Taking the Shot (4)

"Got something to say to me?"

The traitor asked.

There was nothing to flinch about. From the moment I'd walked into the Next K-Star studio, I had been staring at him outright, and even now scenarios blotched with betrayal and open war were unspooling in my head. In those, I'd already taken it in the back of the skull a hundred times, and dealt it out a hundred times myself.

"I do."

"Then say it. Something serious?"

"Not exactly."

I said it while studying the traitor's face.

"The chief said you've been putting real work into something lately. Got me curious."

"Ah... that."

He dragged a thumb along his lower lip and flicked me a glance. The mouth that usually did nothing but smile, as if the smile had been drawn on, twisted a little. He looked uncomfortable.

A moment later the traitor answered, voice clear.

"Sorry. I don't want to talk about it yet."

"You don't want to talk about it?"

"If it works out, I'll tell you then. Run my mouth about the whole thing and then watch it fall apart, and that's just embarrassing."

Smiling, the traitor gave my shoulder a light tap.

If I'd heard this from anyone else, curiosity would already have been knotting my arms and legs—and this was Choi Geon-young. A colleague I spent more hours stuck to than anyone, and still a potential bomb I could never truly let my guard down around.

I couldn't leave things like this forever. Better to have him gone from my sight entirely than to keep bracing for the moment he went off.

I was thinking it with a cold head when, for the first time in a long while, the world went black.

I had never been so glad to see a field of vision this shredded with noise.

How long had it been? The visions had stayed gone so long that I'd been making a deliberate effort not to think about the precognition, because I hadn't wanted to depend on it. A power that appeared out of nowhere could vanish the same way, and if it did, I had no idea how I would ever find it again.

But with the future set down in front of my eyes, I understood how badly I had been waiting for this, and how relieved I was now. I forced the surging feeling down and focused every sense, terrified of missing so much as a scrap.

I couldn't tell exactly where we were. The noise was too heavy, the picture cutting out in chunks. What I could be sure of was that Kim Hyunjo and the traitor were sitting in front of me. Both hairstyles were nearly identical to now. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠No change in their faces, either. Kim Hyunjo was wearing a thick winter turtleneck.

It felt like the very near future.

"I thought the whole thing was wasted effort. So did Young-hoon hyung. You're a relentless bastard, though. The kind of guy who makes it, no matter what it is."

Kim Hyunjo clicked his tongue and laughed.

The traitor couldn't quite hide how pleased he was.

"In a way, it's thanks to Sunwoo."

Thanks to me?

I was just starting to think he'd finally swung for the back of my head when the traitor smiled.

"We started the same day, but the gap between us kept widening, so I ended up working even harder."

The view flipped over again.

I was standing once more in front of the seats in the open hall. I turned, and there was the traitor, smiling as he watched the stage where the recording was still underway. A smile close to the one I'd just seen in the future.

So... the thing I'd been afraid of wasn't happening?

From the way Kim Hyunjo had looked pleased, whatever the traitor was pouring himself into was very likely something that helped us. Helped Neptune. And since Kim Hyunjo had known about it anyway, it probably wasn't a matter in which any bad intention had shown itself.

Relief came, and then another thought cut across it.

I had already seen the future and changed the present, and I had lived through the future changing because of it. In a situation like that, could I really say the Choi Geon-young who had struck me from behind and stolen the chance, and the Choi Geon-young standing beside me now, were necessarily the same person?

The thought came. Only for an instant.

Maybe. Maybe it could be like that.

But unless I looked through every inch of Choi Geon-young's skull and was one hundred percent certain, I was never going to trust him in earnest.

And if a chance ever came to stop looking at Choi Geon-young altogether, I would take it.

"You want what?"

Bae Jang-ho, bureau chief of TVL's drama division, looked up in the middle of signing a document. In front of him stood Manager Song, the CP in charge of Cat Guardian Spirit, and Director Shin Tae-gyun, side by side. Manager Song cleared his throat and was just about to speak when Director Shin Tae-gyun beat him to it.

"Give us a slot so we can air a special."

"You bastard, right out of the gate—what, did you dump the schedule on the chief?"

Manager Song jabbed Shin Tae-gyun in the side. Worn down by an all-night shoot and edit, the director scrunched his exhausted face a little further.

"That thing last time wasn't a joke?"

Bureau Chief Bae asked Manager Song.

"Back then it was half joke, half serious. Now it's serious. I checked the schedule. We can wedge it in."

"Is this cast lineup blockbuster-movie grade?"

"Sorry? No, not quite that."

"Then are you confident you can pull over ten percent?"

"Chief, that hurdle's way too high. Anything over ten percent would be historic."

When Manager Song laid the complaint on thick, Bureau Chief Bae answered in a dry voice.

"Up to now, those are the only dramas we've given specials."

"But this situation is a little different. The buzz is explosively high right now, except the interest is stuck on Lee Songha herself more than on the drama. The moment the Lee Songha controversy disappears, that interest might drop with it. So we make a special, burn the controversy clean, and soak all of that attention into the drama before it walks off."

"..."

Under the heated pitch, Bureau Chief Bae rubbed his chin as if weighing it.

Director Shin Tae-gyun broke the silence.

"Then watch the edited cuts of parts one and two, and think it over."

At that, Bureau Chief Bae set his fountain pen down.

A couple of hours later, he pulled his eyes off the screen as it faded back to black.

"I'll carve out a slot. Go ahead and do it."

Three days later, in the Knet basement cafeteria, PD Go Joon-tae was in the middle of a conversation with his CP, Manager Park.

"Hyung, the episode I'm editing right now hits eight percent the day it airs."

"Eight percent? Then I'm buying the whole team dinner that day."

Wrapped in yet another flashy muffler, Manager Park said it while poking through his stew.

"What makes you so sure? You said you were up two nights straight. Did the edit come out that good?"

"Better than good. The second this airs, it's trending. Guaranteed. There's Lee Songha, and one of the members who raps in Punchline. I'm going to pair the two of them and cook up a little pink atmosphere. Like they're quietly sliding into a thing."

"What?"

Manager Park's brow drew tight. Go Joon-tae either didn't see it or didn't care. He went on with a slick smile.

"That Punchline kid looked interested in Lee Songha. The cameras caught him staring holes through her more than once. Punchline's the most popular of the guest teams. Spice that little crush up even a bit and the reaction will catch fire. W&U ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠will lose their shit again, but we'll smooth that over nice and careful, same as last time..."

"Hey. The timing on that is bad right now."

Manager Park cut him off, looking troubled.

"Bad how?"

"The bureau chief caught something that leaked out of TVL. Word over there is Cat Guardian Spirit is a solid mid-tier hit at worst, and a smash if it goes well. They've even locked a special. So he told us to book Seo Ji-joon early."

"And?"

"A few PDs have put out feelers, but W&U's response is lukewarm. Says he wants to focus on the work for now. At this rate I'm going to have to step in and persuade them myself. So until we've got Seo Ji-joon, don't poke W&U too hard."

Go Joon-tae set his spoon down with a clack. Irritation soaked his voice.

"Hyung, I pulled an all-nighter editing this. I'm telling you, I cut it so it kills."

"There's still time before broadcast. Recut it. I'm not saying throw it out. Keep it, and use it after Seo Ji-joon's locked."

"Then just ask the TVL drama bureau to make the introduction. It'll be settled in no time. They'll want to run the leads through variety to promote the drama anyway."

"After the way you screwed them last time, you think they're going to help you?"

Manager Park clicked his tongue. Remembering too late, Go Joon-tae twisted his face. They were the ones who had tied Lee Songha to Cat Guardian Spirit and manufactured the controversy in the first place. There was no way TVL's drama bureau was going to look kindly on them.

"Well, in the end the promo worked great because of it."

Go Joon-tae took a swallow of cold water and grumbled.

"Right. Like you said, the promo was incredible. Even my daughter, who doesn't watch dramas, knows what Cat Guardian Spirit is. And in a situation like that, you think they're going to force themselves onto a variety show for publicity? When they're already talking up a special like it's some grand event?"

Wiping the corner of his mouth with a napkin, Manager Park suddenly brightened.

"Hey, forget that. What if we put Seo Ji-joon on Next K-Star once?"

"What?"

"Slotting him in is easy. Neptune support, whatever, we can stick any excuse on it. Grab a two-shot with Lee Songha while they're both scorching hot and send it out. Wouldn't that hit eight percent?"

As if he had never complained, the color came back into Go Joon-tae's face.

"You're plugging him into my show? Then obviously, thank you."

"No. You go get him."

The brightness dulled right back to gray.

"You said it was about to be your job to step in. How am I supposed to land him?"

"You know Lee Songha's manager, right? The one who goes around with her on the drama shoot."

"The manager?"

Go Joon-tae's eyes dropped, as if he were digging through memory.

"If it's the manager trailing the drama, he probably isn't a chief. So one of the two. The pleasant-looking one, or the one who isn't."

"From what I hear, Lee Songha's manager gets along well with the chief over at Seo Ji-joon's. Why don't you try asking that side? They say Seo Ji-joon listens to that chief."

Go Joon-tae cocked his head as if he'd misheard.

"You want me to do what? Go whining and clinging to a road manager?"

"Clinging. I'm just saying, what's the harm in asking. I can't do it. I'm the CP. And think about it. Seo Ji-joon, the one the other PDs can't land, caught by you, the guy whose ratings keep climbing. How good is the bureau chief going to feel about that?"

Once the bureau chief entered the picture, Go Joon-tae's expression eased a little. He was quiet, as if turning it over, and then he opened his mouth.

"...Fine. Hell. I'll ask."

Manager Park had just brightened when Go Joon-tae crossed his legs and added one last condition.

The air was different from the morning on.

It sounded a little ridiculous, but it really was. Denser, maybe. Heavier. Either way, not like usual.

I had waited so long for this day, and now that the morning of the showdown had actually dawned, all I could do was stare into space. Maybe I'd slept too much. That might have been it. I was yawning out the window when the phone buzzed under the blanket.

I fumbled around, found it, and opened it to a disgusting swarm of texts and chat notifications. Some from my parents and my brother's family. Some from my friends. Some from reporter Park Woo-jung, from people at the company and the Neptune members, from TVL and Pan Production. Past that, reporters, PDs, and writers whose names I didn't know. My phone had grown unusually popular since I started this job, but today was the peak of it.

Scrolling through, I found one thing they all had in common.

I got up at once and sat down in front of the laptop. The moment I opened the portal, a bold headline on the main page caught my eye.

Only then did my head clear.

It really is today.

Today was the day Cat Guardian Spirit went on the air under the name of a special. And, just like the confident line hung on the headline, it was the day every controversy that had dragged on for more than a month got pulled out by the roots.

I drew a deep breath and checked the mood online.

Reading them, a smile rose to my mouth on its own.

The reaction was the hottest it had been yet. People spewing malice at Lee Songha, people watching out of interest, people pinning on the name of fan and cheering—they had massed into one enormous wave. Good intentions or bad, tonight every one of them would end up sitting in front of a television.

For now, that was enough.

I closed the laptop. A few questions drifted through my head.

How would Cat Guardian Spirit actually do? From the moment the cast changed and the show was swallowed by a massive controversy, it had already diverged a long way from the drama I'd seen in the future. But I had watched Director Shin Tae-gyun's direction. I had watched the actors act.

I didn't think for a second that this drama was going to fail.

What I wanted to know was how far the success would go.

And starting today—what would change, by how much, and in what way?

To empty my head, I showered and got ready for work at an easy pace. Neither Next K-Star nor Cat Guardian Spirit had a shoot today anyway. The Neptune members would spend the whole day at the dorm, and Kim Hyunjo, the traitor, and I planned to meet at the company in the afternoon and head over there. We were going to watch the Cat Guardian Spirit special the way we'd monitored Next K-Star's first broadcast together last time.

I put the laptop in my bag and left the studio.

Eight hours later, I had the laptop on my knees. Then, with a soft tap, I hit refresh.