Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 272

“Daho hyung.”

“Hmm?”

Anh Da Ho, who was drinking the warm yuzu tea that Seo-jun had prepared, looked up at Seo-jun’s call.

Seo-jun, who was sitting in the living room and staring blankly at the blue window, looked somehow detached today.

‘Is he feeling complicated because he became a high school student?’

He hadn’t entered high school yet, but he had graduated from middle school, so he was no different from a high school student.

‘He only has three years left until he becomes an adult, and he has to prepare for college entrance exams, so I guess he would feel complicated. But Seo-jun seems like he will continue to be an actor even after he becomes an adult, so he doesn’t have to worry about his career, right?’

There was no need to worry about image transformation, which was a stumbling block for child actors transitioning to adult actors, with Seo-jun’s acting skills. 

He also had no shortage of scripts coming from Hollywood or Korea.

Rather, Cocoa Entertainment’s Team 2 was worried about the explosive amount of works that would come in after Seo-jun became an adult in three years. 

It was because the range of roles that an adult actor could play was much wider than that of a minor child actor.

‘Or maybe he’s going through puberty that he didn’t have in middle school.’

Seo-jun, who had gone through puberty that humans couldn’t even imagine, would hardly have any puberty left, but Anh Da Ho, who didn’t know that fact, unknowingly straightened his posture and waited for Seo-jun’s words.

He was confident that he could answer well as much as he had studied adolescent psychology in advance.

Don’t panic at any absurd question.

Answer sincerely.

Acknowledge that he is no longer a child but a person with his own personality.

Anh Da Ho recalled the sentences written in the book and waited for Seo-jun to open his mouth.

“How do you make a search function?”

“…Huh?”

As expected.

He couldn’t keep up with the thoughts of an adolescent teenager.

Nevertheless, Anh Da Ho tried to follow Seo-jun’s thoughts and said.

“Do you want to make something like a search site? But that would be hard for you to do alone, right? Are you going to do it with your friends?”

“Of course. It would be hard by myself.”

It was a library made by reincarnators with top-notch abilities. 

And not just one, but several of them had poured their blood and sweat into it. 

It was impossible for Seo-jun, who had just opened the door to the advanced library, to make something in the library of life.

‘I tried though…’

Last night.

Seo-jun read a book that had a search ability among the advanced abilities. And he tried to use that ability, but it didn’t work at all.

Crackle crackle.

The ability that stretched out in all directions to find the search term he instructed broke into pieces as it hit the bookshelves of the library. 

Remembering the sight, Seo-jun chuckled. 

It seemed like he had to find and read them one by one until he opened the door to the top-notch library.

‘But even if I open the door to the top-notch library, I’m not sure if I can make something like a search function…’

The current ‘Lee Seo-jun’ didn’t know anything about magic’s ‘’ and had no special abilities other than acting. He had a hunch that it would be impossible to change the library of life even if he opened the door to the top-notch library.

‘…Well. It’s better than having a desk and a chair.’

It was much better than the hard floor.

Huhuhu.

Anh Da Ho said as he saw Seo-jun looking far away and smiling.

“Do you want me to look for an academy?”

“It’s okay. I was just curious how they made search sites like that. You know how they find things for you when you type in a word. I thought that was very convenient.”

Anh Da Ho was half-convinced by Seo-jun’s explanation. He was planning to find a good academy as soon as he was half-convinced.

He thought so and took out synopses and scripts from the box he brought. 

He didn’t like seeing Seo-jun looking so detached and blank.

“Shall we read some scripts?”

Scripts coming up on the table.

Seo-jun smiled brightly at more works than usual. 

Anh Da Ho also smiled at Seo-jun’s sparkling face. 

As always, scripts were the best way to blow away Seo-jun’s worries and stress.

“Is this today’s?”

“Yeah. There are a lot of them because it’s vacation. There are also many plays.”

“What is this?”

Seo-jun tilted his head at the book list behind the list of entertainment show offers. 

As the title said, it was a list of books with their names, brief summaries, authors’ names, and publishers’ names.

“There have been a lot more since the mirror play was uploaded. They want you to read the books and make them into plays if you like them. They will give you the play rights and the production costs will be covered by the publishers.”

“Ah. It’s for promotion.”

“That’s right. They think they will make more money by having you promote them than spending money on it.”

“Hmm.”

Seo-jun read down the book list. From books he had read to books he had never seen before. There were books of various genres.

“There are old books and new ones that have just been published.”

“I see.”

He left out books that had issues such as hoarding, poor treatment of authors, plagiarism, etc., but Anh Da Ho didn’t need to tell Seo-jun that and kept his mouth shut.

“But I’m not really interested in adaptation.”

“Do whatever you want.”

Seo-jun put down the book list and turned his attention back to the scripts and synopses.

As soon as Seo-jun picked up a synopsis and started reading, Anh Da Ho also picked up his phone and checked the entertainment news.

Flap flap. 

The sound of paper turning was heard.

As always, it was a peaceful and quiet living room.

***

[MBS Monday-Tuesday drama, ratings 1.8%!]

-M company is doomed lol

-It was already on the edge at 2 percent, but it dropped.

-1.8 percent. Is this cable?

=Isn’t this the national anthem rating?

=The national anthem rating is about 0.3 lol. It still has room to go down.

=It will probably keep dropping until the last episode.

[MBS, four-part drama scheduled to air in April!]

[MBS, the debut work of two PDs!]

[MBS, can they increase their ratings?]

***

“Wow. What’s the point of spreading articles? There’s no reaction.”

“Right. How can there be no comments on the first one?”

Kim Danbi and Choi Hyunwoo, who were buying coffee from the cafe on the first floor of MBS Broadcasting Station, grumbled as they looked at the articles on their phones. 

Kim Danbi sighed and put her phone in her pocket.

Kim Danbi looked up at the sky. 

The cloudy sky seemed to show the future of MBS.

“My intuition is ringing.”

“What?”

Choi Hyunwoo’s footsteps stopped at Kim Danbi’s words. 

He looked at Kim Danbi with a nervous face and waited for her words.

Her intuition, which had developed while working as an assistant director, was sounding an alarm today. 

Kim Danbi said with a serious face.

“It’s the same feeling as when the main actor had an accident. Or when the writer’s script file disappeared.”

Kim Danbi shuddered.

“I have a bad feeling about this. Something big is going to happen, and not in a good way!”

Kim Danbi’s words made Choi Hyunwoo sigh in relief. He then scoffed at her serious expression.

“Your intuition is crap.”

“No, it’s not!”

Kim Danbi protested, but Choi Hyunwoo shrugged and continued.

“The lead actor’s accident was just a minor fender bender, so he was only a bit late for filming. And the writer had a backup file for the script, right?”

Not to mention, the scene that they filmed on the day that Kim Danbi mixed up the call time turned out to be one of the best scenes in the drama. 

And by a stroke of luck, they had a backup script for that episode, which received rave reviews from the viewers.

“It was when you said you had a good feeling that things went wrong.”

Choi Hyunwoo counted on his fingers the “accidents” that happened.

“A supporting actor got fired for drunk driving, so we had to reshoot his scenes. The final cut got accidentally replaced with a rough draft, so we had to redo some parts. A light fixture fell and broke, so we lost a whole day of shooting.”

It wasn’t Kim Danbi’s fault, but every time she said something positive, something bad happened. The other PDs who worked with her begged her not to jinx them.

“Today is really bad, I’m telling you!”

“Yeah, yeah. Maybe we should buy some lottery tickets.”

Choi Hyunwoo ignored her as he walked away. 

Kim Danbi followed him, ranting loudly.

A moment later.

-You know that’s the work I’ve been eyeing for a long time, right? What are you going to say? You stole the script from my desk and signed the contract before me? How gullible do you think I am?

-But that bastard has a good eye for scripts.

-He’ll find out soon enough.

The voice of Park Minkyu from the emergency exit stairs made Choi Hyunwoo whisper quietly.

“…You better watch your back.”

Normally, he would have gloated and said “I told you so!” But even he felt sorry for his senior in this situation. Kim Danbi could only stare blankly at the stairs above. She never imagined that her bad intuition would lead to her respected senior Gong Heechan losing his work.

***

A noisy barbecue restaurant.

Sizzle, sizzle. 

The sound of meat being cooked on the grill filled the air.

“Are you crazy?”

Kim Danbi twisted the cap of the soju bottle with gritted teeth. 

Then she gulped down the alcohol on an empty stomach.

“Haha.”

“Is this the time to laugh?”

“Gong sunbae. This time, you were really, no, very wrong.”

Even Choi Hyunwoo chimed in with a comment. Gong Heechan gave a bitter smile.

“How could you let him take away the script you chose!”

“How did he find out?”

“Park sunbae has a loose mouth, you know. He was blabbering on the emergency exit. I don’t know who he was talking to, though.”

Kim Danbi nodded at Choi Hyunwoo’s words. If they hadn’t gone to the emergency exit to avoid being seen by Park Minkyu, they wouldn’t have known either.

“What happened?”

“Hmm.”

Gong Heechan recalled what happened in the morning.

“I went to see the writer in the morning, but he said he already signed a contract with Kyumin. It seemed like they did it last night.”

“What did Park sunbae say?”

“Hmm. He said he knew about it for a long time.”

“Do you believe him?”

“Hmm… No.”

At first, he thought it was just a coincidence. 

He thought Park Kyumin also liked the work and acted faster than him.

But Gong Heechan’s job was to be sensitive to people’s emotions and thoughts. 

He couldn’t afford to miss any details in an actor’s expression or gaze.

That’s why it wasn’t hard for him to read Park Kyumin’s face and eyes. 

He saw his smug look that said “What are you going to do about it?” 

He felt doubtful about his own kindness.

Kim Danbi chewed on the pork belly as if it was Park Kyumin himself.

“Why are you just sitting there?”

“He already told the CP and the writer contacted Kyumin first anyway. There’s no proof that I chose it first.”

He was burning inside as well, but he didn’t want to show it in front of his juniors. 

He just laughed it off. 

It was already too late to change anything, and he had no evidence. 

He drank some soju to ease his bitter feelings. 

Seeing his pitiful state, Kim Danbi raised her hand.

“We’ll be your witnesses!”

“I’ll pass.”

Choi Hyunwoo’s words made Kim Danbi spit out the soju.

“Traitor!”

“Yeah. And you’re an idiot.”

“Are you on Park sunbae’s side?! Ugh. I don’t even want to call him sunbae!”

“Good. Now you can call him PD.”

“Is that better!”

“Come on. Both of you, drink some water and calm down.”

Gong Heechan gave them some water while they bickered. Choi Hyunwoo drank the cold water and said calmly.

“It’s not the first time that someone steals an idea or a script here. Assistant writers get their ideas taken by the writers, and even if they do all the work, the credit goes to the PDs.”

“But still…”

“And this situation is even harder to prove. It’s just two PDs who had the same script in mind, and one of them signed the contract first. To others, it would look like Gong sunbae was just unlucky. They might even blame him for not signing faster.”

“Ugh. I should have recorded it earlier!”

Kim Danbi said, and Gong Heechan smiled faintly. Thanks to her fiery temper and loyalty, he felt a bit better.

“The most urgent thing is to find a script.”

“Yeah. I’ve been asking around, but there are only short plays or long ones. It’s hard to find a four-part script.”

“Find something better than what Park sunbae took!”

“That’s easier said than done.”

He knew a good work when he saw one, but he couldn’t predict how successful it would be. 

The work that Park Kyumin stole was really good. 

It was perfect for a four-part series, and it had a unique premise that would attract the viewers.

He felt angry again. 

He drank another shot of soju and said with a sigh.

“That was the best one among the four-part scripts. I don’t know if I can find anything better.”

At his words, Choi Hyunwoo suggested.

“What about shortening a long one?”

“Or stretching a short one into four parts?”

The juniors nodded at each other’s ideas. Gong Heechan agreed.

“Then let’s widen our scope a bit.”

“We’ll help you look too! We’ll crush Park sunbae with our ratings! Justice will prevail! Burn, Park Kyumin!”

“Is this a shonen manga? You don’t win by crushing him with ratings.”

As they watched the two juniors argue, Gong Heechan took out his phone from his pocket. It vibrated with a text message.

<Looking for a new work?

It was from the lighting director of the drama he worked on before.