Contract (2)
I spent what time I had left with Lee Harin, then made my way to SW Production, arriving right when I'd agreed to meet Song Seoyoon.
The office was on some five-story building in Suwon. I pulled the door open—it rattled along its track—and stepped into a room so quiet it felt deserted.
"Hello!"
I was still looking around, thrown by how empty the place was, when Park Minji, the woman I'd met before, broke into a bright smile and greeted me like she'd been waiting.
The exhausted face I remembered was gone. Color had come back into her cheeks, and one look told me she was genuinely thrilled I'd decided to sign with them.
Seeing her like that, maybe signing here really was the right call.
"Writer Lee, you're here about the contract, aren't you?"
"Yes, that's right. But please just call me by my name. I haven't even passed the contest yet."
"If that's what you want, Jeongwoo, I can call you that... Though now that I look at you, you're awfully modest, aren't you? After writing a script like that?"
"Sorry?"
I was still trying to parse what she meant when Minji glanced around, then leaned in with a quiet smile.
"Hehe. It's just the two of us, so you don't have to be so humble. I read the script you wrote, and I'm certain it's going to win... And even if it doesn't, we can always have it produced somewhere else, so don't worry."
She must be in a really good mood.
"Minji!"
I was watching her chatter on, oddly pleased, when the door to the CEO's office opened and Song Seoyoon's voice cut through.
"Don't put Jeongwoo on the spot. Send him in."
"Ah! I'm sorry. I'll show you to the office!"
"Sure."
At Seoyoon's words, Minji realized she'd been running her mouth. She flushed and led me to the CEO's office.
"CEO."
"Hehe. Just call me Seoyoon. No need to be so formal."
The moment the door shut, Song Seoyoon laid a hand on my chest and closed the distance like an invitation. Her scent brushed the tip of my nose and lingered.
I swallowed.
"...Seoyoon."
She was wearing something cut even lower than the last time I'd seen her. As she came on, teasing, I couldn't help swallowing again, eyes locked on the deep line of her cleavage.
If she's going to tempt me this openly, there's no reason for me to hold back anymore.
I reached out and grabbed her breast. Soft. Yielding under my hand.
"Ahn...♥ You seem just as impatient, Jeongwoo. Shall we get to the actual contract talk?"
Far from pulling away, Seoyoon only smiled that wicked little smile, took my hand, and led me toward the seats. I slipped an arm around her shoulders as if it were the most natural thing in the world and let her guide me.
She watched me sit obediently in the chair beside hers, then held out a stack of papers she'd prepared in advance.
"Hehe...♥ This is the contract we prepared. We haven't written in the signing bonus yet, though."
Pressed flush against my side, openly tempting me while she offered a contract with the advance still blank, I slid an arm around her waist.
"Why not? If the bonus were already filled in, I'd have signed on the spot."
"I'm sure you've looked into production contracts from every angle, but I still wanted to explain it to you properly."
Even drawn into my arms, Seoyoon settled herself as if this were perfectly ordinary and answered me.
I came here without looking up a single thing...
The way she watched me, without even a flicker of doubt that I'd done my homework, pricked my conscience for no good reason.
"Ahem. So how much does a rookie usually get?"
That clear, unsuspecting look had started to weigh on me. Rather than disappoint her by admitting I hadn't researched anything, I decided to steer the conversation aside the way I already was—palm sliding over the soft give of her thigh.
Sensitivity Control
Target: Song Seoyoon
"Haaht...♥"
The moment the skill took hold and my hand moved, a moan spilled out of her before she knew it was coming.
"Mmph!"
Startled, as if she couldn't believe a sound like that had left her, she clapped a hand over her mouth.
"What, can't answer? I asked how much they usually get."
"Hnn...♥ A-a typical rookie writer...♥ gets about five million won... aht...♥ or so...♥"
Even as my hand on her thigh dragged heated little moans out between the words, Seoyoon fought to finish answering me.
The satisfaction, the sense of conquest I get from seeing her like this... yeah. This is definitely my thing.
Pleasure shivering through her, and still she was desperately trying to match me. The sight woke a sadistic streak that had been sleeping inside me.
"Oh, really? Then you could've just written that on the contract, couldn't you?"
"Haht...♥ Normally, yes...♥ But a monster rookie like you...♥ nnh...♥ is a different story...♥"
I took those breathless moans for music and stroked her thigh more boldly, slowly hiking her skirt.
"W-wait...♥"
As the skirt climbed, she seemed to realize the talk would die if this went any further. A trembling hand snatched up a pen, trying to make me pause—
"It's fine. Write it just like this."
I ignored the plea and kept caressing her thigh, drawing the skirt higher.
"Nnh...♥"
Once she understood I wasn't going to stop, she forced the number onto the page with a shaking hand. The pen scratched across the contract.
Signing Bonus
35,000,000 won
"Thirty-five million won...?!"
The figure she'd written shocked me so badly that my hand stopped cold.
Only then did Seoyoon calm a little. She looked me straight in the eye, face serious at last, and managed a proper sentence.
"Haa...♥ This is the most our company can offer."
How many zeros is that?!
It was so much larger than I'd expected that I could barely follow what she was saying. She'd told me before that the company was struggling, and honestly, I hadn't hoped for much of a signing bonus at all.
"Renewal is on a two-year cycle, for now. Well? Will you sign?"
She held out the contract and the pen with a confident smile. The woman who'd been panting under my hands a moment ago was gone. In her place stood the head of a company.
"Of course I will."
I put on a face every bit as sure as hers, took the pen and the contract, and scrawled my signature across the line without a second's hesitation.
The contest results were still a few days out. Win or lose, I was now officially a writer at SW Production.
"From here on, we'll handle the manuscript fee negotiations for you—whether it's Mir Studio producing this contest piece, or some other studio. So don't worry about anything else. Just focus on the work."
Watching me sign, Seoyoon kept that serious air and started laying out what came next, and how the company would move.
"Then how much is a manuscript fee, usually?"
Honestly, I wanted to take things further with her right then, to finish what we'd started. But the pressure in her tone, the weight of the room, left me no choice. I listened, and whenever something puzzled me, I asked.
"Mm... Whether the script is brilliant or not, it's your first. They'll probably pay you at a rookie writer's rate."
"Ah... I see."
When a hint of disappointment showed on my face, Seoyoon looked almost apologetic as she named the figure she expected.
"Yes. About 2.5 million won per episode."
I didn't answer.
Holy shit.
A sixteen-episode drama means forty million won in manuscript fees alone, and if I win the contest there's prize money on top... After tax, call it about forty million... so something like eighty million won altogether?!
I was twenty, staring at a sum I couldn't have laid hands on so easily, or so fast, and for a moment I couldn't say a word.
"I understand. If I'd written something this good and this was all I got for it, I'd be pretty disappointed too. But don't worry. Once this one succeeds, everything you write after it will be worth more."
She'd mistaken my silence for disappointment. Skirt still hiked halfway up, she didn't even seem to notice—she just offered a few comforting words and pulled me into a tight embrace.
Are you insane?! You're saying this amount is small?!
Her misunderstanding, and the outrageous thing that had just come out of her mouth, left me reeling. Any other time, the soft press of her body against mine would have had me worked up. Right now I didn't have the spare mind for it.
"Oh, right. You've signed, so now I should give you what you want...♥"
Something seemed to occur to her. She looked at me for a beat, then—skirt still halfway up—settled lightly onto my lap and smiled, languid and tempting.
Right. What does any of that matter now? There's something far more important right in front of me.
Looking at Seoyoon perched on my knees with that sultry smile, I set everything else aside and decided to focus on the woman tempting me.
I wrapped an arm around her waist, hauled her in tight against me, and took her mouth.