WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Potter

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Why Do My Dramas Keep Becoming Hits!? ◈

Chapter 16: Are You Trying to Ruin the Drama? (2)

──────

Seven years.

Over those long years, Do Jae-hyun had learned only one truth in this industry.

The world never sided with those who worked hard.

He had learned that truth far too late.

Or perhaps he had known it from the start. He had simply fought desperately to look away because he could not bear to accept it.

Do Jae-hyun, an unknown actor in his seventh year.

What first led him to acting was nothing grand. In college, he had wandered into a theater club by chance and somehow ended up in a supporting role.

But that insignificant beginning changed Do Jae-hyun's entire life.

Acting was fun.

The miracle of another person's life, once trapped in print, emerging into reality through my breath.

The moment the role and I became one beneath the burning pin lights.

Hundreds of audience members holding their breath as they watched only me. Then the applause pouring down as though it would swallow me whole.

To Do Jae-hyun, none of it could be traded for anything else.

Naturally, he gave everything to acting.

He did more than work while others rested. He pushed himself to the limit, even cutting down on time to eat.

His obsessive devotion to acting was enough to make even Daehangno's proud theater veterans shake their heads.

"I've never seen a crazy bastard like you. You're definitely going to make it."

"Wow, our Jae-hyun. I'll be seeing you in movies before long, huh?"

"Hey, Jae-hyun! I was the one who talked you into joining the theater club, remember? Don't forget me when you make it big!"

Everyone praised his talent and hard work.

But...

The reality before a camera lens was cruelly cold.

"Tell that bastard to tone down his eyes! Does he think he's the lead?"

"Fuck! Who brought in that useless piece of shit?! Get him out of the frame right now! Have him stand around as scenery, then throw him out!"

"Jae-hyun, I'm sorry. Someone the investors are backing suddenly got the role... Yeah, I'm really sorry. Let's definitely work together next time."

The harder he worked, the more people branded him as someone who did not know his place.

The sincerity he poured into every role was dismissed as the artistic delusions of an idiot who knew nothing about the realities of a set.

And so, the young man once called an acting genius gradually faded away, remembered by people in the industry as nothing more than a stubborn, hopeless deadweight.

Even so, he could not give up.

Acting was everything to him. He had lived looking at nothing but acting, and becoming one with a character was the happiest thing in the world.

'What did it matter if I had no lines? At least my face would be on screen.'

If he could not be a lead, he took supporting roles. If he could not get supporting roles, he took bit parts. If even that was impossible, he volunteered for extra work with no lines at all.

Soldier 6. Corpse. Fleeing Citizen 3. Customer eating in the corner of a restaurant.

Even as he moved from one nameless role to another, he dug into every script like a madman.

Today, he had been scheduled to play Cafe Customer 3.

But unlike his past projects, this one was enormous.

A tentpole tvM miniseries with buzz rivaling a major broadcast network's drama.

A production packed with famous directors and popular actors everyone knew by name.

For someone who had drifted from bit part to bit part in independent films and web dramas, even breathing the air of this massive set felt like a miracle.

So he had clung to the script several times harder than usual.

He might have been an extra without a single line, but he had even given himself a detailed backstory: a college student nervous about being on a blind date. He wanted to make the performance feel more real.

Yes, he had prepared so intensely that his old notebook was practically falling apart.

"Production team! The whole cafe scene is scrapped! Tell the extras coordinator to pull everyone out and wrap up!"

Baek Kang-min, the second male lead, had committed a daytime drunk-driving hit-and-run.

The performance Do Jae-hyun had prepared for all night without sleeping vanished in one absurd, catastrophic accident.

'Again...?'

The staff frantically made calls while the lead actors returned to their waiting vans in irritation.

Why was that?

Watching it all from a distance, he did not even feel empty anymore.

"Jae-hyun. Let's go."

"...."

"Jae-hyun? Hey, Do Jae-hyun."

After standing blankly for a moment, Do Jae-hyun picked up the old backpack he had set on the ground and slung it over his shoulder.

Today, its weight felt especially heavy.

'...Yeah. That's just my life.'

It had taken him a long time to accept reality.

He was nearing thirty, living a miserable life balanced between overdue rent and convenience store shifts.

He could not keep clinging to the shapeless hope of "someday" anymore.

"Let's go, hyung."

"Y-yeah. Are you okay?"

"...What's not to be okay about? Honestly, this is good. It made me face reality properly."

It was time to admit it.

The praise people had showered on him had been nothing more than the talent of a frog in a well, valid only in the cramped theater world.

It would be better for him to stop being stubborn and live in reality.

"Excuse me! Do Jae-hyun!"

Just as he was about to give up on his dream and leave, someone called out to him.

Do Jae-hyun stopped walking on reflex and turned around.

A man was striding toward him.

It was Ji Yeon-woo, the drama's head writer, whom he had mistaken for another extra earlier.

'Ah.'

Do Jae-hyun's heart sank.

Hadn't the assistant director just stared at him like he was a bug and humiliated him?

On top of that, he had practically snatched away the esteemed writer's bag of coffee.

Do Jae-hyun hastily bowed and began apologizing.

"W-Writer Ji. I'm truly sorry about earlier. I'll definitely pay you back for the coffee by tomorrow..."

But Writer Ji Yeon-woo waved a hand as if it did not matter.

Then he said something Do Jae-hyun could not understand.

"No. Forget the coffee. Would you pay me back some other way?"

"...?"

Pay him back some other way? What did that mean?

His next words only made the question larger.

"Jae-hyun. Earlier, you said your dream was to say even one line in front of a camera, right?"

"...Yes? Ah, yes. I did."

"Then that dream."

Ji Yeon-woo stepped closer, looked directly into Do Jae-hyun's eyes, and held out his hand.

"I'll make it come true for you. A hundred times, a thousand times, until you've had your fill."

#

At that moment, the center of the set was an absolute disaster.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! There are truckloads of actors in this country, and we can't find one bastard to put in front of a camera right now?!"

Director Woo Young-taek's roar rang across the set.

He was known for being strict on set even normally, but his face was so red that no one would have been surprised if a blood vessel burst in his brain.

"Fuck, seriously!"

If only Baek Kang-min had gone down, Woo Young-taek would not have been losing his mind this badly.

But Baek Kang-min was a lead actor already in the same boat as this drama.

Whether they liked it or not, his drunk driving would clearly deal the drama a huge blow.

And just as expected...

"Director, we have a problem! Baek Kang-min's agency just called. The police have started questioning him. There's no way he can get out of this!"

"What?! Fuck! What did the department head say? Can the investors be held off?!"

"That side is in an emergency too, and the phones haven't stopped ringing! The main investor is going crazy, saying they'll withdraw the entire investment unless we replace the actor immediately and put out a damage-control article today!"

They were completely fucked.

Woo Young-taek stared at his phone screen, trying to calm his trembling hand.

Entertainment outlets and even general news sections were already being flooded with headlines like, "Famous Male Actor in His Twenties, Mr. B, Shocks Public With Daytime Drunk-Driving Hit-and-Run."

It was only a matter of time before his real name was revealed. Online sleuths were already comparing Baek Kang-min's car model and schedule, setting news comment sections ablaze.

Ring-ring!

In the icy tension, Woo Young-taek's phone rang loudly.

The caller was Ha Do-woon, the network's chief producer.

Seeing the name, Woo Young-taek's brow twisted fiercely.

"...Yes, Department Head."

"Hey! Director Woo! You saw the article, right?! We need to put out a damage-control story first, so find a replacement actor immediately!"

"What?"

"What the hell are you asking for?! Just put in anyone roughly in his league and get filming moving again!"

The moment he answered, demands poured out at him without warning.

Woo Young-taek tried to suppress his rising anger and handle the situation, but he finally exploded.

"What kind of nonsense is that?! How am I supposed to find an actor at that level right now?!"

"What? What do you mean, you can't, you bastard?!"

"You're only saying that because you don't know what it's like on set! Come here and see for yourself! Just dealing with the fact that today's day shoot has been scrapped is enough to make my head explode!"

Woo Young-taek raised his voice without caring about the staff watching nearby.

"The leads are complaining because they've been stuck waiting in their vans, and the staff are losing their minds trying to figure out tomorrow's schedule! This place is a complete fucking mess! When exactly am I supposed to hold casting meetings and contact agencies in this situation?!"

"Hey, Woo Young-taek! Things aren't moving because you worry about every little thing yourself!"

But Ha Do-woon, the CP, cut off Woo Young-taek's complaints with a booming shout.

"Anyway, no matter what else happens, replacing the actor comes first! We need to put out an article immediately and make it clear that bastard has nothing to do with our drama, or we won't be able to stop the investors from pulling out!"

"How many times do I have to tell you that it's impossible right now?!"

"Enough. Find someone no matter what! Got it?!"

"God, seriously... I don't know. I don't know! I don't have time to sit here talking. I'm hanging up."

"What?! Hey, you..."

Click.

Woo Young-taek hung up on Ha Do-woon unilaterally and fumed as if he were about to throw his phone to the ground.

"D-Director, um, what should we do about the B team's shooting schedule..."

"Director! The lighting team is asking whether they should pack up the equipment. What do we do?!"

The moment the call ended, the assistant director and staff cautiously approached and began dumping one problem after another on him.

His head felt like it would burst.

He wanted to quit everything and scream like a madman.

"Hey, you bastards! Can't you think for yourselves?! You can coordinate that shit yourselves! So why the fuck do you keep coming to me..."

"Director."

At that moment, a calm but firm voice cut through the chaotic uproar.

Everyone instinctively turned toward it.

There stood the head writer, Ji Yeon-woo.

"W-Writer Ji, you're here!"

"...? Who's that beside you?"

"Uh, that useless guy from earlier..."

Beside Ji Yeon-woo stood an unfamiliar man, staring blankly. He had been among the background extras only moments ago.

People gave the strange pair puzzled looks.

Some recognized the man and began to frown.

"Writer Ji? Who is that beside you?"

"The actor I mentioned to you earlier. The actor who'll play Han Tae-yoon."

Writer Ji Yeon-woo answered Director Woo's blunt question with complete calm.

At those words, the man beside him, Do Jae-hyun, reflexively gave a ninety-degree bow.

"H-hello! My name is Do Jae-hyun!!"

"...?"

What was with this fumbling idiot?

Woo Young-taek looked the man before him up and down with a stunned expression.

Whatever else, the man's looks were excellent.

His face perfectly suited Han Tae-yoon, a character whose face alone made the story believable.

But that was all.

He was handsome, but his tense, unnatural movements and botched greeting screamed that he was a total beginner with no on-set experience.

"I-I'll work hard! Please take care of me!"

"...."

Woo Young-taek froze with his mouth half open in disbelief.

How was he supposed to respond to this?

There was no suitable replacement actor, and the man's looks were good enough to pass, but...

As Woo Young-taek carefully studied Do Jae-hyun's face and weighed his options...

"Um... Director."

The assistant director, who had crept up cautiously, leaned close to Woo Young-taek's ear.

"That man there."

"What? Do you know him? What agency is he with?"

"That's not it. He was one of the extras at our outdoor set earlier. One of the background actors we just sent home because the whole cafe scene got scrapped."

"...What?"

Woo Young-taek snapped his head around.

The assistant director nodded repeatedly with a pale face.

'An extra?'

Woo Young-taek's gaze returned to Do Jae-hyun.

A roomy old backpack. A shirt that had gone out of style long ago. Shoulders stiff with nerves, anxious eyes wandering without anywhere to settle.

No matter how generously he looked at him, the man was nothing more or less than an extra with severe camera jitters.

'So right now...'

He was trying to put an extra in this crucial second male lead role?

Woo Young-taek could not believe the situation, so he asked directly.

"W-Writer Ji. Are you serious...?"

"Yes. His face is good, isn't it? He's got a solid build too, so he should be able to handle a few nights of filming without sleep."

"T-thank you! I'll do my best!"

"...."

At that moment, every staff member, including Woo Young-taek, turned to look at Writer Ji Yeon-woo.

And they all had exactly the same thought.

'Is this writer determined to ruin the drama...?'

They were exactly right.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried