WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Potter

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◈ Why Do My Dramas Keep Becoming Hits!? ◈

Chapter 32: The Writer Who Wrote This Is Your Brother (7)

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Today was the final day of filming for <Living with My Ex-Boyfriend Somehow>.

At last, the long journey was coming to an end.

Since it was the final shoot and I wanted to see it finish on a high note, I went out of my way to visit the set.

"Oh! Writer Ji! You came at just the right time."

The moment I entered, Director Woo Young-taek, megaphone in hand, spotted me and greeted me warmly.

His face was positively glowing, just like a director whose drama had become a ratings smash.

"Did you watch the drama? You looked fantastic on screen."

"...."

"Heh heh heh! Did you brag to your friends and family? What did everyone say? Hahaha!"

Director Woo grinned mischievously and nudged my shoulder with his elbow.

Seeing that innocent smile made me want to bite my tongue.

'Brag about it, my ass...'

The moment the scene of me getting slapped in my cameo aired, my phone had practically exploded.

Family, friends, relatives, even old classmates whose faces I had not seen since middle school graduation all contacted me as if we were close.

And Ji Seo-yoon, that crazy woman, had completely changed overnight.

"Ah, Writer Ji! I made some delicious stew! You have to try it!"

The freeloader who did nothing but sit on the sofa scratching her belly had cooked for me for the first time in her life.

And her tone. I had never known her voice could sound that sweet.

'Ugh. I couldn't get used to it. I almost threw up.'

As I shuddered at the memory, I noticed a brightly decorated truck on one side of the set.

"...? What's that?"

"Oh, that?"

The crew were lining up to receive coffee and snacks.

Noticing my curious look, Director Woo kindly explained.

"Actor Do's fans sent a coffee truck. Actor Do's popularity has been through the roof lately."

With a pleased smile, Director Woo nodded toward the waiting area in the distance.

"Maybe that's why Actor Cha has been incredibly jealous lately. She's already such a proud actress, but Actor Do suddenly appeared like a comet and swallowed up all the buzz. She's wary of him, but whenever she gets the chance, she gives him acting advice. Hahaha."

Just as he said, Cha Ye-rin had Do Jae-hyun seated before her and was passionately coaching him with her arms crossed.

Do Jae-hyun kept nodding without a word, even taking notes. Perhaps satisfied by that, the corners of Cha Ye-rin's lips kept inching upward.

"Actors really are no different from everyone else."

"Heh heh. I suppose not. Anyway, Writer Ji, go get yourself a nice cold coffee. I'll go set up the remaining shots."

Director Woo leisurely walked away, and I headed farther into the set to get a coffee.

Then Cha Ye-rin and Do Jae-hyun, who had spotted me from afar, stopped talking and hurried over.

"You're here, Writer Ji!"

Do Jae-hyun smiled his usual friendly smile and was about to hand me an iced Americano.

"Writer Ji! Have this nice cold iced Americano!"

Cha Ye-rin suddenly blocked Do Jae-hyun's hand and thrust forward the coffee she was holding.

I narrowed my eyes and looked back and forth between Cha Ye-rin and the coffee in her hand.

"...."

"...? What's wrong, Writer Ji?"

"You didn't spit in this, did you?"

At my perfectly reasonable suspicion, Cha Ye-rin's eyes widened in alarm before she forced out an awkward smile.

"Ah, hahaha! What a mean joke!"

She laughed lightly and raised her hand to casually tap my shoulder.

But the instant her palm swung through the air.

I flinched!

Without realizing it, I hunched my shoulders and squeezed my eyes shut.

It was a reflex straight out of my spinal cord.

The terrible trauma of taking her full-force slap in front of the camera had taken over my body.

"...."

"...."

Cha Ye-rin froze with her hand in the air.

And I stood there in a defensive stance.

In the instantly awkward silence, her expression fell into deep dejection.

"...Enjoy your coffee."

Cha Ye-rin left those words in a weak voice before abruptly turning away.

I felt bad, but what was I supposed to do when my body reacted first?

Left alone awkwardly with Do Jae-hyun, I took a long sip of the iced Americano he had handed me and asked,

"I heard your fans sent the coffee truck. You're a big star now."

"Ahahaha. It's all thanks to how well you guided me, Writer Ji."

"What did I do? So, how have you been lately?"

After the drama aired, the public's change of attitude had been almost comically fast.

Praise and support for Do Jae-hyun's acting poured in every day.

Of course, that did not mean no one criticized him.

A small number still insisted he had a powerful backer or that he was a one-hit fluke carried by editing.

Whenever I saw those unfair accusations, I could not shake my guilty, uncomfortable feelings.

But as if to make my worries pointless, a bright smile spread across Do Jae-hyun's face.

"Haha. Every day has been wonderful. I signed with a great agency, and yesterday I received an offer for a clothing commercial. More than anything, fans recognize me on the street now, so it finally feels real."

"Really?"

"Yes. Sometimes I wake up and wonder whether all of this was a dream. So the moment I get up, I search my name online."

Do Jae-hyun jokingly shared how he had been doing, then looked at me with serious eyes.

"It's all because you believed in me and supported me, Writer Ji. Thank you so much."

That heavy, heartfelt gratitude struck me squarely.

My conscience pricked.

The truth was, I had chosen him as a bomb meant to make this drama flop completely.

Feeling awkward and embarrassed, I avoided his eyes and cleared my throat.

"Ahem. You don't have any reason to thank me. You earned this chance because you're a good actor."

To quickly change the subject, I brought up the biggest topic in the industry lately.

"Oh, right. Have you watched <Suspect X>?"

"...Ah, yes. I have."

<Suspect X>.

SBC's tentpole drama, where Han Kang-hee and Kang Min-hyuk, Do Jae-hyun's sworn enemies, had gathered.

At the moment, its ratings were falling lower every day thanks to its nonsensical plot and Kang Min-hyuk's painfully bad acting.

Naturally, our conversation turned to that satisfying collapse.

"The ratings are plummeting. What do you think?"

At my question, Do Jae-hyun seemed to briefly recall bitter memories from the past. Then he gave a faint laugh.

"...To be honest."

"...."

"I hope they fall even further. Hahaha."

At his playful joke, which still had an edge to it, I could not help letting out a small laugh too.

"I agree."

#

Bang!

SBC Drama Department's First Conference Room.

Han Kang-hee's approval documents scattered everywhere and landed miserably on the floor.

"Five percent? Five percent?! Are you bastards even human?! We poured that much money into it, and you're telling me it got five percent?!"

At CP Han Kang-hee's roar, veins bulging, the assistant directors and PDs in the conference room could not even breathe as they bowed their heads.

The ratings for <Suspect X> were dropping day after day.

While tvM's competing drama, <Living with My Ex>, raced without brakes toward 15%, then 20%, and shook the entire country, <Suspect X> was punching through the floor and burrowing toward the Earth's core.

Naturally, Han Kang-hee's hysteria had reached its peak.

Unable to acknowledge his own incompetence and defeat, he vented his anger every day by squeezing innocent subordinates dry.

"What is this editing pace?! Why are Kang Min-hyuk's shots so long?! Are you trying to let the whole country know how terrible his acting is?! No wonder the ratings are fucking tanking!"

"S-Sorry, sir... But Actor Kang's side strongly demanded that we preserve that scene and his screen time..."

"Shut up! Are you an idiot? You just sit there and swallow whatever they tell you?!"

Kang Min-hyuk was the plant Han Kang-hee himself had forced into the cast through a shady deal with the production company's CEO, yet now he was blaming others.

Of course, even the staff who knew those dirty details could not dare voice their complaints.

'Fuck... That bastard Ji Yeon-woo...'

Han Kang-hee was vomiting blood inside.

The insignificant PD he had tried to crush was being praised as a genius writer who had rewritten cable television history, while the tentpole drama he had staked everything on was in danger of becoming the network's worst disgrace and a national laughingstock.

At this rate, upper management would obviously start demanding accountability.

No, vicious arguments had already broken out several times in the department director's office.

He had to clean this up somehow.

Whether he sent hacks to spread forced media hype or offered someone else as a scapegoat to cut loose.

Furious, Han Kang-hee strode outside and made a call.

"Hey! It's me! Lean on the entertainment reporters and dig up every last bit of dirt you can find on those tvM bastards! Dig into Do Jae-hyun and that bastard Ji Yeon-woo's pasts and make even a baseless gossip story explode! We have to divert attention somehow!"

At that same moment, in a man's hideout.

Two cold cups of coffee, a thick envelope of documents, and a recording device with a small blinking light sat on the table.

"So everything you said is true?"

The reporter in glasses swallowed dryly and stared hard at the person before them.

Across from the reporter sat a man whose exhausted expression was clearly visible beneath the brim of his cap, pulled low.

"Of course. That envelope contains nothing but irrefutable evidence."

The man gave a bitter smile and slid the envelope across the table.

Inside was the ugly truth about CP Han Kang-hee, SBC Drama Department's power player.

There was his secret sponsorship deal with the head of a major production company.

The casting corruption he had committed to force the unqualified Kang Min-hyuk into a leading role.

Suspicions of rebates from outsourced contractors, along with transcripts of recordings of his habitual verbal abuse and bullying of powerless staff.

The reporter moistened their dry lips while reviewing the first page of the documents with trembling hands.

"If this article comes out, it won't end with one drama failing. CP Han Kang-hee could be completely ruined in this industry."

"That's what I came here for."

"...Good. I'll write a sensational, airtight article. Tomorrow morning, the main pages of every portal site will be plastered with this."

It was the biggest and most explosive exclusive scoop the reporter had found in over a decade.

A greedy smile had already spread across the reporter's face.

#

On the calendar sitting atop Studio Miracle Department Head Park Ho-seong's desk, one date had been circled in bright red several times.

It was the scheduled finale date of tvM's <Living with My Ex-Boyfriend Somehow>.

"Phew...."

Park took a sip of hot coffee while looking at the calendar.

A few days earlier, he had returned to the company, rushed into the CEO's office, and presented the [Untitled] script.

The result had been exactly as expected.

Even the CEO, who finished reading it in one sitting, had not held back the praise.

"We'll meet whatever terms he asks for. Even if we have to bow our heads, keep him with us."

Now that he had received the CEO's reassuring blank check, Park wanted to rush over and get the contract signed immediately.

But he forced himself to suppress his rising impatience.

'He said he wanted to focus only on that drama for a while.'

Writer Ji Yeon-woo's cold, firm rejection lingered before his eyes.

If he pushed too hard and annoyed him, he could ruin everything just as it was coming together.

For now, it was best to lie low and wait for Ji Yeon-woo to finish his drama successfully.

'Still, if we can get our hands on this script....'

Park leaned back in his chair and began to happily fantasize.

Relentless noir action and a multilayered undercover thriller.

How should they plan the production in order to fully capture this insane scale and provocative intensity?

'Should we play it safe, lower the intensity for a terrestrial 15+ rating, and aim for television broadcast? No. These days, viewers notice that kind of cutting before anyone else and complain about it.'

That left only one choice.

'Should we push it as a global OTT series, like NetPlus or Digini Plus?'

If they could secure enough capital, even reaching the top of the global charts would not be an impossible dream.

Park's grin was about to split to his ears at the thrilling thought.

Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

The smartphone on his desk vibrated.

The caller display read: [MBS Gong Myeong-ho].

Gong Myeong-ho was someone Park had known for a long time from frequently working together on sets.

Park cleared his throat and answered in a deliberately dignified voice.

"Ah, PD Gong. It's been a while."

"Haah, Department Head Park. I'm really dying here...."

Gong Myeong-ho's voice over the phone sounded as hollow as a corpse that had gone days without sleep.

"Why? What happened? Why do you sound like that?"

In a desperate voice, Gong Myeong-ho rattled off the MBS Drama Department's miserable situation.

Because the two dinosaurs Baek Min-hee and Hong Eun-seo were returning, their flagship drama for next year had become a lost cause.

He also explained, with tragic desperation, that they needed to fill the vacant broadcast slot.

"So, Department Head Park, do you happen to have a writer sitting around, or a decent script that could go into production right away?"

At that desperate question, Park's lips twitched.

A perfect script ready to go into production?

He had one.

The brilliant next work secretly written by the genius writer currently turning the country upside down was sitting right in my hands.

"...."

"Department Head Park?"

His mouth itched.

He wanted to boast loudly and proudly.

But.

'Are you insane? Why would you tell them?'

Park quickly swallowed the words that had been about to spill out.

Studio Miracle and MBS had maintained a close relationship over the years.

MBS had entrusted Miracle with several major outsourced productions and discreetly helped them secure valuable prime-time broadcast slots.

So it was certainly one good option to work with MBS on the [Untitled] script, secure a main broadcast slot, and air it on terrestrial television.

But who had Gong Myeong-ho just mentioned?

Baek Min-hee and Hong Eun-seo?

Send this script up against those two as a competing drama? Insane.

It would be better to secure a safer prime-time slot at another network. Or, given the nature of the noir genre, target an OTT platform with fewer restrictions on content standards.

Having thought it over, Park spoke as though he knew nothing.

"Ah, what a shame. We've had a poor crop lately too, so we don't have any scripts ready to put into production."

"Nothing at all? The genre doesn't matter. We just need to fill the broadcast slot somehow."

"You know those things do not just appear on command. We'll ask around, and if we find anything decent, we'll contact you immediately."

"...Yes, Department Head Park. Thank you."

Park Ho-seong ended the call while pretending innocence.

"Hah. This person should learn to covet things they can actually have. Tch."

Then he looked at the dark phone screen and finally let out a breath.

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