How much time had passed?
Kang Woojin, who had been immersed in Lee Sangman's world, suddenly returned to the minivan.
Everything around him was exactly the same as before.
The endless traffic jam.
Jang Suhwan in the driver's seat.
Choi Sunggeon talking to someone on the phone.
Han Yejung checking her planner.
None of them had the slightest idea where Woojin had just been.
Nothing had changed.
But Kang Woojin had personally lived through Lee Sangman's life and retained every memory of it.
The world around him was unchanged, yet the new persona carved into him had become even more vivid.
And that life had been anything but ordinary.
So Kang Woojin—
"…"
—stared blankly into space for a moment.
It was hard to tell exactly what he was looking at, but one thing was obvious.
He was focused on something.
He was trying to shake off the aftereffects of Lee Sangman, a life he had just experienced firsthand.
'It's fine. It doesn't feel good, but it's manageable.'
He needed to be able to use Lee Sangman freely, as just another character from the script.
To do that, he had to keep focusing on Kang Woojin, his true self.
'I'm the master of every role I take on, and you're nothing more than my tools.'
Kang Woojin looked extremely serious right now, but he was not acting.
In any case, his earlier experiences as Kim Ryujin and Assistant Manager Park had helped.
Those roles had already forced him to go through all kinds of awful things in advance.
Kang Woojin's mental strength was already solid.
The punishment of the void space was harsh, but bearable.
At least, that was how Woojin felt.
It was not light, but it was not unbearably heavy either.
As always, it just felt unpleasant.
Nothing more.
Still—
Ugh—
He could not suppress the nausea rising in his stomach.
He felt like he might throw up.
Lee Sangman in the script may have felt pleasure, but to Woojin, it felt as if he had been dragged through a swamp.
It was the kind of thing he never wanted to experience again.
He sincerely hoped it would remain only acting.
'I should drink some water.'
Even the taste of water felt strange.
Maybe it was because the damp, sticky sensation still lingered.
But when he read it repeatedly—when he experienced it repeatedly—that sensation gradually faded.
He would have to get used to it.
Then Kang Woojin—
Whoosh.
—lowered his gaze and looked at the script in his hand.
Title: Drug Dealer.
More precisely, he was trying to understand the emotions of Lee Sangman, the character he had just lived through.
Setting aside everything the void space had engraved into him, Woojin evaluated Lee Sangman through his own honest perspective.
This process resembled the script analysis method Woojin had already mastered.
The contents of the script.
The life of Lee Sangman he had experienced in the void space.
And Woojin's own analysis.
When those three came together, his acting reached a level no ordinary method could ever match.
The results had already begun to reveal themselves to the world.
Assistant Manager Park in Episodes 3 and 4 of Profiler Hanryang.
And not only that—
'Once I go through this process, acting becomes several times more fun.'
After finishing that process and fully immersing himself, the pure enjoyment of acting multiplied.
It was as if the afterimage of the character carved into him became even clearer.
In his own way, Kang Woojin was maximizing the value of the void space and continuing to grow.
That growth showed in the vividness of his acting.
Right then—
"By the way, Woojin."
Choi Sunggeon, sitting in the passenger seat, called out to him.
"You know Kim Daeyoung, right? We're currently discussing bringing him in around mid-June next month."
At the mention of his close friend's name, Kang Woojin snapped back to reality.
"Yes."
"Normally, managers need training first. And you're still new yourself, so it'd be awkward to pair him with you right away. We're not short on staff at the moment."
"So I'm thinking of putting him with Hyeyeon first."
Really?
That caught Woojin off guard.
"Yes. But if you want, I can assign him directly to you instead."
Absolutely not.
Besides, if it were Kim Daeyoung, he would do anything to end up next to Hong Hyeyeon.
"No. I think your idea is better."
"Right? For the time being, he'll work with Hyeyeon—whether that means management or security—and train there. He'll only be able to help you when I'm unavailable."
At the moment, Choi Sunggeon was Kang Woojin's main manager.
But he was also the CEO of BW Entertainment.
There were times when he had to step away for other work, and in those cases, trainee Kim Daeyoung would temporarily fill in.
Woojin answered with a solemn face.
"Understood, CEO."
But inwardly, he sneered.
'Kim Daeyoung, that bastard. He finally got his lifelong wish. I wonder if he'll even be able to do his job properly in front of Hong Hyeyeon.'
Just then, Choi Sunggeon's phone rang.
♬♪
He quickly put it to his ear and had a short conversation.
After the call ended—
"…Ah, what am I supposed to do, Woojin?"
Choi Sunggeon looked over at Kang Woojin again.
For some reason, his expression was strange.
Something weird again?
"What do you mean?"
"I just spoke with the Netflix production team, and they said Hwarin is taking the female lead in Boyfriend."
Huh?
Hwarin?
That was unexpected.
Woojin was genuinely surprised inside.
It made no sense.
'Does she not know I'm the male lead? No way… there's no way.'
Hwarin had clearly acted cold and indifferent toward Woojin at the Netflix meeting.
After hesitating for a moment, Kang Woojin asked again,
"She knows I'd be her co-star, right?"
Choi Sunggeon immediately shook his head.
"They said they made it clear from the start of the meeting with Hwarin that you'd be the other lead."
"…"
Then why had Hwarin acted like that?
He had never expected her to show up at that meeting in the first place.
Of course, it was good news.
Still, it was strange.
Even Jang Suhwan and Han Yejung chimed in.
"I'm a Hwarin fan! This is so unusual! I've never seen Hwarin appear in a short series before!"
"Could it be because of Hyeyeon's influence? Hwarin and Hyeyeon are close, after all."
It was a reasonable guess.
But Choi Sunggeon still tilted his head.
"Hmm, there could be some influence. But when you're at Hwarin's level, public and private life are usually clearly separated. Work is work."
"Hyeyeon may have given her advice, but I don't think Hwarin would choose a role based on advice alone."
"Ah, I see."
Through all of it, Kang Woojin kept his expression steady.
'Ah, Hwarin. She's pretty, but her personality seems a little weird.'
He grumbled inwardly.
'She kind of looked down on me.'
Then suddenly—
Ah.
Something flashed through Kang Woojin's mind.
-[6/Script (Title: Boyfriend), A-Grade]
The grade of Boyfriend had risen from B to A.
'So it went up to A because of Hwarin. But can a project's grade really jump that much just because Hwarin joined? Hmm… or is there another reason?'
Either way, Kang Woojin felt slightly disappointed.
His first impression of Hwarin had not been very good.
'Ugh, whatever. I'll just do my best and act.'
Still, he could not turn down the better project.
Woojin wondered whether this was simply part of an actor's life.
Even if he disliked his co-star, did he still have to give the role everything he had?
Around then, Choi Sunggeon, in the passenger seat, was thinking to himself—
'What kind of huge thing is going to happen this time?'
He glanced sideways at Kang Woojin, whose face remained expressionless.
Whenever Woojin joined a project, something bizarre always happened.
It had been like that with The Private Investigator.
It had been like that with Profiler Hanryang.
And now it was happening again with Boyfriend.
Deep anticipation filled his eyes.
'Heh. What kind of ridiculous thing is going to happen this time?'
Later—
While Kang Woojin rode in the van, the internet had been blazing since morning.
There were all kinds of hot topics, but the biggest one was Profiler Hanryang.
Because Episode 6 had aired the day before.
On top of that, after hovering above 25%, the ratings had dropped sharply to 21.7% in Episode 5.
Both the press and the public were watching Episode 6's ratings closely.
And the rating announced that morning was—
22.3%.
Fortunately, it had recovered slightly.
But it was still below 25%.
The media had no intention of letting that slide.
They immediately started tearing into it.
And with that came louder and louder calls for Kang Woojin—Assistant Manager Park—to return.
Even though the show was still pulling an incredible 20% rating, the media mercilessly ripped into every small issue.
Because negative headlines always sold better than positive ones.
Regardless of the tone, interest in Profiler Hanryang only kept growing.
Riding that momentum, the teaser for the Sports Day episode featuring the Profiler Hanryang team, released on Saturday afternoon, drew even more attention.
The video had already passed 2.3 million views.
And the number was still climbing rapidly.
Late that afternoon—
@wooji_n
Posts: 18
Followers: 196,000
Following: 3
Kang Woojin's social media following exploded.
In just two weeks, he had nearly reached 200,000 followers.
And the speed of growth was still accelerating by the day.
Meanwhile, at that very moment, inside Netflix Korea—
"…What? Are you serious?"
The executive director sitting at the far end of the meeting room table widened her eyes in shock.
That was because the creative team leader had just delivered shocking news after returning from an outside meeting.
"So Hwarin really agreed to appear in Boyfriend?"
Rumors had been going around that Hwarin had accepted the female lead in the one-act drama Boyfriend, and Executive Director Kim Sohyang found it hard to believe.
"What? Wasn't Hwarin pretty cold during yesterday's meeting? She asked a lot of questions, but she didn't seem interested at all."
"I couldn't believe it either when I got the call. I confirmed it several times. Hwarin herself said she'd do it."
"…What on earth is going on?"
"We already informed Kang Woojin."
"What did he say?"
"He said it was a good thing."
"Of course. But this feels less like a good sign and more like something absurd."
Netflix was a global platform, but each country's operations were handled entirely by the executive in charge.
So this short drama series project had originally been her decision.
To be honest, Executive Director Kim Sohyang had not had especially high expectations for it.
She had simply wanted to show that Netflix Korea was paying attention to the market and was willing to take risks.
It had been closer to brand positioning than anything else.
'Why is everything suddenly going so smoothly?'
But one unexpected development after another kept happening around this project.
Originally, they had planned to cast unknown actors.
Then rising star Kang Woojin joined.
And now Hwarin too?
It was an absurdly unexpected result.
Netflix Korea had not done anything special.
"All we did was distribute the script widely, and we haven't even started serious casting yet. Did you do anything extra behind the scenes?"
"No, none at all. In fact, after the script went out, the only people who showed interest were Kang Woojin and Hwarin."
"What is this? Things are going so well it actually makes me uneasy."
"If Kang Woojin and Hwarin had some kind of connection, I could understand it. But they don't, right?"
"No. They're from different agencies, and they aren't close."
"Then they're complete strangers—"
Kim Sohyang trailed off and sank into thought.
This was not the time to just sit there in shock.
She had to judge the situation calmly.
Things were going unexpectedly well, but she could not afford to simply watch it happen.
She needed to maximize the opportunity.
Then, as if an idea had just occurred to her, she spoke again.
"Let's set priorities first. Finalize the contracts with Kang Woojin and Hwarin as quickly as possible, and start production on Boyfriend first."
"So Boyfriend will be the first project released?"
"Of course. Put the initial promotional focus on Boyfriend, and when the timing is right, aggressively promote the casting of Kang Woojin and Hwarin. And make sure the production staff is top-tier too."
"Understood."
And then—
Suddenly, Executive Director Kim Sohyang smiled.
"Why don't we expand the scale?"
"Expand? How?"
"Let's think bigger. Don't limit it to Korea. Since Hwarin is participating, isn't there a chance it could do well in Japan too? Elani is popular there."
"Ah."
"Unlike Korean dramas, Japanese dramas tend to be short and intense. Short series might actually be more popular there."
"Right now, more than half of the most popular dramas on Netflix Japan are our content."
"Yes. More than five out of the top ten."
After hearing that, Kim Sohyang made her decision.
"Then let's release it on Netflix Japan too."
Monday, somewhere in Yongsan District.
Early morning, June 1.
May had ended, and June had begun.
May had been a month of meaningful changes for Kang Woojin, and June was expected to bring even bigger ones.
At that moment, Kang Woojin was inside a large building.
It was the headquarters of McDonald, one of the country's three biggest fast-food chains.
Woojin sat near the center of a U-shaped table in a spacious meeting room.
Naturally, Choi Sunggeon was beside him.
The McDonald logo was displayed here and there on the walls.
Although he did not show it, Kang Woojin looked around the meeting room with interest.
'I never thought I'd end up here as a model. Max Burger is seriously good.'
He normally enjoyed eating McDonald burgers.
But now he was sitting there not as a customer, but as an advertising model.
Of course, Kang Woojin could not become the face of the entire McDonald brand.
Fast-food chains had countless product lines, and each one needed a fitting model.
In other words, the work Woojin had been brought in for was just one burger line.
'This is seriously insane.'
In the end, no one could predict what life would bring.
Suddenly—
"….Woojin!"
"Wow… he's really handsome…"
"I'm going to scream…!!"
Outside the meeting room, McDonald employees started buzzing the moment they saw him.
Because the walls were semi-transparent glass, all of their movements were visible.
It was a scene that made it painfully clear just how explosive Kang Woojin's popularity had become.
'Whew. I guess I'll have to sign a few autographs before leaving after the meeting.'
"Understood."
"Hey, I'm going to the restroom for a second. Wait here."
"Okay."
Apparently he wanted to take care of things before the meeting, because Choi Sunggeon hurried out of the room.
About a minute later, the glass door opened again.
Thinking it was Choi Sunggeon, Woojin turned his head.
"Hello, Mr. Woojin."
"Have you been waiting long? Where's CEO Choi?"
A total of around five people entered.
They looked like they were from the McDonald ad and marketing teams.
They were carrying tablets and transparent file folders.
Instinctively, Woojin rose from his seat and greeted them in a lowered voice.
"Hello. The CEO just stepped out to the restroom."
"Ah, I see."
"Shall we talk briefly before CEO Choi returns?"
Soon, Kang Woojin and the McDonald staff sat facing each other.
Then one female employee from McDonald, her long hair tied back, studied Woojin closely from across the table and spoke.
"Mr. Woojin, don't you remember me?"
Who is she?
Woojin replied calmly.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?"
The female employee smiled.
"We were in the same department in college."
For the briefest instant, a faint twitch crossed Kang Woojin's usually expressionless face.