✏️How to Write a K-Drama: Chapter Nine
It's gettin' so hot in here, I'm gonna... 🥵
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The two stared at each other and continued to do so as the large metal door slowly closed in on them with a clang and locked shut, leaving them cast in a bluish glow.
The aunties who worked in the kitchen were still dressed in their white uniforms and aprons from head to toe. They had finished cleaning up for the day and were heading out. As a pair walked towards the exit together, they chatted.
“I can’t wait for the freezer to get fixed. The second freezer is so full and packed right now I can barely get in and out safely,” one said.
“I didn’t realize this before because it was always so cold in there, but once you turn off the freezer, it gets really hot and stuffy,” the other replied.
“Well, at least the ventilation is still working so it won’t get too gross in there.”
“I hope not.” The auntie shrugged, and they left for the day.
Meanwhile, Ms. So, President Ha, and Jo Suk were happy with their work. The freezer door shouldn’t open from the inside, and they planned to give Da Young and Jae Woon a good few hours to talk things out and get closer, literally and figuratively. This always worked in the dramas.
“We should give them some privacy,” President Ha said with a firm nod. “Shall we get some coffee?”
The three started walking away when they realized that the end of the ventilation leading into the freezer was right by the exit. They could hear muffled sounds. The coffee could wait.
“What are you doing here?” Da Young asked Jae Woon in the freezer, which was quickly starting to heat up.
“President Ha said he wanted some carrots. What about you?” He avoided looking at her. He hadn’t thought they’d be seeing each other in private again.
“Same. Ms. So said she wanted some carrots.”
“Were they going to bake carrot cake or something? Well, there clearly aren’t any here.” He turned and pushed at the door, but it wouldn’t budge. He started knocking on it with his fists. “Hello? President Ha? The door won’t open.” He tried the handle again, pushing at it with all his might. Sweat started to form on his skin.
Da Young, in the meantime, checked her phone. There seemed to be service, thank goodness. She dialed Ms. So and waited patiently as the phone rang. On the other end of the ventilation system, Ms. So quickly grabbed her phone and silenced it as soon as it started to ring.
Startled, Da Young looked up and around. “What was that?”
“What?” Jae Woon asked, looking at his own phone.
“I thought I heard something…Ms. So isn’t picking up. I wonder if she fell down a rabbit hole looking for carrots.” Da Young snorted. “Get it? Get–” Jae Woon was not paying attention and so, feeling slightly embarrassed, she returned to her phone and pretended she hadn’t said anything.
Jae Woon first tried Jo Suk and then President Ha to no avail. Both of them had hurriedly silenced their own phones right after Ms. So. Their superstar sadly lowered his phone, realizing he had no one else to call.
Da Young, also pretty much out of options, decided out of sheer desperation to dial Yul Hee, who surprisingly picked up after the second ring. “Hello?” chirped the actress on the other line.
“Oh, hey!” Da Young said awkwardly into the phone. “Uh, where are you? What are you doing right now?”
“I’m waiting on set for a shoot. Why do you sound like a damsel in distress?”
“I guess I sort of am…” Da Young hung her head. “I’m locked in a freezer right now.”
“What?” Yul Hee sounded both confused and alarmed.
“Yeah, but no worries. The freezer seems to be out of order.”
“Wait, you’re in a freezer? Like in your house?”
“No,” Da Young replied flatly. “How small do you think I am? I’m in the freezer in the cafeteria of Do Jae Woon’s agency.” She quickly explained what happened and had to hold the phone away from her ear as Yul Hee’s guffaw echoed throughout the chamber, ringing as it bounced off the walls. Jae Woon gave Da Young a puzzled look. He has no idea that’s the girl he’s currently smitten by, she thought wryly.
Jae Woon’s facial expression reflected his thoughts: Who’s that psychopath? He felt a bit better about having no friends if that was Da Young’s closest buddy cackling like a maniac right now.
Yul Hee stopped laughing to try and catch her breath. Between giggles, she said, “Oh, I have to go, but I wish you the best of luck! It’s great fodder for your drama anyway.”
“No, wait—can you—” Da Young said desperately, but with a “Tootle-oo” Yul Hee, and her laughter, was gone. Da Young stood there silently staring at her phone for a few seconds before she could look up shame-faced at Jae Woon. Luckily, he wasn’t paying attention.
He had noticed the ventilation and, now that it was silent in the freezer again, he started shouting into it, surprising the three on the other end so they jumped back. “Help! Anyone there?” He sighed and studied the ventilation. “At least we can breathe in here…” He turned to Da Young and asked, “Do you think you could fit in there?”
She gave him a look. “How small do you people think I am?” she grumbled, then took off her coat to sit on it in the corner farthest from him. Jae Woon sighed and decided he might as well get comfortable, too. He was only wearing a button-up shirt. He popped open the top one so he could breathe more easily, then glanced at the writer. He mumbled, “Did you get home okay last night?”
“Yes.” She hugged her knees into her chest. She was starting to sweat, but she didn’t think it was from the rising temperature so much as that nagging sense of guilt and regret rising up again. “Did you?”
“Yes.” There was some silence. It was uncomfortable, and he felt the need to keep talking. “Thank you for the graphic novel, by the way.”
“Sure.” Da Young took a deep breath. After a few beats of silence, she gathered up enough courage to blurt, “I’m sorry if I offended you last night. I was frustrated, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.” She looked up at him, meeting his eyes. “I do think you’re a good actor, you know.”
She had actively avoided his dramas in the past but had binged as much of his popular rom-coms as she could the night before. From those few hours, she could see why his popularity had skyrocketed and peaked during this era of his career. No matter who he was paired with, he made the leading lady seem special, seen, and loved in a way that radiated off the screen, touching the hearts of the viewers. Da Young usually didn’t mind being single, but if a story ever made her feel super single, she knew it was magic.
At her words, the burden seemed to lift from his shoulders, and he found he could breathe easily again. He inhaled slowly and gave her a slow smile, mussing up his hair a bit out of embarrassment as he exhaled. “Thanks. I didn’t mean to make you doubt me at all. I know I wasn’t being entirely professional yesterday. I was acting like a spoiled child.”
She shook her head. “This whole thing isn’t very professional, honestly, so it’s fine by me. I know it’s somewhat of a contractual relationship, plus it’s super unconventional, so I understand if you’re not sure what to think of me or how to act around me.” She paused. “Actually, you can forget all about it now. I told my agent that I wouldn’t need to work with you anymore.”
“Oh yeah? Is the story coming along, then?”
“Not at all,” she said with a chuckle. He smiled, too. He went over to her and squatted so they could be on a similar level.
“Well, to be honest, I told my agency the same…but when I signed the contract, I made a promise to help you, and I guess I should go through with that promise. I’ll do better this time…just give me some time. I’m not used to this.” He looked away, his chest feeling heavy with dread for a brief second. He pushed it back down. This isn’t the same.
“I’m not used to it, either!” she exclaimed. “If I make you uncomfortable, just let me know.”
She looked so worried he smiled and plopped down to sit next to her, holding out his hand. “Let’s try this again, then.”
Da Young took the hand. His was quite large and surprisingly smooth, although it was starting to go clammy from the heat. She shook it. “I’d really appreciate it.”
“Great, that’s settled then.” He jumped up and retreated back to his corner, starting to fan himself. He mumbled, “And I did enjoy the comic cafe date.”
It was already hot in there, so the flush across her cheeks was extra unwelcome. She laughed it off and said, “Better than the normal cafe date.” He remembered the umbrella incident and turned red, as well, wincing in regret.
Ms. So, President Ha, and Jo Suk couldn’t hear much of what was being said while the two were reconciling in her corner, but now Jae Woon’s voice went through the ventilation system more clearly. “Is it just me or is it getting hot in here?” Their ears perked up.
“Why would it be getting hot in a freezer?” whispered Jo Suk to the others. They shushed him.
Da Young’s voice floated through next. “No…it’s not just you.”
Jae Woon popped open another button as he went back to working the door handle. He was now three buttons down, his chest starting to peek through. Da Young exclaimed, “Can you stop stripping?”
Ms. So shot President Ha a scandalized and suspicious look. He quickly insisted, “No, no, Jae Woon is not like that. Our company is all about integrity!”
“You do it, then,” Jae Woon said, gesturing at the door.
“Here, let me,” Da Young said. President Ha shot Ms. So a look that said “I told you so.”
“I think this is working a little too well,” Jo Suk whispered again. President Ha clapped his hand over Jo Suk’s mouth.
Jae Woon said, “It’s really steaming up in here.”
“Stop talking and get to work.” That was Da Young.
“So bossy.” He tried pushing at the door again, grunting at the exertion.
“Not like that. Try this position.”
Ms. So gasped. “Ms. Joo Ni!” she whispered in shock as she pressed her ear even harder against the door.
“I thought they’d keep each other warm in there but not like this,” murmured President Ha. “It’s not that kind of drama…” He looked at Ms. So, his turn now to be scandalized. “Is it?”
It was a full-on sauna in the freezer at this point, the air stuffy despite the ventilation. As Jae Woon and Da Young continued to work the door handle, they grew more and more sweaty and more and more irritated. She rolled up her sleeves and pulled up the last remnants of her willpower to ignore his forearms as he did the same.
He panted, catching his breath, but the heat from his breath hit her in the face. She groaned, “Ugh, can you not breathe on me?”
“Can you give me some space then?”
“Why? You clearly can’t open the door on your own.”
“You’re not helping anyway.”
The two spiraled into an argument that grew more heated than the space they were in. The mention of calling the cops popped up. President Ha, Jo Suk, and Ms. So looked at one another, saw they were all on the same page, and rushed to the freezer door. At this rate, the two prisoners would end up hating each other again or causing a scandal.
As the door started to squeal open, they could hear the two still squabbling inside as surprisingly hot air wafted out. Jae Woon was saying, “At least I can act. What use is a writer who can’t write?” He knew it was immature of him but being around her made him feel like a child again for some reason.
Light flooded into the freezer as Da Young puffed out her cheeks angrily. He briefly acknowledged it as a cute look before registering her next words: “Do Jae Woon. I’m going to make you eat your words.”
“At least my words are worth eating.”
She gasped and was about to retort back when she noticed the three adults staring at them in the doorway of the freezer. He followed her gaze to stare, too. Da Young frowned and asked, “What happened to your faces?”
Imprinted on the sides of President Ha, Ms. So, and Jo Suk’s faces was the grid pattern from the ventilation opening.
Next week on 🌟How to Write a K-Drama🌟
As Da Young reached for another drink, her phone lit up. She picked it up to see that she got a message. Upon opening said message, she stared silently at it for a few seconds, then suddenly tossed her phone across the room with a yelp, alarming Yul Hee and almost knocking over an opened beer can.