Summer's Closet
The cast and crew all gathered in the large conference room at LN Media headquarters to watch the first broadcast together.
Ordinarily they would have assembled at the JNBC building where the drama aired, or rented out a restaurant, but out of consideration for Director Kim Han-su and the production team—who had poured every last ounce of passion into the editing right up to the final moment—the cast and related staff flocked instead to the offices of the outsourcing production company, LN Media.
"Alright, alright! It starts the second this last commercial ends."
The final commercial before airtime was still rolling, and Yeon-woo's phone kept vibrating without pause.
He switched it to silent and checked the KakaoTalk messages, starting with the family group chat.
Yeon-woo sent a private message to his younger sister So-hyun, asking her to keep any hate comments or negative content from their parents if any appeared, then checked the other group chat where the unread count kept climbing.
Each of them was boasting that they had forced everyone around them to tune in live. Yeon-woo smiled, pleased, and focused back on the screen.
The intro rolled, and Summer's Closet began.
Waaaah!
Clap clap clap!
The large conference room filled with applause and cheers celebrating the hard-won fruit of all their labor. In one corner, Director Kim Han-su was still on the phone nonstop with the JNBC drama department, while staff members filmed the intro screen on their phones—everyone busy in their own way.
"Ugh! Every single time, this moment makes me so nervous I could die!"
Even Han So-hyun, already a top actress who had carried multiple lead roles, covered her face with both hands and peeked at the screen through her fingers.
And then the first episode truly began.
Yeon-woo, facing his very first work—and his first lead role at that—was just as nervous inside. He was a veteran who had crossed war zones where shells flew, who had run infiltration, intelligence, and VIP protection ops of every kind, yet standing before the public under his own name was an entirely new battlefield.
The premiere opened by showing the fresh green of campus and that fluttering atmosphere, then moved into bright, bouncy scenes and the snappy back-and-forth between Seo Jun and Summer. Online reactions were solid as well.
Ryu So-hyun barely watched the drama itself, eyes glued only to the real-time reactions. Even when her brother appeared she prayed silently that only good comments would keep coming, more anxious than anyone.
The middle of episode one approached, and it was finally time for Cha Woo-joo's first appearance.
A fast beat kicked in, and Cha Woo-joo strode out onto the runway.
"Damn, that looks incredible. I was already blown away when we shot it."
"Right? I honestly thought they'd just brought in an actual model."
"Well, Yeon-woo could walk onto a real runway tomorrow and still kill it."
Gasps of admiration burst through the conference room.
Because Yeon-woo was not a professional model, the production team had planned to keep the full shots short and lean on bust shots if the image did not land as hoped. But Yeon-woo flaunted his visuals without restraint, walking exactly like a real model, and the scene was edited and aired in full runway fashion-show glory—proving every worry had been needless.
Aside from a handful of the directing staff, this was the first time the crew and actors had seen the finished cut. They broke into short, spontaneous applause and cheers directed at both the director and Yeon-woo for the perfect sequence.
Yeon-woo gave an embarrassed smile and a light nod to those around him.
Meanwhile, Yeon-woo's family, who had been fretting themselves sick, lit up with joy.
"Oh my, oh my—whose son is that?"
"That brat. Looks ridiculously good because he takes after me."
Ryu So-hyun glanced back and forth between the screen and her father, tilted her head, then checked her phone.
Comments were flying far faster than at the start of the drama; every refresh jumped the real-time window by two full pages.
"Mom, Dad! This is insane. The comments are all crazy good. Everyone keeps saying he's ridiculously handsome."
"Of course! Whose son is he?"
Yeon-woo's worries proved completely unfounded—So-hyun had no need to hide anything from their parents. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive.
Various supporting characters continued to appear, and episode one closed on the scene Director Kim Han-su had rehearsed with them during the table read: Chairman Cha exploding in fury at his son Cha Woo-joo.
Even though Yeon-woo already knew every beat and had personally filmed more than half the footage, he still gripped his hands tight and watched with genuine excitement. Facing himself on screen—the dream he had carried since his previous life—was more thrilling and joyful than he had imagined.
The hour vanished without anyone noticing. Staff members searched "Summer's Closet" on Green Window one after another, tracking the ratings trend.
The first to speak up was Director Kim Han-su, still on the phone.
"Everyone! According to the network's own survey, our premiere rating is 8.3 percent!"
Applause and cheers erupted from every corner. Writer Choi Mi-hyeon and Han So-hyun looked at each other and high-fived.
Even amid the celebration, the assistant director who had never put his phone down shouted,
"Green Window has it even higher—8.7 percent!"
Jin-uk turned to Yeon-woo and high-fived him.
"Alright, alright. I'd love to throw a dinner party tonight, but once we wrap Saturday's shoot our lead filming is completely finished. Let's push hard through the weekend!"
Whistles cut through the air, and the conference hall brimmed with excitement.
At first Han Hae-un had tried to forget Jeon Su-hwan under the pressure coming down from above. But how was he supposed to forget someone who appeared in his dreams every single night?
"Ha, this is ridiculous. It's not even first love, damn it."
"Is something wrong?"
Investigator Lee Hyeong-ryeol, who shared the same prosecutors' office, asked when he saw the usually composed prosecutor sighing and snapping in irritation.
"Ah, Investigator Lee. Haa. Want to step out for a smoke?"
"Yes, let's go."
Han Hae-un went outside with Lee Hyeong-ryeol, smoked in silence for a while, then finally spoke.
"The chief came by last time, remember?"
"Yes. Honestly I was curious what that was about. Ahem."
Han Hae-un trusted the twenty-five-year veteran investigator like a father, so he laid out his concerns—leaving out the dreams, of course, and simply saying there was something he found suspicious.
"Hmm. In cases like this…"
Lee stroked his chin, thinking, then continued.
"Prosecutor, when I was a rookie—mid-to-late nineties—I once investigated a completely ordinary person and got shut down by higher-ups. Ate dirt on that one."
Han Hae-un's ears pricked up.
"I only found out later that the man I was looking into was an ANSP agent."
"ANSP… that would be today's…"
"Yes. The National Intelligence Service."
The instant Han Hae-un heard the words "National Intelligence Service," a sharp pain stabbed through his head.
"Are you all right, Prosecutor?!"
"Ah, yes. I'm fine. Just a sudden headache."
Lee Hyeong-ryeol looked at him with real worry and raised his voice a little.
"What if you collapse again like last time? I keep telling you to take it easier with the work, honestly."
Han Hae-un smiled at the genuine concern in Lee's words.
A few more days passed. The only change was that entirely new memories—ones that clearly were not his own—began appearing in his dreams.
This time a woman named Jeong Hae-min, and a young child who looked like her daughter. And others whose names he could not pin down, yet who treated him with easy familiarity.
Quite a number of these dreams repeated every time he fell asleep.
"Ha, am I losing my mind? But if it's mental illness, why is 'Jeon Su-hwan' an actual real person?"
Which meant the other people in the dreams were real too. So where the hell was he supposed to start?
Time passed, and the weekend arrived. Just as Director Kim had said, the final stretch of filming was upon them.
Episode two's ratings had climbed a little higher than the premiere, settling comfortably in the nine-percent range. The network side was already eyeing the possibility of finishing in the mid-teens if they kept gathering viewers at this pace.
Of course other media platforms had appeared and steadily taken share, and more people were watching through different channels. As a result, TV ratings measured by sample surveys were losing both importance and reliability. Even so, when evaluating a drama, ratings remained the undisputed yardstick of success.
Given JNBC's nature, its drama ratings were inevitably lower than those of other terrestrial networks. Most new dramas launched with early ratings anywhere from the low threes to a typical five percent. By that measure, Summer's Closet was a massive hit for the network.
Thanks to that, the atmosphere on the final shooting day was even more buoyant than usual.
If one spoke of the last scene, it would be the airport sequence where Seo Jun and Summer, blessing each other's futures, left for Paris Fashion Week while Woo-joo departed for study abroad in New York—the drama's true closing image.
But according to the shooting schedule, the final scene they filmed was a little earlier: the moment Seo Jun, having made up his mind, confessed his feelings to Summer.
"Okay! Cut! Filming of Summer's Closet—complete!"
Inside the restaurant they had rented out entirely for the shoot, Seo Jun finished his confession, Summer showed her tears, and the okay sign rang out.