The Director's Bombshell
First public release. It was like a kind of Bulpan system in its own right. Anticipating the First Car Live episode featuring the soon-to-premiere Gimyodam team, people flooded into the live chat window ahead of time.
Ae-ta-mi watched her monitor from her dim office, smiling. She could almost hear the clock ticking, and at last the countdown began.
"Three… two… one!"
The First Car Live opened on a cozy, convivial note. The dinner table was decorated entirely in the spirit of Gimyodam. The insert shots swept once, luxuriously, over scallion pancakes, kimchi pancakes, and pepperoni potato pancakes.
Everyone welcomed the Gimyodam team. And then, a short while later, the mood of that once-cheerful chat window flipped completely upside down. Fire spat from every mouth.
IP 85.152 was not, as a rule, the type to enjoy this kind of self-produced celebrity content.
Too much chaos.
But if you approached it as a spin-off of the drama itself, then watching it was half obligatory. The character interpretations actors unpacked and the director's stated intentions were, for any person of culture, things one simply had to grasp.
After all, that's how my interpretation gets proven correct.
Which was why he had no choice but to fix his eyes on the screen. The actors had just poured glasses of the newly released Creamy Soda Namwon Apple flavor and raised them in a toast.
Yeo-reum:"Huh…?"
After one sip, Yeo-reum froze as if something catastrophic had happened. She pressed one hand over her mouth and went utterly still. The chat window was wallpapered in question marks.
Yeo-reum:"How…."
Yeo-reum, bewildered, picked up the Creamy Soda bottle to inspect it. As she read the label, her head tilted slightly down and her hair fell forward over her face.
That was the moment. Slow motion swept across the screen.
Just like Influencer 1 from Faster Than the Law, Yeo-reum swept her bangs back and lifted the bottle right up to her face. Blinking her lovely eyes, she said with perfect composure:
Yeo-reum:"So this is what it tastes like?"
Yeo-reum's shamelessly conspicuous product placement sent a flood of lols cascading down the chat window. The dinner table was in full swing, and as behind-the-scenes anecdotes no one had ever heard before came pouring out one after another, the viewer count kept climbing. Users from the drama boards of every community under the sun had caught wind of the broadcast and come running, too.
Current viewers: 17,221
Director Jjang: "It couldn't help but differ from the original's Seoryeong, which is why the ending had to change as well. In the original, Seoryeong shoves the fertility talisman—the one she poured every last drop of her divine power into—underneath Myeong-do's hand. That's what wakes him up. He grabs Seoryeong just as she's about to slip away. But our Seoryeong isn't that calm, resignation-accustomed sort of character."
Director Jjang's interpretation dampened the corners of every drama fan's eyes all over again.
Director Jjang: "Seoryeong slips away so suddenly because she was a child who'd spent her whole life having to prove her usefulness. The hope he leaves behind is that if a moment ever comes when Myeong-do truly needs Seoryeong, she might come back to find him. Because as everyone here knows—the words 'I love you' never once passed between those two. She knows exactly what she feels for Myeong-do, but as for his feelings for her? She doubts them like breathing. Because she's Seoryeong."
The chat window filled to the brim with tears. Just as those who remembered the final moments of the Myeongnyeong Couple were replaying that masterful scene on the riverbank in their minds, Director Jjang dropped a bomb.
Director Jjang: "Which is why we actually revised the kiss scene in the final episode…."
The chat window abruptly accelerated.
Director Jjang: "In the original cut, Seoryeong yanks Myeong-do in by the collar and kisses him outright. And then she grumbles and grumbles because she's embarrassed."
At Director Jjang's words, the chat window began scrolling faster than anyone could read.
Director Jjang: "And that scene is going out in the director's cut. Hahaha."
It was an unbelievable situation. IP 85.152 stared blankly for a moment at the chat rocketing up his screen, then muttered under his breath.
"What did he just say…?"
So then. Putting together what Director Jjang had just said, it amounted to this:
"There was a fully prepared kiss scene… and you never showed it to us…?"
The moment viewers grasped the situation, they detonated.
JC ENM truly was a cable network. They were devils whose trolling footwork operated on an entirely different plane. The drama fans wept with fury even as they smiled.
"That's right, fucking take all my money!"
IP 85.152 screamed in a voice that would never have been believed of a person of culture. On the far side of the screen, Director Jjang smiled benevolently.
Director Jjang: "As for the Blu-ray—once this video is uploaded, you should be able to find the detailed schedule in an article…."
And so the schedule for the Gimyodam crowdfunding page went up. The hearts of the drama fans—who had been fully prepared to rot away in the Gimyodam-less days ahead—began to pound.
Waiting for the date printed on the funding page, the drama fans got to relapse into their Gimyodam obsession for one more glorious week.
"Excuse me— one more drink over here!"
I was still, quite stealthily, in the process of constructing the Han Yeo-reum Fam. We were currently right on the heels of the Le-el Style Awards—a small birthday party, held at a restaurant Myeong Je-ha had reserved, after the place had closed for the night.
Seated around the table were Myeong Je-ha, of course, along with Ju Jun-seo, Chu Ga-eul, Director So, Director Jjang, Kwon Jun-hyeok, Director Gong, Martial Arts Director Kang Han-seong, Gwak Cheol-sik, Dokgo Min, Dokgo Gyeol, Ryu Risa, and…
"Oh, I'll just take a soda. I'm not much of a drinker."
Even Yoon Hyun-jo was here. I gazed earnestly over the lineup and began calculating the Han Yeo-reum fan meeting that would someday come.
Good. Say I run the fan meeting over two days—I split the invites between the Pachehi team and the Faster Than the Law team. Then I give Kwon Jun-hyeok and Myeong Je-ha one day each….
My Snob Calculator spat out the answer in record time. Perfect. If things kept going like this, ticketing was guaranteed to turn into an all-out war.
"Yeo-reum… is it really okay that I'm here? I haven't even debuted yet…."
Dami, whispering beside me, was looking a little stiff. That's not like her at all. With nothing but one big-name after another around the table, she must have felt thoroughly out of her depth.
"Of course it is. You're the leading lady I'm personally guaranteeing."
"Yeo-reum…."
I wasn't being polite—I meant every word. You have a genuine gift for rom-com, Dami.
But my words earned me a needle-sharp glare from across the table. Chu Ga-eul.
"Hey! Han Yeo-reum! Excuse me—weren't you the one saying I was going to be the leading lady? You promised to send a coffee truck?"
"Ga-eul, anyone listening would think there's only one leading lady in the world. Anyway, be nice to Dami. She's auditioning for things right now. The girl can really, genuinely act. Her big-screen debut won't be long now."
Chu Ga-eul was simple to a fault. The instant talk turned to acting, the corner of her mouth gave an involuntary twitch.
"Ugh, whatever. Just go prepare that coffee truck."
Chu Ga-eul clenched one fist and cleared her throat with a mighty ahem, as though about to deliver a major announcement.
"I got cast in Dohwaseon!"
I stared at her blankly. Dohwaseon. That one…
"You're going up against Do Gyeo-ul!"
Right. She's doing it opposite Do Gyeo-ul, isn't she.
"Hey. I'm suddenly finding myself not wanting to send that coffee truck."
My coffee… is going into Do Gyeo-ul's mouth…? She can go swallow her own spit, thanks….
"What? Hey! Han Yeo-reum! Forget the coffee truck I ever sent you!"
Just as I had apparently become the sort of thankless friend who guzzles down coffee trucks without ever sending one back, the man sitting beside me broke into a smile and opened his mouth. Myeong Je-ha.
"Would it be all right to visit the set sometime? Me and Yeo-reum, I mean."
The status window flickered brightly above Myeong Je-ha's head.
"I want to watch the acting, and pick up a few reference points while I'm at it."
I twisted my whole body around to the right—practically swiveling in my seat—to stare at him.
I'm supposed to use Do Gyeo-ul's acting as a reference?
That was the single most insulting thing anyone had ever said to me in either of my lives. It was precisely the moment I opened my mouth to tell him I needed no such thing—