Han Yohan answered by rolling down the window in the -12°C weather.

“If that’s really your fallback plan, then sure....”

“....”

There didn’t seem to be any benefit in saying it out loud right now.

Bzzzz.

Han Yohan lowered the window instead.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“I thought you might want to cool off if you’re running a fever....”

The CEO of Yeonggwang Management slammed his forehead against the steering wheel.

* * *

“AAAAAAAH!!! Filming! I want to start filming alreadyyyy!!! Russia is calling meeeeee!!!”

Left behind in the conference room, Galdaeguk was still drowning in excitement, flinging storyboard pages into the air.

The papers fluttered down like confetti at the finale of a concert.

“You saw it earlier, right?! RIGHT?!”

He simply couldn’t contain himself anymore. Now he finally understood why Ja Sokhwan adored her so much.

Just imagining Huijae from <The Great Garland> becoming Ria of <Code Name: Time Seven> with her whole heart and soul was enough to make every cell in his body go wild.

An unbelievable level of concentration.

Ridiculous immersion.

And an interpretive ability that was difficult to even put into words.

It wasn’t just the CEO of Yeonggwang Management.

Galdaeguk, who had seen countless actors throughout his career, had never encountered someone like her before.

“Yeah. I saw it. It’s definitely the combination we were looking for. Honestly, I still don’t really get it myself, but everyone keeps telling me I have an exceptional eye for casting.”

Even the notoriously demanding Ma Eungyo seemed fond of Han Yeoreum.

The smile hadn’t left the corners of his mouth since earlier.

An actor who understood the world he had created better than anyone else was playing the lead.

There was nothing better than that.

Foundation.

At its core.

At the root.

That answer could only come from someone who truly understood Im Ria from the very beginning.

The look on Han Yeoreum’s face when she answered earlier remained vivid in his mind.

“The greatest casting in human history!!!”

And after watching them for several hours up close, he had come to another realization.

The chemistry between Han Yeoreum and Han Yohan exceeded all expectations.

It felt as though Ria and Taeo had been brought directly into reality.

Bright and radiant Han Yeoreum.

Quiet and reserved Han Yohan.

Galdaeguk would bet his right hand that the combination would pull viewers into the story more deeply than anything else.

The romance of martial arts doesn’t come from strength.

It comes from loneliness.

If a man who neither cries nor laughs, who feels neither pain nor suffering, is finally driven to tears—

Then just how much agony must have descended upon him?

Conversely, if that same man is made to smile—

Then just how much must he love the woman before him?

“And making people imagine that is OUR JOB!!!”

An intelligence agent willing to sacrifice himself without hesitation.

That kind of existence evokes countless emotions through presence alone.

As the episodes progress, viewers begin to pity him.

His pain becomes their pain.

And when such a protagonist finally breaks, or finds himself cornered by danger, the emotional impact doubles.

“Forget the romance and focus on the actionnnn!!!”

When the CEO of Yeonggwang stepped outside to answer a phone call, Galdaeguk secretly pulled Han Yohan aside.

“Still, I should do my best with the script I’ve been given. Even if you’re not expecting much from me in the romance department....”

“The harder you try not to love someone, the more powerful the love becomes!!! If an agent can’t even manage his own emotions, he’s no eliteeeeee!!!”

“Ah... I see....”

Seeing the expression of enlightenment on Han Yohan’s face, Galdaeguk grabbed his shoulder and shook it vigorously.

“Express love with your body.”

Neither awkward gazes nor shallow confessions.

Neither meaningless kisses nor empty declarations.

Those weren’t what Galdaeguk and Ma Eungyo wanted.

They wanted only one thing.

His life.

The one thing every person receives equally and only once.

If someone willingly offered up the most precious thing they possessed, people would feel love no matter what.

“Gam Seonghwan from <Unfair Trade> was greaaaat toooo!!! But ours will be on a completely different level!!!”

The viewers had already experienced the story of a bright, positive man gradually becoming dry and worn down.

Now he planned to serve them something entirely different.

The exact opposite.

A dry and worn-down man who remained that way from beginning to end—

Until the moment he finally became bright and positive.

“AAAAAAAH!!! THIS!!! THIS IS TRUE ROMANCE RISING UP FROM THE DANTIAN ITSELF!!! With the secret techniques passed down by my masterrrr!!! Not a single move will be wasted!!! I’ll drag every viewer into heart demons one slash at a timeeeeee!!!”

Just imagining everyone suffering qi deviation by Episode 16 was enough to make him lose his mind.

Galdaeguk bounced up and down before the whiteboard he had scribbled on earlier and wrote another title.

[Unfair Trade]

Then, above it, he wrote <Code Name: Time Seven>.

“No more sunshine man and indifferent woman!!! That’s old news nowww!!! We’re going back to the classics!!! The timeless flavor passed down through generations!!! Sunshine woman and indifferent mannnn!!!”

* * *

In the dark room, Gyeoul stared at Han Yeoreum on the screen.

More precisely, she stared at Lee Seohae.

—I need to finish this within a week. Headquarters has already approved my deployment.

Two weeks had passed since <Dear Judge> ended.

Yet even after the finale aired, it didn’t feel like anything had ended.

Gyeoul replayed everything over and over in her head.

Innate nature.

Essence.

Foundation.

Those words kept surfacing, leaving her dizzy.

The words felt sharp.

Like they were scraping away at her brain.

“Where did it start?”

Do Gyeoul murmured as she watched Lee Seohae.

When exactly had things gone wrong?

Where?

The headache intensified because she couldn’t understand.

The moment the finale ratings were released, Gyeoul had been forced to admit something.

She still didn’t understand the limits of what the world was willing to accept.

Han Yeoreum was accepted.

Do Gyeoul was not.

That fact forced her to obsessively chew over the same thoughts again and again.

Innate nature.

Essence.

Foundation.

As if those words contained the answer to where everything had begun to unravel.

—There are only ten days left until the welfare bill vote. At this rate, the legislation will fail.

The Lee Seohae on the screen was a performance she had watched so many times she had memorized it.

If asked to perform it right now, she could do so effortlessly.

The gaze.

The breathing.

The dialogue.

The movements.

She knew all of it.

“It’s fake....”

And yet it was fake.

Kang Yeseul was the real one.

Han Yeoreum’s Lee Seohae was fake.

Yet people were obsessed with the fake version.

Even though Kang Yeseul had clearly possessed greater depth.

“You don’t even know that.”

A crack was beginning to spread through the source of Gyeoul’s long-standing pleasure.

For the most part, Do Gyeoul’s life was boring.

Occasionally enjoyable.

Being proven right.

Being acknowledged as a genius.

Climbing higher and higher.

Standing above the crowd.

Receiving trophies.

Everything else was the same.

Except for Han Yeoreum.

Ever since the day she first met that girl, the time that followed had made her forget all the boredom she had accumulated throughout her life.

Those brief days.

Not even a quarter of her life.

“...But that’s still fake.”

Gyeoul gripped the remote and repeatedly hit the fast-forward button.

Every time Lee Seohae appeared on the screen, it felt as though she were being dragged back to the day they first met.

The Shining Star of DaeYeJong.

That title, once dominated by Do Gyeoul’s name, was slowly being taken away.

Because Han Yeoreum had chased her like a madwoman.

Because Myeong Jeha had claimed the top spot in an instant.

—It is believed to be Main Character Syndrome.

Lee Seohae spoke as though she were speaking directly to her.

You are not the protagonist.

—It refers to the phenomenon of believing yourself to be the center of the world, where every event revolves around you. It is characterized by narcissism, emotional overinvestment, and narrative self-dramatization.

She had spent her entire life in an industry that measured people’s value.

She could tell immediately.

Do Gyeoul’s value had already fallen below Han Yeoreum’s.

“....”

That should never have happened.

No matter the country, people always said female-led projects attracted less investment.

But what if the market itself was fiercely loyal?

“Manager.”

Gyeoul picked up her phone.

“I’m going to do a film.”

—Oh? Gyeoul? You’re choosing your next project already? Honestly, nobody works harder than you. So? Did you find something interesting among the scripts?

“The one you mentioned last time.”

And what if investors looking for something new were flooding into the industry?

“The Korea-Japan co-production.”

The walls of Chungmuro were high and solid.

But Do Gyeoul had already broken through those walls once as a child.

As the genius girl.

Not as an extra.

As the lead.

“I’ll do it.”

* * *

[Han Yohan and Han Yeoreum at the <Code Name: Time Seven> Script Reading... Insane Chemistry]

[Director Galdaeguk Leaps Into the Air During <Code Name: Time Seven> Script Reading]

[Ma Eungyo Declares, “We Are Ja Sokhwan’s Kids”]

[StarCutCut | Han Yohan and Han Yeoreum’s Shy Finger Heart]

[The Chemistry That Will Make the Entire World Cry — <Code Name: Time Seven> Han Yohan and Han Yeoreum]

Reading the last article, Jeon Segye—

Or rather, Seo Eden—

Pressed an emoji with great force.

[Surprised]

21 likes.

43 cheers.

14 congratulations.

30 excited reactions.

0 sad reactions.

And 1 surprised reaction.

If there had been a dislike button, he might have pressed that instead.

These days, Seo Eden noticed that the phrase “Name Couple” appeared in entertainment news far less often than before.

The sense of betrayal was overwhelming.

Every journalist seemed excited about the new pairing Ja Sokhwan’s kids were about to present.

“Why do people change their minds so fast? If you like something once, shouldn’t you stick with it? Why is everyone’s loyalty weaker than a cheap frying pan?”

Just a month ago, the entire world had been obsessed with the Name Couple.

And back then...

[The weather in Phuket is amazing!]

[(Photo of Beopsun and Seo Eden.jpg)]

[Seoul must be freezing, right? T_T]

There had also been a time when he talked to Han Yeoreum every single day.

Back then, he never spent days staring at an unread message with the number 1 beside it.

“Ha....”

Even after flying all the way to Phuket, Seo Eden lay beneath a parasol, endlessly fiddling with his phone.

To avoid obsessing over waiting for a reply, he even kept up with his hobbies.

[I’m a Villainess, But I’ll Regress a Thousand Times to Protect My Knight]

“Mmm....”

[I Stole the Crown Prince’s First Kiss, But It Turns Out I’m Actually His Hidden Fiancée]

“What’s wrong with me....”

Normally, these were masterpieces personally selected by Seo Eden, who spent 100,000 won a month on subscriptions to reading platforms.

Yet none of them held his attention.

[I Became the Villain Duke’s Only Chlorophyll]

Even his favorite series felt boring.

“Beop! Beop! Beop!”

“Hahaha, Beopsun! Over hereee!”

In the distance, Beopsun and MBS Drama Center Director Lee Saerok ran around with flower hairpins stuck on their heads.

“Beop!”

“Hahaha! Now that we’ve crushed everyone in the Holy Grail War from Hell and firmly established MBS as the home of drama once again, our beloved Beopsun, who will soon reappear on the MBS Intube channel to steal even more likes and views, stop right thereee!”

Seo Eden looked at the peaceful sunshine.

The blue ocean.

And the ridiculous sight of Lee Saerok and Beopsun fooling around.

Maybe it was because Beopsun had immediately replaced him with Lee Saerok as her best friend.

Just as Shim Juhwan had said, he felt like he was suffering from pet-loss syndrome.

There seemed to be a giant hole in his heart.

Watching the pair run along the beach, he lowered his gaze to his messages again.

The number 1 was still there.

“How can our director possibly have so little dignity...?”

“My ears are about to start bleeding. Hahaha.”

“But do department directors usually come on reward vacations?”

“Nope~. They’re supposed to maintain authority.”

“Well, our director doesn’t have even a tiny bit of authority to maintain, hahaha.”

“Saerok, be careful before you hurt yourself~!”

The <Dongdaemun Romance> staff remained as cheerful as ever.

Partly because the filming environment had been unbelievably pleasant.

But also because, as Lee Saerok had said, they had emerged victorious from the Holy Grail War from Hell.

“I wish Yeoreum could’ve come too.”

Without realizing it, Seo Eden nodded.

“Exactly. Ah, it’s such a shameee.”

He nodded again.

“This melon reminded me of Yeoreum the moment I saw it.”

He nodded yet again.

Bzzzt.

Almost hypnotized, Seo Eden checked his phone.

His heart raced.

Was it finally a reply from Han Yeoreum?

“...Huh?”

But it wasn’t a reply.

It was breaking news.

The first signal of the war that was about to begin.