I Spent a Night with a Top Star Actress Chapter 12 - Crisis into opportunity.

Director Choi Jeong-eun shouted, unable to hide her excitement.

“No…. why is this good? Why on earth is it good? It’s just a drum, bass and vocal song, isn’t it? So why…. does it stick to your ear like this?”

The Director Choi Jeong-eun I’d read isn’t the type to put on an act.

Which means the way she’s bouncing around right now, like she’s been struck by lightning….

It’s because it really was good.

That song “Youth Journey”, written by Ga-eul, words and music, and sung by Twenty!

Right then the corner of my mouth pulled up into a grin.

“Sounds like the song wasn’t bad, Director.”

Director Choi Jeong-eun, in the middle of all that bouncing, whipped her head around!

“…. Chief.”

“Yes?”

“Tell me honestly. You’ve seen the Twenty girls sing ‘Youth Journey’ before, haven’t you?”

I hadn’t.

This was my first time hearing it too.

But right now Director Choi Jeong-eun didn’t look like she had any intention of listening to me.

“Right! It was strange! You suddenly went looking for some nobody B-side instead of the title track, and I wondered what that was about! You were quietly throwing me bait with ‘Youth Journey’, weren’t you? Weren’t you?”

Pouring it all out by herself, rat-a-tat….

Reaching her own conclusion by herself, rat-a-tat.

This is like watching a one-woman play.

I shrugged and answered.

“Think whatever’s comfortable for you.”

“Ugh! You are quietly infuriating, really! So….”

Director Choi Jeong-eun cut herself off for a beat, and her eyes narrowed.

“What is it you want to land out of me, throwing bait this carefully?”

Something I want to land, huh.

I do have one.

But is it all right to lift the rod now?

I looked at Director Choi Jeong-eun blankly for a moment.

‘This is the timing, isn’t it?’

From that impatient look, the bite has come in properly.

With everything I had, I lifted the rod.

“A double title track.”

“?”

“And if not that, I want to push ‘Youth Journey’ as the sub-title track. What do you think, Director?”

Director Choi Jeong-eun’s mouth fell open.

“…. Are you sane? You want to change the album lineup for girls who are two months from debut?”

“Yes.”

“Wow. Why are you doing this to me, Chief Kwon.”

“The song’s good, isn’t it?”

“The song being good isn’t the problem, is it? If we change the album lineup now we have to change the whole concept too, and how do you do that in two months?”

She’s saying it can’t be done, but Director Choi Jeong-eun.

Her face was shaking like an earthquake had hit it.

Realizing this was a fish already caught, I pushed a little harder.

“Still, shouldn’t we do it?”

“No, given the situation, that’s…!”

“Twenty’s situation right now is pretty bad, isn’t it?”

“!”

“You saw the articles calling them a sponsored girl group because of Director Kim Jang-hoon, right?”

I dropped my voice low.

In case the Twenty girls in the booth heard.

“Image is life for a girl group, and articles like that are already going around. Can a girl group like that succeed?”

Director Choi Jeong-eun hesitated, chewing at her lip.

“Does putting ‘Youth Journey’ in as a double title track even raise the odds of succeeding?”

“Wouldn’t it be insurance?”

“….”

“We’re cornered either way, so we should try what we can. And that song ‘Youth Journey’ is really good.”

I lowered my head slightly.

Director Choi Jeong-eun met my eyes, and hers swayed.

“If there’s a way for us to suffer a while and make a good result out of it…. shouldn’t we do that?”

Director Choi Jeong-eun squeezed both eyes shut.

Right then I knew.

“Haa…. seriously.”

I was over the last ridge.

“I’ll have to work overtime again… it’s already been a month since I made it home.”

Now the summit was starting to come into view.

The summit called number one on the music charts.

---

Director Choi Jeong-eun let out a heavy sigh.

“Fine. Say we go with a double title track. But has the sign-off come down from the Division Head and the CEO?”

“No.”

“…. Sorry?”

“I have to go get that now.”

Director Choi Jeong-eun’s face crumpled hard.

“No, the approval upstairs hasn’t even come down, so how am I supposed to go ahead on my own?”

“Because your reaction mattered more, Director.”

“Why does my reaction matter more?”

“You’re the one working on the ground, aren’t you?”

Director Choi Jeong-eun closed her mouth into a flat line.

She blinked at me like that…. like a tadpole that had just broken out of its egg.

I burst into a snort of laughter without meaning to.

“The words ‘the song’s good’ came out of the Director’s mouth, so now I go and persuade them.”

Director Choi Jeong-eun avoided my eyes and muttered.

“Now that I see it, you’re not just infuriating, you’re a straight-up fox….”

It wasn’t an insult but a compliment, so I let it go.

Meanwhile the Twenty girls in the booth quietly poked their heads out.

“…. Can we come out?”

I waved the girls over.

Still not grasping the situation, they looked at me with anxious faces.

I trailed off on purpose.

“Hmm….”

Their shoulders bounced up and down in a dance.

…. This reaction.

It’s kind of fun?

Controlling the corner of my mouth as it tried to rise, I said,

“Thanks for singing it so well, and….”

“….”

“‘Youth Journey’. If it goes well, I think we can push it as a double title track.”

“!”

The Twenty girls’ mouths fell open in shock.

The most shocked of them was, of course, the song’s owner, Ga-eul.

Ga-eul, mouth hanging open blankly, blinked like something in her had broken.

Nova, next to her, asked the question in her place.

“Uh, uh…? What does that mean, Chief?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. ‘Youth Journey’ is a good song, so I’m thinking of pushing it as a double title track.”

“….”

“The Director’s reaction to the live was positive, and…. the sign-off upstairs is left, but if you show them a live like that then too, I think we can push it as a double title easily enough.”

When the explanation was done, the broken-down Ga-eul woke up.

“Ah….”

She couldn’t speak, and a low gasp slipped out, but every feeling in the world was crossing her face at once.

I gave a small look to Lee Ye-ji-ssi beside me.

-Snap!

Ga-eul came to at the sound of the camera shutter and quickly bowed her head to me.

“Th, thank you, Chief.”

“It’s nothing. It’s thanks to Ga-eul-ssi singing it so well.”

“….”

“It’s lunchtime, so everyone eat well, and Ye-ji-ssi, keep the girls in line and get through today’s schedule.”

Lee Ye-ji pressed the camera shutter, snap snap!, as she said,

“Huh? You’re not eating with us, Chief?”

“I have to go to head office.”

“Ah, yes! Understood!”

I turned and walked out of the recording studio.

Through the door, still not shut, the Twenty girls’ voices came spilling out.

“Whaaaaat, Kim Ga-eul!”

“Whoa, whoa! Kim Ga-eul, incredible! What is this!”

“C, congratsss, Ga-eul unnie!”

“…Unnie, so you become a lyricist and composer the moment you debut?”

“Our Ga-eul!!! What did I say! I told you to trust the Chief!”

I muttered without meaning to.

‘The one who whines at the end of her sentences is the Japanese one, Rei.’

The one making a fuss is Nova?

The blunt voice sounds like Seol Chae-i.

The voice saying to trust the Chief sounds like Lee Ye-ji-ssi.

“…. What is this, is it a dream?”

This voice right now is Ga-eul.

Somewhere along the line I’d come to tell the members apart from nothing but the voices leaking through a gap in the door.

Right then I realize.

‘Ah, I want to raise them.’

Now I have no choice but to admit it.

As a manager, I wanted to raise those girls.

‘Back and forth, back and forth…. I’m really something.’

But what am I supposed to do when my heart has already tipped?

I want to raise those girls, full of possibility, properly, with my own hands.

Right then my daydreaming started to spread its wings.

‘How far can the Twenty I raise go?’

Number one on the charts?

That one’s half done already.

A Japan dome tour?

Or an Asia concert tour?

Or if not that, Billboard?

‘…. Billboard feels like going too far.’

Right.

Let’s look at it objectively.

If we all really do our best….

If they don’t wander off the path and keep looking straight ahead.

I was confident I could take those girls as far as a Japan dome tour.

‘That’s how much possibility they have.’

Right then my brain released an enormous amount of dopamine.

The moment an entertainer you carried and raised as a manager reaches the top….

Just imagining it brought a thrill.

‘Right, this is the taste that kept me from leaving this industry.’

It was as the corner of my mouth lifted without my meaning to.

The smartphone in my pocket rang.

-Ping!

I put my hand in naturally and woke the smartphone.

[Road Jeon Hyeong-woo: Chief. We have a big problem!]

“?”

A question mark rose on my face.

‘Road Jeon Hyeong-woo?’

He’s the Team 5 manager handling Lee Ha-eun.

So what big problem had come up all of a sudden?

I thought for a second and my eyes went wide.

“…. Lee Ha-eun?”

I hurriedly scrolled the KakaoTalk down.

There was a link Road Jeon Hyeong-woo had sent.

[Road Jeon Hyeong-woo: I’m really…. sorry. It happened before I had a chance to stop her.]

My heart pounds hard.

An excitement completely different from a moment ago came climbing up my spine.

Not hiding the tension bursting out of me, I clicked the link.

Right then, the face of an actress I’d forgotten completely for a while took over the screen.

A low sigh came out on its own.

[“The reason I chose ‘Queen of Joseon’ out of all those projects?”]

The crazy bitch had caused an accident.

But the level of it….

[“Nothing special. Kwon Chan-ssi, my former manager, picked this project. That’s all.”]

Was weaker than I expected.

Wait, this… is this really an accident?

---

“Queen of Joseon”.

A drama that took the Wednesday-Thursday series slot on the terrestrial network SBC, the most talked-about work of the second quarter.

It was written by Kim Go-eun, called one of the industry’s top three writers, and the production cost alone went past 30 billion won.

Literally, from the staff to the actors, a mega-project that gathered only the best in the industry.

And Lee Ha-eun was the lead of that drama.

In a market where Netflex’s arrival has the film and drama business shaking, the actors who can take the lead in a drama with a production cost over 30 billion won are, literally, top class only.

‘Right.’

I hate to admit it, but…. Lee Ha-eun is a top star actress.

Acting, she has it.

Looks, she has them.

Even the unique aura an actor is born with.

If there’s a human being born to act, it’s probably Lee Ha-eun.

‘I can’t deny it, not when Kim Go-eun, famous for that high nose, called me in person and begged over the casting.’

Of course she isn’t a perfect human being.

Lee Ha-eun had a serious defect.

‘A crazy bitch with no humanity in her.’

It isn’t surprising for a top star actress to have a flaw in her personality, but with Lee Ha-eun the level went too far.

There’s a reason the people at Baekhak Entertainment call their signboard star Lee Ha-eun a crazy bitch.

‘Right…. just look at how she wants to write off what happened between us that day as an accident.’

Lee Ha-eun isn’t in her right mind.

Which is also why we were over.

The moment that night’s accident, the only link between us, was gone, Lee Ha-eun and I were no different from strangers.

The proof is that I’d forgotten the production presentation for her drama completely.

But it seems that was my own misunderstanding.

[“The reason I chose ‘Queen of Joseon’ out of all those projects?”]

Lee Ha-eun mentioned me in an interview.

[“Kwon Chan-ssi, my former manager, picked this project. That’s all.”]

But I don’t know what she meant by it.

“What is this?”

Road Jeon Hyeong-woo said Lee Ha-eun had caused an accident, so I thought she’d flipped the production presentation over or something.

But the accident Lee Ha-eun caused was…. only mentioning my real name in an interview.

“This is an accident too, I suppose, if you want to call it one.”

It’s an accident I don’t understand.

What was she trying to do with an interview like this?

‘Don’t tell me she said my name to screw me over?’

If “Queen of Joseon” flops…. right.

Through this interview she could shift the blame onto me.

The manager who put a garbage script in top star Lee Ha-eun’s hands.

But I keep saying it: “Queen of Joseon” is not a drama that will flop.

‘A 30 billion won production.’

Not every drama succeeds by throwing money at it, but past a line like this, flopping would be strange.

So the idea that Lee Ha-eun did this interview to screw me over…. I didn’t buy it.

‘Anyone can see this drama is going to succeed.’

Was I wrong?

No.

My guess was exactly right.

-[Exclusive] SBC’s most talked-about work of the second quarter, “Queen of Joseon”. Charming viewers’ hearts from the very first broadcast….!

Average rating 9.5%.

Peak rating an incredible 11.4%.

“Queen of Joseon” recorded the highest first-broadcast rating of any drama aired in the last four years.

Right then.

-【HOT ‘pick’】”Queen of Joseon” lead Lee Ha-eun. “Choosing ‘Queen of Joseon’ came down to my former manager Kwon Chan-ssi’s opinion….!”

Top star actress Lee Ha-eun.

Untimely attention gathered on Kwon Chan, her former manager.