The Secret Ingredient Was a Little Pressure
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Lee Hwa-young stopped in front of me and looked down at me, her brow drawn tight.
“Ah, it was left on the table by the Team 1 leader. I just took a quick look because I was curious.”
“What did you think it was? It’s the script I’d been waiting for.”
Her voice came out cold and clipped.
She snatched the script up as if she were grabbing it away from someone.
“Didn’t you hear me say I was waiting for the script just now?”
“I did. You didn’t say who was bringing it, though.”
At my answer, she stared at me for a moment, then turned her head away.
With the thick script and the yellow envelope in hand, she angled her body toward the door.
Just letting her go like that wouldn’t do.
Team Leader Ju Tae-hwan had told me to hold Lee Hwa-young here when she came.
“The team leader said to wait a moment. He said he’d be back soon.”
She glanced back at me.
Her expression carried a faint sneer, as if she found me laughable.
So now that no one else was around, was she finally going back to her real personality?
“By the way, have they decided on the male lead yet?”
At my question, she let out a small, dismissive laugh.
It was written all over her face: What does that have to do with you?
“I was wondering if it was a romantic comedy. My acting may be lacking, but I’m decent at getting along with people. I do know a few fairly close friends among the more popular male actors.”
“And?”
She spoke casually, but the moment she moved as if to walk away, she turned back toward me.
Her hand moved slowly, like she was about to open the yellow envelope and tuck the script inside.
“It’s a bit awkward to bring this up, but… you know how some of the popular male actors these days have a bad reputation? Especially the ones who suddenly shot up in fame—some of them get pretty shameless. If the person opposite me happens to be one of the type I know, I thought I should warn you in advance.”
She turned her head and looked straight at me.
I paused for a beat, then went on in a low voice.
“There are guys who act like perfect gentlemen in front of everyone else, then get touchy during filming in ways no one notices, just to make the other person uncomfortable. And when you complain, they play dumb and even turn it around on you. There’s one like that I happen to know a little too well.”
I stopped and drew a short breath, lowering my head just a fraction.
I didn’t forget to narrow my brow slightly, lips pressed together.
“I can’t say his name directly, of course.”
I lifted one hand and brushed my hair back from my temple.
A faint exhale slipped through my lips.
The eyes on me narrowed.
“...I appreciate the concern, but I’ll handle that myself.”
Damn it.
Not biting?
Well, honestly—what could she possibly do with anything I said?
She probably just found me irritating whenever she looked at me.
Still.
This was my chance to see the end of the article I’d only partly read.
If I let her leave with the script now, who knew when I’d get to touch it again?
No, I probably wouldn’t get another chance at all.
Probably.
I turned toward her as she started to leave again and spoke, dangling my words the way one dangles bait on a line.
“He’s about 180 centimeters tall. When he smiles, the left corner of his mouth lifts in a way that feels a little unnatural. Or maybe it’s the right side? Either way, people seem to think that’s part of his charm…”
“.....!”
She stopped mid-step.
Then she slowly turned her head back toward me.
“He seems to be in canned beverage commercials lately.”
At my words, she visibly flinched.
The hook had caught.
Of course it had.
Was this a normal bait?
If it was a rom-com, there would be plenty of scenes involving physical contact with the male lead. If that didn’t matter to her, it wouldn’t make sense.
“Still, since you and I are in the same agency, senior Lee Hwa-young, I thought I should say it in case it might be helpful, even if it’s nothing major. If you don’t need it, then well…”
After tossing that out so casually, I leaned back against the sofa and sat there at ease.
Just then, I was studying the script in my hand and turning the pages carefully when Lee Hwa-young quietly sat down on the sofa opposite me.
There was a strange tension in the eyes she met mine with.
It couldn’t be helped.
The man I had just described would be the one she had to act opposite if she looked at the script and simply said it was good.
“Is it Kang I-han?”
And that was the actor whose name had just come out of Lee Hwa-young’s mouth.
“...Pardon?”
I added a touch of surprise to my face as I looked back at her.
Just enough that she wouldn’t catch it easily.
It was Lee Hwa-young, after all.
If she decided everything from my expression and a vague read on the situation, then simply got up and left, that would be a problem.
“I heard there wasn’t much physical contact with Shim Woo-jin...”
She murmured to herself in a small voice.
So that was the setup—starting with a love triangle.
Well, that wasn’t my concern.
“...Hmm. Well, about that.”
When I only moved my lips without giving her a straight answer,
“...Haah...! This is so frustrating!”
Lee Hwa-young finally exploded with irritation.
Watching her narrow her brow and slit her eyes at me, I let out a slight, careless sigh.
“No. I told you, didn’t I? I can’t say it directly. If I blurted something out too soon and some lawsuit for defamation or whatever came back to bite me later, it’s not like I could handle that.”
“.....!”
“Maybe people outside don’t know, but everyone in the male actor group I’m part of already knows. They say the actor has gangsters backing him, that no matter who the other actress is, he could trash her image and send her straight to hell in one shot. Someone like me would be even easier, wouldn’t I? I’d have to look out for myself.”
I kept a trace of fear in my eyes, my face stiff and pale.
She bit her lower lip slightly.
A sign she’d become uneasy.
This wasn’t just about whether she took the drama role or not.
Even if she said no this time, she’d be anxious every time she was cast in a drama from now on.
Of course, that was only if she believed me.
But the woman sitting in front of me was definitely different now.
Her expression had gone still, but uncertainty lingered in her eyes.
No matter how hard she tried to look tough, that soft side of her hadn’t vanished completely after all.
I remembered the time, early in her career, when she had confided in me about an uncomfortable male co-star.
I hadn’t brought it up to exploit that memory, but somehow that was where the conversation had led, and I felt a little bad about it.
“Could I see the script for a second? It’s hard to explain in words, so let me point it out directly.”
It was an absurd request, but after a moment’s hesitation, she held out the yellow envelope.
I took out the script and flipped to the first page.
Skimming quickly over the words spread out before me in the hologram, I swallowed a satisfied smile and tucked the script back into the envelope.
Then I placed it quietly in front of her.
“...Thank goodness. He’s not the male lead.”
“.....!”
Her previously frozen expression melted at once.
A long breath slipped out of her.
But then her brow furrowed again.
“Then you should’ve said that from the beginning. You asked for the script—were you messing with me?”
“Hey, not at all. I just wanted to make sure.”
“...Ha!!”
She let out a scoff.
“What are you, really? Some kind of psycho? You start spouting weird stuff and get people all tense, then suddenly you’re asking for the script and pointing at empty air.”
She huffed in annoyance.
With an easy smile, I replied, “That was my way of making an offering. I do that every time I get a new script so it’ll be a hit. My last works were hits too, even if my acting was terrible, right?”
She had been watching me with a brazen little smile.
As she gnawed at her lip, her eyes gradually softened.
Come to think of it, that made sense.
Both of Han Seo-jun’s first two starring projects had been major hits.
Since the actresses opposite him and the strong supporting cast were all excellent actors, Han Seo-jun’s own terrible performance had stood out even more painfully.
Thanks to that, the “terrible acting” meme had spread everywhere, but ironically, it had only drawn more public attention.
And on top of that, there had been word that his so-called real fans had sent coffee trucks to the set, cheering him on because just seeing his face gave them strength.
It must have been their warm consideration and encouragement, hoping he wouldn’t lose courage during filming.
Of course, there hadn’t been any such stories of fan support for the drama that had just wrapped up recently.
Affection alone wasn’t enough.
If you failed to live up to expectations, even the flames of devotion would eventually die down.
Before the fire in their hearts went out completely, he needed to show them the sight of an actor they could be proud of.
For the fans who had loved Han Seo-jun so fiercely, wasn’t it only right that he rise in dazzling form with fully ripened acting ability?
That was how you repaid them. That was what a real actor should do.
Then,
the office door flew open.
Hwang Dong-jun and Team Leader Ju Tae-hwan came in, both of their eyes widening in surprise.
Relief and astonishment spread across their faces.
“Oh, there you are, our great actor.”
“What took you so long? We were looking everywhere.”
Lee Hwa-young looked them over and lifted one eyebrow slightly.
“Why, am I missing something?”
“Come on, why else? We were about to have coffee together, but our actress hadn’t come in, so we got worried.”
With a joking air, Team Leader Ju sent Hwang Dong-jun a signal with his eyes.
Hwang Dong-jun quickly crossed to one side and turned his back to the sofa.
He took his phone from his pocket and pressed it to his ear.
Obvious enough.
He was calling an employee who had gone outside to order coffee.
Lee Hwa-young spoke to Hwang Dong-jun with a prim little face.
“Mr. Hwang, I’ll have a chocolate mocha.”
“...Our actress, weren’t you dieting?”
“I just need something sweet right now.”
“Sure. Sometimes you do need a little mood change.”
Looking at Lee Hwa-young’s perfectly composed expression, Ju Tae-hwan quietly rubbed his chest as if soothing himself.
In any case, since he’d gotten such a golden opportunity,
I needed to think carefully about how to get the best possible result.
After Hwang Dong-jun finished the call, he came striding toward me with the corners of his mouth practically lifted to his ears.
A little more than a week later, the script reading day finally arrived.
The conference room was already crowded from the doorway.
Cameras, lights, tripods, and cables were tangled everywhere, and only after the filming crew had come in early and finished setting up did the other staff and the main and supporting actors begin arriving one by one.
Except for the five idol members, the rest of the cast were all seasoned performers whose skills had already been recognized.
So when people who knew each other gathered, conversation naturally started to flow.
Every corner of the room was alive with laughter and greetings.
Among them all, the one drawing everyone’s attention most clearly was O Su-ja, the actress playing the protagonist’s adoptive mother.
Her screen time wasn’t especially large, but she was one of the few Korean-American actresses who had gone to Hollywood more than twenty years ago.
Back then, racism was far more blatant than it was now, and yet she had shattered that wall head-on and climbed over it.
She had made her debut in a mid-series that became enormously popular in Korea as well.
It was a story about a post-apocalyptic world after humanity’s collapse, a brutal yet dazzling survival tale of people struggling to live on a zombie-infested Earth.
That drama became a massive hit not only in the United States, but across Asia and Europe as well, to the point that it was counted among Korea’s “big three” imported American dramas.
O Su-ja appeared in that work as the only Asian girl, and at first she had been meant to appear only for a few episodes in a minor role.
She was supposed to be the kind of character who would be swallowed up by a zombie horde in an instant at just the right moment.
But as the episodes went on, her dazzling acting made her presence explode in stature.
By around episode six, she had already secured a place among the leads, and as the seasons continued, she became a figure who symbolized humanity’s “new hope.”
In the end, after completing seven seasons, she became the only survivor left standing from that group.
She remained at the center of humanity, having reached the far side of the world and begun a new civilization there.
From that single work alone, O Su-ja rose into the ranks of global superstars.
She became the first Korean to win an Emmy, and after that she built a dazzling filmography one masterpiece at a time, courted by countless legendary directors.
And now that world-famous actress had joined this drama.
With someone like her in the cast, even if her screen time in the story was small, her presence was overwhelming.
“It’s only the script reading, but there are cameras set up in four corners of the room, so I feel strangely nervous.”
As O Su-ja smiled and pointed at the cameras with a finger, Jang Mi-ran sitting beside her laughed along.
“Of course you do. This is a gathering with a global star. These days, wherever you go, people are buzzing about O Su-ja. Even younger viewers all want to see you in person.”
“Well, I’m not sure that’s true.”
O Su-ja gave a gentle smile.
“I imagine there are more fans here to see our five handsome idol stars. I can’t beat them when it comes to singing and dancing.”
The mood loosened at her joke.
Then O Su-ja, looking around, tilted her head slightly.
“But where is my son Han Seo-jun? I’d like to see his face.”
The moment she finished speaking, one of the staff members nearby, holding a script, answered respectfully.
“He says he just arrived. Apparently he was delayed because the five members were running through their blocking together one more time.”
Before he had even finished, the conference room door clicked open.
And when O Su-ja saw Han Seo-jun step inside, a smile spread across her lips.