Chapter 130: Sunbae’s Proposal (2)
Kang Ra-Eun organized Woo Kang-Hyun’s offer in her head. Kang-Hyun was a part of JMTE Entertainment, one of the top talent management agencies in the Korean entertainment industry. It was just as large as it was famous, and its talents were no joke either. The agency was home to so many famous stars that even Kang-Hyun, a relatively famous actor, was not among the first tier lineup.
If Ra-Eun transferred to JMTE, she would most certainly receive more benefits than GNF could offer her since JMTE was far above GNF in both scale and acting talent lineup. However...
“I’m sorry, sunbae. I don’t have any intention of changing agencies right now.”
Ra-Eun refused Kang-Hyun’s proposal. He couldn’t help but be surprised because JMTE could objectively provide her far more support and be better for her career in many different ways.
Not only that, Kang-Hyun likely had not proposed the transfer on his own. She was sure that someone from JMTE had requested Kang-Hyun to ask Ra-Eun about it, so it was no different from JMTE itself proposing the transfer to her. Ra-Eun could tell without even asking Kang-Hyun. In that case, she would be able to set the conditions that she wanted. The proposal was not lacking in any way, but JMTE had a very big downside.
‘It’s that they’re terrible at cleaning up after their mess.’
JMTE Entertainment was still widely known as a great agency, but their image would slowly fall after three years as drunk driving, marijuana, and school bullying incidents of their talents would come to light.
However, all this was still on the light side. The nail in the coffin for JMTE’s fall from grace was the contract clause discrimination incident. Even between talents of the same level of popularity, the clauses of a contract depended on how close they were to the JMTE executives, and the number of back-end deals. The talents would be greatly disappointed by this and annul their contracts with JMTE one by one, and the agency would meet its end without being able to stop the downward trend.
There was no reason to jump on a ship bound to sink.
‘It’s far better to just stay in GNF,’ Ra-Eun thought.
However, Kang-Hyun couldn’t hide his disappointment since he did not know what Ra-Eun was thinking. She was saying no, so it couldn’t be helped.
“Okay. Well... I’m also sorry that I brought something like that up out of the blue. But JMTE is a good agency. You know that, right, Ra-Eun?”
“Yes, of course.”
Although it wouldn’t be in the future.
“Let me know if you ever change your mind. The people at JMTE said they would welcome you anytime.”
“Thank you, sunbae.”
“No worries. Rather, I’m sorry for mentioning something like that when you must be busy. Good luck on the rest of your schedule. See you next time.”
“Okay,” Ra-Eun said as she parted with Kang-Hyun.
Shin Yu-Bin appeared just in time with their things.
“Ra-Eun. I was waiting for you. What have you been doing?”
Ra-Eun couldn’t tell her that she had received an agency transfer proposal from Kang-Hyun. Besides, she had already refused, and telling Yu-Bin brought her absolutely no benefit.
“I was just talking about some things with Kang-Hyun sunbae.”
She had been lying way too much since becoming a high school girl.
***
Two days before the movie’s release, Ra-Eun, Hwang Seung-Beom and Kang-Hyun headed to a studio for a program recording together. The program was like a talk show, but there was a unique aspect to it; one of the regular panelists was a chef, and they would make the dish that the guests wanted to eat, and interview them while they ate.
As for Ra-Eun, she had selected...
“Steak?”
“Yes. I love meat very much,” she mentioned.
Ra-Eun was a meat-lover through and through even after her regression. It went very well with her charismatic image. Seung-Beom and Kang-Hyun also chose what they wanted from the menu. Fortunately, they chose dishes that did not overlap with Ra-Eun’s dish. Seung-Beom chose sushi, and Kang-Hyun chose a vegetarian dish.
“Were you a fan of vegetarian foods, Kang-Hyun? I don’t remember that being the case,” the host asked.
He and Kang-Hyun were acquaintances, so he knew at least that much about him. Kang-Hyun confirmed that the host was not wrong.
“I used to hate vegetarian dishes, but someone who I consider an older brother is a vegetarian. I once went to hang out at his house, and saw that he was making all sorts of dishes without using meat. I was so impressed that I wanted to give it a shot today.”
“You’re putting quite a lot of pressure on Chef Hwang here.”
The host and Chef Hwang, one of the regular panelists, laughed awkwardly. The host interviewed the guests while Chef Hwang was cooking away.
“This episode would already be out by the time the movie is released. One of the things most people would be curious about the movie is the record, wouldn't you agree? Is there a certain record that each of you expects the production to hit?”
He was referring to the total attendance. It was certainly the most important criterion. No matter how good a movie was, it would be meaningless if no one went to cinemas to watch it. The same went for singers; just like how singers were acknowledged as such by having people listen to their songs, a movie could only be reviewed if there were people watching it.
Seung-Beom and Kang-Hyun did not make large predictions for the total attendance.
“I would like it to be at least over three million.”
“Me too.”
However, Ra-Eun thought otherwise.
“I believe it would go over at least seven million.”
She wanted to get a little greedy and say ten million, but the genre was so unorthodox that she couldn’t bring herself to. But of course, seven million in total attendance was by no means a small feat either. The production would have made ten times its cost if seven million people actually came to watch the movie.
The host liked setting large goals like Ra-Eun.
“Then, Ra-Eun. Are you interested in making some sort of promise that you will fulfill if the total attendance reaches over seven million?”
Ra-Eun had never done something like this before in her life, so she couldn’t think of what to promise at all. Just then, Kang-Hyun came in with the assist.
“How about something like community service? If you do, Seung-Beom and I will join in.”
Seung-Beom stared at Kang-Hyun sitting next to him as if to say “Me too?”. Not even Ra-Eun knew whether or not it would actually surpass seven million, but she would feel good if she did, and it would also improve her public image since she would be doing something good. She would be killing two birds with one stone.
“Sounds good to me,” Ra-Eun replied.
She had made the promise like Kang-Hyun had suggested. The die had been cast, so all that was left to do now was to wait.
***
On the first day of One of a Kind of Girl’s release, quite a lot of people had visited the cinema to watch it since it was Ra-Eun’s very first movie with a lead role. On the second day, the attendance record of the first day was announced.
323,142 tickets had been sold.
The corners of Chief Jung’s mouth soared.
“300,000 people on the first day. What a great start!”
“It sure is,” Ra-Eun agreed.
Even she had not expected such a great record. There was one more piece of good news that proved the number was not a fluke.
Yu-Bin remarked, “There are an overwhelming number of reviews on the internet from people who’d watched the movie strongly recommending it.”
It was being highly acclaimed by the public. Word of mouth was far more powerful than one expected; it spread far faster beyond one’s control once it caught the tide. The stock that was Kang Ra-Eun was also rising as more and more people went to watch the movie.
Chief Jung said in an even happier tone than before, “Ra-Eun. Maybe it’ll actually reach the seven million goal that you had set.”
“That’d be good for me, too,” Ra-Eun responded.
“Looks like we’re gonna have to look into which community service you’ll be participating in.”
Chief Jung seemed to already believe the seven million in total attendance was a done deal. They would still need to wait and see, but her goal was by no means a dream if they continued to stay on the roll.
Yu-Bin exclaimed at Chief Jung as he was about to leave, “Chief Jung! I actually have something to tell you regarding community service.”
“What is it?”
“I got a call from Do-Dam Group yesterday.”
Ra-Eun asked about a certain man as soon as she heard the conglomerate’s name.
“Was it from Ji Han-Seok sunbae?”
“Well... to be exact, it was from Do-Dam Group’s advertisement team, but apparently Han-Seok had instructed them to call us.”
Ra-Eun used to meet Han-Seok often since they had worked together in a production, but they barely saw each other these days. Chief Jung asked Yu-Bin about the contents of the call. She shared what she remembered to both Chief Jung and Ra-Eun.
“They apparently called us after watching Ra-Eun make the promise for reaching seven million in total audience attendance.”
They had called to ask if they would be interested in participating in community service with Do-Dam Group. In other words, a collaboration.
“What should we do, Chief Jung?” Yu-Bin handed the baton over to him.
He looked over to Ra-Eun. “Wouldn’t the opinion of the one who made the promise matter most?”
Chief Jung had passed the baton over to Ra-Eun.
She answered without hesitation, “The more the merrier.”
She would always welcome a collaboration with Do-Dam Group, which would play a key role in her revenge.
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