Episode 163: Should I Like It? Should I Not? (1)
To be honest… the moment when he wasn’t curious about the content of the call between Zia and Woo Hye-yeon lasted only a brief second.
Sitting face to face with Zia and eating bibimbap loaded with all kinds of greens and a generous amount of gochujang, he couldn’t help but feel curious.
Of course, he didn’t ask.
If asking would have made Zia answer honestly, she wouldn’t have stepped away to make the call in the first place. Above all, he had a much more reliable method.
“I’ll tell you clearly.”
Zia’s voice rang in his ears as he waited for Su-hyeok.
Of course, it wasn’t Zia speaking directly right now.
This was the recording of the call Zia had made with his phone yesterday.
‘Who would have thought the day would come when I feel grateful to that trash reporter.’
After the trouble with a certain reporter who had fed him a big one under the pretense of an interview, he had developed the habit of recording all his calls.
It was a habit from before his regression, so the current Zia wouldn’t have it in mind.
Thanks to that, he was able to hear everything Zia had said to Woo Hye-yeon yesterday.
“I only have one family member, and that’s Yujin.”
It was a situation where he couldn’t complain even if someone called him creepy, but it was also the moment when an irrepressible smile bloomed on his face no matter how many times he listened.
“Ah, yes…”
Of course, for the other party in this conversation, Woo Hye-yeon, it must have been a bolt from the blue that felt like coughing up blood.
But they say you have to listen to Korean until the very end.
“But… I don’t know how things might change as time passes in the future.”
“…!”
Just from that small sound of someone catching their breath, he could vividly picture how happy Woo Hye-yeon must have been.
“Yujin is a very busy person. So if you have anything to say to me, please contact me directly. I’ll give you my number.”
At this part, a laugh of a different meaning escaped.
‘If we’re talking about being busy, that side is probably much busier.’
The other party was someone who would be counted among the top few in the country when it came to how valuable their time was.
Of course, Zia wasn’t unaware of that.
She was simply placing a higher priority on his side.
However,
“Oh, yes. Okay. I’ll write it down now. Can you tell me?”
It seemed that even that was a sufficiently satisfying result from Woo Hye-yeon’s perspective.
She might have already expected this much.
‘She found out my number, so there’s no way she couldn’t find Zia’s.’
Seeing her willingly write down a number she didn’t really need to…
Well, anyway, from here on it was a matter for the two of them to resolve.
If Woo Hye-yeon understood Zia’s personality well and maintained an appropriate distance while continuing the relationship, then as Zia said, it was unknown how things would turn out.
He could offer occasional help, but in the end, his role in this relationship was only that much.
So he let out a small chuckle and pulled the playback bar back to the left again.
“I’ll tell you clearly. I only have one family member, and that’s Yujin.”
There was no better laugh track.
He almost wanted to cut out just this part and use it as his ringtone,
‘But if I get caught, my back won’t survive.’
His back would definitely get beaten, and this recording file would definitely get deleted too.
After replaying that part several more times with those thoughts, a familiar car stopped in front of him.
“Hyung, why did you come out so early?”
“Just… because.”
“Get in quickly. It must be cold.”
He had come out early because he couldn’t listen to this at home where Zia was.
No matter how close he was with Su-hyeok, it felt a bit much to openly share something like this.
“Did you see Grandma off safely?”
“Yes.”
“What did she come for? Was it something bad?”
“Ah… it wasn’t anything bad… Actually, there’s something I need to tell you about that…”
“Huh?”
When he tilted his head at Su-hyeok’s slightly different attitude than usual, a ringtone cut off his words.
[PD Ryu Je-hyuk]
“Wait a second, Su-hyeok. Ryu PD is calling.”
“Ah, yes.”
Su-hyeok’s timid voice was strangely bothering him, but for now this call took priority.
The fact that Ryu Je-hyuk PD was calling him directly this early in the morning, instead of going through Su-hyeok, suggested there might be a serious issue.
“Yes. I’m on the line.”
“Ah, Producer Han. Is it okay to talk for a moment?”
“Yes. It’s fine. Please speak.”
“Then I’ll move to a different spot. Just a second.”
Ryu Je-hyuk PD’s voice coming through the receiver was full of caution.
The possibility of some kind of issue rose a little higher.
While small noises replaced Ryu Je-hyuk PD’s voice, he began guessing at the possibilities.
‘What is it? Was there something that was supposed to blow up around this time in Project Trinity?’
A controversy about Project Trinity?
He had no memory of that.
Rather, it was the program that had refreshed Music On Net’s image, which had been damaged by the vote-rigging scandal from the previous audition program.
‘If anything changed, it would be at the participant level…’
If it was a problem with an individual participant, there was no reason for them to contact him to solve it, right?
At the very least, there was no one in Team Y who would cause trouble for that reason.
Nari was from MyWay, Chaekyung, So Young-I, and Kim Su-jin had been thoroughly vetted by him and Starlight before his regression.
Jin Ro-a?
What kind of controversy could there be for a kid who grew up in a place full of tea fields?
“Aigoo. Sorry. It took a while to find a place without people around.”
Just as he was about to consider other possibilities, the voice that would finally give him the answer finally came through the receiver.
And then,
“Well… I received a call yesterday… Producer Han… um… are you okay?”
“Ah.”
Only after hearing that did he realize what the spark that had fallen on Ryu Je-hyuk’s foot was.
‘It was about me.’
The issue that had appeared before Ryu Je-hyuk was about him.
At the current point, there was no denying that Team Y was leading the success of Project Trinity.
Out of the total six scheduled stages, they had completed four and won three, making Team Y’s eventual victory practically confirmed.
Team Y, which had taken on two D-rank trainees, and the producer leading them — an underdog with little experience — was crushing formidable competitors. Right now, Project Trinity was being accompanied by phrases like “D-rank Rebellion” and “Underdog Craze.”
‘Honestly, they’re not even D-rank or underdogs.’
In that regard, he had no choice but to praise Ryu Je-hyuk PD’s skill.
By avoiding simple methods like devilish editing and distributing screen time appropriately while subtly giving Team Y a bit more focus, Ryu Je-hyuk PD had taken the difficult path of cleverly bringing out the protagonist feel. His decision was shining brightly.
Considering that there were more than a few people who couldn’t even properly receive what was fed to them and ended up ruining the picture, he couldn’t help but clap.
‘However…’
For the picture Ryu Je-hyuk was drawing not to end in an anticlimax, Team Y’s overwhelming form had to continue.
The fox (Isabella), raccoon (M2K), and weasel (Kim Gun), who would have originally engaged in a dogfight with Heo Yul-bok, biting each other’s tails, had fallen too far behind to create the three-way battle Ryu Je-hyuk had initially envisioned.
As if to prove they had completely given up on the championship rather than burning with competitive spirit, in the previous fourth episode they had brought an extreme stage that poured all the focus onto one center, clearly revealing their intention to at least take care of individual member fans.
Of course, that center was the S-rank trainees from the agencies they had divided among themselves.
They must have held hands quietly behind the scenes.
Team H led by Heo Yul-bok had stopped at the level of a runner-up that merely kept Team Y in check.
‘In this situation, if my mentality explodes and I collapse?’
From Ryu Je-hyuk’s perspective, there would be no bigger issue than that.
He should probably be thankful that they had waited until this morning.
It would have been perfectly understandable even if they had clung to him since yesterday evening.
There was only one thing to say in this situation.
“I’m sorry, PD-nim. My condition wasn’t good yesterday and I ended up worrying you as well.”
“Aigoo. Well. That can happen. You’re only human too, Producer Han. If your condition ‘wasn’t’ good… Well, you didn’t get much rest during the holiday either, right? If your condition is really not good, taking today off…”
He understood Ryu Je-hyuk’s feelings.
He would want to eliminate any risk factors even if it meant pausing filming for a day.
But the complicated and troubling issue that had filled his head yesterday had been resolved when Zia tied the knot herself.
In that case, there was no need to make those practice monsters anxious for no reason.
“No. I’m fine. I’m really okay now.”
“Are you really okay?”
“Yes. I’m truly fine. I feel sorry for worrying you so much.”
“Alright, Producer Han. Then I’ll trust you. Still, if the situation changes at all, immediately… You know what I mean, right?”
It seemed the viewership ratings were indeed frightening.
‘Seeing him act so subservient to a producer who is much younger than him…’
To draw out this level of low posture, the other party would probably need to be at least an advertiser.
Ah, maybe that part played a role too?
‘Well, the biggest advertiser is my fan and on my side.’
Should he like the unexpected background that had appeared, or… No, of course he should like it.
If one had the ability, money would come out of the pocket anyway, but such a background was the factor that determined the thickness of that pocket.
There was absolutely nothing bad about having it.
Anyway, after confirming that Ryu Je-hyuk’s issue wasn’t that big, he gave an appropriate response to his words and ended the call.
‘Should I consider it fortunate that the company hasn’t heard about it?’
Even Ryu Je-hyuk was like this. When he imagined the ripple effect if rumors spread at MyWay that his mentality had collapsed, goosebumps rose for no reason.
“Um… Hyung…”
While he was shivering slightly, Su-hyeok’s voice came.
“Ah, you said you had something to tell me? It was about Grandma, right?”
If it wasn’t about quitting, he could give as much counseling as needed.
“Yes. It’s not that, but… Grandma said she’s going to make a ‘comeback’ this time…”
“Comeback? Ah, now that I think about it, you said she came yesterday to meet her disciple? Is she going to stand on some podium?”
“Well… Grandma has often been called teacher… but it’s not a podium…”
Come to think of it, he had never met Su-hyeok’s grandmother.
‘Even at Su-hyeok’s wedding, only his parents greeted people. I don’t think I saw Grandma.’
At that time his mentality had been shattered, so even if she had come, the chance he remembered her was very low.
Well, anyway.
“As long as there’s no big problem with Grandma’s health, it should be fine, right?”
“She’s incredibly energetic for her age…”
In this day and age, what does age really matter that much?
As long as she wasn’t overdoing it, there didn’t seem to be any particular reason to oppose it, whether mentally or otherwise.
“It’s just that…”
Just then the car stopped at a red light, and Su-hyeok immediately took out his phone.
He tapped the screen a few times and held it out to him as he spoke.
“This is my grandmother…”
What Su-hyeok showed him was an article.
And as his eyes scanned down the article,
“Huh?”
They couldn’t help but widen.
[Cho Soon-deok Announces On-Site Comeback! “A friend I want to work with has appeared” — Which actor has captured the eyes of the great senior?]
It was a name he couldn’t possibly not know.
No matter how different the field, she was a great senior who had clearly engraved her name in the history of this country’s entertainment industry.
“Really… Grandma is this person…?”
“Yes…”
OMG.
It really was a huge matter.
Since he had never heard of it even before his regression, the issue was even more surprising.
‘Certainly, something like this would make Su-hyeok uncomfortable…’
Their circles probably wouldn’t overlap, so it might not matter much, but just the fact that a highly respected person in the same industry was family would inevitably become a heavy burden.
But Su-hyeok’s worries didn’t end there.
“That’s the problem, Hyung…”
“Huh? There’s more?”
“Ha…”
Su-hyeok let out a sigh but skillfully started the car again as the light changed, and with difficulty brought up the real main point.
“Grandma… wants to make her comeback with BNW…”
“…”
At that moment, one chilling imagination flashed through his head like an arrow.
“…No way?”
“…It’s probably exactly what you’re imagining, Hyung.”
It was a question and answer without a subject, but there was no problem for them to understand each other.
And Su-hyeok’s explanation that drove the nail in continued.
“I… watched 1 Hit Lover with Grandma… At that time, to Noona…”
As he listened to those words, his hand unconsciously fiddled with his phone.
…Should he just contact Ryu Je-hyuk and say he’ll take today off…?
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