'You prove it by acting.'
After Tae-il sat down, the other actors stood up one by one and bowed their heads.
The introductions finished, and the read-through proper began.
"Then we'll run it from scene 1."
PD Choi ran it, and the reading started.
The leads, Kang Seong-jin and Yu Hye-in, gathered themselves and opened the door.
"Yu-na. There's no reason for me to see you anymore."
"Cha Ju-hwan......!"
"Stop hanging around in front of me."
Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin) played it cold, and Yu-na (Yu Hye-in) played the break-up with water in her voice.
The scene was well underway when Writer Shin narrowed her eyes and brought her mouth to the microphone.
"Seong-jin. Shouldn't you look colder here, on 'stop hanging around'?"
"Ah...... yes."
"Ju-hwan doesn't want to leave Yu-na, but he's leaving her anyway. That has to come through, and it isn't coming through here."
"I'm sorry. I'll watch it."
"Let's watch it, shall we? And Hye-in, stop whining at me."
"......I'm sorry."
Writer Shin's murderous notes started from the very beginning.
The further the reading went, the more the actors had to swallow dry and lower their heads.
"Sir. Push it a little harder for me."
"Haha. My apologies, Writer Shin."
Even the actor well on in years was no exception; only the degree was different.
Writer Shin named even the stage directions without looking at the script, and under that level of detail the actors' mouths went drier and drier.
'She must know you can't cram an actor's style into a box. Writer Shin is no ordinary woman either.'
Actors have their own styles, built up over years.
Matching a script one hundred percent was never going to be simple.
Writer Shin could not fail to know that, and she was pushing to fit the actors to the script as far as they would go.
The reading moved very slowly because of it.
'They all came in knowing. Writer Shin's productions keep succeeding.'
In the end, down here, the one with the ability wins.
The reading went on like that for a long while.
"Let's move on."
At Writer Shin's word, the sound of turning pages went around the room.
Before long it was scene 14. Do-hwan's first appearance.
"Before we go into 14, Eun Tae-il. Don't let the hatred for the younger brother come right out. Keep it under."
"Yes, Writer Shin."
"Seong-jin. Let's take it cleanly, in one. All right?"
Kang Seong-jin nodded with a set face.
'Good answer. Just don't flip the desk.'
Eun Tae-il's face, about to be twisted up by one of Writer Shin's notes, was vivid in his mind.
Whether or not he knew what was going on in Kang Seong-jin's head, Tae-il gathered the feeling, hardened his face and stared him down, cold.
"So you really are...... that cheap bloodline. Playing innocent, playing ignorant. Head to foot, you look like that person."
"Brother......? What are you talking about, all of a sudden? That, person?"
Kang Seong-jin flinched even as he delivered the line.
Because the eyes that had been smiling kindly a moment ago had changed in a single beat.
"Enough. Get out."
"B-brother?!"
"There's no place for you in this house anymore."
Was it the pressure of the air?
He was supposed to carry the lines on, and Kang Seong-jin could not say a word.
"......Hold on."
Writer Shin raised a hand with a sigh.
"Seong-jin. Are you tired? Are you somewhere else?"
"......I'm sorry."
"Seong-jin, let's focus, yes? And Tae-il. ......That was good."
While the sound of Kang Seong-jin clearing his throat spread through the room, people were muttering.
'Wow...... what is Eun Tae-il?'
'Pretty good, isn't he? Isn't that Writer Shin's first compliment today?'
'Writer Shin picked Eun Tae-il herself. So of course she's lifting him.'
While everybody muttered, Writer Shin kept going.
"Tae-il, the slight shake in the voice and the unsteady eyes. You're taking it exactly as it's written."
"Thank you."
CP Seong and PD Choi were just as surprised.
'Senior. Writer Shin just complimented Eun Tae-il, didn't she?'
'I'm in the middle of being surprised myself. Eun Tae-il just copy-pasted the script. How much has he been practising?'
Yu Hye-in, the other lead, showed her curiosity too.
'Wow...... Writer Shin gives compliments? And to Senior Eun, of all people?'
There was no chance Kang Seong-jin did not know they were all muttering.
But getting angry here, or letting any of it show, would be the worst thing he could do.
Kang Seong-jin picked up his script as though nothing had happened.
"......I'll try it again."
The second attempt followed.
Kang Seong-jin lowered his head with his eyes trembling, and Tae-il cut in cold.
"So you really are...... that cheap bloodline. Playing innocent, playing ignorant. Head to foot, you look like that person."
"Brother......? What are you talking about, all of a sudden? That, person......"
"Hold on. Seong-jin. That's too much."
Writer Shin's notes for Kang Seong-jin went on after that.
Tae-il, on the other hand, did not take a single one.
In the end Writer Shin, drumming her fingers loudly on the desk, pushed her chair back with a worn-out face.
"Let's take a break. Seong-jin, go and cool your head."
"I'm sor......"
Writer Shin walked straight out without leaving room to hear what came behind her.
PD Choi followed her out, and CP Seong turned to the unsettled room.
"Good work, everyone. Get your breath back and we'll go again."
A break was given.
Everyone rose, and Kang Seong-jin went out among them.
Disappearing into the crowd, Kang Seong-jin's shoulders were quite far down.
After a short conversation with a few people, Tae-il left the meeting room.
'Where will Kang Seong-jin have gone.'
The broadcaster is big, but there are fewer places worth going than you would think.
The outdoor garden, or the break room.
The break room is a no-smoking area, so he would be in the outdoor garden, where he could get a cigarette down.
"Oh? Tae-il."
Heading for the lift, he ran into PD Choi coming the other way.
PD Choi watched Tae-il bow his head and let out a sigh.
"Tae-il, what do we do? Seong-jin hasn't got an ounce of life left in him."
"Is that so?"
"Writer Shin really is too much. Would it kill her to say something nice? That script of hers, the script...... Sorry. I was just grumbling, it's been frustrating."
Tae-il snorted softly.
Because he had caught that PD Choi had brought up Kang Seong-jin on purpose.
There was no chance he did not know that the man Writer Shin had been praising all day would only scrape at Kang Seong-jin's pride by going over there.
'Might as well pick up some points while I'm at it.'
Tae-il smiled, brighter than he needed to.
"Let me try talking to Seong-jin."
"Yeah? That's kind of you, but...... will it be all right? Seong-jin's got an edge on him right now......"
"There'll be something that carries between actors. Let us be a little late."
"All right. Don't worry about that."
Leaving PD Choi behind, Tae-il headed for the rooftop garden where Kang Seong-jin was.
In a corner of the wide rooftop garden, Kang Seong-jin sat alone in front of an ashtray, breathing smoke.
"Eun Tae-il...... senior."
Kang Seong-jin, knocking ash off, gave a bitter smile when he saw Tae-il.
When Tae-il moved to sit down beside him, Kang Seong-jin pulled the corner of his mouth up.
"Are you having one too, senior?"
"I came to kill two birds. Talk between actors, among other things."
"Pff."
Kang Seong-jin blew smoke into the air and laughed through his nose.
"Yes, yes. Go ahead."
"Seong-jin. Writer Shin's got you worried, hasn't she?"
"You know perfectly well. What, did you come to rub it in?"
Kang Seong-jin's face twisted, and Tae-il carried on evenly.
"Hardly. I heard you chased Writer Shin for months to get on one of her productions."
"How do you even......"
Kang Seong-jin's eyes wavered.
He was an actor with more scripts coming in than he could take now.
And he had ignored all of them and chased Writer Shin for three months to work with her.
'He would be shocked. That's a story only TN Production's CEO would know.'
The information was as solid as its source.
How long the information he held would stay good was another question.
The industry changes by the hour.
'I need to get my career up fast, if only for the information. That's the only way I get to meet that man.'
Whether or not he knew what Tae-il was thinking, Kang Seong-jin ground his cigarette out in the ashtray and took a step toward him.
"How did you know, I said. That I chased Writer Shin. I told them not to even use it for publicity."
"Does the source matter? What matters is that I know how to win Writer Shin over."
Kang Seong-jin's eyes shook.
A has-been, swaggering over one compliment from Writer Shin.
"......You think a lot of yourself."
"You think I'm lying?"
"Go back to how you usually are, senior. It's not as if anyone's here."
Under that vicious stare, Tae-il's expression did not change.
"What would I get out of putting on an act for you?"
"Who knows. Get on my good side and maybe I'll introduce you to my CEO."
"Unfortunately, there isn't much you have that I want."
Kang Seong-jin bit down on his lip.
What on earth was the man leaning on, to be this smooth about it?
"......Senior. When you're being treated well, know where to stop. If you want to keep even that pitiful part of yours."
"Stop hearing it sideways and listen. Go on like this and you're out, Seong-jin. You won't get to work with Writer Shin."
"That isn't something I need to hear from a man who lived like a br......"
"Did you not see Writer Shin drumming her fingers on the desk every time she looked at you?"
Only then did his face go white.
It was already a famous story.
That every time Writer Shin drummed her fingers loudly on the desk at a read-through, somebody got cut.
'The company told me to watch Writer Shin's fingers, too...... and Eun Tae-il knew that?'
The memory of hanging on for months because he wanted one of her productions went through him.
He loathed Eun Tae-il, he really did, but......
Kang Seong-jin went quiet.
Right now, grabbing hold of anything mattered more than having questions.
"......Say it, then. This method of yours."
It was bound to be nothing, but the situation was desperate.
Writer Shin is a writer with the power to throw out even a lead.
At Kang Seong-jin's small voice, Tae-il spoke calmly.
"You know Writer Shin likes the lines played exactly as written, don't you?"
"Don't tell me your method is something everybody already knows?"
Kang Seong-jin's voice went prickly.
He had known that before he ever started following her around.
Whatever he made of it, Tae-il carried on.
"Even Writer Shin doesn't write everything down."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Tae-il opened the script and pointed at a line.
Not Do-hwan's line. Ju-hwan's.
"Why is this...... ah."
Tae-il's finger was pointing at the commas hidden through the lines.
"Look here. There are lines with no stage direction and a lot of commas in them. Why do you think that is?"
"......Obvious, isn't it. It means say it with pauses......"
"It doesn't mean take it slow. It means put weight on it when you say it. And......"
As Tae-il's explanation went on, Kang Seong-jin felt as though he had been hit over the head.
There turned out to be a great many things to watch besides the stage directions.
"That's, that's not possible......!"
"So you really are...... that cheap, bloodline. Playing innocent, playing ignorant!"
Tae-il delivered Do-hwan's line from the reading a moment ago, and Kang Seong-jin nodded blankly.
"Brother......? What are you talking about, all of a sudden?"
"That's my line......"
"If it were me, at 'all of a sudden,' I'd have pushed too much breath in right here and driven the line through. And killed everything after it."
"......"
"And......"
Tae-il went through the lines one by one.
'Right down to little things like this. But could Eun Tae-il really act like that?'
The more he thought, the more absurd the situation seemed to Kang Seong-jin.
Taking an acting lesson from Eun Tae-il, a man he had thought was a face and nothing else......
"Seon Yu-na. There's no...... reason for me to see you anymore."
But Kang Seong-jin had to admit it.
Even to his own ear, the style sounded like something Writer Shin would want.
Tae-il left Kang Seong-jin to practise alone and got quietly to his feet.
He was about to leave when Kang Seong-jin asked, carefully.
"Senior. Why...... did you help me? We're......"
"'But we're rivals'? Wrong."
"What do you......"
"We're going to be brothers who make each other look good. Who bring the chemistry to life. Cool your head a bit longer and come back."
Watching Tae-il go, Kang Seong-jin blinked and blinked again.
"Is that man really that Eun Tae-il? He's nothing like the stories."