Hell Yeah, Jackpot!
"T-twenty-five point three percent...?"
Every face in the room went slack at Kang Wonseong's smiling announcement, and they had every reason to. The highest-rated television drama in recent memory had only climbed to 23.3 percent — and Ghost Singer had just blown past that with 25.3 percent on its very first broadcast. Shock was the only possible response.
"Th-that isn't a lie, right?"
"Th-this is real? Even with all the work we put into the ads?!"
"W-whoa... th-that's... insane..."
"You don't look all that excited?"
"Ah... I-I'm just stunned."
The barbecue restaurant, which had gone dead silent, erupted all over again into a roaring, restless din. Kang Wonseong watched his actors and staff with a look of deep satisfaction.
"Doesn't seem like any of you are all that happy about it. Can't be helped. The drama flopped, so... I guess we wrap it here today..."
He started gathering his things, making as if to stand.
"Ah! PD-nim, don't say that! It succeeded — no, it was a huge success!"
"How does a first episode even pull numbers like that?!"
"Mom... I made it..."
The staff threw their arms around one another, grinning from ear to ear, while the extras and supporting players clinked glasses through tears, already tasting the chance to finally make a name for themselves.
The only people still sitting quietly were the leads, Go Eun-hye, and me.
Kim Eun-joo, meanwhile, was having the time of her life bullying everyone into drinking.
"Come on! Drink! Everybody drinks, and tonight we drink ourselves into the grave! Anyone who ducks out early, I never want to see your face again! We go all the way!!"
While the rest of the table was busy pouring liquor down their throats, the busiest people in the building were the agency staff and the actors' managers. Phones were screaming from every direction on the back of those ratings, and the parking lot where they had been waiting for their actors was a seething nest of phone calls.
"Jiwoo! Did you hear?!"
"Ah... unnie. The ratings, right? We just confirmed them too."
"I-it's insane.... I've never seen numbers like this in my life, you know that? H-how do you even... break twenty... twenty-five percent?"
Kang Hoyeon was welling up as if the triumph were her own, tears threatening to spill. I understood. Even I had been a little thrown when I heard it.
Between the recent television spots and the online ads, you could find Ghost Singer just about everywhere. That was how hard they had pushed the campaign — hard enough that a few people had muttered it was overkill and recoiled. But look at the result. A runaway success north of twenty percent.
Kang Wonseong held a beer glass out toward Kang Hoyeon.
"Here. Jiwoo-ssi's manager should have one too."
"Ah... but I'm driving..."
"Haha! A night like this, you drink! You've been running yourself ragged all over town for Jiwoo-ssi's sake!"
"Even so..."
"You're really going to refuse?"
I sat beside Kang Wonseong and flapped my mouth at her, silently telling her to take the glass. Kang Hoyeon shut her eyes for a moment.
"All right! A night like this — if I don't drink now, when will I? I'll just call a designated driver!"
"Kahahaha! That's it, knock one back!"
Kang Wonseong tipped soju into the beer glass. I thought I had misread the bottle. No... that was definitely green, wasn't it? I rubbed my eyes. The color did not change. The beer glass, filled to the brim with soju, clinked against Kang Wonseong's own shot glass, and the two of them drained theirs clean.
"Kh...aaaah... how long has it been since I had a drink... this is so good!"
"That's a night like tonight for you! Come on, have another!"
"Yes, sir!"
The two of them started drinking like they intended to bury their bones in that restaurant. I shook my head and went back to grilling the meat.
Damn it...
My eyes kept sliding toward the bottles sitting beside me. Here I was with this delicious beef, and I was stuck with soda. It was torture. I would have settled for a single sip. I glanced around, then eased a hand toward a bottle.
"No. What kind of student drinks? Jiwoo, you stick to soda."
"Ah..."
"Don't 'ah' me. Absolutely not. And... everyone! We still have to settle the ratings bet!"
At Jin Joo-hwa's words — she had already confiscated the soju bottle — a handful of actors and staff pointed straight at me.
"Amazing! How did you even guess that?"
"A lead and supporting role in a twenty-five-percent drama, starting from your very first performance... I'm so jealous!"
"Incredible! You basically nailed twenty-five percent on the nose!"
"Whoa...!"
Ah. Right. We had made that bet. I had thrown fifty thousand won of my own precious blood money into the pot.
That much would've covered a whole meal.
No — wait. I had it backwards.
I didn't miss. I hit it.
The pot had swollen to about a million won. With that many people in, a lot of cash had piled up. The thrill of winning the bet, and the giddy rush of free money...
Hell yeah. Jackpot!
A grin spread across my whole face.
Sometime later.
"Uughh... Jiwoo... I... I... hhk... I knew our Jiwoo was going to make iiiit....!!"
From the next seat, Kang Hoyeon had latched onto me and started sobbing. Her drunk act was rapidly becoming a problem.
"Khhk..! gulp.. huaaaa... I did it all for this day... I even stuck it out in that fucking place and worked like a dog... huaa..."
"U-unnie... I get it, so please calm down a little..."
Kang Hoyeon swallowed tears and snot and showed no intention of peeling herself off me.
We were on our way back to the dormitory. I would have liked to leave the driving to a designated driver, but there was a chance they would clock the address, so Jo Kyuhyun had called in Choi Gayeong, the road manager who had been resting at home.
"I'm sorry. I should have stopped her."
"Don't be. I know why Hoyeon unnie drank. If I'd been sitting there, I couldn't have held out either."
Hearing Choi Gayeong, I looked over at Kang Hoyeon. Her face was buried in my chest as she cried. Anyone walking in on this scene would have had a hard time telling which of us was the student and which was the adult.
"Jiwoo..."
Kang Hoyeon, who had been weeping a second ago, jerked upright and stared dead into my face. A pallor was creeping up her features. Don't tell me...
"Jiwoo... I don't feel so good."
"N-no... h-hold on a second!"
I tore through the car looking for anything I could use as a bag. I even dug through my pockets, and the phone that had been inside went tumbling to the floor.
The phone buzzed. Then it buzzed again.
I had been so absorbed in the meat I hadn't even noticed the texts coming in.
A lot of people reached out.
Starting with my parents, then Kim Woojin and Choi Wooseok, messages from everyone I knew were stacking up in real time. And then—
"Wow... even these people are sliding in?"
Names out of Jiwoo's memories. Kids who had shared a class with her in middle school — even elementary school — were texting. One or two I could have shrugged off, but more than ten names were crawling up the screen.
A few of them were unhinged enough to lead with a confession. As far as the memories went, she hadn't been close with any of them. Elementary school, middle school — she had always been alone. Even for group projects and class presentations, those same kids had worn the look of people who wanted nothing to do with her.
"Jiwoo? You're getting a lot of texts. You don't have to answer all of them. The company..."
"No, it's fine. They're useless.... Just spam."
I powered the phone off and left them on read. I had no desire to see any of them. If anything, it only made me frown. I felt a little bad about the family messages, but I would deal with those first thing in the morning.
Which was when—
"Uurp... J-Jiwoo... I... I'm at my limit..."
"Ah..!"
I had forgotten.
The next morning.
Saturday. A weekend, which meant no school and no morning lessons — a genuinely good day. On a day like this, I swore I would not leave the bed for anything. I made that vow, then shut my eyes again after they had flown open out of habit.
Wriggle, wriggle...
Something familiar shifted under the covers. I sighed and peeked inside the blanket.
Okay... first thing in my field of vision is a chest. And then.
Beaming down at my face with a sunny little smile.
"What are you doing in there?"
"Ah. Jiwoo-chan! You're up? Tsuki came to wake you, but you looked so comfy that I was gonna sleep next to you!"
Tsuki was not beside me. She was on top of me. And her hand was steadily traveling upward. I had a pretty good idea what she was reaching for.
"No."
"Aww...."
Tsuki let out a wounded little sigh and stared a hole through my chest. She had her own — so why was she so determined to grab mine? I had seen girls play around like that with each other before. Was this an extension of that?
"Heh, heheh... but Jiwoo-chan's chest while she's sleeping... it's so warm and soft..."
I shook my head.
No. That is a different species entirely. I think there's just some old man living in there.
I would have liked a little more sleep, but there was no telling what Tsuki would try. My eyes were already open anyway. Sleeping any longer would only leave my body heavy and useless. Better to stretch, or head down to the agency gym in the basement and loosen up. I started pulling on clothes.
Stare....
I could feel a gaze on my back.
"Did you have something to say?"
"Ah.. yeah! Jiwoo-chan! Look at this!"
Tsuki thrust her phone in front of me. An internet article filled the screen. Then another. Then another.
Every article coming up was calling it a crushing win for Ghost Singer. More precisely, people were saying the OTT drama had been strong on editing and technical craft — but it had been thoroughly outclassed where it counted most: the actors' performances.
The biggest pieces were all focused on the lead actors. I let out a small breath of relief, thinking the spotlight was not really swinging my way. That was when Tsuki spoke up.
"That's our Jiwoo-chan! Way more articles are going up about you than anyone else!"
Huh? What did she just...
I hit refresh. The pieces that had just gone up were only a minute or two old. The instant the page reloaded, the whole screen was wallpapered in new headlines. And they were—
The headlines alone made my head spin. Why were pieces like this even going up?
I powered on the phone I had shut off the night before and checked it.
An endless vibration. Messages pouring in without a break. And then...
"Huh? It died."
The phone could not take the flood. It gave out completely.