Chapter 171
At my reaction, Cha Seungjoon’s expression turned cold.
“Forget it. Stay out of my business. I’ll handle it myself.”
“Handle it yourself? Handle what?! Is this what handling it yourself looks like? Locking yourself in your apartment and drinking all day?!”
“Yeah! So if you don’t want to see me like this, just get out!”
I shouted back at him.
“If this happened to me, could you really just sit there and do nothing?!”
“Forget it. Someone as capable as you would never end up in a situation like this.”
“So stop worrying about me and focus on your own damn work.”
Cha Seungjoon shot to his feet and grabbed the half-finished beer on the table, gulping it down.
I snatched it out of his hand and poured the rest straight into the sink.
“Hey, Min Kibaek! What the hell are you doing?!”
Cha Seungjoon shouted.
I ignored him and walked over to the refrigerator.
“Why are you drinking flat beer?”
“If you’re going to drink, at least have a fresh one.”
I pulled out two cans, handed him one, then opened the other and took several large gulps.
“Ha, seriously...”
Cha Seungjoon stared at me in disbelief before collapsing back onto the sofa.
“So if I never found out, were you seriously planning to hide this from me forever?”
Cha Seungjoon remained silent for a long time, his thoughts clearly tangled.
Then he finally spoke.
“How could I possibly tell you about something like this?”
“I confidently turned down your offer, saying I could make it on my own.”
His eyes trembled with complicated emotions.
I asked him again.
“So you’re really just going to let them do this to you?”
Cha Seungjoon stared blankly into space.
“When I left, I already signed papers saying I gave up every right I had to this project.”
That caught me off guard.
“What? Why the hell would you...?”
“I was just... tired.”
“There was nothing I could do.”
“No, they were saying I was the obstacle.”
“So I couldn’t keep holding onto it anymore.”
Starting the previous September, Cha Seungjoon had run everywhere trying to secure investment with the completed screenplay.
But despite his extensive field experience, one fact kept holding him back.
He had never debuted as the lead producer.
“I thought maybe it would help if I could attach an actor first, so I talked to CEO Ma Sanghee about casting.”
“She was kind enough to introduce me to investors too.”
“But in the end... the fundamental problem was still me.”
Cha Seungjoon let out a long sigh.
“The director was getting impatient too.”
“And around then, Woojoo Film contacted me.”
Woojoo Film had apparently seen the screenplay through one of the investors and reached out to Cha Seungjoon first.
“At first, it was great.”
“CEO Jung Mooseong was straightforward and confident.”
“He said he’d secure the investment somehow, so I shouldn’t worry.”
A bitter smile twisted Cha Seungjoon’s lips.
“But about a month later, CEO Jung suddenly called me in.”
“He said the investors were uncomfortable because both the director and producer were rookies.”
“They said they’d invest only if one of us was replaced.”
CEO Jung had told him that they obviously couldn’t replace the director who had written the screenplay at that point.
So he offered Cha Seungjoon some compensation for the development work he had done with the director and told him to step away from the project.
The more I heard, the more their shamelessness made my blood boil.
Cha Seungjoon said he had naturally refused at first.
He told the director that he would somehow find another investor, so just wait a little longer.
“But the director said...”
“He couldn’t keep waiting based only on my word anymore.”
“So he was just going to work with Woojoo Film.”
In practice, the copyright belonged to the director.
That meant Cha Seungjoon had no legal rights he could claim over the project.
“Clinging to the director in that situation would’ve just been pathetic.”
“It would’ve only made my own incompetence more obvious.”
“So I stepped away.”
Then he stopped speaking.
His expression twisted painfully.
“But...”
“Later, I found out the film company and the director had apparently already agreed to move forward without me.”
Frustration made my voice rise.
“Then why didn’t you register the copyright jointly when you were developing the screenplay?!”
Cha Seungjoon only smiled bitterly.
And that expression answered more clearly than any explanation could.
Right.
Awareness of copyright was starting to improve, but this industry still ran more on loyalty and trust than law in a lot of cases.
“Guess I got stabbed in the back by someone I trusted.”
Cha Seungjoon lowered his head miserably.
“I trusted people too much.”
“Like an idiot...”
I shouted firmly.
“Why does that make you an idiot?!”
“The bastard who swung the axe is the one at fault!”
“So why are you the one sitting here crushed because you trusted someone?”
I leaned forward.
“Instead of wasting time blaming yourself, get back on your feet and make them regret it.”
“Regret it?”
Cha Seungjoon shook his head.
“No. Forget it.”
“And after going through this, I thought about a lot of things.”
“I realized I’m the kind of person who can’t really accomplish anything alone.”
“Hyung, are you seriously going to keep talking like that?”
I glared at him.
“So what?”
“You’re going to quit this industry?”
“Why? Planning to follow your sister and immigrate to Canada or something?!”
Cha Seungjoon flinched like someone whose secret had been exposed.
“You... h-how did you know that?”
“Tch.”
“How many years do you think I’ve known you?”
“Every time something goes wrong, you say the same thing.”
“‘Damn it, maybe I should quit everything and move to Canada with my sister.’”
“Ah... ahem.”
Embarrassed, Cha Seungjoon scratched his head and looked away.
“What? Did you think I suddenly developed psychic powers?”
Then I spoke decisively.
“Anyway, start coming to Big Picture next week.”
“No.”
“I’m not going.”
“Why?”
“Would working under me hurt your pride?”
“Hey! Min Kibaek, what the hell are you saying?!”
“Then if that’s not it, come work.”
“We start shooting a drama next week and still haven’t found a field PD.”
“And I have never, not once, thought of bringing you in as someone beneath me.”
Cha Seungjoon’s eyes trembled again.
“Hyung.”
“Since the first time I met you in my freshman year of college, I’ve never once thought of you as an outsider.”
