“Huh? What did you say just now?”
—If you haven’t decided on your next project yet, how about doing one with me?
So, to summarize this situation in one word, it meant Writer Woo Yeon-kyung was offering me a love call right now.
When Go Hyeon-su jumped the gun, I’d thought no way.
But what do you know, it happened again.
This time, in a good way.
—If it’s alright, I’d really like you, Ha-jun, to be the main character. It’s a drama I wrote inspired by watching your performance. I’ve finished contacting the production company, and the lead casting is more or less wrapped up too. The audition for the male lead role, “Baek Seong-chan,” will be conducted exclusively for you, Gang Ha-jun.
“You must have been busy just finishing the script for *Money Bubble*. When did you get all that done?”
—Since when is being busy a big deal? I wanted to get *Money Bubble* off my hands and move on to a new project, but I was too anxious. I was worried someone would snatch you up first. So I rushed a bit to claim you before anyone else.
Writer Woo Yeon-kyung held nothing back.
—Of course, your opinion matters most. If you send me an email address to my number, I’ll send the synopsis and the first-episode script first. Read them slowly, decide, and let me know.
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
—Hopefully with good news. You know what I mean?
“Of course, Writer.”
I wasn’t in a position to be picky about projects right now anyway.
That said, it didn’t mean I’d grab just any opportunity.
If it was Writer Woo Yeon-kyung, I could trust her.
She simply hadn’t had a hit in recent years; it wasn’t that her skills themselves had fatal flaws.
If they had, *Money Bubble* would have been a disaster too.
No, she would have quit the business long before that.
Writer Woo Yeon-kyung continued.
—You’ll probably have to wait at least two more months until crank-in. And the broadcast slot hasn’t been confirmed yet, but if anything, we’ll go into advance production first, so don’t worry about that.
“Is that so?”
—Don’t worry too much. It’s a competent production company. We’ll make sure they can’t back out without giving us a slot.
She appealed with evident confidence.
“If you’re doing it with a production company, it has nothing to do with PD Kim Yeong-jin, right?”
—Why PD Kim all of a sudden?
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
I’d asked just in case.
Manager Jeong had said PD Kim Yeong-jin had gotten my number too.
—Alright, then I have to get back to work, so I’ll hang up now.
“Yes, go ahead.”
Around the time the ambient noise coming from beyond the phone began to grow louder, Writer Woo Yeon-kyung hurriedly ended the call.
About thirty minutes later, his phone vibrated briefly.
It was an email notification.
Writer Woo Yeon-kyung still seemed to be on the *Money Bubble* set, so it had probably been sent by someone from the new drama team.
Most likely the casting director.
The email started with an ordinary greeting, and its contents included the audition schedule.
It meant to decide by that date at the latest.
The time given for me to agonize over it was a whopping three weeks.
I didn’t need that much time.
I tried to print the attached file but faltered.
“Come to think of it, I don’t have a copier at home. I should buy a copier with my extra’s pay first.”
In a hurry, he headed to the neighborhood PC bang.
**
After finishing printing and returning home, Gang Ha-jun ran into his mother, I Yang-mi.
I Yang-mi stared at the printed papers in his hand.
“A script?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t you say today was the last day of filming?”
She pretended not to care, but she remembered everything.
Gang Ha-jun answered with a smile.
“It’s a script for a different drama. The writer of *Money Bubble* is preparing her next project. She asked me to star as the main character.”
“You?”
I Yang-mi looked puzzled.
The son she knew wasn’t skilled enough to receive a casting offer directly from a writer.
She had seen Gang Ha-jun acting properly lately, but she had brushed it off thinking it was all thanks to the directing.
“What kind of role?”
“A job seeker who looks ordinary.”
“Ordinary is ordinary. What do you mean, ‘looks ordinary’? Don’t tell me it’s another weird sociopath like in *Money Bubble*?”
Gang Ha-jun smiled instead of answering.
“Haa.”
I Yang-mi let out a deep sigh.
“Do you really have to do that?”
“You don’t like it?”
At Gang Ha-jun’s last question, she nearly snapped.
Was that even a question?
Her precious child was insisting on taking a difficult road, which was upsetting enough as it was.
And since he kept landing roles that reflected badly on him in people’s eyes, she couldn’t possibly be pleased.
“You’ll regret this later.”
At I Yang-mi’s sharp retort, Gang Ha-jun, who had been walking beside her, stopped dead in his tracks.
“Mother.”
I Yang-mi, who had been walking ahead, turned around.
“I act so that I won’t have regrets. I’ll do the very best I can.”
At the look in Gang Ha-jun’s eyes that she had never once seen before, she could no longer speak.
**
“What? Writer Woo’s next project!?”
It was the day the movie *Day of Glory*, starring An Dong-jin, was released.
Gang Ha-jun, Go Hyeon-su, and I Jin-muk sat side by side in the theater as promised.
Advertisements were playing on the screen.
Voices exchanged small talk while waiting for the movie to start.
Amidst that, a shout burst out.
Go Hyeon-su had unwittingly raised his voice at the news Gang Ha-jun had blurted out of nowhere.
“Hey, Hyeon-su. Keep it down. People are staring.”
I Jin-muk rebuked Go Hyeon-su in a low voice.
Even so, he shot a curious glance toward Gang Ha-jun.
Several people soon withdrew the looks they had thrown their way.
Go Hyeon-su pretended to adjust his hat and covered his face.
He could hardly calm his excited heart.
“Hey, when I said it, you denied it! This is totally amazing, right? The main character?”
“It’s not confirmed yet. I still have to audition.”
“It’s an exclusive audition. An exclusive audition. That basically means they’re going to use you. Man, that’s really great.”
Go Hyeon-su clapped his hands with a bright smile, but cold sweat was beading under his armpits.
“What’s it about?”
I Jin-muk asked with an interested expression.
“Yeah, what’s the story?”
Go Hyeon-su chimed in and bit his finger.
Gang Ha-jun, who had been organizing the content in his head, opened his mouth shortly after.
“The main character is a job seeker in his late twenties who works part-time at a meat restaurant. One day, he happens to befriend a popular star. Through that, he comes to admire the glamorous entertainment industry.”
I Jin-muk and Go Hyeon-su nodded intently.
It was at a level where he could barely be heard over the loud advertisements.
“But the main character himself is too ordinary, so he falls into an inferiority complex that he can’t integrate into that glamorous world. So eventually, he murders his popular star friend.”
“Why is the story so brutal? What’s the age rating?”
“Fifteen and up. They said cruel scenes won’t appear. Only absolutely necessary parts will be covered through directing.”
“So it’s all about building the atmosphere?”
“Yes, exactly.”
The working title of Writer Woo Yeon-kyung’s next project was *Elegant World*.
Compressing its plot into one phrase, it was “a murder blinded by jealousy.”
Baek Seong-chan appears to be one step removed from the center of the incident, but in fact, he is always inside the incident itself.
Because no one could predict that he was the true culprit, it would become an even more thrilling drama.
“How did Writer Woo end up writing such a violent script?”
I Jin-muk tilted his head, searching through Writer Woo Yeon-kyung’s past works.
As the dim lighting slowly faded, the restless atmosphere in the theater quickly settled down.
“Oh, the movie’s starting.”
As Go Hyeon-su spoke, I Jin-muk put his phone in his pocket.
The movie *A Day of Glory* was a black comedy depicting the daily life of commoner I Yeong-gwang, who struggles to escape poverty.
Daily life comedy that elicited self-deprecating smiles permeated the film, so laughter didn’t cease here and there.
Gang Ha-jun felt a strange sense of dissonance watching his past life, which now existed only on screen.
*That person was me?*
It had already been nearly half a year since he started living as Gang Ha-jun.
He had thought he was forcing himself to adapt in order to survive, and for his dreams.
But it seemed he had become quite natural without realizing it.
Go Hyeon-su leaned in close to Gang Ha-jun’s ear.
“I didn’t know Senior An Dong-jin would suit such a sly act so well. He always took on cool roles.”
He had been a longtime fan of An Dong-jin.
He had also been disappointed that he couldn’t visit his mortuary due to drama schedules.
Gang Ha-jun nodded without answering.
In the movie, An Dong-jin had his eyes wide open with a stupid expression.
[Wait, hold on. You’re going to do that so easily? You?]
[Yeong-gwang. You can’t even do this one easy thing right at your age? It’s frustrating, so frustrating.]
Thwack—
An Dong-jin swung the wooden broom handle he was holding at the other person’s head.
[Ah! Are you crazy?]
[Where’s the “mi” here? It’s not a piano. You don’t know that at your age? It’s frustrating, so frustrating.]
[What a lunatic…?]
The absurd expression of the person who was suddenly hit was close-upped and framed out.
It was definitely time to laugh, yet laughter could be heard from nowhere.
The atmosphere in the theater was beginning to shift.
Sounds of sniffling came from here and there.
*Why are they crying?*
Gang Ha-jun, dazed and confused, looked around.
Even Go Hyeon-su and I Jin-muk were wiping their moistened eyes.
Leaving aside the scene just now, *A Day of Glory* contained no tearjerker melodrama.
Because the scenario had been slightly revised during filming and cut out entirely.
It was also the director’s intention to leave only uncomfortable feelings in the audience’s hearts from beginning to end.
“Hey, why are you crying? What’s the point? Let’s cry together.”
Gang Ha-jun whispered to Go Hyeon-su.
“Because it’s sad, you idiot.”
Go Hyeon-su answered quietly.
“So what’s sad?”
“If you don’t know, just watch. Don’t interfere.”
Gang Ha-jun finally understood why the theater had become a sea of tears when the ending credits began to roll.
It was thanks to the conversation of the audience members sitting behind him.
“Ah, I was really a fan of An Dong-jin.”
“You collected a ton of merchandise too. What did you do with all of it?”
“What do you mean, what? It’s all still there. After watching the movie, I believe even less that An Dong-jin is dead.”
“Hey, stop crying.”
This place had before long become a memorial site for An Dong-jin.
“Hey, how can you not shed a single tear when you watched it like that?”
I Jin-muk, eyes red and swollen, grilled Gang Ha-jun.
Go Hyeon-su nodded from beside him.
“I was too focused on the movie.”
Gang Ha-jun offered a perfunctory excuse.
“I’m going to the restroom, so wait in front of the elevator. I can’t go out like this, it’s embarrassing.”
Go Hyeon-su and I Jin-muk squeezed through the bustling crowd and disappeared.
Gang Ha-jun walked out into the hallway alone.
Tap.
Someone passed him and bumped his shoulder.
“Excuse me.”
“It’s fi… ah.”
Gang Ha-jun, who had been receiving the apology, stopped dead in his tracks.
The other man, sensing Gang Ha-jun’s reaction, checked his face.
“Is something wrong?”
“No. It’s fine, so you can go ahead.”
The man gave a slight bow once more and went on his way.
“…Yun Dong-hui.”
Gang Ha-jun muttered the man’s name.
The man had been his manager in his previous life.
Gang Ha-jun wanted to act like he knew him because he was so glad to see him, but he couldn’t.
Because right now, he was Gang Ha-jun, not An Dong-jin.
He stood for a moment, watching the retreating figure of Yun Dong-hui, who left without recognizing him.