From the moment I resolved to carry out the Bonus Quest of stopping the accident on the 'Love in Bloom' set, I'd made up my mind to use Sang-ik.
But Sang-ik, who'd come out to the cafe, wasn't giving me an opening to get to the point and just kept on chattering about himself.
Watching him prattle on reminded me of how he used to nag me in the last world, and it left me with an odd feeling. It was a voice I didn't entirely mind hearing, you could say.
"Anyway, that's why the desk is curious about you too, Manager Lee. Because I said you give me a lot of help."
"Even so, please don't lay everything open. If an article about our side comes out somewhere else later, it could put you in a difficult spot, Reporter Gil."
Yu Chang-hwan is more than capable of that. He's a man who, once he receives one thing, naturally has to receive one more. He's the type who thinks, I'm so grateful for the help that it'd be nice if you helped me again.
"How do you know that? Your instincts are seriously killer, Manager Lee. As it happens, he gave me an earful because the article about Actor Jeon Hae-jun joining 'Racing Heart' came out somewhere else."
Sang-ik is fairly good at office life, but he's still a new hire. If Yu Chang-hwan's pressure wears on him, his drive will break, so I had to keep it well regulated.
Sang-ik paused for a moment, then spoke.
"To be honest, I was a bit hurt too that that article came out somewhere else."
"Are we the kind of friends who get hurt over something like that?"
"Pardon? Uh... now that really does hurt."
When Sang-ik said it with a dumbfounded face, I barely held back the laugh that nearly burst out.
"I asked to meet today because I want to give you material for a far better article. You started out with a KBC exclusive, Reporter Gil, so I thought it'd be good for you to write more KBC articles."
When I laid down the bait that I was thinking of him, Sang-ik's eyes sparkled.
"KBC? What is it?"
"'Love in Bloom'. I hear the set's a complete mess right now."
"Pardon? That's what I told you before."
He made a face like aw, come on. Sang-ik needs more practice at his poker face.
"What I'm saying is, it's getting worse and worse. There are a lot of days when they go out to sea and come back without getting the shot, so the actors are all on edge, and some days they stay up all night to cram the shooting into the days with good weather."
"And so?"
"On days when the weather cooperates, they shoot through the night and only wrap at dawn the next day, I hear. And call time is 9 in the morning. The staff are on the 52-hour workweek, so Team A and Team B go in on rotation, but the actors?"
"Ahh.... There's no one to take an actor's shift."
Perhaps because the angle for an article was only now taking shape for him, the way he slowly nodded looked like a fool attaining enlightenment.
"So would they be in their right minds on set? That's how accidents happen. From the start of shooting until now, it's been practically slave-driving the whole time, I hear."
"Wow... where do you hear all this, Manager Lee?"
"That's a secret."
"I seriously want to live with you, Manager Lee. I want to be stuck to your side every day."
A reporter who wants information is cut off from information. Maybe that's why he wants it all the more. I understand that, but Sang-ik was coming out with creepy things without even realizing it.
"I like you too, Reporter Gil. That's why I come only to you, after all."
But for now, all I can do is humor him like this.
Part of that was because I was still low-level in this world, but it was also because Sang-ik was one of the few people who'd tried to help me in the last world.
Granted, the article Sang-ik had ghostwritten out of worry for me, when Yu Chang-hwan was chewing me out, had run to the worst possible end.
In this world, I intend to make the fullest use of Sang-ik's meddling and have him pay back the debt he ran up without knowing it.
I adapted the story Shin Dong-jun had confided in his worry for his little brother Hae-chan, keeping only the main framework, and passed all of it on to Sang-ik.
"So go to the set yourself and take a look. This is what reporting on your feet is. Writing articles off the internet every day is no fun, is it?"
I'd scratched at him just a little, and Sang-ik's expression turned serious too. I could see why. Still a greenhorn, Sang-ik would find it too much to request a trip so that he could walk onto a set of his own accord and bring back material for an article.
On top of that, Yu Chang-hwan at the desk is a man who'd have a tabloid rumor piece written under Sang-ik's name on the strength of a mere report. He must have sensed that he shouldn't report it rashly.
"Or would you like to talk a bit more with someone who knows the situation better?"
"Who?"
"San-woo!"
With good timing, CP Jang Nam-yeon came into the cafe and walked up to where Sang-ik and I were sitting.
Who would be happiest if the broadcast of 'Love in Bloom' were halted?
Son Yu-rim and Seo Yu-jin would both be looking forward to the stage being set for a showdown with 'Racing Heart', but the one who'd rejoice most fiercely at that situation in itself was CP Jang Nam-yeon.
'I'll make you the next department head.'
'You, San-woo? How?'
When I'd coaxed him, saying that being head of KBC's drama department would take a small bit of courage, CP Jang had come along as though he couldn't hold out against me.
"What we say here is strictly anonymous! You have to protect your source, no matter what."
"Of course."
I'm right, aren't I? When I looked at Sang-ik, he nodded too, his face resolute.
"I'll protect you no matter what. Please don't worry about a thing."
"This feels like whistleblowing, and I don't like it."
"Please just speak comfortably. Think of it as you and me talking alone. Think of Reporter Gil here as just an object. And Reporter Gil will double-check it, too."
"Ugh, it's because I'm a coward at heart. I'm getting a bit scared all of a sudden."
There he goes playing the fox again. CP Jang's fuss, hugging his small frame tight with both arms and rocking it, feels familiar by now.
"It's for the public good, CP Jang."
"Why am I so nervous?"
"While you're hesitating like this, CP Jang, CP Shin Yeong-jae is playing politics even now. I hear he's gone golfing with the department head."
"What?!"
I told him CP Shin Yeong-jae's whereabouts, which I'd tracked down ahead of time through Shin Dong-jun.
"Why didn't you go with them?"
"I can't play golf."
"What were you doing instead of learning golf?"
"Honestly. I have to watch the dramas and films that come out every day, read the books, and the webtoons and web novels too, and I have to listen to the junior PDs slogging it out on set bemoan their lot. Where would I find the time to learn golf?"
"That's admirable."
"It must never show that it came from me. You know that, right?"
"Reporter Gil writes a good article. Try trusting him."
Sang-ik's eyes, looking at me, flashed behind his silver rims.
CP Jang cleared his throat and began in a hushed voice, as if telling a secret.
"They say the shoot's already running live. For the first two months, they shot nothing but episode 1, I hear. Shin Yeong-jae, greedy to become department head, ran the junior PDs ragged. He staked his life on the visuals. The response to episode 1 went wild, you know."
"But if they're already running live, they're in big trouble."
"They started airing recklessly when they had no footage banked to begin with. I hear the cast members are fighting with each other every day and it's chaos. Does he think ensemble casting is easy? Every actor's demanding more screen time, going so far as to check the number of scenes and the length of the lines, and raising hell over it. At this rate, the writer's going to run."
"It sounds like they keep demanding script revisions from all sides."
"Exactly. A sea setting? A desert setting? A space setting? Do you think the rest of us don't do it because we don't know it looks cool? They're short on the CG budget, so they're shooting it for real, and how on earth is that supposed to work? Not unless they've got a weather fairy."
A weather fairy. Of course there isn't one. There wasn't before, and there'll be absolutely none to come.
Here was the reason I'd moved CP Jang right away.
Super Typhoon Arrives for First Time in 100 Years... Dramas and Variety Shows 'Cancel' Shoots One After Another
It was the super typhoon that, in the last world, had come out of nowhere and made things hard for every field.
Soon a powerful typhoon will form without warning, and the East Sea and the southern regions will fall within its reach.
Shoots were canceled for many programs that filmed outdoors, and the broadcasting world was thrown into chaos.
Airing a broadcast a week late after it was replaced by a special news report was the story of the lucky programs. Broadcasts whose timing no longer fit were scrapped, and the gaps were filled with films or highlight reels.
But from the headline about the super typhoon alone, I couldn't even confirm the shooting schedule of 'Love in Bloom' at the time.
So what CP Jang, who knew the inside situation well, had to say mattered more than anything.
"The PD who took the main unit has called in sick and isn't even showing up, I hear. The PD in charge of Team B is suffering like a dog. The schedule calls for adding a Team C on top, but who's paying for it? Does he get to spend KBC's drama budget all by himself?"
"It must be hard, having to pull in the money."
"That's why Shin Yeong-jae is so busy politicking."
"What happens if there's an accident at this rate?"
"Then I become department head. Ha ha. Ah! Leave that part out no matter what, it's a joke, a joke!"
For a split second, he must have imagined becoming department head. His face aglow, CP Jang cleared his throat, doing his best to hide how pleased he was.
"CP Jang. We'll have to run a tight schedule on 'Loner'."
When I looked at CP Jang, his face turned serious. He seemed to have understood. CP Jang nodded.
"Right. I'll do as you say, San-woo."
***
It was the first shoot.
The schedule had been moved up suddenly, but it posed no difficulty, because the script was already in her head, every bit of it.
Lying under her blanket and looking at the ceiling, Chae-eun raised a hand and laid it on her chest.
'Thump, thump, thump, thump—'
But as call time drew nearer, her heart began to beat harder and harder. Once she'd closed her eyes for a little while and gotten up, truly new and busy days would begin.
'Can I do well?'
It was her first time since shooting the one-act drama 'Utopia'. With Seo Yu-jin's help she'd since worked out every last subtle emotional thread in the script, but it was true that some regret remained.
That was because she hadn't been able to practice with San-woo this time. Taking on Seo Yu-jin's work as well had made San-woo more than twice as busy.
[San-woo. Come to my place.]
It was the message from Seo Yu-jin that had arrived in the moment they were sharing how moved they were by 'Utopia'. Late that night, San-woo had left Chae-eun behind and run to Seo Yu-jin.
He'd said he hadn't been put in charge of Seo Yu-jin, but when it came to Seo Yu-jin's affairs, San-woo jumped in without hesitation.
Watching San-woo's back as he hurried to catch a taxi and turned away, Chae-eun had come face to face with a thing called anxiety.
'What if he says he's going to stop working for me?'
Chae-eun knew very well that it was because of San-woo that she'd been able to act properly in the one-act drama and to join Writer Son Yu-rim's next work as well.
'Things going well because of oppa is just as true for Yu-jin unnie, after all.'
And Seo Yu-jin, too, had stepped up to become a lead actor while working with San-woo.
Manager to a lead. That was a calling card that would do San-woo more good than manager to a rookie.
'San-woo oppa must like working with Yu-jin unnie better.'
The moment she thought that, she felt her heart pound even harder.
'Yu-jin unnie wouldn't even think petty thoughts like this.'
Chae-eun, who'd forced her eyes shut, snapped them open at the sound of a phone notification.
Ding!
[Come down when you're all ready.]
"......!"
It was morning before she knew it. Having seen San-woo's message, Chae-eun washed in a hurry and went out in front of her house.
A car she'd never seen before was parked in front of Chae-eun's house.
'It can't be......?'
San-woo got out of it.
"You're down early? Did you sleep well?"
San-woo, his swept-back hair neatly fixed in place, walked up to Chae-eun.
San-woo scratched his eyebrow and looked at the ground for a moment, and when he brought forward the hand he'd hidden behind his back, Chae-eun's vision filled with flowers.
What San-woo had been hiding behind his back was a bouquet full of blue hydrangeas.
"A gift to cheer you on. So you'll do well on your first shoot."
The big, showy hydrangea blooms blurred for a moment and then, when she blinked, grew clear again. Chae-eun had never been given a bouquet this big before.
"You know I only get to walk around with my shoulders back if you do well, right?"
"Yes......."
"Do you like the car? Let's work hard to the very end on this project too."
To the very end. Work hard.
At those words from San-woo, Chae-eun's anxious heart scattered lightly into the air.
Chae-eun broke into a wide smile.