✏️How to Write a K-Drama: Chapter Two

The fans immediately screamed...

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He turned and saw a few girls in high school uniforms huddled together, pointing at him. When their eyes met, all hell broke loose.

The fans immediately screamed and started rushing across the street to Jae Woon. He dashed off down the alleyway before they could reach him, confirm his identity, and start an impromptu fan meeting. He begged his jetlagged body to prevail. 

Jae Woon ran for a good few minutes but then he crashed into somebody. Huffing from the run, he stared down at the surprised woman. She stared back. Her wide eyes slowly narrowed as recognition dawned on her, then they focused on the fans some distance behind him.

“Here.” She quickly pulled him to the side where there was an even narrower alleyway that he hadn’t seen. She shoved him in, then rushed back out. She started speaking loudly, “Wait…no, that can’t be… Was that Do Jae Woon going down that way?” He tensed, feeling trapped, but the loud noise of his high school fans started to fade away again. She had led them down a different path. Slowly, his muscles began to relax and he hunched over, trying to catch his breath. He heard the crunch of gravel, and then her legs appeared before him.

“You okay?” 

He slowly stood up and gave her a nod. “Yes, thank you.”

“No problem…” 

Something about the way she said that caused a nervous edge to return to him. He looked at her face and saw her staring straight back, but her round eyes were impossible to read. They looked at him familiarly but also like they were assessing him, which made him uncomfortable. Did she want something from him?

“I guess, um, I could give you money as thanks?” Jae Woon offered weakly.

She gave him a look like he was the weirdest person she ever met. He couldn’t quite fault her for that. At least she didn’t look offended.

“No, that’s okay, but it’s funny running into you here,” she said. His dread shifted slightly into fear when he realized that the two were all alone in this small, unknown corner of a secluded town. The way she was staring at him was off-putting. He’d had plenty of fans ogle him before, but this wasn’t really an ogle…Still, he felt goosebumps all over his body.

Ready to put a stop to this already, he pulled his cap down lower and said roughly, “Look, I’m not in the mood to be kidnapped by some sasaeng fan. Were you waiting around because you somehow got some intel that my favorite cafe is here? Great. You saw me. Now I’ve got to go.” He pushed past her, not bothering to even read her facial expression, and, after checking around carefully, hurried back to the side street while furiously dialing his manager. The van pulled up with a squeal. He quickly hopped in before anyone else caught sight of him, although he sensed the high school girls had been rounding the corner and saw him just as he was making his escape. Thank goodness.

“Take me home,” he ordered. 

When Jae Woon arrived, he found a pile of scripts on his dining room table. Action was starting to take a toll on his body, but he felt that this was his best potential for greater success, not that he was feeling much about any of his success lately. The buzz of acting had long since started to wear off, both for him and for the audience, despite the avid fans here and there. Jae Woon plopped down on a chair and started peeking through the pile, but a frown started deepening on his face as his manager stood awkwardly nearby.

“What’s all this? These are…” He looked up at his manager, still frowning but more from confusion with just a tinge of nostalgia. “…rom-coms.”

“We’ve been hearing that your fans are tired of the dark and gritty roles you’ve been taking on lately. After all, your fan base is mostly young women. They’re all about love. I mean, of course, they love seeing your muscles and fight scenes and all that, but those clips they can find online. They’re a bit burned out by the intensity of your latest projects, so upper management asked me to send you some rom-coms and see if you wanted to go back to your roots.” He failed to mention the fact that Jae Woon was too scared to do his own stunts and fans weren’t dumb—they knew they weren’t watching him but his stunt double half the time. 

Returning to rom-coms actually sounded like a great idea to Jae Woon, but he decided to think about it none-too-happily. He pursed his lips and half-heartedly combed through the pile as if none of the stories could possibly interest him, but Jo Suk knew better. He knew Jae Woon looked away from the screen during most of his action movie screenings, especially during the gory and scary moments. He’d seen Jae Woon’s secret stash of shoujo manga in his gaming room, where he quickly switched the screen to shooting games when Jo Suk entered but switched back to cute farming sims once he was alone. It wasn’t a soundproof room…He could hear the Animal Crossing gibberish.

Thumbing through a script with genuine disinterest, Jae Woon called out, “Isn’t there a new drama coming soon from that writer? What’s her name? Super popular these days. Had a few hits. Geum Yoo Ri?”

Jo Suk quickly noted that Jae Woon had made the effort to switch each part of the writer’s name to something as similar as possible to pretend he didn’t know at all. It was like how choosing all the wrong answers on a true or false test only proved the test taker knew all the correct answers.

“Eun Joo Ni?” Jo Suk replied respectfully.

“Ah, sure, whatever. Her past dramas did well. What were they? ‘The Lies in My Brain’ and ‘Hate In Your Eyes’?”

“I believe it’s ‘The Truth in Your Heart’ and ‘Love On My Lips.’”

“Whatever. I think I saw she was working on a new drama. What about her? I only work with trendy writers.”

“I believe she said she distinctly did not want you, sir.”

Jae Woon’s nonchalant demeanor slipped immediately and he started up in his chair. “What? She specifically said no to me? Why?” 

Jo Suk wondered if he should not have been so blunt. He cleared his throat and regained his composure. With a small bow, he explained, “Yes, our CEO reached out to her, but she said she had no role for you.” He paused, then added emphatically, “Ever.” 

Jae Woon gaped at him. Oops, Jo Suk thought, I did it again. Perhaps he did harbor a sick enjoyment of the little jabs he could get in once in a while.

“What? Why? I’m a top star!”

“She didn’t give us her reason, but when looking into her interviews, I saw that she looked for actors who understood and could portray depth of character. Might that be why?” Yup, he definitely enjoyed this. 

Jae Woon continued gaping like a fish. “I’m going to have to speak to her myself.” This was an outright challenge.

–

“Jae Woon has no depth of character,” Da Young said.

Just a few minutes ago, she had told Yul Hee over the phone about her run-in with Jae Woon earlier, and Yul Hee had asked, “Why don’t you cast him and use him as inspiration for your drama?” 

It was late at night and Da Young was sitting in front of her blank word processor in the dark with only her desk lamp on. It was late, but she refused to sleep until she at least got a few lines written. This was driving her nuts.

“Really?” pondered Yul Hee aloud. “Was he always like that?”

“Plus, he didn’t recognize me.”

“Oh. Well…maybe he doesn’t remember us.”

Da Young remained silent. Shortly after, the two hung up and Da Young slammed her laptop shut again. No writing was going to get done like this. She slid into her bed and lied down, staring up at the dark ceiling, remembering…

The man gave Da Young, now in middle school, a cursory look and shook his head. “The boy model’s fine, but not the girl. She’s not pretty enough.” He left, slamming the door behind him.

Da Young stood there, staring down at the floor and trying not to cry. This was the fifth job she’d lost. The fifth time she’d been told her looks weren’t good enough. The fifth time she’d let her parents down.

The older boy before her turned around and frowned at her. “This isn’t for you anymore,” he said. She froze, gripping her skirt with both fists, waiting for his next words.

“You should quit.”

Next time on 🌟How to Write a K-Drama🌟

Staring back at him was the woman he’d accused yesterday of being his sasaeng fan. She smiled at him brightly, but he knew without a doubt there was the smallest glint of malice behind those pearly whites.