'Huh...... he must have gone and looked up an article somewhere. A man they used to call a variety-show cheat code.'
CEO Yeon barely held in a laugh.
-Walls have beers
-Which king founded Joseon? King Sejong the Great
-Write "very quickly" in English: bery best
There was even a line about Eun Tae-il being the favourite celebrity of any variety PD whose ratings had dropped.
The knowledge catastrophes that unfolded every time he appeared on a variety show had become legend.
"What's the hand for?"
"You said you'd give me a prize if I got it right."
CEO Yeon stared blankly at the hand Tae-il had put out and finally burst out laughing.
Different company or not, the nerve of holding a hand out to an agency CEO and demanding a prize.
Getting the laugh under control at last, CEO Yeon folded his arms.
"Let me ask you one thing first. Where did you hear about Glom?"
"I saw it in an article."
"An article, he says...... Fine, let that go. Tae-il. What should our company do from here?"
He was not asking in any real expectation of an answer.
No, the intention behind the question was clear enough.
'Hammering away at my price, seeing whether I've changed.'
CEO Yeon's thinking was plain to read.
He would want to know whether Eun Tae-il really had changed, the way the rumors said.
Which is why he would have accepted Yu Hye-in's proposal about sharing the practice room, too.
Wine Ent, bled of its top actors, would be desperate for even one actor with the potential to become one.
"I wouldn't know about that. I don't know anything."
"Well...... give me a rough one. It's fine."
"I'd rather not invent something I don't have."
The two men's eyes met.
The one asking sharp, the one answering at his leisure.
'Look at this boy......? Quietly putting a wall up?'
Eun Tae-il had always been the sort who would spill everything in him if you scratched him a little.
And here he was running rings around the question as though he had boiled and eaten a rat snake.
Tae-il stretched and turned.
"If you're finished, I'll go back down. Send the prize along later."
"Eh? Hey. Tae-il."
"This production really matters to me. So......"
At Tae-il turning formal all of a sudden, CEO Yeon let his shoulders drop as though beaten.
"All right, you little devil. I lose. Say what you came to say, quick, is that it?"
"I don't take corporate cards. I take goods."
"......Honestly. Why weren't you like this back at Namu Ent?"
"I grew up late."
Watching Tae-il give nothing away, CEO Yeon gave a hearty laugh, took out a cigarette and offered it.
When Tae-il politely declined, CEO Yeon blew the smoke away from him.
"Not losing a single exchange...... you've come to look like a man I used to know."
"A man?"
"There was one. Used to sing at me to retire early and go and enjoy myself."
"......"
At the past arriving out of nowhere, Tae-il smiled bitterly.
Whether or not he knew, CEO Yeon breathed out smoke and turned his eyes to the sky.
"People, honestly...... nobody knows what's coming. Worked and worked and then went. Idiot."
"......"
"Ah, I've said nothing but useless things. So, goods are better, is that it? Will a contract do?"
At the sudden turn, Tae-il smiled slightly.
'The skill at selling a feeling hasn't changed. CEO Yeon isn't a bad option either.'
Wine Ent was not a bad choice.
Even rotten, a shad is still a shad, and Wine Ent still carried a certain weight in broadcasting.
But......
'CEO Yeon's stubbornness is the problem. Working around that would drain me dry. And on top of that......'
Worst case, he might have to make an enemy of Glom Ent as well.
A great many of Wine Ent's actors had moved to Glom Ent.
The two agencies had already crossed a river there was no coming back from.
There was no reason to go and put himself in rough water.
"Set up a meeting for me with Team Leader Ong."
Tae-il's eyes were calm as he said what he had come here to say.
CEO Yeon's pupils, on the other hand, jumped; it clearly was not what he had expected.
"Team Leader Ong? You don't mean Ong Jin?"
Ong Jin.
A casting director and location director with a name even down here.
CEO Yeon folded his arms and worked his mouth.
"Unexpected. I thought you'd wish for something grand, and you want to meet that old crank Ong Jin."
"I heard the two of you are close friends."
Ong Jin. That was a man he had to meet.
CEO Yeon tilted his head and then asked, seriously.
"We are. But why Ong Jin, of all people? I thought you'd go looking for an agency first. Is casting more urgent? That man Ong Jin doesn't take favours from anyone, you know?"
Unlike before, CEO Yeon's face was serious.
"I have no intention of asking a favour."
"Then what? I can't put you in a room without knowing why. Prize or not......"
"Set up the room and I'll tell you then."
"Huh...... shut up and set up the meeting first, is that it?"
The two men's eyes clashed hard.
To CEO Yeon it was absurd.
'He hasn't even got a company, and Ong Jin is more urgent?'
But more than that, it stirred his curiosity.
'I'm finished too. Can a person change this dramatically? Huh......'
After thinking it over, CEO Yeon spoke.
"All right. I'll set it up."
"Thank you, CEO."
"It had better not be a waste of his time."
CEO Yeon went down from the roof first.
Alone now, Tae-il looked up at the sky.
"It'll be more than he expects."
***
-Eun Tae-il, engine on for a real comeback? Returning with "Flower Boy House"?
-Acting alongside Kang Seong-jin, Yu Hye-in...... and Eun Tae-il too?
-Eun Tae-il returns with next project, Flower Boy House.
-Welcome to Flower Boy House, the cast all in one place! What role for Eun Tae-il?
Articles were appearing here and there now.
-Day 1 of praying Eun Tae-il gets Do-hwan
-I came here for Face Senior T_T
-ah enough about the face
-why did they cast Eun Tae-il? don't want to watch any more wooden acting.
-honestly isn't Eun Tae-il's acting terrible? face is fine though.
-I watched him act properly and thought he'd improved a lot. I'll be looking forward to it
-We don't get Face Senior, but please, please let us see him this time T_T
Perhaps it was the publicity on social media.
Tae-il's comeback had been advertised a little, too.
'Let's do this properly.'
He got off the subway, walked about ten minutes, and there was the broadcaster.
He signed in for a visitor's pass and stepped onto the set, and a great many crew members greeted him.
"Good morning."
"Ah! Eun Tae-il!"
While he exchanged greetings with the crew, the ritual table was being prepared in the middle of the floor.
Around it the actors, the production team and the department crews gathered one by one.
The table was laid, and Writer Shin and CP Seong appeared too.
Whether it was the casting business of a few days before, the two of them looked awkward with each other.
"Tae-il. You're here?"
Unlike Writer Shin, who waved at him warmly the moment she saw him, CP Seong gave him a flat jerk of the chin.
Whether or not she knew how Tae-il felt about it, Writer Shin came over to him.
"You got an article too, Tae-il."
That was thanks to the script photo on social media.
Things seemed better than before, when interest had vanished entirely.
And the reaction of people who had seen the read-through video was good, which helped.
"People's expectations seem high. It's a strange feeling."
"What's strange about it? It means you did that well. I'm looking forward to it too."
Writer Shin moved off toward the actors who were just coming in.
The table was set, and CP Seong, first to plant his incense, looked around at everyone.
"......Ratings matter, but let's get to the finish line without a single accident."
Applause followed, and Writer Shin knelt.
She lit her incense the same way, then took the microphone and met everyone's eyes.
"The directors working with us, and the actors. Let's be just a little greedy. Ratings of 20%. We should clear that, shouldn't we?"
More applause poured out.
Then, starting with Kang Seong-jin and Yu Hye-in, the actors lit their incense one after another.
And so Tae-il knelt in front of the table too.
"Say a word, Tae-il."
Handed the microphone by CP Seong, Tae-il cleared his throat.
"I hope every person here makes it to the finish line."
Tae-il set the microphone down, and a great wave of applause came.
After the ceremony, everyone moved to the first location.
The first place to shoot was a mansion in an expensive residential district not far from the broadcaster.
It was going to be the setting of "Welcome to Flower Boy House" from here on.
The generator truck ran loudly, and the lights and the cameras went up one after another.
Yu Hye-in and Kang Seong-jin, ready now, took their places in front of the gate.
"If everyone's ready, we're going in."
For the first cut of the first scene, the one that matters most, CP Seong sat at the monitor and raised a hand.
The first scene was Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin) and Yu-na (Yu Hye-in) breaking up.
It was the intro scene, the first thing the viewers would meet in episode 1.
"Ready, action."
CP Seong's hand came down and the red light went on.
Kang Seong-jin looked at Yu-na with indifferent eyes and worked his mouth.
"Seon Yu-na. There's no reason for me to see you anymore."
"Cha Ju-hwan. You......!"
"Stop cluttering up the space in front of me. It's already finished."
Through the headset, both actors' voices came through clean.
Watching the monitor, CP Seong narrowed his eyes and ran a hand over his chin.
'Both of them are far better than at the reading. The tone, the eyes. We could finish this in one take, couldn't we?'
Both of them were utterly different from how they had been at the read-through.
But there was no relaxing.
Writer Shin had come out to the location herself, worried about those two.
Worst case, a production can crank in and then change its leads.
'Good grief......'
The look in Writer Shin's eyes as she watched the leads was complicated.
It went from worry to an edge and then to something sweet.
Whether or not she knew what was happening over at the monitor, Yu-na (Yu Hye-in) trembled faintly around the eyes and bit her lip.
"I...... had you all wrong. To think you were only this much......"
"Think what you like. We're finished anyway."
Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin) turned hard away and walked slowly out of frame, and Yu-na (Yu Hye-in) let her head drop.
The frame pulled back and left it hanging there.
Watching the monitor, CP Seong got slowly to his feet.
"Cut! That's enough for the wide. Changing the setup."
At CP Seong's shout the silent location filled with noise again.
The leads loosened their shoulders and let out long breaths.
'It could have been a lucky fit. I need to watch.'
There was still an edge in Writer Shin's eyes.
Behind the camera, on the other hand, Tae-il was thinking something rather different.
'Their bodies have come loose now.'
The setup finished and shooting started again.
The frame took the two actors closer in, and the break-up came through more vividly.
"Think what you like. We're finished anyway."
"Was that all it was?"
Writer Shin, wearing a headset, said nothing.
The feeling the actors were sending through was coming across whole.
Enough that taking the headset off felt like a loss.
"......Okay. Moving!"
"We're moving!"
A few takes in, CP Seong let out a short breath.
CLAP—!
The moment the okay came, Kang Seong-jin and Yu Hye-in clapped their hands together.
The emotional scene everybody had expected to take hours had finished far faster.
The crew running the location were delighted, and so was CP Seong.
"You two were both far too good. The intro's great, isn't it?"
Sitting and catching their breath, Kang Seong-jin and Yu Hye-in flinched.
They looked up and Writer Shin was smiling.
When the two of them moved to stand, she raised a hand to stop them.
"Stay sitting."
"Thank you, Writer Shin."
"Did the two of you practise separately or something? You were completely in step, weren't you? Oh, aren't you lovely?"
Yu Hye-in looked around and gestured to her right with her eyes.
"Actually...... we had a star tutor."
"A star tutor?"
Where her eyes went, Tae-il was reading his script.
Kang Seong-jin backed her up.
"Honestly, I learned a lot of things practising with Senior Eun Tae-il."
"Ahh, did you? Well, then......"
After a short conversation with the leads, Writer Shin nodded easily and turned away.
'Eun Tae-il? Acting well is one thing, but......'
Had the man really got good enough to be coaching somebody?
Her steps stopped in front of Tae-il, who was talking with the camera director.
The camera director, who had been laughing loudly, saw her and quietly disappeared.
"Ah, Writer Shin."
"We said hello already, Tae-il. There's something I'm curious about, that's all."
"Curious about?"
"Those two are calling you a star tutor, did you know? So I was curious what sort of writer the star tutor thinks I am."
There was curiosity in Writer Shin's eyes, and a little wariness mixed into it.
'Writer Shin isn't a woman who sounds people out. Better to......'
Tae-il looked from Writer Shin to the leads watching the two of them anxiously.
"I've been a fan since you debuted with Uncontrollably Plain."
"Uncontrollably...... eh? That one?"
Straight through the front was the answer.
Just as he had thought, a small crack appeared in Writer Shin's face.