It was a sudden offer, and Tae-il smiled at his leisure.
"What sort of production is it?"
"Shouldn't you just come, no questions asked?"
"The production and the character I'd be playing might not fit. I don't want to be a nuisance again."
"Well......"
PD Park worked his mouth and met Tae-il's eyes.
Of course, "come, no questions asked" had been half a joke.
What caught at him was......
'Not like Eun Tae-il at all...... he's talking like a real actor.'
It was a long way from the Eun Tae-il who did whatever came into his head and could only make one face.
A man who used to have nothing but the mask.
Just as the edge was coming into PD Park's eyes.
Team Leader Ong, watching quietly, stepped in.
"Our PD Park is as impatient as ever. You could show him the production first and then say it."
Loosening the stretched air with that warm way of his, Team Leader Ong gestured at the bag with his eyes.
"Look at me. I should have shown you the script before I said anything."
Only then did PD Park laugh heartily and dig through his bag.
'Team Leader Ong hasn't changed.'
Tae-il glanced at Team Leader Ong, shrugged, and took the script from PD Park.
[Hot-Blooded Cops]
-PD Park Gyeong-min
-Writer Jeong Jin-yeong
The two names printed on the script's first page came at him unusually large.
'PD Park picked Writer Jeong's work. The first one did well, so the pressure on the second will be heavy.'
There are as many writers who vanish after the second production as after the first.
For Writer Jeong this would be a production with more pressure on it than anyone could imagine.
Tae-il turned the pages slowly.
'A lot of exteriors and a lot of action. They've put weight into it, and the content isn't difficult by comparison.'
The story unfolds around Violent Crimes Team 6 in Buyeon City, last in the country for arrests.
Team 6's leader waiting out the clock to retirement, and Team 6's members with no will left in them.
Into that Team 6 come Yun I-cheon, a new detective with an IQ of 171, and Lee Mi-rae, transferring in from traffic.
Turning the pages slowly, a character marked in highlighter caught his eye.
'Hyeong-ik?'
A third-generation chaebol by the name of Hyeong-ik.
The character he would be taking the camera test for.
'A brat who trades on nothing but the family's weight. A textbook villain.'
Hyeong-ik drinks himself stupid at a club, drives off anyway, and runs from the police at a sobriety checkpoint.
In the middle of a night-long chase he hits a job-seeker out doing night deliveries on a motorcycle, and is caught.
'He leaves the scene and puts the job-seeker into brain death. A textbook hate sponge.'
Hit-and-run and all, he walks calmly out of the police station with his lawyer while the press watches.
After that he insults the lawyer who walked out with him as a servant, and calls the victim a worm who only wants to squeeze money out of him.
The only thing sound about him was his face.
'He gets caught by the protagonists of Violent Crimes Team 6 and holds the attention early on.'
He exits in episode 2, or strictly speaking early in episode 3, and he was an important character, the one who would hold the viewers' eyes.
PD Park looked at Team Leader Ong's warm expression and let out a sigh.
"Finding the right man hasn't been easy."
"I hear Writer Jeong has been paying it a lot of attention."
PD Park nodded without speaking.
The ones who looked decent refused, and the ones he barely dragged in got turned down by Writer Jeong......
'Eun Tae-il would get an okay out of Writer Jeong.'
There are few people who fit this script the way Eun Tae-il does.
And going by the acting tonight, it would be hard for him not to be talked about.
'The grain of the character is different.'
If Do-hwan is a calculating villain, Hyeong-ik is a villain who does whatever he feels like.
Villains both, and the character's nature was different.
'Three episodes at the most. A character to be used up, but more important than Do-hwan.'
Looked at one way, he was an important supporting role that might decide whether the drama succeeded.
Reading the script, Tae-il lifted his head slowly.
"Eun Tae...... no. A character rather like me."
"That's right."
"I can see why you offered me the test, PD Park."
PD Park smiled.
"I don't think there's anyone who could bring this character out the way you can, Tae-il. As you are now."
"......"
"Will you come and take the test?"
Tae-il closed his eyes and opened them.
"Give me a date and I'll come."
"I'll be in touch soon. Then......"
After ten more minutes of talk, PD Park rose.
When the two of them were alone again, Team Leader Ong pulled his chair right in.
"I'm surprised. PD Park, of all people, offering a test."
"When all you wanted was to check whether I was a proper product."
"I won't deny it."
Team Leader Ong wore a bitter expression and lowered his head.
He had called PD Park, a man who had worked with Eun Tae-il, here on purpose.
Add his own eyes to PD Park's and he could judge Eun Tae-il's acting coldly.
"I didn't expect PD Park to go as far as offering a camera test."
"That surprised me too."
Team Leader Ong looked at Tae-il's banter with expressionless eyes.
Because it meant Eun Tae-il had changed enough that even an exacting man like PD Park would offer a camera test.
Tae-il looked at Team Leader Ong with his head down and smiled.
"Since we've come this far, I'd like your answer too, Team Leader Ong."
Team Leader Ong could not easily lift his head.
Eun Tae-il was a man worth wanting, but......
"......I'm sorry. Someone like you, Tae-il...... is too much for me, I think."
He was afraid.
The fear of having tried the management business and gone under twice.
The self-loathing of sending performers and staff who had been family off to other companies still pressed down on him.
"I know it too. That I'm too much."
"Eun Tae-il. That isn't......"
Team Leader Ong lifted his head, and Tae-il was smiling as though it were obvious.
'Agreeing already wouldn't be Team Leader Ong.'
Tae-il swallowed the half-glass of water left in one and met Team Leader Ong's eyes.
"I'll give you time."
"Eun Tae-il. I......"
"It won't be long, though. You're not the only one who knows I'm too much now."
There was no chance another company would leave an Eun Tae-il about to take off alone.
No, right now, with his stock just starting to climb, was the best moment.
Team Leader Ong smiled bitterly and nodded.
"Tae-il. Why me? Somewhere enormous, like Glom or Hartel......"
"I'd rather have someone I can trust than a giant agency."
The secret of how Team Leader Ong had survived two failed management businesses.
It was the trust he had held onto, standing his ground doggedly over a long time.
'No need to be hit from behind by a person again.'
He was hit from behind by his friend and his wife, and the company he had built over a lifetime went to somebody else.
This time, at least, someone he could "properly" trust.
That was the sort of person he wanted beside him.
"Tae-il. How can you trust me?"
"I'm trusting that time of yours, Team Leader Ong. The time when you kept faith to the end, even as the company was going under."
To the very last, Team Leader Ong had kept his loyalty.
Even as the company went, he made places for the performers in his care to go to other agencies, and saw to every one of his staff.
While he himself came out with nothing.
Team Leader Ong let out a short breath.
"You're the first person to talk me around this far, Eun Tae-il."
"That's how much I want to work with you."
"Honestly...... all right. I can't give you the answer you want right now, but......"
Team Leader Ong smiled warmly.
"Let's try each other out for a while."
"Meaning......?"
"You should stop riding the crew bus, Tae-il."
At the time, Tae-il did not know exactly.
What Team Leader Ong's words had meant.
***
"Going by the profile alone, he's Hyeong-ik himself."
Setting down Eun Tae-il's profile photo, Writer Jeong Jin-yeong narrowed his eyes.
The Eun Tae-il in the photo, in a black suit and black trousers with his face crumpled into a scowl, carried exactly the image of Hyeong-ik he had been holding in his head.
"Writer Jeong. Then with Eun Tae-il......"
Writer Jeong pushed a different set of profile photos out in front of PD Park.
PD Park picked one up, put a hand to his chin and narrowed his eyes.
"Good grief......! It's Han Gi-seong. The one they're watching as a Chungmuro icon......"
"What do you think? Perfect, isn't he?"
PD Park swallowed dry and turned the photo this way and that.
The man in the profile photo had strong, bold lines and large features.
"Han Gi-seong is coming to take the test too?"
"Yes. Chasing him down was quite hard work."
Writer Jeong shook his head and shrugged.
After staring at the photo a long while, PD Park set the profile down with a sigh.
"The boy acts like a lunatic...... Han Gi-seong would be good too."
"You think so as well, PD Park?"
"But there's Eun Tae-il's mask to consider."
"A mask doesn't put food on the table......"
Setting Eun Tae-il's and Han Gi-seong's profiles side by side, PD Park and Writer Jeong argued it out at length.
***
The MVN drama "Welcome to Flower Boy House" went on air.
Episode 1, 7.8%.
Episode 2, 9.7%.
A clean start, approaching 10% in the first week of broadcast.
That it was Writer Shin Se-ri's return, fronted by a great many handsome actors, stirred people's interest.
After checking the ratings, Tae-il went around the communities and social media looking at reactions.
-Kang Seong-jin dragging his bag around so pitifully, why is he so cute T_T
-somebody confiscate Lee Hui-seong's glasses and checked shirt...... he looks like he'd ace an exam lolol
-flower boy one, flower boy two, three...... they've opened a restaurant in here!
-cringed a bit but it was fun.
-yep watching again next week
-officially a drama that improves your eyesight
'The first week's reaction isn't bad.'
Ride this flow and it would carry into a climb.
There was no telling what variable would come or how, so he could not let the tension go.
Watching people's reactions, Tae-il moved the screen along.
-Senior...... T_T I believed in you
-holding the line wins T_T Face Senior, like this...... T_T
-don't over-invest lol
-stop asking for Face Senior already
-I was f*cking terrified when Do-hwan threw his brother out
-went to watch for Kang Seong-jin and fell for Eun Tae-il. is that weird of me?
-Beep- you are normal.
-I really h8 Eun Tae-il but there was nothing to pick at this time. nearly wet myself at that face.
-I was going to curse him and then I saw the face and forgave him.
-I like that it gets tense every time Eun Tae-il comes on. it goes childish when it's light
'How long has it been...... since I felt like this?'
Looking at people's reactions, something in his chest rang.
It felt like having the work of that time acknowledged, and Tae-il quickly found his cool again.
He had put one foot forward, that was all.
It was much too early to be lifted.
'The regret over Face Senior connected nicely into expectation for Do-hwan.'
And the disappointment over the second and third teasers had been cancelled out with it.
He had started to ride a good flow, so filling those expectations with better acting was the task.
Tae-il pushed his chair back and picked up his phone.
-3:30 p.m. Rail Production.
On the screen was tomorrow's camera test schedule.
He moved the screen and another message came up.
-There's one more person taking the test.
The content was short, but it was not something to take lightly.
'Alone or together, I only have to act well.'
Looking in the mirror, Tae-il kept practising until late.
And so, the next day.
Tae-il headed for the production company to take the camera test.
"Eun Tae-il. This way, please."
Guided by a member of staff, Tae-il entered a meeting room.
Inside, a camera stood in the middle, and in the seats at the back sat PD Park and Writer Jeong Jin-yeong.
"Come in, Eun Tae-il."
Writer Jeong was a writer with a lean build and sharp eyes.
He waved lightly, then put both hands together and put an edge in his gaze.
PD Park waved at Tae-il.
"Writer Jeong. How does he look?"
Looking from the monitor to Tae-il and back, Writer Jeong worked his eyes.
The test had not started yet, and the look he gave Tae-il was sharp.
'It's no exaggeration to say they've just stuck Hyeong-ik on and sent him in.'
Seeing him in the flesh, he thought he understood why PD Park had brought Eun Tae-il.
Five minutes passed after Tae-il came in, and the test did not start.
"Tae-il. Wait just a little. They say he's almost......"
PD Park had barely finished when the door opened and a man came in.
"I'm sorry I'm late."
A thick voice came from behind Tae-il.
A male actor a little shorter than Tae-il, with a cold impression to him.
"I'm Han Gi-seong."
The actor Han Gi-seong.
Writer Jeong's candidate for Hyeong-ik.
'Han Gi-seong? So that's the actor they call a Chungmuro icon.'
Tae-il took Han Gi-seong's hand, and his eyes lit.
He was a little nervous, and a competitive streak rose with it.
On the other side......
'My test partner was Eun Tae-il? Huh......'
The faint twist at Han Gi-seong's mouth showed a thought different from Tae-il's.
He had come expecting something after being told there was a good test partner, and it was that Eun Tae-il, famous for being a brat......
Whether or not he knew, PD Park called out.
"Right! Let's start with Gi-seong. Stand on the line over there."
With PD Park's words, the audition began.
Han Gi-seong let out a small sigh, turned his head slightly to the camera and glared viciously downward.
Watching the monitor, Writer Jeong took the microphone.
"That's good. Shall we have one line you're confident in?"
"You know why the Han River is called the Han River? Because you could dump one of you in it and it wouldn't blink."
Eyes glittering, Han Gi-seong carried the line through without a stumble.
PD Park nodded easily.
'He does the rough well.'
'The feel of it is good. A little different from the Hyeong-ik I had in mind...... but it's all right.'
Writer Jeong could not take his eyes off the monitor either.
The test went on for quite a while.
Han Gi-seong acted his confident expressions, and last of all the scene where the protagonist catches him.
"Gi-seong, thank you. Eun Tae-il."
Crossing past Tae-il as he came forward, Han Gi-seong pulled the corner of his mouth up, sour.
'Look at this, will you?'
That Han Gi-seong was sneering.
As though to say: you, Eun Tae-il, cannot beat me at acting.
'Is it because they've been holding him up lately? There's a character problem there.'
Standing in front of the monitor, Tae-il moved his mouth widely and loosened the muscles of his face.
"Tae-il. Ready?"
"Yes. I'll begin."
The red light came on, and Tae-il turned his eyes and made the expression particular to Hyeong-ik that he had practised.
It was the smug expression Eun Tae-il himself used to wear.
Watching Tae-il on the monitor, PD Park folded his arms.
'We can let this one through.'
'My thought as well.'
Writer Jeong raised a hand.
"Tae-il. The expression is enough, I think. Do what you've prepared."
Tae-il looked once at Han Gi-seong and turned his eyes back to the camera.
"You know why the Han River is called the Han River?"
At the jeer in Tae-il's delivery, a thick edge came into Han Gi-seong's eyes.
'Th-that bastard, the nerve......!'
Because that brat was delivering exactly the same line as his own.