Money Buys an Apology
"Come to think of it, I always thought something was off about him."
Woo Jun-seo whined, his voice thick with irritation.
"He's never done this in three years, and then out of nowhere yesterday, he goes completely dark. I was so pissed that he'd pulled a vanishing act that I told the company, and guess what—they said they'd given him time off. Excuse me? Sending a manager on vacation without so much as telling the actor? What kind of sense does that—"
"Wait. The company said that?"
When PD Jang cut in, sounding as though something had clicked into place, Woo Jun-seo's brow furrowed.
"Yes. Why?"
"So the company knew before you did. They were trying to smooth things over behind your back, and it still blew up. Ah, then this is even worse than I thought…."
Having fully absorbed the situation, PD Jang let out a long, heavy sigh.
In stark contrast, Woo Jun-seo bounced around the room with an expression that made it impossible to tell exactly which point he'd gotten stuck on.
"Are they insane?! Making a fool out of a person like this?! If they'd warned me in advance, I'd have fixed it myself somehow! These useless bastards, I swear."
It was almost pitiful watching him resort to cursing out his own company now that there was nothing left to trash-talk.
Undeterred even by the look on PD Jang's face—one that clearly read, you absolute moron—Woo Jun-seo kept fuming with all his might.
"Nobody in this business does their actual job. Agencies, managers—they're all just collecting paychecks to babysit celebrities, aren't they? So why is nobody helping me?!"
"…I quit smoking over five years ago. And now you've got me craving a chain-smoke session."
PD Jang shook his head, worn out mid-rant.
Paying him no mind, Woo Jun-seo carried on lamenting as if he were the one suffering most in the world.
"I'm seriously at my limit here, PD-nim."
To be fair, Woo Jun-seo had been ranting one-sidedly at PD Jang lately, but until just recently the two had been nothing but sweet to each other, trading compliments and reassurances.
Woo Jun-seo had been the very first person PD Jang cast for this drama, and his influence had weighed heavily on the casting of the rest of us as well.
Perhaps it was that old closeness—forgotten for days, now suddenly missed—or perhaps it was simply the lack of a manager to lean on, but either way, Woo Jun-seo began worming his way back toward PD Jang's side, groveling.
"PD-nim, this is nothing. The live broadcast thing blew over without a scratch, didn't it? I'm heading to the company right now to demand a correction article. I'll sort everything out and be back."
"Sort it out, my ass. You can't even read the situation, and you're all talk…. The article says there's evidence. Anything you can think of that it might be?"
"No idea. They're calling it abuse, but it's not like I actually hit him. Worst I ever did was throw things… If he secretly filmed that, then honestly, there's something wrong with his character."
Unbelievable.
Maybe PD Jang had arrived at the same thought I had, because he turned red and shouted.
"You son of a—! What kind of lead actor stirs up this kind of scandal while a drama is still airing! You throw things at people? Hey, this is a breach of contract. Do you understand me?"
"I barely ever threw anything! And it's not like I only did it during this drama! That guy spent three years kissing my ass without a single complaint, and now he's slinking around doing secret interviews? Doesn't that seem weirder to you? If he had a problem, he should've said something to my face!!"
Woo Jun-seo's hands trembled.
It was remarkable how genuinely convinced he was of his own innocence.
Some people really are shameless to the end.
I didn't know precisely what had passed between Woo Jun-seo and his manager.
But that didn't change the fundamental truth: getting swept up in a scandal like this was his own doing.
Do you have any idea how much money it takes to put a single drama out into the world?
A drama doesn't get made just because it has one male lead.
It takes an executive PD, the production company, assistant directors, a cinematographer, camera crews, lighting teams, sound teams, art departments, costume departments, editors, stunt doubles—an army of people working in concert before a drama can exist at all.
Even I, a first-timer, know that. How does he not?
One thoughtless word or action from him could render months of labor from every person on that set meaningless in an instant.
He should have carried responsibility to match the weight of his name, but Woo Jun-seo had lived like a degenerate, convinced the world existed for him alone.
And now he's paying the price. Simple as that.
That was my rational take, anyway. But with my own drama team caught up in the fallout, I couldn't exactly stand on the riverbank admiring the fire.
"Thanks for wrecking my drama, you trash. Because of you, I'll have to keep my mouth shut and do whatever the higher-ups tell me from now on."
"Don't worry, PD-nim. I'll tell the company to give him a generous payout. I'll even make him post the apology statement himself."
"Don't make promises you can't keep. Hah. My leading man, an abuser."
"I did not assault anyone!"
"Ah, I need a cigarette…."
PD Jang finally stormed out, unable to take any more, and grabbed the first staff member passing by.
"Hyun-joong, got a cigarette on you?"
"Huh? I do, but PD-nim, you quit—"
"Give it to me. Now."
Having torn the pack from the staff member, PD Jang hastily clamped a cigarette between his lips.
And the very instant he reached for a lighter, I darted in and snatched it away.
"Hey—!"
"PD-nim, if you light that now, you'll be smoking for another five years. Resist."
"What, even you're doing this to me, Actor Seul-ho?!"
PD Jang lunged for my hand like a man about to weep with frustration, but I held firm.
Meanwhile, Choi Ran—God knows where she'd gotten them—pressed a handful of candies into his palm.
"Have these instead."
"Hah, you people, honestly…."
Forced back onto the wagon, PD Jang squeezed his eyes shut.
Choi Ran and I stood flanking him, patiently waiting until the urge to smoke subsided.
A few minutes later, with his sanity restored, PD Jang heaved a deep sigh.
"Thank you, both of you. For stopping me. I almost went home and got beaten half to death by my wife—no, actually, I can't go home tonight anyway. I'll head to the station for a meeting."
"Cheer up, PD-nim."
"Aigoo, my poor lot in life…."
Hard to believe this was the same man who'd been roaring at Woo Jun-seo moments ago—he staggered off like a tire going flat.
I scratched the back of my neck as I watched his unsteady figure disappear down the hall.
"Ran-ah, this might be a clueless question, but can I ask?"
"What is it?"
"Why is PD-nim this torn up over it? Is it just how much he loves the show? Either way, the finale aired without a hitch, didn't it?"
If the scandal had broken mid-broadcast, sure, it would have been a nightmare. Depending on how serious it got, they might have had to pull the remaining episodes and scrap the show entirely, and even if they'd kept airing it, viewers could have launched a boycott.
But the article had only dropped right before the final episode, so as far as I could tell, the broadcast itself had run clean from beginning to end.
"A drama isn't over just because the run ends on terrestrial TV."
"Why not?"
"You know this, Oppa. How much Korean dramas sell for overseas. They have to be licensed to local broadcasters across Asia, sold to OTT platforms—and this whole mess is going to drag down those deals."
"Oh…. Right. I completely forgot about that."
Choi Ran gave me a look that asked how on earth I could forget something like that.
Cut me some slack. It's my first drama.
"Woo Jun-seo especially has a real fanbase in Japan, so they were probably planning to sell the rights there at a premium. And now all of that's down the drain. No wonder he's heartbroken."
"Huh. He's right."
So the end of a broadcast isn't really the end of anything.
And here I was thinking my promotional duties were finished, so I'd be done with outside shoots too.
Totally wrong assumption.
In fairness, I'd spent years with celebrities as my clients and heard plenty of industry talk from them. But I was realizing now that hearing about a world and living inside it were two entirely different things.
So Woo Jun-seo really did pull some degenerate shit.
After listening to Choi Ran, his sins somehow weighed several times heavier.
"Still, the more I think about it, isn't this kind of impressive?"
"What is?"
Choi Ran gave a hollow laugh.
"A celebrity abusing his manager. That phrase is ancient. These days, aren't most of them the ones tiptoeing around their managers?"
"Hmm…. The abyss runs deeper than you think."
Choi Ran might have more years in the industry than I did, but when it came to the ugly, unvarnished underbelly of show business, I'd seen far more of it.
"You want to know why Woo Jun-seo's acting so wronged? Because celebrities who treat their managers worse than he does are a dime a dozen. He knows that, so in his head, whatever he did doesn't even count."
"Really? Everyone around me is nice to their managers, though."
"Birds of a feather. Around guys like that, there's nothing but guys like that."
Choi Ran nodded, though she didn't quite seem to fully grasp what I was saying.
I wondered if it was worth dumping all this on a kid, but I figured the more she understood how dirty the world was, the better she'd learn to guard herself—so I kept talking.
"This is something I heard straight from the horse's mouth once. There was a celebrity who told his manager to keep his girlfriend company because she was bored, since he was busy."
"What kind of lunatic—??"
Choi Ran's eyes went wide.
"That's not even the worst of it. Afterward, he had the manager cover the hotel bill too, and told him to go spend a 'good time' with the guy's girlfriend."
"He's insane. No—seriously, that's impossible. Why on earth would he?"
"Because he was garbage, plain and simple. He was practically giddy about the plan—he was going to ask the manager the next day, all smug, whether his girlfriend was good in bed."
"The girlfriend didn't do anything wrong either. Wait—doesn't he care about the money?"
"You have to not care about money for things like that if you want to live the way he does."
Choi Ran shook her head at my words, looking thoroughly disgusted.
Then I headed back to the hotel.
All things considered, today had been the day the very first drama I ever appeared in aired its finale.
It's surreal. And strange.
I fell asleep wrapped in that odd, mixed-up feeling.
And the next morning, the very first article on the front page read as follows:
The moment I finished reading, I nodded to myself.
Figures.
So that's why you can't spare a dime on things like this—turns out that's how people live like that.