Kang Woojin was coming to France for the first time in his life. His face as he entered the arrival hall of Nice Airport was as indifferent as ever.
“……”
It was all for show. But the real Kang Woojin wasn’t calm at all. He was completely frozen inside.
Why?
-Pabababababapak!
Because the moment the doors of the arrival hall opened, it was like lightning struck.He had heard that reporters would gather, but when those from various countries were suddenly right in front of him, Woojin’s heart raced abruptly. And there were hundreds of them.
‘M-Madness!! This is so freaking unreal!’
Reporters of various ethnicities were taking pictures of Kang Woojin like crazy. Half of them probably didn’t even know exactly who he was, but it felt like they were just snapping pictures regardless. Anyway, it was quite a spectacle. Although he’d seen this many reporters before, it was the first time seeing so many foreigner reporters mixed together. Woojin felt like he had stepped into another world.
‘But why are they taking pictures of me?? They probably don’t even know who I am.’
Woojin’s legs froze from the rising tension. Without realizing it, he stopped at the entrance of the arrival hall, and the ponytailed Choi Sung-gun, the team members, and even the guards following Woojin all stopped in their tracks. Choi Sung-gun leaned in close to Woojin and whispered.
“What’s wrong? Photo time? Okay, but let’s keep it short if possible.”
What are you even talking about? This was a clear misunderstanding. Woojin’s body had genuinely frozen from the pressure. Still, thanks to Choi Sung-gun, Kang Woojin managed to clear his head a bit. Soon, wearing a deep poker face, he nodded solemnly.
– Swoosh.
He raised his hand towards the hundreds of reporters. It was ridiculously bold. But to those who didn’t know what he was truly like, it probably seemed quite composed. At this moment, among the foreign reporters, the Korean reporters shouted.
“Woojin-ssi!! Woojin-ssi!!!”
“Hello!! Kang Woojin-ssi!! Please look this way!”
“Heart sign!! Can you do a heart sign?!!”
“Please say something to your fans back home!!”
“Kang Woojin-ssi!! This is your first time at the Cannes Film Festival! How do you feel!!”
There seemed to be quite a lot of them. About 30 or so? Desperately shouting among the large foreign reporters. Perhaps feeling sorry for them, or for some other reason, Woojin showed them a heart sign. Of course, very solemnly.
More onlookers gathered. The reporters who had strayed also returned.
Broadcast teams from various countries outside also started to flood into the airport. It was chaos. Nice Airport was, in a word, packed with people. From a distance, it looked like a swarm of ants. Soon, Choi Sung-gun gave Woojin a gentle push on the back and said.
“Let’s move.”
Kang Woojin, who nodded, finally started moving. Even so, he muttered inwardly.
‘What is this place. Is this a dream? This doesn’t feel real at all. My head’s about to explode.’
Just maintaining his tough act was a bit overwhelming. Thus, Woojin barely managed to follow the path the guards had carved out for him, slowly making his way out of the airport. Countless tourists outside the airport snapped pictures of Woojin with their phones. Anyway, following Choi Sung-gun’s lead, Kang Woojin got into the prepared van.
He almost let out a sigh of relief.
As soon as the van door closed, the two vans, including the one with Woojin in it, quickly sped off. Even for more than five minutes, people were still visible outside the window. It took over 10 minutes of driving before they finally reached a somewhat quieter road.
Only then did Kang Woojin realize.
‘Wow- This is really insane.’
That he had truly set foot at the Cannes Film Festival.
Afterwards.
The drive from Nice Airport to Cannes took about an hour. Soon, Kang Woojin would arrive in Cannes. Wearing a hoodie and continuously looking out the window, his expression didn’t show much change. It was full of cynicism. However, his mind was filled with pure emotion.
‘Wow- seriously…… no, wow-’
He kept letting out gasps of awe. The reason was simple. The scenery unfolding on the way to Cannes was spectacular. The endlessly stretched sea, the islands visible far in the distance, the picturesque beaches, and the movie-like villages that occasionally came into view.
It didn’t feel like the same world.
‘What the hell is this place!’
If it weren’t for his act, Kang Woojin would have already been fussing with excitement. He had traveled to places like LA, Japan, Bangkok, and Vietnam as an actor, but this place was the most shocking of all.
Thanks to this, Kang Woojin couldn’t take his eyes off the scenery outside the window.
Every second felt precious.
Meanwhile, Woojin was instinctively reviewing one of the skills engraved into him. What could it be? Among the many languages, it was ‘French’. Since he was in the homeland of ‘French’, he figured he might suddenly need to use it at some point.
At that moment.
“Woojin.”
Choi Sung-gun, sitting right next to him, who had just tied his ponytail again, pointed ahead with his index finger.
“We’re entering Cannes.”
It meant they had arrived at the place where the Cannes Film Festival would be held in all its grandeur. Looking straight ahead, the entrance of a rather large city came into view. The densely packed buildings surrounded by the sea and beaches, the cars and people filling the streets between them. For a moment, Kang Woojin was reminded of an amusement park on Children’s Day.
‘Wo- Shit! The airport was just a warm-up??! Can we even get through this??!’
Thanks to the Cannes Film Festival opening this afternoon, the city of Cannes was already packed to the brim. The traffic was terrible. No, it would be more accurate to say it was crawling. Still, Kang Woojin wasn’t bored. There was plenty to see outside the window.
This city seemed like it existed solely for the Cannes Film Festival.
About an hour later.
“Ah! Look, look!!”
One of the stylists, who had been to Cannes last year, shouted.
“That’s where the Cannes Film Festival is held!! Ah! What’s it called again?!”
Choi Sung-gun, who smiled faintly, answered for her.
“Palais des Festivals.”
“Right! That’s the place!”
The famous ‘Palais des Festivals’, where the Cannes Film Festival is held every year.
It was a venue of enormous scale. At the front entrance, there was a massive billboard, and overall, the building was covered in glass. It had three large halls, about six medium-sized ones, and more than 20 smaller halls, all spread across a six-story building. By the way, in front of this ‘Palais des Festivals’ building, a massive red carpet would be rolled out, and the opening ceremony, closing, and awards ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival would be held there.
In addition, inside the ‘Palais des Festivals’, the massive Lumière Theater would screen the 20 films in the ‘In Competition’ section.
Around the ‘Palais des Festivals’, even at a glance, there were thousands of people gathered.
‘Whoa- this is insane.’
Since it was the main event of the Cannes Film Festival, more than half of the crowd were tourists. Everyone was busy taking pictures with the ‘Palais des Festivals’ as the backdrop. The rest of the crowd consisted of personnel from the Cannes Film Festival. It seemed like they were still finishing up some final preparations. Of course, it was related to the festival’s opening this afternoon, and even on the beach side, outdoor screening venues were being set up.
Reporters and broadcast teams were busy filming, and there were many tourists being interviewed here and there.
In front of the ‘Palais des Festivals’, a metal fence had been set up several meters from the entrance, and in the middle, a wide red carpet was being rolled out.
Choi Sung-gun, who had been taking it all in, spoke to Kang Woojin.
“That’s the place. Where you’ll walk when the opening ceremony starts.”
The corners of Choi Sung-gun’s mouth were practically stretched to his ears.
“When the time comes, at least tens of thousands of people will be there.”
At this very moment.
Something huge was happening overseas. Specifically, on the social media of the global star Miley Cara, who had over hundreds of millions of followers.
She had uploaded a new post at the scheduled time.
-[Everyone! The teaser for the title track of my new album’s music video is finally out! You can check it out on my YouTube channel, and the official release of my new album is on October 12th……]
Attached to the post was a photo of the new album’s jacket, along with the official release date. The release of Cara’s new album, in which Kang Woojin had participated, was set for October 12th, just about ten days away. Whatever the case, this post immediately received an overwhelming amount of likes and comments.
It was being updated by the second. This was practically a bombardment.
With her follower count easily surpassing hundreds of millions globally, it was, of course, expected. The interesting thing was that amidst the comments written in various languages, the name ‘Kang Woojin’ occasionally appeared. The fact that a Korean actor had participated in the production of Cara’s new album had already become a hot topic among Cara’s vast fanbase.
By now, Cara’s YouTube channel was already in a state of overflow.
The music video teaser uploaded just moments before had already surpassed hundreds of thousands of views. At this rate, it was obvious that it would easily hit 1 million views within a matter of minutes.
The running time of the music video teaser was 15 seconds.
After the title of Cara’s new album appeared at the beginning, a very short snippet of the title track’s hook played, followed by Cara appearing in various outfits. And then, towards the end of the teaser, a sudden piano melody began playing.
-♬♪
Next, a Korean actor seated at the piano, namely Kang Woojin, appeared for roughly 2 seconds. It was incredibly brief, but Kang Woojin would probably be the first and last Korean actor to participate in such a way in an artist of Cara’s caliber. That’s because there’s no way an actor would have the abilities to participate in an album of an artist of Cara’s caliber.
Comments in various languages poured in like a flood.
And naturally, Cara’s fans from around the world began moving towards Kang Woojin’s YouTube channel and social media. Thanks to this, Woojin’s numbers, to put it crudely, began to skyrocket.
It was beyond imagination.
Meanwhile, aboard a flying plane.
The destination of this plane was Korea. The plane bound for Korea was packed with the team from ‘Beneficial Evil’. Not only PD Song Man-woo, with heavy dark circles under his eyes, but also writer Choi Na-na, Executive Director Kim So-hyang, and over a hundred staff members were all onboard, returning after completing the overseas filming schedule for ‘Beneficial Evil’.
Half of them were dozing off, while the other half were deep in conversation.
“Phew- time really flew by. I can’t believe the Bangkok shoot ended so quickly.”
“I guess it’s because the entire shoot was just packed with crazy intensity, right? From Miley… no, ‘her’ appearance to Woojin-ssi’s long take and everything else.”
“Ah, but seriously, Woojin-ssi’s action scenes- were killer, totally amazing.”
“The chemistry with ‘her’ was just perfect too, right?”
Kang Woojin was the focal point of the staff’s conversations. At this point, writer Choi Na-na adjusted her round glasses and asked PD Song Man-woo, who was sitting next to her.
“PD-nim, Woojin-ssi must be stirring up quite a storm in Cannes by now, right?”
He turned his head, having been looking at the script with tired eyes.
“Probably. He’s gotta be super busy.”
“…Phew, he must be really exhausted. He went straight there right after finishing filming, didn’t he?”
“Well, he had to be there in time for the opening day. It’s a global event, he can’t afford to be late.”
PD Song Man-woo mumbled to himself and suddenly recalled his first encounter with Kang Woojin. PD Song Man-woo was the first director to discover Woojin when he stepped into the entertainment industry. He found the current situation with Kang Woojin to be rather astonishing.
“It feels like yesterday when we had the preliminary round of ‘Super Actor’. That arrogant monster I saw that day has now gone to a place where being arrogant isn’t even a problem anymore. He’s rubbing shoulders with global actors.”
Writer Choi Na-na rubbed her arms.
“Ugh- Gives me goosebumps.”
Seeing her reaction, PD Song Man-woo chuckled and shifted the topic.
“Although ‘Jang Yeon-woo’ is stepping aside for a bit, we need to speed up our shooting schedule. And, Executive Director-nim.”
“Hm? Yes?”
Sitting a few seats away, Kim So-hyang, who was in the middle of sending a message somewhere, was called by PD Song Man-woo.
“About our ‘Beneficial Evil’, do you think it’s possible to split the release in half?”
“…Split in half- what exactly do you mean?”
“I mean, what if we divided it into two parts? We release the 12 episodes in two segments, 6 episodes each, with a gap between them.”
“Ah.”
“It’s not exactly the same concept as seasons 1 and 2.”
He closed the script he had been looking at and continued explaining.
“Many things have changed from the initial conditions for ‘Beneficial Evil’. Action scenes, ‘CQC’, the script, and even ‘her’ joining the cast.”
“That’s true.”
“The fact that it’s pre-produced is already a given. In my opinion, instead of releasing all 12 episodes at once, it would be better to focus on shooting and editing episodes 1 to 6 as quickly as possible and release them first. Then, after the first segment is launched, we can resume shooting for the second half, episodes 7 to 12.”
“Hmm- so you’re suggesting we release the first 6 episodes in one go?”
“Yes. Plus, it’s practically impossible to keep ‘her’ involvement a secret for long. It’ll leak out somewhere, for sure.”
Kim So-hyang, the Executive Director of Netflix Korea, replied.
“So, the core of what you’re suggesting, PD-nim, is to move up the planned release date of ‘Beneficial Evil’? You want to bring forward the launch schedule, correct?”
“Exactly.”
“We’re not scrapping the second half, just holding it back and releasing the first 6 episodes first- so the schedule would be moved up quite a bit. No, actually, quite significantly.”
PD Song Man-woo formed a fist-sized gap between his thumb and index finger, then halved the space.
“Exactly. With a simple calculation, half of the overall schedule is cut.”
Half? The time required until the launch would be significantly reduced? At PD Song Man-woo’s sudden suggestion, Kim So-hyang stroked her chin and smiled.
“……That’s tempting?”