Spring, the Season of Harvest (1)

"Two million! Two million for the first week!"

The SBE Film CEO shouted while slamming the table.

"This is our goal."

A few strands of wispy hair remained on his chin. He had lost so much weight that his eyes were sunken with large dark circles. He made people recall the zombies on the poster. The employees, who also struggled through the rigorous schedule for the past few months, were the same.

"Hollywood blockbusters are waiting like a shoal of piranhas. National movies opening on the same day are strong competitors as well. People don't wait long these days. We need to break through with the first week's score or else…"

"Our screen time would be taken by the shoal of piranhas."

The project producer said with a frown.

As if he just imagined it, the CEO's legs were shaking.

"Marketing is key, marketing! If we want to pull in as many people to watch it in the beginning, we need to pour all our efforts into marketing!"

"We have been releasing press releases every day starting last week."

The PR Team employee, Kang Minjeong, said with a partly hoarse voice.

"We have advertisements on buses, subways, and billboards as well. Our main trailer already has 4 million views."

"Good. How are the comments?"

"The production team made an amazing trailer. There's no way the comments will be bad."

The production producer blinked his sunken eyes as he smiled.

"We put our soul into it."

"Thanks to that, we've received comments like these."

"What?"

"'The trailer is everything. Since I've seen it, I probably don't need to watch the movie.'"

Silence hung in the meeting room. Soon, a suppressed laughed escaped. As though it was infectious, laughter quickly spread throughout the room. The zombie employees all had meaningful expressions on their faces as they laughed.

"'The trailer is everything'? They don't even know how much we didn't show."

"Although that was what we were going for, I want to tell them."

"I wonder what their reactions will be once they see the movie?"

"I know, right? I want to invite them all to the preview."

"Ah, the reporters were curious about that."

Kang Minjeong twirled her pen as she said,

"They were asking why we were offering so many free previews. They were wondering if we weren't worried that our opening score will be negatively affected by word of mouth."

"Only those who aren't confident in their work worry about that."

The project producer snorted.

"That's what I told them. That we were doing it on purpose to get some word of mouth marketing."

Kang Minjeong's red lips curled upwards.

"The previews will be the fuse. Once word of mouth spreads, we'll boost our marketing efforts and bring up the sales for the premiere. The people who watched in on opening day will spread it through word of mouth again. It'll snowball from there."

"How are the press and VIP preview preparations going?"

Kang Minjeong looked at the list of guests at the CEO's question and laughed.

"It'll be as splendid as a film festival. We sent tons of invitations to Director Choi Sungwon's personal connections and friends of our cast. Even if only half of them attend, we'll be all over entertainment news columns."

After informing them of a few top stars who would be attending, Kang Minjeong added,

"Neptune will be there, and Seo Jijoon agreed to come as well. Chief Jung Sunwoo said he'll talk to the leads at Royal Family today so if we're lucky Yoon Taekyung, Seo Eunkyo, and Im Joowon could come too."

"Ah, Royal Family starts this week, right?"

"Today's its first broadcast."

The CEO licked his lips.

"We'll benefit if Lee Songha becomes even more of a hot topic. I hope their ratings are great."

"I hope so but it won't be easy."

"Why? From the rumors, it seems the quality is good? China seems to be excited about it as well."

"The project is good, but they have bad luck with their competitors."

"Competitors?"

Kang Minjeong clicked her tongue.

"They'll probably have a rough night."

*

"Bastards!"

PBS's drama director swore.

A chill smacked the inside of the director's office. The chief producer in charge of Royal Family, Director Sung from Well-Made Productions, Writer Jang, and Director Woo. They were all sighing with frozen faces.

It was because of the ratings chart on the table.

Two lines were highlighted.

{IBC's 'Benz after the Crappy Car' Episode 2. 15.8% national ratings.}

{UBS's 'Afterlife' Episode 16. 11.8% national raitings.}

"If you add those two together, their ratings exceed 27%. What do we do?"

"I know, right? Why did you schedule things like this?"

Writer Jang said while brushing her hair to the side.

The pearl earrings hanging from her ear shook violently.

"We needed to start at the same time. Don't you know that we'll be at a disadvantage if we start late? Drama performances are set after the fourth episode. Young viewers these days don't watch on air dates if they miss the previous episode. They wait to binge watch it after the drama ends."

"Writer Jang. I'm the director here. How could I not know this? If those immoral bastards didn't scheme, all three companies would have started new dramas at the same time!"

The director beat his chest. The chief producer quickly opened a bottle of water and handed it to the director. Having dealt with the enraged director the entire day, the chief producer said with an exhausted face,

"IBC feigned ignorance before suddenly getting the jump on us, and UBS suddenly extending their originally 16-episode series to 20 episodes. It seems they worked hard to compete against us."

The chief producer cautiously said,

"It's not like we weren't doing anything either. We ended 'It's Fate' a week early for Royal Family."

"You said you were planning on ending it early anyways because its ratings were only at 4%. It wasn't 'It's Fate' but rather 'It's Dead'{1}. If you're going to take credit for something, make it believable."

The chief producer crumbled at Writer Jang's harsh words.

Director Woo, who had been silent for a while, scratched his beard as he said,

"Let's talk about this after our first episode airs. We marketed as much as we could, and there are viewers waiting for our drama. Is there a reason to be so negative already? Well, we can also increase our viewership through other channels as well."

"That's easy to say."

Writer Jang said with the click of her tongue.

"IBC's 'Crappy Car'. People are going crazy over how great the chemistry is between the male and female leads. They ended their previous episode at such a great cliffhanger too. Also, 'Afterlife' is a genre-specific drama. Their viewers are extremely loyal so they probably won't go watch something else. If we can't get the ratings tonight, we're screwed."

The mood in the room became even gloomier at Writer Jang's words. Like a boat that was about to sink. Just then, Director Sung from Well-Made Productions, who was monitoring IBC and UBS's Wednesday-Thursday drama reactions, put his tablet down.

"If we're really unlucky…"

He laughed bitterly as he said,

"Then we've made an amazing drama that will flop."

***

I recalled the first night Cat Guardian Ghost aired.

The staff and cast had gathered to watch the broadcast that time too.

It was loud and full of anticipation. People were glancing at the clock with expectant faces. Alcohol glasses clinked endlessly. Meat cooked on the grill. And the cheers that erupted after they reported real-time ratings.

I remembered how the drama's first broadcast was like a festival.

Compared to that, this was the Intensive Care Unit.

Perhaps it would be a funeral in an hour.

"What is this all of sudden?"

"The Crappy Car pretty much splashed crap on us. Why did they have to hit 15% ratings on their second episode? There wasn't anything to see!"

"Don't public broadcast dramas take up at most 35% ratings these days? If IBC and UBS take 27%… We really might have to start from the bottom."

"Damn it, I thought we would easily exceed 10% on our first night."

The staff and employees who had gathered for the broadcast whispered to each other. Even the leads, Yoon Taekyung, Seo Eunkyo, and even Im Joowon emptied their glasses with tense faces. The mood at the bar dropped below the ground, even reaching Earth's inner core.

In fact, even the behind-the-scenes team that planned on filming the scene had placed their cameras on the ground and raised their beer glasses.

The situation was just as frustrating as high our expectations and goals were.

I was fiddling with my glass when something soft touched my shoulder.

It was Lee Songha's head. It seemed she was voraciously eating fried chicken moments ago, but she was now sleeping with her round forehead and cheek leaning against my shoulder. With a fork in her hand.

She had been falling asleep on our way here, but it seems she reached her limit. She probably didn't have much time to sleep easy having to attend marketing events for both her movie and drama.

They weren't filming anything for the behind-the-scenes clips, and there was still some time before the broadcast.

I decided to let her sleep a bit and covered her with my coat.

"Chief Jung, are you okay?"

Im Joowon was chewing on a dried squid tentacle across from me.

"Me?"

"Everyone's uneasy, yet it seems you and Songha are completely fine."

People's gazes slowly landed on me.

"That's true. Mr. Sunwoo's been quiet for a while now for some reason."

"Wow, is Ms. Songha sleeping right now? While everyone's this anxious?"

"She couldn't sleep properly for the past few days because of her busy schedule."

People were astonished at my excuse.

"Still, she has nerves of steel."

"She can sleep easy because Chief Jung isn't anxious."

"No, Mr. Sunwoo, aren't you worried? If our ratings aren't good, isn't your image as 'Midas's Hand' ruined?"

"I know, right? Reporters and netizens are incredibly curious about what will happen."

"Maybe…"

Im Joowon leaned his face closer.

"Do you foresee our ratings being good? Is that why you're so calm?"

"If that's it, tell us! I might die from anxiety!"

"No joke. Seriously. If you say that, I feel like I'll actually relax."

At some point, people from other tables were staring at me as well. They urged my reply with sparkling eyes as though if I said that the drama would be a success, it actually would be.

I didn't know when, but Lee Songha had woken up and was looking at me while rubbing her drowsy eyes.

Under their gazes, I wordlessly laughed.

If I was honest…

I was so nervous my mouth felt dry. I felt like I would dry out.

It was my first time waiting in such frustration. I had some degree of confidence that Next K-Pop Star and Cat Guardian Ghost would be a success. But the future was unclear this time.

I was able to stop Royal Family from being a bust by stopping Park Dojin from being picked as the lead, but that didn't ensure success for this drama.

IBC and UBS's sudden scheduling change was a bolt out of the blue for me as well. It felt like someone swung a baseball bat at the back of my head. After hearing this news, I was hoping that I could see another future. Anything.

However, there were no signs of that happening.

Even though I looked calm on the outside, I was inwardly more nervous than anyone here. Damn it. If I could pay some price to see the future, I would have done it already.

My cheeks tingled. People were staring at me.

Lee Songha was also looking at me with slowly closing eyes.

After downing a glass of beer, I casually said,

"Well, we did everything we could."

"That's exactly why we're frustrated!"

Grumbles erupted all around me. Soon, the gazes on me moved towards the clock. 9:55. Royal Family's first episode would air in a few minutes.

"Oppa, look at this."

Lee Songha tapped her phone a few times before showing me Neptune's official social media page.

-Euaah! Waiting for Royal Family to air! Everyone, please wait with us!

There was a picture with a caption that was undoubtedly written by Im Seoyoung. A picture of the girls gathered in the living, each holding a slice of pizza. Behind their gathered faces was a commercial running on PBS's channel.

When I went on the entertainment section of the portal site, it was pouring with Royal Family related articles. This was the result of PBS's marketing team, Well-Made's PR agency, and our W&U's PR Team holding nothing back.

Neptune's picture was already posted in an article. Not only that, but there were also pictures of Son Chaeyoung and Seo Jijoon, who made cameo appearances. Even supportive comments on Alive actors' social media accounts were picked up by reporters.

"It looks like everyone is waiting for it to air."

Lee Songha said while stabbing her fork in a chicken drumstick.

She looked no different from normal. Like me.

What was she actually thinking?

"Songha, aren't you worried about the ratings?"

"We did everything we could like oppa said."

She replied as she offered the chicken to me.

"And our luck is good. I think our ratings will be good."

"Our luck is good?"

When our luck couldn't be any worse?

Lee Songha looked around before whispering in my ear,

"I think I slept for a long time, but there's still a drumstick remaining."

Then she pointed her fork at me, urging me to eat it.

I unknowingly began laughing. It was so ridiculous.

Lee Songha laughed along with me.

Unconcerned whether people would think we were crazy, we laughed for a long time.

I hoped everything would go well. Really. Unlike in the past when things didn't work out no matter how hard Lee Songha tried, I hope that she would be rewarded with great ratings.

I wished that the future I had yet to see was something like that.

Just as I thought this…

"Huh? Why is Crappy Car starting already?"

Someone exclaimed in a flustered voice.

PBS was still running their commercials, yet IBC was already at their title screen. The text 'Third Episode' appeared on a black screen then the drama began right away.

With a scene of the male and female leads running towards each other and kissing.

They hugged each other as they crashed into the fridge, then the table. Plates and glasses were being shattered as they passionately kissed.

"This is supposed to be a romantic comedy! Why are the leads kissing on the third episode?!"

"Tongue! I think I just saw tongue?! Isn't this worth reporting to the KCC{2}?!"

The audio director holding the remote quickly changed the channel. The female lead on UBS's channel was wailing. A collapsed body spilling blood could be seen on the side.

"Are they kidding me?!"

"God damn it!"

"Just what are they pulling here?!"

While angry voices erupted out, Writer Jang's drearily said,

"They want a fight."

The TV stopped at PBS's channel. Royal Family's first scene was playing.

"Ratings! What ratings did it start with?!"

Writer Jang shouted.

The production assistant, who already had his phone to his ear, raised his finger to his lips to shush us.

The bar became so quiet one could hear a needle drop.

Soon, the assistant opened his lips.

{1} Korean pun. 'Passed away' and 'Fate' here use the same word phonetically.

{2} KCC – Korea Communications Commission, a media regulation agency.