Chapter 165:
Chapter 165
Just go and have a meal.
The night before, Na Woo-shin had a dream of being bitten by a zombie. He still felt uneasy even after lunch the next day.
“Woo-shin, what’s wrong?”
“Huh? Oh, no, nothing.”
Kim Min-jae, who played the protagonist Na Woo-shin, answered with a trembling voice. He kept his eyes on the script and scratched his throat. He rolled his eyes nervously and breathed heavily.
‘Wow, he’s good.’
He immersed himself in the role in an instant. He was indeed a future top star.
‘Come to think of it, Kim Min-jae became famous after this drama.’
Kim Min-jae’s hard work changed the other actors’ attitudes. Ian took a sip of water and swallowed it.
‘I can’t slack off either.’
The actors turned the page of the script. They moved on to the next scene, and it was finally Ian’s turn. The assistant director read the narration, and Ian looked up at his co-star.
“What are you?”
“Huh?”
“What’s that blood smell?”
The co-star avoided Ian’s gaze. It wasn’t intentional. He was involuntarily intimidated by Ian’s intense eyes and cold voice.
‘Good.’
The dry voice and the gloomy atmosphere. It was exactly the image he had in mind when he wrote the script. Lee Joo-hee, the writer, clenched her fist secretly.
Ian glared at his co-star as if he was going to kill him and said his line.
“Did you bite a human?”
“Uh, no…”
“What’s this?”
Ian raised his hand. His fingers twitched and shook. It was an expression of the zombie’s clumsy movement that couldn’t control his body.
‘That look…’
Park Tae-hyun, the director, raised one eyebrow as if he was amused.
“Did you bite a human or not?”
“Well, that…”
“Answer me!”
Ian shouted with a vein popping on his neck.
His pressure silenced everyone in the room.
‘He’s just reading, why is he so serious?’
‘I’m not ready yet.’
‘Where’s my part?’
The two top stars acted as if they were being filmed by a camera, and the atmosphere became more and more tense. The other actors drank water and waited for their turn.
‘I might lose everything to them.’
Just like Ian, who played a supporting role in ‘Hee-bin Jang’s Family’, stole all the attention. Kim Min-jae also swallowed his saliva nervously.
The co-star nodded his head.
“Uh… uh…”
“Damn it.”
The moment they bit a human, and the moment they were caught, the zombies in this area couldn’t save their lives. Ian swept his bangs up.
Anger at the co-star who caused the trouble, despair at being pushed to the edge, and desperation to find a way out of this situation. Various emotions were reflected on his face in a short moment.
The director noticed his facial changes and covered his mouth with one hand. It was to hide the smile on his lips.
‘This is… crazy.’
The director and the writer failed to control their expressions and burst into laughter. The reporters captured the situation with their cameras.
***
“Good job, everyone.”
The reading was over, and people got up from their seats with the sound of chairs being dragged.
“Was I okay, writer?”
“You were perfect. You scratched your throat on purpose, right?”
“Yes.”
While Ian was talking to the writer, the director and Kim Min-jae approached him.
“Take it easy. You’re scary.”
“You were too good, hyung.”
I might get eaten if I do well twice. Kim Min-jae handed his phone to Ian. Ian also gave him his phone and they exchanged numbers.
“You both did very well, didn’t you?”
“I can’t wait to start filming.”
They received compliments from the director and the writer and finished the reading. Ian greeted the other actors and went out to the hallway.
Kim Myung-jin was waiting for him in the hallway.
“Nice picture.”
Kim Myung-jin had brought a camera, and it was to take a picture for Awi’s official blog. He took a photo of Ian while he was doing the reading.
“You look good even if I just snap it.”
“Really?”
“Look at this. The fans will love it, right?”
“Oh.”
Kim Myung-jin and Ian smiled proudly.
“Shall we go now? I want to upload this quickly.”
“Hyung, you go ahead. I’ll go to the bathroom.”
“Okay? Then I’ll hold the elevator for you.”
Kim Myung-jin headed to the opposite direction, and Ian went into the bathroom.
“Where are you going?”
“Just a moment, bathroom. Go first.”
And there was a gaze that followed Ian. Ian noticed that gaze and deliberately went into the bathroom.
The man followed Ian into the bathroom. Ian was washing his hands.
“Hello, Mr. Ian.”
“Hi, hello.”
“I watched your reading very well. You’re very good at acting.”
Ian looked at him through the mirror. Ian recognized the man without Jin’s help, because among the reporters who took pictures and diligently uploaded articles, the man who did nothing stood out.
“Thank you. But who are you?”
“I’m Yang In-joon from FactFix.”
“There’s no paper towel here.”
Yang In-joon reached out his right hand to shake hands. Ian showed him his wet hand and avoided the handshake.
“But, FactFix… You’re not following me anymore, right?”
Ian said with a smile. Of course, it was a joke with a hint of truth. Ian, the popular member of Awi, was always the target of fans and reporters.
Yang In-joon laughed.
“Our company has a bad image, I know.”
He didn’t say he wouldn’t follow him anyway. Ian smirked.
“But, why did you follow me here? Do you have something to say?”
“Oh, did I show too much interest?”
“You’ve been staring at me persistently since earlier.”
Ian moved away from Yang In-joon. His tone, his behavior, and his slightly vile expression. People say you have to experience it to know, but Yang In-joon didn’t appeal to him from the first impression.
“Cheonghwa Group.”
Ian sighed as if he expected it. The members kept saying it was suspicious, and they were right.
“You’ve done a lot of ads, right?”
Yang In-joon thought Ian had a sponsor attached to his back, the Yewenli of China’s Shinwa Media Group. So he tried to lure him gently after giving him a carrot he couldn’t refuse.
“So what?”
Ian crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
All of a sudden, Cheonghwa Group and its affiliates offered a lot of ads, not only for Ian personally, but for the whole group.
At that time, Awi’s popularity was soaring, and he wondered if it was because of the syndrome that spread as ‘Heebin Jang’s wife’.
‘It was weird, though.’
He felt suspicious while happily doing the ads, and he was right.
“Aren’t you curious why Cheonghwa Group suddenly offered you a lot of ads?”
That’s because I and our group are doing well. Ian raised one eyebrow. He knew this was not the answer Yang In-joon wanted.
“…Should I be grateful to them?”
“VIPs are very interested in you, Mr. Ian.”
Yang In-joon found out that Ian had no real sponsors when he dug into his background.
‘Tsk, it would have been easier if he was a loser.’
He tried to poke him through his agency, but BHL Entertainment was one of the rare clean ones in the entertainment industry. The artists were steadily making profits, so the foundation was solid, and they naturally refused to protect their artists.
‘But this is an opportunity.’
But it would be different if he offered him personally. If it was beneficial to Ian, he wouldn’t be able to refuse, or at least, that’s what Yang In-joon thought.
“Idols have a short-lived popularity, so you have to build a solid foundation. Don’t you agree?”
“…”
“You know that the Korean entertainment industry is a different world from your family, right? I mean, your family is powerful, I know. But…”
Yang In-joon brushed off the dust on Ian’s shoulder. Ian felt disgusted by his touch and got goosebumps, but he kept a calm expression.
“Is this the only ad? It will continue, right?”
“…”
“All you have to do, Mr. Ian, is go to the place I arranged for you and have a meal.”
A simple meal would later become a bar, and then a hotel. It was an obvious fact.
“What do you gain from doing this?”
Yang Injun did not answer. He probably thought it was a given that he would accept. But Ian was different.
‘If I were Kim Yongmin, I might have hesitated at this offer.’
He always had trouble wherever he went, and failed by a hair’s breadth in everything he chose. He wished he had a good face at least, so he could get a sponsor. He had thought that way before.
“I don’t expect much from an entertainment reporter, but…”
But now he was different.
“Are you out of work at FactFix? Why don’t you do some errands for your sponsors and introduce me to some celebrities?”
Well, that’s what he was good at, not chasing after celebrities and getting nothing out of it.
“You can have that nice meal for yourself.”
Ian brushed off the dust on his shoulder, just like Yang Injun had done to him.
“Buy some clothes with the money you get from introducing celebrities… And I hope we don’t see each other again.”
Ian left the bathroom after saying that. Yang Injun stared at his own shoulder that Ian had dusted off, and then exhaled in disbelief.
“That brat…”
‘Z-Day’ reveals the first script reading scene… breathtaking performances unfold
[★Scene] This time it’s zombies ‘Z-Day’ Ahwi Ian, exudes a reversal atmosphere
Then, some sketch photos of the scene were posted on Ahwi’s blog.
The photo that drew the most attention was the one of Ian pushing someone away with blood on his neck.
└????He’s crazy
***
Crazy??????????
***
“Huh? Cheonghwa Group hired Eom Ji-hwan as their model?”
“…Wasn’t he under a one-year contract with us?”
It had only been three months since they shot the ad. The agency was busy dealing with the sudden news of model replacement, right before the on-air date.
“What’s the reason?”
“They didn’t tell us anything. They didn’t even mention the penalty fee.”
Even if the advertiser had the upper hand, this was against common sense, wasn’t it? Seo Su-ryeon leaned against the wall with her arms crossed.
“But… they said they want to keep the contract for the duration?”
“What kind of nonsense is that? Let me make a phone call.”
How could they change the model while the contract was still valid? It wasn’t just about the money, but also about the exposure. Since the team was on hiatus, they needed to stay in the media with the ads they had already filmed.
She thought about it again and it still didn’t make sense. Seo Su-ryeon frowned.
“What’s going on all of a sudden?”
***
Ian could confirm the news through an article. He was browsing the news on a portal site during a break from reading the script.
He had a face in mind when he saw the news that someone else was chosen as the model for the advertisement he had auditioned for.
‘Yang Injun, was it his doing? I didn’t think he had that much influence.’
What a dirty trick. Ian snorted.
‘He got another celebrity instead of me.’
And that celebrity was a supporting actor who would be filming with him in ‘Z-Day’. Suddenly, Ian’s phone rang with a text message notification.
(Look, these are the things you should have gotten.)
“Shut up.”
Ian marked that number as spam.
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