After spending a good while consoling Chae Seo-hee, whose mental state had completely crumbled, Do Hyun-woo started to feel puzzled.
Hold on. I'm the new guy who just started today, so why am I the one comforting my senior?
"Even if that project flops, I won't quit. You don't need to worry that much."
"What are you talking about? If it tanks, the senior will somehow try to get your contract terminated."
Would he go that far?
"And then he'll say, 'See? It's best if we stick together, right?' and make sure you can't even utter the first syllable of 'manpower expansion.'"
"Is office politics always this blatant?"
"The senior used to be the boss of Total Director Kim Seong-tae."
"Pardon?"
"Back in the day at Tvic, Joo Young-hoon senior was Kim Seong-tae's superior. Rumor has it the senior got demoted from headquarters because the total director played a decisive role. They're enemies. Mortal enemies."
"Ah..."
"That's why he says crap like that in team meetings. He wouldn't dare utter it outside. Not against the Korean head of operations."
No wonder something felt off.
He was pressuring me on purpose so I could hear it.
"Could you tell me a bit about Gongbeomche?"
The explanation that followed was simpler than expected.
Two years ago, when Tvic entered the Korean market, they held a contest.
They selected a total of three works, with the winners guaranteed 100% production into video content.
Gongbeomche was one of them.
In other words, from Tvic's perspective, it was a project they had to produce no matter what to maintain company credibility.
"It was co-written by two engineering students from a prestigious university. There were probably quite a few articles from their alma mater."
"That's unique."
"To be honest, without that background, it might not have been selected."
"Why?"
"The Korean market is super hot in the global OTT industry right now?"
He knew that.
From Ogem to Cadeheon.
"So there was an intent to appeal to young Korean creators. Aspiring Korean drama writers only have eyes for Enflicks."
"So what problems do you see with Gongbeomche, Chae CE?"
"It's too well-written."
"Pardon?"
"It sharply dissects human nature, and honestly, reading the script just leaves you in awe. Especially the flashbacks—each one grips the story's structure like bolts and nuts."
"That's high praise."
"Add one more word to the end, and it becomes the perfect insult."
"What?"
"So it's goddamn boring."
He got the sense immediately.
A work with excellent completion and message, but too obtuse or difficult to be entertaining.
"It's too hard to touch. Adding anything feels like padding, but cutting risks ruining the dense narrative. Honestly, the only options are to shoot it as-is or scrap it entirely."
"With the situation like this, do we really have to force it into production?"
"Headquarters is planning a second contest. Once we start shooting this, it fulfills the promise from the first one. Shooting can be delayed, but we have to enter pre-production by the end of this year no matter what."
"Ah."
"Probably, they'll just go with the original contest-winning scenario, saying 'whatever.' We know it'll flop, but the script is too tightly woven."
He understood completely.
He got the difficulties, and why Joo Young-hoon senior had dumped it on him.
They had to shoot it, but it was obviously doomed to fail.
If it was going to be a loss for CL Team 3 anyway, they wanted that loss pinned to his name.
He couldn't let that happen, so he had to somehow make it entertaining...
"Want me to tell you the worst part? We have to break even on this, no exceptions."
"Pardon?"
"It's a contest winner. And the very first big contest Tvic ran upon entering Korea. Pressure from the top."
Budget issues too, huh.
"Where can I see the script?"
"I told the script team. Go pick it up..."
Leaving Chae Seo-hee acting like a resentful ghost from a bad dream, he stood up.
Whether despair or hope, he'd feel it after seeing the work.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇Embarrassing as it was to say it himself, he was pretty damn handsome.
That's why his mom had always been on high alert about him getting carried away and losing touch with reality.
Probably the phrase he heard most from her was...
"That expression looks awfully arrogant right now."
"Son, you're not drunk on yourself, are you?"
"What an eyesore."
"That pose? Girls would hate it."
Hmm, no.
Saying it like that makes his mom sound like a bad person.
To be precise, it was what he heard nonstop from middle school second year through high school second year.
The stormy puberty years.
Thanks to those experiences, he'd developed a habit of not overrating himself.
According to Sung Tae-chang and Team Leader Ko, he underrated himself.
But even he had one ability he was absolutely confident in.
Visualization.
No matter the script, a complete image would instantly form in his mind.
If that image stuttered or halted in his head?
Then there was a problem with the script.
The character's actions were off, emotions jarred, or the setup itself was flawed.
From that perspective...
Gongbeomche_Tvictory Contest Submission
This script was perfect.
To be exact, the original version submitted to the contest was perfect.
It looked like various directors had tried revising it afterward.
Gongbeomche_V2_Revision13
Version 2, which went up to Revision 13, had ruined the original.
Gongbeomche_V3_Revision7
Version 3, up to Revision 7, had lost the story's unique flavor.
Stripped of all the difficult parts, it felt like a generic mystery thriller.
Gongbeomche_V4 Revision3
The fourth version from six months ago was somewhat better, but still fell short compared to the original.
That gave him conviction.
They couldn't touch the narrative or characters of the original.
Better to add something instead.
Some hook, a gimmick setting that could give it a kick...
Bang bang!
A knock at the door—he went out to find Sung Tae-chang hyung standing there.
"As expected of Sung Tae-chang. You show up right when I need you, without me even calling."
"..."
It wasn't something he said.
Sung Tae-chang hyung had said it himself.
"You been drinking?"
"Nah. My nose is red from the cold."
"Wearing short sleeves at the end of October will do that."
"I took off the suit."
Sung Tae-chang hyung strode in like it was his own house, then grinned at the script on the desk.
"Ooh, working after hours? Gongbeomche, huh?"
"You know it?"
"Of course. Beautiful to read, ugly to produce."
"You know that and still threaten me to break even?"
"Me? It was headquarters. I'm just a lowly citizen taking orders from above."
Sung Tae-chang hyung suddenly jumped in surprise.
"Wait, why is this in your hands? Don't tell me you're handling it? No way, right?"
"I am."
"What? Why? How the hell?"
When he relayed the incident with Joo Young-hoon senior, Sung Tae-chang hyung scowled fiercely.
"That's Joo's problem. He doesn't do work—he just plays politics. You should do good work and politics, but he sees work as just another tool for politics."
"When you recommended me for the job, hyung, there was no political calculation?"
"Of course not. Out of everyone I know, you were the best fit for SSK. I just added manpower to an obviously overloaded organization."
His face screamed 100% sincerity.
So Joo Young-hoon senior was just shadowboxing by himself.
"Plus, Yoon CEO asked me to."
"What? For real?"
"No big deal. She let me know about your retirement, timing worked out. She'd have contacted you anyway once she heard you were jobless."
Still, gratitude was gratitude.
He'd have to visit Yoon CEO after his first paycheck.
"Then what's that about? Joo Young-hoon senior getting pushed out of headquarters because of you."
"You heard that already? A woman, right? You heard it from a woman."
"...My senior."
"So, a woman?"
"..."
"Born in the spy era, he'd be NIS director. Born in the Japanese colonial days, he'd liberate the country with his face."
Was that an insult or praise?
Right then, the doorbell rang—delivery had arrived.
He was used to Sung Tae-chang hyung ordering food on his own and barging into the house like this.
As they set the food up, Sung Tae-chang hyung tossed out casually,
"I just couldn't stand Joo crossing the line."
"The line?"
"Want me to tell you the first virtue of a director?"
"What?"
"Not controlling, but making shine."
"Making what shine?"
"Anything. The work, the director... the actors."
Sung Tae-chang hyung pointed at the Gongbeomche script on the desk.
"Make it shine."
"Working on it."
"Thinking about it, Joo accidentally caught a rat while backing up."
"A rat?"
"No matter how I look at it, you're the only one who can save that project."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇He glanced at the snoring Sung Tae-chang hyung and picked up the script.
Gongbeomche.
The content itself wasn't that complex.
Eight lifelong buddies head to a cabin in Gangwon-do for a trip.
To celebrate a friend who, after struggling with unemployment into his 30s, finally passed the civil service exam at 32.
"Wow, all of us are working adults now."
They'd been together through elementary, middle, and high school.
Some even went to the same university.
How fun must it have been for such friends to escape society and spend time together?
The protagonist, Hyun-tae, gets lost in memories with his friends, chats endlessly, drinks himself to sleep—but wakes at dawn with a dry throat.
And discovers an unbelievable sight.
"...!"
One friend was dead.
Hanged from a tree in front of the cabin.
"Jeong-hoon! Jeong-hoon!!"
The friends jolt awake at Hyun-tae's scream and try to call the police, but there's no signal.
Yet there are signs of struggle on the body.
Hyun-tae, being a cop, could tell.
This was the mark left when someone familiar got careless and was strangled from behind.
Not suicide—murder.
And if familiar, then...
'No way one of us is the killer?'
Unable to believe it, unwilling to believe it, they start piecing together evidence of innocence...
What the hell is going on?
All six remaining are suspicious.
Even the burly Hyun-tae draws suspicion from his friends.
"L-let's go back to Seoul!"
But the only road is cut off.
They have no choice but to face a second night at the cabin.
Sleep evades them, and while searching the area just in case, Hyun-tae finds a clue about the killer—
Thwack!
He's struck with a baseball bat and blacks out.
Is this how he dies? But no.
He wakes up in bed.
"Su-cheol!"
Another victim hangs in the cabin living room.
Terror, suspicion, tension, anxiety.
Amid the whirlwind of emotions, the remaining six agree to watch each other.
Even going to the bathroom together, forming a perfect communal surveillance.
And to identify those with motives, they start dredging up the past.
"Bullshit! I didn't say that back then!"
"Then who? Who else would know?"
"Hyun-tae! Hyun-tae knew too!"
What they thought were beautiful memories twists and warps bit by bit.
Revealing hidden sides of those they considered irreplaceable friends.
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