At Choi Rina’s strange behavior, Kang Rojun—who was also the writer of Rental Lover—went, Huh?
‘What’s this?’
Choi Rina, who had turned her head without realizing it, froze on the spot. It was then that PD Jeong Suryeong stepped in.
“What is it? What’s wrong, Choi Star?”
Just as everyone’s eyes focused on Choi Rina, she stayed still for a moment, then gave an awkward smile and rubbed around her eye.
“Ah, I’m sorry. Something got in my eye.”
“Huh? What got in?”
“I don’t know. Dust, maybe? It’s kind of dusty here.”
“Really? It’s dusty?”
“Yeah, very.”
Choi Rina kept rubbing her eye, making a gesture of apology to Rojun as well. At the same time, she was screaming inwardly.
‘It was a hundred times easier to act when his face was covered!!’
With a single touch from Kang Rojun, her self-hypnosis—or self-defense—had collapsed. It wasn’t because Choi Rina, a veteran, was weak. The current situation was special. The unexpected appearance of Geubaekpeu’s No. 1, that No. 1 being writer Kang Cheolsu, and supposedly the “No. 4 Lover.” On top of that, though she had yet to realize it herself, Choi Rina was currently infatuated with Geubaekpeu’s No. 1.
Acting with Kang Rojun had begun before she could prepare herself mentally.
His touch, overflowing with affection.
It would have been stranger if she hadn’t crumbled.
This was closer not to the feeling one had toward a man, but to the feeling a fan had when meeting an artist they liked. In any case, after roughly glossing over why she had avoided his face, she thought.
‘Endure it. For now, just endure this moment.’
She hardened her mindset and resolve as a professional.
“I’m fine, PD. Let’s go again.”
The action sign was given again.
Kang Rojun’s hand approached her once more. This time, Choi Rina did not avoid his face. Her strategy was simply to let herself fall into Rojun’s visuals. And that produced a pure reaction. The female lead who couldn’t take her eyes off the “No. 4 Lover” for even a second. Rather than acting, this was Choi Rina’s true feelings.
‘No… how can a human being look like this?’
Kang Rojun was terrifyingly handsome.
There was a saying that if someone was too unrealistically handsome, it was frightening. For a brief moment, Choi Rina was afraid of Rojun.
By then, PD Jeong Suryeong was.
“…As expected of Choi Star.”
Watching the monitor attached to the camera, she smiled with deep satisfaction.
‘The writer’s acting is killer too, but Choi Rina has gotten even better. Doesn’t she look like a girl who’s truly fallen for him, lost in a fantasy?’
PD Jeong Suryeong, who had mistaken Choi Rina’s sincerity for acting, whispered to the cinematographer.
“In terms of two-shot visuals, the ‘No. 4 Lover’ crushes all the other lovers, right?”
“Yes. The writer’s face is just absurd to begin with. B-but… is it just me?”
“Hm?”
“The ‘No. 4 Lover’ stands out more beautifully than the female lead.”
He was talking about Kang Rojun reflected on the camera monitor. PD Jeong Suryeong knew it too. This wasn’t on the level of handsome or pretty. It was about atmosphere. Of course, Choi Rina was also quite beautiful even among top actresses. But looking at the picture being shot right now.
‘If the female lead being outclassed in looks by a male actor is a first, then this would be the first.’
The “No. 4 Lover” had the upper hand.
And then.
—Bzzzz.
A second short vibration rang from Kang Rojun’s wrist.
Afterward.
Choi Rina, who had finished the preliminary meeting and acting, got into the gray van that had been waiting for her. She immediately looked into a hand mirror. She had arrived with complete composure, but far too many things had happened that were wildly outside her expectations.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
On top of that, Geubaekpeu’s No. 1, writer Kang Cheolsu, and the “No. 4 Lover” kept overlapping in her mind. Her racing heart was a bonus. She couldn’t calm down. Then Choi Rina recalled how she had avoided the “No. 4 Lover’s” touch.
‘Ha—damn it.’
She covered her face with both hands. It seemed she considered it an embarrassing dark past. Even as she let out a small sigh.
—Rustle.
She picked up the script for Rental Lover.
‘I can’t make the same mistake during the actual shoot. I definitely can’t get an NG while looking at No. 1—no, the writer. Let’s practice even harder.’
Her fighting spirit blazed several times hotter.
By then, Kang Rojun, riding in PD Jeong Suryeong’s car, was secretly checking the smartwatch on his wrist while looking out the window. During this preliminary meeting, “AI Simulation” had sent him two notifications.
—[You have achieved the hidden mission “Proudly introduce yourself as the writer!” As a gift, 15 coins have been awarded.]
—[You have achieved the hidden mission “Fluster your scene partner with your acting!” As a gift, 15 coins have been awarded.]
They were hidden missions related to his side job. Rojun smiled without letting it show and cheered inwardly.
‘Nice bonus. Two of them, even.’
PD Jeong Suryeong, who was driving, chimed in.
“It ended well. Everyone was pretty shocked after seeing you, Writer, but it was right to reveal your identity before the script reading. If we’d opened it up during the script reading, when everyone needed to concentrate on acting, they’d have been too out of it to act.”
She was right. Though a script reading was carried out more simply than an actual shoot, in drama production, matching lines, emotions, and timing was quite an important process. If a nuclear bomb had gone off in a place like that, the actors and key staff wouldn’t have been able to focus on the script reading.
So Kang Rojun agreed as well.
“I suppose so.”
“More importantly, now there’s really only the script reading and the first shoot left. How do you feel?”
“I’m not sure.”
“That’s how it usually is. But once you get to the set, something starts boiling up inside you.”
Probably. When he had gone up on Geubaekpeu’s first stage, an emotion he couldn’t name had surged up too, so it was obvious it would happen this time as well.
‘It’ll feel different from Geubaekpeu. Still, I’ve gotten a lot more used to cameras.’
At the same time.
The participants at the campus in Paju were frantically moving their bodies. To be precise, Group 1 was.
“No! That’s not it! Again!”
Because after the first evaluation, they had entered full-fledged training related to “Produce.” The trainer was, of course, Lee Hanna, and the twelve members of Group 1, excluding Rojun, were practicing morning and night, sweating buckets. Those who lacked skill had to stay in the practice room even at dawn.
Naturally, the entire process was being filmed.
Still, perhaps because this was the fifth day of practice since the first evaluation last Wednesday.
“Okay! That’s it. See? You can do it if you try. Next move!”
The skills of the Group 1 members were being polished quite a bit.
Then, on Tuesday, a day later, Groups 2 and 3 received the “Produce” practice video. After a period of individual practice, Groups 2 and 3 would also take their first evaluation. In the meantime, Kang Rojun participated as something of an auditor in the space where Group 1 was practicing.
It was a request from the production crew to get broadcast-worthy footage.
“No! No. 15! Why do you keep repeating the same mistake? Ha—this won’t do. No. 1, could you show us this part of the choreography for a moment?”
“Yes.”
Furthermore, for Group 1, Kang Rojun was also teaching material.
“That’s right! This is it, this! Like No. 1, you can start smoothly but still make it sharp and precise. Got it?”
No matter who it was, everything was steeped in practice, so time melted away.
Meanwhile, near Jonggak Station.
A famous OTT office using two floors of a tall building. A place where the red N-shaped model was impressive right from the entrance, and many employees were moving about busily.
It was Netflix Korea.
In a glass-walled meeting room with posters of various works on the walls, PD Woo Hanseok, dark circles under his eyes, could be seen. With him were several writers.
They were in the middle of a meeting with Netflix Korea.
The topic was naturally the launch of Geubaekpeu.
Judging by the flow of the conversation, the meeting was already almost at its end, and a slender woman with a smart impression smiled and opened her mouth.
“Then let’s proceed with Geubaekpeu’s launch date as originally decided, without any changes.”
She appeared to be in her forties and was the executive director, the representative figure of Netflix Korea. PD Woo Hanseok then turned off the tablet he had been looking at and answered.
“Yes, the first launch will be this Saturday, the 22nd.”
“Only at the beginning, episodes one through six will be uploaded all at once, and starting the following week, one episode will be uploaded every Saturday.”
In other words, Geubaekpeu’s domestic Netflix launch date had been finalized. However, when Geubaekpeu aired its main broadcast every Friday, Netflix Korea would upload it the following Saturday night. If Geubaekpeu launched on Netflix, there would be quite a lot to gain.
They could gather in people who didn’t watch TV, and the voting rate could also increase even further.
Geubaekpeu was already hot, but this would be like attaching an even stronger booster to it.
On top of that.
‘With this, the groundwork for overseas expansion is set.’
It was also build-up for the global spread of Hallyu that PD Woo Hanseok was aiming for. As if she was aware of this, the executive director brought it up with a smile.
“Geubaekpeu’s viewer rating is 22%. Wow, a 20% rating in this day and age. On top of that, I hear there’s considerable interest from Japan too.”
“Yes, we were aiming there from the start as well, so fortunately, it’s not bad.”
“I looked into it a little, and quite a lot of Hallyu fans in Japan know about Geubaekpeu. Social media is in an uproar too, and even the profiles of Geubaekpeu participants are already being shared like crazy. No. 1 is popular there too, of course.”
Thinking of Kang Rojun, PD Woo Hanseok shrugged.
“As for No. 1, he has a face that would work in any country.”
“True. Every time I see him, it really is something. How can a person’s visuals be like that?”
“I see him often, but I’m surprised every time.”
“Oh, I heard the launch date for Geubaekpeu on Netflix Japan has been confirmed too? One week after our launch?”
PD Woo Hanseok gave a crooked smile and nodded.
“That’s right. August 31st.”
“Wow—then the Geubaekpeu participants are practically entering Japan before they even debut.”
Geubaekpeu’s entry into Japan was roughly two weeks away.
Late afternoon on Wednesday, the next day.
Kang Rojun could be found in a lounge with few participants. He wasn’t alone; No. 58 with the baby perm was sitting beside him.
Looking at No. 58, Kang Rojun suddenly spoke in Japanese.
“Then shall we begin?”
No. 58 answered in awkward Japanese.
“Yes, we may begin.”
They were carrying out their previously agreed-upon Japanese conversation practice.
“Now that we’re actually doing it, I don’t have much to say. Hmm—did you want to be an idol from the beginning?”
“Yes. I liked singing since I was young.”
There was a considerable gap between their Japanese skills, but they had no trouble communicating. For Japanese conversation, they could simply talk about everyday life. Along the way, Rojun also corrected words No. 58 used. The agreement had been for about ten minutes, but as they kept going, thirty minutes passed, and No. 58, who bowed and thanked Kang Rojun, then.
—Rustle.
Began placing the things he had brought on the table. A tablet, a phone, several thick practice notebooks, and so on. They were the materials he had prepared to teach Rojun composition, which No. 58 had proposed.
“…It would be better if we had a laptop, but we can look at that after you’ve learned a little more. For now, this much should be enough to start.”
As No. 58 operated the tablet, Kang Rojun took interest in the thick practice notebooks.
“What are these?”
“Pardon? Ah—they’re songs I’ve composed since way back. I’ll show you the arrangement side of things later.”
“Can I look through them?”
“I don’t mind, but it’s my first time showing them to someone else, so it’s a little embarrassing. There are a lot of weird ones because I just did whatever I wanted.”
Composition, huh—would it be a similar sensation to me writing? Kang Rojun picked up a practice notebook with “2019” written on the cover. Thinking it might have been made last year, he asked No. 58.
“No. 58, you passed the first round with rap, right? And the second with vocals.”
“Yes.”
“What kind of songs do you usually make?”
“I’m omnivorous. Rap, dance, ballads, and so on.”
Rojun nodded and opened the practice notebook. He saw things that could be called sheet music. It felt like musical notes and such had been scrawled freely. To Kang Rojun, it seemed somewhat like the touch of a craftsman, and No. 58, smiling awkwardly, added an explanation.
“When codes or melodies come to mind, I write them down. But even if you don’t know sheet music, programs these days are good, so anyone can do it.”
He said anyone could do it, but to Kang Rojun, it didn’t look easy.
‘Of course. It would require expert knowledge and technique. Sense is essential too.’
He could run “AI Automation” for composition right away, but if he didn’t know composition or arrangement, it was obvious it would cost an enormous number of coins. Then, as Rojun skimmed the sheet music, a question occurred to him.
“Are these lyrics? Why are they all written as ‘ah’ or ‘oh’?”
“……”
No. 58, whose expression had darkened, forced a smile.
“M-my sense for lyrics is crap. I can make songs, but I can’t write lyrics.”
Crap? For a moment, Kang Rojun recalled his own crappy writing. Then he turned a few pages of sheet music and rubbed his chin. His face showed that something had piqued his interest.
“Hmm.”
Then he made a suggestion to No. 58.
“Lyrics. Should I try writing them?”
At the same time.
—Bzzzz.
He felt a vibration from his wrist. Slightly startled, Rojun looked down at his smartwatch. The cause of the vibration was a notification sent by “AI Simulation.”
—[The state stat “Lyric Writing” has been unlocked. From now on, “Lyric Writing” can be raised or enhanced! Check your updated “Lyric Writing” stat now!]
It was a type he had never seen before.