That afternoon.
Jeong Hwansik, who had arrived at the Hattivi headquarters, entered the president’s office under the secretary’s guidance.
The manager who had followed reluctantly was waiting in the underground parking lot.
The president welcomed Jeong Hwansik warmly.
“Welcome! I’ve seen you so much on TV that it doesn’t feel like our first meeting. Haha! Just as rumored, you’re even more handsome in person!”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
“Sit, sit.”
The two sat together on the reception sofa.
Soon, two iced coffees were placed on the table.
The president glanced at the secretary’s back as they left.
Click.
Only after hearing the sound of the door closing did he wet his parched lips.
“So. What did you mean by what you said to me on the phone yesterday? That there was another reason why our Sihyeon didn’t get the lead role?”
Jeong Hwansik, who had been leisurely sipping his coffee, soon set down his cup.
And leaned toward the president.
“You know too, don’t you? That the lead role of Baek Seongchan in
“Eh…… Well, I think that was the case.”
The president, who had squinted and stared into empty space to the left for a moment, soon nodded.
He hadn’t been particularly concerned with it, so his memory was hazy.
It had already been over a month since then, too.
“But so what about that?”
“You should have been suspicious from then on.”
“About what……?”
“That Gang Hajun is also a parachute.”
Jeong Hwansik whispered in a low voice.
The president’s face flushed.
“Is that true?”
“Do you remember the drama
“Of course I remember. They made a huge fuss promoting how the final episode ratings barely surpassed 10%.”
“The main writer of that work is the same person as the writer of
“Ooh, is that so?”
The president, who had been responding gravely, tilted his head.
“What does that have to do with what we’re talking about now?”
At his question, Jeong Hwansik let out an exaggerated sigh.
“Goodness, I knew this would happen!”
The president’s face went blank.
Jeong Hwansik continued.
“Gang Hajun was a cast member there. Ultimately, it means he snatched the lead role thanks to his connections with the writer. Meanwhile, your naive nephew gave up the role because he didn’t want to be a parachute, not knowing any of this. Tsk! Such a pity, truly. Honestly, in terms of skill, he isn’t that far behind Gang Hajun.”
The president’s breathing grew rougher.
Now that he thought about it, that was right.
In the end, what mattered wasn’t ‘who’ acted, but ‘how’ they acted.
Even though he had said he would persuade his nephew to act like Gang Hajun, the Britz side had stubbornly tried to choose Gang Hajun.
‘It was strange that they’d dare try to give up on our Hattivi programming rights because of some measly newbie actor!’
The president nodded as if a question had finally been answered.
His mind had already been in turmoil.
His beloved nephew had been rejected for the lead, yet had gone so far as to take a re-audition to enter as a supporting actor in that very drama.
If he had known there was such an inside story, he would have pushed Seong Sihyeon for the lead until the very end.
Seong Sihyeon wouldn’t have given up the lead position on his own either.
Jeong Hwansik glanced sidelong at the president’s face, which was changing colors in real time.
Then cautiously opened his mouth again.
“Shouldn’t we put him back in his rightful place before it’s too late? Now that the drama programming contract is all finished, they can’t threaten to go to another broadcasting station.”
After the first full script reading had ended, he had mobilized all his connections to learn and infer all this information, which he now generously divulged.
Because if not now, there would be no other time to use it to such expensive effect.
The president let out a groan.
“But the cast’s contracts are finished too, aren’t they?”
“What is there to fear from some freelancing nobody of a newbie actor with no agency?”
Jeong Hwansik gently fanned the flames of the president’s greed.
If he moved directly, he could surely cut Gang Hajun out.
**
Yun Donghui, who had finished a meeting late in the morning, went out on business.
The place he arrived at, driving leisurely, was the filming set of the drama
“You’re here? Chief Yun.”
The casting director extended a hand to him.
Yun Donghui briefly shook hands with him.
“Thank you for telling me the location.”
“It’s nothing. You moved agencies too, right? If you have any decent actors, introduce me to plenty of them. I’ll slot them into good projects left and right. You know? My eye for projects.”
“Of course.”
“By the way, what brings you all the way here? Does Kkumdongsan Entertainment have any actors appearing here?”
“That’s not it. There’s an actor I’ve got my eye on.”
“Who?”
To the casting director’s question, Yun Donghui replied with a smile instead of words.
“Could I perhaps take just one photo of today’s cue sheet?”
“Sure, sure.”
The casting director unrolled the cue sheet he had been holding in his hand and spread it out nicely.
Yun Donghui photographed it with his camera on silent.
As he zoomed in here and there, briefly checking the image quality, the casting director whispered secretly to him.
“Could it be Mr. Gang Hajun?”
“Excuse me?”
“The actor you said you have your eye on.”
“…….”
Yun Donghui looked around warily.
“Has a company already contacted him, by any chance?”
“Not that I know of.”
The casting director shook his head.
Then he gave a thumbs up.
“He’s a gem.”
**
Yun Donghui waited for a moment while the casting director went off to work.
He got out of the car around when Gang Hajun’s filming turn came up.
A rehearsal was in progress at that very moment.
Not far away, Gang Hajun was checking his blocking following PD Min Useok’s direction.
‘His real-life looks are plain. Still, with some grooming, he’ll be passable.’
He pulled his cap down low and naturally blended in among the staff.
‘What’s important is his acting ability. His psychopath act wasn’t bad, but judging solely based on that is indeed insufficient.’
The reason Yun Donghui had come to the filming set was to verify Gang Hajun’s actual acting skills.
It was a substitute for an audition.
Of course, the person himself didn’t know that.
He wasn’t acting arbitrarily.
Because it had been decided at this morning’s meeting.
Yun Donghui had supplemented and presented a PPT made by Lee Jinmuk, and the result was this.
They would decide whether to cast him based on Gang Hajun’s acting today.
It wasn’t a common occurrence.
Gang Hajun’s ability, which had greatly contributed to the drama’s ratings rise with a mere minor role, and the urgent situation that Lee Jinmuk had appealed.
These two factors had combined to create this special situation.
“Cue!”
PD Min Useok’s signal rang out.
Filming began in earnest.
Gang Hajun, lying on a shabby mattress pressing a remote control, asked Seong Sihyeon,
“Why do you keep coming to my cramped six-pyeong studio when you have your luxurious house?”
“Because I feel at ease here.”
“Why on earth?”
Gang Hajun, who had been keeping his eyes fixed on the TV, stared at Seong Sihyeon blankly.
“You know why. In winter, when you wear loose clothes, the wind gets in between and you feel like you’ll freeze to death, but if you wear just one layer of snug underwear underneath, you feel like you’ll survive. This house feels to me exactly like underwear worn underneath.”
“Are you saying my house is like your underwear?”
“Pfft! Now that I hear it, yes. That’s right, underwear.”
Gang Hajun shifted his gaze back to the TV.
“If you like it that much, you live in this house. I’ll live at your place. You pay all the rent and maintenance fees.”
“Shall we?”
Seong Sihyeon’s face brightened.
Gang Hajun smirked.
“Cut! Good. Going for version two!”
PD Min Useok said.
‘Version two? What’s version two?’
Yun Donghui, who didn’t know the filming contents, hastily took out his phone.
He checked the contents briefly written on the cue sheet he had photographed.
‘(ver.2) Baek Seongchan looking at Lee Jinwan with killing intent’
In some scenes of
One was a version where he was indifferent to everything, and the other was a version where he felt killing intent toward Lee Jinwan.
In the latter case, it was a scene that would unfold like bait after the true culprit was revealed.
“If you like it that much, you live in this house. I’ll live at your place. You pay all the rent and maintenance fees.”
“Shall we?”
The same lines were repeated once more.
But after Seong Sihyeon’s final line ended, Gang Hajun was a completely different person from just a moment ago.
‘He didn’t even have time to compose his emotions, yet his expression changed so drastically in an instant?’
Yun Donghui couldn’t believe he was a newbie.
Controlling the flow of emotions was by no means an easy task.
Even for a veteran who was good at acting.
Gang Hajun’s expression was no different from before.
He was changing the atmosphere with only his ‘gaze.’
That appearance even looked very threatening.
It felt as though he would plunge a blade into the back of one’s head at any moment.
‘Is it because the character type is similar to his previous work?’
Yun Donghui, who had been pondering, soon shook his head.
‘No.’
The loan shark and Baek Seongchan were distinctly different.
The loan shark was about unconditional emotional explosion, while Baek Seongchan was about thorough emotional control.
What viewers felt from the former was ‘fear,’ and what they would feel from the latter was ‘pressure.’
And right now, Yun Donghui was feeling pressure from Gang Hajun’s gaze.
“Cut! Next scene!”
Shortly after, PD Min Useok’s satisfied sign resounded.
Gulp.
Yun Donghui swallowed dryly.
“We absolutely must. We absolutely have to get him.”
He had been muttering without realizing it.
He had a premonition that if they didn’t secure Gang Hajun now, they would never be able to.
Because any entertainment agency would covet him.
**
Yun Donghui continued to follow the filming set afterward.
It wasn’t that Gang Hajun’s skill verification was needed anymore.
He simply wanted to see more of his acting.
Gang Hajun was performing scenes that swung between hot and cold all day long.
He should have been exhausted physically and mentally, but he didn’t show a single sign of hardship.
Bzzt—
A text message arrived.
‘Why no contact? How is it?’
It was the department head.
‘There is sufficient potential.’
Yun Donghui replied calmly, but inwardly he was settling his surprised heart.
It was because he had been so immersed in Gang Hajun’s acting that he had forgotten to actually contact him.
He had almost failed to set a meeting date.
He checked the cue sheet.
Gang Hajun had about thirty to forty minutes before his next filming.
“A phone call should be fine.”
Yun Donghui called the number he had received in advance from Lee Jinmuk.
But Gang Hajun didn’t answer.
Clack—
The sound of a car door closing was heard not far away.
Gang Hajun’s figure came into view where he had reflexively turned his head.
He was holding his phone in his hand but wasn’t answering the call.
“What? Why isn’t he answering?”
Yun Donghui was engulfed in anxiety.
“What is it?”
And the next moment, he was bewildered.
Because Gang Hajun was walking directly toward him.
“You called me.”
He said.
“Ah…… you know me?”
“You’re Chief Yun Donghui, right?”
“How did you know?”
“I heard about it from Jinmuk hyung yesterday. I was waiting, but there was no contact, and a stranger kept hovering around me. So I roughly figured it out. Did you come to see my acting?”
At Gang Hajun’s bold answer, Yun Donghui smiled awkwardly.
“Can we talk for a moment?”
“Of course.”
Gang Hajun nodded.
‘Surprisingly compliant.’
Still, you never know.
He might be following along without a word just to reject him quickly.
Yun Donghui didn’t let go of his tension.
No matter how Gang Hajun reacted, he had to persuade him to choose Kkumdongsan Entertainment.