Everyone in the room stood.
Zeno went along with them, eyeing the important-looking man who just entered.
Meanwhile, Oska appeared like he had seen a ghost. It did not go past Zeno how his hands shook and how his throat bobbed in nervousness.
“Chairman,” Zeno muttered, testing the word on his tongue.
Just then, he felt a nudge by his side. Shin Pyeon was adjacent to him.
“He’s the CEO of SK Channel,” he whispered, sensing Zeno’s confusion.
Zeno nodded in thanks before turning his attention back to the chairman.
It seemed that nobody in the room had expected him to visit.
“What is he doing here?” the staff behind them began to whisper.
“The chairman is busy these days because of his new film. Why would he come around here?”
The chairman, a man who had just celebrated his 60th birthday, looked around the room with sharp eyes. He had salt-and-pepper hair, glasses that screamed he was an ‘artist,’ and a black turtleneck that topped off the look.
Zeno looked at him closely, and it was then he realized who he really was.
“Sit down,” he said. It left an ambiguous mood. They didn’t know whether to follow him or not. Ultimately, his tone left no room for argument.
Oska was still frozen, though, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. But with one sharp look from the chairman, he quickly sat.
Daeshim PD remained standing.
“Chairman, what are you doing here?” he asked.
The chairman looked around the room until his eyes landed briefly on Zeno. However, it was too quick for anyone except Zeno to notice it.
“Why?” he asked. “I can’t join the first read of one of the biggest dramas of the year?”
Daeshim’s mouth went agape, and the other actors also began feeling nervous. “You’re going to attend the first read?”
“That’s what I said, right?” the chairman said with a smirk.
Oska appeared like all of the blood on his face had drained. He quickly tried to take a sip of water. However, the bottle slipped from his hand, drenching his pants and leaving a large, wet stain around his crotch area.
“Fuck,” he couldn’t help but curse.
The chairman’s gaze snapped at him, and he pursed his lips. The staff quickly tended to him, helping him with the mess.
Everyone’s eyes were on Oska. However, Zeno was focused on the chairman, noting the subtle changes in his expression.
“Apologies,” Oska said, snapping everyone back to the main agenda—the chairman was going to watch them.
“Prepare a seat,” Daeshim PD said to the staff. They quickly scrambled to find one, moving it to the middle. That would somehow displace Annie, just like Zeno.
So, the chairman shook his head and pulled the chair out to the corner of the front table instead.
“I’m staying here,” he said. With that, he sat, once again not leaving any room for argument.
The room was silent. It seemed that the air conditioning even fell silent with the chairman’s presence.
Daeshim PD cleared his throat, suddenly feeling nervous. Despite being a veteran in the industry, the chairman was far more experienced than he was.
“I’m done with my preliminary announcements,” he started off. Then, he gestured toward the script. “Let’s start then.”
Everyone turned their scripts to the first pages. The chairman was quickly handed one, and he also flipped it over, noting the remarkable writing from the first page alone.
Daeshim PD turned toward Oska, who still appeared a bit out of it.
“Go ahead,” he said.
Oska pursed his lips and nodded, conditioning himself. He closed his eyes for a moment and began imagining the life of the modern Hajin.
It was one of the reasons why the book was so well-loved—the relatable beginning.
Oska finally opened his eyes and cleared his throat.
“They say life is what you make of it,” he started off.
Everyone in the room paid attention. As the very first scene, it was what set the people’s expectations of the drama.
It was centered around the modern Hajin, so the main character carried nearly all of the burden for this scene.
The chairman frowned as Oska continued.
“People call it normal, but I call it distant.”
Despite the chairman’s frown, the look on his face was unreadable. Daeshim PD found himself glancing more at the chairman rather than focusing on Osaka’s reading.
“Of course, sometimes, I feel things,” Oska continued, his eyes focused on the script.
He had quickly regained confidence, so he squared his shoulders and began reading in a loud voice without making any mistakes.
Right off the bat, the staff could say that he was doing a good job. Despite his initial nervousness, he was pulling it off.
However, Annie didn’t look satisfied.
This opening scene was quite short. The readers don’t know much about modern Hajin’s life.
However, she still wanted to get a message across.
It was a scene that showed a normal person’s life and how the awareness of being stuck in a routine had struck him. With that, she could show the contrast of being transmigrated into a much more difficult life.
“I don’t cry much, but I sigh a lot,” Oska read, even sighing in the process.
The action was quite appreciated by the producers, and they nodded to themselves.
“Sometimes I step closer to the edge, not because I want to fall, but just to see if I can. If the sky might say something back.”
“And for once, it did.”
The scene ended at that, and it would mark the transition to the next scene. The modern Hajin, while looking up at the sky at the highest floor of his office, trips on a banana and falls to his death.
However, in this quest, he will wake up as the illegitimate son of Prince Wang Suk.
They flipped over to the next page, ready for the dialogue of when he woke up in another world.
Oska gasped loudly to start with. However, the chairman suddenly raised his hand. They didn’t halt right away.
Daeshim PD, whose gaze was stuck on him since the beginning of the table read, cleared his throat.
“Pause,” he said.
That led the actors and staff to turn to him, wondering why he had stopped it right after the monologue.
They all turned to the chairman, who had his legs crossed with his chin against his palm. He hummed steadily, causing the nerves to shoot up in the room once again.
Then, he finally lifted his gaze, only to meet with Zeno’s, who was, surprisingly, deeply on him.
“I want you to read it.”