I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

* * *

Hong Suryeon cried.

Transparent tears continuously gathered at the tips of her glamorous, beautiful eyelashes.

“Uwaaaahh-. What do I do, what do I do?!”

Clutching a pink heart cushion to her chest, Hong Suryeon poured out every emotion she had. She simply couldn’t believe it.

“Our Writer Hwang....”

Seeing her like that, her manager tore open two wet wipes and wiped her nose with them. Hong Suryeon kept sobbing while pounding the heart cushion with her fists.

Like the tragic heroine of a melodrama, she had practically collapsed onto the floor half-lying down.

“Suryeon-ah, here, look over here. Your favorite mirror’s here?”

“But I’m beautifuuul....”

Hong Suryeon stared at herself reflected in the handheld mirror her manager offered. Then, as though reaching some sort of decision, she spoke.

“This won’t dooo.”

“You’re going to visit him again?”

“Nooo. It’s time for me to help himmm.”

“How? What exactly are you planning to help him with, Suryeon-ah?”

With a sniffling sound, Hong Suryeon sniffed hard. Her nasal voice carried deep sorrow alongside genuine warmth toward Hwang Boseok.

“Unni. Sometimes people live life and... you know...? There are moments when they want the world to acknowledge them for who they really are... wanting to fight barehanded and all that. Like... a little bit of reckless pride.”

Hong Suryeon’s chest hurt, but there was nothing she could do.

“He must’ve been sad all this time because his work was overshadowed by my beauty. His heart must’ve hurt. I understand. How could I not understaaand? The life of a sinful woman as beautiful as me is always like this... I know everythinggg....”

Even reflected in the hand mirror, Hong Suryeon looked beautiful.

Truly worthy of being the actress loved by the entire world.

“How did I end up this beautiful...! To the point that even a teacher who’s practically family suffers because of it...! Really...! Seriously, how did this happen...!”

Hong Suryeon buried her face into the pink heart cushion and cried. Tear stains remained on the cushion in the exact shape of her features.

But only for a moment.

Soon, she lifted her head again and steeled herself.

“But I don’t think he realizes yet... that my beauty stands above all things in this world.... Things like that are natural, so there’s no reason to feel ashamedddd.... Haa... Teacher really is a wonderful writer. A genius. But isn’t there something above even a genius...?”

As expected, it seemed there was nothing better than shock therapy to change Hwang Boseok’s mind.

“So?”

“I need to go in with another project.”

“Not Writer Hwang’s work? Another drama?”

“Mhm. And it absolutely has to air in the same time slot.”

Hong Suryeon’s moist eyes gleamed with sorrow and conviction.

“It hurts my heart to fight against Writer Hwang... but someday he’ll understand the deeper meaning behind my actions....”

Staggering slightly, Hong Suryeon rose from her seat and walked toward the pile of scripts.

Confidence radiated from every single step she took.

“And then I’ll hold Writer Hwang’s hands when he returns! I’ll tell him I understand everything! Teacher, I bought the cake for our third project againnn...! And then I’ll hug him tightlyyy!”

The script now resting in Hong Suryeon’s hand belonged to Writer Woo, the writer said to inherit Hwang Boseok’s lineage.

〈There Is Only One Culprit〉.

* * *

[Korean Drama Minor Gallery]

I’ll organize the romcom writer tiers for you

—Tier 1—

Hwang Boseok

The king god one-hit-top writer. You could honestly say nobody compares below Writer Hwang.

Even that random nonsense drama like 〈The Crown Prince’s Scandal〉 got dragged up in ratings purely by him. The emperor of romcoms fr. Honestly his dialogue writing is insanely good. Everyone admits this.

—Tier 2—

Kim Yoon / Lee Sarang / Woo Seungri

Kim Yoon peaked with 〈Just Meeting You〉 and the next project was a little disappointing, but healing romcoms are definitely her specialty. Making people binge smoothly without huge events is also talent. Rewatching by tiny emotional moments is fun.

Lee Sarang seriously fell into the abyss once but seeing her revive like crazy with the next project makes it obvious she just has a genre that suits her. No matter how much viewers say she’s washed up, she absolutely needs to write bratty explosive male leads. It still sucks how boring it got after she tried writing a mature male lead.

Woo Seungri definitely benefited from meeting good directors lol. Got lucky with competition too... doesn’t mean she’s bad though. Just textbook romcom.

People call her budget Hwang Boseok, but her lows aren’t really low so she’s still watchableㅇㅇ

“Don’t make me laugh-!”

Writer Woo shouted as if speaking directly to the person on the other side of the phone.

This was completely absurd.

“What do you mean I met good directors? What do you mean I got lucky with competition?”

There wasn’t just one irritating thing here.

Being placed in Tier 2 already hurt her pride badly enough, but this was the worst part.

“Budget Hwang Boseok?!”

From her days as a co-writer all the way until becoming a lead writer herself, Woo Seungri had never stumbled even once.

Every single step of climbing from sitcoms to sixteen-episode network dramas had been soaked in blood and effort.

“Me! Me! Some factory-produced OEM knockoff bargain-bin fake Hwang Boseok?!”

To be fair, nobody had actually phrased it quite that harshly, but she constantly trembled with frustration over the fact she still couldn’t surpass Hwang Boseok, the Tier 1 top writer.

“But just watch....”

This project was different.

It would push her beyond Tier 1 and carve her name into the heavens.

〈There Is Only One Culprit〉.

A masterpiece of Woo Seungri’s career, perfectly blending romantic comedy and mystery in a way that made viewers unable to stop themselves from watching the next episode.

“Soon Hwang Boseok will become the outdated Woo Seungri instead.”

Woo Seungri and Hong Suryeon together.

That itself was another guaranteed winning formula.

And once news broke that Yoo Jiuk would be joining too, the broadcasting industry exploded instantly.

[Perfect insane combination... Woo Seungri・Hong Suryeon・Yoo Jiuk, the meeting of top-tier legends]

[Hong Suryeon♥︎Yoo Jiuk “We’ve fallen in love”]

[Writer Woo Seungri of 〈My Wife〉 and 〈On the Thirteenth Page〉 joins hands with “Romcom Queen” Hong Suryeon this time]

[StarCutCut ⎢Hong Suryeon during pictorial shoot, lovable lovely goddess smile]

* * *

“We need to play this safe. Safe and steady.”

The elite among elites.

The head of SBC’s drama center did not miss this opportunity.

To fight Hwang Boseok head-on, this combination was the best possible choice.

If they compared cards, Hwang Boseok’s side consisted of SSR Hwang Boseok, A-rank Han Yeoreum, and B-rank Seo Eden.

A top writer who had succeeded with everything.

A rising actress who created shocking syndromes every time but still lacked recognition compared to Hong Suryeon.

And then a male actor who had only done supporting roles once.

“He’ll probably be the biggest weakness over there.”

If the male lead was someone who had barely done any real acting before, then Han Yeoreum would have to carry the entire thing herself.

If the material were a true female-lead one-top story, the synergy would’ve been tremendous, but after obtaining and reading the early script, that wasn’t the case either.

Meanwhile on this side, Woo Seungri A+, Hong Suryeon SR, Yoo Jiuk SSR.

A star writer with an excellent hit rate.

An absolute romcom queen whose ratings had never once fallen below 20%.

And on top of that, a top male lead who could support literally everything.

“Yoo Jiuk can do anything from action to melodrama. Even sageuks work for him.”

As a result, when calculating the total overall value, this side had a slight edge.

[DramaMovieActor TALK / Yoo Jiuk and Hong Suryeon LMAO Woo Seungri is insane]

Looks like names really matter.. T_T The director attached to this was really good too. The only bad thing is the competition this time but the conditions are still insane. Just imagining JiukSuryeon happening right in front of my eyes means I don’t have to keep running delusion factories anymore lol. Seriously how long has it been since Yoo Jiuk filmed a romance project? Hurry up and film romance lines before he gets older. Once actors hit their forties there’s no hope fr.

-Anonymous 1: fr though I always thought Hong Suryeon matched Yoo Jiuk’s face the best. The casting directors worked their asses off T_T someone needs to pet them seriously

-Anonymous 2: Why’s Woo Seungri unlucky with competition???

˪Anonymous 4: There’s a rumor they might go against Hwang Boseok...

˪Anonymous 9: lol no way. If SBC has any brains they’ll put in a filler drama during Hwang Boseok’s slot. Otherwise it’s straight-up suicide

˪Anonymous 12: They would’ve done that before but SBC’s insanely aggressive these days;

Drama addicts immediately bit onto the signs of a fight unlike anything before.

The SBC drama center head bit his lip.

‘Even if we lose the live broadcast battle, we still have the second half.’

˪Anonymous 16: I heard this carefully from an insider source T_T feel free to ignore it... anyway apparently everyone’s tense because NetHolics is seriously entering the market now. They might’ve put a filler drama in during early NetHolics days, but nobody’s even considering doing that now

˪Anonymous 19: Ahhh shit I totally forgot about NetHolics LMAO this is insanely fun. It’s an all-out war. Hwang Boseok Woo Seungri Han Yeoreum Hong Suryeon;

˪Anonymous 22: Why is nobody including Yoo Jiuk.... T_T

˪Anonymous 23: sry but Seo Eden isn’t on the same level as Yoo Jiuk; it’s honestly embarrassing to even put their names next to each other T_T...

Right.

The answer was NetHolics.

Thanks to the connection with JC ENM, they could steadily supply projects to NetHolics.

Even if they fell slightly behind during live broadcasts, they could continue extending the buzz by releasing it again through NetHolics afterward.

That was SBC’s calculation.

Remaining a hot topic long after the drama ended.

That itself meant survival.

So even if they lost, it wouldn’t really count as losing.

Because they had NetHolics backing them.

“This is what true stability looks like.”

The elite among elites, SBC’s drama director smiled.

Calm eyes gleamed softly behind his glasses.

* * *

I stared at the screen, my hands trembling.

‘This is insane....’

Grinding my teeth at the unbelievable article, I felt my jaw tighten.

So we really were going head-to-head.

She really was going to follow us no matter what.

“I’ll properly show everyone who the real queen isss~.”

Little Senior Hong Suryeon.

Please leave.

“Nooo! I’m the besttt!”

Little Hong Suryeon bounced up and down on top of my head.

I reread the writer’s name.

Woo Seungri.

At the moment, she was a writer boasting an excellent hit rate in romcoms.

And before my regression, this drama had finished with extremely strong ratings.

‘Though the timing was different from now.’

It aired after NetHolics entered the market, so it used the simultaneous release system. Because it was such a trendy romcom, word-of-mouth spread explosively through social media.

‘Every time you opened Intube there were Shorts, every time you opened Yousta there were Rolls. There were just that many scenes perfect for clipping.’

Every thirty-second scene perfectly targeted public taste.

‘And the character writing was insane too....’

Right.

〈There Is Only One Culprit〉 absolutely sold the male lead to perfection.

Yoo Jiuk played dual roles.

The male lead living in the same officetel as the female protagonist would speak kindly to her one day, then completely ignore her the next.

Suits and hoodies.

Hair down versus slicked back.

Smiling eyes versus indifferent eyes.

-Holy shit they’re feeding us THIS hard?????

-Husband-nim I knew you’d pull this off from the second the teaser dropped. I already knew you’d drag around a million legendary screenshots mwah♥︎

-I’m losing my mind the official account started first

-Yes yes Oppa Jiuk... I already prepared the marriage registration papers...

-I’ve watched all our actor’s projects and he’s the hottest right now haha It suits him perfectly.. his charm is exploding~ I wanna live in the same officetel as a guy like that too.. T_T

The reactions were insanely hot.

Our side had also prepared countless stylings and cute catchphrases for Seo Eden, but the scale over there was completely different.

I picked up my phone.

There wasn’t even strength in the fingers typing across the keyboard.

Input: Do you perhaps have anything to say about this current situation?

Elder.

Please give me strength.

Bzzz-.

As though he had been waiting for my message, the reply came immediately.