As expected, the stack of papers was Director Kyotaro Tanoguchi's completed script.
That meant Kang Woojin now had two masterpiece scripts in his hands.
One from Director Kwon Gitak.
One from Director Kyotaro.
One domestic.
One overseas.
'Wow. That Japanese Director really sent it?'
Woojin's last meeting with Director Kyotaro had been at the agency.
The Director had spoken somewhat vaguely, but in the end, he had asked Woojin to join him on a project in Japan.
'What did he say again? I think he said it was based on a script adapted from a famous Japanese novelist's work.'
That had been weeks ago.
Honestly, Woojin had assumed the whole thing had quietly fizzled out due to lack of follow-up.
The entertainment industry was tangled and complicated enough that he figured the Director might have simply changed his mind after returning to Japan.
But he hadn't.
A real script from a Japanese master had finally arrived.
If word of this ever got out to the Korean press, it would cause an uproar.
But for now, it was still confidential.
Excited, Woojin shifted his gaze away from CEO Choi Sunggeon and looked down at the script.
Naturally, both the title and the Director's name on the cover were written in Japanese.
The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice
Director / Kyotaro Tanoguchi
The moment he checked the title, Woojin muttered inwardly.
'The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice? It sounds profound, but I feel like I've heard it somewhere before.'
The title didn't feel completely unfamiliar.
Was it because it was based on a famous novel?
Woojin wasn't exactly well-read, but he had the strange feeling he'd heard of it before.
'Am I imagining that?'
Right then, Choi Sunggeon lightly tapped Woojin on the shoulder.
"The email said they wanted to meet after you read the script. Which means Director Kyotaro will be coming back to Korea. Just from that, you can tell this project is pretty big."
The Director was coming back to Korea?
"Yes. He could still change his mind later, of course, but for now, that's how it looks. I don't know exactly when he'll arrive."
'Really? Because of me? Seriously?'
Looking at the slightly startled Woojin, Choi Sunggeon smiled.
"I could tell the last time he came to the agency. Director Kyotaro was genuinely interested in you. He's known for openly favoring people he likes, but judging by the way he acted, it didn't seem like it was only about casting."
Suppressing his excitement, Choi Sunggeon gestured for Woojin to get into the car.
Woojin hid his reaction as best he could and climbed into the van.
Jang Suhwan and Han Yejung were nowhere to be seen.
Sitting in the driver's seat, Choi Sunggeon explained why.
"They'll join us around lunchtime today. They've been pretty busy these past few days, so I told them to get some rest first."
"Ah, I see."
When Woojin nodded, Choi Sunggeon slowly started the engine.
As he turned the wheel, he occasionally looked at Woojin through the rearview mirror.
'I really hope he decides to do it after reading the script. I hope that instinct of his kicks in again.'
He let out a quiet laugh.
If Woojin decided to join Director Kyotaro's project, it would send shockwaves through the Korean entertainment industry.
In just a few short months, Woojin had already joined Director Kwon Gitak's project.
If he also ended up appearing in a Japanese masterpiece, all media attention would lock onto him.
This would be completely unprecedented.
No rookie had ever stepped into back-to-back masterpiece projects like this.
In other words, Woojin was carving out a path no one had ever seen before.
'Just thinking about it gives me chills.'
Meanwhile, Woojin, still wearing the same indifferent expression, had already flipped through several pages of the script.
Naturally, it was all in Japanese.
'Did they send it in the original language because they know I can read Japanese?'
But that made sense.
If the script were translated, the Director's original intent could shift.
Even if the translation stayed close, for Woojin, who could read Japanese, it was better to read it as-is.
Soon—
Flip.
Without anyone noticing, Woojin raised his index finger.
Why?
Because he was about to enter the void space.
Woojin pressed the black rectangle attached next to the script.
In an instant, he arrived in the endless darkness of the void space.
By now, it felt as familiar as home.
Stretching lightly, Woojin looked around.
The number of white rectangles had risen to seven.
Among them—
'Hmm.'
The one he checked last was Director Kyotaro's script, The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice.
And the moment Woojin saw its white rectangle, he openly reacted with shock.
'Wow. Damn.'
The reason was simple.
[7 / Script (Title: The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice), A-rank]
[This is a highly completed film script. 100% readable.]
The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice had started at A-rank right from the beginning.
That was rare.
Something that started that high was almost unheard of.
A smile mixed with surprise and anticipation spread across Woojin's face.
'I have to do this one.'
Then he suddenly shouted,
"Out!"
The moment he came back to his senses, he was inside the moving van again.
He immediately grabbed his phone.
He wanted to look up The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice.
Sometimes the original work and the adaptation kept the same title.
The search results appeared quickly.
'There really is a book with the same title.'
There really was a Japanese novel called The Stranger's Grim Sacrifice.
It was even a bestseller.
It had been popular enough in Korea to generate a huge number of reviews already.
Woojin tapped the screen and checked the details of the book.
Soon, the novelist's name appeared.
Takikawa Akari?
'Oh.'
'I know that name. I think I've heard it before. Isn't that someone famous in both Japan and Korea?'
A masterpiece directed by a Japanese legend, based on the work of a famous novelist.
Just those keywords alone made it sound overwhelming.
Right then, Choi Sunggeon stopped at a red light and turned his head.
"So? You only skimmed it, but do you think it'd be a good project for entering Japan?"
Woojin layered a trace of bluff over his expressionless face.
"It doesn't look bad."
Meanwhile—
As Kang Woojin moved through his schedule, the number of people getting infected by misunderstandings about him kept steadily increasing in several different places.
The rumor, which was already spreading, only continued to grow.
The source of the information was the Profiler Hanryang team.
Dozens of staff and actors were involved.
Of course, the Hanryang team hadn't deliberately spread anything.
Other people had simply stepped in.
Reports and inquiry calls had started coming in from all directions.
"Hey, you know Kang Woojin, right? What was he like during Hanryang filming? What kind of personality does he have?"
"Huh? Ah, right. Didn't Woojin join the Drug Dealer set as a replacement?"
"Yeah. He'll be joining in a few days. I was curious what kind of person he is."
"Haha. I only talked to him briefly while we were setting up lights, but he seemed fine. Oh, and his English is insanely good. I heard he lived in an English-speaking country."
"What?"
The people asking about Kang Woojin were staff from projects he was about to join.
A large portion of them were from the Drug Dealer production staff, whose filming would begin soon.
"Speaking of Kang Woojin, his acting tone felt really unusual. How did he handle emotions on set?"
"Honestly, he's shocking when you see him. To anyone else he looks like some rookie who debuted a few months ago, but to me he looked like someone with ten years of experience. He must've built up skill somewhere."
"Is he really that mysterious? So mysterious that you can't even judge him properly?"
"It's strange. He's like a ghost. His emotional shifts are insanely fast. But when you watch him, you start wondering whether you're looking at an actor or the character itself."
"Wow."
"But he said he was self-taught. He said it himself during the script reading."
"What? What the hell does that even mean?"
It wasn't that a fixed group of close senior actors, socially connected actors, same-agency actors, and familiar production staff were all spreading the story together.
It was worse than that.
Each person had their own separate line of contact.
Concern and curiosity spread side by side.
The Drug Dealer case was especially unusual, and there was almost no available information on Kang Woojin, who had joined the production midway through.
If he had been cast from the start, they could have investigated more naturally.
But because he had come in so suddenly, they were forced to gather every scrap they could.
"As for Kang Woojin? I don't know much else, but his stamina is insane. By the middle and end of the shoot, everyone was exhausted, but Kang Woojin looked completely fine. It was a brutal schedule from dawn to night, and his acting never once collapsed. He's a real monster. A real monster."
"But he's still a rookie, right? Back then he was a complete nobody."
"Go see him for yourself. I thought the same thing at first, but the more you watch him, the more he feels like more than just a veteran."
And just like that, the number of people infected by misunderstandings connected to Drug Dealer kept increasing.
"He looks cold on the outside, but underneath that, he's sharp. Who even is this guy? Ah! Is he a cameraman? He's a little unusual, but kind. That's the exact word. He doesn't talk much, but even when it looks like he isn't watching, it feels like he sees through everything."
"He was still a nobody during Hanryang, and he was that calm?"
"No, not just calm. He doesn't act like a rookie at all. He looked like the most comfortable person on set. Like he was in his own house. Maybe it's because of foreign culture. His way of thinking feels different."
"Foreign culture?"
Groundless speculation kept multiplying.
Two days later, on the afternoon of the 8th—
Inside Kang Woojin's van.
Around six o'clock, a black van sped along the highway.
Inside were Kang Woojin and his team.
Jang Suhwan focused on driving.
Choi Sunggeon was buried in nonstop phone calls.
Han Yejung carefully reviewed Woojin's coordination booklet.
And Kang Woojin, sleeves of his plaid shirt rolled up—
…
Flip.
The man reading the script looked deadly serious.
Part of it came from the nature of the role, but most of it was simply intense concentration.
What he was reading was the script for the film Drug Dealer.
The reason was simple.
Kang Woojin was currently on his way to the filming set for Drug Dealer in Suncheon.
Starting today, he would officially begin filming.
The schedule was expected to last about two weeks, though it could end up shorter or longer.
Regardless—
Flip.
Kang Woojin kept reading.
At this point, it felt more like review than reading.
He had already gone through it several times and had finished exploring the parts involving the role he would be playing, Lee Sangman.
Inside Woojin's head, the world of Drug Dealer had already been built in full.
He could probably depict it more vividly than even writer-Director Kim Dohui.
It was as if he possessed not just Lee Sangman, but the entire essence of Drug Dealer itself.
The setting of Drug Dealer was Busan in 1999.
After the financial crisis, Korea had plunged into hardship.
But ironically, the number of drug criminals surged.
The number of users also skyrocketed.
In other words, the drug market was booming.
It was opportunity born from crisis.
On top of that, foreign countries such as Russia, China, and Japan entered the market too.
Where demand exists, supply follows.
Drugs manufactured all over the place flooded into Korea.
The Busan Police Department could barely keep up.
Drugs multiplied endlessly, and drug offenders swarmed like parasites.
Worse, they kept burying themselves deeper underground.
If the timing was missed, the problem would spiral out of control.
To make things even worse, corruption inside the police was rampant.
Some officers had even joined hands with the drug cartel.
In the end, several high-ranking police officials gathered and made a decision.
They would go undercover.
They decided to use an undercover detective to infiltrate the drug market.
But because of internal corruption, only a very small number of people knew about the plan.
That was how the character Jung Sunghoon was born.
A drug dealer and a detective at the same time.
He was already a detective with deep ties to gangsters.
Because of that past, Jung Sunghoon reacted with disbelief.
'Why me? Why do I have to get dragged into something this annoying?'
But threatened with his past record and tempted by the reward he would receive if he succeeded, Jung Sunghoon ultimately accepted the mission.
Under cover, he infiltrated prison.
His goal was to gain the favor of the imprisoned drug king Choi Junho.
The key was getting into Choi Junho's organization.
Using his naturally rough disposition and police support as stepping stones, Jung Sunghoon barely succeeded.
Afterward, with backing from the drug king, he was released and began dealing drugs in Busan.
At the same time, he secretly passed information about hidden drug criminals back to the police.
That was when he encountered Kim Hyunsoo, known as Professor Kim.
Professor Kim was a drug manufacturer, and together with him, Jung Sunghoon grew into Busan's largest distributor.
As enormous profits piled up, conflict with the police intensified, and eventually the ambitious Jung Sunghoon began dreaming of expansion into Japan.
But how?
How would he enter Japan?
That was where Lee Sangman, played by Kang Woojin, appeared.
He was the head of the Lee Sangman clan, Busan's largest violent organization.
After striking a deal with Lee Sangman, who had deep ties to the Japanese yakuza, Jung Sunghoon expanded the business into Japan.
As a result, Drug Dealer was a crime thriller packed with key elements.
Fast pacing.
Betrayal.
Action.
Brutality.
Everything was there.
In any case, the role Woojin would play, Lee Sangman, became a crucial stepping stone in the story's expansion into Japan.
He carried major weight in building tension and anticipation through the early and middle sections of the film.
But none of that was a problem.
Kang Woojin was already about halfway prepared.
'Whew. Filming a movie really is nerve-racking.'
'Especially since my last film was The Private Investigator. That one mostly had unknown actors, so this one feels a lot more burdensome. Looking at the cast list they sent me, there are a lot of famous actors in this one.'
Even so, he couldn't suppress his excitement.
Maybe this feeling would last forever.
The entertainment industry still felt overwhelmingly vast and unfamiliar to him.
'Haa—'
Kang Woojin quietly took a deep breath and made up his mind.
He would maintain his concept, but reveal an even deeper side of himself on set.
'Let's talk as little as possible. If I make a mistake in front of unfamiliar actors, it'll be awkward. Someone who knows me might suddenly show up, just like at that meeting.'
At that moment, Choi Sunggeon—apparently determined to reinforce Woojin's cold image even more—spoke to him.
He wore a faint smile.
"Woojin, we'll be there in ten minutes. Get ready."