Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 276

The next day.

MBS Drama Department.

The CP in charge of the four-part drama, who had stepped out of the meeting to answer a phone call, spotted PD Gong Hee-chan in his office.

“Gong Hee-chan!”

PD Gong Hee-chan, who was looking for some documents at his desk, lifted his head.

“Let’s talk for a moment.”

“Yes.”

The CP and PD Gong Hee-chan headed to the vending machine area. The CP was about to hand a can of coffee to PD Gong Hee-chan when he noticed his hand.

PD Gong Hee-chan’s hand was full of photos of actors. The CP tilted his head. He saw some actors who were hard to cast even for big-budget dramas, let alone a four-part drama.

The CP shrugged his shoulders and got straight to the point. He had to go back to the meeting as soon as possible.

“I got the script well. It’s from So Eun-jin’s assistant writer, so it should be good. The story is also nice. Min-kyu’s part is a thriller and Hee-chan’s part is a romance, so it won’t be boring.”

“Yes.”

The CP was proud of the two assistant directors, no, the two PDs who were doing well on their own.

“But what about the actors? Did you secure the filming location? The staff? Min-kyu is starting filming tomorrow… If you don’t hurry up, you won’t be able to film. All the good staff might go to Oh Young-chul’s drama.”

PD Gong Hee-chan nodded at the CP’s concern.

It was something he couldn’t hide forever anyway, and he had to let the higher-ups know if he wanted to sign a contract with Lee Seo-jun.

“I was going to tell you that.”

PD Gong Hee-chan smiled brightly and the CP blinked his eyes. He had seen Gong Hee-chan smile often, but he had never seen him smile so brightly.

“Hmm. You can’t quit in the middle.”

The CP joked and PD Gong Hee-chan laughed and said something.

The CP’s eyes slowly widened. The can of coffee in his hand fell to the floor. Fortunately, it was empty, so no coffee spilled. Instead, it seemed like his mind had escaped.

“You… You… You…!”

The CP’s index finger pointed at PD Gong Hee-chan and trembled. He couldn’t even speak properly.

“…You crazy bastard!”

Contrary to his harsh words, the CP’s face was filled with joy.

***

Bang!

“Director!”

The door of the meeting room opened with a loud noise.

The drama department director and the CPs who were having a meeting to find actors with ticket power for Oh Young-chul’s drama frowned and looked at the door.

The CP of the four-part drama was standing there.

“Weren’t you going to answer the phone? Why? What’s going on?”

“Let’s talk about that later. Oh’s drama casting is more important.”

“That’s not the problem.”

The CP’s trembling voice made everyone look at him with curiosity.

“Gong Hee-chan! Our PD Gong Hee-chan!”

“Stop wasting time. Just say it.”

The director snapped at the CP who was dragging on.

“He cast Lee Seo-jun!”

The meeting room fell into a heavy silence at the CP’s words.

Their faces twisted as if they didn’t understand.

Why is Lee Seo-jun suddenly coming up here?

They thought.

“What are you talking about?”

“Why is Lee Seo-jun coming up here all of a sudden?”

“Is that Lee Seo-jun actor the same one we know?”

As questions poured out, PD Gong Hee-chan, who was standing behind the CP, answered.

“Yes. It’s Hollywood actor Lee Seo-jun. We haven’t signed a contract yet, but we got a confirmation of his appearance.”

The meeting room exploded at PD Gong Hee-chan’s words.

***

“Hahaha. We don’t have to worry about ratings anymore!”

They pushed aside Oh Young-chul’s drama casting that they said was urgent and laughed and chatted with excitement.

They couldn’t stop smiling.

Their mouths hurt from smiling so much, but they were happy.

The director said with excitement in his face.

“Lee Seo-jun. How much do we have to pay him per episode?”

“Top tier. More than top tier, I guess?”

“Yes. It’s been seven years since he did a drama, but he has a lot of achievements in movies too.”

“Even if we pay him that much, we’ll get more than that from advertising revenue.”

“That’s right. If we think about airing for 12 weeks, we can pay him generously and still have some left over.”

“Yes!”

As they saw the elated director and CPs, the CP and PD Gong Hee-chan looked at each other and smiled awkwardly.

The CP sighed lightly and poured cold water on the people who were calculating the advertising revenue and the appearance fee of actor Lee Seo-jun.

“Director. This is a four-part drama. And it airs only once a week.”

At the unexpected words, the meeting room fell into a heavy silence.

The meeting room exploded again.

This time, it was bad.

The CPs screamed.

“Lee Seo-jun is coming out and it’s only four parts? Just four parts?”

“We want to make it 50 parts even if it’s 24 parts, but four parts?”

“And only once a week?”

“Even if we rerun it, it’s nothing compared to Inside Me.”

“We wanted to make a special broadcast like KBC!”

The CP who was thinking of various broadcasts to make after recalling how KBC made money and ratings with Inside Me Plus screamed.

PD Gong Hee-chan scratched his cheek and said.

“Our drama is a romance, so there’s not much to show anyway.”

“Lee Seo-jun’s first romance is nice, but… Why is it only four parts?”

“Who did this? Who came up with this plan?”

Everyone in the meeting room looked at the director at his words. The CP of the four-part drama sighed again and said.

“If it wasn’t for this plan, Lee Seo-jun wouldn’t have agreed to appear.”

“…I guess so.”

The director and the CPs slumped their shoulders.

They were happy that Lee Seo-jun was appearing, but why couldn’t they really be happy?

“It would have been nice if it was at least 16 parts…”

The director, who was nervously shaking his legs, raised his head and called PD Gong Hee-chan.

“PD Gong.”

“Yes?”

The CPs, who were disappointed by their conversation, slowly lifted their heads.

They looked much more exhausted than a few minutes ago.

They had been going back and forth between heaven and hell. The director asked with a serious face.

“Can’t you extend it?”

The CPs’ eyes lit up at the director’s words.

“Yeah! Let’s extend it. We extended it from a one-act play to a four-part drama, right? Then let’s make it 24 parts!”

Before PD Gong Hee-chan could open his mouth, the CPs said as if they were competing.

“If 24 parts is not possible, then at least 16 parts!”

“Who was the writer again?”

“So Eun-jin’s assistant writer.”

“Then maybe we can extend it to 16 parts? So Eun-jin has done a lot of long stories too.”

“That’s right. Maybe So Eun-jin can help us extend it more.”

“But what if Lee Seo-jun doesn’t want to do it if we extend it?”

One CP’s words silenced everyone.

“…Do you think he won’t?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know why Lee Seo-jun chose this work. A little modification… I don’t know if extending four parts to 16 parts is a little modification, but anyway, if he liked this work enough to allow some modification, he would do it, but if he liked the work as it is now, he wouldn’t.”

“Hmm.”

They groaned at the reasonable words.

“24 parts is too long… How about eight parts? If not, six parts?”

Someone’s words made the director call PD Gong Hee-chan.

“Gong Hee-chan.”

“Yes.”

“First, talk to the writer and ask how much they can extend the script. Keep the same quality as now, but increase the quantity. Five parts or six parts are fine.”

The director grabbed PD Gong Hee-chan’s shoulder.

“Extend it as much as you can.”

“Ah. Yes. I understand.”

“And take the revised script to Lee Seo-jun. If he still says no, then just, just…”

The director swallowed his tears.

“We’ll go with four parts.”

Sniff.

The MBS drama department meeting room was filled with the sound of swallowing tears.

It was because of the poor soundproofing or maybe because their voices were too loud, but they could roughly hear what they were saying outside the meeting room.

The assistant directors and PDs outside the meeting room couldn’t close their mouths at the news they couldn’t imagine.

***

Cocoa Entertainment.

Actor Lee Seo-jun’s practice room.

An Da-ho, who was organizing photo cards, asked Seo-jun, who was sitting in front of him and signing photo cards.

“Seo-jun, how was the meteor shower yesterday?”

“It was amazing. It really poured down like rain. The shining ones looked like fireworks too.”

The meteor shower last night rained down like light.

Even people who were filming or taking pictures with their phones or cameras unknowingly exclaimed at the falling stars that shone brightly one by one.

“It looked amazing even from the photos you sent me. Was it more amazing than that?”

“Yes. It’s more amazing when you see it for real.”

Seo-jun nodded his head continuously but didn’t stop signing photo cards.

Another photo card had Seo-jun’s signature on the bottom right corner.

The photos on the photo cards were taken by his parents and Anh Da-ho so far.

Seo-jun’s young appearance when he was filming Shadowman, his appearance wearing a gondrypo and a padding jacket, his appearance talking with actors with a serious face, his appearance eating food from a food truck sent by fans.

His appearance playing the violin, his appearance practicing archery, his appearance reading scripts, his appearance smiling brightly while reading fans’ letters and so on.

They were photos of Seo-jun that couldn’t be seen in dramas or movies because he hadn’t immersed himself yet and showed ‘Lee Seo-jun’ instead of ‘character’.

“It’s been a while since you had a fan meeting, right?”

“Yes.”

Seo-jun smiled brightly.

He wanted to meet his fans after seeing Brown Black’s 15th anniversary concert.

His manager and agency gladly agreed to his sudden request.

“This is going to be crazy. A drama and a fan meeting? Wow.”

“Oh, Da-ho hyung. Can I do a play at the fan meeting? Mirror. My friends said it was okay.”

“That’s good. Mirror has a simple background, so you don’t need to install anything.”

“I think we just need to pay attention to the lighting a little bit. And the Bubl hyungs said they would help me practice singing. I’m thinking of singing and playing the violin too.”

“Oh.”

A play, a song, and a violin.

Anh Da-ho, who was thinking of the Sae-sak-bu who would go crazy at this news, wondered if even foreign fans would come.

Then, there was a knock on the door.

Seo-jun stopped signing and An Da-ho got up from his seat and opened the door.

It was a Cocoa Entertainment employee.

“An team leader, there’s an MBS PD who wants to see you. What should I do?”

“MBS?”

An Da-ho and Seo-jun blinked their eyes.

“Ah, is it PD Gong Hee-chan?”

“That’s right. Did he come to sign the contract already? He’s fast.”

Seo-jun said as he remembered the news he heard yesterday.