“Kim Kim! Have some of this.”
The popular Tick star grabbed the coffee from an innocent intern. She smiled at him, and that was enough to send him into a spiral.
Ollie, the writer of Story Lab’s March release, arrived and gave Kim a hug. “I heard your uncle is here,” he said.
“He’s right there,” Kim said, pointing at CEO Jean, who was mingling well with the staff.
“I see. I’ll talk to him later. For now, let me thank you for coming to this production,” Ollie said. “I almost thought you were going to act in that intern’s series.”
Kim shrugged. “I like your writing better, of course.”
Ollie laughed out loud, flattered by the pretty woman’s compliment.
“Ollie!” Jean exclaimed. “You’ve finally arrived.”
Kim bowed her head. “I’ll leave the two of you to talk.”
Ollie nodded as she left. “You have such a well-mannered niece,” he said. “No wonder she’s a star.”
“Of course,” Jean chuckled. “She has my blood, after all.”
“But why are we airing another series when I already made one?” Ollie couldn’t help but ask. He thought the entirety of March was going to be for him.
Jean shook his head. “You said the script wouldn’t be ready until the end of March, Ollie. Did you forget? Besides, that intern begged on his knees, saying this was his lifelong dream. I couldn’t leave the month of March empty, so I had to give it to him.”
Ollie smiled. “Well, you’re right. I had actually taken inspiration from his script, so I managed to finish this one.”
Jean laughed out loud. “Ah, really. That kid writes well, but I believe it won’t sell. It’s way too formal, don’t you think?”
Ollie nodded in agreement. “That is why this series is going to triumph over his. I can’t wait to make another hit series.”
Jean patted his shoulder. “You already got the first step down. Your cast is much better.”
Ollie smirked. However, it slightly dropped when he remembered something. “But… isn’t Zeno Han in that series?”
“He is,” Jean said. “However, what does he have against Kim and the rest of your cast?”
“Hmm,” Ollie hummed. “I guess you’re right. By the way, can you provide us with more equipment? I don’t think four cameras are enough for the production.”
“Sure!” Jean said without any hesitation. “Now, go ahead. Your time slot is every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, starting from the first week of March, so you have your work cut out for you.”
Ollie scoffed. “That is nothing for a veteran like me.”
“Let’s get started, everyone!”
“Kim, Rex, and… Minseok. Go to your places. We’ll start the filming right away.”
***
“Well, we are given a week and a half to prepare for the first three episodes,” Young started off, orienting the actors of what was to be expected.
“We will try to film three episodes per week. However, that is flexible since we only have ten episodes. The episodes will then be aired in the first week of March, on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.”
“Can we even do it?” Jordie asked. “I take one week filming my content.”
“It’s not your content,” Zeno said before he could stop himself. He pursed his lips as they all turned to him.
“Can we start?” he asked, diverting the attention. “We’ve already lost a lot of time.”
Young smiled and nodded. “Yes, yes,” he said. “We’ll be filming Scene 1 through 5 for this day. Please go ahead with your costume changes.”
Zeno nodded and stood before everybody else. Sammy followed while twirling her hair. Meanwhile, Jordie wrapped one arm around Jaehyun and clicked his tongue.
“I don’t like that guy,” he muttered.
Jaehyun turned to him with a smile. “Who? Zeno?”
“Yes,” Jordie grumbled. “Does he think he’s better than us just because he acted in some big-shot films and dramas? He’s only an extra! Besides, I stalked his Sigmoid account and saw he doesn’t even have 50,000 followers.”
“That’s pathetic!” he exclaimed. “If there’s one person who can act that way, it should be you.”
Jaehyun’s shoulders unconsciously squared.
“You have a million followers on Tick, and you have fangirls worshipping the ground you walk on.”
Jaehyun pursed his lips to hide his smirk.
“No wonder you’re the main character!” Jordie continued to glaze Jaehyun. The latter enjoyed it very much.
“Aside from that,” Jordie continued. “Isn’t he 24 years old? Why is he acting in a high school drama? All of us are around 18 to 19, so it’s believable. I can’t believe an old man is with us.”
Jaehyun chuckled and patted Jordie’s shoulder. “Don’t think too much about it. We should just enjoy the filming.”
Jordie smiled. “I like your attitude, man. Let’s go then. I’m dying to wear a high school uniform.”
With that, they entered the dressing room. However, what greeted them was the sight of Zeno taking his shirt off. Jaehyun and Jordie stopped in their tracks as they looked at his body.
Was this what they called… a sleeper build?
It didn’t look obvious in his outfit, but he was quite ripped! Even Jordie, the gym enthusiast, couldn’t help but admire his muscle quality. However, he wasn’t going to lose! His body was bigger than Zeno’s, so he took off his shirt and squared off his shoulders.
Zeno couldn’t care less, though.
He finished buttoning up his uniform before heading out of the dressing room.
“What’s taking them so long?” Sammy asked as she fixed her lip gloss.
Shelly merely shrugged.
“You don’t talk much, do you?” Sammy then turned to her. “You also seem that way in the Beast House. I wonder how you even entered when you don’t even have a million followers.”
Shelly nervously chuckled, turning to the side. However, her breath got caught when she saw who was coming from the side.
Zeno, in his high school uniform, trudged to the crew, capturing their attention. He was the oldest among them, but why did he look so young?
Meanwhile, Young smiled in satisfaction. This kind of image was what he was going for. Zeno had the kind of look that you wouldn’t necessarily call ‘trendy’ in today’s era. Instead, he had a classic look, one that appeared to have a lot of potential.
It was crazy because Young already thought he was handsome, but there was definitely a lot of room for improvement.
Just then, Jaehyun and Jordie also arrived. They were the ones who had the ‘trendy’ type of handsomeness. Thus, the crew began fussing about them more than Zeno.
“Jaehyun, you suit the uniform well.”
“As expected from our main lead.”
“Jordie’s so hot.”
Young cleared his throat, capturing everyone’s attention.
“Let’s start.”