Someone With Something to Protect (4)
After the script reading ended, the actors each offered Lee Songha a word of encouragement, thick with admiration. She still wore the look of someone who hadn't quite stepped out of Jeong Haewon, but she bowed from habit and returned their thanks.
The making-of cameras caught every inch of that lively, buoyant scene.
Flushed with excitement and with everything still ahead of them, the actors stood before the lenses. The interviews shifted a little with each role, but the last question was the same for all of them.
"All right, last one. One short, punchy line about this project."
A male actor in his forties shot a glance off to the side. Lee Songha and Seo Ji-joon, and two men who looked like they were from W&U — four people clustered together, drawing every eye in the room. Whatever they were talking about, Songha was listening hard to the younger man and nodding along in earnest.
The actor pulled his gaze back, cleared his throat, and went on.
"See, I've done script readings more than ten times. If the reading feels good, the show always hits. But this one doesn't just feel good. It feels too good. Especially everyone's acting... whew, keep on like this and it's honestly going to be a smash—"
"Don't say it."
Jang Yoon-ok cut in out of nowhere.
"Sorry?"
"You'll jinx it. If this project gets jinxed, are you going to answer for it?"
The actor hastily mimed a zipper across his mouth.
The same thing played out among the actors giving interviews to the other cameras.
"We haven't even started, so I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but this show is going to be huge—"
"Hey, hey. Teacher said don't say it. You'll jinx it."
"Ah — short and punchy. This is seriously going to be a smash—"
"Shh!"
All of them were choking on words that had climbed all the way to their throats.
Outside the clamorous script-reading room, Chief Producer Song, who had been peering in through the crack of the door, quietly took his leave.
He had watched Lee Songha's audition tape, and afterward he had even nodded when CEO Baek Han-sung suggested they turn the controversy into publicity for the show. Even so, a residue of unease had stayed lodged in one corner of his mind. That was why he had pretended to be passing by and looked in on the reading himself. A chief producer couldn't go infecting the other actors with his own anxiety.
Once he had seen enough to be satisfied, he climbed to the floor above with a light step. He had worn a sour face right up until that morning, and now he was humming as he went. The drama PDs cocked their heads.
"What's with him? Why's the chief suddenly in such a good mood?"
"Beats me. Up and down. Male menopause, something like that?"
"They're doing the Cat Guardian Spirit reading downstairs right now, aren't they? Maybe Lee Songha's acting shocked him that hard?"
Chief Producer Song's destination was the bureau chief's office. He knocked, then shoved the door open before an answer could come, and spoke.
"Chief. Cat Guardian Spirit. How about we take one more slot? Instead of dribbling out nothing but teasers, just a fifty-minute making-of—"
"You eat something weird?"
"That GTBN show from before, the one whose peak rating broke eight percent — they sent the whole cast and crew to Cebu on a reward trip and sprayed a press release around bragging about it. Let's send ours somewhere even better."
"What's this about? Out of nowhere."
The bureau chief, who had been going through documents with a tired face, looked up.
Chief Producer Song shut the office door and dropped his voice.
"I'm being careful. Afraid I'll jinx it, but..."
"What?"
The next day, at noon.
Worked up overnight by the making team and the staff of TVL's content planning department, the first making-of video for Cat Guardian Spirit was released.
Within a few hours it had racked up hundreds of thousands of views, landed on the main page of a major portal, and once again rewritten the real-time search rankings. From there it spread fast across internet communities and social media.
"Am I the only one who was shocked by Lee Songha's acting?"
I read it with as much feeling as I could muster.
"I'm on loop, just the parts with Lee Songha. Getting sucked right in. Whoa, whoa, whoa."
"Hey, Songha! They said they're getting sucked into you! What is this — that person's going way overboard!"
Lim Seoyoung made a production of it. The makeup artist who had been carefully touching her up for the shoot finally couldn't take it and shouted.
"Seoyoung, hold still! Your eyeliner's run off again!"
"Ah, sorry, unnie."
"The person it's actually about is sitting there quietly listening. Why are you the one losing it?"
LJ let out a short laugh from the next seat.
True to her words, Lee Songha had been sitting quietly the whole time, getting her makeup fixed. She looked calm enough on the surface, but every time I read a comment, one by one, the corner of her well-shaped mouth lifted just a little. And she stared straight at me, as if there were something she wanted to say. Like now.
Lim Seoyoung beamed and pressed me.
"Oppa, oppa, read more, more — isn't there more?"
"I found some too. I'll read a few!"
From the back seat, the stylist who had been scouring the internet shot her hand up.
Every time a comment left her mouth, laughter spread through the van. Me, the traitor in the driver's seat, Kim Hyunjo behind him, Lim Seoyoung and LJ and Lee Taehee, and the makeup artists too. Not one person wasn't laughing.
How long had it been since the mood was this good? Almost the first time since the controversy blew up. Even when Seoyoung and LJ bickered and tried to lift the air, it would sag again and crawl along the floor. The other kids had actually taken it harder than Songha, the one getting torn apart.
But today was different.
After the first Cat Guardian Spirit making-of went up, Lee Songha's acting had become a hot topic all over again — not only on the portals, but across social media and the big community sites. And this time the scale tipped a little further toward defending her. Plenty of people were still cursing her, but a lot of those who had hung back a step to watch had drifted over to her side because of the video.
"Timing's perfect. I was worried anyway, what with the outdoor shoot today."
Beside me, the traitor breathed out in relief.
I nodded and looked out the window. The outdoor stage set was there, and in front of it a crowd murmuring together.
Today's Next K-Star shoot wasn't the public-hall stage. It was the middle of Hongdae. An unfamiliar, cramped stage, an unspecified crowd, and a guerrilla concert without a proper rehearsal — that was the mission. I told myself it probably wouldn't happen, but I'd still been privately worried that something like a water bottle might come flying at the stage mid-show. Thank God public opinion had turned.
"Jung Sunwoo."
Kim Hyunjo leaned toward the passenger seat where I sat. He glanced at the kids chatting happily in the back, then spoke in a low voice.
"That thing you told me yesterday."
"Ah. Yes."
There was only one thing I had told Kim Hyunjo yesterday. Lee Songha's damned former lesson teacher, Shim Kyung-taek — and Son Chae-young.
"I talked it over with Young-hoon hyung, and we both think it's not a bad idea. Even if it doesn't pan out the way you're thinking, the worst that happens is we eat a round of curses. The rest, Young-hoon hyung and I should be able to cover..."
I swallowed and waited for the rest.
At last Kim Hyunjo nodded.
"Go see him tomorrow. Teacher Shim Kyung-taek."
"At this rate it'll be sitting on the real-time search all the way through the night, won't it?"
PR Team Leader Park smiled with satisfaction at the monitor.
A female staffer nodded as she poured drip coffee into three mugs.
"The buzz on this drama really is historic, isn't it? Has any cable drama ever gotten this hot before it even started?"
"Not outside of a series."
"I heard the script reading was incredible too. That Songha's acting was really something."
"At this rate... we might even swallow the networks with the premiere rating, no?"
At the male staffer's words, the woman waved him off.
"Oh, please. You're dreaming too big. That far's a stretch. The terrestrial lineup in the same window is just too strong. There's Timeslip, and there's The Mermaid Who Came Ashore."
Team Leader Park nodded and backed her up.
"Right. The Mermaid Who Came Ashore has a strong script too. That one, you could honestly hope for twenty percent."
"And the reaction in China is huge. It got pushed back here because of Cat Guardian Spirit, but the day the script-reading articles went out, it hit number three on China's overseas-drama buzz chart."
That was possible because Son Chae-young, who had the female lead, and the actor playing the male lead both had a fair amount of recognition in the Chinese-speaking world. The Mermaid Who Came Ashore had already sold its rights to China's largest online platform before a single episode aired.
The female staffer spoke as if she could already taste it.
"If this goes well, we'll open the year hauling with both Mermaid Ashore and Cat Guardian Spirit."
"Tell me about it. We're about to get even busier."
Team Leader Park agreed, but the male staffer alone licked his lips, as if something still sat wrong.
"Team Leader. It's just... why do I keep worrying about that?"
"That?"
"You know. What Sunwoo said last time. That he had a bad feeling about The Mermaid Who Came Ashore..."
He dropped his voice, conscious of the people around them. Team Leader Park and the woman went round-eyed, then laughed out loud.
"Nothing to worry about. It was a joke. Why are you taking a joke so seriously?"
"But right after that, he said he had a good feeling about Cat Guardian Spirit. That he thought that one would do well."
The laughter cut off cold. For a moment, three pairs of eyes drifted without a word.
All three of them had read the synopsis for Cat Guardian Spirit. Not one of them had expected the project to become this much of a sensation. If anything, they remembered saying — about Jung Sunwoo, who had carried that synopsis off like treasure — that the passion was admirable for a new hire, but the eye could use more time to develop.
Scratching at her cheek, Team Leader Park gave the male staffer's shoulder a hearty slap.
"Sure. If Cat Guardian Spirit succeeds, then Sunwoo's eye really is something. Whatever anyone says, we'd have to give him that. But a bad feeling about The Mermaid Who Came Ashore... I don't know."
"Exactly. That's a mid-tier hit at the very worst. It's a show that couldn't flop if it tried. Unless the writer and the director lose their minds halfway through and the whole thing runs off into the mountains."
Just as the woman chimed in, the PR team office door flew open.
And Son Chae-young — the very face of pure innocence — walked in wearing a vicious look.
"What's she doing here again?"
"Probably back to whine because Cat Guardian Spirit hit number one on real-time search."
"Ugh. If I end up with a hole in my stomach, it's all her."
Still muttering, Team Leader Park got up to meet her. Son Chae-young skipped any greeting and asked point-blank.
"Where's the division head? He wasn't in his office."
"The division head? He left for China yesterday morning with the CEO."
Son Chae-young bit her faintly flushed lip.
"Team Leader, are you lying to me?"
"What?"
"If this is how you're going to be, I can't renew my contract with W&U."
She fired it like a shot.
Team Leader Park swallowed her disbelief and sighed. That was Son Chae-young's personal repertoire, a line she'd heard until she was sick of it during the last renewal too. Whenever something didn't go the way she wanted, it popped out like a catchphrase.
"Tell me what's going on. Why would I lie to you?"
"You're saying the division head left for China yesterday morning?"
"That's what I'm telling you. You know the home appliance commercial you and Dowon shot together in China. The renewal came up, so he went to meet with their people."
"Do you think I'm deaf?"
As if the patience she barely had to begin with had already run out, Son Chae-young's voice rose.
"......What?"