Chapter 129
“Director Song. Don’t you think it’s about time we finalize the casting?”
Producer Baek Seonghan spoke while repeatedly replaying the audition footage.
Song Jaehyun was still deep in thought.
“Ha... if it weren’t for CEO Min, Jung Hangyeol would’ve been cast almost unanimously.”
He frowned.
“Why was he so firm about it?”
Song Jaehyun’s concern only deepened.
“Yeah... that’s what’s bothering me too.”
Baek Seonghan sighed.
“But seeing Kibaek push this hard makes it difficult to choose Jung Hangyeol so easily.”
“To be honest, I feel the same.”
A long silence followed.
Then Song Jaehyun finally spoke as if he had made up his mind.
“Then this time, let’s just listen to Kibaek.”
He leaned back.
“Nothing bad has ever happened when we followed his judgment.”
Baek Seonghan nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Then let’s go with Jang Yonggi like Kibaek said.”
Song Jaehyun thought for a moment.
“Now that I think about it, Kibaek’s point about that raw energy isn’t completely wrong either.”
And so, the audition results were announced the next day.
“Hey, CEO Min.”
Baek Seonghan called out to me.
Then he laughed.
“No. I guess you’re Team Leader Min here.”
After lunch, I had come down to the first-floor lounge for a cup of coffee.
Baek Seonghan was already there.
“Oh, PD Baek.”
I looked at him.
“You didn’t go to New Wave today?”
“I have some work to handle here.”
He studied me.
“By the way, did you check today’s audition results?”
“Ah, yes.”
I nodded.
“Jungin noona sent me the announcement.”
The truth was, I had been certain Song Jaehyun wouldn’t easily ignore my opinion.
“I see...”
Baek Seonghan seemed as though he wanted to ask me something.
He glanced at me several times.
But in the end, he said nothing.
He simply stood up.
“I’m heading out first.”
“I have another meeting this evening.”
“Yes. Take care.”
After Baek Seonghan left, I stared through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the people passing along the street outside.
Right.
This was the best choice.
Now Jung Hangyeol will never die in that traffic accident because of this movie.
That thought brought me relief.
But only for a moment.
As time passed, another feeling began weighing on me.
Had I stolen someone’s opportunity?
Before my regression, Kingdom of Crime had been Jung Hangyeol’s only film appearance.
It had also been his final work.
His total screen time had only been around ten minutes.
But his acting in Kingdom of Crime had been incredible.
You could feel in every scene just how deeply he had immersed himself in the role of that low-level gangster.
How seriously he had taken the performance.
Ha... was this really the right thing to do?
I shook the thought away.
No.
Saving his life has to come first.
There would always be another opportunity for him as an actor.
No.
If necessary, I could create one for him myself soon.
Right.
I’ll cast him in a good role in one of next year’s dramas.
I comforted myself with that thought and returned to work.
Time began moving quickly again.
YTBS’s Let’s Get Married, which was currently filming, was progressing smoothly.
Promotional activities also gradually began in preparation for its October premiere.
Then MBS Drama Department Director Hwang Donghyuk offered me a drama slot for October of the following year.
Usually, broadcasters finalized most of their next year’s programming before the end of June.
And once those slots were confirmed, they rarely changed unless a production collapsed and left an empty space.
So if you failed to secure a slot by then, you could practically assume you were out of the schedule for the following year.
After Father, In Your Name ended, June had passed without MBS mentioning anything about another slot.
I had assumed next year’s MBS schedule was already gone.
So hearing this now was a relief.
“Um... but if it’s October, what day of the week are you thinking?”
I asked cautiously.
YTBS had already confirmed Monday-Tuesday drama slots for us in May, August, and October of the following year.
If MBS offered us a Monday-Tuesday slot too, things would become extremely awkward.
Having one production company produce competing dramas in the same time slot would be considered bad business ethics.
“A weekend slot.”
Hwang Donghyuk looked at me strangely.
“Why?”
Whew.
Thank goodness.
I quickly smiled as though nothing was wrong.
“No reason.”
“It’s just that ratings vary depending on the day of the week. Ahem.”
Hwang Donghyuk scoffed.
“Listen to this guy.”
“Kyungmin begged me so much for a slot that I ignored everyone else complaining and carved one out for you.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“And now you want me to match the day too?”
“Of course not.”
I laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
Then I changed the subject.
“By the way, before the weather gets colder, we should go play a round of golf sometime.”
“You can barely play golf.”
Hwang Donghyuk waved it off.
“Forget that.”
“Just think of a way to push the ratings through the roof.”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“Understood.”
“Is this what it feels like to have a storehouse full of rice?”
Executive Director Kim Eunkyung smiled happily while looking over next year’s drama lineup.
“Good work, Team Leader Min.”
“To be honest, the MBS slot was pretty close.”
“Exactly.”
She nodded.
“Next year, we should probably be more proactive and start lobbying from our side first.”
Then she smiled.
“Anyway, good work.”
“You can expect this year’s performance bonus to be the biggest one yet.”
“Actually...”
I hesitated.
“There’s something I’d like to ask.”
“A favor?”
Kim Eunkyung blinked in surprise.
“From me?”
I rarely asked her for anything, whether work-related or personal.
So her reaction was understandable.
“Well...”
I continued.
“I’d like to hand full control of Let’s Get Married over to Kim Hana.”
“To Kim Hana?”
Kim Eunkyung blinked again.
“Why?”
I explained that once Director Song Jaehyun’s film began shooting in mid-September, I would probably need to devote more attention to that side.
“Ah, I understand.”
Kim Eunkyung nodded.
“Let’s Get Married premieres in early October, so the timing overlaps quite a bit.”
She said it was only natural that as one of the representatives of New Wave, I would want to focus on Song Jaehyun’s film.
“You probably can’t properly manage both at the same time.”
She nodded.
“Then let’s do as you suggest.”
“We’ll give Kim Hana full authority over Let’s Get Married.”
The truth was, I could probably still visit the drama set whenever I found time.
But Kingdom of Crime was the first film in the Contradiction Trilogy.
It would eventually become famous not only in Korea but around the world.
I didn’t want to miss even a single part of its production.
“Thank you.”
Once Kim Eunkyung approved, I handed full control of Let’s Get Married to PD Kim Hana.
“From now until the final episode, you want me to lead everything myself?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“You were already one of the main people assigned to this project.”
“And based on experience and ability, you’re the only person on the team who can fully carry a project by yourself right now.”
Kim Hana was surprised at first.
But soon, she thanked me for trusting and supporting her and showed clear enthusiasm.
Kang Jooyoung and Lee Hyunwoo had joined the company earlier.
But both of them knew Kim Hana had more practical experience than they did, so neither objected.
More time passed.
And finally, the first day of filming for Director Song Jaehyun’s Kingdom of Crime arrived.
The first shoot for Kingdom of Crime began at a salt-farm warehouse somewhere along the west coast.
Before filming started, we held a simple traditional blessing ceremony.
CEO Han Taesung and Executive Director Kim Eunkyung of Big Picture had cleared their schedules and traveled all the way to the west coast to attend.
Song Jaehyun bowed before the ceremonial table, where a pig’s head had been placed.
Then he tucked money into the pig’s mouth and prayed for a safe production.
“Please let us finish this shoot safely without a single accident!”
After him came Han Taesung, Baek Seonghan, the actors, and the staff.
One by one, they bowed before the table and shouted their own hopes for the film.
“Please let this movie become a huge hit!”
“Let us reach ten million admissions!”
“Let me win Best Supporting Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards with this movie! Hahaha!”
Watching them, my chest unexpectedly swelled with emotion.
Ha...
I never imagined the day would come when I personally produced the greatest movie of my previous life.
Then Han Taesung looked toward me with a smile.
“CEO Min, you should say something too.”
I bowed before the ceremonial table.
Then I pulled a credit card from my wallet and pretended to swipe it through the pig’s mouth.
“I’ll keep swiping until the limit is maxed out, so please let this movie win the Palme d’Or at Cannes!”
“Whoa!”
Cheers erupted from everyone gathered around.
Once the ceremony ended, we began preparing for the first shoot.
I sat in front of the monitor and quietly watched the set moving around me.
The lighting team setting up lights.
The camera crew finding their angles.
The actors performing according to the director’s instructions.
The makeup and wardrobe teams constantly checking the actors’ appearances.
There was a tension, heat, and strange excitement unique to a film set.
Something you could never feel inside an office.
Right.
This is what makes the field so addictive.
I enjoyed planning work in the office too.
But at heart, I had come from production sets.
I loved the fierce smell of sweat that existed only on-site.
The first shoot ended smoothly.
Time passed quickly.
The production that had started in early autumn crossed its halfway point as winter approached.
I didn’t want even a single blemish left on this film.
So I desperately tried to remember every piece of information I had seen or heard about Kingdom of Crime before my regression.
And using that knowledge, I tried to eliminate anything that could interfere with filming.
But...
I never expected those actions to come back and cause an entirely different problem.
“Whoa.”
One of the youngest members of the directing team approached a group of staff members chatting off to the side after finishing a shot.
“I just checked, and apparently it’s pouring like crazy in Suncheon right now.”
“Seriously?”
“Weren’t we originally supposed to shoot the reed field in Suncheon today?”
“Wow. If we’d gone to Suncheon today, we would’ve been screwed.”
“Yeah.”
The younger staff member nodded.
“But CEO Min told us yesterday that it looked like it might rain, so we should switch to the indoor scenes first.”
“What?”
Someone looked confused.
“So that’s why we suddenly changed to the set?”
“Wait.”
“The weather forecast never said anything about rain.”
“Exactly.”
Another person sounded amazed.
“Whoa... what is CEO Min?”
“That’s creepy.”
The whispering had gotten loud enough to reach the monitor where I was sitting.
“Ah! Now that I think about it...”
Someone suddenly spoke up.
“Remember when the generator broke last time?”
“CEO Min showed up with a backup generator like he already knew it was going to fail.”
“Seriously?”
“Now that you mention it, remember that day the props team’s vehicle broke down and they arrived late?”
“We nearly had to cancel filming.”
Another staff member joined in.
“But the day before, CEO Min suddenly said he wanted to load a few props into his own car.”
“I thought it was weird, but I said fine.”
“And those exact props were connected to the previous scene, so if they hadn’t been there that day, we would’ve had to shut down the entire shoot.”
“And he happened to take only those props with him.”
I kept staring at the monitor and tried my best to ignore their conversation.
But internally, I swallowed dryly.
Damn.
Did I make it too obvious?
I should probably be more careful from now on.
Then another voice rang out.
“Whoa, seriously.”
“That’s giving me chills.”
Someone laughed nervously.
“At that point, doesn’t he actually have some kind of supernatural gift?”
What?
A supernatural gift?
Ha...
At this rate, am I seriously going to end up with some weird rumor about me?
