At one point, there had been talks of an extension for City of Shadows, but the writer, Yoo Soo-Min, was adamant about concluding the drama at episode 16. On the other hand, their competitor, The Blue Castle’s Master, had been on the decline, while City of Shadows maintained a rating of 20%. The drama had achieved unexpected success. Hence, the wrap-up party held special meaning for the actors and staff who gathered together to watch and celebrate the finale. And because the broadcasting staff and reporters, along with the fans of the drama, also attended the party, it became even more meaningful and it ended on a cheerful note.

After the wrap-up party was over, Woo-Jin got home slightly past midnight. As soon as he opened his bedroom door, he took a step back in shock. Woo-Hee was sitting cross-legged on his bed in the dark, with the desk lamp as the only light source.

“What’re you doing in my room at this hour instead of sleeping?” He jokingly told her to go for an audition if she wanted to be cast in a horror movie, but she continued to stare at him with her arms crossed.

“Did he live or die?” Woo-Jin simply smiled in response to her question and turned on the bedroom light.

Woo-Jin had finished shooting the drama a week ago and had returned to his daily life. He went back to school as normal and spent time with his family; they had even watched his drama together yesterday. Even though it was a little embarrassing, he shared anecdotes of things that happened on set and the deleted scenes, and his family enjoyed them very much.

But today, he had just gotten home from the wrap-up party where they watched the drama finale together as a group. Woo-Hee had stayed up waiting for him because she was dying with curiosity about the last episode.

“It’s obvious.”

On a snowy day, Lee Yoo-Ra made a final request to Louie - to kill ‘Louie Ahn’.

“How am I supposed to know? Lee Yoo-Ra told Louie to quietly kill himself in an unknown place, without making a sound. She told him to remove all traces of himself and make it seem like he had never existed in this world. He could have gone to the countryside and lived a quiet life!”

Lee Yoo-Ra did not want to see Louie’s final moments. Apart from her request, she had another condition – she wanted him to die a quiet death without anybody’s knowledge. Thus, if Louie wanted to live, he could very well do so.

“She made the request and cried after turning around. Lee Yoo-Ra didn’t even cry when she found out that Louie and her fiancé killed her father, so what do you think it meant when she cried?”

Throughout the drama, Lee Yoo-Ra hadn’t been able to define the feelings she had towards Louie and had only realized them in the last moments of the drama. However, the problem was that her hatred had grown so strong, it overpowered her love for Louie.

“She hated him so much that she wanted him to die but she spared his life!” It seemed as though Woo-Hee couldn’t help but want Louie to somehow live. However, upon analyzing Louie’s character, she knew that he would never go against Lee Yoo-Ra’s request. It was Louie’s job to successfully carry out his clients’ requests; if Lee Yoo-Ra, as his last client, gave him his final task, then even if it meant killing himself, he would accomplish it without fail. Lee Yoo-Ra couldn’t hold back her tears because knew what he was like.

“Did he really die? Louie is a human after all, wouldn’t he want to live? It’s possible that he might secretly watch over Lee Yoo-Ra as she lives happily.” Reality hit Woo-Hee and she looked as though she was about to cry. She pinned her last hope on her brother.

“We actually had to reshoot the scene that was aired today because the writer revised the script. Originally, the final scene was supposed to have Lee Yoo-Ra crying next to Louie’s dead body as blood flowed out of his body, staining the snow-covered ground. However, after we shot it, it looked somewhat corny and trite, and there was also a possibility that it might trigger a warning from the Korea Communications Commission [1], so we slightly modified the ending.”

As a matter of act, the drama had already been criticized for its violence and murder scenes. Even if they were to try their best to portray them euphemistically, there was a limit to their efforts as it was, after all, a drama with a killer as its main character. However, some of the staff felt that they shouldn’t show any blood in the final scene.

“But it looked so pretty, like a flower…” Louie’s blood splattered over the snow-covered ground looked like a flower; it was a beautiful sight. The production team had abandoned beautiful visuals and reached a compromise with reality for the finale that was aired today. They had also deliberately created room for different interpretations. Changing the ending into an open-ended one where people could find comfort wasn't a bad thing.

“My dear little sister, I’m sorry but there are no hopes and dreams in City of Shadows.” Woo-Jin couldn’t help but tease his younger sister one last time. Then, he picked her up from his bed and sent her out of his room. Woo-Hee mumbled, looking like she had more to say, but Woo-Jin patted her on the head as he chased her away, telling her to go to sleep.

After washing up, Woo-Jin changed into his pajamas and was about to go to bed when his younger sister came looking for him once again.

“Louie’s dead.” He gestured for her to go away but Woo-Hee entered his room anyway and looked at him with a serious look on her face.

“That wasn’t what I wanted to ask.”

“What is it?”

Unlike how she was earlier when they talked about the drama, Woo-Hee was hesitant. Woo-Jin sat on a chair instead of his bed and looked at her. Seeing how Woo-Jin was all ears, Woo-Hee asked hesitantly as she bit her lower lip, “You’re better at singing and dancing than Blue Fit, right?”

Woo-Jin slightly raised his eyebrows; it was an unexpected question.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, the Commander or something is Blue Fit’s main vocalist. He won and became The Masked King twice in a row. He has fans who are completely obsessed with him and they always put others down. It pisses me off.”

Even though she didn’t explicitly say it, anybody who heard her would know that she was referring to Woo-Jin when she said ‘others’. There were quite a number of Blue Fit fans among high schoolers. It was fine if they wanted to sing praises of their favorite celebrity, but there were people who would always talk about Woo-Jin and compare him to Min Si-Hoo, intentionally saying harsh words when Woo-Hee was within earshot so she could hear them.

Woo-Hee’s fellow schoolmates who didn’t like her had also joined in. Regardless of how well she got along with her friends, there had always been people who were jealous of her because of her good grades or something else, or simply disliked her. When word got out that Chae Woo-Jin was her older brother and that he adored and doted on her excessively, their hatred for her intensified. It wasn’t to the point of bullying nor was Woo-Hee having a hard time, but it had hurt her pride.

“They’re saying stuff like how it’s natural for you to get kicked out of the group, and how Blue Fit is a talented group, so you wouldn’t fit in with them. They even said that the song you sang was ranked lower than the Commander’s songs so it’s proof that you’re not as talented as them. I was so annoyed because of that. It was rough.”

“I’m not even a singer, so what’s there to compare? They’re such funny kids. So, what did you say?” This was what he had been worried about when he became a celebrity. He had worried that his family would end up being dragged into the picture and criticized by his anti-fans just because they were related to him, and now, it was happening.

“I didn’t say anything. As your younger sister, I am dignified and respectable. I can’t lash out at those naysayers. Chae Woo-Jin’s fans have taken care of everything, so don’t worry. They’re not acting like that because they don’t like you, it’s me they don’t like. They’re acting like this because they know my weakness. To be precise, you became collateral damage because of me.”

Those people had attacked Woo-Jin hoping it would hurt Woo-Hee as a result. At the same time, if Woo-Hee became agitated or mad, they could use her celebrity brother to threaten her. However, Woo-Hee wasn’t the type of person who would be hurt or intimidated by such things. Besides, Woo-Jin had so many fans that there was no need for her to personally take any action. It simply pissed her off and it hurt her pride. She had a hard time holding herself back from saying that she was the only person who could criticize her brother.

“Can you go on The King of the Masked Singers too? Can you join the competition and crush that Commander or The Masked King or whatever his name is?” Woo-Hee rarely asked anything like this. She looked rather serious. No matter how many times she said she was fine, it seemed as though it was inevitable for an 18-year-old girl to be sensitive.

“Isn’t it more embarrassing if I lose?”

“That…that’s true!”

Woo-Hee had also listened to the song sung by the 'Commander of the Universe.' By singing on his own, Min Si-Hoo stood out more than when he sang in a group. Even though he had only become The Masked King twice in a row, the skills he had displayed were worthy of high praise. He had sung so well that even someone who was tone-deaf and clueless about anything related to music would be in awe of his voice. He was as good as, no, he was even better than the singers that had made their mark in the history of The King of Masked Singers.

Woo-Hee had been shocked after finding out from the article that Woo-Jin was supposed to debut with Blue Fit. Despite having no interest in idols, Woo-Hee used to like Blue Fit quite a bit. However, when she learned about the things that happened in the past she stopped liking them.

But when her brother’s name had been mentioned alongside Blue Fit several times in a day, it started to get on her nerves. She brought it up because she didn’t want Woo-Jin to be associated with them anymore and wanted him to use his skills to put it to rest once and for all. However, after hearing what Woo-Jin said, she realized that things could get worse if her brother were to lose to Min Si-Hoo. After all, he had stopped singing for quite some time.

“Don’t go on the show! Don’t you ever do that! I don’t think I was thinking straight for a moment. You must be tired so don’t think about anything and just go to bed, okay?” The more Woo-Hee thought about it, the more she felt like she shouldn’t have suggested it, so she regretted talking about it. Personally, she thought of her brother as a distinguished person who could do everything, but a subjective assessment was not equivalent to an objective one.

Woo-Hee pulled Woo-Jin out of his chair and got him to lay down in bed. She covered him with a blanket and half-heartedly sang him a lullaby. She reiterated several times to forget what she had said earlier and left the room.

“The King of the Masked Singers huh…”

Recently, he had been hearing about it a lot more. Almost as if it was intentional, someone had published an article about his connection with Blue Fit when it should have been forgotten about and the internet trolls just had to mention Woo-Jin in the comments of the article about the 'Commander of the Universe.' Even the members of Blue Hole, who had initially been disappointed that Woo-Jin hadn’t debuted with Blue Fit, started to show a sense of superiority.

As Min Si-Hoo proved his ability to the public as a singer and received recognition, it increased Blue Fit’s status as a whole. After all, the singers had to sing well in order for the group to receive recognition. Moreover, even though Lee Min-Soo had acted well in the drama, the main characters’ presence was so strong that he couldn’t stand out. Perhaps because of the backlash, Blue Fit’s fans tried to do whatever they could to undermine Chae Woo-Jin.

Nevertheless, Woo-Jin wasn’t bothered by it because he felt that as long as he did a good job, he would be able to completely cut ties with them one day. However, he couldn’t imagine what Woo-Hee’s classmates had been saying at school for her to behave that way. Woo-Jin couldn’t sleep; he got up to his feet and sat down. It seemed like he wouldn’t be able to get any sleep tonight.

***

Park Eun-Soo woke up in the morning and walked to the living room. When she found her son sleeping on the sofa hugging Woo-Sa, she tried to walk as quietly as possible. She went back into the bedroom and came out with a blanket. She was about to cover him with the blanket, but she paused for a moment.

Just looking at her son’s facial expression, as the morning sun shone on him while he slept, made her feel warm and at peace. It was a moment she wanted to treasure for a long time. Woo-Jin and Woo-Sa slept so soundly that it didn’t wake them up even after she took photos and covered them up with a blanket.

Since Woo-Jin didn’t have classes on Friday, it was okay for him to sleep in. Hence, she and the other family members didn’t wake him up. He slept for a long time, and whenever they walked past the living room, they tried to be as quiet as possible.

Woo-Jin woke up late in the morning. He lounged around the house for quite some time as his parents and sister had already gone out. Thereafter, he had lunch and slowly started to prepare to go to school.

1. It’s a South Korean media regulation agency modeled after the Federal Communications Commission of the US. ☜