Free Web Novel* * *
Hwang Jihye took a moment to breathe deeply. Crossdressing, hanbok. With those two weapons alone, it would be hard to overwhelm Gi Juye from <Top Class> in one blow.
‘First off, she’ll go flashy, and the brand will have press materials pumped and ready.’
They say even a house dog, after three years at the village school, can recite poetry. After three years of Gi Juye, you could recite bullshit. To Hwang Jihye, it was painfully obvious what kind of route Gi Juye would take.
‘Her personality’s filthy to begin with....’
Yeoreum had properly scratched at Gi Juye with that “I’ll be looking forward to the styling.” remark. Even Gi Juye’s agency—she could already see the angle they’d use to hype her visuals. Hwang Jihye wanted, absolutely, to make Yeoreum win.
‘But... there’s something Gi Juye doesn’t know.’
For Yeoreum, who had trusted her, Hwang Jihye called someone.
‘Crossdressing is the hidden card.’
First up was Dok Gogyeol, who would handle Yeoreum’s makeup.
-Hello? Ah, Yeoreum’s coordinator. But what do we do. I’m kind of busy....
“Manager Ma said he’s coming, so there’s nothing we can do.... Then we’ll exclude Director Dok....”
-Text me the address.
Of course, Manager Ma coming was a lie. She’d called Dok Gogyeol first.
Next, Hwang Jihye called Ryu Risa.
-Ah, yeah, I know. But it’s a hanbok style—why are you calling me, what do you want me to do? I’m busy.
“Director Dok Gogyeol said she’s coming, so there’s nothing we can do.... Then we’ll exclude Manager Ryu....”
-Why would you exclude me? Do you not know you can’t even discuss styling if you exclude me? Text me the address.
Last, she called Manager Ma.
“Manager Ryu and Director Dok are coming, so I thought you obviously should come too, Manager Ma.”
-Obviously. Maybe it’s because you’re a cute little coordinator, but you’re easy to talk to.
Just like that, she gathered all three with ease.
In the industry, there was a legend that when those three gathered, even the impossible got done—but Hwang Jihye was the first person to actually assemble all three in one place.
Above Hwang Jihye’s head, a stat shimmered.
Artistry: B+
* * *
Ryu Risa’s eyes lit up. First off, she loved the massive amount of reference material. Hanbok, more than anything, was the final destination of conceptual work.
“Gi Juye’s side in <Top Class> will use flamboyance as her weapon. Then what we have to protect here... in my opinion, it’s simplicity. They say ‘simple but not shabby, splendid but not extravagant.’”
Simple but not shabby, splendid but not /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ extravagant.
That was the design spirit that satisfied someone with the highest sense of aesthetics. Make it simple, but make it gorgeous. For a moment, the three of them darkened as if they’d just heard a client’s ridiculous demand.
But only for a moment.
“The second a crossdressing character puts on women’s clothes, that’s been a popularity factor since forever.”
“Ah, I know what you mean. It’s nice seeing the male lead’s expression change like, ‘Wait... was she always this pretty...?’”
“Right! First, I think we should check hair accessories. Up until now, Seoryeong wouldn’t have been able to change much because of the gat.”
But they were pros among pros. In an instant, they found the maximum they could draw out of Seoryeong’s styling.
“Hey-, babe. You must’ve already thought something through, right? Tell me.”
At Dok Gogyeol’s question, Coordinator Hwang answered in a trembling voice.
“First, I think pulling out the boyish charm Yeoreum has is the priority. Rather than forcing it by putting on lipstick just to look prettier on screen, I think it’d be better to focus on our brows and nose shading.”
At Coordinator Hwang’s suggestion to keep the gentle-looking eyes as they were, but bring out the texture of the brows and draw a stronger arch, Dok Gogyeol nodded.
“Yeah. If we shade the tip of the nose so it falls a little sharper, that’ll do it. On the other hand, when she’s dressed as a girl, we soften the brows and put the emphasis on blush and lips.”
Once Dok Gogyeol set the frame, Ryu Risa made it concrete.
“Even for the crossdressing look, I want her in mostly light-colored outfits—sky blue or pale lavender. You know that classic womanizer look period dramas always draw. I read the script, and it matches perfectly with a character who’s willful and loves luxury.”
Even without flashy styling, even without famous brand clothes, the best ways to focus attention purely on Seoryeong as Yeoreum would show her were created in an instant.
‘Viewers aren’t idiots.’
No matter how much fake marketing and sloppy viral nonsense runs rampant in this era, people recognize what’s real.
When an actor pushes forward what they want to show—not what they think others want to see—your heart can’t help but be pulled.
“A month after airing, there’ll be another Ruel mint carpet, so we style her one more time with a cute hanbok mood there... and use that to stamp her overseas again. And if the magazine side asks for a before-and-after comparing Seoryeong’s crossdressing look, they’ll give us a full page.”
Manager Ma finished up the branding for Yeoreum, whose overseas expansion was about to begin.
And just as they were easing into wrapping up <Strange Tales> Seoryeong’s styling—
“Ah, right. I actually had something I wanted to talk to you about, Manager Ma.”
Dok Gogyeol’s eyes gleamed.
“What is it?”
“Yeoreum’s contract with ALAB ends soon, right? When she renews, let’s do a collab with me.”
“With you, Director?”
At the sound of money, Manager Ma’s eyes gleamed too. The conversation between the two money-obsessed people spun up fast.
“That red hair styling from when Yeoreum did <Law-Faster-than>, remember? The hair texture. If we push it like, ‘ALAB hair ampoule used at the Cheongdam shop,’ that kind of angle would be good. I had dinner with someone involved last time. They said the R&D’s in the final stage.”
“Red hair....”
A keyword that had been sleeping in Manager Ma’s head popped up.
“Korean mermaid princess, tsk.... That’s good...?”
Starting from Pi Chaewon’s sneakers in <ParCheHi>, this time it felt like they could make hair trend under the name ‘Han Yeoreum.’
Once you caught the flow, you had to use it properly.
And just as everyone expected—
mameumyeomisaeyo (My Woman Archive) @yeomisae
(<Strange Tales> Yeoreum capture.jpg)
Her gaze has been eating melon bread since forever, and her looks are still the same little puppy.
Retweets 21K Likes 17K
ㄴWhy is the crossdressing my girl serves so sweet
ㄴThe fact she didn’t draw eyeliner is so damn GOAT, you know what I mean. That stubborn refusal to show she’s a “girl” with some sly tint—like you can feel our big sister’s sin. cere. ty, you know what I mean
ㄴThis is the <boyish charm> our big sister shows... I’m losing it, my face is hot, boy phone call
Yeoreum succeeded in getting attention even for her hanbok styling. That naturalness—unstyled on purpose—hit the public perfectly.
[DramaTALK/ The point I personally loved in <Strange Tales> was]
It was that Han Yeoreum wasn’t trying too hard to be “girly”.. if crossdressing slips, it becomes “she’s obviously a woman” and then it’s like the world is pranking me lol she’s so cute-looking that at first I thought, can the crossdressing even work, but she really feels like she’s on that border between boy and girl..
-Anonymous1: Right, crossdressing is hard to pull off, but even her voice sounded a bit more boyish than usual
-Anonymous2: The vibe is completely different from when she MCs on MusicN lol the brow shape change was seriously a god move
ㄴAnonymous6: Yeah, on MusicN it was more idol-ish? but this made me think, an actor really is an actor lol
-Anonymous3: In my heart she’s #1 among actresses who look good crossdressing TT_TT Seoryeong-ah..
“Seriously, we picked such a good model, us....”
ALAB employees watching in real time were awed.
They’d already been benefiting hugely from their model, but they couldn’t even guess how much more “Han Yeoreum effect” they were about to feel.
The <Han Yeoreum Collab> Cheongdam shop hair ampoule that would soon hit Olive0 was being manufactured nonstop at the factory in this very moment.
With Yeoreum’s brightly smiling face on it.
* * *
Gi Juye’s face twisted as she checked the news in real time. On Gi Juye’s phone, Han Yeoreum was there again.
She was already getting praised for her acting, and now her face was plastered huge on portal banners—there was no way she could stand not to click.
[ALAB, rises as Olive0’s ‘must-have item’ within a year of launch... joins hands with Dok Gogyeol to present a spring collab]
Hair brand ALAB shakes the beauty market once again.
After drawing a hot response on Olive0 immediately upon launch, ALAB now joins hands with ‘Cheongdam’s #1 artist’ Dok Gogyeol to present a new hair ampoule.
On top of that, by successfully renewing their contract with actress Han Yeoreum—who’s been showing insane presence lately through <Strange Tales>—expectations for the product are rising even further.
“...Does that even make sense?”
Just a few years ago, Gi Juye had been the number one brand reputation pick reporters loved to cite. That meant she’d stood at the peak of popularity.
“Han Yeoreum, that little nothing!”
It was already infuriating enough that she’d been pushed down to the level of someone like Han Yeoreum, who’d debuted only a year ago. And now two brands she’d been advertising with had already renewed contracts with Han Yeoreum.
“ALAB, Company N, Creamy Soda—already! Three brands? She’s modeling for three?”
The anxiety that Han Yeoreum might outdo her hit like a wave.
And, of course, the article right below was [Creamy Soda boasts insane sales immediately after launch]. If she clicked, she’d obviously see Han Yeoreum’s face plastered huge again.
“Ah, so annoying. So annoying, so annoying, so annoying-!”
The makeup artist who’d been fixing her lip makeup read the room on her own. You’d think she’d show a little consideration at least while they were touching up her makeup, but Gi Juye didn’t know anything like that.
“Does this make sense to you, unnis? Han Yeoreum comes out in <Strange Tales> looking dirty as hell. But what ‘fashion,’ what ‘beauty’ are they talking about? Seriously. Fuck.”
At Gi Juye’s words, the staff around her chimed in, yeah, yeah.
“Obviously her fee’s cheap, so they’re just using her however.”
The fabrications aimed at Han Yeoreum grew worse and worse. Gi Juye stomped her foot hard in place.
‘Here she goes again....’
But as Gi Juye’s assigned staff, this kind of thing was familiar.
Whenever netizens praised how “natural” Gi Juye’s power-abuse acting looked in <Top Class>, they suffered the urge to write anonymous comments.
Anonymous1: It’s her real personality so why would she need to act, just throw her usual fucking tantrums and the acting’s done.
“What are you doing? Fix my lip, quickly.”
“Uh—yeah. I will.”
After throwing a whole fit, Gi Juye found something else to nitpick at her staff again. She was fixing her lip and heading out of the waiting room when—
“Oh, yes, yes. Director, it’s been a while. Ah, me? I’m working hard on <Top Class>, of course. Yeah.”
In the distance, she saw a senior talking on the phone. Without realizing it, Gi Juye leaned her ear toward the conversation.
In the entertainment industry, rumors traveled fast. The winner was whoever snatched good information first.
“It’s basically confirmed? Hey. I’m looking forward to it. What—are you trying to let me get a spot too?” ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
She had a feeling. That was definitely talk about a project. At that level, a decent writer-director lineup would be attached.
Gi Juye’s eyes gleamed greedily.
