In <Faster Than the Law>, they needed to give impact to the entrance scene of one of the story’s major villains, Chen Wei.

Since he was the most influential villain introduced so far, the atmosphere had to feel overwhelmingly oppressive.

“...Ah....”

A low bass rolled in like something scraping smoothly across the floor.

Oriental-style percussion layered over it at a steady rhythm, almost like a heartbeat.

On top of that came the clicking sound of casino chips stacking together.

A master was called a master for a reason.

Just hearing the music alone summoned images of Macau’s dark night streets.

Under red and yellow lanterns stood Chen Wei with his back turned.

A man who created danger and fear without saying a single word.

It fit Chen Wei’s first appearance perfectly.

“This is insane.”

“This scene’s gonna become legendary, isn’t it? Holy shit, seriously.”

Before anyone realized it, the entire editing team around Director Gong had shot to their feet.

Everyone was excited.

“Ah! I wanna release the preview already!”

At someone’s shout, Director Gong nodded violently.

“Wow, if this is this good, how amazing must Yeoreum 씨’s scenes be?”

Everyone already knew Noah Williams had joined <Faster Than the Law> because of Han Yeoreum.

“Director. It’s in the files, right? Hurry and play it.”

“Uh, yeah. Hold on....”

[influencer-1]

Director Gong immediately clicked on Han Yeoreum’s theme track after finding it.

“....”

“....”

“....”

As the music for influencer-1 filled the editing room, everyone fell silent.

Noah was Noah.

No further [N O V E L I G H T] explanation was necessary.

* * *

Every step taken by MBS Drama Center Director Lee Saerok as he searched for someone was filled with anxiety.

This was the workshop of a certain drama director.

Bang-!

“Director!!!”

Ja Sokhwan, who had been half-asleep sprawled across the sofa, slowly opened his eyes at the massive noise.

Unable to hold back any longer, Lee Saerok had no choice but to come find the craziest madman among madmen, Director Ja.

“Uh... what is it....”

“Please save me!”

Lee Saerok crouched down in front of Ja Sokhwan lying on the sofa.

There wasn’t even a trace of dignity befitting a drama center director in his behavior.

But Ja Sokhwan, who possessed absolutely none of a director’s dignity himself, didn’t care in the slightest.

“Yaaawn....”

“This isn’t the time to be relaxing! Aaaah! Why are Writer Hwang and you both acting like this?!”

“So what... should I go hand out flyers outside or something?”

Lee Saerok was practically going insane because of <Dongdaemun Romance>’s ratings, which neither noticeably fell nor noticeably rose.

“I seriously need to know why.”

“Then shouldn’t you go ask the writer? Why ask me?”

“Because it feels like you two think similarly!”

Lee Saerok plopped down onto the floor.

Just as Director Ja tried to close his eyes again, the MBS drama center director forcibly pried them open with his thumb and forefinger and begged desperately.

“Please. Please just tell me something. You know, don’t you?”

“What does Writer Hwang say?”

“He tells me to wait! Says he’s not shaken at all! That’s literally all he says!”

“That’s the most important part.”

Unable to communicate even with Ja Sokhwan, Lee Saerok pounded his chest.

“No, but listen. Writer Hwang told me this personally. He said, ‘The more pressure you put on <Tamhok>, the better it gets, so pressure it harder. <There Is Only One Culprit> improves the more you hype it up, so hype it up more. And leave 〈Dear Judge〉 alone.’”

“And?”

“I can’t understand the reason at all! I listened because it was Writer Hwang saying it, but honestly this feels pointless if all it does is make the other productions succeed. Ugh....”

Without permission, Lee Saerok grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and chugged it down in one go.

After stretching with a huge yawn, Director Ja finally sat up.

“Because they took her.”

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Ja Sokhwan explained briefly.

“If the melon bread I raised got taken away, then they should at least do that much. I wondered what the hell was going on when they picked up such a weird guy for the male lead.”

“But we raised her. She made her terrestrial drama debut on our MBS one-act drama. She’s MBS pride.”

“Get out.”

“Aaah, come on. At least explain it.”

After a brief silence, Director Ja gave an unfriendly explanation.

“You have to enlarge the board for more people to gather around it. If the competing productions look shabby, winning against them isn’t as exciting. The real victory comes from fighting fiercely and winning at the very end.”

There wasn’t the slightest wavering in Ja Sokhwan’s words.

“And there’s also a structural problem.”

Lee Saerok swallowed hard at Ja Sokhwan’s words.

Director Ja lifted his phone and checked something.

“Look. It’s finally exploding now.”

When Ja Sokhwan turned the phone screen toward him, Lee Saerok’s eyes widened.

“N-no....”

Mouth hanging open, Lee Saerok shouted.

“Are they insane?”

A fatal problem had erupted on the side of <There Is Only One Culprit>, the current ratings leader.

* * *

Aetami unconsciously curled her lips upward while looking at the total disaster unfolding.

“This is huge.”

There were three reasons why <There Is Only One Culprit> was maintaining first place in ratings.

Yoo Jiuk flexing his visuals from multiple angles through a dual role.

Hong Suryeon’s textbook romantic comedy acting.

And lastly—

[<There Is Only One Culprit> Minor Gallery]

[What the hell are they doing? They didn’t even review something this important before uploading spoilers?]

Holy shit the people trying to solve the mystery must feel deflated as hell

Anonymous (17.2) Quit making dramas

Anonymous (2.224) I was seriously enjoying it but damn... never thought the official account would spoil things themselves 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Anonymous (8.45) How the hell did this happen

The unique charm of <There Is Only One Culprit>.

The tension created by murder cases.

And now one of those pillars had collapsed.

[HOT/ The huge spoiler disaster happening with <There Is Only One Culprit> right now (SERIOUS massive spoiler).jpg]

(<There Is Only One Culprit> SNS.jpg)

People loved how realistic the Yousta felt because it seemed like Hong Suryeon herself was running it...

(Uploaded story.jpg)

There’s a script caught at the edge here...LOLOLOL....

(Zoomed image.jpg)

Turns out there was an accomplice;  TT__TT... They deleted the story in a panic but everyone who needed to see it already saw it

-Anonymous 1: I seriously hate spoilers and stepped on this while browsing Tr*tter.. I’m gonna die

↳ Anonymous 12: Same T_T it got massively reposted so I saw it too, instantly killed all my excitement

-Anonymous 29: Is the staff insane

-Anonymous 33: They’d been dropping clues really well, and this is how it comes back around...

-Anonymous 97: LOOOL I can only laugh because this is so absurd

The existence of an accomplice was a device unique to <There Is Only One Culprit>, one that brought confusion to the investigation while doubling the thrill.

And now that crucial keyword had been exposed.

It was obvious the carefully built core fandom would immediately start cracking.

“Since it’s another romcom, this side’s gonna benefit the most from the spillover effect....”

Aetami struggled to suppress laughter bursting from happiness.

And right then—

“This is huge.”

Someone said that.

Han Yeoreum was displayed on a coworker’s computer screen.

[Smile Dairy fully cashes in on the <Dongdaemun Romance> effect... ‘Melon Milk’ sales rise 230%]

[“What’s the Name Couple watch?”... Sansung flooded with inquiries as ‘GLX Watch’ sales continue increasing daily]

[B-bly instantly takes first place? ZagZIg pushed aside as the strongest fashion app... “Following Han Yeoreum” trend explodes daily]

Aetami’s hands trembled with joy.

* * *

At the same time, Woo Seungri’s hands were trembling too.

“No....”

The scene where fear multiplied after the accomplice reveal, where terror transformed into love and intensified the emotions between the two characters.

The perfect scene she had envisioned from the very beginning of planning the drama had collapsed, and Woo Seungri collapsed alongside it.

“Noooooo!”

The dizzying pleasure viewers were supposed to feel while watching that scene in real time had now become meaningless.

Woo Seungri clawed at her hair with both hands and slammed her face onto the desk.

Of course, it had been her idea to spread even more bait than usual in order to counter the JC ENM promotion attached to Hwang Boseok.

Even when the PR company said this was already enough, Woo Seungri had demanded more.

And lastly, decisively, she had also been the one to approve uploading that photo.

It was because she had become anxious after constantly spying on <Dongdaemun Romance>, which kept dropping bait every day.

But... this... this much karma... enough to destroy the entire production...

“No. No no no. No.”

Woo Seungri slapped both cheeks repeatedly to regain her senses.

Normally she should’ve felt stinging pain, but right now she couldn’t feel anything at all.

Madness entered Woo Seungri’s eyes.

“Woo Seungri. You’re a writer who’s going to surpass a top writer like Hwang Boseok and rise to Tier 1... you can’t collapse from something like this!”

Rather, if she managed to keep dragging viewers along despite the spoiler leak itself, then it would become proof of her own abilities to the world.

“I’ll pour in everything I have.”

Eyes blazing, Woo Seungri immediately opened her laptop.

Then her fingers raced across the keyboard like they were sprinting.

The moment she thought about defeating Hwang Boseok, the writing flowed even better.

Scenes she’d hesitated over before were now dumped in without restraint.

Tap tap, taptaptap, taptaptaptaptap-.

Woo Seungri’s busy fingers continued writing the next episode of <There Is Only One Culprit>.

Since it was a shared-household setup, she planned to gather every possible romance line together and show the viewers, whose excitement had deflated, what true heart-fluttering romance looked like.

Woo Seungri poured every single skill she had accumulated as a romantic comedy writer into the script.

Grinding her teeth.

* * *

“Woo Seungri’s probably going to focus more heavily on the love triangle now.”

By this point, Ja Sokhwan and Lee Saerok were peacefully eating spicy seafood noodles together while discussing the current situation.

Lee Saerok, completely seduced by Ja Sokhwan fishing squid out of the deluxe seafood noodles, excitedly spoke with black bean sauce smeared around his mouth.

“No, but still! The ratings won’t drop, right? No matter what, a Yoo Jiuk and Hong Suryeon combination isn’t easy to break.”

“Right. Which means that exact point is the problem.”

Ja Sokhwan bit down on a pickled radish cube with a loud crunch.

It sounded unusually refreshing.

“It doesn’t collapse.”

By nature, romance and love triangles could only properly function when one side inevitably collapsed.

If it remained a perfect structure that never broke, there had to be a reason powerful enough to justify it.

Writers who failed at that usually either tossed away the second male lead near the end, or became too attached to the second lead and nerfed the male lead instead because they couldn’t control the balance.

Maintaining balance between the story and the love triangle was never easy.

“Because Seojin poisoned the romance genre.”

But <The Great Garland>, called terrestrial TV’s final blaze of glory, had been different.

The second male lead everyone wanted.

A love that never collapsed, never changed, and yet still remained understandable.

After witnessing that, writers and directors became obsessed while thinking:

“Couldn’t I make something like that too?”

Because Shin Seojin acted far too well as a husband secretly in love with his wife, he had rewritten the history of Korea’s second male leads.

As a result, after <The Great Garland>, productions giving unusual weight to second male leads increased dramatically.

However, creating a romance that sustained painful longing all the way until the end was never easy.

“But can anyone actually pull that off? <We Rund> was directed by Ja Sokhwan.”

Even at Director Ja’s annoying statement, Lee Saerok could only silently keep eating sweet-and-sour pork.

Because it was true.

Just remembering the KBC bureau chief swaggering around back then wearing a pear blossom tie pin made him furious, but at the same time, he understood.

“There are hardships created by the era itself. It’s hard to drag that kind of thing into modern times convincingly, you know?”

“Right.... Yeah.... That’s why our drama never escaped single-digit ratings back then....”

“Either the love feels shallow, or the people feel shallow. That indecision is exactly how it looks. The more dependent you are on the triangle itself, the more boring it gets. You understand?”

After finishing his deluxe seafood noodles, Ja Sokhwan collapsed back onto the sofa once again.

“Even without the spoiler incident, the balance would’ve started falling apart around Episode 13 anyway and the ratings would’ve gradually dropped. Yaaawn.”

Now that all anxiety regarding ratings leader <There Is Only One Culprit> had melted away like snow, Lee Saerok smiled brightly.

He finally felt like he understood what Hwang Boseok meant when he said he wasn’t shaken.

Because a perfectly balanced production did not topple over from a temporary crisis.

“Then, then! What about 〈Dear Judge〉 now?”

After a brief silence, the genius of the era, Ja Sokhwan, answered the MBS center director’s question.