NOVEL FROG Chapter 96
_Hook_, it felt like the scent of blood flowed out of the screen.
Cha Seo-ah looked at Seo Kwang-il, who lay collapsed, bleeding from his head.
Taking heavy breaths, she felt the pain in her waist.
「…….」
Cha Seo-ah gazed at the shattered window.
Seo Kwang-il had snatched her hammer to break the window.
And apart from Seo Kwang-il, who was gasping for breath, there was no one else.
While Seo Kwang-il was blocking her, Han Ye-hwa had escaped through the broken glass.
「Ha.」
Before the unconscious Seo Kwang-il could wake up, Cha Seo-ah bound him with the remaining roll of blue tape.
「Not enough.」
She had used too much tape when binding Han Ye-hwa.
Then the scene flipped, showing the fleeing Han Ye-hwa hiding in a nearby convenience store.
It was difficult to run further due to the glass cuts.
「Oh my, what on earth is happening? Quickly go inside and tend to your wounds. I’ll call an ambulance.」
The convenience store lady looked at Han Ye-hwa with surprise and pushed her toward the back storage.
As Han Ye-hwa caught her breath and reported to the police in the storage.
「Oh my, Seo-ah! Why are you so injured!」
A new customer had arrived at the convenience store.
It was none other than Cha Seo-ah, the convenience store part-timer.
She had come to retrieve tools and blue tape to kill Detective Seo Kwang-il.
At that moment, the convenience store lady’s gaze turned towards Cha Seo-ah.
The audience thought for a moment, “No way.”
And then.
With a concerned look, the convenience store lady opened her mouth towards Cha Seo-ah.
「What on earth is going on today? This is the second time already.」
At those words, Cha Seo-ah’s hand suddenly froze.
A sigh filled the packed cinema.
Forgetting that the cinema was full of people, she let out a sigh without realizing it.
What followed was exactly as everyone had expected.
As soon as Cha Seo-ah received the tool, she killed the convenience store lady.
However, what was unexpected was Cha Seo-ah’s reaction afterward.
For the first time, ‘readable’ emotions appeared on Cha Seo-ah’s face.
Pain.
Regret.
Emotions that seemed to be unrecognizable even to Cha Seo-ah herself were clearly displayed on the screen.
It was frustrating.
Chewing on her lower lip, Cha Seo-ah made a face that looked like she was both crying and laughing.
‘Wow.’
This time she almost let out a sigh of a different meaning.
A face that seemed to laugh while crying.
She didn’t even realize it, repeatedly touching her own face.
The sense of frustration and desperation emanating from Cha Seo-ah.
For the first time, people resonated with the pain they felt from Cha Seo-ah.
At the very end.
The face of the dead convenience store lady and the faces of her parents overlapped like a mirage.
Unable to bear it anymore, Cha Seo-ah turned her body.
To the storage where Han Ye-hwa was.
As she slowly opened the door, Han Ye-hwa, holding a soju bottle, smashed it down on Cha Seo-ah’s head.
*
Detective Im Seung-cheol ran.
He chased after Detective Seo Kwang-il, who had rushed to the scene first, and discovered the unconscious Seo Kwang-il.
Feeling the presence of Im Seung-cheol, Seo Kwang-il, not fully conscious, muttered only one thing.
「She ran away. Chased after her.」
She ran away and chased after her.
At first, he thought it was saying that Cha Seo-ah had escaped, but he soon realized that Han Ye-hwa was missing.
Detective Seo Kwang-il had desperately tried to save Han Ye-hwa.
And Cha Seo-ah had gone after her.
Or perhaps she had gone to fetch the tools to kill Seo Kwang-il.
Either way didn’t really matter.
Im Seung-cheol kept running.
He ran countless times that day.
Breathless and sweat pouring down like rain.
Searching nearby locations, he finally arrived at the convenience store.
A weekday afternoon.
The convenience store was blinded from view by blinds.
Since it was a place he frequented, Im Seung-cheol knew.
That the lady working in this store wouldn’t remain silent.
「Hey, you bastard!!」
Kicking the door open, he rushed inside, and there was Cha Seo-ah, choking Han Ye-hwa.
Han Ye-hwa was bleeding from her head, collapsed.
And Cha Seo-ah’s head was also soaked in blood.
Seeing that, Im Seung-cheol ran over and kicked Cha Seo-ah.
_Crash!_ the convenience store displays toppled over.
Cha Seo-ah, in the chaos, fell but grasped the hammer lying on the floor.
「Alright then, let’s see what you got.」
「…….」
Stealing a glance at Han Ye-hwa’s condition, Im Seung-cheol slowly positioned himself between them.
He aimed a taser at Cha Seo-ah.
In response to Im Seung-cheol, Cha Seo-ah’s lips twisted.
As if she were smiling.
A grotesque smile that didn’t look like human laughter.
As that solidified like stone,
Cha Seo-ah lunged at Im Seung-cheol.
「Kugh!!」
He fired the taser, but she evaded it by hiding behind the tilted display.
Then, she leaped at Im Seung-cheol, swinging the hammer.
Dodging that, Im Seung-cheol resisted by hurling objects that were on the ground.
Kicking and punching Cha Seo-ah in the face, but
Cha Seo-ah’s hammer struck Im Seung-cheol in the side.
「Kuh!」
Im Seung-cheol’s body bent as a scream echoed in the cinema.
Even in a battered state, Cha Seo-ah charged like a beast, as if she felt no pain.
To finish him off, the moment Cha Seo-ah lifted the hammer.
「!!」
Cha Seo-ah’s knee buckled sharply.
The shock was caused by Han Ye-hwa swinging the soju bottle at Cha Seo-ah’s head, having confirmed her presence through the CCTV.
The hits received from Seo Kwang-il and Han Ye-hwa had brought her down.
A sense of bewilderment.
In that moment, as Cha Seo-ah’s feelings became vividly clear, Im Seung-cheol’s fist struck Cha Seo-ah’s face hard.
The unconscious Cha Seo-ah and the sudden commotion drew people into the convenience store.
The sound of police sirens could be heard.
The screen gradually dimmed, and people could finally relax.
Letting out a sigh of relief.
*
“Did you see [The Chaser]?”
“Ah, I did. I almost swore out loud during the convenience store scene.”
“Wow, same here. That scene was just insane.”
A small wave of excitement spread like a wave of word of mouth.
It started with advertisements.
And once the topics of variety shows were combined, people started flocking to the cinemas.
“Wow, look at my sweaty hands.”
“Joo Seo-yeon?? Right? Her acting is no joke.”
“Cha Seo-ah crying while laughing? I was seriously about to cry when I saw that.”
“Ugh, damn. But she’s our age.”
“Who? Cha Seo-ah? Really?”
Perhaps there were no recent movies to watch.
Even though it was a thriller, the footsteps of people heading to the cinemas didn’t stop.
Tickets had already sold out, and they started extending the screens.
Since such conversations began to circulate offline, it was only natural that online communities also started to buzz.
==
[Post: Wow, wow, wow, is [The Chaser] going to hit ten million???]
Isn’t this Joo Seo-yeon’s first film?
Is she a ten million actress from the start???
Reply
– Ugh
– Nonsense
– Stop being ridiculous and go back to your main fandom
– There’s no way it’ll hit ten million, haha
– Is it easy to reach ten million with a thriller?
==
On the opening day of the movie.
As the audience numbers surged, such posts started to appear.
The community’s reactions were generally negative.
They just watched it because there weren’t any recent movies.
That was the general vibe.
However.
By the third day of release, 1.2 million.
– Hmm… this might actually hit ten million???
– Utopia was also well-received, so it might not last.
– Haha, at this pace, it won’t reach ten million.
– If it hits ten million, I’ll dance naked in Gangnam, lol.
– Really???
– But it really is impressive just for that.
Such reactions emerged.
After the weekend, on the seventh day of release.
[The Chaser] reached 5 million.
– Wait a minute
– This is seriously looking like it’ll hit ten million? 5 million????
– I saw it, and the acting is insane; all the actors did great.
– Seriously, the tension is through the roof; I can’t help but curse when I see the convenience store scene, haha.
– But Joo Seo-yeon is really pretty, haha; that’s why I started watching Dream Future, haha.
– Dream Future?? Is it worth watching that?
– Surprisingly, Dream Future is decent.
– But Joo Seo-yeon hardly has any screen time, right?
– She’ll definitely become popular now, good luck.
The wave of success began to escalate into a tidal wave.
Articles praising the achievements of [The Chaser] began to pour out.
[Director Bae Jin-hwan: ‘Thank you for 3 million!!’]
[[The Chaser] cast receiving love calls from all sides]
[Who is the main contributor to the success? ‘Cha Seo-ah’]
There was one place that was secretly nervous amidst all the articles pouring in.
That was <Éclat Étoile>.
The company that had cast Seo-yeon for a cosmetics advertisement.
“Um, Director.”
“Why again?”
“Sales are…”
“Have they gone up?”
“Not exactly; they are maintaining, however.”
Yet still maintaining brought a sigh of relief from Director Baek Min-chan.
He never imagined that she would appear in a movie as a murderer.
They hadn’t included any clauses preventing her from appearing, but he never thought she would take such a role in the film.
“Still, her acting is superb. If you haven’t seen it, Team Leader Jung definitely should.”
“Ah, I certainly have seen it. Man, I can’t believe it’s the same person.”
“Be sure to watch Dream Future.”
“Ah, I’ll think about it.”
Team Leader Jung cleared his throat after Baek Min-chan’s words and followed up.
“This is odd; the fact that it’s maintaining is strange. Usually, such a negative image would cause a drop.”
“Is that right? It didn’t drop?”
“No, it did drop.”
“Then it went as expected, didn’t it?”
“No, but it barely dropped. It’s about the average error margin.”
“Oh, really? Why?”
“Probably because….”
Mentioning Seo-yeon’s image was more than enough to impact the advertisement.
However, the decline was much less than expected.
Why was that?
He pondered, but the answer was simple.
“Because she’s pretty, perhaps?”
“…Maybe it’s time for the team leader to consider a reassignment.”
“No, honestly, that’s the only reason. Also, it seems that Cha Seo-ah gained sympathy from the female audience.”
Indeed, the Cha Seo-ah portrayed in the film matched the chill image very well.
Additionally, despite being a murderer, the decadent aura she emanated oddly aligned with the advertising spirit of Éclat Étoile.
And just as Team Leader Jung had said.
Fifteen days after the release of [The Chaser].
Éclat Étoile’s sales began to rebound.
*
[The Chaser]’s success was a powerful surge.
In just fifteen days, it reached 8 million.
While ten million looked more or less certain.
Not everyone was smiling.
“Is this for real?”
“No….”
“You said it would be successful; you got investment for it.”
A sharp voice rang out.
Another movie had premiered alongside [The Chaser].
[Utopia].
A film that was invested in by GH Group, released on the same day as [The Chaser].
The lead actress, Hwang Min-hwa, sneered while directing her scorn at her co-star.
A fellow actress from the now united ‘Horizon Company’.
Hwang Min-hwa had joined the cast of [Utopia] through her.
“Well, it hasn’t bombed.”
“It’s at 2 million.”
“……”
“If it performs well, it could hit 4 million. There’s been some growth.”
However, no one was mentioning [Utopia].
Whether online or offline, it was all about [The Chaser].
It was humiliating.
Especially the frustration of having been utterly defeated by an actress from Nova Entertainment, the company she had stormed out of.
‘Joo Seo-yeon.’
She recalled the young actress she had briefly crossed paths with.
Hwang Min-hwa bit her lower lip.
Clearly, she had an aura about her.
She exuded a luminous talent.
However, she thought, “She’s still just a rookie.”
_Crack._
Hwang Min-hwa gritted her teeth.
She would never forget this incident.
While Hwang Min-hwa was making that vow.
“Congratulations, Director Bae Jin-hwan!”
“Oh, what for?”
“You’re about to become a ten-million director!”
“Not yet! Not yet!!”
Bae Jin-hwan broke into a broad smile, clinking glasses in celebration.
Soon, he would be a ten-million director.
Today? Or tomorrow.
‘Finally, I’m becoming a ten-million director.’
He would receive that glorious honor.
The youngest among directors.
“Truly, I should be thankful to the actors who put in the effort.”
“It’s a shame Seo-yeon couldn’t make it to today’s gathering.”
“She is still a high school student.”
“For someone so young to achieve this level… Whoa, isn’t she going to Hollywood?”
“Absolutely, it’s possible. I guarantee it!”
_Clink!_
While he was clinking glasses in laughter, actor Kim Dae-heon, who played Detective Im Seung-cheol, mentioned.
“Director, I think you have a call?”
“A call?”
Now that he thought about it, he noticed his phone ringing on the table.
“Who the hell is calling at this hour….”
As Bae Jin-hwan placed his glass down with a thud and checked the screen, his eyes widened.
Then, he jumped up abruptly and answered the phone.
“Ah, yes. This is Director Bae Jin-hwan. Oh, how have you been, Director?”
The director of the cultural business division of GH Group.
The person who had generously supported the filming of [The Chaser].
Even for a ten-million director, Bae Jin-hwan couldn’t carelessly respond to this call, making the liquor hit his stomach like ice water.
And then.
“Excuse me? You mean Seo-yeon?”
That was an unexpected request.