A Legendary Drama in Every Sense (2)
Not a chance. Not for you.
"I've tried talking him around through Chief Lee Bong-joon every time we're on set, but Cat Guardian Spirit is at such a critical point that freeing his schedule seems genuinely impossible."
I let the excuse unspool with a troubled face. PD Go Joon-tae knit his brow.
It wasn't only that I wanted to feed the man a mouthful of misery — though that reason did occupy a generous share of it. The decision had been reached after I'd talked it through with Team Leader Park in PR and with Kim Hyunjo. If Seo Ji-joon appearing on Next K-Star had been a real opportunity for Neptune, I would have asked first, however much I couldn't stand PD Go. The moment he wondered whether Seo Ji-joon might come on the show, I would have grabbed it with both hands. Work was work, and personal feelings were personal feelings.
But there was no need to go that far. Thanks to Lee Songha, Neptune had built more recognition than anyone expected, and earned something precious along with it: the image of a girl group that could actually perform. Now was the time to firm that image up on good stages. Haul Seo Ji-joon into a finale venue packed with an audience, though, and Neptune could easily end up as the sideshow. It might also look as if we had no faith in our own stage and were dragging in agency connections to compensate. Either way, it would do nothing for the image of a group that stood on skill.
And breaking eight percent? Of course that would be nice. Even if we didn't, Next K-Star was already a success. It had been holding a steady six to seven. If we were going to put Seo Ji-joon on television with us at all, we were better off doing it on a different show. I closed it out with a heavy sigh.
"I'm frustrated too, honestly."
"Come on. You're not strangers. Same agency — how can it be that hard?"
He was the one sounding disappointed, so he'd been putting on a clumsy show of friendliness. A leopard doesn't change its spots. Irritation was starting to creep into his eyes.
"I don't have the rank yet to move Mr. Seo. I'll keep trying to talk him around until the finale, but the way things are going, I really don't think it's likely."
"Ah, this can't fall through. I already reported up to the director that we'd locked Seo Ji-joon."
That's your problem.
I'd heard the talk. Rumors had been moving through the staff: everyone was in an uproar trying to book Seo Ji-joon, and word was that PD Go Joon-tae might actually land him. On the strength of it he'd been strutting, and the PDs on other shows were jealous. So the story had climbed all the way to the director.
PD Go tore at his hair. He looked one breath away from seizing me by the neck and shaking, bellowing Bring him! I said bring him, no matter what!
Gorgeous. And I'd told him, how many times, not to get his hopes up. The bastard.
I worked to keep it off my face. The broadcast wasn't even over. No point making an enemy yet. If the Seo Ji-joon booking died, they might still try to use Lee Songha as kindling on the finale, but booking calls for her alongside him were already coming in from Knet's variety side. They couldn't toy with her as openly as they had when she was a nobody. As for the devil's editing, I'd grown calloused enough to endure it. The air was shifting little by little, too. At some point the people cursing PD Go had multiplied until they matched the people cursing Lee Songha.
He licked his dry lips.
"If your word doesn't land, couldn't Ms. Lee Songha try talking to him?"
"Songha?"
"If Songha asks, I think Mr. Seo would take it more seriously. From what I've seen, she listens to you so obediently. Just have a word with her."
Obedient? Did he think the kid was a pet?
I stared, dumbfounded, and he casually draped an arm over my shoulder.
"It's a little awkward for me to say it myself. I get the feeling Songha's uncomfortable around me. Whatever the process, what matters is that we both win — but women get emotional about these things instead of thinking like businesspeople."
Win-win. Listen to him. The same man who had cared about nothing but ratings, whether Lee Songha had rocks thrown at her or not. My face was about to slip. I was dragging in a deep breath when a familiar voice cut in.
"He said no."
Lee Songha came around the corner. Maybe it was the stage costume; force poured off every step. From the momentum alone, you would have thought she wasn't heading onstage but off to save the planet.
"Ah, Ms. Songha."
"Oppa asked Chief Lee about the booking, so I asked sunbae myself. He said he's too busy. It won't work."
Well, well. Her voice was as flat as if she were reading lines from a script.
PD Go rushed in.
"Seo Ji-joon said that? He shut it down flat?"
"Yes. He's the lead, so he's the busiest one there. I only got scolded for bringing it up."
"Is there really no room to push a little more?"
"No."
Lee Songha let out a long sigh. Good lord.
Watching her stuck between Seo Ji-joon and Son Chae-young, I had worried no small amount about whether she could survive a jungle like that. Chief Lee Bong-joon had been right. Needless fussing. It was a strange feeling. I had thought she was a freshly hatched tadpole, and here I was watching the hind legs sprout.
Attagirl. Attagirl.
I met her eyes once, then looked at PD Go.
"We did everything we could to make this happen. It's a real shame it fell through."
"Ah..."
Maybe the words had landed like a death sentence. His face went the color of wet ash. I had wanted to upend an entire cartload of shit onto that face. This wasn't the full cart, but I had managed to fling a solid clump, and the satisfaction was immense.
His lips worked. He dragged a hand down his face again and again. He must have had no idea what he was going to tell the director. I bowed to him where he stood with his head down and left with Lee Songha. Only after we turned the corner did I grin. She had been following at my side with sidelong glances, and out of habit she caught my sleeve.
"Are you in a good mood?"
"Of course. I feel completely cleared out. You?"
"I feel good too."
The sleeve in her pale, slender hand swayed, ticklish. And Lee Songha's lips, stained coral, curved into a faint smile. Adrenaline tore through my whole body and struck up the band.
The Mermaid Who Came Ashore had slipped even further in the ratings. It was a dead heat with Cat Guardian Spirit now. I'd heard their set was a complete shitshow, and fans of the original novel were already up in arms. Once Cat Guardian Spirit aired this week, the balance would turn for certain.
Curious what kind of face Son Chae-young was walking around with, I had been scanning the office every time I went in, and somehow I never ran into her. All I heard was that she was still latched onto Team Leader Park in PR, raising hell. Anyway, the time was coming for what I had said to CEO Baek Han-sung to take on flesh. These days the thought crossed my mind several times a day. Really — would he grant what I had hoped for? And if he did, what price would Son Chae-young end up paying?
And on Friday evening, I went to the movie theater with Lee Songha.
The movie theater. Sanctuary of my heart.
The moment the sweet, nutty smell of popcorn hit me, I understood how little room to breathe I'd had these past few months. Good lord. Of the films up on the screens, I hadn't seen a single one. There were titles I had never even heard of. Before I joined the company I had been in and out of places like this several times a week. If I had my way I would have watched four in a row and left, but, painfully enough, I hadn't come to see a movie today either.
I had come to make good on the ratings pledge. The PR team had poured real care into it: an event where we booked out an entire theater and watched the live broadcast with the fans.
I opened the heavy door and looked into the house. A little over two hundred seats, packed until it was hard to breathe. They had taken fans first come, first served, and I'd heard several hundred people flooded in the instant the post went up. Seo Ji-joon's influence, of course. Even a glance showed women in overwhelming numbers. I brushed past the buzzing crowd and headed for the center seats.
Calling it a press section was a little grand, but with Cat Guardian Spirit drawing more noise by the day, quite a few reporters had come. Each of them had a laptop on their knees, hammering keys or checking a camera. In the middle of them I found a familiar face.
"Hello, Reporter Park."
"Manager!"
Big glasses. An outfit that seemed to care about nothing but staying warm — parka, turtleneck, even a scarf, layered thick. Park Woo-jung, unchanged no matter how long it had been, waved happily and came over.
"Wow, I barely recognize you. In a few months your whole air is just... anyone who didn't know better would think you were a veteran manager, not a new hire."
"All kinds of things happened in between. You seem a lot more at ease yourself."
"I've had my share of chaos too. Seriously, we need to get a drink sometime."
"We really do. Oh — and write us a good piece today, please."
"Oh, don't start. You know I always write the Neptune and Songha articles like I'm making a whole work of art. Ah, but —"
She said it carefully.
"Manager, Ms. Lee Songha and Mr. Seo Ji-joon are both here now, right?"
"Yes. They're getting ready in the temporary waiting room."
"Would it be all right if we took just one shot of them preparing?"
Her cheeks were red, as if the ask embarrassed her, and she kept glancing at a man watching from behind. A camera hung from his neck. A photographer from the photo desk, by the look of him. Last time her editor had ordered her to bring up an interview with me. This time that man must have pushed her to at least ask. Sure enough, she went on in a small voice.
"Word got around that I know you well, so that sunbae shoved me into saying something. If you tell me no, I'll drop it right away."
"Hmm. One second."
I called Kim Hyunjo in the waiting room. Against every expectation, permission came at once. I led Reporter Park — dazed and delighted together — and the photographer down to the room.
The moment we walked in, Lee Songha, already changed, came over.
"Oppa, where did you go? I was just about to come find you."
"Why, afraid you'd get lost in the theater?"
"I was just wondering where you were."
"I ran into a reporter. Remember? Reporter Park Woo-jung."
Songha gave a small bow. Reporter Park, rigid as a block of wood, bowed back. She was the polite version. The photographer behind her had his mouth open so wide I could see a tongue I had no desire to see.
I was used to reactions like that now. Visual shock, basically. I had been glued to Songha for months, and even I still startled now and then. Today especially, they had gone all out for once — hair and makeup both. Man or woman, if you had eyes, it was a face you couldn't look at without marveling. And they had put a short dress on her besides.
She noticed my gaze on the dress, caught the hem awkwardly, and asked.
"They said it's a sponsorship piece. How is it?"
"It suits you. Please. You'd be pretty stuffed in a potato sack."
What wouldn't suit her.
The photographer, coming back to himself, hauled out a heavy camera and snapped a few frames of the makeup artist plastered to Songha and Seo Ji-joon, touching up their faces. Watching that, I remembered a piece of business.
"Oh, right, Reporter Park. That thing you mentioned last time. My interview."
"Yes, yes."
"It's late, but PR says it should be fine."
Her eyes went wide.
"Really?!"
"But will an interview with me actually make a story?"
"I'll rack my brain and shape it into something that works. Ah, after we're done I'll buy you a beer. Timing — how about Monday or Tuesday?"
"There's a shoot."
Songha said it for me. Even while she took her makeup, her eyes were pinned this way.
"Um, I checked the schedule. There's filming Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday too."
"Wednesday should be clear. They pushed it because snow's forecast that day."
At that she jabbed at her phone and answered quickly.
"They say snow only in some areas. It might not even reach the set."
"Yeah?"
Damn. Then the schedule might change again. Every drama set was hard, but the worst of it was having to stay braced on standby day after day. Weather, conditions on site — the schedule swung too wildly.
I was telling Reporter Park I would try to carve out as much time as I could when a strange laugh sounded. Chief Lee Bong-joon. Kim Hyunjo was staring at him as if he were a lunatic, and Chief Lee only giggled, looking back and forth between me and Songha.
That look again. Something sly in it — and, at the same time, a look exploding with the pleasure of recognition.
One hour before air.
Security walked us into the auditorium. A little over two hundred people in the seats screamed like something out of a horror film, and I startled. On top of that, the photographers' flashes. The heat was thick.
For the fans who had waited, we started with a simple event. The MC threw out a quiz, and the people who got it right received autographs from Seo Ji-joon and Lee Songha and photos with them. I had worried the crowd would swarm only his way. Fortunately a fair number of drama fans seemed to have come; quite a few wanted Songha's signature and picture too. Seo Ji-joon chatted with them and hugged them with an easy hand, pouring out fan service. Songha stole glances that way and followed along pretty well.
A few steps off, I passed out autograph cards and pens and took photos on my phone in case they would be useful later. She looked my way, so I took one more. She must have noticed. On the screen, she smiled, just a little.
Then, as if it were the next turn, a gaunt man walked out to the center. He had a baseball cap pulled down low, and the expression showing under the shadow was off. His muttering burrowed into my ear.
"Damn. She's killer in person."
I frowned and kept watching. He must have asked for a hug. Songha opened her arms a little. And the next moment, he pulled her in.
The feeling was all wrong, so I moved closer. There had been a few hugs already, but everyone had been decent about it — a light touch, then they sprang away. Nobody had clutched her like a reunion of families split by the war. The MC's attention was caught on Seo Ji-joon's side, so I tapped the man's shoulder myself.
"All right, all right, that's enough..."
Songha had been standing there awkwardly, only blinking. The moment she saw me, relief crossed her face. I tapped harder. He showed no thought of letting go. Instead he grinned and ran a hand down her back.
My brow clenched.
This bastard, with the kid. Dying to earn himself a pair of handcuffs, is he.
"I said stop."