Free Web NovelNow we had to push the article out along with the press release we’d received in advance. It was so visually stunning you could actually say the overseas location shoot had been worth it. The comment reaction shot up fast, too.
[Intube]
SBC DRAMA NET Subscribers 360K
[This is what real class looks like <Top Class> Teaser Trailer] 0:30
-Wow, this reeks of money lololol Of course it’s Director Na
-A big-scale drama for the first time in a while..^^ The framing’s so clean and open~ The actors look classy too. Feels like they’re all going to show what they’re capable of, I’m excited
-This is insane, absolutely insane. Who the hell cast Joo Junseo, I need to hug them so damn tight, AAAAaaaaa my husband
“Who watches this and calls it a drama?”
“Looks like a movie. How much is the budget?”
“This one’s 30 billion won....”
It wasn’t fully pre-produced—only partially.
“If they’ve only barely made half and it’s already 30 billion, then this—”
“Means at least 50 billion by the time it finishes airing.”
Sponsorships from countless brands, production support, cooperation from overseas tourism boards tied into it, and above all—
“SBC’s blowing up their 30th anniversary for real....”
An anniversary commemorative drama. The impact of that was huge.
Every network celebrated its anniversary lavishly in ten-year increments, and that was usually expressed through scale.
Either a proper, traditional historical drama that showed history and legacy in full, or a massive blockbuster drama with insane capital behind it. It was usually one of the two—and this time, <Top Class> had taken the latter role.
It was like saying, This is how much SBC’s brand value is worth.
Tatadak- tatadadak-.
The Daily Media reporters’ fingers sped up. They pressed harder on their keyboards, pounding out words even faster.
“When’s the press conference for that—hey! Check it, now!”
“There’s already a <Top Class> minor gallery up. I’ll send the link-.”
“Check every sponsor brand for Gi Juye, and Joo Junseo too!”
“People are going to start asking about locations soon, so how about a Macau feature article?”
While everyone else got busier and busier, there was only one reporter thinking about something else.
‘...What about Yeoreum?’
<Top Class> starts four episodes earlier than <Strange Tales>. The setup was perfect for grabbing early viewers and running with them.
‘When the hell is the <Strange Tales> teaser coming out!’
From the beginning, this was a tilted board. <Top Class> had an overwhelming advantage.
As gif clips and captured stills from the <Top Class> teaser uploaded to the minor gallery, the drama nerds’ attention started to funnel into one place.
* * *
<Strange Tales> filming continued without a second to breathe. This time, it was Yeomga’s turn.
Thanks to <Strange Tales> Team B working hard and getting their shots, all they needed were a few more cuts of Yeomga and the teaser trailer would be finished.
The set, steeped in the aura of a gloomy shaman, was black from end to end.
From the pitch-black mother-of-pearl cabinet, to the deep navy silk bedding, to the folding screen painted with dark mountains and a waterfall—just looking at it made your eyes sting, like they were going numb.
Wearing a black shaman robe, Yeomga twisted her hair up with a hairpin set with a purple amethyst and walked out onto the set.
“Teacher!”
“Teacher Geum Bitgang is here-!”
The moment Geum Bitgang arrived, the staff called out in unison. Today was Yeomga’s first day of filming. They had to shoot the ritual that would go into the teaser trailer, along with the scene of her controlling Grand Prince Seonghwi.
“The set’s nice.”
“Thank you!”
Geum Bitgang gave Director Jang the highest praise. For someone as strict with compliments as Geum Bitgang, that kind of evaluation meant she’d truly acknowledged it.
Director Jang put a lot of effort into the camera direction.
Myungdo and Seoryeong were framed mostly in forward-moving compositions, and the camera ran with them along the track, as if chasing.
Yeomga, in contrast, symbolized stagnation—standing water. The camera moved slowly on a circular track, turning around her like it was observing her in a damp, sinister way.
“‘Yeomga became a human who can’t smile,’ huh....”
“That’s right. She’s someone who offered up every last bit of her humanity as a sacrifice to revenge.”
“Then she can make a smile... without actually smiling.”
Every time Geum Bitgang interpreted a scene, Director Jang felt goosebumps rise. When someone reached a certain level, they started pinpointing things ordinary people couldn’t even think of.
“Your Highness must steel your heart.”
This was Yeomga’s space—one that even broke the common assumption that the highest-ranked person sat in the seat of honor. With the folding screen between them, the two spoke.
On the inner side sat Yeomga; on the outer side sat Grand Prince Seonghwi. It showed their hierarchy with brutal clarity.
“All of this will become the light that illuminates Your Highness’s future....”
From behind the folding screen, Yeomga was smiling. Her voice was dignified and heavy, but that hidden smile was visible to everyone except Grand Prince Seonghwi.
Making a smile, but not smiling.
Director Jang could feel what that meant. Goosebumps crawled up his arms.
“Then go now, and speak to Crown Prince Yunhwi.”
Geum Bitgang released Yeomga into the world exactly as she’d interpreted her.
She layered Yeomga with the face of a victim—someone carrying trauma after suffering an indelible wound she could never erase from her life.
As if something in her brain had broken, she opened her eyes wide and pulled her chin sharply inward, gathered her gaze into a single point, then tilted her chin up and opened her mouth. Every few seconds, her expression kept changing.
The camera prowled near Yeomga, capturing her from different angles.
“Tell him to head to Cheonmaekji.”
As if she couldn’t properly fix her body in place, Yeomga’s chin trembled with tiny spasms as she twisted her face to one side.
Though her facial muscles were in constant motion, her voice never shook even once, and her pronunciation was perfectly precise.
That made her feel even more like an unknown entity.
It was like pure human joy—so close to fulfilling a long-cherished wish—and a distant, icy rationality were controlling the same body at the same time.
“So be it. And the talisman you gave me—when the moon rises tonight, I simply place it in that shrine, yes?”
Beyond the folding screen, Grand Prince Seonghwi asked again, uneasy. The line clearly carried something dangerous inside it, yet the prince was still only human.
He wasn’t like Yeomga, who had become something that was human, and yet not human.
Grand Prince Seonghwi didn’t have the kind of fear that overwhelmed a viewer on sight.
“That’s right. Soon, all under heaven will fall into Your Highness’s embrace....”
Kkiik-.
Yeomga’s face creaked as it twisted grotesquely. Her head turned at an off angle, but her gaze stayed locked on the prince, burning as if it could bore through him.
Beyond the folding screen, Grand Prince Seonghwi smiled, still unaware.
In the dim folding screen that concealed her, Yeomga’s face appeared again. Her eyes held a sneer.
In this board, the folding screen wasn’t hiding Yeomga—the one with low blood running through her.
On the other side, that noble-blooded prince who knew nothing was her puppet.
“...Cut....”
Director Jang said it blankly.
Deciding they could make a teaser from just this short exchange was impulsive, bordering on reckless—yet when the editing team received the files, they had no choice but to nod.
Yeomga made people tense up by her existence alone.
* * *
“Ah, I’m not interested in <Top Class>.”
Muttering as they refreshed their phone screen was someone with IP 85.152.
No matter how much they searched for drama bait, only <Top Class> came up.
Ever since <Romeo and Juliet>, IP 85.152 had been suffering like it was a chronic illness: the urge to see Han Yeoreum’s acting again. There was no cure for this.
“Ah, seriously, I’m going insane....”
For people who watched plays and musicals nonstop, it was a familiar diagnosis. For audiences with the “Just show me that moment one more time, right in front of my eyes” symptoms, there was an expensive medicine called a “revolving door.”
But what IP 85.152 was sick with was that day’s <Romeo and Juliet>. A revolving door wasn’t even possible. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
They’d replayed it so much they were at the point of memorizing every line.
“If there was at least some <Strange Tales> bait, I’d watch that, at least....”
They weren’t really into drama stanning, but IP 85.152 searched out of habit. And that was when the words <Strange Tales> appeared on their feed.
Finally, the teaser trailer had been uploaded.
[Intube]
JC ENM Subscribers 890K
[Things that aren’t human live and breathe <Strange Tales> Teaser Trailer] 0:30
“Oh! It’s up!”
IP 85.152 clicked the trailer fast. Against a dark screen, only someone’s voice could be heard.
-Your Highness must steel your heart.
Then the image that appeared was a natural landscape filmed from atop a dizzying cliff. A man walked out with an abandoned hermitage behind him.
“Han Yeoreum?”
It was Yeoreum, dressed as a man.
With an expressionless face, Yeoreum pulled out a talisman from her chest and spread her hand hard, casting sorcery. A moment later, crimson flames wrapped around Yeoreum.
Like a red tongue flicking out, the firelight greedily swallowed everything around it.
Kuuung-.
A massive tree, engulfed in flames, crashed to the ground. Yeoreum’s eyes as she brought it down were cold as ice.
Before anyone knew it, the fire had spread like madness, heading for the village.
-All of this,
Even as the flames devoured it, the village was nothing but quiet.
As if no one had ever lived there from the beginning.
As if there had never been people at all.
Hwi-ii-.
The sound of dry wind blowing. As if that were a signal flare, the audio slammed in fast and the screen switched.
A wall with a rotten, melted rope hanging from it; the sound of roaches skittering, sasa-sak, over it; thunk— a maiden collapsing to the floor; the sound of someone singing a dirge, asking when “the groom” would finally come; a man thrashing with his limbs bound and his mouth gagged; a blade touching his palm; the sound of it slicing, sa-ak, through soft flesh; bloodshot eyes, tears gathering from pain; blood gathering on his palm, too.
-It will become the light that illuminates Your Highness’s future....
Unlike the narration, the visuals grew more and more bleak.
An old box with a dried-out child’s hand sticking out; a clown trapped in prison, unable to drink even a sip of water; an endless, bass-layered sound of insects crawling, overlapped with a child’s horrifying laughter; men fleeing after tossing their torches to the ground, abandoning a companion caught in a tiger’s jaws; a madam hesitating, gripping the rope hanging from the ceiling.
And then, as if watching every single one of those situations, someone’s face slowly emerged from beyond a folding screen painted with a black waterfall.
In that moment, the light pluck of a geomungo string layered in—and everything fell silent. So silent you couldn’t even hear breathing.
-Strange Tales.
Geum Bitgang announced, smiling while not smiling.
-June 17. First episode.
“Holy shit....”
Without realizing it, IP 85.152 played the video again.
Just 30 seconds—only a teaser trailer—and yet their whole body went tense enough that every muscle felt like it was going numb.
