The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 78

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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78

“…PD?”
“Yes! Apparently the main character is a variety show producer at a broadcasting station.”

That piqued my interest slightly. The moment I made eye contact, Jung Da-jun’s face brightened immediately, and he thrust the script toward me as if urging me to read it first.
I’d promised to read it anyway, so I could spare a little time. As I accepted the script, Jung Da-jun smirked.

“Brother, once you read it, you’ll change your mind!”

I naturally scoffed at that.

“No way.”

.
.
.

…Well, maybe I could be wrong about that.
After rehearsal, I’d returned to the dormitory at dawn, my body melting from exhaustion, yet once I started reading the script, I couldn’t tear myself away from it. As a result, I’d barely slept a few hours and found myself in a daze heading into a meeting with the Planning Team shortly after.

‘This is so.’

“What do you think, bro?! It’s so much fun!”
“Yeah, it’s entertaining.”

First of all, it’s fun. There was a reason why Jeong Da-jun, who finished reading the script in the morning, cried out for the next script.
Korean dramas are known to prioritize constant twists over proper narrative structure to capture viewership, but throughout, they scatter hooks evenly to maintain intrigue until the very end.
Moreover, while maintaining broadcasting station authenticity, the parts that needed to move quickly were cleverly padded with fiction, never losing momentum.
This was a dual-protagonist story masquerading as a romance.
The protagonist is a rookie PD at a broadcasting station who follows the female lead, but his actual background is that he’s a chaebol heir (an essential element for Korean drama ratings), and the truth is that the chaebol family destroyed the female lead’s family—a backstory that causes him to hide his feelings for her.

“Writer Kim Sook-hee, you really seem like a genius!”
“A real genius.”

I said it in detail, but that wasn’t important to me.

“Right! Right! And isn’t Lee Jung-hoon just like your real brother?”
“Right! Right! And Lee Jung-hoon—he’s nothing like the real brother, is he?”

Yeah, that’s the big deal.
Yes, that was the part that bothered me immensely.

“Jeong Da-jun, is it okay for you to see it?”
“Jung Da-jun, don’t you think so too?”

The character Lee Jeong-hoon in ‘Please Take Care of the Camera’ is 33 years old, not much different from the main character Yoo Jeong-hwa, but he was a producer who guaranteed viewership ratings by graduating at the top of his class, joining the company at the top of his class, and not shying away from doing despicable things.
In “Please Camera,” the character Lee Jung-hoon was thirty-three years old, barely different in age from the second-generation protagonist Yoo Jung-hwa, yet he was a ratings-guaranteed PD who had graduated top of his class, been hired top of his class, and climbed the most elite career ladder without hesitation to do underhanded things.

‘Don’t you think you’ve heard this before?’

“Oh, it’s mulberry tea again! I’d like to at least rewatch the summary video before departure!”
“Ah, another plot twist! Should I rewatch the summary video of ‘Cider Please’ before we leave?”

Jeong Da-jun babbled for a while, then asked for cider again and disappeared into his room, saying he wanted to watch the summary video on his phone.
Jung Da-jun rambled on for a while longer before disappearing into his room, muttering about needing to watch the “Cider Please” summary video on his phone.

Tiring!

[I think I know what Seo Ho-yoon is thinking… .]

It appears at the right time.
It appeared right on cue.

“hey.”

I asked, flapping at my script.

“This is just me.”

That’s right.
Exactly.
Lee Jung-hoon the PD? Cut the crap—this is basically a carbon copy of my life.
Sure, he’s relegated to a minor supporting role with his family life completely stripped away, but this rude personality is unmistakably me.

“What is this? Do you know?”

There is no way this is an amazing coincidence. As I stared at the system window, the guy who had not responded for a moment came to mind again.

[Mr. Seo Ho-yoon.]

“why.”

And then suddenly a link was sent. … It wasn’t a dialogue window, and it was my first time showing something through the search function, so I opened my mouth slightly.

The title was [People with high self-love suffer from ‘narcissism.’ What is the cure?].

[hello!! (emoticon)

Today we will tell you how to treat narcissism! (emoticon)

[UNTRANSLATED LINE 96]

Sometimes I feel embarrassed~ (emoticon)

Well, today we learned how to treat narcissism!! (emoticon)]

Are you sure you told me how to treat it?
Did it actually explain how to treat it?

[You have so much self-love… Haha, please read this!! suggestion!!]
You’re really full of yourself… haha. Please read this once!! Highly recommend!!

After glaring at the system window, I sighed and lowered my head.

‘This kid… .’

They feed him taffy very carefully. I put down the script and tapped the table.

“okay?”

Where do you go to sell drugs?

“Then, shall we find out for myself whether I, a narcissist, really have overflowing self-love or not?”

[…] … yes?]

“I get embarrassed sometimes too. If I find out if it’s true or not, I think I’ll be cured, right?”

As he said that, the system window became quiet. Until now, he had even put up a list of meaningless blogs on his phone, but when he got angry, he ran away. I became more and more convinced by the strange reaction I was experiencing for the first time.

‘How should I find out?’

There’s no way to know if Kim Jae-yeon is going, and there doesn’t seem to be any further hints to be gained by reading the script one more time.
There’s no way I could learn anything by interrogating Kim Jae-yeon, and reading the script one more time wouldn’t yield any new clues either.

‘Is there no other way than to ask the author directly?’

I organized my thoughts and put the script back on the bookshelf. Jeong Da-jun came out of the room as if he had already seen the entire video and looked at it with a covetous gaze, but had no intention of giving it to him.
After organizing my thoughts, I slid the script back onto the bookshelf. Jung Da-jun emerged from his room just as the video finished, eyeing the script with longing, but I had no intention of handing it over.

“Hoyun, but what about the meeting you set up with the planning office earlier?”
“Ho-yoon, what was that meeting you scheduled with the Planning Office earlier about?”
“We’re doing original YouTube content.”

For Kim Seong-hyeon, who tilted his head as if wondering what I was talking about, I kindly explained it again.

“Rural Healing Program.”
“A rural healing program.”

Seonghyun Kim asked again as if it was some kind of nonsense… I just laughed.

Why is this happening?
Why is that?

***

Rural healing program.
A rural healing program.

“Yep? Can you say that again?”

So the planning team, who had an expression of ‘Are you here again, you bastards’, made a weirder look than I expected when I told them about the plan. The rest of the members were excited with flushed faces, as if their imaginations were running wild.
So when the Planning Team, who had been wearing expressions that said “here comes this bastard again,” heard my proposal, they made surprisingly subtle faces. The other members seemed excited, their faces flushed as if they were letting their imaginations run wild.

“It’s a rural healing program.”
“A rural healing program.”
“Ah… you mean original content for us?”

Except for Jihyun Lee, the youngest member of the planning team – of course she didn’t have a very good expression either – I could see that everyone’s expressions changed from strange to ‘Do we really need to do more now that we’ve just finished our activities?’, but I remained steadfast.

“May I ask why?”

The team leader sighed and raised one hand as if he had lost and asked. This means, ‘I will end up doing what Seo Ho-yoon is pushing anyway, but let’s at least hear the reason.’ I said with a shy smile.

“I want to communicate with my fans…”
“I want to communicate with the fans….”
“….”

It was quite sincere, but the reaction was very cold.

“I understand, you know the reason. Do you think album-related activities are enough to make a living? Even during the period of inactivity, I need to make a living.”
“I understand, you know the real reason anyway. Isn’t the album-related activity enough bait? We need to eat during the hiatus too.”
“Yes….”
“Anyway, let’s cut to the chase. What’s the most important aspect of original content? Kim Sung-hyun, what do you think?”

Seonghyeon Kim blinked.

“Dance…practice?”
“Dance… practice?”
“Wrong.”
“Vocal practice…?”
“Wrong!!”

It’s an illusion.
That’s a misunderstanding.

“Jihyun Lee.”
“Lee Ji-hyun.”
“Yes!”
“Give me a model answer. If Lee Ji-hyun likes an idol, what exactly do you want to know?”
“Well, I’ve been into The Dun lately.”

Jihyun Lee hesitates… He started spitting out one word at a time.

“I… I wonder what she eats these days and what she likes—.”

Everyone shook their heads saying, “That’s right,” but Jihyun Lee couldn’t stop there.

“—How tall are you, what is your weight, what is your playlist, what is your umbrella when it rains, how do you hold your chopsticks when eating….”
“—How tall they are, what they weigh, what’s on their playlist, what kind of umbrella they use when it rains, how they hold their chopsticks when eating….”
“….”
“…I’m suddenly frustrated. Why didn’t the original work give us that kind of detail?”

It’s worth noting that they don’t give you that kind of crap.

“…what?”
“…What was that?”

With the guys next to me opening their mouths at the unexpected content, I quickly stopped Lee Ji-hyun and went to clean up. I felt like I had to show a good example.

“It means showing The Dawn’s daily life. As Ji-Hyun Lee said, what food she likes, what she likes to sing, what she does on her days off… I think it’s a good source to show.”

Lee Ji-hyeon frowned and continued to sneer next to her, saying, ‘Writer, you’re too much,’ but Kim Seong-hyeon tilted his head as if he still didn’t understand.

“Then how can the daily life that fans hope for be revealed in a rural healing program?”
“But how can fans’ desired daily life be revealed in a rural healing program?”

Then Kang Yi-chae raised his hand.

“Yes, Lee Chae.”
“Yes, Kang Yi-chae.”
“After hearing what Lee Ji-hyun said, I think I understand. A self-sufficient rural healing program!”
“What do you mean by that?”
“We gather wild vegetables ourselves, chop firewood, cook our own meals, and show everyone how we play together, right?”
“Yes, that’s exactly it.”
“If Kang Yi-chae gets any more perfect than this, what will we do….”

Kang Yi-chae let out an exclamation and patted herself on the shoulder. Then, when he deliberately gave Seong Ji-won a sly look, Seong Ji-won just laughed.

“This time, we will try it as a pilot program, and if the response is not bad, we will make it a regular program.”
“For now, we’ll proceed with this as a pilot program, and if the response isn’t bad, we’ll make it a regular series.”
“That means…. the location is… the filming equipment is….”
“Please arrange it within a week.”
“Huh?”
“Please arrange it within a week.”

I smiled brightly. No matter how much the other side struggled, I was able to do more than that.

‘Of course, the most fun is when you’re under someone’s control!’

To be honest, the number of people in the planning team can be counted on one hand at most, but I think the work will not be small since they have to handle all of Daepasung’s celebrities.
Honestly, the Planning Team had so few members you could count them on both hands, yet they had to manage every single celebrity under Dae Pa-sung, so the workload wouldn’t be light.
But I was 120% sincere about making The Dun succeed. If you’re going to develop idols, this is naturally the bare minimum.

“I’ll talk more before I leave. You guys go first.”
“I’ll talk a bit more. You guys go first.”
“Oh, Hyung. Is it okay to leave it to you?”
“You’d only get in the way if you stayed.”
“Wow, so cold!”
“Go.”
“Pretty Kang Yi-chae is hurt and leaving first~. I need to prepare the t-shirt I’ll wear during filming!”
“T-shirt?”

Kang Yi-chae narrowed his eyes and stood up first. I laughed inwardly at the sight of him trying to ignore me.

‘You really have great insight, you too.’

Now, all the members are good at reading the mood, but Kang Yi-chae is by far the most outstanding.

“Thank you for your effort.”
“You’ve worked hard.”

The members and some of the planning team left, and the manager, the planning team leader, Lee Ji-hyeon, and the rest of us checked to make sure the members left.

“It’s suspicious….”

The planning team leader, who sensed something, took a quick look and opened his mouth.

“What is it?”
“What is it?”
“It’s strange—you brought something so ordinary. Rural healing is certainly a steady genre, but… it’s Seo Ho-yoon who brought this. I never thought he’d come up with such a calm concept.”
“Why not? I actually like healing content.”
“Haha. People naturally want what they don’t have, right?”
“That’s true. I wonder if Team Lead wants that these days too?”

The team leader says staccato haha. I laughed awkwardly and then stopped. And then he quietly asked.

“What are you aiming for? Do you want reactions from fans like, ‘This healing concept was suggested by Hoyun, Yuyu. Even the genius idol plan is perfect.’”
“What are you aiming for? Fan reactions like ‘Ho-yoon proposed this healing concept, wow. A genius idol planner, truly perfect’?”
“No way, Team Lead. More like ‘Ho-yoon was pretending, but he actually wanted to do healing variety shows. Yeah, let’s let our boy do what he wants,’ right?”

Tiring!

[…] Is this a really likely reaction?]

So. These days, the planning team seems to be working hard on monitoring.

“…I haven’t thought about it that far, is it okay?”
“…I hadn’t thought that far, but it’s not bad?”
“I’m genuinely curious why Seo Ho-yoon is like this….”

As I muttered while rubbing my chin, the planning team leader and Jihyun Lee waved their hands with disgusted faces. After working hard to raise my younger brother, who is 10 years younger than me, I resisted the urge to reply that if he grew up, he would be like me, so I returned to the main topic.

“Anyway. Let’s read this and then talk.”

When he took out the plan and held it to him, the faces of the planning team and manager who were accepting and reading it changed momentarily. There was no separate script, only the big picture was set, and it was entirely left to the realistic reactions of the scene… .

“Is there a reason why I kicked the members out?”

I added another spoonful of MSG to make it delicious.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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