Secrets with the Crown Prince 11
“Has Writer Bell arrived?”
In place of Cha Do-Hyuk, who was sleeping in the car, the driver greeted me with a smile. I greeted the driver. I also greeted the driver and closed the car’s sliding door and put on my seatbelt.
I pushed my chair backwards, and Cha Do-Hyuk finally opened his eyes. It seemed like he had pulled an all-nighter from CP Current Affairs (the work that PDs do, where they look over broadcasting rough cuts with casting producers) and he greeted me with a haggard face.
“Good morning.”
At his greeting, I looked out of the car window. Seeing that the sun was in the center of the sky, it didn’t seem like morning but a sunny afternoon.
“Are you alright? Why are you here? What happened to Jung-Yeon PD?”
At my question, Cha Do-Hyuk sighed.
“He had to attend his grandmother’s funeral and went down to Busan in a hurry.”
“Ah…”
I closed my mouth and stared at him in surprise.
“There are many other assistant directors though. Why are you, the main PD, moving personally? What is up with all the assistant directors we have—they have lost their drive. Wait! I will try calling Sung-Joon PD!”
I added the last line jokingly and pulled out my cellphone. But Cha Do-Hyuk yawned and shook his head.
“Don’t do that. It’s the weekend; they must be tired too. Also, it’s fine for me to work too—you are working by yourself even on your day off like now.”
“Well, in my case, I was just unlucky and got my name pulled out. Besides, Yeon-Suh sun-bae didn’t even put her name in the draw since she is the main writer. Why are you going out of your way to suffer…?”
I trailed off at the end and closed my mouth. He looked really tired. I turned my head and asked the driver.
“Mr., how long is it going to take for us to arrive at Paju Convention Center?”
“It’s going to take about an hour.”
“Thank you. Great, then, I can rest my eyes for a bit.”
After saying this, I closed my eyes. I felt a pair of eyes stare at the side of my face for a while after that, but Cha Do-Hyuk also soon fell asleep. It was in the middle of summer, so the driver had turned on the air conditioner to its highest point in consideration for us, and I rubbed my arms while shivering. Then, suddenly, I felt something soft surround me. I woke up to find a brown, checkered shirt covering my top.
I turned my head and saw Cha Do-Hyuk sleeping with just a black short-sleeve t-shirt. I was blinking my eyes cluelessly when I noticed the driver smiling from the back mirror.
“Was it too cold? Cha Do-Hyuk PD asked me to turn the air conditioner off for you. Is it too cold?”
“Uh…No. I’m fine now. Thank you for being considerate.”
I couldn’t figure out if the madman’s personality was good or bad. I stared at the side of sleeping Cha Do-Hyuk’s handsome face with some complex emotions. Then, I leaned my arms on my chair’s armrest and continued to steal glances at Cha Do-Hyuk’s face. He was much better looking than most celebrities.
How could he have a good brain and be good at his job with a face like that? Didn’t people say that studying brain was different from working brain? I admired Cha Do-Hyuk’s face in silence until his long eyelashes suddenly trembled, and he slowly opened his eyes.
Cha Do-Hyuk furrowed his eyebrows like he was surprised to see me.
“What are you doing?”
“I am admiring your face.”
“Is there something sparkling on my face?”
“Oh god, you aren’t going to say that your face is stunning, right? That’s so old-fashioned. How could a PD of a variety show be so unfunny?”
But Cha Do-Hyuk kept smirked like something was really funny. Then, he blurted out an unexpected response.
“You are lucky that you are funny. It would be better if you were as good as your job as you are funny.”
“What? You are going to attack me like that so suddenly?”
“PD-nim, even though you are unfunny, you are lucky that you are good at your job.”
I ended up retorting at the same low-level as him. If my senior writers have heard me, they would have all said something to scold me.
“Still, your idea for the shooting setup was good this time.”
My idea was picked this time, and Cha Do-Hyuk mentioned it. As I stared at him while looking taken-back, the car stopped.
“We have arrived.”
“Thank you.”
Cha Do-Hyuk got off the car first. I recollected my senses back again to get off the car and stared at his back blankly. Did he just compliment me? He, who always yelled at me write the scenes more carefully complimented me?
“Mouse Bell. Quickly come.”
Cha Do-Hyuk walked a great distance in front of me and turned around. I called the Collection Center’s marketing director and rushed to his side. Cha Do-Hyuk waited until I reached him, and he walked slowly to match my pace.
“Ah, yes, hello sir. It’s me, Writer Mouse—Ji Bell from yesterday. Yes, Yes. Am I speaking to director Dae-Suk Kim? Ah, yes. We have arrived now. Yes. We are at the front. Yes.”
Not long after we hung up, the Paju Convention Center Marketing Director came out. The newly opened Paju Convention Center had proposed a sponsorship deal worth hundred-thousands of dollars under the condition of shooting in the site they asked us too. Thus, we had agreed upon the place where the shooting would take place and looked around the site.
“Are we not allowed to use that place?”
Cha Do-Hyuk pointed at the area where there was a ‘no-entrance’ sign and asked. I looked at the map of the area and searched for the area where he pointed. There was a path beyond it. And since we had a scene at the end of our shooting, where our casts had to run around the building to find a hidden mission, I thought it would be nice if we could use the area.
The Marketing director looked at the billboard and scratched the back of his head.
“We are in the middle of constructing its insides. It will be done tomorrow. You will probably be able to use the place however you want on the day of the shooting.”
“You have to tell us for sure if we can do it or not. We can’t have a situation where the shooting gets messed up from some happening.”
At Cha Do-Hyuk’s words, the marketing director raised his hand like he was gesturing us to wait and made a call. Then, he returned and nodded with a bright face.
“Yes! It seems you can use it!”
* * *
However, on the day of the shooting, a problem arose, and we weren’t allowed to shoot at the area. The marketing director who we met last time was on break, and the manager in charge of the area insisted that he couldn’t let us film without hearing anything from his side.
“Ji Bell, what the hell did you do?!”
My senior writer yelled at me at the shooting site. Even all the casts, who were waiting for the shoot to begin, stared at me. My mind became blank and like an idiot, I couldn’t say anything. In the end, the shooting had to come to a halt. And Cha Do-Hyuk got up from the camera seat and approached us.
“What is the problem?”
He asked my senior writer, whose face was all red in rage.
“Ha….”
My senior writer, specifically Yeon-Hoon, couldn’t answer and placed his hand on his forehead. I gathered my hands together for a while and responded in place of him.
“You know, the no-entrance area that we saw last time in our field survey…the manager insists that he has never given permission for us to film there.”
Cha Do-Hyuk furrowed his eyebrows at my words. All eyes were on us, and so, the manager glanced around and yelled.
“Insisted? Are you saying that we made a mistake on our side? We have never given you all permission to film here. Nor have we ever said that you could!”
Then, he also began to blame me.
“You shouldn’t work like this. If you want it so much, why didn’t you send an official request? Don’t you see that sign? It says, ‘no entrance’.”
The manager pointed at the billboard and told me. Yeon-hoon sun-bae’s chilling stares pierced against the sides of my face. I thought I was going to lose my mind from how unfair the situation was. My ears reddened, and I swiped the sweat collecting on my forehead. My hands trembled. If worse comes worst, we might have to cancel the shooting—because of me.
“What do you mean, we didn’t send an official request? We definitely did. We have also received permission from Marketing director, Dae-Suk Kim on our field survey too.”
I took out my phone and showed him the email I sent in my inbox.
“Do you see it? I sent an official document requesting permission. I even received a reply saying that we could film there.”
The manager quickly glanced at my phone and waved his hand like he was annoyed.
“I don’t know about it. I haven’t heard anything from my side. If you keep insisting like this, we might be unable to continue our investment. Don’t tell us to do this and that…”
What is this man saying? The manager glanced at me from up and down, and confidently abused his authority as our client. And what was he so confident about?
You guys were the ones who wanted the sponsorship! Ah—as soon as the manger turned around, my attitude changed. But wasn’t this really not my fault? The situation was so unfair that I thought I was going crazy.
“Ji Bell.”
Yeon-hoon sun-bae called me with a voice full of anger. But then, Cha Do-Hyuk raised his hand and blocked the sun-bae from approaching me closer.
“This is not Bell’s fault. I also heard from the marketing director that we could film there.”
“Still, if Bell checked one more time…!”
At sun-bae’s shouting, Cha Do-Hyuk stared at sun-bae like he couldn’t understand it.
“Didn’t you also see the evidence that Bell showed? There’s no way that Bell would make a mistake like this. It’s so obvious that the one at fault is the Convention Center’s Marketing director.”
Cha Do-Hyuk defended me and looked my way again. The infuriation that I felt began to slide down a bit. At the same time, it was also his first time defending me, so I was a bit surprised.
“Did you say that today was Marketing Director Dae-Suk Kim’s rest day?”
I nodded to his question.
“Yes, he requested today off of all days.”
“I know the mayor of Paju very well.”
After saying those words, Cha Do-Hyuk suddenly called someone. He didn’t say much before he hung up, and a moment afterward, he got a call back. It seemed like the person he was talking to was someone in charge of the Convention Center. From the few words I picked up from the call, I could tell the person on the phone was apologizing to Cha Do-Hyuk.
That was when I remembered. Ah, ah, this man. He is the youngest son of the owner of a famous corporation.
“Does the Paju Convention Center usually handle their work like this? We won’t continue the sponsorship if you act like this. Also, I will ask for compensation for the shooting expenses we have wasted from the trouble you all caused us.”
Like he was really angry, Cha Do-Hyuk yelled on the phone and hung up. And soon afterward, a group of people wearing black suits came down the stairway. They were all employees working under the Foreign Cooperation Officer: top management of several Convention centers, including the vice-president.
Cha Do-Hyuk crossed his arms even in front of a group of people much older than him and got angry.
“If the manager in charge of this area doesn’t come out and apologize to our writer, we are going to cancel this shooting.”
He slammed the shooting plan he was holding down onto the ground.
“He treated someone who did their work right like a complete idiot! He also talked about taking back funds—we can’t do our shooting in an oppressive condition like this!”
As soon as Cha Do-Hyuk said the word ‘oppressive’, the managers’ faces changed.
Oh~
The manager, who had blamed the situation onto me and left, came running back into the site. He glanced at the men before us and bowed his back to Cha Do-Hyuk.
“The one you should be bowing to is not me but her. Apologize to her.”
Truthfully, there wasn’t much for someone with little power—a sub writer like me—could have done in this situation. And the way the madman had defended the employees underneath him was better than the way my senior writers had acted. My eyes became teary, and I pressed onto my eyes with the back of my hand.
In the end, the manager bowed his back to me, and after all the rest of the employees apologized to the staff, the matter came to a close. I might have been burdened with all the blame, but Cha Do-Hyuk and the email I had as proof saved me.
“If you didn’t keep the email, we might have suffered losses. I was only able to act so firmly thanks to the way you carefully looked over your work. Good job. Thank you.”
After saying that, Cha Do-Hyuk patted my head, and tears flowed down my eyes. Although Cha Do-Hyuk scolded his employed to the point it infuriated me, there wasn’t a boss with a greater sense of responsibility than him. Thus, even after all the suffering I went through because of him, I couldn’t only look at Cha Do-Hyuk in a negative light.
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