“It’s a project we’ll be producing. We had already picked the leads and were auditioning for supporting roles. However, Shin Sora, the female lead, hastily quit the project.”

He lowered his voice.

“She’s three months pregnant.”

“… Shin Sora’s not married yet. I don’t think I’ve seen any scandals either.”

“That’s right. Her company’s just been hit with a bolt of lightning out of the blue.”

Director Sung clicked his tongue and continued,

“That’s why we had a meeting with Director Park on who to choose for the new lead, and our opinions aligned, so I contacted you immediately.”

I picked up the scenario. No matter the scenario, my heart always raced before I flipped the first page. The problem was that there were many cases where my emotions cooled as I flipped more pages. Still, there shouldn’t be any problem with the quality if it was being directed by Director Park and produced by Well-Made.

“I’ll go back and talk with Songha…”

“Please give it to Ms. Son Chaeyoung.”

“Who?”

“I heard that you are in charge of Ms. Son Chaeyoung’s next project. Is that not true?”

While I knew there were many people in this industry with loose lips, why did people outside the company know about this?

Was this something to brag about?

Anyways, I received the scenario. Director Sung, who looked at me expectantly, changed the subject,

“Are you still looking for Ms. Songha’s next project? You probably received a ton though?”

“We are in the middle of internal discussions. It isn’t easy.”

“I think it’ll be good if she did her next project with the Royal Family staff near the end of the year. This time, as a sole female lead. Think about this. If Director Woo, Writer Jang, and Ms. Songha get together once more, investments will be pouring in and broadcast companies will open their timeslots.”

I replied with a laugh.

I had two or three meeting like this a day these days. With subcontract production companies, movie production companies, broadcasting companies, directors and writers. The majority were interested in Lee Songha’s next project, but there were quite a few who handed scenarios and proposed auditions just for Nam Joyoon.

The roles were incomparable to last year.

But I didn’t really like any of them.

I received and read scenarios and scripts constantly, but I was always on a fence. When a decent project caught my eye, I always found more cons than pros. There wasn’t one that I could immediately pick like Alive or Royal Family.

Also, it wasn’t like I had any hints like with Cat Guardian Ghost either. This was the reason why I had delayed picking Lee Songha and Nam Joyoon’s projects.

I asked each of them for their opinion. Lee Songha picked a few similar ones and was considering them, while Nam Joyoon just wanted to do all of them. He was someone with no desire for food but a ton for projects.

I couldn’t extend their breaks continuously either, so I had thought I should pick whatever project Lee Songha and Nam Joyoon like the most out of the ones already selected.

I looked at the scenario in my hands and asked,

“Director Sung, are there other scenarios and scripts I haven’t seen like this one?”

“Team Leader Jung, you’ve seen tons of scenarios. You took most the scenarios last time you came here.”

Director Sung scratched his thick chin and replied,

“The ones that you haven’t seen are those that have already finished casting or ones we’re quietly casting because the director and writer are picky. These are hard to get. There are also ones that have been shelved because they are problematic to produce.”

“Problematic?”

“Like ones that are hard to get investments for because of the plot or ones that aren’t of great quality. We particularly receive all sorts of projects for contents. There are many problematic ones like that.”

“Could I take a look at them?”

Director Sung gave me a weird look.

“I can’t really understand you as it’s like someone ignoring a 100-dish meal and going to dig up their own vegetables in the mountain. Still, since it is your request. I don’t know many of the first two types, but there are a lot of problematic projects.”

He got up and led me to the project storage room.

The moment I stepped into the dark storage room, I was hit with the smell of old paper. The storage room was filled with bookshelves. Each shelf had bound scenarios and scripts, and there were boxes full of drafts, revisions, and proposals.

“… Are these all projects?”

“These have accumulated for ten years now. But the ones that have been shelved have good reasons for that. If you’re thinking about discovering a huge hit in here, you’re wasting your time. The good ones have already become hits.”

Director Sung clicked his tongue.

I flipped through rustling paper as I said,

“First, it’s great that there are so many to read.”

From that day one, I invested looking at projects whenever I had time. I went over to SBE Film, which produced Alive, and they had quite a few scenarios like that as well. That’s why I went to whichever company was closer to look through projects when I had time during the day.

While receiving looks indicating that it was the biggest waste of time in the world.

Not just that, I examined amateur projects that came up in online scenario markets and asked around about directors who were famous for not handing their projects out to others. Usually, they were temperamental masters, so I didn’t obtain much.

During this time, the countdown was always at two.

I checked Lee Songha’s surroundings every day, but there weren’t any problems. I tried learning something from Chief Lee Janghyun and Chief Jo, but nothing came out of it. Perhaps that day was productive. Maybe the Team 2 Leader pushed his plot aside because he believed me.

Or maybe he was too busy and had pushed it aside momentarily.

I saw quite a few empty seats at the late-night screening. A Hollywood movie that was released last week was garnering a lot of attention, so this movie had tough competition. Its posters and trailers were excessively trendy and childish.

It was a romance, so that the majority of people in the seats were couples enjoying their dates. They were busy whispering to each other until the title screen came up.

I waited for the movie alone.

Then, two hours later, after the chatting audience had left and the credits were finished, I got up while holding a bottle of water. I shook it because I was thirsty, but it was already empty. As soon as I left the theatres, my phone rang like it had been waiting.

“Yeah.”

-I thought it would be over by now. Hyung, how was the movie?

We had talked before I went in to see the movie, yet it seemed like he had been swallowing drily for the past two hours. His voice was rough. It was completely different from the movie just now.

Listening to the nervous Song Inho’s breaths, I replied,

“It was quite different from the scenario.”

-Ah, they changed a few parts. Because my scenes suddenly increased at the end. I don’t know why, but my role became similar to the male lead. If the movie flops because of me…

I heard his suffocated breaths.

I bought another bottle of water from the vending machine. I was so thirsty I couldn’t help it.

“I had thought that the project would be good if they followed the scenario as is.”

A couple was headed in my direction from the washroom. Their faces were flushed red.

“I picked it because it was a rom-com, but it really was good. Two hours went by in a breeze.”

“Wow, it was my first time I screamed from seeing a face in a movie.”

“He’s shocking even to men. He looks like he just came out of a manhwa.”^{1}

Passing by the noisy couple, I continued,

“The completed project is much better than the scenario. Much better. The plot and your role too.”

-Really?

Song Inho’s voice instantly brightened.

I poured water down my throat. Just then, I received another call.

I was Lee Songha.

“Wait, I’ll call you back.”

I hung up and answered Lee Songha’s call. I had confirmed with her that nothing was going on today before I went to watch the movie.

-Oppa?

“Yeah, is something wrong?”

-Yes.

I stopped before going down the stairs.

Lee Songha spoke in a rigid voice.

-It seems the Team 2 Leader called my mom.

The lights that lit the stairs shut off. I talked to Lee Songha while standing rigidly in the darkness. By the time I hung up, the thirst had long since been sated. Something hotter burned in its place. The countdown was complete.

The fuse has been lit.

The moment I felt those flames, I was probably… smiling.

^{1} Korean comics, more similar to Japanese manga.