CHAPTER 028: No Need to Wait, Is There?
CHAPTER 028: No Need to Wait, Is There?
On IMDb’s K-drama forum, the nickname “James” was a guaranteed check.
He watched every Korean drama uploaded to OTT platforms, and his sharp ratings and reviews matched popular preference with startling accuracy.
So much so that quite a few people waited for his recommendations.
And recently, there was a work he’d gotten properly hooked on.
That was —
In other words, .
He hated waiting week to week, so as a rule, he didn’t start watching until around ten episodes had piled up.
But drawn in by the powerful title, he watched a show that only had two episodes out.
And his takeaway was a single line.
“Wow… crazy.”
It took the occult premise of “Shaman,” which Americans went insane for, and blended it exquisitely with the steady “crime thriller.”
And more than anything, what made his heart race was the villain, Kang Seoho.
The shocking twist that he wasn’t the kind character everyone thought.
A backstory you couldn’t help but accept.
And the possessed, god-tier acting that brought all of it to life on screen—James was completely consumed.
He waited all week with his neck craning, and at last, episode 3 was released.
As usual, James opened his laptop and pulled up a notepad for review notes.
The part where Kang Seoho tried and failed to kill Shin Myeongju, then was arrested by Detective Han Jaeyoon, passed quickly.
And then the interrogation scene began.
The screen showed an interrogation room lit only by cold fluorescent light.
Across the table sat Detective Han Jaeyoon, eyes exhausted, and Kang Seoho, head lowered.
James straightened his posture.
A classic setup. How are they going to play this?
Onscreen, Han Jaeyoon calmly laid out the evidence.
As if to prove his words, the camera showed the evidence materials one by one.
And then, again—
Back to Kang Seoho’s silent face.
A long silence.
Kang Seoho stayed motionless, head bowed deep.
Then, very slowly, his lips parted.
[…Detective, do you know how fire moves?]
James stopped the hand that was about to take notes.
What a line… Not a denial, but a question?
Kang Seoho’s voice onscreen was low and slow.
The camera gradually pushed into his face.
Horrific burn scars—and empty eyes holding an even deeper wound.
[Fire moves toward what’s weakest. The driest leaves, the oldest furniture, the most neglected wiring… It seeps toward whatever looks like it’ll die first.]
James closed the notepad.
This wasn’t a drama you watched while analyzing.
It was the kind you had to simply feel.
[The flames were ready from the start to swallow that shrine. I only helped it along.]
As Kang Seoho’s monologue continued, James forgot even to breathe.
A sophistry that justified murder.
The faint madness spreading across Kang Seoho’s mouth was chilling.
But somehow…
Strangely, Kang Seoho’s eyes held a vicious sadness.
The moment James felt that oddness—
[But you stopped me here, Detective.]
Kang Seoho smiled faintly.
A smile with no light, no shadow.
Because his skin was fused tight, it was crooked—something he couldn’t even smile properly.
And yet it looked, instead, far too pure.
That made it hurt even more.
Without realizing it, James felt his chest ache.
[Thank you. For pulling me out—before I burned to black.]
At those words—
“Oh my…”
James couldn’t hold back tears.
From fear to anger, from anger to pity—until finally, helpless sorrow.
His emotions bucked.
All of it was because of that East Asian actor’s performance.
The episode ended and the video stopped, but James couldn’t move for a long time.
“Whew… what even is this…”
He let out a long breath, then immediately put his hands on the keyboard.
He couldn’t stand not sharing this feeling with people.
[I’m warning you. If you’re going to watch episode 3, hold onto your heart while you do.]
『Do you remember that I recommended this drama last week?
Episode 3 dropped today, and I just witnessed one of the greatest episodes of my life.
Especially the last ten minutes—the interrogation room scene is, quite simply, a masterpiece.
I’m completely captivated by the character “Kang Seoho.”
He isn’t a simple villain. He is tragedy itself—showing how the purest soul in the world becomes the cruelest monster.
And the one who made all of this possible is an actor named “Ryu Seon ho.”
I looked up his filmography, and unbelievably, this is his debut work.
I can’t believe it. His acting isn’t acting. He’s simply Kang Seoho himself.
If you want to see what real “acting” is, turn on WipleX right now.
And come discuss this insane drama with me all night long.』
Comments started pouring in after that.
It was the impact of an IMDb known-name.
-I listened to James and just watched episode 3. I started crying at the end without realizing it…
-Fire guy is so pitiful…
-This actor is really a rookie? No way. The acting is too deep.
-This is actually so good—what is this?
└Why didn’t you react when I posted about it?
└Because you talked like pure bait. Seatbelt this, seatbelt that. If you want to recommend something properly, do it like James!
The next day.
The entertainment desk office at JTBN was noisy from the morning.
Because — the biggest expected hit of the second half — had been crushed by with an overwhelming gap.
“ got 6.1% yesterday. Does that make any sense?”
“Wow, how did romcom queen writer Choi Jeongin end up like that?”
“But I watched it yesterday—honestly, it wasn’t bad? It felt similar to though.”
“It was just unlucky with the matchup. right now is basically a natural disaster. In this era, 20%? Does that make sense?”
“First episode 10%, episode 2 was 15%, episode 3 is 20%. It’s going up by 5% each time. I wish my stocks rose like that.”
“Your stocks don’t have Kang Seoho. Kang Seoho is hard-carrying it, so it keeps climbing.”
“Ah, but that Kang Seoho guy’s acting really is good.”
“He’s the guy Seo Jiyeon said she ‘took the first shot’ on, right? Anyway—her instincts are crazy.”
For once, Seo Jiyeon didn’t join this conversation.
She just sat at her desk, busily scrolling through the internet.
She was trying to post a glowing article about Ryu Sunho as fast as possible.
But she couldn’t keep writing the same repertoire every time.
As a writer, her pride wouldn’t allow it.
Any overseas response?
Digging through all kinds of overseas communities,
she found IMDb in the middle of a heated discussion under the topic of .
That’s ’s English title, isn’t it?
She scrolled down, and a post with the most comments caught her eye.
[So, should we see Kang Seoho as a complete villain?]
Seo Jiyeon’s gaze sharpened.
The post was full of overseas viewers arguing back and forth about the character Kang Seoho.
-Of course he’s a villain. He’s a serial arson murderer. A sad backstory doesn’t erase his crimes.
└Agreed. I got chills when he justified it in the last interrogation scene. That’s a full-blown psychopath.
└Aren’t you watching the drama too simply? The law failed to protect him, and society made him into a monster. He’s closer to a tragic vigilante than a villain.
└Right. At the end he thanked the detective. He thanked him for stopping him before the monster inside him got bigger. A pure villain can’t say things like that.
Across borders, a deep debate was happening over a character.
This is it.
As she scrolled further, the discussion spread beyond text into images.
A user had posted two photos side by side.
On the left: Kang Seoho in episode 1, smiling brightly while doing firefighter training.
On the right: Kang Seoho in episode 2, smiling with madness against the backdrop of the burning shrine.
Below it, the caption read: “Same person, for real?”
That post became the starting point for all kinds of memes.
[Boyfriend normally vs boyfriend when driving]
[When the report writes smoothly vs when you realize you closed it without saving]
[Our dog when a thief shows up vs our dog when the mailman shows up]
Seo Jiyeon hammered the keyboard with a confident smile.
A new headline formed in her mind.
[Overseas communities heated up over ‘Two-Faced Kang Seoho’… the power of Korean dramas]
A studio in Gangnam, Seoul.
While preparing for live commerce,
a notification suddenly popped up in my field of view.
【Popularity achievement unlocked!】
【First overseas fan】
【Your first overseas fan who remembers your face and name has appeared】
【Reward granted: Language slot unlocked】
Language slot?
There was something like that?
When I checked, there was a range of abilities lined up.
▶English Lv.5
—Listening Lv.5
—Pronunciation (accent) Lv.3
—Cultural sentiment Lv.2
▶Japanese Lv.1
▶French (Locked)
…
Abilities that were locked except for some.
Looks like they unlock when your popularity rises by country.
Listening was something effort could cover, so it didn’t hit that hard, but accent or cultural sentiment looked pretty useful.
Those were privileges only natives could truly have.
English doesn’t matter since I was already good at it, but if I think about other languages, this will be pretty handy later when I expand overseas.
Still, an overseas fan.
So was already getting responses abroad?
Right then, the live commerce PD walked up.
“Sunho, are you ready?”
“Ah, yes.”
“I’m ready too!”
Lee Soonja, the young village head, was doing the live commerce with me.
I hadn’t known, but she was apparently a YouTuber with 50,000 subscribers.
In the studio, just like the idea I planned, there was a big banner hanging behind us that read:
“The healthiest fruit in the world, Peach Sunmu.”
But a name alone wasn’t enough.
The key was breaking the firm prejudice in people’s heads: “Sunmu is a vegetable.”
Saying “It’s sweet like fruit” wouldn’t work.
You had to show it.
In a way people had never imagined even once.
“I’m going to make a cocktail with Peach Sunmu.”
“A cocktail? With sunmu?”
The show host’s startled reaction.
That was exactly the reaction I wanted.
The viewers would react the same.
“Normally, a cocktail called a ‘Bellini’ is made with peach. But Peach Sunmu’s sweetness and aroma are similar to real peach, so even if you make it into a cocktail like this, it doesn’t feel out of place at all.”
“Wow—didn’t know you could even do cocktails. I’m looking forward to it.”
I finely blended peeled Peach Sunmu and filled a transparent glass about one-third.
Then I poured sparkling wine on top.
Bubbles rose, and an appetizing pale pink cocktail was completed.
“Wow, this is insanely delicious!”
Lee Soonja’s intense reaction after tasting it.
The show host backed her up.
“Mmm. It really tastes like peach, just like the name. No, it’s clean and sweet, and it even has that savory depth—so it’s even better?”
Whether those reactions landed with consumers, sales notifications began shooting up like crazy.
“Gasp, everyone! We’re about to sell out! In thirty minutes after sales started! Okay, take a deep breath—starting now I’ll count down. 3, 2, 1… Sold out!”
“Waaah! Thank you, everyone! Khhup… I’ll deliver this honor to my parents first, then the second honor to the villagers who participated in development together, and the third honor to Sunho for giving us the idea of Peach Sunmu—”
The moment it sold out, Lee Soonja got teary and started delivering something almost like an acceptance speech.
I was watching with satisfaction, then my name popped out, and I got a little embarrassed.
But only for a moment—
Seeing how happy she was, I thought it was good I helped.
Just then, the PD frantically pointed with his hand at the monitoring screen.
“……?”
The chat window was flying upward.
A post went up on an entertainment community.
[Huh? Looks like this week’s guest is Ryu Sunho. He’s doing live commerce right now?]
Since he was getting intense attention because of , people flooded into the live commerce broadcast.
The real-time chat was instantly plastered with viewers’ reactions.
-This week’s NaesonNaepam guest is totally my taste
-NaesonNaepam really knows the trend lol
-Also his face is insane;;; he said he did farm work, why is his skin better than mine?
-Peach Sunmu? What’s that—interesting
-What’s with making cocktailsㅋㅋㅋ but it looks good
-I ordered like I was possessed;;; Ryu Sunho sells well
At first, viewing started as simple interest in Ryu Sunho.
But soon, people were captivated by the fresh message: “The healthiest fruit in the world, Peach Sunmu.”
-Oh, the healthiest fruit in the worldㅋㅋㅋ
-Doctors say fruit has lots of sugar though
-Sugar is the main cause of aging apparently
-It’s also the enemy of dieting
-But that one might be okay??
-Yeah with this I could eat fruit with less guiltㅋㅋㅋ
-I should buy it and share with my parents
-It’d be perfect as a snack
-Slow aging—I’m practicing it nowㅋㅋ
Matched with a generation that took huge interest in healthy diets, Peach Sunmu started selling at a shocking speed.
And thirty minutes later—
-???? Already sold out???
-Wow, sold out in 30 minutes, for real?
-Ah I came in lateㅠㅠㅠㅠ no restock?
-Wow but the name is really good, Peach Sunmuㅋㅋㅋ
-I’ve never eaten sunmu once but I bought it because of the nameㅋㅋㅋㅋ
It sold out successfully.
Ryu Sunho was smiling warmly and thanking everyone.
At the same time, Lee Soonja was sniffling and rambling on—
-…and the third honor to Sunho for giving us the idea of Peach Sunmu…
At that shocking statement, the live broadcast chat exploded.
-????? What did she just say?
-Peach Sunmu was Ryu Sunho’s idea?
-Come on, no way. She’s just saying that to hype him up
-The whole point is the celebrity guest harvests and sells it though
-That’s just coming on live commerce and hawking it;; no one plans the sales idea too
-But there was that rumor he did the Instagram marketing himself
-Anyway, they said the video drops in an hour—then we’ll know
-See you later
A chat mixed with suspicion and anticipation.
The news moved to communities, and people started clashing over what was true.
Meaningless debate, really.
In an hour, the video would go up and settle it.
People waited for the video at the top of their lungs, and once was uploaded, the community flipped again.
-…!
-For real?
-Wow
Morning, with the sun blazing.
Inside the CEO office of Nine Film, the production company.
CEO Park Kyungsu sat in front of a huge monitor, scrolling the mouse wheel rapidly, then called someone in.
“The actor Director Ji Seongwoo recommended—he said it was Ryu Sunho, right?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
The CEO thought for a moment,
then said as if he’d made up his mind.
“Then that’s it. Is there any need to wait and hold an audition comparing him to Choi Seungjun? Let’s just go with Ryu Sunho.”