“Five years. I’ve been working on this for five years. I didn’t write it up in a few months and stuffed it in my drawer for the rest; I really edited and edited it again for the whole five years. I didn’t write a single scene or a single line with ease. I even looked for suitable locations to shoot myself. There’s not a single spot that I did not touch in the groundwork of the film.”

Director Lim let out a heavy sigh. He was quite drunk.

Maru poured some cold water and put it in front of the director. Meanwhile, Kim Hyuk put away the bottles and Beomseok ordered some spicy jjigae.

“Just one. If there’s one thing that’s not going according to my will, it’s Jung Gayoung.”

Director Lim took a spoonful of the boiling budae-jjigae and continued.

“Hyuk, Beomseok, Maru, not to mention the three of you here, I am the one who picked Choi Jahye, Kang Gwonseok, Oh Jiyoon, Ahn Dabin, Kang Jinsoo, and Baek Yoonmi – all of them with my own hands. I have absolutely no complaints about them, you know? You can see that, right? I might shout a little, but I’ve never picked a fight with you.”

“Yes, I can,” Beomseok said.

“But Jung Gayoung isn’t like that. I’m not the one who picked her.”

“Still, Gayoung’s doing well. And she’s hardworking too,” Kim Hyuk brought that up.

Director Lim chuckled.

“Sure, she’s doing good. The production company isn’t a group of...