Free Web NovelI ended the call with Myeong Jeha and headed back to the set.
“Hey! Han Yeoreum!”
“Yeoreum, did something happen?”
The moment I returned, two people came running toward me.
“Nothing happened.”
The moment I looked at the set, calm naturally settled over both my mind and body.
A script binder with my name written on it. A chair with my name stamped across it.
Even just that was enough to make me feel that I had a place here.
A powerful certainty that I was no longer the Han Yeoreum of the past.
That was what kept me from wavering.
“Hey! Han Yeoreum! What do you mean nothing happened? We all heard.”
“The staff unnies said you were shouting and causing a scene....”
As expected, my naturally gifted projection and precise diction had no choice but to attract the staff’s attention. Very fitting for a budding top actress whose every bit of private life had started to matter.
I stroked Dami’s head as I spoke.
“It’s really nothing. A promise came up soon. That’s all.”
“Han Yeoreum. Really?”
“Yeoreum. Seriously?”
I nodded to both of them.
Myeong Jeha had said they couldn’t hold an audition like last time. So when I asked what we were supposed to do, he had smiled and said:
“You’ll probably have a chance to eat soon. I’ll arrange it.”
With who exactly?
“The lighting setup’s done now, so should we end the break here...?”
Director So called out to us in a quiet voice. I decided to temporarily forget about the chaos of Lee Seohae filling my mind.
Because I was Na Yuna right now.
My role. There were things that were mine now, things I would never let slip away again.
* * *
“Mm....”
On a radiant spring day, MBS Drama Center Director Lee Saerok rose from bed with a comfortable expression.
“I woke up before the alarm even went off....”
Checking the time on his phone, Lee Saerok happily welcomed the weekend morning.
Then he immediately opened Intube.
INTUBE
[Dami totally getting baited by Gaeul, and Yeoreum watching it all... is this cheer squad okay? ⎢〈Youth Disqualified!〉 Ep.6] 03:27
67,221 views
—LMAO the chemistry between these three just gets cuter the more I watch TT_TT
—The narration was so damn good this episode too, they seriously need to release the script book, I’m confident I’d read it until the corners wear out
˪If they don’t release the script book I’m going to hunt Lee Saerok down
˪LOLOLOLOL poor punching-bag Saerok T_T
Seeing comments mention his name, Lee Saerok shyly pressed like.
“Good. It’s doing well.”
〈Youth Disqualified!〉 hadn’t become an explosive sensation, but just as So Yesol and Lee Saerok had expected, it maintained a steady core fandom.
People who loved Director So’s signature healing-style narration had even started promoting the 〈Youth Disqualified!〉 monologues on social media.
[Issue Board / Everyone’s going crazy these days over how relatable these famous 〈Youth Disqualified!〉 lines are.jpg]
(Youth Disqualified monologue capture.jpg)
So many people saying one out of Yuna / Heejeong / Yungyo feels just like them... T_T
Anon 1: The monologue sections are so damn good I keep waiting for the next one
Anon 2: I’ve followed this since the Youth Disqualified vlog TT_TT feels like it’s just gonna become my life drama, those three themselves feel like youth
˪Anon 22: facts this isn’t even just a drama, it feels like a whole life narrative
Anon 35: I’ve gotten bored of dramas lately so I barely watch any, but Youth Disqualified is the only one I keep up with LOLOL
“So this is what stable success tastes like.... Right....”
As he got ready to go out, Lee Saerok thought back on the hellish days of the past.
There had been dawns when he’d jolted awake over and over from nightmares.
Plunging ratings, absurd emergency scripts, disappearing investors, artistic quality melting away, and finally—
[EARLY TERMINATION]
“Aaagh!”
Remembering the day the official notice had come down, Lee Saerok shook his head from side to side. Then, determined to think only good thoughts, he hummed the 〈Youth Disqualified!〉 OST as he headed to the meeting place.
“Hey! Why are you so late!”
“....”
This was Mangwon-dong. Lee Saerok had decided to visit a pop-up store.
Of course, he wasn’t alone.
He was meeting the insufferable KBC bureau chief and the still-silent SBC bureau chief in what was essentially a terrestrial broadcasting chiefs’ summit.
“If this thing gets sold out in front of me because of you, just watch. You know what my kid’s temper is like, right?”
“....”
The three had gathered to talk business, but while they were at it, they had also decided to buy limited-edition Babomom keyrings.
“Hey, why the hell is this doll so expensive?”
“If you say that in front of the kids they’ll scream and lose it. Don’t buy it and get cursed at for no reason.”
“....”
The day was perfectly springlike, his errand for his daughter was going well, and even work had been producing results.
Lee Saerok couldn’t stop smiling even if he tried.
On top of that—
“Oh! It’s Saerok.”
“It is, right?”
Girls in their teens and twenties who had come to buy Babomom merch even recognized him.
“Please take a photo with us!”
“Did you come to buy Babomom too?”
Having already built up a full sense of one-sided familiarity, they chatted with Lee Saerok comfortably. He made cheek hearts and took photos with them.
The SBC bureau chief silently watched his friend’s ridiculous fanservice antics.
* * *
After successfully buying the Babomom goods, the three headed to a nearby burger place. Dipping fries into a milkshake, the KBC bureau chief finally began bragging in earnest.
“Hey, seriously, I keep craving fast food like this. Maybe it’s because I’ve been using so much English lately. Even my taste buds have become American now.”
“Or maybe you’ve just become a pig bastard? Look at that double chin.”
“You know we won our ‘Little Oscar,’ right? At this rate, entering America is... hehehe... hahahaha...!”
“Shut up. Shut the hell up, bastard.”
The KBC bureau chief was still glowing from the aftertaste of the Critics Choice award.
The Blu-ray had also been a huge success, and once it aired in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, he was already excited at the thought of scraping up another pile of cash through merchandise.
“The dignity of a na.tion.al drama.... Naturally KBC, with its ‘public broadcasting values,’ should take responsibility for that, right?”
Not to be outdone by KBC’s self-praise, the MBS center director immediately countered.
“Oh dear... I have no idea why my Yousta followers keep increasing.... You two probably don’t know? But there’s this feature called sto.ries... and every time I post there, people say I really know trends. Do you two even know what ‘well-informed’ means?”
“Bullshit.”
“You really can’t communicate, seriously. You heard the Youth Disqualified OST playing out on the streets, right? It’s so hard to break into the music charts these days, but our OST...”
“Hard to break the charts? ‘Huijae’ is still on there.”
The SBC bureau chief, who had only been listening to the pride battle between the two, took his final bite of burger and neatly folded up the wrapper. He had always been a man of few words, but right now he had even less to say.
“....”
SBC had never had a show terminated early, nor had it suffered as badly from the Korean wave restrictions as those two.
Of course, losing investors had been a significant blow, but as a safety-first man, he had never made dramas with plots spiraling off into the mountains, nor dramas that sank from early termination.
Nothing had exploded into huge success, and nothing had catastrophically failed either.
“The dig.ni.ty of a hea.ling drama... naturally MBS, the one ‘leading trends,’ should take responsibility for that, right?”
But listening to those two talk made something stir in a corner of his heart.
Until the iconic scene in Episode 3 of 〈The Great Garland〉—“Don’t lose me”—aired, KBC had had the fewest Intube subscribers among the big three terrestrial broadcasters.
However—
[KBC, properly rowing while the tide is in, showing the ‘dignity of public broadcasting’ through its Intube channel... subscriber count skyrockets]
[Comparing terrestrial channels through Intube, “who’s the most fun” showdown]
[MBS, hot subscriber response from every self-proclaimed ‘trend expert’ gathering]
After that, SBC had been completely overtaken. freēwēbnovel.com
KBC had milked 〈The Great Garland〉 down to the last drop of bone broth, and viewers had given them a standing ovation, saying it was the first broadcasting station ever to give this much behind-the-scenes content.
Because of that, SBC had been completely pushed aside in the Intube channel market.
JC ENM had completely conquered Intube, MBS was the terrestrial trendsetter chasing right behind, KBC was even drawing in overseas traffic, and then there was just SBC.
“....”
The SBC bureau chief kept his mouth shut. The other two, who had been busy bragging, looked at him and asked:
“Hey. Come to think of it, aren’t you guys doing something? 〈Unfair Trade〉. Something about changing the gender or whatever.”
“Right. Why are you changing Han Yeoreum’s role?”
Rumors about 〈Unfair Trade〉 had gradually begun spreading.
It was the next project of Shin Seojin, now called the nation’s favorite second male lead, and the result of Noh Seungchan’s side desperately trying to wedge a spoon into it somehow.
“Because that way is more stable.”
The SBC bureau chief answered shortly.
“If it’s about stability... shouldn’t that mean you don’t bring in Noh Seungchan?”
“Exactly. The less you want risk, the more you should bring our Yeoreum.”
“Why is she your Yeoreum? We were the ones who gave her Nation’s First Love.”
“Ha... talking to old men really gets nowhere.... Do you know what a hardcore-fan point is? We showed all of that on our side.”
At their words, a faint crack appeared in the SBC bureau chief’s brow.
‘Stability, I said?’
He had never once heard anyone say that a supporting actress coming in would provide stability for a project.
Because, truly, it had never happened even once before.
“The risk factor is already covered by the director alone. We’ve already taken on enough danger.”
* * *
Eun Baekhap listened to elegant classical music as she freshly arranged flowers in a vase.
The beautiful melody of Claude Debussy helped calm her mind.
“Aww. Your house still feels like an art gallery, girl.”
The woman smiling warmly was one of Eun Baekhap’s very few connections, and the director of 〈Noir〉—the same woman who had even written a statement after being asked how she had managed to create such cruel scenes so brilliantly. It was Director Park Jaeyeong.
“You still even make water smell elegant in this house.”
“Would you rather just have bottled water?”
“No, no. Let me try drinking the kind of water actresses drink too.”
Despite its excellent artistic quality and flawless directing, Director Park’s 〈Noir〉 had been utterly crushed by 〈Top Grade〉, which was still talked about to this day.
For 〈Unfair Trade〉, the project she had taken on this time, her long-standing love as a fan of the original webtoon had earned her the right to hold the megaphone.
The two, meeting again after a long time, talked about everything they hadn’t been able to say.
“Aww. You must’ve been on planes constantly last month.”
“Right? The dry air during flights annoyed me so much....”
“You still carry that giant mist bottle around? The first time I saw it I thought it was bug spray.”
Naturally, industry talk came up. Director Park spoke about 〈Unfair Trade〉.
“So the atmosphere really is leaning toward changing it to a male actor. Sigh.... There’s nothing I can really do, but it’s a little disappointing.”
“It was originally supposed to go to Han Yeoreum, right?”
“Yeah. You don’t like her, do you?”
“Why would I dislike her? Han Yeoreum is nothing.”
At Eun Baekhap’s sneering reply, Director Park thought:
‘Aww. So she really hates her.’
Eun Baekhap poured lemon water into her glass in a rushing stream and downed it in one shot.
“So who’s going into the role?”
“Probably Noh Seungchan? The agency push is insane.”
“Why the fuck is that guy getting in when he acts like shit and has a face that looks like it needs to sleep cold for a few more rounds? I really don’t get it.”
Bzzzt— bzzzt—
That was when Director Park’s phone rang. The name on the screen was Writer Ahn from 〈The Great Garland〉.
“Director, it’s okay if you answer.”
“Aww. Just a second.”
Director Park pressed accept and answered the call.
“Unni, long time no—what’s up?”
—Oh, Jaeyeong. It’s nothing much, but unni got gifted a really nice wine. If you have time, I was wondering if we could meet.
“I’m in the middle of dinner right now—”
Seeing Writer Ahn’s name on the screen, Eun Baekhap mouthed silently:
“She can come here. It’d be nice if she came here and talked comfortably.”
At those words from the fiercely prideful Eun Baekhap, Director Park smiled lightly.
The ratings for 〈Noir〉 had continued to decline. When that happened, with repeated filming, there was no choice but to lose momentum in the latter half.
They were human too.
But even when there had been a fracture injury on set, Eun Baekhap had gritted her teeth and completed the action scene.
No one knew better than Director Park just how greedy she was for acting.
The fact that she was even inviting someone into a house where she normally never let people in, all because she wanted to enter Writer Ahn’s next project, said everything.
“Unni. If it’s okay, do you want to come to where I’m having dinner right now?”
—I have someone with me right now. Is that okay?
“Please tell her it’s fine.”
At Eun Baekhap’s words, Director Park sent over the address.
A little while later—
‘Aww... she really, really hates her.’
Watching Eun Baekhap clench her fist tightly at the face reflected in the intercom, Director Park came to that conclusion.
“Hello, sunbae! It’s been a while. Hello, Director too! Nice to meet you for the first time!”
The one entering Eun Baekhap’s house with a radiant smile, accompanied by Writer Ahn, was Han Yeoreum.
