Say You Need It, Please
The Netprince Korea meeting lead was a thin man with glasses and a strict, exacting air.
"If 30THC's participation falls through, the entire production could collapse. Do you have any safeguards in place for that?"
It's my company, so of course that would never happen.
But I couldn't exactly say that out loud, so I swallowed the frustration and answered.
"We'll take full responsibility and keep that under control. Under no circumstances will 30THC pull out or sabotage the project."
"I'd like that management obligation inserted as a special clause. Along with a penalty fee."
Team Leader Jo Unseok furrowed his brows just a fraction.
That tiny gesture was him announcing with his entire body how completely absurd this was.
"How much for the penalty…?"
"Let's discuss those details after we align on the big picture. It's meaningless at this stage, isn't it?"
"Understood."
Netprince grilled us with the relentless thoroughness of a profiling analysis.
They tried to dissect our project management capabilities down to the nano level.
Well, I understood. I did.
We were an entertainment company, not a studio.
Our production experience amounted to in-house web dramas, and even those had been outsourced to external studios.
To Netprince, it must have looked like a professional baseball team suddenly announcing it was going to develop next-generation pitching machines and specialized sports science equipment.
"This Nike commercial, The Mermaid and the Sneakers, was handled entirely by Pine Tree Entertainment from start to finish. Nike just deposited the money."
"But honestly, 30THC did almost everything, right? Without 30THC, the whole project would have fallen apart."
An unpleasant look crossed Jo Unseok's face.
I wanted to feel the same way, but then it hit me—this was basically painting gold all over my face.
Suddenly I felt bad… but also not really.
A little complicated.
"We know perfectly well how superior 30THC's CG technology is. We've been watching them carefully for a long time."
A long time? The company hadn't even existed for more than a few months.
I glanced over; Jo Unseok's face said he was thinking the exact same thing.
"We believe 30THC will soon become the pioneer leading the global CG ecosystem. We're certain the entire CG market will reorganize around 30THC."
Jo Unseok was growing steadily more irritated.
I couldn't join him—I was stuck in a bittersweet mood instead.
I was starting to understand why they kept lavishing praise on a CG company that wasn't even in the room.
They simply wanted the upper hand in the negotiation.
And without realizing that the CG company in question was sitting right in front of them, they were openly slathering gold paint all over my face.
It was getting hard to hold back a laugh.
I, Cha Doyoung, was supposed to find this situation unpleasant.
The owner of 30THC was supposed to be melting into a puddle of pure embarrassment.
Those two states were currently overlapping inside me.
"Let's take a short break and continue the meeting afterward."
"Very well."
Break time.
We stepped out onto the outdoor balcony.
Team Leader Jo Unseok shot a suspicious glance back inside, then spoke to me.
"This is a little strange. The CEO said he'd thoroughly prepared the prior consensus, but they're being unusually prickly."
"People who handle money are always like that."
"How can Manager Cha stay so calm?"
"Well? Maybe thanks to the faith that 30THC will ultimately take my side?"
"I'm jealous. Really jealous. If I had a solid backer like that, company life would be fulfilling and easy."
Manager Kim Gyeonguk, Chae Seoyun's exclusive manager, snickered and asked me,
"Is it maybe this kind of feeling? Winning a ten-billion-won lottery ticket, hiding it, and still showing up to work every day?"
"Yeah, then I could enjoy company life without any stress too."
"No matter how shitty a situation hits, it wouldn't even register as stress—it'd just be a section you get to enjoy, right?"
"That tracks. Since you can quit anytime, you can push yourself to the extreme and actually enjoy it. Isn't that Manager Cha's psychology right now?"
Roughly similar, yeah.
If I compared the Future App to a lottery, its value…
Even if someone guaranteed me first-place wins on both the American Powerball and Mega Millions every single week until the day I died, I still wouldn't trade it.
"What backup am I supposed to have?"
"Why none? With storyboard skills like yours, any production company would make you a storyboard director on the spot."
"Actually, 30THC keeps asking you to come over, but you're deliberately holding out because you want to keep working next to the actresses, right?"
"Manager Kim, that actually has some persuasive power."
I played along with deliberate slyness.
"Working while looking at pretty actresses every day is a lot more fun than being stuck in a dark room. It makes you feel alive, I guess?"
A short round of small talk lightly loosened the mental muscles that had been clenched tight throughout the meeting.
Then we exchanged opinions to prepare for the continuation.
"It seems to be about exclusive release."
"Exclusive release?"
"Yeah. Since Netprince is an OTT platform, they might be greedy for exclusive release on their own service."
No production company walks into an OTT meeting and asks, "Mind if we put this on other platforms too?"
But the producer here was Nike.
Every won of the production budget came from Nike.
All we wanted was a little access to the intangible production-environment assets Netprince had built.
"These guys—are they seriously trying to push for exclusive Netprince release?"
"No, does that even make sense? It's Nike IP with Nike footing the entire production cost."
The owner of this advertising drama was Nike.
No matter how I looked at it, this was absurd greed.
You'd have to be completely out of your mind.
But the two of them seemed almost certain.
"I had a bad feeling from the start—there wasn't a single production person in the meeting."
"I literally doubted my eyes looking at the business cards. Sending only investment and marketing people?"
"Maybe the Netprince Korea guys got too excited because it's Nike IP?"
"The U.S. headquarters might not even know the detailed situation."
"Netprince is ultimately a localized operation. Still, they've lasted a long time."
Time was running out.
Team Leader Jo Unseok crushed an empty water bottle and tossed it into the trash.
"Let's dig once. Figure out what the other side is really after."
Right before we moved,
I lightly caught Manager Kim Gyeonguk's arm.
"Huh? Manager Cha, what is it?"
"You picked out the laptop model for me, right? Thanks to that, I'm using it well. The performance is really excellent."
"Laptop? What laptop?"
"Come on, why are you playing dumb?"
"So what laptop?"
"…"
Chae Seoyun had clearly said so.
She had only decided that my laptop was garbage and that she should buy me a new one. Model selection, purchase, and hauling it all the way to the storage room—Manager Kim Gyeonguk had handled every step.
Then… did she carry that huge thing herself…?
"Manager Cha, stop overthinking and let's dig into their hand first."
"Ah—yes. Let's go."
Focus on the meeting for now.
The Netprince people returned, and the meeting resumed.
After a probing battle sharper than before, we finally learned what they truly wanted.
"For this advertising drama, help us persuade Nike together so we can put it exclusively on Netprince for just one month first."
In the end, Jo Unseok's guess had been right.
"That's clearly…"
"If you just help us, later we'll entrust a forty-billion-won exclusive content production to Pine Tree Entertainment. Even if the Nike persuasion fails, it doesn't matter. Just make the effort."
Was this a rebate? Something like that?
These people…
Greedy fools.
This was exactly why you needed active field workers in the room.
We ended the meeting quickly, without reaching any agreement.
Then the three of us moved to a separate spot and continued the discussion.
"They seem to think we'll definitely take it."
"Any normal company would. All you have to do is lightly help persuade Nike."
"In exchange, a free forty-billion-won job drops into your lap."
"Rejecting this would be insane. Even if I were the CEO, I'd take it."
"So are you going to take it?"
"We need to hear 30THC's thoughts on this. Manager Cha, what did they say when you called?"
I laid out the conclusion I had already reached.
"They say they don't like it much."
"Don't like it? What part?"
"That no producer showed their face in the meeting and only investment people came, that they hid a surprise deal outside the meeting agenda, that they proposed we deceive Nike together—all of it."
We had set up this meeting to use Netprince's domestic infrastructure.
Domestic top-tier studios were fully booked with Netprince outsourced productions.
To buy those studios' time, we needed Netprince's permission.
"If 30THC says they don't like it, it's over. Let's look for studios that aren't mortgaged to Netprince schedules."
"Any studio worth working with will almost certainly have a packed schedule."
"How about handling everything with CG from start to finish? Full runtime, full CG."
Manager Kim Gyeonguk looked reluctant.
"Then almost the entire production budget would go to CG costs. Actor fees and everything else too…"
"If we're short, we just ask Nike for more. The super-eul doesn't like it—what can you do?"
Team Leader Jo Unseok lightly settled the atmosphere and looked at me.
"Manager Cha, how about it? Skip the external studios, shoot everything ourselves, and process everything except the actors' performances with CG?"
"Then CG costs could exceed ninety-five percent of the production budget. The company would have almost nothing left."
"Still better than making something half-assed and disappointing Nike."
If we saved production costs on scenes that didn't need CG, that savings became company profit.
Beach scenery, for example.
Processing it with CG would cost tens of millions of won per second, but location shooting at an actual beach could save all that money.
"The CEO will be a little disappointed about the lower profit margin, but what can you do? Netprince has already locked up the decent studios and won't let them go."
"Then I'll ask whether a full-CG work schedule is even possible."
"Okay."
With the practical discussion finished,
it was time for the backbiting.
Jo Unseok and Kim Gyeonguk competitively began pouring out every insult they had been holding in.
"It's good that OTT production is thriving in our country, but OTT platforms treating studios like subcontractors is not good."
"What can you do? Studios have no choice but to subordinate themselves to the overseas platforms that throw around real money."
"Domestic OTTs are no help and have zero presence."
"The second Manager Kim says that, a call comes in? Do you have divine powers or something?"
Jo Unseok pulled out his phone and showed me the screen.
"Yes, Director. Nike? Where did you even hear about that? Wow, there really are no secrets in this industry. Hmm? Haha, no. Right now? Mm, yes. Understood. Let's do that. Yes, yes—don't get your hopes up too high."
Judging by the look on his face, a domestic OTT platform had somehow caught wind of things and was reaching out.
After hanging up, Team Leader Jo Unseok set his phone down and fixed me with a steady gaze.
"There's a domestic OTT platform called T-Mind. Ever heard of it?"
"No, first time."
"Figures. It's dead last in market share among domestic OTTs currently operating. They're coming here now."
"Haven't we already reached our conclusion?"
"We have. But listening to whatever the last-place guy has to say doesn't cost us anything, does it?"
That was true enough.
Just hearing them out…
"And Manager Cha, you look seriously pissed off because of the stunt Netprince pulled."
"Me?"
"Yeah, you do."
"Manager Cha, honestly I've been a little tense since earlier…"
"I'm not angry."
"I know, I know. But just in case your mood really did take a hit, I told the T-Mind director to come over. Watching them beg might cheer our Manager Cha up a little."
"So this is like relieving workplace burnout stress by going to a job fair?"
"Oh, that's a great analogy. Perfect."
I wasn't exactly thrilled…
"We're just wasting their time. The answer is already decided."
"Not giving them the time is even crueler. A deal this big is floating around the market—if they never even got a meeting, how badly do you think their bosses would ream them out?"
Kim Gyeonguk chimed in from the side.
"Manager Cha, nothing in this industry is confirmed until the contract is signed. Who knows? Maybe T-Mind will show up with a massive dowry and propose for real."
At first glance he looked every bit as cold and exacting as the Netprince Korea lead—
"I have—no, we have four hundred billion won right now!"
"Director? Please don't do this. Just sit down for a moment…"
"Just let us invest! I won't ask for anything else! Please, Team Leader Jo? For the sake of our past connection, take this money and use it!"
The way he was collapsing and melting right in front of us stirred an inexplicable pity.
He looked ready to cry if anyone so much as poked him.
"Team Leader Jo, please… just say you need the money…"