After Story 168

“See you again next time,” Haneul said as she left the get-together.

She left the building and was waiting for a taxi when someone spoke to her from behind. It was director Lee Sooae.

“I’m sorry, Haneul.”

“Stop apologizing. These kinds of things just happen in life. You just have to do better next time.”

“Thanks for telling me that. But do you think I can even do a next work?”

“Unni, don’t think about anything today and just go home and have a good rest. Whatever you do right now, you’ll only have negative thoughts.”

Sooae palmed her face and sighed before taking out a cigarette. While the thin tip of the cigarette burned, a taxi drove by.

“Weren’t you supposed to get that?”

“I can grab the next one. Anyway, you’re smoking when you haven’t smoked even once throughout the shoot?”

“I just feel frustrated. I got a bad feeling when I went to the distributors with the rough outcome. I thought I was becoming depressed when I was editing it. I had confidence too. I really did.”

Sooae’s lips twitched as though she was about to cry at any moment, but she eventually just chuckled.

“I’m the most sorry to you above everyone else. I didn’t want to consume your character like this.”

“People are going to think there’s a funeral around here after looking at your face. I’m fine, so don’t worry about it. Even if the responses from the premiere aren’t good, the movie has yet to go on screen. Who knows? It might become popular.”

“What do you think about it then? Do you think our movie is going to be popular?”

Haneul slightly looked upwards.

“I wish it does.”

Sooae nodded and threw the cigarette butt into the sewer.

“Are you going to work with me next time as well?”

“If the story’s good, sure. I really enjoyed working with you, unni. No one can tell for sure whether something’s going to be popular or not. It’s not like you did badly on purpose either. You said it was going to be great while we were doing the shoot.”

“I thought it would slap Citizen Kane in the face.”

Sooae used both of her hands to put her hair behind her ears. She looked a little better now.

“Do you want to drink some more at a cocktail bar?”

“I’d love to, but I have to go. Why don’t you get a young man inside to sit down next to you instead of me?”

Sooae smiled and waved her hand in denial. Haneul waved her hand at the taxi on the other side of the road. The taxi turned off its ‘vacant’ sign and did a U-turn.

“Careful on your way home.”

“You should go home soon too, director. Stay away from internet news for a while.”

“I was planning to stuff my phone in my desk drawer until the movie goes down. I’m planning to stuff myself in my home too.”

“If you’re bored you can call me.”

Haneul got in the taxi. She told the driver her address and buried herself in the seat. The premiere was rather chaotic. She thought that the movie was going to be pretty decent when they were doing the shoot, but now that the final results were out, she saw that it was an awkward mixture of awkward things.

She did lower her expectations during the internal premiere, but even when she looked at it again, it still disappointed her.

For a movie, the norm was to cut up time and space and shoot in whichever order was the most convenient. The only way for the actors to know the context of the story was through the script.

For this film, the script was good. She liked the lines as well. However, the scenes she thought were okay disappeared from the final product. The scenes that were supposed to make up the framework were reduced by a lot, and the scenes that were supposed to flesh out the characters were also pushed out of priority.

With that, they managed to gain speed and momentum, but the structure became weak. The director must have felt it during the editing as well. She might even have wanted to reshoot some parts to make up for it. However, in a situation where the entire shooting staff had pulled out, there was no distributor who would pay to hire shooting staff for missing cuts, much less re-shooting an existing one.

Of course, if director Lee Sooae was a well-known master of action films and a guaranteed success ticket, then the distributor and production companies would have given her a chance.

Then, there was one of the main actors who got caught up in gossip. The movie looked precarious and there was an actor who turned journalists into his enemy.

It was hard to estimate how many days the movie will last in cinemas.

“This isn’t easy.”

She placed her palm on her cheek and rubbed it in circles. She felt that it was a bit of a shame, but she didn’t feel disappointed. There were just too many movies that she guided to success, as well as flopped to ruin, for her to become emotional over just one movie.

Movies were like a game of cards. No one would know what the outcome would be like unless it was flipped over. It was somewhat predictable by taking into account the cards in one’s hand and the cards on the table, but that was just a prediction. If a good card comes out, then it would rake in all the money, and if not, then they would have to cough up.

Haneul visited the convenience store before going back. She wanted to have a drink with her husband.

But when she actually arrived at home, she couldn’t see him. She saw him at the premiere, and he shouldn’t have any appointments today.

She tried calling him. He did not pick up. Did he have an urgent appointment maybe?

She sat down on the sofa and browsed through some internet news articles.

As she had expected, the ruckus that occurred during the premiere had become articles. An actor who verbally abuses journalists frequently — those journalists sure had a knack for creating titles. She didn’t know whether she should be happy or sad that she was receiving interest like this.

After stretching herself lightly, she had a shower. It was past 10. If the atmosphere at the premiere was good, then the get-together should still be underway right now.

She dried her hair and was playing with the cat when the door opened. It was Maru.

“You’re back early?” he said.

“You saw what happened at the premiere. No one was in the mood to laugh and drink, so we all split up after having dinner. Where have you been, sweetie? Did you have an appointment after the premiere?”

“I suddenly got one. It was with Mr. Na Baekhoon.”

“Na Baekhoon? The same one I know?”

“Yes.”

“How did you get involved with him?”

“I saw him at the premiere. I just said hello and shared a few words when he asked if I was dating Miss Han Haneul.”

“Did he hear it through Miss Dawoon?”

“I don’t think so. When I heard the situation from him, it was quite easy to deduce. If he talked about anything else, I would’ve simply ignored him and come back home, but I became curious when he suddenly blurted out things like that. So I went to his house to have a talk.”

Haneul listened to her husband talk about what conversation he had with Na Baekhoon over some beer.

“It wasn’t that common, but he’s the kind of character we’ve seen a few times, huh,” Haneul said as she thought back on Na Baekhoon’s face.

According to her husband, he wasn’t a problematic character. In fact, he would be helpful to them.

“Thanks to that though, I got one less thing to worry about.”

“What is that?”

“Jung Dawoon.”

“Miss Dawoon?”

“I did wrap things up, but there was still something that made me feel iffy. It would be even better if Dawoon stays still, but there’s the ‘what if.’ Director Na said he’ll handle that himself.”

Haneul frowned. “You sound like a total villain.”

“It’s always the bad guys who live a good life. They doubt, worry and prepare for everything. You need to be diligent to become a villain.”

“Don’t push her too much. I found her pitiful because she looks mentally unstable.”

“I’m going to have her receive treatment and even help her find her own life. I’m going to do it for certain so that she can’t do anything weird with the excuse that she’s mentally unstable. You know how many of my lives ended. Leaving your side because of a weird accident is something I don’t want to experience anymore.”

Haneul grabbed her husband’s hand. He had experienced so many different types of deaths that just writing them down would be a full novel.

Although there were many deaths resulting from illnesses such as cancer and brain diseases, being killed by someone else didn’t amount to just a small number either. It wouldn’t be strange even if he avoided people out of distrust.

However, he had won against that through his strong willpower and was trying his best to lead an ordinary life. It was quite marveling to watch him by his side.

“At least in this life, I’m going to die one day earlier than you, sweetie, so don’t worry about it.”

“Well, thanks for that.” He smiled.

“Director Na invited me out to a meal, and you too.”

“Me too?”

“He wants us to visit whenever we’re comfortable. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to make a visit. He’s a decent guy to have by our side as a helper. If you don’t like him, then it’s fine even if we refuse. He said he’ll be content just watching.”

“Let’s make some time and visit him. We’ll see if he’s simply crazy or just pursues his ideas like you said.”

After that, they talked about the movie. Her husband was of the same opinion as her.

He, who worked as a cultural critic and a movie marketer, had negative opinions about the movie, so this movie would definitely not be received well.

“I really don’t like there being a gap between us as actors…,” she muttered as she looked at him.

At this moment, their payment would probably differ severalfold.

Although actresses were traditionally valued lower than male actors in the movie industry, she didn’t like the fact that there was such a big gap already.

“Why don’t you take a year off? So I can get some career experience?”

“As much as I’d like to, I got work already. I have to go out tomorrow,” he responded with a smile.

“Where are you going?”

“The drama outsourcing production company. Studio Rain, I think they were called? Senior Ganghwan and I decided to go together.”

“Did Mr. Ganghwan really say he’ll do it?”

“Yeah.”

“Looks like this will become a huge piece of news. But he’s one incredible person alright. For us, we’ve seen a lot of things, so we don’t feel repulsive against such works, but it wouldn’t be strange if he wanted to stay away from it.”

“It just makes me realize that the wall of talent and instinct is insurmountable even with time. I looked up all the works that he appeared in. That guy is incredible even in this timeline. I really don’t like the word genius, but I don’t think there’s any other word that suits him.”

“Looks like you gotta do your best not to get drowned under him, hubby.”

“I have to do my best, and I need to do well.”

She had a close look at her husband who put on a faint smile. He looked like a sports player prior to an important match. There was glee and nervousness on his face like he was going to stand on a big stage. Being able to shoot with an exceptional actor was just that exciting.

“Have you heard about your payment?”

Aside from participating in a good work, monetary issues couldn’t be left out either. Hearing her question, Maru stroked his chin.

“I heard the general amount, but I think it’s going to increase tomorrow. I managed to get senior Ganghwan, so I should get something out of it.”

* * *

General manager Lee made a glance at the man sitting in the meeting room and spoke to his junior standing next to him.

“That is Yang Ganghwan, right?”

“I think so. He’s just a little chubbier than before.”

“He really is here.”

“The planning department is in an uproar right now.”

“Sure they are. Yang Ganghwan popped out of nowhere.”

“Getting Han Maru was a good enough result, but we suddenly struck gold.”

General manager Lee smiled. The fatigue from last night disappeared in an instant. It seemed that the ad slots for this drama would sell out like crazy.

Especially with product placements. Yang Ganghwan was known to be picky about choosing what kind of products he would do commercials for, yet such an actor was going to eat, wear, and use some products? Advertisers would line up wanting to be in the drama.

“But it seems like actors have a set of eyes for discerning work. The marketing department said that this work would never go well.”

“Whatever it is, the pioneers are bound to receive a lot of criticism. We really don’t know how this will turn out. If Myungjoon does well and the actors do their stuff properly, then we’ll strike a jackpot on a private-owned channel drama.”

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

“Looks like it’ll be heavily promoted too, since it’s Yang Ganghwan after all.”

The employees at the company all perked their heads out like meerkats and looked into the meeting room.

Not long later, the door to the meeting room opened. Although this wasn’t the official contract, it seemed that the talks went well, as they were shaking hands with smiles.

“We might be able to get a big bonus as soon as the company’s founded.”

“I’d have no other wish if that happens.”

General manager Lee looked at the busy marketing department. Soon, there would be a flood of articles on the internet.