“Why are you so surprised?”
“…….”
Park Song-min turned back to the laptop, his pupils quivering rapidly.
[Hello, Writer Mini Song. We are Aces Media, a web novel management agency.]
“A-Aces Media contacted me…….”
Aces Media.
Its roster of writers alone was enough to show how formidable it was.
More than half the writers near the top of Today's Best belonged to it, and it ranked first in the industry for commercializing intellectual property.
Most of all.
‘……That's where Writer Dallo Gan Sudal is.’
The writer who had inspired him to start writing web novels.
That very Dallo Gan Sudal belonged to Aces Media.
Having his name on the same agency roster would be practically like sharing the same roof under the same sky!
Park Song-min had once submitted a manuscript to that dreamlike agency himself.
All he had received was a rejection email that looked suspiciously copied and pasted.
[After reviewing the work you submitted, we have decided that it does not fit our agency's direction at this time, so we are unable to work together. We wish you continued success in your writing.]
And now…… that same agency had contacted him first.
‘……How does this make sense? My brother had never even written a novel before…….’
As soon as Park Song-min returned to Korea from America, he tried his hand at writing web novels.
He studied the genre, analyzed the structure of cliffhangers, and even wrote down the plot patterns of popular works in a notebook.
Even after all that, the results had been poor.
But his brother had done it with his very first work, on sheer natural instinct.
……A sense of deprivation washed over him in the face of that overwhelming gap in talent.
“Y-you have to sign with them.”
“I'm not signing.”
“……What?”
Park Song-min felt sick to his stomach.
“A-are you out of your mind?!”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why?! It's Aces Media! Writer Dallo Gan Sudal is there!”
“Who's that?”
“Never mind if you don't know!”
Park Song-min's voice had risen in front of Park Song-hu, a rare occurrence.
“Just signing with Aces Media would raise the standing of the Mini Song name!”
Park Song-hu folded his arms, still perfectly calm.
“I wrote it. It's my decision.”
“…….”
“Mini Song is your pen name, but I'm the one who wrote that novel.”
“…….”
“And Aces contacted us because of my work itself, nothing else.”
He had struck right at the heart of it.
Park Song-min couldn't argue.
But thinking it over, he did have a grievance of his own.
“Mini Song is my account! My pen name! I took the ‘Mini’ from the ‘Min’ in Song-min and added ‘Song’ to make Mini Song!”
“…….”
“You're Park Song-hu, so make yourself a new pen name. Huni Song or something!”
“Sure, I will. Then I guess I'll have to contact Aces and tell them they can't sign the Mini Song pen name.”
“You can't do that!”
Signing with Aces Media was Park Song-min's heartfelt dream.
It stung that the work Aces had contacted them about was his brother's, but it would still raise the standing of the Mini Song pen name itself.
‘And I'd be at the same agency as Writer Dallo Gan Sudal.’
His heart raced at the thought alone.
‘Mini Song is my pen name anyway. The better Mini Song does, the better for me.’
He had to sign with Aces under the Mini Song name.
In truth, there was another major reason.
A Trojan horse strategy.
Use his brother's work to open the door, establish the Mini Song name there, and then receive editorial support from Aces Media.
His characters had already proven themselves. If he could just fix the pacing, he would have a real chance!
“Um, Brother? You know…….”
Park Song-min cautiously spoke up after his furtive scheming.
He had grown downright servile without realizing it, but Park Song-hu cut him off mercilessly.
“Yeah, I'm not signing.”
“Oh, come on!”
“Well, if…….”
“……If?”
“If you started acting, I might consider it.”
***
JH Entertainment.
If there was one name on everyone's lips in the building lately, it was Park Song-hu.
The attention surrounding his comeback appearance on <Our Hospital> had carried through his <Scene & Cut> interview and all the way to his cameo in <Hwain>. Rumors were spreading inside the company, too.
“Hey, is it true? Writer Seo Ha-yeong added lines on set?”
Two actors signed with the agency whispered in the corridor.
“Yeah. And the even bigger news is that she apparently saw Park Song-hu act and praised him to the skies.”
“……Wow.”
Among the actors at JH, Park Song-hu's acting was as famous as his looks.
The question was whether the latest story was true.
“But has he really changed? Can someone lie low for a year and change that much?”
“I'd like to see for myself, too. Whether that rumor about him becoming a different person is true.”
“Didn't he say he was coming in today?”
“Yeah. He's meeting the CEO in the lounge about his comeback project.”
“……A meeting with the CEO in person.”
“Hey, even if he fell from grace, he's still a big name.”
“Want to go? We can have coffee nearby and sneak a look.”
Just then, footsteps in dress shoes sounded from the far end of the corridor.
It was Han Seung-ryeol, the chief director of the management team responsible for JH Entertainment's actors.
“H-hello, Director Han.”
“You were talking about Park Song-hu, right?”
Han Seung-ryeol had heard about it before the rumors spread this far.
From Park Song-hu's road manager, Jo Yong-gi.
-Song-hu has really changed completely!
At the time, Han Seung-ryeol had snorted.
Park Song-hu had changed?
Then again, after five years at his side, Jo Yong-gi would make a fuss about Park Song-hu changing if he merely picked up a spoon with his left hand.
Besides…… wasn't Jo Yong-gi rumored around the company to have Stockholm syndrome?
How else could anyone explain his lasting five years under Park Song-hu in the first place?
‘Ah, but there was something strange about that.’
On the day the <Scene & Cut> interview ended, Han Seung-ryeol had called Park Song-hu directly.
Since Han oversaw all of JH Entertainment's actors, it was time to start paying attention to the recently returned Park Song-hu as well.
So Han had called that day to check in, only to be startled.
The voice on the other end was unmistakably Park Song-hu's, yet something about its texture was different.
‘He seemed gentler. Almost like he'd suddenly become a timid loser.’
Han Seung-ryeol could hear it in Park Song-hu's voice alone.
And at the end of the call, Park Song-hu had even said ‘Thank you.’
It was the first time Han Seung-ryeol had ever heard the word ‘thank you’ come voluntarily from Park Song-hu's mouth.
‘……It's still too early to tell.’
If people changed that easily, the industry wouldn't work the way it did.
Han Seung-ryeol glanced at the two actors.
“You know Park Song-hu is coming in today, right?”
“Yes, to the lounge…….”
“I am going too. You two are coming, right?”
“Ah, we were only going to get some coffee…….”
“Stop talking nonsense, and do not stare at him openly.”
When they reached the lounge, Han Seung-ryeol took a table near the coffee bar.
It was far enough away to be inconspicuous, but close enough to hear faint snatches of conversation.
The perfect spot to spread out some paperwork and pretend to work.
The actors took the next table and ordered lattes.
“Act natural.”
Han Seung-ryeol spoke in a low voice.
“Yes.”
“And do not stare.”
“Okay, okay.”
“You never know what Park Song-hu might say to us afterward.”
“…….”
***
The JH Entertainment lounge.
Park Song-min arrived with Jo Yong-gi.
He had felt countless eyes on him from the moment he entered the building.
‘Please, nobody talk to me…….’
He lowered his head and walked quickly.
The lounge was spacious and pleasant.
Sunlight streamed through floor-to-ceiling windows, and sofas and tables were arranged throughout.
There was a coffee bar with a barista near the entrance, and more secluded seating farther inside.
CEO Baek Ho-seon sat on a sofa in the back.
Several scripts lay on the table.
“Oh, Song-hu. Have a seat.”
‘He's here.’
Director Han Seung-ryeol was sipping an Americano.
Han had spread out paperwork but had not turned a single page.
At the next table, several actors from the agency sat side by side, and another one had joined them at some point.
‘……Why are there so many people here at this hour? Don't any of them have work? What are they all doing here……?’
Cold sweat began to seep down Park Song-min's back. He had no idea he was the reason they were all there.
“I will get straight to the point.”
Baek Ho-seon pointed to the table.
“Offers have come in for your comeback project.”
Five scripts were spread out like a fan.
“To be honest, none of them is a lead role yet. You are not known as an actor with strong acting skills, so I think the industry is still unsure. And your image has not been completely cleaned up, either.”
Baek Ho-seon did not mince words.
“Still, what is remarkable is that they approached us first, without our sending out your profile.”
“…….”
“That was rare even before you fell from grace.”
“……That's right.”
Oh, it certainly was.
“Things have gone well since your comeback. So the project you choose now will determine where you go from here. Whether you take another step forward or stay where you are.”
In fact, this meeting would not normally have happened.
Baek Ho-seon was someone who did not give Park Song-hu a choice.
The reason was simple.
Every project Park Song-hu had brought in himself, saying he wanted to do it, had been a box-office disaster. The more slack Baek gave him on the reins, the more trouble he caused.
So Baek had taken his choices away altogether.
But now five scripts lay spread across the table, and Baek was asking him, ‘What do you want to do?’
It was a test of sorts.
Baek wanted to see what the changed Park Song-hu would choose.
‘I will watch what he picks today, then decide whether to let him choose his own projects from now on.’
Park Song-min looked down at the scripts.
At that moment, he could not see things like artistic merit or character depth.
He was searching for only one thing.
The shooting period.
The shortest one.
The one that would end fastest.
Park Song-min was terrified of standing in front of people at all.
He was the kind of person who belonged in his room, writing novels.
In front of a camera, his heart felt ready to burst, his mind went blank, his palms grew sweaty, and his legs lost their strength.
Just thinking about how wet his hand had been when he shook hands with Yoo Yeon-jae on the <Hwain> set made his face burn.
He flipped quickly through the scripts.
He was also gauging how thick each one was.
He assumed that the thinner the script, the shorter the shoot.
‘This one's a little thicker.’
Then something caught his eye off to one side.
Separate from the five scripts spread out like a fan, another script lay by itself.
It was near the edge of the table, half buried under Baek Ho-seon's stack of papers.
‘That one looks really thin.’
“Could I see the one over there, too……?”
Baek Ho-seon followed his gaze.
“Ah, that was not an offer for you. It came to the company. The production company sent it over and asked us to find an actor who would fit.”
In other words, a casting request.
Rather than an offer addressed to a specific actor, it was a script sent to the management agency with a request to connect the producers with someone suitable from its roster.
“Well, there is no harm in looking.”
Baek Ho-seon pulled out the script and handed it over.
The cover was simple.
White letters on a black background.
<The Weight of Ash>
Park Song-min skimmed the synopsis.
It was the story of a young man scraping by as a day laborer in a district of cramped rented rooms on the outskirts of Seoul.
He had no family, no friends, and no future. Then, one day, he met a girl in the same circumstances, and events unfolded from there.
‘……That sounds a bit like me. I lived alone in a studio apartment for a long time, too.’
The estimated shooting period was listed as well.
……It was the shortest of them all!
“I'll do this one.”
Baek Ho-seon's eyebrows rose.
“<The Weight of Ash>……?”
“Yes.”
……Why is he looking at me as if that's strange?
“You know who the director is, right?”
“……?”
“It has been delayed for more than three years because they could not find the right actor for the character…… And you want to take on that challenge? Besides, this was not even sent with you in mind.”
“…….”
Only then did Park Song-min check the director's name.
“!”
……Jung Jae-seung, a master director!
‘What the hell is with that appetite for a challenge?’
Director Han Seung-ryeol and the others who had been eavesdropping could not hide their shock.
Every one of them had their mouth open.
Just then, Jo Yong-gi spoke up with a look of understanding.
“……Song-hu has gained confidence in his acting lately. That must be why.”
Baek Ho-seon looked at Park Song-min with satisfaction and rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Good. You will probably have to audition for this one.”
“…….”
“Yes, I like that attitude, Song-hu.”
“…….”
Without meaning to, Park Song-min had chosen the hardest path of all.