027 Script Reading Session

Seoul, Mapo District, Sangam-dong, SBS Prism Tower.

The SBS headquarters has navigated through the Yeouido era and the Mok-dong era, established a production center in Goyang, and maintained an open hall in Deungchon-dong. Next year marks its thirtieth anniversary. If Yoon Seok-min of Taeyoung E&C keeps his promise, SBS is about to enter the Sangam-dong era—nearly a decade later than MBC, JTBC, and YTN, which relocated here much earlier.

Today, the Digital Media City in Mapo District has truly become the beating heart of the peninsula's television media. This is inseparable from the influence of Jung Chung-rae, the three-term liberal heavyweight lawmaker for Mapo-eul; it was his active lobbying that drove the development of the district. Yoon Yun-hui is quite close with Assemblyman Jung and greatly admires his past "heroic" deeds—he has done many things that others wanted to do but dared not.

Of course, Yoon Yun-hui’s presence at SBS Prism Tower today is to attend the script reading for *The Penthouse*. A few days ago, his assistant, Ms. Kim, planned to take him to the beauty salon and styling studio that the company partners with. A metropolitan drama like *The Penthouse* naturally cannot be compared to an independent film like *Not Out*. Image is paramount. However, Ms. Kim discovered to her dismay that Yoon Yun-hui seemed to understand the importance of image better than she did, and he spoke about fashion with great authority.

"Come on, it’s always been a world where appearances matter," he had reasoned. "With the support of the internet, what do you think I relied on to capture the hearts of countless schoolmates and win votes?"

*Okay, fine...*

Ms. Kim drafted separate agreements with Yoon’s usual beauty salon and styling studio, following his preferences. This would certainly be counted under the company's operating costs. Yet, Ms. Kim was clearly unsatisfied; her formidable professional competence and expertise seemed completely wasted on Yoon Yun-hui. She soon realized her misconception: Yoon was not a novice actor like others in the company who needed to be taught the basics of what to say and what not to say. He had his own unique perspective.

Her previous methods for handling newcomers were useless, so to demonstrate her value and after gauging his intentions, Ms. Kim began scouting film projects for him—starting with small supporting roles in major productions.

On a middle floor of the SBS Sangam-dong Prism Tower, in a spacious conference room, Yoon Yun-hui met the cast of *The Penthouse*. The leads were undoubtedly the three women: Lee Ji-ah, Kim So-yeon, and Eugene. All other roles revolved around them—their families, friends, and subordinates. Yoon Yun-hui, cast as "Joo Seok-hoon," belonged to the group of children of the main characters, whose seats were in the second row against the wall.

"Hello, Director! Hello, Writer! Hello, seniors!"

Yoon Yun-hui greeted them just as any ordinary rookie actor would. He didn't know anyone here, except for Han Ji-hyun, with whom he had interacted during the auditions. Han Ji-hyun played his twin sister, "Joo Seok-kyung." To be honest, didn't the twin dynamic described in the script lean toward an "incestuous" trope? Although the script Yoon received didn't contain future plot points—as the writer hadn't finished them yet—he felt certain that there would be some major twists later on.

"Oppa~ Long time no see~"

"Hey!"

Just as Yoon sat down, Han Ji-hyun pulled this on him, causing him to dodge to the side, "startled." The surrounding actors let out lighthearted, friendly laughter.

"Joo Seok-kyung! I’m the older brother!"

"I know you're my Oppa~"

Han Ji-hyun playfully clung to him. It was clear that before Yoon arrived, the younger actors had already been chatting and getting familiar with each other.

"Stop, stop, stop, you’re the older sister."

Yoon Yun-hui couldn't hold back. When he first got the script, he noticed he was the only boy among the children of the penthouse, but he hadn't realized there would be so much drama. Han Ji-hyun, Kim Hyun-soo, Jo Soo-min, Jo Yi-hyun, and Roh Jeong-eui. Five against one? This was interesting. Among the five girls, Han Ji-hyun, born in '96, was the eldest; two were born in '99, one in '00, and another in '01.

However, only he and Han Ji-hyun were true newcomers. The other four were child actors, one of whom was from his own company, Artist Entertainment—the small role that CP Choi had taken as a favor. No, wait—he was the only true rookie. Han Ji-hyun was a graduate of a prestigious art school like KNUA and had been the top of her class. That was quite formidable.

Everyone was quite beautiful, or at least very pleasing to the eye. But if Yoon remembered correctly, this didn't quite match the cast lineup he had heard about earlier. At the very least, he didn't know how Roh Jeong-eui had ended up here. Her role seemed to have been intended for someone else before? It wasn't a big deal; it wasn't something Yoon needed to worry about. Whoever ended up in the cast was who it was.

Yoon paid special attention to Kim Hyun-soo, who played "Bae Ro-na," the character with whom "Joo Seok-hoon" had a romantic subplot. She had already acted in over a dozen dramas; her most famous role was likely the younger version of Jeon Ji-hyun's character in *My Love from the Star*. At the time, Yoon didn't think much of her. It wasn't until later that Lee Joon-ho mysteriously told Yoon that he thought Kim Hyun-soo was very similar to the "Ring God," the strongest rookie who had just debuted in Japan next door, only Kim Hyun-soo was a double-enhanced version in terms of beauty and acting, and a serious actor at that.

"Huh? Wait. Which 'Ring God' are you talking about???"

Han Ji-hyun got up and swapped seats with Yoon. Now, Yoon was sitting right in the middle of the girls. Every time a new actor entered, they couldn't help but glance in his direction. The production scale of *The Penthouse* was large; it was normal for actors not to be familiar with each other beforehand, but they had certainly done their research. At the very least, they were aware that Yoon was a rookie actor from Artist Entertainment. The names of Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung were still very effective.

It was unlikely for conflicts to arise among the actors. Yoon Yun-hui, catching the faint scent of the girls beside him, shifted his focus to the director, Joo Dong-min. The director’s reputation seemed less than stellar. His directing level hadn't shown much improvement over the years; he was the type to start strong and finish weak. He had once clashed with a writer on a project and ended up replacing them. He wasn't good at communicating with actors, and when he was unhappy, he would drag out the schedule until actors were forced to leave due to conflicting commitments, then rush the production, leading to shoddy episodes.

Because of this, CP Choi had specifically arranged for a female PD with a great personality to assist him. But Yoon felt this probably wouldn't be very useful. After all, the writer of *The Penthouse* was Kim Soon-ok, known as the "Godmother of Makjang." She frequently suffered from the same "start strong, finish weak" habit; she often couldn't tie up the loose ends, which was why there were so many outrageous plot twists. Their previous hit collaboration, *The Last Empress*, possessed all the aforementioned merits and flaws. It was highly likely that *The Penthouse* would also run into trouble. That wasn't something a well-tempered female PD could stop.

Furthermore, Yoon had verified one thing: this PD Joo was indeed, as CP Choi said, looking to jump ship from SBS. But the real reason was likely not what CP Choi had claimed.

PD Joo noticed Yoon Yun-hui observing him, and his face, which usually looked difficult to approach, broke into a rather kindly smile. His lips moved slightly, and a staff member nearby brought over a brand-new script and handed it to Yoon.

"Huh? Why is this one so thick?"

Yoon flipped through it quickly. The beginning was the same: "Min Seol-ah" falls to her death in the first episode and is written out. But the latter half contained a lot of brand-new content, seemingly just written by writer Kim Soon-ok.

"Abstract..."

"Knowing the upcoming *makjang* plot in advance—will this really not affect my performance in the earlier parts?"