A Smooth Start
Today was the premiere of Welcome to Cafe Violet.
Seol Soyoung made her way to Studio NMIX with light, unhurried steps. The cast had promised one another they would watch the first episode together.
Maybe I should check the internet.
Having arrived at the lounge first, she glanced down at her phone simply to kill the boredom.
Drama communities were currently pouring enormous attention onto Welcome to Cafe Violet.
The fact that it had locked down the golden time slot on KDS Broadcasting.
Studio NMIX’s last dance after freefalling into decline.
And the fact that this last dance was being helmed by a completely unknown rookie writer, starring Seol Soyoung in her very first lead role?
Most viewers reacted with genuine intrigue. Studio NMIX wasn’t some pushover—everyone was busily hyping the expectation that the company must have brought some special strategy to the table.
Amid all that noise, a main news article naturally caught her eye.
Hmm… for a headline, that one’s pretty lame.
“Whoa, what’s with that article title? Sounds exciting!”
Namgung Hwan, who entered the lounge next, read the article on Seol Soyoung’s phone and marveled.
The other actors’ reactions were much the same.
Just to be sure, she checked the comment section as well; most people were responding positively to the piece.
……Is it just me who feels that way?
Suspecting as much, Seol Soyoung hurriedly typed out a text and sent it.
Beep—
The beam projector in the lounge flickered to life and began displaying the screen.
Episode 1’s live airing was at 9 p.m.
Roughly five minutes remained.
Vrrr—
At that exact moment her phone vibrated as well.
Seol Soyoung checked the screen with an excited little smile.
Before the projector had even started, she had sent Writer 927 the following message.
Seeing the reply, Seol Soyoung let out a quiet snicker.
As expected.
In more ways than one, she and this person seemed to click perfectly.
Inside the director’s office at Studio NMIX, PD Na Yeongjin sat watching television alongside Bureau Director Park Yongo. Commercials were still rolling on the KDS channel; the drama was about to begin.
“Yeongjin, what kind of ratings do you think we’ll pull?”
Park Yongo asked.
Welcome to Cafe Violet had already generated no small amount of chatter. Casting Seol Soyoung as the female lead was an event in itself, yet in Park Yongo’s mind the truly unprecedented event was something else entirely.
Writer 927.
The debut of a literal Headless Writer whose face and name remained completely unknown.
Once the drama aired properly, it was easy enough to guess where the public’s attention would land.
“Hard to say. With no real competition, it should come in fairly high.”
“Think we’ll hit around five percent?”
“Come on—after all that promotion there’s no way it’s only five. Ah, it’s starting.”
After a few final commercials, the opening of the drama finally rolled across the KDS channel.
It began with an opening steeped in café atmosphere.
Tick-tock— tick-tock—
Accompanied by the sound of a clock inside the room, the protagonist slowly opened her eyes. Looking around, one saw nothing but the bare essentials, bed included.
It looked exactly like the room of someone about to leave for somewhere far away.
There sat an expressionless woman.
Gyeoul’s day began.
Well, I’ll be…
Park Yongo watched the lead’s performance and felt pure, unfiltered admiration. Delivering every small movement so naturally while wearing a completely blank face was by no means easy acting. Honestly, if he imagined any other actress in the role, the whole thing would have felt awkward.
How on earth did he spot her?
Recalling the boy who had so forcefully insisted they cast her, Park Yongo allowed himself a bitter little smile.
The direction was excellent; the actors’ performances left nothing to criticize. Thanks to that, he found himself deeply immersed. Yet the single greatest contribution to that immersion was something else entirely.
Yes, the direction was good and the acting was good—those things certainly helped.
But still.
Can lines like that really come out of a middle-schooler’s head?
The seamless harmony between the flow of the story and the dialogue. Would anyone watching this drama ever feel even a single moment of awkwardness?
At the same time, Park Yongo was intensely curious what faces other writers must be making right about now.
They were probably in shock.
Imagining how many years of research must have gone into crafting those lines.
Yet they would never believe it—never even accept it.
That those lines and that story had been born from a middle-schooler’s head in a mere three weeks.
If the public ever learned that fact…
Well. There would be a massive stir.
Absolutely.
“Director…”
“What?”
Just then Na Yeongjin checked his phone and urgently called out to Park Yongo.
“Our ratings right now…!”
“What about the ratings?”
Park Yongo felt his patience fraying.
Seriously, how high could they be that he kept dangling it like this!
“Ten—”
“Oh, ten percent? That’s a solid save for a first episode.”
“Eight.”
“…Huh?”
What, eighteen?
For a split second Park Yongo genuinely thought Na Yeongjin had finally lost his mind.
Was this man seriously cursing out his own bureau director?!
“Yeongjin, have you finally gone crazy?”
“No—it’s eighteen percent. Our drama’s current rating.”
Park Yongo’s heart dropped with a heavy thud.
Eighteen percent…?
That can’t be right.
The ending credits hadn’t even rolled yet.
Have I been working Yeongjin too hard lately…?
Park Yongo eyed the phone Na Yeongjin held out with open suspicion.
And the number written there was…
18.8%
The problem did not end there.
18.8
18.9
19.0
…
The number kept climbing at a pace that was beginning to feel almost frightening.
— Planning: Park Yongo
— Executive Producer: Na Yeongjin
— Direction & Cinematography: Go Dongbin
— Screenplay: 927
And at last, when the ending credits of episode 1 finally rolled—
A first work.
And from the very first episode, a peak rating in the twenties.
It was a historic moment announcing the birth of a monster writer.
Hmm… maybe I should buy Dad a new car?
Meanwhile…
At home, watching Welcome to Cafe Violet together with his family, a faint smile tugged at the corner of Seo Eunwoo’s mouth.
Honestly, he had expected a certain level of success. He had a fair amount of confidence in the work as well.
But an average rating of 19 percent and a peak of 20.2 percent was a little beyond what he had anticipated.
In his previous life the first episode had only managed an average of around four percent.
Ssss… twenty percent isn’t some doghouse name—was it really this easy?
Comparing it to his previous life’s results left him feeling a touch hollow…
Still, good was good.
His pockets were going to get nice and thick either way.
“Oh my, that was really fun. Son, those two end up together, right?”
“Eunwoo, get me Soyoung’s autograph!”
Hmm. Come to think of it, there were a few downsides as well.
Under the weight of his family’s sudden interest, Seo Eunwoo offered a bright smile and fled to his room.
Cha Musik, son of the vice president of Muhan Newspaper, and Seo Eunwoo, the drama writer currently setting the entire country ablaze, had been friends for a long time.
They stuck together nearly all day at school, so they knew each other relatively well.
The following is Cha Musik’s personal evaluation of Seo Eunwoo.
First off, the bastard was ridiculously good at studying.
Well… Musik himself managed to keep his grades up thanks to cram-school grind, but that guy just studied from the textbooks and still scored high.
If you wanted to call it unfair, you could, but once you saw how much the guy actually studied, you had no choice but to admit it.
And recently, from what Musik understood, some older guy had been dragging him to the gym every night for forced workouts.
Thanks to that, his body had gotten disgustingly good compared to before.
The guy himself complained every day that rotating upper-body and lower-body hell was killing him, but wasn’t that just happy self-deception?
Honestly, from the perspective of someone who hung out with him, Eunwoo getting jacked was pure free real estate.
Every school had its share of delinquent types, and the school Eunwoo and Musik attended was no exception.
But even those guys never touched Seo Eunwoo.
Why?
A middle-schooler already over 178 cm with that kind of muscle… yeah, Musik wouldn’t touch him either.
Ah, and this was the most important part.
Lately it seemed the guy had someone he was texting regularly.
Whenever he got bored he would stare at his phone, exchanging messages, and even though he himself had zero self-awareness about it, he would sit there grinning so hard Musik wanted to punch him.
So once, Musik had asked.
“That person you’re texting right now—girlfriend?”
“Haha. Me with this person? No way someone like me could pull that off.”
“I need to know who it is before I can judge whether it’s possible or not, you little shit.”
“Forget it. Just a cool person.”
Judging by the reaction it probably wasn’t a girlfriend, but it was definitely a girl.
Ha… this bastard’s scamming people again?
“Eunwoo!”
Just then Choi Eunjeong—the girl everyone at school called a goddess—came trotting toward them with quick little steps.
“Hm? Why the sudden call?”
“Well, it’s just…”
At Eunwoo’s question she lowered her head, her face turning faintly red in a strangely deliberate way.
The guy, as always, just tilted his head with that innocent expression.
Shit, here we go again.
“The science teacher asked me to help prepare the experiment equipment… but I think it’ll be a little hard by myself.”
“Ah, you need help? You should’ve said so sooner.”
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, his friend nodded and started walking off.
Choi Eunjeong beamed and followed after him. And as a bonus, she casually linked her arm through his.
“Uh… why the arm all of a sudden…”
“Wow! Eunwoo, your arm is seriously solid. Can I touch it once?”
Even the lines were pure fox.
Yet watching their fresh, youthful backs, Cha Musik could only shed silent tears inside.
Eunwoo.
From today on, my dream is you. Eunwoo.