Cheongsang Arts Awards (4)
First, Seol Soyoung expressed her gratitude to everyone at Studio NMIX.
From PD Na Yeongjin, who had always looked out for her convenience, to Director Go Dongbin, who had recognized her acting talent, and every single staff member who gave their all on set.
She went on to thank her parents, then the actors who had shared the shoot with her.
In particular, she admitted how surprised she had been to learn that I Dahye had once felt inferior to her, and then cheerfully exposed the line Dahye had thrown back at her—"I'm just as great a woman as you are"—drawing laughter throughout the awards hall.
Dahye's bright-red face was a free bonus. She muttered under her breath, "This isn't the kind of acceptance speech I was hoping for…"
Before long, Soyoung's allotted time was drawing to a close.
"This year was also my debut. Honestly, there was a lot of worry, fear, and hardship. But there was someone who gave me clear direction and help without ever asking for anything in return."
And so, for her final words, she decided to thank the person who came to mind most in this very moment.
"There's something I've been wanting to say to that person, taking advantage of this stage…"
Seol Soyoung let the sentence trail off for a moment.
She was lost in the afterglow of everything that had happened over the past few months, starting from spring until now.
Looking back, it had been an almost frightening streak of good fortune.
Among it all, she considered meeting a certain someone the greatest luck of her life.
Someone always cool, always reliable, always worthy of respect.
…Do you know?
That every good thing that happened to me happened because I met you, and that I can stand on this stage smiling so brightly because of you.
She had once thought something like that.
Right before the final shoot of Fly High, if everything really did unfold the way he said it would—how was she supposed to repay such an enormous debt of gratitude, and what kind of feelings was she supposed to carry for him for the rest of her life?
Looking back now, it had been a truly foolish worry.
…Because the answer had already been decided from the start.
She wasn't sure exactly when it had begun.
Maybe from the moment he first recognized her talent and offered her the casting. Maybe when he called to cheer her up during the NG crisis. Maybe when he listened to her worries and then planned an incredible drama called Fly High for her. Or maybe when she learned he had visited her mother's hospital room and told her to believe that she was strong and cool.
Yeah…
Maybe it was even right now.
Seol Soyoung's eyes slowly turned red.
Now that she finally understood the emotion she had been carrying, she could no longer hold it back.
But she was still an actress, so she forced the feeling down.
She hated the idea of crying, so she fought it with everything she had.
Because she wanted to save this surging emotion—not for now, but for some future day when she would finally stand face-to-face with him.
Just thinking about him already made her feel unlike her usual self. If she ever actually met him in person, she had no idea what would happen.
Still, she was glad.
He was a kind person, after all.
She could roughly picture how he would react if he saw her crying right in front of him, and a small smile rose to her lips.
He would probably look completely lost and flustered. Then he would slowly come closer, trying somehow to comfort her.
And…
Even he would never be able to predict what that gentle gesture would lead to.
Anyway.
Seol Soyoung slowly opened her mouth.
These were her final acceptance remarks, and the words she wanted to deliver to that special someone.
With those words, Seol Soyoung bowed her head in thanks. And just like that, her acceptance speech was over.
Yet the reaction inside the hall was strangely quiet.
Using the grand stage of the Cheongsang Arts Awards as if she had stepped up there to confess to her first love—Soyoung's words and expression.
Watching the scene, the audience could vaguely sense it too.
That her final line just now had not been acting, but the truth.
Anyone could see it was a bold, fresh confession.
Of course, aside from I Dahye and Na Yeongjin, no one else in the hall knew who the target of that confession was.
However.
Seo Eunwoo, who had been watching her acceptance speech on television, thought to himself:
I think I'm really screwed this time…?
Just as Eunwoo was thinking that, the end of the Cheongsang Arts Awards finally arrived.
As people had expected, the Grand Prize candidates in the television category included the works Welcome to Cafe Violet and Fly High, as well as Seol Soyoung herself, who had just received the Best Acting Award.
But one more candidate still remained.
"Eunwoo."
PD Na's voice suddenly pulled his thoughts back.
"Yes?"
"I've been calling you for a while and you weren't answering."
"Ah, I must've zoned out for a second."
I was visiting Studio NMIX headquarters for the first time in a long while.
The reason wasn't anything special.
Bureau Director Park Yongo had simply said he wanted to talk roughly about this year's direction.
Honestly, it felt a little late.
It was already March. Spring had arrived, and the flowers were beginning to bloom in full.
Three months had flown by in a blink since the day of the Cheongsang Arts Awards.
To digress a little into the past: that night, the Grand Prize of the Cheongsang Arts Awards had gone to Writer 927—me—the first screenwriter ever to receive it.
The reason was simple.
I was the great writer who had ignited a global Hallyu drama craze and produced two unprecedented hits in a single year, or something along those lines…
Even on the communities, people had completely written off the possibility of a screenwriter winning the Grand Prize because it had never happened before, but once they heard the result, the overall mood was one of acceptance.
It felt like an award that didn't quite match my station, but what could I do? It was already ancient history now.
Anyway, after that day my name value rose even higher, and Seol Soyoung—who had only taken Best Acting at the Cheongsang Arts Awards—went on to claim the Grand Prize at the year-end KDS Broadcasting Awards without question.
Ah, and speaking of Seol Soyoung, she somehow became an even bigger topic than I did after winning the Grand Prize.
The acceptance speech she gave while receiving Best Acting that night.
That final line, which had been practically a confession—who exactly was it aimed at? The question kept the public buzzing for a full month.
E-Dispatch, the country's top entertainment outlet famous for spreading celebrity dating rumors, was still said to be hunting with bloodshot eyes for the person she had declared she liked.
Judging by how quiet things had been for several months, they didn't seem to have made any progress.
Honestly, I still couldn't forget the words she spoke that day either.
If I used process of elimination, the circumstances pointed to me…
But did it make any sense, by common logic, for her to suddenly declare she liked someone whose name she didn't know, whose face she didn't know, and whose age she didn't know—on a stage that big?
Especially someone like Seol Soyoung. There was no way she wouldn't have accounted for that.
Haaah…
Her text messages were still as ordinary as ever, and since I had never actually spoken to her face-to-face, I still had no idea what she was thinking.
Well… no matter how much I fretted over it, all I could do right now was watch the situation unfold.
"So, Writer. What are your plans for this year?"
Bureau Director Park Yongo, sitting with us in the conference room, asked with a friendly smile.
Plans for this year?
That much was already decided, of course.
"Nothing grand. Just focus on my studies, study hard, and sleep a lot."
"Hey, hey, Eunwoo. Why'd you leave out bench-pressing 110 kilos?"
"Aigoo, Hyung Yongseok! Let's just settle cleanly on 100 kilos. Ten kilos more is already aiming high."
"Tsk… You can lift more than that and you're still making a fuss."
"…Yongseok, step outside for a minute."
PD Na hurriedly chased Hyung Yongseok out of the conference room, leaving the familiar three of us behind.
Then Bureau Director Park Yongo wiped cold sweat from his brow and asked me again.
"Th-then… you don't have any particular plans on the drama side?"
"Nope! I did two whole works last year, so I should take a break this year."
I answered with a bright smile.
Looking at Bureau Director Park's face, I could roughly read his thoughts.
He was probably curious about when I would unveil my third work.
Last year had been a perfect year for Studio NMIX, yet he was still greedy.
"Haha. Writer. Do you know this? These days Studio NMIX is being flooded with inquiries full of enormous criticism and rage."
"???"
What kind of nonsense was this now?
Bureau Director Park's explanation went like this.
Studio NMIX and Writer 927, who had produced two unprecedented dramas back-to-back in a single year.
From the moment Fly High finished airing, the public had been waiting with enormous anticipation for their next move.
But when months passed with no drama-related news at all, people started going crazy.
If things continued like this, a huge crowd would soon storm Studio NMIX headquarters, he claimed.
Well, that last part sounded a little exaggerated.
"Your works have raised people's standards far too high, Writer."
Bureau Director Park let out a deep sigh.
I roughly understood what he meant.
Once they had tasted my dramas, no other work could satisfy them anymore.
I had felt exactly like that when I first dropped into this world.
But.
"Then please tell the people this: since they're waiting anyway, they might as well wait even longer."
"…Excuse me?"
I was the one who wrote the scripts they wanted, so what could they do about it?
They were the desperate ones, not me.
Or maybe I should just retire on the spot so they would end up saying, "We should've treated him better while we had him." That didn't sound half bad either.
Faced with my stubborn will, Bureau Director Park fell into despair.
Being stuck in the middle, Studio NMIX must have been getting a real headache.
So hang in there.
"Ah, Eunwoo. Have you heard the news from Soyoung by any chance?"
Leaving the despairing Bureau Director Park behind, PD Na asked me.
"No? I haven't heard anything in particular."
"Then she must still be deliberating. The news has already spread through the industry."
"What news?"
"Soyoung has received a rather major casting offer."
A casting offer?
Don't tell me…?