CHAPTER 044: An unprecedented story
CHAPTER 044: An unprecedented story
But the one who came up with this idea was Sunho. Wouldn’t it be a bit off if Sunho gets left out?
It was all Ryu Sunho—the one who first suggested helping the firefighters instead of doing a birthday café, and the one who took a one-off event and scaled it up into a sustainable campaign.
That sharp gaze that pierced through the brand’s core values more accurately than anyone else.
But his name won’t be in the credits? This is… no, it’s not just “a bit” off. This is a matter of conscience.
After hesitating for a moment, Team Leader Park seemed to make up his mind and picked up the receiver.
He dialed Team Leader Jo Sehun’s number at Flash Entertainment.
After a few rings, a familiar voice came through.
“This is Jo Sehun.”
“Ah, Team Leader. This is Park Hyunsik from Mate’s Marketing Team. Sorry to bother you when you’re busy.”
“No, it’s fine. What is it?”
Park Hyunsik got to the point.
“Well, we’re currently submitting entries for the Korea Advertising Awards. And as you know, the core idea for the ‘Mate Heroes Campaign’ came from Actor Ryu Sunho.”
On the other end, Team Leader Jo Sehun was silent for a moment.
“As the person in charge of the ad, I judged that it’s ethically right to include Actor Ryu Sunho’s name in the credits as the one who provided the idea. So I’m calling to ask whether it would be okay to list Sunho as a ‘Special Contributor.’”
Only then did Team Leader Jo Sehun answer, sounding surprised.
“…J-just a moment. This is the first time something like this has happened. I’ll ask the actor directly and call you back right away.”
About an hour later,
the call came again.
“Team Leader, I spoke with Actor Ryu Sunho. He said it seems like a good opportunity, and asked me to convey his gratitude, saying he’s honored. Please proceed comfortably.”
After hanging up, a satisfied smile spread across Team Leader Park Hyunsik’s face.
An interesting roadmap formed in his head.
If our ad model wins the grand prize? That’s not just an award. That’s an unprecedented story.
If Ryu Sunho really won, reporters wouldn’t leave such an interesting story alone.
Articles would pour out, get shared across different outlets, and the ripple effect would grow.
It wouldn’t be only Ryu Sunho’s name being shared.
Because they’d have to show which brand Ryu Sunho did something with, Mate’s name would be shared along with it.
If that happened, from Mate Beverage’s perspective, they’d be getting a massive viral effect without spending a single won.
And on top of that.
The image of being a “good brand that grows together with its model,” as a bonus.
When he finished that calculation, a satisfied smile curled at Park Hyunsik’s lips.
I don’t know how likely winning is, but if he really wins, something pretty fun will happen.
With excited fingers, Team Leader Park Hyunsik entered Ryu Sunho’s name as “Special Contributor” on the very first line of the campaign credits.
Flash Entertainment CEO Office.
A man with his hair slicked back with pomade.
CEO Hwang Cheoljune—who looked perfectly suited to an elegant blue suit—was staring at a monitor.
Numbers and graphs on the screen.
Ryu Sunho’s data.
Recent search volume trends, frequency of media exposure, fandom size—each metric drew a steep upward curve.
“Has there been a rookie who’s shown this kind of performance in the last few years?”
The division head sitting on the office sofa answered.
“No. Not just within Flash Entertainment—if you look across the entire history of the entertainment industry, it’s something you can count on one hand.”
Hwang Cheoljune let out a hollow laugh.
The more he reviewed it, the more unbelievable the trajectory was.
He built a narrative even before debut by receiving the Brave Citizen Award, then in just two months made his face known to the public as the Mate Beverage ad model.
Then he immediately put on a major performance in Divine Investigation.
He proved his acting skill too, as a scene-stealing villain who left an impression no less deep than the lead actors.
As a bonus, he secured public likability through a YouTube variety appearance and fanservice.
And even more ridiculous: a twenty-one-year-old kid who probably hadn’t even properly experienced college life, let alone working life, had marketing skills so strong even the PR team clicked their tongues.
In all his life, he’d never seen a case where an ad model came up with an idea and ended up submitting to the Korea Advertising Awards.
If it even won, that would mean he’d take the title of “the first.”
And all of this happened in less than a year.
Tapping the monitor with his finger, Hwang Cheoljune muttered,
I can’t even begin to guess how high he’ll go.
The division head unwrapped the candy in front of him.
“Even just in terms of market price, isn’t he incredible? His appearance fee is pumping straight up like Bitcoin.”
Team Leader Jo Sehun, sitting across from him, nodded as if he agreed.
“It’ll only keep going up. There’s no reason for it to drop. His appearance on PD Yeom Jaeho’s variety is confirmed, and his lead film is scheduled to release soon as well.”
“Drama, film, variety. There’s nowhere he’s not in. Other places must be drooling. Maybe there are already places that buried something away?”
At that, CEO Hwang Cheoljune’s brow twitched.
“No tampering. Who do they think they’re touching?”
The division head gave a light laugh.
“Everyone in the industry knows CEO Hwang Cheoljune is scary. You weren’t an ordinary background to begin with—”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Well, anyway, we need to draw a long-term vision with this kid. If we want to maintain a friendly relationship, shouldn’t the company take care of something for him?”
“Hmm…”
CEO Hwang Cheoljune nodded.
“What would he need? Team Leader Jo Sehun, got any good ideas?”
Team Leader Jo Sehun thought carefully, then remembered Ryu Sunho’s home.
A semi-basement with little sunlight and a faint smell of mold.
“Sunho is living in a semi-basement right now.”
“Huh? He must’ve earned quite a bit. Why?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Does he have some kind of spending addiction?”
“I don’t think so. He even buys the same clothes every day and rotates them. Just a plain white T-shirt and jeans.”
“Hmm, well, as long as it’s not something like gambling.”
“Still, I think it’d be good for him to move. Last time during film shooting, his condition also got thrown off because of his living environment.”
“Yeah. A semi-basement won’t do. It’s bad for the skin and the lungs.”
The division head looked at CEO Hwang Cheoljune and asked,
“How far are you thinking of upgrading him? An officetel? An apartment?”
“Hmm. That depends on the justification. Year-end is coming up.”
The division head nodded as if he caught his meaning.
“Right. It’s almost year-end, and there’s also the MBS Acting Awards.”
“We’ll decide after seeing if he wins something there. Doesn’t matter if it’s Popularity Award or Best Couple Award.”
“Can he even win Best Couple?”
“His chemistry with Actress Park Dusim was good. And isn’t a hate relationship still a relationship?”
Meanwhile, at the same time.
A conference room where the first-round judging for the drama script contest co-hosted by Content Trinity and JTBN was in full swing.
The morning air in the room was full of anticipation.
“This one’s good. The setup is fresh, and the character building is solid.”
“This one definitely has mass appeal. The writer has the basics.”
“There are quite a few decent works.”
The judges—made up of JTBN producers and planning PDs, outside writers, and critics—shared lively opinions each time they found a promising work.
And then several hours passed.
“…….”
The heat that had filled the conference room was gone, and only cold coffee and crumpled scripts lay scattered across the table.
As the sun went down, fatigue showed clearly on the judges’ faces.
“Ha… my eyes are blurry now. I can’t even see the letters well.”
A JTBN producer pressed his temples as he spoke.
His brain felt like it was in overload.
There was a reason.
There were a few decent works early on, but once the afternoon came, it was as if on cue—a parade of trash followed.
A swamp of similar setups, similar characters, similar stories.
“Most of the ones submitted on the last day are works people just threw in like ‘whatever,’ so don’t expect much.”
A veteran writer on the panel tossed that out casually.
Like he said, among the works rushed in right before the deadline, it was hard to find anything impressive.
Everyone was flipping pages mechanically when—
the producer, picking up a script from the near-final stack, widened his eyes.
His eyelids, nearly closed from exhaustion, snapped open.
Without realizing it, the producer straightened his posture.
His sluggish fingers moved quickly to turn the next page.
So absorbed he lost track of time, he only let out a short exhale—“Huh…”—after closing the last page.
The others judging with him looked at him in confusion.
“What is it? Did you find something decent?”
“This… it’s really fun. Read it.”
At his fuss, the other judges took the script with indifferent faces.
“Doctor Princess? The title is kind of childish…”
But as they read, their expressions gradually began to change.
“Huh? The characters are alive.”
“The prose is stable for a rookie… and more than anything, the story has pull.”
“The production budget might be pretty big, but for now, let’s push this to the second round.”
Before I knew it, it was already early December.
A day without filming, for once.
As the film shoot reached the final stretch, things loosened up a bit.
How many weeks had it been since I’d opened my eyes without an alarm?
Today, I should also do some overdue exercise.
I headed to the gym near my place.
“One more!”
“Didn’t you say ‘one more’ earlier too?”
“Just one more, for the last time!”
I started the build-up for my appearance stat, step by step.
Of course, since I had to keep a skinny body in the film, I wasn’t starting a bulk-up.
Just lightly doing PT and letting people know, “I started working out.”
When I posted a workout photo on Instagram, reporters immediately scraped it and posted it as an online article.
[Star Talk Talk. “Ryu Sunho reveals gym verification photo… ‘I started working out’”]
Even reading the comments under the article was pretty fun.
-Handsome bastard finally started working out..
-I told you not to work out
-Did you really have to take everything for yourself to feel better?!
-You’re really driving me into a corner
-Actually, whether Ryu Sunho works out or not, our lives won’t change lol
└For real lol, he’s not even a comparison point
└Shut up!
-He seems like he has a good frame too..
└Because he’s tall.. his shoulders look broad too
└Once the baby fat goes and testosterone rises, his looks will explode
Okay.
With reactions like this, it’s a success.
After finishing my workout, I went home.
I showered, sat at my desk, and opened my laptop.
Time to use my head instead of my body.
I should start thinking about the marketing strategy for Vacuum State.
First, let’s review.
The reason this movie failed in my past life was clear.
A genre positioning error.
A multi-genre film mixing black comedy, SF, and horror was suddenly marketed as a “fantasy comedy film.”
A huge gap formed between audience expectations and the actual film, and it crashed as something that was neither this nor that.
The targeting was wrong from the start.
The core target for this film is the hardcore film fandom.
I need to make them recognize the film’s uniqueness first and spread word of mouth.
So the buzz rolls like a snowball.
To do that, the film’s concept needs to be presented with scale—
Wait.
A sudden sense of anxiety hit.
Even if I build a perfect strategy, will I have any say?
I’m not an investor—I’m an actor. And a rookie actor at that.
In a field where tens of billions move around, would people really go, “You’re right!” and follow what a twenty-one-year-old rookie actor says, who isn’t even a marketing expert?
No. That’s too optimistic.
I need power. Strong power that can break their stubbornness.
A face came to mind.
Han Seungwoo.
The parent company of the distributor Playtee is Content Trinity, where Han Seungwoo is a division head.
“Division head” in name, but since he’s a royal family member, he probably holds authority on the level of a CEO.
I need to get close to Han Seungwoo.
If I borrow his mouth, I can make the distributor unable to ignore my ideas easily.
Bzzz—bzzz—
A call suddenly came in.
Who is it?
There aren’t many people who would contact me.
It was Han Seungwoo.
As if he’d read my thoughts, his call came at that exact timing.
The first contact since he’d taken my number on set.
But for what reason?
“I heard today’s a day off from shooting. What are you doing right now?”
“I worked out and I’m at home.”
“Then want to do chicken and beer?”
Chicken and beer out of nowhere?
“Since I’m filming, beer is—”
“No, not chicken and beer. I meant come look at my deadly McLaren.”
I heard him snickering to himself, and then he continued.
“I brought the sports car out for the first time in a while, so let’s go somewhere together. I need your help a bit.”