The Stand-In
Three people sat in the KBD drama department office with their faces buried in their hands, the air around them thick enough to choke on. No one wanted to be the first to speak. All they could do was sit there in silence and watch the minutes crawl by.
Then—
Bang!
A man slammed the door open without knocking, his face twisted with rage.
"What the hell is this?! A DUI?!"
"...Haah. CP, that was... I was the one who told him to—"
"Shut up! What are we supposed to do about this?! The articles are already plastered everywhere!"
The CP had every right to explode. A drama they had poured everything into was about to collapse because of one person's mistake. All the time invested, all the value they had built—everything was about to vanish like foam on water.
And of all the problems, two loomed largest.
First: some of the advance investment had already gone to equipment rentals and location fees, all of which they would have to pay back. On top of that, the investors were already scrambling to pull out. That much they could survive with a chewing-out from upstairs and a written apology.
But the bigger problem was still coming.
Bang!
The door flew open again, no knock, no warning. At this hour, the only person who should have been walking through that door was the CP. The drama department director would not be showing up this late.
"Ah, shit... who the hell—"
"Who? Did you just say who?"
"Uh.... W-Writer...?"
The woman who had just walked in was middle-aged and dripping in designer labels from head to toe, the kind of nouveau-riche look that announced itself before she even opened her mouth. She frowned and swept her gaze around the office.
"Aigoo~ Writer! What are you saying... We were just in a meeting and voices got a little raised, that's all. A slip of the tongue, nothing more. Who on earth would dare speak to you that way...!"
The CP grovelled with everything he had, practically falling over himself to welcome her. Even so, the writer's face refused to smooth out.
There was a reason he was sucking up this hard. She was the writer of this drama—and she had made her name as a star writer long before Kim Eun-joo ever had. Park Ja-wook.
"So."
"...Yes?"
"You said you were just in a meeting. Recite what you discussed. Now."
Park Ja-wook pulled out a chair, sat down, crossed her arms, and jerked her chin as if to say, well? Get on with it. She had more than seven hit dramas to her name. Even if the drama department director himself had been sitting in that chair, no one would have dared speak carelessly to her.
"Well..."
The CP broke into a cold sweat and shot a desperate look at the PD.
"Haah..."
The PD stood and walked them through everything they had discussed up to that point.
"Hold on. I understand what you're saying, PD Oh. The problem is the investors pulling out, right?"
"That's right. And... we have to recast someone in place of that idol. We start shooting next weekend. Even if we find someone with good acting chops, whether a real powerhouse actor could just step in and perform immediately..."
Oh Seok-ho shook his head. Even the most gifted actor could not read a script and lock onto a character in a matter of days. And even if such an actor existed, they would be a big name—far too expensive for them to match. Even if they somehow could pay, actors like that did not take last-minute emergency castings. They all had stiff necks and knew exactly how good they were.
"Even if I put my name on it, no one will take it? Is that the extent of your ability, PD Oh?"
At Park Ja-wook's words, Oh Seok-ho's temper flared for a second. The person who had insisted on casting the idol who had just gotten a DUI was sitting right in front of him. Park Ja-wook herself. And now she was pinning it on someone else. The sheer shamelessness of it made his teeth grind.
Still.
"I'm sorry. Even with your name attached, Writer Park, no one is going to want to come near a production that's already had an accident like this."
"Accident...?"
Oh no.
The word had slipped out of Oh Seok-ho's mouth before he could stop it, and Park Ja-wook had heard it.
"Ah, no... I didn't mean 'accident' as in... I just meant that people caused an incident in the middle of production, so I said it had an accident..."
"I know. How many years do you think I've been in this business? Still. I don't like that word. 'Accident.' ...Fine."
Park Ja-wook uncrossed her arms and tossed out a proposal.
"I'll handle the investors. You find a replacement, PD Oh."
"I-if you would... we'd be grateful, of course, but... will you be all right?"
"Haah... PD Oh, we've known each other this long and you still don't know me? I'm Park Ja-wook. One word from me and investors come running."
That was only true before the accident happened.
Oh Seok-ho swallowed the words that had risen all the way to his throat.
"Understood."
He nodded, and only then did Park Ja-wook stand.
"Then get to work. Unless you want a real accident to happen to my project."
A warning. This was her last one. If they botched it again, she would tear up the contract and take her script somewhere else.
Lately, not just KBD's dramas but every public-broadcast drama had been getting crushed by the OTT market. And then a monster had been born—one that, from episode one, had been devouring OTT dramas whole. Thanks to that, the people upstairs were breathing down everyone's necks, and the atmosphere next door was as cold as the prelude to a knife fight. One slip, and a head could roll. No one would even be surprised.
Oh Seok-ho dropped bonelessly into his chair and looked at his team.
"So. Anyone know a good actor? Doesn't even have to be an actor. And CP, you can go now. Or stay and worry about this with me."
"Ah... haha. Oh! I completely forgot, I had something urgent too. Aigoo... looks like another late night for me. Well then, PD Oh, good luck. Everyone, hang in there!"
The CP felt the chill in the room and fled. Oh Seok-ho wanted to grab him, but he did not have the energy. He needed a replacement, and he needed one now.
Then—
"Um... PD? What about this actress? She's still a rookie, but... she's been making a lot of noise lately, and the public reaction hasn't been bad?"
"Who? Ah... her? Yeah, she's been all over the place lately."
A teammate held out a tablet with an article on the screen. He tapped it.
A photo of Lee Jiwoo's crying scene was attached. The teammate pointed at the girl in the article.
"What do you think?"
Oh Seok-ho thought for a moment. Not bad. She's a rookie, so her asking price won't be that high. She just wrapped a drama shoot, too... it wouldn't be strange for her to move on to the next project.
Still, there was a problem.
"Can this actress lock onto the emotion in just a few days?"
"Well... we'd have to see her ourselves, wouldn't we?"
"Haah... if you're going to cause an accident, do it before the table read. Why pull a disaster like this right before we start shooting?!"
Oh Seok-ho wanted to tear out what little hair he had left.
"No choice! Call her. Now!"
"...What? It's past ten."
"I don't care! Just hit up her agency! Wait... which agency is this?"
"Uh... it says JO Entertainment?"
"JO Entertainment? Ah. CEO Jo's place. I've got his number, actually. I'll call him myself."
The sudden meeting had thrown me, but once I had heard the whole explanation, I understood.
"So what you're asking me to do is fill in as the replacement. Is that right?"
"That's right. Here's the script. But... we start shooting next weekend... whether you can lock onto the emotion in that time..."
Oh Seok-ho was trembling with anxiety.
"I'll take a look."
I took the script and started scanning it.
This is bad...
I was short on time, and I already had something lined up right after this. The words just would not stick. If I had had a week or two, I could have broken it down properly.
I really didn't want to use this.
But this was an emergency. Just this once. I would make an exception.
I activated the trait Look Only at Me!
Look Only at Me!
Unlike a moment ago, when I had not been able to absorb a single character and had been groaning over the pages—flutter, flutter—I flipped through the script so fast that Oh Seok-ho's face went blank with shock. In that span of time, I finished the entire thing.
I set the script down on the table and opened it to the single most important line.
"Don't make me laugh... You think trash like you could ever beat me?"
The whole room stirred. Of course it did. The line I had just spat out belonged to the character I was supposed to replace.
"You! No matter how high you fly or how low you crawl, you will never beat me! Why?! Because I'm the one who's going to own this world! And you, still waving around that cheap little sense of justice... you're just a kid who never got out of that day!"
This character was the complete opposite of the heroine—not just in personality, but in the way she thought. It started as a schoolyard grudge. Even after they grew up, the protagonist's interference cost her everything: her first love, her dreams, her future. A person stuffed full of the arrogance that the whole world already belonged to her. Born drowning in money. With that kind of wealth, she could raise hell however she pleased and no one could so much as scold her—so of course her personality had warped. In the end, she loses to the protagonist, and both wrists go into cuffs.
A single tear rolled down my cheek and hit the floor. It was the polar opposite of the love-soaked tears I had shown in Ghost Singer—miserable, merciless tears that held not a shred of remorse.
"Whoa... how did you... wait. Hold on."
Oh Seok-ho flipped back through the script.
"J-just once more! Can you do that one more time? I want to show this to the writer!"
"The writer. You mean Writer Park Ja-wook?"
Kang Hoyeon's voice cut in.
"Yes. I may be the head PD, but I can't ignore Writer Park's influence. I'm sorry, but could I ask you to do it just once more? Acting at this level... the writer will be satisfied."
Kang Hoyeon looked at me.
Well. Doing it one more time isn't exactly hard.
"I don't mind. Acting it one more time isn't difficult."
I just wanted to get it filmed and shut the trait off. Those arrogant words that had come out of my mouth did not even feel like mine.
This is insane... I really shouldn't use this casually.
With my permission, Oh Seok-ho pulled out his phone and started recording. I performed it again.
Bzzz.
Oh Seok-ho's phone buzzed. A message. From Park Ja-wook.
"O-okay! She said okay! Then let's get the contract—"
"Hold on."
Kang Hoyeon put out a hand, and the whole room froze.
"Before that, I'd like to hear about the schedule."
"The schedule?"
"When it starts next weekend, when it ends. And I'd like to discuss the terms as well."
"Ah... of course. I almost skipped the important part. Understood. We start shooting next week, and I expect we'll wrap by the end of July."
"The end of July..."
I muttered it under my breath and looked at Kang Hoyeon. She seemed to read my mind, because she nodded.
It overlapped with the VTuber idol group's debut.