The Gwon-Su Series
Woo Jeong-ha flinched. She pulled out her wireless earbuds and turned around.
Her colleague was smiling awkwardly.
"You done with work?"
Oh—right. I'm at the office...
What on earth was in that video that had pulled her under so completely? The moment she saw her seniors' faces—half amused, half furious—Woo Jeong-ha flushed crimson all the way to the roots of her hair.
"I'm so sorry!"
The response to the Wetube content was better than expected. The video itself had come out genuinely funny, and the worthy cause on top of that had generated no shortage of articles. As a result, Ha Ji-hyun's workload ballooned.
"Wetubers are flooding us with collab requests!"
Wetuber Glang had run the campaign with plenty of other Wetubers and influencers besides Kwon Du-il. Of the twenty-odd videos that came out of it, mine and Kwon Du-il's had the highest view count.
Well—it was hard to scroll past a thumbnail of Kwon Du-il fainting in terror.
"J-Ji-hyun. We're not actually supposed to do all of these, right...?"
"Of course not! I only showed you these so you'd see how many people are asking for Actor Kwon Du-il."
"Haha. I see."
"But these two would be good to take. Strongly recommended!"
One of the proposals Ha Ji-hyun pointed to was a guest invitation from a channel that exclusively covered supposedly true ghost stories. The other was a lighthearted horror special another channel had put together. Both pitches were solid, but one of the channel names caught my eye.
Ha Ji-hyun's got a good eye.
She'd picked a Wetube channel that would go on to hit three million subscribers in the future.
Kwon Du-il looked thoroughly disgusted, but he still read through the proposals with care—then promptly got extremely sulky.
"Hey, I'm not that much of a scaredy-cat. Su-a acted so well, and in that tiny window she prepped the props, even got my wife to help, turned off the lights, set the whole mood—that's why it happened. I'm really not a coward..."
I waved the flustered Ha Ji-hyun off that it was fine and patted Kwon Du-il's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Uncle."
"Su-a...! You know Uncle isn't a coward, right?"
"Of course. And even if people mistakenly think you are, they won't make fun of you."
"Why not?"
"Because your face is even scarier!"
I shot him a thumbs-up as I said it, and Kwon Du-il's lip jutted out a mile.
"What's that supposed to mean! You tease me no matter what face I make!"
"That's because I know you're a magnificent, big-hearted man."
"R-really...?"
One compliment and Kwon Du-il melted on the spot, grinning goofily. This was exactly why I liked him.
But the moment I pointed at one of the proposals, his eyes narrowed into slits.
"I want to be in this one too."
"Absolutely not. Su-a, you're on vacation!"
"We can film it after the vacation's over! It's not like this has to be shot right away. Right?"
I looked to Ha Ji-hyun, and she nodded.
"I'm in favor of Actor Su-a appearing as well. By the time we coordinate everything, a month will fly by. And part of why I picked this one is that the concept itself really feels like they wanted both of you."
"And it's also the only proposal that actually gives Uncle and me different characterizations."
The rest of the pitches mostly treated me like Kwon Du-il's accessory. He agreed.
"You're right... If you're going to appear too, this one's better."
"Great. Then this one will be Actor Kwon Du-il solo, and this one will be the two of you together."
"Hold on. I haven't even said I'd do it yet."
"Go show them you're not a coward—you're a big-hearted man!"
"Hmm. All right. Let's give it a shot."
We'd launched into a comedy sketch with no camera even rolling. After a round of laughter, we continued the meeting.
"Also, a lot of people are saying your chemistry is hilarious. What would you think about shooting two or three more genuinely fun videos, separate from the campaign?"
"Hold on, Ji-hyun. Su-a is currently on a break—"
"I'm in!"
I jumped in before Ha Ji-hyun could take the offer back. I had to do something or I'd go stir-crazy.
"I was already getting bored from resting too much, and I was starting to worry I'd lose my edge."
Kwon Du-il's eyes narrowed, as if to say, Lose your edge? You?
I ignored that look with practiced ease and sent Ha Ji-hyun a pleading gaze. Please let me work.
The effect was spectacular.
"I'll make sure it's never a burden on Actor Su-a! If you can just spare a few hours once a week, I'll handle everything else myself."
"Handle everything yourself? Including the filming and the editing?"
Kwon Du-il's eyes flew wide in alarm, and Ha Ji-hyun clenched her fist.
"If you give me a budget, I'll outsource it. I know a solid filming crew. If that's not to your liking, I can personally—"
"L-let's go with outsourcing."
...The effect was a little too good.
Swept up by the sheer force of a woman ready to dive headfirst into planning and production, Kwon Du-il folded.
"But when you say fun videos, what kind of vibe are we talking...?"
"I prepared some examples."
Ha Ji-hyun was so well-prepared she pulled out her phone on the spot and showed us a clip. It was an old variety video, so the quality wasn't great, but the format was familiar: the host and camera hid while pulling ordinary people into unusual situations and watching their reactions.
Kwon Du-il seemed to recognize it.
"Ah, this. Fans said I looked like the actor in this, so I watched it once."
"This guy? Where?"
"They said he looks just like me at a glance."
"That's what I'm asking. Where?"
"You little—"
A beat late, Kwon Du-il realized I was teasing him and poked my cheek. A truly harmless revenge. Ha Ji-hyun snapped a photo of the two of us horsing around and beamed.
"Then I'll gather more videos of this type. Once the two of you pick one, we'll start filming."
"Okaaay."
"Sounds fun. But please avoid the jump-scare stuff this time..."
Ha Ji-hyun just smiled at Kwon Du-il's request. She had something in mind, didn't she? The odds were high that Kwon Du-il would be the one on the receiving end, so I kept my mouth shut.
"Ha. I've got a bad feeling about this."
The gut instinct Kwon Du-il muttered then turned out to be dead-on.