Chapter 92
“Ah, Han Hye-joo. I was actually calling to ask where you were...”
Han Hye-joo looked down at the phone in her hand and tilted her head.
“I didn’t get any call.”
“No, I called Manager Jo.”
“Why?”
Han Hye-joo asked as if wondering why I had called her manager instead of her.
“Well, since this is an official meeting... By the way, didn’t Manager Jo come with you?”
“He’s parking the car right now.”
Han Hye-joo answered indifferently, looking somewhat displeased.
Then her eyes slowly traveled up and down my body.
“What’s with that look?”
“No reason. This is the first time I’ve seen you since you were discharged, but somehow you look worse than when I visited you in the army. Maybe military life really suited you?”
I was dumbfounded by Han Hye-joo’s sarcastic tone.
But this wasn’t the time to argue with her, so I quickly continued.
“Han Hye-joo, let’s catch up on personal matters later. For now, I think we should go meet the writer and director first. Everyone’s waiting.”
Han Hye-joo slightly narrowed her eyes at my urging.
“The writer must be annoyed because I’m late, huh? Fine. Let’s go first.”
With that, Han Hye-joo leisurely walked toward the private room.
Watching her, I suddenly had an ominous feeling.
No way... She isn’t going to cause some kind of trouble, is she?
A plate of premium tuna sashimi sat in the middle of the table.
Manager Jo, who was in charge of Han Hye-joo from her agency, poured sake from an expensive ceramic bottle into Writer Hong Yeon-hee’s and Director Won Se-chang’s cups.
“I heard Writer Hong can hold her liquor quite well. How about you, Director? Can you drink?”
“Ah, I may look like I can drink an entire barrel, but I can barely handle alcohol. My body doesn’t break it down well. Still, I’ll accept a glass out of courtesy. Haha.”
Won Se-chang quickly raised his cup and accepted the sake Manager Jo poured.
He then looked toward Han Hye-joo.
“By the way, Han Hye-joo looks much better in person than on screen. Wow. If the camera can’t capture this properly, I’ll have to tell our cinematographer to work harder. Haha.”
The older director praised her almost as if he were flattering her.
Han Hye-joo merely gave him an awkward smile instead of answering.
Manager Jo continued enthusiastically.
“Anyway, Writer Hong, your new project is incredible. At first, I was surprised because it feels very different from your previous works, but as expected from someone with your reputation, I can already smell a huge hit coming.”
He chuckled.
“We’re simply honored that you’re considering our Hye-joo for the second female lead in a drama like this.”
Despite Manager Jo’s generous compliments, Hong Yeon-hee had been sitting there with an unhappy expression the entire time.
Finally, she turned toward Han Hye-joo.
“Did you read the proposal and the script? I hear a lot of young actors these days show up without even reading them.”
Han Hye-joo looked back at Hong Yeon-hee, who was clearly testing her, and replied indifferently.
“Well, I skimmed through them before coming.”
Perhaps it was the word skimmed.
The corner of Hong Yeon-hee’s mouth twisted slightly.
“Ha. So the rumors are true.”
Han Hye-joo tilted her head.
“Rumors? What kind of rumors are there about me?”
What is this? What’s with that attitude?
I was instantly taken aback.
Han Hye-joo almost seemed determined to make herself look arrogant on purpose.
Sure enough, Hong Yeon-hee frowned deeply and raised her voice in disbelief.
“Do I have to tell you that too? If you’re curious, go find out yourself.”
Then she continued coldly.
“And you seem to be misunderstanding something. I didn’t contact you first because I liked you. Director Won recommended you so strongly that I agreed to meet you once. That’s all.”
Han Hye-joo had started acting as a child actress, so her career already exceeded ten years.
Even so, I didn’t think she was at a level where she could casually disrespect directors or writers.
That was why I couldn’t understand her current behavior at all.
Even when established actors acted like this, it was usually done to establish dominance over rookie writers or inexperienced directors.
But behaving this way toward a writer like Hong Yeon-hee, who had already become one of the industry’s most respected figures, went beyond anything normal.
Han Hye-joo looked at Hong Yeon-hee and raised the corner of her lips slightly.
“You seem upset because I said I only skimmed it... but honestly, I didn’t have enough time to read it properly.”
Han Hye-joo explained that she simply told the truth because she wasn’t good at lying.
She added that since she had only skimmed through it, pretending she had carefully read everything would mean deceiving the writer.
That would be even more disrespectful.
“Anyway, if what I said offended you, I apologize.”
Han Hye-joo remained calm and confident throughout the entire conversation.
Hong Yeon-hee seemed unsure how she was supposed to react to that apology.
No.
Even though Han Hye-joo had apologized, Hong Yeon-hee somehow felt as if she had lost the confrontation.
It was ridiculous.
The atmosphere inside the room instantly turned cold.
Director Won Se-chang quickly spoke up, clearly trying to change the mood.
“That’s right. Honesty is better than lying. Haha. And it hasn’t even been that many days since we sent the script. When would she have had time to read everything properly?”
He jokingly added that Han Hye-joo should actually be praised for managing to read even part of it before coming.
Manager Jo immediately jumped in after gaining support from Director Won.
“Writer Hong, Hye-joo isn’t lying.”
He explained that unfortunately, starting from the very day they received the script, Han Hye-joo had been constantly traveling to different regions for advertisement shoots.
Because of that, she hadn’t had enough time to properly sit down and read it.
Manager Jo had even offered to simply explain the summarized plot to her.
However, Han Hye-joo had insisted that reading at least some of it herself was basic courtesy toward the writer.
So even during her packed schedule, she had read it whenever she found a little free time.
“Writer Hong, please understand the circumstances and look kindly on our Hye-joo.”
After both Won Se-chang and Manager Jo repeatedly defended Han Hye-joo, Hong Yeon-hee let out a dry laugh as if the whole scene was ridiculous.
“Fine. Since you’re asking me to look kindly on her, I’ll try.”
Her smile looked friendly.
Her words did not.
“Then what did you think about the proposal and script that you only skimmed through?”
There were obvious thorns hidden in her tone.
Han Hye-joo looked at her and gave a faint smile before answering calmly.
“Honestly, it was a little difficult.”
Hong Yeon-hee’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“It also felt different from your previous works, Writer Hong.”
Han Hye-joo continued.
“But I liked Bora’s character. She’s Se-young’s best friend, but because they love the same man, they inevitably become romantic rivals.”
Her earlier arrogance had disappeared.
