Rowing While the Tide Is High
First possibility: Jegal Rok had finally lost his mind.
“Come on, tell me! I'm dying of curiosity here.”
Second possibility: he had judged that Han Yeo-reum would one day crush even the most established male actors and rise high enough to attract investment on her own.
“No poison clauses. Not a single one.”
Myeong Je-ha handed the documents he had reviewed back to Yeo-reum. Within Korea, at least, conditions better than these would have been nearly impossible to find.
“Seriously? Whoa, holy crap… then this is a really good deal, right?”
Yeo-reum beamed. And then, without a moment's hesitation, she signed her name on the contract.
“Hmm…?”
Myeong Je-ha froze for a moment, staring at her. It was a seven-year contract. She'd had the paperwork in her hands for less than half a day.
“You're signing already? You're not going to look around anymore?”
“You said you're good. Then there's no reason to wait. I want the contract announcement out by tomorrow.”
Yeo-reum had somehow already produced an ink pad, and pressed her thumb down firmly.
“That's awfully rushed.”
“I told you last time, didn't I? I need to get more famous than Do Gyeo-ul, fast.”
A red fingerprint settled onto the white paper. A round mark was stamped beside Han Yeo-reum's name.
“You have to row while the tide is high.”
Yeo-reum's eyes were already brimming with conviction. She wore the expression of someone who had been waiting for this very moment all along.
“Once Do Gyeo-ul's drama starts airing, people will start making the comparison again, just like last time — and I'll get tied into it with her, so….”
Yeo-reum gently blew on the fingerprint she'd stamped, careful not to smudge it.
Every motion unfolded as naturally as a scene from a film.
At some point, Myeong Je-ha had begun to feel like Extra Number One, watching from the sidelines of Han Yeo-reum's success. And Myeong Je-ha, who had lived his whole previous life trapped at the center of the protagonist's world, found he liked this moment better than anything.
“I don't want to just sit still. I want to grab this opportunity properly and get my name out there, even a little more.”
Because the Han Yeo-reum standing before him was, at this moment, unmistakably, undeniably the protagonist.
“But don't take this the wrong way, sir. I'm just asking, just in case, you know?”
“…Fix your tone.”
“There's not actually a poison clause you're hiding from me, right? I trust you. I figured you've probably read more contracts than most lawyers, which is why I brought it to you — you wouldn't pull a betrayal on me like that, right? Please, please tell me.”
“Well….”
“Don't do that. You can't do that to me.”
At the sight of Yeo-reum's desperately pleading face, Myeong Je-ha laughed — genuinely, for the first time in a long while.
He couldn't even remember the last time he had laughed like this. After laughing for quite a while, Myeong Je-ha nodded, as if to say don't worry.
And so Yeo-reum's contract was safely concluded.
The next day, Han Yeo-reum's name began appearing in every digital news outlet covering the entertainment industry, Daily Media included.
“Finally….”
This was the seventh floor of JC ENM's brand-new headquarters in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam.
The woman staring at her monitor had eyes glowing with manic energy. Her sleeves had crept halfway up her forearms, her hair was thrown into a careless knot, and she sat with a neck pillow around her shoulders as if she practically lived at the office.
“IT'S HERE!!!”
She screamed at the notification window that had popped up on the company messenger.
“Why is Manager Ma like that?”
“Looks like the Han Yeo-reum contract went through.”
The employees, who had long since learned to anticipate her reactions, simply buried themselves back in their work. Just as they'd guessed, it was the news of Han Yeo-reum's signing that had sent her over the moon.
“Why did the contract take SO long! Ugh, seriously, I thought I was going to drop dead waiting for you.”
Anyone who knew anything about JC ENM's meteoric rise would say the same thing without hesitation.
When it came to JC ENM's innovation, there was Jegal Rok. When it came to JC ENM's blockbuster hits, there was Ma Su-yeon.
If Team Leader Hong was JC ENM's gem saleswoman, then Manager Ma was JC ENM's gem cutter. Target audience analysis, advertising contracts, collaborations, merchandise production, content development, digital campaigns.
Grinding raw ideas into polished jewels and unveiling them to the world — that was all Manager Ma's domain. She had prepared countless projects, and every single one, without exception, had been a success.
“Han~ Yeo-reum~ is~ heeere~.”
Humming to herself while her eyes darted rapidly across the screen, Manager Ma was, to any observer, running on pure adrenaline.
The instinct to open a new era wasn't something only Rookie Shin on the PR team could feel. The creation of Pachehi had been an idea born from Manager Ma's own head.
“Han~ Yeo-reum~ has come~ to the arms~ of Ma Su-yeon~.”
How could she not adore Han Yeo-reum — the girl who had taken a project Ma Su-yeon herself had been planning to push, and made it a success? Not just matched it, but multiplied it tenfold.
She was certain: with Han Yeo-reum on board, the success rate of everything Manager Ma set out to do would climb even higher.
Click- click- click-.
Her mouse never rested. Soon, a sleekly organized branding presentation for Han Yeo-reum filled her monitor.
Because she had faithfully jotted down every idea the moment it occurred to her, the quality of the deck was frankly staggering.
“Hmm~.”
The giant dual monitors were filled edge to edge with Han Yeo-reum.
Manager Ma's analysis of Han Yeo-reum's selling points; what image she should present to the public going forward; what epithets she should carry; which path would make the name Han Yeo-reum shine brightest of all.
“Flawless. Absolutely flawless.”
After checking the presentation for any gaps, Manager Ma turned to the very last slide.
“How does a character this good even exist? The audience is going to eat this up-.”
Bundled into the narrative was Do Gyeo-ul.
Same age. Same university classmates. One, a famous actress who'd had everything handed to her since childhood; the other, an underdog who had barely scraped together six months of exam prep and smashed through the walls of the National University of Arts.
“Let's see, let's see- our little cutie. We've already paired you with Do Gyeo-ul in the same outfits styled differently before, so now you two are going to be rivals? I can't wait!”
Clapping her hands, Manager Ma immediately picked up her phone. The project's preparations were, at long last, complete.
“It's Jegal Rok.”
“Director! Should I come up? I'm coming up, right? Huh? We should have a meeting about this, don't you think? I'm heading straight up right now!”
“Yes.”
It was finally time to begin.
“Yes, I've received the call.”
“Aw, Reporter, her profile photos haven't been shot yet, so we don't have new pictures to send. But you know that photo — the one with the blue background that got tons of likes on her social media? Yes. That one. Feel free to use that.”
The moment news of the Han Yeo-reum x JC ENM contract broke, the PR team got busy right alongside it. Most of their projects had centered on celebrities belonging to other agencies, so openly declaring that they would take one particular person and build her up from scratch was unprecedented.
“An interview? Of course, absolutely. We just need to wrap up a few internal preparations, and then we'll move forward right away.”
The atmosphere of a PR team that had spent years hyping how fascinating JC ENM's films, dramas, and variety shows were — always starring somebody else — had shifted entirely.
All eyes were now trained on Han Yeo-reum.
“Phew-. The response is even bigger than I expected.”
“Tell me about it. It's Jegal Rok we're talking about.”
Team Leader Hong gave Rookie Shin a quick briefing as the kid caught his breath between calls. Jegal Rok's choices had always drawn attention in the industry, so it was only natural that reporters would be hungry for details about the rookie actor he'd chosen.
“When did Manager Ma even start preparing all this? Seriously insane.”
“That's Manager Ma for you…. She's basically the Jegal Rok of management. The two of them are total opposites on the surface, but somehow they just click.”
The keywords Manager Ma had prepared for Han Yeo-reum were short and sharp.
#Rookie #NationalUniversityOfArts #Trendy #1020 — and #Powerhouse.
“But attaching Do Gyeo-ul to her like that feels a bit like a package deal, doesn't it?”
“It does. But what can you do? That's this industry, always has been. Why do you think people mention every fourth-cousin classmate of a celebrity? You need at least some crumb that sticks in people's memories.”
Of those keywords, #NationalUniversityOfArts went out bundled with Do Gyeo-ul's name.
The weight gap between them was still simply too large. Do Gyeo-ul, who had played the child versions of virtually every top actress in the business, towered far beyond anything the current Han Yeo-reum could reach.
“Still, it kind of stings. Something about it just….”
“Hurts your pride?”
“That's it! That's exactly it.”
Rookie Shin nodded vigorously at Team Leader Hong's analysis. Team Leader Hong downed his coffee in one gulp and snorted a laugh.
“Look at you, growing a sense of loyalty. Pretty soon it'll be ‘I did this and I did that.’ You're really puffing up nicely, kid.”
Bzzz- bzzz- bzzz-.
That was when it happened. The phones of every single PR team employee buzzed at once.
“What's going on?”
“Uh….”
“Whoa. Insane.”
Amid the chorus of reactions, Rookie Shin hurriedly joined in. He looked at his phone screen and his jaw dropped.
“Team Leader….”
“Hm?”
“I don't think you're going to need to worry about him puffing up too much.”
Rookie Shin held up his phone screen. There, a number that defied belief was glowing.
“…TEN MILLION VIEWS?!”
Episode 1 of Pachehi had finally smashed through the ten-million-view mark.