Chapter – 31
A work by author Choi Ki-young, May the Mountain Spirit Protect You.
Joo Sae-yi knew this work very well. There was no way she wouldnât.
It was a time-slip historical romance produced in collaboration with a Gyeonggi Province tourism project.
The setting was the Japanese colonial era. The male lead was a mountain spirit and an independence fighter, while the female lead was a modern-day high school student who fell back into the past.
There was just one difference.
âA one-act drama?â
May the Mountain Spirit Protect You had been released as a film in her previous life.
With a runtime of just over two hours, it depicted the independence movement alongside the relationship between the two leads, eventually drawing an audience of 12 million. It was Choi Ki-youngâs screen debut.
A well-made commercial film that dominated the Korean box office for quite some time.
The so-called âMountain Spirit Boomâ even caused tourists to flock to the Gyeonggi locations featured in the movie.
Come to think of itâ
âI heard the casting process was really difficult, and the project almost fell apart once. If it werenât for Director Kwon, we wouldnât have dared to adapt it into a film.â
She vaguely remembered Choi Ki-young saying something like that at the premiere. That without the proposal from the sharp-eyed Director Kwon Hee-taek, production would have been impossible.
âI watched it three times in theaters alone.â
Even that hadnât been enough. She later bought the VOD and rewatched it more than ten times. Sae-yi truly loved this work.
She knew the lines well enough that they would come out the moment someone nudged her.
And now, in this life, the author had written it while imagining Sae-yi herself as the female lead. With her face already more than eighty percent convinced, Sae-yi opened the script.
And thenâ
âThis is way more interesting than the movieâŚâ
True to her title as the king of Korean dramas, the script was dozens of times more lively than the film.
The female leadâs personality was also slightly different from the version in her previous life. This one felt more vivid, more realâalmost as if the character were actually alive.
She hadnât even turned many pages, yet the aura of a hit was already overflowing.
Jung Ye-rim, staring at her laptop in a cafĂŠ, couldnât hide her shock.
She was a hardcore K-drama fanâa so-called âK-drama otaku.â The drama clip account she ran had tens of thousands of followers.
Her username was RocoBug.
Having devoured every romantic comedy out there and become a well-known name among drama fans, Ye-rim was once again seated in her favorite cafĂŠ, watching a drama.
Recently, an MVC MondayâTuesday drama titled Trade had begun airing. It was so entertaining that her drama-fan friends flooded their timelines every Monday and Tuesday.
âI really donât get sports dramas.â
Though she watched most genres without discrimination, Jung Ye-rim kept her distance from sports dramas. Since Trade was a baseball drama, she hadnât watched it.
Still, Sunday nights were usually filled with lamentations and screams across social media as people dreaded school and work the next day.
Instead, her friends were eagerly talking about the next episode of Trade airing tomorrow.
Watching them, Ye-rim made a decision.
âBeing a contrarian just isnât for me.â
Unable to resist skipping something everyone else was enjoying, the true drama addict Jung Ye-rim finally started binge-watching yesterday.
And now, she was watching the episode everyone called legendary.
Just as she was nearing the famous scene her friends wouldnât stop talking aboutâwhile typing a live reaction thread with her SNS window open in the corner of the screenâ
âHave you ever seen my drama?â
The voice cut through her earphones. Ye-rim looked up at the speaker.
âAuthor Choi Ki-young?â
Any true drama fan memorized the faces of famous writers.
Recognizing Choi Ki-young instantly, Ye-rim reflexively glanced at the female student sitting across from her.
âAn actress?â
She looked young but carried herself with poiseâa beauty who seemed to be announcing she was an actress just by existing.
Ye-rim removed one earphone and subtly eavesdropped. At that point, Trade and her reaction thread no longer mattered.
âHow am I supposed to ignore this?â
From what she overheard, the girlâs name sounded like Joo Se-hee.
It was a face and name Ye-rim didnât recognize, likely a rookie.
From what she gathered, Choi Ki-young had met her at her younger siblingâs project set, so she had probably already filmed something that hadnât been released yet.
Ye-rim glanced at her laptop.
DucoBug @shoutoutorc
Trade binge-watch thread
Starts with baseball rules and Iâm already confused
Oh, Kim Ju-bin was cast well
- Â
- Â
Wait, is that scene coming up now?
HamNyanya: Why did it cut off here?
Myungnasa: Did RocoBug disappear mid-thread?
Rodi: Did this person die while watching the drama?
The thread cut off right before the crucial moment, and her friends were angrily tagging her. After checking all the notifications, Ye-rim exited the thread and quickly opened a new post.
DucoBug @shoutoutorc
Something happened in front of me that boosted my dopamine a hundredfold. Wait. Just wait.
After posting, Ye-rim peeked back at Choi Ki-youngâs table.
Who was Choi Ki-young?
The master of rom-coms. The mother of rom-coms. The god of rom-coms. The creator of rom-coms. The something-or-other of rom-coms.
To RocoBug Jung Ye-rim, she was practically a second mother. Her âfatherâ was Choi Ki-youngâs younger sibling, writer Choi Ki-jung.
Ye-rim loved the Choi sistersâ dramas enough to dissect them scene by scene, so she knew Choi Ki-youngâs personality well.
A writer with unshakable convictions about her charactersâ interpretations. Famous for being picky and difficult.
And yet here she was, smiling warmly at the person across from her.
She even pulled out a stack of papers that looked like a script and flipped through them, gazing at Joo Se-hee, presumably, with eyes full of anticipation.
Se-hee skimmed through the script, then confidently declared that she absolutely wanted to do it.
Seeing that expressionâlike someone who already sensed successâmade Ye-rim shift excitedly in her seat.
âShould I just snatch the script, read it, and get arrested?â
Barely suppressing the impulsive thought, Ye-rim leaned in to listen again.
âDo you want to try a reading right now?â
Was this real?
Sheâd heard Choi Ki-young was strict with castingâbut like this?
She was asking a rookie whoâd just finished her first read-through to do a reading?
As Ye-rim doubted her own earsâ
âIâll do it. I want to try.â
âI thought you would. Just read the female leadâs lines. Iâll handle the rest.â
Was this actually happening?
Watching a star writer and a rookie actress do this right in front of her, Ye-rim screamed internally.
They quickly picked a scene. Ye-rim swallowed, watching the spectacle unfold.
Joo Se-hee blinked slowly, as if sinking into the role. After a deep breath, her expression changed instantly.
In a heartbeat, her calm face transformed into that of a bold, quirky girl. Before Ye-rim could even react, Se-hee delivered her first line.
âHey, what was the scope for the Korean history exam again?â
It was an utterly ordinary line.
And yet her distinctive voice and solid projection immediately pulled people in.
âDamn it. If I mess this up, the homeroom teacherâs going to tear me apart.â
The moment Ye-rim heard her voice, she yanked out her remaining earphone.
Right before her eyes, Choi Ki-youngâs new work was unfolding.
When the reading ended, Ye-rimâwho had been watching as if spellboundâfinally let out a breath.
âThis is going to be a hit. Seriously.â
Still immersed in the afterglow, Ye-rim rapidly typed on her timeline.
DucoBug @shoutoutorc
GuysâŚâŚ
Saehaepi: Spring?
Bina: Did you see Ji-wooâs acting in episode 8? Iâve asked you two hundred times already
DucoBug @shoutoutorc
Forget Trade or whatever
I just
I just witnessed live casting for Ki-young-momâs new project
Bina: What?
Rodi: Wait, Choi Ki-young has a new project?
NoongiBaesseuk: The drama sceneâs gone soft, so Ki-young-mom is coming to restore discipline
HamNyanya: How was it?
How was it?
Choi Ki-youngâs kimchi stew is insanely good, obviously.
Out of all the replies, Ye-rim answered only that one.
HamNyanya: How was it?
DucoBug: Iâm quitting all dramas until this airs and going into training. Damn it.
HamNyanya: Iâll prepare the coffin in advance. Good luck.
And so, starting with Jung Ye-rim, anticipation for Choi Ki-youngâs new work quietly began spreading through the private accounts of famous drama fans.
