Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 84

Woojin frowned slightly, trying to recall the exact date. He knew *Why Did You Come To My House?* Season 1 had premiered in October in his past life. He was a regressor, someone who remembered his past life, but even for him, remembering the precise premiere date of a TV show from years ago was a stretch. He’d been a viewer, not a TV executive! It wasn’t about a changed future, but simply a detail lost in the fog of time. However, something *had* changed. There was a story behind the TV station suddenly moving up the show’s air date, and it was starting right now…

The incident began like this:

“Oh, PD Gong, you’re here?”

“Yes, Director. But what’s the matter…?”

“There’s something I want to ask you.”

“To me?”

“Yes, to you.”

All of KBC’s entertainment programs are created by the Entertainment Division. Within this division, there are Entertainment Department 1 and Entertainment Department 2. PD Gong Jin-young belonged to Entertainment Department 2, and the director here was Yoo In-sik. Korean TV stations often divide their entertainment programs into bureaus like departments in a company.

“Please, speak, Director.”

Yoo In-sik, the director of Entertainment Department 2, was an ambitious figure who had risen from an entry-level employee of KBC to the director level. Having only held the title of director for half a year, he was eager to prove his abilities. Perhaps that’s why he called PD Gong that day.

“You have an entertainment program in production right now, right? Is it *Why Did You Come To My House*?”

“Yes, Director.”

“How much of it has been filmed?”

“Filming? Why all of a sudden….”

“Just answer me first.”

“We recently filmed up to the third episode’s worth. Editing is only done up to the second episode, though.”

“Hmm….”

Recently, Director Yoo In-sik had a major headache because one of the entertainment programs he had strongly supported when he took office, *The Law of Ten Thousand Times*, had completely flopped. Even though it was scheduled for the golden time slot of 9 PM on Sunday nights, its viewership ratings dropped very low. The ratings weren’t bad from the start; they began as average. But as time went on, they gradually declined. Then, a fatal incident occurred on the broadcast: the two main panelists hosting *The Law of Ten Thousand Times* caused a drug scandal that even involved sexual misconduct. As a result, the viewership ratings plummeted. They hastily replaced the cast, but it was no use.

“PD Gong, it’s already well-known, but I’ve been worried about *The Law of Ten Thousand Times* lately.”

As Yoo In-sik brought up the subject, Gong Jin-young nodded.

“Yes, Director.”

“Do you happen to know the viewership ratings for last week’s broadcast of *The Law of Ten Thousand Times*?”

“Did it get around 2 percent?”

At PD Gong’s question, Yoo In-sik shook his head and smiled bitterly.

“2 percent? It’s less than 1%.”

“What? What does that mean….”

The phrase ‘less than 1%’ meant that the viewership ratings were only meaningful if you checked down to the decimal point. The fact that a public broadcast entertainment program recorded decimal point viewership ratings was a disgrace to the Entertainment Department.

“Planned schedule or whatever, that’s not what’s important right now. Do you understand what I mean?”

“I agree. I didn’t know it would drop this low either.”

KBC’s Entertainment Division is in a competitive relationship between Entertainment Department 1 and Entertainment Department 2. Moreover, Entertainment Department 1 had been on a winning streak recently. From Yoo In-sik’s perspective, he wanted to end *The Law of Ten Thousand Times* as soon as possible.

Yoo In-sik and Gong Jin-young’s gazes briefly met. Now, Gong Jin-young seemed to know why Director Yoo In-sik had called her.

“Director, you want to put *Why Did You Come To My House* in that slot…?”

At Gong Jin-young’s words, Yoo In-sik nodded and replied.

“Yes, exactly.”

Gong Jin-young’s eyes lit up slightly at that answer.

“But the time slot is better than the original schedule….”

The scheduling time of an entertainment program is, of course, closely related to its success. Therefore, the golden time slot of 9 PM on Sundays was not an easy time slot for Gong Jin-young, an entry-level PD, to enter. Of course, if the director said he would put it in, she would, but there might be complaints among other PDs.

Yoo In-sik, knowing what Gong Jin-young was thinking, shook his head and replied.

“I know what you’re worried about, but you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Yes?”

“Rather, right now, the other guys are worried that I might tell them to push their programs into this slot.”

“……?”

PD Gong looked puzzled. At that, Yoo In-sik smiled bitterly and spoke again.

“Because I’m planning to move up the end date of *The Law of Ten Thousand Times* to early October.”

“Y-yes?!”

As mentioned earlier, the 9 PM Sunday night time slot was a time slot that most PDs in the Entertainment Department would desire. But no matter how good the time slot is, you need to have prepared content to succeed. If you force yourself to prepare an entertainment program to fit the schedule just because you’re greedy for the time slot, and then ruin the program, that would really be the worst outcome. If you go into the slot of an entertainment program that was prematurely terminated for a bad reason and disappoint viewers again, it was only natural that the PD who planned the program would have a bad mark on their career.

“Early October… That’s about two weeks left?”

“That’s right.”

Gong Jin-young, now understanding the whole situation, couldn’t help but feel conflicted. From her perspective, it was a gamble with considerable risk. But there is always a sufficient return where there is a great risk. And PD Gong Jin-young had very firm confidence in *Why Did You Come To My House*. So her 고민 was not very long.

“I’ll do it.”

“You’ll do it?”

“Please let me do it.”

“You said you’ve only filmed up to the third episode’s worth?”

“I’ll make sure to have up to the fifth episode’s worth ready before the broadcast.”

“Hmm….”

Yoo In-sik nodded slowly. If even PD Gong Jin-young refused, he would have no other options left anyway. Yoo In-sik wanted to avoid broadcasting an entertainment program with decimal point viewership ratings for several more months at all costs.

“Okay. I can trust you, right, PD Gong?”

Gong Jin-young nodded with a confident expression.

“Of course, Director. The first and second episodes also turned out much better than I expected.”

“Then I’ll trust you.”

The first broadcast date of *Why Did You Come To My House* was set for early October like this. And the hellish schedule that unfolded before Woojin could be said to be the result of the meeting of PD Gong Jin-young and Woojin’s ambitions.

The last week of September. Thursday, the last day of September in that week. Woojin had to take a day off from his major class today. Even after trying to adjust the schedule as much as possible with the cast and PD Gong, there was no other option. So today was the day Woojin’s third shoot was scheduled.

“CEO Seo, you’re here?”

“Yes, PD. It’s been a few days since I saw you again.”

“Is that a complaint?”

“You misunderstand. Haha.”

So far, the *Why Did You Come To My House* filming team had done a total of three shoots, and today was the fourth filming day. But Woojin had joined the filming from the second shoot, so today was his third shoot.

“Hey, CEO Seo! You’re here early?”

Yoon Jae-yeop, who got out of the van, found Woojin and greeted him in a bright voice. Then Woojin also smiled and replied.

“Yes, hyung. I just got here too.”

Woojin had become quite friendly with the cast. After having a light dinner on the day the second shoot ended, they started exchanging personal contacts. That was why Yoon Jae-yeop spoke comfortably to Woojin. Sooha, who had been friendly with Woojin from the start, became even more comfortable.

“Jae-yeop oppa, am I not visible? You only like Woojin too much.”

Sooha, who had arrived a little earlier than Woojin, glared and teasingly scolded him, and Jae-yeop smiled and retorted.

“Hey, is Sooha the same as Woojin? Our Woojin is fresh.”

Jae-yeop is a few years older than Sooha, but he is almost fifteen years older than Woojin, so Jae-yeop was teasing Sooha about her age.

“We’re both in our 30s, aren’t you being too much?”

“I’m just trying to take care of our team’s ace, so you understand.”

“Ace?”

“Thanks to Woojin, every shoot goes well. I have to take good care of him so I can keep getting carried.”

“Ah. You know I brought that ace, right?”

“Of course.”

In the last second shoot, Woojin showed no less activity than in the first shoot. Of course, it wasn’t funny in terms of entertainment. However, the content of the second shoot started with preparing Jae-yeop’s house ‘self-interior’. From the design meeting to the meeting on the design plan, showing sharp professionalism with appropriate wit, he extracted a great amount of content that exceeded the expectations of the cast. Jae-yeop, who heard Woojin’s design plan, was genuinely impressed, not because of the broadcast. So Jae-yeop was very much looking forward to today’s shoot because today’s continued filming was finally about the full-scale start of the interior of Jae-yeop’s house.

Then why did Jae-yeop arrive later than Woojin, even though his house was the filming location? That was not the case. The place where today’s filming started was the ‘Distribution Complex’ in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu. To be exact, it was ‘Luxury Housing’, an interior material specialty company inside the distribution complex.

“Ugh! I’m sorry I’m late. The car was a bit blocked!”

Finally, Yuria arrived at the filming location, and the filming team quickly finished setting up. Since the filming agreement with the ‘Luxury Housing’ official had already been completed, they were in a situation where they could start filming at any time. And what’s interesting is that the fact that this filming cooperation could be obtained smoothly was also thanks to Woojin.

“Manager Park! Thank you for your filming cooperation.”

“We should be the ones thanking you, CEO. If it’s on the air, it’s good for us too.”

‘Luxury Housing’ was one of the companies frequently used by WJ Studio. Park Soon-cheol, the manager in charge of this distribution complex store, was also someone Woojin knew well. While Woojin was talking with Manager Park for a while, all the filming settings were finished.

“Ms. Ria, are you all ready?”

“Yes, PD!”

Following Ria’s answer as a starting point, the fourth filming of *Why Did You Come To My House* began immediately.

“Ria, you’re the closest to home, so you didn’t happen to be late, did you?”

“The person who is closest is always the latest, oppa.”

“Wow, Yuria is so brazen!”

Watching Jae-yeop and Ria naturally bickering as soon as filming started, Woojin couldn’t help but inwardly think how natural they looked. It was confusing where their daily life ended and where the filming started.