"Junior. The joke's gone too far."
He wanted to take the man's face off right there, and instead Kim Yul smiled.
Getting angry now would be as good as admitting what the man had said.
The other side was Eun Tae-il the brat anyway.
Laugh it off, and people would point their fingers at him without needing to be told.
'Working hard with that head of his. Still living a tiring life.'
Kim Yul's eyes were on the crew rather than on him.
Then and now, he had never stopped living and dying by how people looked at him.
Tae-il smiled and took a step back.
"Senior. I'm sorry, but please don't move. Ugh......"
"......"
"Does anyone have mouthwash? Please......"
When Tae-il went as far as mouthwash the air twisted up further.
The crew were edging away from Kim Yul a step at a time without meaning to.
"I'm not, all right? I said I'm not?! There's no smell!"
Kim Yul's face went as red as a ripe tomato.
'Thinking of how he used to shut his co-stars up every time he shot a kiss scene...... good grief.'
Kim Yul's kiss scenes had been a great stress to Tae-il. To Kim Seung-chan.
Kim Yul's breath naturally became gossip among the actresses opposite him, and Kim Seung-chan had to clean it up.
Thanks to his hidden effort, Kim Yul's bad breath had never spread anywhere.
'About time he did it.'
Sure enough, Kim Yul looked around and pulled his mouth up at Tae-il in a sneer.
"At least I never got a contract cancel (contract cancellation) on an ad and then blubbed in front of the client. Unlike somebody here."
Kim Yul's eyes glittered.
As though he had won, he was looking down at Tae-il.
There was no need to say that somebody here was the Tae-il in front of him.
'Eun Tae-il actually cried in front of a client?'
'That's a bit much. Eun Tae-il has an image to keep.'
'With that face he can cry all he likes......'
'Hey......'
Just as expected, the crew around them started to murmur.
Looking around at them, Kim Yul's face turned into a winner's.
'Eun Tae-il's eyes went red the moment he put lenses in, past anything you could fix in post.'
The lens ad had been cancelled because fixing the red eyes in post cost far too much.
Blubbing in front of the client was seasoning Kim Yul had added.
'Thank you for staying the same, Kim Yul.'
The corner of Tae-il's mouth went up a little.
"What would you do, senior?"
"What are you talking about?"
"People picked me because they believed in me, and they took a loss because of me. Wouldn't the tears come?"
"What's he on about? What nonsense is this......!"
Tae-il lowered his head, and a thick bitterness settled on his face.
"Whenever I think about that time...... it's still hard."
"Hey, hold on. What are you saying. Hey."
"They were so good to me...... I should go and see them soon. Thank you for reminding me, senior."
"H-hey. Hey!"
The air was turning strange.
By the plan, Eun Tae-il was supposed to come at him like a madman and people were supposed to pull them apart......
Instead he had become the bad man himself.
'Was Eun Tae-il this sort of character? He seems a little different from the stories.'
'Kim Yul is annoying. One word back and he goes for a weak spot like that.'
'What's actually wrong with him?'
There was no chance Kim Yul did not notice the crew's mood change.
He felt himself being cornered, a little at a time.
'Tch...... so it's somebody else's house, is that it?'
The saying about the arm bending inward came to him of its own accord.
He had not the slightest intention of losing to a junior.
Kim Yul moved his eyebrows and put a smile back on.
"The act. And him an idol......"
"That's far enough."
A voice came from behind, out of nowhere.
He turned. Writer Shin.
Everybody stopped, and so did Kim Yul.
"W-Writer Shin. Where were you? I looked everywhere for......"
"I'm the one who cast that idol, Kim Yul."
"N-no...... wh-what I meant was......"
The air was changing fast.
Watching Kim Yul's face go white, Tae-il pulled the corner of his mouth up in a sneer.
'Tsk, tsk...... I told him to mind that mouth of his.'
Watching Kim Yul cling to Writer Shin, two feelings crossed in Tae-il.
The bitterness of having given up his own dream for a man like that.
And the joy of running now for nothing but his own dream, without ever being tangled up with a man like that again.
'No need to get tangled up any further.'
Tae-il made himself smile and turned his eyes to Writer Shin.
"Writer Shin. I'll go and...... get ready now."
"Eh? Ah...... yes, Tae-il. I'll tell the CP. Take your time!"
Watching Tae-il disappear, Kim Yul ground his teeth.
That bastard was acting hurt on purpose.
Because then he himself would look like the worse man.
'Eun Tae-il......! I won't let this go.'
Whether or not he knew about the sting of Kim Yul's glare, Tae-il went evenly on his way.
'You'll regret making an enemy of me, Kim Yul.'
***
["Welcome to Flower Boy House" Teaser]
Around the time the shooting for episodes 3 and 4 was finishing, the drama's teaser was released.
Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin) and Yu-na (Yu Hye-in) bickering, and the handsome actors living in the flower boy house showing their faces one by one.
-I love Kang Seong-jin so much. Gorgeous face, gorgeous mind T_T
-If Kang Seong-jin's in it I'm watching, obviously
-heard the face restaurant was opening and came right over
-wow...... this teaser has lost its mind.
The teaser finished on the back of a man turned away from the camera.
'Should I have bulked up before the shoot.'
Scrolling down, Tae-il shrugged.
Anyone could see that back was his.
-not-quite-a-secret secret, the one and only seni......
-Senior...... why are you in here T_T
-Right. Why is skip-on-sight Eun Tae-il in this?
-whether he's skip-on-sight or not, this production will tell us.
-FACE SENIOR at last T_T
-SHOUT! IT! OUT! FACE! SEN!IOR!
-fk stop asking for Face Senior lolololol
'Let's use the opening well.'
Tae-il closed the phone and stopped in front of a building.
He went slowly down into a nameless bar in the basement of a shabby four-storey block.
Inside, a member of staff showed him to a table in the corner.
"Eun Tae-il. You're here."
In the corner, where nobody else was, sat CEO Yeon and a handsome middle-aged man.
Tae-il bowed his head, pulled out a chair and sat, and the handsome middle-aged man pushed a glass toward him without a word.
'Team Leader Ong. Still good-looking.'
Ong Jin, casting director.
An ex-manager casting director who heard "you should be acting yourself" the way other people hear hello.
Perhaps because of it, the people around them kept glancing this way.
'Every piece of information down here goes through Team Leader Ong.'
A man who kept a great deal of information behind that shining face.
In the past he had also been Seung-chan's best working partner.
"Will you have one, Eun Tae-il?"
"I'll take one glass. I'm in the middle of a production."
Neither Team Leader Ong nor CEO Yeon was the type to force a drink on anyone.
CEO Yeon smiled and set down the glass he was holding.
"Order without worrying about it. I'm buying tonight."
"Then...... I'll have a New Estella."
Both men's eyes moved slightly.
Not long after, a black cocktail came out in a tall, narrow Collins glass.
Tiing—
When Tae-il flicked the glass with a finger, the black inside sparkled with starlight.
Watching him take slow pleasure in the cocktail, CEO Yeon asked.
"Tae-il. You know the New Estella?"
When Tae-il knocked his glass against theirs, the glass sparkled with starlight again.
"For a special day there's nothing like it."
"Hooo......?"
Team Leader Ong shook his own tan-coloured glass lightly.
'Team Leader Ong's favourite drink.'
It was also the one he drank only on special days.
Tae-il lifted his glass again and shook it gently.
"Bitter and sweet at once, and a strange taste to it. Like the feeling of becoming a star, you might say."
At Tae-il's words, Team Leader Ong's expression turned subtle.
The drink went down and a good deal of talk went back and forth.
Mostly talk about the industry.
"......Why would Director Ju be interested in Min So-yeong. He can't like bland acting."
"A production isn't the director's alone. It'll be the investors."
Tae-il laid a word or two lightly onto what the two of them said.
'Not bad at all......'
Was it strange to him that Tae-il kept up with the flow of the conversation?
Team Leader Ong let the real subject slip out.
"I hear Writer Shin Se-ri threw Kim Yul off a set."
The story seemed to be going around already.
CEO Yeon, who clearly knew nothing about it, opened his eyes wide.
"Huh...... Writer Shin was rather fond of Kim Yul, wasn't she?"
"She was. There'll have been a reason, won't there?"
Team Leader Ong's eyes went to Tae-il for a moment, and he shrugged evenly.
"I'd have thought you already knew, Team Leader Ong."
"You were there. I might have it wrong, after all."
When Tae-il told him about that day, Team Leader Ong smiled.
"......They say Writer Shin has her eye on you these days. You're working hard too, Tae-il."
"I have to survive."
Team Leader Ong set his glass down.
Unlike before, the warmth in his eyes had sharpened.
"Honestly...... I thought you were going to go on being forgotten, Eun Tae-il."
Tae-il said nothing.
'Most people would have.'
If what was inside this body had been Eun Tae-il, that is what would have happened.
It changed because somebody else moved in.
Team Leader Ong went on.
"But I can see it now, watching you today. You're getting back up."
"I'm working at it."
"And I still don't understand. Why you asked to see me."
When Tae-il lifted his glass without a word, CEO Yeon's mouth twitched.
"Tae-il. You said you'd tell us today. You've let it sit long enough."
CEO Yeon was curious too; it had got into him.
Tae-il looked from one to the other, and his eyes lit.
"Work with me, Team Leader Ong."
"Sorry? Work as in......?"
"An agency. Do it with me."
At the word agency, Team Leader Ong froze where he sat.
CEO Yeon had clearly not seen it coming either, and said nothing at all.
'An agency is Team Leader Ong's dream.'
Unlucky is not the word for it.
The first time, his talent was taken by another company and he went under; the next time, he ended up in a lawsuit with the performer he had raised himself.
After two failures he had climbed into the top rank as a casting director and a location hunter, but......
An agency was still the one thing he could not put a hand on.
Team Leader Ong's face coloured with bitterness.
"......Eun Tae-il. You mustn't know my nickname."
"The Midas of casting. The minus of management."
"......"
Had it hit the mark?
Silence settled over the table.
'The eye for who suits a production and the eye for who can become a star are subtly different things.'
While Team Leader Ong lifted his glass without speaking, CEO Yeon said:
"Tae-il. Did you not think I might be hurt? I run an agency too, don't I?"
"You aren't a man who'd be hurt by this, CEO."
"Ha, listen to him. As though he knows everything."
He was the man pushing hardest of anyone for Team Leader Ong to do well.
They had worked together for a long time in the past, so there was no way Tae-il would not know.
How much time went by.
Team Leader Ong set down his empty glass.
"Eun Tae-il. I don't believe people change."
"That sounds like there's a condition."
Team Leader Ong smiled thinly.
"That's right. I want to see the possibility. I'd like to give you a good answer straight away, but......"
Team Leader Ong's caution was, if anything, what Tae-il liked.
Tae-il lifted his glass and smiled.
"When this production ends, Team Leader Ong, you'll come looking for me yourself."
"What?"
"Shall we toast?"
The moment the glasses touched, Tae-il put the cocktail down in one.
The strong drink stung his throat a little, and he acted as though it made no difference.
"I'll get up first, then. I'll see you soon."
Tae-il went out ahead, and Team Leader Ong and CEO Yeon touched glasses again.
"Jin. Didn't you want to accept on the spot?"
"It has to be different this time. And it looks as though it will be, on that side too."
Looking at the door Tae-il had gone through, Team Leader Ong tipped his glass.
***
The digital studio run by the broadcaster MVN was thick with people.
Starting with the lead Kang Seong-jin, the cast were working through the poster shoot.
"Seong-jin. Look this way. One, two."
Click—
The shutter went off without a break, and Kang Seong-jin held his poses.
The photographer checked the results, ran a hand over his chin and moved on to the next pose.
'Should I go colder?'
Tae-il was watching him, thinking about his own poses for the poster, when it happened.
"This isn't right, is it? Me, coming after Eun Tae-il."
Noise from behind broke Tae-il's concentration.
He turned, and an actor was protesting to PD Choi.
"Hui-seong. You know the title order is decided carefully, with everything taken into account. Coming at it like this won't......"
"PD Choi. Do you think I'd be doing this if I didn't have to? If my share of the production were smaller than Eun Tae-il's I'd accept it, but......"
Lee Hui-seong glared at Tae-il once and met PD Choi's eyes again.
The manager who had come with him was backing Lee Hui-seong hard.
PD Choi clutched his head, as though it were giving him trouble.
'Today's man in charge is PD Choi, isn't it? Knowing CP Seong, he'd hand it to PD Choi entirely and not touch it, which is why he's pushing like that.'
Tae-il was still watching when PD Choi raised a hand.
"......All right. We'll talk later."
"PD Choi. Look after me!"
Moving away from the two of them, PD Choi crumpled his face.
"Actors and their pride, honestly. My senior told me to do as I like, but......"
Being sensitive about the order of appearance in the titles was the same whether you were a lead or a supporting actor.
However much his senior had handed it to him, he had not the slightest intention of moving anyone around as he pleased.
"PD Choi."
Tae-il came up behind him while he was thinking it over.
PD Choi, about to light a cigarette, moved awkwardly to put it away.
Tae-il lit it for him without a word and smiled.
"I heard what you were saying just now."
"Was I a bit loud?"
PD Choi scratched his neck, and Tae-il shrugged.
"You seem to be in a difficult spot because of me, so let's do this."
"What do you......"
"My name. Push it all the way to the back."
At the words out of nowhere, PD Choi's eyes went round.
The further forward an actor's name comes in the titles, the more weight the viewers give them.
That is exactly why actors fight over the order with their pride on the line.
"It's good of you to offer, but...... There'll be a reason."
"Yes. Do me one favour."
"A favour? What......?"
In that moment, Tae-il's eyes lit sharp.
"Instead of appearing last, put the word 'And' in front of my name."