My debut work, , which tanked spectacularly with a 2% viewership rating, starred Seo Ji-won as the female lead.
She was looking at me with wide, round eyes while holding up her sunglasses.
Beside her stood her manager, a large man with a bear-like appearance.
“Why is the writer here?” I asked.
An idol actress and this shabby Bae Pan Jip didn’t match at all.
Even if there was some bad blood or a complicated past between us, Seo Ji-won was someone I needed for now.
“If you don’t mind, would you like to sit here with me?”
“There are plenty of empty seats…”
“But the doenjang jjigae here is delicious. It’s on me. Sir! Two more doenjang jjigaes, please!”
I quickly ordered the doenjang jjigae.
Seo Ji-won hesitated for a moment, but the big manager, who looked gentle despite his size, sat down first.
Seeing that, Seo Ji-won had no choice but to take the empty seat beside him.
“Ah, hello. I’m Woo Seung-beom, Seo Ji-won’s manager.”
The manager who came with her bowed slightly and took out his business card.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Jeong-hyeok, the drama writer.”
“If you’re the writer, could you be the one who worked with Ji-won before?”
“Yes, that’s right. Haha, she was my debut lead actress.”
“Oh my, it’s rare to see such a noble person in a place like this.”
Woo Seung-beom seemed skilled at handling social situations.
Anyway, Seo Ji-won must have known that as an idol-turned-actress, especially under a strange director or writer, it was beneficial to leave a good impression, so she was playing along.
“Seo Ji-won, how have you been?”
“Ah… the writer has been well, right?”
“Well, I guess I’ve been doing fine, haha.”
Seo Ji-won suddenly covered her mouth with a look of realization.
It seemed she remembered how the news of my divorce was leaked just a few months ago.
“Oh, it’s okay. I’ve been really doing well lately. I even started writing again.”
“Ah, good to hear you’re doing well.”
Seo Ji-won had always been timid and introverted.
I wondered how she managed to become an idol with that personality.
Suddenly, I felt a bit sorry, imagining how much she must have suffered.
“By the way, Seo Ji-won, you seem to like this kind of place?”
“I come here sometimes when I’m nearby. Don’t you remember? You mentioned before that the doenjang jjigae here is delicious…”
“Did I?”
“Anyway, I come here sometimes. Not many people recognize me here, so it’s comfortable…”
After a brief silence, the owner brought out the doenjang jjigae.
After confirming both of us had chopsticks, I scooped some doenjang jjigae and sipped the broth.
The stew was served piping hot in a ttukbaegi, and after a moment, it cooled to the perfect temperature.
I cracked the egg yolk over the rice and mixed it with the rich doenjang jjigae, filling my mouth with a savory and hearty flavor.
While I was eating the doenjang jjigae eagerly, Seo Ji-won, who had been watching me quietly, took a few spoons and then asked me softly.
“Um… I’m sorry about back then, writer-nim.”
“Hm? Sorry about what?”
“When we were filming , I was so bad at acting…”
“Oh, that’s understandable. Seo Ji-won had only just started acting then, and I truly understand now. Really!”
After filming , Seo Ji-won received even more harsh criticism than I did.
“Because you came from an idol background, your acting was terrible, and you should’ve just stuck to singing and dancing as usual… I was such a burden, right?”
“No, who would say that? Bring them here right now. I’ll scold them myself.”
“Ah… but that was you who said that…”
Oh, right.
I had forgotten.
When we were working on , I treated Seo Ji-won like a big joke.
“So I thought you really hated me, writer-nim.”
“Hahaha, that’s not true.”
At first casting, unlike the director who despised her because of her idol background, I never disliked her.
From a publicity standpoint, Seo Ji-won was a representative of the third-generation idols in Korea, so I didn’t think casting her was a bad idea.
But after the first shoot, the director came to me seriously during script work.
He said we needed to cut down Seo Ji-won’s screen time.
Her acting was so bad the drama was going to flop.
But what’s left if you reduce the female lead’s screen time in a romance drama?
‘In the end, it completely failed.’
But now, the situation was different.
I had to cast Seo Ji-won to clear the quest from Gotflix.
I had to find a way to win her over.
“I didn’t know any better then, it was my first drama. I wasn’t mad at Seo Ji-won, but angry at myself for writing such a bad script. I think things got twisted somehow, but either way, it must have hurt Seo Ji-won a lot. It’s my fault. I’m sorry.”
A moment of silence passed.
The manager with the bear-like appearance thanked me by asking for an extra bowl of rice.
Looking at Seo Ji-won who kept quiet, a flood of thoughts about the past raced through my mind.
But I realized that whatever was behind us was a mountain that needed climbing.
And perhaps fate led us to meet at my regular doenjang jjigae spot, just when Gotflix had given me a quest.
“Seo Ji-won, this is the script I’m working on now.”
I pulled out the project proposal and two copies of the script from my bag.
I was sure that once she read , she’d be tempted.
“This time will be different. I wrote it, but you’ll feel it’s a good script once you read it. I know this sounds like a shameless sales pitch, but I want to work properly with you again.”
Seo Ji-won looked at the script intently.
More precisely, she looked firmly at the writer’s name, ‘Lee Jeong-hyeok.’
“I want you to be the female lead in this work.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you for saying sorry, but aside from that, I don’t have the confidence to work on your projects anymore.”
Perhaps the memory of being harshly criticized for her terrible acting still haunted her.
Tears welled up in her eyes, making her look like she might cry any moment.
“I’m sorry.”
In the end, Seo Ji-won didn’t touch the doenjang jjigae and abruptly got up and left.
Seeing that, the manager who had playfully poked me before picked up the script on the table.
“Sorry, can I take this with me?”
“Of course, thank you.”
“I apologize for the trouble.”
The manager walked away in the direction Seo Ji-won had gone.
~
Yeah. It wouldn’t be this easy.
Watching the two get into the van parked outside, I gave a bitter smile.
“Ji-won.”
“Seo Ji-won.”
Inside the Carnival driven by Seo Ji-won’s manager, Woo Seung-beom.
Seated in the back, Seo Ji-won was silently studying something.
Seung-beom glanced at her through the rearview mirror.
He sighed deeply.
Though cautious, once Seo Ji-won got hooked on something, she saw it through to the end.
Her manager knew that he had to solve this.
“What are you looking at so intently, Ji-won?”
“Oppa, this is really fun.”
“What?”
“Lee Jeong-hyeok’s script is unbelievably interesting.”
“Really? Good thing I brought it.”
Seo Ji-won carefully placed the script beside her, wearing a gloomy expression.
She still sometimes dreamed of those days.
Mostly nightmares.
She vividly remembered trembling before the camera, struggling to control her emotions, mumbling lines.
“Oppa, do you remember how hard it was when I did ?”
“How could I forget? You cried and screamed so much, we went to the emergency room more than a few times.”
Even after years, those shoots were unforgettable.
It was to the point she thought about quitting acting, which had been her childhood dream.
Now, having proper acting training and more experience, she no longer acted like that.
Still, she didn’t want to work with the people involved back then—writers, directors, or staff.
“But if you like the script so much, give it a thought.”
“No, I won’t. It’ll definitely be tough.”
After seeing Seo Ji-won at the Bae Pan Jip, my head was a mess.
I extended my stay at the hotel I had checked into the day before and returned to my room.
Changing into comfortable hotel clothes, I grabbed a can of beer from the fridge.
I popped the tab, and foam spilled out with a hiss.
I hurriedly took a sip of the cold beer.
Only then did I feel my mind clearing.
How did I manage to cast Seo Ji-won?
What I thought was a chance encounter felt like fate, but my intuition told me this quest would be tougher than expected.
To clear my mind, I pulled out my notebook and logged into Gotflix.
“Let’s start by watching episode 5 of Twin Love.”
Maybe something would come to me while watching.
As always, I ended up binge-watching from episode 5 until the end.
By the final episode, the story of was heading toward its climax.
The twin brothers did their best to avoid being found out by the female lead, but in fact, the female lead knew they were two different people—that was where the story cleverly cut off.
Usually, if you start the story from the beginning, it’s easy for the plot to collapse toward the end.
This is common in dramas filled with clichéd tropes.
To keep viewers immersed, many dramas reveal most of the story early on, making the later parts often disappointing.
But was expected to maintain its tension with a solid structure and story until the very end.
If a drama like this scores 2.0, how good must the others be?
There was no time to linger on feelings.
I had to start writing from episode 5 quickly.
As I carefully re-examined episode 5’s script to write, I kept wondering,
“Why do I keep seeing Seo Ji-won in the female lead’s face?”
Indeed. Seo Ji-won’s face appeared in the female lead of .
Physically, Seo Ji-won resembled a high-class cat, while actresses in Gotflix leaned more toward a strong dog.
But looking at the vibe and appearance that would captivate both twin brothers, Seo Ji-won seemed more fitting.
Maybe the Gotflix quest had brainwashed me.
The more I wrote, the more convinced I became that only Seo Ji-won could play the female lead.
“I’m going crazy.”
Eventually, I stopped writing and turned on YouTube.
I had heard that Seo Ji-won’s work had dried up since , and she had been drifting around web dramas.
Watching a few web dramas she starred in on YouTube, I couldn’t help but acknowledge it.
Whatever had happened, Seo Ji-won’s acting skills had improved remarkably.
Seeing it firsthand strengthened my belief.
Only Seo Ji-won could be the female lead of .
Her excellent acting in web dramas was a big part of that realization.
And I ended up thinking,
“Why did you act so badly back then?!”
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