The latter half of the drama Profiler Hanryang was set in 2010.
Assistant Manager Park appeared in the middle of a case where a body was discovered in the mountains.
What caught everyone's attention was the method of murder.
It matched an unsolved serial murder case from the past.
The world had been turned upside down.
Assistant Manager Park, however, remained calm.
The direction was excellent too.
The first forty-five minutes moved at a brisk pace, but the moment the scene shifted to Assistant Manager Park, the atmosphere suddenly turned slower, quieter, and strangely cozy.
A silent park.
From the very first shot, Assistant Manager Park's face filled the screen in close-up.
His face completely dominated the TV.
Anyone who knew the face of that unknown actor would have recognized him immediately.
And because of that—
"…That crazy bastard."
It wasn't strange at all that Kim Daeyoung reacted as if his eyes were about to pop out of his head.
After all, the friend who had shown up at the short film festival just a few days ago was now appearing in the major drama Profiler Hanryang.
Kim Daeyoung's eyes widened again as he remembered the day he had chased after Kang Woojin.
"So this is the next project you were talking about?!"
He had never imagined the drama Woojin was filming would air this quickly.
Much less that it would turn out to be the most anticipated drama of the first half of the year.
Kim Daeyoung's outburst startled his coworkers again.
"What's wrong?! Seriously? Ah, you scared me."
"Why are you freaking out like that, Daeyoung? What happened?"
"Why are you acting like this?"
Under the barrage of questions, Kim Daeyoung looked dazed.
He was caught somewhere between worry and shock.
"No, it's… he's my…"
Before he could finish, he shut his mouth.
What he had originally meant to say was simple.
That guy is my friend.
But then he remembered Kang Woojin telling him to stay quiet for now.
Even so, the shock didn't fade.
Ah, this damned bastard.
You really did it all in one shot.
What kind of surprise attack is this?
Kim Daeyoung had already been shocked that Kang Woojin appeared in The Private Investigator.
But now his friend, who had somehow turned into an actor overnight, was even appearing in a drama.
And on top of that—
That screen time and those angles are basically supporting-role treatment, aren't they? So his drama debut was as a supporting actor too?
Assistant Manager Park's role definitely didn't look minor at all.
Because of that—
…
Kim Daeyoung couldn't even answer his coworkers.
He simply stared blankly at the TV.
His coworkers, who had been tilting their heads in confusion, soon turned their attention back to the screen.
Assistant Manager Park was shown from multiple angles.
A faint smile.
A blank expression.
In that brief span, front shots and side shots switched rapidly, adding depth.
Anyone could tell that his face was covered in a fake expression.
"..."
There was no dialogue.
Standing quietly in the park, Assistant Manager Park simply stared ahead.
His face filled the entire screen.
Then the corner of his lips lifted slightly before returning to blankness.
That tiny shift was chilling.
A moment later, the corner of his lips rose again.
Only for an instant.
Then it returned to a blank face.
At that, Kim Daeyoung's coworkers burst out.
"Wow, that's really fascinating. Is he practicing smiling right now or something?"
"He looks like a psychopath. He's seriously creepy. That actor is really good, right? If he got cast in that drama, he must be."
"That's amazing. Look at that. Every smile feels a little different, doesn't it? Every expression too."
"He looks like an emotionless psychopath."
His coworkers rubbed their arms as they admired it.
A few of them even got goosebumps.
But Kim Daeyoung, watching his friend on television, was stunned by Assistant Manager Park's acting.
Is acting like that even possible?
He's a completely different character from The Private Investigator, and I can't find a single similarity between them.
To Kim Daeyoung, Kim Ryujin and Assistant Manager Park looked like two entirely different characters played by two completely different actors.
"I stepped in dog shit."
In that sense, his friend's acting did incredible work in separating one character from the next.
"Ah, there he is. That bastard."
Before they realized it, Kim Daeyoung and his coworkers had become completely absorbed in Profiler Hanryang.
More precisely, they had been pulled in by Assistant Manager Park's dazzling performance.
"…Is it because he's too good at acting? Is that why the immersion is this strong?"
"Seriously. Who is that actor? If we search him, will he come up?"
Soon, Kim Daeyoung quietly answered the coworkers who had started showing interest in the actor playing Assistant Manager Park.
"Kang Woojin. That actor's name is Kang Woojin."
"Huh?? Daeyoung, you know him?"
Right at that moment—
"Wow! Look at that!"
One of his coworkers pointed at the TV.
The reason was obvious.
"Wow, the CG is so natural. It really feels like it's expressing the character's point of view. That's incredible!"
The current scene showed a distorted fairy-tale world through Assistant Manager Park's eyes.
Red.
Orange.
Yellow.
Green.
Blue.
Indigo.
Violet.
But the colors were unnatural.
With a subtle gradient layered over them, the ordinary world had transformed into a bizarre fairy-tale landscape.
That special effect made Assistant Manager Park's character hit even harder.
Then Assistant Manager Park lifted a yellow-painted dog that had just taken a shit.
"Cute. Soft. I want to pop you."
His coworkers swallowed hard.
"No way. Is he going to kill that dog?"
"Maybe they colored it like that because it would've been too cruel otherwise."
"I don't know. I think those red fireworks are supposed to symbolize blood splattering."
"Ah, don't do it! Don't!"
But on screen, Assistant Manager Park simply smiled, holding the dog in his arms as he disappeared.
Kim Daeyoung, who had been watching all of this, grinned and pulled out his phone.
He opened the group chat he shared with his close friends.
Daeyoung: Hey, Kang Woojin, you bastard. If I see you again, you're dead.
The funny thing was that Kang Woojin, who normally never replied quickly, responded first.
Woojin: Friend, are you watching SBC?
Daeyoung: Yeah, idiot. Guys, Woojin's on an SBC drama right now.
Woojin: Please watch SBC's Profiler Hanryang a lot.
Kyungseong: ??? What the hell are we supposed to do with that???
Daeyoung: Actor Kang Woojin's next project, That Damned Bastard, is airing right now.
Kyungseong: ??? Kang Woojin again, this bastard??
Hyunggu: What next project? Didn't the short film come out just a few days ago?
Daeyoung: Check with your own eyes. It's on SBC right now.
The moment they heard, his friends turned on SBC in different places.
Lee Kyungseong, who had been eating ramen at home, threw it aside and switched on the TV.
The moment the screen lit up, he cursed.
"Holy shit, it's really him?"
Na Hyunggu was in the middle of a blind date.
While casually sharing a drink, he turned on SBC on his phone.
Even while keeping the woman in front of him in mind, Na Hyunggu cursed inwardly.
This bastard is really in a drama?
Meanwhile, Assistant Manager Park, played by Kang Woojin, spread all across the country through the broadcast signal.
Anyone watching SBC at that moment could see him.
For example—
People eating late-night food during overtime in a design company meeting room could see him too.
"Huh? That actor… isn't that Woojin?"
"Huh? Didn't he take time off from work?"
"…No. That's him, right? What drama is this?"
"Yeah. I stopped changing channels because it looked interesting. Ah, that's Woojin, right? That's him, right?"
"It is. It's Woojin. It is! Wait—what?!"
"What is Woojin doing in there?!"
Or maybe it was a group of female students huddled around a laptop in a college dorm.
No—
In reality, it was Kang Hyunah, Kang Woojin's younger sister, and her friends.
"Oh my god!! Kang Hyunah! Isn't that your brother??"
"It is! He looks exactly like he did in that photo when he won the award!"
"Wait, is this why you insisted we absolutely had to watch this drama? Because your brother is in it?!"
"This is seriously insane! Hey, hey, Hyunah! Your brother is killing it! He's already in dramas too??"
Her friends excitedly slapped Kang Hyunah on the shoulder and back.
But Kang Hyunah herself was completely entranced by the sight of her brother in the drama.
Even so, her friends only got louder.
"He's really good at acting!"
"Ah! Hyunah! Call your brother, call him!"
"It looks like he has quite a lot of screen time?? What role is he? Ah! A supporting role! He must be a supporting role!"
At that moment, after seeing Assistant Manager Park smile in the drama, Kang Hyunah realized something.
"Ah… that was the smile from the teaser."
The smile of the man whose face had been hidden in the Profiler Hanryang teaser.
She finally understood.
That man had been her brother all along.
No, how is that possible?
He's only been acting for barely two months.
Is it even realistic for him to get a supporting role?
She couldn't understand it.
But her brother was undeniably in the drama.
At that point, Kang Hyunah shoved away her clingy friends.
"Leave me alone!"
Then she called her mother.
The ringing didn't last long.
"Mom! Oppa is on a drama right now!"
Her mother, Seo Hyunmi, answered immediately.
"…Okay, hang up for now."
In fact, Profiler Hanryang was also playing inside a porridge restaurant in Jinju.
It was a place frequented by middle-aged women.
And things like this happened there fairly often.
They were regulars who also knew Seo Hyunmi well.
The ordinary women clicked their tongues as they watched Assistant Manager Park on TV.
"Look at that boy's eyes. Look at those eyes."
"He's fierce, really fierce. He's the one. He killed him."
"Whose son is that child with such cold eyes?"
Standing side by side at the counter while watching TV, Seo Hyunmi and Kang Woochul widened their eyes and answered at the same time.
"That child is… my child."
"That's our son."
Meanwhile, at that same time, other drama production teams were also watching Profiler Hanryang closely.
Both MBS and TVM were doing the same.
Those were the two dramas competing in the same time slot.
Some teams, like the Hanryang team, were having dinner together.
Others were checking the situation on their own filming sets.
In any case, both sides were closely watching the actor playing Assistant Manager Park.
What was interesting was that both teams felt jealous.
"…Damn, he's really good."
"He's not just good. Look at that. He's showing emotion using only his facial muscles without even creasing his face. That's seriously impressive."
"It's not exaggerated either. His acting is restrained, but captivating. It's alive, but it never feels difficult or labored. Like he's just casually tossing it out."
Of course, that was thanks to Assistant Manager Park's final appearance.
"Ah, so he bursts in at the end and just tears the whole scene apart on his own? He creates and releases all the tension of the story by himself?"
"He's a proper villain. No doubt about it. He's exactly that scene-stealer Writer Park talked about in her interview."
"He really is. He fully lives up to Writer Park's over-the-top praise. But who is that guy? His face is unfamiliar, but somehow it doesn't feel totally unfamiliar either."
"Same here. I know he's a rookie, but for some reason he looks familiar. Where did they even find someone that talented?"
"He must be a rookie actor. Anyway, his acting is worth watching. Tch. If he's really that good, even Director Park would be impressed."
There was something about Assistant Manager Park's appearance that made the staff of other dramas jealous.
The reason was simple.
"Ah, damn it, his impact is insane. Enough already. Let's focus on our own work!"
None of their own actors had delivered the kind of impact Assistant Manager Park did.
At that point, Profiler Hanryang had already entered its latter half.
And yet the freshly debuted Assistant Manager Park left a blazing impression with just ten minutes of screen time.
No—
Rather than merely a strong impression, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Assistant Manager Park was the core of Episode 1.
He dragged buried incidents up to the surface.
He left behind countless questions.
He shocked the viewers.
Catharsis only truly works when there is a clear villain.
In other words, Assistant Manager Park wasn't fake.
He was the real thing.
Everything Park Eunmi said at the press conference had been true.
The people who felt the most regret about that were the reporters.
"Tch, he's really good. At this rate, there's no way this drama can flop."
More than two hundred reporters had attended the press conference.
That included entertainment reporters covering the drama competition.
"Reporter Kim, what do you think? That actor who drew everyone's attention in Profiler Hanryang—he's the real deal, right?"
"Yes, Editor. His acting was genuinely excellent. The production team's praise wasn't wasted on him."
"What a shame. If it had been a complete disaster, we would've had a lot more to write tomorrow. How high do you think the ratings will go?"
"I watched all of them, but Hanryang feels like it'll take first place."
Countless reporters were on edge over how the drama war would unfold.
If there was prey, they had to seize it.
Naturally, all eyes were on Profiler Hanryang.
But Profiler Hanryang was polished to perfection.
At that point, some reporters began sensing something about the unknown actor playing Assistant Manager Park.
"Ah, then that's frustrating… right? But haven't I seen this actor somewhere before?"
He was definitely a rookie.
Yet there was something strangely familiar about him.
I've definitely seen him somewhere.
Then the reporters suddenly remembered the short film festival from a few days earlier.
"Ah! Isn't that the guy who won the grand prize at the Mise-en-scène Film Festival?!"
The unknown actor who had won the grand prize at this year's highly talked-about Mise-en-scène Film Festival—
but hadn't drawn much attention because of all the surrounding issues.
That actor was Assistant Manager Park.
Good. This is a decent hunting target, right?
The eyes of a few reporters who caught on immediately lit up.
"So does that mean Hong Hyeyeon worked with him on two projects? Ah, what was the name of the guy who won the award again?"
Not long after—
[Drama Pick] Profiler Hanryang premieres… Actor Kang Woojin, who plays scene-stealer Assistant Manager Park, also won the grand prize at the Mise-en-scène Film Festival
The first article went up.
Then the reaction exploded.
Around 11:30 p.m.
The large barbecue restaurant where the Profiler Hanryang team had gathered was packed.
Episode 1 had already finished airing.
And everyone—from the production staff to the actors—was extremely satisfied with the quality of the first episode.
"Wow, the drama turned out so well!"
"PD, did you edit this while on drugs?!"
"Hahaha, exactly! PD Song! That scene where Assistant Manager Park's world changes was insane, right?!"
The second floor in particular, where the lead actors, Song Manwoo PD, and the main production staff were gathered, felt like a full-blown party.
Actors and staff were busy praising one another.
Meanwhile, Kang Woojin thought:
This is really fun.
Inside, at least, he was genuinely happy.
Of course, only on the inside.
His face was calmer than ever, but he couldn't take his eyes off the TV showing the drama that had just ended.
At first it felt really awkward, but the more I watch it, the more I think I'm getting used to it.
Anyway, unlike The Private Investigator, Profiler Hanryang aired nationwide.
Who saw it?
How many people saw it?
What did they think of my acting?
Right then, Kang Woojin picked up his phone.
As expected, these people are in full panic mode.
His close friends were flooding the group chat.
Dozens of messages had also come from his younger sister.
There were several from his parents too.
And plenty from others as well.
I didn't expect the people from the design company to watch it too.
Even his former coworkers from the design company had sent messages.
He probably didn't even realize how many people had seen the drama.
Then—
♫♪
Song Manwoo PD's phone rang while he was clinking soju glasses with the actors and staff.
A message had arrived.
He quickly picked up the phone from the table.
He looked like he had been waiting for it.
The strange thing was—
"Did it come in?"
"How much is it?"
"Come on, hurry, hurry!"
All eyes—staff and actors alike—turned toward Song Manwoo PD.
Even Park Eunmi swallowed nervously.
Woojin tilted his head slightly.
Why did everyone stop drinking just to stare at the PD?
Still—
Click.
The moment Song Manwoo PD looked at his screen, his eyes widened.
Then he slowly opened his mouth.
"…Real-time mid-broadcast ratings. MBS, 5.9%."
A chilling silence fell across the place.
Because of that, Song Manwoo PD's voice rang out even louder.
"TVM, 2.7%."
Then he slowly lifted his head and swept his gaze over everyone.
A slight smile appeared on his face.
"Ours, 20.3%."