Suddenly, I Became Crazy Handsome, and the World Became Easy

The one-act play 'Rental Lover' written by Kang Rojun. PD Jung Soo-ryeong, who had just made up her mind to expand the scale of that one-act play. 'Rental Lover' had a decent script in itself, good enough to win the grand prize in the SBC contest.

But the real deal was the writer who wrote it.

If the writer was that “Number 1” from “Produce That 100!”, then the value of the already decent “Rental Lover” would skyrocket dozens of times. PD Jung Soo-ryeong, a director with at least 15 years of experience, thought so.

-Swish.

Suddenly, she stood up from her seat by the window and began walking down the hallway. A few assistant directors and PDs tried to talk to her, but PD Jung Soo-ryeong ignored them.

-Click.

She sat alone in an empty meeting room. It was because the drama department was too noisy, so she had moved. Soon, PD Jung Soo-ryeong crossed her arms and let out a quiet sigh.

“Hm- first of all, reset the entire casting board of actors I had in mind. Stop sending out those messages to the entertainment companies asking for rookies.”

The first thing that came to her mind was the actors to be cast in 'Rental Lover'. If she was going to scale it up, a mediocre actor wouldn’t be enough.

PD Jung Soo-ryeong also intended to fill the rest of the supporting and minor roles with B-list actors instead of rookies. If the level of the actors goes up, naturally there will be more material for promotion and marketing. That leads to buzz, and it could be tied in with writer Kang Chul-soo for coordinated exposure.

“Next after the actors is the directorial quality, the skill level of the key staff, editing, and so on, they all need to be scaled up more than I originally thought.”

PD Jung Soo-ryeong quickly, but thoroughly, revised her existing plan. For a veteran like her, it wasn’t difficult. She could already picture the faces of several actors in her mind.

Currently, there were quite a few actors in the field whom PD Jung Soo-ryeong had discovered or owed favors to.

At that point, she crossed her legs and let out a small sigh.

“Scaling up the project isn’t that hard, the problem is the production cost.”

In the end, the problem was money. Normally, one episode of a one-act drama begins with less than half the production budget of a typical mini-drama episode. Even so, the quality needs to be higher. That’s why when it comes to one-acts, PDs usually cut spending on actors and invest in the direction.

Naturally, it’s a structure where they’re forced to use rookies whose appearance fees are low.

Of course, the same was true for 'Rental Lover'.

But if she was going to scale it up, the allocated budget needed to at least double. Well, PD Jung Soo-ryeong did have a very easy way to break through the budget issue.

“If I tell the director about the story related to writer Kang Chul-soo, it’ll be resolved right away.”

Kang Rojun, Number 1 of “Produce That 100!”, and writer Kang Chul-soo. If she weaved the three of them together well and delivered it to the drama department director, he would probably jump on it drooling. Especially since Rojun was now on the path to becoming a sensation?

However, the reason PD Jung Soo-ryeong didn’t use that card was simple.

“That would solve the production cost, but if I’m not careful, it might cause harm to writer Kang Chul-soo.”

Too many captains will steer the ship into the mountains. For now, PD Jung Soo-ryeong had to keep everything related to writer Kang Chul-soo under wraps. Especially in the entertainment industry, where rumors spread like wildfire. If she leaked information for no reason and things got damp, she might not be able to light the fire when it was really needed.

As a result.

“It means I have to scale up the project on my own without asking the broadcasting station.”

In other words, PD Jung Soo-ryeong had to push through this entirely on her own strength. It seemed like quite a difficult mission, but for some reason, her eyes were brimming with confidence.

“Screw it, let’s just give it a go.”

Meanwhile, at the “Produce That 100!” campus in Paju.

More than a hundred staff members and PD Woo Han-suk had gathered in the hall with the stage. Today was the day for the second evaluation shoot of the 'Vocal Team', following the 'Dance Team', and because of the aftermath of the first broadcast that began in the morning, preparations had been very delayed.

It was only now, well past noon, that the shoot was ready to begin.

However, the five judges seated in the front row of the stage still appeared visibly excited.

“We hit 10% viewership right from the first episode! Seriously, if it keeps going like this, won’t we break 20% by the finale??”

“If the show we’re working on keeps getting those kinds of ratings, that’s just the best!!”

“More than just the ratings, doesn’t it feel like a full-on craze is about to start?? Even just on YouTube, the related videos are exploding!”

And among them was Kang Rojun.

“Hello, Number 1!”

“Hello.”

“Did you watch the first broadcast yesterday??”

“Yes, I did.”

“How was it? A whooole lot of viewers saw you, you know?"

“Honestly, it still doesn’t feel real. Everything’s just amazing.”

The 'Dance Team' participants were filming their interviews, and as soon as the stage hall was tidied up, PD Woo Han-suk announced...

“Then, we’ll now begin the second round evaluation.”

The second vocal evaluation shoot officially started. The format was the same as the Dance Team’s. As the afternoon approached and the second episode of "Produce That 100!" was about to air, the media increased the speed of publishing articles.

A full-blown popularity storm was looming.

On top of that, among the top 10 real-time trending videos on YouTube, 5 were related to “Produce That 100!” Edited summary clips, videos featuring popular contestants, and so on.

And the video that ranked number one was, of course:

-!LEGENDARY! The “Number 1” contestant who flipped the stage with visuals alone｜“Produce That 100!”

-Trending Video #1

-3,444,991 views / July 24, 2020

It was a video of Number 1, or rather, Kang Rojun. The thumbnail was simple. His face. The runtime was about 1 minute, short. From Rojun’s appearance to the reveal of his face in the first episode of “Produce That 100!” But in less than a day, the one-minute video had already surpassed 3 million views.

Viewers who watched the video responded with pure admiration.

-Doesn’t Number 1 have that refined decadent vibe?? He’s kinda damn sexy.

-Wow... I saw him during the broadcast... but even in this edited video, he’s insanely handsome...

-Holy crap!! My vision’s improved ♥

-I quit fangirling but... what is this super fucking handsome dude...?

-He looks like he’d be cold as hell, which makes him even more attractive ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋand his voice was nice too

-OMG Legendary

-He legit looks like a webtoon male lead walking right outta the panel ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-He’s just out of this world ㅋㅋㅋeven if he gets older, he’ll still be up there ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-How does someone look like that? No matter how much I see him, I still don’t believe he’s human

-Fuckin’ hell, he's goddamn handsome