Chapter 948: Godmother (1)
"You're asking me to... manage you, ma'am?" I asked.
Lee Ji-Yeon looked at me deeply and nodded. "That's right. Yoon-Ho, you remember what I used to say, don't you? That if I ever had a talent agent, it'd be you. Now's the time."
Lee Ji-Yeon had joked about asking me to manage her for a long time. Still, someone at her level didn't actually need a talent agent. Every broadcasting station fought to receive a Lee Ji-Yeon script, so there was no need to pitch projects to secure scheduling slots. Every producer trusted her writing, so there were hardly ever conflicts with directors either.
Most of all, she had spent decades negotiating her own manuscript fees and steadily raising them, so there was no need for someone else to handle negotiations on her behalf. And yet, even though she would have to give twenty percent of her net profit to the company, she still wanted to sign a management contract with me.
I was grateful for the offer, but I still shook my head. Thanks to how sincerely she had cared for Yoo-Jin and Miso and supported them, the two of them had grown into even better actresses. Compared to that, this was something I could help with even without being her talent agent.
"Mrs. Lee. I'm truly grateful just hearing you say that, but things like what happened with those rumor sheets earlier are things I can help you with anytime, even if I'm not officially your talent agent."
Lee Ji-Yeon answered with a steady gaze. "No. If you hadn't been there, I would've handled it alone like I always do. It probably would've dragged on for at least a week. But because you took care of it, it ended quickly. Thanks to you, I gained an entire week to write. So if it's you, Yoon-Ho, I wouldn't regret giving you that money at all."
"Mrs. Lee..."
"And when my drama starts airing, if I get harassed by malicious comments or rumor sheets, public opinion affects the viewership ratings too. So from now on, I want you to actively block those things for me. You know how many jobs rise and fall based on a single percentage point in ratings for one of my dramas, don't you?"
Every time a Lee Ji-Yeon drama gained one percent in ratings, billions of won in advertising revenue moved with it. And depending on that income, the production budget changed, along with the treatment of the staff and assistant writers. Yet true to her reputation as the godmother of the drama industry, she was even considering all the people whose livelihoods depended on a single production.
"So take the job, Yoon-Ho. Be my talent agent."
I couldn't bring myself to refuse her request to protect her from damage through rapid media response. What she was really asking was for someone to help carry the overwhelming burden she had been bearing alone all this time. And that was something I could do.
"If you're truly alright with someone like me... it'd be an honor, ma'am."
A bright smile spread across Lee Ji-Yeon's face. "I think I'm the one who should be saying that. I just joined hands with the hottest talent agent in the entertainment industry right now. Oh, right. And you have to bring Miso and Yoo-Jin around often too. That's part of the deal!"
"I'll do my best."
At that moment, Kim Soll-Ip joined the conversation. "Mr. Jung, since you're already doing it, couldn't you manage me too?"
Kim Soll-Ip was looking at me with sparkling eyes as she made her request.
"You too, Ms. Soll-Ip?"
"If Mrs. Lee joins Hoop Entertainment, then I have to go too. Don't you know she and I come as a one-plus-one set? If Mrs. Lee goes, then Kim Soll-Ip obviously goes too!"
"...Why is everyone so desperate to give me money?"
Kim Soll-Ip casually brushed back the hair that fell to her shoulders and spoke with shameless confidence. "I'm going to become just as successful as Mrs. Lee someday, so I should prepare ahead of time if I don't want to suffer later."
Lee Ji-Yeon laughed in disbelief. "Soll-Ip. You should only say things like that after building up a career at my level."
Kim Soll-Ip shrugged. "Haven't you heard the phrase 'the student surpasses the master'? I'm definitely going to surpass you."
Lee Ji-Yeon shook her head. "Yoon-Ho. Don't accept her. She talks too much nonsense. It's a disease. An incurable one."
Kim Soll-Ip slightly lifted her chin and mimicked Lee Ji-Yeon's trademark arrogant expression. "Want to see whether it's nonsense or not? The project I'm preparing this time turned out incredibly well. I'll show you."
"I'm not looking! Why would I read someone else's work?"
"Come on, just take a look."
"I said I'm not reading it."
They bickered back and forth, but Lee Ji-Yeon's eyes as she looked at Kim Soll-Ip were filled with affection. And Kim Soll-Ip was equally full of respect for her teacher. To begin with, the reason she wanted to show her work was because she wanted her teacher to see whether she'd made any mistakes and give her affectionate feedback.
Still, at this rate, they were obviously going to keep arguing until tonight, so I hurriedly interrupted. "You should both sign the contracts!"
Kim Soll-Ip clenched her fist. "Yes!"
Lee Ji-Yeon shook her head as if Kim Soll-Ip was impossible to deal with. Even so, a gentle smile rested on Lee Ji-Yeon's face.
"So now there are two drama writers added to the Jung Yoon-Ho faction?"
It seemed Lee Ji-Yeon had heard the phrase Jung Yoon-Ho faction too. Either way, the two giants who were treated like S-class writers had officially become part of the Hoop Entertainment family.
***
-I just sent the contracts by email, so check them! And good work, Chief Jung! Seriously, great work!
"Yes, Mr. Kang. I'll hang up now."
-Alright.
I ended the call while listening to President Kang Gam-Chan shouting in celebration. When I checked my email, the electronic contracts had already arrived. Lee Ji-Yeon and Kim Soll-Ip consecutively signed the electronic contracts on the tablet.
"Looking forward to working with you, Yoon-Ho."
"I'm looking forward to working with you too, Mr. Jung."
Tap.
At last, the two of them officially became writers under Hoop Entertainment.
"Thank you."
"Of course." Lee Ji-Yeon spoke to Attorney Kim Chan-Sung with a much more relaxed expression. "And Attorney Kim, keep helping me from now on too."
"Since Mr. Kwak Moo-Hyuk from your agency will now be taking the lead role, I'll revise the contract and reduce the monthly advisory fee you pay me."
Lee Ji-Yeon let out a short laugh. "Attorney Kim. Don't you know that once I decide on something, I stick with it to the end?"
"But that would make the contract far too favorable for me."
"Honestly, you're hopeless. On a day like today, just think of it as hitting the jackpot. Considering everything you've done for me, this much is perfectly fine."
"No, but still..."
"Just listen to me. The money I pay you gets deducted from taxes anyway. So stop arguing and take it!"
As Lee Ji-Yeon fired back at him with affectionate sharpness, Kim Chan-Sung scratched his head and answered, "I'll protect you even more thoroughly from now on."
Lee Ji-Yeon smiled warmly. "Good. That's what I wanted to hear."
At that moment, Kim Soll-Ip crossed her arms beside us and nodded. "Mm. So that's why you bought me so many expensive things. You didn't want the tax office taking it~ You were doing tax deductions~"
Lee Ji-Yeon raised her fist. "That's because you always begged me to buy you things whenever something came up! Now that I think about it, I'm getting annoyed. Hey, get over here!"
Kim Soll-Ip scooted backward while still sitting down and shouted, "Help me, Mr. Talent Agent!"
And here she was asking me for help. Though, now that I thought about it, I really was her talent agent.
At that moment, I quickly redirected Lee Ji-Yeon's attention elsewhere. "Mrs. Lee. Earlier, you mentioned giving So-Yeon a role in your project. Were you referring to the Korean War story you've been writing recently?"
At the moment, Lee Ji-Yeon was planning a project called 1950, Ladies. It was a story about the women of prestigious families during the Korean War, rising, falling, and rising again. Before the regression, it had become a masterpiece with average viewership ratings surpassing twenty-four percent, and Lee Ji-Yeon had secretly already marked Yoo-Jin as the lead actress.
On top of that, since the story centered around three different families, two additional female leads were needed. I wondered whether she intended to give one of those roles to Jang So-Yeon.
However, Lee Ji-Yeon shook her head. "No. Not that one. I have another project prepared called Land of Happiness. It's about a seventeen-year-old girl who loses her parents in a car accident, enters an orphanage with her younger siblings, and later becomes a celebrity and succeeds in life..."
At that moment, I unconsciously blurted out in shock, "Wait a second. Land of Happiness?"
"Yeah."
Five years later, Land of Happiness would become a daily drama on KBC 1TV that achieved average viewership ratings of twenty-five percent and peaked at thirty-eight percent. The series ran for a total of one hundred episodes and also became Lee Ji-Yeon's first daily drama.
The story followed Yoon Na-Ra, a heroine who lost her parents in a car accident and searched for happiness while raising her three younger siblings. Combined with the romance involving Oh Haeng-Bok, the troublemaking youngest son of a chaebol family, the drama captivated an enormous audience.
Still, I never imagined a rough draft of a project that wouldn't air for another five years had already been completed.
Maybe because my expression gave away my shock, Lee Ji-Yeon tilted her head. "What? Is the title bad?"
I hurriedly corrected my expression and answered, "No, not at all. The title's just really good."
"That's a relief. Oh, and Haeng-Bok is the male lead's name, while Na-Ra is the female lead's name."
"I like it. Um... would it be possible for me to see the script?"
"Ah, hold on. I'll go find it in the script room."
At that moment, Kim Chan-Sung quickly held out a tablet. "You keep your manuscripts with me, remember?"
"Oh, right."
To prevent plagiarism accusations, Lee Ji-Yeon entrusted even her earliest drafts to Kim Chan-Sung for safekeeping. That was exactly why she never suffered from plagiarism controversies in the future either.
"Here you are, Mr. Jung."
After taking the tablet from Kim Chan-Sung, I checked whether it was truly the same work I remembered.
'What is this? This version is way better.'
The heroine was Yoon Na-Ra, her younger brother was Yoon Sung-Woo, her fraternal twin younger sisters were Yoon Kkot-Nim and Yoon Na-Bi, and the male lead was Oh Haeng-Bok.
The characters were all the same, yet the story progression within the first episode was far more convincing. The characters themselves were better too, and the dialogue felt much more realistic.
'Then why did so many of these elements disappear five years later?'
In particular, among Yoon Na-Ra's siblings, Yoon Kkot-Nim's screentime was nearly three times greater than what I had seen before the regression. Still, even if I asked Lee Ji-Yeon, this wasn't something she would be able to explain. Even so, there was one thing I could say with certainty.
"It's really good," I said.
A smile appeared in Lee Ji-Yeon's eyes. "I knew you'd recognize it, Yoon-Ho. What do you think? Soll-Ip can't compare to this yet, right?"
Kim Soll-Ip grumbled, "Ah, seriously. How can you even bring out that project? Isn't this cheating?"
Lee Ji-Yeon simply smiled leisurely and looked back at me. "Anyway, since it's someone you recommended, Yoon-Ho, I was thinking about casting her as the lead in this project."
"...Really?"
"Yeah. Though she still has to audition. Even if she's your recommendation, I need to verify her myself."
"Yes. Of course."
"Good. Then let's give it a try. Jong-Ok is always bragging that the daily dramas she does are harder and more difficult, so this is the perfect chance to grind her pride into the dirt with this project."
"Yes, ma'am."
The fact that this would become Lee Ji-Yeon's very first daily drama was already enough to make headlines. And if a rookie like Jang So-Yeon landed the lead role in a project like that, it would become the perfect opportunity for her name to spread nationwide.
Excited, I handed the tablet containing the script to Jang So-Yeon. "So-Yeon. Read this. This role was practically made for you."
Land of Happiness shared many similarities with Jang So-Yeon's own life story. She had spent part of her childhood in an orphanage, and she had grown up taking care of three younger siblings.
Just as expected, Jang So-Yeon looked at the tablet and smiled softly. "You're right. I think I really could do this well."
At that moment, Lee Ji-Yeon showed interest in Jang So-Yeon's confident attitude. "You're interesting. You looked at my script and you're not even scared?"
Jang So-Yeon carefully tilted her head. "Should I... be scared?"
Before coming here, I had only told Jang So-Yeon one thing about Lee Ji-Yeon—that she values acting skills more than anything. Nothing else mattered to her, so while Jang So-Yeon shouldn't be rude, she needed to stay confident. And now, while describing how the script made her feel, Jang So-Yeon's eyes were sparkling.
Lee Ji-Yeon grinned and spoke to Jang So-Yeon. "I like that you've got guts. Alright. There are lines written up to episode thirty, so read up to there and come audition next week. Hopefully you'll still be smiling like that then."
At Lee Ji-Yeon's words, Jang So-Yeon tilted her head again. "Can't I audition right now?"
Lee Ji-Yeon's smile disappeared as she turned to look at me. "Yoon-Ho. How exactly am I supposed to take that?"
It seemed Jang So-Yeon's attitude had come across as somewhat arrogant.
I immediately straightened my posture and answered, "First, let me answer as So-Yeon's talent agent. She can absolutely handle this project. If you give her about thirty minutes, I'm confident she can satisfy you completely. And if you decide otherwise after that, I won't object if you cut her from the role."
"You're saying her acting is trustworthy to that extent?"
"Yes."
"Then... give me your advice as my talent agent."
Everyone in the living room looked at me, hoping I would give a favorable answer. However, I replied without emotion.
"I'd advise you to see just how confident she really is. And if she doesn't meet your standards, I'd advise you to cut her without hesitation."
I couldn't expect sentimentality from Lee Ji-Yeon when it came to her work. She believed that if a writer lowered their standards for a project, it was a betrayal of the viewers. So I answered completely from Lee Ji-Yeon's perspective. Because now, I was her talent agent.
Apparently satisfied with my answer, Lee Ji-Yeon nodded. "I really did make the right choice trusting you, Yoon-Ho." Then she turned to Jang So-Yeon. "You heard what my talent agent said. If you don't have the skills, you're out."
Jang So-Yeon nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
"Then I'll give you thirty minutes starting now. Pull out exactly two emotions from my script and act them out. 'Despair' and 'happiness.' That's all. If I like what I see, then the lead role in this drama will be yours—"
Before Lee Ji-Yeon could even finish speaking, Jang So-Yeon set the tablet down on the living room table with a sharp tap and immediately began expressing despair.
In that instant, everyone in the living room became completely captivated by her acting.
***
Jang So-Yeon pulled her knees close with both arms and rested her chin atop them. Thick tears welled up in her unfocused eyes as she stared blankly into the air, rolling down her cheeks one drop at a time, while her slender body trembled like a shaking reed.
In the drama, she was seventeen years old. In scene fifteen of episode one of Land of Happiness, right after the parents she had believed would live forever died in a car accident, the despair of arriving at the orphanage with her younger siblings on that very first day poured out from every inch of Jang So-Yeon's body.
The atmosphere was so devastating that no one could even bring themselves to approach her or speak. Everyone silently swallowed as they watched. For a rookie actress, the depth of emotion she expressed was overwhelmingly raw, enough that Lee Ji-Yeon unconsciously twitched her lips as if about to say something.
And then, Jang So-Yeon's acting suddenly changed. This time, she dropped to her knees and clasped her hands together as she desperately begged. The lifeless gaze in her eyes sharpened, locking intensely onto a single point in empty space. The body that had seemed utterly drained moments ago now trembled with strength born purely from desperation.
"Please, sir! Let me stay with my siblings. Please? Please! I'll do better!"
She was playing scene twenty of episode one. It was the scene where the children, who had grown up together like siblings in the same orphanage, were forced apart and scattered to different orphanages after the orphanage shut down. And while acting out the scene, Jang So-Yeon began behaving almost like someone who had lost her mind. Then, as if kissing someone's feet, she improvised by repeatedly pressing her lips against the carpet spread across the living room floor.
"Sir... I'll do anything you tell me to. So please..."
The desperate resolve to do absolutely anything for her younger siblings began pouring out of her. And then, as though someone had shoved her, Jang So-Yeon's body rolled violently across the floor.
Stagger.
Collapsed on the ground, Jang So-Yeon snapped her head toward the opposite side with a fierce glare. Gone was the pleading desperation from moments ago. Now her eyes blazed like roaring flames.
"Leave my siblings alone! Let go of them!!"
Jang So-Yeon stretched out both arms, acting as though she were clinging desperately to someone's legs. And in that instant, Jang So-Yeon grabbed her stomach as her body curled inward like a shrimp.
"Ghk."
As if she had truly been kicked, a painful groan escaped her lips.
"Ughhh..."
Her carefully prepared hair became disheveled, and even the buttons on her clothes tore loose, leaving her appearance in complete disarray. Yet Jang So-Yeon paid no attention to any of it and continued rolling across the floor in agony.
Then she tightly grabbed the carpet with both hands and slowly pushed up only her upper body. After that, she stretched out one hand and screamed as though her throat were tearing apart.
"Stop! Stop it! Let go!! Please... please... let go... sir... don't take my siblings away... please don't take my siblings..."
For Jang So-Yeon, "despair" was the terror of being abandoned and the sorrow of being torn apart. With only a single episode, she had already solved Lee Ji-Yeon's assignment of finding and performing a scene that embodied "despair" within Land of Happiness.
"..."
Silence filled the living room after the astonishing performance.
Then Jang So-Yeon, having finished acting, straightened herself while breathing heavily. "Huff, huff... That was the 'despair' I found in Land of Happiness."
After finishing her explanation, Jang So-Yeon forced her exhausted body back up and prepared to continue. "Then next, for the emotion of happiness—"
At that moment, Lee Ji-Yeon suddenly shouted in a sharp voice. "Stop."
"...Excuse me?"
"Stop... right there."
However, Lee Ji-Yeon's face as she looked at Jang So-Yeon had gone completely rigid.
'Huh? She did great, so why is she reacting like that?'
