SW Production (1)
I climbed to the third floor where SW Production kept its office, pushed the company door open, and stepped inside — and met the eyes of a woman slumped over her desk as if the day had already beaten her.
"I— what brings you to our company?!"
She startled like someone who hadn't expected a visitor in the first place, and asked what I'd come for.
"I'm looking for a production company to sign with. I saw the job posting and came to contract with you."
"...You haven't come to the wrong place, have you? We're a production company, not an entertainment agency."
The moment I said I'd come looking for a production company, she stole a glance at my face, and I could see the assumption settle in. A man who looked like me belonged at a talent agency. I'd simply walked through the wrong door.
"No. I'm in the right place. I came to sign on as a drama writer."
"What?!"
She didn't say another word, so I asked, carefully, whether they already had a writer under contract.
"...You don't already have a drama writer signed, do you?"
"Ah, no! Please wait just a moment!"
Only then did she snap back to herself. She told me to wait and hurried toward the door marked CEO's Office.
Left standing alone and awkward by the entrance, I felt every eye in the office settle on me. Just as the silence was turning unbearable — for me and for the staff alike — the woman who had gone in opened the door again and came to receive me.
"Um... Writer, please come this way. The CEO is waiting for you."
She was so rattled she never even got my name. I'll introduce myself on the way out, at least.
Watching her hesitate, not knowing what to call me, and land on "Writer," I realized we still hadn't introduced ourselves. I made a note to do it properly later, gave her a small nod for showing me in, and stepped into the CEO's office.
Yeah. I see why the System pointed me here.
The moment I saw her, I felt I understood at least part of it. Long, unstyled hair fell past her shoulders in a glossy sheet, and makeup so light it might as well have been nothing only brought out how pure and soft she looked. More than any of that, the voluptuous figure that showed even through the suit had a pull that caught a man's eyes and did not let go.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Song Seoyoon, CEO of SW Production. Secretary Park told me about you. She said you wanted to join our company?"
While I was still caught on her figure, Song Seoyoon guided me to the sofa, offered a brief introduction, and went straight to the point.
"Lee Jeongwoo. I'm a rookie writer. As you heard from Secretary Park, I came to sign on as a drama writer."
She had opened with business, so I kept my own introduction short and came to mine just as fast.
"Mm... I'm sorry to say this after you came all this way, but the way things stand, we simply don't have the room to raise a rookie writer. You saw on your way in. The people out there are the entire staff."
When I said I'd come to sign, Song Seoyoon stared straight through me for a moment, as if pricing what I was worth. The assessment seemed to end quickly. An apologetic look crossed her face, and she moved to turn me down however she could.
Pure as a saint on the outside. But watch her weigh a person's value and you remember — a CEO is a CEO.
I was still turning that measuring look over in my head, quietly impressed, when she spoke. She had taken my silence for disappointment.
"Please don't be too disappointed. This isn't the only production company out there."
Soft heart, though. If I don't sign, we'll never have reason to see each other again, and she's comforting me anyway.
Watching her try to refuse me and soothe me in the same breath, I made up my mind. Not only because the System had recommended this place. A contrary streak had flared, and I was signing here no matter what.
"What if I made the final round of the JTBS drama contest?"
"What?"
I smiled at the flustered Song Seoyoon, all confidence.
Unable to endure her superiors' abuse and discrimination, Song Seoyoon had fled and built a production company of her own. Now the CEO of SW Production was thrown by the words of a young visitor — the first to walk through her door in a long, quiet stretch.
"Wait, so you're saying..."
She gathered herself and opened her mouth to make sure she'd understood him right.
I was going to bruise him just enough to send him packing. A rookie writer, the first in ages — so how did it turn out like this?
Even as she wondered, privately, why the talk had slipped away from her, she went on.
"What you mean, Jeongwoo, is that you reached the final judging of the JTBS drama contest they're running. Is that right?"
"Yes. If you don't believe me, I can show you the KakaoTalk that came in from Mir Studio."
Honestly, at first she had taken it for the bluster young men were fond of. Confidence like that, though, was no bluff — and he was offering, of his own accord, to show her the messages themselves.
"Mm..."
She had heard of the JTBS drama contest Mir Studio was set to produce. Rumor in the industry said it boasted the fiercest competition rate on record, and its standing needed no explanation.
There's only one explanation for a case like this... Is he actually a genius?
Work long enough in the entertainment world and, now and then, geniuses turned up that ordinary common sense simply could not account for. Talent differed wildly from person to person, of course. Even so, a young man who looked as if he had only just come of age, beating thousands of applicants into a contest's final round, was beyond anything ordinary talent could manage.
And a genius like that is sitting right in front of me....
She was all but certain, yet a corner of her doubt would not quite let go. Only after she checked the KakaoTalk messages and the email on the phone Lee Jeongwoo held out to her could she be sure he was the real thing.
Then we take him. A windfall like this doesn't roll through the door every day!
The company was in poor shape as it was. Determined not to let a blessing that had walked in on its own slip away, Song Seoyoon looked at Lee Jeongwoo the way a hunter eyes prey and began turning over how she would persuade him.
An unfair contract was out of the question. She had founded this company in the first place because of a superior's abuse and discrimination, and binding him unfairly would be no different from cutting open the goose that laid the golden eggs.
And people online these days are terrifying. The moment a face like that started telling everyone he'd been handed an unfair contract, they'd come down on us like a swarm of bees.
Looking at Lee Jeongwoo where he sat across from her, Song Seoyoon had the distinct sense that what she was picturing would not stay a picture.
"I'm sorry about a moment ago, Jeongwoo. Do you happen to have the script you submitted to the contest?"
The arithmetic in her head finished, and she asked whether he had it.
"Yes. There's a copy saved in my email, or you're welcome to read the one on my laptop."
He indicated the bag slung over his shoulder. In a face where she could find not a shred of nerves, Song Seoyoon read confidence.
"Then could you send the script to my email? I'll be reading it on a tablet."
"Give me the address and I'll send it right over."
She gave Jeongwoo the address, excused herself, and rose to fetch the tablet sitting on her desk.
If I'd known it would come to this, I would have cleaned up first...
Tablet in hand, she looked at the heap of clothes and half-eaten delivery food piled under the desk and regretted not tidying sooner. She all but lived at the company and treated the CEO's office like her own room. Thrown by Secretary Park's news that a drama writer wanted to sign — the first in a long while — she had hastily shoved the scattered clothes and leftovers out of sight beneath the desk.
"I sent the script to the address you gave me. Could you take a look?"
"...It's here."
Still rueful on the inside, Song Seoyoon sat back down, and at his word she opened her email. The script from him was waiting.
A windfall, and look how it rolled in! What if I let him leave now and he comes back later claiming he signed with some other company?
Seeing the file in her inbox dropped her into a deep fret. By rights she ought to send him off, read the script later, and only then decide whether to sign. But the fear that she might let him go now only to hear some excuse about another company made her reluctant to see Lee Jeongwoo out the door.
"Jeongwoo... do you happen to have a little time?"
He himself had no thought of signing anywhere but the place the System had named. Song Seoyoon, knowing nothing of that, worried herself sick on her own until she finally asked whether he was free.
"...I do. Is something the matter?"
"Ah! Nothing's wrong. I only wondered, if you have the time, whether we might talk for a moment after I've read the script."
"If that's all it is, I've got the whole day open. Take your time."
Better he wait with a snack than sit there looking lost while I read. I only bought them the other day — the date ought to still be fine.
"Then please have a snack and wait a moment. I'll be through it quickly."
They were snacks she had bought to eat herself. A discreet check of the expiration date, and she asked him to eat and wait.
"Ah, yes. Thank you — I'll enjoy them."
Jeongwoo looked at what she had handed him, said as much, and started in.
A work that cleared thousands of writers and reached the final round... I wonder how good it really is.
Seeing him eat, Song Seoyoon seemed to relax, and her eyes returned to the tablet. With a soft swipe she scrolled through the script he had sent and read on, her heart already fluttering.