I'll Reject the Casting Offer
“Are you truly all right with this, Director?”
Once the brief storm had passed, PD Na Yeongjin and Bureau Director Park Yongo sat across from each other, both looking thoroughly drained.
“Hahaha! Yeongjin, everything’s going to be fine. At least, that’s what I believe. And with you as the PD in charge, it’ll be even better.”
“Even so, the fallout is going to be considerable. That final third condition the writer insisted on…”
“Ugh…”
Park Yongo lowered his head and let out a deep sigh. In the end, he had accepted all three of the conditions Seo Eunwoo had put forward.
There had been plenty of deliberation along the way, most of it centered on that last condition.
The first two had been simple enough to accept without hesitation. But the demand that they cast Seol Soyoung—the daughter of Cheil Electronics’ president—as the female lead was something that required far more thought.
It was only natural. In any drama, named actors were typically secured for the lead roles. Especially when the story already felt like a guaranteed hit at the concept stage.
A named actor’s mere presence in a project was free publicity, and their proven acting ability made the actual filming process considerably smoother.
There were other reasons, of course, but those were the main ones. That was why newcomers were usually given supporting roles first—to gain experience—rather than being thrown straight into a lead.
But to take an aspiring actress with zero drama credits, one who had already failed two drama auditions for lack of skill, and assign her the female lead right out of the gate?
It painted a picture that looked bad for both the actress and the production company.
…Plenty of rumors would start flying, no doubt.
Something along the lines of Cheil Electronics pouring a massive investment into Studio NMIX just to debut Seol Soyoung would circulate vigorously through the industry.
“Age is an issue as well. Seol Soyoung is the same age as that Seo Eunwoo boy we just spoke with—still a middle schooler. The only silver lining is that her face looks reasonably mature for her years.”
“True. And that face would be a waste if she didn’t become an actress or celebrity.”
Park Yongo offered a bitter smile as he looked at the girl’s face in an online article.
“Yeongjin. Setting everything else aside—how were we supposed to refuse after hearing that last proposal the kid made?”
“……”
Na Yeongjin had no answer.
The proposal.
When the director and he had fallen into serious deliberation over the third condition, the boy had somehow smiled and said this:
It had been a perfect checkmate, no matter how you looked at it. That was why Bureau Director Park Yongo had proceeded with the script sales contract as if under a spell.
“…Seo Eunwoo. He doesn’t seem like an ordinary middle schooler.”
“Hahaha! With a mind that sharp, of course he produces scripts like that. For now, let’s just keep watching. He might turn out to be the goose that lays golden eggs for us.”
Not long after Seo Eunwoo’s visit to Studio NMIX.
As always, Seol Soyoung finished school and climbed into the black foreign car waiting at the school gate.
“Nothing out of the ordinary at school today, Miss Soyoung?”
The moment she stepped inside, her personal driver Cha Minseok greeted her without fail.
Seol Soyoung answered while gazing indifferently out the window.
“You know how it is. Always so ordinary I wish something would happen for once.”
“Haha. Still, no news is good news, isn’t it?”
With his characteristic laugh, Cha Minseok started the engine as usual.
Vrrrrr—
That was when it happened.
The phone inside the pocket of Seol Soyoung’s school blazer began to vibrate. She hurriedly pulled it out and checked the number on the screen.
“……?”
It was a number she had never seen before in her life.
With a puzzled expression, Seol Soyoung swiped the screen and answered.
“…Hello?”
“Ah, hello! This is PD Na Yeongjin from Studio NMIX’s Planning & Production Team 1. Am I speaking with Seol Soyoung?”
At the sudden appearance of a rather familiar term through the receiver, Seol Soyoung’s eyes flew wide open.
Studio NMIX?
That was one of Korea’s more well-known drama production companies.
So why was a PD from a place like that calling her out of the blue?
Seol Soyoung found the situation even harder to grasp. She urgently asked the man who had introduced himself as PD Na Yeongjin for an explanation.
“……”
Cha Minseok glanced at Seol Soyoung through the rearview mirror. Seeing her engaged in a serious-looking conversation, he carefully switched off the engine.
A brief exchange followed, after which Seol Soyoung suddenly pulled the phone completely away from her ear. The call appeared to be over.
“Miss, shall I take you home as usual?”
Cha Minseok restarted the car and asked her the usual question.
“……”
But Seol Soyoung could not answer right away. She was lost in deep thought, replaying the contents of the call she had just finished.
“Minseok.”
At last, having finished deliberating, she slowly opened her mouth.
“I think we need to go to the Studio NMIX headquarters building. Right now.”
That same day, Seol Soyoung arrived at Studio NMIX headquarters after the sudden contact.
Waiting to greet her in front of the building was, of course, the same Na Yeongjin she had spoken with on the phone moments earlier.
“I’m PD Na Yeongjin—the one who just called. Allow me to show you inside.”
Just as he had done previously with Eunwoo, Na Yeongjin first offered his business card out of courtesy, then escorted Seol Soyoung to a conference room on the fourth floor of the headquarters building.
A short while later, Na Yeongjin casually handed the girl seated across from him a neatly arranged stack of papers.
Seol Soyoung accepted it as if she had been waiting for exactly that and began reading the text on the pages one after another.
Na Yeongjin simply watched in silence as Seol Soyoung became fully absorbed in the writing.
Rustle—
The soft sound of pages turning one by one.
About thirty minutes passed like that…
Seol Soyoung, who had been reading, slowly set the papers down on the table.
“You’ve finished reading all the way through?”
At Na Yeongjin’s question, Seol Soyoung nodded.
She wore a dazed expression, as if the aftertaste of the drama script still lingered.
Honestly, this drama script was…
Even by Seol Soyoung’s own standards, it felt far too entertaining.
So much so that she found herself wondering whether every drama she had watched until now had been nothing more than child’s play.
Which only made the thoughts swirling in her head even more complicated than before.
The reason PD Na Yeongjin sitting in front of her had called was to offer her the casting for the female lead in a new drama.
But to suddenly cast someone with no drama experience and who was still so young as the lead?
And as the female lead Gyeoul in a drama this absurdly good?
At this point, she almost suspected some kind of deal had been struck between her father and Studio NMIX.
“Miss Soyoung. Do you find our proposal suspicious?”
Conversely, Na Yeongjin was looking at the girl before him with eyes that seemed to understand her feelings completely.
“…It doesn’t make sense. Offering me something this enormous in the first place. Why?”
Seol Soyoung asked him for the reason point-blank.
At the very least, she wanted to hear the reason and grounds for wanting her as this drama’s female lead.
A drama wasn’t child’s play—surely they wouldn’t cast her without some plausible justification?
“The reason?”
However…
In response to her serious question, Na Yeongjin merely answered with a bright, carefree smile, as if he had no thoughts on the matter at all.
And the answer that left his mouth was…
“I don’t know either? Why Miss Soyoung was chosen as the female lead.”
……?
Seol Soyoung momentarily doubted her own ears. No—she had no choice but to doubt them.
The PD in charge of this drama was the very Na Yeongjin sitting in front of her, and even he didn’t know the reason?
Clench—
Her fists tightened of their own accord.
…Was he looking down on her?
To be honest, it would have been a lie to say she wasn’t angry.
She had come all this way with expectations, only to be met with that kind of cheap joke.
Someone of a drama production company PD’s standing should know better than anyone that messing with a person deeply connected to Cheil Electronics would not end well.
“Haa…”
Seol Soyoung let out a deep sigh.
What a waste of time…
If I’d known something like this would happen, I should have just blocked the number as spam from the start.
“Miss Soyoung. Unfortunately, I truly do not know the reason.”
That was when it happened.
Looking at Seol Soyoung, who was about to rise from her seat with a face full of disappointment, Na Yeongjin slowly opened his mouth.
“If the PD in charge doesn’t know the reason, then who does? That only sounds to me like you’re looking down on me right now.”
Watching Seol Soyoung speak with a completely serious expression, Na Yeongjin offered a bitter smile. From his perspective as well, this part was quite unfair.
After all, the one who had recommended the Seol Soyoung sitting here—while nearly blackmailing them that day—had been none other than “him.”
Na Yeongjin explained to Seol Soyoung what had happened that day.
“…The story writer strongly recommended me?”
“Yes. He drove the point home that it absolutely had to be Miss Soyoung as the female lead. So I was actually the one who wanted to meet you and ask. Just what kind of relationship do you have with Writer 927?”
Just in case, Na Yeongjin carefully sounded her out.
At that, Seol Soyoung sank into deep thought, then not long after tilted her head with a puzzled expression.
Hmm. From that reaction alone, it was clear she had no connection whatsoever to Writer 927.
“What is that person’s name?”
Seol Soyoung asked urgently.
Na Yeongjin answered with a considerably troubled face.
“I’m terribly sorry, but the contract with the writer includes a clause stating that we must never disclose their name, age, gender, place of residence, and so on.”
“What? Why such a pointless clause…?”
“Well… Writer 927 stated with their own mouth that they suffer from social anxiety, so there was nothing we could do.”
In truth, the social anxiety was a brand-new lie Na Yeongjin had just cooked up on the spot, but it was true that Eunwoo had wanted to remain as anonymous as possible.
Considering both his age and the possibility of even the slightest impact on his daily life, it had been a naturally agreed-upon matter.
“In that case, the reason PD brought me here today wasn’t really a casting offer so much as a request.”
“Ahem! Precisely.”
“Hmm… Then.”
When Na Yeongjin nodded in confirmation, a smile began to spread across Seol Soyoung’s lips for the first time, as if a good idea had just occurred to her.
“Then I’ll reject the casting offer for the role of Gyeoul.”
“…Excuse me?”
At Seol Soyoung’s firm answer, Na Yeongjin stared at her with an incredulous expression.
But looking at the girl who was somehow smiling, he immediately began to feel a bad premonition.
Especially lately, he seemed to be getting these unpleasant premonitions quite often…
“But if you’ll grant me just one request of my own, I might consider it a little.”
And knowing full well that those premonitions rarely missed the mark, Na Yeongjin shed tears inwardly.