Chapter 20
“Hey! How did you know?”
“Who are you trying to fool? Damn, well done. You’re amazing. Truly my friend.”
Dongsoo, who was tearing into dried pollack, patted Doyun’s head with his hand.
Perhaps the smell of the dried pollack had transferred to his hair, as Heendungi jumped onto Doyun’s head.
“Ugh. Don’t you have something to squeeze out?”
“Heendungi, that guy’s head won’t taste good. It’s all worn out from constant thinking, bitter and sour. Come here.”
“What are you even saying?”
Watching Dongsoo gently carry Heendungi away, Doyun asked.
“By the way, you said you have four cats, right? Why do I only see three?”
“Three are clingy, but the other one is like a celebrity. It values its privacy.”
That oddly made sense, so Doyun nodded before asking another question.
“Why do you keep so many cats, though?”
“Should I get a dog instead?”
“No, I mean, if you did, you’d just add a dog to your collection. Please, Dongsoo, stop bringing more in, okay?”
At that moment, the sound of a notification went off on Doyun’s phone. Hearing the alert, Dongsoo widened his eyes dramatically.
“Oh! A text at 10 p.m.? A girl! It’s definitely a girl, right?”
“No way. Probably from Writer Han…”
Checking the text, Doyun was momentarily speechless. In that brief pause, Dongsoo snatched the phone and read the message out loud.
“Producer Kim, thank you for today. Have a comfortable night. Dosu-young? Dosu-young? It’s a woman! Wow… What a strange woman, liking a cold-blooded guy like you.”
“She’s a fellow producer at the company. But, Dongsoo, am I really cold-blooded?”
I tried to be a warm person. I thought I had warmed up enough.
Or not?
As Doyun tilted his head in confusion, Dongsoo responded.
“You didn’t know? You’re super cold. But to me, you’re always warm.”
“Shut up!”
Doyun kicked Dongsoo lightly on the butt before getting up. Just then, another notification went off.
About to return the phone, Dongsoo quickly glanced at the message and read it aloud again.
“Producer Kim, I’d like to visit Jeongdongjin to clear my head. Are you free tomorrow? Han Jiseon?”
“That’s the writer I work with.”
“Oh? There’s more. I’ll be bringing Sera along. Shall we leave tomorrow night? Let me know.”
Dongsoo stared blankly into space for a moment before shaking his head and asking.
“Sera? By any chance, is that Jeon Sera? My goddess Jeon Sera?”
The CF star Jeon Sera had already been cast as the lead in A Summer’s Cantabile.
An actress with doll-like features and a pure, ethereal image. The kind who seemed like she’d only eat strawberry ice cream.
He remembered being struck by how beautiful she was when he saw her in person.
“…Probably her.”
“Damn it! I’m out here shooting a marathon film, running 10 kilometers every day with a camera. But Jeon. Se. Ra! My goddess Jeon Sera, lalalala~~”
Dongsoo flopped onto his back, shaking as if electrocuted. Watching this display, Doyun finally burst out laughing.
“Dongsoo, your pants ripped. How do you tear your pants while singing lalalala?”
Ignoring the prone and unmoving Dongsoo, Doyun snatched his phone and quickly replied to the message.
— I’ll come by your studio tomorrow afternoon.
Han Jiseon replied with a quick “OK.” Tomorrow being the weekend, she probably intended to leave late at night.
‘Wait. So Han Jiseon, Jeon Sera, and two assistant writers—four women in total—and I’m supposed to handle them alone?’
Suddenly, a headache gripped Doyun, and he closed his eyes tightly.
‘I’m in for some hard work.’
***
A Summer’s Cantabile stirred controversy again due to product placement and the lead actor.
The issue was with Cho Sangwoo’s attire. Playing the role of a poor young man who couldn’t afford his next meal, Cho appeared in expensive sneakers and a high-end T-shirt…
Since the casting had been reset, Doyun had expected the morning’s future news to change.
But the situation remained the same with Cho Sangwoo still in the lead role, leaving his thoughts in turmoil.
‘Am I missing something?’
He had deliberately sabotaged the casting and was stalling for time. As the weather grew hotter and schedules delayed, Cho Sangwoo would likely opt for a film project.
This would leave the writer and producer with no choice but to cast Seo Dongjin, just as Doyun planned.
But the fact that the casting hadn’t changed yet suggested Cho Sangwoo was clinging to the role with determination.
If Cho had read the revised script, that would explain it. The role of Yeonwoo was so compelling, any male actor would salivate over it.
“Dongsoo.”
Though it was the weekend, Dongsoo was up early making bean sprout soup after drinking heavily.
Even if he slept at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m., Dongsoo insisted on having breakfast by 7 a.m.
It was a habit ingrained by his parents, who had run a restaurant.
“What?”
The answer came out gruff. Probably because of Jeon Sera.
Chuckling softly, Doyun said, “I’ll get Jeon Sera’s autograph for you. Maybe even a picture.”
“Really? Oh, can you get it on my T-shirt and jacket too?”
“She’d probably do that.”
Hearing this, Dongsoo’s attitude did a 180-degree turn. He ran over and clasped his hands together.
“Anything you want to eat, just name it. I’ll make it for you.”
“Pfft! Ha ha. There’s bean sprout soup, so I’m good. By the way, about actor Cho Sangwoo—did you hear anything about him being cast in a movie?”
Cho Sangwoo had a habit of taking on any role that paid him well, regardless of genre.
It wasn’t unusual for multiple films featuring him to hit theaters simultaneously. That tendency eventually eroded his image and ended his career.
“Cho Sangwoo? He’s not the type to sit idle when work’s available.”
“Can you look into it? Agencies tend to cover up actors working on multiple projects.”
Dongsoo, with his wide network in the film industry, was the only one who could get that information.
“Got it. Jeon Sera’s autograph on ten items, including the T-shirt and jacket. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“Awesome! But why do you care about Cho Sangwoo?”
“To get rid of him.”
“Huh?”
“Just kidding.”
“What kind of joke is that? Your eyes were full of murder!”
“No, no.”
With effort, Doyun forced a soft smile.
“Yikes! That’s even scarier.”
Clearly, changing his cold demeanor overnight wasn’t possible.
***
“Two pounds of beef for grilling, please.”
Early in the morning, Shin Sun-ok headed to the butcher shop as soon as it opened.
“Wow, you’re buying beef? Is it your husband’s memorial day?”
“Nope. My son’s coming over. He’s such a good boy. Sent me money to buy a house!”
Shin Sun-ok combined the money sent by Doyun with her savings and took out a loan to buy a house.
‘My son said to mortgage the land and buy a house, but I already had some savings.’
Of course, taking out a loan was necessary, but the interest could be covered with the earnings from her snack bar. If business slowed down, she could always take on odd jobs in town.
Thus, the single-story house, which doubled as a snack bar and residence, was now under Shin Sun-ok’s name.
She had always thought there was no need to buy a house, as her children would move to Seoul, leaving her to live alone. With this mindset, she saved money to buy land and had lived her entire life without a proper home. But now that she owned a house, she felt a sense of fulfillment she hadn’t expected.
She felt full even without eating, and a smile never left her face.
However, the butcher couldn’t shake the thought that Shin Sun-ok had wasted her money.
“Why buy a house in this rural village? If you’re going to buy one, why not in Gangneung or Sokcho?”
Most people in Jeongdongjin shared this sentiment.
The butcher’s wife, out of sympathy, said,
“Why buy a house that’s falling apart? It’s not worth anything.”
“Even if it’s falling apart, it’s still my house.”
“You won’t be able to sell it. Ugh, why didn’t you ask around first? I know someone in real estate. I bet the owner named the price, and you just paid it.”
“I didn’t buy it for a high price.”
“Even so, the price won’t go up, only down. Such a pity.”
Shin Sun-ok ignored her, recalling Doyun’s words that the land prices in Jeongdongjin would skyrocket after a drama was filmed there.
“Just give me some good meat,” she said jokingly, signaling for the conversation to end.
“When have I ever sold bad meat? If I did, Doyun would scold me to no end.”
The butcher’s wife, well aware of Doyun’s fiery personality, shook her head while sneaking a glance at Shin Sun-ok. The happiness of owning a home was evident in her smile.
“Well, you raised a good son. He’s so filial, isn’t he?”
“Did I raise him well? He turned out well on his own.”
“Doyun was always mature for his age. Anyway, congratulations.”
After selling the meat to Shin Sun-ok, the butcher’s wife followed her outside and said,
“Now that you have a house, you should hold a celebration! I’ll provide the pig’s head for it!”
Hearing this, women preparing for their market and restaurant businesses turned their heads curiously.
“Who bought a house?”
“It’s Doyun’s family. His son bought her a house,” the butcher’s wife said loudly to boost Shin Sun-ok’s spirits.
But where there is good news, envy isn’t far behind.
“Ha! Where’d they get the money for that? Isn’t Doyun’s job nothing special?”
Shin Sun-ok, on her way back to the snack bar, stopped in her tracks and glared at the market and restaurant women. These two women were notorious for their jealousy and mean-spirited remarks.
They often picked fights with anyone they could, and Shin Sun-ok usually ignored them.
Ignoring them meant they assumed they’d won, growing even more smug.
But today was different. Today, they had insulted Doyun.
“What did you just say? What’s wrong with my son’s job?”
“Does he even have a job? Wasn’t he unemployed, selling tteokbokki recently?”
“Unemployed? He’s working perfectly fine at a company!”
Despite her defense, the women smirked and retorted.
“A company? What kind of job does he even have? Something with ‘pi’? What was it? Double pi?”
“Oh, maybe it’s ‘nosebleed’ pi!” **(코피 or ‘Kopi’ means nosebleed in Korean, the ladies are shaming Doyun’s job by comparing PD’s ‘P’ with Kopi’s ‘P’)
They burst into laughter, clutching their sides.
“It’s ‘PD’! Don’t you even know that?”
“What does a PD even do? Doesn’t have the word ‘doctor’ or ‘engineer’ in it!”
The market woman’s son was a “mechanic,” and the restaurant woman’s son was a “dental technician.” They felt superior because their sons’ jobs had “engineer” in their titles.
Their sons earned well in Sokcho, but instead of celebrating their success, they chose to mock hardworking Doyun as unemployed. Shin Sun-ok couldn’t hold back anymore.
“Do you not even know what a PD does? They make dramas!”
“Oh really? What drama did he make?”
“He just started making one, okay?”
“Tteok? What, rice cakes? What kind of talent does Doyun have to make dramas?”
Their mockery filled the air as laughter erupted once more.
At that moment, a black sedan and a large celebrity van entered the village road.
—
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