Kang Woojin was slightly startled when he checked his SNS account.
Thirty thousand?
He had thirty thousand followers?
Since it was his first time seriously using SNS, it didn't feel real.
Still—
Thirty thousand in a single day?
Kang Woojin quickly realized that number was by no means small.
To top actress Hong Hyeyeon, thirty thousand might not mean much.
But until yesterday, Kang Woojin had been a complete nobody.
At his core, he was still just an ordinary man.
And yet thirty thousand people had followed him.
"..."
Kang Woojin slowly moved his hand and opened one of the photos Han Yejung had posted.
As expected, it already had a flood of likes and comments.
—I really enjoyed this drama!!
—I followed you because your acting was so good… hehe
—Wait, what? This actor won an acting award?? I need to look that up!
—You… you totally charmed me, but Assistant Manager Park is scary lol
—Huh? Why doesn't he look like Assistant Manager Park in real life? If you style him up, he's insanely handsome. What is this???
—ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ He's so handsome ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
—I know we just met, but I love you
—Your acting is seriously amazing. I'm cheering for you!
·
·
·
·
There were over a hundred comments.
As Woojin skimmed through them, he suddenly understood something.
'Ah, so this is why people use SNS. I get it now.'
It felt completely different from the comments he had spent all night reading under news articles and YouTube videos.
It almost felt as if people were standing right in front of him, cheering him on.
Right then—
"Woojin."
As if irritated that Kang Woojin was looking at his phone instead of watching the drama, Choi Sunggeon called out to him.
"What? What is it? Is something wrong?"
Kang Woojin slowly lifted his head.
'It really happened.'
Then he muttered in a low voice,
"No, I was just looking at SNS."
"Oh, I thought something happened. Around lunchtime, you had about twenty thousand followers. What is it now?"
"Thirty thousand."
"Not bad. Pretty decent."
'Pretty decent? That's your reaction? Why are you so calm?'
Woojin felt uneasy inside, but outwardly, he answered calmly.
"Isn't that a pretty big number?"
"Huh? It is. But by tomorrow, it'll be much higher."
Jang Suhwan and Han Yejung nodded in agreement, and Choi Sunggeon tied his hair back again.
"You saw what the office was like today, right? The phones were ringing nonstop. Half of them were asking about you. And if you go to our agency's official homepage right now, the whole board is flooded with people asking who you are."
"Things were already hectic with just Hyeyeon, but once you got added into the mix, it got to the point where the admin couldn't keep up."
"I saw the message board."
"It also helped that your profile photo on the search sites got updated to match your Hanryang character. People got curious about Assistant Manager Park and searched for you, then they saw your real appearance was completely different."
"Did you see the Hanryang chatrooms? It's exploding. The first episode even pulled a twenty percent rating."
Grinning brightly, Choi Sunggeon pointed at the TV with his index finger.
"Woojin, you're riding the wave of a drama this big. There's no way people wouldn't search for you and follow you."
"..."
"Fans showing up like this is completely natural. Of course, your case is special. It's rare for someone's debut drama to become this huge a hit. You could almost say it never happens."
Fans.
Out of everything Choi Sunggeon had said, that one word stuck with Kang Woojin.
Were real fans actually starting to appear?
It was astonishing.
The kind of fans he had only ever seen through the media were increasing in real time.
'…Then does that mean I'm going to get a fan club soon too??'
As if he had read Woojin's mind, Choi Sunggeon's smile deepened.
"At this rate, you'll have a fan club soon."
'That's honestly unbelievable. Does that mean fan signings and hugging fans could become real too?'
Kang Woojin's ordinary life was gradually being swallowed by the life of an actor.
And all of it had happened in just one day.
Tomorrow—or sometime in the future—the changes would probably come even faster.
At that very moment—
"Ah! Woojin hyung!"
With chicken sauce smeared around his mouth, Jang Suhwan shouted and pointed at the TV.
"Assistant Manager Park is on!"
Assistant Manager Park had appeared in Episode 2 of Profiler Hanryang.
This was after Yoo Jihyung had informed the world of the possible existence of an unidentified serial killer.
The police and the prosecution fell into chaos, and the public trembled in fear at the serial killer's return.
A monster that had vanished for years had appeared again and started killing.
Because of that, Yoo Jihyung and Detective Jung Yeonhee had no choice but to work together.
But then—
"I came to confess."
The situation changed completely when Assistant Manager Park went to the police station near his home to confess.
The middle section of Profiler Hanryang, which had been progressing at a fairly measured pace, suddenly sped up because of him.
The tension, which had been somewhat loose before, tightened all at once.
After that, the scenes shifted rapidly, showing the current state of each character.
The serial killer's confession.
The police moving quickly with the investigation.
The startled prosecutors.
Yoo Jihyung desperately trying to meet Assistant Manager Park.
And then Assistant Manager Park sitting calmly in the interrogation room.
So many people were watching him.
Episode 2 of Profiler Hanryang felt almost like a finale.
It was that tense.
That climactic.
Assistant Manager Park's presence, in particular, was overwhelming.
During editing, there were frequent close-ups of his face.
Even with relatively few lines, he conveyed emotion brilliantly.
Viewers were able to catch every bit of it.
"Ah, right. I did kill him. But aren't you going to give me any food?"
He was a perfect fusion of psychopath and sociopath.
At first glance, anyone would label him a psychopath.
But as time passed, Assistant Manager Park gradually revealed sociopathic traits.
It wasn't a sudden shift, either.
It was gradual, as if he were quietly tightening his grip around the people watching the drama.
Then, in the middle and latter half of the episode, came the confrontation between Prosecutor Yoo Jihyung and Assistant Manager Park.
The interrogation room scene was a silent war.
The background score.
The battle of gazes between the two men.
The concise dialogue.
All of it proved that.
And then—
"My reason for confessing is to prove that I didn't kill him."
After Assistant Manager Park's line, the scene closed with Prosecutor Yoo Jihyung's response.
"Is there another real culprit?"
Episode 2 of Profiler Hanryang ended.
At the same time, the discussion board on the official site and countless online communities burst into flames.
—OMG!!!!
—I was 100% sure Assistant Manager Park was the killer, but he's not???!!!
—Damn, this is seriously so good
—I got chills when Assistant Manager Park confessed. That acting was insane.
—Wow~ I thought there was something different about Assistant Manager Park from Episode 1, but today he was absolutely perfect.
—Why is Hong Hyeyeon so pretty?? She even has a scar on her face and she's still gorgeous
—What? It ends like that?? How am I supposed to wait until next week? Give me Episode 3! Hurry up!!!!
This was beyond just going viral.
—You mean the actor playing Assistant Manager Park, Kang Woojin? He's definitely going to blow up.
—But the murder method was exactly the same as Assistant Manager Park's, right? Then did the real killer copy his method?
—The interrogation scene was completely insane… the psychological battle between Prosecutor Yoo Jihyung and Assistant Manager Park was just…
—↑ Assistant Manager Park is seriously insane
—I can't believe it was only 1 hour and 1 minute long lol. It's been forever since I've had something this fun to watch lol
—Ryu Jungmin's acting has improved a lot, but the problem is that the actor playing Assistant Manager Park is just too good.
—Assistant Manager Park is the core right now. He's controlling the entire flow by himself.
—Honestly, some parts drag a little, but every time Assistant Manager Park shows up, it suddenly gets way more interesting.
—All the Hanryang actors are good, which makes it even more fun. Hurry up and release Episode 3!
It was almost like a disaster.
And then the next morning—
the ratings for Episode 2 of Profiler Hanryang, which had shaken Friday and Saturday, were revealed on the morning of Sunday the 17th.
[Official] Profiler Hanryang Episode 2 ratings hit 23.2%, making history in drama ratings
Over 23%.
There was no stopping it now.
Still, Song Manwoo PD, who belonged to SBC's drama department, only celebrated briefly before rapidly giving orders to the assistant Directors and staff.
"Good! The reporters will take care of the news today, so don't worry about that. Starting tomorrow, begin uploading the edited YouTube clips at timed intervals!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Also put up the prepared promotional articles! Launch the planned SNS events right away!"
This was all to maintain the momentum until Episode 3 next week and draw even more attention than they had now.
In truth, keeping a drama hot was much harder than simply launching it.
Song Manwoo PD knew that very well.
"And contact the actors! Double-check next week's promotion schedule again!"
Right now, the entire internet was talking about it.
[Issue Talk] In just two days, Profiler Hanryang has shaken the entire country. How far can it go?
It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say that Profiler Hanryang had taken over everything.
The following Monday morning.
Inside a large black van, a woman who looked famous at a glance kept staring at her phone.
Her hair fell all the way to her chest.
She had slim legs and a beauty mark beneath her eye.
She looked to be in her early to mid-twenties.
She really was famous.
She was the leader of a popular girl group.
Her name was Hwarin.
She was the member in charge of acting in the eight-year-old girl group Elani, and all four members of Elani were active in their own fields.
Among them, Hwarin was highly popular both as a girl group member and as an actress.
Lately, she had been focusing on solo activities.
And what she was looking at on her phone right now was this—
[Actor IS] A rookie, really? An in-depth analysis of Kang Woojin, who played 'Assistant Manager Park'
It was an article about Kang Woojin.
Hwarin read it carefully, then started looking up other articles that mentioned him.
Right then—
"Sigh—Hwarin."
The chubby man in the passenger seat let out a deep sigh.
He looked like a senior manager.
"Aren't you supposed to be looking at the commercial storyboard?"
"Ah, just a second."
"This is seriously driving me nuts. Ever since you came back from the Mise-en-scène festival, you haven't been acting normal. You begged to keep watching the short films, and now that you've seen them all, why are you acting even crazier?"
"My head is perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with me."
"Whew… I sent you because I thought you genuinely liked watching films, but maybe that was a mistake."
Hwarin genuinely loved films.
Art films.
Short films.
Independent films.
Commercial films.
She liked all of them.
Even so, the chubby manager shook his head.
"You're going to get caught by the CEO again. Ah! And don't ever tell the CEO that I let you into the Director section, okay? He might actually kill me."
"I won't say anything. Don't worry."
"Then if you're not looking at the storyboard, what are you looking at?"
"Articles about Profiler Hanryang."
"Ah! That show is a huge hit, right? I heard the ratings passed twenty percent? Wow, you should've been in it too."
"What are you talking about?"
"Did you congratulate Hong Hyeyeon? The two of you meet up for drinks whenever you're bored, don't you?"
Still staring intently at her phone, Hwarin answered,
"I called unni on the day it premiered. Ah, be quiet for a second."
The manager, who had been talking nonstop until then, pointed at the stack of papers next to Hwarin.
"Why should I be quiet? Don't you want a big opportunity too? Did you check the scripts you received?"
"Later, later."
"Ha, what? Are you collecting those scripts to use as toilet paper? The CEO's pressuring you to pick a job fast. Ugh, my head hurts."
"..."
Soon Hwarin fell silent again and started carefully reading the articles.
'Then does that confirm that Kang Woojin is the same person who played Kim Ryujin in The Private Investigator and Assistant Manager Park in Hanryang?'
Somehow, she felt as if she were investigating Kang Woojin.
That was because she had only learned about the actor Kang Woojin after seeing The Private Investigator and Kim Ryujin.
But there was almost no information about him.
That was where her curiosity had begun.
'I've never seen acting like this before. His portrayal of the character is so vivid. He looks like a rookie, but with acting that detailed, he must have been acting for a long time. Was he in theater for years too? That has to be it. It must be.'
Hwarin had also watched Profiler Hanryang, the drama starring her close friend Hong Hyeyeon.
But the one who had truly caught her eye was Kang Woojin, the actor who left such a powerful impression as Assistant Manager Park.
A sharp thrill ran through her chest.
This coincidence felt almost like fate.
'Kim Ryujin and Assistant Manager Park. Their acting styles were completely different, weren't they? Why are there no articles talking about how amazing Assistant Manager Park was? He was seriously, seriously amazing.'
So ever since yesterday, she had been searching up everything she could find about actor Kang Woojin.
Any scrap of information at all.
It wasn't quite romantic interest—
'Is he from theater? Which school did he go to? How old is he?'
—it was closer to fandom.
But because it was a feeling Hwarin had never experienced before, even she couldn't properly understand it herself.
'There are no previous works at all. Could there be some unknown short film out there? Damn it. But why is there so little information?'
This was exactly how a fandom began.
Meanwhile—
inside a large officetel.
At first glance, it looked like a place where people lived.
But in reality, it was an office.
Desks filled the living room, and a massive whiteboard hung on the wall.
All kinds of odds and ends were scattered around.
The whole place felt just like the office of a variety show production team.
And that wouldn't have been wrong.
Because this office was the meeting room of the popular YouTube channel Sports Day.
The Sports Day channel had over three million subscribers.
And the person in charge of it was—
"Hmm—"
The man who had just sat down at the desk let out a sigh.
It was Yoon Byeongseon PD, one of the giants of Korean variety television.
Known as a legend in the entertainment industry, every program he directed drew strong ratings and became a hot topic.
Yoon Byeongseon PD also actively moved back and forth between broadcasting stations and the Sports Day channel.
At the moment, he was watching TV together with a few writers.
It was less like watching and more like monitoring.
They had scheduled a rewatch of Profiler Hanryang for content planning and preliminary research.
Yoon Byeongseon PD quietly watched the drama, while the writers around him busied themselves taking notes.
Then—
"Here."
Wearing glasses, Yoon Byeongseon PD pointed at the TV with his index finger.
"What was the name of that psychopath actor again?"
One of the writers showed him a research chart.
"That's actor Kang Woojin. He's a rookie actor."
"Why isn't he in the cast lineup for this Hanryang team shoot?"
"Yes. Um, Ryu Jungmin, Hong Hyeyeon, Lee Dojeong… Kang Woojin isn't listed."
"Why was he excluded?"
Another writer answered.
"It's not that he was excluded. We just never even thought of him. When we were discussing things with the Hanryang team, his name never came up. Later we looked into it and found out he won the grand prize in the Mise-en-scène section. But at the time, we didn't even know he was appearing in Hanryang."
"So the Hanryang team hid it?"
"Probably. He's such an eye-catching actor that they may have deliberately hidden him to make an even stronger impact."
Yoon Byeongseon PD slowly nodded and stared closely at Assistant Manager Park on the TV.
No—
more precisely, he was studying Kang Woojin, the actor playing Assistant Manager Park.
For about three minutes.
Then Yoon Byeongseon PD, arms folded and eyes gleaming, spoke quietly.
"His acting is very convincing. It feels like his life must have been full of twists and turns too."
Then he gave the writers a calm instruction.
"Let's contact them and include actor Kang Woojin as well."