CHAPTER 059: It Was Something to Be Deeply Grateful For.
CHAPTER 059: It Was Something to Be Deeply Grateful For.
The moment Seo Yunha stepped into the maid café, two men followed in after her.
One was her manager, Team Leader Heo Jeongseok, and the other was a PD holding a camera for YouTube filming.
The start of this bizarre combination was the day before.
“Team Leader, I want to go to a maid café. Book me a place.”
“What the—”
Seo Yunha’s declaration came out of nowhere.
Team Leader Heo Jeongseok couldn’t even continue his sentence and pressed his throbbing temple.
‘It’s because of Doctor Princess…’
Even when she seemed perfectly normal, if it was something related to acting, her passion would sometimes veer off the track of common sense.
Extreme immersion and research into a role.
As an actor, it was the best kind of talent, but as a manager, it created a lot of dizzying moments.
And when that happened, drawing the line at the right time—that was his role as her manager.
“…Yunha, that’s—”
Just as Heo Jeongseok opened his mouth to stop her.
A video he’d seen on YouTube a few days ago flashed through his mind.
-This is something to be deeply grateful for. Truly.
-Are you saying you’re going to dismantle me!
A video that had been popular lately.
It was a comedian parodying top actors’ awkward YouTube activities.
That refined, lofty actor way of speaking, trying to communicate with the public but somehow floating off somewhere.
The comments under that ridiculous parody had stabbed Heo Jeongseok right in the chest.
-This is totally Seo Yunha’s YouTubeㅋㅋㅋ
-She’d probably flinch watching thisㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Since he knew Seo Yunha better than anyone, it was mockery that made his teeth grind.
A year ago, she started YouTube to shed her mysterious image and get closer to the public.
But because she’d been hounded by all kinds of forced controversies since her child-actor days, she was extremely careful in front of the camera, and to the public, that only looked like an actor “pretending to be classy.”
‘People think Seo Yunha is fake and stiff. Why? Because they haven’t seen the real her… But…’
Heo Jeongseok’s gaze changed.
He looked at Seo Yunha again.
That absurd, passionate idea of going to a maid café for role research.
That was the real Seo Yunha.
‘Yeah. Maybe what people want to see is that side. The raw, unfiltered Seo Yunha as a person—crazy about acting…!’
A maid café wasn’t a risk.
It was an opportunity.
One that could crack her shell.
“Okay. Let’s go, maid café.”
And now, back to the present.
Seo Yunha already had the “princess” attitude perfectly equipped.
She gave the maids who had frozen at the sight of her an elegant nod.
“The princess has arrived.”
In everyday life, someone would ask if she’d lost her mind, but here, it was perfect “roleplay.”
When a maid looked at the owner like, what is this situation, the owner smiled and whispered,
‘Do what you were doing.’
Later, he heard the YouTube PD had told them not to inform the maids in advance, to get real reactions.
Either way.
A sharp veteran maid caught on and barely kept the concept going.
“Uh… w-welcome, Princess. I-I’ll show you to your seat, nya!”
Seo Yunha sat at the window seat with the best view, walking as elegantly and naturally as if she were in a palace.
Without even looking at the menu, she lightly propped her chin and stared out the window as she spoke.
“Today, I want tea. The most fragrant one.”
A tone that wasn’t arrogant, yet carried dignity.
The veteran maid was used to roleplay, but she’d never felt this kind of overwhelming immersion from a customer before.
Without meaning to, she bent at the waist and replied.
“Y-yes! Princess! I will obey!”
An acting face-off that started by accident—between the maids and Seo Yunha.
And the result was, of course,
a landslide victory for the MBS Acting Awards Grand Prize winner.
A few days later,
after even going to a maid café, Seo Yunha’s resolve only hardened.
“Team Leader, I’m definitely doing this role.”
Heo Jeongseok had no reason to oppose it.
Seo Yunha genuinely wanted it,
and the reactions to the maid café video weren’t bad either.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ So this was Seo Yunha’s real self?
-But why does it suit her this well? She really looks like a princessㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-I love this kind of wildness;; I’m stanning starting today.
The next day,
Team Leader Heo Jeongseok headed to JTBN’s drama department.
“Team Leader Heo, what brings you here?”
The CP greeted him with a tired face.
Heo Jeongseok didn’t rush. He spoke calmly.
“I have something to discuss regarding Doctor Princess.”
The CP’s eyes widened slightly.
“What would that be…?”
“Our actor Seo Yunha is showing a lot of interest in that project.”
“What? S-Seo Yunha? In this rookie writer’s work?”
The CP’s eyes went round.
‘Seo Yunha? Last year’s Grand Prize winner? What a windfall is this?’
At the same time, his mind spun quickly.
A rookie writer, and the male lead was Ryu Sunho, who had only just started to blow up.
Honestly, it carried a big box office risk, but the moment the name Seo Yunha joined, it gained weight.
A risky gamble was instantly upgraded into a highly anticipated project.
Color returned to the CP’s face.
“Ah, of course it would be an honor for us! If Seo Yunha joins, it’s perfect.”
There was no reason to refuse.
When a satisfying answer came back from writer Joo Hanbit as well, the casting was finalized smoothly.
Soon after, JTBN leaked the lead casting news, and articles full of anticipation poured out from various outlets.
[Ryu Sunho–Seo Yunha reunite through Doctor Princess… “possessed” chemistry once again]
[The bad blood from Possessed Investigation becomes a bond in Doctor Princess]
[Seo Yunha’s chaotic maid café experience—because of Doctor Princess?]
[Vacuum State’s box office whirlwind. Surpasses 2 million in just 7 days after release]
The film Vacuum State was charging down the box office path day after day.
The word-of-mouth piled up before release pulled audiences into theaters,
and audiences who were strongly impressed spread new word-of-mouth again, creating a virtuous cycle that drew in new viewers.
It flowed perfectly along the marketing strategy direction Ryu Sunho had steadily built up to secure early inflow.
Of course.
Quentin’s appearance was an unexpected variable, but because it accelerated the plan even more, there was no choice but to be happy.
And there was another unexpected small variable.
The connections Ryu Sunho had brushed past began moving on their own to help him.
“Alright, everyone gather up. Let’s take a photo before we go in!”
At the direction of paramedic Han Jisu, Ryu Sunho’s first fan, the Gangnam Fire Station crew took a group proof shot holding their movie tickets.
Thanks to Ryu Sunho’s beverage truck event, attention toward firefighters’ working conditions grew, and after that, support from various companies and organizations followed.
They hadn’t forgotten that gratitude.
“We should repay him, even if it’s small.”
“Honestly, it’s not even help. We’re just going to watch a fun movie.”
“Khhahaha, that’s right.”
“This is my second viewing. I watched it as soon as it opened.”
“Oh, Jisu. Fast. So what’s your review?”
“It’s a secret. Anything I say is a spoiler. But…”
“But?”
“No matter what you’re thinking, it’ll be beyond what you imagine. It’s really fun.”
A similar wave unfolded in Ganghwa Island too.
Lee Sunja, the young village head who’d been helped by “peach turnips” during the filming of My Hands, My Farm.
She brought the village grandmothers to a city movie theater.
“He helped us sell out our peach turnips, so we have to help sell out Sunho’s movie too!”
At Lee Sunja’s solemn resolve, the grandmothers nodded and put their hands together.
“That’s right!”
At the concession stand, where they stopped to buy snacks before the screening.
As they waited to order, a baby-faced part-timer asked with a friendly smile, speaking in easy words at the elders’ level.
“Elders, would you like popcorn that’s salty like seasoned salt, or sweet like rice syrup?”
The kindness was admirable.
But the grandmother answered with a face like, what nonsense are you talking about.
“What are you saying. Give me half-and-half double cheese popcorn and basil onion popcorn.”
“I’ll take one zero cola.”
An earthquake hit the part-timer’s pupils.
After their YouTube appearance, the grandmothers’ daily lives had changed, and their tastes had gotten pretty trendy.
Their evaluation after watching the movie was the same.
It could’ve been a somewhat shocking film for elderly viewers, but the grandmothers looked refreshed.
“My insides feel all cleared out.”
“People who don’t listen to anyone at all deserve to pop.”
“Grandma, that’s a spoiler…”
“Boiler? I turned the boiler off before I came out. Don’t worry.”
“Anyway, our bachelor Sunho—his acting was really good.”
“Exactly. He’s a totally different person from when he set fires in Possessed Investigation. It was so pitiful I got scolded.”
Lee Sunja chuckled.
Then she posted a cheerful movie-going review with the grandmothers on her 100k-subscriber YouTube channel, lending a small bit of support.
On my way to the company because I had an appointment with Team Leader Jo Sehun.
Riding up alone in the elevator, I briefly went into the fan café “Sunho Ideology.”
Fans were roaming the internet and gathering the proof shots posted here and there into posts.
Among them, I also saw several familiar faces.
First, the Gangnam Fire Station firefighters and paramedics.
They uploaded a bright group proof shot, smiling while holding their Vacuum State movie tickets.
[We wanted to repay the warm heart you showed us, so we came together to cheer you on! The movie is really fun!]
My chest tightened a little at the unexpected gift.
When I scrolled down, this time I saw the thumbnail of Lee Sunja’s YouTube video from Ganghwa Island.
She and the village grandmothers were posing in front of the theater.
When I played the video, the grandmothers’ cheerful voices flowed out.
‘I didn’t do those things expecting repayment.’
If you’re strict about it, it was calculated behavior to get my name out there.
But I never expected that action to come back around and return to me as this kind of sincere support.
Just as a strange emotion mixed with gratitude washed over me—
Ding—
the elevator arrived.
On the way to the meeting room I’d agreed to, I caught my name here and there.
“They say Sunho passed on Director Yoon Gyeonghwan’s film and chose Vacuum State. And he even turned down a lead offer.”
“That’s what I heard. He’s got guts. Director Yoon’s last film had 6 million viewers. How do you pass that up and choose a rookie director’s work?”
“Wow, but at that level, doesn’t that mean he really has an eye for projects? They say he even nailed the first broadcast ratings for Possessed Investigation exactly.”
“Come on, that’s probably just talk.”
“No, it’s real. I dropped by the wrap party for Possessed Investigation for a bit, and they were handing him the prize money for the first-episode ratings bet.”
“Holy shit… so he really has foresight too…?”
They were deep in conversation, but when I passed by, they startled and shut their mouths.
I gave a light nod and moved on.
It feels like I’m getting more and more deified.
Well, it’s better than being underestimated.
When I arrived at the meeting room, Team Leader Jo Sehun and Team Leader Heo Jeongseok were sitting together.
I knew him as Seo Yunha’s manager.
What was this about?
“Team Leader, I’m here.”
“Oh, Sunho’s here?”
Seeing me, Team Leader Heo Jeongseok stood up.
“Then I’ll get going.”
Looking at the table, it seemed like they’d been talking about Doctor Princess.
As Team Leader Heo Jeongseok started to get up and leave, he suddenly stopped and asked me.
“Uh… Actor Ryu Sunho. What do you think will happen with Doctor Princess?”
“Pardon?”
“No, it’s just—there’s a rumor these days that you have an incredible eye for projects. So I was curious too.”
I thought for a moment, then answered in a confident voice.
“It’ll do well.”
This wasn’t just a hunch.
It was the future I knew.
Meanwhile, at TvM’s Variety Department.
PD Yeom Jaeho’s team’s meeting room was busy.
A huge whiteboard was cluttered with a map of Saint-Tropez, France, along with the cast’s photos and post-it ideas stuck all over.
In the middle of it, a writer checking an article on her phone shouted.
“Wow, Vacuum State already passed 2 million. I think it was really good that we postponed our filming. Ryu Sunho’s buzz is skyrocketing right now.”
At her words, everyone nodded.
PD Yeom Jaeho looked at the photo of Ryu Sunho on the whiteboard and smiled with satisfaction.
“Told you, didn’t I? That waiting would be worth it. It’s perfect that we’re scooping him up right at this timing.”
“If things go well, there might be quite a few people who recognize him in France too. Looking at Weflex’s global rankings, they say Possessed Investigation keeps staying in the top ten.”
PD Yeom Jaeho nodded.
Everything was flowing according to his big picture.
“Alright, final check. You said Actor Ryu Sunho’s film promotion schedule is almost finished, right?”
“Yes. This week is the last of it, and then he has no promotional activities for two weeks.”
“Okay. Then next week, we all do the pre-meeting together and head straight to France.”
As the meeting was wrapping up, the youngest writer asked with eyes full of anticipation.
“PD, honestly, among this lineup, who are you most excited for?”
Everyone’s gaze gathered on Yeom Jaeho.
He briefly swept his eyes over the cast photos on the whiteboard, then grinned as he answered.
“They’re all excellent. Go Junhyeok’s cooking skills, Lee Yuna’s visuals… but.”
He tapped Ryu Sunho’s photo once with his finger.
“It’s a business variety show overseas. The key is absolutely Ryu Sunho.”