Chapter 94. The Sentry Who Got His Revenge
Filming wrapped up, the first episode aired, and I got to watch pristine water naturally turn into sewage.
The initial response was incredibly hot.
Jo Chae-won already had some negative buzz around her because of 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉, but her looks still drew plenty of attention.
On top of that, Blue Moon, who were basically walking buzz generators at this point, stood out even more.
If you searched Blue Moon online, almost everything that came up was about 〈Jo Mi-won Snack Bar〉.
The show had apparently done even better than expected, because Na Young-hwan called me almost every day.
And, naturally, Seo Hoe-dong called to complain with jealousy at about the same frequency.
The more popular the members and Jo Chae-won became, the more another group seemed to be preparing to move against her.
[More Staff Members Come Forward with Allegations of Jo Chae-won's Abuse of Power...]
[Jo Chae-won Refuses to Comment on Having Eight Managers Replaced in One Year]
[Jo Chae-won and Jin Youngchae: Fake Kindness Versus Sincerity]
The old post summarizing Jo Chae-won's nuisance behavior on 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉, which had seemed like it was starting to fade away, came roaring back.
On top of that came allegations that she'd verbally abused staff, forced an almost exploitative workload onto her manager, and even mockery claiming that the encouragement she'd given Sergeant Yeom Min-woo at the food truck had been fake.
And then, finally, the screenshot of the exact social media post I'd been waiting for was revealed.
The future spam video had been dated October 13, but perhaps because of my interference, things had moved forward a little.
-Wow... So she thought like that while going around lying through her teeth about "living thanks to the audience"?
-Apparently male viewers ruined dramas nowㅋㅋㅋㅋ So I guess she's not going to watch 〈Squid Game〉 either?
-Youngchae, who actually went out of her way to help people, is keeping quiet, while this woman did all the fake-good-person stuff herself and went, "Wow, so cool~." Does Jo Chae-won still think military service is two years long?
-She's riding the Blue Moon coin.
There were some reactions that went a little off course.
Still, considering the things Jo Chae-won had actually done, I could understand why people found her irritating.
It felt like she was receiving the punishment she'd earned.
And seeing public goodwill toward Blue Moon grow in proportion to her downfall honestly made me pretty happy too.
Right in the middle of the Jo Chae-won hunt, Na Young-hwan called.
"...I can't sleep anymore. Every day makes me nervous."
Na Young-hwan compared his current situation to an RPG.
He said it felt like he'd wandered into an absurdly high-level hunting zone while receiving infinite, overpowered healing.
His HP was only around 100, yet attacks dealing millions of damage were constantly flying at him.
And every single one was being negated by the healer's support.
If that analogy was accurate, then starting from next week's episode, when Blue Moon disappeared, the Jo Chae-won antis were going to instantly delete him.
"You still have enough energy to make fun analogies, so I guess you're doing all right."
"I can't exactly grab the phone and sob to CEO Do Jun-hyeok, can I? I'm trying to relax through humor, at least. Besides, I still have one final option."
"A final option?"
Na Young-hwan said there wasn't much to explain.
If things looked impossible, he'd just cancel the show.
He hadn't produced results, but logically speaking, this wasn't really Na Young-hwan's fault.
He could always aim for another opportunity later.
"That's why I'm standing at a crossroads right now. I keep going back and forth to the station. At this point, even I don't know whether I'm supposed to be an outdoor variety guy or a studio guy. Either I cancel it altogether, or I find a regular panelist to replace Jo Chae-won and try to secure a full-season order. We only have two more episodes to film before the scheduling review."
At this point, the meal was basically cooked.
"That sounds exhausting. I hope it works out. Our girls are on standby too, so call anytime. We can practically guest every week if you want."
"Really? Then what about... joining as a regular?"
"A regular?"
That was exactly what I'd wanted, but I pretended to be surprised.
Na Young-hwan immediately became excited.
"Even if this isn't a guaranteed project yet, the concept has to be concrete. If you send Youngchae as a fixed cast member, we could stop calling it 〈Jo Mi-won Snack Bar〉 and quickly change it into something like 〈Youngchae Beer〉. Running a draft-beer street stall could be more fun."
I'd been thinking about Anna and Aran.
And now he suddenly wanted Youngchae.
I could understand why.
Youngchae was the hottest member right now because of the military-base story.
From Na Young-hwan's perspective, she was probably the Blue Moon member he wanted most.
But my situation was different.
If this was the kind of opportunity where any one of our Blue Moon goddesses would work, then there was no particular reason it had to be Youngchae.
If I wanted to distribute broadcast opportunities efficiently, it was better to keep Youngchae's options open.
Aran already had a mukbang image she'd built up.
So putting Aran into Jo Chae-won's place made more sense.
Let's do Anna and Aran.
When I suggested that, Na Young-hwan sounded a little disappointed, but still relieved enough to accept.
There was nothing to be disappointed about.
I'd just saved your life.
Even though public opinion was actually supporting us, we'd still ended up mixed into all the insults being thrown at Jo Chae-won.
So for a while, I was on edge.
One spark flying our way could still create a disaster.
At least we had the weapon known as Kim Min-jun, who was currently enjoying a leisurely life.
When filming for Episode 2 started, I wanted to send Aran and Anna...
But the plan fell apart once.
Anna received an offer from the hip-hop competition show 〈K-Hip-Hop Star〉.
The old 〈I'm Pretty Rapstar〉 she'd once appeared on was a program where anyone could submit an audition video and join if selected.
〈K-Hip-Hop Star〉 was different.
They directly recruited only around twenty or thirty rappers and ran the show with a small, elite pool.
Anna had become quite famous in the meantime.
That competition was also just as brutal as 〈Rebooting〉, so trying to fully commit to two shows would be difficult.
When I told Na Young-hwan that Anna would probably have to drop out, he looked utterly crushed.
So I offered to send Youngchae as a special guest for Episode 2.
That was how, starting from the second episode, the program title became:
〈Aran Noodles〉 — Youngchae Episode.
It was already wobbling this badly from the beginning.
I had no idea whether it could really earn a regular time slot.
Still, Na Young-hwan was a pro among pros.
He'd probably figure it out.
That was how Jo Chae-won's so-called "male-dominated content" controversy came to an end for now.
It was about time I met Park Min-jung again.
Park Min-jung, Film & Visual Media Class of 2020 at Daeyoung University of Foreign Studies.
The reason I called out Park Min-jung, who didn't seem likely to benefit me in any way, was pure curiosity about the screenplay.
I had even set aside a day to compare it with Choi Gyu-sik's script.
It wasn't just similar.
It was the same screenplay.
Exactly.
Completely.
After searching online, I learned that Choi Gyu-sik was currently serving as department chair in the Film Arts Department of the Graduate School of Visual Media at Daeyoung University of Foreign Studies.
He also taught undergraduate classes.
Curiosity was the first reason I wanted to look into this.
The second was the thought that maybe the incident involving this screenplay could somehow be an extension of the future information related to Jo Chae-won.
I couldn't be sure, though.
I called the number written on the back of the script and arranged to meet Park Min-jung.
She didn't look much different from last time.
Jeans again.
