Script Reading
Tak Jeong-a had become an executive at the film distributor A-Pictures at a relatively young age.
Whenever people heard she worked for a film distributor, they never quite knew what her job entailed—but they at least assumed she watched more movies than the average person.
In reality, Tak Jeong-a lived a life so far removed from cinema that she could barely remember the last film she'd seen.
Whether it was a movie or a drama, once she got hooked she would binge straight through the night, and the next day's work would suffer for it. So she had deliberately stayed away…
"Ah, damn it."
She arrived at the office clutching her throbbing head and tried to review a report.
The culprit was last night's all-nighter with White Blood.
"I ended up finishing the whole thing in a single day."
Starting next week, a string of major tentpole releases was waiting in line. The irony of working for a film distributor and having no time to actually watch movies was not lost on her.
Or maybe it was precisely because she ground herself down like this that she had climbed so high so young.
What mattered to a distributor was not whether a film was entertaining or artistically significant. It was how many screens they could secure—coordinating with the multiplex chains. In plain terms: sales.
"I must be out of my mind. Ugh, I've got a mountain of work."
That said, she didn't regret watching White Blood. It had been genuinely fun.
She opened a browser window to check today's audience numbers for the films under her charge. With the balance of power shifting toward OTT platforms, the theatrical film industry as a whole had contracted, and no real blockbusters had broken out in a while.
She sighed and moved the cursor—and somehow the pointer landed on an ad. The portal's main banner expanded, filling the screen with a massive image of Ryu Yeon-woo.
Any other ad and she would have closed it instantly. But after bingeing White Blood all night, she found herself staring at it for a moment.
It was a commercial for a newly released smartphone from SL Electronics.
"If an actor like Ryu Yeon-woo shot even one decent film right now, I'd crawl on my belly in front of his agency to get it."
It wasn't simple fandom that made Tak Jeong-a want Yeon-woo. It was the power he carried.
Whether a movie was actually good could only be known after it opened and people saw it. Distributors were no exception. How could anyone know if an unfinished film was entertaining? Even the director wouldn't know for sure.
Deciding the number of screens for an opening involved many factors—the name value of the director and cast, the production budget, and so on. A large-scale film with a hefty budget did tend to have better odds of success. But these days, even domestic productions routinely ran into the tens of billions of won just for the shoot, so scale alone had become a fuzzy metric.
"Which is why ticket power is what really matters."
The ticket power of a lead actor had become more important than ever. And if you listed the ten actors with the strongest ticket power in the country, Ryu Yeon-woo would absolutely be on that list—and almost certainly the youngest among them.
Lost in these idle thoughts, she found herself unusually unwilling to work today.
Just five minutes of rest, then I'll start.
Tak Jeong-a was debating what to cook for dinner and had just started searching for a simple kimchi-jjim recipe when the entertainment news tab caught her eye.
Over 30 Films and Dramas in Production [Sports N News]
"Ryu Yeon-woo?"
Tak Jeong-a clicked the article at once.
It offered brief introductions to the films and dramas slated for production this year. In truth, it was a grab bag of everything from industry rumors circulating through Chungmuro to outright tabloid gossip—hardly a piece with real credibility.
"But Ryu Yeon-woo in a romance? If this is real…"
Tak Jeong-a stood up from her desk. This was no time to be reviewing reports. She needed to move one step ahead of everyone else.
"The tabloids already got hold of it, so we should start circulating the official press release soon."
Yeon-woo nodded at Executive Director Yoon Mi-yeon's words.
"The script work is almost finished, and we'll need to crank in before long."
If things went smoothly, they would hold the script reading mid-next week and move straight into the first shoot.
"Is Hong A-yun settling in well?"
"Hmm? I'm not sure. I haven't seen her once since then."
Yoon Mi-yeon had handled the casting herself, so her interest was natural. But after that, Yeon-woo had only heard secondhand about her acting lessons; their paths had never crossed again.
"This is a romance. Shouldn't the two of you get a little closer beforehand?"
Yeon-woo scratched his cheek and answered playfully.
"I read somewhere that a man's ideal type is a woman he's meeting for the first time today. If we see each other for the first time at the script reading, won't the chemistry be at a hundred percent?"
That was a stretch—he had already met her during casting. After that he'd gone straight to his Brazil schedule, and since returning home he'd practically lived in Director Lee Yong-su's studio for the past few days, so there simply hadn't been a chance to run into her.
Knowing full well he was joking, Yoon Mi-yeon let out a short laugh.
"How about we lock in the script reading date for Moon right now? We'll hold it at our building, right?"
"Probably. The second-floor conference room is plenty big enough. But that's your call, Director."
Yoon Mi-yeon was the one in charge of Saebyeol Media, yet out of habit she kept asking Yeon-woo for his opinion. She had long thought of him as the real head of Saebyeol, and the question had slipped out before she caught herself. Realizing her slip, she nodded.
"Ahem. Right. Well, the leads, supporting cast, and the crew are all on standby anyway, so I'll coordinate the schedule with Director Lee and our YouTube team and get back to you right away."
"Yes, ma'am. Understood."
The moment the official press release went out, Yeon-woo's fans were the first to react—naturally.
Lee Jin-ah, the cafe manager, was just as fluttery with excitement.
"He's finally doing a romance…"
Plenty of newer fans had poured in through other projects, but most of the senior members who had been active since the fandom first formed had come in through his debut work, Summer's Closet. Crime capers and fantasy were wonderful, but what they had been waiting for most of all was a romance.
And then a notice went up on the community tab of the YouTube channel Saebyeol Ent, which had just crossed four million subscribers.
Footage from the script reading of the film Moon, along with the lead actors' everyday moments and making-of films, will be uploaded on a regular basis.
When the news first broke that Ryu Yeon-woo had left a major company like LN for a brand-new agency, fans had worried that the lack of infrastructure would make communication harder. Yeon-woo barely used social media to begin with, and even that had mostly been managed by the company.
But the new agency had gone the other way—opening a YouTube channel and actively sharing all kinds of content. From the fans' perspective, it was ideal. There was the variety show Saebyeol Family, and actress Han Byeol occasionally posted company vlogs that caught glimpses of him too. And now they were promising making-of films as he went into a new project. Compared to before, the fandom had never been more satisfying to be part of.
While the fans were buzzing with excitement over the sudden romance film, they weren't the only ones whose hearts were racing.
For Saebyeol Media's first-ever script reading, the staff were bustling in every direction. And among them, just as Yeon-woo once had as a rookie, Hong A-yun had arrived absurdly early—long before the reading was set to begin—and was bowing her head in greeting to everyone she passed.
"Hello! Looking forward to working with you!"
"Huh? Ah—yes, yes."
The sudden greetings left the staff setting up cameras tilting their heads in confusion before they drifted back to their work.
To Hong A-yun, this entire situation still felt like a dream.
The day Executive Director Yoon Mi-yeon and actor Ryu Yeon-woo had come looking for her had started as a bad one. She had a performance that evening, and her bangs had refused to hold a curl, fluttering uselessly and driving her crazy. She'd wasted so much time on the ruined bangs that she left late, sprinted down the subway stairs—and still missed the train by a hair.
It had been a day of petty bad luck from start to finish. And then, after the performance, her entire life had changed in an instant.
I have to give everything I've got. I have to work harder than anyone.
If she had still been a complete newcomer who knew nothing, she might have had passion and grit—but not this kind of desperation. The desperation of a mid-career newcomer poured gasoline on that passion and grit.
At that same hour, the car belonging to manager Kim Min-su was heading toward the script reading—but Yeon-woo wasn't the one riding in it.
"Aigoo, looks like you two pulled an all-nighter again."
Kim Min-su glanced in the rearview mirror at Director Lee Yong-su and Kim Ju-hyeong, both passed out in the back seat. They had called saying they were in no condition to drive, so Min-su had headed out to Ilsan to pick up the director and the assistant writer himself.
In truth, last night hadn't been the only all-nighter. For days now, neither of them had slept more than three hours.
And so a mid-career rookie director, a mid-career rookie writer, and a mid-career rookie actor were all converging on Saebyeol Entertainment headquarters.
Yeon-woo was starting to understand why directors and studio heads always seemed to arrive last at a script reading—and why they always looked so frazzled.
If he had been attending purely as an actor, he would have shown up first as usual and bowed at a full ninety degrees to every staff member and castmate who walked in, just as he had as a rookie. But as the de facto head of Saebyeol Media, there were simply too many things demanding his attention.
"Whew. Anyone watching would say I've lost my beginner spirit."
When Yeon-woo opened the conference room door, the low murmur of conversation cut off, and he felt every gaze lock onto him. Contrary to his worries, no one seemed to think any such thing. They all stared with bright, eager eyes at a unicorn rarely spotted even in the entertainment industry.
"Oh, Senior Han Ji-sang. How have you been?"
"Not bad. Good to see you, Yeon-woo."
The moment he stepped inside, familiar faces pulled him into greetings, and he could barely take a single step. There was Han Ji-sang, who had played the informant "Junk Dealer" in Master Plan, and actress Heo Jeong-won, who had appeared as "Dipangdal's Girl" in White Blood. With two films and three dramas under his belt, he recognized quite a few of the supporting players as well.
Shaking hands with every step, he finally made his way to the center table reserved for the leads—and found Hong A-yun half-rising from her seat, looking awkward and shy in a setting like this.
"A-yun. Hello. This is the second time we've met."
"Ah—yes!"
Her face still said she could hardly believe a star like Ryu Yeon-woo even knew her name.
"We'll be missing each other for the next twenty years, after all."
"Y-yes? Excuse me?"
Yeon-woo offered his hand as he spoke, and Hong A-yun blinked back at him. He glanced meaningfully at the script on the table and smiled.
"Ah—the movie! Of course!"
Hong A-yun clasped the hand he held out with both of hers and bowed deeply at the waist.
"Looking forward to working with you! Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity!"
Yeon-woo broke into a light sweat. The way she gripped his offered hand with both of hers and bowed from the waist looked less like a fellow actor and more like a secretary greeting her boss.
Ahem. Granted, the boss-and-secretary pairing has carved out its own classic corner of the romance genre…
But that was not what their film was about.
Secretary Hong, why are you like this…
Just then, Director Lee Yong-su entered the conference room. Kim Ju-hyeong trailed in behind him. As the director took his place, a production staff member closed the door and spoke up.
"All right. We will now begin the script reading for the film Moon."