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 wouldnāt.
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.
āA one-act drama?ā
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-youngās screen debut.
A well-made commercial film that dominated the Korean box office for quite some time.
The so-called āMountain Spirit Boomā even caused tourists to flock to the Gyeonggi locations featured in the movie.
Come to think of itā
āI heard the casting process was really difficult, and the project almost fell apart once. If it werenāt for Director Kwon, we wouldnāt have dared to adapt it into a film.ā
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.
āI watched it three times in theaters alone.ā
Even that hadnāt 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 thenā
āThis is way more interesting than the movieā¦ā
True to her title as the king of Korean dramas, the script was dozens of times more lively than the film.
The female leadās personality was also slightly different from the version in her previous life. This one felt more vivid, more realāalmost as if the character were actually alive.
She hadnāt even turned many pages, yet the aura of a hit was already overflowing.
Jung Ye-rim, staring at her laptop in a cafĆ©, couldnāt hide her shock.
She was a hardcore K-drama fanāa so-called āK-drama otaku.ā 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 cafƩ, watching a drama.
Recently, an MVC MondayāTuesday drama titled Trade had begun airing. It was so entertaining that her drama-fan friends flooded their timelines every Monday and Tuesday.
āI really donāt get sports dramas.ā
Though she watched most genres without discrimination, Jung Ye-rim kept her distance from sports dramas. Since Trade was a baseball drama, she hadnāt 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.
āBeing a contrarian just isnāt for me.ā
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 wouldnāt stop talking aboutāwhile typing a live reaction thread with her SNS window open in the corner of the screenā
āHave you ever seen my drama?ā
The voice cut through her earphones. Ye-rim looked up at the speaker.
āAuthor Choi Ki-young?ā
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.
āAn actress?ā
She looked young but carried herself with poiseāa 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.
āHow am I supposed to ignore this?ā
From what she overheard, the girlās name sounded like Joo Se-hee.
It was a face and name Ye-rim didnāt recognize, likely a rookie.
From what she gathered, Choi Ki-young had met her at her younger siblingās project set, so she had probably already filmed something that hadnāt been released yet.
Ye-rim glanced at her laptop.
DucoBug @shoutoutorc
Trade binge-watch thread
Starts with baseball rules and Iām already confused
Oh, Kim Ju-bin was cast well
- Ā
- Ā
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-youngās 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 āfatherā was Choi Ki-youngās younger sibling, writer Choi Ki-jung.
Ye-rim loved the Choi sistersā dramas enough to dissect them scene by scene, so she knew Choi Ki-youngās personality well.
A writer with unshakable convictions about her charactersā 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 expressionālike someone who already sensed successāmade Ye-rim shift excitedly in her seat.
āShould I just snatch the script, read it, and get arrested?ā
Barely suppressing the impulsive thought, Ye-rim leaned in to listen again.
āDo you want to try a reading right now?ā
Was this real?
Sheād heard Choi Ki-young was strict with castingābut like this?
She was asking a rookie whoād just finished her first read-through to do a reading?
As Ye-rim doubted her own earsā
āIāll do it. I want to try.ā
āI thought you would. Just read the female leadās lines. Iāll handle the rest.ā
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.
āHey, what was the scope for the Korean history exam again?ā
It was an utterly ordinary line.
And yet her distinctive voice and solid projection immediately pulled people in.
āDamn it. If I mess this up, the homeroom teacherās going to tear me apart.ā
The moment Ye-rim heard her voice, she yanked out her remaining earphone.
Right before her eyes, Choi Ki-youngās new work was unfolding.
When the reading ended, Ye-rimāwho had been watching as if spellboundāfinally let out a breath.
āThis is going to be a hit. Seriously.ā
Still immersed in the afterglow, Ye-rim rapidly typed on her timeline.
DucoBug @shoutoutorc
Guysā¦ā¦
Saehaepi: Spring?
Bina: Did you see Ji-wooās acting in episode 8? Iāve asked you two hundred times already
DucoBug @shoutoutorc
Forget Trade or whatever
I just
I just witnessed live casting for Ki-young-momās new project
Bina: What?
Rodi: Wait, Choi Ki-young has a new project?
NoongiBaesseuk: The drama sceneās gone soft, so Ki-young-mom is coming to restore discipline
HamNyanya: How was it?
How was it?
Choi Ki-youngās kimchi stew is insanely good, obviously.
Out of all the replies, Ye-rim answered only that one.
HamNyanya: How was it?
DucoBug: Iām quitting all dramas until this airs and going into training. Damn it.
HamNyanya: Iāll prepare the coffin in advance. Good luck.
And so, starting with Jung Ye-rim, anticipation for Choi Ki-youngās new work quietly began spreading through the private accounts of famous drama fans.
