Let's Go to the Company
The next day, I visited the Sun & Pictures office alone.
It was too early to even call it morning—closer to dawn, really—when Team Leader Park Munsu had called.
What was I supposed to say to that? It felt like he had something else on his mind, but I didn't ask. Instead, I said:
"Casting Actor Ki Seongchan shouldn't be a problem. I've pushed through worse."
I'd guessed that was one of the things weighing on him, so I said it first. Team Leader Park Munsu hesitated for a long, uncertain moment. In that awkward silence, I could read the question he wasn't asking.
If you've pushed through worse—if you're that confident—then why not Bong Tae-soo?
Unless you're in a genuine hurry, you look before you leap. Ki Seongchan, for all his flops, was still a leading-man caliber actor. He'd ridden the Korean Wave; his face was familiar across Asia. Variety shows had only made his name recognition more solid. Pushing him was a matter of clearing a single hurdle.
Pushing Bong Tae-soo as a lead? The hurdles were endless.
I was still deciding whether to answer when Team Leader Park Munsu brought up something far more important. Not why not Bong Tae-soo, but—
"You're Team Leader Lee Jaewook, yes?"
Min Jang-seon's voice, double-checking my business card, cut the memory short. Dwelling on stray thoughts in the middle of a meeting wasn't my style, but I had my reasons.
Min Jang-seon—CEO of Sun & Pictures, and the man who would be directing Kind Police—was looking back and forth between my business card and the laptop screen I'd opened, his expression thoroughly uncomfortable.
"Team Leader Lee Jaewook, I'm sorry, but... wasn't this supposed to be a casting meeting for Actor Bong Tae-soo?"
He dragged my business card across his coarse stubble, his eyes demanding an explanation.
"......"
I had underestimated Park Munsu.
The Ghost whispered from behind me, exactly as if he'd read my mind.
"So Team Leader Park Munsu just booked the meeting without any briefing?"
This man had really just booked the meeting. Even I hadn't seen that coming. Park Munsu... he really did just start running and figure it out later. No wonder a meeting that came together in a single day had felt slightly off.
I didn't panic. Or rather—I did, but I hid it.
He'd come expecting a game of hwatu, and here I was laying down a poker hand. Fine. Actor Ki Seongchan had more going for him than people thought. With a shameless face, I started turning over my cards one by one.
"Our Actor Ki has tanked three projects."
"No... Team Leader Lee. That's not what I'm trying to say. First of all, why are we talking about Actor Ki Seongchan instead of Actor Bong Tae-soo?"
"The protagonist of Kind Police, Lee Dohyeon, has to be a good man. At the start."
"That's true, but... Team Leader Lee?"
Min Jang-seon wasn't going to make this easy. Most people would have at least heard me out, but he kept circling back to the hwatu game. Sorry, but I'd left the tiles at home. I hadn't even known this was a hwatu table, and I wouldn't have brought them if I had.
Click.
I tapped the laptop's trackpad, and Actor Ki Seongchan's paused profile reel began to play.
"Actor Ki Seongchan's greatest weapon is that kind, righteous face. He's used it to land those roles his entire career. Just. Righteous. Handsome."
"Ah... yes, well, that's true."
"Even on variety shows recently, that image has only gotten stronger. Good manners, takes everything in stride, diligent. Funny, too."
"Yes, yes..."
He looked thoroughly unimpressed, but I kept turning over cards, so he had no choice but to listen. When you go in this shamelessly, the other party doesn't have many options. Unless you're dealing with someone genuinely abrasive, it's hard to blow up at a meeting that started with a smile.
"The protagonist in the role of Lee Dohyeon is a kind, righteous man. At the start."
"Hold on. You keep saying 'at the start, at the start.' Yes, that's correct. But the important question is why Actor Ki Seongchan's name is even coming up here. Let's address that. We haven't assembled a casting team yet. We haven't, but expectations for this project are high. I'm sorry to put it this way, but he's not even in the conversation. Ki Seongchan, for Lee Dohyeon."
Finally, he'd taken the bait. Park Munsu had landed a punch, but dangling the fishing rod this persistently had paid off. I started the real conversation with the grateful CEO who'd finally bitten.
"Then shall we talk about the project instead of the actor? You've given me your valuable time. I have no intention of wasting it on nonsense."
"......"
"The most important thing in this project is the protagonist's psychological transformation, isn't it? That's why you're considering actors with proven range?"
"...Well, yes. That's also what the writer is focusing on most. I feel the same way."
Of course the lead's acting matters in any drama, but even more so in genre work. Kind Police hinged on the protagonist's shifting psychology, which made it all the more true. I was stating the obvious, obviously.
I looked at the untitled bound script on Min Jang-seon's side of the table—the one he hadn't shown me yet—and asked:
"And the twist?"
"Excuse me?"
"Isn't that even more important? In this project, the protagonist crosses a line."
At those calm words, Min Jang-seon's face went rigid. Even so, he asked me back, as if to confirm.
"...What do you mean, 'crosses a line'?"
A poke didn't mean he'd show his whole hand. Min Jang-seon wasn't someone you could push around. Most people would have asked how I knew.
The Ghost, who had at some point claimed a seat at the table, grinned.
"Nailed it. Called it."
He certainly had. The Ghost's talent for analyzing scripts was exceptional. I looked at Min Jang-seon.
"......"
"That's the most important twist. Wouldn't it be even better if you hid a twist inside the actor as well?"
"Hmm..."
Min Jang-seon closed his eyes, as if his thoughts had grown heavy, and stroked the uneven stubble he hadn't shaved. After a long while, he looked at me.
"That's not in the treatment. How did you know?"
"I guessed. I figured there had to be a reason you were depicting the protagonist's psychological change in such detail."
It was, perhaps, a common twist. In an era when film and television had been mined to exhaustion, every twist worth having had already been done. That was why the Ghost had been so certain the protagonist of Kind Police would commit murder himself in the latter half.
What mattered, in the end, was how you showed it. That was the point I was selling.
Persuasion isn't making the impossible possible. It's giving someone a reason. Objectively, Ki Seongchan was excellent material for this project. That was why I was confident.
"I won't claim Actor Ki Seongchan is the best possible choice. But because it's Ki Seongchan... wouldn't the audience be just a little more fooled?"
"Hmmm..."
After turning it over several times, Min Jang-seon said he'd discuss it internally, and declared the meeting over.
One week later.
A formal casting offer came in through the company. They wanted Ki Seongchan for the role of Lee Dohyeon.
The material was good, after all. For all his flops, Ki Seongchan was still an actor with a certain caliber. That was why there was no talk of a camera test, not even a casual meeting-slash-audition, the Ghost told me.
Anyway, it was time to choose. I called Team Leader Park Munsu.
Decisive. I'd expected as much. This was a man who saw one thing and ran at it. I didn't ask twice.
"Then let's do that."
This plan wasn't my style, but I'd decided to follow Team Leader Park Munsu's opinion. Ki Seongchan wasn't my actor; he was Park Munsu's. It wasn't simply a matter of who bore the responsibility. I wanted to trust the judgment of the man who had known Ki Seongchan far longer.
The filming set of the variety show Wherever We Go.
"Hyung-nim. What are you doing?"
The voice from behind made Ki Seongchan jump and snap the booklet shut.
"Huh? Ah... just... studying?"
He turned to look. A set staffer. Hiding his fluster, Ki Seongchan asked:
"Filming again?"
"No, not yet. I'm grabbing coffee. Wanted to know what you'd like, hyung-nim."
"Just an iced Americano for me."
"Iced Americano. Got it."
As the staffer turned away, Ki Seongchan pulled the hidden booklet back out.
How many times had it been rolled up and unrolled? How many times had he opened it? The cover of the well-thumbed pamphlet was stained with fingerprints, the working title Kind Police printed large across the front.
Ki Seongchan let out a small sigh.
"Ha... this is good..."
Not good in the sense a reader or a viewer would find it entertaining. Good in the sense that, as an actor, he wanted it.
I want this... damn it...
The reasons an actor's passion ignites for a project are usually these: the synopsis already smells like a hit; the writer or the director is someone who makes hits; or the project will let them show a new version of themselves.
Actors, surprisingly, burn hotter for a project that will make them shine than for one that's simply destined to succeed. They were born that way.
Ki Seongchan kept turning over the Kind Police treatment in his mind.
A few years ago, he wouldn't even have considered appearing in a genre piece like this. Back then, looking cool was what mattered. Maybe he'd gravitated toward those projects out of inertia. And maybe those were the only projects that had been offered to him—also out of inertia.
The typical male lead of a Korean drama. And among those, the most formulaic, so boxed-in they were practically templates: handsome roles, and nothing else. That had been Ki Seongchan's entire career.
That's why I want it even more...
This was exactly the project he needed right now. The protagonist had to act. Whether it would be ten episodes, twelve, or sixteen—the production guide wasn't out yet, so there was no way to know—but according to this treatment, the protagonist would show a different face in every episode.
At first, a righteous cop. Then a cop growing furious at evil. Compassion for decent people, for unfortunate victims. An individual agonizing between good and evil. And through it all, the hunt for the culprit.
The protagonist's acting is going to stand out no matter what.
Of course, the opposite was also true. If the lead botched it, he'd stand out in the worst way.
Ki Seongchan kept sighing. He wanted it, but he had to hold back.
The fear of tanking another project as an actor was natural enough. It would also be a terrible thing to do to the company, and to the production house.
But that wasn't the real reason Ki Seongchan had been avoiding dramas and films.
And then—
"Hyung-nim! Hyung-nim!"
The staffer came running, iced Americano in hand, out of breath. And then:
"You're making a drama comeback?!"
A completely unexpected question. Ki Seongchan asked back, startled.
"...What?"
"There was an article? You're coming back to drama? Then what happens to our show? Are you leaving?"
Instead of answering, Ki Seongchan pulled out his phone and opened a browser.
"What is this...?"
Some articles said it was confirmed. Others said it was under discussion. The important thing was that Ki Seongchan had never discussed it, never confirmed it—had never even exchanged a passing opinion about it.
"Munsu..."
Ki Seongchan reflexively lifted his head to look for Park Munsu, then shut his mouth.
They hadn't spoken a word to each other lately. And as if he'd made up his mind, Park Munsu had put Assistant Manager Kang Sangrok from Team 2 in as a substitute and hadn't shown his face in a week.
Ki Seongchan's face crumpled badly. The flow of events wasn't hard to guess.
Articles like this didn't just appear for no reason. And if an article had gone out in a situation like this, it meant Team Leader Park Munsu had done something.
At Nine Entertainment, people in the family used titles carefully. Former CEO Choi Chil-goo's position had been that relationships crumbled too easily otherwise. Of course, not everyone followed the rule.
Shin Chaeyoon had always called Director Kim Taewoo simply "Taewoo." And Ki Seongchan had always called Team Leader Park Munsu "Munsu."
It wasn't disrespect. It was because they were that special. At Nine Entertainment, at least, that was how it worked.
Munsu, you bastard... isn't this going too far?
Ki Seongchan, more professional than anyone, forced himself through the rest of the variety shoot, then said to Assistant Manager Kang Sangrok:
Park Munsu had crossed a line.
Thinking that his relationship with Park Munsu was over, Ki Seongchan didn't even call him.