Even before he asked, Hyunwoo could detect her real identity because her face clouded suddenly.

At that moment, Principal Daewon Kim stopped him in a quiet voice.

“Sometimes you had better pretend not to know even when you know it all.”

Only then did Hyunwoo realize he made a mistake because he already knew why Yuni of Hey Girls quit her entertaining career. Besides, he was also aware of her hidden story not known to the general public, which he heard from Jinyoung Paek.

She had to quit because of Taesu Ahn, the president of AT Entertainment. When Taesu demanded she had sex with him, she refused. Then, he fabricated a sex video about her and spread rumors about her affair with him.

In particular, the sex video scandal shocked the public. Though Yuni denied it, it was impossible to identify her because of its bad image quality, and as a result, the video quickly spread under her name.

That happened when she was only 22, something she could not bear at that tender age. Worse, AT Entertainment didn’t give her an opportunity to appear on TV.

Even after her contract expired, broadcasting companies rejected her because of the pressure of AT Entertainment, which was regarded as a big player in the broadcasting market.

Yuni disappeared from the broadcasting world, and it’s been three years since then.

I now see her real name was Soyun Han.

Hyunwoo looked at her again.

When the meeting was over Hyunwoo couldn’t stay anymore. And he felt sorry for her.

“Well, let us leave now.”

“Thanks. We’ll hold a music contest sooner or later and try to select the best music entry.”

“Sure, we’ll be ready then.”

Hyunwoo left the alternative school, but could not erase her face from his memory for a while.

***

“What a poor little girl!” said Heejung’s grandmother, letting out a sigh.

As she was so poor, Heejung had to give up studying, let alone her dream.

Though her grandmother wanted to make money to support her granddaughter, she couldn’t.

With a deep sigh, she headed for the senior center, the only place where she could find solace.

Suddenly, she saw a sign on the top of the building that housed the senior center, called ‘Ani & Funny’. The sign was small and dimly lit in the night, so nobody paid any attention to it.

To Heejung’s grandmother, however, the sign was so beautiful and precious. For her granddaughter had a dream in it.

For a while, Ani & Funny was the topic of the seniors. They came to know the senior center, located on the 2nd floor of the building, was built thanks to the active support of Ansan City. They felt that even though the sign was nondescript and small, the company Ani & Funny must be a promising one.

It would be great if my granddaughter could work in that place, she thought.

While she was looking at the sign for a while, someone said hello from behind.

When she turned her head, it was Hyunwoo, the representative of Ani & Funny.

Hyunwoo sometimes visited the senior center with bread and meat, so she knew him well.

Today, he was holding a heavy package on both hands. Actually, he was on his way back after checking with the customs office of Ansan City to see if he could find an experienced customs agent looking for a job.

“Oh, it’s you, Hyunwoo. What’s that?”

“Some bread and soft drinks for you. Why are you out here and not coming in?”

“I was about to.”

When they went in, Hyunwoo found an old lady called Mrs. Paenamu who was familiar to him as she often went on outings with him.

“Enjoy then,” said Hyunwoo.

“Thanks for this.”

After briefly saying goodbye to them, Hyunwoo walked up to the office of Ani & Funny upstairs.

As soon as he left, Mrs. Paenamu began to praise him.

“Do you know what a great guy he is? You know that orphanage called the House of Happiness over there, right?”

“Yea, it’s a very large one.”

“I heard he bought computers for the kids and even hired some teachers to teach them.”

“How wonderful!”

“Besides, many students are coming here every evening to learn from Hyunwoo upstairs.”

“What is he teaching them?”

“Animation.”

Heejung’s grandmother’s jaws dropped at that. Receiving personal tutoring on animation was her granddaughter’s long-cherished dream, and that had been happening upstairs without her knowledge for a while.

Suddenly, she came nearer to Mrs. Paenamu and said, “Can I ask you a favor?”

“What favor?”

“In fact, my granddaughter was anxious to…”

Hearing her explanation, Mrs. Paenamu felt it was an easy job.

“No problem. Let’s go upstairs now.”

“Right now?”

“What’s the difference if we do it now or tomorrow?”

When they came upstairs to the office, there were no Anifan kids there, only full-time staff, along with Hyunwoo.

“How can I help you?” asked Hyunwoo.

“Well, I’ve got some favor to ask of you.”

“What is it?” asked Hyunwoo seeming to agree before he’d even been asked.

Mrs. Paenamu explained to Hyunwoo that her granddaughter, a sophomore in high school, was studying animation but could not go to a private tutoring center as she could not afford to, and asked if he could accept her as a part-timer.

Then, Heejung’s grandmother stepped in quickly and said, “Phew, you don’t have to pay her if you accept my granddaughter as a part-timer. I just thought she could learn a lot while working here as a part-timer.”

And then she tried to read Hyunwoo’s mind. She was nervous because he might reject her favor.

But Hyunwoo was already thinking of it favorably.

Oh, I’ve got an idea!

In fact, Ani & Funny was short-handed now. There was no tangible progress in the speed of animation production even though his staff concentrated on Garbage World at the expense of Tuti & Angelica for the moment.

Suhim Yu, the storyteller, already completed several stories. Some of them featured flowers and insects with a rose and bees as the main characters and some about school supplies with a stubby pencil as the naughty main character. Her brain was full of ideas.

But they could not embark on making the characters suitable for the stories, let alone the storyboard because they were short of hands.

That’s why Hyunwoo rejected Jinhon’s request for another music video, and instead okayed a couple of music videos per year through an open contest at their alternative school.

With a bright smile, Hyunwoo said, “Please bring her here. I’d like to test her abilities first. Even if she fails, I hope you won’t be disappointed.”

“Thanks a million, Hyunwoo. Thanks so much,” said Heejung’s grandmother.

Then, she held his hands tightly.

That evening Mrs. Yang’s granddaughter visited the office, but she was not alone. She brought four friends of hers.

“Hello. I’m Heejung Yang. My grandmother told me to come over here for a test. These are my friends. We’re learning animation together.”

They said hello to him, feeling sorry that they came with Yang without his approval.

But Hyunwoo didn’t blame them. The more, the better for him.

After talking with them briefly about animation, Hyunwoo got more interested in them.

All of them had been interested in animation since they were middle school students, so they had at least two to three years of studying in animation.

Kyungsu and Sanggyu were still in the office.

Hyunwoo said, “Could you test them?”

“Sure. Tell me about your strength in animation work.”

“I don’t know that yet. We’ve just drawn several animations for practice.”

“Really? Can I see that?”

Heejung handed him a USB, and her friends also took out USBs one by one. Kyungsu played them. Their animation works were simple video snippets showing the fighting scenes, a crying girl running on the street and a witch casting spells.

Certainly, their work had an amateur’s touch. The picture was rough, and the coloring was clumsy. Nonetheless, there was something attractive beyond description.

Sanggyu played one USB several times and uttered an exclamation.

“Who did the layout for this? Was it you?” asked Sanggyu, turning to Heejung.

She nodded.

“Though you are amateurs in drawing, your sense of the space layout is much better than mine,” said Kyungsu, praising her.

“I think you used the story very effectively. In particular, the fighting scene was pretty dynamic even with a few charts of story.”

“Wow, she is good at seizing the right movement of the characters. Look at the moving hair!”

Sanggyu suddenly stopped it when he was about to point to a girl’s bosom with his finger. Actually, the girl’s full bust in the animation work was expressed too bluntly.

Though he wanted to praise it, he realized Heejung and her friends were high school students in uniforms, so found it awkward to point it out.

“Anyway, I feel good about your work. You can do better if you develop your sense of animation further.”

“Then, can you accept us?”

Heejung and her friends asked with full of expectation. With their arms folded before their bosoms, they looked so desperate.