The Blu-ray Miracle
"No way."
The Pachehi Blu-ray crowdfunding kept climbing right up to the final minute of the campaign. Now, with sixty seconds left on the clock, I refreshed my phone screen again.
"Is this a bug or something?"
An impossible number was staring back at me.
"Really... is this real?"
A minute passed. Beside the funding page, the "Back This Project" button turned gray. Since the campaign had clearly ended, it didn't seem to be an error after all. I hurried over to a portal site.
"...It's real."
Articles that looked like they'd been pushed out by JC ENM were lined up in a row. The Web Drama Phenomenon. The Age of Web Dramas. The Victory of Web Dramas. It was the kind of atmosphere where no praise would have felt exaggerated. Everyone was singing hymns to new media.
"...Wow."
On top of that, this was the very first Blu-ray released this year. That alone was a staggering achievement. The dramas that had won awards at the Seoul International Drama Awards were pouring their energy into overseas expansion right now, not Blu-ray production.
"...Blu-ray sales live and die by the fandom, after all."
Unless a title had ignited a full-blown syndrome, domestic viewers alone could only take you so far. And yet here was an InTube web drama pulling off a Blu-ray release—the kind of thing even publicly broadcast hits struggled to manage.
Thump-thump-thump.
My heart was pounding beyond all reason. One hand wasn't enough, so I pressed both over my mouth. I felt like it might leap right out of me. Heat crept up to my ears.
Blu-ray. Blu-ray. Blu-ray-bluray-bluray...!
I was so happy I called it to myself over and over, barely able to breathe. I honestly never dreamed this, of all things, would succeed. I'd been prepared to be satisfied with just having a funding page up at all.
I know exactly how hard it is.
Because I, better than anyone, knew that drama merchandise in this era simply couldn't post big sales numbers.
Ding-ding-ding.
My phone was ringing nonstop. Messages were flooding in from every direction—Myeong Je-ha, Ju Jun-seo, Chu Ga-eul, Director Jjang, Writer Pi, Dokgo Min, Manager Choi, Dokgo Gyeol, Team Leader Seong, Director So and PD Hwang from Not Interested At All, Coordi Hwang and Ryu Risa, Director Gong of Faster Than the Law.
And unexpectedly, Yoon Hyeon-jo—plus all my classmates, too.
Guess everyone was refreshing the page together...
It was past midnight now. The thought that people were still staring at the same screen as me, at this hour, made me laugh a little.
I needed to reply to everyone fast. The battery was almost dead, so I plugged the charger cable into my phone.
"Huh?"
It wouldn't charge. The cable must have broken.
I tiptoed into the dark of Han Tae-yang's room, the lights off. He was always asleep by ten. I quietly unplugged his charging phone and was reaching for the charger when—
Ding.
A text landed on Tae-yang's phone.
Your backed item: Heroine Project Special (₩100,000)
"...Honestly."
He could have just asked me for one and I'd have handed it over, no problem—and instead he spends money on this? On the Special tier, no less? For a second I found it ridiculous, my little brother wasting his allowance like that, but I decided to let it slide.
Who am I?
I'm Han Yeo-reum, the web drama star who just pushed Blu-ray sales to a whopping 247 percent.
Do Gyeo-ul bowed politely.
"Hello, Team Leader Seong. I look forward to working with you."
"Oh no, the pleasure is all ours! Thank you so much for appearing."
Returning from her hiatus with Beyond the Closed Door, Do Gyeo-ul had been methodically preparing a wide range of content. InTube appearances were one part of it. Winter had shown her face not only in channels like the fashion magazine Leel, but in JC ENM's Web Content department's original programming as well.
"Then please wait in the green room for a moment. They said they'd wrap up as early as possible, but since it's you, our wonderful actress, I wanted to give it a little extra care."
"Of course. Take your time. Just call me whenever you're ready."
Do Gyeo-ul watched the staff scurrying about. At some point, JC ENM's original content had reached the point where the moment anything was uploaded, it shot straight onto the trending videos list.
The moment Han Yeo-reum stepped up as the first runner of this new market, the results were practically official—and the summer horror film distributed by JC ENM had come huffing and puffing to take the baton from her.
More than any terrestrial talk show interview, variety appearance, magazine shoot, radio event, or any other effort to announce a new release to the public—
A single InTube video had vastly more reach.
Existing subscribers of the JC ENM channel, fans of the actor featured, people who clicked in by sheer algorithm accident, people who wandered over after reading related threads on social media and forums—
After watching the video, people grew interested in the actual work. The view counts ran several times higher than the official trailer's, because the method of reaching audiences was far more novel.
Unless a movie already has your attention, nobody goes out of their way to look up information about it.
The strategy wasn't to advertise the film's story—it was to stoke curiosity even further. You could glean the concept from the ASMR's theme, and lines from the trailer surfaced like Easter eggs. And even without watching the movie, you could enjoy the signature atmosphere on its own.
Thanks to all of it, an occult film—once considered box-office poison—blew past three million admissions, and that deeply obsessive occult movie even managed to leave behind a genuinely quotable line for the masses.
Ever since, there hadn't been a single empty slot among the participants in JC ENM's original content. It was brand-new InTube programming, but returning idols, actresses shaking off a hiatus, models barely out of their debuts—every one of them wanted in.
You only have to look at how much the production budget has grown to understand.
The sets had grown more and more luxurious. Nothing like the bare white backdrop where Han Yeo-reum had sat alone clutching a single microphone. Before long, the interior had been rebuilt to resemble the actual filming space of Beyond the Closed Door.
"Actor-nim—we're on standby whenever you're ready!"
At the staff member's call, Winter rose from her seat. Camera, lighting, microphone—everything was aimed at her, and her alone.
Do Gyeo-ul stood before the ASMR microphone. With the shoot now perfectly prepared, the events about to unfold spread out through her mind with ridiculous clarity.
What Han Yeo-reum did.
And what, very soon, everyone would be doing.
"We're starting now. You're all right, Actor-nim?"
Influence is money. In this business, there wasn't a single fool who didn't know it.
When something unprecedented finds popularity, once is luck and twice is coincidence. From the third time on, it's a certified guarantee. Now that JC ENM had waded in with its own two feet, everyone else was about to come rushing in after them.
The camera's light glowed a fierce red. Recording had begun.