Go Dae-seong, who gave up the press examination to become a Drama writer.
Go Dae-seong succeeded in becoming an Assistant Writer as he had intended.
But his current situation was far from satisfying.
It was because he ended up joining a Studio of a much lower-level writer than he had expected.
When he first started dreaming of becoming a Drama writer.
Go Dae-seong naturally thought he’d be able to join the Studio of a famous writer like Baek Seung-chul.
But the Drama industry was far harsher than he had imagined.
As a non-major, Go Dae-seong wasn’t even given the opportunity to meet a famous writer during interviews.
It was only after the fact that he realized the existence of Script Academies operated by the Broadcast Station, and that attending there would be advantageous for becoming an Assistant Writer.
But Go Dae-seong stubbornly ignored this fact.
The reason was simple.
“At my age, why would I waste money to attend an Academy? I’d rather just earn a small salary and learn Drama on site.”
That was the thought that guided him.
So Go Dae-seong continued to submit his resume every time a co-writer recruitment came up for Assistant Writers.
And at last, he got the opportunity to join a rookie writer’s Studio.
That was how Go Dae-seong came to be Taeha’s Assistant Writer.
“Ugh… I don’t like this. At the very least, I should’ve become Baek Seung-chul’s Assistant Writer.”
Go Dae-seong still wasn’t satisfied with this.
In fact, Go Dae-seong had more complaints than just this.
Above Go Dae-seong was a First Assistant called Jeong Hyo-seop.
He was already annoyed at joining a rookie writer’s Studio, and now he was treated as the youngest.
For the prideful Go Dae-seong, this was a hard fact to accept.
But Go Dae-seong quickly changed his mind.
“If that First thinks he’s so great just because he’s got one or two more projects under his belt than me, I’ll just crush him with my ability. No matter how many days it takes me to learn, I’ll outshine that dimwit for sure.”
Go Dae-seong didn’t have the slightest doubt things would turn out that way.
He hadn’t studied in earnest yet, but he believed he had incredible talent for Drama.
Above all, this Studio had one great advantage that no other place could offer.
That was the fact that the Main Writer was an Actor whose works had recently begun drawing major attention.
He’d been so surprised when he first saw Taeha at the interview.
It was amazing enough that the Main Writer was Lee Jae-hyun of , but what astonished him even more was Taeha’s appearance.
Go Dae-seong had never seen someone as handsome as Taeha in his life.
Even people around him who were often said to be good-looking didn’t have such a small face, such distinct features, or such perfect proportions as Taeha.
Getting close to a celebrity and being able to control them as he pleased.
For Go Dae-seong, who’d given up the press examination to pursue Drama writing for this very reason, this was an incredible merit.
Just working together in the same Studio felt like a dream come true.
But that didn’t mean he acknowledged Taeha as a writer.
Go Dae-seong still looked down on the rookie Taeha.
If anything, the fact that an Actor was also a writer made Go Dae-seong look down on Taeha even more.
“He only became famous thanks to his looks, and now he wants to be a writer too? Human greed really knows no bounds, tsk tsk. Just wait a bit longer. You’ll soon see what real talent is.”
With that, Go Dae-seong dove into his work, convinced that it was only a matter of time before he would snatch the First Assistant position from Jeong Hyo-seop, and be recognized as a writer by Taeha as well.
But right from his first task, Go Dae-seong faced a crisis.
Jeong Hyo-seop, who reviewed the materials Go Dae-seong had gathered, spoke to him with a stiff expression.
“Dae-seong. I took a look at the materials you researched, and I think they need some revisions.”
Go Dae-seong felt his pride wounded, and scowled.
“…Revisions?”
“Yes. Looking at it, the materials are organized too randomly. For the Main Writer to grasp the contents, and to know which sections to read for in-depth exploration, the data needs to be sorted by item. That way, the research will have meaning.”
Jeong Hyo-seop’s words were completely reasonable.
The whole point of research was to help the Main Writer quickly acquire the necessary information and make the work more efficient.
But Go Dae-seong thought differently.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t see any problem with it?”
“What?”
“Either way, the research—all of it has to be read by the Main Writer, doesn’t it?”
“Well—”
“Ah, I get what you’re saying. You want to talk about efficiency. But can a Main Writer just skim over the materials like that and toss things aside? Would that ever produce a good work?”
“For the Main Writer’s sake, I’ll continue to work as I do, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t interfere. If the Main Writer tells me to redo it, I’ll redo it then.”
At a glance, it sounded somewhat reasonable.
But Go Dae-seong could only say that because he’d never once thought about why an Assistant Writer was necessary for the Main Writer.
Jeong Hyo-seop realized this, but could only sigh and say nothing more.
Having worked on a few projects as an Assistant Writer, he knew that people like Go Dae-seong simply couldn’t be reasoned with.
“…Do as you like.”
“Yes, I will.”
Thus, the materials Go Dae-seong had gathered were delivered to Taeha as they were.
While in the midst of writing episode 11’s script, Taeha glanced through the materials briefly, frowned, and put the pages aside.
Of course, Jeong Hyo-seop recognized this as a sign of dissatisfaction, but Go Dae-seong thought differently.
He believed his research had passed, and flashed a triumphant smile at Jeong Hyo-seop.
Seeing that smile, Jeong Hyo-seop felt a sudden sense of unease, but said nothing.
Just because the wind blew a little harder didn’t mean a storm was certain to come.
***
Even after that, Go Dae-seong continued to clash with Jeong Hyo-seop in the course of work.
But Jeong Hyo-seop suppressed his anger and patiently endured.
After all, was almost at the final episode 12 script.
He believed that as long as he held out, the project would finish without major issues.
In fact, in most Studios, these kinds of frictions ended up as mere incidents after the Drama script was completed.
Conflicts in human relationships were inevitable.
Of course, even after episode 12’s script was finished, it would still take time to complete filming, but that wasn’t a major problem here.
It was just a matter of handling things like script revisions for the village, setting ad-lib limits for the Actor, and accommodating requests for script changes from the directing team.
Once the episode 12 script revisions were done, the main work was essentially over.
Moreover, Taeha was also active as an Actor, so there was a good chance they wouldn’t even have meetings in the Studio after this.
Taeha also had a busy schedule in preparation for his next role.
Especially since Taeha had chosen as his next action project, his schedule was packed even tighter.
There were things he needed to learn at Action School before filming began in earnest.
That was why Jeong Hyo-seop tried to overlook Go Dae-seong’s issues without bringing them up.
But a few days later, the once gentle wind finally turned into a storm.
Go Dae-seong caused a massive incident he never even imagined.
***
The incident began when both Taeha and Jeong Hyo-seop failed to answer the Jo Yeon-chul’s call.
Taeha was in the middle of stunt practice at Action School, and Jeong Hyo-seop had left his phone behind while briefly stepping out to the restroom.
Naturally, Jo Yeon-chul’s call reached Go Dae-seong.
Of course, Jo Yeon-chul hadn’t meant to ask an important question to Go Dae-seong, who was just the youngest Assistant Writer, in the first place.
– Dae-seong! The Main Writer isn’t answering, do you know if something’s up?
He started by asking about Taeha’s whereabouts, and was intending to ask Taeha directly.
“He’s writing. The Main Writer isn’t coming into the Studio today due to his personal schedule… Why do you ask?”
But when Jo Yeon-chul got that answer from Go Dae-seong, he was tempted to wrap things up quickly, and ended up crossing a line he shouldn’t have.
– Ah. There’s a small script revision to be made. You know the Yellow Rose Pot that appears in episode 2, scene 23? Would it be okay to replace that with a Freesia pot? The Staff in charge of Props brought a Freesia by mistake.
Go Dae-seong tried to recall if there was something like a Yellow Rose Pot in episode 2’s script.
“Did episode 2’s script have a Yellow Rose Pot?”
But nothing came to mind.
Normally, the reasonable thing would be to take out the script and check, but Go Dae-seong didn’t bother with even that.
“It’s just a flower pot getting switched, what’s the big deal? The color’s the same, and they look similar. Besides, if they’re changing it on set, there must be a reason.”
With that, Go Dae-seong simply decided and replied to Jo Yeon-chul.
“If it’s just that much, I don’t think it’ll be an issue.”
– Right? That’s fine, right?
“Yes, I think so. I’ll discuss it with the Main Writer as soon as I get in touch, and if there’s a problem, I’ll call. If the shoot is urgent, just go ahead and film for now.”
- Ah, that would be great. Got it. We’ll proceed with filming then.
With that, the call with Jo Yeon-chul ended, and Go Dae-seong felt satisfied.
He felt proud that he had influenced the Drama shoot.
The thought of Actors performing as he had approved made him feel even more powerful.
“This is fun. I really made the right choice coming into Drama.”
Lost in this sense of satisfaction, Go Dae-seong completely forgot to report the matter to Taeha.
Because of that, a few weeks later, Taeha received a call from Yun Taeseong, the Director of .
– Ah, Taeha. About episode 2’s script. We found something while editing…
“Yes, is there a problem?”
– The Prop was changed from a Yellow Rose to a Freesia. No matter how I think about it, it seems off, so I asked Jo Yeon-chul, and he said you approved it. The flower held an important meaning in the script.
Only then did Taeha realize something had gone wrong, and asked Yun Taeseong,
“You’re saying I approved the Prop change?”
Rattle, rattle.
The wind rattling the window came just as Taeha finished asking his question.