After all the reading finished, the staff, under the direction of Kang In-ho, started to clean up the site.
“Come on, let’s wrap this up quickly and all go out for a meal! Today, the director has specially granted us the corporate card. Let’s eat till we burst!”
“Director-nim! Is it beef by any chance!?”
“Nope! It’s obviously pork belly.”
“But, the drinks are unlimited refills!”
The staff were exchanging banter with Kang In-ho in a free-spirited atmosphere. Everyone in the meeting room had a smile blooming on their faces at this scene.
“If the actors don’t have other schedules, please join us! Days when we can fill our stomachs generously like today won’t come often once we start shooting!”
As Kang In-ho joked around, the actors also helped with the cleaning, all smiling brightly. Among them was actor Kim Young-ho.
“Ah, sunbae! We can take care of this.”
“I can help out this much. It would be troubling if you treated me as an old man just because I played a 70-year-old just a while ago?”
“Of course not. Your performance today was really amazing. I felt like we could just add CG to the background and turn it into a drama right away.”
“It’s all thanks to that friend.”
“…Are you talking about actor Kang Woo-ju?”
Kim Young-ho quietly nodded and turned his head. His gaze swept over the spot where Kang Woo-ju had been sitting, now conspicuously empty.
“…Really a remarkable junior in many ways.”
As soon as the script reading ended, Kang Woo-ju had left the meeting room with just a light greeting, as if not wanting to waste even a second.
It was an absurdly abrupt departure, but those who had been completely engrossed in Kang Woo-ju’s performance during the past few hours didn’t even dare to hold him back.
“…I think so too. Especially when he asked the chairman ‘Is she still alive?’ It gave me goosebumps all over.”
“To be honest, I was a bit scared myself for a moment. I thought this guy was really going to kill me?”
“Even those who weren’t the target felt a chill down their spine. And yet, you didn’t show it at all, truly sunbae.”
“It’s not always like that. I just clenched my teeth and endured because I didn’t want to show a shameful side in front of my juniors. Perhaps Kang Woo-ju, that friend, is the truly remarkable one?”
Kang In-ho inwardly agreed with his words. The performance was so impressive that he wondered if Kang Joo-heon himself had participated in the reading.
From naturally accepting the sudden script reading to perfectly delivering every line that followed.
“He had memorized the entire script.”
“That too was just like Kang Joo-heon.”
“Right. It’s like the role completely consumed him. At this point, I’m worried about my own safety. I heard rumors he’s a parachute from Mirae Group? Maybe this script too…”
“No. The character definitely wasn’t created with actor Kang Woo-ju as the motif. Actually, writer Jung Ha-rin is always surprised every time she sees him.”
Both of them forcefully suppressed their soaring curiosity. Having too much curiosity in this field is a shortcut to an early demise.
“…Huh, huff! Director-nim! ”
Just then, Jung Ha-rin burst into the meeting room. She came in so hurriedly that she was gasping for breath and couldn’t even complete her sentence properly.
At this, everyone’s gaze focused on her, especially Kang In-ho, who was surprised and quickly approached her.
“Are you okay? What’s wrong!?”
“Well, that, actor Kang Woo-ju…”
“What! Why!? Did that guy have something he didn’t like today? Did he snap at writer Jung or something? Where is that guy right···.”
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Jung Ha-rin hastily waved her hands and covered the director’s mouth. Then, she lifted something she was tightly holding in her hand up to the sky.
“…What’s this card for?”
“Actor Kang Woo-ju treated us!”
“Actor Kang Woo-ju has treated all of us to beef! He reserved the entire ‘Hanwoo Jeong’ restaurant in front of us, telling us to go and enjoy to our hearts’ content!”
“…Hanwoo Jeong? The Hanwoo Jeong I know?”
“Are you talking about that top-tier Hanwoo place?”
Suddenly everyone started murmuring at this unexpected declaration. They hesitated for a moment, looking at each other, wondering what all this meant.
“Kang Woo-ju! Kang Woo-ju! Kang Woo-ju!”
“Crazy. He really was a chaebol!?”
Not just the staff, but even the always hungry rookie actors screamed at the top of their lungs.
Already, watching Kang Woo-ju’s acting had made them suspect if he was ‘real’, but now, with this act of a different class, they were utterly convinced.
“Writer Jung, is that true?”
“It is! I was outside organizing things, and suddenly he came up to me and said, ‘Use this for the staff meal.’ Wow, it was like there was a halo shining behind him!”
“…Aren’t you too excited about this?”
“Of course, I am. When was the last time we had beef!?”
Kang In-ho muttered under his breath, seemingly annoyed, while looking at Jung Ha-rin, who seemed as if hearts would pour out of his eyes any second.
Noticing this, Jung Ha-rin flashed a mischievous smile and whispered softly enough for only Kang In-ho to hear.
“You were quite cool earlier too, director-nim. Thinking so nobly about scolding Kang Woo-ju on my behalf?”
“Come on! Let’s just finish up what we’re doing and head over! Today, the director and I will go ahead and set everything up for everyone!”
Jung Ha-rin pushed Kang In-ho’s back, leading him out of the meeting room amidst the loud cheers of everyone, whose direction was unclear.
While the team was busy grilling beef, I was driving with Kim Eun-ha seated in the passenger seat.
…The whole thing started with a text message. After the script reading, I checked my phone and saw a message from Kim Eun-ha.
Boss: When will you be done?
Me: Just finished now. But it seems like we’re all going out for a company meal. I’ll just have one drink and sneak out early.
Boss: No need for that. I’ll take care of it. Come down to the first floor as fast as you can. I’ve been waiting for 30 minutes already.
Boss: Just come down — —
After putting everything aside and going downstairs, I saw Kim Eun-ha sitting gracefully at a nearby coffee shop. Wondering what was going on, I quickly ran to her.
– What brings you here?
– Detailed explanation later. For now, just take my card and tell them to have the company meal at ‘Hanwoo Jeong’ in front of here.
– Why don’t you do it yourself?
– You’ve been asking a lot of questions lately.
With an aura that seemed like she’d sew my mouth if I said any more, I quickly went back to the meeting room and handed the card to Jung Ha-rin.
As I went back, I started to understand a bit why Kim Eun-ha might have done such a thing.
Perhaps she wanted to help improve my image, which was seen as being placed by ‘parachute’.
“Are you really okay with this?”
“There are quite a lot of people, and they’re all young, so a piece or two won’t fill them up. You might really break the bank this way.”
“I thought you were worried about something else. Changing Woo-ju’s image from ‘does his job well but has a bad attitude’ to ‘a person who rightly deserves his position’. With this, it’s rather a bargain.”
Kim Eun-ha shrugged her shoulders as if it was nothing. Looking at her, I decided to stop thinking about it.
Talking about money-related issues with her only made my sense of reality grow weirder and weirder.
“…This is going to cost millions of won easily.”
Just counting the heads of the staff in the meeting room, there were dozens. Add to that the rookie actors, hungrier than hyenas.
Filling their stomachs with Korean beef, not pork, the dinner expenses could amount to how much?
Noticing the expression on my face, Kim Eun-ha smiled and said,
“Sometimes, when I take the directors out for meals, depending on what we order, the prices can vary greatly, but we usually budget about 500,000 won per meal.”
“Is that per person?”
“Of course. Although we don’t always spend that much, prices can double if we’re scheduling for dinner, especially with alcohol involved.”
“…Is there that much of a difference?”
“Alcohol does add up.”
Listening to her talk about a world so different from mine made my head spin. Kim Eun-ha chuckled at me as if she found it cute.
“You should start getting used to it.”
“…I don’t know about my stomach, but my head can’t accept food that expensive.”
“Let’s experiment today.”
What the boss says, goes.
After all, she had put off department store work and even came out to meet me in person.
Even if it was a decision based on meticulous calculation, I was grateful for it.
“So, what kind of food does the place we’re going to serve? Just by the name, I can’t even guess the category.”
The name of the place was anything but ordinary. It would be hard to think of it as a restaurant.
Even the path guided by the navigation was toward a residential area. It definitely wasn’t a location known for accessibility.
Despite that, the fact that the restaurant could sustain itself meant it must be a place of quality, worth making an effort to visit.
“I won’t know what dishes are prepared until we get there. They only serve seasonal food that matches the date of visit.”
“…It must be incredibly expensive?”
“Well, enough that you won’t regret not joining the company dinner.”
I flinched at Kim Eun-ha’s words, surprised by her direct hit.
Indeed, excluding unlimited refill places, I had never freely eaten pork belly, let alone top-grade beef.
Moreover, Kim Young-ho sunbae, whom I had respected since my student days, was someone I wished to converse with as long as possible today.
“Not really? Probably no one would notice unless they were really observant.”
“Wow. I was that clumsy.”
Kim Eun-ha poked my cheek repeatedly with a sleepy look in her eyes. It was troublesome since she wouldn’t stop her finger even when I told her it was dangerous because I was driving.
– You have arrived at your destination. The navigation has ended.
While I was unilaterally being poked, we arrived at the parking lot. I heard we had to park the car and walk inside.
Thanks to that, we got out of the car and walked together under the night sky, now darkened, greeted by the gentle light of the street lamps.
“It really is different in a rich neighborhood.”
“The fences and walls are incredibly high. Each one could be called a ‘castle’ without exaggeration. And they even pay attention to the landscaping around…”
“Hmm. Now that you mention it, it does seem that way.”
A neighborhood famous for being inhabited by wealthy families for generations. Hence, it’s known for housing what’s commonly referred to as ‘foundational chaebols’.
…Wait. Foundational chaebols?
A sudden, ominous premonition crossed my mind.
“Today’s dinner isn’t at your family home, and when we open the door, the chairman and relatives are gathered around the dining table for a family meeting, right? Haha… Ha?”
“Um, right? Eun-ha ssi?”
Kim Eun-ha suddenly started looking at a distant mountain. Cold sweat, which hadn’t appeared even during the script reading, started running down my back.