[Looking for the New Writer Who Will Lead the Republic of Korea’s Dramas]
It was an ad for the TVm Drama Contest, one of the biggest drama contests in the country.
Taeha stared blankly at the phrase written in the ad.
Old memories came rushing back.
Back when he was living in a gosiwon, desperately striving for nothing but a win at the TVm Contest.
His desperation had narrowed his vision, making him feel as though he was standing on the edge of a cliff.
“So when I failed to win the contest, I really wanted to die.”
But that was a hasty thought.
Because not long after, one of the external judges, Choi Daepyo, contacted him, saying he wanted to produce himself.
“Life really is unpredictable.”
In the end, it turned out to be an even better opportunity than winning the contest.
Unlike TVm, which had such fierce internal competition because of the sheer number of works, Choi Daepyo poured his heart and soul into making Ho-jun’s work.
Thanks to him, was able to come out into the world quickly.
“For a rookie writer who knew nothing, Choi Daepyo really gave me a lot of support in many ways.”
The bus that had stopped in front of Taeha with a loud engine roar drove away.
After waiting a bit longer, the bus heading toward Taeha’s one-room finally arrived.
Boarding the bus, Taeha sat by the window and thought.
“Should I really try writing one?”
Compared to when he prepared for the contest in the past, Taeha was in a far more relaxed state now.
“This time, I really feel like I can do better.”
He no longer had a reason to push himself too hard, nor did he need to overdo it.
It felt like he could write just from the simple desire to write.
“I already have debut experience, too.”
The experience he gained by writing an entire work from start to finish as a Main Writer was incomparable to his days as an Assistant Writer—it had given him a huge amount of Experience Points.
“Hmph.”
In fact, whenever he needed a break from working on , instead of resting, he would come up with ideas for his next project.
So, he already had material and content lined up for his next work.
He’d even done a fair amount of background research.
“Thinking about it, I was really obsessive. No wonder I nearly died from overwork.”
Back then, his anxiety about the future was so overwhelming that he couldn’t help it.
“If I develop that a bit more…”
Returning home and still lost in thought, Taeha eventually woke up the next morning, immediately turned on his Notebook, and sat down.
With his hands on the Notebook and watching the black cursor blinking on the white screen, Taeha let out a faint chuckle.
The reason was simple.
“Well, this is…”
It felt so welcoming and familiar, as if he were meeting a Past Life Lover.
Well, it was almost like a lover—he’d never been apart from it for even a moment.
Muttering in disbelief, Taeha began writing out the plan and intent with large letters and a temporary title.
Tap, tap, tap-tap.
As the cheerful tapping of the keyboard filled the room, heat rose to the tips of Taeha’s fingers.
***
Beeeep, bee-bee-beep, bee-bee-bee-beep.
Late at night.
With the sound of the alarm, Taeha snapped out of his deep focus.
“It’s already this late?”
He’d eaten dinner three hours ago and sat down at the Notebook, and before he knew it, the alarm he’d set for ten o’clock was ringing.
“That’s why you can’t skip setting an alarm.”
Since starting on the new work,
Taeha realized something natural yet surprising.
“This body has so much stamina.”
Unlike his writer days, when the only exercise he got was just breathing, the body he’d steadily managed was now young and strong.
With good stamina, he could easily sit for over half a day once he started focusing.
“Even with my pathetic stamina in the past, when I got into the zone, I could easily focus on the Script for three or four hours straight.”
At this pace, he figured he could finish the Script far faster than he’d thought, so he spent the first two days working excitedly.
As he wrote, Taeha suddenly felt hungry and made himself some ramen, but suddenly snapped back to his senses.
A life spent sitting all day tapping on a keyboard and hurriedly eating delivery or instant food.
That was the fast track to overwork and death.
“Why do humans repeat the same mistakes… There’s no reason to rush now.”
So he took drastic action and set alarms.
It was a pledge not to work past a certain number of hours.
“Absolutely keep that work-life balance!”
Besides, his Main Job now was acting.
“No way I’m going to put on belly fat when I should be getting a six pack.”
So Taeha ate healthy meals, made sure not to skip his exercise, and continued working on the new project.
He was writing a particularly interesting part and wanted badly to keep going, but Taeha forced himself to get up.
“Uuugh.”
A sound came from his stiff body without him meaning it to.
Stretching lightly, Taeha poured himself some water and drank.
The heat that had built up from his focus finally started to cool off.
Picking up his phone, he turned Messenger back on, which he’d muted for a while, and saw messages from the Freesia members.
The group chat was lively again, with news that Alex, who had returned to America, had arrived safely.
They were talking about how it would be nice if they could all travel to America together someday.
Instead of joining in, Taeha just sent a laughing bunny emoticon and checked his other messages.
[If you can, don’t look]
A message sent two hours earlier by Im Chan-hyung was quite ominous.
“What’s this?”
For the past fifteen days,
Im Chan-hyung had been handling the appearance contract for Taeha’s on behalf of his agency.
Of course, it hadn’t been easy.
Taeha just spent the extra time working on his Script, waiting for the negotiations to wrap up well.
There was nothing else he could do.
“Oh, right, I did have a meal with the Broadcast Station CP once.”
That day, half-persuaded by Kim Jeong-sik and Director Lee Hae-ik, Taeha made sure to leave a strong impression on CP.
The director he’d worked with on one of Baek Seung-chul’s projects had been promoted and was now working there.
Since they’d worked together before, Taeha already had a good grasp of CP?’s preferences, so it was easy to win him over.
“He’s still such a doting dad. His daughter, who’d just entered elementary school when we worked together, is a middle schooler now… Time flies.”
A few days ago, Im Chan-hyung contacted him to say the Contract was ready, and once Taeha signed, his appearance would be confirmed.
So why was he telling him not to look?
“Did something go wrong?”
There were always so many variables that, until you signed the Contract… No, even after signing, you could never relax in this industry.
“No way.”
Taeha scrolled up in Messenger.
[Taeha, the appearance contract is done.]
[Congrats on getting a new role.]
[I honestly didn’t know you’d land such a big role in less than a year haha, it feels like a dream for me too.]
[I was honestly a bit nervous that I’d regret convincing you to become an actor if things didn’t go well.]
[But seeing how well things are working out, I’m really relieved.]
“So it worked out after all.”
Feeling relieved, Taeha couldn’t help but smile at Im Chan-hyung’s honest words.
“He must’ve been nervous. If you talk someone into acting and it doesn’t work out, who knows what complaints you’d get.”
It really was good news for everyone.
Then, the next message went as follows.
[Apparently, the script reading is really soon, so they’re going to put out the casting article tomorrow morning.]
[I’ll capture it and send it to you.]
[So don’t go looking for it yourself.]
[Or on Communities.]
[If you can, don’t look.]
“He’s saying this because of the comments.”
Managers often told actors not to look up internet reactions.
Back when he was an Assistant Writer, Taeha used to regularly say the same thing to Baek Seung-chul.
With the way Republic of Korea’s internet culture worked, there was just no way only good comments would be left on articles or Communities, no matter what.
Even with 100 positive comments, that one malicious one would shake your Mental.
“But being told not to look only makes you want to see it more, right?”
Taeha smacked his lips.
During , he’d wanted to check reactions himself but was always too busy.
So he only got filtered feedback from the Assistant Writers.
Maybe that’s how he managed to keep his Mental in one piece.
“But honestly, you get curious.”
This was the first time there would be an article about Kang Tae-ha the actor.
“And honestly, in a situation like this, having comments at all would be a relief, right?”
He was more worried that no one would care enough to leave a single comment.
The next morning came.
[Seon Min-gi starring in , rookie actor Kang Tae-ha cast as Lee Jae-hyun]
After receiving a screenshot of the casting article from Im Chan-hyung, Taeha couldn’t help himself and searched his own name on his phone.
Until now, his Profile hadn’t even shown up on the portal site.
“Oh, they put up a good photo.”
It was an old picture, and even though there was a faint hint of gloom behind the smiling face, that was something only he would notice.
“Handsome, huh.”
It was nothing like the profile photo of writer Lee Ho-jun.
With a light laugh, Taeha scrolled down and clicked on the article.
[…Rookie actor Kang Tae-ha, who earned the Lee Jae-hyun role fair and square through the Audition, is drawing attention for his anticipated performance…]
There wasn’t much to say about Taeha himself, so most of the article was general promotion for the drama.
In the end, it was hard to gauge reactions from the article alone.
So Taeha, out of habit, logged into the Community where drama fans gathered.
As expected, Seon Min-gi’s fans were discussing the casting.
– This casting is ridiculous
– Rookie?
– Never seen him before
– If it’s Lee Jae-hyun’s role, that’s the Sub Male, but they’re using a rookie?
– Is it because it’s a One-shot Role that they’re using a rookie?
– Still, that’s harsh;
– Drama hype just dropped
– I was waiting for this because of Seon Min-gi. If the casting is like this, the Script must not be great, huh
– If it’s Director Lee Hae-ik, isn’t that fine?
– The Scriptwriter is meh, their previous works all flopped, it’ll probably flop again
– Sigh… Why did my actor choose this Script
– I wonder, too. I thought they were good at picking Scripts
– Let’s not be downers before it even airs
– No expectations for anyone except the Lead
– Seon Min-gi’s gonna have to carry this alone
– Where the heck did they dig this guy up from?
– The agency is a joke, too
– Looks like he has no Filmo at all, unbelievable
– Are these guys from the Broadcast Station or what
– Maybe he’ll actually be a good actor, lol
– There are tons of good ones out there, just how good could he be;
– But at least he’s handsome
– All Profile pictures are handsome
– That’s some heavy Photoshop
– My mood is ruined from the morning. I was looking forward to this, now I’m depressed ㅠㅠ
“As expected.”
Taeha calmly scrolled past the comments.
It was just pre-broadcast chatter.
He already knew how quickly opinions could flip with just a change in the wind.
What mattered was the reaction after the show aired.
“Doesn’t matter what they think now. Honestly, it’s better if there’s no hype.”
He hadn’t really thought about it until now, but it was the right choice not to reveal his family ties to Kang Sojeong.
“It would’ve just looked like Kang Sojeong got me this Second Lead role.”
All Kang Sojeong did was give him a shot at the Audition.
That was it.
Relieved, Taeha gave a thumbs-up to a comment that said, “But at least he’s handsome.”
Then he opened his Notebook and organized the writing he’d done up to yesterday.
He had the Scripts for episodes 1 and 2 and even the Draft finished.
Now that casting was confirmed, it was time to focus on the role.
“Feels great when everything moves along so smoothly.”
***
But not long after.
At the first Script Reading of ,
Taeha, who had been so unfazed by the barrage of negative comments, found himself a little flustered.