Chapter Text
"It was a really great story, isn't that right? Let's meet again, Yoo Joonghyuk."
- Last line of Ways of Survival, told by actor Kim Dokja, playing the role of The Ugliest King. Failed take, in which Kim Dokja had accidentally stated Yoo Joonghyuk's name in place of the Supreme King's.
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Jung Heewon glances between the two. Kim Dokja, the infamous 'ugly king', whose nickname only persisted because of the joke being that he was anything but. Yoo Joonghyuk, the pro-gamer-turned-actor-turned-model that no one on the internet can shut the fuck up about, even though the man could clearly care less.
Kim Dokja - who had been caught sneaking out of the aforementioned Yoo Joonghyuk's door at three in the morning; tear-streaked face and wearing only a Regressor branded hoodie. Joonghyuk's merchandise, in front of Joonghyuk's house.
"Say anything," Heewon starts, but feels the need to add a disclaimer. "Anything that hasn't been said already."
"I don't think there's anything else to say - " Joonghyuk starts, but Dokja cuts him off with a sharp laugh.
"I think there's plenty to say, Joonghyukkie. Or else - " Dokja pauses, a faint hesitation. "Or else, why would you have come to this interview?"
Joonghyuk really doesn't have an answer for that.
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SCRIPT for This is Gonna Get Heated!
HEEWON: Exes Challenge: The 'Legendary Companions,' a term coined by Director Han Sooyoung, are speaking to each other publicly for the first time since that whole debacle a year ago. I mean -
"Sir, you can't really expect me to read this crap."
Han Myungoh peers down his glasses at her. "Sure, you can."
He sits back in his chair, cracks open another beer, because of course he can. Because Manager Han won't be fired for lazing around like every other bum does, while Heewon will be demoted at the very least for refusing to pry into other people's lives.
As if reading her mind, Manager Han drains back half of his can and laughs. "It's your job, banmal."
She hates how he says that - banmal, as if the entirety of Jung Heewon, who had worked nine-to-fives throughout high school and college to get here was simply just another little girl. Banmal, like she is worth less because she, unlike some people, can actually recognize when to draw some lines.
"This is...private." Private is the best word she can think of at the moment, although it's anything but. Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk burst onto the acting scene with the infamous Ways of Survival - a shit novel, in Heewon's opinion, but a fantastic film.
Despite the amazing direction and casting of side characters, critics agree that it is the chemistry between Dokja and Joonghyuk that was what cemented Ways of Survival as a movie that was rewatchable. Heewon has read the articles (she may hate her job, but she does it well), and she's seen the clips.
Joonghyuk holding up Dokja by the neck, his grip bruising. Let's see if you survive this.
Joonghyuk pointing a sword at Pildu Gong when Dokja needed a hero.
Dokja pushing Joonghyuk and Gilyoung into a hidden door as he faced down the horde by himself. Choosing the hard way out.
Joonghyuk and Dokja; building a family out of warriors and monsters. Joonghyuk and Dokja; up against the world and trying their very best to live.
And then, the climactic scene: Dokja, becoming the Demon King of Salvation to appease the probability debt. Joonghyuk crying, so raw and vulnerable about it that Heewon couldn't tell if he was faking emotion or not.
And then - the rumors. Dokja and Joonghyuk, now dubbed 'Joongdok,' or 'Life and Death Companions' by the fans. Joonghyuk had become a part-time streamer and model for his classically good looks and charming personality. Joonghyuk could've been popular, Heewon thinks - but not as popular as he is now as a result of that movie.
Director Sooyoung had become immensely popular due to the success of Ways of Survival, and she'd only released more hits from then on out. SSSSS Infinite Regressor, The World After the Fall - all featuring a role for Kim Dokja as the protagonist or antagonist. Either way, he was the star of the show.
Joonghyuk, seen wrapping his stupidly dramatic black coat over Dokja's shoulders. Joongdok, spotted at Director Sooyoung's proposal to her now-wife, Yoo Sangah.
The two shopping at Ikea together for furniture, and looking so goddamn domestic that Heewon had to stop herself from tagging them on every photo she took like Hyunsung does. Like he had.
And then - Dokja, on the walk of shame. It certainly wasn't an unexpected development, and Heewon had waited for them to announce their relationship. Half of Korea knew by now, and the other half either didn't care or didn't like Joongdok in the first place for 'being too touchy.'
And then - the fallout. Joonghyuk and Dokja never speaking to each other or agreeing to interviews until today, for God knows why. Neither Heewon nor their company is anything special, and she can't help but feel that they're being used to fill up some sort of yearly quota for public interaction.
Manager Han burps. "Again. Do your job."
It's more than ironic, hearing that from a man who neglects his job on the daily, but Heewon is fine. She's suffered through worse for lower pay just as a waitress alone. Heewon swallows her pride; sucks it up; and walks out the door, toppling over her manager's chair on the way.
Heewon is doing fine, but she's doing great when she hears the squeal that Manager Han makes. It's the small joys in life that make her day, even as she's reminded by his screech ("Get me that interview!") that she has to interrogate the most sickeningly romantic couple that she's ever seen.
Again. Worse for less, and everything. And besides, maybe she'll even have some fun while she's at it. Not just anyone gets to meet movie stars.
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Everyone and anyone can be a movie star.
This is the first lesson that Kim Dokja is taught by the industry. It's not talent that gets you through. Not passion for the work. Apparently, if you're Yoo fucking Joonghyuk, the whole world bends to your whim. Even if you have a terrible personality and even worse manners, it's acceptable as long as you have a chiseled jawline and wavy black hair that falls in a perfect swoop after a five-hour practice that consisted of reciting the same exact scene for the hundredth time.
Sure, Dokja never came in with high expectations for himself. He'd been hand-picked by Yoo Sangah, a company executive and trusted rookie scout, so he had attained some level of notoriety. Some is nothing compared to Joonghyuk.
So Dokja comes into the acting class not confident, but perhaps a little more steady in his footing than he might have if he were anybody else. He acts his heart out, and it's wonderful. Amazing. Sangah-ssi (who's barely two years older than him, but had skipped a couple grades and graduated early), said that he had completely mastered the character of the Supreme King. For once, Dokja was the protagonist.
That strange, bubbling joy overcame him - like affirmation that this, this is what he was meant for. Not an office job. Not for Kim Dokja, that dreamer who had finally gotten himself an opportunity, through skill and not much else.
Until Yoo Joonghyuk came in, and fucked up his life permanently.
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Heewon finds clips of Joongdok's training - short ones, she'll admit - but it took the greater half of her day to go searching through shady websites that say that they deal in audition excerpts, and she's nothing if not stubborn. It's one of her worse traits as a partner, but one that Hyunsung hadn't minded.
Hyunsung. He'd left almost - a year ago, isn't it? She hates to admit it, but perhaps Manager Han was right. As horrible as it sounds, it's her job to dig up dirt on these people and force reactions out of them. Hyunsung had constantly complained about it - her 'lack of ambition,' that he had loved about her so much.
If she had to explain - if she had the guts to say - that she is scared. Of falling from the position she's obtained, of moving backwards instead of forwards. With each shitty magazine or show she works, it's another step to taking over her manager's position.
You just don't seem to care anymore, Heewon. I'm worried about you.
She hadn't said anything, and Hyunsung had worried. Nagged and picked and poked until she went, fine, why don't you just get the fuck out of here, then? I don't need you (at the word 'you,' she had stood up from the table and gestured towards the door) picking at me as well.
And then he had.
So Heewon is sitting at her kitchen table, eating ramen straight from the pot and stalking people her own age online. Christ.
But this is important. She can't say why, exactly, but these two are impossible to look away from. From her hastily constructed timeline, the Joongdok relationship can be separated into three main phases.
The most recent is the divorce arc, in which they hadn't spoken to each other in over a year. This phase includes that year up to now, starting from that night, with Dokja leaving Joonghyuk's house.
The second phase is the honeymoon. Han Sooyoung's engagement, the Ikea trip, the chivalrous jacket-swapping - this is casually nicknamed the honeymoon for the sheer domesticity coming from them. It had become a meme: find yourself a man like this! with a picture of Joongdok below.
The first phase, which Heewon had been searching for: the audition phase.
Yoo Sangah had hand-selected fifteen actors from the ages of twenty to twenty-two to audition for the role of the protagonists in Ways of Survival. Before she was Han Sooyoung's wife, Yoo Sangah was and still is a formidable woman - had graduated early by three years, and at the top of her class, too. It's hard for Heewon to not feel at least a little jealous of this woman; who's smart and capable and driven.
Heewon keeps clicking.
Han Sooyoung had recorded practices, as stipulated in the actors' contracts, for determining whom the worthy one is. It must take someone like Han Sooyoung, who can unironically toss around terms like the worthy one, to create Ways of Survival from the crap that is Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World.
Once again, Heewon keeps clicking. The actors' faces blur into pixels of white and gray and black until Heewon realizes that her world is not meant to be monotone, and scoots backwards.
The recordings had been leaked by one of the studio assistants, and fans had went rabid over them after Joongdok had reached Number 10 trending on Insta. There's one copy in circulation, but it had been passed around when the iPhone camera was not yet used by the masses.
She's found one - one recording online, which is simply labeled Day 1.
She presses play.