The Worst Scenario
"Who?"
"Director Jang Junseok."
"……"
So much for thinking he was a man who kept basic decency. Apparently I'd been wrong about that.
Seeing my face stiffen by the second, Jinbae added an explanation.
"He said to tell you how truly sorry he is for showing up at the company out of the blue. He also said he couldn't contact you directly because of what you said to him last time, so he didn't. I told him I'd pass along a message later and that he should come back another day, but…."
"He said he'll wait until I come out?"
Jinbae gave a small, troubled nod.
I swallowed the sigh rising up my throat. All I did was go see one movie, and now this. I really do have a talent for stepping in it.
"Shall we have a quick talk in one of the conference rooms, then?"
"Yes. Please go on ahead, sir. I'll bring him up shortly."
After nodding, I made my way to the conference room I usually used.
It's safest to do this inside the company.
Given that this was an entertainment agency with celebrities constantly coming and going, security at the entrance lobby was fairly airtight.
If he'd brought anything metal and sharp, it would've been confiscated right there in the lobby.
I had no idea whether he had it in him, but you can know ten fathoms of water and not one fathom of a man's heart.
After all, him turning up like this was already outside my expectations.
Haah. This was about to be a hassle. I'd have a brief conversation and send him on his way.
Meeting a recently famous actor named 'Lee Yeonjae' while his debut film lay in total ruins must have felt like fate to Director Jang.
That had to be why he wrote up that ridiculous scenario and sent it over.
And when I turned down the scarf too, he'd been so flustered he came all this way in person.
Fine. This was something I'd have to confront eventually. Might as well tell him properly why I refused.
What kind of face will he walk in with?
Would it be trembling with wounded pride? Or the deflated face of a man who doesn't even understand what he did wrong?
The face I found twenty minutes later was the second one.
"Hello…. Thank you for making time for me."
Greeting him with a frozen expression, Director Jang stepped into the conference room, and I extended my hand toward him.
"You want to shake hands?"
"No. Your phone, Director. May I hold onto it while we talk?"
"…? Sure. Here."
Looking bewildered, Director Jang pulled out his phone and handed it over.
Don't let that face fool you. I already knew exactly how vicious a cornered person could become.
After confirming there was nothing recording, I set the phone down in front of me.
If he'd had any other device capable of audio or video, the machines in the lobby would have caught it already.
In other words, whatever I said in here, there was no chance of it spreading across the internet.
Which also meant no shocking my fans with cold, un-Bambi-like words.
And that was the thing that mattered most to me right now.
"You came all this way because of the scenario you sent me, didn't you?"
"Yeah…. I mean, I knew you could… refuse."
Liar.
"If you'd simply turned it down, I wouldn't have come looking for you. But then you wouldn't even take the scarf, so I started wondering if I'd done something wrong…."
I watched his eyes dart around like a frightened herbivore's. Then I spoke.
"The scenario you sent me, Director. It was truly the worst."
"……"
"I've read a lot of scripts over the years. Plenty of them were far lower quality than yours, in story and structure alike. But even so, the one you sent me this time is going to be the worst one in my memory."
With each word that poured out in a flat, unwavering tone, I could see the hurt registering on his face in real time.
I didn't feel sorry. I'd felt the same way the entire time I was reading that script.
"Why…. Wh-what part of it was so… terrible…."
"Did you think I wouldn't know?"
"Wh-what do you mean?"
I scrutinized the face in front of me, sharp-eyed. It was genuinely, honestly clueless.
So it wasn't intentional.
Small mercies. If it had been deliberate, I'd have thrown him out on the spot.
I drew a deep breath. In the silence that followed, I spoke calmly.
"Your debut film, Comma — the one I saw at the theater — wasn't much of a commercial success, but it laid your philosophy bare, exactly as a first film should. Like I told you then, it amazed me that you pulled off that scene reversing the actor's shadow with a single lighting rig. You did the absolute best that such poor conditions allowed."
"Th-thank you…."
"And yet there wasn't a trace of any of that in this scenario. If I'm honest, you probably knew that deep down."
I spoke slowly, watching him go rigid.
"You were planning to cast me, weren't you? If I appeared, it would draw far more attention than Comma ever did — and that's all I could feel from the script. You wrote it thinking about nothing but that commercial appeal."
"……I…."
"There's nothing wrong with minding the commercial side. Frankly, ignoring it is what gets you into real trouble — a movie only becomes complete when there's an audience to watch it."
But there was a difference between weighing commercial viability and making it your only goal.
The scenario Director Jang had sent me was the latter.
A story that was serviceable enough on the surface, padded with clichés, stitched together from lines I'd heard a hundred times before, with a flimsy plot held up entirely by every trending scene he could copy-paste into place.
That wasn't a film. It was printed paper that existed for the sake of an actor — not for the sake of a story.
"I know a lot of people write scripts like that. I know it works, if you pull it off well. And if that's the kind of movie you want to make, I have no desire to criticize you — nor do I have the right to."
"……"
"But the least you could have done was not send it to me."
If he had any conscience at all, he shouldn't have done that to me.
Not to the person who had spent two hours watching his film, then devoted himself completely to the conversation that followed.
I remember the way your eyes shone through that entire conversation.
Mine must have been shining too. Which was exactly why it made me so angry.
"I'm not trying to be arrogant. I have no intention of reviewing your work as if I were something special. What I'm telling you is simply this: how miserable you made me feel while I was reading that scenario."
It hadn't been a script for the film. It hadn't even been a script for me.
It was a document manufactured for one purpose only: 'the popular actor, Lee Yeonjae'.
"When we first talked at that café, we had a genuinely good time, remember? And back then, you had no idea I was Lee Yeonjae."
"Yeah…."
"Finding out who I was, and then being handed a script like that as a 'gift' — it made me feel strange. Every word I said at that café was sincere. And it all started to feel like it had been for nothing."
"……"
"You might think it's ridiculous, but more than I expected…."
It hurt. If it had been nothing but an insult, that would almost have been easier to bear.
I decided to stop there — saying the rest aloud would only have made me feel worse.
"……"
At some point, Director Jang's head had sunk deep toward his chest.
What was he hiding behind that silence? Rage? Humiliation? Shame?
When he finally lifted his head a few minutes later, his face looked complicated in every way.
"You're right…. After I found out — that you were that Lee Yeonjae… I wanted to curry favor with you."
"I thought as much."
"I can't argue with that…. Writing this one, that was all I agonized over. How do I write it so… so he'll like it. So he'll say he wants to do it."
There were pauses scattered through his words, but his pitch never wavered.
By every biological signal, he wasn't lying — though that didn't mean I could believe it outright.
"I'm sorry. For making you feel that way. I won't deny that I… insulted you. But I swear, that was never my intent."
"All right. I'll choose to believe you, then."
Whether that was the truth or not, what difference did it make?
The one unshakable fact here was that I had received an apology.
Which meant that digging any deeper would be a waste of effort.
Let's stop here.
It was true the scenario had soured my mood, but I hadn't actually suffered any concrete harm.
And watching the man look like he'd taken a sledgehammer to the chest, even that felt trivial.
Honestly, the nickname Bambi is far too kind for me.
Reed might suit me better than Bambi. My feelings sink and settle awfully fast — fast enough to be embarrassing.
"……"
An awkward silence settled over the room.
I'd spoken on the assumption that I'd never see this man again, but maybe I should have softened things a little.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I broke the silence first.
"If my words hurt you, I'm sorry for that too."
"No — thank you. Thank you for being honest with me. You've snapped me wide awake."
Director Jang sat in silence for a moment longer, then abruptly stood up.
"I've taken up far too much of your time. Thank you for talking with me today… and truly, thank you for that conversation at the café. I mean it."
He met my eyes squarely as he said it, and I answered that I was grateful as well.
Taking his phone back, Director Jang turned toward the door without a flicker of hesitation.
There wasn't a single ounce of reluctance in the movement — so it was I who spoke first.
"Director."
"Hmm?"
"When you finish your next scenario, send it to me. Along with a scarf."
"……Yeah."
With a faint smile, Director Jang left the room.
February had arrived. One month left until school started.
I'd spent two gloriously idle months since Team Leader Woo told me to rest. There wasn't much left to laze through at this point.
"So bored…."
After my meeting with CEO Jang, the company's official stance was that any project I wanted would be reviewed positively.
But aside from Han Seungmin in Shin Yuyeong, which was already confirmed, there wasn't a single role that interested me.
Noh Bihyuk was buried in practice, and even Junghyun was hard to catch a glimpse of with shooting for his new drama underway.
With nothing to do, I was getting more than enough acting practice in — but God, I was bored.
The message from Baek Seojin came on a drowsy weekday morning.
The only reason I said yes to a message I'd normally have politely declined was that I was bored out of my mind.
Had Baek Seojin's friend turned out to be that kind of person, I'd have regretted it.
"Whoa. First time I've ever seen someone more handsome than me."
"……Hello."
"Hey! I'm Seo Jio. Just call me Jio, whatever's comfortable. I'm an aspiring actor too — same class track as Seojin."
Despite his languid, half-lidded look, Seo Jio had an easy, magnetic personality — not unlike Noh Bihyuk.
"I'm transferring to your middle school, by the way."
"Is that so."
"Yeah. Seojin's literally the only person I know in this whole neighborhood, so I'm freaked out. I don't wanna eat lunch alone. Should I just take it into the bathroom stall…."
"……"
I could feel exactly what he was fishing for, so I gave him nothing.
Whether he hadn't actually wanted a positive answer either, Seo Jio just let out a lazy laugh.
"Tough crowd. You're even more stone-faced than I imagined."
"You had an image of me in mind?"
"I watched one of your fan meeting videos. You were all soft and smiley in it, so I got my hopes up…. You know you haven't laughed once since we met, right?"
That's because you won't stop talking.
It felt like the same vertigo from the day I first met Noh Bihyuk was creeping back up on me.
I was already scouting for a chance to bolt home when, unexpectedly, we found common ground.
"I love that director's films too. Have you ever seen Anna, By Now?"
"Yeah."
"Whoa. You're the first person I've ever met who knows it. It's my favorite movie. Honestly, it deserves way more recognition."
"It does."
Our tastes in film and drama overlapped far more than I'd expected, which was a pleasant surprise.
Seong Yijun and Nam In-hoo were actors too, but our preferences never matched, so I'd never had anyone to talk about this stuff with.
I was deep in the conversation before I knew it when a call came in from Noh Bihyuk.
"Hello."
"Where are you right now?"
"I'm out. Why?"
"I'm at your place. Practice ended early today so I came over to hang out… wait, are you with someone?"
The moment I said I was hanging out with Baek Seojin and Baek Seojin's friend — the three of us — a beat of silence flashed through the phone.
"Ahh~. Is that so? And how long are you planning to stay out?"
"Dunno. No idea yet."
"……I'm at your house, is what I'm saying?"
"…?"
So what exactly am I supposed to do about that?