Just Like Real Combat
"I'd like it to feel like real combat."
"Professor Yu, if you want to make it to Director Ki's seat, you'd best watch your step from now on."
"Yes, sir."
The scene of picking up the shattered glass—the one that had drawn out that strange current between him and Jang Seong-geon—was brushed aside as mere suspicion for now. Having cleared that hurdle, Yoo Sihyeon turned to Jeong Hye-yeon and began using her to dig into the vice director's secrets.
"What? And here I'd heard you were brilliant... Turns out you've been having someone operate in your place this whole time?"
The vice director's skill had been an illusion all along. A gifted nurse had performed the surgeries under his name, and Yoo Sihyeon traced the paper stolen from a junior colleague—and the circumstances of how the man had been quietly buried by the industry.
"Now then... how shall I put this to use?"
With the evidence in hand, Yoo Sihyeon's eyes glinted, dark and dangerous. And so episode four of Crown came to an end.
"When's the next episode?"
"The writer on this thing is famous, isn't she? Told you it was good."
"Yeah. Good stuff."
"But damn, the kid can actually act. Didn't he just debut?"
"Born for it, you think?"
Having binged all the way to the latest release, the guys from Wings Company each tossed out their two cents. Grateful for it, Yoon Jay offered to buy them a meal—everyone cheered and sprinted off toward the training room.
"Oh, right. Hyung-nim, what's your agency saying?"
"They told me to go for it, if I wanted to."
"Seriously?!"
Jung Seung-woo shot up from his seat.
He was under contract, after all, and couldn't go hopping onto variety shows without a word—so Yoon Jay had gone first to Kwak Dohyun, the managing director, to sound him out.
"'Soldiers K'? Isn't that thing pretty well known?"
"I—I know that one!"
"What do you think?"
According to Lee Da-hyun, it ran on one of the most popular channels out there.
When military survival programming first caught fire, every broadcaster in the country had rushed to crank out copies, milked them dry, and let them wither—but 'Soldiers K' had picked up the fallen mantle.
It gathered soldier-turned-celebrities who'd already made waves on the major networks and fixed everything the old army shows had lacked.
The cast, too, had already been filtered through prior appearances—skeletons weeded out, only the vetted remaining—so in the press's own words, they were 'hot right now.'
"Which acquaintance of yours is on it, Jay?"
"Jung Seung-woo. You know him?"
"Oh, he's famous in his own right. His follower count has just been shooting up."
Barely any time had passed since Yoon Jay's debut before Jung Seung-woo became a fixed cast member of 'Soldiers K.'
"Special forces veterans turning celebrity is its whole own trend right now, actually."
"Da-hyun. How long have you been watching that show? You're reciting the wiki."
"It's a very easy-on-the-eyes program, that's all."
Lee Da-hyun, who had been chattering away in full flight, suddenly froze as though she'd just realized something. A beat later, standing in front of Yoon Jay, she cleared her throat—loudly, and a touch too late—for the sake of her professional image.
Not that it mattered. They'd all heard every word already. Honestly. Kwak Dohyun shook his head slowly, and Yoon Jay let a small laugh escape at the sight of the two of them.
"Honestly. When there's nothing going on, you're supposed to rest—and instead you went and fetched yourself a job."
"There was something I needed to check."
"That thing from the company dinner? The... trauma?"
"Yes."
Kwak Dohyun stroked his chin. Even before this, among the synopses that had come through Astra's doors, there had been a handful of roles that suited a military-veteran Yoon Jay perfectly.
Lee Seo-won's acquaintances, too, were always asking whether Yoon Jay ever intended to do action... and a little preventive shot wouldn't hurt anything.
"Hmm. Then would it be all right if I appeared on the show?"
"Of course it would! It'd be fantastic if you went on, Jay!"
Yoon Jay thought back to the conversations he'd had with the other actors at the awards after party. Someone had once said that an actor's filmography was their lifeline.
He himself couldn't have cared less about such things and simply wanted to do what pleased him—but from the agency's standpoint, it might look different.
"Image? That's just raw ingredient. We season it and plate it however we like."
"Just leave it all to me!"
His image was being consumed a bit fast, granted—but that only made the trajectory read as fresh. Showing an unexpected side would do him good, and with people still sniping at his background, settling the question once and for all on camera wasn't a bad idea either.
Kwak Dohyun leaned in close and dropped his voice to a whisper.
"This stays a secret from our CEO—but there's a standing directive from upstairs: whatever Jay wants to do, let him do it."
"I'm sorry?"
"You remember how you reeled in half the investors at that after party? He's thrilled about it, and then in the same breath he'll sigh—'at this rate, the moment his contract's up he'll walk out and start his own one-man agency.' The man is a walking Jekyll and Hyde, I swear."
"Haha! Is that so?"
Getting to know Lee Seo-won kept revealing sides Yoon Jay hadn't expected. At first he'd seemed every inch the dignified CEO; somewhere along the way he had turned into an all-out backer who simply could not bear the thought of losing his actor.
Yoon Jay had made far more investor and industry connections at the awards after party than he'd anticipated. He'd assumed it was thanks to Cho Youkyeong, but Lee Seo-won saw it differently.
Seo-won himself had handed over his personal card as if bewitched the very first time he watched Yoon Jay on Cho Youkyeong's security detail—other investors must have been even worse. The man simply drew the eye, made people strike up conversation without meaning to... exactly like Yoo Sihyeon in Crown.
"I'm not joking, I promise. Ever since you joined us, things have just been going strangely well for the company."
He'd taken Lee Seo-won for a rookie-raising tycoon, but really, Yoon Jay was just a lucky charm.
Jay's own luck in landing projects was uncanny, and he'd heard Wings Company had grown enormously thanks to him too... In any case, when the boss cared, the staff cared about Yoon Jay right along with him.
They needn't trouble themselves. I wasn't going anywhere.
The people at the company were good people, and striking out on his own once the contract ended would mean a mountain of hassle. If he could help it, he wanted to stay with them a long, long time.
Shaking off the thought, Yoon Jay noticed Jung Seung-woo sneaking anxious glances his way.
"You really are okay with this, right, hyung-nim? I didn't shoot my mouth off for nothing...?"
"It'll be nice to work the body after so long. And, well—I did miss the kids."
Plenty of Seung-woo's close squadmates were people Yoon Jay knew as well. Besides, there was something he needed to test. The two of them had started murmuring together, and Choi Tae-yang drifted over.
"What are you two whispering about?"
"Well, you know the 'Soldiers K' channel I'm on? The MyTube channel."
"Ah. That thing."
'Soldiers K,' the MyTube variety Jung Seung-woo appeared on regularly, was a channel co-produced with a major broadcaster's digital studio. It had topped six hundred thousand subscribers, made up for everything the old army shows had lacked, and even taken home an award at a content awards ceremony. A runaway hit, especially for what was nominally just a MyTube channel.
"They asked whether you might come on, hyung-nim."
"Isn't sending him there a bit much? That's not a matchup, that's a massacre."
"That's what I thought too..."
Jung Seung-woo let out a sigh. The 'Soldiers K' production team had been begging him, fawning over him, please, bring Yoon Jay. This was exactly why you never gave them an inch...
"The head writer insisted. She would not let it go."
"Seung-woo! You get a little famous and now you're poaching for other companies?!"
"Ah, Boss. Our company obviously comes first. Where'd you even learn the word 'poach'?"
"From Jay."
It had all started with a video of Yoon Jay sparring with Choi Tae-yang at Wings Company.
Uploaded while Jay was still in the States, anything even tangentially related to him was snapped up by his thirsting fans at lightning speed, links scattered across every community that would take them.
Despite the Wings Company channel's meager subscriber count, the sparring video had even clawed its way onto the trending charts. And among those who watched it, there were industry people too.
"Wow, he's genuinely good, isn't he?"
"I'd say he's better than our own cast, honestly."
"Which unit did they say he was from?"
"Nothing official, but the communities are saying Navy SEALs?"
"Whoa. If that's true, that's huge."
The 'Soldiers K' staff, who had spent months developing the show and were confident their eyes had been properly trained, could tell at a glance that what they were seeing between Yoon Jay and Choi Tae-yang was nothing ordinary.
A rising star, and ex–foreign special forces. Their mouths watered. Subscriber growth had been plateauing lately, after all...
"Seung-woo, great work on today's shoot. Got a minute?"
"Yes!"
Jung Seung-woo, fresh off filming, landed squarely on their radar.
During training he wore a face of carved stone, locked in and unsmiling—then off camera he went around grinning like that. Fans adored the gap. A good chunk of 'Soldiers K''s subscriber growth belonged to Jung Seung-woo, plain and simple.
"So—you were at the same company as actor Yoon Jay, right?"
"Yes!"
"You're close with him?"
"Among hyung's closest civilian acquaintances, I'd say I rank number one?"
"Ooh..."
Jung Seung-woo himself had long since left the civilian category behind and could fairly be called a celebrity these days... but that was beside the point.
"There's this talk going around that Yoon Jay was a Navy SEAL... is it actually true?"
"Yes!"
That much should be fine, right? Seung-woo wrinkled his nose for no particular reason. It was his habit whenever he told a lie.
The production team, catching none of this, barely contained their excitement. What a windfall. They're still in touch, right? He's not the type to freeze out his old friends just because he suddenly blew up... right?
"Do you two still keep in touch often?"
"We see each other plenty. Hyung lived in the States, so he barely knows anyone here in Korea. He comes by our office, we grab meals together, that sort of thing."
So if even these people are talking about my hyung, he really is blowing up! Entirely unaware that he was ringed in by a pack of hyenas, Jung Seung-woo happily recited everything he knew.
"Nice company. I looked up Wings Company and saw the video on their channel."
"Ah, the sparring match with Tae-yang hyung?"
"That was staged, right?"
"Nope. I was there."
"You've sparred with him a lot too, then?"
"I've never once beaten Jay hyung."
The production team, who had been gleefully picking him apart, went quiet for a moment.
"...You're telling me you've never beaten him?"
"Not just me. None of the guys at our company have either."
"All of them...?"
Jung Seung-woo was, by any measure, the ace of 'Soldiers K.' And Wings Company was famous in the security world in its own right.
The image was that of a private outfit that accepted special forces veterans and absolutely no one else. He'd heard they'd recently started taking a few security studies graduates as well—but even so, the reputation stood untouched.
"Oh, perfect. If you're that close, then you can book him, right?"
"Yes, huh?"
"I mean, with material this good, how does he not appear on our show? And he's friendly with you, no less."
"Uh, uhhh?!"
Cornered from every side, Jung Seung-woo had swallowed his tears and sent Yoon Jay a message.
"First off, I still haven't told the guys that the instructor was actor Yoon Jay. I just said you'd come to Korea..."
"And I told the production team we'd simply met through Wings."
Kwak Dohyun had come along to the pre-meeting for 'Soldiers K' as well.
"Hello."
"Welcome!"
"Wow—did you prepare all of this for me?"
The meeting room had been decked out with a banner, a cake, and any number of other touches to welcome Yoon Jay.
"Your popularity these days is no joke, sir. We had to do at least this much."
Besides, Yoon Jay was stirring up buzz yet again with Crown. The production team welcomed him as though he'd granted them a royal favor, while Kwak Dohyun swept the room with sharp, assessing eyes.
"Where'd you hear that from? That he's ex-Navy SEAL?"
"Ah—yes."
"Incredible, truly. How long did you serve?"
"Just under ten years."
Of course, half of that had been spent somewhere else entirely—but there was no need to mention it.
The staff's eyes lit up like searchlights. How should they cast such a talent? One episode was fine, but couldn't they possibly get him for two? Three?
"Well, first we—"
"One moment."
Good thing I came along. Kwak Dohyun cut the staff off mid-sentence.
"Do you have anything planned yet for what you intend to film with our actor?"
The 'Soldiers K' production team gulped. A managing director showing up in person... this would be anything but easy. And Kwak Dohyun was famous even among actor-agency executives as one of the hardest to deal with.
"We'd rather he not appear for nothing and have his image chewed up and spat out."
"Oh, of course, of course. Have you seen our show? Every one of our guests walks out looking incredible."
"Then let's hear this plan of yours."
Yoon Jay was no longer merely a rookie. He had reached the level where even this kind of pushback drew no argument. The production team broke out in a sweat.
"Th-then let's start by hearing what our Jay would like."
"I only need one thing."
Every gaze in the room turned to Yoon Jay.
So that he could feel, once more, what he had felt in Daldongne.