번역: 드림스크라이브
Inside the plane.
About an hour later, the flight bound for LA took off from Incheon Airport. Maybe because it was a night flight, the atmosphere inside the cabin was quiet. The lighting was dim, more than seventy percent of the passengers were asleep, and the rest had their personal lights on while taking care of their own things.
The business-class cabin was no different.
Choi Sunggeon stood out the most. He was practically buried in his seat, his tied-up hair now loose, sleeping so deeply he looked almost dead. His schedule had been packed lately too. Kang Woojin was seated by the window in business class.
"..."
Maybe because the air conditioning was too strong, he had a black cardigan draped over him, but he was not asleep. While most of the other passengers had already drifted off, Woojin's face remained expressionless. He had no room to let his guard down. Beneath the personal reading light above his seat, he was looking down at the tablet in his hands.
It was displaying overseas news articles.
『Miley Cara posts on social media: "I'm looking forward to working on the album with Mr. Kang Woojin"』
『Miley Cara begins work on new album with Korean actor』
Compared to the frenzy in the Korean media, the attention was still minimal, but seeing his own name appear in overseas news made Kang Woojin a little uneasy.
'It feels really strange seeing my name in an English article. Did this leak from Cara's side?'
He was used to seeing his name in Korean and Japanese media by now, but seeing it written in English still felt unfamiliar. Some articles had even introduced Woojin's Instagram account.
'As expected of Miley Cara. Her influence is ridiculous.'
Kang Woojin's popularity was currently at its peak, but in Hollywood, he was still almost completely unknown. Even so, his name was starting to spread little by little, and there was proof of it in the noticeably rising number of English comments on Kang Woojin's Alter Ego and his social media accounts.
Still, from the broadest perspective, his name recognition was no more significant than a single grain of rice.
But the moment Miley Cara's name appeared, the overseas media moved quickly. They brought up Kang Woojin's name and even went out of their way to introduce him. That was purely because of Cara's power as a global superstar. After looking through the overseas articles for a while, Woojin checked the time.
It was already past midnight.
There would be a time difference once he arrived in LA, but Kang Woojin cracked his neck from side to side and took a few sips of water. He was trying to stay awake by force. Part of it was preparation for adjusting to the time difference, but it wasn't as if he were especially sleepy to begin with.
'Is it because I rest so often in the void space?'
Soon after, Woojin put his wireless earbuds in. Then he played the music saved on his tablet.
-♬♪
A song immediately began flowing into his ears. It was the guide version of Miley Cara's new track. Of course, it was also the song Kang Woojin had participated in producing. He had already listened to it enough times that it felt familiar, but there was nothing wrong with listening to it more. At the same time, he moved his index finger across the tablet screen.
The music video storyboard he had looked at so many times appeared on the display. This had also been sent over by Miley Cara's side. The music video storyboard resembled the film and drama storyboards Woojin was already used to seeing. But for Kang Woojin, a music video was still a new kind of experience.
'It does seem like it'll be fun, but I'm weirdly nervous too.'
In truth, when he had first received the storyboard, he had not felt much at all. But once he got on the plane, his heart had started pounding. It was not simply nerves over filming his first music video. The anticipation was even greater than the tension. On top of that, the person opposite him was none other than Miley Cara, a global superstar who was both an actress and a singer.
Wait. Miley Cara?
Was this actually real?
For a moment, Kang Woojin lost all sense of reality.
'…Damn. I never imagined there'd come a day when I'd appear in Miley Cara's music video.'
And on top of that, he was participating in the album work too. That news had already spread widely across Korea, and Woojin had nearly been overwhelmed by the flood of messages pouring in from people around him. His childhood friends, especially, had reacted with wild excitement. It was astonishing enough for Kang Woojin himself, so how much more shocking must it have been for them?
Woojin lowered his eyes back to the tablet. Looking at the music video storyboard on the screen, he muttered inwardly,
'Still, I'm a little disappointed the void space didn't appear.'
Of course, no black square had appeared for the music video. That meant the shoot would proceed without the void space, which in turn meant Kang Woojin would have to deal with that part on his own.
'It doesn't look like it'll require that much acting, so it should be fine…'
But that didn't mean there would be no acting at all. Come to think of it, this was almost the first time Woojin had gone into a shoot that required acting without the support of the void space. As he fell into thought for a moment, his naturally bold disposition kicked in.
'Well, whatever. If I have to, I'll just throw myself into whatever role it is.'
Saturday morning, the 10th. Japan.
Around the time Kang Woojin's flight was arriving in LA, a fierce promotional war was breaking out across Japan.
『"Third-quarter anime promotions begin" — This year's highly anticipated titles are already drawing attention!』
These were promotions being run by countless animation production companies. In Japan, this kind of promotion happened regularly every quarter. This time, it was the campaign for the third quarter. In a market where at least thirty titles were released every quarter, it was only natural for studios to launch aggressive promotion to capture the attention of the Japanese public.
Otherwise, they would disappear without leaving a trace.
Of course, there were also anime that took off through word of mouth alone, with little promotion at all. Those were usually works adapted from already massively popular bestselling manga. Every year, bestselling manga were adapted into anime, and there were titles like that in this third quarter too.
In any case, the Japanese anime market was like a blood-soaked battlefield without weapons.
『Strongest Spy gets an anime adaptation! Can it live up to the popularity of the original manga?』
『Spy Daddy holds large-scale event in Akihabara! Voice actor fan-signing included』
『At last, Season 2 returns—Magic Revolution! Fans are already excited by the news』
『Boy Friend: Remake, featuring Kang Woojin's voice, hits No. 1 in social media search rankings!』
Naturally, there were quite a few articles about Boy Friend: Remake as well.
『Boy Friend: Remake, the only anime in the third quarter based on a Korean drama and the only romantic comedy among them』
Out of the many anime titles, Boy Friend: Remake was the only one not based on manga. On top of that, the original source was the Korean drama Boy Friend, and since romantic comedies had recently been underperforming in the Japanese anime market, the production company A10 Studio had no choice but to double its promotional budget.
In some ways, it might have been the weakest title among the dozens of anime works.
But Boy Friend: Remake had its own strengths.
According to A10 Studio, voice actor Kang Woojin is "so skilled that he could switch to voice acting full-time without any problem."
The key was Kang Woojin. He was the one and only breakthrough point, having already gained overwhelming popularity and name recognition in Japan through countless headlines. On top of that, A10 Studio's bold strategy played an important role as well. They had adapted a Korean title into animation, cast a Korean actor as the male lead's voice actor, and had even entrusted the OST to Kang Woojin.
Thanks to that, with only two days left until its first broadcast, Boy Friend: Remake had become the hottest topic across Japanese social media and community sites.
『Boy Friend: Remake is currently the most discussed title across social media and community sites, ranking No. 1 in public interest』
Of course, not all the comments were positive.
[Boy Friend: Remake!! I'm excited!]
[lol I'm curious because Kang Woojin is doing the voice lol]
[Honestly, I don't plan to watch it. I don't think Kang Woojin's voice acting has been that good.]
[This anime… it's finally coming out. If the original hadn't been Korean, I would've watched it…]
[There are a lot of things I don't like, but it's been a while since a rom-com aired, so I'll probably watch the first episode.]
[Japan has so many successful male voice actorsㅠ Why did A10 cast a Korean actor?]
[Boy Friend: Remake will draw a lot of viewers no matter what. Whether they're looking forward to it or skeptical, a lot of people will probably watch out of curiosity.]
Strictly speaking, there were more negative comments than positive ones.
But that, too, was a form of interest.
So regardless of the public response, A10 Studio never stopped pushing the promotion. As time passed, it only intensified its advertising across social media, YouTube, and community sites.
The recent trend in the Japanese anime market could only be described as stagnant.
Average ratings sat somewhere between three and five percent, and anything over ten percent was considered a huge success. Two years earlier, one anime had hit fifteen percent, and the Japanese media had treated it as an enormous triumph. A rating in the three-percent range was usually enough to place around the top ten. In the first and second quarters of this year, not a single anime had passed ten percent.
That was why the Japanese media was paying particularly close attention to the third-quarter anime market.
『Will there be an anime that reaches "10% viewership" this third quarter?』
There were an unusually large number of anticipated titles.
And a large number of anticipated titles meant only one thing.
『Third quarter packed with highly anticipated works, at least ten! But who will emerge on top?』
It meant that Boy Friend: Remake was facing brutal competition.
Meanwhile, back in Korea, at Incheon Airport—
It was morning, but the departure hall was overflowing with people. Because it was the July vacation season, the crowd was several times larger than usual. Among all of those people, a group carrying an enormous amount of luggage stood out immediately. Anyone could tell they looked like a film crew, and among them were several foreigners.
A closer look made those foreign faces familiar.
It was Ethan Smith, with his large nose, and his stunt team.
There were many familiar faces in front of them as well. One man with a thick, scruffy beard stood out in particular.
"Every team, make sure you've got your luggage properly! If your baggage goes missing once we get to Bangkok, we're screwed!"
Naturally, it was Song Manwoo PD.
This entire large group was the production crew of Beneficial Evil. Of course, it was not the entire staff, only those taking part in the overseas Bangkok location trip.
Their goal was to scout filming locations in Bangkok.
The PD in charge of overseas filming was already waiting in Bangkok. The trip to Bangkok for Beneficial Evil was an extremely important part of the schedule. It was the end of pre-production and just before the script reading, and the CQC martial arts scenes, which were essential for Episodes 1 and 2, still needed their storyboards finalized.
That was probably why.
"..."
The expressions on Ethan and the stunt team were set and determined.
Then, at that exact moment—
"Immigration! Immigration! Let's move in order!"
With the assistant director's shout,
the Beneficial Evil team departed for Bangkok.
──────────
Los Angeles International Airport.
Kang Woojin and his team had arrived in LA. The place his feet landed in was night. A wide, busy arrival hall crowded with people of all races. More precisely, it was still the night of the 9th. Kang Woojin stared expressionlessly at the dark sky visible beyond the airport windows.
'Damn. We left at night and arrived at night too.'
Inside, he quietly praised himself for making it through the flight without sleeping. It was his first return to LA since filming Our Table. Behind him followed around ten people, including Choi Sunggeon. The team from Kang Woojin's YouTube channel, Kang Woojin's Alter Ego, was with them too.
After clearing immigration, they crossed the wide lobby and stepped outside the airport.
Two large vans were waiting by the curb.
Large?
No.
Much larger than that.
'Did the CEO really arrange this?'
Naturally, Woojin assumed it was Choi Sunggeon's doing, but that was not actually the case. The reason became clear when Choi Sunggeon muttered under his breath.
"Wow, Miley Cara's team is really treating us like VIPs. They even sent vans this late at night."
It turned out that the vans had been provided by Miley Cara, and they would be used for the entire duration of Kang Woojin's stay in LA. Soon after, a burly foreign man climbed down from the driver's seat and began helping move Kang Woojin's luggage and the team's bags. Kang Woojin, Choi Sunggeon, Han Yejung, and several others boarded the van in front. Once inside, it felt even wider than expected.
'Holy shit, this van is huge.'
Woojin kept his face calm, but inwardly he was genuinely startled. At that moment, Choi Sunggeon, seated beside him, grinned and said,
"You know Miley Cara's side also booked our hotel, right? It's a five-star place in the center of LA. All suites too. Well, since they invited us, I guess that's only natural."
Meanwhile, the burly foreign man who had finished loading the luggage climbed back into the driver's seat. Another man with a similar build sat in the passenger seat. They were bodyguards. Choi Sunggeon leaned slightly toward the front and showed something on his phone while saying a few words to them. Woojin was curious, but he did not bother asking.
And then—
the two huge vans pulled away from LA airport side by side.
Woojin began looking out the window at the night view of LA.
'I've seen it before when we filmed Our Table, but the LA night view really is impressive.'
At that moment, Choi Sunggeon, who had tied his hair back up again, yawned widely and stretched.
"For now, let's head to the hotel and get some proper rest tonight. We're supposed to meet Miley Cara around noon tomorrow. She'll come to the hotel herself."
"Really?"
"Yeah. But before we go to the hotel, there's one place we need to stop by first."
At this hour? Woojin inwardly found that odd, but outwardly he only gave a quiet nod.
"Yes, sir."
After that, the van carrying Woojin entered the downtown district lined with high-rise buildings. Even though it was late, the roads were still packed with cars, and the brightly lit buildings made it feel more like daytime than night.
About five minutes later,
the two vans came to a stop by the side of the road.
Choi Sunggeon got out immediately, and Woojin followed after him. In front of them stood a beige rectangular building. Wearing a smile, Choi Sunggeon pointed toward the entrance.
"Let's go in."
In the end, about six people in total—Choi Sunggeon, Woojin, the foreign bodyguards, and several others—got into the elevator together. When they stepped out of the elevator, which was soaked in that distinctly LA kind of atmosphere, Choi Sunggeon led them down the hallway. Soon, they arrived in front of an office, and Choi Sunggeon turned back to Woojin.
"This place, the one next to it, and the one after that too—they're all ours."
What?
Choi Sunggeon pointed first to the office directly in front of them, then to the two next to it. Then, without warning, he opened the glass door of the front office and turned on the lights. There was no one inside, but dozens of desks had been set up, and every one of them was empty.
Overall, the place gave off the strong impression that people had only just moved in.
Following Choi Sunggeon into the office, Kang Woojin watched as he pointed at the wall with one finger.
"Look over there, Woojin."
Woojin turned his head along the line of that finger.
'Ah.'
He saw a familiar face.
More precisely, it was a pictorial poster.
A poster of Woojin himself, dressed in an elegant suit and striking a pose, was proudly displayed on the wall. As Woojin stood there caught between bewilderment and confusion, Choi Sunggeon's smile deepened further.
"This is BW Entertainment's overseas branch. Naturally, you're the star of the place."
This was the starting point from which Kang Woojin's move into Hollywood would begin.