Chapter 81: Burger Queen Commercial (1)
Ju Yung-In, who was seated in the backseat of the large Merciless Springer parked in the shooting site's parking lot, erupted in anger.
"Why did you only give chocolates to the male staff when Assistant Manager Jung gave them to everyone on set!? I heard the female staff talking about me earlier. Didn't you?"
"I-I’m sorry. I'll go and prepare more chocolate right now, so..."
"Seriously?! You're making me look even more bad. If you do that, it will make it look like I’m apologizing! Are you trying to embarrass me or what!?"
Kang Myung-Gil was sweating profusely under Ju Yung-In's annoyance.
'This is all because of Jung Yoon-Ho. Why on earth would he give chocolates to women on Valentine's Day?'[1].
Because Jung Yoon-Ho had given chocolates to the female staff as well, people inevitably compared his and Kang Myung-Gil’s managerial skills and saw the latter in an unfavorable light.
At that moment, the door slid open and Choi Jong-Hyuk emerged.
"Hey. Everyone can hear your voice, so stop harassing your talent agent. Honestly, it's not even his fault and you know that too. It’s Yoo-Jin’s talent agent who is unusual."
Seeing Choi Jong-Hyuk, Ju Yung-In sighed deeply. "Mr. Kang. I have something to discuss with Jong-Hyuk oppa, so could you give us a moment?"
"But are you sure? I’m worried if rumors start just because you two are alone in the car..."
"Ugh, why are you talking so much today!? Just leave when I ask you to!"
Kang Myung-Gil looked at Ju Yung-In with an anxious expression but soon left.
As soon as Choi Jong-Hyuk got into the car, Ju Yung-In started questioning him. "Oppa, what are you doing? Didn’t you say you were going to make a move on Jung Yoo-Jin? You know I can’t break things off with Eun-Ah unnie if you keep this up, right?"
Choi Jong-Hyuk burst into laughter. "I've been working on it for a while. Haven’t you noticed how close we’ve gotten lately?"
"Close? From what I see, she’s putting up walls against you."
Choi Jong-Hyuk confidently pulled out a black case in response to Ju Yung-In’s sarcasm—it was the case of chocolates Jung Yoon-Ho had handed out on set today. However, the case in Choi Jong-Hyuk’s hand seemed different from what the other staff had received.
"Hehehe. She gave these handmade chocolates only to me. She’s definitely a little shy, but don’t you think she is showing her feelings little by little?"
Ju Yung-In was dumbfounded.
‘How delusional can he get? Is he from the same planet as Ju Sung-Jin?'
Trying to suppress her anger, Ju Yung-In asked how he planned to woo Jung Yoo-Jin. Choi Jong-Hyuk excitedly shared his strategy. Listening to it, it seemed not as bad an approach as she thought.
"Alright. Then do that and I’ll let you know if I find out anything as well. But hurry up and make some progress, okay?"
"Okay."
At that moment, Choi Jong-Hyuk took out one of the chocolates from the case. Ju Yung-In extended her hand, asking for one.
"Give me one. I feel like I need some sugar."
"But Yoo-Jin said these were only for me..."
"Oh, stop it. Just give me one."
"Always so fiery. Here, take it."
Choi Jong-Hyuk put one in his mouth first and handed over a mint-colored wrapped chocolate. Ju Yung-In carelessly took the chocolate and crunched it in her mouth while thinking of Jung Yoo-Jin.
At that moment, a taste and scent that should never come from chocolate filled her mouth.
"U-ugh. Wh-what is this?"
"I don’t know. Mint chocolate?"
"Barf!"
Ju Yung-In spat everything in her mouth onto a tissue.
"Cough, cough. So much for getting along with Jung Yoo-Jin! She is just telling you to back off and get lost! Who in the world eats this kind of thing?"
But Choi Jong-Hyuk just sniggered. "Stop underestimating mint chocolate. Hey, this is my favorite chocolate. She hit the mark with my taste, you know?"
Unable to contain her rising anger, Ju Yung-In shouted. "Favorite or not, my car smells like toothpaste now! Get out! Leave!"
Choi Jong-Hyuk shook his head in disbelief, muttering curses on mint chocolate haters.
***
As soon as the shoot ended, I headed to G Ski Resort located in Gyeonggi-do Gwangju with Yoo-Jin’s family, driving the Binz that I had received as a gift from Jang Jun-Hyuk instead of the company car.
Upon arriving at the resort, Yoo-Jin, who was seated in the passenger seat, turned to the back. "Miso, wake up. We're here. Auntie, wake up too."
"Oh my, we're here already?"
Miso rubbed her eyes, insisting she wasn’t sleeping. "Uh...um, I wasn’t sleeping..."
‘But there’s drool in the corner of her mouth!’
Only after the landlord wiped Miso's mouth did Miso smile.
"I guess I did sleep a bit... hehe."
I thought she could lie all she wanted if she was this cute.
"Alrighty. Shall we get out then?"
To avoid being recognized by the crowd, we fully geared up with goggles, a helmet, and a mask. After unpacking in the reserved room 1123, Miso rushed to the terrace that revealed a clear view of the ski slopes.
"Wow! Wow! There's so much snow!"
The ski slopes and sledding hills were brightly lit by the night lights. Miso cheered and hopped excitedly at the sight with her pigtails swaying and her hands fluttering like wings.
"Miso, do you like it?"
"Yes! Yes! I really like it!"
She gave two thumbs up, thrilled even before sledding.
Yoo-Jin and I smiled warmly before realizing the time was already 6:30 PM.
"Oppa, it's almost time for the commercial. We should hurry!"
"Right. Let's order some room service for dinner while watching the commercial! Then we can head out for the night skiing."
Everyone nodded and agreed with my suggestion.
"Miso, what would you like to eat?"
"I want cheonggukjang!"[2].
‘Cheonggukjang of all things? She doesn’t want pork cutlet or fried chicken?’
Yoo-Jin and the landlord looked at the room service menu and screamed in shock.
"This is insane! Cheonggukjang costs 12 thousand won here!"
"It’s daylight robbery!"
Seeing them fuming at the expensive price, I confidently pulled out a card. "Don't worry. I'll cover everything today."
Yoo-Jin quickly grabbed my arm. "No, no, oppa. Let me pay. I received my commercial fee, remember?"
"No, it's okay. This is actually a corporate card. You can eat as much as you want today."
Only then did Yoo-Jin smile brightly. "Yay!"
From that moment, we all started choosing set menus instead of individual items.
That's when Miso looked at Yoo-Jin with sparkling eyes while holding the menu. "Mom, can I order grilled saury as well?"
‘Grilled fish and cheonggukjang, huh? She knows her stuff despite her young age.’
"Of course, Miso. Order whatever you want~."
When I responded with the shining corporate card in hand, Miso jumped around and shouted with joy. "Then I'll have grilled saury!"
"Okay!"
We quickly ordered food through room service and gathered in front of the TV. After all, today was the day the Burger Queen commercial would be first unveiled.
***
"Is everyone ready?"
"Yes."
"Tech team, check the server handling orders and display the order volume on the monitor in real-time."
"Yes, Ms. Ahn!"
"And the PR team, double-check if any banners or contracted ads are missing."
"Yes, Ms. Ahn."
"Mr. Heung-Min, please monitor the traffic from the MeTube banner ads!"
Ahn Ji-Yoon swallowed nervously while fixing her eyes on the monitor along with the tech and publicity team leads.
The current time was 6:59 PM. The bizarre and quirky commercial they had filmed with Jung Yoo-Jin left them clueless about how customers might react.
'I hope it goes well...'
Ahn Ji-Yoon bit her nails anxiously with a nervous expression.
Upon seeing her, Lee Yung-Sook handed her a cold bottle of water. "Ms. Ahn, take this."
"Thank you, Miss Yung-Sook."
Gulp, gulp!
Ahn Ji-Yoon felt refreshed after drinking half a bottle of cold water in one go. She held the plastic water bottle in her hand, nervously waiting for the clock to hit 7 PM.
'5, 4, 3, 2, 1.'
Click.
As soon as the clock hit 7 PM, the event web page opened. The banners went live at the same time with links to the quirky ad.
"Ms. Ahn, the MeTube traffic link is active."
"SBC, KBC, MBS are starting to broadcast as well!"
The tech team’s assistant manager, Park Yung-Soo, who was reporting the unfolding situation step by step, shouted in panic. “H-huh!?’
"What's wrong, Mr. Park? What happened?"
When Ahn Ji-Yoon asked urgently, Park Yung-Soo replied immediately. "...Th-this is too fast. We've exceeded 500 views per second, and it's still rising. 530, 550..."
When Park Eun-Bin was the model, the increase in views per second on MeTube was only 100.
But now, with views several times higher, Ahn Ji-Yoon commanded, "Publicity team, report the real-time search rankings, social media reactions, comment count, and activity records of 'Cheonho-dong’s Burger Maiden' fan website members!"
Despite the blunder of choosing Park Eun-Bin as a model before, Ahn Ji-Yoon's experience was not to be underestimated.
"Ms. Ahn! The event server crashed due to the overwhelming orders!"
"What? But we doubled the server capacity, didn’t we!?"
"Yes, but it still crashed within five minutes."
Then, Assistant Manager Choi Moo-Sung yelled after checking the reaction on social media. "Ms. Ahn! People are freaking out because they can't place orders! Tech team, we need backup now!"
Everyone looked at the tech team’s team lead, Kang Oh-Jin. But he was already yelling into the phone.
"Increase server capacity by two, no, three times! Don't worry about the cost, just do it! Increase the limit as needed!"
Ahn Ji-Yoon felt her lips drying out from anxiety. The site had crashed due to the overwhelming orders despite the temporary increase in server capacity. The dedicated app and website were both down, which caused the flood of scathing complaints on social media toward Burger Queen.
While everyone waited anxiously in the publicity team’s office, Kang Oh-Jin's excited voice echoed. "The server upgrade is complete! Access is restored!"
Hearing that the server was back up before even five minutes had passed, everyone sighed in relief.
"Phew. This is nerve-wracking."
Soon, a surge of orders came pouring in smoothly.
Then, a thought inadvertently passed through Ahn Ji-Yoon’s mind.
'I made a mistake. I should have secured a one-year contract with Miss Yoo-Jin by any means.'
She remembered Jung Yoon-Ho, who expertly negotiated the deal with her from the start to the end despite his young age.
At that moment, Choi Moo-Sung's shout interrupted her thoughts. "Ms. Ahn! The hourly order volume increased by 30% compared to the usual!"
A moment of silence fell in the bustling publicity team’s office. Then, the murmurs soon resumed.
"30%?"
"Yes. Most orders are for the new burger! It's a hit!"
"Ms. Ahn, social media is calling Miss Yoo-Jin a 'Mukbang Fairy!'"
Ahn Ji-Yoon once again remembered what Jung Yoon-Ho had said.
-If it goes well, we'll do a series. But you know it'll cost more for a series of ads, right?
Everything was going as he had planned, making Ahn Ji-Yoon shiver once again.
'How much is he going to rip us off this time? Just thinking about it gives me a headache.'
***
『(Voiceover) Come and taste it! The burger that is coveted by the Burger Queen and conquered by the Warrior Queen! The ultimate burger! The essence of burgers! Delicious! Heavenly! The 'Truffle Monster Burger' is so good it will make everyone fight for it! It's not a triple but truffle!』
『(Yoo-Jin) Try it now!』
As the commercial was ending, a male voice actor with a deep baritone was shouting enthusiastically. Simultaneously, Yoo-Jin, the Warrior Queen, took a bite of the burger with one eye bruised and raised her thumb in approval.
"He he he."
"Ha ha ha. Yoo-Jin, you really did a great job...ha ha ha."
Yoo-Jin's face turned red after watching the commercial.
"You guys promised not to laugh!"
She was trying to feign innocence, even though she had laughed as well during the commercial.
Ignoring the bashful Yoo-Jin, I asked Miso, "Miso, did you enjoy the commercial? Ask your mom to show it to you again."
Miso nodded and tugged on Yoo-Jin's arm. "Mom, Mom. Can you play the bear again? It was so funny! Please?"
Yoo-Jin shot me a sharp glance. But soon, she raised both her hands and roared powerfully.
"Roarrr! Bear!"
“Hehehe!”
Miso's laughter filled the room. The encouraged Yoo-Jin started rolling on the floor with Miso, making all kinds of noises.
"If you don't surrender, you'll face the 'patty-less burger' punishment!"
While Yoo-Jin playfully acted out lines from the Burger Queen ad with Miso, I logged into MeTube.
[Burger Queen: Bizarre Ad - The Quest for the Truffle Monster Burger (30-second version)]
-Views: 152,239
(Comments)
-LOL, was the director high when filming this ad? Why would he dress up the pretty Yoo-Jin as animals?
-I'll buy those costumes!
-This ad is hilariously weird LOL.
-Both Warrior Queen and Burger Queen are beautiful.
-I can't take my eyes off it. Is there a full version?
-I’m definitely having Burger Queen for dinner tonight.
-Birth of a beautiful mukbang fairy!
-An ad you can't skip.
As expected, the bizarre ad's views were skyrocketing like crazy. In my past life, this ad had surpassed a million views. But with Yoo-Jin as the model, I couldn't predict how much higher it would go.
At that moment, my phone started ringing. When I picked up the call, I heard the enthusiastic voice of Chief Ahn Ji-Yoon from Burger Queen.
-Mr. Jung! It's a huge hit! The order volume surged and crashed the server!
"Congratulations, Ms. Ahn."
Then, Ahn Ji-Yoon stumbled over her words.
-And... you know...
The moment I had been waiting for had finally arrived.
1. In Korea, women give men chocolates on Valentine’s Day while men give women chocolates on White Day ?
2. traditional Korean food made by fermenting soybeans. It contains whole as well as ground soybeans. It is known to have a stinky smell even to Koreans ?
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