Chapter 42
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: On Thin Ice
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The characters, events, and places in this story are fictional creations for the purpose of the novel and may differ from reality.
Scene 42
On Thin Ice
At the far end of the table, the support staff—makeup artists, costume designers, and the like—were huddled together, chattering away. The conversation had started with the HS incident, but as time went on, HS was forgotten, and the talk shifted entirely to Yu-hyeon.
“Wow, I’m seriously shocked. The father hangs out with someone on the level of the Pope, and the son hangs out with Dior’s head designer?”
“They say reality is more unrealistic than dramas or movies. I can’t believe I’m experiencing that unreality all the way out here.”
“If I told my friends back in Korea about this, they’d tell me to stop lying.”
“But is he really a co-writer?”
“That’s what Writer Kim said.”
“I know, but… honestly, isn’t he too young? He looks twenty-four, twenty-five at most.”
At the mention of his age, someone good with numbers quickly chimed in.
“She said he was in college and came to help his father. Since he’s abroad, he was probably exempt from military service. If he started at 20 and is a senior now, that makes him 23?”
“If he started at 19, he’d be 22.”
“Whoa. 22. He’s practically a kid. A baby.”
“There’s a five-year age difference with me. Perfect for dating a younger guy. They say a five-year gap is perfect, you don’t even need to check your compatibility.”
“You wish, you crazy girl. Stop saying things that have zero chance of happening.”
"You don't think it's... you know?"
"What?"
"With Writer Kim..."
"Oh my god, you're insane. Be realistic. Writer Kim is 34 this year. If Camu is 22, that’s a full twelve-year age gap."
"You never know, though. There are those rumors from when Writer Kim first debuted."
"Hey, watch your mouth. Everyone who's anyone knows that was a smear campaign from Park Yu-mi's camp. That's ancient history."
"No, I just meant..."
"Besides, the CP she worked with on her debut project was Yu Han-seong. Keep running your mouth like that, and you'll be sent back to Korea before filming even starts. We might be vultures for rumors, but let's not cross the line."
"Why is everyone getting so serious all of a sudden? Enough of this useless talk. Let's talk more about Camu."
“That face, that body, that voice. And on top of that, he’s twenty-three at most.”
“His father is practically a tycoon who owns a farm and a resort. And he’s the only son, no inheritance drama! Plus, he’s a drama writer! Oh my, now that I think about it, no mother-in-law to give you a hard time. He’s too perfect.”
“Is that all? Did you see how he was pointing out every little thing to CP Yu and Director Bae earlier? They couldn’t say a word and just apologized. I felt so vindicated watching that.”
“Right? He’s young, but he’s a total man’s man. A normal person would’ve just stammered and done whatever they were told.”
“I was more surprised that he didn’t even glance at Lee Ha-na when she was right in his arms.”
At the mention of Lee Ha-na, their voices dropped.
“That earlier… she was trying to kiss him, right?”
“Is there anyone who didn’t see that? Everyone’s just pretending they didn’t. Heh heh. I totally swooned at that moment. It was like he was saying, ‘You’re not in my league! So don’t you dare try anything!’ The vibe was just… wow. No words needed.”
“Jeez. But poor Lee Ha-na’s pride. The shock must have been huge; her face went as white as dough.”
“That pride is meaningless now. Turns out he’s the writer. How can she act difficult with him now? If she did, her lines would get crossed out in red ink.”
“Hahaha. That’s true. He’s definitely not someone Lee Ha-na can afford to cross. Never mind that he’s the writer; he invested 3.3 billion won. Wow, I knew something was up when he showed up at the airport in that Lamborghini.”
“Poor Min-ju. She can’t say anything to Camu, so she’s probably going to take out all her frustrations on you.”
Hwang Min-ju, Lee Ha-na’s makeup artist, sighed. “Ah well.”
“What can I do? I’ll just have to read the room and survive. I even got an extra bonus for coming overseas for this shoot. Quitting now would just be my loss. I’ll just think of it as a passing storm.”
“Ooh, look at our Min-ju. A few years in the trenches have made you tough.”
“This isn’t my first rodeo. A celebrity’s popularity is fleeting, but makeup skills shine brighter the longer you have them!”
“Wow, where’d you pick up a line like that?”
“Hehe. From my boss at the salon.”
“You know what? Your boss is right. Popularity can fade at any moment, but skills are forever. You go, Min-ju.”
“Thanks! You guys too!”
“Did you see how he completely shut down HS? Even if it were Kim Ji-yeon instead of Lee Ha-na, she’d have to bow her head. How dare she mess with our Camu.”
“Listen to this one. Already calling him ‘our Camu.’”
“Yep. As of today, it’s official.”
“Crazy girl. They say don’t even look at a tree you can’t climb.”
“I mean it as a fan, you idiot. A fan.”
“Anyway, I guess that rumor was true after all.”
“What rumor?”
“The script. That Kim Ji-yeon wanted it first, but Writer Kim and the CP made up excuses to turn her down.”
“I heard that too. But Kim Ji-yeon is a top star in Korea. I thought it had to be a rumor because, of all people, rejecting Kim Ji-yeon? Who would dare reject her?”
“Anyone here still think it’s a rumor?”
“…”
“No one.”
“Considering what President Kang said earlier, and the fact that Camu is the co-writer… you can pretty much piece it together.”
“They probably decided to ban any difficult actors from the start. If Kim Ji-yeon came here, she would’ve thrown a fit about not shooting unless her accommodations were upgraded.”
“The problem is, the President isn’t the type to put up with that. Didn’t you see him earlier? He just shut them down, telling them to cut the crap about being a big corporation. I never thought I’d get butterflies from watching a middle-aged man.”
“Ugh. The father and son are a lethal combination.”
“Who knows, President Kang might get his own fan club out of this.”
“Hohoho. You never know. Han Mi-ra and Yeon Jeong-suk are both single, right? And honestly, a man like President Kang… ah, if only I were a few years older, I might have given it a shot.”
“So you’re giving up on Camu and aiming to be his stepmom? Not a chance. Know your place.”
While the makeup team was chattering about fan clubs and what not, Lee Ji-eun, the floor director who had been listening quietly, threw in a comment.
“But… a man like that must have a girlfriend, right?”
Lee Ji-eun’s words brought the conversation to a halt.
“Probably…”
“I bet he does.”
“It’d be weirder if he didn’t.”
“You saw how he didn’t even flinch with Lee Ha-na. I don’t know for sure, but I bet his girlfriend’s on a whole other level than the lead actresses here.”
“I don’t know who she is, but she must have saved a country in her past life or won the national lottery. Damn, some of us get treated like gophers and get chewed out every day… I’m so jealous.”
*
The shock was immense, not just for TNT and UN, who had been on the verge of signing a contract with HS, but also for the smaller agencies that had fought tooth and nail for a spot.
They had narrowly avoided a situation that could have massively damaged their actors’ images. And then there was the father and son, who had so boldly dismissed HS as if it were nothing.
On top of that, Camu, the man they had secretly been eyeing, was the co-writer of this drama. That was a complete surprise.
Choi Pil-yeon, a man not easily rattled, felt his head spin for once.
Park Sang-do and the other managers seemed to feel the same, as they all gathered together, puffing on cigarettes in silence.
Just then, the manager for Jo Seong-hyeon, the male lead, spoke up cautiously.
“Director Choi.”
“Yes, Manager Na.”
“What should we do in a situation like this? I’m so flustered, my brain isn’t working.”
The other managers nodded in agreement at the words of RN Media’s Manager Na Hyeong-su.
When Choi Pil-yeon remained silent, UN’s Park Sang-do spoke up.
“Do you think HS will just let this humiliation slide? I mean, we didn’t do anything wrong, so they probably won’t come after us directly, but…”
“Are you saying they’ll put pressure on the broadcast station?”
“This isn’t just some farm owner picking a fight. This is the drama’s investors going up against HS. Let’s be real, the family trees of these conglomerate people are complicated, but they’re all relatives and old buddies. If they declare a boycott on ads or anything related to the drama, we’re the ones who get screwed.”
For management companies, the income from advertisements riding on the back of a drama was several times larger than the appearance fees.
If a drama they worked so hard on ended up failing, they wouldn’t just lose out on ad revenue; they would have wasted time and opportunity costs.
On top of that, their actor would be saddled with the stigma of having been in a failed drama, and it would take even more effort to shake that off.
RN’s Manager Na chimed in.
“Manager Park is right. And honestly, I’m suspicious about that young man, Camu, being a writer. Am I the only one? You all have your doubts too, right? And the president here might not care what he says since he doesn’t live in Korea, but that’s not the case for us.”
Choi Pil-yeon narrowed his eyes at Park Sang-do’s words.
‘Suspicious? What a joke.’
He didn’t know how much Camu had participated in writing the script, but Kim Seong-hui wasn’t crazy. She had no reason to put someone else’s name on her own work.
While Park Sang-do and the other managers were focused on the HS problem, HS had long since vanished from Choi Pil-yeon’s mind.
‘Kim Seong-hui is a writer famous for not even using an assistant. It’s why her writing is sometimes criticized for lacking depth, but it also shows how much pride she has in her work. And she gave a co-writing credit to some guy who looks like a college student she just met?’
This was a completely different issue from investors or anything else. For a writer, this was a matter of pride.
Choi Pil-yeon suspected there was a much deeper story that he didn’t know.
He had joined the project because the script was good and the opportunity seemed decent, but ever since arriving in Malta, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more going on.
‘Why would they reveal the co-writer, who had been kept secret until now, at that exact moment? If they were going to hide it, they should have hidden it to the end.’
Choi Pil-yeon recalled the expression on Kim Seong-hui’s face when she introduced Camu as the co-writer and investor.
‘She looked relieved, like someone who had just spit out something that had been stuck in her throat.’
In the end, it meant Kim Seong-hui had no intention or reason to hide it from the beginning. The situation had likely unfolded this way at the request of Camu, the investor and co-writer.
‘But why? Why hide it? Being a drama writer at a young age is a pretty impressive credential.’
This was where Choi Pil-yeon’s headache began.
If he were Camu, he would have been showing it off and publicizing it, not hiding it.
You can try to hold back an itch or a cough, but you can’t hide the signs that they’re coming.
A young man of that age, especially in a place with so many beautiful young actresses, would have subconsciously tried to reveal his status as the writer, even if he were told to hide it.
‘No matter how I think about it, it’s strange.’
Choi Pil-yeon had a feeling that the power this father and son duo held was not limited to what he had seen.
Even if they were immigrants living in another country, they couldn’t be ignorant of the power of a major Korean corporation.
And yet, they spoke so boldly without a care? They must have something to fall back on.
That wasn’t all. From Kim Seong-hui’s attitude, he got the strong impression that she was somewhat subdued in front of President Kang. It felt like there was some other deal between them, something more than just an investor relationship.
‘And that something feels strangely unsettling.’
Whenever he got this kind of unsettling feeling, an unexpected accident was sure to follow.
As Choi Pil-yeon contemplated his next move, an idiom came to mind.
- On thin ice: Be as cautious as if you were treading on thin ice.
‘If I stay still, I’ll be halfway there. And they say the hasty path is the long one. I’ll watch calmly and then make my move. Whatever the circumstances, there’s no reason to create a difficult relationship with Camu.’
Although the drama writer revelation was unexpected, he had not given up on his plan to recruit Camu to TNT. In fact, his desire had only grown stronger.
“Director, are you listening to me?”
“So what do you want me to do? March up to President Kang and point a finger at him?”
“Who’s saying that? At the end of the day, we just need Han Mi-ra to drop out, right? Her role isn’t that important. We can just talk to Writer Kim and have her revise the script a bit.”
Choi Pil-yeon grew pensive at the managers’ words. They had a point.
“Let’s do this.”
“Do what?”
“Honestly, we’re not in a position to dictate casting decisions. It’s natural for the investors, PD, and writers to have a stronger say in this.”
“So you’re saying we should just sit back and watch?”
“One day.”
“What?”
“Camu said it himself. They have 24 hours to apologize.”
“Ha! You think that’s going to work? It’s more likely to just piss them off.”
“Exactly. So instead of raising our voices now when things are chaotic, let’s wait at least 24 hours. We can talk then.”
“So you’re saying we should go in with a valid reason?”
“Right. What if they flat-out refuse to drop her? Are you going to pull out of the show? After coming all this way?”
When Choi Pil-yeon brought up pulling out, the managers clammed up. Doing something like that would get them blacklisted by the broadcast station, never mind HS, and they would suffer for years to come.
“Well, fine. We’ll follow your lead on that, Director Choi. But we need to address the script issue.”
“The co-writer?”
“Yes. Between the investor issue and this, isn’t this too much? It’s not like we’re spies. Why all the secrecy? And let’s be honest. Our actors aren’t at a level where they should be acting from a script co-written by a novice. This is just disrespectful.”
The other managers nodded in agreement with Park Sang-do’s words.
“I agree with you on that point, but I’ve decided to assume that CP Yu and Writer Kim have their reasons.”
“What?”
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to stay quiet.”
Choi Pil-yeon looked at the managers with tired eyes and continued.
“It’s not what you say, but how you say it. Instead of demanding answers angrily, let’s ask politely. Given the situation, I doubt they’ll keep their mouths shut.”
“I’ll join you for that.”
Sensing that Choi Pil-yeon was about to handle it himself, Park Sang-do announced his participation. He didn’t know what would be discussed, but he wasn’t keen on letting Choi Pil-yeon be the sole recipient of firsthand information.
He knew that Choi Pil-yeon, a veteran of veterans in this industry, was unlikely to share everything as it was.
Catching on, RN Media’s Manager Park also jumped in.
“My Seong-hyeon is a lead too. I’ll join you as well.”
With the three agencies for the lead actors taking the lead, the other managers smacked their lips with disappointed expressions. It wasn’t that they didn’t understand, but their companies weren’t in the same weight class to demand a seat at the table. In times like these, they had no choice but to step back.
Choi Pil-yeon nodded as if to say ‘so be it’ and concluded the emergency meeting.
“Today is not a good day. Like I said, let’s wait a day, see how things are, and then bring it up.”
*
Lee Jae-yoon, who was enjoying a beer after a shower, slowly picked up his phone.
- President-nim. It’s Manager Jeong.
“I thought I said I was taking the day off.”
- My apologies. Manager Park contacted me.
Manager Park meant a report concerning Han Mi-ra.
- There seems to be a problem.
“A problem?”
- Well, a small issue arose concerning Ms. Han Mi-ra, and it seems to have caused some trouble for Executive Director Lee Jae-eun. She said she wanted to speak with you directly, but you weren’t answering your phone…
“Jae-eun? Isn’t she in France?”
- She is currently in Malta with Manager Park.
Malta was right next door.
“I’ll contact Jae-eun myself.”
Hanging up, Lee Jae-yoon pulled out his personal smartphone.
There were over twenty missed calls.
He had put it on silent during a meeting for a technology patent agreement that afternoon and had forgotten to turn the ringer back on.
Unable to wait, she was calling again.
“What on earth is going on?”
He pressed the call button and brought the phone to his ear, and his sister Lee Jae-eun’s voice came through.
- Hello? Oppa?
“Yeah. It’s me.”
Lee Jae-yoon smiled, happy to hear his sister’s voice after so long. But the scream that followed made him quickly pull the phone away from his ear.
- Why on earth! How old are you, and you’re still acting like this?! You’re in Italy, right?
“Uh, yeah, but. Jae-eun, what is this…”
- Get on a plane to Malta right now. If you don’t want to see your little sister die. Right now