Chapter 61: Dating on the Company's Dime

The next day.

When Kang Jae-hoon arrived on set, he found the atmosphere even more oppressive than the day before.

After inquiring with the crew, he learned the truth.

The viewership rating for the second episode was 10.5%.

Instead of rising, it had dropped.

What did this mean?

It peaked right at the premiere and had been sliding downwards ever since.

This was the scenario every production team feared the most, especially with SBS investing massive resources and writer Kim Eun-sook personally overseeing the project.

Worse still, negative online comments were flooding in like a tidal wave:

"Kim Tan and Cha Eun-sang standing together look like a young master and his maid."

"Suggest replacing Park Shin-hye with Kim Ji-won, at least her visuals match a chaebol heir."

"Is Kim Eun-sook losing her touch?"

"..."

Park Shin-hye sat in the dressing room, her head bowed as she scrolled through her phone.

Her expression was calm, but the makeup artist still noticed something amiss—her shoulders were tenser than usual, and even her breathing was kept very light.

"Shin-hye-xi, should we touch up your lip makeup?"

The makeup artist asked cautiously.

"Yes, please trouble you."

She smiled, but the warmth didn't reach her eyes.

On the other side.

Lee Min-ho stood at the end of the hallway.

His manager was whispering something to him.

He only nodded occasionally, his gaze unfocused the entire time.

Kang Jae-hoon happened to run into this scene.

After hesitating for a moment, he walked over and greeted Lee Min-ho:

"Hyung, good morning."

Lee Min-ho snapped out of it and forced the corners of his mouth to twitch upward:

"Ah, Jae-hoon, morning."

His voice was a few shades lower than usual, clearly showing that the ratings had affected his mood.

This was the norm for a production crew struggling with poor viewership.

The director's team held emergency meetings, the writing team revised the scripts overnight, and the actors forced themselves to summon their energy for filming, but everyone had a tight string pulled inside their hearts—

"Will this drama tank?"

Kang Jae-hoon walked back to his resting area and opened the newly revised script.

His screen time had indeed increased, but the pressure came right along with it.

If the audience refused to buy into the main couple, no matter how brilliant his and Krystal Jung's subplot turned out, it wouldn't be able to save the show's overall decline.

"Hey."

Krystal Jung appeared beside him at some point, holding two iced Americanos and handing one to him.

"Thanks."

Kang Jae-hoon took the coffee and noticed her expression didn't look too relaxed either.

"Did you read the online comments?"

"I did. They're tearing us apart pretty harshly."

Krystal Jung pursed her lips:

"But the viewership rating for our scenes peaked."

Kang Jae-hoon was slightly stunned, then understood what she meant—the audience might complain, but at least they were buying into the scenes featuring the two of them.

Krystal Jung looked up at him, her gaze unusually serious:

"So... we just have to act even better."

"Yeah, definitely."

The bustling noises of the set suddenly faded into the distance.

Krystal Jung asked, sounding almost casual:

"Still, I'm an idol-turned-actress. I haven't systematically learned micro-expression control, and my acting isn't that great either... So, what specifically should I do to make it look more natural?"

Kang Jae-hoon instinctively shifted into teaching mode:

"You can try Stanislavski's method of observation—observe, analyze, internalize, experience..."

"So how many couples do you plan on making me observe?"

Krystal Jung suddenly cut him off.

Kang Jae-hoon froze.

He only then remembered that the person in front of him wasn't just Lee Bo-na, but also f(x)'s Krystal.

"Instead of observing others..."

Krystal Jung turned her face away to look at Park Shin-hye filming in the distance:

"Why don't we just experience it directly?"

Kang Jae-hoon's reflex arc finally completed a transhemispheric journey:

"Huh?"

"I mean... in private, we should act like we do on Running Man!"

She suddenly leaned forward, closing the distance to Kang Jae-hoon:

"Like right now—how would Yoon Chan-young react?"

The ambient noise of the set suddenly sounded as if a mute button had been pressed.

Kang Jae-hoon froze in place.

Scene 37 of the script automatically played in his mind: [Yoon Chan-young lets out a helpless, light laugh and reaches out to ruffle Lee Bo-na's bangs.]

His fingers twitched, but at the exact moment they were about to touch Krystal's hair, they made a sharp swerve.

In the end, he just awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck:

"I-I'd probably burst out laughing."

Krystal's eyelashes fluttered right before his eyes as she abruptly straightened up:

"It seems Teacher Kang's theoretical acting still needs some practical application~"

"..."

Kang Jae-hoon lowered his head and took a fierce sip of his iced Americano; the sound of the ice cubes colliding was exceptionally crisp.

"I'm going to touch up my makeup. See you later."

"Yeah..."

Watching her retreating back, Kang Jae-hoon let out a long sigh of relief.

The noisy sounds of the set rushed back into his eardrums.

Lee Sung-kyung's interrogation from that day suddenly echoed in his ears—

"Can you tell the difference between genuine feelings and business romance?"

At the time, he had answered with absolute certainty.

At this moment, he felt like a shaken carbonated beverage, bubbling with uncertain fizz.

Kang Jae-hoon pulled out his phone and opened his chat window with Lee Sung-kyung.

The last message was still stuck on the flight information from the early morning hours.

The cursor flickered in the input box for a long time before finally typing out:

[Is it cold in Shanghai?]

Three minutes after pressing the send button, the chat box remained silent.

Kang Jae-hoon stared blankly at his phone screen until a floor manager came over with the call sheet to remind him:

"Jae-hoon-xi, shooting in ten minutes!"

"Ah, got it."

He locked his phone and looked up toward the set—

Park Shin-hye had already adjusted her state and was rehearsing lines with Lee Min-ho; Krystal and Kim Ji-won were whispering to each other in a corner, though Krystal's peripheral vision kept glancing his way; staff members shuttled back and forth preparing for the next scene.

Everything was as usual.

Only the phone in Kang Jae-hoon's pocket was as quiet as a stone.

During the gaps between three scenes, he mechanically repeated the action of unlocking and locking his screen.

It wasn't until the floor manager knocked on the dressing room door for the fifth time that Kang Jae-hoon realized the fluorescent lights of the set had long since replaced the morning light, and the filming location on the call sheet had somehow changed to [SBS Inkigayo Music Broadcast Stage].

The backstage corridor was crowded with idol groups waiting for their turn.

Krystal, playing Lee Bo-na, clicked along in her high heels, weaving through them and asking everyone she met:

"Have you seen my father?"

——The camera cut to the music broadcast stage.

"Oppa."

Cameo MC Kim Hee-chul turned his head:

"Oh, it's our Bo-na."

"Have you seen my father?"

"Answer me one question first and I'll tell you."

"What?"

"Do you like Kyuhyun or me?"

Krystal tilted her head to think for two seconds, then suddenly broke into a bright smile:

"Chan-young~"

"What Chan-young?"

Kim Hee-chul's eyes widened: "Your boyfriend?"

Right at that moment—

"Ding!"

A text message notification chimed.

She lowered her head to look; it was a message from Yoon Chan-young:

[What are you doing with another man?]

Krystal looked around in confusion as a second message popped up immediately:

[Here.]

Following her gaze, the camera panned to the very last row of the audience—

Kang Jae-hoon, playing Yoon Chan-young, was holding up his phone and smilingly waving at her.

"Chan-young-ah~"

Krystal's eyes instantly lit up. Forgetting to even say goodbye to Kim Hee-chul, she bolted straight toward the audience seating.

The stage lighting chased after her figure, making her joyous bound sparkle brightly.

According to the script plot.

She was supposed to slam on the brakes right in front of Kang Jae-hoon and then proudly complain about "why didn't you tell me in advance that you were coming back."

Instead—

"Bang!"

She crashed directly into Kang Jae-hoon's arms like a little cannonball.

The impact caused him to stagger back two steps.

The director's fist hung suspended in mid-air.

The action to yell "cut" was abruptly converted into a signal for the cameraman to push in for a close-up.

At this moment, Kang Jae-hoon was supposed to helplessly say "Slow down, don't fall," and then take her hand to leave.

However, Krystal's chin was resting right against his chest, her eyelashes fluttering as she blinked, her eyes filled with the shattered light reflected from the stage:

"Did you miss me?"

*(Did this girl just improvise her lines?!)*

The earthquake in Kang Jae-hoon's pupils was perfectly captured by the close-up lens.

His palm instinctively stroked the back of her head, and it wasn't until his fingertips sank into her soft hair that he belatedly realized he needed to reply:

"I missed you so much."

"Then I missed you super-duper much!"

Pushing her luck, Krystal tightened her arms around him, and the orange blossom scent of her shampoo suddenly became overwhelmingly present.

Kang Jae-hoon felt a butterfly going wild inside his chest, but his delivery of the lines flowed smoothly beyond belief:

"Then I missed you super-duper-duper much!"

"Then I missed you super-duper-duper-duper much!"

"Then I missed you to the power of N."

"The degree to which I miss you equals the total number of atoms in the universe!"

"..."

"Cut!"

The director held up a megaphone and laughed scoldingly:

"Do the two of you think this is a children's show called *Kingdom of Mathematics*?"

"Hahaha—"

Good-natured laughter erupted across the set.

The atmosphere on set, previously taut due to sluggish ratings, was largely dispelled by the ad-libbing antics of this mischievous pair.

The lighting director even deliberately cast a spotlight, bathing the two of them in a warm yellow glow.

Krystal abruptly let go as if she'd been burned, yet she still feigned composure and stuck her tongue out at the director:

"The script says 'the two hug each other'..."

Before she could finish her sentence, she ducked behind the monitor, though she couldn't help stealing glances to check Kang Jae-hoon's reaction.

Kang Jae-hoon remained frozen in place with his arms still spread wide.

Hearing everyone's laughter, he snapped out of it as if waking from a dream and scratched the back of his head.

"Aiyoo—"

Kim Hee-chul strolled over holding the MC cue card, intentionally bumping his elbow against hers:

"Is our Krystal shooting a drama or dating on the public's dime these days?"

"No way!"

Krystal stamped her foot in agitation, scrambling to cover his mouth with her hands:

"It's required by the script!"

"Oh?"

Kim Hee-chul raised an eyebrow and leaned back:

"Should I call Jessica and ask her which page of the script says you have to hug this tightly?"

"Yah! Kim Hee-chul!"

Krystal turned and grabbed a prop doll from the table, hurling it at him.

Anticipating it, Kim Hee-chul sidestepped smoothly—

"Thud!"

The plush doll landed squarely on the face of Kang Jae-hoon, who had walked over to review the playback.

"Ugh!"

Kang Jae-hoon's vision went dark for a second as he instinctively caught the plush doll as it slowly slid down.

When he looked up, he happened to catch Krystal's panicked expression—

Her hands were covering her mouth, her eyes wide and round.

Kim Hee-chul was holding back laughter so hard he felt internally injured, and before leaving, he didn't forget to twist the knife:

"Nice aim. Ever consider switching careers to become a baseball player?"

Krystal glared daggers at him, then trotted over to Kang Jae-hoon to explain:

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you..."

Her words were cut off as a plush doll was suddenly pressed onto the top of her head.

"Got you back."

Krystal froze in place.

The soft weight of the doll pressed against the crown of her head, and Kang Jae-hoon's fingers still rested loosely on top of it, his knuckles brushing against the stray wisps of hair on her forehead and sending a slight tickle through her.

His eyes looked exceptionally bright under the chaotic lights of the set, resembling a pool of swirling honey water that made her heart flutter anxiously.

*Thump.*

Krystal heard the sound of her own heartbeat magnify suddenly, loud enough to make her eardrums ache.

"......"

The director squinted at the monitor, then suddenly turned to ask the cameraman:

"Did you catch that part?"

"Huh?"

The cameraman scrambled to check the equipment:

"N-No, recording was off..."

The director clicked his tongue:

"From now on, when shooting scenes with these two, keep one camera rolling even after I yell cut."

The script supervisor quickly jotted down this new rule in their notebook.

The assistant director leaned over and asked in a low voice, "Should we reshoot that bit?"

The director waved a hand:

"No need. Real-life chemical reactions off-camera are much more natural than anything scripted."

……

By the time the floor manager packed up the last reflector, the stars were already twinkling across the Han River.

The ad-libbed hugging scene between the two was kept.

They subsequently reshot the close-up shots for the bridging dialogue.

Inside the dressing room.

As Kang Jae-hoon untied his costume tie, his phone buzzed incessantly in the locker.

The screen lit up.

Seventeen unread messages were stacked on the lock screen interface.

At the very top was a long string of voice notes from Kim Dae-won.

He tapped the first one, and his manager's excited voice instantly blasted out:

"Jae-hoon-ah! SBS wants to give you your own FM radio show! Two episodes a week, ninety minutes each, tentatively titled *Jae-hoon's Moonlight Drive*!"

The second voice message played right after:

"The production team said you can invite a guest for the first episode to help hold down the fort. Who do you want? Your teacher or Im Yoon-ah?"

The third:

"Oh right, the network also asked if you have any salary requirements—"

Kang Jae-hoon massaged his temples, leaving the messages unreplied for the moment as he scrolled down.

Lee Kwang-soo had sent three routine greetings:

[Jae-hoon-ah, is filming going well today?]

[I heard your drama's ratings aren't doing too great?]

[Want to grab a drink? I know a hidden bar in Cheongdam-dong.]

Scrolling further down—

Park Hyung-sik sent three unflattering photos taken from terrible angles.

Swiping to the very bottom.

Lee Sung-kyung's message sat quietly at the very end.

[Lee Sung-kyung]: Cold.

Attached was a photo of the night view of the Shanghai Bund.

The dazzling lights of Lujiazui were reflected in the hotel's glass window.

At the edge of the photo, a corner of a grey-blue scarf was faintly visible—the exact one he had clumsily wrapped around her neck at four in the morning.

The cursor flickered in the chat box for a long time, and he finally typed out:

[Drink more warm water]

Then deleted it.

[Is the Shanghai Fashion Week going well?]

Too formal.

[Is the scarf warm enough?]

Sounds like fishing for praise.

Just as he was agonizing over it, the dressing room door was suddenly knocked on.

"Teacher Kang."

Krystal's voice came through the wooden panel:

"Writer Kim added way too many lines for the library scene. Can we practice our lines privately tomorrow?"

"Would private rehearsal be..."

Krystal instantly cut off his objection:

"We don't have any filming scheduled tomorrow anyway, right?"

"Alright."

With things phrased like that, he naturally had no reason to refuse.

"See you tomorrow then~"

Seeming to realize the phrasing sounded a bit ambiguous, she quickly added: "Remember to bring your script!"

"Okay."

Krystal's footsteps gradually faded away.

The dressing room returned to silence.

Kang Jae-hoon looked down at his phone; Lee Sung-kyung's message still hung there alone.

The sound of crew members packing up equipment echoed from outside, making him realize he had been staring blankly at his phone for ten full minutes.

As he hurriedly changed into his casual clothes and pushed the door open, he ran right into Krystal leaning against the hallway wall, tapping away at her phone.

The glowing screen clearly displayed a Kakao chat with Kim Ji-won discussing [what to wear tomorrow].

"Haven't left yet?" Kang Jae-hoon was startled.

Krystal quickly locked her screen:

"I was waiting for my manager to pick me up."

"Oh, see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow~"

On the walk to the parking lot, Kang Jae-hoon's phone vibrated.

[Lee Sung-kyung]: How's the set?

He gazed at the neon sign of the SBS building in the distance, suddenly unsure how to describe today's chaos—

The impromptu hug, the plush doll hitting his face, and that absurd line about "the total number of atoms in the universe."

In the end, he only replied:

[The ratings will get better]

Almost simultaneously, a new message popped up:

[I asked about you]

The night wind swept across the surface of the Han River, and Kang Jae-hoon stood beneath the streetlamp, staring at those five words for a long time—so long that the screen automatically faded to black.