Chapter 174. You Really Shouldn't Have
After finishing the character-planning discussion and coordinating the filming schedule, we left Choi Gyu-sik's studio.
We were driving back when Dae-hun called me.
"Hyung! That crazy bitch Lee Ye-won! Did you see what she posted on PeopleStar?"
Lee Ye-won?
She'd said she was going to bury both me and Youngchae.
Apparently, she had actually tried something.
"Director Kwon. You have a social position now. Watch your language."
"...What the hell? Ah, Youngchae's with you, isn't she? Stop trying to look cool and open the link I sent you!"
It probably wasn't anything important.
Since I was driving, I had Youngchae open it and read it for me.
"Hmm. 'Universe, a giant entertainment company, abuses its power. Cancels advertisements. Steals a role from a rookie actress. The atrocities of Do Jun-hyeok, hailed as a hero of the entertainment industry!' ...That's what it says."
"Hero of the entertainment industry? That's going a little far."
"No, everything except that part is a lie."
Youngchae let out a deep sigh as though she were facing the greatest problem of her life.
Then she pressed a hand to her temple.
"Haa... What is all this now...?"
Even while getting stressed, Youngchae carefully read through Lee Ye-won's long PeopleStar post.
"You said the advertisement cancellation was settled amicably. And what does she mean by stealing a rookie actress's role?"
"Huh?"
Settled amicably?
Well, I suppose it had been amicable enough.
But stealing a rookie actress's role?
I'd certainly emphasized Blue Moon's buzz as a strength, but in the end, Park Chan-deok had made the choice.
It wasn't like I'd held a knife to his throat and threatened him to hand over the role.
And if public attention alone was such an overwhelming advantage that no one could refuse it, then directors would just cast the president's daughter in every movie.
I had mountains of justification on my side.
But I decided not to share all of it with Youngchae.
She was already anxious because this was her first acting project.
If she learned people were saying she'd stolen someone else's role, she might end up losing sleep over it like Anna would.
After dropping Youngchae off at the dorm, I returned to the office and read through Lee Ye-won's post properly.
It already had more than four thousand likes.
Reporters had begun spreading it too, because articles were already appearing.
"What do we do?! What do we do?!"
"Ah, seriously. You're making me dizzy."
Dae-hun paced around anxiously.
"Looks like the effect of that crying performance at AMA has already worn off, hyung. People are treating you like the head of some chaebol family again."
I already knew the excuse of being a small company wouldn't work very well.
Chairman Jung Jun had overused that one.
Still, Universe genuinely was small.
It's not like we managed a dozen famous actors all at once.
Just look at Kwon Dae-hun over there panicking.
Doesn't he make the company look small?
Still, we needed to respond.
What would be best?
Park Chan-deok seemed to have taken Youngchae's acting footage with him.
Should I ask him for it and prove her acting ability publicly?
"Ah, you've got to be kidding me."
"What now?"
Dae-hun sank weakly into his chair.
"Reinforcements just arrived."
Reinforcements?
I opened the link Dae-hun sent me.
It was another PeopleStar post.
It began:
[Hello. I'm a fourth-year idol trainee. I came to Seoul completely alone because I had the difficult dream of becoming an idol...]
The post explained that thanks to living-expense support from the Full Moon Foundation, the trainee had managed to survive a financial crisis that would otherwise have forced them to return home.
"Seriously, there's always a way out. There are tons of other trainees defending us too. Their posts are getting more views than Lee Ye-won's."
Ah.
It was a relief, but this still didn't feel appropriate.
This was exactly why I'd wanted the Full Moon Foundation to operate secretly.
"No, no! Don't borrow support from the trainees."
"Why not?"
"These kids all want to become celebrities. Are you going to make them famous through something negative like this? They should be debuting under pretty stage names and looking glamorous, not doing this."
Of course, I was grateful.
And this kind of collective support was genuinely helping us.
But there was no way they didn't feel some obligation to repay what they'd received from Universe.
Strictly speaking, they weren't even our trainees.
And an agency that failed to debut its own trainees didn't have the right to say much to them anyway.
"Ah, whatever! I'm taking the help. All of this help belongs to me! I'm replying from the Universe account."
"You shouldn't..."
"Why not? Read the post. They said the five hundred thousand won we raised helped them that much. If the money wasn't supposed to help, then why did we raise it and give it to them?"
It was money we'd given to help.
"Ah~ I told you not to."
"I'm posting the reply now. If I press Enter, it'll say, 'Thank you.' Okay?"
"Come on..."
I decided to pretend I couldn't stop him and accept the help.
The next day, Park Chan-deok informed us that he'd officially decided to cast Youngchae as the female lead.
He also included a very long comment about her acting.
The line that stood out most was:
"There are many things Ms. Youngchae possesses that cannot be obtained through effort."
Having seen Youngchae's facial acting myself, I knew he wasn't simply saying she was pretty.
Youngchae had a kind of charm that made the audience smile when she smiled and feel like crying when she cried.
Youngchae starring in a Park Chan-deok film.
At this point, I could die without regrets.
The casting had practically been confirmed after Lee Ye-won's tantrum anyway.
But hearing it directly from Park Chan-deok felt different.
Especially because he'd made the decision after actually watching Youngchae act.
I was scrolling down the email when I noticed an unfamiliar audio file attached.
I called Park Chan-deok.
"Yes, CEO Do Jun-hyeok?"
"Yes. I just received the email. Thank you for casting her."
