It was a cold morning in Seoul City. The price of rent had gone up, so most people lived in budget apartments without any heating system.
“Ah, I hope they can install a heater in our home,” Minji shivered as she placed a jacket on. “But then again, the rent is quite cheap here compared to the rest of the city.”
In the heart of Gangnam, however, employees in a large building complained about being too warm.
“Why did they have to crank the heater so high up?” an employee asked.
“Yeah, it’s attracting the homeless people because it radiates outside.”
“Tsk. Tsk. They should have just invested more in our gym equipment.”
Minseok entered the building and instantly smiled. “That’s right,” he muttered. “This is how it was supposed to be.”
The facilities inside the building were insane. There was a real urban garden outside, filled with fresh produce, that was served to the employees for free during their lunchtime. There was also a gym, both for staff and for their actors. Practice rooms were as large as some of the apartments in Seoul, and of course, their ventilation and heating systems were topnotch.
It was a modern paradise.
Minseok went to the reception table and said his name out loud, smirking as other employees turned to him.
“You may take the elevator, sir,” the receptionist said. With that, Minseok walked to the meeting place with his head held high.
Of course, he was expecting to get cast for the movie. He believed he performed the best out of everyone during the auditions. It was yet to be revealed what role he had gotten, but Minseok was confident.
He had definitely gotten the speaking role.
As he entered, some of the other actors were already there. Jisoo and Selina were one seat apart. Selina was on her phone while Jisoo tried striking up a conversation.
“I saw your latest music video. My brother really likes it,” Jisoo smiled.
Selina merely nodded but didn’t bother casting her a glance.
Jisoo pursed her lips and looked away. Then, her eyes caught Minseok, so she bowed her head as a greeting.
Selina, too, lifted her head to see who it was. However, her face twisted into a scowl when Minseok came into her view.
“This annoying guy again,” she muttered, remembering how he was during the audition process.
It wasn’t like Selina was any better, though.
“What’s up, ladies?” he said, showing his signature smile. “I knew it. I would be acting with the two of you.”
Selina pursed her lips while Jisoo politely smiled. “Nice to meet you. I don’t think we’ve been acquainted before.”
“Minseok,” he said, holding out his hand. “My name is pretty easy to remember.”
Jisoo chuckled awkwardly. “Jisoo,” she merely said, feeling she was in the presence of two weird individuals.
Just then, the doors opened, and Chaewon PD came in with Jiho, Insu, and another unfamiliar man.
The actors all stood, with Selina placing her phone back in her pocket. Then, she smiled sweetly.
“Good morning, PD,” she greeted.
“I see you’re here,” Chaewon said, taking a seat in the very middle. “I have my assistant director, Jiho, and the producer, Insu, with me today. They’ve been introduced before.”
“And right here is Joohyuk Jang, the casting director of Moonrise Media,” she introduced the tall man wearing glasses.
He merely smiled before opening his laptop.
Minseok’s heart began racing. Why would the casting director come here of all places? That could only mean one thing. He wanted to cast him to become one of the Moonrise Media actors!
Minseok was already under Constant Dominance Entertainment, but it was a smaller company than Moonrise. If he left his current company, there would be a severance fee. However, Minseok was sure Moonrise would pay for it without any hesitation!
He chuckled to himself, already enjoying the scenarios in his mind.
Chaewon looked at her watch and then at the people inside the room.
“Where is he?” she asked. “He did respond to you, right?”
“He did,” Joohyuk answered. “He answered the latest, but he said he would be here.”
Minseok frowned when they started talking about another actor. “Who are we waiting for?” he couldn’t help but ask.
Chaewon lifted her head, not really liking the tone of the young man despite him asking a simple question.
Before she could respond, however, the door opened, and the person they were waiting for finally arrived.
Selina frowned when she saw who it was. Meanwhile, Jisoo’s eyes widened. Minseok, on the other hand, couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Him again?
What the heck was he doing here? Wasn’t it specified before that there would only be three speaking roles?
“There you are,” Chaewon PD sighed. “You are not late, but I would suggest coming earlier. You cannot have the PD arrive before you.”
Zeno pursed his lips. Then, they should have placed a different call time on the text!
He sighed and shook his head, going to the vacant seat right next to Jisoo. The latter smiled at him, so he politely bowed in response. Jisoo bit her lip and looked away. Out of all the actors in the room, Zeno was the only one who greeted her normally.
Since they were seated next to each other, Jisoo couldn’t help but smell his cologne, too. It smelled fresh and clean, unlike the strong, musky scent that wafted from Minseok.
“Now that you’re all here,” Chaewon PD started off. “Let’s head straight to business.”
“Jiho will be distributing the script for the final arc, and there, you can also see what roles you are going to partake in,” she continued.
Minseok excitedly received his script, going straight to the first page where his role was written.
“What’s my name this time?” he muttered with a wide smile. However, as he read the character’s name next to his real one, his smile quickly dropped.
“Sleazy boyfriend?” he exclaimed, capturing everyone’s attention.
Chaewon also frowned, her head hurting from his voice. Still, it strengthened her belief that they cast the right person for the role.
Then, Minseok continued reading through the roles, his heart nearly stopping when he saw that Zeno’s character had a name—not just a title, but a real one.
“Zeno Han as Dr. Song?” he muttered.