Chapter 4: Misunderstanding (4)

Translator: Dreamscribe

“Killing time?” Killing time? The main PD, who had a break during the first preliminary round of ‘Super Actor,’ laughed absurdly in the corridor. The reason was simple.

She, with short hair, had just heard a shocking statement from Kang Woojin over the phone.

‘He said he acted that well… out of boredom? How high is his self-esteem?’

Given that it was done out of boredom, Kang Woojin’s performance a few hours ago was remarkably high-caliber. It was jaw-dropping. Woojin, who nonchalantly delivered such a performance, coolly left for home, and now he’s saying that it was just to kill time in his rather somber tone.

‘Certainly, He’s is not ordinary.’

Anyway, the main PD responded on the phone, maintaining a faint smile.

“Haha, Mr. Woojin. Saying it was just killing time. You’re quite candid, aren’t you?”

Soon, Kang Woojin’s firm and restrained voice could be heard from the other end of the phone.

“I can’t help it. That’s the truth. So you can forget about it.”

Forget? How could she forget? At this point, the main PD was certain.

‘Right. He really doesn’t care about what happened today. It feels like acting is just a hobby to him, nothing more, nothing less.’

A question followed.

‘But isn’t it natural for someone with that level of skill to want to become famous? He’s tall, and his looks were okay too.’

Why would he let such extraordinary acting skills go to waste? Her curiosity was piqued, but it seemed difficult to understand with common sense. At least in the main PD’s thoughts. Whatever the case, Kang Woojin refused to appear on ‘Super Actor’.

Quite a regrettable outcome for the main PD.

Though she wasn’t certain, she thought that if the show aired, the spotlight would be on Kang Woojin. But she couldn’t use the footage without his consent.

Therefore, the main PD, while letting out a regretful sigh, opened her mouth again.

“Killing time. Yes, I understand. But aren’t you really wasting an opportunity?”

“Not at all.”

Listening to his firm voice, it didn’t seem like he would change his mind at all.

“Okay. I understand. Then, I’ll discard your footage as appropriate.”

There was a brief silence afterward. About 5 seconds. Then, Woojin’s low voice came from the other end of the phone.

“But can I… uh. Can I have that one scene?”

“That one scene? Oh- your performance? It might be difficult to get the one taken with the main camera, but you can have the one for YouTube Shorts. It was filmed with a filming smartphone.”

“Ah-”

“The angle, feeling, and quality will obviously be different from the main camera, but it should be sufficient if it’s just for confirmation.”

“Okay. Please send it to me.”

“For your collection?”

“Well, something like that.”

Upon hearing his response, the main PD nodded her head as she brushed her short hair back.

“Got it. Then you just need to send me your number, and I’ll pass it on through a message.”

“Thank you.”

“It will be sent by tonight at the earliest, or by tomorrow at the latest.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Goodbye.”

“Okay, I’ll hang up now.”

-Click.

It was when the main PD ended her call with Kang Woojin and lowered her phone.

“Hey.”

A man’s voice suddenly cut in from behind her. Because of that, the main PD, who had been leaning her shoulder against the hallway wall, was startled. She then turned her head.

“Oh, senior! Give some indication of your presence. You’re not a ninja, I was startled!”

The man’s voice belonged to Song Manwoo PD, a judge. He stroked his beard and asked.

“That call, was it with that guy from this morning? The one from the Design department?”

The ‘Super Actor’ main PD gave a somewhat bitter smile.

“That’s right.”

“He said he will come for the second round?”

“No, he’s not interested at all.”

“Really, he only came because of his friend? Then he didn’t need to show his acting, did he?”

In response to the question, the main PD shrugged as if to say, “That’s what you would think.”

“I asked him too. But he said he was just killing time.”

“Killing time? He came here and turned things upside down just because he was bored?”

“Yep- that’s what he said.”

Song Manwoo PD, who had been staring at the main PD’s face for a moment, suddenly burst out laughing.

“That’s crazy.”

“I know, right? It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a unique case.”

“But I get it. When you reach a certain height, you sometimes want to look back.”

“Suddenly dropping down like that… What could he possibly be?”

Song Manwoo PD, who had no immediate response to this, became serious. Then he took out his own phone.

“Did you get his number?”

He looked determined.

And so, an hour later. Kang Woojin’s one-room.

After the call with the ‘Super Actor’ PD, there were a lot of questions from Kim Daeyoung, but Kang Woojin vaguely brushed them off. There was no need to blab about the embarrassment from this morning. He planned to bury it as a dark past that only he knew about.

Anyways, as soon as Woojin arrived at his one-room, he immediately sprawled out. Wearing his padding as is. He casually tossed aside the scripts and scenarios he had brought. Now that he was full and comfortable, sleepiness crept up.

However.

“Sigh- I should finish what I started earlier.”

Since there was something to do, he forced himself up. Then, among the things he had tossed aside, he picked up two script books. The color of the script books were different, a light blue and a deep purple. Naturally, titles were stamped on the cover of both script books.

-‘Elegant Daughter’ Part 1.

-‘Gangster Prosecutor’ Part 1.

Both scripts were part 1. At this point, Woojin who was looking down at the script books tilted his head slightly. The titles seemed familiar.

“It seems like… I’ve heard of these before.”

Soon, Woojin pulled out his phone from the pocket of his jacket and began to search. As a result, both of these scripts had already finished airing. ‘Elegant Daughter’ last year, and ‘Gangster Prosecutor’ two years ago. They were broadcasted by different networks, but both were on terrestrial channels.

Then.

Swish.

After roughly finishing his search, Woojin picked up the script of ‘Gangster Prosecutor’. He had already updated the script of ‘Elegant Daughter’ at Kim Daeyoung’s house earlier. Now, it was the turn of ‘Gangster Prosecutor’.

“It feels a bit awkward to go in again.”

Kang Woojin stared at the black square that appeared next to the script for a while. It was still swirling. The momentum was intimidating, but Woojin, who let out a small sigh,

Thud!

He poked the black square with his forefinger. The familiar chill was immediately felt. He had done it a few times, and he was getting used to the feeling.

And then.

“······”

With his mouth closed, Kang Woojin was staring into the endless darkness that had unfolded all of a sudden. He had entered a void. However, there was no need to fuss now.

It was his third entrance, after all.

Anyhow, Woojin turned his body to check behind him. A white square was floating at about chest height. And as expected.

“Three.”

The number of white squares increased from two to three. Kang Woojin slowly approached the white square, the size of an A4 paper. About a step away, he stopped and,

“Let’s see-”

He checked the characters on the newly added white square. Starting from the page script.

-[1/Page Script (Title: Unknown), F grade (Judgement not possible)]

·

·

·

He had seen it in the morning too, so he quickly moved on. Next was the turn of ‘Elegant Daughter’.

-[2/Script (Title: Elegant Daughter Part 1), E grade]

-[*This is a drama script with a very high degree of completion. 100% reading is possible.]

There was definitely a difference from the page script. Next, Woojin checked the third one.

-[3/Script (Title: Gangster Prosecutor Part 1), C grade]

-[*This is a drama script with a very high degree of completion. 100% reading is possible.]

Having checked up to this point, Woojin crossed his arms.

“The page script has 10%, these ones have 100% readability-”

Then Kang Woojin saw something in the characters and tilted his head.

“But what do these grades mean?”

Indeed, the three white squares were divided into grades. The page script was grade F, ‘Elegant Daughter’ was grade E, ‘Gangster Prosecutor’ was grade C. Well, the page script is just a mere page script, so it could be judged as grade F.

“But how are the other two graded?”

It didn’t seem to be based on completion. Both have a very high degree of completion. Moreover, both works are past works that have already finished airing.

At this point.

“Ah, perhaps.”

Something suddenly occurred to Woojin, he quickly opened his mouth and said,

“Exit.”

After a huge grayness enveloped him, Kang Woojin opened his eyes again in his one-room apartment.

He was so used to it that he didn’t even moan this time.

“Humans are creatures of adaptation.”

He picked up his phone again and searched for ‘Elegant Daughter’ and ‘Gangster Prosecutor’ once more. There was one thing that Woojin Kang confirmed from the two works.

It was the viewership ratings.

The results quickly came into Woojin’s view.

-‘Elegant Daughter’/ final viewership rating 2.7%

-‘Gangster Prosecutor’/ final viewership rating 7.1%

The viewership ratings of the two works were quite different. After reading a few articles, ‘Elegant Daughter’ was often criticized for its failure, while ‘Gangster Prosecutor’ was considered average. As he skimmed through these search results, Woojin stroked his chin.

“‘Elegant Daughter’ is a flop, so it’s E grade, ‘Gangster Prosecutor’ is average, so C grade? Could it be… the grade is divided by a measure of popularity?”

Or an estimation of the work’s performance. Although it wasn’t clear, the general feeling seemed to be right. The picture of the grade and the viewership ratings matched.

However, the question arises here.

‘…then what about scripts or scenarios that haven’t been released to the world yet?’

Although these script books have already finished broadcasting, there are scripts in the world that are in preparation or have not started and were scrapped.

What if Woojin were to acquire those?

‘Do those come out too?’

Although verification was necessary, there was only one answer that came to mind when he thought about it immediately.

“Can the… value of scripts or scenarios be seen in advance?”

The ability to get a glimpse of the success of a work before it’s even produced. What? Really? If that’s the case, isn’t this amazing? The look in Woojin’s eyes changed as he murmured to himself.

-Swish.

He moved his hand quickly. This time, what Woojin picked up was not a script book but a stack of papers. It was a movie script, different from the drama scripts he got from Daeyoung Kim, and it had the title ‘Exorcism’ on the cover.

Anyway, Woojin, who was about to poke the black rectangle next to the script stack, stopped abruptly.

“Ah, but can’t I bring my phone with me?”

If he could bring personal items into the subspace, it would be more convenient. In response to this, Woojin, with his phone in his left hand, poked the black rectangle with his index finger.

-Poof!

And so, Woojin re-entered the pitch-dark subspace. The problem was…

“Shoot, it doesn’t work.”

The phone that he held in his left hand had been left behind. Woojin was empty-handed now. This meant that he could not bring personal items into this subspace. Woojin, although disappointed, gave up and turned around to check the white rectangles.

Sure enough, there were now four of them.

Soon, Woojin, who had approached them, read the words on the fourth white rectangle.

-[4/Scenario (Title: Exorcism), B grade]

-[*This is a highly accomplished movie script. 100% reading is possible.]

The movie script was B grade. Woojin was a bit surprised at the moment.

“B? B grade is the highest among the ones that have been released.”

So, does this mean that this work had a great success? In terms of audience numbers or something like that?

However, Kang Woo-jin knew nothing about the entertainment industry. Therefore, Woojin, who had become serious, quickly muttered ‘exit’, and as soon as he returned to his one-room, he called his friend Kim Dae-young to ask about the movie called ‘Exorcism’.

“Eh- why.”

Kim Dae-young’s voice was muffled, perhaps he was sleeping. Regardless, Woojin got straight to the point.

“Hey, you gave me a movie script, right? Is this a successful movie?”

“Ah, ‘Exorcism’? It hasn’t been made yet, what do you mean successful or not?”

“It hasn’t been produced?”

“Yeah. I’m not exactly sure either. I got it from a theater club member last week.”

“So this will be produced and then released in theaters?”

“No? It can’t be released. It’s not a commercial film, it’s a short film, a short one. You know, something like independent or art films. What was it- the director is unknown?”

The point at which Kang Woojin focused was:

‘Short film? It hasn’t been produced yet?’

The fact that it was a short film and it hadn’t been produced yet. Kim Dae-young added more explanation from the other side of the phone.

“But ‘Exorcism’ probably won’t be produced? There are a lot of commercial films that are scrapped just after the script is out, and because that’s a short film, the possibility is even lower.”

“······They can’t be released in theaters? Then if this short film or whatever is successful, how does it work?”

“Why are you suddenly so interested? Well, if a short film does well, it’s one thing. It’s impossible to release it, so maybe it gets an award at a competition or a film festival? And if it catches the trend, it might be remade.”

“Ah- like the Blue Dragon Film Awards? Something like that?”

“That’s right. Or there are also specific short film festivals, and there’s also abroad. But there’s almost no precedent for going abroad.”

As soon as he heard the answer, Kang Woojin replied,

“Got it, let’s hang up for now.”

He immediately hung up the phone. He didn’t fully understand what Kim Dae-young had said, but one thing was clear.

‘A movie that hasn’t been produced yet is B-grade.’

He didn’t know to what extent B-grade was in terms of performance, but the possibility of previewing the performance of the work had increased significantly.

“······”

After thinking about something for a moment, Woojin moved his hand about 3 minutes later. He picked up the script book of ‘Elegant Daughter’.

“I don’t know, I’ll just check it out gradually.”

Then, Woojin began to read the script book of ‘Elegant Daughter’.

-Flip.

The reason was simple. He had to know the content of the script or scenario clearly. Only then could he comfortably choose his role.

-Flip, flip.

Plus,

“I’m done being stabbed and dying without knowing anything.”

He wanted to avoid dying unexpectedly.

Late at night on the same day. The art center at SBC building in Mok-dong.

The shooting of the first preliminary round of ‘Super Actor’ ended after 10 PM. All the participants who had filled the art center were gone. Now, dozens of staff members remained to clean up.

Everyone seemed to be exhausted, perhaps because today’s schedule was tough.

Of course, the three judges who evaluated hundreds of participants were no exception. Among them, Song Man-woo PD moved first. He suddenly got up from the judges’ desk. His expression was quite urgent.

“Everyone worked hard.”

It was when Song Man-woo PD, who politely greeted the staff around him, was about to move.

“Eh?? PD! Are you leaving already?”

Next to him, top actress Hong Hye-yeon, who had just been leaning down to rest, suddenly raised her head. Thanks to that, her long hair fluttered.

“Aren’t you going to the after-party? They said they’re having beef?”

Song Man-woo PD couldn’t resist beef, but he waved his hand as if he had no time for it.

“No, I’m fine. I have an appointment to see Writer Park.”

“····· Writer Park? At this time?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

At this moment, Hong Hye-yeon seemed to suddenly realize something. She then chased after Song Man-woo PD and grabbed his arm.

“I want to go too.”

“··· What? Aren’t you busy?”

“I’m busy. But I’m free today.”

“I’m going because of work. Not to drink. It’s about our work.”

‘Our work’ obviously included the top actress, Hong Hye-yeon.

-Swoosh.

Hong Hye-yeon, who suddenly stood next to Song Man-woo PD, smiled with her eyes and replied.

“I saw you getting his video from the ‘Super Actor’ PD earlier.”

By now, the man, or rather, the monster that filled Hong Hye-yeon and Song Man-woo PD’s minds was the same person.

“You’re going to show it to the writer, right?”