Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Sell It to Me
‘Make the video. Base it on Hwang Hyejin’s acting right now.’
【Starting video production.】
Click.
The video was created instantly.
A level of quality that should’ve required dozens of staff members working for days and nights—
building sets,
preparing props,
surviving exhausting overnight shoots—
was completed in a single moment.
Flawless quality.
No, perfection itself.
But ironically, the more perfect the result, the more the client suddenly wants to nitpick pointless things.
‘The overall city tone feels too gloomy. Make it slightly less dark.’
‘Now it’s too bright. A little gloomier than this. Can’t you adjust it more delicately?’
‘The waitresses walking around in long skirts feel weird. Looks like they’re about to trip. Just switch them to long pants.’
Not quality improvements—
just endless nagging based on my personal tastes.
The originally satisfying video somehow became less satisfying instead.
Something felt off.
‘Let’s just go back to the first version you generated.’
【Understood.】
As expected, the end of customization always returns to default settings.
The very first version the video app automatically generated was the best.
【The optimization was based on the imagery inside Cha Doyoung’s mind.】
【Therefore, the final selected version naturally became the one Cha Doyoung preferred most.】
So that’s how it worked.
Hopefully it wasn’t just making things up to flatter me.
‘This is way too beautiful.’
I didn’t mean Hwang Hyejin herself.
Well, obviously she was beautiful too.
But the entire visual atmosphere came out unbelievably gorgeous.
It was supposed to be a scene of raw emotional agony.
A girl tearing through her emotions alone in a cold, individualistic city.
Yet contrary to Hwang Hyejin’s emotions, the warm scenery widened the painful emotional gap.
A feeling like:
No matter how sad you are, the world simply doesn’t care.
That kind of atmosphere filled the video.
“Doyoung oppa, are you crying right now?”
“…Huh?”
“You are. You’re crying right now. Don’t tell me you cried while watching me act?”
I hurriedly pulled my eye away from the viewfinder.
Only then did I notice the tear that had rolled down beside my eye, and awkwardly wiped it away.
“Ah, keeping one eye open for too long dried out my cornea.”
“I don’t think so. Your emotions got moved watching my acting, right? Please say yes. Hm? Hm?”
“I-I think maybe that’s what happened.”
She looked unbelievably happy.
Was it really that satisfying for her to know her acting moved someone emotionally?
Still, this felt such a waste.
Being the only one allowed to see this incredible video.
Just like the Cha Seoyoon fan videos and polar bear campaign,
I wished I could freely show this to everyone too.
Not because of Appreciation Points or monetization.
It simply felt too precious for me alone to watch.
I wanted to spread it everywhere.
I wanted the entire world to know
that if Hwang Hyejin received the right direction and visual support,
she could deliver acting this beautiful.
“Doyoung, you want to proudly show Hyejin off to the whole world right now, don’t you? You want everyone to love her.”
“…Yes.”
“Hold onto that feeling carefully. Don’t ever forget it. Whenever difficult times come, remember this moment.”
“Yes.”
Suddenly my uncle’s face crossed my mind,
but the sight of Hwang Hyejin immersed in acting stole my attention away again.
Every video content I’d created so far existed inside the video app.
The app might push unnecessary data into sealed storage zones,
but it never deleted anything.
It even preserved WISH’s music video filming data.
It seemed obsessively attached to the creation, improvement, and preservation of all video content.
‘This is seriously too good to waste. Isn’t there some way to use it?’
The dramatized script scenes I’d created with a simple “click” after watching Hwang Hyejin act.
I felt like I could roughly edit them together and release them as promotional material.
‘Once the drama starts airing, maybe I should upload them to WeTube pretending they’re fanmade edits?’
Honestly, this sounded like a great idea.
It would help both the actress and the drama succeed.
A complete win-win.
The acting lessons finally ended.
We got back into the van.
“Manager oppa Doyoung, I have a favor to ask.”
“A favor?”
“Yes. There are two favors. One easy and one difficult. Which should I ask first?”
“Since it’s a favor, I’m allowed to refuse, right? Start with the easy one.”
“Ah….”
Hwang Hyejin made a slightly sulky expression while shyly tapping her fingers together.
“Then… the easy favor is… could you speak casually to me?”
“That really is easy. Alright. But you have to speak casually too.”
“Okay!”
“Then what’s the difficult favor? If it’s seriously difficult, I might not be able to do it.”
Suddenly Hwang Hyejin glanced nervously toward Team Leader Jo Woonseok.
Jo Woonseok grinned while looking back and forth between us.
“Should I say it for you instead?”
“…Yes. I can’t bring myself to say it.”
“What is it? Team Leader?”
“You know those sketches you drew after reading the script last time?”
“Yes.”
“We were wondering if maybe you could draw a few more important scenes too.”
“Huh? More drawings?”
“Hyejin says they help her emotionally immerse herself into the role. The script reading is coming up soon, so I think she’s feeling nervous.”
I glanced toward Hwang Hyejin.
She was anxiously watching my reaction with nervous eyes.
Cute.
“Well, it’s not difficult or anything. I’ll do them whenever I have spare time. Hyejin, tell me which scenes you want.”
“Okay!”
Hwang Hyejin’s face immediately brightened as she handed me the script I’d previously read.
She’d already marked everything.
She even scribbled detailed personal requests beside specific scenes.
“What? What were you planning to do if I refused after preparing all this so carefully?”
“She said she was going to cling onto you and beg.”
“Team Leader oppa! When did I ever say that?”
“Why would you beg over something like this? Honestly, I enjoy doing stuff like this too, so it’s not even a difficult favor.”
Suddenly Team Leader Jo Woonseok’s eyes sparkled.
“Really? Then that means we can keep asking Doyoung for favors like this from now on?”
“I suddenly want to cancel my answer.”
Anyway, I casually started sketching right there on the spot.
It didn’t take long.
It wasn’t tiring either.
After all, I wasn’t really drawing them myself.
The video app from a thousand years in the future simply used my hands as tools and handled everything automatically.
“But unlike movies, aren’t dramas usually filmed with very static compositions?”
“Usually, yes. But this project’s going to be more dynamic than normal home dramas. The PD and writer both prefer that style.”
We dropped Hwang Hyejin off at her house.
Naturally, she still lived with her parents.
Team Leader Jo Woonseok introduced me to the parents who came outside to greet us.
“This is Cha Doyoung, the new addition to Team 3. You’ll probably see him often from now on, ma’am.”
“Oh my, just like Hyejin described. He really does look dependable. Please take good care of our daughter.”
“I should be the one asking for your guidance.”
After completing the official Hwang Hyejin home delivery,
Team Leader Jo Woonseok suggested we grab some meat.
“Feels slightly guilty sending the young actress home without dinner while we go eat by ourselves….”
“Hyejin has to manage her weight. Her mother will take care of her. Actors and staff almost never eat the same things.”
We parked the van back at headquarters and found a nearby barbecue restaurant.
“WISH’s music video filming is finally finished, and now they’re doing post-production. The MV should release on schedule without delays.”
“That’s a relief.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Doyoung. If the data hadn’t been restored, the schedules would’ve collapsed like dominoes and everything would’ve gotten scrapped.”
Team Leader Jo Woonseok started teaching me the rules newcomers needed to know in this industry.
“Strictly speaking, Doyoung isn’t really a manager, but—”
“A cameraman.”
Ah, there they go laughing again.
This is driving me insane.
Team Leader Jo Woonseok finally stopped laughing and continued.
“Still, it’s good for a newcomer to learn the basic rules.”
He explained essential industry etiquette and common knowledge I’d need immediately.
After roughly finishing the conversation, Team Leader Jo Woonseok asked again,
“Anything you’re curious about? Feel free to ask anything.”
“How do you become a drama PD or a movie director?”
Neither the road-manager hyung nor Team Leader Jo Woonseok looked surprised at all.
Apparently this question from me wasn’t unexpected whatsoever.
Jo Woonseok emptied his drink in one gulp before answering.
“If you want to become a PD, honestly you’d need to quit this company immediately and start from the bottom at a broadcasting station or production company. Same for movie directors.”
That wasn’t the answer I wanted.
Anyone could figure that out with a little thought.
“But I doubt you asked just to hear such an obvious answer. What exactly do you want to know?”
“Is there any way to become a PD or director directly without climbing from the bottom? Cases like that exist, right?”
Jo Woonseok smiled.
“Of course they do.”
Premium Cut 3000.
Why did this thing choose me of all people—
someone who’d lived his entire life completely unrelated to media production?
【Insufficient information.】
Like a barnacle randomly attaching itself to a passing turtle shell,
maybe it simply latched onto me and started carrying out its mission.
What fascinated me was that I never truly hated the app’s forced installation from the beginning.
Instead, I adapted to it incredibly quickly.
I even became interested in video production itself.
Every day, I searched for information about video production, scenarios, and CG—
fields I’d never cared about before—
and somehow it never felt boring.
Only fun.
‘It would be a massive waste to leave something this incredible unused.’
Now I’d even developed a sense of mission:
to use the video app to create limitless amounts of high-quality content and spread it widely.
It wasn’t that I vaguely dreamed of becoming some legendary PD or director.
Those were merely tools—
titles needed to achieve the real goal.
‘Good.’
I logged into the video production community.
Then I sent a private message to the aspiring writer who wrote the space opera screenplay I enjoyed so much.
Summarized simply, the message said this:
—Sell me your screenplay.