“Jinhwan. Is this really a place someone like me should be?”
Gang Hajun, standing hunched over with his body curled in, recited his first line.
Contrary to his faltering voice, his eyes sparkled.
He looked around with a rapturous expression, as though he had come to a new world.
The corners of his mouth twitched as he forcibly held back a smile.
The emotion readable from that single, simple expression: ‘anticipation.’
He was filled with the hope that his wretched life might finally change.
But Seong Sihyeon, who had been watching only Gang Hajun’s back, furrowed his brow.
*Why is his line delivery so lifeless? That was my competition? This is absurd. I prepared so hard, and now it feels like all the air’s been let out of me.*
In his eyes, the judges’ expressions seemed almost unchanged.
Seong Sihyeon was certain of his victory.
Unaware that the atmosphere was gradually reversing.
“You’ve known Lee Jinhwan for three years, and you were his manager for two and a half?”
“Yes, Detective.”
Baek Seongchan, summoned as a witness in the Lee Jinhwan murder case.
Gang Hajun, playing him, showed a consistently lethargic demeanor.
“You knew him for quite a while. Isn’t there anyone who might have held a grudge against Lee Jinhwan?”
“Jinhwan is such a good person. There’s no one like that.”
“Don’t say that. Think about it carefully. If you peaked in popularity in your twenties, you must have caused some trouble. At the very least, looked down on someone……”
“I said there’s no one!”
As Gang Hajun flared up in anger, a fleeting glint of killing intent flashed through his eyes.
“……like that.”
But as if it had never happened, he returned to his dejected demeanor.
In that instant, Seong Sihyeon’s mind snapped to attention.
He realized it only then.
The reason Gang Hajun’s line delivery had seemed devoid of energy.
The Baek Seongchan that Gang Hajun was portraying was completely different from the one Seong Sihyeon had portrayed.
If what Seong Sihyeon had considered important was the ‘character’s twist,’ Gang Hajun was focusing on the ‘mood of the drama.’
Seong Sihyeon surveyed the panel’s reactions.
The judges, whom he had thought were expressionless, were all clenching their fists tightly.
It wasn’t a lack of impression—they had been tense.
Among them, PD Min Useok and Writer U Yeongyeong’s faces were flushed with excitement.
PD Min Useok threw a question.
“The character change is clearly visible. What’s the reason you acted it that way?”
“The driving force of
As he listened to Gang Hajun’s answer, Seong Sihyeon’s heart began to pound.
He had been so focused on the twist element that he hadn’t considered the viewers’ psychology.
Gang Hajun continued.
“But I focused on the fact that Baek Seongchan is the only murder suspect who stands out to the viewers. Various people may come under suspicion, but most viewers will actually already know. Cliché dictates that those people aren’t the culprits.”
“So since the culprit will be Baek Seongchan anyway, you make Baek Seongchan suspicious from the start?”
Writer U Yeongyeong cut in with an intrigued expression.
“We can maintain the tension as tension, and still keep the twist as a twist.”
“If we do as you say, we can maintain the tension, but it seems like we’d have to give up on the twist?”
“Mystery thrillers are ultimately a psychological battle between the producer and the viewer. Depending on how you show it, the absence of a twist can itself become the twist.”
As soon as Gang Hajun finished his answer, the judges nodded.
Seong Sihyeon stared blankly at the back of Gang Hajun’s head.
*I heard he’s the same age as me, so why does it feel like there’s such a gap in our level? Where do you learn something like that?*
It had been a little over three years since he started acting.
He had received nothing but praise while attending the academy his uncle introduced him to, and he had recently passed an audition with a single try to get into an agency.
He had never once considered himself a ‘parachute.’
Because he thought only talentless kids became that.
But for the first time, Seong Sihyeon felt ashamed of himself.
*He didn’t even go to college, didn’t attend an academy, and doesn’t have an agency. Could he possibly be self-taught?*
He fell into idle thoughts, forgetting that he himself had come to audition.
“We’ll contact you with the results within a day or two. Both of you worked hard.”
PD Min Useok said.
Gang Hajun bowed respectfully to the panel and exited the small auditorium first.
Seong Sihyeon, who had been standing blankly, also quickly came to his senses and followed him.
“Hey…… you.”
Seong Sihyeon called out to Gang Hajun, who was pressing the elevator button.
It was quite a different attitude from earlier, when he had boldly addressed him as ‘Mr. Hajun.’
“Were you calling me?”
Gang Hajun turned around.
“You’re twenty-five, right?”
“How did you know?”
“……”
His uncle had told him.
Seong Sihyeon’s face turned red.
“Anyway, we’re the same age, okay? So you should drop the formalities too.”
Seong Sihyeon suddenly started acting friendly, like a pouting child.
Gang Hajun couldn’t grasp his intentions.
But at the very least, he didn’t feel any malice.
Ding—
The elevator doors opened.
“Whatever.”
Gang Hajun answered perfunctorily and stepped into the elevator.
“Aren’t you getting on?”
“I’m waiting for my un—”
Seong Sihyeon, who had been about to answer that he was waiting for his uncle, stopped himself.
“I’m not. You go first.”
“See you around.”
Gang Hajun pressed the close button without hesitation.
Just before the doors closed completely.
“Your number……”
Seong Sihyeon squeezed his eyes shut and spoke, but it was already too late.
He stared at the elevator numbers heading to the ground floor and loitered for quite a while.
**
Meanwhile, inside the small auditorium where the audition had taken place, a meeting was in progress.
“What did you think?”
PD Min Useok asked everyone.
“Excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have another meeting……”
“Ah, me too. I need to get back urgently, so I’ll get up first with him.”
Several Hot TV officials scratched the backs of their heads and tried to leave their seats in a hurry.
They were PDs from other teams, unrelated to the production of
They had been grabbed by the president while passing through the hallway.
“Didn’t you say you were free earlier?”
When the president pressed them, the PDs smiled awkwardly.
“Well, tch. Go on.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We’ll see you next time.”
The PDs rushed out as if they had been waiting for permission, leaving only five people in the small auditorium.
They were PD Min Useok, Writer U Yeongyeong, the Hot TV president, the drama department head, and the CP.
In the briefly quieted atmosphere, the first to voice an opinion was Writer U Yeongyeong.
“I unconditionally cast my vote for Actor Gang Hajun.”
Her conviction had only grown firmer through this audition.
“I also cast my vote for Actor Gang Hajun.”
PD Min Useok chimed in.
In truth, to him, Gang Hajun and Seong Sihyeon had been more or less the same.
He had only seen Gang Hajun a few times through drama clips Writer U Yeongyeong had forced on him,
and he had first seen Seong Sihyeon in the video materials Hot TV had sent when they made contact with the broadcasting station.
If either choice meant an unknown actor would become the lead,
he had thought it only natural to side with Hot TV, which could offer more solid backing.
“I’m truly sorry, but Baek Seongchan must be played by Actor Gang Hajun.”
That had been his thinking—until the audition.
The president’s brow furrowed.
“Min PD. Writer U wrote the drama with Actor Gang Hajun as the model from the start, so I can understand her position. But you shouldn’t be like this. Didn’t you hear the programming conditions properly?”
“I heard them properly.”
PD Min Useok thought that even if the schedule got scrapped, it wouldn’t matter.
The Gang Hajun that PD Min Useok had seen with his own eyes clearly possessed outstanding instincts.
He had accurately caught what points the viewers would find interesting and applied them precisely to his character.
*Not just anyone can do that. It’s especially rare among actors in their twenties.*
That said, Seong Sihyeon’s acting hadn’t been bad.
It was simply that his by-the-book interpretation of the character was a little disappointing.
“Let’s just go with Sihyeon as we discussed before. You said it was fine back then too, Min PD. ……If it’s that important, we can just tell Sihyeon to act the way Actor Gang Hajun did.”
The president’s momentum had waned somewhat, but he didn’t stop insisting.
U Yeongyeong let out a sigh.
“Didn’t you see during the audition earlier? I told Actor Seong Sihyeon to try acting more seriously, but he insisted that the character Baek Seongchan had to be done his way and refused to listen until the end. If he’s that stubborn at the audition, how much worse will he be after casting is confirmed?”
“I’ll persuade him well.”
“I’ll help persuade him as well.”
The CP, who had been silent the whole time, stepped in.
In truth, he too preferred Gang Hajun far more than Seong Sihyeon.
When he first received the broadcast programming proposal, he had immediately understood why Gang Hajun’s name had been the sole candidate for the lead.
But he thought Seong Sihyeon could copy that much too.
What mattered to him was not missing out on
Although countless dramas had aired on Hot TV, there had yet to be a successful mystery thriller.
The biggest reason was that writers who could write with flair while utilizing the genre’s characteristics were rare, and even when they did exist, general programming channels would often snatch them away.
“Let’s cast Actor Gang Hajun as the popular star Lee Jinhwan. His acting wasn’t bad.”
“His image doesn’t fit that role……”
Writer U Yeongyeong, who had been about to object, lost all motivation in an instant.
It was something she had expected from the start, so it was nothing new.
“Let’s get up, Writer.”
PD Min Useok spoke.
At that moment.
“……”
Seong Sihyeon burst through the door of the small auditorium.
His eyes were filled with fury.
All eyes focused on him.
**
On the bus heading home after the audition.
I was on a phone call with Go Hyeonsu.
—So did you wipe the floor with that Hot TV president’s nephew or whatever?
“What wipe the floor? He wasn’t all that bad. If he just refined his instincts for character interpretation……”
—What the hell are you talking about? He’s about to steal your role!
“Steal? Who’s stealing? I don’t let just anyone take my role.”
—There’s no competing with connections, you know.
Go Hyeonsu seemed to have already given up.
In truth, I wasn’t 100% confident either.
Leaving everything else aside, the main producing PD had shown favor toward me.
But it wouldn’t be wrong to say the actual decision-makers were the Hot TV side.
After all, they were the ones holding the programming rights.
Even as the final decision-makers, their opinions couldn’t be ignored.
Buzz—
My phone let out a short vibration.
It was a call-waiting notification.
“Hey, I’m getting a call.”
—A call? From who!
“Writer U.”
—Oh shit, I’m hanging up.
“Yeah, hel—”
Go Hyeonsu ended the call in a panic without even saying goodbye.
Gulp.
I swallowed dryly without realizing it.
They said the audition results would come out within a day or two—had the decision already been made?
I answered Writer U Yeongyeong’s call with trembling hands.
—Hello? Hajun?
“Yes, Writer.”
—The decision’s been made!