Their friend, Kang Woojin, was on the giant screen.
What kind of absurd situation was this?
Sometimes, when a person was too shocked, both thought and movement stopped cold.
That was exactly what happened to the three of them as they watched The Private Investigator.
First, Kim Daeyoung.
'No way, Kang Woojin?! What are you doing up there?! Why are you actually in that movie?! What the hell is this?!'
Lee Kyungseong dropped the popcorn in his hand.
'No way! Am I seeing things? He looks completely normal! Kang Woojin? Is that really Kang Woojin?!'
Na Hyunggu sat there with his mouth hanging open and his eyes bulging.
'Is this a dream?! There's no way this is a dream! So, Woojin, what the hell are you doing in there??'
The three of them did not move an inch.
Inside, though, they were in total chaos.
They were practically on the verge of losing their minds.
If no one had been around, it would not have been strange at all if they had started slapping each other across the face.
That was how shocking it was.
Seeing Kang Woojin's face on the screen.
'Wow, I really must be losing it!!'
'Hey, Kang Woojin, answer me! You punk!! What are you doing in there?!'
'Ah, right. Maybe they just look alike? Yeah, someone who looks like him. Right. Or... wait, does he really just look that much like him?'
For all three of them, it was a devastating mental blow.
At that moment, Kang Woojin, watching the backs of his friends from behind, nearly burst out laughing.
"Pfft!"
He held it in with everything he had.
He had never planned for this to happen, but now that he was seeing them like this, it was hard not to laugh.
The reason was simple.
At that moment, the three of them looked exactly like this:
'Are those meerkats? Ah, I'm dying.'
They looked exactly like seated meerkats.
Their necks stretched toward the screen, then they kept turning to glance sideways at each other's faces.
There was no way Woojin could hold back forever.
To him, it was a hilarious sight.
'I had no idea watching them from behind would be this funny.'
Of the three people staring up at the screen, Na Hyunggu slowly lowered his head and whispered to Lee Kyungseong beside him.
"...Hey. Slap me across the face once."
Still clutching the popcorn tub, Lee Kyungseong furrowed his brows and whispered back.
"Shh. Keep it down. Now's not the time."
"That's Kang Woojin, right?"
"Doesn't it look that way? If that's not Kang Woojin, then who is it?"
"It is, right? Right?"
Kim Daeyoung, who had gone blank for a moment, finally forced his mouth open.
"Wait, guys. Let's calm down first."
"Calm down? My eyeballs feel like they're about to pop out."
The three of them fixed their eyes on the screen again.
Kang Woojin was still there, passionately acting as Kim Ryujin.
Yes.
It was definitely Kang Woojin.
At first, they had refused to believe it.
Now, they had accepted that the character on the screen was Kang Woojin.
No—
They had accepted it, but their minds still could not process it.
They were rejecting reality itself.
If a friend you had seen naked at the bathhouse suddenly appeared on a movie screen, anyone would react the same way.
Soon, Kim Daeyoung rubbed his eyes with both hands.
The other two reacted in their own ways, still unable to believe what they were seeing.
From that point on, the three of them finally began properly watching the short film The Private Investigator, the one Kang Woojin had appeared in.
Yes, he was in the movie.
But why stop there?
Kim Daeyoung, the one among them who knew the most about acting, soon realized something.
'...Wait, he's even the lead??'
Kang Woojin was not just a supporting actor.
He was the protagonist.
He remained on screen for more than five minutes after The Private Investigator began.
Since this was a short film, not some giant commercial movie, that meant the Kang Woojin who appeared from the start was obviously the male lead.
At that point—
"...Hey, hey."
Na Hyunggu, seated on the far end, whispered to his friends.
"Let's just go outside now, then call Kang Woojin after we leave."
He looked too shocked to focus anymore.
But Kim Daeyoung and Lee Kyungseong, both stiff-faced, shook their heads.
"No. Let's finish watching first, then talk."
"I agree."
In the end, Na Hyunggu, the one who had suggested leaving, followed their lead and turned back to the screen.
At that moment, Kang Woojin—or rather, Kim Ryujin—was sitting inside a car.
♬♪
Trot music filled the theater.
Kim Ryujin casually lowered the volume, making the dialogue easier to hear.
"Can you kill those bastards? How much does it cost to kill someone?"
Kim Ryujin replied indifferently to the enraged client.
"Five hundred million won per person."
"That's expensive."
"I'm kidding, idiot. I don't do that kind of thing."
"No discounts? Like telecom or credit card discounts?"
"Hey, are you even listening? Do I look like someone flipping pizzas or burgers?"
Even though The Private Investigator was only a short film, the quality was excellent.
The sound, in particular, felt incredibly realistic.
Breathing.
Objects clashing.
Dialogue.
Effects.
Anyone could tell how much effort the production staff had poured into the sound design.
'I really think I'm losing my mind.'
Out of the three, Kim Daeyoung, who understood acting the best, became even more stunned the deeper he got into the film.
'It's already insane that that bastard Kang Woojin is in there, but why is his acting this crazy too?? Why is he this good??'
Kang Woojin's performance as Kim Ryujin was astonishing.
Calling it natural was not enough.
On the screen, Kang Woojin simply was Kim Ryujin.
His acting was that vivid.
But why?
How could Kang Woojin do this?
At that moment, memories from the past surfaced in Kim Daeyoung's mind.
Everything went back to the day they had gone together to audition for Super Actor.
'Right. Now that I think about it, that day was weird too.'
After the audition, Woojin had acted strangely awkward.
He had even shown interest in scripts, something he had never done before.
He had always been the type with zero interest in that kind of thing.
'Ah, right! I was the one who gave him the script for The Private Investigator_!'_
The script for The Private Investigator had gone to Kang Woojin through Kim Daeyoung.
After that, Woojin had suddenly started asking questions about short films.
Then he kept making excuses, saying he was too busy to meet.
Staring at the screen, Kim Daeyoung slowly began fitting the pieces together.
'So what does that mean? He glanced at a script, auditioned, and landed the lead? And all those times he said he was busy, he was actually filming?'
Everything fit.
Perfectly.
And yet, Kim Daeyoung still shook his head.
He could not understand it.
How could someone who had spent his whole life doing design suddenly start acting overnight?
But no matter how much he denied it, reality did not change.
Kang Woojin was still on the screen, acting as Kim Ryujin.
Of course, Kang Woojin was not just on the screen.
He was in the audience too.
"At first they were sitting there with their mouths hanging open like goldfish, and now they're totally immersed. This is kind of embarrassing."
Kang Woojin, his face hidden by a cap and mask, let out a small laugh.
It felt like he was watching a hidden-camera prank.
Then he alternated between glancing at the screen and the backs of the three men, scratching his chin.
'Ah, they found out sooner than I expected.'
He had originally planned to tell his friends around the time Profiler Hanryang started airing.
Instead, the three of them had suddenly shown up here.
Kim Daeyoung must have dragged them along.
'Hm. Guess I'll have to tell them today.'
At last, the time had come.
The time to explain things to his friends.
'What am I even supposed to say? That I just happened to start acting? Am I insane? I wouldn't believe that either.'
For now, though, Woojin pushed those thoughts aside and looked straight at the screen.
The giant screen was overwhelming.
Its sheer power was on a completely different level from the preview he had seen in the sound studio.
'Ah, this is a little embarrassing. My face looks huge.'
Right then—
"Not bad, right?"
"Yeah. It's fun."
The whispering from the couple beside him reached his ears.
And then, though he had not noticed it at first, the roughly five hundred audience members who had entered with low expectations began sitting up straighter one by one.
Because The Private Investigator was much better than they had expected.
Maybe the fact that it was a short film, combined with the fact that they had walked in with no expectations at all, had actually worked in its favor.
The movie was loud, so it was hard to hear everything clearly, but still—
"It's fun, right?"
"Yeah. For a short film, the quality is really high. Especially the sound."
Whispers started spreading through the crowd.
"This is actually worth watching, isn't it? It doesn't feel like a short film."
"By the way, is the male lead a rookie actor? He's really good."
Little by little, the audience was being drawn into The Private Investigator.
Like clothes slowly soaking through in a drizzle.
Then—
'What??!!'
Kim Daeyoung, one of the three, was startled by someone suddenly appearing on the screen.
As if the shock were contagious, all three widened their eyes at the exact same time.
'Holy—damn!!!'
"Are you kidding me?! Kang Woojin, you bastard!!"
Top actress Hong Hyeyeon had suddenly appeared on the screen.
It was the part where protagonist Kim Ryujin began tailing the client's wife.
In other words, it was Hong Hyeyeon's first appearance as the wife.
Since this was the very first day The Private Investigator was being shown at the Mise-en-scène Film Festival, that moment hit not only the three friends, but all five hundred audience members with full force.
"What, what? Isn't that Hong Hyeyeon?"
"Hong Hyeyeon was in this film?"
"Wow, Hong Hyeyeon. She looks incredible."
The audience's attention shot up instantly.
Meanwhile, at GGO Entertainment in Nonhyeon-dong—
CEO Seo Guseop, who looked like a bulldog, sat on the large five-seat sofa in his office with a stern expression, looking down at a tablet.
Naturally, what he was checking was information related to the Mise-en-scène Film Festival.
The manager seated beside him was also looking at a tablet as he gave his report.
"An hour ago, screenings at the Mise-en-scène Film Festival started at ten o'clock, and starting today, Director Park Junghyuk's Mentor begins its screening rotation."
Slowly nodding, CEO Seo Guseop asked,
"Park Junghyuk's film is only screening for two days, right? No issues?"
"Yes, sir. According to the team on site, there are no problems."
"The Mise-en-scène Film Festival seems to be getting more popular. Was attendance high?"
"Yes. Compared to last year, it's definitely grown several times over. Reporters are showing more interest than usual, and there are a lot of BJs and YouTubers too."
"That's good, then."
With a satisfied smile, CEO Seo Guseop set the tablet down.
Then he paused, frowned, and changed the subject.
"Did you check Shin Dongchun's film?"
Seo Guseop had sent people not only to monitor Mentor, the film being used to restore Park Junghyuk's image, but also Shin Dongchun's The Private Investigator.
The manager replied immediately.
"Yes. The screening venue is CCV COEX, and just like Mentor_, it premiered there today for the first time."_
"Who's the male lead in The Private Investigator_?"_
"An unknown actor. Looks like a complete nobody."
Seo Guseop snorted.
"What? Ah, for god's sake. Not even a B-list actor, just some total rookie nobody? Is Shin Dongchun out of his mind? He insults me and Junghyuk, then casts some nobody? He's completely insane."
"But… that unknown actor's performance isn't bad."
"So what? Whether he flies or crawls, a nobody is still a nobody. Anyway, as long as Junghyuk's acting isn't a complete disaster, the award is practically guaranteed."
A moment later, Seo Guseop picked up the pack of cigarettes on the table and continued.
"From now on, stop paying attention to that pathetic little film. Stick to the plan and keep pushing our narrative and spreading rumors. Especially make sure the names 'Mise-en-scène Film Festival' and 'Park Junghyuk' are always mentioned together, and keep feeding stories to the reporters we know."
"Understood."
"And watch out for side controversies. Junghyuk needs to absorb all the spotlight. If controversy gets bigger, keep it going all the way to the awards ceremony. What does it matter? If nobody cares about anything else, then the reporters will have no choice but to keep focusing on Junghyuk."
The moment the order was given, the employee bowed his head.
Knock knock!
Then the office door suddenly opened, and another employee rushed in.
Seeing him, CEO Seo Guseop raised an eyebrow.
"What is it, Manager Park?"
Manager Park caught his breath, then got straight to the point.
"CEO, um… we just got a call from The Private Investigator production staff."
"Forget that pathetic film and focus on advancing our side of the story."
"I don't think this is something we can ignore."
"What?"
Seo Guseop asked coldly, and Manager Park hesitated before answering.
"Hong Hyeyeon appears in The Private Investigator_."_
Silence fell.
Seo Guseop stared at him for a full five seconds, then shot to his feet.
"What did you say?! Hong Hyeyeon? Hong Hyeyeon is in The Private Investigator_?!"_
"...Yes."
"No, that's impossible! What kind of nonsense is that? Isn't Hong Hyeyeon joining Song PD's drama?! And she's in The Private Investigator too?!"
"She only appears in a major supporting role."
"....."
For a moment, Seo Guseop felt a headache coming on.
Hong Hyeyeon had appeared?
If that was true, then everything they had prepared to restore Park Junghyuk's image would go up in smoke.
And not just anyone—
It was Hong Hyeyeon.
One of the top actresses in Korea.
There was no way they could compete with her in terms of headlines.
Grinding his teeth, Seo Guseop hurled the cigarette pack to the floor.
Then one person came to mind.
"...That bastard Choi Sunggeon was the investor."
Meanwhile, around lunchtime that same day—
While the Mise-en-scène Film Festival was in full swing, the Profiler Hanryang team uploaded a video.
It went up on YouTube, other video platforms, and the official website.
-[15-Second Official First Teaser] He may be lazy and eccentric, but he's a genius! First broadcast Friday, May 15! Profiler Hanryang
-[SBC]/ENG SUB
-May 2, 2020
It was the official first teaser.
Unlike the teasers released before, this one included actual scenes from the drama.
Unfortunately, it was only fifteen seconds long.
But it still packed in every key element.
The narration was done by Ryu Jungmin.
Beginning with his deep voice, the teaser jumped rapidly through multiple scenes, flashing one character after another.
Yoo Jihyung crouching at a murder scene.
Jung Yeonhee chasing after someone.
The tense lead and supporting actors.
A massive vehicle explosion.
Near the end, the cuts sped up even more, and the background music accelerated with them.
Finally, the teaser cut to black, and Ryu Jungmin's narration echoed faintly.
["Everything—"]
At the same time, the smile of a man whose face was hidden above the nose filled the screen.
["—began with this twisted smile."]
It was a chilling smile.
Regular viewers would not know it.
But the actors of Profiler Hanryang recognized it immediately.
Because it belonged to Assistant Manager Park.
The moment the teaser was uploaded, the first comment appeared.
-This looks amazing… who's the actor smiling at the end? It was only a second, but he left such a strong impression…
At a university cafeteria, four female students sat around a table.
Among them, one girl who had just watched the teaser was almost vibrating with excitement.
She immediately shoved the teaser at the friends beside her.
"Look at this! The teaser quality is insane! Wow, who's the actor smiling at the end?? That was seriously creepy!"
It was none other than Kang Woojin's younger sister, Kang Hyuna.
"Ah! I'm so excited for this!"
Meanwhile, at a park about ten minutes away from COEX—
After passing through the busy streets and turning into an alley, there was an ordinary little park.
Cut.
Kang Woojin had just arrived.
He was still wearing the same black denim jacket and cap, but he had taken off the mask.
His expression looked gloomy.
He had come straight here after watching The Private Investigator.
Anyway, Woojin scanned the park beyond the flowerbeds.
"There they are."
He spotted three familiar faces sitting on a bench.
They were the same friends who had seen Kang Woojin on the screen just a little while earlier.
As soon as The Private Investigator ended, Kim Daeyoung had called him.
And since Woojin had no intention of dragging this out, he had agreed to meet right away.
Soon—
Cut.
Lightly scratching his chin, Kang Woojin started walking toward the entrance to the park.
Right then—
"Hey!! You crazy bastard, Kang Woojin!"
"You damn punk!!!"
"Shit! Grab him, grab him!!"
All three of his waiting friends spotted him at once.
Thud!
They charged him like three crazed bulls.
At that speed, if they hit him, it felt like at least one arm was going to break.
And for some reason—
Kang Woojin turned and started running too.
"Ah, damn it!"
He was running away.
TL Note:
Chungmuro is often called the "Hollywood of Korea," a historic filmmaking district in Seoul. A "Chungmuro blue chip actor" refers to a rising actor considered a reliable future star in the Korean film industry.