textbook daughter-con.
Meanwhile, Noa arrived at the Planning Team, greeting everyone warmly.
“Hello! How have you all been?”
“Oh! Noa! Did you come in today?”
They had all known her since she was young, so they welcomed her happily.
But the first thing she said after greetings was:
“Yes! So… I need you to prepare a contract for me. Right now.”
“Huh? A contract for what?”
“I need to acquire a script.”
“So it’s a contract for a writer?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, give me a moment.”
And so, even though he’d come to Japan to rest,
Kim Si-woo found himself once again deeply entangled with actors—
This time, with Japan’s actors too.
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