Maybe it exists after all (4)
-------------- 46/53 --------------
Anyone from the same orphanage would have chuckled at the sight, but on set, Kang Min's primary image was closer to that of a solemn genius actor.
Everyone could only interpret his half-dazed state from dying over and over as profound seriousness and gravitas.
Especially when he'd show up with a weary expression and unleash some earth-shattering performance—like activating Kaio-ken—even those with a bit of reverence started appearing.
But, well.
Things were different on the day he cranked that Kaio-ken up to 4x.
"Hello, everyone."
"H-Hello, Actor Kang... sir?"
"Gasp..."
"Eek...!"
Kang Min greeted them as casually as ever, but everyone swallowed hard in unison.
Blank expressions.
Eyes drained to the point of numbness.
Endless exhaustion mingled with a distant haze, like he might collapse any second.
Anyone could see he was a sickly wreck among wrecks.
Even so, coming to act in that condition?!
This isn't just overflowing sense of duty!
Even the writer covered her mouth, trembling, and the senior actors couldn't help but stammer.
"K-Kang Min-ssi. Shooting in that state... maybe not."
"Y-Yeah. We respect your spirit, but if you bail now, who'd blame you!"
"R-Right!"
The two leads, and even Park Seong-ho, were uncharacteristically flustered. Amid the staff's unrest, only PD Yu Ho-hyeon stared blankly at Kang Min.
This...
On the surface, he looked half-dead, but those eyes burned with a fierce, almost murderous intensity.
It was the perfect embodiment for this slightly over-the-top shoot.
Yu Ho-hyeon swallowed and asked.
"Can you shoot?"
"PD?!"
"Of course. That's why I went through all this hell."
"What are you even—!"
As writer Baek Chae-i freaked out, Yu Ho-hyeon nodded seriously.
If the actor could do it, all a third-rate PD like him could do was believe.
He simply asked.
"Need anything?"
"Nothing special, but I'd like a private word with senior Yi Hoon first."
"...Pardon?"
"I have a way to make today's shoot even sharper."
"?"
Yu Ho-hyeon looked puzzled, while Yi Hoon, playing the Left State Councillor, twitched his brow. Pretty words or not, it sounded like this junior was offering to coach a senior like him.
But he couldn't snap—not when this shoot was tricky even for him, and especially not in the junior's condition.
In the end, Yi Hoon just grumbled with a hint of irritation.
"What, found yourself some hotshot new mentor?"
"Something like that."
"...What?"
"The White family seems even more absurdly talented than I thought."
"......?"
As Yi Hoon blinked dumbly, Kang Min quietly assessed him through the eyes of Jackson White, William White's great-grandfather.
Solid foundation. He'll get it in ten minutes.
And so, the performance that day left PD Yu Ho-hyeon wide-eyed the following week.
The ratings for King and Sovereign episode 12, watched in bated breath, shattered the 30% line again, plummeting to a near-10% gap behind Black Forest.
"Hahaha, what'd I tell ya!"
"......."
CP Go Beom-su, riding high, crowed triumphantly. At home, Han Ye-seul covered her eyes with a muttered "damn it."
But while chaos reigned everywhere else, MBS stayed eerily quiet.
Miraculously so.
#
Wasn't that the main story, not a flashback—?
King and Sovereign episodes 10 and 11 had viewers muttering as much.
Episode 12 was an unexpected letdown in every sense.
The camera returned to the main plot, focusing on the crown prince and heroine who fled, leaving Hui-yul behind.
After their frantic escape, they finally linked up with the loyal Minister of Personnel, Choi Myeong.
But their joy at the miraculous reunion was short-lived. The crown prince forgot his words for a moment.
[...What?]
[Rejoice, Your Highness! A massive righteous army has risen in the Third Province!]
Choi Myeong's tone was exhilarated.
[The Left State Councillor—no, the traitor Jeong Jiwook—turned the yangban against him of all things! Land reform, of all idiotic moves! He's handed us the win!]
[.......]
[No matter what schemes those northwestern traitors hatch, can they match the backbone of the yangban in the Third Province? A massive righteous army is gathering right now! All thanks to the yangban!]
[...But what do those commoners gain? Aren't they just blindly following empty words from their trusted yangban?]
[Pardon?]
[No, never mind.]
The crown prince pulled himself together.
It was good news.
Great news, even.
Finally, a force to counter the Left State Councillor who controlled the royal army.
But then,
the crown prince suddenly felt he understood why that crow-like warrior had tried to kill him.
[No, looking back... Hui-yul could have killed me anytime...]
So why had that crow-like warrior spared him?
Why act like he was teaching him instead?
Even after everything ended up like this—
[Dolsoe.]
Only the heroine, Min-hwa, knew the crown prince's turmoil. She quietly gripped his hand.
But King and Sovereign had long drifted from its early romantic comedy roots.
Their relationship couldn't be the same.
[Your Highness, perhaps it's time to take a crown princess?]
[...What?]
She was essentially defending a deposed crown prince.
Of course, those poised to become meritorious retainers wouldn't miss their cut.
And throughout history, no better way for power brokers to secure their gains than through marriage alliances.
[It's an ill-timed moment for establishing the Office of Rites or the Three Selections. We should forgo the age roster, skip the banquets, and choose a virtuous daughter of impeccable conduct.]
[Indeed! The daughter of Minister Yi and Chief Inspector Jeong fits perfectly.]
[That wench you brought lacks the virtue of the guanju. If you insist on a concubine, it must wait until the Eastern Palace is secure.]
[I told you never to bring her up again!]
[Please understand!]
[Minister Yi!!]
[[[Please understand!!!]]]
The crown prince agonized.
He didn't want to accept it, but he couldn't refuse.
No—leaving all that aside, was this truly the right path?
Min-hwa agonized too.
Realizing she didn't belong here, debating whether to leave immediately.
And above all, worrying about Hui-yul, from whom no word had come since that day—surely dead.
Every beat of King and Sovereign episode 12 brimmed with anguish, frustration, and hopeless deadlock.
Naturally, viewers were frustrated.
Even the jokes turned to irritation.
Those who should be allies revealed their dark ambitions openly, while the crown prince dithered indecisively amid it all.
Viewers who'd marveled at the massive war and the two revolutionaries' contrasting paths just last week couldn't stomach this.
Complaints erupted everywhere.
Not just about Hui-yul's absence, but the stifling plot itself.
The story, battered by backlash, soon hit its stride.
The crown prince's faction, smug with their growing power, panicked instead of fighting bravely when the Left State Councillor mobilized in earnest.
The ones who'd bullied the crown prince fell into utter chaos.
[What the hell happened! We sent an envoy to negotiate with the Jeong clan!]
[...Just his head came back.]
[What?! How badly did you screw up the talks to end up like this!]
[You blaming us right now?!]
[The traitor's treachery is our fault now?!]
[Take responsibility anyway!]
Those secretly plotting to split the realm and preserve power by yielding behind the crown prince's back now bickered, pointing fingers.
In contrast, Left State Councillor Jeong Jiwook's army moved like lightning.
As they grabbed collars and fought, the punitive force set camp just ten ri away, fully arrayed.
The scene of the crown prince and others paling at the report closed King and Sovereign episode 12.
The reactions were predictably dismal.
KBC's drama department, naturally, was cheering.
"Well done, CP Go! Never dreamed swapping one CP would make this big a difference!"
"Haha, I told you! This is just the start!"
35% vs. 26%.
Go Beom-su, widening the gap overnight, strutted as if it were obvious.
Black Forest episode 13's reception was lukewarm, but ratings were all that mattered.
And Go Beom-su was confident he'd hold it.
"That's why most CPs stick to pre-production and light direction afterward! Han Ye-seul didn't get it."
"Honestly disappointed. Thought she was grinding, but just flailing."
"Young folks excel at flashy nothingburgers. All the same."
Strutting and badmouthing, Go Beom-su boasted.
"Next episode's gap will be bigger. Count on it."
"Ho, how much?"
"Double."
Go Beom-su grinned.
"I'll make it happen!"
"I'll hold you to it."
The chairman, eyeing next month's board meeting, smugly patted himself for firing Han Ye-seul.
Meanwhile, other industry insiders judged King and Sovereign's momentum broken—not like Go Beom-su's self-aggrandizing spin, but with decent logic.
"Episodes 10 and 11 were killer. Hard to believe Yu Ho-hyeon directed them..."
"But that's the problem."
"Mm."
Hui-yul's two-episode backstory was epic, and the Left State Councillor's presence matched it.
But they weren't the leads.
Even pumping up Hui-yul's screentime put him third or fourth in the cast lineup—not first.
Worries were inevitable.
"Went too far. Hui-yul's basically the protagonist now."
"Male and female leads got sidelined hard. They're nobodies at this point."
"Can't bench them either."
The shaky leads fully detached from the main plot—that was the insiders' diagnosis.
Not rare. Shows blow up when a breakout actor hogs the spotlight, only to crash later.
What's a drama worth if the leads can't carry the core?
Hence, episode 12's disaster verdict.
"One-trick actor's gotta hit a wall sometime."
"Windfall for Han Ye-seul like a bird dropping fruit on her head, but pity anyway."
"Yeah..."
Even viewers bickered fiercely.
Hui-yul-only fans clashed with the lead duo's stans.
The uproar dragged on.
Everyone saw King and Sovereign as having badly stumbled.
Even the famous three directors, most shocked by episodes 10 and 11's direction, weren't much different.
"Director Choi Bong-man, how long do you think they prepped those flashbacks?"
"...From the start, I'd say."
"Right... Can't explain that smoothness otherwise..."
"Then they flip viewer guts with a whole episode. Calling this a misstep now—"
"But no payoff coming! What, more Hui-yul swordplay?"
"Exactly!"
Viewers were numb to Hui-yul's martial feats.
Desensitized to massive battles from the backstory.
Rehashing it would dilute the impact endlessly.
So what was the plan—
"Yu Ho-hyeon might be panicking brainless. Not the sharpest."
"Kang Min and the writer are smart! Didn't you hear Hui-yul started as a nothing role?"
"First I hear of it...?"
"Me too. For real?"
"Swear! After the drama ends, we'll dig all the behind-the-scenes!"
A clear one-step retreat.
So there must be a explosive follow-up.
What was it?
Did it even exist—
The three directors debated hypotheses but reached no sharp conclusion.
No one knew Jackson White existed.
But whatever—predicting this might be insane anyway.
The situation when episode 13 aired boiled down to two lines.
The three directors gaped, dumbfounded.
And on screen, revolution erupted.
[O people, hear me.]
[All our history thus far has been a struggle against exploitation and oppression...]
"?"
Maybe it exists after all (4)