Chapter 170
A year ago, Cha Seungjoon had rejected my offer to join Big Picture.
Instead, he seemed to devote himself to finishing a screenplay he had already been developing with a rookie director.
It had been quite a while ago, but the last time we spoke, he told me the screenplay was finally complete.
He said he planned to start sending it around for casting and seriously look for investors.
But at some point, I began to feel like Cha Seungjoon was avoiding me.
And because of some pointless consideration on my part, worrying that reaching out first might only make him uncomfortable, I found it difficult to contact him.
Damn it.
That should’ve been all the more reason for me to pay attention.
Then I got busy with my own endless schedule.
Our contact became less and less frequent.
And since the end of last year, we hadn’t properly spoken even once.
Now I was hearing that something had happened to him.
Worse, that the screenplay he had been developing had been taken from him.
At that moment, a memory from before my regression flashed through my mind.
Back then, Cha Seungjoon had worked as a freelance PD while developing a film screenplay with a rookie director.
And the screenplay they developed had practically been stolen by a mid-sized film production company.
The shock left him disillusioned with the film industry.
He eventually quit altogether and immigrated to Canada.
Come to think of it...
Before my regression, hadn’t Seungjoon hyung been developing that screenplay with the rookie director sometime around 2014?
The rookie director he had been working with then was different from the one now.
That was why I had never imagined the exact same thing could happen again.
Don’t tell me...
Is the same thing that happened before my regression happening again?
“Hello? Hello? Hyung, can you hear me?”
While I was lost in thought, Moon Changsoo called out from the other end of the phone.
“Ah, sorry.”
“I can hear you.”
“I thought the call dropped.”
“Changsoo, where are you right now?”
“Still at the company?”
“I’ll come there.”
“Let’s talk in person.”
“Ah, I’m not at the office.”
“Can you come over here instead?”
I immediately redirected the car toward the location Moon Changsoo gave me.
Late at night, the coffee shop was quiet.
When I entered, Ma Sanghee and Moon Changsoo, who had arrived first, raised their hands toward me.
“Over here.”
The moment I sat down, I pressed Moon Changsoo.
“What exactly happened?”
“What do you mean the screenplay was stolen?”
“You know Seungjoon hyung had been developing a screenplay with a rookie director since last year, right?”
“Yeah.”
“The last time I spoke with him, he said the screenplay was finished and he was starting casting while preparing to raise investment.”
“When was that?”
“That was... around September last year.”
“Then you haven’t spoken to Seungjoon hyung since then?”
“Ah... well...”
I hesitated, unsure how to explain the awkward situation between Seungjoon hyung and me.
Ma Sanghee spoke instead.
“I received the screenplay around the end of November.”
“They contacted us about casting.”
“He said he was looking for investment but things weren’t going well.”
“So he thought it might help if he could at least attach an actor first and came to consult me.”
“I even introduced him to some people I know on the investment side.”
“Really?”
I looked at her, confused.
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Ma Sanghee exchanged a glance with Moon Changsoo before answering awkwardly.
“Well... PD Cha asked me not to tell you for the time being.”
“Why?”
“I actually suggested that he ask you for help instead.”
“But...”
She hesitated.
“He said he didn’t want it to look like he was holding you back.”
“And this is just my impression, but... I think he wanted to properly debut on his own and then stand in front of you.”
“Ha... hyung, seriously...”
It was so like Cha Seungjoon.
Since our university days, he had always been the senior walking ahead of me and clearing the path.
Whenever I struggled, he would pat me on the shoulder and say, Just trust hyung.
Maybe my success now brought him happiness.
But at the same time...
Perhaps it had also become a wall of pride that was difficult for him to cross.
“I think PD Cha wanted your recognition.”
Ma Sanghee’s words made something tighten in my chest.
But now wasn’t the time to get sentimental.
“Anyway, that was in November, right?”
“Then you haven’t been able to reach Seungjoon hyung since?”
“You asked me during our New Year gathering whether I’d spoken to him.”
Ma Sanghee nodded.
“Yes.”
“And actually... around the end of the year, I met the investment-company contact I had introduced to PD Cha.”
“They told me it would be difficult for PD Cha to secure investment on his own.”
That made sense.
No matter how much field experience he had, without a proper company behind him, it would be difficult for a PD who had never debuted as the lead producer to raise enough investment and make a film.
I nodded, already starting to understand the situation.
“But what exactly do you mean when you say the screenplay was stolen?”
“And how did the two of you even find out?”
“About two weeks ago, a film company sent us a screenplay because they wanted to cast Seol Kichan.”
Ma Sanghee continued.
“When I read it, it was the exact screenplay PD Cha had sent me.”
As soon as she finished, Moon Changsoo jumped in.
“At first, we thought Seungjoon hyung had joined that film company.”
“The director was even the same rookie director he had developed the script with.”
“So we looked into it.”
“And the producer was someone else.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Was the company called Woojoo?”
Moon Changsoo blinked.
“Huh?”
“How do you know?”
“Did you hear something already?”
As I thought...
It was the exact same film company that stole Seungjoon hyung’s screenplay before my regression.
“No.”
“It’s nothing like that.”
I cleared my throat.
“So what happened next?”
“What next?”
“We kept calling Seungjoon hyung because we wanted to know what was going on.”
“He wouldn’t answer.”
“Now his phone is completely turned off.”
“That’s why we wondered if you had managed to contact him.”
I quickly fell into thought.
If that was the case, there were only two likely possibilities.
Either Seungjoon hyung had personally brought the screenplay to that company, only to be thrown out after they took the project...
Or the rookie director he had worked with betrayed him and went to another production company alone.
