Miscast, or a Stroke of Genius? (5)
The Division Head scratched at a scalp already half bare. Where his eyes settled, the script for Cat Guardian Spirit lay waiting.
"This project—you said the Fortune-Kicker brought it in?"
"Yes. He heard somewhere it was good and went after it on his own."
Team Leader Park said it with a wide grin.
"Well, I'll be. The man can't decide whether he's a Lucky Charm or a Fortune-Kicker."
"Watch him work. I'm telling you, there's something uncanny about him."
Team Leader Park's face was in full bloom. Across from him, the Team 2 leader sat deep in the opposite sofa with his brow furrowed hard. Every time the word Fortune-Kicker came up, he drew a long breath, as if he were trying to press a rising fury back down.
"Anyway. A call came in from the CEO..."
Everyone gathered in the office—Seo Ji-joon most of all—urged the rest of it out of him with their eyes.
"He says we should go ahead with the contract."
Under the table, Seo Ji-joon and his manager, Lee Bong-joon, slapped palms.
The Team 2 leader worked his lips a few times, plainly unconvinced, and in the end let out nothing but a sigh. The actor himself wanted it, and CEO Baek Han-sung's decision had already come down. Further objection from him would change nothing.
"Let's set the ratings target at five percent for now. Even if we fall short, it won't hurt Ji-joon's filmography. You hear all the time that your range is narrow. That's why the parts that come in are all more or less the same."
"Tell me about it. I'm sick to death of playing the guy who has to carry all the weight."
"Do this, and the roles coming your way will start to vary."
"That's if it goes well. If it goes badly, we could smash the polished image we've worked so hard to build. And he's a rookie writer—if the character flies off the rails halfway through..."
The Team 2 leader was muttering, half complaint and half worry, when someone knocked on the office door hard enough to break it and came in. Sparks were snapping in both eyes. Son Chae-young. She tossed a perfunctory greeting at the Division Head and the team leaders and went straight for Seo Ji-joon.
"Is it true you're doing a cable drama in January? A rom-com?"
"Word travels fast. Where'd you hear it?"
Seo Ji-joon answered with his legs lazily crossed.
"So it is true? Are you doing this to screw me over? You know I'm in a drama then too."
"What's that got to do with anything? They're not even in the same slot on the same day."
"Of course it matters! If you and I come out at the same time, in similar genres on top of it, the company's promo strategy gets split! Even throwing everything at one side isn't enough if you want to own the conversation early!"
"And what fresh nonsense is this? Are you the only actor at this company?"
"If you were going to do a winter drama, you should have just joined mine!"
"I'd rather enlist than shoot a rom-com with you."
The two of them were snarling when Chief Jo, Son Chae-young's manager, stepped in to pull them apart.
"Chae-young, the Division Head and everyone are right here. That's enough, yeah? Sit down. We can talk."
Son Chae-young, still huffing, flinched and turned her head. At the head of the room the Division Head was enjoying a smooth milk tea and watching the argument like a show. He was even smiling faintly, as if this much were cute.
"Division Head, this is serious!"
At her protest he waved a hand. Aigoo.
"We'll push both of you with everything the company's got, so don't worry. No—make that three."
He turned to Team Leader Park.
"Songha's confirmed too, right?"
"Yes, Songha's joining as well. I actually spoke with the head of Pan Production before I came in. He was full of praise—said he was shocked at how well she acts."
"Really? If they called the day after the audition, they must have liked her a great deal."
"Who?"
Son Chae-young's brow creased.
"Who's joining?"
"Lee Songha, from Neptune. The one we meant to try in acting and then shelved."
Team Leader Park flicked a glance at Son Chae-young before he went on.
"I keep saying that Shim Kyung-taek leaves a bad taste. Running his mouth at a kid who acts that well... If the Fortune-Kicker hadn't caught on, talked Songha around, and brought the drama in, none of us would have known. We nearly buried her talent."
"Tsk. We'd better stop handing the kids over to that man. You keep poking at it."
Son Chae-young, who had been listening, cut in—quieter than a moment before.
"Why is it all Teacher Shim's fault? She might simply have frozen in front of him."
"Even so, what's the use of hounding a kid hard enough to leave her with trauma?"
"He was probably thinking of her. How many people have you seen ruin their lives clinging to acting they can't do? If it was a level where she ought to quit, he must have thought it better to quit early, while she was still young."
As she kept taking her teacher's side, Team Leader Park's eyebrow climbed.
Across from him, the Team 2 leader wore an unsettled look of his own.
After the meeting broke, he caught Son Chae-young on her way out.
He checked their surroundings, then asked, carefully.
"Chae-young. You didn't, by any chance, say something to Teacher Shim about Lee Songha..."
"No."
She cut him off. Then, her face faintly stiff, she said,
"I don't do that anymore. Back then things weren't going well, and I was so anxious I made one mistake. You know that, Team Leader. I couldn't even sleep without pills."
"I know. That's why we let it pass. But now..."
"I really didn't. That was ages ago."
"Truly?"
"I swear. I don't even know who Lee Songha is. I've never seen her face."
Son Chae-young smiled and shook her head. Only then did the Team 2 leader breathe out in relief.
"All right. I only asked because I couldn't shake the worry."
"You don't have to."
She folded her arms and turned the subject.
"That cable drama someone brought in—was it that man from before? The tall Neptune manager with the thoroughly unappetizing face?"
"Yeah. That guy."
The Team 2 leader nodded, looking as if his head hurt.
"Because of him the script even reached Ji-joon... Honestly. He hasn't been at the company any time at all, and I don't know why he gets under my skin at every turn."
"He's starting to get under mine, too."
"You're busy preparing your drama. Don't waste yourself on him. I'm already lying in wait."
Son Chae-young's reddish lips twisted.
"He snuffed my project and walked off, and the best he comes back with is a cable drama by some rookie writer... His eye, I swear. I'd love to see what kind of ratings that thing even pulls."
Plop.
The moment I told her the casting was confirmed, Lee Songha dropped the ice cream she'd been eating. For her to let go of food, the shock had to be real. Afraid she'd pick it up and finish it anyway, I threw it in the trash, and when I turned back she was still standing there, blank.
The others were in an uproar.
"For real?! She auditioned yesterday. Do results usually come back this fast?"
"Production liked her, and so did the writer and the director. I think that's why it locked in so quickly."
"No way!"
Lim Seoyoung, too excited to know what to do with herself, hammered Lee Songha's back and shoulders without mercy.
"Lee Songha! You got cast in a drama! Oppa, does that mean she's an actress now?!"
"Pretty much."
"This is insane! It's not even a bit part, it's a supporting role! I snuck a look at the script and she has a ton of lines—so you'll be on screen a lot, right? Sponsorships and product placement are going to come pouring in, aren't they?"
"Dial it back, idiot. Keep going and people will think you're the one shooting the drama."
LJ delivered the jab out of habit and poked Lee Songha in the side.
"Congrats, Songha. I figured you'd get it, though."
Lee Taehee smoothed a hand over her hair as she spoke.
"This is good, Songha. Over there you won't be Neptune's Lee Songha. You'll just be rookie actress Lee Songha, so don't load it on yourself. Go and try."
It wasn't only the members. Kim Hyunjo and Team Leader Park called one after another to congratulate her. Only after that did Songha seem to come back to herself. She closed the distance in one stride.
"...Did I really get it?"
I let out a short laugh and held out a fresh ice cream.
"The others I understand. Why are you so surprised? After the audition yesterday they as good as told you it was confirmed."
"Still, I didn't think it would... happen this easily."
"Easily? You act well to begin with, but you also tore that script apart getting ready, and you practiced like crazy watching cat videos online. It came back in proportion to the work."
"But until now..."
Lee Songha murmured, then closed her mouth.
Fair enough. Until now, the things that refused to work no matter how hard she tried had probably outnumbered the ones that did.
She clearly wasn't fragile, or the type who wilted at a hard word. But she'd had you can't, it won't work, you're behind pounded into her ears until they callused, and this was what came of it.
That ended here.
From now on she would hear you can more often than you can't, and overflowing with talent more often than falling behind.
"I told you, didn't I? Do one drama and they'll be talking about the rediscovery of Lee Songha. Just wait."
Her eyes blinked once, twice. Then her lips drew a smile so bright it seemed like a lie.
"Thank you. It's because of you, oppa."
"Uh..."
A face smiling that brightly. How long had it been? Had I ever seen one?
My head stalled for a second, and LJ popped out from behind Lee Songha.
"See?"
She stood with her arms crossed, looking me up and down.
"So that thing about a big fortune at the end of the year was real? They do say a snake comes with luck in its mouth."
She muttered it with meaning, then pressed her palms together and rubbed them in a circle.
"Is this how you do it?"
"What are you doing?"
"Just in case. I'm borrowing a wish. Make me win the lottery."
"Me! I want a regular spot on an outdoor variety show!"
Lim Seoyoung darted over beside LJ and pressed her hands together.
"Songha! Taehee unni! Hurry up and each make a wish to Lucky Snake Oppa!"
Lucky Snake...
While I was still climbing out of the shock, Songha and Taehee offered one wish each.
"I want next year to stay busy."
"Mm... then a solo concert for Neptune."
"We'll take the solo. And if we're doing it, a world tour too."
LJ tacked that on. Last of all, Lim Seoyoung's hand shot up.
"And a music-show number one before any of that!"
I seized her by the shoulder.
"Okay. That wish is logged."
"Yes! Mine's in!"
Lim Seoyoung went hopping all over the living room in delight. Ever since the casting news, the girl hadn't seemed entirely in her right mind. I clicked my tongue and turned my head, and found LJ looking at me as if I were a lost cause.
"What?"
"I only started that as a joke."
"I meant it."
"You really are strange at the oddest times, oppa."
LJ said it through a snort of laughter.
Still too worked up to settle, Lim Seoyoung had been weaving across the whole living room when she stopped dead. Her eyes lit.
"We're doing Next K-Star, we're shooting a drama... I have this feeling. Next year, something about us is going to change. Massively."
A few days later, the news that Seo Ji-joon had been cast in TVL's January original, Cat Guardian Spirit, took over the front pages of the portals.
He had played nothing but cold elites until now, and the fact that he was shooting a sugar-sweet romantic comedy became a story of its own. The drama's title climbed the real-time search rankings, and the publicity more than paid for itself.
Once he was attached, the female lead and the rest of the supporting and bit players were cast in short order.
We didn't make a big push of Lee Songha's casting. She and Seo Ji-joon shared an agency; the snide takes—that she'd only gotten the part by riding his name—would only have multiplied. Better to see how Next K-Star landed, then decide the direction and the scale of the promotion.
And like that, the days ran on without a spare breath in them.
Next K-Star taped several more times. Thankfully the members threw themselves into it like runaway trains that refused to tire, and during the recordings themselves, at least, the judges kept giving them high marks.
How any of that would actually read, of course, depended on the edit. There was no setting the tension down.
Lee Songha carved still more out of nights that were already too short. After mission practice with the members and her own extra practice, she buried herself in breaking down the drama script and reading it aloud. We'd found her a new acting teacher, but whenever she read, I was there beside her.
I worried she would burn out. It was a wasted worry. Day by day she fell deeper into the acting, and the deeper she fell, the fresher she became—like a sprout that had drunk its fill.
Mid-November.
People put the thin jackets away and brought out the heavy padded coats. Scarves and fur hats covered the street stalls, a wind that cut to the bone began to move through the stripped branches of the roadside trees, and the first table read for Cat Guardian Spirit sat only a few days off.
And then, at last, the day arrived.
November 20th. Ten o'clock at night.
One hour left until the premiere of Next K-Star.